Live Radio, Live Big Band, Live Audience...

And here's your invitation to be a part of it March 10^th!

By Mark Channon, Thursday Morning Jazz Host

The so-called "golden age of radio" featured live big bands playing on radio programs.  Archives of those shows originating from the Palladium Ballroom in Hollywood, Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel and the famous Aragon Ballroom can be found on CDs and Web Sites.  But the expenses and logistics involved with sustaining that type of radio format became prohibitive.  Certainly, the development of long-play recordings made it much easier for radio broadcasters to showcase bands from around the planet without incurring travel or performance fees.  Even television saw the last fully staffed house big band replaced by a smaller configuration of musicians when Doc Severinsen and the NBC Tonight Show Band left the airwaves in 1992 upon Johnny Carson's retirement.  It's been decades since a big band has been in a studio with a live radio audience on hand. 

WWUH's unique broadcasting has brought together big bands on live radio.  Through live remote broadcasts from The Monday Night Bushnell Park Jazz Series, and from Hall High School's Pops 'n Jazz, the big bands have been heard over WWUH.  But for each of these, WWUH went to the venue rather than the big band coming to WWUH.  Small jazz groups have played in the WWUH studios on "It's All Live" programming which featured upwards of 12 hours of totally, continuous live broadcasting.   

On March 10^th, the 17-piece Hartford Jazz Orchestra will play live from 9am - noon on Thursday Morning Jazz.  The occasion is my 50^th birthday (which is actually the day before).  The show will originate from The Wilde Auditorium just down the hall from WWUH in the Gray Conference Center at The University of Hartford.  Both The New England Jazz Ensemble and Minnesota based Gustavus Adolphus College Lab Band have played in "The Wilde" in the past, but neither performance was broadcast on WWUH.  What's more, those shows were more typical evening concerts. 

Last June, I was invited to emcee a triple big band concert at Cheney Hall in Manchester.  The Manchester High School Jazz Ensemble opened followed by Pratt & Whitney's employees' big band, The Screaming Eagles.  The Hartford Jazz Orchestra was the headline band.  I knew the band was good, and had improved under the leadership of Donn Trenner, but I was blown away with just how great they are!   When The HJO's long-time singer, Bobbi Rogers completed her first selection that night, she and the band received a standing ovation.  She is amazing, and a perfect compliment to the band's skillful playing the late Chick Cicchetti fantastic arrangements.  At the end of the concert, I spoke with the band's manager, Tom Mulcahy, about the band coming to WWUH to play live on my show.  He was immediately receptive to the idea and awaited further word.  With WWUH getting behind the idea, and The Wilde Auditorium available, the birthday party heard 'round CT on 91.3FM and around the world on wwuh.org is almost in place.              

There's one more component needed to complete the picture.  A live audience.  That's where you, our WWUH listeners, are cordially invited to attend and participate!  This is your invitation to come by The Wilde Auditorium on March 10^th and witness another aspect of WWUH's extraordinary broadcasting.  Whether you can be there for the entire three hours or only a portion of the program, I know you'll thoroughly enjoy the music of The Hartford Jazz Orchestra.  Pianist, Donn Trenner was Chick Cicchetti's choice to take over the band.  Donn has led the band since Chick's passing in May of 2000, and has been a guest on my show more than once.  He's kiddingly remarked that anyone looking at his resume might conclude he can't hold down a job because of all the people for whom he's worked.  In addition to being the music director on seven of Bob Hope's USO Christmas tours, he's been music director for The Steve Allen Show, Nancy Wilson, Shirley MacLaine, Raquel Welch, Ann Margaret, Sandy Duncan, and most recently has been responsible for setting up the orchestras for Johnny Mathis' performances.  Donn played piano with Jerry Mulligan, Charlie Parker and Stan Getz, and with the big bands of Tommy Dorsey, Les Brown, Charlie Barnett and Buddy Morrow.  He's no stranger to live broadcasting having produced TV specials for Swedish Broadcasting, German broadcasting and the BBC.  The New Haven native has maintained residences in California and Connecticut for years as his services have been in demand on both coasts.      

Hawks and WWUH

Prove Championship Pair

CELTIC AIRS CONCERT SERIES CONTINUES WITH LUNASA ON SATURDAY, MARCH 19TH

 

           The Celtic Airs Concert Series will close out St Patrick's week with a bang! Lunasa, "the hottest Irish acoustic group on the planet" (The Irish Voice) will appear Saturday March 19^th in the University of Hartford's Millard Auditorium.

            Rhythm is the word that personifies Lunasa. Their clear mastery of rhythm and it's ingenious application to the traditional instrumental music of Ireland make them entirely unique in Celtic music circles. Lunasa welds the ancient soul of traditional Irish music to a new rhythmic framework, preserving the dignity of their ancient sources while thrusting them into a modern age. Legendary fiddler Kevin Burke (Bothy Band, Patrick Street) explains; "maintaining the unique intimate qualities of a musical tradition while at the same time meeting and fulfilling the demands of a contemporary audience is a difficult juxtaposition to achieve, yet Lunasa have accomplished just that."

