CELTIC AIRS CONCERT SERIES CONTINUES WITH OLD BLIND DOGS ON SATURDAY MAY 14, 2011

Old Blind Dogs

 

            The Celtic Airs Concert Series, now entering it's 18^th year, will present a major contrast in the next two months. May's guests will be four old dogs and in June we'll be visited by eight beautiful young ladies! The bands in question are The Old Blind Dogs (5/14/11) and Girsa (6/17/11).Both groups have been here before and were audience favorites, so we're pleased to be able to welcome them back again!

            The Old Blind Dogs first came together in the early 1990's. Though their line up has evolved over the years, they have usually been a quintet .............. til now. When lead vocalist Jim Malcolm set off on a solo career, the remaining four Dogs decided to share the singing duties and remain a quartet. This decision has worked out with admirable success. Jonny Hardie, the only remaining original member says, "The quartet line up is great. We all feel equally responsible to contribute songs and tunes and we work hard to make sure our vocal harmonies sound right." Their latest album, "Four On the Floor" shows off the talents of this ensemble to excellent advantage. Though many  theories and rumors surround the album's title, Jonny says "It simply means there are now four of us on stage together, assuming equally important roles to assure the success of our recordings and live performances."

            Though their albums have been roundly applauded over the years, the Dogs have always been best known for their impassioned live shows. Hardie again; "We work very hard on stage. We don't really pace ourselves, we just go for it!" From The Scotsman; "The Old Blind Dogs play with compelling energy and an intoxicating rhythm."

            The current line up is composed of original member Jonny Hardie (fiddle, guitar, mandolin, vocals), Aaron Jones (bouzouki, guitar, vocals), Ali Hutton (pipes, whistles, vocals) and Fraser Stone (drums, backing vocals.) Together they produce dynamic percussion, polished vocals, soaring fiddle and stirring pipes that fuel their traditional songs and melodies.

            The Old Blind Dogs were voted Folk Band of the Year at the 2004 and 2007 Scots Trad Music Awards and they just keep getting better and better. The Montreal Gazette calls them "a Scots neo-traditional super group with a bracingly modern musical attack." Don't miss your chance to see them live May 14^th at 7:30PM in the University of Hartford's Wilde Auditorium.

Girsa

            On Friday June 17th we bring you, all the way from the wilds of Pearl River New York, the ultra-talented, all female octet called Girsa which in Gaelic means young girls. Joanie Madden of Cherish the ladies said "they're frighteningly talented." Earle Hitchner of The Irish Echo and Wall Street Journal said "they play with fire and finesse."

            Growing up in close proximity to the talented Irish enclave in the New York City area, Girsa were blessed with the opportunity to learn from some of America's most talented Irish musicians including fiddlers Rose Flanagan and Brian Conway, button accordionist Patty Furlong, mandolinist Frankie McCormick and flute/whistle player Margie Mulvihill.

            The talented Girsa line up ranges in age from 18-21 and comprises Maeve Flanagan (fiddle, whistle, percussion), Deirdre Brennan (fiddle, mandolin), Kristen McShane (fiddle, percussion), Margaret Dudasik (fiddle, whistle, step dancing), Blaithin Loughran (button accordion, percussion.), Bernadette Flanagan (bodhran, keyboards, step dancing) , Pamela Geraghty (guitar, button accordion , percussion) and Emily McShane  (keyboards, bodhran). In a unique twist, four of Girsa's members sing lead vocals including Ms. Brennan, Ms. Geraghty, Ms. McShane and Ms. Dudasik.

            Girsa has represented the U.S. at the All Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in the ceili band competition and several of the girls have won individual age group titles on their instruments as well. They have also been featured at many of America's most prestigious Irish festivals including Dublin Ohio, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Cleveland and Chicago. They are main stays at the Catskills Irish Arts Week where they have become the "beloved children" of many of the older musicians who are on the bill each year.

            Girsa's first album, released a few months before their previous engagement

here, sold out it's original run of 1000 copies in less than two months and a second run of 1000 soon followed the first into the hands and homes of delighted fans and concert goers. A second album is nearing completion and will hopefully be available for their upcoming Spring tour.

            The organizers of the Kansas City Irish Fest, in a review of their performers said "These amazing young women look like angels, play like demons and sing like larks." I think you'll be equally awed if you come to see Girsa Friday June 17^th in the University of Hartford's Wilde Auditorium.

            Tickets to our concert series are only available through the University of Hartford Box Office, open Monday - Friday 10:00 AM- 6:00 PM. Call 1-800-274-8587 or 860-768-4228. On line purchases can be made at www.hartford,edu/hartt. Tickets go on sale two months before the performance date.

            Celtic Airs will soon begin it's 19^th year of broadcasting on WWUH, 91.3FM in it's customary time slot of 6:00 - 9:00 AM Tuesdays. If you're outside our listening

area, the program is streamed live at wwuh.org including an MP-3 stream for your portable listening devices. Each week you'll hear a mixture of new releases and older favorites. The music of our upcoming concert series guests will be highlighted. Please share this program and concert series with your friends, relatives and neighbors. It's your support that makes our programming and these concerts possible.

