If you like cats, you’d better like Vaughan Williams, and if you like Vaughan Williams, you’d better tune in today between 4 and 6 p.m. EDT, as I’ll be celebrating his birthday, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
** Coming up at 6 p.m.: Spooky comedies for Hallowe’en on “Picture Perfect!” **
He was a savage pianist. He was an avant-gardist. He was a patriotic symphonist, a film composer, a journalist, a mystery novelist, an advice columnist, an endocrinologist, and the prophet of Wi-Fi technology.
Trenton’s George Antheil was a lot of things.
Pianist Guy Livingston and I will talk about a few of them. Join me this afternoon at 4:00 EDT, as Livingston will chat with me by telephone from his home in The Hague. We’ll swap Antheil anecdotes in advance of Livingston’s upcoming recital, which will be presented next week in New York City.
Dada at the Movies – Guy Livingston will take place at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, One Bernard Baruch Way (25th Street between Lexington & 3rd Avenues), on Wednesday, October 17, at 7:30 p.m. The multimedia event (with costumes) will recreate elements of a riot-inducing concert that was held in Paris on July 6, 1923. Included will be films by Man Ray and Hans Richter, with music by Antheil, Darius Milhaud, and Erik Satie.
Flanking our conversation, I’ll share Livingston’s recordings of Antheil’s “Jazz Sonata” and “Airplane Sonata,” from his album “Antheil the Futurist.”
Livingston is a world authority on the composer, having recorded all of his piano works. He also oversaw a landmark Antheil conference in Trenton in 2003.
Learn more about “Dada at the Movies” here: http://guylivingston.com/dada/index.shtml
Then stick around: between 4 and 6 p.m., we’ll enjoy music by Paul Creston, Johann Ludwig Krebs, Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Prokofiev, Vernon Duke, Giuseppe Verdi, and Gerónimo Giménez.
At 6:00, it’s another “Music from Marlboro” – chamber music performances from the legendary Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page – this week featuring works by Niccolò Paganini and Ildebrando Pizzetti. Performers will include a young Yo-Yo Ma and the venerable pianist Mieczyslaw Horszowski.
Solfège will be augmented to accommodate “Dada” today, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
PHOTO: Tune in for reflections of Guy Livingston
Yet to come this afternoon, I’ll be sharing a couple of knockout symphonies, by the Latvian composer Janis Ivanovs (2:00 EDT) and the late Finnish master Einojuhani Rautavaara (3:00 EDT), whose music is as enthralling as the spelling of his name.
David Osenberg will be joined by Philadelphia composer David Serkin Ludwig at 4:00 EDT. They’ll be talking about the upcoming premiere of Ludwig’s monodrama, “The Anchoress,” which will take place at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts next Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., under the auspices of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Ludwig is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music.
Check out this old-style photo of me with Rautavaara backstage at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music in 2000. The picture was taken following the premiere of the composer’s final symphony, the Symphony No. 8, subtitled “The Journey.” Guess which one is me. The photo was snapped by Anssi Blomstedt, grandson of Jean Sibelius.
Ivanovs and Rautaavara coming your way, on this, the anniversary of their births, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Works by four living composers will be refracted through PRISM on today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network.
PRISM Quartet, the Philadelphia-based saxophone ensemble, will be heard on a concert given on April 3 at First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti as part of its Southeast Michigan residency. The musicians will be joined by two of the nation’s leading jazz artists, saxophonist Diego Rivera and trombonist Michael Dease, both of whom serve on the faculty of Michigan State University. Rivera and Dease will combine with PRISM to perform works commissioned by way of the ensemble’s Heritage/Evolution project. Heritage/Evolution spotlights the talents of some of the day’s most inventive jazz artists.
The program will include commissioned pieces “Name Day,” by Tim Ries, and selections from “15 Places at the Same Time,” by Steve Lehman, alongside “heteronym” by rising star Emily Koh, composer + bassist.
We’ll also hear a selection by David Serkin Ludwig, “Josquin Microludes,” from PRISM’s 2016 album, “The Curtis Project,” made up of saxophone music written by composers from the Curtis Institute of Music.
Ludwig, who studied at Curtis with Jennifer Higdon and Richard Danielpour and at Juilliard with John Corigliano has himself been part of Curtis’ composition faculty since 2010. He also holds degrees from Oberlin, the Manhattan School, and the University of Pennsylvania. Ludwig is artistic director of Curtis’ 20/21 Contemporary Music Ensemble.
Spurring questions of nature versus nurture, this musician has quite the distinguished pedigree. His uncle is Peter Serkin. His grandfather was Rudolf Serkin, and his great-grandfather was Adolf Busch. Rudolf Serkin, in addition to being one of the great pianists, was director of the Curtis Institute from 1968 to 1976. With flutist Marcel Moyse, he and Busch established the Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page, the famed chamber music retreat located in Marlboro, VT, in 1951.
Ludwig will visit the WWFM studios for a chat with David Osenberg this afternoon at 4 p.m. EDT. His monodrama, “The Anchoress,” will receive its world premiere on October 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. PRISM will combine with soprano Hyunah Yu and Piffaro, The Renaissance Band. The program will also include Ludwig’s “Our Long War,” “Josquin Microludes,” “Three Anchoress Songs,” performed by flutist Mimi Stillman and saxophonist Matthew Levy, and some arrangements of music by Renaissance master Guillaume de Machaut.
I hope you’ll join me, beginning at noon today, for new music performed by PRISM and friends, and that you’ll stick around for works by Camille Saint-Saëns and Einohjuhani Rautavaara on their birthdays. You won’t even have to sign a card. As always, the party favors will be in the form of music, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
The late Montserrat Caballé gets double-smooched by Danny Kaye and Luciano Pavarotti. Caballé, one of the great sopranos, died on Saturday at the age of 85. Tune in to hear her recording of Enrique Granados’ “Canciones amatorias,” settings of Spanish Renaissance love poems, this afternoon in the 4:00 hour EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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