            NPR radio recognizes the same unique qualities of Lunasa's music. In a review of the 2006 album "Se", they noted "the flute and mournful uillean pipes interweave with the gorgeous subtlety of the fiddle and the infectious rhythmic underpinning of guitar and upright bass to create a complex tapestry of sound."

            From day one, the upright bass of Trevor Hutchinson has been the fulcrum on which Lunasa balances and leverages their musical style. He has produced a place for the double bass in Irish traditional music where once there was none. It was 1996 when Sean Smyth (All Ireland fiddle and whistle champion) invited the rhythm section of the Sharon Shannon Band (Hutchinson and guitarist Donnagh Hennessey) to join him on a brief tour of Scandinavia. Surprised by the raucous reception the trio received, they returned to Ireland resolved to expand the line up and improve it's impact. Young phenoms  Michael McGoldrick (flute, whistles, uillean pipes) and John McSherry (uillean pipes, whistles) were signed on and the new band toured Ireland as "Sean Smyth and Friends." Live recordings from this tour eventually formed the basis for the first Lunasa album. The band made it's debut under the name Lunasa (named for the Celtic harvest festival that honors Lugh, the god and patron of the arts) during a tour of Australia in February 1997. A crucial line up change had occurred just prior to the tour; flutist Kevin Crawford was asked to fill in for  McGoldrick and McSherry who were unavailable due to commitments  to other bands. Crawford became an integral part of the band from that point onward.

            In 1999, the quartet-quintet-sextet  (depending upon the availability of McGoldrick and McSherry) recorded their first studio album "Otherworld", a smash success that led to many accolades. "This is the Irish music dream team!" (Folk Roots)

"Meet the new Celtic royalty." (Boston Globe) It was obviously time now for the band members to commit themselves to the future of Lunasa. McGoldrick and McSherry , heavily involved in other projects, were unable to do so and in April 1999, Cillian Vallely (uillean pipes, whistles) , from the famous musical family based in Armagh, became the band's newest member. He made his recording debut on the band's next album "The Merry Sisters of Fate" in 2001.

            Turmoil surrounding the content of the next album "Redwood" in 2002 led to the band's acrimonious split from the Green Linnet record label. In 2003, they self produced "The Kinnity Sessions", recorded live in front of an audience of colleagues and invited guests at the Kinnity Castle in Ireland. The album was widely praised and the maverick Compass Records (Nashville, TN, owned by bluegrass banjo sensation Alison Brown) picked it up for U.S. distribution.

            Near the end of 2004, Donnagh Hennessy announced his intention to leave Lunasa to pursue other musical opportunities. A versatile, gifted replacement soon appeared in the person of Paul Meehan (guitar, bouzouki, mandolin) who was playing with Cork based band North Cregg AND with Cillian's brother Niall in the Karan Casey Band. Paul was already well ensconced in the band by the time they recorded their next album "Se" in 2006.

            Because they toured extensively each year, both as headliners as well as back up to artists as diverse as Mary Chapin Carpenter, Billy Bragg, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Rosanne Cash and Natalie Merchant, it wasn't until 2010 that they returned to the studio to record their latest album "La Nua" (Irish for 'new day') on their own label, Lunasa Records.

            Regardless of how well produced and innovative Lunasa's studio recordings have been, it's their live performances for which they're most well known. Their energy is palpable, the rhythm infectious. With an emphasis on precision and professionalism in the performance of their complex sets, they take the audience on a journey full of hair pin bends and vertiginous peaks!

            If YOU'VE never seen Lunasa in person, don't miss your opportunity when they appear in the Millard Auditorium  Saturday March 19^th. If witnessing a previous live performance has made you a Lunasa convert, I KNOW you'll be among the first to purchase tickets for this return engagement!

            As you know, I'm always on the look out for talented new band's to present in our concert series. Many long established and well respected band's were unknown newcomers when they first appeared here. Just a few examples would include Dervish, Solas, Danu, Lunasa, Craobh Rua and Old Blind Dogs. On April 22^nd, we'll continue that tradition of presenting new musicians we think will impress you. Our guests that evening will be The Press Gang. They'll take the stage at the Wilde Auditorium at 7:30pm.

 The Press Gang 

          The Press Gang is a trio based in Maine, already very popular among Boston area Irish music fans. The Boston Irish Reporter said "There are three reasons Irish music fans like The Press Gang: They're young, they clearly have a strong dose of Irish tradition in their blood and above all, they're VERY GOOD musicians!"

            The trio includes Christian "Junior" Stevens on button accordion and concertina, a fixture on the Irish traditional music scene in America. He has performed with many of the genre's most talented artists. Fiddler Alden Robinson has traveled throughout the U.S. and Ireland to hear and study with some of the finest traditional musicians alive today. His style is innovative, blending a fluent command of Irish ornamentation with the rhythms and harmonies of Appalachian music. Owen Marshall is a multi-instrumentalist who primarily plays guitar with The Press Gang. He is a highly sought after accompanist in diverse genres and has performed with a variety of traditional musicians including the late Jerry Holland and Aoife Clancy.

