Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

This morning's New Releases begin with pianist John Bayless who has a new CD out called “Circle of Life” … and yes, it’s a reference to the Elton John tune written for Disney’s The Lion King. All the tunes on the CD are by Elton John, but they are played as if written by Johann Sebastian Bach and make use of a number of quotes from familiar Bach pieces. We’ll check out a Bach-ian version of “Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road.” This afternoon, during the noon hour, you can hear another one, too.

Violinist Renaud Capuçon and pianist Jérôme Ducros have paired up to perform a number of popular violin encores in a new CD called Capriccio. Two selections from the new CD are on our playlist today.

Ludovico Einaudi is a composer who has gotten a lot of attention in Europe, and whose popular pieces are starting to be heard more and more in this country. His music has been described as minimalist, new age, elegant, graceful, reflective and a ton of other adjectives. I won’t add any more, just play one of the tracks from his newest CD today and let you supply your own.

Jon Lord, famed as a founding member of the rock group, Deep Purple, is a composer with wide interests in music. He has now written a piano concerto, inspired by the poem “Piano” by D.H. Lawrence. Hear a selection from it this morning.

- Cary Burkett, Morning Host for WITF's Classical Air

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We’ll start out the afternoon with the latest from John Bayless (for more info, check out Cary's part of the post, above), and hear Elton John's “Crockodile Rock” in the style of Bach, from Bayless' new release, Circle of Life.

Next flutist Laurel Zucker is joined by Marc Shapiro with a new cd in our library on the Cantilena label, called The Dark Side of the Flute. We’ll enjoy the atmospheric Poem by Charles Tomlinson Griffes.

Violinist Michael Ludwig is teaming up with conductor JoAnn Falletta again, this time with the Scottish National Orchestra for violin concertos by Ernst von Dohnanyi, a new release on the Naxos label. We’ll hear the 2nd Concerto this afternoon.

There's another volume of Beethoven Piano Sonatas with Garrick Ohlsson, the fourth volume now out on Bridge Records (#3 won a Grammy earlier this year!) so you don’t want to miss the Sonata No. 27 in E Minor, Opus 90, this afternoon.


Then, in the evening, there's a new Chandos recording of Kenneth Leighton's music which features three works for string orchestra: during the 8pm hour, we'll hear his Symphony for Strings, written in the late-1940s.

-- Dick Strawser, Music Director for WITF's Classical Air

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

A new recording of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 featuring pianist Nicholas Angelich is one of the highlights we’ll enjoy this week. He performs with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi.

A new Naxos release explores the music of Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889), who was known in his day as the “Paganini of the double-bass.” Joel Quarrington is the soloist on the new recording, and he’ll be joined by pianist Andrew Burashko in one of the works we’ll sample.

Joy is the recurring theme in the music chosen by pianist Yael Weiss for her new Koch CD, 88 Keys to Joy. This morning, we’ll hear two bright and joyful keyboard sonatas by Dominico Scarlatti.

And we’ll also hear a 1991 piece for flute and piano by Paul Schoenfield called Achat Sha’alti in a new recording from flutist Alexa Still and pianist Stephen Gosling. It’s a piece based on a verse from Psalm 27.

- Cary Burkett, Morning Host for WITF's Classical Air
This afternoon, we’ll feature a new Summit CD of trumpeter Andrea Giuffredi in a tribute to Luciano Pavarotti. Don’t miss an aria from Verdi’s Il Trovatore and O sole mio from this great disc.

Piotr Anderszewski has an all-Beethoven disc out on Virgin Classics including the Opus 126 Bagatelles and the First Piano Concerto. We’ll hear the latter with the German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen and the young pianist conducting from the keyboard.

There’s a new complete Violin Sonatas of Brahms out on Bridge Records with Curtis Macomber and pianist Derek Han. We’ll hear the complete First Sonata with the duo.

- John Clare, Afternoon Host for WITF's Classical Air

Wow, I haven't had a chance to do many new releases on Tuesday evenings for quite a while. Tonight, I thought we'd hear some more of Piotr Anderszewski's Beethoven disc on Virgin Classics: John played the 1st Piano Concerto this afternoon. The "other" piece on the disc is a set of six bagatelles for solo piano. According to the dictionary, a bagatelle is something "frivolous." These are far from frivolous pieces. Not only were they written around the time of his 9th Symphony, they're also Beethoven's farewell to the piano. We'll hear four of the six tonight, as a sample.

The Op. 126 Bagatelles have always been personal favorites, pieces I love to get out and play through at the piano when the day's been a little too stressful. When I was a grad student, Steven Smith (who teaches at Penn State, now) played these for his doctoral recital and suddenly lots of pianists (myself included) were going "what are these pieces?" and started working on them. So I'm looking forward to sampling this new recording of them. Maybe they'll be a discovery for you, tonight.

- Dick Strawser, Music Director & Evening Host of WITF's Classical Air

New Releases for Tuesday May 6th, 2008

It’s always a day of celebration for me when we receive the annual recording of performances recorded live at the Lugano Festival. And the 2007 set of Angel/EMI discs is no exception. Pianist Martha Argerich and friends present exciting performances of a wide variety of chamber music pieces. Some of the performers are little known “discoveries” by Martha Argerich, others have developed rising careers such as Gabriela Montero and the Capuçon brothers. And of course some are long established veterans and stars like Martha Argerich herself.

This morning, we’ll hear Beethoven’s “Ghost” trio from the new 3-CD set.

Seven contemporary works featuring the oboe are performed in a new recording entitled “The Light Wraps You”, with oboist Michele Fiala joined by a number of other musicians. On our playlist from the new CD is an Oboe Sonata by Bill Douglas.

