If, for you, mention of the Baroque conjures images of recorders and harpsichords and beauty marks and shoes with big buckles on them, you’ve got another thing coming. Sure, if you tune in to WPRB this morning, you’ll get your share of concerti grossi, partitas, toccatas, chaconnes and fugues. However, none of them will have been composed before the turn of the 20th century. A few of them will even be from our own time.
It’s a full morning of music of the “Neo-Baroque,” as we revel in the exuberance and melancholy of autumn, which for me is the most Baroque of the seasons. (Don’t ask me to explain. Maybe I’m just eating too many apples.)
Along the way, we’ll manage to honor Paul Dukas, whose 150th birthday anniversary passed largely unrecognized on October 1, beyond perhaps a few more airings of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” We’ll be listening to Dukas’ “Variations, Interlude and Finale on a Theme by Rameau.”
As is often the case, I’m not really sure what else I’ll be playing, but it’s all in the box and ready to go. Among the pieces I would love to include – and sincerely hope I can get to – will be Hendrik Andriessen’s “Variations on a Theme by Couperin,” Paul Creston’s “Partita for Flute, Violin and Strings,” Ilja Hurnik’s “Sonata da camera,” Paul Lansky’s “Semi-Suite,” Julián Orbón’s “Concerto Grosso for String Quartet and Orchestra,” Roberto Sierra’s “Fantasia Corelliana,” Germaine Tailleferre’s “Concerto Grosso for 2 Pianos, Singers, Saxophones and Orchestra,” and, well, whatever else I’ve got on these 60 CDs I’ve toted in.
In the 9:00 hour, we’ll be joined by special guests violinist Kinga Augustyn and conductor Mariusz Smolij. They’ll tell us a little bit about their upcoming appearance with the Riverside Symphonia, of which Smolij is music director. The program will include three violin crowd-pleasers, framed by two joyful serenades of Mozart and Dvořák. The concert will take place tomorrow night at 8, at St. Martin of Tours Church, in New Hope, Pa.
I hope you’ll join me for music of the Neo-Baroque this morning, from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com. It will be played against a basso continuo of sleep-deprivation and befuddlement, on Classic Ross Amico.
PHOTO: “Heavens, Tobias, what IS he playing?”
