Letter V Classical Radio this week

Something very special in the second hour – a contemporary work that transcends new-music fashions and -isms and truly transports the listener: the Cello Concerto No. 2 (“Presence”) by the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks, played by Sol Gabetta, the cellist for whom it was written.

We’ll also remember the British composer Peter Maxwell Davies, who died this week, with his recording of one of his best-known works, “An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise.”

March 17
10 a.m.-1 p.m. EDT
1400-1700 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
http://www.wdce.org

Mozart: “Cosí fan tutte” Overture
Concerto Köln/René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F major
Montreal Symphony Orchestra/Kent Nagano (Analekta)

Past Masters:
Ravel: “Valses nobles
et sentimentales”
Maurice Ravel, piano
(Pieran)
(1913 piano roll)

Vaughan Williams:
“Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis”
New Queen’s Hall Orchestra/
Barry Wordsworth (Argo)

Peteris Vasks:
Cello Concerto No. 2 (“Presence”)
Sol Gabetta, cello
Amsterdam Sinfonietta/
Candida Thompson
(Sony Classical)

Barber: String Quartet,
Op. 11 – Adagio
Emerson String Quartet (Deutsche Grammophon)

J.S. Bach: “English Suite” No. 2 in A minor, BWV 807
Christophe Rousset, harpsichord (Naïve)

Rodrigo: “Concierto
de Aranjuez”
Miloš Karadaglić, guitar
London Philharmonic/
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Deutsche Grammophon)

Peter Maxwell Davies:
“An Orkney Wedding,
with Sunrise”
George MacIlwham, bagpipes
Scottish Chamber Orchestra/
Peter Maxwell Davies (Unicorn-Kanchana)