            The Press Gang's members blend their skills and fluency in Irish traditional music

with their curiosity and aptitude for other traditional styles to produce a unique sound that is a at once energetic and sensitive, innovative and reverent. Their joy in playing for an audience shines brightly when they're on stage. Irish Music Magazine said "The Press Gang plays a fast moving blend of buttons and strings with each instrument clearly aware of it's role in the set." To quote The Portland Phoenix, "These guys play with real heart and passion."

            Please come let me introduce you to yet another very talented, up and coming ensemble when The Press Gang makes their Celtic Airs concert debut Friday April 22^nd at 7:30 in the University of Hartford's Wilde Auditorium. I predict you'll go home with a smile on your face and a catchy tune in your head that will keep your toes tapping all the way home.

            As you know, you can only buy tickets for the Celtic Airs Concert Series through the University of Hartford Box Office, open 10:00 AM til 6:00 PM Monday through Friday. Call 1-800-274-8587 or 1-860-768-4228. On line purchases can be made at www.hartford.edu/hartt.

            If you're not already a dedicated Celtic Airs listener, I urge you to tune into 91.3 FM any Tuesday between 6:00 an 9:00 AM. I think you'll like what you hear; a blend of old favorites, new releases and a good introduction to the music of our upcoming concert performers.

 Steve Dieterich

                                                                                                Producer/Host of Celtic Airs and

The WWUH/ Celtic Airs Concert Series

Featured Artist

March 7                       Little Smokey Smothers

March 14                     Tom Principato

March 21                     Ray Fuller

April 4                          Cephans and Wiggins

April 11                        Billy Boy Arnold

April 18                        Eric Bibb

Back to the Roots

March 7                       Jump Blues

March 14                     Delta Blues

March 21                     Chicago Blues

April 4                         West Coast Blues                    

April 11                        Classic Women Blues Singers  

April 18                        British Blues

WWUH is Proud to Announce a New Radio Program

Tune in to the Wednesday All Night Show

with Guy Touquet 

Join Guy Touquet (guy2k) Thursday mornings at three for "Guy's History of Recorded Music."  Start your day (or wrap it up) with recordings fro the early days of the phonograph-1920's and before, mostly-featuring legendary performers like Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, John McCormack and Bessie Smith, as well as largely forgotten artists like Vaughn DeLeath and Whispering Jack Smith.  Songs your grandma hummed to you in your crib.  Records your 95-year-old neighbor tapped his foot to as a teenager.  The mix is eclectic-jazz, classical, foreign, traditional, country-retrieved from the Internet site www.archive.org and readily downloadable free of charge to any listener with a computer and a connection.  It's not really history, but entertainment, with occasional commentary from Guy.

Bio:  Guy Touquet is actually Steve Fournier, a Hartford Grandfather, who remains firmly lodged, musically, in the 20^th Century.  Find out more about Steve at www.stepfour.com.

Where in the World Have You Worn Your WWUH?

This photo was sent to us from a long time listener.  Proudly wearing his WWUH hat at the Rangbuk Monestary Tibet Everest Base Camp.  Mt. Everest is in the background.  Where have you worn your WWUH?  Send us a picture and we will post it as part of this series.  Send to wwuh@hartford.edu.   

WWUH Classical Programming - March/April 2011

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera... Sundays 1:00 - 4:30 pm

