May/June, 2016
In This Issue
Tuesday Classics
One Hit Wonders
Benefit Folk Concert for UH
Spotlight on Brian Grosjean
Spotlight on Jack Baciewski
Spotlight on Walter Miskin
Aporlifhr on Turtle Man
Classical Programming
Opera Programming
WWUH 91.3 Program Guide



Our spring Marathon was a success thanks to everyone who donated.  We raised over $52,000, more than enough for us to end your fiscal year on June 30th in the black.

Listener support is critical to the success of WWUH but the station is also supported through the volunteer efforts of over seventy individuals who keep us on the air 24/7 all year round.  Below and in future issues of the Program Guide you will find profiles on some of these outstanding volunteers.

John Ramsey
General Manager
 
Tuesday Classics - Ira Braus on Max Reger - 4pm 5/3
Who Else
The classical music world has embarked on a retrospective celebration of the works of Max Reger (1873-1916), who died 100 years ago this May.

Since the start of this year, David Schonfeld, co-host of WWUH Tuesday Evening Classics, has been sampling Reger's works on his programs.

On May 3, 2016 David will be joined in the station from 5:00 to 8:00 by Hartt Professor Ira Braus, a musicologist and pianist with a long-time interest in the music of Max Reger. Ira will talk to us about Reger's significance, with plenty of recorded examples and entertaining anecdotes. Ira is a fascinating raconteur and an expert on the subject. If you're interested in classical music history, you won't want to miss his presentation.
 
One Hit Wonders featured on Sunday Gothics

For the Sunday night Gothic Blimp Works program (Boomer's Paradise) we will continue our sojourn down the Billboard Top 40 One Hits Wonders path. We will also continue to explore garage band and psychedelic music from the British Empire and beyond as well as the good old USA. We'll also explore rock music that features the mellotron, Hammond B-3 Organ and other keyboard instruments as well as the e-Bow, flute and saxophone.

 
WWUH BENEFIT CONCERT

On Saturday, May 7, The Sounding Board and the Portable Folk Festival will present a concert to benefit WWUH, long time host of "FM On Toast".

The Portable Folk Festival presents everything from traditional Folk to Country to whatever strikes their fancy, with vocals and instruments ranging from guitars to tube, from fiddles to spoons.  They're inviting you and performer-friends from the area to come and listen and sing along!

The Sounding Board was founded by Bill Domler, an original FM on Toast host and  presented a variety of Folk music for more than forty years.

At the Universalist Church, 433 Fern Street, West Hartford.


 
Volunteer Spotlight
Brian Grosjean


Bono with Brian Grosjean
    

     Brian Grosjean, a resident of Willington, CT, first discovered WWUH while scanning the radio dial when he arrived in Hartford from college in upstate New York in 1978. Dave Demaw played adventurous music on Sunday nights on The Greatest Show From Earth and the station's folk programming satisfied Brian's craving for current folk music.

     Brian joined the station's staff in 1992. After several years of answering phones during Marathon, he put his engineering skills to work building the first News Room. "At first I was intimidated by some of the people at the station, and could not express my own ideas too well. But after years of exchanging similar interests and great conversations, I have come to find many long lasting friends at WWUH."

     "Since I was a technical person, I felt a need for an outlet for my creativity. I wanted to do some kind of art where I would not be the center of attention (such as is the case with performing music or dancing), but where I could express myself about something I loved that was unique. I loved international music, and a radio show can focus on the music, not me. In the mid-1990s, locally there was a lack of attention given to this genre, even though a real upsurge in attention being paid to it from major international stars like Paul Simon, Sting, and many others. I believed I could present a unique show as a service to the listening community."

     "I quickly completed the training, and took an overnight show within a few weeks and a Gothics show about six months later. After that, changes in my home and work life caused me to take a hiatus. Then in 1998, Monday afternoon Synthesis opened up. That's when I started The Global Village radio show, which lasted about six months. I stayed connected with the folk music hosts by filling in for several years, and finally got my chance at a regular show on Sunday morning slot when Bill Domler passed away in 2000 after many decades of his service to the station."

     The program he is referring to is of course The Culture Caf� which features folk music "from the rest of the world" and which airs from 6am to 9am every Sunday morning. 

     "The idea of the show has been to present music from other cultures in a way that reduces the fear between peoples. Once you know the music and culture of another people, your fear of them decreases, and so does the risk of misunderstandings and wars. So the motto of the show is 'World Peace Through Cultural Celebration'. Through my large collection of label and artist contacts, I make sure the show stays fresh and in the vanguard of new folk and ethnic music from around the world."

