20/21

PROGRAM AIRS:

7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 1

Wilkommen! Tonight we present music from 20th century German composers including Hans Werner Henze’s monumental Symphony No.9 performed by the Berlin Philharmonic and the Berlin Radio Chorus conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. The work is in 7 movements and dedicated to the heroes and martyrs of German anti-Fascism. The texts are based on the novel, “The Seventh Cross” by Anna Seghers.

The program also features the Clarinet Quintet — Max Reger’s final chamber work dating from 1927 performed by the Drolc String Quartet with Karl Leister, clarinet.

Fritz Reiner conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Richard Strauss’ “Le bourgeois gentilhomme” and much more.

PROGRAM AIRS:

7 p.m., Tuesday, August 25

As summer winds down and the nights are increasingly long, let’s listen to Russian music composed in the 20th century and today. The compositions range from Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No.5 composed in 1925 and performed by Yefim Bronfman to Alfred Schnittke’s In memoriam … (a work memorializing his mother) composed in 1979 and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Mstislav Rostropovich.

Vladimir Spivakov performs Stravinsky’s Concerto in D with the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Lande conducts the ST. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra in Weinbergs Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes.

For the first time on 20♪21, we broadcast a masterpiece of the 20th century Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. It’s one of the most frequently performed works of the era. We’ll hear Yuri Termikanov conduct the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Horacio Uribe (b.1970)

PROGRAM AIRS:

7 p.m., Tuesday, August 18

A mix of  compositions from a wide variety of composers and styles will fill the airwaves including Mexican composer Horacio Uribe’s Trio No.2 for Violin, Viola, and Cello performed by Trio Coghlan. It’s in two movements Lamento and Vitrales. Also on the program is Villa-Lobos’ Guitar Concerto composed in 1956 for Segovia. It was composed five years earlier but Segovia wouldn’t play it until Villa-Lobos gave him a cadenza!

Herbert Blomsted leads the San Francisco Symphony in Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No.6 and Kirk Trevor conducts the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra with Barbara Harbach’s salute to author Willa  Cather: One of Ours  – A Cather Symphony.

Plus more from Renée Fleming’s collection of arias from American operas.

Carlos Chavez ()

PROGRAM AIRS:

7 p.m., Tuesday, August 11

A salute to Carlos Chavez, formerly music director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. Eduardo Mata and the London Symphony Orchestra perform his final symphony, No.6. It was commissioned for the opening of Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, New York City.

We’ll also hear the Juilliard String Quartet perform the String Quartet in F major by Maurice Ravel. Leonard Bernstein conducts the New York Philharmonic in Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. And the Contemporary Music Group performs Charles Wuorinen’s Archangel.

Pianist Maki Namekawa completes Book 2 of the Piano Etudes of Philip Glass.

PROGRAM AIRS:

7 p.m., Tuesday, August 4

William Bolcom’s Symphony No.5 continues to attract attention. It was dedicated to the Symphony manager at the Philadelpia Orchestra and contains some exciting as well as elegaic music.

Soprano Renée Fleming and James Levine collaborated on a fantastic recording of 20th century opera arias which have helped to keep these great works in the forefront. Fleming’s intention was to pay tribute to the American sopranos of the generation before her who helped to make this operas part of our musical heritage.

We continue to present pianist Maki Namekawa and the complete Etudes of Philip Glass. Plus music by Frank Bridge and Alberto Ginastera.

PROGRAM AIRS:

7 p.m., Tuesday, July 28

Began last week, 20♪21 continues presenting pianist Maki Namekawa in the Complete Piano Etudes of Philip Glass. We alternate between the Etudes and larger scale works. The 2015 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is quickly approaching. Among the many composers it will present this year are Mason Bates, Christopher Rouse, and Philip Glass.

We’ll hear Anne Akiko Meyers perform the Violin Concerto of Mason Bates from 2012 with Leonard Slatkin and the London Symphony Orchestra. The Houston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach presents the Symphony No.2 of Christopher Rouse. There’s also music by Stravinsky, Ravel, and Jersild.

Gustav Mahler

PROGRAM AIRS:

7 p.m., Tuesday, July 21

The Symphony No.4 of Gustav Mahler uses a song, “Das himmlische Leben” (Heavenly Light) from a collection of children’s poems called “Das knaben Wunderhorn” (The Boy’s Magic Horn) for the main content of its fourth and final movement. The Fourth Symphony was Mahler’s first to appear in the 20th century. Although his music received performances in Europe and America, it never gained the affection of the general orchestra-going public until the 50s and 60s with such great champions as Bruno Walter (a student of Mahler) and later Frintz Reiner, Leonard Bernstein and others. We’ll hear a recording featuring Frederica von Stade with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado.

The Hungarian String Quartet presents Bela Bartok’s String Quartet No.6 and clarinetist Laura Ardan joins Paul Gambill and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra for Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto.

Between all the selections, we will begin presenting the Piano Etudes of Philip Glass performed by Maki Namekawa.

PROGRAM AIRS:

7 p.m., Tuesday, July 14

On this day, the New Horizons space craft will have reached its closest approach to the dwarf planet Pluto and its large moon Charon. It’s now become known as the second red planet in the Solar System. It’s relationship with Charon has it also being defined as a binary planet system. It’s great to see our understanding of the universe expand in just a matter of days. Congratulations to all the scientists who worked on this project.

To celebrate this achievement, we’re offering a second program devoted to music which is thematically linked to space travel or certainly suggests it. We’ll hear perhaps the one work so closely associated with space travel based on its use in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Richard Strauss’ tone poem “Also Spracht Zarathustra.” Although the work was composed in 1896, it clearly belongs in this program.

Finnish composer Einouhani Rautavaara’s Symphony No.8 “The Journey,” fits perfectly too. Plus more great music from the movies and elsewhere.

New Horizons Spacecraft

PROGRAM AIRS:

7 p.m., Tuesday, July 7

In anticipation of our first look at the planet Pluto, we selected music which will transport you to the edge of our Solar System. Included in the program is probably the most likely work — Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.”  Andrzej Panufnik’s “Arbor Cosmica” will teach us a new language in space travel. Several selections for the cinema are also included: the late James Horner’s score to “The Rocketeer,” and two selections by John Williams, “Star Wars, Main Theme” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

We uncovered so much music, the program will continue next week — the day the New Horizons space craft is scheduled to “phone home.”

Franghiz Ali-Zadeh

PROGRAM AIRS:

7 p.m., Tuesday, June 30

Where would classical music be without the generous support of citizens who use their financial resources to create new art. The program contains works commissioned by artists for artists and works that came into being because somebody cared enough to ask a leading composer to write something for them.

We’ll hear the Kronos Quartet perform works by Terry Riley and Franghiz Ali-Zaden. We’ll hear Sergei Prokofiev’s Left Hand Piano Concerto (No.4) paid for by Paul Wittgenstein who later said it was unplayable. Ho hum.

Plus Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, a work paid for by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge as was Bela Bartok’s String Quartet No.5.