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WWUH 91.3 FM
Program Guide
July/August, 2016
In This Issue
Circus Fire Documentary
Program Idea?
Boomers Paradise
Celtic Airs Update
240Years Ago
Classical Music on WWUH
Composer Birthdays
Sunday Afternoon at the Opera
WWUH Archive Now Online
How To Listen
Join Our List
 

LIVE JAZZ
FROM BUSHNELL PARK STARTING
JULY 11

WWUH will again be broadcasting live from the Hartford Jazz Society's Monday Night Jazz Concerts from Hartford's Bushnell Park.

Most other stations when they say they are "broadcasting from" a special event just mean they have some of their announcers there doing updates via a cell phone.  We're just not on site but we'll bring you all of the wonderful music live on 91.3 and on line at wwuh.org.

Schedule: 

July 11, 2016 Damian Curtis Septet/Yosvany Terry Quartet

July 18, 2016 Erica Bryan Quartet/The Afri-Garifuna Jazz Ensemble

July 25, 2016 Mike Casey Quartet/E.J. Strickland Quintet

August 1, 2016 Joshua Bruneau Quintet/Tom Harrell "TRIP"

August 8, 2016 Jeff Fuller Trio/Noah Preminger Quartet

August 15, 2016 MX=Trio Data/Doug Wimbish Quintet



Circus Fire Documentary on WWUH July 6
Circus Fire Memorial Park
Circus Fire Memorial


  
July 6 marks the 72nd anniversary of the horrible Hartford circus fire which resulted in the deaths of 167 man, women and children.  At 1pm on Wednesday, 7/6, WWUH will air a special 90 minute documentary on the fire produced by WWUH volunteer Brandon Kampe.

  
Got An Idea for a Radio Program?
 

 We might have some late night (midnight and 3am) shows opening up this winter. If you have a unique idea for a radio program and/or have an interest in possibly filling in on 91.3 as a late night volunteer email us with a description of the type of show you propose and a playlist of the type of music you might play. Send it to WWUH


If we like your show idea and something opens up we'll let you know. We can provide on-air training so even if you've never done radio before if you are interested/available for some late night volunteer work and have a neat show idea feel free to email us.

 

 Monday, July 4 at 1pm
Boomers Paradise 
  
On the 4th of July edition of Monday Synthesis (1-4PM - Boomer's Paradise) we honor all those who've serve our nation in many capacities and their families who've sacrificed as well. We'll spin another edition of Rock and Roll Dreams Do Come True and for our friends across the pond in the U.K. to brighten their spirits we'll pay a tribute to The Kinks
 
Later this month we will be continuing to present more of the One Hit Wonders from the Billboard Top 40. We'll also be checking out rock music from the 60's to 80's as "Rock and Roll Dreams Do Come True" and continue to explore rock tunes that feature certain instruments such as the mellotron, sax, Hammond B-3 organ and other notable keyboards, e-bow, flute and the theramin. 

  
C
Celtic Airs Update
Girsa


    
  
Our July and August concert series will feature the return of two bands that I am often asked to bring back for repeat performances. On July 23rd, Girsa will be our guests and on August 12th, we will welcome back Goitse.

Girsa is an ensemble whose members were born and raised in Pearl River, NewYork. Their teachers include the cream of the Irish traditional musicians based in the greater New York City area as well as talented and renowned guest musicians at the annual Catskills Irish Arts Week. The size of the band has fluctuated over the years; they are currently a lively and talented quintet.

Maeve Flanagan is to Girsa what Joanie Madden is to Cherish the Ladies, a talented musician who comfortably fills the role of M.C., leading and encouraging her "band of merry women." She began playing the fiddle at age 5, learning from her mother Rose Flanagan and her maternal uncle Brian Conway. Her progress was rapid, and by age 11, in 2001, she won the All Ireland under 12 fiddle title in Listowel, Co. Kerry. In addition to her fiddle playing, she is an accomplished whistle player and tune composer.

Bernadette Flanagan is Maeve's younger sister. Despite all the fiddling going on in her home, she wasn't interested in the instrument and instead gravitated toward the piano. Her early instruction came from Annemarie Acosta and later from the late Felix Dolan who was a legend in the NYC Irish musical community. At age 15, Bernadette developed an interest in bodhran playing and had wonderful teachers including Myron Bretholz and Jackie Moran. Even before she began playing music, Bernadette took up Irish step dancing and competed in her first U.S. Nationals at age 9.

