Fall is the time to remember WWUH - our annual Fall Fund Raiser will come to you in Mid-October!

Summer ends and fall begins as we continue to provide you with a great line up of interesting and eclectic programming. Our traditional Fall Fund Raiser will happen in mid October so keep your ears tuned for more information on how to pledge and support the best in Community Radio live from The University of Hartford. Our wonderful will continue Celtic concerts will resume in October as noted below. You can find out what is playing by going to our program grid at WWUH weekly program grid.

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 Long Time Courtin

            Here's a notice to my Celtic Airs listeners and concert goers; there will be no Celtic airs concert in September as I make my annual vacation trip to Europe. Tuesday listeners will find that their ears are in the capable hands of Denise (former Monday FM On Toast host) and Ed McKeon, an  Irish "ringer" (and current host of Wednesday's FM On Toast.)

            Concert goers will have to fend for themselves in September as the next Celtic Airs concert won't take place until 10/12/12 featuring Long Time Courting (LTC), a quartet that shows that an all woman band is not just a gimmick. (Just in case you weren't already convinced of this by Cherish the Ladies and Girsa.) Their talent, singly and in ensemble, puts them firmly in the spotlight as one of the best new groups playing Celtic music.

            The four members of LTC are individually accomplished traditional musicians and singers. Put them together and you get rich, soaring four part vocal arrangements and high energy instrumental sets. They share a love for traditional Irish, Scottish and American folk music and produce a performance, live or on CD, that is seamlessly innovative, inventively arranged and skillfully rendered. Each woman sings beautifully, and when all join together, the effect is tremendous. The group has an uncanny ability to take songs that are either obscure or overly familiar and breathe new life into them. The songs they choose offer strong story lines , engaging lead vocals and great harmony singing that proves the whole is often greater that the sum of it's parts.

            Their instrumental sets are not overshadowed by the songs. Skillfully crafted, combining material from a variety of sources, they flow like the smoothest Irish whiskey. The cello is certainly not a traditional Celtic instrument, but for LTC this lovely instrument provides the harmony lines that give the arrangements a "bottom" that is often lacking in traditional music. The guitar produces the rhythmic line which underpins the melody playing of the fiddle and flute.

            The title of the band's debut CD, "Alternate Routes" hints at the different paths each woman took to get to this band.

            Sarah Blair's prowess on fiddle is well known. She began playing in Providence, RI's thriving traditional Irish music scene. Her skills were further developed in Boston, where she is a much sought after session leader. She also lends her skills to the world of American Contra dancing. Somehow, she also finds time to perform with her own folk band, The Sevens, at festivals and concerts from Alaska to Florida.

            Liz Simmons grew up listening to her mother sing traditional songs from Ireland, Scotland and Appalachia. Over time, she has developed a unique vocal and guitar style that incorporates these traditional sounds and contemporary folk music. She is the lead singer of the band Annalivia, a string band that fuses Celtic and American musical styles. Dirty Linen Magazine described her as a "honey-voiced singer who performs with winsome ease and genuine feeling."       

            Shannon Heaton is a veteran of the Irish traditional music scene having performed with her husband Matt for over ten years. Shannon first discovered Irish traditional music  (and Matt) in the energetic pub scene in Chicago. She and Matt moved west to begin their joint musical career. From humble beginnings in Colorado they have moved to Boston to perfect their performing style and expand their repertoire. Her exquisite Irish flute style has been featured in numerous Boston area ensembles.

            The quartet's newest member is cellist Valerie Thompson from Kansas City. She is a classical cellist by training, but grew up in a household that exposed her to Bach, the Beatles and the Chieftains! During her college years at the Berklee College of Music, she broadened her horizons by participating in summer folk festivals. Her musical career currently includes her time with LTC as well as musical projects as diverse as Flutter Effect, a progressive rock band with world music influences, and Laura Cortese's Acoustic Project, a folk-pop ensemble . She is also an active teacher of music in the Boston area and composes her own original music.