                                                                                                Producer/Host of Celtic Airs and

The WWUH/ Celtic Airs Concert Series

The Culture Caf� brings local flamenco musicians  

Val Ramos and Tere Luna to WWUH Broadcast

Val Ramos with Tere Luna at WWUH

May 1st, 2011 8:00AM Flamenco guitarist Val Ramos and singer Tere Luna

joined Brian Grosjean in the studio for a discussionof the

regional flamenco and Mexican music scene, influences and

upcomingshows. Listen to WWUH on Sunday, May 1stfor the

forty minute interview. Val Ramos has been performing in the

local music scene forover 20 years. Val plays either solo

with his brother Jose, or with his ensemble of high quality

flamenco musicians. His shows often include professional

flamenco dancers and singers from Boston,New York, and

Spain. Val and his ensemble have released three albums

offlamenco music - Por mi camino(2001), Boricuas Flamencos

(1998),and Olive Green Eyes (1995). The group has been

featured in major international music festivals and

clubs including the International Festival of Arts and Ideas,

the Regattabar Spring2005 Jazz Festival, and the OpSail 2000

Festival. In July 2005. The ensemble toured Spain under

the auspices of the United StatesEmbassy in Spain

and performed at the inauguration of the new U.S. Ambassador

to Spain (at the Embassy in Madrid) as well as at the

prestigious club El Savor in Salamanca. Tere Luna sings

Spanish and Mexican songs and will beperforming Mexican folk

dance in addition to the flamenco music of the ensemble.

In the interview she discusses her influences and current

performances. The group has been featured in National

Public Radio (NPRUnited States) and Radio Nacional Espa�ola

(RNE Spain) interviews in the radioshows "All Things

Considered," "The Faith Middletown Show,"and "La hora de

America." The group's music is featured in

several documentary films including "Puerto Rican Passages"

(ConnecticutPublic Television) and "Nuyoricans"

(WNET-Thirteen/PBS). The ensemble has performed with

internationally-renowned and Grammy Award winners the-late

CELIA CRUZ and DANNY RIVERA. Upcoming shows are

Moreinformation on Val Ramos Flamenco Ensemble is at

http://www.valramosflamenco.com 

Flamenco dancing

Featured Artist

May 2                          Robert Johnson (100^th Anniversary DOB 5/8/1911)

May 16                        Big Joe Turner (100^th Anniversary DOB 5/18/1911)

May 23                        Ronnie Earl

May 30                        Duke Robillard

June 6                          Mike Morgan

June 13                        Guitar Shorty   

June 20                        Albert Castiglia

Back to the Roots

May 2                          Memphis Blues

May 16                        Boogie Woogie

May 23                        Texas Blues

May 30                        Jump Blues

June 6                          Delta Blues

June 13                        Kansas City Blues

June 20                        Chicago Blues

June 27                        Louisiana Blues

WWUH Classical Programming - May and June 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

May and June 2011 

Presented by Steve Petke

May 5

1708 Johann Adolf Scheibe

1748 Italian Francesco Azopardi

1749 Jean-Fr�d�ric (Johann Fredrich) Edelmann

1819 Stanislaw Moniuszko

1867 Thomas Tertius Noble

1869 Hans Pfitzner

1871 Alberto Cametti

May 12

1739 Johann Baptist (Jan Křtitel) Vanhal

1754 Franz Anton Hoffmeister

1755 Giovanni Battista Viotti

1842 Jules Massenet

1845 Gabriel Faure

1861 Ivan Caryll (Felix Tilken)

1863 Charles Bordes

1903 Lennox Berkeley

1916 Ellis B. Kohs

1952 Scott Johnson

Jules Massenet

Birth: May 12, 1842 in Montaud, Saint �tienne, France

Death: August 13, 1912 in Paris, France

The leading opera composer in late 19th-century France, Massenet received piano lessons as a boy and was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11. He gave his first recital at the age of 16 and won a premier prix the following year. Later he undertook composition classes with noted operatic composer, Ambroise Thomas. Massenet won the Prix de Rome in 1863. He composed prolifically and in the mid-1860s turned his attention to the stage. After early successes at the Op�ra-Comique he achieved fame at the Paris Op�ra in 1877 with the grand opera Le Roi de Lahore. The following year Massenet was appointed composition professor at the Paris Conservatoire, a post he held for 18 years. His pupils included Bruneau, Charpentier, Hahn, and Chausson. In 1884, came the premiere at the Op�ra-Comique of one of Massenet's two most enduring works, Manon. It was followed the next year by Le Cid, performed at the Op�ra. Esclarmonde was staged in 1889, after Massenet's meeting with the American soprano Sibyl Sanderson, with whom he had a love affair and for whom the title role was conceived. After being turned down in Paris, Werther was given its premiere in Vienna in 1892. Tha�s was his next success and has been many times revived. Its 'M�ditation' has become its most popular excerpt. His later stage works never achieved quite the same success. After Thomas died in 1896 Massenet was twice offered the directorship of the Conservatoire but he declined. He also left his post as professor to devote himself to composition. During his last years Massenet was involved in a relationship with a singer, Lucy Arbell, a much younger woman for whom he wrote some roles. He was ill for a decade before his death from cancer. In addition to his 25 published operas, he wrote some 250 songs, many of which share the same melodic ingenuity and expressiveness that define his operatic works. He also wrote seven orchestral suites and several ballets. He wrote a considerable amount of incidental music for plays and one piano concerto.