Evening Classics... Weekdays 4:00 to 7:00/ 8:00 pm

Drake's Village Brass Band... Mondays 7:00-8:00 pm

Thursday Evening Classics

Composer Birthdays

March and April 2011 

Presented by Steve Petke

March 3

1857 Alfred Bruneau

1867 Gustav Strube

1886 James Friskin

1891 Federico Moreno Torroba

1895 Alexander Nicolaas Voormolen

1913 Margaret Bonds

1918 Frank Wigglesworth

1941 Vladislav Shoot

1944 Lee Holdridge

1954 Arturo Rodas

March 10

1839 Dudley Buck

1844 Pablo Martin Meliton de Sarasate

1892 Arthur Oscar Honegger

1942 Daniel Lentz

1943 Stephen Montague

1943 Fred Lerdahl

Pablo de Sarasate

Birth: March 10, 1844 in Pamplona, Spain

Death: September 20, 1908 in Biarritz, France

Pablo de Sarasate was born Pablo Martin Melton Sarasate y Navascuez, the son of a local military bandmaster in Pamplona. Sarasate demonstrated musical talent early in his life. He began to play the violin at the age of five and gave his first public performance when he was eight.  Sarasate went to Madrid to study with violinist Manuel Rodriguez Sáez. Aided by Queen Isabella, he began studies at the Paris Conservatoire in 1856, winning the premier prix in violin and solfège the following year and a prize for harmony in 1859. Beginning in 1859, Sarasate began three decades of concert tours which made his name famous in every country of Europe as well as in North and South America. His first appearance in Britain was received with indifference, but a return visit in 1874 brought better results, and composer Alexander Mackenzie composed a violin concerto for Sarasate that was heard at the Birmingham Festival of 1885. Sarasate attracted the admiration and friendship of many other famous composers who dedicated their works to him, including Bruch (Violin Concerto #2 and Scottish Fantasy), Saint-Saëns (Concertos #1 and 3; Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso), Lalo (Concerto in f and Symphonie Espagnole), Joachim (Variations for Violin and Orchestra), Wieniawski (Concerto #2) and Dvořák (Mazurek Op.49). Sarasate made nine phonograph records in 1904, when he was 60. They confirm critical opinion of his playing, which was distinguished by sweetness and purity of tone, produced with a 'frictionless' bow stroke and colored by a shallow, fast vibrato, less sparingly employed than was customary at that time. Best known among his 54 opus numbers are the Zigeunerweisen Op.20, still a staple in the virtuoso repertory, and the four books of Spanische Tänze. His Fantasy on Carmen Op.25 is clever and technically demanding. Sarasate bequeathed his two Stradivari violins to museums: his favorite (dated 1724) to the Paris Conservatoire and the other, the so-called 'Boissier' (1713), to the Madrid Conservatory.

Arthur Honegger

Birth: March 10, 1892 in La Havre, France

Death: November 27, 1955 in Paris, France

Of Swiss Protestant parentage, Honegger studied violin as a child, but also developed an interest in composition. He attended the conservatories in Zürich and then Paris, where his teachers included Widor for composition and d'Indy for orchestration. In 1920 he and his conservatory friends Milhaud, Auric, and Tailleferre, along with Poulenc and Durey, found themselves aligned in the famous musical group called Les Six, a name coined by the critic Henri Collet. Les Six was formed in reaction to Impressionism and Wagnerian ideas, but Honegger did espouse any musical creed in his association with the group. His first great success came in 1921 with the 'dramatic psalm' Le Roi David. In 1923, Honegger composed one of his most famous works, Pacific 231, a work inspired by the sounds and rhythms of a locomotive. The piece was a tremendous success and spawned many imitations. A similar strength of design, idea, and feeling makes his cycle of five symphonies one of the most important of the century. Honegger's other works include several ballets and operas, as well as the 'dramatic oratorio' Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher. He pioneered a style of French text-setting in which the accentuation of weak syllables made for unusual forcefulness and clarity. He also wrote numerous scores, especially in the 1930s, for plays and films. Honegger made many concert tours in the 1930s with his wife, who would perform his piano and chamber works or serve as accompanist to his songs. His concert and compositional activity was curtailed for a year when he nursed his wife along to recovery following a serious injury in a 1935 automobile accident. During the war years, Honegger taught at the École Normale de Musique. In 1947, on a concert tour in the United States, Honegger suffered a heart attack and thereafter his health declined, severely limiting his musical activities, with his wife tending to him in his final year.

March 17

1519 Thoinot Arbeau

1800 Carl Friedrich Zollner

1839 Joseph Rheinberger

1900 Alfred Newman

1920 John La Montaine

1924 Stephen Dodgson

1946 Michael Finnissy

Joseph Rheinberger

Birth: March 17, 1839 in Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Death: November 25, 1901 in Munich, Germany

Joseph Rheinberger was the son of the Prince of Liechtenstein's treasurer Johann Peter Rheinberger and Elisabeth Carigiet, who came from the Rhaeto-Romanic region of Grisons. His exceptional musical gifts astounded his first teacher, Sebastian Pohli, who instructed him from the age of five. Rheinberger made such startling progress that at seven he was organist in his home town. He also began to write music, including a three-part mass with organ accompaniment. In 1848 he was taught harmony, piano and organ by the choir director of Feldkirch, Philipp Schmutzer, who also introduced him to the works of Bach and the Viennese Classical composers. Rheinberger's father, who initially resisted his pursuing a musical career, finally conceded to persuasion from the composer Nagiller to permit the boy to study in Munich, where he moved in 1851, making it his permanent home. At the Munich Conservatory, Rheinberger studied theory, organ and piano and later he also had occasional private instruction from Franz Lachner. As early as 1853, Rheinberger was employed as organist at several city churches and supplemented his income offering private tuition. Above all, he devoted himself to composition, and in the next few years he wrote well over 100 works of the widest variety. But he was critical of all these early works and they were never published. His Op.1, Four Piano Pieces, appeared only in 1859. That year he joined the staff of the conservatory to teach piano and music theory. In 1864, he also became the conductor of the Munich Oratorienverein, holding the post until 1877. He also worked for a time as a coach at the court opera and thus witnessed firsthand the events and feuds surrounding Richard Wagner's stay in Munich, which culminated in the première of Tristan und Isolde. In 1867 he became a professor at the conservatory. During the same year he married his former pupil Franziska von Hoffnaass, a socially influential and cultured woman who was also a gifted poet. Later in life, he was frequently plagued by ill-health, but continued to compose, enjoying the company of a few valued friends. In 1877 he was appointed Hofkapellmeister and thereby acquired considerable influence on the development of sacred music. In 1894 he was ennobled and awarded the title of privy councilor. He died a few weeks after his retirement. His grave in Munich was destroyed during World War II and his remains were transferred in 1950 to his birthplace. Rheinberger's lasting fame rests primarily on his teaching. Many important musicians and musical scholars were the product of his rigorous schooling, including Humperdinck, Wolf-Ferrari, Thuille, Horatio Parker, Chadwick and Furtwängler. Bonds with tradition are also characteristic of Rheinberger's work as a composer, which derives from Bach, Mozart and the middle-period Beethoven as well as other early Romantics. He consciously remained aloof from the new currents that developed in the mid-19th century. He produced his most outstanding and highly individual work in the 20 organ sonatas, which are rich in artistry and ideas, but he also made a significant contribution to sacred music, especially in the works written after 1877.

