Hot Live Jazz Radio - 

WWUH to Broadcast the Monday Night Bushnell Park Jazz Series
 
It's back again.  For more than forty years, jazzophiles and assorted others have had the good fortune to be able to listen to fabulous jazz in Hartford's beautiful Bushnell Park every summer.  The Hartford Jazz Society is continuing this tradition that Jazz great Paul Brown started and oversaw for most of its years.

WWUH and this longest running free jazz series in America started right about the same time, and most of these concerts have been carried live on WWUH-FM.  Once again, we are pleased to bring listeners live broadcasts of the Hartford Jazz Society's Monday Night jazz starting July 11.  This year's musical line up has been coordinated by our own Maurice Robertson and includes a fabulous array of stars.  For jazz lovers and summer-evening lovers, this is a series not to miss.

Concerts (and the broadcasts) begin at 6pm and each night will feature two groups.  Generally a local group kicks off the evening at 6pm followed by a national/international group at approximately 7:30pm.

The concert line up includes:
July 11: The Haneef Nelson Quintet opens at 6. Trumpeter Haneef  has played with some of the living legends of this music including Jimmy Owens; Donald Byrd, Nat Reeves, Steve Davis, and others.

Headlining is the  GIACOMO GATES QUARTET. JazzTimes noted of vocalist Gates, "Though Kurt Elling, Andy Bey and Mark Murphy garner greater attention, there's no question that Giacomo Gates belongs in their exalted league."

 
July 18  Guitarist SINAN BAKIR opens up the evening, followed at 7:30 by the Larry Willis Quartet. Keyboardist Willis has performed with such greats as Jackie McLean Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw, Hugh Masakela, Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Stan Getz, Art Blakey, Art Taylor, Clifford Jordan, Carmen McRae, and Shirley Horn, and is on more than 300 recordings.

July 25 THE UMOJA ENSEMBLE opens the evening at 6 PM.  At 7:30, there will be a special tribute to tribute to the great jazz vocalist ABBEY LINCOLN - JAMES WEIDMAN, piano; JAY HOGGARD, vibraphone; LEENA CONQUEST, vocals; BRAD JONES, bass; BRUCE COX, drums.

August 1 - DAMIAN CURTIS QUARTET kicks things off at 6.  Headlining is the Hartford Jazz Soiety's HJS NEW DIRECTIONS ENSEMBLE DIRECTED BY EARL MACDONALD. 

There may be another concert in this series on August 8, so stay tuned for further details.

Please tune in to 91.3 for this special series of live jazz broadcasts from Hartford. Thanks to the listeners and hosts of the regular Monday night WWUH lineup for their flexibility as we briefly modify the schedule to bring you live jazz.

All concerts are scheduled to take place in Hartford's Bushnell Park.  In the event of rain, they may be moved to the Asylum Hill Congregational Church - 814 Asylum Ave. - Hartford. HJS information may be found at : www.HartfordJazzSociety.com or (860) 242-6688. 

Listen on the radio or online!