Gabriel Faure

Birth: May 12, 1845 in Pamiers, Ari�ge, France

Death: November 4, 1924 in Paris, France

Faur� was the youngest child of a school headmaster and spent many hours playing the harmonium in the chapel next to his father's school. He trained as a church musician at the �cole Niedermeyer in Paris, and his study of plainchant and modal harmony considerably influenced his later compositions. He was introduced to contemporary music through the piano classes of Saint-Sa�ns who also helped launch his composing career in the 1870s in Parisian salons. Faur� graduated with a first prize in composition for his Cantique de Jean Racine. For the next several years, he took on various organist positions, and taught. In 1871 he and his friends - d 'Indy, Lalo, Duparc, and Chabrier - formed the Soci�t� Nationale de Musique. Faur� wrote his first important chamber works, the Violin Sonata #1 and Piano Quartet #1, then set out on a series of musical expeditions to meet Liszt and Wagner. Throughout the 1880s, he held various positions and continued to write songs and piano pieces and instrumental gems such as the Pavane and the Sicilienne. He was named composition professor at the Paris Conservatoire in 1896. Over the next decade, he began to develop a highly original approach to tonality, in which modal harmony and altered scales figured largely. This was his first truly productive phase, which saw the completion of his Requiem, the Cinq M�lodies, the Pell�as et M�lisande suite and the Dolly Suite. His music, although considered too advanced by most, gained recognition among his musical friends. In 1905, he was named director of the Conservatoire and made several significant reforms. In his piano music written between 1905 and 1909 Faur� experimented with the whole-tone scale and basing entire compositions on a short, single idea developed sequentially. But the crowning achievement of his later years was his opera P�n�lope. During World War I, Faur� essentially remained in Paris and had another extremely productive phase, producing, among other works, Le Jardin clos and the Fantaisie for piano and orchestra, which show a force and intensity that make them among the most powerful pieces in French music. In 1920 he retired from the school, and the following year gave up his music critic job with Le Figaro, which he had held since 1903. Between then and his death, he would produce his great, last works: the Second Piano Quintet, the Piano Trio and the song cycle L'horizon chim�rique.