            I hope you'll break your fast from live Celtic music and come out to meet and enjoy Long Time Courting Friday October 12th at 7:30 in the University of Hartford's Wilde Auditorium.

            Tickets are only available from the University Box Office. Call 1-800-274-8587 or 860-768-4228. On line purchases can be made at www.hartford.edu/hartt.

            I look forward to joining you again on the air when I return to my role as host of Celtic Airs on Tuesday October 2nd. The show can be heard at 91.3FM or streaming live at wwuh.org starting at 6:00AM

                                                               Steve Dieterich, Producer/Host of Celtic Airs

                                                         Producer /Promoter of the Celtic Airs concert series.

WWUH Classical Programming -

September and October 2012

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

Featured Artist

September  3                         Hubert Sumlin  (1931-2011)

September 10                        Jimmy Thackery

September 17                        Coco Montoyo

October 1                               Michael Burks (1957-2012)

October 15                             Mitch Woods

October 22                             Mark Nomad

October 29                             Angela Strehli

Back to the Roots

September 3                          Delta Blues

September 10                        Kansas City Blues

September 17                        Chicago Blues

October 1                              West Coast Blues

October 15                            British Blues        

October 22                            New York Blues

Thursday Evening Classics

Composer Birthdays

September and October 2012

Presented by Steve Petke

September 6

1620 Isabella Leonardo

1627 Pierre Verdier

1633 Sebastian Knupfer

1644 bapt. Juan Bautista José Cabanilles

1648 bapt. Johann Schelle

1656 Johann Kaspar Ferdinand Fischer

1702 Heinrich Nikolaus

1781 Vincent Novello

1819 Carl Ferdinand Pohl

1855 Ferdinand B. Hummel

1869 Sir Henry Walford Davies

1882 John Powell

1884 Emerson Whithorne (Whittern)

1890 Manfred Gurlitt

1896 Frutuoso de Lima Viana

1896 Vladimir Nikitich Kashperov

1903 Pal Kadosa

1904 Lyubomir Pipkov

1912 Wayne Brewster Barlow

1922 Wolfgang Hofmann

1923 William Kraft

1926 Arthur Oldham

1928 Yevgeny Svetlanov

1929 Tsang-houe Hsu

1932 Gilles Tremblay

1938 Joan Tower

1960 Detlev Glanert

1962 Shih-Hui Chen

1971 Lior Navok

September 13

1551 Pandolfo Zallamella

1594 Francesco Manelli

1673 bapt. Hercule Brehy

1682 Theodor Christleib Reinhold

1688 Luca Antonio Praedieri

1739 Giuseppe Sigismondo

1806 Moritz Ganz

1819 Clara Wieck Schumann

1842 Odon Peter Jozsef Mihalovich

1858 Catharinus Elling

1874 Arnold Schoenberg

1877 Elisabeth Kuyper

1882 Henri Potiron

1884 Charles Edward "C.E." Duble

1908 Ray Burns Green

1917 Robert Ward

1917 Jon Thorarinsson

1924 Maurice Jarre

1925 Gabriel Charpentier

1932 Bengt Hallberg

1933 Arif Melikov

1937 Jean Chatillon

1945 Alain Louvier

1958 Hermann Seidl

Arnold Schoenberg

Birth: September 13, 1874 in Vienna, Austria

Death: July 13, 1951 in Los Angeles, CA

Arnold Schoenberg remains one of the most influential and controversial figures in the history of music. From the final years of the 19th century to the period following the World War II, Schoenberg produced music of great stylistic diversity, inspiring fanatical devotion from students, admiration from peers like Mahler, Strauss, and Busoni, riotous anger from conservative Viennese audiences, and unmitigated hatred from his many detractors. Born into a family that was not particularly musical, Schoenberg was largely self-taught as a musician. He learned violin and cello as boy and demonstrated a particular aptitude for composition. He received rudimentary instruction in harmony and counterpoint from Oskar Adler and studied composition briefly with Alexander Zemlinsky, his eventual brother-in-law. Early in his career, Schoenberg took jobs orchestrating operettas, but most of his life was spent composing and teaching, both privately and at various institutions. The composer's early works bear the unmistakable stamp of high German Romanticism, evident in his first important compositions, Verklärte Nacht and Gurrelieder.On