--Harvey Jassem 

Featured Artist

July 4                                      Fleetwood Mac

July 11                                    Pinetop Perkins                   

July 18                                    James Harman

July 25                                    Little Charlie & The Nightcats 

August 1                               Eddie Kirkland                                     

August 8                               Charlie Musselwhite           

August 15                             Sonny Landreth

August 22                             Eric Lindell

August 29                             Tracy Nelson

Back to the Roots

July 4                                      West Coast Blues

July 11                                    Classic Women Blues Singers

July 18                                    British Blues

July 25                                    Nashville Blues                   

August 1                               Memphis Blues

August 8                               Rhythm & Blues

August 15                             Boogie Woogie

August 22                             Texas Blues

August 29                             Jump Blues

Thursday Evening Classics

Composer Birthdays

July and August 2011 

Presented by Steve Petke

July 7

1739 Friedrich Wilhelm Rust

1746 Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith

1851 Charles Albert Tindley

1860 Gustav Mahler

1883 Toivo Kuula

1885 Ernest Bristow Farrar

1911 Gian Carlo Menotti

1914 Cor de Groot

1921 Stanislaw Michal Wislocki

1934 Vinko Globokar

1936 Stuart Dempster

1962 Ludo Geloen

1965 Chris Rupert

Gustav Mahler

Birth: July 7, 1860 in Kalischt, Bohemia

Death: May 18, 1911 in Vienna, Austria

Mahler was the second of 14 children born to a Jewish middle-class distillery owner, Bernhard Mahler, and his wife Marie. After making a piano recital debut at 10, he entered the Vienna Conservatory in 1875, studying piano, harmony, and composition. Although successful in piano competitions at the conservatory, he abandoned playing in favor of composing. In 1880, he wrote his first mature work, Das klagende Lied. In the same year, Mahler's career as a conductor began in operetta at a small summer theatre at Bad Hall, Upper Austria. In 1883 he was appointed to a post at Olmütz. His next appointment was at Kassel (1883-5). Mahler's conducting career advanced rapidly, taking him to Prague to Leipzig to Budapest. He was usually either greatly respected or thoroughly despised by the performers for his exacting rehearsals and perfectionism. While in Budapest he conducted the premier of his First Symphony, but it met with utter audience incomprehension. The Second and Third Symphonies were completed in the years 1893-6. The Second Symphony was performed complete in Berlin in 1895, Mahler's first real success as a composer. In 1897 he became music director of the Vienna Court Opera and then, a year later, of the Vienna Philharmonic. Mahler's achievement in Vienna was his incredible raising of standards in all aspects of opera production-not only singing, but acting, lighting, and stage design. Mahler's conducting career permitted composition only during the summers, in a series of "composing cottages" he had built in picturesque rural locations. He reserved this time for symphonies, all of them large-scale works, and song cycles. Between 1899 and 1907 Mahler composed his Symphonies 4-8 and two large song cycles. The Viennese public largely failed to understand his music, but Mahler took their reactions calmly, accurately predicting that "My time will yet come." Meanwhile, his autocratic ways as a conductor began to alienate musicians. In 1901, the press and the musicians essentially forced his resignation from the Philharmonic. In 1902 he married Alma Schindler, herself a composer and the daughter of an artist, and they soon had two daughters. By 1907 Mahler was increasingly away from Vienna, conducting his own works, and thus he resigned from the opera as well. Just after accepting the position of principal conductor of New York's Metropolitan Opera, but before leaving Vienna, Mahler's older daughter, age 4, died from scarlet fever and diphtheria, and he learned he himself had a defective heart valve. In New York, he was impressed by the caliber of talent and quickly gained audience approval. In 1909 he became conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Each summer he returned to Europe, composing Das Lied von der Erde and the Ninth Symphony, and conducting his own works in major cities. The following year, he had a triumphant premiere of his massive Symphony #8 in Munich. Despite the professional successes, his personal life suffered another blow when his marriage began to disintegrate. Back in New York for the 1910-11 season, he became seriously ill in February. He returned to Vienna, where he died on May 18.

July 14

1854 Alexander Kopylov

1901 Gerald Finzi

1928 Olé Schmidt

1930 Eric Stokes

1948 Claude Engel

1961 Unsuk Chin

Gerald Finzi

Birth: July 14, 1901 in London, England

Death: September 27, 1956 in Oxford, England

A pacifist who believed that creative artists were the prime representatives of a civilization, Gerald Finzi is perhaps best known as a composer of songs. He believed that all texts of artistic merit could be set by composers who wished to work with their artistic substance. Many of his songs are set in an aria-like style. His accompaniments, designed to complement and support the material of the singer, are often reminiscent of the treatment given his short orchestral works. Finzi was influenced in his melodic and harmonic language by the music of Elgar and Vaughan Williams. His works also show a strong influence by the music of J.S. Bach. The son of a shipbroker, he was educated privately, and studied music with Ernest Farrar then, after Farrar joined the army, with Edward Bairstow at York. Finzi's shock when Farrar was killed in France, following his own father's death when he was eight, and that of his three elder brothers, reinforced his introspective nature. In 1922, drawn to the countryside of Elgar, Gurney and Vaughan Williams, he moved to Painswick in Gloucestershire, working in isolation. On advice from Boult he took a course in counterpoint from R.O. Morris, then settled in London, moving for the first time in a circle of young musicians which included Arthur Bliss, Howard Ferguson, Robin Milford and Edmund Rubbra, meeting Holst and Vaughan Williams, and avidly going to concerts, exhibitions and the theatre. From 1930 to 1933 he taught at the Royal Academy of Music. Some of his freshest, most individual music was written at this time, as well as some weaker pieces. In 1933 Finzi married Joyce Black, herself an artist, and in 1935 they retired to Aldbourne in Wiltshire. In 1937 the Finzis found a 16-acre site on the Hampshire hills at Ashmansworth, and built a house designed to work in. Living frugally by worldly standards, there he composed, assembled a library and an orchard of rare apple trees. His first published Hardy sets of songs attracted quiet admiration. More positive recognition was due when Dies natalis was to be performed at the 1939 Three Choirs Festival. War caused the festival to be cancelled, and the first performance took place at Wigmore Hall in 1940. In December 1940 he founded the Newbury String Players, a mainly amateur group which performed in local churches, schools and village halls, and kept the group going when he worked in London at the Ministry of War Transport from 1941 to 1945. In 1951 Finzi learnt that he was suffering from Hodgkin's Disease, and had at most ten years to live. He kept the knowledge within his family, and, between treatments, simply continued to work. However, the leukemia eventually weakened the composer's resistance to infection. He died of shingles in 1956, after a chance encounter with chicken pox at the 1956 Gloucester Festival.

