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Tag: Bach

Rimsky-Korsakov Birthday Workout & Bach!

I may very well be the only one at this point who hits the college gym wearing a Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov t-shirt. Of course, I don’t hit the gym as much as I should, but when I do, it is Rimsky who shares my triumph. I bike, I lift, I do leg-presses, but what I really need to work on is my core. Rimsky-core-sakov?

I can’t guarantee that I’ll go to the gym today, but I just might, since it happens to be the anniversary of Rimsky-Korsakov’s birth. Perhaps I’ll warble the “Russian Easter Festival Overture” as I pedal. Or I could just go to Carvel and see if they’ll make me a Rimsky-Korsakov ice cream cake.

Join me today on The Classical Network as we revel in Rimsky’s music, as well as that of fellow birthday celebrants, Paul Le Flem and Gian Francesco Malipiero.

Le Flem’s works are strongly influenced by his native Brittany. We’ll hear some orchestral selections from his opera, “The Magician of the Sea.” The opera is a variation on the same story as that told in Édouard Lalo’s “Le roi d’Ys” and suggested by Claude Debussy’s “La Cathédrale engloutie,” an ancient Breton legend about a submerged city.

Malipiero was a member of the so-called “Generazione dell’ottanta” (Generation of ’80), a group of Italian composers all born around 1880, of which Ottorino Respighi is the most famous. We’ll hear Malipiero’s colorfully orchestrated “Tre commedie goldoniane,” as the title suggests, inspired by three comedies of the Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni.

Rimsky-Korsakov taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory for nearly 40 years. Dmitri Shostakovich was only two at the time of Rimsky’s death, but he went on to study at the conservatory under one of Rimsky’s students (and his son-in-law), Maximilian Steinberg. As we draw ever closer to our celebration of Bach’s birthday, March 21, we’ll enjoy one of Shostakovich’s Bach-inspired 24 Preludes and Fugues.

Have you contributed yet to our Bach 500 campaign? If we can get 500 listeners to step up and donate IN ANY AMOUNT before Thursday, we will celebrate Bach that day with a playlist made up exclusively of his music. If we can’t, well, then we’ll have to actively interrupt with breaks for fundraising. And nobody wants that.

If you haven’t done so yet, please contribute now – again, YOU decide on the amount – at our website, wwfm.org (click on “Donate”), or call during business hours at 1-888-232-1212. The thermometer posted on the site will keep you apprised of where we currently stand. Make that mercury rise! And thank you for your support.

Once you’ve made your donation, tune in for an example of the kind of programming you’ve made possible, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 18, 2019
Bach’s Birthday: Celebrate with WWFM and the Bach 500

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

March 16, 2019
Telemann: The Underdog Baroque Master

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!

March 14, 2019
Jacques Loussier Dead? The Truth Revealed

Alive or dead?

Perhaps you heard something of Jacques Loussier’s death earlier in the week. Loussier’s demise was being lamented all across the internet, and obituaries began to sprout up from major media outlets. But is Loussier really dead?

Even as the wildfire of mourning continued to blaze across Facebook, conflicting reports began to circulate that Loussier’s “death” was in fact a hoax, and that the famed jazz pianist is, if not exactly kicking it, still drawing breath at the age of 84.

Loussier, who is widely celebrated for his jazz improvisations on music of Johann Sebastian Bach, suffered a stroke, which led to his retirement from performance in 2011.

His Wikipedia entry now sports a death date. His Facebook page has been frustratingly mum.

Forget Jacques Brel. Is Jacques Loussier indeed alive and well and living in Lyon?

Loussier performs Bach in Bach’s own church, the Thomaskirche Leipzig, for his 70th birthday:

March 9, 2019
Peter Hurford Organist Remembered

The organist Peter Hurford has died. His Bach, Poulenc, and Saint-Saëns recordings have long been a part of my life. Stop with the deaths of the musical giants already!

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/the-organist-and-choirmaster-peter-hurford-has-died

PHOTO: Hurford, so young, so dapper, at the console with his wife, Patricia, in 1955

March 4, 2019

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