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Tag: The Lost Chord

Shana Tova High Holy Days Music on “The Lost Chord”

Shana Tova! Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and sweet new year. Because of last week’s 9/11 memorial, I’m only finally getting around to acknowledging the Jewish High Holy Days. This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we mark the observance with two complementary works.

Jacob Weinberg’s String Quartet, Op. 55, of 1950, falls into three movements: “Rosh Hashana,” “Yom Kippur” and “Sukkot.” “Yom Kippur” is based on the cantorial chant “Kol Nidre.” (You know, the same melody employed by Max Bruch in his famous cello piece.)

Ernest Bloch’s “Israel Symphony,” composed between 1912 and 1917, is more like an orchestral rhapsody in three sections – “Prayer in the Desert,” “Yom Kippur” and “Succoth” – played continuously and culminating in parts for four vocal soloists.

Sukkot, which follows Yom Kippur by only five days, is the harvest festival, during which temporary dwellings (or sukkot) are erected to commemorate the Jews’ 40 years wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt. In modern times, these are decorated with fruits and vines. In contrast to the austerity and fasting of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, Sukkot is a celebration of life and abundance. But in ancient Israel, it was a solemn affair, with sacrifices offered at the temple.

The High Holidays are a period of reflection, ten days of awe and repentance. Welcome the year 5782, on “Totally Awesome” – one hour later than usual, due to the length of today’s opera (Wagner’s “Parsifal”?????) – this Sunday night at 11:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

September 12, 2021
WWFM’s Lost Programs & Radio Memories

Remembering the old bi-monthly WWFM – The Classical Network program guides, which passed into obsolescence as the station gradually shifted its focus to online content.

“The Lost Chord” made the cover in July/August 2008. The show, devoted to unusual and neglected repertoire, is now in its 18th year. This week’s program, focusing on music composed at Howard Hanson’s summer home on Bold Island, Maine, has now been posted a webcast. You can enjoy it here.

https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-august-22-august-hanson

It’s sobering to note that three of the hosts pictured are no longer with us. The photo of WXXI’s Richard Gladwell, longtime host of the syndicated sacred choral music show, “With Heart and Voice,” was snapped on a visit to Trenton-Princeton. Gladwell died in 2009 at the age of 88.

Radio legend Ralph Collier hosted numerous talk shows, travelogues, and review segments over the course of his career, with guests ranging from Maria Callas to Fred Astaire to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. During his time at WWFM, I acted as Ralph’s “mule,” transporting audio from Ralph’s home in Philadelphia to the station. His was a voice I’d known since childhood, so I always got a charge out of hearing him at the other end of the phone. I still have one of his messages. Ralph died in 2013 at the age of 91.

And of course, Bliss Michelson was probably my most significant mentor. He was perhaps the most complete “radio man” I ever worked with. I greatly admired his avuncular, unflappable on-air presence. He could handle any challenge you dropped on him, even in front of the microphone, with absolutely no notice. Bliss died of complications from COVID-19 in March at the age of 71. He is fondly remembered.

August 24, 2021
Shelley’s Summer Serenade on The Lost Chord

Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory…

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” ‘tis an hour of seasonal works inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley and friends.

Hearken to Geoffrey Bush’s “A Summer Serenade,” from 1948, settings of poems by Shelley, James I of Scotland, Samuel Daniel, William Blake, Thomas Heywood, and the ever-prolific Anonymous.

Then listen, listen, Mary mine, to Arnold Bax’s “Enchanted Summer,” from 1918, the text drawn from Act II, Scene 2, of Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound.” Composed in the midst of a run of Bax’s better-known nature poems (on the one hand, “Into the Twilight” and “In the Fairy Hills,” and on the other, “Nympholept” and “The Garden of Fand”), the work opens with the play of light and shadow on a forest floor, traverses mysterious caves and crags, and conjures woodland spirits; dallies with “voluptuous nightingales;” and eavesdrops on the exchange of two fauns, who contemplate the wondrous things they have witnessed.

In conclusion, bring hot blushes to thy cheek, with one of Romantic poetry’s most protracted pick-up lines and Roger Quilter’s “Love’s Philosophy,” from 1905.

’Tis mine hope that thou wilt join me for “Summer Shelley, Some Are Not.” The dulcet music swells, this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!

August 1, 2021
Vacation Music on the Radio This Sunday

Armchair travelers, rejoice! This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” it’s an hour of musical impressions of composers on vacation.

Tune in for “Postcard Greetings” by Jenö Takács, “Four Breton Sketches” by Anthony Hedges, and “En Vacances” (“On Vacation”) by Deodat de Severac.

No baggage! No fuss!

Relax and enjoy the music, on “Leisure Treasures,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

July 18, 2021
Gershwin’s Genius: July 4th on The Lost Chord

Happy Independence Day! This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” cap your Fourth of July celebrations with an hour of vintage recordings of the music of George Gershwin.

Gershwin occupied a unique place in American music, rising from Tin Pan Alley scrapper to Broadway royalty. From there, he conquered the concert hall and even the opera house, with his blend of popular song, jazz, blues, spirituals and European classical forms.

Like Franz Schubert a hundred years before, Gershwin managed to churn out an astonishing amount of music over a comparatively brief span. His songs, in particular, have been of enduring interest. His gift of lyricism and invention defied early critics as he bestrode the worlds of popular and classical music like an American colossus.

Sadly, at the peak of his success, he died of a brain tumor at the age of 38.

We’ll sample Gershwin’s artistry in recordings of the era, including several songs performed by Al Jolson, Fred Astaire and Ella Logan. (So many excellent recordings to choose from!)

We’ll also hear the world premiere recording of “An American in Paris” – performed by the Victor Symphony Orchestra (really members of the Philadelphia Orchestra), with the composer himself on the celesta – and the Concerto in F, performed as part of a memorial concert at the Hollywood Bowl, with the composer’s friend, Oscar Levant, as soloist.

Three of these recordings date from 1937, the year of the composer’s death. All are from his era. I hope you’ll join me for “Vintage Gershwin,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: (left to right) Astaire with George and Ira Gershwin

July 4, 2021

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