March 24

1740 John Antes

1936 Fredrick Kaufman

March 31

1684 Francesco Durante

1732 Franz Joseph Haydn

1747 Johann Abraham Peter Schulz

1887 Jose-Maria Usandizaga

1941 Jake Heggie

Franz Joseph Haydn

Birth: March 31, 1732 in Rohrau, Austria

Death: May 31, 1809 in Vienna, Austria

The son of a farmer-wheelwright, Haydn showed early musical talent and at the age of 5 was given into the care of a Hainburg schoolmaster. He became a choirboy at St. Stephen's cathedral in Vienna when he was 8. After his voice changed and he was dismissed from the choir, he lived in relative poverty as a freelance musician in Vienna. His fortunes began to improve in the late 1750s as members of Vienna's nobility became aware of his music, and on May 1, 1761, he went to work for the Esterházy family. He remained in their employ for the next 30 years. Both Prince Paul and his successor Prince Nikolaus, who reigned from 1762 to 1790, were passionate music lovers. In 1766 Nikolaus built the palace of Eszterháza (modeled on Versailles) on the south side of the Neusiedlersee, spending the greater part of each year there. Haydn's duties were numerous. Besides administrative work and caring for the court musicians, he conducted the orchestra, directed operatic performances, played in chamber ensembles, and composed works in many genres. Haydn's fame spread from Eszterháza throughout Western Europe. Haydn's career at Eszterháza ended in 1790 when Prince Nikolaus died and his successor discharged the musicians, though leaving Haydn his salary and title. Haydn left for Vienna where he accepted an invitation from the impresario J. P. Salomon to visit London. He stayed in England for 18 months, being celebrated and entertained by royalty. He composed Symphonies 93-98 on this visit. In July 1791 Oxford University conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Music. On his return to Vienna he bought a house and accepted Beethoven as a pupil, an uncomfortable relationship for both great men. In 1794 he visited England again, having been commissioned by Salomon to write 6 new symphonies. This second visit lasted another 18 months and was even more successful artistically and, especially, financially than the first. Between 1796 and 1802 Haydn wrote 6 magnificent settings of the Mass. But his chief pre-occupation at this time was his oratorio Die Schöpfung (The Creation), first performed privately in Vienna in 1798. This was followed by another oratorio Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons). From then on, Haydn's health began to fail and, though he made several more public appearances, he died during the French occupation of Vienna. Haydn is regarded as the 'father' of the symphony and of the string quartet, but his vocal and choral music and his operas, often overlooked, show great invention and style. Much the same can be said of the piano trios and keyboard sonatas. In the hundreds of instrumental sonatas, string quartets, and symphonies, Haydn both broke new ground and provided exemplary models. The symphonies, in particular are noteworthy for their humor, unpredictability, and elegance. His influence upon later composers is immeasurable.