May 19

1616 Johann Jacob Froberger

1746 Johann Friedrich Peter

1884 Arthur Meulemans

1895 Cecil Gray

1924 Sandy Wilson

1926 Paul Cooper

1930 Hans Kox

1933 Abril Ant�n Garcia

1934 Christiaan Verhoog

1939 Richard Teitelbaum

1941 Marc-Antonio Consoli

May 26

1591 Janszoon Sweelinck

1773 Hans Georg Nageli

1886 Alice Barnett

1893 Sir Eugene Goosens III

1916 Louis 'Moondog' Hardin

1925 Willem Hendrik Zwart

1926 Joseph Horovitz

1937 Yehuda Yannay

1938 William Bolcom

1948 Alexander (Ali) Rahbari

1955 Janika Vandervelde

1958 Howard Goodall

June 2

1835 Nicolas Rubinstein

1857 Sir Edward Elgar

1858 Harry Rowe Shelley

1876 Hakon B�rresen

1909 Robin Orr

1915 Robert Moffat Palmer

1929 Fr�d�ric Devreese

1929 Alcides Lanza

1935 Samuel Jones in Inverness, MS: Symphony #3

1944 Marvin Hamlisch

Sir Edward Elgar

Birth: June 2, 1857 in Broadheath, England

Death: February 23, 1934 in Worcester, England

Elgar was the son of a piano tuner and music-shopkeeper. He showed musical promise at an early age and learned the piano, violin, and organ. Apart from this instruction, Elgar was basically a self-taught musician. His instruction in counterpoint and orchestration came from reading books and from his own practical experiments. After a brief period in a law office, he became a freelance musician at 16, playing in many local orchestras for which he arranged and composed. From 1878 he was a violinist in the orchestra for the Three Choirs Festival when it was held triennially in Worcester. At about this time, too, he established himself as a violin teacher. His reputation as a musician advanced slowly. In 1889, however, he married Alice Roberts, daughter of an Indian Army general. She encouraged him to become a great composer and they settled first in London, hoping to interest publishers and conductors in his work. They had little success, and ironically it was the Worcester Festival, in 1890, which commissioned from Elgar an orchestral work, the overture Froissart. Elgar settled in Malvern in 1891 and resumed his teaching. Froissart was published by Novello, chief suppliers to the market for cantatas. In response, Elgar penned a series of large-scale choral works - The Black Knight, the oratorio The Light of Life and another cantata, King Olaf. The latter gave Elgar his biggest success to date, but Elgar's name was still not widely known outside the Midlands. His opportunity came with his Imperial March, written for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Its success led to a commission from the 1898 Leeds Festival for the cantata Caractacus. Ironically, though it was a purely orchestral work, the Variations on an Original Theme 'Enigma', that established Elgar's reputation. From 1900 to 1914 Elgar's fame on the Continent and in Russia was as widespread as any English composer had ever achieved. The first two decades of the 20^th century were the pinnacle of Elgar's creativity and success. He composed three large-scale religious choral works - The Dream of Gerontius, a setting of Cardinal Newman's poem, which many regard as Elgar's masterpiece, and two biblical oratorios The Apostles and The Kingdom - two symphonies, the Introduction and Allegro for strings, the concert overtures Cockaigne and In the South, the first four Pomp and Circumstance marches the Coronation Ode, the Wand of Youth Suites, the Violin Concerto, the ode The Music Makers, the wartime cantata The Spirit of England, the Violin Sonata and String Quartet, Piano Quintet and the Cello Concerto. Following the death of his wife in 1920, he wrote little of significance but continued to conduct his own works at concerts and in the recording studio. But in 1932 and 1933 he worked on an opera, The Spanish Lady and a third symphony which was commissioned by the BBC. He left copious sketches of both works. The symphony was completed in an elaboration by Anthony Payne in the late 1990s and has been subsequently recorded. Elgar received many honors, including a knighthood in 1904, the Order of Merit in 1911, and a baronetcy in 1931. His music combines melodic popular appeal with lofty, visionary moments.

Jun 9

1810 Otto Nicolai

1849 Joseph Vezina

1865 Alb�ric Magnard

1865 Carl Nielsen

1886 Kosaku Yamada

1888 Hugo Kauder

1909 Robert Oboussier

1912 Ingolf Dahl

1927 Franco Donatoni

1938 Charles Wuorinen

Otto Nicolai

Birth: June 9, 1810 in K�nigsberg, Germany

Death: May 11, 1849 in Berlin, Germany

Nicolai was the son of a composer, Carl Ernst Daniel Nicolai. After Carl's marriage ended, Otto grew up in the care of foster-parents until 1820, when his father resumed responsibility for his education. Nicolai attended the highly regarded Friedrich-Gymnasium in K�nigsberg. He became resentful of his father's attempts to benefit from making him a child prodigy. At 16, Otto set out on his own as a traveling pianist and, after many difficulties, made his way to Berlin. There he was introduced to Carl Friedrich Zelter, a friend of Goethe and director of the Sing-Akademie. Zelter resolved to support Nicolai and obtained for him a place at the Institut f�r die Ausbildung von Organisten und Musiklehrer, where he received instruction in singing, piano and composition. By the early 1830s he had acquired a thorough understanding of composition, and had written several collections of songs, unaccompanied choral pieces, and larger works with orchestra, such as the Te Deum, and his Symphony in C. The Prussian ambassador Karl von Bunsen eventually persuaded Nicolai to move to Italy, where he became organist at the embassy chapel in Rome. When his period of employment came to an end he stayed on in Italy as a freelance composer for more than a year. He was eventually elected assistant Kapellmeister at the K�rntnertortheater in Vienna in 1837. He returned to Italy in 1838 and began working on his first operas. Enrico II and Il templario were successes at their premieres, though his subsequent Italian operas, much influenced by Bellini, received lukewarm receptions. Nicolai returned to Vienna in 1841 and became conductor at the Hofoper, initiating instrumental concerts and thus founding what became the Vienna Philharmonic. Required by contract to compose German operas, Nicolai initially produced completely revised versions of Il proscritto and Il templario, which were performed in German as Die Heimkehr des Verbannten and Der Tempelritter, respectively. Though these revisions are not entirely convincing, they paved the way to Nicolai's first original German opera, Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor). When he was unable to interest the Hofoper in producing this yet-unfinished work, he resigned. In 1844 Nicolai returned to K�nigsberg, where his performance of the Kirchliche Fest-Ouvert�re greatly impressed King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia. In October 1847 Nicolai accepted a position as Kapellmeister at the K�nigliches Opernhaus in Berlin and, as Mendelssohn's successor, artistic director of the cathedral choir. Wishing to reform Prussian church services, he immediately began to compose a series of large-scale religious works. Preparations for the premi�re of Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor were interrupted by the March Revolution of 1848. His masterwork eventually received its premi�re, without huge success, on March 9, 1849. Two months later, he was dead, after suffering a stroke. Otto Nicolai has come to be viewed by many as a one-work composer. His opera, Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor is rightly regarded as his greatest. Yet Nicolai's output comprises some 235 works. Nicolai concentrated mainly on vocal music, including operas, songs and choral works. Among the comparatively few piano and chamber works and large-scale orchestral and choral-orchestral compositions, the Piano Sonata in d, the String Quartet in B, the Mass in D and the Symphony in D are noteworthy. Nicolai absorbed a great variety of influences and, in his most successful works, created from them his own individual idiom. His musical language was strongly influenced by Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber and Mendelssohn. The operas reveal his admiration of Bellini.

