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WWUH 91.3 FM
Program Guide
September/October 2014
In This Issue
How To Listen
WWUH Archive Now Online
Celtic Airs Concert News
Monday Night Jazz Wrap Up
Classical Music on WWUH
Sunday Afternoon at the Opera
Quick Links
 




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Hartt School Events


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WWUH - Your Live, Local, Listener-Supported Station

 

     In a world of digital music services, large corporate station ownership, and out-of-area rebroadcasts, WWUH increasingly stands out as something unique.  Our programming is locally produced, our on-air staff are all volunteers, and our air studio is staffed 24/7.  

 

     The beauty of a live, local station featuring such a diversity of genres is that of discovery: by listening to WWUH, you are exposed to viewpoints and sounds that you might never hear elsewhere.  Downloadable apps give you music that's computer-selected to suit your previous listening preferences; WWUH gives you music that's host-selected to expand your knowledge and appreciation of new, different, local and global artists that you might never have known existed otherwise. 

 

     Although we are sponsored by the University of Hartford, we truly are your station, because it is through generous support from you, our listeners, that we are able to remain on the air as your public alternative station.

 

 

 

Kari Mackey

Program Guide Editor

How To Listen To WWUH
Come as You Are... Tune in However Works Best for You
 
In Central CT and Western MA, WWUH can be heard at 91.3 on the FM dial.  Our programs are also carried at various times through out the day on these stations:
WAPJ, 89.9 & 105.1, Torrington, CT
WDJW, 89.7, Somers, CT
WWEB, 89.9, Wallingford, CT 
You can also listen on line using your PC, tablet or smart device.  We offer both Windows Media and MP3 streams here.

We also recommend that you download the free app "tunein" 
here to your mobile device.  


  
Hi tech or low tech, near or far, we've got you covered!
Never Miss Your Favorite WWUH Programs Again!
WWUH Round Logo Introducing... the WWUH Archive!

We are very excited to announce
that all WWUH programs are now available on-demand
using
the "Program Archive" link 
on our home page, 
 
  This means that if you missed one of your favorite shows, or if you want to listen to parts of it again, you can do so easily using the Archive link.  Programs are available for listening for 
two weeks after their air date.
 
 Enjoy the music, even when you can't listen "live"!
Celtic Airs Concert News
           Upcoming Concert:

          North Sea Gas

     

     North Sea Gas returns to the University of Hartford's Wilde Auditorium Saturday October 18th at 7:30 PM. This fun-loving Scottish trio performs on guitar, mandolin, fiddle, bouzouki, bodhran, banjo and whistle AND is well known for their great vocals featuring tremendous three-part harmonies.

 

     Dave Gilfillan is the founding member of North Sea Gas, a band whose origins go back 30 years. He is originally form Edinburgh where, as a teenager, he frequented the folk clubs where he was fortunate to meet many of the early pioneers of the Scottish folk revival. In addition to his rousing lead vocals and deft instrumental work, he has a wonderful sense of on stage fun and tongue in cheek humor that has endeared him to audiences world wide.

 

     Ronnie McDonald,  affectionately known as "Mac", joined the band in 2002. Originally form Glasgow, he has also lived in Australia for many years and currently resides in Edinburgh. Ronnie plays guitar and bouzouki and sings both harmony and lead vocals.

 

     Fiddler grant Simpson is the newest/youngest member of the trio having signed on in 2006. He was born and raised in Lossiemouth in the Northeast of Scotland where  he began playing fiddle as a very young child. He too currently resides in Edinburgh. In addition to his fiddle work, Grant is proficient on guitar, bouzouki and mandola. He sings harmony vocals and can occasionally be cajoled into a solo/ lead.

 

     Over their 30 years, North Sea gas have released 18 albums. The most recent, "The Fire and Passion of Scotland", came out in July 2013 and was promptly named "Album of the Year" by Celtic Radio USA.

A North Sea Gas live show consists of traditional, contemporary and self penned material. The music is genuine, unpretentious and spontaneous with a fondness for storytelling. Their ever growing fan base ranges through all age groups giving a "Gas show" a very universal appeal. An Edinburgh Festival review said, "No airs and graces here, just fantastic music." The Edinburgh Evening News  said, "This is a hugely entertaining band."  Closer to home, an American reviewer for USA Today said, "I haven't enjoyed a Celtic concert this much since the hey day of Silly Wizard."

 

     Tickets to this concert are only available from the University of Hartford box office, open 10:00-5:00 Tuesday - Friday. Their web site is www.hartford.edu/hartt. You can also find a direct link to purchase tickets for this show by going to the wwuh.org homepage. Click on benefit concerts, then click on North Sea Gas and the link will appear.

 

     This is the last Celtic Airs/WWUH concert currently booked for 2014, so I urge you not to miss it!! Your attendance would be much appreciated by the band and me!!

 

     Stay tuned to Celtic Airs Tuesdays 6:00-9:00 AM on WWUH, 91.3 FM, for the latest concert information and a wide variety of Celtic music, new and old.