April 7

1763 Domenico Dragonetti

1899 Robert Casadesus

1931 Donald Harris

April 21

1899 Randall Thompson

1920 Bruno Maderna

1933 Easley Blackwood

1939 John McCabe

Randall Thompson

Birth: April 21, 1899 in New York City, NY

Death: July 9, 1984 in Cambridge, MA

Thompson's father was an English teacher, who expected academic excellence from his children. At the family's summer vacation home in Vienna, MA, Thompson took interest in an old parlor reed organ. At this instrument Thompson wrote his earliest works around 1915. In 1916, Thompson entered Harvard University and graduated with a Masters in Music in 1922. Later in that year, a Prix de Rome enabled him to study in Italy with Gian Francesco Malipiero, by whom he was much influenced. After three years, he returned to New York. He was appointed organist and lecturer in music at Wellesley College in 1927, a position he left in 1929 to take up a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. Two years later, he embarked on a three-year study of music education commissioned by the Association of American Colleges. His research resulted in an influential report, College Music, a text that helped restructure the collegiate agenda in music education nationwide. In 1936 Thompson's cantata The Peaceable Kingdom, inspired by the work of American primitive painter Edward Hicks, was premiered in Cambridge and helped establish Thompson's popularity as a composer. In 1937 Thompson resumed an academic career, taking up a professorship at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1939 he was appointed director of the Curtis Institute of Music (where Bernstein was one of his students) and in 1941 he became head of the music division of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. He joined the music department at Princeton University in 1946 and in 1948 was appointed to a position at Harvard. He is best known for his choral works, nearly all of which were composed on commission or for a specific occasion. Choral works such as Frostiana, The Testament of Freedom and The Last Words of David achieved popularity unprecedented in the USA. His chamber and orchestral works are imaginative and substantial. The most popular of these is the Symphony #2. No work of Thompson's, however, equaled the incredible celebrity accorded to his Alleluia. It was written in four days at the request of maestro Serge Koussevitzky as a work to celebrate the opening of the new Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. It was an immediate success and has been performed countless times by choruses large and small, professional and amateur.

April 28

SUNDAY MARCH 6th:  La Nonne Sanglante. Charles Gounod greatly desired a popular hit in composing his third Opera, so he turned to the most popular hack playwright of his day, Eugene Scribe, to come up with a suitable libretto. Scribe adapted for the lyric stage, a gothic horror novel by the Englishman Matthew Gregory Lewis, The Monk (1796), which became in Scribe's French language version La Nonne Sanglante ("The Bleeding Nun"). Gounod's operatic treatment ran for only eleven performances in 1854. It was withdrawn from the Paris Opera due to harsh criticism about the theatrical impropriety of the ghostly nun of the title and other absurdities of the plot. La Nonne Sanglante disappeared thereafter until its staged revival in 2008 by a German opera company, Theater Osnabrück. This work is no masterpiece, but it possesses all the beautiful singability that we expect from Gounod. Writing in the November/December, 2010 number of Fanfare magazine concerning the cpo CD release of La Nonne Sanglante, Joel Krasow understands how that provincial company stretched the talents of the singers and players to the limit in giving us the operas world premiere recording. Nevertheless, he concludes "... I would recommend the recording to anyone interested in Gounod before Faust." Hermann Bäumer conducts the Osnabrück forces.

In the course of today's show I will be going on mike periodically to urge you "lyric theater" listeners to pledge your dollars to the show, the last one in the week-long classical lineup, your last chance to participate in the Marathon 2011, our station's annual week of intensive on-air fundraising. In years past you faithful listeners have never failed to help us meet or even exceed our Marathon fundraising goal, so I thank you in advance for your generosity.

Sunday March 13th: Charpentier, David et Jonathas, de Monte, Missa Ultimi Miei Sospiri. The influence of the Italian immigrant composer John Baptiste Lully was so overwhelming upon the Royal French court that no native French composer in the reign of Louis XIV could get an opera of his own performed before the king. Only after Lully died in 1687 did the field become open once again to French composers of merit. One of the best of them, Marc Antoine Charpentier (1643 -- 1704), wrote a Lullian-style opera on a Biblical subject for performance at the Jesuit college in Paris, where he was musical director. This was David et Jonathas (1688), which was intended as a special Lenten entertainment for his churchly patrons. It is the only surviving example of "sacred lyric tragedy" from the era of the Sun King. The one existing copy of the score for David et Jonathas is corrupt, with a lot of transcription mistakes and actual gaps running into many bars of music. Michel Corboz, a pioneer in the authentic recreation of Baroque music, painstakingly reconstructed David et Jonathas for a stage revival of the work by Opera de Lyon in 1981. Corboz conducts the English Bach Festival Baroque Orchestra and a cost of French singers, as recorded for the French Erato to label. Erato made this recording available again in CD format on two discs in its "Libretto" series. I last broadcast David et Jonathas on Sunday, March 14, 1993.

Ash Wednesday fell earlier this week on March 9th. In old Catholic Europe the opera houses closed down for the five-week duration of Lent, that penitential season preceding Easter. In keeping with that tradition I will be presenting vocal music of Christian devotional or liturgical nature, or at least anything recorded that reflects upon the general Judeo-Christian religious heritage. From Charpentier's Old Testament trajedie lyrique we turn to a work by one of the most prolific composers of the European Renaissance, Pillippe de Monte (1521 -- 1603). Keep listening for Monte's polyphonic "imitation" mass Missa Ultimi Miei Sospiri, which borrows melodic motifs from a highly popular secular madrigal by Phillippe Verdelot. De Monte's "My Last Sighs" mass setting was taken up by the sextet known as Cinquecento, who specialize in the vocal compositions of the sixteenth-century. They recorded the mass, de Monte's setting of the Magnificat upon the sixth tone and various Catholic liturgical motets, all of this sung to Latin language texts. Their sampling of de Monte's artistry comes to us on a single Hyperion compact disc release in 2007.