The latest from the Cincinnati Pops, on the Telarc label, brings us a recording of Boléro, suites from Carmen, and music by Alexander Borodin which was used in the musical Kismet. We’ll check out the Borodin music, taken from a variety of his works including his Symphonies No. 1 and 2 and the String Quartet No. 2. (John will sample music from this same disc later this afternoon.)

- Cary Burkett, Morning Host for WITF's Classical Air

We’ll sample some of the latest disc from violinist Jennifer Koh on the Cedille label, String Poetic, with a work written especially for her by Jennifer Higdon which becomes the title track, String Poetic.

We’ll also celebrate the 100th anniversary of Leroy Anderson’s birth (on June 29th) with the latest Naxos disc of his music with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Leonard Slatkin.

Finally, it’s more of the Cincinnati Pops and Erich Kunzel’s new cd of Spanish-flavored music, Bolero. Cary featured some music from Kismet, so don’t miss Georges Bizet’s Carmen this afternoon.

- John Clare, Afternoon Host for WITF's Classical Air

WITF's Pick-of-the-Month for May 2008

WITF is partnering with area Borders stores on a “Pick Of the Month.” Each month, we’ll feature something we think you’ll like, which will be on display at Borders stores throughout Central PA.

- WITF’s May Pick of the Month is the classic British comedy series As Time Goes By on DVD!
- Earlier this year, WITF TV viewers selected As Time Goes By as their favorite series in the Great Britcom Vote.
- As Time Goes By stars Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, as Jean & Lionel, two former lovers who rekindle their romance decades after they first parted.

The WITF Pick of the Month is available at Borders stores near you in Harrisburg, Camp Hill, York, Lancaster and Reading.

New Releases for Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Think espresso. Or a caramel latte. A deep rich blend of aromatic coffee on a relaxing morning, with music in the background played by the Cuarteto de Clarinetes de Caracas. The newest CD by this Venezuelan group is rich and full-bodied, warm and robust. The four clarinets play music by a variety of Venezuelan composers; Latin classical music influenced by the streets and nightlife of the country. We’ll sample a couple of different tracks from the CD titled, “Suelos” this morning.

And to give the horn section equal time, we’ll play a selection from the new CD by the American Horn Quartet (see cover art, right), a recording titled “Myths and Legends” from a work by Eric Ewazen.

Previously unrecorded concertos by Johann Friedrich Fasch are featured on the newest CD by the ensemble Tempesta di Mare. We’ll hear one of them this morning, and save the others for a later time.

- Cary Burkett, morning host for WITF's Classical Air

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The other day, John Clare was playing through this new Chopin disc on EMI with pianist Ingrid Fliter whom I’ve seen mentioned a lot, though I hadn’t had the chance to hear any of her recordings. Both of us were pretty impressed with her playing, very musical, great phrasing and overall sense of style, not just playing the notes or being impressive with the virtuosity, even when the technique seems deceptively simple. John will be playing three different selections throughout the afternoon from this disc.

Anne-Marie McDermott has a new disc out with Bridge Records of the music for piano and orchestra by George Gershwin, including both rhapsodies, the “I Got Rhythm” Variations and the Concerto in F. You’ll get a sample with the wild and crazy finale of the piano concerto during the noon hour today.

Brahms’ cello sonatas are performed by Gabor Rejto and Adolph Baller on the Orion label: the first one, in E Minor, is dark and dramatic but the second, much later one is all light and good times. So we’ll hear the second sonata this afternoon.

Dick Strawser, writing for John Clare, Afternoon Host of WITF’s Classical Air

Special Feature - Runaway Bunny

There's a new release with Ittai Shapira and Brooke Shields: The Runaway Bunny, a concerto for violin, speaker and orchestra by Glen Roven.

The new disc features Shapira and Shields with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Barry Wordsworth, and also has Tubby the Tuba and Paddington Bear's First Concert!

They will perform the work in Carnegie Hall Tuesday, April 29th at 8pm.

Enjoy an interview with soloist Ittai Shapira about the new work.

Find more on the Composing Thoughts blog with composer Glen Roven!

New Releases for Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Mack Wilberg may be best known as an arranger of choral music, especially for performance by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. But he is also a composer of original works as well. On their latest recording, the Mormon Tablernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square perform a number of his choral pieces. In particular the CD features Wilberg’s 2007 Requiem, which was premiered as part of the celebrations marking the reopening of the renovated Salt Lake Tabernacle. We’ll listen to the finale of the Requiem this morning.

We’ll also hear pianist Denis Matsuev playing a selection from his new recording, “Unknown Rachmaninoff”, which offers some rarely heard pieces by the Russian composer.

And we’ll sample one of the viola da gamba sonatas of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach from a new Naxos release featuring cellist Dmitry Kouzov and keyboard player Peter Laul. You can read more about it here.

- Cary Burkett, Morning Host for WITF's Classical Air

Enjoy some new releases and re-releases this afternoon on Classical Air!

Jeremy Jouve has started a series of recording on Naxos of the Spanish Master Joaquin Rodrigo – we’ll hear the Tonadilla for two guitars as he is joined by Judicael Perroy. You can watch them perform it here, courtesy of YouTube.

This month marks the 100th Anniversary of the birth of German conductor Herbert von Karajan, and Angel/EMI is celebrating with a new compilation of his work with the Berlin Philharmonic. Enjoy Ravel’s Bolero and Strauss’ Chit Chat Polka from this new two disc set, Karajan, The Legend.

Hilary Hahn’s latest recording is a knock-out: pairing the well-known Sibelius Violin Concerto with a romantic and dramatic reading of a much misunderstood 20th Century masterpiece, the Violin Concerto by Arnold Schoenberg. This afternoon, we’ll hear the Sibelius during the 1:00 hour.

- John Clare, Afternoon host for WITF's Classical Air.