 

Steve Dieterich

Producer/Host of Celtic Airs

Promoter/Producer of the Celtic Airs concerts

 

Monday Night Jazz Summer Series a Success!

 

     Unhampered by threats of rain on several occasions, WWUH broadcast the Monday Night Jazz series from Bushnell Park in Hartford this July and August.  A number of WWUH volunteers were at the park during the concerts, talking with listeners, and handing out information about the station.  


 

     Thank you to all the listeners who stopped by and visited 

the WWUH booth at the concerts!  We greatly appreciate your support. 

WWUH Classical Programming - September/October 2014 


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

Evening Classics... Weekdays 4:00 to 7:00/ 7:30/ 8:00 pm

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


 

September

Mon

1

Labor Day Special - Bernstein West Side Story; Gillis: Symphony #3 - A Symphony for Free Men 

Drake's Village Brass Band...West Point Band - Music Under the Stars

Tue

2

C.P.E. Bach: Hamburg Sinfonia Wq 182/5; Hans G�l: Concerto for Violin and small orchestra, Op. 39 (1932); Domenico Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas K 283-286; Julius R�ntgen: String Trio No. 1 in D major, Op. 76;  Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 7 in F Sharp Minor, Opus 108; J.S. Bach: Cantata BWV 207 "Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten" (Dramma per Musica); Katherine Hoover: Medieval Suite for Flute and Piano

Wed

3

Host's choice

Thu

4

Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Op. 61; Bruckner: Symphony #4 in E Flat "Romantic"; Classical Happy Hour Milhaud: Le Boeuf sur le Toit, Scaramouche; Handel: Concerto Grosso Op. 6 #12; Strauss: Don Juan

Fri

5

Classical Conversations with the Asylum Saxophone Quartet

Sun

7

Thompson: The Mother of Us All

Mon

8

Marking the 100th Anniversary of the Start of World War 1, Part 1... Coles: Behind Enemy Lines; Bliss: Morning Heroes  

Drake's Village Brass Band...DePaul University Wind Ensemble - Forget Me Nots

Tue

9

C.P.E. Bach: Hamburg Sinfonia Wq 182/6; Samuel Coleridge Taylor: Violin Concerto; Domenico Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas; Julius R�ntgen: String Trio No. 2 in A minor, "Dvorak"; Mihaly Mosonyi: Mass No. 1 in C Major; 

Hans G�l: Symphony No. 1 in D, Op. 30

Wed

10

Balakirev: Symphony No. 2; Rossini: Sinfonia from The Barber of Seville; Esteban Salas: Hymns; Bartok; String Quartet No. 2; Respighi: Trittico Botticelliano

Thu

11

Boyce: Concerto Grosso in e, Symphonies #6-7, Trio Sonata #4; Kuhlau: Flute Quintet #2 in E; Schmid: Flute Sonata Op.106; Weigl: New England Suite; Somers: Fantasia for Orchestra; P�rt: Fratres, Magnificat, Spiegel im Spiegel; Gosfield: Cranks and Cactus Needles; Sowash: Piano Trio #5 'Eroica'; Barber: Adagio for Strings

Fri

12

Music of Dimitri Shostakovich 

Sun

14

Rautavaara: Kalvos; Rimsky-Korsakov: Kashchey Th Immortal

Mon

15

Marking the 100th Anniversary of the Start of World War 1, Part 2... Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad; Gurney: A Gloucestershire Rhapsody, War Elegy; Bridge: Oration(Concerto Elegiaco for Cello and Orchestra)

Drake's Village Brass Band...United States Army Field Band- The Legacy of Mark Hindsley

Tue

16

Klughardt: Konzertouvert�re 'Im Fr�hling', Op. 30; Haydn: Piano Sonata in E, Hob. XVI:31; Bruckner: Symphony #7 in E; Verdi: Quattro Pezzi Sacri

Wed

17

Boris Lyatoshynsky: Symphony No. 1; Pietro Guglielmi: Credidi; Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1;   

Georgy Catoire: Poeme for Violin and Piano; Alberto Williams: Primera Sonata Argentina

Thu

18

New Releases. A Sampling of New Acquisitions from the WWUH Library

Fri

19

The Equinox is coming, The Equinox is coming

Sun

21

Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg (Acts One and Two)

Mon

22

Villa Lobos: Symphony #1; Music from the Mercury Label; Corigliano: Piano Concerto

Drake's Village Brass Band...Frederick Fennel,  Eastman Wind Ensemble, Mono Recordings

Tue

23

R�ntgen: String Trio #1 in D, Op. 76; Magnard: Symphony #4 in c#, Op. 21; Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in g, Op. 57; Palestrina: Missa Regina Caeli

Wed

24

Franz Xaver Richter: Symphony; Johann Fasch: Sinfonia for Strings; Tomas Luis de Victoria: Missa "Ascendens Christus in Altum"; Chopin: Scherzos; John Luther Adams: Roar and Thunder; Sergei Bortkiewicz: Quatre Morceaux, Op. 3 