     "At the request of Angelique Kidjo and other international artists, I have reduced the references to the word 'World Music'. They say it denigrates the music and keeps it out of the mainstream. So I use other terms now.

     "My listeners are the most diverse and interesting people. Regularly I get calls from listeners who connect in some way with the music, either in their culture, or somehow connecting with another culture. Africans have called me dancing for joy at hearing music from their home. A record producer called me to express her thanks at playing the obscure music she recorded. I got involved with an effort to save Cambodian folk music through an interview."

     Brian's personal musical interests are varied. In addition to a deep down love for Afro Funk, gypsy jazz, and Persian music, he likes progressive, composed jazz, some indie rock, a lot of modern classical music, and some jam bands. You can occasionally hear him co-host The Greatest Show From Earth to talk about this other side of his musical tastes. 

     Asked about his favorite band or performer, Brian's response was "Hard to say. I still follow some folk heroes like David Bromberg, Don Maclean and the spirit of Pete Seeger. They were a huge influence on my own playing. For live shows I watch for the new Afrofunk bands such as Antibalas, Idan Raichel from Israel and many Africans such as Angelique Kidjo, Samite and Seun Kuti."
Over the years Brian has helped host some of the Folk Next Door concerts, been the stage manager for some live shows, and has collected and maintains the st
ation's World Music library.

     His other interests are no less varied. He enjoys hiking, biking, tai chi, genealogy, and plays the guitar, banjo, Dobro and mandolin.

     He is married and spends most of his free time with his four children and two grandchildren. Brian is on the Board of Directors at Windham Area Interfaith Ministries in Willimantic and he is also a musician in a contemporary Christian church band. Professionally, he is a mechanical engineer in international sales and marketing of power generation equipment.

     In addition, Brian is an Adjunct Professor of Business Marketing at Eastern Connecticut State University, and an occasional lecturer in International Marketing.

 
Spotlight on 
Polkaman Jack Baciewski

     Windsor resident John Baciewski, aka Polkaman Jack Baciewski, started listening to WWUH in 1988 when he discovered Johnny Prytko's Saturday morning Polka show. He took over for Prytko when he retired about a year and a half ago and is the current host of Capital City Polka Time which airs from 6am to 9am every Saturday morning.
     The program features Polka music of all types, Polish, German, Bavarian, Slovenian, Slovak and Tex-Mex, and includes news and calendar events in the Polka world.
     The show started in 1988 with hosts Johnny Prytko and Ted Niehay and Baciewski was thrilled to carry on the tradition. "I have always enjoyed doing radio and playing polka music. (I volunteer) for the love of radio and of the listening audience." John continued "Nowhere in our listening area is there a radio station that caters to everyone's needs and wants."
     In addition to Polka music, John enjoys 60s-80s Rock, smooth Jazz and Folk music. His favorite performers include Connecticut Twins and Phil Collins. Drumming, record collecting and watching old TV shows are some of his other interests.



Spotlight On
Walt Miskin
Walter Miskin - Wednesday Synthesis.



     This is Walt Miskin's second stint as a WWUH volunteer. He started out at the station in 1976 when he served as station program director and then general manager. He left the station in 1981 to pursue other interests and then rejoined the staff in 2013.
     
     He currently hosts the Wednesday afternoon Synthesis program "Unclewobbly's Afternoon Extravaganza" (1-4pm) which features Rock music, primarily from the late 60's to 80's with "some other stuff thrown in as the spirit or requests move me". Prior to the Synthesis slot Walt hosted Tuesday Accent on Jazz for over a year.

      "I wanted to get back into radio when I retired from Acuative Inc. as a Senior Network Engineer in 2013" said Walter. "I was in radio from 1976 to 1981, first at WWUH and then at as an announcer at WIOF Magic 104. I also worked at Meriden's WMMW on weekends."

     His musical Interests are varied and all genres of music interest him. He plays percussion.

     Despite being off the air for over two decades Walt found it easy to get back into the swing of things. "Being a former station GM and PD (made) it easy for to get
back on staff and on the air again."

     Walt is married to Erica Mickin with two daughters, Lisa and Jessica.


Spotlight on WWUH Volunteer
Turtle Man

 
      Turtle Man has been a WWUH volunteer since November, 2013 and has been a station listener for many years. In addition to helping with the station's fund drives he hosts Boomer's Paradise which airs every Sunday night at midnight. 

      His show is one of the seven weekly Gothic Blimp Work programs offered by WWUH, a program that first aired in July, 1969! " I enjoyed working at radio station during college years and wanted to get back into radio broadcasting" and Boomer's Paradise made it's debut in February, 2014. It's focus is on music of the Baby Boomer generation as well as all types of rock music past and present. Why does he do the show? "I enjoy sharing music with other people because our lives are so intertwined with music."