July 21

1515 Filippo Neri

1797 Franz Schoberlechner

1883 Carl Engel

1896 Jean Rivier

1906 Daniel Ayala-Pérez

1960 Ezequiel Viñao

July 28

1610 Leonora Duarte

1843 Hermann Schröder

1893 Rued Langgaard

1953 Sonja Beets

August 4

1705 Václav Matyas Gurecký

1731 Giuseppe Colla

1748 Maximilian Stadler

1844 Henry Berger

1875 Italo Montemezzi

1888 Philip Greeley Clapp

1892 Johanna Bordewijk-Roepman

1910 William Schuman

1912 David Raksin

1923 Arthur Butterworth

1937 David Vickerman Bedford

1946 Balz Trumpy

1951 Lois V. Vierk

1956 David Garner

1959 Marianella Machado

1968 Olga Neuwirth

1972 Timothy Polashek

William Schuman

Birth: August 4, 1910 in New York, NY

Death February 15, 1992 in New York, NY

Composer, administrator and educator, William Schuman began exploring jazz and popular music while attending public school, eventually forming his own ensemble in which he played violin and banjo. After hearing Toscanini conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Schuman abruptly left the School of Commerce at New York University and began private harmony and counterpoint lessons in New York.  In 1933 he enrolled in Columbia University Teachers College, eventually earning his bachelor's and master's degrees. After summer study at the Salzburg Mozarteum in 1935 and the completion of his Symphony #1 in 1936, he received private instruction from well-known American composer Roy Harris. Harris remained for some years an important influence on Schuman's orchestral music. In 1938 Schuman won a composition contest with his Symphony #2. On the jury was Aaron Copland, who brought the work to the attention of Serge Koussevitzky. Koussevitzky became a champion of Schuman's compositions, conducting first performances of the Symphonies #2 and #3, American Festival Overture, A Free Song, and Symphony for Strings. The public and critical success of the Symphony #3 established Schuman as a leading American composer.  His Violin Concerto is an important American contribution to the genre, although, like much of Schuman's work, it has fallen out of the standard repertoire.  While Schuman wrote extensively in many media, his orchestral music, especially the symphonies, forms the core of his work.  Schuman's work as a teacher and administrator has had wide and lasting influence. Between 1938 and 1945 Schuman served as director of publications for G. Schirmer, Inc. as well as on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College.  In 1945, Schuman was invited to become president of the Juilliard School. There he merged the Institute of Musical Art with the Juilliard Graduate School to form the Juilliard School of Music, founded the Juilliard String Quartet, revived the opera theatre, added a dance division, and, most importantly, instituted the 'Literature and Materials of Music' curricular program, which fused theory and history into a single coherent four-year course with the music itself as the basis for study.  In 1962 Schuman was made president of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a position which gave him considerable influence in the administration of the arts and one which he exercised in a characteristically imaginative and forceful manner. He founded the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Film Society and a summer series of special musical events.  He remains among the most honored figures in American music, having received 28 honorary degrees, 2 Pulitzer prizes, 2 consecutive Guggenheim fellowships, membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters and later the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the first Brandeis University Creative Arts Award in music, the Horblit Award from the Boston SO and Harvard University, the gold medal from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and other prestigious awards.