the strength of Part I of Gurrelieder, he obtained a teaching post and scholarship at Stern Conservatory in Berlin, on the recommendation of Richard Strauss. While there he composed the tone-poem Pelleas und Melisande. He returned to Vienna in 1903 to teach. Among his students at this time were men who became lifelong disciples-Webern, Berg, Wellesz, and Erwin Stein. In Schoenberg's compositions of 1903- 7, he explored chromatic harmony to its limits and tonal structures became ever more elusive until, in 1909, he arrived at atonality with the 5 Orchestral Pieces, the 3 Pieces for Piano Op.11, and the song-cycle Das Buch der hängenden Gärten. Performances of these works met with vehement hostility, but with equally vehement acclaim from his supporters. In 1911 he published his masterly book Harmonielehre. A talented artist, he also painted in a striking 'expressionist' style at this time. In 1912 he composed Pierrot Lunaire for actress Albertine Zehme, a work for speaker (in Sprechstimme) and chamber ensemble. Its Vienna performance was the occasion of further hostility, but the first performance there of the early-style Gurrelieder was a success. Critics reviled this "atonal" (Schoenberg preferred "pantonal") music, whose structure does not include traditional tonality. Still, the high drama and novel expressive means of Schoenberg's music also inspired a faithful and active following. Most notable among Schoenberg's disciples were Alban Berg and Anton Webern, both of whom eventually attained stature equal to that of their famous mentor. These three composers - the principal figures of the so-called Second Viennese School - were the central force in the development of atonal and 12-tone music in the first half of the 20th century and beyond. In 1918 Schoenberg founded in Vienna a Society for Private Music Performances from which critics were excluded, no program was announced in advance, and applause was forbidden. He wrote little between 1913-21, and when next completed works appeared in 1923-the 5 Piano Pieces, Op.23 and the Serenade, Op.24-they introduced to the world the 'method of composition with 12 notes', which was Schoenberg's technique for organizing atonal music.For Schoenberg, the dissolution of tonality was a logical and inevitable step in the evolution of Western music. Though the 12-tone technique represents only a single, and by no means predominant, aspect of the composer's style, it remains the single characteristic mostly closely associated with his music. Schoenberg made repeated, though varied, use of the technique across the spectrum of genres, from chamber works like the String Quartet #4 and the Fantasy for Violin and Piano to orchestral works like the Violin Concerto and the Piano Concerto, to choral works like A Survivor from Warsaw. Side-by-side with this revolutionary procedure, Schoenberg also returned to a strict use of traditional forms. In 1925, he was invited to Berlin to teach composition at the Prussian Academy of Arts, remaining until 1933 when he was dismissed by the Nazis. He left for in Paris and immigrated to the USA. He settled in Los Angeles and taught at the University of California from 1936- 44. During this phase of his career, he at times returned to frank tonality, as in the Theme and Variations for band, reaffirming his connection to the great German musical heritage that extended back to Bach. In the next 18 years he composed inconsistently in 12-note or tonal styles, dismaying his followers but not himself, for he said that all composers had varied their styles to suit their creative needs and purposes. At this time, he revised earlier works and wrote several religious pieces. He also returned to two major undertakings he had abandoned in Europe, the oratorio Die Jakobsleiter, which remained unfinished, and the opera Moses und Aron, of which only two of the 3 acts were completed. Schoenberg's music, full of melodic and lyrical interest, is also extremely complex, taking every element (rhythm, texture, form) to its furthest limit and making heavy demands on the listener. His greatness lies not only in his own music but in his artistic courage and in his powerful and continuing influence on 20th century music. He is likely to remain always a controversial, revered, and revolutionary musician.