Blaithin Loughran is Girsa's button accordion player. Her three siblings are all talented musicians as well; not surprising since their mother is well known flute and whistle player Margie Mulvihill. She began her accordion instruction at age 7 and for many years has been a student of Patty Furlong, long admired member of the greater NYC Irish traditional musicians enclave.

Pamela Geraghty is also an accordion player who has learned from Patty Furlong. Over the years, she has also had the good fortune to receive instruction from Billy McComiskey, John Whelan, Seamus Begley and Jackie Daly. She also developed a strong interest in singing and over the years interacted with some of her major influences including Seamus MacMathuna, Len Graham and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh of Danu. In more recent years she has taken up the guitar under the tutelage of Mary Coogan of Cherish the Ladies.

Emily McShane comes from a family of four girls. One sisters is a former Girsa member. Though her mother is a fiddle player, Emily, like Bernadette Flanagan, was more interested in the piano, and like Bernadette, took lessons from Annemarie Acosta starting at age 5. Her talent blossomed in the upcoming years and at age 14, she took third place in the All Ireland under 15 piano competition. Mirroring another of her fellow band members, Pamela Geraghty, Emily has also developed her love of singing and has augmented it with guitar playing with the guidance of Mary Coogan.

When you review the numerous similarities in their experiences, and review the multiple musicians who have trained more than one of these young women, it's not surprising to see what a cohesive and entertaining band they have become.

Goitse (go-wit-cha) means "come here" in Irish. This multi-award winning quintet will "come back" to the Wilde Auditorium on Friday, August 12th at 7:30 pm. The band members are all graduates of the prestigious Irish World Academy of Music at Limerick University. During their five years together as a band they have been named Live Ireland's "Trad Group of the Year", Chicago Irish American News "Group of the Year"' and most recently the 2016 Freiburg "International Band of the Year." They are also so motivated that they have just released their fourth studio album, "Inspired By Chance." (April 2016)The band's leader Colm Phelan says there is a major advantage of being friends since their college days. "We can be very honest with each other, unafraid to say 'It's not quite right yet.' There's a strong degree of self editing we rely heavily upon. We know when things are good and when we need to step back and reconsider."
Colm won the inaugural World Bodhran Championship in 2006. In 2005 and again in 2006, he won the All Ireland bodhran title. He is one of the most sought after bodhran tutors in Irish music today.

Vocalist Aine McGeeney has a sweet charismatic voice. She sings in English and in Irish with a unique and captivating style that has been described as having "an attractive innocence." She is also an energetic, high octane fiddler and highly regarded composer of tunes.

Philadelphia born Conal O'Kane began playing guitar at the ripe old age of 17 after a summer with his father's family in Buncrana, Co. Donegal. So enamored of Irish music was he that he applied to and was accepted to the Irish Music and Dance program at the University of Limerick where he met his fellow band mates.

Tadgh O'Meachair has been the winner of an All Ireland piano title. His talents were also recognized by Donal Lunny who chose him to be the pianist for his Lorg Lunny TV series and in the related band called Ciorras.
He is also a proficient piano accordion player.

James Harvey is a true musical phenomenon!! After just four years of musical experience, he won four consecutive All Ireland banjo titles while simultaneously winning three All Ireland mandolin titles.
Goitse has a distinctive sound produced by interspersing their own compositions with traditional songs and tunes. "Their music brims with energy and creative zeal." (Irish Music Magazine). "They play with the wisdom of musicians with many more road miles under their belts." ( The Irish Times).

The Chicago Irish American News said "This act is now so polished and professional that they have become one of the most popular acts on the international festival circuit today." I think you'll agree and strongly encourage you to put Goitse on your engagement calendar for Friday August 12th.

Tickets for the Celtic Airs concert series are only available through the University of Hartford Box office. Call 1-800-274-8587 or 860-768-4228, Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 AM-5:00 PM.


If you're not already listening to Celtic Airs on Tuesdays, 6:00-9:00 AM, I urge you to do so!! You'll hear about the upcoming concerts and listen to music from our featured artists. There will also be a wide variety of music, new and old, from the seven Celtic nations. Programs are archived for two weeks if you missed or want to review a recent show.


Steve Dieterich,
Producer and Host/Celtic Airs
Promoter of the Celtic Airs concert series.

