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Oh! The praties they grow small over here…
Chicago composer Edward Joseph Collins remembers the land of his forebears with three meditations on the Irish folk song for St. Patrick’s Day. “Irish Ties Are Smiling,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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That time Bach met Frederick the Great – what a ball they had.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdmcabpiGYU
Only five days left until March 21st – Bach’s birthday! We at WWFM – The Classical Network would love to celebrate by sharing Bach’s music on that day, all day. But in order for us to do so, we need 500 altruistic music lovers to help make it happen.
Every March, we pitch the “Bach 500.” We request that 500 listeners step up and make a contribution IN ANY AMOUNT. When we reach that goal of 500 contributions, we immediately shut our pie holes and start spinning the platters like nobody’s business. No more talk of filthy lucre. Only pure enjoyment of some of the most transcendent music ever written.
In order to make this paradisal vision a reality, we need to have those 500 contributions in hand by March 21st. So if you’ve received a renewal notice in the mail, get your check in that return envelope and send it back to us ASAP! We’d like it to count toward this important goal.
Of course, you can contribute ANYTIME over the weekend at our website, wwfm.org. Click on “Donate.” You can also monitor our progress there by watching the mercury rise in the giant thermometer on the right side of the page. We’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is Bach!
Thank you in advance for your generosity, and here’s hoping that Thursday is a day of music, and not some bastardized version of a celebration interrupted by tiresome fundraising . Bach deserves more than that, and so do you!
Note to self: don’t use words like “pie hole” and “bastardized” in front of the king
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It is with a mix of revulsion and admiration that Julius Caesar regarded the Celts, whom he referred to as “Galli,” or barbarians. For their savagery in battle, the Britons were a race that demanded a certain level of respect. Ironically, it would be Caesar’s own senate that would murder him on this date in 44 B.C.
Join me this afternoon on The Classical Network, as the Ides of March meet St. Patrick’s Day. We’ll hear a fair amount of music inspired by Ancient Rome and the Emerald Isle. I’ll also mark the birthdays today of Karl Davidoff, Nicholas Flagello, Johan Halvorsen, Ben Johnston, Colin McPhee, and Eduard Strauss.
Our Noontime Concert will be devoted to the Guild for Early Music. The Guild will present its 14th annual Early Music Festival at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ, on Sunday, March 24. An afternoon of mini-concerts of Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Early American music will be performed by over a dozen ensembles. The day will include sculpture tours, pop-up performances about the 42-acre grounds, and a “petting zoo” of early instruments. The event is free with paid admission to the park. Learn more at guildforearlymusic.org and groundsforsculpture.org.
Today’s concert broadcast will feature performances from last year’s festival by Riverview Early Music, Les Agréments de musique, The Practitioners of Musick, and the Gloria Consort. Representatives of the Guild, John Burkhalter and Abigail Chapman, will be my guests, beginning at 12:00.
All told, I’ll be with you straight through the afternoon. At 6:00, it’s another “Picture Perfect.” For the Ides, the focus will be on music from movies set in the days of the Roman Empire.
I’ll console myself with the fact that Rome wasn’t built in a day, as I’m chained in the galley from 12 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTO: Legionary vs. Celt, c. AD 98-117
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Beware the Ides of March!
March 15th lives in infamy as the anniversary of the murder of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. Shortly after declaring himself Dictator for Life, Caesar was set upon by members of the Roman Senate and stabbed 23 times.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” toga is the dressing for a Caesar salad of films set in Ancient Rome. We’ll hear selections from “Julius Caesar” (1953) by Miklós Rózsa, “Cleopatra” (1963) by Alex North, “Gladiator” (2000) by Hans Zimmer, and “The Fall of the Roman Empire” (1964) by Dimitri Tiomkin.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. It falls in an hour, this week, on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Great Caesar’s ghost! Louis Calhern shares a cup of coffee with Marlon Brando on the set of “Julius Caesar”
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Of the three Baroque masters who were born between February 23 (George Frideric Handel) and March 21 (Johann Sebastian Bach), it is too often Georg Philipp Telemann who fulfills the function of Larry Fine.
Caught between Bach’s contrapuntal face-slaps and eye-pokes and Handel’s melodic-dramatic shoulder-spins, Telemann, as often as not, winds up getting his hair pulled and his violin smashed.
I thought it only right to point out that Telemann taught himself the flute, oboe, recorder, double bass, etc., all against the wishes of his family. He wrote more music than Bach and Handel combined – over 3000 works – making him one of the most prolific composers of all time. He was also offered the cantorate of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig ahead of Bach.
Sure, Bach and Handel were his friends, and he was the godfather of Bach’s son, C.P.E., but he also lived too long and lost his eyesight. And his wife ran up horrific gambling debts.
Anyway, happy birthday, Telemann. You may have written way too much music for your own good, but you were always the funniest of the Baroque stooges.
Which reminds me: Here at WWFM – The Classical Network, we’re only a week away from Bach’s birthday, and we’re looking to generate enough donations that we, in good conscience, can cancel fundraising on that day, March 21, and celebrate by simply enjoying Bach’s music. We call it the “Bach 500.” Basically, we’re looking for 500 listeners to step up and contribute in any amount. When we reach 500 donations, we stop asking for money and focus exclusively on spinning the discs.
We are accepting contributions now, at our website, wwfm.org – click on “donate” – or please call us during business hours at 1-888-232-1212. If you have received a renewal request in the mail, get that return envelope back to us ASAP, so that we can include you in the tally before the 21st.
Again, 500 contributions will cancel the fundraising and open the floodgates on Bach. (Bach, after all, is German for brook.) Thank you for doing your part to make this year’s Bach 500 a success!
PORTRAITS (left to right): Bach, Telemann, and Handel
Nyuk nyuk nyuk!
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