September 20

1593 Gottfried Scheidt

1653 Benedict Schultheiss

1706 Franz Habermann

1777 Ramon Felix Cuellar y Altarriba

1795 Charles Zeuner

1800 Benjamin Franklin White

1832 Johann Joseph Abert

1846 Agnes Tyrrell

1852 Henry Houseley

1877 Armand Marsick

1880 Ildebrando Pizzetti

1884 Polish Piotr Rytel

1897 Efim Golishev

1900 Uuno Klami

1900 Wilhelm Weismann

1901 Leo Justinus Kauffmann

1906 David Sheinfeld

1911 Jan Mul

1945 Laurie Spiegel

September 27

1554 Cosimo Bottegari

1637 Hieronymus Gradenthaler

1677 Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari

1772 Antonio Casimir Cartellieri

1786 Jose Mariano Elizaga

1874 Bertha Frensel Wegener-Koopman

1877 William Clifford Heilman

1879 Cyril Meir Scott

1881 Ernest Samuel Williams

1898 Vincent Youmans

1903 Vernon Duke (Vladimir Dukelsky)

1909 Jean Berger

1912 Tauno Martinen

October 4

1659 Franz Weichlein

1744 Domenico Corri

1762 Tommaso Sogner

1772 Francois-Louis Perne

1779 François Aimon

1840 Charles Ferdinand Lenepveu

1841 Stephen Albert Emery

1846 Silas G. Pratt

1857 Henry Schoenefeld

1859 Henryk Pachulski

1861 Joao Marcellino Arroio

1905 Léon Orthel

1905 Rene Defossez

1912 Alfonso Letelier-Llona

1917 Albert de Klerk

1930 Jozsef Soproni

1955 Larry Alan Smith

1964 David Dzubay

1970 James Combs

October 11

1747 Marian Paradeiser

1788 Simon Sechter

1821 Angelo Mariani

1841 Freidrich Hegar

1863 Xavier Leroux

1868 Paul Ambrose

1869 Gordon Frederic Norton

1877 John Parsons Beach

1882 R. Nathaniel Dett

1883 Archibald T Davison

1884 Robert Muller-Hartmann

1894 Albert Stoessel

1895 Jakov Gotovac

1897 Arvo Hannikainen

1901 Emil Hlobil

1908 Armen Carapetyan

1917 Franz Alphons Wolpert

1935 Jan Van Vlijmen

October 18

1611 bapt. Valentin Strobel

1706 Baldassare Galuppi

1789 Giovanni Tadolini

1794 Ferdinand Lukas Schubert

1833 Johannes Habert

1844 Emille-Louis-Victor Mathieu

1850 Francis Thome

1879 Grzlegorz Fitelberg

1891 Vaclav Kalik

1901 Vladimir Grigor'yevich Zakharov

1910 Vojislav Vuckovic

1922 Camillo Togni

1924 Egil Hovland

1932 John Biggs

1933 Jacques Charpentier

1935 Jordi Cervello

1946 Howard Shore

1964 Dominy Clements

October 25

1564 Hans Leo Hassler (bapt. October 26)

1576 Thomas Weelkes

1709 Georg Gebel

1772 Corneille Vander Plancken

1815 Ernesto Sivori

1815 Philipp Fahrbach

1825 Johann Strauss II

1838 Georges Bizet

1864 Alexander Tikhonovich Grechaninov

1866 Georg Alfred Schumann

1869 August Otto Halm

1879 Jean Rogister

1879 Lester Mayhew Lake

1882 Heinrich Max Ludwig

1887 Willem Andriessen

1923 Don Banks

1935 Zdenek Pololanik

1946 Peter Lieberson

1948 Diana Burrell

Georges Bizet

Birth: October 25, 1838 in Paris, France

Death: June 3, 1875 in Bougival, France

Georges Bizet was registered with the legal name Alexandre-César-Léopold Bizet, but was baptized Georges Bizet and was always known by the latter name. His father was a singing teacher and unexceptional composer and his mother was an excellent pianist and the sister of a much more distinguished singing teacher, François Delsarte. Bizet was brought up in a musical atmosphere and soon showed such gifts that he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 9. There he won a long list of prizes, including first prize for solfège in 1849, second prize for piano in 1851, and first prize for organ and fugue in 1855. He studied piano with Marmontel and composition with Halévy, and while still a student he composed the brilliant Symphony in C. It seems that later Bizet completely forgot about the symphony, and it was not rediscovered until 1935, in