Carl Nielsen

Birth: June 9, 1865 in Sortelung, Denmark

Death: October 3, 1931 in Copenhagen, Denmark

Nielsen's father was a painter, who also spent time as a violinist. Carl showed aptitude for music at an early age and received instruction from his father. At 14 Carl was hired as a bugler for a military wind ensemble at Odense. During a visit to Copenhagen in 1883, Nielsen was introduced to composer Niels W. Gade, who suggested that the young musician enroll at the Conservatory for formal studies. During Nielsen's three years at the Conservatory his primary subjects were violin and theory, and at no time did he actually receive formal instruction in composition. Nevertheless, in 1888 his Suite for Strings Op. 1 received a successful debut in Copenhagen. In 1889 Nielsen was hired as a violinist at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, a position he retained until 1905. During the 1890s Nielsen composed prolifically, and much of his output was published. His career as a conductor began in 1908 when he accepted a staff position with the Royal Theatre Orchestra. Later he would succeed Johan Svendsen as conductor of the Royal Danish Orchestra. From 1916 until his death in 1931, he taught at the Royal Danish Conservatory. He remained in Copenhagen for the rest of his life. Like his colleague Sibelius, Nielsen poured his finest inspiration into the symphonic mold, writing 6 remarkable works in that genre. While starting with models from Classical form and harmony, his music later developed into an "extended" tonal and even atonal language, born of his highly expressive melodic style. The four string quartets come from his early years, as does Nielsen's opera, Maskarade. After the Fifth Symphony Nielsen composed his Wind Quintet, one of the greatest examples of the genre. He then planned to compose concertos for each of the wind instruments of the orchestra. But he lived long enough to complete only two - for flute and for clarinet.

Jun 16

1853 Emil Sj�gren

1901 Conrad Beck

1923 Henryk Czyz

1927 Bebe Barron

1931 Lucia Dlugoszewski

Jun 23

1824 Carl Reinecke

1837 Ernest Guiraud

1855 Maude Valerie White

1877 Blair Fairchild

1920 Paul Des Marais

1922 Francis Thorne

1923 George Russell

1929 Henri Pousseur

1948 Nigel Osborne

Jun 30

1722 Jiri Antonin (Georg Anton) Benda

1825 Florimond Ronger (Herve)

1846 Riccardo Drigo

1858 Robert Browne Hall

1861 Anton Arensky

1874 Paul Piern�

1892 Laszlo Lajtha

1899 John Woods Duke

1946 Giles Swayne

1963 Yngwie Johann Malmsteen

SUNDAY MAy 1st:  Schubert, Die Sch�ne M�llerin, Mass No. 6 in E flat major. May is Blossom Time, thinking of the sappy Sigmund Romberg operetta of that name that drew upon the melodies of Franz Schubert. At this time of year I love to broadcast Schubert's immortal song cycle Die Sch�ne M�llerin ("The Beautiful Miller's Daughter," 1823). I have featured a couple of historic recordings of it. One of them is a 1961 early stereo taping for EMI with baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the greatest interpreter of Schubert Lieder of the twentieth century. That one I broadcast from the old Angel vinyl platters on Sunday, September 9, 1984. Then there's the 1945 model recording for EMI with the distinguished Danish tenor Aksel Schi�tz (1906 - 75), which went over the air on a 33 1/3 rpm LP on Sunday, February 18, 1990. Now I am so pleased to present an early electric recording of Die Sch�ne M�llerin made in 1933 and interpreted by America's own, much esteemed lyric tenor, Richard Crooks (1900 - 72). He sang at the Met, was heard on "The Voice of Firestone" radio program and concertized internationally. You could think of Crooks as the American counterpart to the German lyric tenor Richard Tauber. The Crooks M�llerin was only partially released to the public on 78 rpm discs in the year 1941. With the consent of Crook's estate, the complete song cycle, as preserved in the Stanford University Archive of Recorded Sound, was made available in digitally upgraded sonics and on compact disc through the Delos label. A two-CD Delos compilation devoted to the voice of Richard Crooks came out in 1997.

Classical music's best kept secret is that Franz Schubert wrote a dozen operas, in whole or fragmentary form, all of them in German language, all of them beautifully melodious. I have broadcast as many recordings of them as have come into my hands. Schubert also penned six settings of the Roman Catholic Mass. The last one, in E flat major, an acknowledged masterpiece from the last year of his life, had to wait until September of 1829 for its first performance. Ten months after his younger brother's passing, Ferdin and Schubert directed its premiere in a Viennese parish church. The Mass No. 6 could be considered Schubert's Requiem Mass for himself. It's scoring includes parts for three trombones that weigh in ominously at certain points in his setting of the Latin text. A motif from his last song Der Doppelg�ger, creeps into certain passages. That's what conductor Morten Schuldt-Jensen has to say about the autobiographical nature of the E flat major Mass in his notes for a 2008 Naxos CD release, the disc filled out by inclusion of Schubert's setting of the Latin devotional poem Stabat Mater in G minor. Jenson leads the Immortal Bach Ensemble of choral voices and the Leipzig Chamber Orchestra. These singers and players are actually members of the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Chorus. Even after listening to these two choral works by Schubert, keep listening for yet more Schubert Lieder.