Thu

25

Music by Jewish composers (among them: Meyerbeer, Offenbach, Jadassohn, Br�ll, Moszkowski, G�l, Milhaud, Schulhoff, Haas, Weinberg, Weiner, Wyner, Schoenfield)

Fri

26

Jacob Gershovitz's Rhapsody in Blue

Sun

28

Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg (Act Three); Mendelssohn: Symphony #2 ("Lobgesang")

Mon

29

Villa Lobos: Symphony #2; Gruenberg: Symphony #2

Drake's Village Brass Band...Buzzed - Timothy Buzbee Tuba

Tue

30

Couperin: Concerts Royaux, No. 1; Erkki Melartin: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.60; Domenico Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas; Julius R�ntgen: String Trio No. 3 in E minor; J.S. Bach: Cantata BWV 214 "T�net ihr Pauken" (Dramma per Musica); Hildegard von Bingen: Chant compositions; Hans G�l: Symphony No. 2 in F, Op. 53; C.P.E. Bach: Sonatas for Connoisseurs and Amateurs (selections)

October

Wed

1

Mahler: Symphony No. 1; Lukas Foss: Vocal Music; 

Carl Maria von Weber: Piano Concerto No. 2; Giovanni Fontana: Sonatas; Johan Roman: Flute Sonatas 

Thu

2

New Releases. A Sampling of New Acquisitions from the WWUH Library

Fri

3

Host's choice

Sun

5

Vivaldi: L'Incoronazione di Dario

Mon

6

Music for Paul Wittgenstein, Who Lost an Arm in World War I - Prokofiev: Piano Concerto #4; Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand; Korngold: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

Drake's Village Brass Band...Kerry Turner, Music for French Horns

Tue

7

Couperin: Concerts Royaux, No. 2; August de Boeck: Concerto for violin and orchestra; Domenico Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas; Julius R�ntgen: String Trio No. 4 in D major, "Walzer Suite"; J.S. Bach: Cantata BWV 209 "Non sa che sia dolore"; Hans G�l: Symphony No. 3 in A, Op. 62; 

C.P.E. Bach: Sonatas for Connoisseurs and Amateurs (selections)

Wed

8

Rosza: Sinfonia Concertante; Henryk Gorecki: Five Kurpian Songs, Op. 75; Bartok: Violin Concerto No. 2; Philipp Scharwenka: Autumn Scenes; William Young: Sonatas

Thu

9

Sch�tz: Motets; Hertel: Bassoon Concerto in a, Trumpet Concerto in D Op 7 #6; B. D. Weber: Trumpet Variations in F; Saint-Saens: Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso, String Quartet #2 in G, Suite Algerienne, Symphony #3 in c op 78, Wedding Cake Op. 76; Mediņs: Daina #21; Goeb: Divertimento #2 for 2 Flutes; Sug�r: Hungarian Children's Songs; Rautavaara: Fiddlers Op. 1; Sierra: Terceras Menores - R�tmico

Fri

10

Serge Koussevitsky conducts the Boston Symphony

Sun

12

Haydn: L'Incontro Improvviso

Mon

13

Villa Lobos: Symphony #3; American Percussion Music; Daugherty: Radio City: Symphonic Fantasy on Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony

Drake's Village Brass Band...Daugherty: The Gospel According to Sister Aimee for Organ, Brass and Percussion

Tue

14

Moscheles: Piano Concerto #3 in g, Op. 58; Nov�k: String Quartet in D, Op. 35; Pleyel: Symphony in c (Ben 121); Smetana: String Quartet #1 in e, 'From My Life'

Wed

15

Joseph Schmitt: Symphony; Baldassare Galuppi: Sinfonia in F Major; Alexander Utendal: Hymns

Franz Xaver Scharwenka: Piano Concerto No. 1; Jean-Baptiste Loeillet: Suite in F Major     

Thu

16

Zelenka: Capriccio #5 in G, Hipocondrie, Trio Sonata #5 in F; Zipoli: Beatus vir, Pastorale in C; Maldere: Symphony in g Op 4 #11; Handel: Oboe Concerto #3 in g HWV 287; Duvernoy: Sonata #2 for Horn and Cello; Capocci: Dolce Cuor Del Mio Ges�; Doppler: Fantasie Pastorale Hongroise Op. 26, Andante and Rondo Op. 25; Charles Lloyd: Psalm 30 "I will magnify thee O Lord"; Bresgen: Aus den hellen Birken steigt; Bourgeois: William & Mary Suite; T��r: Insula Deserta


 

Fri

17

Alexander Glazunov's Violin Concerto

Sun

19

Cilea: L'Arlesiana

Mon

20

Charles Ives Birthday Special - Piano Sonata #2 - John Kirkpatrick Columbia Stereo Reissue, Early Choral Music; Berio: Sinfonia (Berio and the New York Philharmonic reissue)

Drake's Village Brass Band...DePaul University Wind Ensemble - Ragtimes and Serenades

