Letter V Classical Radio this week

A preview of the Richmond Symphony’s 2015-16 season, with Steven Smith, the orchestra’s music director, joining me in the third hour of the show.

We’ll have lots to talk about: The symphony will be marking the 150th anniversary of the births of Finland’s Jean Sibelius and Denmark’s Carl Nielsen, and performing the rarely heard “Manfred” Symphony of Tchaikovsky and the choral version of Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain;” classic Americana from Copland, Barber and Charles Tomlinson Griffes; symphonies by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms and Shostakovich; and much more.

Sept. 24
10 a.m.-1 p.m. EDT
1400-1700 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Mussorgsky: “Sorochinsky Fair” –
“St. John’s Night on the Bare Mountain”
Anatoli Kotcherga, bass-baritone
Berlin Radio Chorus
South Tyrol Children’s Choir
Berlin Philharmonic/
Claudio Abbado
(Sony Classical)

Ravel: “Ma mère l’Oye” (“Mother Goose”) Suite
London Philharmonic/
Sian Edwards
(EMI Classics)

Past Masters:
Copland: “Appalachian Spring” Suite
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Aaron Copland
(RCA Victor)
(recorded 1959)

Sibelius: “The Swan of Tuonela”
Lawrence Thorstenberg, English horn
Boston Symphony Orchestra/Colin Davis (Philips)

Stravinsky: Octet
Boston Symphony Chamber Players
(Deutsche Grammophon/
Eloquence)

Past Masters:
Nielsen: Symphony No. 4 (“Inextinguishable”)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Jean Martinon (RCA Victor)
(recorded 1966)

Bartók: Divertimento – I: Allegro non troppo
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/
Pierre Boulez (Deutsche Grammophon)

Charles Tomlinson Griffes: “The White Peacock”
Dallas Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Litton (Dorian)

Haydn: Symphony No. 92
in G major (“Oxford”) –
IV: Presto
Orchestra of the 18th Century/Frans Brüggen
(Philips)

Tchaikovsky: “Manfred” Symphony –
I: Lento lugubre - moderato con moto - andante
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Vasily Petrenko
(Naxos)