Sunday May 8th: Bellini, I Puritani. Over more than a quarter-century of lyric theater broadcasting I have presented half a dozen recordings that have originated at the Glyndebourne Festival. There were three or more of Mozart's operas: Cosi Fan Tutte, of particular historical interest, from the first recorded Festival production of 1935 (Seraphim LP transfers from 78 rpm discs), then LeNozze di Figaro from the 1955 Festival (RCA Victor Mono LPs) and again Le Nozze in its 1962 production. That last one was broadcast on Sunday, December 14, 2008, working from a compact disc issue of original tapings through Glyndebourne's own label. We can thank audio engineer John Barnes for archivally recording thousands of Glyndebourne performances from the late 1950s onwards. He preserved the 1963 performance of Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande, heard on this program on Sunday, April 25, 2010. One of Barnes' last recordings was of the 2006 production of Beethoven's Fidelio, which I aired on Sunday, November 15, 2009. Now listen to John Barnes's audio documentation of Bellini's I Puritani (1835), as it was seen and heard live on the Glyndebourne's stage on June 5, 1960, and starring the late great Joan Sutherland as Elvira. "La Stupenda" was then at the apex of her vocal powers. She sang under the direction of Vittorio Cui, who also led the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourn Chorus. Sutherland, remember, was largely responsible for the revival of bel canto opera in our time. She championed many works of the bel canto repertoire, among them Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, which I broadcast in a 1976 Decca/London recording on Sunday, September 19, 2010, and Rossini's Semiramide, presented on 1965 London LPs on Sunday, May 23, 2010. Also in 2010 the Glyndebourne label released I Puritani on two silver discs.

Sunday May 15th: Dvoř�k, The Jacobin (1888/rev. 1897) Antonin Dvoř�k wanted to write a truly popular Czech national opera and he succeeded handily in this romantic comedy about life in a small town in Bohemia during the French revolutionary period. To the conservative folk of Bohemia any Frenchman is a "Jacobin," who is not to be trusted. The townspeople even think the reprobate son of the local nobleman is the Jacobin, too. The hero of the story is Benda, the canny schoolmaster and music teacher, a townsman of humble birth who, because he is an educated man, acts as an intermediary in the tangled relations between the Count and his son and the townsfolk. The name Benda is a famous one in the musical life of Bohemia. Dvoř�k and his librettist chose the name precisely for that reason. Moreover, the music teacher was an honored figure in every village throughout this very musically inclined Slavic nation. Supraphon, the old Czechoslovak state record label, originally released The Jacobin in 1978 on three stereo LPs. The Pro Arte label picked up this recording for issue in the United States in 1981. Jiř� Pinkas directs the Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra, the K�hn Mixed Chorus and Kantilena Children's Chorus with a cast of native Czech speaking vocal soloists. I last broadcast this recording way back on Sunday, June 30, 1985. Supraphon brought The Jacobin back into circulation in CD format in 1994. Only when I read James H. North'sreview of the CD reissue in Fanfare magazine did I realize how rare a recording it really is. It's the only one of this wonderful, tuneful Dvoř�k opera ever made. You'll hear it today on those same three old vinyl discs.

Sunday May 22nd: Handel, Scipione. Only in the past decade or so have all the Italian opera serie of George Frideric Handel finally been made available to the public in compact disc format and in historically informed recorded interpretations. Some of these operas are available in several different recordings. There has, however been only one recording ever made of Scipione (1726). Originally issued in 1994 through the now defunct French FNAC label, it came out again in 2010 on three Aparte CDs. Scipione was one of the first works the singers and players of the then newly formed ensemble Les Talents Lyriques recorded in the studios of Radio France. Keyboardist Christophe Rousset conducted the ensemble from the harpsichord. Male alto Derek Lee Ragin sang the title r�le as the Roman general. (This r�le was originally intended for a castrato.) The real star, however, was soprano Sandrine Piau as Princess Berenice. Soprano Francesca Cuzzoni originated the r�le and Madame Piau handles its vocal difficulties with astonishing ease. Writing for Fanfare magazine (Jan/Feb, 2011 issue), reviewer Ron Salemi concludes about the Aparte reissue, "Even if the opera were to be recorded anew, any new recording would be hard-pressed equaled to this one."

