Live! From NPR

Miss the Classical Live! "Spring For Music" concerts last week?  Hear them, and many others, online at http://www.nprmusic.org/.

Website of a Thousand

May 18th, 2011 will mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler. Today, Mahler’s works are performed and recorded frequently and enjoy an esteemed place in any orchestra’s standard repertoire. In 2010 Deutsche Grammophon and Decca celebrated the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth with the Mahler150.com website, and the site continues to honor Mahler this year. In addition, DG will release a rare archival recording of the composer’s Das Lied von der Erde featuring Fritz Wunderlich and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in a performance led by Josef Krips.
The Mahler 150 website, http://www.mahler150.com/, is devoted to the composer and his music and offers full-track streaming of the complete Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Mahler catalogs featuring some 180 symphony recordings. Additionally, the comprehensive out-of-print section of over 60 albums includes important recordings that have become virtually unobtainable and legendary performances that are being made available for the first time digitally via the DG Web Shop. Simply select a symphony at the top of the site and then enjoy listening to a wide variety of recordings, both historic and recent. Listeners can compile their favorite playlist of Mahler recordings or simply sample DG and Decca’s library of great recordings.
As part of last year’s celebrations, DG and Decca asked listeners to vote for their favorite performances of the nine symphonies and unfinished 10th. The votes were tallied and the results were then turned into a box set, Mahler: The People’s Edition. Fully programmed by the general public, this unique box set allowed fans to make their voices heard as part of the Mahler celebration.
Deutsche Grammophon pays special honor to the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death with a rare recording of Das Lied von der Erde. This live recording, taken from a sold-out concert during the Vienna Festival at the Musikverein on June 14, 1964, features Josef Krips leading the Wiener Symphoniker with soloists Fritz Wunderlich and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Released for the first time on CD, this recording comes from a unique source in the Krips family archive: a copy of the original ORF (Austrian Radio) tape which is no longer to be found. Saved from the vaults and lovingly restored by the expert engineers at the Emil Berliner Studios in Berlin, it is a marvel of singing from two great soloists and a great conductor who were all closely associated with this work. The album will be available May 24, 2011.
Recent releases have included Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Adagio from Symphony no. 10 (DG: Boulez, Kozena, Gerhaher), Des Knaben Wunderhorn (DG: Hampson, Wiener Virtuosen), Bernstein’s Mahler (DVD: featuring selected movements from each symphony), Mahler: The Symphonies (DG: Bernstein, various orchestras – complete collection) as well as Gustavo Dudamel leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a live performance (DG: available as a digital album and a DVD).

Like a Phoenix rising…

Poor Geirr Tveitt, the Norwegian composer that lost nearly 300 compositions in a fire that engulfed his residence in 1970. Through years of study, restoration of the singed manuscripts and notating music by listening to recordings, a number of his most important works are being reclaimed.

On the Piano this Sunday a recording of one of Tveitt's most shimmering pieces, the Aurora Borealis for piano and orchestra. Here is music that conjures up the majesty of the flaming sky above an autumn landscape. Also an introduction to the composer with his first concerto composed as a student in Leipzig.

The Piano, hear it this Sunday afternoon at 5 on KPAC & KTXI.

host, Randy Anderson

Doc Lang

Today, the 28-year-old international piano megastar Lang Lang received the Honorary Doctorate Degree from The Royal College of Music in recognition of his outstanding achievements as a performer and a philanthropist supporting the next generation of musicians, on the occasion of HRH the Prince of Wales’ annual visit to the RCM. Lang Lang is the youngest and the first Chinese individual to be distinguished with this high honor.

The ceremony took place at the Britten Theatre of the Royal College of Music in London, followed by a brief concert at the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall. As HRH the Prince of Wales arrived at RCM, the stage curtain rose and the brass fanfare welcomed the Royal party onto the stage. Lord Winston, the Chairman of the College, read the citation for Lang Lang, whereupon HRH Prince Charles conferred the Honorary Doctorate of Music and presented him with the scroll. Composer James MacMillan and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen received their Honorary Doctorate Degrees alongside Lang Lang.

