Letter V Classical Radio this week

A four-hour special on New Year's Day: A twist on the traditional Viennese waltz program, which I’m calling, with no offense intended toward any archdukes out there . . .

The Habsburg Sock-Hop

The program features the waltz and its folk ancestor, the Ländler, along with other music based on dances from the Czech and Slovak lands, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Eastern European Roma and Jewish cultures, in their authentic folk forms and as adapted by composers of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

Jan. 1
noon-4 p.m. EST
1700-2100 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Past Masters:
Rossini: “La gazza ladra” (“The Thieving Magpie”) Overture
Royal Philharmonic/Colin Davis (EMI Classics)
(recorded 1961)

Haydn: Symphony
No. 97 in C major –
III: menuetto
Orchestra of the 18th Century/Frans Brüggen (Philips)

Past Masters:
Mahler: Symphony No. 9 – II: “In the tempo of a leisurely Ländler” 
Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Bruno Walter (Sony Classical)
(recorded 1961)

Joseph Lanner: “Die Werber” (“The Suitors”) Waltz
Willi Boskovsky Ensemble (Regis)

Johann Strauss II: “Tales from the Vienna Woods”
London Philharmonic/Franz Welser-Möst
(EMI Seraphim)

*Schubert: Ecossaises
Willi Boskovsky Ensemble (Regis)

traditional:
“Wallachian Lament”
Apollo Chamber Ensemble (Navona)

Past Masters:
Dvořák: Piano Quintet
in A major, Op. 81
Smetana Quartet;
Pavel Stepán, piano
(Testament)
(recorded 1966)

Dvořák: Dumka and Furiant, Op. 12
Radoslav Kvapil, piano (Alto)

Smetana: Polka in A major
András Schiff, piano (Apex)

Past Masters:
Brahms: Hungarian dances
No. 5 in G minor
(orchestration by Albert Parlow)
No. 6 in D major
(orchestration by Parlow)
No. 21 in E minor
(orchestration by Dvořák)
No. 1 in G minor
(orchestration by Brahms)
Vienna Philharmonic/
Fritz Reiner (Decca)
(recorded 1960)

Haydn: Quartet in D major, Op. 20, No. 4 – III: Menuetto alla zingarese
Daedalus Quartet (Bridge)

Bartók: “Contrasts”
Charles West, clarinet; Laura Roelofs, violin; Landon Bilyeu, piano (Klavier)

Kodály:
“Dances of Galanta”
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Neeme Järvi (Chandos)

traditional:
“Seremoj és Románca”
Apollo Chamber Ensemble (Navona)

Past Masters:
*Bartók: "Romanian Folk Dances”
Philharmonia Orchestra/Charles Mackerras (Testament)
(recorded 1960)

Past Masters:
Enescu: “Romanian Rhapsody” No. 1
Philharmonia Orchestra/Charles Mackerras (Testament)
(recorded 1960)

Chopin: mazurkas
in F minor, Op. 63, No. 2
in A minor, Op. 67, No. 4
in C sharp minor, Op. 63,
No. 3
in F minor, Op. 68, No. 4
Stephen Hough, piano (Hyperion)

traditional: “Beckman’s Hora”
Budowitz (Koch Schwann)

Mahler: Symphony No. 1
in D major – III: “Solemn and measured, without dragging – very simple and modest, like a folk song”
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/
Michael Tilson Thomas (SFS Media)

Ligeti: Quartet No. 1 (“Metamorphoses nocturnes”)
Hagen Quartet (Deutsche Grammophon)

* Time permitted adding the Schubert Ecosaisses and Bartók’s “Romanian Folk Dances” to the originally posted program.