August 11

1748 Joseph Schuster

1862 Carrie Jacobs Bond

1873 J. Rosamond Johnson

1900 Alexander Mosolov

1909 Gaston Litaize

1929 Alun Hoddinott

1939 Attila Bozay

1954 Sinan Carter Savaskan

1966 Juan María Solare

August 18

1497 Francesco (Canova) da Milano

1535 Giaches de Wert

1750 Antonio Salieri

1849 Benjamin Godard

1881 Hermann Zilcher

1893 Ernest C. Macmillan

1907 Howard Swanson

1910 Herman Berlinski

1950 Carlos Micháns

1957 Tan Dun

1978 Lev Zhurbin

Antonio Salieri

Birth: August, 18 1750 in Legnago, Italy

Death: May 7, 1825 Vienna, Austria

As a boy, Antonio had lessons on violin and harpsichord from his older brother and composer, Francesco. Later he continued his musical education in Venice with Giovanni Pescetti and Ferdinando Pacini.  Impressed by his talents, visiting Vienna court composer Florian Leopold Gassman took him to the Austrian capital in 1766, where he taught him composition and introduced him to the court of Joseph II.  Salieri first surviving opera, Le donne letterate, was good enough to have impressed his new friend Gluck. Armida followed in 1771 and achieved wide success, assuring Salieri notoriety in the highest Viennese musical circles.  Salieri was appointed court composer upon the death of Gassman in 1774. In addition, he became conductor of the city's Italian opera company. He was now one of the most influential figures in European music, holding a position of eminence that Mozart and other talented composers of the day would never attain. Salieri went on to operatic triumphs in Milan and in Venice while he was on leave from the Vienna court for two years. He surpassed these successes with his next operas, Les Danaïdes and Tarare given in Paris. In 1788, Salieri became court music director, and he retained the post following the death of Joseph II in 1790. Over the next decade-and-a-half, though, he did not explore new directions in his operatic style, thus falling out of fashion even before the turn of the 19^th century. He wrote no operas after 1804. He served as court music director until March 1824. In addition to his many operas, he wrote significant instrumental, sacred, and vocal compositions, and shaped the Viennese musical world that would produce so many important composers for a century and a half. Salieri's illustrious students included Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Hummel, and Czerny. Near the end of his life, Salieri was placed in an asylum owing to his deteriorating mental and physical condition. There is little evidence that Salieri and Mozart were rivals, and none for the popular theory that Salieri poisoned his more gifted, but less successful, contemporary.

August 25

1726 Benigno Zerafa

1811 August Gottfried Ritter

1880 Robert Stoltz

1887 Olav Fartein Valen

1902 Stefan Wolpe

1904 Undine Smith Moore

1909 Arwel Hughes

1913 Richard Purvis

1914 Alexei Haieff

1918 Leonard Bernstein

1928 Karl Korte

1939 Robert Jager

Leonard Bernstein

Birth: August 25, 1918 in Lawrence, MA

Death: October 14, 1990 in New York, NY

As a pianist, composer, conductor, and educator, Leonard Bernstein emerged as a music superstar of the 20^th century who truly changed the face of music.  He bridged the worlds of the concert hall and musical theatre, creating a rich legacy of recordings, compositions, writings and educational influence.  He is regarded by many as the most famous and successful native-born figure in the history of Western art music in the USA.  Bernstein grew up in suburban comfort, but close to his Russian Jewish immigrant roots. He began piano lessons at 10, attended the Boston Latin School, and then went on to Harvard where he studied with Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston.  His thesis, entitled The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music demonstrated a broad knowledge of contemporary music and a dedication to creating works with a distinctively American flavor. At Harvard, he began a lifelong friendship with Aaron Copland.  Bernstein would go on to perform and record almost all of Copland's works.  After receiving a B.A. in 1939, Bernstein attended the Curtis Institute where he studied piano, score reading, orchestration and conducting. During the summers of 1940 and 1941 he studied conducting with Serge Koussevitzky at Tanglewood, becoming Koussevitzky's assistant in 1942. In 1943, Arthur Rodzinski appointed Bernstein assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. In the same year, he made a highly successful debut, substituting for an indisposed Bruno Walter at a New York Philharmonic concert. The dramatic début of a young American conductor on a nationally broadcast concert brought him instant fame. He followed that success with three others in 1944. His Symphony #1 'Jeremiah' was given its première by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and it won the New York Music Critics' Circle award as the best American work of the year. The ballet Fancy Free, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera House. Then in December, On the Town opened on Broadway. Over the next decades Bernstein pursued a highly diversified career. His conducting included many appearances with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and, in 1953, a Medea at La Scala with Maria Callas - the first time an American had conducted there. He composed a series of works for the theatre - Facsimile, Peter Pan, Trouble in Tahiti, Wonderful Town, The Lark, Candide, West Side Story - concert hall and film. He also taught music at Brandeis University and, on Koussevitzky's death in 1951, became head of the orchestra and conducting departments at Tanglewood.  In 1958 Bernstein became music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the first American-born conductor to hold the position. He introduced thematic programming, and the televised Young People's Concerts, and at one concert every week he addressed the audience before playing each work.  He revived the music of Gustav Mahler with a survey of symphonies, and inaugurated the new Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) at Lincoln Center. The first American-born conductor to attain international superstardom, Bernstein made a profound impression on audiences.  His podium manner was dynamic, even flamboyant, to an extent never before witnessed. Bernstein's extroverted manner and radical politics attracted much criticism from those who dismissed him as a mere exhibitionist.  His supporter, however, far outnumbered his detractors.  Bernstein won almost every award the American music world had to offer - only the Pulitzer Prize eluded him. Among his honors were the Kennedy Center Honor for Lifetime of Contributions to American Culture Through the Performing Arts, election to the Academy of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the Academy's Gold Medal for Music, the Sonning Prize and the Siemens Prize. He won 11 Emmy Awards and the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Besides his influential teaching of young conductors at Tanglewood, Bernstein helped to found the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, helped to create a training orchestra at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan.

