Between the Keys with Jed Distler

The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence presents his annual all-Domenico Scarlatti episode on Episode 317 of  the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys this Tuesday night July 27th at 10, with a rebroadcast Wednesday July 28th at noon.

Featured pianists include, in order of appearance: Sergei Babayan, Barbora Krištofová Sejáková, Maria Tipo, Dinu Lipatti, Andrew Tyson, Christoph Ullrich, Olivier Cavé, Christian Zacharias, Alberto Urroz, Alice Ader, Heidi Kommerell and Shiz'ka.

Is there any truth to the old adage “Like Father, Like Son?” Especially when father and son each play the piano professionally, have distinctive careers, and also share certain repertoire preferences?

The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence attempts to answer these questions, as he showcases fathers and sons in the same piano repertoire, on Episode 317 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys.  Indeed, in one case, Distler presents three generations of pianists from the same family in the same work. How often does one hear that?

“Whenever I put together a ‘New Old & Unexpected’ episode for Between the Keys, I imagine myself going on a journey without a map, and just my two feet in front of me.  One piece of music suggests another, or perhaps throws me into an unrelated area. Who knows?”

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys,  The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed DIstler creates musical diptychs, in which he creates improbable yet very plausible pairings of piano pieces.

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys,  The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed DIstler welcomes a special guest, the pianist/educator/curator Min Kwon, who launches her unprecedented large-scale America/Beautiful commissioning project in a series of live streamed and public concerts beginning on July 4th. 

For this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys,  The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed DIstler presents sets of variations by Joseph Haydn, Steven Stuckey, Johannes Brahms, Norman Lloyd and Robert Muczynski, with a little taste of Bach’s Goldberg Variations tossed in for good measure.

Pianists include Ernst von Dohnanyi, Gloria Cheng, Edwin Fischer,  Myron Silberstein and Matthew Weissman.

For this week's episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network's Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler presents three historic chamber music recordings. 

This week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys amounts to what The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler calls his “70 show.”

“Basically we’re celebrating three composers and three keyboard artists whose 70th birthdays occur in 2021,” says DIstler. These all are musicians whose work I admire tremendously, and I’ve managed to put together a  rather stimulating playlist, if I do say so myself!”

For this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler constructs his program in the form of a mirror.

“The premise is simple,” Distler explains. “The first and last pieces are Schubert songs transcribed for piano.  The second work is by John Cage, as is the second from last work.  Then the third work is by Poulenc, while the third from last selection is also by Poulenc. And so on.”

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler guides listeners off the beaten path.

For this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler presents all twelve of Debussy’s Preludes Book II, featuring different pianists.

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler pays tribute to celebrated piano teachers who also happened to be fabulous pianists.

Featured artists include such luminaries as Frank Scott, Marguerite Long, Russell Sherman, Dimitri Bashkirov, Alexander Goldenweiser, Rosina Lhevinne, Howard Karp and Vera Gornostaeva .

  On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler explores piano music that is contrapuntal in nature, where independent musical lines converse, interact and sometimes get in each others’ way. Tune in to Between the Keys for works by Mendelssohn, Louis Pelosi, J.S. Bach, Michael Kieran Harvey, Dimitri Shostakovich and Paul Hindemith, this Tuesday night April 27th at 10, with a rebroadcast Wednesday April 28th at noon, exclusively on The Classical Network and WWFM.org  

For this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler presents a single, large-scale composition that he feels deserves serious attention: Marga Richter’s Variations and Interludes on Themes from Monteverdi and Bach.

For this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler offers a stylistically diverse bag of works.

“Sometimes the works I've selected relate to one another easily,” explains Distler, “yet a few items were included simply because I wanted to share some wonderful pieces that I recently discovered.”

This week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys commemorates the 50th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’’s death on April 6th 1971, with a program exploring the composer’s relationship with the pop and jazz worlds. 

On this week’s episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, the Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence features the fourteen Chopin Waltzes.

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.

For Episode 299 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler returns to one of his frequently explored themes, the art of the composer/pianist.

“The composer/pianist tradition is far richer on disc than you’d suspect,” says Distler. “True, we can’t hear Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin or Liszt. But we can hear Rachmaninov, Bartok, Prokofiev and Medtner. And on this particular episode, I go way back to showcase Cécile Chamindae in 1901, and R. Nathaniel Dett in 1919.”

For Episode 298 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler has put together a program entirely consisting of minuets. Or menuets. It’s the same dance, no matter how you spell it.

Episode 297 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys centers upon the art of Vladimir Sofronitsky, a pianist who amassed a cult following in his native Russia, yet whose Western reputation remains somewhat shadowy.

The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler has put together a program featuring a wide range of Sofronitsky’s recordings, including works by Borodin, Chopin, Schumann, Schubert, Rachmaninov, Liadov and, of course, Alexander Scriabin.

On Episode 296 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler invites listeners on a cinematic musical tour with the piano in tow.

On Episode 295 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler takes listeners for a journey “Under the Radar.”

“Under the Radar means many things,” says Distler. “Unusual repertoire. pianists who deserve more attention, or recordings that you might not be aware of. Or all of the above.”

On Episode 294 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler features symphonic music transcribed for piano duet, either with four hands at one piano or involving two pianos.

On Episode 293 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler presents all twelve of Chopin’s Etudes Op. 25, in performances by different pianists

“We’ll hear at least one interpretation of each etude with a different pianist, yet not repeating a pianist,” Distler explains. “The artists represent many generations of Chopin playing, with pianists born between 1874 and 1982.”

On Episode 292 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler pays tribute to pianist Alfred Brendel, who celebrated his 90th birthday on January 5th. Although Brendel retired from concertizing in 2008, his recorded legacy remains a vast and wide-ranging musical testament.

For Episode 291 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler features a wide variety of pianists in selections from Books One and Two of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.

“The 48 Preludes and Fugues not only are the foundation of piano music,” says Distler, “they also embody the full gamut of emotions, and always convey a sense of order, which is something we so desperately need in these challenging days.”

For Episode 290 of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys, The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler pays tribute to friends and colleagues who helped lift his sprits in a troubled year, as well as those who are no longer with us.

The Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler rings in 2021 with an eclectic playlist on his ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys.

How do such playlists evolve?