Upcoming and Noteworthy

Over the course of his 60-year career, John Williams has had opportunities to score just about every kind of film.  Not surprisingly, this would include several fictionalized accounts of American presidents.  For Presidents Day, enjoy selections from Williams’ music for “JFK,” “Nixon,” “Lincoln,” and “Amistad.”  (“Amistad” featured Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams and Nigel Hawthorne as Martin Van Buren.)  The presidents take precedence, this Friday at 6 pm.

“Hamlet” with a happy ending?  Well, sort of… and we’ll hear it on this week’s Sunday Opera (2/17 3:00 p.m.) with Ambroise Thomas’ 1868 operatic version of Shakespeare’s play.  The libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carre, authors of numerous adaptations and opera texts, had the arduous task of shaving down the massive play to mixed reviews – where some critics believe their final product is a concise representation of Shakespeare, others feel that the lack of secondary characters like the gravediggers and the “smoothing” of Shakespeare’s coarse language lessens its impact.

We lost the dynamo known as Carol Channing on January 15, and on this week’s Dress Circle (2/17 7:00 p.m.), we’ll be paying tribute to her wonderful career.  Channing’s early career was as a model which led to stage work that took her to New York and then L.A..  In L.A., she was hired for a show that took her back to New York, and there she stayed.  We’ll look at some of that early work in shows like 1948’s “Lend an Ear,” 1949’s “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” and 1961’s “Show Girl.”  

Over 40 years after its original appearance, CBS Records’ landmark Black Composers Series has finally come to compact disc.  Made under the direction of conductor Paul Freeman (pictured) and employing world class orchestras and soloists, these recordings originally appeared on vinyl between 1974 and 1978.  Sony Classical has reissued these invaluable documents as a boxed set.  To coincide with Black History Month, we’re listening to highlights from the 10-CD collection, Sundays in February at 10 pm.  This week, tune in for music by Joseph White, David Baker, and Roque Cordero.

Join The Classical Network as we share our love of music with you in celebration of Valentine's Day - and we hope you will return our affection by becoming a member. We'll bring you music of love and romance all day Wednesday and Thursday. Enjoy the classics that make you swoon! And please take this time to show us how much you appreciate the music we bring you every day of the year by becoming a member, renewing your membership or making an additional gift to the station.

We’re heading to the Cornish coast of England for this week’s Sunday Opera (2/10 3:00 p.m.) and Dame Ethel Smyth’s “The Wreckers.”  Set in an unnamed village in the mid-18th century where the people make their living not through fishing but by scavenging from the ships that are wrecked on their treacherous coastline, the story deals with two moral dilemmas: stopping the carnage of ships and sailors enabled by the village and acting on a forbidden love for another man’s wife.  

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and we’re going to try to get you in the mood on this week’s Dress Circle (2/10 7:00 p.m.) with some love songs, but not just any love songs, we’re turning to the wonderful pairing of Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers for our sources.  

Over 40 years after its original appearance, CBS Records’ landmark Black Composers Series has finally come to compact disc.  Made under the direction of conductor Paul Freeman and employing world class orchestras and soloists, these recordings originally appeared on vinyl between 1974 and 1978.  Sony Classical has reissued these invaluable documents as a boxed set.  To coincide with Black History Month, we’ll listen to highlights from the 10-CD collection, Sundays in February at 10 pm.  This week, tune in for music by George Walker (pictured) and José Maurício Nunes Garcia.

Michel Legrand composed music that tugs at the heart even as it lifts the soul.  Take a nostalgic journey down Memory Lane with selections from “Summer of ’42,” “The Picasso Summer,” “The Go-Between,” “Yentl,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” and “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.”  Le Grand, indeed!  Get out your handkerchiefs.  We remember Michel Legrand, this Friday at 6 pm.