     Turtle Man volunteers at WWUH because "WWUH provides the type of music not found on commercial radio and want to make it available to the public to enjoy." Turtle Man likes all types of musc. His favorite band is the Moody Blues and his two favorite concerts were Moody Blues at The Bushnell 1969 and The Doors at The Bushnell 1967. When not on the air he enjoy's movies, reading, trivia about rock music and rock genealogy, rock concerts, turtles and my Nordic Princess.

     About WWUH " the programming is unique to the area that it serves. The diversity of musical genre is quite large and typically can't be found anywhere else. The radio program hosts are knowledgeable about the music they play because they care about it as much as their listening audience.

      Turtle Man volunteers at the CT Radio Information System (CRIS) doing live news broadcasting and pre-recording articles for national newspapers. He is a retired Business Analyst with over 35 years of experience. At the time of his retirement he had his Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) certification from the International Institute of Business Analysis. He was one of the first Business Analyst to receive this certification where I was employed at The Hartford.


 
WWUH Classical Programming - May/June 2016

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera, Sundays 1 - 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

May
Sun
1
Elgar: King Olaf, The Banner of St. George
Mon
2
Beach: Piano Concerto, Piano Quartet; Gould Spirituals for Orchestra; Copland: Dance Symphony Drake's Village Brass Band - Chicago Gargoyle Brass and Organ Ensemble - Flourishes, Tales and Symphonies
Tue
3
Johann Pezel: "Alphabet Sonatas" - Sonata Ciaccona;
Penderecki: Violin Concerto No. 1 (1976); D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas.
Professor Ira Braus will visit to talk about and illustrate the music of Max Reger, who died a hundred years ago.
Wed
4
Mahler: Symphony No. 4; Domenico Zipoli: Mass in F; Gounod: String Quartet in A Minor; Reger: Serenade in D; Prokofiev: Melodies for Violin and Piano
Thu
5
Jacques Danican Philidor: March for Kettledrums; Scheibe: Sinfonia � 4 in A, Concerto for Recorder & 2 Violins in B Flat; Moniuszko: Haunted Manor - Who of my maidens whose heart "Miecznik's aria", Bajka (The Fairy Tale) Overture, Halka Overture; Chueca: El Bateo Prelude; Noble: Souls of the Righteous; Pfitzner: Das K�thchen von Heilbronn Overture, Violin Concerto in b Op. 34, Zum Abschied meiner Tochter; History of Classical Music - Orchestral Opera; Eybler: Symphony #2 in d.
Fri
6
The final class is in session for the History of Classical Music in 24 Hours -  Minimalism  . . . (enough said)
Sun
8
Lully: Phaeton
Mon
9
Beach: Violin Sonata; Thomson: Songs; Rimsky-Korsakov: Symphony #2 "Antar"; Myaskovsky: Symphony #21; Gidon Kremer & Kremerata Baltica - De Profundis Drake's Village Brass Band - University of St. Thomas Wind Symphony - How Very Close
Tue
10
Strauss: Romanze in F for Cello & Orchestra; Onslow: String Quintet in D, Op. 68; Smetana: M� Vlast; Poulenc: Figure humaine
Wed
11
Host's Choice
Thu
12
Host's Choice
Fri
13
The final class is in session for the History of Classical Music in 24 Hours -  Minimalism  . . . (enough said)
Sun
15
Mozart: Il Re Pastore
Mon
16
Riley: June Buddhas; Harrison: Seven Pastorales; Ravel: Rhapsodie Espagnole, Mother Goose Suite, Introduction and Allegro; Satie: Orchestral Music Drake's Village Brass Band - University of St. Thomas Wind Symphony - Love and Hope
Tue
17
Rautavaara: Symphony #3, Op. 20; Fr�hlich: String Quartet #2 in g; Barber: Concerto for Violin & Orchestra, Op. 14; des Pr�s: Missa Sine nomine
Wed
18
Joachim Raff: Symphony No. 4 in G Minor; Marco da Gagliano: Messe a Double Choeur; Alexander Borodin: String Quartet No. 1; Johannes Schenk: Sonatas; Mendelssohn: Quartet for Piano, Violin and Cello
Thu
19
Host's Choice
Fri
20
This will be a very Sirius program feature
Sun
22
Mozart: Les Mysteres d'Isis
Mon
23
Beach: Quartet for Strings; Piano Trio; Var�se: Arcana; Martin: Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments; Schmitt: Anthony and Cleopatra Drake's Village Brass Band - University of St. Thomas Wind Symphony - Duende
Tue
24
Lachner: Septet in E; Widor: Trio in B for Piano, Violin & Cello, Op. 19; Rosetti: Horn Concerto in E; Scheidt: Wies Gott gef�llt
Wed
25
Ernest Chausson: Symphony in B Flat; Antonio Salieri: Requiem in C Minor; Brahms: String Quartet No. 1; Johann Ernst Eberlin: Toccatas and Fugues; Giovanni Battista Fontana: Sonatas
Thu
26
New Releases. A Sampling of New Acquisitions from the WWUH Library.
Fri
27
Classical Conversations - a quarterly feature - an interview with Gil Rose (Boston Modern Orchestra Project)
Sun
29
Sousa: El Capitan
Mon
30
Memorial Day Special - Songs of the Civil War; Ives: Variations on America, Symphony #1; Adams: The Wound Dresser; Sedaka: Manhattan Intermezzo Drake's Village Brass Band - U. S. Military Academy Band - A Tribute to Morton Gould
Tue
31