  
43 Years Ago

 
WWUH Broadcasts Live from the
 Hartford Civic Center as part
of a benefit to raise funds for
the Newington Children's Hospital.
1973 

      

WWUH Classical Programming - Mar/April, 2016

  
    

 
WWUH Classical Programming
 
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


July
Fri
1
Celebrating Independence Day with music about America

Sun
3
Perera: The Yellow Wallpaper; Herbert: The Only Girl

Mon
4
Fourth of July Special... Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man; Buck: Festival Variations on the Star Spangled Banner; Hanson: Song of Democracy; Ives: Fourth of July; Copland: Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo; Stravinsky: Ebony Concerto; Ellington: Harlem; Kay/Sousa: Stars and Stripes Ballet Drake's Village Brass Band... Duffy: Overture 1776; Gould Fourth of July

Tue
5
Georg Philipp Telemann: Overture-Suite in G TWV 55:G2; Witold Lutoslawski: Partita, Interlude and Chain 2; D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas; Robert Simpson: String Quartet No. 10; Compositions by centenarians Max Reger (died 1916) and Alberto Ginastera (born 1916)

Wed
6
Host's Choice

Thu
7
Gossec: Symphony in D; Jacob Weinberg: The Maypole; Kuula: Festive March; Farrar: Heroic Elegy Op. 36; Menotti: Amelia Goes to the Ball Overture; Mahler: Symphony #4, Symphony #2

Fri
8
Klezmer is Classical!

Sun
10
Gershwin: An American in Paris; Sondheim: A Chorus Line

Mon
11
Host's Choice

Tue
12
Elgar: Piano Quintet in a, Op 84; Turina: Serenata, Op. 87; Dvoř�k: String Quintet #2 in G, Op. 77; Tallis: Mass for 4 voices

Wed
13
Host's Choice

Thu
14
Host's Choice

Fri
15
You need four hands to play this piano

Sun
17
Gilbert & Sullivan: The Gondoliers

Mon
18
Host's Choice

Tue
19
Georg Philipp Telemann: Overture-Suite in E TWV 55:E2; Ned Rorem: Violin Concerto; D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas; Robert Simpson: String Quartet No. 11; Compositions by centenarians Max Reger (died 1916) and Alberto Ginastera (born 1916)

Wed
20
Johann Scheibe: Sinfonias; Rolf Liebermann: Medea Monolog; Edvard Grieg: Bergliot (Melodrama for Orchestra); Domenico Alberti: Sonatas; Vitezslav Novak: South Bohemian Suite

Thu
21
New Releases. A Sampling of New Acquisitions from the WWUH Library.

Fri
22
Ron's choice as Larry will be working tonight

Sun
24
Leigh: Jolly Roger

Mon
25
Host's Choice

Tue
26
Georg Philipp Telemann: Overture-Suite in E minor; Philip Glass: Violin Concerto; D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas; Robert Simpson: String Quartet No. 12;
Compositions by centenarians Max Reger (died 1916) and Alberto Ginastera (born 1916)

Wed
27
Johann Kalliwoda: Symphony No. 2 in E Flat; Clement Jannequin: Chansons; John Johnson: Lute Musicl Pyotr Tchaikovsky: The Tempest; Johannes Brahms: Trio in E Flat Major

Thu
28
New Releases. A Sampling of New Acquisitions from the WWUH Library.

Fri
29
Keith's choice 

Sun
31
Rossini: La Cenerentola

August
Mon
1
Host's choice

Tue
2
Georg Philipp Telemann: Overture-Suite in F# minor TWV 55:fis; Gyorgy Ligeti: Violin Concerto; D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas; Robert Simpson: String Quartet No. 13; Compositions by centenarians Max Reger (died 1916) and Alberto Ginastera (born 1916)

Wed
3
Zoltan Kodaly: Symphony; Alonso Lobo: Missa Beata Dei Genetrix; Leopold Kozeluch: Piano Concerto No. 2; Robert Schumann: Kinderszenen; Bohuslav Martinu: String Quartet No. 6 

Thu
4
Haydn: Divertimento in G Hob. II:3; Steffani: Orlando Generoso - Overture and Dances; Gyrowetz: Symphony in F Op. 9 #3; Schuman: American Festival Overture, George Washington Bridge, New England Triptych; Grieg: Symphonic Dances; Abel: Cello Concerto in C

Fri
5
Hopefully is so hot out that you'd like to visit the North Pole

Sun
7
Dvorak: Der Jakobiner

Mon
8
Host's Choice

Tue
9
Mozart: Violin Sonata in e, K. 304; Alfv�n: Suite from Bergakungen (The Mountain King), Op. 37; Schubert: Piano Trio #1 in B-flat, Op. 99, D. 898; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 in B flat minor "Babiy Yar" for Bass, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 113

Wed
10
Giuseppe Martucci: Symphony No. 1 in D Minor; Jacobus de Kerle: Missa Da Pacem Domine; Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4; Sergey Taneyev: String Quartet No. 4 in A Minor; Nicolo Paganini: Sonatas

Thu
11
New Releases. A Sampling of New Acquisitions from the WWUH Library.

