Best wishes, everyone, for a Merry and Festive Christmas!
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

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Happy Hanukkah 2016 A Few Christmas Hanukkah Differences

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To all my Jewish readers and listeners: Happy Hanukkah! I know I have been very Christmas-centric lately, but I will try to make it up to you in my programming next week. May you enjoy eight days of light and a very happy 2017!
Here’s a tongue-in-cheek article on the differences between Christmas and Hanukkah. It’s from a few years back, so don’t be confused by the dates. Hanukkah begins tonight at sunset.
http://lidblog.com/a-snarky-guide-to-the-differences-between-christmas-and-hanukkah/
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Christmas TV Specials Music Spotlight

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This week on “Picture Perfect,” at this most special time of the year, the focus will be on Christmas television specials.
Keep an ear open for Howard Blake’s music for “The Snowman” (1982), which spawned his most enduring melody, “Walking in the Air;” selections from Jerry Goldsmith’s score for “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story” (1971), which was actually the pilot for the popular television series “The Waltons;” excerpts from an exceedingly rare soundtrack to a musical version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” (1954), with songs and underscore written by Bernard Herrmann; and finally, a sampler from Vince Guaraldi’s immortal music for “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965).
You don’t need me to tell you that it’s going to be special. Join me for music from Christmas television specials, this Friday evening at 6 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.
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Heinrich Schiff Celebrated Cellist Dies at 65

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I am very sorry to have to share the news that one of the great cellists of our time has passed. Heinrich Schiff is dead at 65.
I’ll include a little musical remembrance, if I can, just before my sign-off at 2:00 this afternoon, on WRTI 90.1 FM and at wrti.org
http://www.dw.com/en/cellist-heinrich-schiff-dies-age-65/a-36891728
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/the-cellist-and-conductor-heinrich-schiff-has-died
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Christmas Classical Music on WRTI & WWFM

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Can it already be this close to Christmas? I guess it is. Today will mark my final two live air shifts before the Christmas holiday.
I hope you’ll join me on WRTI in Philadelphia at 90.1 FM and wrti.org, as I’ll be seated under the mistletoe from 10 am. to 2 p.m. Among the works I’ll be presenting will be Antonio Vivaldi’s OTHER “Gloria” (RV 588), one of Robert Russell Bennett’s splashy suites from “The Many Moods of Christmas,” and a complete recording of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.” I’m not sure if there will be any time left over for me to add anything of my own, but hey, any opportunity to actually sit and listen to a complete “Nutcracker” is fine by me.
Then I ride the Polar Express to the Trenton-Princeton area, where I’ll pick my own music, on WWFM The Classical Network at 89.1 FM and wwfm.org, from 4 to 6 p.m. I’ll keep it fairly light today with Leopold Mozart’s “Musical Sleigh-Ride,” in that wacky recording by the Eduard Melkus Ensemble, with all the rowdy dogs and horses, and John Rutter’s work for children’s chorus and harp, “Dancing Day,” kind of a companion piece to Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols.” It’s probably safe to assume there will be some more English music, as well.
Then at 6:00, on WWFM, I’ll be your host for “Picture Perfect,” when the focus will be on music from Christmas television specials that were originally broadcast from the 1950s through the 1980s. I’ll write a little more about it, here, as the time draws nigh.
And don’t forget “The Lost Chord,” my syndicated program of unusual and neglected repertoire. It airs on WWFM on Christmas night, this week at 11 p.m., in order to make room for a broadcast of Handel’s “Messiah” from Trinity Wall Street at 8. On the program will be Hubert Parry’s “Ode on the Nativity” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ very last work, “The First Nowell.”
Merry Christmas, everyone, and happy listening!
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