Telemann: Overture-Suite in D TWV 55:D18; Poul Ruders: Violin Concerto No. 1 (1981); D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas; Max Reger: Sonata in A minor for cello and piano, Op. 116; Robert Simpson: String Quartet No. 8; Music by Alberto Ginastera (born 100 years ago)
June
Wed
1
Simon Le Duc: Symphony No. 1 in D Major; Dvorak: Symphony No. 4; Luigi Rossi: Songs; Petrus de Grudencz: Hymns; Pietro Locatelli: Violin Concerto; Nicolai Medtner: Piano Concerto No. 3
Thu
2
Nicolai Rubinstein: Polka Morceau de Concert Op. 15; Elgar: Cello Concerto, Pomp and Circumstance Marches Op. 39, Sea Pictures Op. 37; Shelley: Berceuse; Weingartner: Serenade for String Orchestra in F Op. 7; Borresen: Romance for Cello & Orchestra Op. 4; Robin Orr: Italian Overture; Samuel Jones: Symphony #3 "Palo Duro Canyon"; Hamlisch: The Way We Were; Fiala: Symphony in F.
Fri
3
Host's choice as Larry & Faith go squirrel hunting in Kentucky - don't worry, we'll only shoot 'em with a camera
Sun
5
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurenberg (Acts 1 and 2)
Mon
6
Sea Music - Bax: Tintagel; Elgar: Sea Pictures; Stanford: Songs of the Sea; Bridge: The Sea; Herrmann: Moby Dick Cantata Drake's Village Brass Band - Sea Songs
Tue
7
Jadassohn: Symphony #1 in C, Op. 24; Glass: Violin Concerto #2, 'The American Four Seasons'; Ginastera: Ollantay (A Spanish Triptych); Lange-M�ller: Trio in f for Piano, Violin & Cello, Op. 53
Wed
8
Franz Berwald: Symphony No. 4; Felipe de Magalhaes: Missa O Soberana Luz; Marcel Dupre: Sept Pieces, Op. 27; Louis Durey: Images a Crusoe; Emmanuel Chabrier: Suite Pastorale; Hector Berlioz: Le Roi Lear Overture
Thu
9
Nicolai: Knight Templar Overture, Merry Wives of Windsor Overture; Magnard: Quintet for Piano, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon in d Op. 8; Carl Nielsen: Alladin Suite, Chaconne, Violin Concerto; Yamada: Red Dragonfly; Cole Porter: Songs; Dahl: Music for Brass Instruments ; Wuorinen: Josquiniana-Helas madame; Fodor: Symphony #3 in c.
Fri
10
Another host's choice - we'll be in KY from Friday to Friday this time
Sun
12
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nurenberg (Act 3); Fall: Paroli
Mon
13
The Lark Quartet - Composing America; Wolfe: Anthracite Fields; Paulus: Three Places of Enlightenment - Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra Drake's Village Brass Band - Canadian Brass - Pachelbel to Joplin
Tue
14
Ravel: Sonata for Violin & Cello; Sierra: Sinfon�a #3 'La Salsa'; Foote: Piano Quintet in a, Op 38; des Pr�s: Missa Ad fugam
Wed
15
Johan Ernst Hartmann: Symphony No. 1; Ernest Bloch: Israel Symphony; Orlando Gibbons: Choral Music; A. Scarlatti: Messa per il Santissimo Natale; Wlodek Gulgowski: Piano Works; Gyorgy Ligeti: Sonata for Solo Cello
Thu
16
New Releases. A Sampling of New Acquisitions from the WWUH Library
Fri
17
Yale held a commencement 102 years ago today - Jean Sibelius was awarded a Mus D degree
Sun
19
Salieri: Les Danaides; Philidor: Les Femmes Vengees
Mon
20
Music for the Summer Solstice - Bridge: Summer; Barber: Summer Music; Wolfe: Early That Summer; Mendelssohn: A Midsummer's Night Dream; Riley: The Cusp of Magic Drake's Village Brass Band - American Wind Symphony Bicentennial Disc Volume 3
Tue
21
Telemann: Overture-Suite in B-flat TWV 55:B5; Sofia Gubaidulina: Violin Concerto (1980-86); D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas; Max Reger:  String Quartet, Op. 109; Robert Simpson: String Quartet No. 9; Music by Alberto Ginastera
Wed
22
Philip Glass: Symphony No. 3; Guilaume de Machaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame; George Enescu: Piano Quartet No. 1 in D; Jan Dussek: Sonata in C Minor; Jules Massenet: Herodiade; Franz Danzi: Wind Quintet
Thu
23
Charpentier: Le malade imaginaire H. 495-excerpts; Reinecke: Flute Sonata in e Op. 167 "Undine", Harp Concerto in e Op. 182, Trio for Piano, Oboe & Horn in a Op. 188; Guiraud: Caprice; Duffy: Heritage Symphonic Dances; Franzl: Sinfonia #5 in C; Tchaikovsky: Suite #3.
Fri
24
Celebrating the 115th birth anniversary of Harry Partch
Sun
26
Wainwright: Prima Donna
Mon
27
Monday Night at the Movies - Schmitt: Salammbo; Shostakovich: Odna "Alone"
Drake's Village Brass Band - Hanson: Young Composer's Guide to the Six Tone Scale
Tue
28
Sinding: Suite im alten Stil, Op. 10; Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Quintet in g, Op. 1; Raff: Symphony #1, Op. 96 'To the Fatherland'; Schubert: Deutsche Messe, D. 872
Wed
29
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf: Sinfonia in G Minor; Cipriano de Ror: Missa Praeter Rerum Seriem; Franz Xaver Richter: String Quartet No. 5; Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 21; Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G; Joan Ambrosio Dalza: Dances
Thu
30
Rameau: Les Indes Galantes - Airs; Georg Benda: Harpsichord Concerto in b; Graf: Symphony in D Op. 14 #1; Hopkins: Psalm 28; Drigo: Harlequin's Millions - Notturno d'amore "Serenade"; Robert Browne Hall: The New Colonial, Officer of the Day; Paul Piern�: Bucolique Vari�e; Lajtha: Lysistrata Overture; Mailman: Concertino, Op. 31; Giles Swayne: Magnificat; Galina: Sinfonia in E-Flat; Holst: St. Paul's Suite; Gade: Novellette Op. 53.
 

