The four installments of Wagner’s Ring Cycle were performed together for the first time in the brand-spanking-new Festspielhaus at the inaugural Bayreuth Festival on August 13-17, 1876. This week on “Sweetness and Light,” to mark the 150th anniversary of Wagner’s magnum opus, we’ll have music tying in, in one way or another, with opera’s most successful “miniseries.” An unlikelier source for a light music program would be more difficult to imagine!
I may lack the muscle to hoist Donner’s hammer, but I will employ the cunning of Loge to dissipate the Wagnerian gloom with virtuosic piano transcriptions of “Ride of the Valkyries” (by Carl Tausig) and “Magic Fire Music” (by Louis Brassin), Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll” (arguably the sweetest thing he ever wrote), humorist Anna Russell’s classic routine “The Ring of the Nibelungs (An Analysis),” and a cheeky work for piano four-hands by Gabriel Fauré & André Messager, in which they render somber motifs from the “Ring” as a quadrille!
They say it can’t be done! You’ll be left agog at the evidence of your own ears when you join me for an hour of Wagnerian “light” music, in celebration of 150 years of the “Ring,” on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 8:00 EDT/11:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX Classical Oregon!
Stream it, wherever you are, at the link:
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
Tag: Anna Russell
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Frolicking with Light Music Master Richard Wagner on “Sweetness and Light”
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Wagner Out the Wazoo on “Picture Perfect,” “Sweetness and Light,” and “The Lost Chord”
In 1876, the four operas – or music dramas (the composer’s preferred term) – of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle” were performed together for the first time, from August 13 through August 17, at the inaugural Bayreuth Festival, in the Festspielhaus (a theater of the composer’s design) in Bayreuth, Germany. The Bayreuth Festival has continued as a mecca for Wagnerites down to the present day.
To mark the 150th anniversary of the “Ring,” all three of my radio shows this weekend will tie in, in one way or another, with this most grandiose and influential undertaking.
First, today on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll have music from four films in which Erich Wolfgang Korngold served as ghostwriter for onscreen composers, providing a ballet for Errol Flynn’s in “Escape Me Never” (1946), a tone poem for Charles Boyer in “The Constant Nymph” (1943), and a cello concerto for Claude Rains in “Deception” (1946). More to the point, Korngold actually appears onscreen – hastily made-up when the actor hired for the purpose didn’t show – to play conductor Hans Richter in the Wagner biopic “Magic Fire,” for which he adapted selections from, yes, the Ring Cycle.
Then tomorrow morning, on “Sweetness and Light,” it will be the unlikeliest “light music” program, as we listen to piano transcriptions by Carl Tausig and Louis Brassin, the “Siegfried Idyll” (probably the sweetest thing Wagner ever wrote), humorist Anna Russell’s classic routine “The Ring of the Nibelungs (An Analysis),” and a cheeky work for piano four-hands by Gabriel Fauré & André Messager, in which they distill somber motifs from the cycle into a frivolous ballroom dance.
Finally, tomorrow afternoon/evening (depending on where you are), it will be an hour of historic recordings of “Die Walküre” – the second of the “Ring” operas (er, music dramas) – by Lawrence Tibbett, with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, in 1934, and Lotte Lehmann and Lauritz Melchior, with Bruno Walter and the Vienna Philharmonic, in 1935. Also, we’ll hear Karl Muck conducting selections from Wagner’s “Parsifal” at the actual Festspielhaus, in 1927. The recording will feature actual bells of Wagner’s design, which were later melted down for munitions by the Nazis.
Hojotoho! Get out your party hats (helmets with horns and wings, of course), as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the “Ring” this weekend, on KWAX Classical Oregon!
Stream the shows, wherever you are, at the times below:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Here’s the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu -
Welcome 2026 with a Smile on “Sweetness and Light”
For some, it may be difficult to leave the holidays behind and face the prospect of a long, bleak winter. That would not be me.
But if it describes you, this week on “Sweetness and Light,” I’ll have some Victor Borge to brighten your day. “The Unmelancholy Dane” was born on this date in 1909.
Borge always proved to be quick on his feet, comfortable in his own skin, and unusually personable. Born into a family of Jewish musicians in Copenhagen (his birth name was Børge Rosenbaum), he was already before the public, giving recitals at the age of 8. He received a scholarship to the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and later studied with pupils of both Liszt (Frederic Lamond) and Busoni (Egon Petri).
After a few years of presenting straight classical concerts, he began to develop his act. His mix of music and comedy proved to be popular in Scandinavia, but some of his gibes didn’t exactly sit well with Hitler. When German forces occupied Denmark, Borge hopped a U.S. Army transport out of Finland – though he would return, not long after, disguised as a sailor, to visit his dying mother.
He arrived in the United States in 1940, with 20 dollars in his pocket and no understanding of English. But he was a fast learner, and he taught himself the language by going to American movies.
By 1941, he was already appearing with Rudy Valee and Bing Crosby, and adapting his jokes for U.S. audiences. In 1942, he was named “best new radio performer of the year.” By 1946, he had his own radio show and developed many of his signature routines.
He became a naturalized American citizen in 1948. His Broadway show, “Comedy in Music,” entered the Guinness Book for its unprecedented run, from 1953 to 1956. In the 1960s, he was one of the highest-paid entertainers in the world.
Borge continued to expand his popularity through appearances on television programs ranging from “What’s My Line?” to “The Muppet Show.” He continued to entertain to a ripe old age. He died in 2000, a few days shy of his 92nd birthday.
As he was fond of observing, “Laughter is the closest distance between two people.”
Join me for a selection of Borge at his improvisatory best, working the audience, as he grants requests, from a recording of his record-breaking Broadway show. The program will also include classic bits by Anna Russell and Peter Schickele (“discoverer” of P.D.Q. Bach) and a few more selections from the first of the notorious and uproarious Hoffnung Music Festival concerts.
Enter the new year laughing with an hour of musical humorists on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX Classical Oregon!
Stream it, wherever you are, at the link:
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