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February 2005

Leap-year Baby

Monday, February 28, 2005

Leap-year baby Gioacchino Rossini began life, not on this date, but on February 29th, back in 1792. The question is: “How old is he really?”


Birthday Bravi!

Sunday, February 27, 2005

This date is the birthday of three opera singers, so we’ll hear from each one of them this evening: tenor Enrico Caruso (1921); soprano Mirella Freni (1935); and baritone Mattia Battistini (1928).


Birthday Bash!

Saturday, February 26, 2005

It’s a multiple-birthday bash this evening: two composers, Antonin Reicha (1770) and Frank Bridge (1879); and two performers, soprano Emma Kirkby (1949) and Pianist Lazar Berman (1930). Cheers, everyone!


A Birthday: Dame Myra Hess

Friday, February 25, 2005

Dame Myra Hess, one of the 20th century’s most important and celebrated pianists, and not because she was a woman, was born this day in 1890.


Michel Legrand, Salut!

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Excerpts from Michel Legrand’s music for the movie “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” are heard in Evening Music’s third hour. Legrand was born 73 years ago today. Champagne flutes, everyone!


Halleluja for Handel

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

It’s halleluja for Handel this evening. Question: who’s birthday is it? But, of course! George Frederick landed on this planet in Halle, Saxony, on February 23, 1685.


Washington’s Birthday

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

It’s Washington’s Birthday, the last day of our American Music Festival, but not the last day you’ll hear American composers. Far from it! Tonight’s group ranges from Antheil to Woods...


For a Bag of Donuts

Monday, February 21, 2005

As our American Music Festival continues our traversal of U.S. composers, here’s a trivia question for you: what composer wrote what work for what group for a bag of doughnuts?


Blue Cathedral

Sunday, February 20, 2005

“. . . I found myself imagining a journey through a glass cathedral in the sky,” writes Jennifer Higdon of “blue cathedral,” her orchestral meditation on her brother’s untimely death.


Buon Compleanno, Luigi Boccherini

Saturday, February 19, 2005

Luigi Boccherini is this evening Birthday Boy (1743), so we’ll say “Buon compleanno” and listen to two of his works, a short one very soon, and a longer one later.


American Music Festival Continues

Friday, February 18, 2005

The American Music Festival continues. At the end of our first hour, we hear Steve Reich’s “Nagoya Marimbas,” with Alan Bennett and Paul Elliott as the two mrimba virtuosos.


A Birthday: Marian Anderson

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Contralto Marian Anderson was born this day in 1897. To honor this distinguished American, we bring you three examples of her art in our third hour, so stay tuned!


American Melting Pot

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

It’s an evening we might call an American melting pot, since we are featuring mostly American composers, in honor of out American Music Festival. Speaking of “American Melting Pot” . . .


Salute to John Adams

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Our American Music Festival salutes John Adams in particular, this evening, since its his birthday (1947). Stay tuned for our second-hour airing of a specially commissioned work. . .


Valentine's Day

Monday, February 14, 2005

Our Valentine’s Day gifts to you are musical, of course. So hold your love’s hand and listen to compositions about love—from the ever-present Anonymous, through musicals, to Philip Glass.


A Birthday: Fernando Sor

Sunday, February 13, 2005

We open with a birthday lollipop to Fernando Sor, born this day in 1778. Guitarists Jordi Codina and Josep Mangado toss off his Valse No. 6, Opus 44.


A Birthday: Jan Ladislav Dussek

Saturday, February 12, 2005

It’s Jan Ladislav Dussek’s birthday (1760), so we hear from him twice this evening, in his guise as a composer of music for harp (his wife Sophia Corri was a famous harpist).


Two Prominent Women Harpists

Friday, February 11, 2005

Two of this evening’s works—Maurice Ravel’s “Introduction and Allegro” and William Grant Still’s “Ennanga”—feature the harp, played not by angels, but by two prominent women harpists.


Harmonica in Concert

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Harmonica player Larry Adler is just one of our 2/10 Birthday Babies. Born in 1914, Adler made the mouth organ a concert instrument. Stay tuned for a brief glimpse of a gargantuan talent.


Chinese New Year

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

It’s the Chinese New Year; so we celebrate with many works from Chinese composers and performers, starting with the traditional “Little Path” from Suiyuan, sung by Ying Huang.


A Birthday

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Turning seventy today—what Oscar-winning composer famous for such scores for “Star Wars,” “Schindler’s List,” all of the Harry Potter films thus far, as well as for leading the Boston Pops for years?


Musical Journalism

Monday, February 07, 2005

You can hear two musical depictions of journalism during this evening’s first hour, “Tabloid” by Ferde Grofe and “Newseel in Five Shots” William Schuman.


Claudio Arrau

Sunday, February 06, 2005

The London Sunday Times wrote that Claudio Arrau “makes [the piano] live, like God teaching Adam on Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel roof; liquid, mysterious, profound, alive.”


Boisterous Bouree? Playful Pizzicato?

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Here are some of the best movement designations going: 'Boisterous bouree,' 'Playful pizzicato,' 'Sentimental saraband,' and ‘Frolicsome finale.' What's the work? Here's a hint: it's simple...


For the Lute?

Friday, February 04, 2005

Were the Bach Suites for Lute really for lute? No one knows for sure, and since some of them can’t even be performed on that instrument without transcription...


Get Out Your Castanets

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Check out the 2005 New York Flamenco Festival, in full force with happenings all over town. Go enjoy, or get out your castanets and play along as you listen to us this evening.


Faith and Hope are Playing

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

“Faith and Hope Are Playing” is the flute and viola miniature by Carl Nielsen with which Evening Music opens, James Galway and Brian Hawkins doing the honors.


A Birthday: Victor Herbert

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

You must not miss hearing excerpts from the silent film score for “Fall of a Nation,” composed by this evening’s Birthday Boy Victor Herbert (1859).