Sunday March 20th: Brazelton, Ecclesiates, Ikon II. The genre of oratorio is subject to redefinition over time. In the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods of music history oratorio was pretty much "sacred" opera without staging and with greater reliance upon the chorus, as opposed to the solo singers. Things loosened up considerably for oratorio in the twentieth-century. Now as the twenty first-century proceeds we get Ecclesiates: A Modern Oratorio (2009) by New York City basic artistic factotum Kitty Brazelton (Catherine Bowles Brazelton, b. 1951). Yes, Kitty does it all: composing, performing, studio production, even translating for herself the ancient texts she employed in her audio-technological approach to oratorio. She picks up where the Byrds left off in the 1965 song "Turn, Turn, Turn" that used the well-known verses from the third chapter of the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes. Kitty is joined by her friends, the Time Remaining Band, who lend their voices and play various instruments (mostly percussion). Kitty also sings, conducts, and does pretty much everything else required to produce the 2010 studio recording of Ecclesiastes, made at Second Sound Studio in NYC, for Innova, the exclusive record label of the American Composers' Forum.

After Ecclesiastes comes choral music making of a much more traditional kind for the Russian Orthodox Church. Ikon II is the second audio-anthology of Russian orthodox choral music by various composers that the UK label Hyperion has brought forth. (This one in 2010.) English choristers have tackled the style of Slavic vocalization admirably well. Stephen Layton directs the Holst Singers.

Sunday March 27th: Handel, Israel in Egypt, Kerll, Missa Renovationis, Missa sine non Quare. Israel in Egypt (1739) presents the Passover story in choral music that can only be described as sublime. This oratorio was never successful in Handel's lifetime. In truncated form it became enormously popular in the Victorian era, especially with amateur choral societies. Israel in Egypt retreated into obscurity in the twentieth century, until the modern historically informed performance movement restored it to its original three-part structure. One part was adapted from Handel's Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline (1737) so as to apply the death of the Hebrew patriarch Joseph in The Ways of Zion Do Mourn. Moses' Song fills out the other two parts, with one dramatic chorus building upon another as the story is told of the plagues upon Egypt, the opening of the Red Sea to the Israelites, etc. Way back on Sunday, March 27, 1994 I presented Handel's gem of the choral repertoire with the Englishman John Eliot Gardiner conducting the Monteverdi Choir and the English period instrumentalists of the Monteverdi Orchestra. Concerto Köln, founded in 1985, is a well respected and much recorded German period instrument ensemble. The Dutch conductor Peter Dijkstra directs them, along with the Bavarian Radio Chorus. These two groups and four vocal soloists were recorded in Munich's Prinz Regenten theater in 2008. They all put in a fine performance, but the music suffers from multiple cuts to Handel's score. Several whole choral numbers have been omitted, and other numbers reduced by quite a few bars. A 2010 BR Klassik release on two CDs.

The foreshortened version you'll hear of Israel and Egypt leaves us a surplus of time to sample the music of another German composer of the Baroque period, one who deserves to be better known: Johan Caspar Kerll (1627 -- 93). His contemporaries considered him to be the master of the Messa Concertata, the progressive style of composition for the Catholic liturgy. His settings of the Ordinary of the Mass were still being held up as models by Protestant and Catholic kapellmeisters alike even into the time of Mozart. Both Bach and Handel were acquainted with Kerll's works. Six of Kerll's finest "concerted" masses were published in 1689. From that monumental collection we'll hear two of them titled in Latin Missa Renovationis ("Mass of the Renovation") and Missa sin non Quare ("Mass not without Reason") as interpreted by a group of singers and players, augmented by the Dresden Boys' Choir, all under the direction of Matthias Jung. The world premiere recording of the two masses was released in 2008 by the German Cantate label on a single silver disc.

Sunday April 3rd: Haydyn, Die Schöpfung. Now for one of the greatest of all oratorios. Franz Josef Haydn's Die Schöpfung ("The Creation," 1798) ranks with Handel's Messiah as a classic of the genre. I have presented several different recordings of it for over three decades of lyric theater programming. The creation story that's told through music is certainly Biblical, derived ultimately from the Old Testament Genesis narrative, but by way of Milton's English-language epic poem Paradise Lost, translated into German and subsequently reworked into a libretto by Austria's cultural mentor of the age, Baron Van Swieten. "The Creation" you'll hear today is on two Harmonia Mundi compact discs, with Rene Jacobs conducting the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and RIAS Chamber Choir. It was released in the bicentenary year of Haydn's death, 2009. Just about everything Jacobs has done in his career as a conductor specializing in eighteenth-century repertoire has been truly ear-opening, revealing beautiful new aspects of the old music. His recordings for the Harmonia Mundi label have consistently won critical praise. You've already heard his HM recording of that other famous Haydn oratorio, Die Jahreszeiten ("The Seasons," 1800). That was on Sunday, January 2, 2005. HM opera recordings with Jacobs in charge have gone out over the air on this program in recent years: Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (Sunday, April 28, 2002). Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (October 10: 02) and La Clemenza di Tito (January 21: 07).

