Have you got a passion for Passions? Do you think Stabat Maters matter? Tune in to WPRB this Thursday morning for music for Holy Week. That’s right, it’s wholly music for Passiontide.
Well, not wholly. We’ll have some selections of a broadly mystical nature (William Alwyn’s harp concerto, “Lyra Angelica,” for instance), works of a meditative bent (for example, John Tavener’s “Song of the Angel”), and perhaps a couple of pieces concerning hope and renewal (such as Edmund Rubbra’s “Resurgam Overture”).
Otherwise, it will be music inspired by the Passion story, ranging roughly from Palm Sunday through, possibly, the observance of Russian Easter. Some of it will be purely orchestral (Victor de Sabata’s “Gethsemani”) and some will include vocal soloists and chorus (Osvaldo Golijov’s Latin-inflected “La Pasión según San Marcos”).
In addition, a certain listener has been requesting Eugene Ormandy’s recording of Respighi’s “Church Windows” since June, probably. Now seems as good a time as any to blast that out. For my own edification, I have to play Vaughan Williams’ “Five Mystical Songs,” with the great John Shirley-Quirk. It just isn’t Easter for me without the “Five Mystical Songs.”
At 9:00, we’ll take a break from Holy Week for a special visit from Douglas Martin, artistic director of American Repertory Ballet, and Marc Uys, executive director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. They’ll drop by to talk about Martin’s new ballet, “Pride and Prejudice,” which sets the classic novel by Jane Austen to music by Ignaz Pleyel. The PSO will provide live musical accompaniment for the dancers, at McCarter Theatre Center on April 21 & 22.
This is a radio show, not a church service, so nobody freak out if an “Alleluia” or a “Gloria” slip into the mix, okay? We’re here to celebrate the music, not to scrupulously observe the minutiae of tradition. I’ll be lining the CD cases with Easter grass, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com, and wishing you peace, hope, and happiness, on Classic Ross Amico.
