On Demand
Evening Music Archive
July 2007
Classical Godfather
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
You know him as the composer of the famous "Godfather" theme, but Nino Rota already had well over 100 soundtracks to his credit when he wrote that score in 1972. Tonight we feature the lesser-known side of Rota's prolific talent, with his quirky — and delightful — Clarinet Sonata.
Minimalist Rock
Monday, July 30, 2007
He's been called "Eddie Van Halen for eggheads" by Entertainment Weekly. Tonight we feature music from the rock star of minimalism, guitarist Dominic Frasca.
Ancient Voices
Sunday, July 29, 2007
When George Crumb set the haunting imagery of Federico García Lorca's poetry to music in "Ancient Voice of Children," he drew together an unorthodox array of instruments to create a timeless, unearthly sound. We feature Crumb's iconic song cycle tonight with the artist for whom it was written, mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani.
Spotlight on: Rob Schwimmer
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Rob Schwimmer writes "exquisitely beautiful music, worthy of deep listening" (Keyboard Magazine). The acclaimed composer/pianist (and thereminist) joins David Garland tonight for a conversation about his unique musical style and upcoming performances in New York.
Symphony Gets The Blues
Friday, July 27, 2007
The Blues Band meets the Symphony Orchestra tonight in legendary jazz composer Bill Russo's blues concerto, "Street Music." Seiji Ozawa leads the San Francisco Symphony in this groundbreaking recording, which sparked a renaissance in concert jazz when it was released in the early 70s.
view WNYC's music playlists dating back to 2001
Classic Metal
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Raised by Eastern European Jews in the jungles of Nicaragua, composer Michael Gordon was born to mix genres. Tonight, Gordon channels the power of heavy metal in his high-voltage chamber piece, AC/DC.
Pentagon Poet
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
"As we know, there are known knowns" may sound like a Gertrude Stein quote — but it actually spilled from the mouth of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Tonight we feature composer Phil Kline's setting of some of Rumsfeld's more poetic public statements, in the "Three Rumsfeld Songs."
Steve Reich and "Tehillim"
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
After making his mark in minimalism during the 1970s with works like "Music for Eighteen Musicians," Steve Reich began exploring more concrete thematic material by writing for the voice, often choosing political or religious texts. Tonight we feature the first of Reich's pieces that drew explicitly from his Jewish heritage, "Tehillim."
Roy Harris
Monday, July 23, 2007
Born in a log cabin on an Oklahoma farm in 1898, Roy Harris grew up in near isolation, surrounded by the sounds of nature and the folksongs of his family. Years later he would draw on those early experiences to create an indigenous style of music that reflected the broad landscape of the American west.
Eve Beglarian
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Los Angeles Times music critic Josef Woodard says of Eve Beglarian's music: "Expect only a musical head trip according to Beglarian's creative world view." A fixture on the New York contemporary music scene, Beglarian is a prolific composer and multimedia performer, and recently released "Tell the Birds," a CD featuring her settings of poems by Czeslaw Milosz and Stanley Kunitz.
Kurt Weill
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Tonight we celebrate the music of Kurt Weill, whose collaborations with Bertold Brecht produced some of the most memorable pieces of musical theater during the first part of the 20th century.
view WNYC's music playlists dating back to 2001
Déodat de Séverac
Friday, July 20, 2007
Like his contemproraries Fauré and Debussy, Déodat de Séverac was inspired by the symbolist poetry of Paul Verlaine. Unlike his compatriots, however, de Séverac drew heavily on the folk traditions of his native southern France, giving his works a strong regional flavor that stood out against the impressionism of the time.
Sō Percussion and Matmos
Thursday, July 19, 2007
East Coast meets West at the Lincoln Center Festival this weekend, as the New York-based Sō Percussion ensemble teams up with San Francisco's surrealist electronica duo, Matmos. We explore the soundscape of this 21st century sextet, which combines electronic wizardry with acoustic virtuosity—leaving no sonic stone unturned.
Modern Guitar Master
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
When guitar virtuoso Andrés Segovia commissioned his friend Federico Moreno Torroba to write a modern guitar work in 1918, Torroba was barely familiar with the instrument. Over the next 40 years, however (and mostly at the urging of Segovia), Torroba wrote over 100 works for guitar, inspiring other composers and helping to establish the popularity of the classical guitar repertoire.
P.D.Q. Schickele
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Even though he's composed well over 100 serious works for orchestra, voice, and film, Peter Schickele has found his biggest success as a parodist, in the persona of P.D.Q. Bach. In honor of his 72nd birthday, we turn our attention this evening to a few of Schickele's "strictly classical" creations.
Keith Jarrett
Monday, July 16, 2007
For 35 years, jazz icon Keith Jarrett has enjoyed a parallel career as a classical composer, often writing music that has a distinct improvisational quality (something that Chopin would certainly identify with). Tonight we hear his Violin Sonata, featuring Michelle Makarski with Jarrett at the piano.