July 3rd: Bernstein, Mass, The New American Art Song. Every summer I program lyric theater music that's lightweight and easy to take, with comic or pastoral elements, oftentimes - music that I think will complement your vacation time frame of mind. I begin the season, however, with a heavyweight work that attempts to speak for the conscience of the American people on the Sunday closest to our great American holiday, the Fourth of July. Leonard Bernstein's Mass (1971) was written for the opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Jack's widow Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis personally asked Lennie to compose something grand in JFK's memory. With librettist Stephen Schwarz, Bernstein concocted a wide ranging, polyglot theater piece for singers, players, and dancers. Bernstein wanted it to reflect the crisis of faith underlying the ennui of twentieth century American life. Bernstein himself and Stephen Schwarz supplied provocative secular texts which were juxtaposed with the Latin words of the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass. At the time of the premiere of Bernstein's Mass the Nixon administration shunned it as subversive. The Catholic clergy condemned it as blasphemous. Distinguished music critic Harold Schonberg dismissed it as pretentious and superficial. But the public took it to their hearts. Mass is still being performed in the twenty first century because (amazingly) it has not lost its relevance and continues to have an impact on audiences. It has also been well recorded. I have presented Mass four times previously over three decades of lyric theater broadcasting, twice before in July of 1990 and again in '94 with Bernstein himself conducting the world premiere cast for CBS Masterworks/Sony Classical. Then on Sunday, February 27, 2005 came the German interpretation for the Harmonia Mundi label with Kent Nagano conducting a Berlin-based chorus and orchestra, and American tenor Jerry Hadley as the Celebrant. That was followed most recently in July, 2009 by an Austrian recorded production, picked up by the UK Chandos label. Kristjan Järvi led the ensemble. Another American tenor Randall Scarlotta took the Celebrant's rôle. You get an all-American recording of Mass this Sunday, made in 2008 at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. Tenor Jubilant Sykes is the Celebrant. Marin Alsop directs the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Morgan State University Choir, and Peabody Children's Chorus. Naxos Records issued it on two CDs in its "American Classics" line in 2009. Keep listening for a GPR compact disc release of The New American Art Song. In 2001 four noteworthy contemporary American composers, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Glen Roven, and Lowell Lieberman contributed their works to a compilation that features the voice of Canadian bass-baritone David Okulitch.

Sunday July 10th: Gilbert and Sullivan, historic recordings of The Pirates of Penzance and HMS Pinafore. The comic operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan always figure in my summertime programming mix. This time around listen to early electric recordings of the original D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargeant, in two staples of the G&S repertoire: The Pirates of Penzance (1879) and HMS Pinafore (1878). These recordings were made under the supervision of Rupert D'Oyly Carte, successor to Richard and Helen D'Oyly Carte, who insisted on the highest professional standards of performance and a strict adherence to Gilbert's workbooks. The voices of some of the all-time greatest Savoyards have been preserved on 78 rpm shellacs, among them George Baker and Sir Henry Litton. The Pirates of Penzance was recorded in 1929, Pinafore in 1930. Audio transfers of the old 78s were made for issue on a 33 1/3 rpm vinyl discs for Caedmon Records. Penzance, Pinafore, and The Mikado (rec. 1936) came out in 1982 in Caedmon's Arabesque line in a four LP boxed set. Walter Mayo substitutes for me this Sunday.

Sunday July 17th: Haydn, L'Infedelta Delusa. I hope some longtime listeners will remember my broadcasts in the late 1980s of the PHILPS recorded cycle of Haydn's operas on LP, as conducted by Antol Dorati. Even before those broadcast, not long after I first began as an opera deejay at the station, on a Sunday in 1982 I aired a Haydn opera for the first time, L'Infedelta Delusa ("Infidelity Thwarted," 1773), working from a Musical Heritage Society two LP set of Haydn's burletta per musica. That designation puts it in the same general category as the eighteenth century Italian opera buffa, just maybe a little more crazy when it comes to the comic aspects of its plot. Another much better recording of L'Infedelta Delusa came along that took a historically informed approach to the music, with Sigiswald Kuijken conducting his period instrumental ensemble La Petite Bande. The Harmonia Mundi label coproduced the recording with West German Radio of Cologne. When performed properly, operas like this one disprove the notion that Haydn could not compose competently for the stage. That Harmonia Mundi two CD set I have aired twice on Sundays in the spring of 1994 and again in 2006. I discovered that in Brilliant Classics' monumental boxed set of one hundred compact discs, "The Haydn Edition," which came out in 2009, the bicentenary year of the composer's death, there are two discs devoted to this charming comic opera. Brilliant Classics has recycled into its "Haydn Edition" a 1975 Hungaroton release. The recording was made in the historic Esterhazy palace at Eisenstadt near Hungary's former border with Lower Austria. Haydn originally came from this very border zone. The Hungarian Prince Esterhazy became his longtime patron and employer. Frigyes Sandor directed the Liszt Ferenc (Franz Liszt) Chamber Orchestra, with Hungarian vocal soloists, in tapings for what was once the Hungarian state record label

