No more blather and bleeding chunks from the local classical music station. Enjoying complete works, such as Leonard Bernstein’s “Serenade after Plato’s Symposium,” Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra,” and Frederic Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, introduced by mellifluous fellow Trenton-Princeton radio exile Peter Van de Graaff on KWAX this morning, courtesy of digital radio. A whole world of classical music radio broadcasts now at my fingertips, enjoyable without the intermediation of a smart phone or laptop. A liberating windfall from my recent birthday! My light music program, “Sweetness and Light,” begins at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT. Enjoy an hour of beach music at kwax.uoregon.edu.
Tag: KWAX
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Jersey Shore Music for July 4th Weekend
It’s the Fourth of July weekend, and the beaches are open!
I hope you’ll join me this morning on “Sweetness and Light” for some serene inspirations evocative of surf and sand.
For the locals (I am, after all, based in Princeton), I’ll have two works that are Jersey shore specific, including the “Cape May Suite” by Rick Sowash (who lives in Cincinnati; so there!) and “The Atlantic City Pageant” by John Philip Sousa – named for the famous beauty pageant and given its first performance on Atlantic City’s Steel Pier.
We’ll also hear from Virgil Thomson, Émile Waldteufel, Ronald Binge, Clive Richardson, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Morton Gould.
Oh yeah, and I almost forgot John Williams, who wryly puts “Tourists on the Menu” in a promenade from the proto-summer blockbuster “Jaws.”
No teeth in any of the music, however, on “Sweetness and Light.” Meet me at the seaside 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:
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Mediterranean Music Escape John McLaughlin on KWAX
It’s summer. It’s hot. This week on “The Lost Chord,” kick off your shoes, pour a glass of L’Orangerie, and settle in for John McLaughlin’s “Mediterranean Concerto.”
McLaughlin, who’s made his home in Monaco for the past 40 years, is better known as a jazz or jazz fusion artist. His infectious concerto, composed in 1985, is ambitious in scope, about twice the length of those ordinarily devoted to the guitar.
We’ll also hear a work by Malta’s national composer, Charles Camilleri – his “Mediterranean Dances” of 1961.
You don’t have to leave home for a taste of the Mediterranean. Join me for “Mediterranean Muse,” 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 – ALL NEW! – 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!
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Midsummer Night Fairy Music on KWAX
How now, spirit! Whither wander you?
June 23rd is St. John’s Eve, otherwise known as Midsummer Night. In anticipation of the occasion, I invite you to begin your Saturday on “Sweetness and Light” with an hour of fairy music, all of it tying in, in one way or another, with Oberon, king of the fairies, Titania, his queen, and his feeewheeling servant, Puck. Oh yes, and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
We’ll enjoy selections by Carl Maria von Weber, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Walter Leigh, Henry Purcell, Montague Phillips, Erik Satie, and Ambroise Thomas.
Rather audacious of me, I know, but one thing we will NOT hear is the famous incidental music by Felix Mendelssohn! But we hear that all the time, anyway.
It will be as if Puck administered love-in-idleness nectar to your ears, when we’re lost in the musical enchantment of Midsummer Night, 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:
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Villa-Lobos’s Hollywood Rainforest
When Heitor Villa-Lobos was contracted by M-G-M to write music for a big screen adaptation of W.H. Hudson’s novel “Green Mansions” (1959), expectations ran high on both sides. The Brazilian master began immediately, diving into the project with characteristic gusto. After all, he had been writing music inspired by the rainforest for his entire career.
Unfortunately, he had very little affinity for the practicality of the filmmaking process, turning in musical impressions of scenes from the book. The studio was befuddled. Since Villa-Lobos was unable to adapt to the customary way of doing things, he was replaced by M-G-M house composer Branislau Kaper, who used the Villa-Lobos material as a springboard for his own dramatic conception. The result is part Villa-Lobos, part Kaper, and all M-G-M gloss.
Villa-Lobos was a little embittered by his Hollywood experience. He promptly assembled a multi-movement symphonic poem, “Forest of the Amazon” (1958), some 75 minutes in length, which employed his rejected sketches. He made a recording of 45 minutes of the music in 1959, for which the soprano Bidu Sayão came out of retirement.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll hear selections from both versions of “Green Mansions,” as well as from the Mayan adventure “Kings of the Sun” (1963), by Elmer Bernstein, and “La noche de los Mayas” (“The Night of the Mayas,” 1939), by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas.
If you can’t beat the heat, join it! It’s an hour of tropical inspirations from films centered on the indigenous peoples of Latin America, 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 – ALL NEW! – 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!
PHOTO: The project that left Villa-Lobos feeling green around the gills
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