Tue

21

Shostakovich: Symphony #4 in c, Op. 43; R�ntgen: String Trio #2 in a 'Dvoř�k'; Sibelius: King Christian II Orchestral Suite, Op. 27; Boito: Mefistofele, Prologue

Wed

22

Niels Gade; Symphony No. 7; Orlando di Lasso: Missa Bell Amfitrit Altera; Satie: Piano Pieces; Alessandro Rolla: Sonata in C Major; Friedrich Fesca: String Quartet No. 12; Albeniz: 6 Mazurkas de Salon, Op. 66

Thu

23

Lortzing: Overtures; Bach: Toccata in G BWV 916; Absil: Flemish Rhasody; Rorem: Songs; Edwards: Marimba Dances; Grieg: Piano Concerto; Mozart: Piano Trio #1 in G K. 496

Fri

24

Happy Birthday, George!

Sun

26

Verdi: Macbeth

Mon

27

Monday Night at the Movies - The Silents - Davis: Phantom of the Opera; Erdmann: Nosferatu- A Symphony of Horrors; Huppertz: Metropolis

Drake's Village Brass Band...Herrmann: Jason and the Argonauts

Tue

28

Couperin: Concerts Royaux, No. 3; David Diamond: Violin Concerto No. 1; Domenico Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas; Julius R�ntgen: String Trio No. 5; J.S. Bach: Cantata BWV 201 "Geschwinde, ihr wirbelden Winde" ("Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan" - Dramma per Musica); Hans G�l: Symphony No. 4 (Sinfonia concertante), Op. 105; C.P.E. Bach: Sonatas for Connoisseurs and Amateurs (selections)

Wed

29

Franz Schreker: Chamber Symphony: Giovanni Rovetta: Vespers; Johann Schemlzer: Sonatas; 

Charles-Valentin Alkan: Troisieme Recueil de Chants; 

Giovanni Tibaldi: Trio Sonata; Sergei Taneyev: String Trio         

Thu

30

New Releases. A Sampling of New Acquisitions from the WWUH Library.

Fri

31

Halloween music - Philip Glass: Dracula and R. Strauss Death and Transfiguration

 

Thursday Evening Classics - 

Composer Birthdays for September and October

 

Composer Birthdays

 

September 4

1596 Constantin Huygens

1622 Jacob Hintze

1644 Juan Bautista Jose Cabanilles

1761 Friedrich Ludwig Emilius Kunzen

1815 Mihaly Mosonyi

1816 Francois-Emmanuel-Joseph Bazin

1824 Anton Bruckner

1859 Edoardo Mascheroni

1883 Karel Candael

1892 Darius Milhaud

1899 Frederic Curzon

1906 Antanas Raciunas

1906 Alexander Moyzes

1909 Karel Horky

1921 Ariel Ram�rez

1942 Brian Cherney

1972 Mickey Helms

 

September 11

1614 Philipp Buchner

1711 (bapt) William Boyce

1764 Valentino Fioravanti

1786 Friedrich Daniel Rudolph Kuhlau

1807 Ignaz Lachner

1844 George Clement Martin

1865 Alfred Hollins

1874 Heinrich Kaspar Schmid

1876 Alfonso Broqua

1885 Herbert Stothart

1890 Marius Leonhard Moaritz Ulfrstad

1891 Noel Gallon

1899 Vally (Valery) Weigl

1903 Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno

1925 Harry Somers

1925 Ashley David Joseph Heenan

1935 Arvo Part

1958 Sergio Fidemraizer

1959 Jeffrey Hoover

1960 Annie Gosfield

 

September 18

1587 Francesca Caccini

1636 Pietro Sanmartini

1684 Johann Gottfried Walther

1752 Johann Anton Sulzer

1765 Oliver Holden

1772 Martin-Pierre Dalvimare

1835 Johan Adam Krygell

1860 Alberto Franchetti

1883 Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson [Lord Berners]

1885 Uzeyir Hajibeyov

1885 Muslim Mahammad

1893 Arthur Benjamin

1897 Pablo Sorozabal

1910 Josef Tal (Gruenthal)

1910 Leon Stein

1928 Adam Walacinski

1933 Manfred Niehaus

1937 Norman Dinerstein

1939 Naresh Kumar Sohal

1941 Haflidi Magnus Hallgrimmson

1942 Robert S. Frost

1943 Michael Vetter

1953 Gerald Custer

1964 Luca Belcastro

1981 Roger Juli� Satorra

 

September 25

1683 (bapt) Jean-Philippe Rameau

1718 Nicola Conforto

1741 Vaclav (Wenzel) Pichl

1786 George Frederic Pinto

1830 Karl Klindworth

1862 Leon Boellmann

1871 Percy Lee Atherton

1879 Luis Costa

1886 Jesus Guridi

1896 Roberto Gerhard

1902 Jeno Takacs

1906 Dimitri Shostakovich

1906 Jaroslav Jezek

1908 Eugen Suchon

1911 Lionel Nowak

1916 Tolia Nikiprowetzky

1937 Thomas Kessler

1945 Reynold Weidenaar

1955 Robert Avalon

1959 Stella Sung

 

 October 2

1646 Guillaume Poitevin

1704 Frantisek Tuma

1725 Jeremiah Dencke

1737 (bapt) Franz Schneider

1756 Josef Jawurek

1809 Anton Emil Titl

1817 Gunnar Wennerberg

1875 Henri Fevier

1880 George Alexander Russell

1881 Fred Barlow

1914 Bengt Viktor Johansson

1917 Francis Jackson

1922 Otmar Macha

1925 Alois Pinos

1929 Kenneth Leighton

1930 Gunter Kochan

1933 Phil Niblock

1933 Dimiter Khristov

1979 Liam Mooney

 

October 9

1261 Denis of Portugal

1585 (bapt) Heinrich Sch�tz

1626 (bapt) John Ferrabosco

1727 Johann Wilhelm Hertel

1760 Pierre Gaveaux

1766 Jean-Henri-Joseph Spoelberch de Lovenjoul

1766 Bedrich Divis [Friedrich Dionys] Weber

1835 Camille Saint-Saens

1863 Alexander Siloti

1865 Henry Dike Sleeper

1869 Harry Lawrence Freeman

1877 Jes�s Castillo

1890 Alfred Julius Swan

1890 Jānis Mediņs

1904 Carl Parrish

1906 Janis Ivanovs

1914 Roger Goeb

1919 Rezs� Sug�r

1921 Adrienne Clostre

1922 Raymond Wilding-White

1923 Ronald Tremain

1928 Einojuhani Rautavaara

1930 Fjolnir Stefansson

1940 Hans Ulrich Humpert

1953 Roberto Sierra

1960 J. Mark Scearce

 

October 16

1679 Jan Dismas Zelenka

1688 Domenico Zipoli

1723 Johann Andreas Joseph Giulini

1729 Pieter (Pierre) Van Maldere

1765 Frederic Nicolas Duvernoy

1811 Gaetano Capocci

1821 Albert Franz Doppler

1826 Piotr Studzinski

1837 John Francis Barnett

1849 Arnold Krug

1849 Charles Harford Lloyd

1852 Joseph Hollman

1878 Carlos Pedrell

1903 Mario Pilati

1910 William Leonard Reed

1913 Cesar Bresgen

1936 Gerardo Gandini

1941 Derek Bourgeois

1941 Erkki Jokinen

1954 Larry Polansky

1959 Erkki Sven T��r

 

October 23

1762 Pietro Generali aka Mercandetti

1801 Gustav Albert Lortzing

1819 Isaac Baker Woodbury

1846 Alexander Andreyevich Arkhangel'sky

1851 Guillaume Couture

1893 Jean Absil

1906 Miriam Gideon

1918 Matty Ni�l

1923 Ned Rorem

1925 Manos Hadjidakis

1938 Isabelle Aboulker

1943 Ross Edwards

1955 Toshio Hosakawa

1957 Michael Glenn Williams

1961 Brett Dean

1971 Carlo Forlivesi

 

October 30

1735 Edward Miller

1775 Catterino Cavos

1790 Karol Lipinski

1815 Francis F. Hagen

1864 Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge

1885 Ezra Pound

1894 Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine)

1897 August�n Lara

1900 Rodolfo Halffter

1914 Marius Flothuis

1915 Pierre Wissmer

1931 Dawid Sofius Engela

1971 Ramunas Yaras

 

 

 Sunday Afternoon at the Opera

 

Your "lyric theater" program

with Keith Brown

programming selections

for the months of September and October,  2014 

Sunday 1-4:30pm

 

Die Meistersinger von N�rnberg

 

 

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 7TH

Thomson, The Mother of Us All 

        Before Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) wrote Four Saints in Three Acts (1924, with premiere right here in Hartford) and The Mother of Us All (1947) there was practically no such thing as a distinctively American form of opera.  Both these lyric theater works have librettos by Gertrude Stein.  A lifelong friendship developed between composer and writer,even though Stein otherwise wasn't interested in associating with musicians.  Ostensibly, The Mother of Us All is about Susan B. Anthony's crusade to secure voting rights for American women.  Don't try to look for a story line in this opera: there isn't any.  There is, however, a dramatic cavalcade of figures drawn mostly from nineteenth century history.  Besides that, running through Gertrude Stein's slightly wacky libretto is a covert commentary on her relationship with her life companion Alice B. Toklas and with others in their intellectual circle.  

        In celebration of the country's bicentennial, Santa Fe Opera produced The Mother of Us All in 1976.  Their production was recorded for release through the American label New World.  I broadcast the old original 1977 New World LP issue in 1986 and the CD reissue in 1991.  After its premiere staging at Columbia University in New York City The Mother of Us All has been performed again and again by student or amateur ensembles. A new and excellent recording was made live in performance in 2013 by the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater.  Albany Records released it in 2014 on two compact discs.  