Fri
12
It's bluegrass weekend again

Sun
14
Vaughn Williams: Sir John in Love

Mon
15
Ginastera: Overture to Creole Faust, 12 American Preludes, Cello Concerto #2, Estancia - Complete Drake's Village Brass Band... Pre-Empted

Tue
16
Rudorff: Symphony #3 in b, Op. 50; Shostakovich: String Quartet #8 in c, Op. 110; Dvoř�k: Rondo in g for Cello & Orchestra, Op. 94; H�ndel: Te Deum for the victory of Dettingen

Wed
17
Lowell Liebermann: Symphony No. 2; Franz Schreker: Lieder; Felix Mendelssohn: Quintet for Strings No. 2; Johann Muthel: Concerto for Two Bassoons; Marion Bauer: Suite for String Orchestra

Thu
18
Haydn: Symphony in B Flat "B"; Francesco da Milano: Fantasias and Ricercari; Salieri: Symphony in D "La Veneziana", Overtures; Godard: Suite de morceaux Op. 116, Piano Concerto #2; E. MacMillan: Sketches on French Canadian Airs; Tan Dun: 8 Memories in Watercolor Op. 1; Gouvy: Symphony #1; Albrechtsberger: Fugue for Quartet; Tchaikovsky: Piano Pieces Op. 1

Fri
19
It ain't exactly opera: Lyrics by Ogden Nash 

Sun
21
Lehar: Giuditta

Mon
22
Selections from Erik Satie and Friends, Original Albums Collection Drake's Village Brass Band... U. S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps - For the Color

Tue
23
Klughardt: Symphony #3 in D, Op. 37; Beethoven: Piano Quartet in E Flat, Op. 16; Offenbach: Concerto Rondo; Ravel: Chansons mad�casses

Wed
24
Albert Roussel: Symphony No. 3; Agostino Guerrieri: Sonatas; Jacques Hetu: Concerto for Bassoon; Franz Hoffmeister: Sinfonia Concertante No. 1; Moritz Moszkowski: From Foreign Lands

Thu
25
Herschel: Symphony #14 in D; Fasch: Concerto in d; L. Bernstein: Candide Overture, Divertimento for Orchestra, Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, West Side Story Symphonic Dances, Five Anniversaries; Wolpe: Piano Sonata #1 "Stehende Musik"; Noskowski: From the Life of the Nation; Mendelssohn: Piano Quartet #1

Fri
26
Classical Conversations  -  Scott Wheeler rides the 20th Century Limited

Sun
28
Delius: A Mass of Life

Mon
29
Monday Night at the Movies... Gold: Ship of Fools; John Williams- Boston Pops Music from Stage and Screen; Davies: The Boyfriend Darke's Village Brass Band... Wynton Marsalis - From Gabriel's Garden

Tue
30
Georg Philipp Telemann: Overture-Suite in D TWV 55:D12; Krzysztof Penderecki: Violin Concerto No. 2 "Metamorphosen"; D. Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas; Robert Simpson: String Quartet No. 14; Compositions by centenarians Max Reger (died 1916) and Alberto Ginastera (born 1916)

Wed
31
Wojciech Kilar: Symphony No. 5; William Herschel: Symphonies; Hans Henze: Songs; Anton Reicha: String Quartet in G; Wilhelm Ramsoe: Quartet No. 2
 


Thursday Evening Classics
 


 

 Composer Birthdays for 
July/August, 2016

Thursday Evening Classics: 4pm - 7 pm.
 

July 7
1860 Gustav Mahler
1879 Jacob Weinberg
1883 Toivo Kuula
1885 Ernest Bristow Farrar
1911 Gian Carlo Menotti
 
July 14
1901 Gerald Finzi
1961 Unsuk Chin
 
July 28
1893 Rued Langgaard
 
August 4
1875 Italo Montemezzi
1910 William Schuman
1912 David Raksin
1923 Arthur Butterworth
 
August 18
1497 Francesco (Canova) da Milano
1750 Antonio Salieri
1849 Benjamin Godard
1893 Sir Ernest MacMillan
1957 Tan Dun
 
August 25
1880 Robert Stoltz
1902 Stefan Wolpe
1918 Leonard Bernstein


 Sunday Afternoon at the Opera 
 
  

SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT THE OPERA
Your "Lyric Theater" Program
with Keith Brown
Programming Selections for the 
Months of July and August, 2016
 



SUNDAY JULY 3RD  Perera, The Yellow Wallpaper, Herbert,The Only Girl An American opera is always called for on the Sunday of the Fourth of July weekend. I'm pleased to present a lyric theater work that is not merely genericallyAmerican, but a specifically Yankee opera arising from our own New England region: The Yellow Wallpaper (1989) by Ronald Perera (b.Boston,1941). He was not the only composer to be drawn to the novella by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The story is set in a New England summer home in 1899, where a woman named Charlotte has been sent to rest and recuperate from "neurasthenia",as the condition of postpartum depression was called in those days. The yellow wallpaper in the house only makes her feel worse. The Yellow Wallpaper, withlibretto by Constance Congdon, premiered in Northampton, Massachusetts, then went on in 1992 to the Manhattan School of Music.It had originally been produced at Smith College, where it was recorded live in performance with a chamber orchestra conducted by Dennis Burkh. In 2011 this recording was made available to the opera-loving public on two compact discs courtesy of HDP, Harrison Digital Productions of Belchertown,Mass.

The Yellow Wallpaper is a domestic tragedy. We continue to celebrate American lyric theater on the airwaves with a recording of an historic Broadway musical comedy: The Only Girl (1914) by Victor Herbert. The cutthroat, competitive world of old Broadway was no place for a female composer. Or so one would think! Ruth Williams is "The Only Girl" to succeed in that world,as Herbert and his lyricists Blossom and Mandel conceived it. (There actually was a woman something like Ruth in real life named Dorothy Fields.) The Only Girl was Herbert's 34th musical comedy production. It has all the classic Broadway book and melody elements of Victor Herbert's prolific output, complete with a hit song,"When You're Away," all of this characteristic of his period, and brought to life again after fully a century by Light Opera of New York, whose cast, ensemble and orchestra are under the direction of Gerald Steichen. LOONY's staged revival of The Only Girl took place in May of 2015. Albany Records released a recording of it later that year on a single silver disc. Spoken dialog in this recording has been greatly abridged. Writing for Fanfare magazine (Mar/Apr, 2016 issue),reviewer Bill White says this historically informed performance is"a significant achievement, one to be applauded and relished by all Broadway fans."


SUNDAY JULY 10TH  Gershwin, An American in Paris, Hamlisch, A Chorus LineWe remain in Broadway mode this Sunday, as I present recordings of two very different specimens of American musical theater. The first one, although contemporary, looks back to a bygone Golden Age of the American musical. An American in Paris the musical mines the wealth of George Gershwin's music, in a score adapted for the modernday stage by Rob Fisher. The stage production, with book by Craig Lucas, takes its inspiration from the 1951 Academy Award winning movie; it also takes its title and tunes from Gershwin's 1928 orchestral tone poem. The show opened on Broadway at the Palace Theater on April 12,2015. The original cast recording of An American in Paris the musical came out on a single CD last year through Sony Masterworks Broadway.
The year 2015 marked the fortieth anniversary of the innovative Marvin Hamlisch musical A Chorus Line. How could a show that has no stars, no set and almost no story line at all become such a gigantic hit? It even had a hit song "What I Did for Love." A Chorus Line came along at a time of the changing of the guard on old Broadway. It heralded the arrival of a new generation on the theater scene in New York City, and it expressed the life experiences of the young "baby boomers." Here were stage charactersunafraid, for instance, to talk to audiences about being openly gay. These characters danced their way into theatergoers' hearts. Sony Broadway has reissued the original cast recording of A Chorus Line with eight bonus tracks that are of considerable historical interest. We get to hear the lyricist Ed Kleban singing numbers he wrote for the show, three of which were cut and have never been heard before, with Hamlisch accompanying him on piano.

