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Tag: KWAX

Avian Music Playlist Sweetness and Light KWAX

This week on “Sweetness and Light,” I’ve assembled a playlist of avian music for the month of May.

Yes, yes, I’ve programmed Ottorino Respighi’s “The Birds,” his evergreen suite for small orchestra based on musical bird portraits of the 17th and 18th centuries, and Handel’s Organ Concerto in F major, “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale.”

But I’ve also included a lesser-heard selection by Hubert Parry, from his incidental music for Aristophanes’ “The Birds,” a bridal march revived for the weddings of both Princess Elizabeth (soon to be Elizabeth II) and Prince William; a piece of light music kitsch juxtaposing bird song and chanting monks by Albert Ketèlbey; and a galop by Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye, the Johann Strauss of the North, celebrating the exotic birds of the Tivoli Volière.

Finally, it’s very much my pleasure to have dusted off some vintage recordings of Elisabeth Schumann (whose hobby it was to engage in bird-whistling) and John McCormack, who will sing works by Carl Zeller and Eric Coates, respectively.

Better start lining the cage with newspaper. It’s “For the Birds” this week on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it wherever you are at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

May 3, 2025
Shakespeare’s Birthday Celebration on KWAX

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

We don’t know exactly when Shakespeare was born, but he was baptized on April 26, 1564 – which means it could have been a few days earlier. Since he died on April 23, 1616, and because everyone loves symmetry, his birthday is most commonly observed on the presumptively-shared anniversary of his death. His little life may have been rounded with a sleep, but posterity has fluffed the pillows in an impulse to keep things tidy.

At any rate, we hardly need an excuse to celebrate his plays, which have inspired lots of colorful music. This morning on “Sweetness Light,” we’ll quaff our fill of Shakespearean comedy, with selections by Otto Nicolai, Edward German, Felix Mendelssohn (as transcribed and performed by Sergei Rachmaninoff), and William Walton.

We’ll also hear a fragment of a projected opera by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky on the subject of “Romeo and Juliet,” left incomplete at the time of the composer’s death. It was edited and orchestrated by his pupil, Sergei Taneyev. You may not know the fragment, but you will most definitely recognize the thematic material!

Partying is such sweet sorrow. We’ll celebrate the Bard on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it wherever you are at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

IMAGE: William Hamilton, “As You Like It” (1790)

April 26, 2025
Alexandre Dumas Music on KWAX Radio

He is best known as the author of “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo.” However, Alexandre Dumas churned out historically-inspired prose on all manner of subjects, and he did so by the metre.

This week on “The Lost Chord,” we present an hour of music inspired by his writings, including rarely-heard incidental music composed for a revival of his play “Caligula,” by Gabriel Fauré; ballet music from an opera, “Ascanio,” taken from a novel featuring Benvenuto Cellini, by Camille Saint-Saëns; and a poetic monologue, “Joan of Arc at the Stake,” by Franz Liszt. We’ll also hear the suite for symphonic band “The Three Musketeers,” by George William Hespe.

It’s all for one, and one for all! I hope you’ll join me for “The Lost Sword,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

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

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

April 26, 2025
Armchair Travel Through Film Scores on Picture Perfect

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll settle in for a little armchair traveling as, musically, we follow the English abroad.

We’ll hear selections from “Enchanted April” (Richard Rodney Bennett), “A Passage to India” (Maurice Jarre), “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (Thomas Newman), and “Around the World in 80 Days” (Victor Young).

Bennett, quite the accomplished concert composer (and occasional torch song singer), supplies a sensitive score for the 1991 Merchant/Ivory adaptation of Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel about four English ladies who spend an idyllic month at an Italian villa.

Jarre received his third Academy Award for his music to David Lean’s final film, a 1984 adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel of repression and racial tension in colonial India.

Newman incorporates traditional Indian elements into his score for “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” the 2012 surprise hit about English pensioners reinventing themselves in retirement in Jaipur.

And Young won his only Oscar (alas, posthumously bestowed) for “Around the World in 80 Days,” the star-studded, light-as-a-feather, though admittedly charming mega-victor at the 1956 Academy Awards. It takes longer to watch the movie than it does to read Jules Verne’s novel – though it does provide a rare opportunity to see Ronald Colman in color.

No need to haul that steamer trunk. It will be an hour of transporting selections on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

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

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

PHOTO: There’s no balloon in Verne’s original, but as long as there’s champagne, who cares?

April 25, 2025
Easter with Peter Rabbit Sweetness and Light on KWAX

This week on “Sweetness and Light,” with Easter hopping up on us, we’ll do our best keep it fluffy, with selections for Peter Rabbit and friends from “Tales of Beatrix Potter.” This 1971 ballet film features dances choreographed by Frederick Ashton and performed by members of the Royal Ballet.

The director, Reginald Mills, worked as an editor on Powell-Pressburger classics such as “The Red Shoes” – for which he was nominated for an Academy Award – and “The Tales of Hoffman,” also incorporating dance. John Lanchbery arranged the music from Victorian era carrot sticks by Michael Balfe and Sir Arthur Sullivan.

Then, in the warm glow of a sugar-high, we’ll luxuriate in the mingled sense of well-being and accomplishment that comes from having polished off all the chocolate, with the “Cottontail Rag” by Joseph Lamb.

No need to adjust your rabbit ears. We’ll be keeping all our jelly beans in one basket on “Sweetness and Light,” an hour of leporine light music for Easter, this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it wherever you are at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

April 19, 2025

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