“A symphony must be like the world,” Gustav Mahler famously proclaimed. “It should embrace everything.”
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On the first day of summer, only the 85th birthday of Lalo Schifrin could eclipse the sun. The Argentinian-born Schifrin has composed over 100 scores for film and television, including those for “Cool Hand Luke,” “Bullitt,” “Dirty Harry,” “Enter the Dragon,” “Mannix,” “Starsky and Hutch,” “Rush Hour,” and of course “Mission: Impossible.” (His music for “The Exorcist,” however, was demonstrably rejected by director William Friedkin, who hurled the master tape out into the parking lot.)
A highly respected jazz pianist, Schifrin was discovered by Dizzy Gillespie, who knew to hire him on the spot. He has lived in the United States since 1958, making a very healthy living arranging and composing across genres, including bossa nova, jazz, bebop, rock, and classical, all the while cashing those lucrative Hollywood paychecks.
Join me this afternoon, as I celebrate Schifrin’s birthday with his flute concerto, “Concierto Caribeño.” We’ll also hear music by birthday celebrants Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (ninth son of Johann Sebastian), Swedish composer Hilding Rosenberg, conductor Hermann Scherchen, soprano Judith Raskin, American pianist and composer Henry Holden Huss (born in Newark, NJ, in 1862), and Czech composer Pavel Haas, who studied with Janáček (the master considered him his finest pupil), but met an early end at Auschwitz.
As if all that is not enough, I’ll have a couple of selections for the season, as time allows. Join me from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT. I am too much in the sun on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Temperatures are predicted to rise, both indoors and out, as the 13th annual Golandsky Institute International Piano Festival gets underway, July 10-15. The Classical Network will set the stage for musical refreshment with a series of broadcast concerts from last year’s festival. Join me today at noon for a recital by Wei Luo.
Born in Shenzhen, China, in 1998, Wei Luo studied at the Shanghai Conservatory, beginning at the age of 10. She racked up numerous top prizes in China before winning first prize in the 11th Chopin International Competition for Young Pianists in Poland and the 2nd Rachmaninoff International Competition for Young Pianists in Frankfurt, both in 2010.
In 2012, she was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she is a protégé of Gary Graffman. We’ll hear her in an impressively varied program of works by Albéniz, Beethoven, Chopin, Bartók, and Rachmaninoff.
This year’s festival will feature five concerts in six days, all held at Taplin Auditorium in Princeton University’s Fine Hall. Concerts begin at 8 p.m.
The festival will include performances by Claudio Martínez Mehner (appearing July 10, in works by Ligeti, Bach, C.P.E. Bach); Josu de Solaun (July 11, Chopin, Liszt, Tausig, Enescu); Father Sean Duggan (July 13, chamber and solo keyboard music of Bach); the Bill Charlap Trio (July 14, an evening of jazz); and Ilya Itin (July 15, Schubert and Rachmaninoff). Tickets are available online through the Princeton University Box Office.
The Golandsky Institute is the preeminent center for the Taubman Approach, a groundbreaking analysis of the motions that function beneath a virtuoso technique. The Institute helps musicians overcome limitations and avoid injury through the development of a healthy technique. The International Piano Festival is held concurrently with the Institute’s Summer Symposium, held on the campus of Princeton University, July 9-17.
More information about the concerts and the Institute’s Summer Symposium may be found online at http://www.golandskyinstitute.org.
Hear Wei Luo in concert. The broadcast begins at 12:00 EDT. I’ll be with you until 4, when among my featured works will be Bartók’s fairy tale ballet “The Wooden Prince.” Listen in to WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
If you’re of the opinion that 90 degree June days are for the birds, then you should be delighted to join me in celebrating the birthday today of Carl Zeller (1842-1898), the Austrian composer best known for his operetta “Der Vogelhändler,” or “The Bird Seller.” We’ll hear a sampling of his music, alongside that of fellow birthday celebrants Johann Stamitz (1717-1757), founding father of the Mannheim school (it’s actually his baptismal day), and Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893), composer of “La Wally,” which, to my knowledge, is still the only opera to end with an avalanche. If that doesn’t cool you down, I don’t know what will. We’ll have an avalanche of great music from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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