This weekend’s installments of “Picture Perfect” (“Vikings!”) and “The Lost Chord” (“And God Created Great Wales”) are now posted as webcasts.
Click here for mead and horned helmets:
https://www.wwfm.org/post/picture-perfect-february-28-vikings
Click here for St. David, harps, and daffodils:
https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-march-1-and-god-created-great-wales
That about covers it, I should think.
English composer Robert Simpson really loved Beethoven and Carl Nielsen. Hear for yourself, as I share a performance of Simpson’s Symphony No. 4, in celebration of his birthday.
We’ll also mark the anniversaries of the births of composers Marc Blitzstein, John Gardner, George Alexander Macfarren, and Bedřich Smetana, violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe, guitarist and composer Celedonio Romero, and conductor and composer Leif Segerstam.
The first round is on me (Gardner’s “Midsummer Ale”). Belly up to the bar, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
In the latter half of the 19th century, music became a focal point for nations struggling to assert their own identity following centuries of imperial control. Bedřich Smetana mined the history, landscape, and lore of the Czech people for the raw materials from which he would forge a distinctive national sound.
Unfortunately, Smetana’s life was also marred by tragedy. Political upheavals, professional intrigue, and the deaths of three children and a wife all weighed heavily up him. A second marriage was unhappy. Syphilis robbed him of his hearing, his sanity, and eventually his life.
Yet he completed some of his greatest works under what should have been cripplingly dispiriting circumstances. By the time he composed “Má vlast” – including the ubiquitous “Vltava” (or “The Moldau”) – he was stone deaf and living in domestic purgatory. (He believed that his second wife hated him, as she was always hounding him about money.) This period also yielded another of his most enduring works, the String Quartet No. 2 “From My Life.”
Further vindication came when his opera “Libuše” received its belated premiere and was rapturously received. In all, Smetana composed eight operas, but of these only “The Bartered Bride” is still performed regularly outside the Czech Republic.
Smetana is everlasting in the hearts of the Czech people. We’ll celebrate his independent spirit this afternoon on The Classical Network, on his birthday, alongside composers Marc Blitzstein, John Gardner, George Alexander Macfarren, and Robert Simpson, violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe, guitarist and composer Celedonio Romero, and conductor and composer Leif Segerstam.
The music-making will be positively heroic, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
To tide you over, here’s Smetana’s Sonata for Two Pianos, Eight Hands:
The chicks dig Czech: “Bedřich Smetana and His Friends in 1865,” by Franz Dvořák (no relation to the composer)
St. David’s Day (March 1st) has been a national day of celebration in Wales since the Middle Ages. This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll honor the country’s patron saint, with an hour of Welsh music – interestingly, all of it in some way connected to the harp.
Structurally, Grace Williams’ “Penillion” (1955) draws on the ancient Welsh practice of improvising vocal counterpoint to a traditional melody played on the harp. However, in this instance, the role of the harp is assigned to the trumpet, so as not to be swallowed up by the rest of the orchestra.
We’ll also hear a set of variations on “Megan’s Daughter,” by the 19th century harpist John Thomas. In 1861, Thomas was given the bardic title, “Chief Musician of Wales.” In 1872, he became official harpist to Queen Victoria.
Then bass-baritone Bryn Terfel will be heard, in his first ever commercial recording, in a Welsh song employing a text by Caradog Pritchard, extolling the virtues of the Ogwen River. “The River’s Song” is sung to the accompaniment of a harp, in this setting by Elsbeth M. Jones. Terfel will be joined by his former school mate, the tenor John Eifion.
We’ll conclude with a personal favorite, the Harp Concerto (1970) by William Mathias. According to the composer, the first movement is connected with the land and seascapes of South West Wales, where the music was composed. The slow movement is a landscape of the mind, reflective of the great elegies of early Welsh poetry. The third movement is a spritely jig, which brings the piece to a rhythmic and joyful conclusion.
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!
There’s a giant leek in the fridge. Yes, you heard correctly, and no, it’s not broken.
I hope you’ll join me in celebrating St. David’s Day. That’s “And God Created Great Wales,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Dragon boat sighting! This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll quaff deep from our drinking horns to music from “The Long Ships” (Dusan Radic), “Prince Valiant” (Franz Waxman), “The 13th Warrior” (Jerry Goldsmith), and “The Vikings” (Mario Nascimbene). Lock up your daughters, and let the looting begin, this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!
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