 
SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT THE OPERA

Your "lyric theater" program
with Keith Brown
programming selections for the months ofMay and June,2016
 
SUNDAY MAY 1st Elgar, King Olaf, The Banner of St. George
Before the Enigma Variations for orchestra (1899) made him famous, Sir Edward Elgar composed a series of large-scale dramatic cantatas of very high quality. None of these works are at all well known today. Recordings of them do exist, however, which I have drawn upon for broadcast. There's Caractacus (1898), forinstance, which sets forth the legend about the military leader of those ancient Britons who held out against Roman rule. The EMI Classics release of Caractacus (Sir Charles Groves/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic) went over the air on Sunday, May 10, 2010. A similar work is Scenes from the Saga of King Olaf (1896), asetting of verse by the nineteenth century American poet Longfellow. This cantata is scored for three vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra. King of Norway, Olaf Tryggvason (c. 950-1000) converted his Viking nation to Christianity at swordpoint. Elgar wrote King Olaf on commission for the North Staffordshire Music Festival. King Olaf has been recorded only once before in 1986 for EMI. The UK classical label Chandos has issued a new recording, made in Norway in 2014. British conductor Andrew Davis leads the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edvard Grieg Chorus and Collegium Musicum Choir. The three voxcal soloists are Brits, too.
    Piggybacked on the second of two Chandos CD's is Elgar's patriotic "ballad" for chorus and orchestra The Banner of Saint George (1897).Written, again on commission, in celebration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee year of reign, it gives us a little medieval romance about the sainted knight who slays the dragon and rescues the fair damsels from being sacrificed to the monster. Elgar brings his musical treatment of a rather overwrought text to a stirring conclusion in praise of empire and the Union Jack, the nation's banner. Again, it's Davis directing the Bergen Philharmonic, Grieg Chorus and Collegium Musicum. Regular listeners to this program may remember when I broadcast The Banner of St. George as additional programming on Easter Sunday, 2015 following the feature of the afternoon, Elgar's oratorio The Dream of Gerontius (1900).
 
