wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Haydn’s Divertimento for Two Horns and String Quartet in D, Hob. II:22, is full of virtuosic and idiomatic writing for French horns, and is as witty as one could wish (a Haydn trademark). Javier Bonet-Manrique and Ab Koster both play natural horns as they join the other L’Archibudelli members in this authentic-instruments performance. Neeme Järvi conducts the Scottish National Orchestra in Dvorák’s “Symphonic Variations.” Thus endeth our first hour.

In our second hour, Hilary Hahn will be the featured soloist as we bring you a work from her latest recording, Elgar’s Violin Concerto, Sir Colin Davis conducting the London Symphony. You’ll love it! She’s can be heard playing that very concerto with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fischer on December 9th and 11th.

After the usual Thursday evening film music (stay tuned to discover what it is), we’ll bring you Harrison Birtwistle’s exotic “Entr’actes and Sappho Fragments,” a work for soprano, flute, oboe, violin, viola, harp, and percussion performed by soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, the Aureole Trio, and friends. Here’s a small Sappho sample: “Love like mountain wind upon an oak/falling upon me shakes me leaf and bough.” The music will shake us, too! Birtwistle’s short “Pulse Sampler” heads us toward the evening’s end, not the same music as his “Pulse Shadows” that you can hear live at Alice Tully Hall when it will be brought to you by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on December 3rd and 5th, where a post-performance discussion with the composer is featured.