SUNDAY JULY 17TH  Gilbert & Sullivan, The Gondoliers Summertime is always a great time to broadcast one or another of the comic operas in the G & S canon. These lighthearted and ever tuneful works compliment, I say, the listener's vacationtime frame of mind. The Gondoliers (1889) was the last collaborative effort of the artistic partnership of librettist William S. Gilbert and and composer Sir Arthur Sullivan. I have broadcast the same 1961 British Decca recording, featuring the singers and orchestra of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, several times in both its LP and CD releases over several decades of my tenure in the opera timeslot. The most recent time was on Sunday, July 13, 2005 in the 2003 CD reissue, which retained the complete recorded dialog. Their longtime orchestra leader Isadore Godfrey was in charge in so many recordings of the original D'Oyly Carte company, then still under the supervision of Richard D'Oyly Carte's daughter Bridget. Sir Malcolm Sargent (1895-1967) conducted for the company in its earliest recordings in the 1920's. His service as the company's conductor continued sporadically up to 1961. Sargent was able to bring out all the details in Sullivan's orchestral scoring. He employed his skills so well when he recorded the G & S canon in studio recordings in early stereosound for EMI in the period 1957-63. These classic recordings,too, have graduated from LP into CD format. The 1958 EMI LP release of Yeomen of the Guard (1888) reissued twice on CD in 1987 and again in 1992. Sargent conducted the Pro Arte Orchestra and Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, with a singing cast of English operatic greats who performed at Glyndebourne and Covent Garden. The separate CD issue of Sargent's Yeomen and its LP predecessor I have broadcast three times before. But this Sunday I will be airing Sargent's Gondoliers, originally issued in 1957 and taken up into a Warner Classics 16 disc CD boxed set giving us Sargent's entire G & S stereo recorded output. The one drawback to the Warner reissue is that none of these historic recordings have any of Gilbert's witty spoken dialog.


SUNDAY JULY 24TH  Leigh, Jolly Roger Walter Leigh (1905-42) has been compared to Sir Arthur Sullivan. Yes, like Sullivan he wrote much music for the lyric stage, but he was also an all-round composer of serious classical music, British light classical music, chamber music and film music. His untimely death was a great loss for British music overall. He served in a British tank regiment in World War Two and was killed in the battle for Tobruk. Leigh is particularly remembered for his two operettas, The Pride of the Regiment (1931) and Jolly Roger, or The Admiral's Daughter (1933). The story of Jolly Roger is set in Jamaica in the eighteenth century and, as its title suggests, has piratical elements. BBC broadcast a concert performance of Jolly Roger, complete with its spoken dialog, on December 21, 1972. Ashley Lawrence conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra and Ambrosian Singers. You would think the venerable British Broadcasting Corporationwould have made its own archival recording of this operetta. Well, apparently not! The Jolly Roger broadcast was preserved for posterity thanks to a dedicated audiophile Richard Itter, who made his own professional quality monosound airtape of it working off the radio signal. Over the years 1952-96 he built up a private home collection of such transmissions of many BBC classical music programs. The UK-based Lyrita Recorded Edition Trust received permission to release to the public in compact disc format priceless recordings from the Itter archive. Jolly Roger was released on two Lyrita CD's in 2014.

SUNDAY JULY 31ST  Rossini, La Cenerentola I always try to include an Italian opera buffa in my Summer season programming. The Italian operatic classification of melodramma giocoso injects comic or buffa elements into a more serious romantic story leading up to the requisite happy ending. Perhaps the finest example of this sub-genre is Gioacchino Rossini's La Cenerentola (1817). Basically, it's a retelling of the of the old Cinderella fairy tale minus the magical elements. Jacopo Ferretti's libretto omits the fairy godmother altogether. Rossini borrowed music from previous works such as "The Barber of Seville" in assembling the score of La Cenerentola. He tinkered with the score after its premiere production in Rome and other hands corrupted the musical numbers and violated Rossini's original dramatic intentions. We get back to those original intentions in the performing edition of the score based on Rossini's own carefully written manuscript. That revised edition, published by Riccordi, was employed in the production of La Cenerentola mounted at the 1971 Edinburgh Festival. It was recorded for Deutsche Grammophon and soon thereafter issued on three DG stereo LP's. Claudio Abbado was directing the London Symphony Orchestra for the festival performance. The sublime (and now historic) voice of mezzo Teresa Berganza is heard as Angelina, ie. Cinderella. Other illustrious voices of the era support hers in the Edinburgh production: tenor Luigi Alva as Don Ramiro and bass Renato Capecchi as Dandini. I draw upon those old DG vinyl discs for today's broadcast. I have broadcast recordings of La Cenerentola twice before: first, long ago on Sunday, July 29,1984. On that occasion I worked from even older London LP's. The British Decca recording preserves for posterity a production of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino starring Giulietta Simionato. Then on Sunday, December 27, 1998 I aired on London CD's the recorded production of the Teatro Communale of Bologna, starring Cecilia Bartoli.

