This Sunday join Ron Moore for the fifth installment of J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio. This cantata is taken from the book of Matthew and starts the New Year with the story of the birth of Jesus and tells of the hope of Salvation. First performed at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, we celebrate the Holidays with a new recording of this Christmas favorite on the very Sunday's Bach intended them. To add a home town touch this recording features the Leipzig based Gewandhaus orchestra and the voices of the Dresden Chamber Choir with soloists, Carolyn Sampson, Wiebke Lehmkuhl, Wolfram Lattke and bass, Konstantin Wolff. The music director is Riccardo Chailly.
Bach's Christmas Oratorio heard Sunday afternoons at 2 through January 9th on KPAC & KTXI.
With the advent of the "New Music School" of Liszt and Wagner, Germans felt they were leading the world in music innovation, but was that true? When the arch German pianist Eugene D'Albert played some Debussy in the capital he was hissed for his trouble. On the Piano this Sunday Music from Exotic Berlin, where in the early twentieth century foreign composers were importing adventuresome music - with outside influences. And guess what, some of these new directions were appreciated by the normally conservative Berlin audiences.
Hear Exotic Berlin on the Piano this Sunday afternoon at 5 on KPAC & KTXI.
Ever since his appointment to the music directorship of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, there has been considerable buzz about Venezuelan-born Gustavo Dudamel. In fact, Dudamel's work has been under the international spotlight since he began touring and recording with the young musicians of the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar in 1999. He has turned many a head while garnering praise from the likes of Sir Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado and Jamie Berstein. Bernstein has stated very publicly that she sees her father (Leonard Bernstein) in Dudamel.
Of course, the problem with any of this is the uncertainty of media spin. How much of what we are hearing about Gustavo Dudamel is real and how much is publicist invention? I have to admit that I have taken a wait and see attitude, tempered by a degree of skepticism. After all, this guy Dudamel is only 29 (he turns 30 on January 26, 2011). Let's keep in mind that Bernstein was 39 when he took over the New York Philharmonic; he began his justly heralded Young People's Concerts series the following year.
Watching last night's Tavis Smiley report Dudamel: Conducting a Life, dissolved my doubts about young Dudamel. If there are other "doubting Thomases" out there, I highly recommend that you catch a repeat of Smiley's report. Not only does this put to rest any reservations regarding the maturity of Dudamel, Mr. Smiley's program also shows a way to the future of classical music through music education. This is not necessarily about making more professional musicians. Dudamel's passion, based upon the renowned El Systema devised by Venezuelan economist and musician José Antonio Abreu, is more about rekindling social change and emotional honesty. Yes, it is that profound!
For those reading this in the San Antonio area, there are several more opportunities to watch Dudamel: Conducting a Life on KLRN. Check here for program listings specific to this essential viewing. Not in the San Antonio area, or you just can't catch one of the broadcasts? The Tavis Smiley Reports series is generally made available for online viewing in a timely manner.
Joyce DiDonato just finished up in Europe and is coming to Houston in January to perform in Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie. She just posted some wonderful videos showing how things work behind the scenes for her...it's both brilliant and sweet, enjoy:
Before Warner Bros. figured out that cartoons could reach two audiences simultaneously, the writer Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann was composing stories that had philosophy and life lessons for the parents and for the kids, action and fantasy that borders on the hyperbolic.
One story that Hoffman wrote that will forever be associated with this time of year is Nussknacker und Mausekönig or The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Peter Tchaikovsky took this tale of the helpful god-father Drosselmayer, the evil mouse king and children in peril and turned it into a Christmas classic.
Hear Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker this Sunday afternoon, featuring a new recording with the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and their music director, Simon Rattle. The curtain rises at 3pm
Dramatic title, but in South Texas counting on the weather to be appropriate for your Piano show is a bit foolish. Temperature aside it is the cold season and the music on this Sunday's program is about wintery music. First the most thought of music when it comes to the seasons. Antonio Vivaldi struck it big with his Four Seasons and the combination of music and poetry inspired a number of other composers, even if was only to make their own arrangement of Vivaldi's music. To start off the program a modern transcription of this old chestnut for two pianos. Then music Arnold Bax wrote inspired by love and the sagas of Iceland; Winter Legends.
Here them both this Sunday afternoon at 5 on KPAC & KTXI, no matter what the temperature is.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed a great deal of sacred music and these works were to lead the congregation into the spirit of the church year. Advent is the time before Christmas and Bach took six cantatas from the holiday celebrations and combined them into his Christmas Oratorio. This Sunday KPAC broadcasts the fourth part of this work, featuring a new recording with Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchestra. This cantata deals with the birth of Jesus and his naming ceremony. Join Ron Moore this Sunday afternoon at 2 for this spirited performance of this Holiday classic on KPAC & KTXI.
