Letter V Classical Radio this week
April 23 is the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. Over the centuries, no playwright
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)