SUNDAY AUGUST 7TH  Dvorak,Der Jakobiner (The Jacobin, 1888/rev. 1897) Antonin Dvorak wanted to write a truly popular Czech national opera. He succeeded brilliantly in this romantic comedy about life in a little town in Bohemia during the French revolutionary period. To the conservative folk of Bohemia any Frenchman is a "Jacobin" who is not to be trusted. The townspeople even think the reprobate son of the local nobleman is a Jacobin, too. The hero of the story is Benda, the canny schoolmaster and music teacher, a townsman of humble birth who, because he is an educated person, acts as an intermediary in the tangled relations between the Count and his son and the townsfolk. That name Benda is a famous one in the musical history of Bohemia. Dvorak and his librettist chose the name precisely for that reason. Moreover, the music teacher was an honored figure in every village throughout this very musically inclined inclined Slavic nation. Supraphon, the old Czechoslovak state record label, iassued a recording of The Jacobin on stereo LP's in 1978. The Pro Arte label picked up this recording for issue in the US in 1981. Jiri Pinkas directed the Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kuehn Mixed Chorus and Kantilena Children's Chorus, with a cast of native Czech speaking vocal soloists. I first broadcast this recording way back on Sunday, June 30,1985 and broadcast it a second time on Sunday, May 15, 2011. There is a 1994 Supraphon CD reissue of it which I understood was the only recording of the opera ever made. It turns out it was the only recording sung in the original Czech language libretto. There exists an even older recording of it in German translation. The opera is titled Der Jakobiner in German. It was recorded in 1952 in monaural sound live in performance from the studios of ORF Austrian Radio in Vienna. German language spoken commentary links the musical numbers. Kurt Tenner conducted the Large Vienna Radio Orchestra. The native Viennese basso Walter Berry portrayed Graf Wilhelm von Harasov. The old aircheck recording has been digitally reprocessed for issue on two compact discs in 2013 courtesy of the Archipel label. The sound quality of the original recording admittedly isn't awfully good, but the wonderful singing to be heard compensates for any faults.

SUNDAYAUGUST 14TH  Vaughan Williams, Sir John in Love This was the very first opera I ever broadcast on WWUH, which was on Sunday, August 8, 1982. On Sunday, August 23, 1987 I returned to the same Angel LP recording with baritone Raymond Herincx in the title role. The cast listing in that recording, taped in EMI's Abbey Road Studios in 1974, reads like a veritable who's who of eminent English opera singers of the period. Meredith Davies directed the New Philharmonia Orchestra and John Alldis Choir. EMI reissued this now historic recording on two compact discs in 1997 in its Classics/British Composers series. I aired the CD reissue on Sunday, August 6,2000. Sir John in Love (1929) is Ralph Vaughan Williams' best known lyric stage work. (If any of his operas could be said to be well known at all.) The composer prepared the libretto himself directly from Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor about the illicit loves of the fat old knight Sir John Falstaff. VW's score is replete with authentic English folk melodies, including the world famous 'Greensleeves" tune. An even more historic recording of Sir John in Love came out this year through the revived British Lyrita record label. The two-CD lyrita release is derived from an airtape in monaural sound of a broadcast from BBC studios on 12-13 February, 1956. (Another item from the Itter archive.) Stanford Robinson conducted the original Philharmonia Orchestra and Sadler's Wells Chorus. Baritone Roderick Jones originally created the role of Sir John in a 1946 Sadler's Wells staging. He sang it again for the BBC concert radio program.


SUNDAY AUGUST 21ST  Lehar, Giuditta While Franz Lehar's Giuditta is technically an operetta, it was nevertheless his closest approach to serious opera. The story of Giuditta is romantic, not comic, and it has a sad ending. It traces the rise of a femme fatale from simple country girl to bigtime whore and exotic dancer. The beautiful Giuditta breaks men's hearts along the way. First staged in 1934, this operetta represents the last gasp for the genre of sentimental Viennese operetta. On August 16, 1987 I broadcast an old mono LP recording of this work. Rudolf Moralt was conducting the forces of th3e Vienna State Opera. Soprano Hilde Gueden was Giuditta. Then a year later on Sunday, August 21,1988 I presented a much more recent EMI stereo recording from 1985 that has got to be the definitive one. Edda Moser is a stunning Giuditta, and opposite her tenor Nicolai Gedda can rightly be said to be the only other tenor after Rudolf Schock to even approximate the star quality of Richard Tauber, Lehar's own chosen tenor lead. Tauber sang in the premiere production with the composer conducting. In 1934 Willi Boskovsky played first desk violin under Lehar's hand at the Vienna State Opera. In the 1984 studio taping of Giudittait's Boskovsky leading the Munich Radio Orchestra and Munich Concert Choir. That same EMI LP release I drew upon again in August of 1995, 2003 and 2010. You get to hear it yet again this Sunday in its 2013 EMI Electrola Collection compact disc reincarnation.


