In writing this, I am wondering if it’s more accurate to state that fountains burble or gurgle? This is the kind of heavy-lifting I do behind the scenes to make my light music shows seem so buoyant and effortless.
This week on “Sweetness and Light,” as I weigh the finer points, peering through the magnifying glass into my O.E.D., I hope to lessen your own burdens with a refreshing and restorative playlist for the hazy, lazy days of summer. Join me for an hour of “fountain” music by Robert Farnon, Franz Liszt, Maurice Ravel, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Hans Christian Lumbye, Arthur Meulemans, and Carl Bohm. For anyone flabbergasted by the omission of Respighi’s “Fountains of Rome,” fear not, the opulence of Meuleman’s “Pliny’s Fountain” will give old Ottorino a run for his money!
I may be a fount of indecision, but you can be certain of plenty of burbling or gurgling music on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX Classical Oregon!
Stream it wherever you are at the link:
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
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IMAGE: “Doves of Pliny” from Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, after second century BCE mosaic by Sosus of Pergamon (reproduced many times)
FUN FACT! IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS! Tivoli was also the location of the villa that inspired Liszt’s “Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este” (“The Fountains of the Villa d’Este”), also to be heard in this hour.
Tag: Summer
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Keep Cool and Carry on with Refreshing Fountain Music on “Sweetness and Light”
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Healing by Nature with Josef Suk on “The Lost Chord”
Josef Suk’s 30th year was a tragic one, marked by the deaths of both his young wife, Otilie, and her father, his former teacher, Antonín Dvořák. Not surprisingly, a sense of morbidity colors much of his mature output. The double-loss directly inspired Suk’s “Asrael Symphony,” named for the Angel of Death.
This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll take a look at “A Summer’s Tale,” the next step in Suk’s emotional rehabilitation. The work is a five-movement symphonic poem, the second of a four-part cycle that contemplates death and the meaning of life. More affirmative than the grim “Asrael,” which is full of pain, loss, and grief, “A Summer’s Tale” explores the healing powers of nature, in a score that at times reflects the epic romanticism of Gustav Mahler and at others the impressionism of Claude Debussy. It was composed over the course of just six weeks in the summer of 1907. Further tinkering took place over the next year-and-a-half. The work received its premiere in January of 1909.
Suk later described the theme of the piece as “finding a soothing balm in nature.” I hope you’ll join me as we clear a path to “Healing by Nature” – Josef Suk’s “A Summer’s Tale” – on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
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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/ -
Endless Summer of Childhood on “Sweetness and Light”
At midlife, the seasons fly by so quickly, they scarcely seem to register. This week on “Sweetness and Light,” we defy the gravitational pull of back-to-school advertisements and premature Halloween displays to indulge in some nostalgic recollections of the carefree and seemingly endless summers of youth.
Join me for alternately boisterous and languid works by Eugène Bozza, Sergei Prokofiev, Déodat de Severac, and William Walton.
It’s music reflective of riding bikes, tramping through woods and meadows, building forts, laughing with friends, and getting up to no good. When you’re a kid, there’s always plenty of adventure to be had, with the guaranteed security of a homecooked meal and a roof over your head. At least if you’re as fortunate as I was.
I don’t know, perhaps this kind of off-the-leash freedom and hedonistic enjoyment is a thing of the past, in a society where dreams are strangled by subdivisions and superwarehouses, surveillance cameras and militarized police, helicopter parents and cell phones, psychopaths and existential dread. But even with a hemmed-in, over-scheduled existence crammed with organized activities and soul-crushing electronics, I think the illusion of time stretching on forever must surely still be one of the enchantments of youth?
I don’t want to think about it. In a world wreathed by barbed wire, I will hang onto my illusion that childhood is the last frontier. Listen for me rafting down the Delaware, crowing like Peter Pan, on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 EDT, exclusively on KWAX Classical Oregon!
Stream it wherever you are at the link:
https://kwax.uoregon.edu/ -
Summer Reading on “Sweetness and Light”
Now that it’s summer, it’s time to catch up on our reading! Whether it’s a beach book or a timeless literary classic, reading for pleasure is its own reward. This week on “Sweetness and Light,” imagine yourself in a lawn chair, under a good shade tree, perhaps with a beverage at your side, and enjoy an hour of music, hand-picked to get you in the spirit.
It will be a veritable lending library of compositions for concert hall, opera house, musical theater, salon, and film, with works inspired by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” Voltaire’s “Candide,” Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,” Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels,” Peter Benchley’s “Jaws,” Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and Henry Fielding’s “Tom Jones.”
Celebrate two of life’s great pleasures – music and books! Set aside your cares. They’ll still be here when you get back. Get yourself in the mindset to unplug and enjoy some quiet time. Prime yourself for a carefree summer of reading, 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/ -
Childhood Summers with Harpist Alisa Sadikova
I’ve been kicking around themes for this weekend’s “Sweetness and Light,” hoping to write and record the show today, and it occurs to me, it being a light music program with something of an escapist bent, I might indulge my nostalgia for the carefree and seemingly endless summers of my childhood. Last week, I put together a playlist about fountains, which turned out to be a lot more satisfying than I had anticipated. To conflate the two, here’s a YouTube video I discovered while researching and refreshing my memory as to the repertoire. It’s such a remarkable document, I think it’s worth sharing – although the piece played by this astonishingly talented young harpist (at the age of 9!) is misattributed to Marcel Grandjany. It’s actually “La Source” by Albert Zabel. I think you’ll agree it is five minutes well-spent!
Alisa Sadikova is now 22 years-old. Although the actual piece did not make it onto my playlist of fountain music – who knew the competition would be so fierce? – I was very pleased to make its acquaintance, especially in Sadikova’s mesmerizing and enriching performance.
Again, this week the musical selections will be curated with the purpose of recollecting those halcyon summers of youth and adventure. I didn’t play the harp, but I sure did suck the marrow out of life. “Sweetness and Light” airs on KWAX, Saturday mornings at 11:00 EDT/8:00 EDT. Stream it wherever you are at the link. https://kwax.uoregon.edu/
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