Sunday April 10th: Martin, Golgotha, Zelenka, Lamentations. Swiss composer Frank Martin (1890 -- 1974) was inspired to write his Passion oratorio Golgotha (1949) after viewing an exhibition in Geneva of copperplate engravings by Rembrandt, which included one particularly arresting one of Christ's crucifixion. Martin put together his own libretto for Golgotha, drawing on the Passion narratives of the Evangelists and the writings of the Church Father St. Augustine. There is a Hanssler Classic release of Golgotha from 1988 that I broadcast on Sunday, April 1, 2001. This is not a frequently recorded piece of music, so I was surprised the French Harmonia Mundi label came out in 2010 with a new Golgotha, and one recorded in, of all places, Talinn, the capital of the little Baltic state of Estonia. The Estonian people happen to have a long tradition of choral singing. German conductor Daniel Reuss leads the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, augmented by the Dutch choral group Capella Amsterdam and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, with a cast of solo singers hailing from the UK, Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands. Fanfare's reviewer Henry Fogel says, "... this new Harmonia Mundi release is the best way to get to know this wonderful score." (Fanfare, July/August, 2010).

Next comes the choral music for Holy Week from the Bohemian counterpart to J.S. Bach, Johann Dismas Zelenka (1679 -- 1748). He was, like Bach, a conservative musically, an eminent contrapuntalist.  The Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah were customarily chanted in Catholic churches on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Many composers of the Renaissance lent their polyphonic treatments to these alphabetically ordered passages of Hebrew scripture. Zelenka's 1772 score for the Lamentations from the high Baroque era is an unusual survival in one unique manuscript. Zelenka scored his Lamentations for a small string ensemble and wood wind instruments, with organ continuo. These parts are taken on instruments of the period by the Chandos Baroque Players. Three distinguished English vocalist join them: countertenor Michael Chance, tenor John Mark Ainsley, and bass Michael George. The British Chandos label originally released Zelenka's Lamentations in 1991. That recording reappeared on a single CD in 2002 in Chandos' "Helios" line.

Sunday April 17th: Wagner, Parsifal, ACT ONE, Rautavaara,Vigilia. This Sunday, Palm Sunday, and next Sunday, Easter Sunday, for the second time on this radio program we will take part in a sacred drama in music based on the medieval legend of the Holy Grail, the wine cup Jesus passed around among his disciples at the Last Supper prior to his crucifixion. Wagner's last opera, his masterpiece of Romantic mysticism, Parsifal (1882) is too long in complete recorded performance to be accommodated in one Sunday's timeslot. For Wagner, like so many other nineteenth century Romantics, art was his religion. The Festspielhaus at Beyreuth was his temple. There Parsifal was premiered and there it was staged exclusively over the following three decades. I last presented Parsifal at Palm Sunday/Easter of 2008, making use of our station's copy of a four CD Deutsche Grammophon set. That recording preserves a 2006 Vienna State Opera production starring tenor Placido Domingo. Parsifal was recorded again in 2009, unstaged, in the concert hall of the historic Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. Valery Gergiev directed the Mariinksy's orchestra and chorus. Reviewing the 2010 Mariinsky four CD release, both critics for Fanfare magazine, Henry Fogel and Andrew Quint, concur that the sound quality is superb. Both of them praise bass Rene Pape in the role of Gurnemanz. To Andrew Quint he is the Wagnerian bass of our time. Henry Fogel confesses he is a true admirer of Gergiev's interpretive powers as a conductor, especially as evidenced in his skillful handling of the most complex and exacting music Wagner ever wrote.

There's time remaining this afternoon to listen to some modern liturgical vocal music inspired by the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church. Beginning on the evening of Holy Saturday the faithful take part in a Divine Service of Vespers and Matins involving much choral singing and lasting into Easter morning. The All Night Vigil (1972) of Finnish composer Einujuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928) was commissioned by the Helsinki Festival and the Orthodox Church of Finland. It premiered as part of the divine service in the Uspenski Cathedral in Helsinki. The music was originally performed not at the Easter vigil, but for the vigil associated with the holy Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. The recorded version of Rautavaara's Vigilia you'll hear today is his concert adaptation for non-liturgical performance. The sacred text is in the Finnish language, not the expected Old Church Slavonic the Russian faithful are accustomed to hearing. The mixed male and female voices are those of the Finnish Radio Chamber Choir, with five vocal soloists. A 1998 release on a single silver disc through the Finnish label Ondine; last broadcast on Palm Sunday, March 28, 1999.

Sunday April 24th: Wagner, Parsifal ACTS TWO AND THREE.

With the exception of the Erato recording of Carpenter's "sacred opera" David et Jonathas, which comes out of my own collection, all the featured musical selections in this two month period of programming are drawn from our station's ever-growing library of classical music on disc. Thanks as always to Vickie Hadge of Virtually Done by Vickie for her invaluable assistance in the preparation of these notes for online publication.

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