SUNDAY MAY 8th Lully, Phaeton
This was one of the single most popular and enduring of the tragedies lyriques of Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-87). First produced in 1683 at the Paris Opera, it was so well liked it was referred to as "the Opera of the People." Phaeton was performed in many other European cities: Antwerp, Regensburg, Amsterdam, Brussels, Ghent and The Hague. This was unusual, because outside of France, opera of the French baroque generally could not hold its own against the overwhelming international popularity of Italian opera. Following its premiere production, Phaeton was restaged in Lyon, and the Paris Opera revived it again and again throughout the first half of the eighteenth century. Phaeton was worthy of all its' revivals because it is one of the most musically beautiful of Lully's operas; its' grand stage spectacle was combined with tuneful vocal airs and choruses and plenty of sprightly dance numbers. The story of the opera is taken from a classical source, Ovid's Metamorphoses, which tells of the rash youth, Apollo's son, who failed to manage the Sun God's chariot, and was consequently struck down by Jupiter's thunderbolt. Lully's librettist Quinault embellished the legend with amorous and political subplots. Mark Minkowski and his period instrument ensemble Les Musiciensdu Louvre put in a splendid interpretation of Phaeton for the French record label Erato. I broadcast the two-CD Erato set on Sunday, April 23, 1995. Phaeton has been recorded anew for another French record label Aparte. Their 2012 release on two silver discs gives us Christophe Rousset's treatment of the Lullian masterwork. Rousset directs his own periodinstrument group Les Talens Lyriques, augmented by the Chamber Choir of Namur. Phaeton was recorded live in concert performance at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.
 
SUNDAY MAY 15th Mozart, IL Re Pastore
This is the tenth of Mozart's operatic works, assigned the number 208 in the Koechel catalog of Mozart's entire musical output. It certainly belongs in the genre of opera, but it's been labelled a serenata, a pastorale - even a cantata, since its' premiere at Salzburg in 1775 may have been in unstaged concert performance. The early Mozart style is easy to listen to, and the libretto by Pietro Metastasio taxes no one's mental powers. The mode of Metastasianopera seriawas already old-fashioned when the young musical genius got to work on a much altered wordbook for "The Shepherd King." One conservative feature is that it calls for the voice of a male soprano or castrato.Female soprano Reri Grist took on the breeches role of Amenta, the noble-minded shepherd who ought to be king of Sidon in the time of Alexander the Great. Reri Grist sang in a 1970's era recording for RCA that was picked up for LP reissue in 1981 through the Arabesque label. Denis Vaughan conducted the Orchestra of Naples, with a cast that included noteworthy Italian tenors Nicola Moni and Luigi Alva. The Arabesque re-issue I broadcast on Sunday, July 23, 2006. IL Re Pastore has been recorded anew by the periodinstrument orchestra and singers of Classical Opera, a musical organization specializing in the lyric theaterworks of Mozart and his contemporaries. Ian Page directs the singers and players. In the role of Alessandro is the distinguished British tenor John Mark Ainsley. Aminta is soprano Sarah Fox. Signum Classics of the UK released L Re Pastoreon two compact discs in 2015.
 
SUNDAY MAY 22nd Mozart, Les Mysteres d'Isis
Question: when is a Mozart opera not a Mozart opera? Answer: when it's Les Mysteres d'Isis, an adaptation of "The Magic Flute" (1791) for an 1801 production in Paris. A musicmaster from Bohemia, Ludwig Wenzel Lachnith (1746-1820) is credited as a composer of this pastiche (or is it a travesty?). He retained many of the well-known numbers from the original Singspiel, but cut the glorious coloratura revenge aria of the Queen of the Night. Lachnith kept the famous overture intact. He also inserted his adaptations of arias from other Mozart operas and composed sung recitatives to replace these spoken German dialogue. The new French libretto of "The Mysteries of Isis" changed the names of some of the familiar characters of "The Magic Flute," and tweaked the story line, too. The result of all these alterations is a lyric stagework that only vaguely resembles Mozart's Masonic opera. Parisians had to wait until 1829 to experience Die Zauberfloteas Wolfgang Amadeus actually wrote it. Les Mysteres d'Isis was revived repeatedly after 1801. The beauty of Mozart's music insured its popularity. So how good is Lachnith's adaptation? Judge for yourself by listening to the Spanish Glossa label's two-CD release from last year of Les Mysteres. It was recorded at the Salle Pleyel in Paris in 2013. Diego Fasolis directs the period instrument players of LeConcert Spirituel and the Flemish Radio Choir with a cast of 11 vocal soloists.
 
