This Week at The Classical Station
by Chrissy Keuper
Saturday, 5 October and Sunday, 6 October 2024
Hello, Weekend!
Tune into The Classical Station for a great soundtrack to whatever you have planned.
Saturday:
Join Haydn Jones at 6pm ET for the Saturday Evening Request Program.
The playlist can be found here, and you can make requests for next week’s programs here.
Sunday:
This week’s Great Sacred Music is a celebration of Rosh Hashanah and features works by Jewish composers, including Samuel Adler, Aaron Copland, and Darius Milhaud. This week’s featured work is Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Join Mick Anderson at 8am ET, following Sing for Joy.
And on Preview!, Rob Kennedy speaks with North Carolina composer Dan Locklair about the Choir of Royal Holloway’s recent recording of his music: From East to West, and we’ll spotlight more of the latest new releases from the classical music world, including a recent recording of duos concertantes by Louis Massonneau and the Neave Trio’s album A Room of Her Own. Join us at 6pm ET.
On these dates in the history of classical music:
Arlene Saunders, soprano, date unknown. (Photo by Wolfgang Schmitt – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
American soprano Arlene Saunders (born Soszynski) was born October 5, 1930, in Cleveland, Ohio. She made her operatic debut with the National Opera Company in 1958 in Die Fledermaus, and went on to perform with the world’s best-known opera companies and in films until she retired in 1985. She was a regular with the Hamburg State Opera starting in 1961, and with them made films of Le nozze di Figaro (as the Contessa, 1967), Der Freischütz (1968), and Die Meistersinger (1970). In 1971, she created the title role in Alberto Ginastera’s Beatrix Cenci for the opening of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She also sang roles for the New York City Opera; the Metropolitan Opera; La Scala Milan; London, Covent Garden; and other opera companies throughout Europe and in Argentina.
Karol Szymanowski, c. 1920. (Photo by Bain News Service – Courtesy of Library of Congress)
And Polish pianist and composer Karol Szymanowski was born October 6, 1882, in Warsaw. Szymanowski began playing piano and composing as a child. He studied harmony, counterpoint, and composition privately in Warsaw until 1904, then moved to Berlin and organized the Young Polish Composers’ Publishing Co. (1905–12) to publish new works by his countrymen. During the years of World War I (1914-1917), he studied Islamic culture, Greek drama, and philosophy, and when Poland was declared an independent state in 1918, he sought to create a Polish national style. Szymanowski moved to Zakopane, the center of the Polish Tatra highlands, and incorporated regional folk music into his compositions from this time, including 20 Mazurkas (1924–25) for piano and his operas Hagith and Król Roger (1918–24). In 1927, he was named director of the Warsaw Conservatory, but the school closed in 1932. He returned to the highlands and composed until his death in 1937. Szymanowski’s better-known works are four symphonies and two violin concertos; he also wrote string quartets; works for violin and piano, and quite a bit of solo piano music; and vocal music, including his Stabat Mater.
Friday, 4 October 2024
It’s All-Request Friday, and we’re playing your favorites and dedications all day and into the night! (And again tomorrow on the Saturday Evening Request Program.) The request programs playlists are here if you’d like to know when yours will air, and if you want to make a request for next week, you can do that here.
We can’t wait to play your favorites!
Ticket Giveaway Next Week:
On Wednesday October 9 during Classical Café, George Leef will give away tickets to the world premiere of Carolina Ballet’s Jekyll & Hyde by artistic director Zalman Raffael.
Be listening between 11am-12pm ET for your chance to win!
On today’s date in classical music history:
Stephen Albert Emery, c. 1889. (From A Hundred Years of Music in America, G.L. How, Publisher – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of American composer and theorist Stephen Albert Emery in Paris, Maine, in 1841. Emery was well-known in his day as a lecturer and music theorist, a composer, a teacher of harmony, counterpoint and piano. Emery’s studies of piano and harmony began as a hobby, but he traveled to Leipzig and then Dresden in the 1860s to study seriously. He was appointed to the faculty of the newly-opened New England Conservatory of Music in 1867 to teach piano and harmony, then became professor of harmony, theory, and composition in the Boston University College of Music in 1881. Emery’s textbook “Elements of Harmony” was a popular pedagogical tool throughout the U.S., and he wrote many songs and pieces for piano. He was also associate editor of the Boston Musical Herald.