Sunday May 29th: Mohr, From the Realm of the Shadow.  The Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend certainly calls for music from an American composer. Christopher Mohr (b. 1953) is a self-taught prodigy who wrote his first piece at age ten and by the time he was seventeen had completed a full length oratorio. Later in life he edited and co-published a monthly magazine for classical radio listeners and has hosted classical music radio programs, including an opera program. You've heard "opera without words" before on the radio. Mohr's From the Realm of the Shadow (1997), a music drama in three acts, will be something new to your ears in that it has no libretto and is sung entirely in vocalise without any words at all. This is certainly a dramatic, theatrical work that, as it is being wordlessly sung, is danced and pantomimed onstage by two choruses, with several vocal soloists. From the Realm of the Shadow is an interior drama of the human soul. The story it tells lies beyond human speech in the human personality's attempts to be reconciled with its own shadow, the dark, rejected side of our human nature. Mohr draws upon concepts in Jungian psychology to show us the predicament of a woman raped and rejected, who gives birth to a manchild/messiah. The boy tries to bring the light and the darkness within all of us together, sacrificing his own life in the effort. Mohr points out to us a path to psychic wholeness and spiritual enlightenment. The music he wrote for From the Realm of the Shadow is beautifully melodic and entirely accessible to the typical classical music listener. Naxos Records released the world premiere recording of Mohr's vocalise opera on two CDs in 2000. Theodore Kuchar conducts the National Choir and Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine.

Sunday June 5th: Shchedrin, The Enchanted Wanderer, Prokofiev, incidental music for Boris Godunov. Radron Shchedrin (b. 1932) carried forward the traditions of Russian national opera established in the nineteenth century into the twenty first century. In his fourth opera, The Enchanted Wanderer (2002), Shchedrin provided most of the requisites: ancient Orthodox chants, the ringing of bells, dancing Kossaks or Tartars, Gypsies, a character with a big, deep, dark, basso voice, and another character who is both a saint in a sinner. Shchedrin prepared his own libretto derived from a story by the nineteenth century Russian writer Nikolai Leskov. He had previously drawn upon Leskov's writings for his choral work The Sealed Angel (1998). (Shostakovich drew upon Leskov, too, for his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.) The Enchanted Wanderer actually premiered in New York City, since it was commissioned by conductor Lorin Maazel for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. It was five years later in 2007 that Shchedrin's Wanderer received its Russian premier in the huge Concert Hall of the famed Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg with the Mariinsky orchestra and chorus under the direction of Valery Gergiev. The Mariinsky audience gave this ninety minute work a thirty minute ovation. The Enchanted Wanderer was issued on two compact discs under the Mariinsky's own label in 2010.

Remaining in the Russian musical mode, we will revisit a three-CD Capriccio compilation from 2009 of incidental music Sergei Prokofiev wrote for stage and film. The recording sessions took place in 2003 and '04 in Berlin in coproduction with Deutschland Radio Kultur. Michail Jurowski directed the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the RIAS Chamber Choir, with native Russian speaking vocal soloists. On Sunday, January 10, 2010 you heard music intended for a 1936 production of Pushkin's Eugen Onegin, one which ran afoul of Stalin's censors. To honor the hundredth anniversary of the death of the esteemed writer Stalin insisted on new music for the play, even though Tchaikovsky had already made a perfectly good opera out of Pushkin's original. Today you get to hear Prokofiev's extensive score for another 1936 theatrical staging, this one of Pushkin's tragedy Boris Godunov. (Mussorgski relied upon Pushkin in composing his own Boris opera.)

Sunday June 12th: Wallace, Lurline. Beyond Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operettas, little is known today about English opera in general in the Victorian era. First you must know, there was a wealth of it. One good example of it was Wallace's Mauritana (1845), enormously popular in its time, now completely forgotten. William Vincent Wallace (1812 - 65) was Irish by birth, spent a lot of time in London creating a series of English operas and ultimately becoming an American citizen. Building upon the success of Mauritana, Wallace came out with a "Grand Legendary Opera" in the spirit of Weber's Oberon or der Freisch�tz. Lurline (1860) deals with the German legend about the Lorelei. This, Wallace his third opera, also enjoyed much success upon the stage at Covent Garden. It was subsequently produced in Dublin, Sydney in Australia, and in the United States, too. But it faded into oblivion by the end of the nineteenth century. The legendary opera conductor Richard Gonynge has taken up the cause of the revival of Victorian Era opera. He prepared a new performing edition of the score of Lurline. Gonynge conducts the Victorian Opera Chorus and Orchestra for the studio recording (a world premiere) of Lurline, made at Rodewald Hall at the University of Manchester in England in 2009. Naxos Records issued it on two CDs in 2010.

Sunday June 19th: Hasse, Marc Antonio e Cleopatra, Scarlotti, Euridice, Steffani, chorus. If you liked my presentation of Handel's Scipione last month you're sure to like today's programming, which surveys the Italian baroque cantata. We start with a dramatic cantata on the largest scale for the genre. In fact it is a serenata, halfway between generic cantata and opera seria. (It even has an overture like a full scale opera.) Marc Antonio e Cleopatra (1725) was one of the earliest theatrical successes for the German composer Johann Adolf Hasse (1699 - 1783), who like the young Handel sojourned in Italy and wrote vocal works for wealthy Italian patrons. Hasse wrote this work for two of the greatest singers of the age, the castrato Farinelli, who sang as Cleopatra, opposite alto Vittoria Tesi, who took Marc Anthony's r�le. The gender-bending and cross-dressing was of no particular concern to the eighteenth century audience whose passion for top-notch singing overlooked all that. For the world premiere Dorian recording of Hasse's sernata a female mezzo, Jamie Barton, is heard as the Roman general. The Egyptian queen is soprano Ava Pine. Matthew Dirst directs from the harpsichord the period instrument players of Ars Lyrica Houston. A 2010 Dorian release on two CDs.