SUNDAY MAY 29th Sousa, El Capitan
What I have to offer you on this Sunday of the Memorial Day holiday weekend is absolutely red, white and blue. Everybody knows John Philip Sousa's "El Capitan" march: nothing could be more vibrantly American in spirit. The tune in that March came from Sousa's comic operetta El Capitan (1895). Yes, believe it or not, the March King composed 15 operettas for the American lyric stage. El Capitan was his most popular and significant work in that genre. Jerrold Fischer and William Martin restored Sousa's original score for the 1997 Zephyr compact disc recording of El Capitan. It was made in the big hall of the Kannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois/Urbana. Ian Hobson directs the Sinfonia da Camera, with the University of Illinois Chorale and Band, plus vocal soloists. I last broadcast the two Zephyr CD's on Sunday, the Fourth of July, 1999. Keep listening for concert, theater and parlor songs of John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), as interpreted by soprano Joyce Guyer and baritone Michael Wilson (a 1991 PreiserCD release).
 
SUNDAY JUNE 5th Wagner, Die Meistersinger, Act One and Act Two
The longstanding problem with broadcasting the operas of Richard Wagner 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 intwo broadcasts on two successive Sundays. This I had done to accommodate Parsifal on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, 2013. Over two Sundays I did the same for a long German baroque opera, Telemann'sDer Geduldige Sokrates. This Sunday for a second time I present the first two of the three acts of Die Meistersinger von N�rnberg (1868). The last time I presented Die Meistersingerthis way was on two Sundays in September, 2014. You heard a historic recording made live on stage at the Metropolitan Opera, January 15, 1972. That was actually an air tape of a radio broadcast from the Met. Thomas Schippers conducted the Met's orchestra and chorus and bass-baritone Theo Adam starred as Hans Sachs. Listen today to a recording made live in concert performance at the Philharmoniehall in Berlin, June 3, 2011. Marek Janowski was directing the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and bass-baritone Albert Dohmen sang as Sachs. Released on four Pentatone CD's in 2011, this Meistersinger anticipated the two-hundredth anniversary of the composer's birth and 1813. The German Pentatone label launched a bicentennial recording project that would give the public the ten best known operatic masterpieces of Wagner in state-of-the-art sonics and with singing casts made up of the finest Wagnerian voices of our time. All ten recordings in the series originated at the Philharmonie with Janowski on the podium. I have already broadcast several of the operas is in the Pentatone series.

SUNDAY JUNE 12th Wagner, Die Meistersinger,Act Three; Fall, Paroli
Keep listening after the concluding third act of the Wagner opera for later operatic fare - something that falls into the general category of Viennese operetta. The Austrian Leo Fall (1873-1925) was a contemporary of operetta great Franz Lehar. Today, Fall is overshadowed by the Hungarian Lehar but in his own time he possessed equal fame and his works were as popular as Lehar's. I have broadcast recordings of Fall's operettas fairly recently: The Rose of Stambul (1916) on Sunday, July 13, 2014 and Madame Pompadour (1922), his last operetta, on Sunday, May 17, 2015. Paroli, also first called Frau Denise (1902) is one of Fall's earliest lyric theater pieces. It's not an operetta per se, but a one act comic opera that premiered at acabaret theater in Berlin. The story of Paroli has some of the elements of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," only here the philandering count (or marquis) is stymied by being locked up in a tower. Paroli was recorded in the Philharmonie hall in Cologne in March of 2012 under the auspices of West German Radio Cologne. Axle Kober directed the broadcast house orchestra and chorus of the West German Radio Cologne. The German CPO label released Paroli on a single compact disc in 2015.
 
SUNDAY JUNE 19th Salieri, Les Danaides, Philidor, Les Femmes Vengees
Antonio Salieri (1752-1825) was a junior colleague of the great reformer of eighteenth-century opera Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787). No one is certain to this day how great a hand Gluck actually had in the composition of the French lyric tragedy Les Danaides, but it seems he graciously allowed Salieri to take credit by name for Les Danaides when it successfully premiered in Paris in 1784. Salieri's tragic opera is certainly in the austerely classical style of Gluck. In times past I have presented recordings of two other operas that are entirely the work of Salieri: the highly successful opera buffa La Locandiera ("The Mistress of the Inn," 1773) on Sunday, January 31, 1999, and another opera buffa, Falstaff (1799) on three occasions in 1994, 1996 and 2014. In all, Salieri composed at least 40 operas during his long career - many more than his supposed rival, Mozart. This particular one, "The Danaids", dramatizes a legend about mass murder in ancient Greece. The French conductor and baroque specialist Christophe Rousset has given us fine recorded interpretations of operas by Lully and the like. He does his best in classical mode with the Salieri opera. Rousset leads the period instrument ensemble he founded, Les Talens Lyriques and the choral singers of the Centre of Baroque Music of Versailles. Recorded in 2013, Les Danaideswas released in a deluxe limited edition two CD package through Ediciones Singulares of France.