the archives of the Conservatoire library. Upon its first performance, it was immediately hailed as a junior masterpiece and has become a staple in the symphonic repertoire. In 1856 Bizet won second prize in the Prix de Rome with his cantata David, and in a competition promoted by Offenbach, he shared first prize, with Charles Lecocq, for an operetta. The two winners had their settings of Le Docteur Miracle performed on consecutive nights in 1857. In 1857 Bizet won the Prix de Rome with the cantata Clovis et Clotilde, which gave him a subsidy for five years. He spent the first three in Italy, a period he greatly enjoyed. The main products of his Italian stay were a choral Te Deum, an opera buffa, Don Procopio, in the manner of Donizetti, and an ode-symphony based on the life of Vasco da Gama. He began a four-movement symphony that appeared many years later with the title Roma. On his return to Paris in 1860, Bizet settled into the life that he was to pursue for his remaining 15 years: courting librettists, singers, and opera managers for commissions, playing the piano for rehearsals (his gifts as a sight-reader were legendary) and composing smaller works such as piano pieces and songs for publication. He also made piano arrangements of operas, a pursuit that was to drain much of his precious time in later years. He never showed much interest in teaching. In 1863 the Théâtre Lyrique commissioned Les Pêcheurs de perles. Though it was indifferently received by the press, its lively theatricality has won it a place in the operatic repertory. Bizet's next opera, Ivan IV, was conceived on a grand scale, but it was not completed and it remained unstaged for nearly 100 years. La Jolie Fille de Perth appeared at the Théâtre Lyrique in 1867. A number of other operatic ventures came to nothing at this time. In 1869 Bizet married Geneviève, the daughter of his teacher Halévy, but their marriage was soon interrupted by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War and the turmoil of the Second Paris Commune. Bizet served in the National Guard and managed to escape from Paris during a part of the upheaval. When normal life resumed, he produced two small masterpieces, the one-act opéra comique Djamileh, which was staged in 1872, and the delicate suite of pieces for piano duet, Jeux d'enfants, five of which were later orchestrated. He followed with the affecting and colorful incidental music for Daudet's play L'Arlésienne, scored for a small orchestra. Arranged as a suite for larger orchestra, it was one of Bizet's first works to gain widespread popularity. By 1873 Bizet was at work on his opera Carmen, commissioned by the Opéra-Comique. It immediately caused controversy, its subject being considered too risqué for such a venue, and the tragic implications of Carmen's death on stage being unusually realistic for the lighter genre of opéra comique. After many delays and difficulties it was produced in March 1875, and though it created a scandal in the press, it was eventually successful with the public. Bizet was by this time ill with a heart condition accentuated by rheumatism, and although he was planning an oratorio, Geneviève de Paris, he made no progress and died quite suddenly within three months of the opening of Carmen. This masterpiece found fame abroad long before it was revived in Paris. With the spoken dialogues set as recitative by Bizet's friend Ernest Guiraud, it was played in Vienna at the end of 1875 and quickly taken up all over the world. It is now one of the most popular of all operas.

[Biographies derived from Oxford Music Online and Allmusic.com.]

