Letter V Classical Radio this week

A program in memory of Gilbert Kaplan, the financier and journalist turned Mahler scholar, who died on New Year’s Day.

Captivated by a 1965 performance of Mahler’s epic Second Symphony (“Resurrection”) led by Leopold Stokowski, Kaplan decided that the only way he could could understand this music and his response to it was to conduct it himself. He embarked on an intensive study of conducting technique, subsequently acquired the autograph score, the composer’s baton and other artifacts, and made the Mahler Second his life’s work.

The program concludes with Kaplan’s remarkable 1987 recording with the London Symphony Orchestra. That performance is preceded by Mahler’s 1905 piano rolls of two of his songs and works by Brahms, Wagner, Schubert and Richard Strauss.

Jan. 14
10 a.m.-1 p.m. EST
1500-1800 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
www.wdce.org

Brahms: “A German Requiem” –
VI: “Denn wir haben hier keine bleibende Statt”
Thomas Quasthoff, baritone
Berlin Radio Choir
Berlin Philharmonic/Simon Rattle (EMI Classics)

Past Masters:
Richard Strauss: “Death and Transfiguration”
Philadelphia Orchestra/
Leopold Stokowski
(RCA Victor)
(recorded 1934)

Wagner: “Tristan und Isolde” – Prelude & Liebestod
Jessye Norman, soprano
London Philharmonic/
Klaus Tennstedt
(EMI Classics)

Past Masters:
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor (“Unfinished”)
Berlin Philharmonic/Wilhelm Furtwängler (Audite)
(recorded 1953)

Past Masters:
Mahler:
“Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen” – “Ging heut’ morgens aus übers Feld”
“Des Knaben Wunderhorn” – “Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald”
Gustav Mahler, piano
(Conifer Classics)
(1905 piano roll)

Mahler: Symphony No. 2
in C minor (“Resurrection”)
Benita Valente, soprano
Maureen Forrester, contralto
London Symphony Chorus
Ardwyn Singers
BBC Welsh Chorus
Cardiff Polyphonic Choir
The Dyfed Choir
London Symphony Orchestra/Gilbert Kaplan (Conifer Classics)