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Any “Peaks” freaks out there? You might be interested in this fantasy on Angelo Badalamenti’s music for the cult classic “Twin Peaks,” performed by the Dover String Quartet:
Also, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np1Qo8CsW00
Badalamenti explains how he wrote Laura Palmer’s theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgXLEM8MhJo
The classic opening:
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Are you a fan of “The Avengers?” No, not Iron Man, Captain America, and Hulk, but Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg.
If so, perhaps you’d be interested to join me this afternoon on The Classical Network to hear a symphony by the series’ composer, Laurie Johnson. His “Symphony (Synthesis)” achieves what few works of the so-called Third Stream ever do: successfully unite elements of jazz with classical symphonic form. And yes, as an encore, we’ll enjoy Johnson’s snazzy “Avengers” theme.
We’ll also celebrate the birthdays today of composer Riccardo Zandonai, clarinetist Benny Goodman, harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, and pianist Zoltan Kocsis. Since Glenn Smith will be hosting today’s concert broadcast at 4 p.m. EDT – an organ recital from last year’s The Princeton Festival with Kristiaan Seynhave, which will air in place of our usual Noontime Concert – we’ll have a clean slate from noon to 4.
Jolly good, then. Grab your umbrella and bowler, and join me on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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If the rain is keeping you indoors on this Memorial Day, consider tuning in to The Classical Network this afternoon for some musical remembrances of those who laid down their lives in war. We’ll also have a nostalgic diversion by Samuel Barber, who served in the U.S. Army Air Force; an operatic intermezzo by Enrique Granados, who died after his ship was torpedoed by a German submarine; and nods to the birthday anniversaries of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Isaac Albeniz, and Frederick Septimus Kelly, who survived injury at Gallipoli only to be killed on the Somme.
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
More about “In Flanders Fields” and the history of the poppy as “flower of remembrance” here:
http://www.womensoutdoornews.com/2017/05/memorial-day-flanders-fields/
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This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” in anticipation of Memorial Day, we’ll have two symphonies composed for the armed forces.
Morton Gould wrote his Symphony No. 4 for the United States Military Academy at West Point. It was his first large scale piece for symphonic band. The score calls for a “marching machine,” but the recording we’ll hear, issued on the Mercury label, employs the feet of 120 musicians of the Eastman School Symphony Band. Frederick Fennell directs the Eastman Wind Ensemble.
Samuel Barber composed his Symphony No. 2 in 1943, while he was serving in the U.S. Army Air Force. 20 years later, he revised and published the slow movement as a separate opus, titled “Night Flight,” and then jettisoned – and actually tried to destroy – the rest. The work was reconstituted after the composer’s death, and is now back in circulation. We’ll hear a recording with Marin Alsop and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
I hope you’ll join me for “Orchestrated Maneuvers” – American military symphonies for Memorial Day – tonight at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTO: Corporal Samuel Barber with the score of his Second Symphony
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When his rock band ran afoul of the Soviet authorities, classically-trained Latvian composer Imants Kalniņš turned to writing symphonies. His Symphony No. 4 was his eloquent response, as much indebted to illegal rock groups of the West as it was to Latvian folklore. Hear Kalniņš stick it to the man this afternoon, on his 76th birthday. We’ll also have a Piano Concerto by Keith Emerson, of the progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer, among our featured works, from 4 to 6 p.m. EDT.
Then, immediately following, stick around for music of Jerry Goldsmith on “Picture Perfect,” on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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