 

SUNDAY  SEPTEMBER 14TH

Rautavaara, Kaivos; Rimsky-Korsakov, Kashchey The Immortal 

        My programming records indicate I have never before broadcast an opera by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928), although I have featured a sacred choral work of his,the Vigilia (1971) on Palm Sunday, 1999.  The composer himself writes," Kaivos ('The Mine') is perhaps the best opera I have ever written."  He makes that pronouncement in his note for the 2011 world premiere recording of Kaivos on the Finnish Ondine record label, the same label that issued his Vigilia in 1998.  Rautavaara was inspired to write his own libretto for "The Mine" after learning about the 1956 uprising in Hungary ,which the Soviets so savagely repressed.  "The Mine" is about an ill-fated worker revolt in an unnamed country that much resembles Soviet Russia.  The opera was televised in Finland on April 10, 1963 with a toned-down wordbook, so as not to offend the Russian communists, who live right next door to Finland and had long sought to dominate the Finns.  The opera had to wait almost half a century to be produced again, albeit in concert performance, but with its original libretto restored.  The recording was made at Helsinki's Tampere Hall with Hannu Lintu conducting the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kaivos Chorus of miners and  miners' wives.  Baritone Jorma Hynninen is the Commissar, the villain of the drama.

         There will be ample time remaining to listen to an "Autumnal Parable" in one act: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Kashchey The Immortal (1902). This is another one of Rimsky's Russian fairy tale operas, of shorter duration and on a smaller scale than the others. The fairy tale presented here is very similar to The Firebird, made famous from Stravinsky's ballet music treatment.  There is no magic bird, but there definitely is an evil sorcerer.  When Kashchey was revived at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1905, coming as it did in the immediate wake of the Bloody Sunday massacre, the audience read into the story an allegory on the downfall of the Czarist regime.  The performance incited a student demonstration, the police stepped in and the opera ended up being banned for a while, much to the composer's chagrin.  Kashchey The Immortal was recorded in 1991 with the orchestra, chorus and singing cast of the Bolshoi Theatre, Andrey Chistiakov conducting. Outside Russia this recording was once available through the French label Le Chant du Monde.  The Dutch label Brilliant Classics acquired the rights to it and reissued it  on a single compact disc in 2013.   

 

 

SUNDAY SEPTMBER 21ST

Wagner, Die Meistersinger, Act One and Act Two 

        The longstanding problem with broadcasting Wagner operas is their length.  Some of them simply won't fit into my three-and-a-half hour timeslot. The only way to accommodate them is to broadcast the complete opera on two successive Sundays.  This I have done in past years to accommodate Parsifal, appropriately enough, on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.  Over two Sundays I did the same for a long German baroque opera, Telemann's Der Geduldige Sokrates.  So this Sunday I present the first two of the three acts of Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg (1868), in an historic recording made live on stage at the Metropolitan Opera,January 15, 1972.  This is actually an airtape of a radio broadcast from the Met, the tape derived from the Met's audio archives.  Sony Classical was permitted to release Die Meistersinger  in digitally upgraded sonics in its series "The Metropolitan Opera."  Sony's series delves into the Met's vaults as far back as the 1940's, giving us today the opportunity to hear the voices of the Met's stellar casting lineup- singers from the period in the  mid twentieth century that opera lovers often regard as the Golden Age of opera singing.  Thomas Schippers was conducting the Met's orchestra and chorus on that occasion four decades and more ago. Among the "Mastersingers of Nuremberg" are James King, Ezio Flagello, Benno Kusche and bass-baritone Theo Adam starring as Hans Sachs.  Soprano Pilar Lorengar stars as Eva.  The Met's 1972 Meistersinger  was issued on three compact discs in 2011.  After listening to all those famous voices from the past, stay tuned for selections from Wagner's operas sung by a noteworthy contemporary voice, German soprano Petra Lang. 

 

 

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 28TH   

Wagner,Die Meistersinger, Act Three; 

Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 2, "Lobgesang." 

        Following the Wagner opera, we'll stay in the mode of nineteenth century German romanticism.  There's sufficient time remaining to audition a large scale work by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, his Symphony No. 2, "Lobgesang" or "Hymn of Praise" (1840).  This work takes off where Beethoven's Ninth Symphony leaves off.  But is it a symphony, or rather a big cantata,or maybe a mini-oratorio? Mendelssohn composed it on commission from the city of Leipzig to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of Gutenberg's invention of printing.  The "Hymn of Praise" was recorded in Munich in 2012 for the French Harmonia Mundi label.  Pablo Heras-Casado conducts the Chorus and Symphony  Orchestra of Radio Bavaria.  The vocal soloists are sopranos Christiane Karg and  Christina Landshamer, joined by tenor Michael Schade.  HM released "Lobgesang" in 2014 on a single silver disc.   

