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.
