There’s so much going on, and I’ve got only two hours to touch on everything today on The Classical Network!
To begin with, March 1 is the anniversary of the birth of Frederic Chopin. You can’t ignore that. It’s also the 80th birthday of Cuban composer and guitarist Leo Brouwer. AND it’s the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales.
And let me express my regret right away to any of you of Welsh descent: I had fully intended to do a “Picture Perfect” (this evening at 6:00) made up entirely of music from movies set in Wales. However, because of some last-minute editing issues – I had not anticipated having to jettison half of my recorded script for this week’s edition of “The Lost Chord” on account of having chosen way too much music for my memorial to the late Dominick Argento (to air Sunday at 10:00 p.m.) – I am falling back on an encore broadcast of PP from three years ago.
It’s still a good show (“Behind-the-Scenes Hollywood”), and timely, as it runs so close upon the heels of Oscar. Listen in for music by Franz Waxman (“Sunset Boulevard”), David Raksin (“The Bad and the Beautiful”), Dominic Frontiere (“The Stunt Man”), and Ludovic Bource (“The Artist”).
In the meantime, I will do my best to include a few works by Welsh composers, between 4 and 6 p.m. It is also, after all, the birthday of the Welsh harpist John Thomas.
And of course, we lost André Previn yesterday. It pains me to have to postpone a proper memorial – he was such a superb and versatile musician – but you can tune in next week for all-Previn playlists on both “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord.” In the meantime, Previn will be represented on every one of my weekday air shifts, including this afternoon’s.
I’ll do the best that I can, with my abbreviated Friday, from 4 to 6 p.m. EST. Don’t forget, “Picture Perfect” is on the way at 6! My weekend will be well-earned today, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.