Can it already be this close to Christmas? I guess it is. Today will mark my final two live air shifts before the Christmas holiday.
I hope you’ll join me on WRTI in Philadelphia at 90.1 FM and wrti.org, as I’ll be seated under the mistletoe from 10 am. to 2 p.m. Among the works I’ll be presenting will be Antonio Vivaldi’s OTHER “Gloria” (RV 588), one of Robert Russell Bennett’s splashy suites from “The Many Moods of Christmas,” and a complete recording of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.” I’m not sure if there will be any time left over for me to add anything of my own, but hey, any opportunity to actually sit and listen to a complete “Nutcracker” is fine by me.
Then I ride the Polar Express to the Trenton-Princeton area, where I’ll pick my own music, on WWFM The Classical Network at 89.1 FM and wwfm.org, from 4 to 6 p.m. I’ll keep it fairly light today with Leopold Mozart’s “Musical Sleigh-Ride,” in that wacky recording by the Eduard Melkus Ensemble, with all the rowdy dogs and horses, and John Rutter’s work for children’s chorus and harp, “Dancing Day,” kind of a companion piece to Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols.” It’s probably safe to assume there will be some more English music, as well.
Then at 6:00, on WWFM, I’ll be your host for “Picture Perfect,” when the focus will be on music from Christmas television specials that were originally broadcast from the 1950s through the 1980s. I’ll write a little more about it, here, as the time draws nigh.
And don’t forget “The Lost Chord,” my syndicated program of unusual and neglected repertoire. It airs on WWFM on Christmas night, this week at 11 p.m., in order to make room for a broadcast of Handel’s “Messiah” from Trinity Wall Street at 8. On the program will be Hubert Parry’s “Ode on the Nativity” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ very last work, “The First Nowell.”
Merry Christmas, everyone, and happy listening!