SUNDAY September 2nd

Fussell, The Astronaut's Tale, Cuomo, Arjuna's Dilemma, Johnathan,Woody On this Sunday of the Labor Day weekend I present three chamber operas by three contemporary American composers.The last of these three operas should inspire you to rediscover the holiday that's meant to honor the common laboring folk of America.First,however,is Charles Fussell's The Astronaut's Tale in its 2003 world premiere recording on a single Albany Records compact disc.Yes,Charles Fussell (b. 1938) is an American composer,but he is more specifically our own New England classical music doyen.He was,among so many other musical activities,artistic director of New Music Harvest,Boston's first city-wide festival of contemporary music.He taught composition on the faculty of Boston University.The Astronaut's Tale should resonate with the Baby Boomer generation of Americans.It traces the life of a young man of the composers own lifetime.The boy had aspired to be a space explorer.He attains his desire,and in orbiting planet Earth he ponders the conflict between science and religion and contemplates our Earthly human existence with its incessant cycle of birth and death.The Astronaut's Tale is scored for tenor,soprano and baritone character roles,plus a spken-word narrator and seven instrumentalists,one of whom,the pianist,plays synthesizer as well.These players are all members of New England's premiere contemporary music instrumental  outfit,the Monadnock Festival Ensemble,conducted by James Bolle.

      Douglas J. Cuomo (b.1963) started out in his teens as a professional guitarist,touring extensively,then settling into New York City's new music scene.He has composed a great deal for theater,film and TV.(He wrote the theme music for Sex and The City,for instance.) His opera/oratorio Arjuna's Dilemma (2008) takes its text from ancient Hindu scripture.Cuomo collaborated in this lyric theater project with Amit Chatterjee,who is not only a vocalist in his native Indian tradition,but also like Cuomo a guitarist,composer and recording artist.He is heard as the Hindu messiah Krishna,opposite tenor Tony Boutte as the disciple Arjuna.The instrumental ensemble includes Badal Roy playing the Indian tabla drums and bass player Robert Black,of Bang on a Can fame.(Bobby's a Hartford resident and graduate of the Hartt School.)Arjuna's Dilemma was released on a single CD through the new music label innova.

      What could be more American than Woody Guthrie's famous song "This Land Is Your Land"? Guthrie wrote it in 1940,yet,sadly,never performed it himself in public in his life- time.(It was Pete Seeger who introduced it to the nation.) A modern day folk singer,author and playwright Michael Johnathan (b.1963) has written a "people's opera" about the creation of that great song.The first five arias from act one of Woody:For the People have been issued in compact disc format through PoetMan Records USA in 2012,in celebration of the centennial of the birth of Woody Guthrie.In his opera Michael Johnathan invites the audience to sing along with the three main characters Guthrie,Seeger and Paul Robeson during performance.Included in the tracks of the PoetMan CD is the overture to the opera and three other of Johnathan's songs recorded live in performance and intended to go into the yet-to-be-completed second act of the work.

Sunday September 9th        

Thomas,Mignon Straight through to the end of the year I will be frequently featuring releases our station has acquired in "The Metropolitan Opera" series from Sony Classical.Over the past couple of years Sony has brought forth these historic recordings from the Met's archives.These are airtapes of live radio broadcasts of performances given in New York City's famous opera house.(Long ago our station actually carried those live Saturday afternoon feeds from the Met.) Sony has digitally upgraded the sound for presentation in compact disc format.This Sunday I'm offering up from the Met series Ambroise Thomas' Mignon (1866),starring the Met's own reigning resident soprano Rise Stevens in the title role.Her astounding voice was captured for the ages while singing onstage during the Met's Saturday broadcast of January 27,1945.Also heard in this broadcast as the elderly minstrel Lothario is the now legendary bass Ezio Pinza,another Met regular in that bygone golden age.Conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus is Wilfred Pelletier,who as a music educator had a connection to the founding of the Julius Hartt School of Music here at the University of Hartford.Mignon is sung in French,which was Pelletier's native language.(He came originally  from Montreal in French Canada.)

