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Tag: The Classical Network

WWFM As Time Goes By Play It Again

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine…

Okay, so maybe working your way to the bottom of a bottle while listening to Dooley Wilson play “As Time Goes By” isn’t the healthiest choice. But I venture to guess your favorite music is imbued with personal significance and may even offer solace when you need it most.

What are some of your all-time favorite pieces? The ones that move you the most deeply or conjure cherished memories? The ones that have stayed with you the longest? WWFM The Classical Network wants to know.

Next week, we will embark on a special fundraiser that should be full of personal significance for us all, as we share the music that is closest to our hearts. Add your most personal favorites to those of your favorite radio hosts. Your selections have a chance to become part of the programming, as we present “Play It Again,” May 29 to June 1.

Playlists will be compiled from all-time favorites of WWFM hosts, guest programmers, and listeners just like you. The event will culminate in a countdown of most-requested pieces, which will be presented on June 1.

It may be of interest to anyone who participates to discover a shared and perhaps unexpected affinity with some of our hosts. You can make your selections now by visiting wwfm.org and clicking on the “Play It Again” box, located on the upper right hand side of the homepage. There you’ll find a link to a form that will allow you to list twenty of your personal favorites.

While you’re at it, consider making a contribution to the station. We’re coming up on the end of our fiscal year, and we could really use your support!

There’s a reason why the classics are the classics. But who knows? Maybe a few unusual choices will find their way in. We look forward to hearing from you and sharing in the discovery. You could have a direct impact on the programming by filling out and submitting your list no later than Friday, May 25, at noon.

Even more so, your financial contribution will help to ensure that The Classical Network is able to continue doing what it does best – providing a haven of great music and engaging programming any time you decide to tune us in.

Thank you for supporting WWFM – The Classical Network, and we look forward to “playing it again!”

May 24, 2018
Goethe’s Walpurgis Night Music on The Classical Network

Goethe is king on Walpurgis Night.

Walpurgis Night, the eve of the feast day of Saint Walpurga, is a time when evil spirits are believed to roam the earth. Tradition tells of a witches’ sabbath and orgy of the damned held atop the Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz Mountains in Central Germany. It’s the last blast of diablerie before May Day. In Goethe’s “Faust,” Mephistopheles guides his imperiled charge into a swirling cauldron of witches and demons so as to complete his moral degradation.

This Monday afternoon on The Classical Network, we’ll have some musical depictions of Faust and Mefistopheles. Luciano Pavarotti will sing the role of Faust in the Classical Walpurgis Night scene (no witches, but a romantic interlude with the shade of Helen of Troy, sung by Montserrat Caballé) from Arrigo Boito’s “Mefistofele.” We’ll hear the irresistible ballet music from Charles Gounod’s “Faust.” Then, clearly relishing his demonic laughter, Bryn Terfel will sing “Mephistopheles’ Serenade.”

Felix Mendelssohn wrote a cantata, after Goethe’s “Die erste Walpurgisnacht” (“The First Walpurgis Night”), in which prankish Druids get the best of their superstitious occupiers. It ain’t “Faust,” but it will do.

The afternoon will open with Wilhelm Stenhammar’s overture, “Excelsior!” The score is prefaced by a motto which begins, “Yet each in him may find a native longing/To rise and travel far and far away,” lifted from – you guessed it – “Faust.” As time allows, we’ll also hear Charles-Valentin Alkan’s “Quasi-Faust” from his “Grande Sonata,” Edward MacDowell’s “Hexentanz,” and Edmond Dédé’s “Mephisto Masqué” (complete with kazoo choir). To place a seal upon our musical pact, Carlos Paita will rock the Brocken with Hector Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique.”

There’s plenty percolating for Walpurgis Night, this Monday from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

More about Lewis Morrison, a remarkable figure who achieved world fame as Mephistopheles, here:

http://www.blackpast.org/aah/morris-morris-w-lewis-morrison-1845-1906

April 30, 2018
Bach 500 Donations Needed Support Classical Music

Johann Sebastian Bach’s two wives may have borne him twenty children; but their pains were as nothing next to the protracted labor of this year’s Bach 500. We are still pushing – in part because of last week’s snowstorm, which delayed fundraising – toward our ultimate goal of 500 donations.

If 500 listeners to The Classical Network step up and contribute in any amount, we will stop with the solicitations and return to uninterrupted music. We are now to the point that we need just a little over 60 donations to wrap up this campaign. For you, it will mean less talk and more music; for us, it will mean $15,000 in challenge money for the station.

Have you become one of the 500? Your contribution doesn’t have to break the bank. $10 or $20 counts as much as $100 or $200 toward the quota. Of course, we always hope you can be as generous as you can. Do it today at our website, wwfm.org – click on “donate now,” beneath the membership thermometer – or call 1-888-232-1212.

I’d be especially appreciative if we could reach the 500 BEFORE I have to go on the air today. Wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy just music, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT? I think so. You can help make it happen. Thank you for your support of WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 26, 2018
Bach Month Donation Drive at The Classical Network

March is Bach Month at The Classical Network. Every March we reach out to you, our listeners, asking you to come forward and donate in whatever amount is comfortable for you. Once we reach 500 donations, we stop the solicitations and celebrate with just Bach’s music, in honor of Bach’s birthday on March 21. Of course, this year, Old Man Winter threw a wrench in the works by blanketing the East Coast with snow in the fourth nor’easter in three weeks. Thanks, Old Man!

Because of the setback, we lost momentum on the special day, and we are still racing to catch up. As of this writing, the membership thermometer stands at 341 – only 159 contributions to go! Can you help us wrap up this campaign by the weekend? There’s $15,000 on the line, courtesy of the Bach Pot, challenge money put up by some of our most dedicated listeners. You can do your part by heading over to wwfm.org and clicking on the “donate now” button beneath the thermometer at the right side of the page. Or by calling us at 1-888-232-1212.

Your contribution is like nitrous oxide to the engine of Johann Sebastian’s Heavy Chevy. Help propel us to a successful finish, so that we can fill the air waves once again with uninterrupted, glorious music and kick back in unalloyed enjoyment. As always, thank you for your ongoing support of WWFM – The Classical Network. We couldn’t do it without you!

March 23, 2018
Early Music Month Festival on The Classical Network

March is Early Music Month. Join me this afternoon on The Classical Network for the second of two Noontime Concerts featuring highlights from the 2016 Guild for Early Music Festival.

Each year, the festival is held at Grounds For Sculpture, the not-for-profit sculpture garden, museum, and arboretum, located in Hamilton, NJ. This year’s festival will take place on the two stages of the Seward Johnson Center for the Arts, with possible supplementary performances held outdoors by strolling musicians, weather permitting, this Sunday, March 18, from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. To find out more, look online at guildforearlymusic.org.

Or tune in: I’ll be joined by Guild musicians and board members John Burkhalter and Janet Palumbo, who will be my co-hosts for music from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical Periods. The fun starts at noon.

Following today’s broadcast concert, stick around for related music until 2:00. Then I’ll be back with some presentiments of St. Patrick’s Day from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, including an all-Irish “Picture Perfect” at 6. We’ll be greening up a little early, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 16, 2018

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