Highlights on Concert FM
Saturday 26 March
1pm
Jazz Profiles
Oscar Peterson (pianist)
NPR
Oscar Peterson is the consummate jazz pianist. With incredible dexterity, drive and precision, Peterson assumes command over the entire keyboard.
Despite his countless honours, awards and critical acclaim, he has always set his own measures of success. His ability to fulfill such high standards makes Peterson exceptional both on and off the stage.
His father saw musical training as an avenue towards greater opportunity for his children, an idea that was vindicated through young Oscar’s tireless determination as a student. Peterson’s teacher, Paul de Marky, had studied with a pupil of the great Franz Liszt. De Marky taught Peterson in the Western classical tradition, while fostering Oscar’s interest in jazz as well.
At 14 he won a radio talent contest that led to regular appearances on Canada’s national network, the CBC. Gradually, word of Canada’s young sensation began to spread throughout the jazz world. Though he received offers to join Count Basie and Jimmy Lunceford’s bands, Peterson declined because of his young age.
In 1949 Oscar finally made his US debut at the invitation of Norman Granz, to perform at Carnegie Hall with his group Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP). On tour, Peterson and bassist Ray Brown made up the JATP rhythm section accompanying famous soloists like Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. In 1952 he formed a trio with Ray Brown, and Herb Ellis and the die was cast for one of the most productive periods in the pianist’s career.
This original trio is regarded by many as the best of its kind evert to assemble.
Tune in this afternoon to hear more about this remarkable musician.
Saturday 26 March
8pm
St Matthew Passion - J.S Bach
Kurt Equiluz (tenor), Robert Holl (bass), Arleen Auger & Sheri Greenawald (sopranos), Jadwiga Rappe & Jard van Nes (contraltos), Neil Rosenshein (tenor) Ruud van der Meer, Anton Scharinger (basses), Boys’ Choir of St Bravo Cathedral, Haarlem, Concertgebouw Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Tonight we have a special programme for Easter, a 1995 concert recording of J.S. Bach’s powerful work, St Matthew Passion made in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Included in the top line-up of singers are Arleen Auger, Robert Holl and Jard van Nes. The Concertgebouw Chorus and Orchestra are conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Sometime in the Middle Ages, Christian churches began observing Holy Week by retelling the story of Christ’s crucifixion in music. Those beginnings were simple—Bible verses set to simple chant melodies—but eventually they would culminate in one of the most ambitious musical compositions of all time.
When J. S. Bach came to write his St. Matthew Passion in the 1720s, the passion, as a musical form, had grown to allow orchestra, choirs, and non-scriptural choruses and arias. But even by the standard of the Baroque passion, the Passion According to St. Matthew is exceptional for its musical richness and its grand scope.
Musically, the score is of imposing length, and calls for double orchestra and double choir—three choirs, at one point. The musical textures range from complex counterpoint to simple hymns. Dramatically, the point of view shifts regularly, from the narrative of the Evangelist, to the actual words of Jesus and his disciples, to reflections that speak for the individual believer. But in Bach’s hands, the effect that the Passion gives is not one of a brilliant collage, but a single, sustained, somber meditation—appropriate for a work that was first performed as part of a church service.
Scholars believe the first performance of the St. Matthew Passion may have been in 1727. It was certainly performed on Good Friday of 1729, and perhaps at several other Good Friday services during Bach’s life. It then dropped from public view until 1829, when it was triumphantly revived by Felix Mendelssohn, crystallizing a revival of interest in Bach that grew throughout the 19th century and still continues.
Sunday 27 March
3pm
Opera on Sunday
Metropolitan Opera Season
Puccini’s La Boheme
Starring Ruth Ann Swenson, Patricia Racette, Roberto Aronica, Dwayne Croft, Earle Patriarco, Oren Gradus & