Between the Keys marks three milestones this week, The ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program celebrates its sixth anniversary on the air, as well as its 300th episode, plus the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach.
“Bach is an inexhaustible topic,” says The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler, who created Between the Keys in March 2015, and continues to produce and host each episode from his New York studio. “What’s interesting to me is that no matter how familiar certain works may be, they always inspire fresh programming ideas, or allow you to free-associate into unexpected directions.”
“For example, the upbeat vitality of the Second Brandenburg Concerto finale led me to an early-60s pop song about Bach’s talented son…not the son you’d suspect! When seeking out comparison samples of pianists playing the cadenza of Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 , I found a rare live Glenn Gould performance. By accident, another rare CD fell from the shelf, containing a performance of the Cantata BWV 54 with Gould conducting from a strange hybrid “harpsi-piano” keyboard instrument. Since the program was running short, I figured I’d make room for the Cantata’s extraordinary opening movement. It’s not a keyboard work, to be sure, yet the music’s majesty and gravitas totally befits our celebration.”
Among the featured artists include Eleonor Bindman, Jenny Lin, Craig Sheppard, András Schiff, Glenn Gould, Lukas Foss, Alfred Cortot and Wilhelm Fürtwangler.
Tune in for Episode 300 of Between the Keys, this Tuesday March 23rd at 10 PM with a rebroadcast Wednesday March 24th at noon, exclusively on The Classical Network and WWFM.org.