SUNDAY AUGUST 28TH   Delius, Eine Messe des Lebens Everyyear I devote the last Sunday in August to the music of English composer Frederick Delius (1862-1934) because Delius' impressionistic style is so exquisitely evocative of those lazy, hazy days at the end of Summertime. Over the course of more than three decades of lyric theater broadcasting I have presented several times in cycle the recordings of all of Delius' seven operas. Delius considered his greatest work to be not one of them, but Eine Messe des Lebens ("A Mass of Life," 1909). This paean to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche could never be mistaken for a musical setting of the Roman Catholic liturgy. Delius' amanuensis Eric Fenby wrote of him,"Delius was at heart a pagan." 'A Mass of Life" is a secular oratorio conceived on a grand scale like Mahler's symphonies, calling for a gigantic orchestra, even bigger chorus and vocal soloists.Delius selected his text from the most poetic and least polemical passages of Nietzsche'sAlso Sprach Zarathustra. There's nary a hint of Nazi propagandizing in his libretto. Curiously, Hitler's pagan National Socialist regime in Germany never made use of Delius' oratorio for political purposes. Delius' music transcends all politics. The joy of living was what he was extolling in "A Mass of Life." Way back in April of 1986 I broadcast the 1953 mono LP recording of "A Mass of Life" with Delius' personal friend and artistic champion Sir Thomas Beecham conducting. Beecham led his own Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Choir. Featured as the voice of Zarathustra is baritone Bruce Boyce. In 2001 Sony Classical reissued Beecham's "A Mass of Life" in digitally upgraded sound on two compact discs. The reissue includes a recording of Beecham himself giving an introductory talk about Delius' music. There are several other, more recent recordings of "A Mass of Life." There's the Intaglio CD issue of a 1971 BBC radio broadcast of the "Mass" under Norman Del Mar's direction. That one I aired in April of 1993. Another big name interpreter of English music, Richard Hickox recorded "A Mass of Life" for the Chandos label. Hickox led the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Those Chandos CD's went over the air twice before on Delius Sundays in 1997 and 2011. The Bournemouth Symphony made a new recording of the "Mass" for Naxos. David Hill conducted the orchestra and the Bach Choir. The 2012 Naxos release I broadcast on Sunday, August 31, 2014.

One person in particular was most helpful to me in putting together the opera programming for these two Summer months: my colleague Larry Bilansky, who is the host in the Friday evening classical timeslot, which he calls "The 20th Century Limited." Larry donated to the station a CD copy of Ronald Perera"s The Yellow Wallpaper. Larry interviewed Perera on his show on Christmas Day,2015, which was the composer's 74th birthday. Larry provided me with extensive notes about Perrera's opera. The old LP recording of Rossini's La Cenerentola resides in our WWUH classical music record library. Recent additions to that library are the Sony Broadway CD releases of An American in Paris the musical and A Chorus Line. (Go see A Chorus Line as revived on the stage of Playhouse on Park, West Hartford. The show runs through July 31st.) All the other recordings featured over these Summer Sundays come from my own collection of opera on silver disc. Again and again I must thank our station's operations director Kevin O'Toole for mentoring me in the preparation of my opera notes for cyber-publication.

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"!
West Hartford Symphony Orchestra

For tickets and information, 860-521-4362 or http://whso.org/.

 The Connecticut Valley Symphony Orchestra
The Connecticut Valley Symphony Orchestra is a non-profit Community Orchestra. They present four concerts each season 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.

 
For further information: http://ctvalleysymphonyorch.com/


The Musical Club of Hartford
 
  
The Musical Club of Hartford is a non-profit organization founded over a hundred years ago, in 1891. Membership is open to performers or to those who simply enjoy classical music, providing a network for musicians from the Greater Hartford area.
 
For further information:


 The Hartford Chorale
  
 
The Hartford Chorale is a volunteer-based, not-for-profit organization, and serves as the primary symphonic chorus for the greater Hartford community. The Chorale provides experienced, talented singers with the opportunity to study and perform at a professional level of musicianship. Through its concerts and collaborations with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and other organizations, the Chorale seeks to reach and inspire the widest possible audience with exceptional performances of a broad range of choral literature, including renowned choral masterpieces.
 
 
For further information: Hartford Chorale 860-547-1982 or www.hartfordchorale.org.

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.  Our MP3 stream is here.

We also recommend that you download the free app "tunein" 
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