RCM’s decision to award the degree to Lang Lang celebrates the 40 million Chinese children inspired to learn classical piano. As one of the world’s most renowned pianists, whose performance at the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics brought him to the attention of five billion people worldwide; Lang Lang is viewed as a symbol of China’s future. In 2004, Lang Lang was appointed International Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations Children’s Fund. Four years later he launched the Lang Lang International Music Foundation to nurture young talent, introduce underserved communities to classical music, and cultivate the audiences of tomorrow.

SOLI Dance Party

SOLI Chamber Ensemble performs tomorrow night at Blue Star Contemporary Arts Center. The unconventional program is called SOLI Dance Party and includes works by DBR, Piazzolla, Jimi Hendrix, and John Mackey.
Here is last night's performance of Airbag by Radiohead arranged by Christopher O'Riley and DJ Marcus Rubio:

Tobin Center Groundbreaking

We're excited about the "remaking" of the Municipal Auditorium to the new Tobin Center for the Performaning Arts.
This morning the official groundbreaking took place. Mayor Julián Castro spoke:

From the San Antonio Symphony, maestro Sebastian Lang-Lessing had some fun with tubist Lee Hipp.

(photos by Troy Peters via facebook)

From the Top: Caught On Camera!

One of our favorite programs on KPAC is From the Top, showcasing America's best young classical musicians.  This week's episode was taped earlier this spring in Monterey, California, during the EG Conference, the premiere gathering place for technological innovators in media and education.  The radio episode was not only taped for broadcast, but filmed and edited, as well.  Now you can see the young musicians you hear on the radio; wait until you see 9-year-old Ray Ushikubo!

Spring for Music LIVE

Classical Live takes you to Carnegie Hall for Spring For Music, a groundbreaking a festival of seven concerts by North American orchestras and chamber orchestras performing creative, stimulating, and adventurous programs.

These performances will be broadcast by Classical Live on KPAC 88.3 FM and KTXI 90.1 FM. All broadcasts begin at 7 p.m.

Tonight's concert of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra includes The New Brandenburgs, six works based on Bach's masterpieces. KPAC Host John Clare spoke with composer Paul Moravec (pictured right) about his work on the program, Brandenburg Gate, and how he feels having six new works all together!
Listen to their conversation here.

Looking for Fame in the States

Ask a young person what they want to be when they grow up and often you get the brutally honest answer….famous!

On the Piano this Sunday Four American composers and the hard road to recognition for their art. You will hear music of a man who was born in a log cabin in Oklahoma and how he got to Paris. Then there was the Pianist that gave the first televised piano recital and still no one knew of him. And there was the composer who discovered why falling in love might create better music than romantic sparks. Also, the story of the first famous American musician, Louis Moreau Gottschalk.

America and the people and music this country inspires on the Piano this Sunday afternoon at 5 on KPAC & KTXI.

host, Randy Anderson

TPR Cinema soundtrack review: Water For Elephants

James Newton Howard’s score for the new film “Water for Elephants” leads the composer down two divergent roads. For most of the score, Howard serenades the listener with brief orchestral fragments. At other times, he’s mimics the big band sound of the 1930s, when the film is set.

Howard is a six-time Academy Award nominee whose best work includes a pounding collaboration with Hans Zimmer for “The Dark Knight” and the score for M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village,” featuring soloist Hilary Hahn. Most of the cues on “Water for Elephants” are not developed enough into themes that I was able to appreciate apart from the picture, but two selections, “Jacob Sees Marlena,” and “Shooting Star,” are good recommendations for iTunes downloads. Both of those are less atmospheric, more melodic.

Howard’s attempts to write jazzy music of the era are sweet, but lack the passion or fire of the real deal. They feel too Hollywood.

--Nathan Cone