Sunday September 16th

Vivaldi,Teuzzone I continue this Sunday with my own long ongoing series of broadcasts of the operas of Antonio Vivaldi.The violin virtuoso and composer of "The Four Seasons" concertos was also a prolific composer of opera in the style of the Venetian baroque.(More than twenty of his operas survive,a total of 51 attributed to him.)You might call Teuzzone (1718) Vivaldi's Venetian baroque Turandot.Eighteenth century audiences had a taste fro the oriental and the exotic in operatic scenarios."Turkish" operas were a popular operatic subgenre.The setting of Vivaldi's Teuzzone is China.Prince Teuzzone must contend with court intrigues to regain his place as the Chinese emperor's rightful successor.The score of this opera is to be found in the treasure trove of Vivaldi manuscripts preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin.Teuzzone finds its perfect interpreter in Jordi Savall,an established authority in the early music field.Savall directs the period instrument players of Le Concert des Nations.The French label Naïve released Teuzzone in 2011 on three compact discs.Of this recording reviewer Alan Simpson writes "All the singers are at their best and they receive first rate support from Jordi Savall,who keeps things moving without leaving a sense of racing through the score" (Fanfare, July/ August, 2012 issue).
 

Sunday September 23rd

Strauss,Die Frau ohne Schatten ("The Woman without a Shadow,"1919).This is a fairytale opera whose underlying theme is the contrast between the human world of light,or consciousness,and the shadowy world that lies in the human collective unconscious.The beautiful Empress of fairyland possesses no shadow.She wants one badly,so as to please her husband,the Emperor of the South-Eastern Isles.With the assistance of her daemonic nursemaid she tries to connive one from a common mortal woman.Hugo Von Hofmannsthal's libretto can easily be viewed from the perspective of Jungian psychology.It's surely the most esoteric one the Austrian writer provided to the German composer in the course of their long and fruitful collaboration.This will be the fifth time I have broadcast Die Frau ohne Schatten over the span of more than a quarter century of lyric theater programming.Going back as far as 1985 I have featured recordings with some giants of the podium in charge of the musical proceedings,Karl Bohm and Josef Keilberth among them.Wolfgang Sawallisch was especially devoted to this particular Strauss opera.He was one of its greatest interpreters.On Sunday,February 5,1995 I presented the  1987 EMI recording with Sawallisch leading the symphony orchestra and chorus of Bavarian Radio.That three-CD recording was reissued in2011 in the EMI Classics line.The lineup of singers could not be bettered;tenor Rene Kollo as the Emperor and soprano Cheryl Studer as the Empress.Also heard in solo capacity are mezzo Mariana Lipovsek and baritone Andreas Schmidt.The Sawallisch interpretation gives us the opera in musically complete form for the first time on disc.  

 SUNDAY September 30th

Verdi,La traviata Here's a truly historic audio document for you,something you might call "The Unauthorized Callas."In 2011 ICA Classics issued in its "Legacy" series the legendary 1958 Covent Garden performance of Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata (1858) starring Maria Callas and recorded quite literally onstage as she sang Violetta,the role she made her own and about which reviewers and public mutually raved.This is not an airtape of a BBC broadcast,but somebody's private unofficial taping with the microphone placed immediately adjacent to the proscenium arch.(You can hear Callas warming up in the wings during the Prelude to Act One.)The sound is monaural,possessing remarkable clarity-better,actually,than typical broadcast sonics of the period.The Callas Covent Garden bootleg recording has long been in circulation among opera enthusiasts on LP's or more recently in CD format,too.Only now,however,has a major classical music record label,International Classical Artists,Ltd. of the UK,picked it up and applied its "ambient mastering" technique to the old audio material,resulting in the best transfer ever onto silver disc,.You get to hear more clearly than ever before Callas,the very icon of the operatic diva of the second half of the twentieth century,when she was at the zenith of her vocal powers.As taped on opening night,June 20,1958,she is heard opposite tenor Cesare Valletti as Alfredo.Nicola Rescigno conducted the Royal Opera House,Covent Garden Orchestra and Opera Chorus.Thanks to my WWUH colleague Bob Walsh for substituting for me today.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 7TH   

