Letter V Classical Radio this week
April 23 is the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. Over the centuries, no playwright
or poet has inspired more music – theatrical and film scores, symphonic tone poems, chamber music, songs, odes and more.
We’ll mark the anniversary by sampling the vast and varied repertory of Shakespearian music –
familiar compositions by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Vaughan Williams, as well as lesser-known pieces inspired by the Bard, ranging from his time to ours.
April 21
10 a.m.-1 p.m. EDT
1400-1700 UTC/GMT
WDCE, University of Richmond
90.1 FM
http://www.wdce.org
Mendelssohn: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” incidental music –
Overture, Scherzo,
Notturno, Wedding March
Orchestre des
Champs Élysées/
Philippe Herreweghe
(Harmonia Mundi)
anon.: “The Willow Song”
Meredith Hall, soprano
Jacob Herringman, lute (Philips)
Shostakovich: “Hamlet”
film music (excerpts)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam/
Riccardo Chailly (Decca)
Purcell: “Timon of Athens” –
Overture & curtain tune
The Parley of Instruments/
Peter Holman (Helios)
Paul Moravec:
“Tempest Fantasy”
David Krakauer, clarinet
Trio Solisti (Naxos)
Tchaikovsky:
“Romeo and Juliet”
Fantasy-Overture
Berlin Philharmonic/Claudio Abbado
(Deutsche Grammophon)
Thomas Linley Jr.:
“A Shakespeare Ode” –
Overture
“At Shakespeare’s
happy birth”
“And now is come”
“Be Shakespeare Born”
Minuetto
Julia Gooding, soprano
Musicians of the Globe/
Philip Pickett (Philips)
Past Masters:
Vaughan Williams: “Serenade to Music”
Norma Burrowes, Sheila Armstrong,
Susan Longfield & Marie Hayward, sopranos
Alfreda Hodgson, Gloria Jennings, Shirley Minty & Meriel Dickinson, contraltos
Ian Partridge,
Bernard Dickerson, Wynford Evans & Kenneth Brown, tenors
Richard Angas,
John Carol Case,
John Noble & Christopher Keyte, basses
London Philharmonic/
Adrian Boult
(EMI Classics)
(recorded 1969)
Korngold: “Much Ado about Nothing” incidental music (excerpts)
Gil Shaham, violin
André Previn, piano
(Deutsche Grammophon)
Henry Rowley Bishop:
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” incidental music –
“Welcome to this place”
“Hark, hark, each Spartan hound”
“Flower of the purple dye”
“Spirits advance”
Rachel Ellliott,
Joanne Lunn & Helen Groves, sopranos
Jeanette Ager, mezzo-soprano
Mark Tucker, tenor
Musicians of the Globe/Philip Pickett (Philips)