 

SUNDAY  OCTOBER 5TH    

Vivaldi, L'Incoronazione di Dario 

        If you're an astute follower of opera you've surely at least heard of Claudio Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea ("The Coronation of Poppea," 1642), and I've broadcast recordings of that early baroque masterpiece several times in the past.  Well, get ready for "The Coronation of Darius," in Italian L'Incoronazione di Dario (1717),one of the many operas of another baroque master, Antonio Vivaldi.  The violin virtuoso, author of the famous "Four Seasons" concertos and so much other instrumental music, actually spent much of his career writing and staging operas.  Twenty or so of them survive complete, others in fragmentary scores, totaling at least 38 works, possibly as high as 49. Piles of Vivaldi manuscripts are preserved in the National University Library at Turin.  

        L'Incoronazione di Dario was the entertainment rather belatedly substituted for an opera by another composer that was suddenly withdrawn at the start of the 1716-17 Carnival season in Venice. Like so much of Vivaldi's output, Dario was written in haste, yet crafted meticulously, nonetheless, and proved to be a crowdpleaser at the Theatro San Angelo.  Two Italian musicologists prepared the score of Dario for its modern performing edition: Stefano Aresi (Act One) and Giovanni Andrea Secchi (Acts Two and Three).  Their scholarship has made possible the historically-informed recorded performance of 'The Coronation of Darius" for the French label Na�ve in its ongoing Vivaldi Edition series.  Ottavio Dantone leads the period instrumentalists of the Accademia Bizantina of Ravenna and eight vocal soloists who are schooled in baroque singing practice.  The recording was produced by Deutschland Radio of Bremen and released in 2013 on three compact discs.  

 

SUNDAY OCTOBER 12TH 

Haydn, L'Incontro Improvviso  

        Amidst the enormous volume of music he turned out in his long career as a composer, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) wrote at least fourteen operas.  Through the 1980's I broadcast a series of recordings,some of them world premieres on disc, of Haydn's operas as issued under the PHILIPS label.  After previously recording all of Haydn's 104 symphonies, in the late 1970's Hungarian conductor Antal Dorati turned to the operas for a similarly monumental recording project.  My personal favorite in the PHILIPS Haydn Eszterhaza Opera Cycle is L'Incontro Improvviso  ("The Unforeseen Encounter," 1775), the seventh of the operas Haydn wrote for the private opera theater of the palace of his patron the Hungarian Prince Nicolas Eszerhazy. It's in the eighteenth century genre of "Turkish" opera and has some of the same elements that went into Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio." "The Unforeseen Encounter" is an Italian language drama giocosa.  

        The libretto of Haydn's Turkish opera was translated into German and it was performed publicly as a Singspiel closer in form to Mozart's famous work.  I broadcast the original 1980 LP release of L'Incontro Improvviso on Sunday, May 22, 1883.  It was reissued on compact disc in 1993,s o I broadcast the opera again on November 7th of that same year.  This Sunday I draw upon that three-CD PHILIPS boxed set.  Dorati conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne in Switzerland with a mostly British cast of singers.   

 

SUNDAY OCTOBER 19TH

Cilea, L'Arlesiana 

        With the sole  exception of Adriana Lecouvreur (1902), his one shot at international fame, the operas of Francesco Cilea (1866-1950) never had any currency outside his native Italy.  Even Adriana's claim for inclusion in the international operatic repertoire is shaky.  Cilea's L'Arlesiana (1897), if it is remembered at all today, is noteworthy for giving the illustrious Enrico Caruso his start.  The young tenor sang the lead male role of Federico in the premiere production at Milan's Teatro Lirico.  The story of the opera is the same as that of the French play for which Bizet provided such wonderful L'Arlesienne incidental music in 1872.  Cilea's music for his Arles opera is suffused with the natural sweetness of folksong.  

        I have broadcast L'Arlesiana once before, on Sunday, June 1, 1997, the Harmonia Mundi CD's capturing the audio part of the 1991 stage production by the Hungarian State Opera.  Previous to that, I've also broadcast Adriana Lecouvreur (Sunday, May 16, 1993).  Theater Freiburg in Germany recorded a concert production of the opera in 2012. Cilea tinkered with the score of this work over four decades of his life. He deeply regretted cutting Federico's final aria, the romanza in Act Three after the stage premiere.  Cilea's autograph of that number has long gone missing.  In accordance with the composer's intentions (we would hope), that now recovered number can be heard in the first truly complete recording of L'Arlesiana.  Fabrice Ballon conducts the Philharmonic Orchestra of Freiburg,the Camerata Vocale of Freiburg, plus the opera chorus and children's chorus of Theater Freiburg.  As you listen to this recording,g o easy on the lead tenor Giuseppe Filianati.  He does a fine job, considering that he invites comparison to Caruso.  The Freiburg L'Arlesiana came out just this year through the German CPO record label on two compact discs.   

 

SUNDAY OCTOBER 26TH

Verdi, Macbeth 

        Amongst his many early operas Macbeth (1847, revised 1865) is acknowledged as Verdi's first true masterpiece.  It inaugurates the composer's glorious middle period, with La Traviata, Rigoletto and Il Trovatore soon to follow.  Verdi's mind was attuned to all the fantastic and horrific elements in Shakespeare's Scottish play, especially the witches, who play an even more important role in the opera than they do in the Elizabethan stagework. Those nineteenth century "gothick" elements make this opera ideal for broadcast at Halloweentide.  