Sunday July 24th: Rameau, Les Paladins, Lully, Ballets et recits italiens. The past three decades or so have witnessed the recording of so many of the long neglected operas of Jean Phillippe Rameau (1683 - 1764), the greatest French composer of the entire Baroque period. I have programmed Rameau's operas whenever I ran across them on disc. Les Paladins (1760) was the last of Rameau's stage works to premiere in his lifetime. The work that followed, a lyric tragedy Les Boreades (1764) was in final rehearsal when he died and the show was cancelled. The music for "The Knights-Errant" was as good as anything Rameau ever wrote for the theater, but the one and only production was a flop and it was never heard from again until 1967, when it was triumphantly resurrected at the Lyon Festival. Les Paladins was recorded complete in 1990 live in performance at yet another revival in France at Tourcoing. Cuthbert Girdlestone, in his definitive biography of Rameau, writes, "The return to life of this unique little masterpiece is the most sensational result of the Rameau revival..." On Sunday, January 29, 1995 I intended to broadcast Les Paladins on two Pierre Verany compact discs (Jean-Claude Malgoire conducting his own La Grand Ecurie ensemble), but to my chagrin one of the discs proved unplayable in the air studio CD players, so the presentation was cut short. Today you'll hear all the way through a splendid new and entirely "period" recording of Les Paladins for the German Coviello label. Konrad Junghänel leads the instrumentalist of the Neue Düsseldorfer Hofmusik, with six vocal soloists. This comedie lyrique is a sendup of chivalry. It's satire seems to have gone over the audience's heads. Another one of Rameau's  less successful comic theater pieces from 1745, a "Ballet Bouffon," dealt with Plateé, the ugly nymph of the swamp. The 1990 Erato CD release of Plateé (Marc Minkowsky/Les Musiciens du Louvre) I have presented on two occasions (Sunday, January 27, 1991 and May 19, 2002). Keep listening after my presentation of Les Paladins for the music of the next greatest composer of the French Baroque, John Baptiste Lully (1632 - 87), who was actually Italian by birth. Besides setting the style for the French tragedie lyrique, Lully wrote assorted small-scale lyric theater compositions and even some Italian language recitatives. These have been gathered up into a 2009 Glossa CD Ballets et recits Italiens. Fabio Bonizzoni directs the singers and instrumentalists of La Risonanza.

Sunday July 31st: Previn, Brief Encounter. This is the second of the two operas Andre Previn (b. 1929) has thus far composed. The first one was A Streetcar Named Desire (1998), after the famous play by Tennessee Williams. I broadcast its premiere San Francisco Opera production, as recorded for Deutsche Grammaphon, on Sunday, September 5, 1999. DGG again was the label that carried Previn's new opera Brief Encounter (2009). It was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera and recorded live in performance at Houston's Wortham Theater Center. Patrick Summers was in charge of the musical performers. Brief Encounter is a romantic melodrama, not a comedy. What makes it agreeable Summer time music fair is the wit and sophistication of Noel Coward. For a libretto John Caird distilled Coward's stageplay Still Life and the screenplay for the film also named Brief Encounter. The story is set in England in the 1930s and deals with the guilt a woman feels in having an extramarital affair. In the end she decides to "do the right thing." Soprano Elizabeth Futral created the role of Stella in Previn's Streetcar. Here she takes on the female lead as the adultress Laura Jessen. After you've listened to the two CDs of Brief Encounter, stay tuned for an MCA compact disc of The Best of Andrew Lloyd Webber, compilation of tracks from original cast recording of Webber's shows featuring the voice of Sarah Brightman.

