Upcoming and Noteworthy

A jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness.  Well, we’ve got the wilderness anyway.  Poetry warms the soul, through selections from “Dead Poets Society” (Maurice Jarre), “Lady Caroline Lamb” (Richard Rodney Bennett), “Il Postino” (Luis Bacalov), and “Cyrano de Bergerac” (Dimitri Tiomkin).  It could be verse, this Saturday at 6 pm.

Aram Khachaturian (on the right, with Prokofiev and Shostakovich) described his Symphony No. 2 as “a requiem of protest against war and violence.”  Its nickname, “The Bell,” alludes to a kind of alarm that opens and closes the work.  Leopold Stokowski will conduct the piece, in a rarely-heard recording from the late 1950s.  Then, to round out the hour, Nadia Reisenberg will perform Khachaturian’s “Toccata,” from a 1947 Carnegie Hall recital.  Sharpen up on Khachaturian, with music other than the “Sabre Dance,” this Sunday at 10 pm.

It’s more about Broadway than usual on this week’s Dress Circle (1/10 7:00 p.m.) with songs about Broadway from the musicals.   We’ll be giving our regards to Broadway, hearing about the lullaby of Broadway and Broadway melody, and a couple of Broadway babies as well.  The songs come from shows such as “Smokey Joe’s Café,” “Two’s Company,” “Street Scene,” “Dames at Sea,” “A Class Act,” “Mister Wonderful,” and “Follies” along with several others. 

Peek behind the Curtain for music by notable composers for Soviet cinema, including selections from “Agony” (Alfred Schnittke), “Time, Forward!” (Georgy Sviridov), “The Gadfly” (Dmitri Shostakovich), and “Alexander Nevsky” (Sergei Prokofiev).  Say da to classic film music, this Saturday at 6 pm. 

As opera companies roll out 2021 programming, many of the productions were totally conceived of and created in the era of Covid-19, with its restrictions on live performances and the shift to screens and devices. A Tempo this Saturday (1/9 at 7 pm) looks at some upcoming events at Opera Philadelphia and Prototype 2021 Festival. Host Rachel Katz will speak with Opera Philadelphia General Director David Devan about its upcoming showing of Lee Hoiby's Bon Appetit, starring Jamie Barton as Julia Child, which is also serving as a fundraiser and runs Jan.

All signs point north!  Keep looking up, with musical responses to the uncanny, natural phenomenon known as the Aurora Borealis.  Prepare to be dazzled by Uuno Klami’s “Northern Lights” and Geirr Tveitt’s Piano Concerto No. 4.  It’s an hour of radiant music, this Sunday at 10 pm.

We’re welcoming 2021 and January on this week’s Dress Circle (1/3 7:00 p.m.) with songs from just a few of the shows that opened in New York in January.  From George M. Cohan’s “Little Johnny Jones” to “Beautiful the Carole King Musical,” we’ll be looking at 110 years of musical history.  Along the way, we’ll hear from “The Wiz,” the revival of “No, No, Nanette,” and “Oliver!”. 

Throughout 2020, musicians sought various ways to capture the sounds, thoughts and experiences of 2020, from the isolation and loss of Covid-19 to the outburst of frustration, anger and desire for social justice that emerged after the killing of George Floyd.

It’s a stoic start to the year, with musical settings of the Icelandic Eddas.  Hear selections from “The Rheingold Curse,” after the “Volsunga Saga,” the earliest written sources of ancient Germanic myths, performed by Benjamin Bagby and Sequentia, and “The Creation of the World,” Part I of the massive “Edda” oratorio by Icelandic composer Jón Leifs.  It’s a new year of swan’s bone flutes, Nordic lurs, and tuned rocks, this Sunday at 10 pm.

It’s certainly been a year, but we’re going to be looking at the new year with some hope and encouraging words from the musicals on this week’s Dress Circle (12/27 7:00 p.m.).  With songs from musicals like “I Remember Mama,” “Seesaw,” “70 Girls 70,” “Crazy for You,” “Fade Out, Fade In,” and “Snoopy,” we’ll craft a plan to meet 2021 headfirst and in the best possible way.  

With the grand cacophony of Christmas still fresh in everyone’s ears, we’ll hear music from movies in which toys play a pivotal role, including “Citizen Kane” (Bernard Herrmann), “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” (Danny Elfman), “Toccata for Toy Trains” (Elmer Bernstein), and “Toy Story” (Randy Newman).  Keep popping those aspirin.  It’s an hour of noise for toys, this Saturday at 6 pm.

When Dan Moller, a philosophy professor at the University of Maryland with a particular fondness for heavy metal, decided to tackle J.S. Bach's Fugue in C Minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier, he found himself on a three-year deep dive not only into piano pedagogy, but also into the composer's life and music. Moller chronicles his musings and discoveries in a recently published book, "They Way of Bach: Three Years with the Man, the Music and the Piano," combining reverence for the composer and music with humor, insight and an occasionally unorthodox approach to classical music.

Laugh away a very rough year with highlights from the notorious and uproarious Hoffnung Music Festival concerts.  Tune in for Sir Malcolm Arnold’s “A Grand Grand Overture,” for orchestra, organ, electric floor polisher, and three Hoover vacuum cleaners, and Franz Reizenstein’s “Concerto populare,” billed as “a piano concerto to end all piano concertos,” among others.  It’s a lighthearted playlist calculated to put a smile on your face and lend a boost to your spirits.  He who laughs last laughs best, this Sunday at 10 pm.