Coming up in the next hour, Robert White will perform some folk songs set by that great Irish composer, Beethoven. We’ll also hear some of Victor Young’s music for the John Ford classic, “The Quiet Man” (1952).
We celebrate St. Patrick’s Day until 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. If you miss this show, you’ll regret it to your dying day, if ever you live that long.
Beethoven is remembered to have praised Handel on numerous occasions. “Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived,” he said. “I would uncover my head and kneel down on his tomb.” On his deathbed, he indicated an edition of Handel’s works and said, “There is the truth.”
Upon hearing the “Hallelujah Chorus,” Haydn wept and declared, “He is the master of us all.”
Mozart said, “He understands effect better than any of us – when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt.”
Berlioz? Berlioz called him “a tub of pork and beer.” Knowing what I do of Handel, he probably would have enjoyed that best of all.
Happy birthday, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759).
“Ariodante” was the opera I hated most when I first heard it in 1990. Now I hold it dear. Funny how things change.
“Scherza infida”
“Dopo notte”
At the heart of Beethoven’s opera “Fidelio” is the struggle against tyranny and the triumph of liberty and justice. However, lofty ideals mean little in the face of an impending blizzard.
With the threat of perhaps a foot and a half of snow falling over the weekend, the period instrument orchestra Grand Harmonie made a prudent decision late last night to move their Saturday performance to this evening. So the U.S. premiere of “Fidelio” on authentic instruments will take place TONIGHT at 7:30 p.m. at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium.
One additional tidbit which may be of interest – the performance will be streamed live over YouTube. You can enjoy it in real time here:
Everything else remains as stated in my article in today’s Trenton Times:
http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/01/classical_music_grand_harmonie.html
More about Grand Harmonie at http://www.grandharmonie.org/.
“…the
Rain is no respecter of persons
the snow doesn’t give a soft white
damn Whom it touches”
e.e. cummings
On a morning devoted to wintry topics, we’re currently listening to George Lloyd’s epic Symphony No. 4, subtitled the “Arctic.” Lloyd wrote the piece while recovering from injuries sustained in naval combat during World War II, when his ship was torpedoed, killing 17 of his crewmates and nearly drowning him in machine oil. Lloyd couldn’t speak afterward for nearly a year. The symphony reflects none of the horrors of war, but rather, as Lloyd put it, “a world of darkness, storms, strange colors, and a far away peacefulness.”
A little after 9:00, I will be joined by Jing Jing Luo, composer-in-residence with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Luo’s “Tsao Shu” (“Grass Scripts”), inspired by her fascination with Chinese calligraphy, will be performed by the PSO at Richardson Auditorium on January 31 at 4 p.m., on a program which will also feature works by Mozart, Kodaly and Osvaldo Golijov. (Dawn Upshaw will be the soloist in Golijov’s “Three Songs.”)
Later on, around 10:00, representatives of the orchestra Grand Harmonie will pay a visit, to talk about the U.S. authentic instrument premiere of Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” which the group will present, in a semi-staged performance at Richardson, this Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Before the morning is out, we’ll hear either the Symphony No. 7, the “Sinfonia Antartica,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, or selections from the film score that inspired it, RVW’s music for “Scott of the Antarctic.”
One way or another, the snow’s a-comin’, this morning until 11 ET, here on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.
Has anyone else heard about this? It’s like a classical music version of “Antiques Roadshow.” As a former book dealer, I speak from experience: you never know what you’re going to find in people’s attics or when rummaging around their basements.
http://m.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Beethoven-composition-discovered-in-Greenwich-6709891.php
PHOTO: Kind of a bait-and-switch, since it isn’t really the document described in the article, but rather a literal shopping list scrawled by Beethoven. Among the desired items: soap, a mousetrap, a knife, and a metronome.
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