Listeners to our popular weekday early morning program Rise and Shine have probably heard every overture written. This evening we get Preview! off to a rousing start with Franz von Suppé’s Overture to Poet and Peasant. Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic on a CD entitled 2021 New Years Concert on the Sony Classical label.
Thierry Pécou
Photo by Christophe Alary
French composer Thierry Pécou has gained some notoriety for composing an avant-garde work Outre-mémoire. We’ll hear another work by this talented young composer. Francois Leleux, oboe, and Emmanuel Strosser, piano, perform Sonata for oboe and piano. The CD is Bienvenue en France on the Warner Classics label.
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Andris Nelsons play the Scherzo movement from Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 in C. You can find this on a new Deutsche Grammaphon release which has Bruckner’s Symphonies 2 and 8 in addition to the Prelude to Act 1 of Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Currently a resident of Paris, American pianist Andrew von Oyen spoke with me a few weeks ago about his wonderful new recording of Bach and Beethoven. When you listen to him play Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 13 in E flat, Op. 27 No. 1 this evening, note his exquisite cantando technique. Andrew knows how to make the piano sing. This recording is on the Warner Classics label.
It’s always exciting to hear young musicians come to the fore. So, when I had the opportunity to interview Itzhak Perlman’s protégé Randall Goosby a couple of weeks ago, was prepared to be impressed. And I was. As several critics have noted, American violinist Randall Goosby’s could have made a big splash with one of the warhorses in the violin solo repertoire. Instead, Randall has chosen to share music of Black America with us in his first CD Roots. This evening he plays William Grant Still’s Suite for Violin and Piano. Zhy Wang accompanies. Decca released this CD earlier this year.
Over the years we’ve had Wendy Carlos’ Switched on Bach and Ward Swingle’s Jazz Sebastian Bach. In 2021 Peter Gregson arranges Bach’s cello suites for six cellos and an electronic soundbed. Plus ça change. This is a Deutsche Grammophon release.
Lithuanian conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla has an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. She conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Sir William Walton’s Troilus and Cressida, Symhponic Suite. The CD on the DG label is entitled Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla: The British Project/Walton: Troylus 2021 and Cressida.
‘unquestionably the first work by Vaughan Williams that is recognizably and unmistakably his and no one else’s’…James Day
English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams’ tip of the hat to his illustrious predecessor, Thomas Tallis, resulted in a favorite of The Classical Station’s listeners, the Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. Sir Antonio Pappano conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in a CD on the orchestra’s own label.
JoAnn Falletta
Photo by Cheryl Gorski
American conductor JoAnn Falletta is one of the world’s top conductors. No matter what music she conducts, she seems to channel the composer’s intentions with aplomb. This evening she conducts her Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s much-loved Four Seasons, This CD was released earlier this year on the Beau Fleuve Records label.
Rob Kennedy
July 11, 2021