Henry Schoenefeld, c. 1900. (Photo by Rupert Hughes – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s also the birthdate of American conductor and composer Henry Schoenefeld (also Schoenfeld) in 1857 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His father was a cellist who taught him piano and composition; Schoenefeld then attended the Leipzig Conservatory (studying piano and violin, as well as composition and instrumentation under Carl Reinecke) and the Weimar Conservatory. In 1879, he returned to the U.S. and settled in Chicago, taking a faculty position at the Hershey School of Music and conducting the Germania Männerchor (1891-1902). He relocated to Los Angeles in 1904 to conduct the Woman’s Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles (the first all-female classical music orchestra in the U.S.) and to teach at UCLA. He is best known for his Rural Symphony, though he also wrote other orchestral and chamber music; music for violin and for piano; and some compositions for male chorus.
From the Los Angeles Times, 1 April 1927.
Thursday, 3 October 2024
It’s Friday Eve, Listeners!
That means that tomorrow is All-Request Friday and we are looking forward to playing your favorites.
The playlist is here if you’d like to see when your request/dedication will air, and if you want to make requests for next week, do that here.
This week’s Thursday Night Opera House is the 1986 recording of Herbert von Karajan conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and amazing soloists in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s dramma giocoso (literally “drama with jokes”) Don Giovanni. Libertine Don Giovanni (Samuel Ramey) seduces and casts aside women who vow to get their revenge. Join Dr. Jay Pierson at 7pm ET for one of the greatest operas of all time.
On this date in the history of classical music:
Cipriani Potter, c. 1838. (Lithograph, drawn on stone from life, by S. Bendixen – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of English pianist and composer Philip Cipriani Hambly Potter in London in 1792. Potter’s first music lessons were with his father who played the flute and the violin. From 1805 to 1810, he studied with pianists Thomas Attwood and Joseph Wölfl, both former students of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and was then made a member of the nascent Philharmonic Society in 1815, in which he made his public debut as a pianist, performing commissioned compositions. Potter spent time studying and performing in Austria, Germany, and Italy from 1817-1819, then returned to London as both a conductor and composer; he programmed some of the first performances of Mozart’s piano concertos in England. In 1822, Potter was appointed professor of piano and orchestra conductor for the newly founded Royal Academy of Music and was named principal in 1832, holding the post for 27 years and composing less and less, though he wrote a few vocal works; several symphonies and orchestral works; chamber music; and quite a bit of music for piano.
Zenobia Perry at the piano, c. 1952. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s also the birthdate of American composer Zenobia Powell Perry in 1908 in Boley, Oklahoma. As a child, she sang and played the piano and the violin. In 1929, she began studies at the Cecil Berryman Conservatory in Omaha, Nebraska, then studied piano at the Hampton Institute and the Eastman School of Music into the 1930s. Perry was already writing compositions by 1935, when she attended the Tuskegee Institute, then she joined a teacher training program for Black Americans headed by Eleanor Roosevelt, who became Perry’s mentor and friend. She went on to compose and to hold faculty positions at a number of colleges and universities, including the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Central State University in Ohio. Perry’s music was classical, but was influenced by jazz and AfricanAmerican and Native American folklore. Her opera, Tawawa House (1985) was based on the history of the Underground Railroad in Ohio. She also composed orchestral and band music; a song cycle (Threnody, 1974); a mass; and pedagogical works for piano.
Wednesday, 2 October 2024
We thank you all so much for listening, and for supporting The Classical Station. Please consider becoming a member if you haven’t donated before. No, it doesn’t matter how much you give, only that you help support public radio and sustain great classical music on WCPE!
