wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Evening Music

Wednesday, January 05, 2005
  • Collage of Maurizio Pollini (photo by Philip Gontier) and Alfred Brendel (www.alfredbrendel.com) and cake

    Birthday! Maurizio Pollini and Alfred Brendel

    Two of the greatest living pianists were born this day, so it’s two birthday cakes to enjoy: one for Maurizio Pollini (1931), and the other for Alfred Brendel (1942). Pass the forks!

We begin the evening’s festivities with Maurizio Pollini, as he plays Chopin’s Piano Etude No. 7 in C. And we continue with Alfred Brendel, of course, as he gives us Schumann’s “Symphonic Etude, Op. 13,” No. 5. A bit later, Pollini playes three excerpts from Stravinsky’s “Petrushka,” as transcribed by Stravinsky himself for Arthur Rubinstein: ‘Russian Dance,’ ‘Petrushka’s Room,’ and ‘The Shrovetide Fair’ are all percusively evocative of the eponymous marionette.

Our second hour begins with the Takacs Quartet’s masterly performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7 in 7, the first of the so-called “Razumovsky” quartets. The Takacs ensemble will perform all sixteen Beethoven quartets at Alice Tully Hall this January. Check out the schedule on the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center website.

Alfred Brendel reappears in hour three to play Schuberts complete Impromptus, Op. 90. And Pollini returns as well, this time to bring us Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, known as the “Funeral March” sonata. But first we take time from the piano to feature the cello, as Torleif Thedeen is featured in Saint-Saens’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, Jean Jacques Kantorow conducting the Tapiola Sinfonietta.

Leave a Comment

Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. WNYC reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the WNYC.org Comment Guidelines before posting.

Your comment


* required
The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party.
 

69th American Music Festival: American Blend

May 21-22, at 7pm; May 23-24 at 8pm; May 25-27 at 7pm

Hosts Terrance McKnight and David Garland will curate and host a weeklong festival with special guests and rare recordings, concluding with live performances in WNYC's Jerome L. Greene Performance Space by Dafnis Prieto, Paola Prestini, Ezequiel Vinao and Yungchen Lhamo May 27.

globalFEST 2009

Listen on Demand

On January 11th, WNYC and NPR Music presented a live webcast of globalFEST 2009, the annual showcase that provides a "sneak peek" of global musicians on the verge of international fame.

Wordless Music

Concerts on Demand

WNYC presents web-exclusive concerts from the Wordless Music Series, hosted by Radio Lab's Jad Abumrad. Devoted to the desegregation of musical boundaries, Wordless Music pairs rock and electronic musicians with more traditional chamber and new music performers, to create an entirely new concert experience.

Deerhoof/Metropolis Ensemble

Live Webcast

WNYC and NPR Music team up to bring you this live webcast from the Prospect Park Bandshell, which pairs indie rock sensation Deerhoof with the progressive Metropolis Ensemble. Presented by Celebrate Brooklyn! and Wordless Music, and hosted by David Garland, the program features an ambitious re-imagining of Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, The Rite: Remixed.