There's time remaining this afternoon for another French opera of the classical period - a comic opera that sounds like the work of the young Mozart. When he visited Paris with his mother in 1778 Mozart may well have taken in a performance of Philidor's Les Femmes Vengees("The Avenged Women," 1775). This one hour-long, one act opera comique was so popular and entertaining it held the stage for years after its premiere. Its' plot resembles that of Mozart's later comic masterpiece Cosi fan Tutte (1790). Francoise-Andre DanicanPhilidor (1726-1795) was an acknowledged chess grandmaster as well as composer. He practically invented the sub genre of opera comique. What is presumably the world premiere recording of Les Femmes Vengeeswas released in 2015 on a single Naxos compact disc. Ryan Brown directed the singers and period instrument players of Opera Lafayette, an American musical outfit dedicated to the revival of neglected French repertoire. They staged "The Avenged Women" in 2014 in musically complete form. Philidor's piece was incorporated into their production ofCosi as if it was the third to concluding act of the Mozart opera.
 
SUNDAY JUNE 27th Wainwright, Prima Donna
I will call this my special Stonewall Sunday broadcast, since the date falls right around the time of the weekend in June, 1969 when the Stonewall gay riot took place in New York City's Greenwich village gay ghetto- a historic event that gave birth to the gay liberation movement in the United States, with so much gay history to follow. Rufus Wainwright (b. 1971), the openly gay son of folksinger/songwriter Loudon Wainwright, had already made a name for himself as a rock vocalist and songwriter before he turned to writing opera. He had been crazy about opera, it seems, since the age of fourteen. (Indeed, it's been said many gay men are opera lovers.) Prima Donna (2009) is Wainwright's personal, loving contribution to the genre. Wainwright wrote the libretto himself in French language with Bernadette Colomine. He also composed and orchestrated the entire score himself. Prima Donna sets forth the story of a legendary French soprano, Madame Regine Saint Laurent, a former opera superstar, now retired, who would like to return to the stage. But her glorious voice has failed her. Prima Donna is suffused with nostalgia for a bygone Golden Age of opera singing. Wainwright wrote this his first opera on commission from the Manchester International Festival- Sadler's Wells, Luminato and the arts festivals of Toronto and Melbourne. It was first staged at the Palace Theatre, Manchester in the UK, then went on to London, Toronto and New York City. Prima Donna was recorded in BBC studios in 2015. Jayce Ogren conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Soprano Janis Kelly stars as Madame St. Laurent. Rufus Wainwright dedicated the world premiere recording of Prima Donna to his husband Jorn Weisbrodt. It was issued on two Deutsche Grammophon compact discs.
     Those DGG discs I obtained on loan for broadcast fromRon Meehan, former classics deejay here at WWUH and a specialist collector of recordings of "alternative" classical music of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. Rob Meehan is also the founder of WWUH's "Gay Spirit" gay radio program. I have contributed recordings of my own for broadcast during this two-month period of programming. From my own collection of opera on CD come Elgar's King Olaf and the St. George cantata, Lully's Phaeton, Mozart's Il Re Pastore and Les Mysteres d'Isis, Fall's Paroli and the Sousa operetta. The Pentatone CD's of Die Meistersinger and the Salieri opera are derived from our station's ever-growing collection of classical music recordings. Thanks as always must go to WWUH's operations director Kevin O'Toole for mentoring me in the preparation of these notes for cyber-publication. Additional thanks to Monica.

WWUH In The News
From the WWUH archives, two TV news stories about WWUH.  The first segment is from perhaps 1982 and the second segment from 1986 or so.

 
How to Hear WWUH
In Central CT and the Springfield, MA area you can hear us on 91.3 FM.

In Somers, CT tune to 89.7 FM.

In Wallingford, we're on 89.9 FM.

And in the Greater Torrington area WAPJ, 89.9 and 105.1 carries many of our programs.

You can also listen on line at wwuh.org.  With a smart device just download the free tunein app and search for "WWUH".
 


 
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