Keep listening for Dirst and the Ars Lyrica ensemble in a smaller scale cantata by Hasse's predecessor in Italy, the eminent opera composer Alessandro Scarlotti (1660 - 1725). Scarlotti wrote more than six hundred cantatas: Euridice dall' Inferno dates from 1699 and is modestly scored for a single soprano voice and a continuo of archlute, harpsichord, and cello. This cantata was paired with one of Scarlotti's sacred oratorio was on a single Naxos compact disc. Ars Lyrica recorded the cantata in 2006 in Zilkha Hall, Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, Houston Texas. We conclude this afternoon's survey by augmenting the Scarlotti cantata with a chorus from one of the operas of Agostino Steffani (1654 - 1728). The choral introduction to Amor Vien dal Destino (1709) was recorded in 1998 in co-production with West German Radio Cologne with the Italian period instrumentalists of Sonatori de la Gioisa Marc and the In Canto singers.

Sunday June 26th: Mahler, orchestral songs with Frederica von Stade, Symphony No. 2. American mezzo soprano Frederica  von Stade must certainly be numbered among the great operatic voices of the second half of the twentieth century. She certainly had a way with Mahler's lieder. She recorded the orchestrated version of "Songs of a Wayfarer," Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Mahler's song-settings of poems by R�ckert in EMI's studios in London in 1978. Andrew Davis conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the recording sessions. In 2010 Sony Classical reissued everything presented on the 1979 Columbia Masterworks LP in CD format. We can now enjoy again what ought to be regarded as classic von Stade interpretations of all these Mahler vocal masterpieces.

At this time of year I like to present one or another of Mahler's ten symphonies, since several of them are like cantatas, incorporating parts for vocal soloists and chorus. The third and eighth symphonies I have presented before. Those two works are also rather operatic, which makes sense, since the composer made his living as an opera conductor. The "Resurrection" Symphony No. 2 (1894) sets a text drawn from Friedrich Klopstock's Resurrection Ode. There are many recordings of this Symphony currently available, thanks to the Mahler renaissance going on in the contemporary classical music scene. I have chosen for broadcast one that has certain historical significance. It preserves the late conductor Klaus Tennstedt's excellent reading of this work. Tennstedt died of cancer in 1998. He was struggling with illness when he recorded the "Resurrection" live in performance at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in February of 1989. As guest conductor Tennstedt got everything he wanted out of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. The vocal soloists were soprano Yvonne Kenny and mezzo Jard Van Nes. This live recording is better, more exciting to listen to then the 1982 "Resurrection."  Tennstedt taped in EMI's studios. In its dramatic intensity it bears close comparison to the stylings of another late great Mahler interpreter Leonard Bernstein. The 1989  Tennstedt "Resurrection" came out as a two CD package under the LPOs own label in 2010.

      With the sole exception of the recording of Christopher Mohr's From the Realm of the Shadow, all the featured selections in this two month period of programming are derived from our stations ever-growing collection of classical music on disc. Mohr's wordless opera on CD comes on loan from the private record collection of Rob Meehan, former classics deejay at WWUH and a specialist in the alternative musics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Special thanks must go to Vickie Hadge of Virtually Done by Vickie for the preparation of these notes for cyber publication.

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WWUH is a non-commercial radio station operated as a community service of the University of Hartford since 1968.  WWUH broadcasts on 91.3 MHz FM with an effective radiated power of 1.000 watts.  Transmitting facilities are located high atop Avon Mountain with studios and offices located in the Harry Jack Gray Center on the University of Hartford campus in West Hartford.  All donations are tax deductible.

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Accent on Jazz - "The sounds of surprise," from the great African-American tradition of improvised music. Tuesday-Friday 9:00pm-midnight.

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Carosello Musicale Italiano - Italian music and news.  Saturday 5:00pm-7:00pm.

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Counterspin - Learn how to talk back to your radio and TV! Critical views of mainstream media, produced by Fairness and Accuracy in Media (F.A.I.R.). Tuesday 12:30pm-1:00pm.

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Geetanjali -. Geetanjali plays a variety of music from the subcontinent -classical, contemporary, devotional and Bollywood music. The show'shosts provide narrative both in English and Hindi. Friday from 7:30pm - 9:00pm

Gothic Blimp Works - Alternative rock music including pop, progressive, experimental, reggae, punk, urban, blues...and more.  Every night midnight-3:00am.

Greatest Show From Earth - Esoteric space rock from psychedelic to progressive, with a side of electronics.  Need we

say more?  Broadcast via the T.E.L./T.A.N. V27X Transfleet Repeater Probe, the last analog frontier. Sunday 9:00pm-midnight.

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911 Wake Up Call - Exploring the issues surrounding the 911 attacks.  Thursday 12:30pm

Rock 'N Roll Memory Machine - The Hartford Courant calls it the best oldies show in the area.  Memories, music and trivia from the golden days of rock 'n roll.  Sunday 6:00pm-8:00pm.

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