Sunday August 7th: Leo, L'Alidoro. The origins of the Italian opera buffa can be traced to Naples in the 1730s, where three young progressive composers, Leonardo Vinci, Giovanni Batista Pergolesi, and Leonardo Leo (1694 - 1744) were creating a new style of Neapolitan comic opera. Leonardo Leo's Amor Vuol Sofferenza ("Love Requires Suffering," 1739) was enormously popular and was revived again and again in the mid-eighteenth century. On Sunday, August 12, 2001 I aired the Nuova Era CD release of this pioneering buffa work. It was made in the course of the 1994 Valle d'Itria Festival. Leo built upon the international success of Amor Vuol Sofferenza with L'Alidoro (1740). Gennarantonio Federico, the librettist for "Love Requires Suffering," gave Leo the word book for L'Alidoro. He also provided Pergolesi with the libretto for his masterpiece, the comic intermezzo La Serva Pandrono (1736). L'Alidoro follows the buffa operatic tradition of disguise used for purposes of amorous intrigue. L'Alidoro, the Commedia per musica in three acts, was recorded for the Italian Dynamic label, Antonio Fiorio conducted the Orchestra Barroca of the Capella della Pietá di Turchini, a period instrumental ensemble based in Naples for the stage production captured live in performance at Reggio Emilia in Italy in 2008. Dynamic offered L'Alidoro to the public in 2010 on two silver discs.

Sunday August 14th: Spohr, Der Alchymist. Normally at this juncture I would have programmed a sentimental a Viennese operetta. I decided instead to air a never previously recorded opera with a romantic story and comic touches by German composer, Louis Spohr (1784 - 1859), a violin virtuoso universally admired in his own time, and one of the leading exponents of Romanticism in German music. How could such an influential figure be so forgotten today? Spohr composed a vast body of music in all musical genres including opera. His Faust opera (1813) I broadcast in a Capriccio CD release of its 1993 Bad Urach Festival revival on Sunday, November 23, 1997. Der Alchymist (1830), based on a novella by Washington Irving, was only moderately successful on the stage. It played at Kassel in Germany and Prague in Bohemia, never making it to the "big time" in Berlin, as the composer had hoped. After 1838 it sank into total oblivion until the twenty first century when conductor Christian Fröhlich came upon a copy of the score in the Spohr archive in Kassel. Fröhlich leads the chorus and orchestra of the state theater of Braunschweig. "The Alchemist" was recorded in 2009 in coproduction with North German Radio. Its world premiere appearance on disc came in 2011 through the German label Oehms Classics on three CDs.

Sunday August 21st: Rossini, Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Giaocchino Rossini's immortal "Barber of Seville" is the only opera to have remained constantly in the international standard repertoire since its premier in 1816. It's also the most famous of the opera buffa genre in Italian opera. "The Barber" has been recorded many times. On Sunday, August 5, 1990 you heard tenor Leo Nucci as Figaro the Barber in a London CD release with Giuseppe Patane conducting the musical resources of the Teatro Communale di Bologna. I rebroadcast that wonderful recording on the same date in August, 2001. We turn this Sunday to "The Barber" in an historic recording made live-in-performance on December 16, 1950 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and preserved for posterity in radio broadcast air tapes. Alberto Erede directed the Met Opera Orchestra and Chorus. The entire vocal lineup for the characters of the opera is now legendary in opera history. Starring as Figaro is tenor Giuseppe Valdengo. The Count Almaviva is a then quite youthful tenor Giuseppe di Stefano. Arguably the single finest Italian basso buffo of the twentieth century, Salvatore Baccaloni is heard as Doctor Bartolo. Don Basilio is the distinguished American baritone Jeromy Hines. The Met's reigning superstar soprano Lily Pons takes the leading female rôle of Rosina. The old monaural audiotapes of this performance were digitally upgraded for reissue through Sony Music in 2011 on two compact discs. There are many more air tapes of Met broadcasts in this Sony Classical archival series. They are in the pipeline for broadcast on this program.

Sunday August 28th: Delius, Eine Messe des Lebens, Requiem. Every year at the end of summer I devote one summer day's programming to the music of English composer Frederick Delius (1862 - 1934) because I believe Delius' impressionistic style is so exquisitely evocative of the lazy, hazy days of late August. Over quarter a century and more of lyric theater broadcasting I have presented recordings of all of his seven operas in a series of cycles. Delius himself considered his greatest work to be Eine Messe des Lebens ("A Mass of Life," 1909). This paean to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche could never be mistaken for a musical setting of the Roman Catholic liturgy. Delius' enamuensis and biographer Eric Fenby wrote, "Delius was at heart a pagan." "A Mass of Life" is a secular oratorio conceived on a grand scale like Mahler's symphonies for large orchestra, even larger chorus, and vocal soloists. Delius took its text from the most poetic and least didactic passages from Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra. There is no hint of Nazi propagandizing in the libretto. Strangely, Hitler's pagan National Socialist regime in Germany never made use of Delius' music for its promotional purposes. Delius's music transcends all political machinations. The joy of living is what Delius was seeking to extol in his "Mass." Way back in April 1986 I broadcast an old mono LP recording of the work, with Delius' personal friend and artistic champion Sir Thomas Beecham conducting the huge ensemble. Then in April of 1993 came the Intaglio CD issue of a 1971 BBC radio broadcast of the "Mass," with Norman del Mar conducting. On Sunday, August 31, 1997 I aired a then brand-new Chandos CD recording, sung in the original German; this time it's Richard Hickox leading the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. I return to that Chandos two CD set today. That set includes Hickox's interpretation of Delius' pagan Requiem actually composed in 1913 before hostilities commenced, but not publicly performed until 1922, when it served to reflect upon all those who died in World War One.