        Macbeth is well represented in the Verdi discography. We have several now historic LP recordings of it in our station's classical music record library. The oldest one, released through RCA Victor in 1959 in early stereo sound, features the cast, chorus and orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, Erich Leinstorf conducting. (Macduff here is the recently deceased and much esteemed Italian tenor Carlo Bergonzi.) I broadcast that recording on Sunday, November 15, 1987.  There's also a 1965 London three-LP boxed set, with American conductor Thomas Schippers leading the chorus and orchestra the Accademia di Santa Cecilia of Rome and an all-Italian cast of singers, with the sole exception of Swedish soprano Birgit Nilsson as Lady Macbeth.  That recording went over the air on Sunday, October 30, 2005.  

     From the Hartford Public Library's compact disc collection I borrowed for broadcast the 1986 Hungaroton Macbeth, employing Hungarian musical resources but starring the Italian baritone Piero Capuccilli in the title role.  Lamberto Gardelli was conducting. That one I aired on Sunday, October 29, 2000. The same Italian maestro was in charge in a 1971 Decca/London Macbeth on three vinyl discs.  Gardelli led the London Symphony Orchestra and Ambrosian Opera Chorus.  One of the single greatest baritone voices of the twentieth century, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2013) portrays the ill-fated Thane of Cawdor. The late superstar tenor Luciano Pavarotti is Macduff.  This Sunday you get to hear the 1971 London release, the third and last of the historic Macbeths we have in our station's collection.


 

        In programming for these two Autumnal months I must thank fellow record collector Rob Meehan for the loan of two of his recordings for broadcast:the new recording of Thomson's The Mother of Us All and Rautavaara's "The Mine."  Rob is a former classics deejay at WWUH and a specialist in the alternative musics of the twentieth and twenty first centuries.  I have contributed my own recording of Haydn's L'Incontro Improvviso.  All the other featured recordings are derived from our station's ever-growing library of classical music on disc.  I must also thank our WWUH operations director Kevin O'Toole for mentoring me in the preparation of these notes for cyber-publication.

        As a postscript to these current  notes, I must issue a correction to one of my previous Program Guide notes- the one for  Sunday, July 13th. Leo Fall's operetta The Rose of Stambul did not witness its 1922 American premiere at the Shubert Theater in New Haven, as I stated. It took place at a different Shubert Organization house, the Century Theater in New York City.  It remains true, however, that many Shubert Brothers shows started at the historic Shubert New Haven.

 

Hartford Symphony Orchestra 
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra, marking its 70th Season in 2013-2014, is Connecticut's premier musical organization. The Hartford Symphony is the second largest orchestra in New England and is widely recognized as one of America's leading regional orchestras.


For tickets and more information, visit 

http://www.hartfordsymphony.org/concerts-tickets/ 

or call HSO Ticket Services at 860.244.2999.

Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts
Opened in December of 1955, Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is the largest college-based presenting program in New England. Each season, Jorgensen events attract more than 70,000 students, faculty and staff from the University of Connecticut, as well as residents from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Jorgensen presents 25-30 nationally and internationally acclaimed artists and ensembles annually, ranging from classical music to world music and dance, classical and contemporary dance, comedy, family programming and contemporary entertainment. 

Box Office: 860.486.4226 or 
The Musical Club of Hartford

The Musical Club of Hartford, Inc., is a non-profit Connecticut organization celebrating its 123rd anniversary this year. Each year, from October to May, ten or more concerts are presented by performing members, featuring soloists and vocal or instrumental ensembles. These concerts usually take place on Thursday mornings at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2080 Boulevard, West Hartford, CT.  For more information, visit:  
Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra

The Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra, a non-profit Community Orchestra, presents numerous concerts in the Greater Hartford area, performing works from all periods in a wide range of musical styles. The members of Hartford's only community orchestra are serious amateurs who come from a broad spectrum of occupations. Besides commissioning and performing new works, the CVCO has made concert tours to Romania, Spain, Hungary, Austria and Poland 
under the sponsorship of organizations such as the Friendship Ambassadors Foundation.

  

For more information, visit the CVCO website.
West Hartford Symphony Orchestra
For over ten years, the West Hartford Symphony has been providing a musical outlet for residents of West Hartford and the Greater Hartford Area. Musicians from the ages of 14 to 86 come together once a week to play a variety of pieces and perform four concerts each year. For tickets and information, 860-521-4362 or http://whso.org/.

Who Else
WWUH Radio 91.3 FM : Celebrating 45 Years of Public Alternative Radio
 
Our programming can be heard at various times throughout the day on the following stations:
WAPJ -  Torrington, 89.9 and 105.1 Mhz
WDJW - Somers, 89.7 Mhz
WWEB - Wallingford, 89.9 Mhz.