For Your Listening Pleasure

For our throwback montage this week, I turn to our old series "The Musical Passport" for a trip to Scandinavia and works by four native sons: Wiren, Nielsen, Grieg and Sibelius (including his violin concerto) Read our bfresh take on July 10 @ http://itywltmt.blogspot.ca/, details @ https://archive.org/details/pcast120-Playlist (ITYWLTMT Podcast # 120 - 30 Aug 2013)

"Cantelli Conducts Tchaikovsky (Part 1)" Guido Cantelli had a stellar but brief career as a conductor, championed by Toscanini who had begun looking for a younger associate to keep the NBC Symphony Orchestra (created for him in 1938) on course during his absences. He arranged for the young conductor's immediate NBC debut on January 15, 1949. Afterwards, Time magazine featured a profile likening him physically to Frank Sinatra, but musically to Arturo Toscanini. Until NBC disbanded the orchestra in 1954, Cantelli conducted there annually, beginning with four but expanding to eight programs. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/PeterIlijcTchaikovskyTheLastThreeSymphonies [First Time on our Podcasting Channel]

"A Second or Two" Today's montage looks at "second" works, or "number twos" from Bach to Buczynski.,Featured are a couple of "second rhapsodies". Both Debussy and Gershwin had their "first rhapsodies" featured last year. Debussy's first rhapsody (for clarinet) was followed later by a second, this time for saxophone. The work, originally set for saxophone and piano, was later set for orchestra at first by Debussy himself, and finished in 1919 by Roger Ducasse. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/Pcast090

"Mahler in Boston" Alsatian conductor Charles Munch (who was Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1949 to 1963) is often thought of as a master of French music – which he undoubtedly was – but we must not forget that he worked his way through the ranks as a violinist and later as concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtwängler and Bruno Walter (1926 to 1933). It should not be a surprise that Munch is no slouch when it comes to the German repertoire… Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast290

"Karajan Conducts Tchaikovsky" Herbert von Karajan can be trusted with more than just the great German composers. Karajan’s repertoire of predilection is German post-classical and romantic, but he also excels in late romantic Italian opera (Verdi), Scandinavian (Sibelius) and Russian/Soviet repertoire (Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky). Karajan was unquestionably a great Tchaikovsky conductor. Although he recorded the last three symphonies many times, he did not turn to the first three until the end of the 1970s, and then proved an outstanding advocate. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast305

"This & That" You like two-part titles? I cover the bases, going from one of the many Toccatas and Fugues for organ by J.-S. Bach, French composers Berlioz and Saint-Saëns, Rëverie et caprice and Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso, Chopin's breath taking Andante spianato and grande polonaise brillante. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/ThisThat_522

"America" America is synonymous with migration - save for the people from the First Nations, everybody (or their ancestors) have come from elsewhere. Many of today's musical selections are indicative of travel to America, or of people that have elected to live in America. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/Pcast116

[Project 366 Listener Guide #61] Though the Calgary Stampede cannot be celebrated in a traditional way this year, Stampede Spirit can’t be cancelled! Read our fresh take on July 3rd @ https://itywltmt.blogspot.com. Details @ https://archive.org/details/Pcast013Playlist (ITYWLTMT Podcast #13 - 8 July 2011)

"Chopin Showcase" Chopin wrote six works for piano and orchestra, including two concertos. The Piano Concerto in F minor dates from 1829. Chopin wrote the piece before he had finished his formal education, at around 20 years of age. It was first performed on 17 March 1830, in Warsaw, Poland, with the composer as soloist. It was the second of his piano concertos to be published and so was designated as "No. 2", even though it was written first. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast292

"Canada Day" As our regular listeners will attest, scarcely a listener guide goes by without its fair share of "Canadian content". To celebrate Canada Day, we assembled a montage of music featuring Canadian compositions and performers. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/CanadaDay_254

"Josef Suk (1929 – 2011)" The actual number of concertos and concertante works Mozart wrote for the violin is up for debate. There are five generally accepted “numbered” violin concertos (nos. 1 – 5) and a trio of stand-alone movements (two rondos and an adagio) likely movements intended as replacements dedicated to specific contemporary violinists of Mozart’s time. A sixth concerto, in E flat major, was at one time attributed to Mozart but is now attributed instead to Johann Friedrich Eck. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast312

[Quarterly Tuesday Podcast] Another montage in our Mozart Piano Concerto series proposes three concerti performed by Daniel Barenboim and Vladimir Ashkenazy – as solo and duo soloists and conductors. Read our commentary on June 30 @ https://www.talkclassical.com/blogs/itywltmt/, details @ https://archive.org/details/pcast340-Playlist

"Claudio Arrau (1903–1991)" Our featured artist, Claudio Arrau León was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/pcast302

"Charpentier: Louise (Acts 3 & 4)" Paul Dukas once wrote of Louise: "The first and last acts are those of a master; the other two are those of an artist; the whole is the work of a man." Louise is an opera that may be known today as a work with only one hit "Depuis le jour" to its credit, but at one time it was a staple at the great opera houses of the world and was reputed to be a favorite of the Metropolitan Opera's Sir Rudolf Bing who could never remember its name and referred to it as "the one with the girls and the sewing machines."Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/G.Charpentier-LouiseCotrubasDomingoBacquierBerbiNpo [First Time on our Podcasting Channel]

"Charpentier: Louise (Acts 1 & 2)" Paul Dukas once wrote of Louise: "The first and last acts are those of a master; the other two are those of an artist; the whole is the work of a man." Louise is an opera that may be known today as a work with only one hit "Depuis le jour" to its credit, but at one time it was a staple at the great opera houses of the world and was reputed to be a favorite of the Metropolitan Opera's Sir Rudolf Bing who could never remember its name and referred to it as "the one with the girls and the sewing machines."Details at our archive page @ https://archive.org/details/G.Charpentier-LouiseCotrubasDomingoBacquierBerbiNpo [First Time on our Podcasting Channel]