With one exception, all the recordings featured in this two month period of programming are taken from our station's ever-growing library of classical music on disc. That one exception is a four LP set of historic recordings of G&S operettas, which comes from my own collection, and which my WWUH classics colleague Walter Mayo will be presenting. A special thanks to Walter for substituting for me. As always I am indebted to Vickie Hadge of Virtually Done by Vickie for her invaluable assistance with 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.

All Night Show - Alternative, progressive music.  Stay up late and FIND OUT!  Every night 3:00-6:00am.

Alternative Radio - Interviews and speeches from alternative sources and alternative information, produced by David Barsamian. Monday 12 noon-1:00pm.

Ambience - Music that blends electronic and acoustic styles, borrowing from many cultures, from dream rock, to deep space, quiet contemplation and ambient dance. Sunday 9:00am-1:00pm.

Blue Monday - The world of blues from country to R&B.  Monday 9:00pm-midnight.

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.

Cultura E Vida - Portuguese programming. Saturday 7:00pm-9:00pm.

Culture Dogs - A look at contemporary media, movies, videos, etc. Sunday 8:00pm - 9:00pm

Evening Classics - Classical music by composers from Albinoini to Zelenka, styles ranging from Gregorian Chant to the modern twentieth century.  Weekdays 4:00pm-7:30/8:00pm.

Explorations - Every week Dr. Michio Kaku gives us new insight into the world of science.  Sunday 4:30pm-5:00pm.

FM on Toast - A wide variety of acoustic music ranging from folk to bluegrass. Sunday and weekdays 6:00am-9:00am.

Free Speech Radio: A daily (Mon - Fri) news program with alternative sources from around the world.Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 8:00-8:30pm, Thursday at 7:30pm and Friday at 7:00pm.

Gay Spirit - Greater Hartford's only gay news program featuring contemporary issues, music, and special guests.  Thursday 8:30pm-9:00pm.

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.

Making Contact - A program about activists and social change.  Tuesday 8:30pm

Morning Jazz - Music from diverse aspects of the jazz tradition from the big bands to fusion to avant-garde. Weekdays 9:00am-Noon.

New Focus - Alternative news and views presented by Mike DeRosa.  Friday 12N-12:30pm. And Wednesday at 8:30pm.

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New World Notes - New perspectives on American Government, foreigh policy, media and culture in a variety of genres, produced by Ken Dowst.  Tuesday 12noon.

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.

Saturday Morning Polka Madness - Polkas! Saturday 6:00am-9:00am, requests welcome

Soapbox - Interviews with progressive authors and activists, host Rob Tyrka. Thursday 12:00noon-12:30pm.

Street Corner Serenade - Music from the '50's "do-wop" era, and more. Saturday 1:00pm-3:00pm.

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Selections from the Operatic repertory ranging from Baroque to twentieth century. Sunday 1:00pm-4:30pm.

Super Sabado -Salsa - from '70's classics to current faves - and greetings, in Spanish. Saturday 3:00-5:00pm.

Synthesis - Alternative rock from all genres featuring new releases, rarities, imports, and international artists.  Including electronic, dance, fusion, funk, pop, reggae, experimental...... Weekdays 1:00pm-4:00pm.

Tevynes Garsai - Lithuanian programming. Sunday 5:00pm-6:00pm.

This Way Out - The international gay and lesbian news magazine.  Thursday 8:00pm-8:30pm.

TUC Radio - From San Francisco: a show about the global village and the global pillage.  Friday at 12:30pm.

UH Radio Bluegrass - The best of bluegrass, with occasional live performances by area bluegrass musicians.  Saturday 9:00am-1:00pm.

Voices of our World - Views from the 2nd and 3rd world on life in the real world.  Monday at 8:30pm.

West Indian Rhythms - Reggae, soca and more from Jamaica, T & T and beyond. Saturday 9:00pm-12midnight.