Mozart,Idomemeo This is Mozart's first mature masterwork of opera,first staged in Munich in 1781.I have presented Idomeneo four times before,utilizing two recordings that were historic oldies-but-goodies and two that were in the newer,historically informed practice.John Eliot Gardiner was certainly in the lead of conductors who specialized in authentic eighteenth century style.Gardiner recorded Idomeneo in live but unstaged concert performance in London in 1990.Deutsche Grammophon issued it originally on three CD's in its Archiv line in 1991.Gardiner directed the period instrument ensemble he founded,the English Baroque Soloists,who were joined by their usual choral partner,the Monteverdi Choir.This is the musically complete Italian language opera seria.Mozart's ballet music at the end of the staged proceedings has not been cut,as was often the case in older recordings.Specialists in eighteenth century vocal practice took part in Gardiner's Idomeneo:tenor Anthony Rolfe Johnson in the title role,with soprano Anne Sophie von Otter as Idamante.I last broadcast the Gardiner Idomeneo on Sunday,October 16,1994.That now in some sense "historic" recording has been taken up into a compilation boxed set of all the Mozart opera recordings Gardiner made over the years.His "classic" interpretation now occupies three discs in the 18 CD DGG Archiv package.From that same boxed set I broadcast the Gardiner Cosi Fan Tutte on Sunday,July 22nd of this year.
  
SUNDAY OCTOBER 14TH                        
Handel,Agrippina This opera is a product of Handel's early years as a composer sojourning in Italy.It premiered in Venice in 1709 to tumultuous applause.Handel's first biographer Manwaring says the Venetians acclaimed him Il caro Sassone "The Dear Saxon",referring to the composer's German origins.Cardinal Grimani's libretto was just the right springboard for the twenty three year old artist's imagination.What he set to music is a species of theatrical farce imbued with much dark emotion.Handel and Grimani saw something at once monstrous and laughable in the intrigues of the Roman imperial court in the days of the madman Nero.Even at this early stage in his career,in writing Agrippina Handel was already borrowing shamelessly from himself and other composers.Eighty percent of Handel's score is in fact borrowed or subtly plagiarized.Agrippina had been recorded before,but the first truly complete recording of the opera was made for Harmonia Mundi France in connection with its staged revival at the 1991 Gottingen Festival.On that occasion Nicolas McGegan conducted the Hungarian period instrumental group Capella Savaria.That recording was broadcast on this program on Sunday,October 20,1996.Harmonia Mundi has given us a new Agrippina,released on three CD's in 2011.Rene Jacobs,himself a singer (countertenor) specializing in early music repertoire,leads the period instrumentalists of the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin.Rene Jacobs is also a researcher and considerable musicologist.He claims that his Agrippina presents Handel's superior first draft of the score.Sure, there are some variants in both music and libretto that Jacobs has come up with.Do they make much difference?Fanfare magazine's reviewer Ron Salemi thinks Jacobs' case for his ur-version is really stretching it.But Salemi really likes the new HM Agrippina anyway.Concerning the vocalists,he writes,"The cast is uniformly excellent.No better group of singers has been gathered for any previous Agrippina"(Fanfare,March/April,2012 issue). 

SUNDAY OCTOBER 21ST

Shakespeare,The Merchant of Venice Spoken word drama lies within my broad definition of lyric theater programming,and that would certainly include the plays of William Shakespeare.Thanks to donor Suzanne Cohen I have had several more recordings of them to broadcast in recent months.The Merchant of Venice (1596) is an early comedic work of the Bard's,written presumably in the same year as the history play King John,but it shows us that he was by this time no apprentice at his craft.It possesses a wealth of the highest poetic verse.And the unforgettable characters of the drama!Think of the noble and tragic conception of the Jew Shylock!His humanity is in another dimension beyond his counterpart Barabas in Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta (c. 1590).The Merchant of Venice was recorded in 1958 complete and uncut in the text of The New Shakespeare Edition edited by John Dover Wilson.The Marlowe Society and Professional Players,directed by John Rylands,performed the play in recording studio as paert of Decca's complete edition of Shakespeare's plays on stereo vinyl disc. This play was issued in a four LP boxed set.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 28TH

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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.

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

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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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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.

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

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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

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

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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.