Payton MacDonald
Sunday, July 15, 2007
A founding member of the popular new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, percussionist Payton MacDonald is a noted composer in his own right, often exploring the relationship between American experimental music and the classical music of Northern India in his works.
view WNYC's music playlists dating back to 2001
Gerald Finzi
Saturday, July 14, 2007
During his lifetime, British composer Gerald Finzi was often overshadowed by his countrymen Elgar and Walton. Finzi's music has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, however; tonight we focus our attention on a sampling of his works.
view WNYC's music playlists dating back to 2001
Robert Kyr
Friday, July 13, 2007
With 12 symphonies, numerous chamber works and a whole catalog of choral works to his credit, Robert Kyr is one of the most prolific composers of his generation. Tonight we feature the second installment of his Violin Concerto trilogy, "On the Nature of Harmony."
view WNYC's music playlists dating back to 2001
Ring Redux
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Tonight we offer a preview of the new Kirov "Ring Cycle" which premieres as part of the Lincoln Center Festival tomorrow night. George Preston talks with acclaimed designer George Tsypin about his vision for Wagner's opera, and we offer a primer with WNYC's award-winning special, "The Ring and I: The Passion, The Myth, The Mania."
Henryk Górecki
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Henryk Górecki took the classical music world by storm when his fifteen-year-old "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" topped the charts for months when it was re-released in 1992. The next year saw the commercial release of his first two string quartets; we feature the second of these on tonight's program.
view WNYC's music playlists dating back to 2001
Paul Creston
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Born in 1906 as Giuseppe Guttovergi to a poor immigrant Italian family in New York, Paul Creston rose to prominence in the 1940s as one of America's most-performed composers. Tonight we feature one of his energetic chamber pieces, the Partita for Flute, Violin and Strings.
Glagolitic Mass
Monday, July 09, 2007
The Glagolitic Mass takes its name from the earliest Slavic alphabet in existence; during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it became a popular expression of nationalism among Czech composers. Tonight we feature the best-known of these works, written by Leoš Janáček.
view WNYC's music playlists dating back to 2001
Four Seasons of a Different Color
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Everyone knows Vivaldi's famous "Four Seasons"; tonight we offer some different takes on the same theme, including British composer Lawrence Ashmore's set of English folksongs which share the same title.
view WNYC's music playlists dating back to 2001
Colleen
Saturday, July 07, 2007
French composer Cécile Schott began writing and touring under the name "Colleen" in 2001, using looped samples to create her highly individual sound. Eventually, she began incorporating natural sounds and acoustic instruments into the mix, culminating in her latest release, "Les Ondes Silencieuses" (The Still Waters).
view WNYC's music playlists dating back to 2001
Renaissance Man
Friday, July 06, 2007
Michael Nyman has covered just about every musical terrain, from the concert hall to film and video game soundtracks. Firmly rooted in the minimalist tradition, Nyman has also made important contributions as a librettist and musicologist.
Robert Moran
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Robert Moran made a name for himself in the late 1960s by writing a work for the entire city of San Francisco that employed 100,000 performers, two radio stations, a television station, 30 skyscrapers, six airplanes, and various street dance ensembles. Tonight we feature a slightly less ambitious (but no less interesting) piece, "Music from the Towers of the Moon," drawn from one of Moran's many operas.
Father of American Music
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Born on the fourth of July in 1826, Stephen Foster single-handedly created the tradition of the American songwriter. Though his "minstrel songs" reflect the racism of the times, Foster's stated ambition was to draw attention to the plight of slaves — by using the very medium that mocked them.
America's Diva
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Beverly Sills not only demystified classical music and opera for the public; but for many people, she defined it, pure and simple. Tonight we pay tribute to "Bubbles" — as she was affectionately known — with recordings of some of her greatest roles, and clips of her previous appearances on WNYC.
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Monday, July 02, 2007
Like Leonard Bernstein before him, Esa-Pekka Salonen has enjoyed a duel career as one of the world's top conductors and as an important symphonic composer. Tonight we hear him take up the baton for one of his high-octane orchestral works, "Gambit."
view WNYC's music playlists dating back to 2001
Jordi Savall
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Spanish composer, conductor, and viola da gamba player Jordi Savall has had a significant influence on the field of early music since the 1970s. The co-founder of the early music ensemble Hesperion XX (known since 2000 as Hesperion XXI) with his wife, soprano Montserrat Figueras, Savall has been widely credited with bringing the viola da gamba back to the modern concert stage.
view WNYC's music playlists dating back to 2001
Music Playlists
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Festivals and Specials
Listen on demand to our online archive of music festivals and specials, where you'll find a treasure-trove of stimulating conversations, opinions, reflections, and of course, great music!
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Ear to Ear
Ear to Ear takes innovative musicians off the New York stages and into the studio for relaxed, insightful conversation, as they share their personal recordings with host David Garland.
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