We’ll play some special recordings during the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), starting this evening with Leonard Nimoy and the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble: The Birthday of the World, Part I: Rosh Hashanah (October 2, 6pm ET)
The Waltz, Angelo Zoffoli 1890s
Expand your classical music knowledge even more each week with Classical Considerations. This week, Matthew Young gavottes and gambols into the history of the dances that are associated with classical music. Fascinating!
On this date in the history of classical music:
Wanamaker Organ, in the Grand Court Macy’s Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Interior with historic organ, Wanamaker’s Department Store, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, c. 2007 (Photo by Carol M. Highsmith – Courtesy of Library of Congress)
It’s the birthdate of American organist and composer George Alexander Russell in Franklin, Tennessee, in 1880. Russell’s mother was his first music teacher (piano); he then studied piano, organ, and composition at Syracuse University starting at age 16. At age 20, he was appointed to the faculty as professor of piano and organ and he served as organist for several local churches, as well. Russell left for studies in Berlin and Paris in 1906, which included organ, fugue, orchestration, and composition with Charles Marie Widor. He began his professional career as a concert pianist, but was then hired by the Wanamaker Department Stores (1910) as an organist in the New York store’s auditorium for daily recitals on the Wanamaker Auditorium organ (with 17,000 pipes, it was the largest organ in the world at that time). He also supervised instrument sales and arranged performances by employees and outside performers. By 1919, Alexander Russell was in charge of arranging organ concerts at both the New York and Philadelphia stores, managing to attract some of the greatest organists in classical music to perform, including Marcel Dupré, Louis Vierne, Nadia Boulanger, and Fernando Germani. In 1917, Russell was named the first Frick Professor of Music and director of music for Princeton University (1917-1935). He directed the university glee club and then founded the Princeton Choristers, later merging the two into the Princeton Choristers Glee Club. He was also among the designers of the 4 manual Ernest M. Skinner organ at the Princeton University Chapel, and he was organist for the funeral of Thomas Alva Edison in 1931. (There is no free image of Dr. Russell available in the public domain, but you can see what he looked like here.)
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Tuesday, 1 October 2024
A very good day to all of you!
Don’t Forget:
Put in your requests for this week’s All-Request Friday and the Saturday Evening Request Program. We absolutely love seeing what you choose for our playlists, and it’s your chance to share your favorites with your fellow listeners. You can also dedicate your requests, so feel free to make someone’s day with some beautiful music.
AND
Tomorrow on Classical Café, George Leef will give away some tickets to Burning Coal Theatre Company’s production of Copenhagen. Be listening between 11am-12pm ET for your chance to win!
Are you a business owner?
Become one of our Business Sponsors and reach more than 100,000 listeners in North Carolina alone (and more worldwide) while supporting WCPE/The Classical Station, classical music, and your business at the same time. More information is here, or email WCPE’s business development specialist Mary Moonen.
On this date in the history of classical music:
Paul Dukas, date unknown. (National Library of France – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Today is the birthdate of French composer and music critic Paul Dukas in Paris in 1865. Dukas studied piano from the age of five and began composing at fourteen; he was sixteen when he entered the Conservatoire de Paris (1881) to study piano with Georges Mathias, harmony with Théodore Dubois, and composition with Ernest Guiraud. A fellow student, Claude Debussy, became a lifelong friend and collaborator. His career took off in the 1890s, with the Paris debut of his overture Polyeucte (1891) and his first published review in La Revue Hebdomadaire (1892, a review of Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen conducted by Gustav Mahler at Covent Garden, London). Dukas also wrote for Minerva, La Chronique des Arts, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, and Le Courrier Musical. Dukas wrote quite a bit of music, but he was highly critical of his own work and ended up destroying many of his compositions before they were ever heard, let alone published. His best known works are his Symphony in C Major (1895–96) and his scherzo for orchestra, L’apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, 1897), based on Goethe’s poem “Der Zauberlehrling.” He also wrote celebrated works for solo piano, including his Piano Sonata (1901, dedicated to Camille Saint-Saëns), operas, and a ballet (La Péri, 1912), and he was one of the foremost writers of the period on Jean-Philippe Rameau, Christoph Gluck, and Hector Berlioz. In the 1920s, Dukas taught composition at the Conservatoire de Paris and L’École Normale de Musique; among his students were Maurice Duruflé, Olivier Messiaen, Walter Piston, Manuel Ponce, Joaquín Rodrigo, and Xian Xinghai.
Vladimir Horowitz, c. 1989. (Photo by Nancy Lee Katz – Courtesy of Library of Congress)
And it’s the birthdate of Russian-American pianist Vladimir Horowitz in 1903 in either Kyiv or Berdychiv (both are documented, neither is agreed upon by researchers). Horowitz became a piano and composition student at the conservatory at Kyiv at age 12, preferring composition to being a concert pianist. His performance career began in 1922, after World War I left his family penniless. The next year, Horowitz gave 23 recitals in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and played more than 200 works, which led to international tours in Europe and the U.S. and a reputation as one of the most famous pianists of all time, and certainly of the 20th century. Horowitz was friends with Sergei Rachmaninov and performed his compositions throughout his career; he made the premiere recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in 1930, one of his earliest recordings. He recorded into the 1980s (with many of those recordings topping classical music charts), and he was known for his dynamic and dramatic interpretations and arrangements, his technical precision, and his sold-out concerts. Horowitz took several long breaks from performing and touring, but continued recording throughout his career. He was the subject of the 1985 film The Last Romantic. He played his final recital in Hamburg in 1987.
Monday, 30 September 2024
Hello, Listeners! Welcome to a brand new week at The Classical Station.
Monday Night at the Symphony features the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, founded in 1882 and conducted by Andrew Manze, Antoni Wit, with a special performance by pianist Hélène Grimaud. The program includes music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Alexander Glazunov, and more.
Join us for the symphony at 8pm ET.
Cellist János Starker. (Photo courtesy of Indiana University Archives)
Each Tuesday on Classical Café, George Leef profiles a Legendary Performer. This week it’s Hungarian-American cellist János Starker, so tune in tomorrow for classical music knowledge!
And then on Wednesday, he’ll have a ticket giveaway between 11am-12pm ET for Burning Coal Theatre Company’s production of Copenhagen, by Michael Frayn (October 10-27). This fictional account of the meeting between physicists Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr in Copenhagen in 1941 imagines their conversation as they revisit their personal and professional entanglements throughout decades of war, turmoil, and scientific advancement. Tune in and win tickets!
On this date in classical music history:
Charles Villiers Stanford, c. 1921. (Photo by Bassano Ltd – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor Charles Villiers Stanford in Dublin in 1852. As a child, Stanford studied violin, piano, organ and composition, and some of his earliest vocal compositions were performed by the University of Dublin Choral Society. He attended the University of Cambridge on scholarships for both classics and organ (he graduated near the bottom of his class in classics, as he was primarily focused on music studies). He was appointed organist of Trinity College while he was still an undergraduate and had already written a substantial number of compositions, including sacred and secular vocal music and orchestral music. In 1870, Stanford became assistant conductor and a committee member of the Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS), then founded a mixed choir (men and women) in 1872, the Amateur Vocal Guild. The two choruses merged into the new CUMS and women became associate members. He studied piano and composition with composer Carl Reinecke at the Leipzig Conservatory (1874), then in Berlin briefly in 1876, before returning to Cambridge to conduct the CUMS. Stanford was composing prolifically at this time, and by the early 1880s, he was a key player in British music. At 29, he became one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music (1882-1894), teaching composition (among his pupils: Gustav Holst; Ralph Vaughan Williams; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; John Ireland; Rebecca Clarke; Frank Bridge; and Arthur Bliss). A milestone of his RCM tenure was his establishment of an opera class. He was also appointed professor of music at Cambridge (1887).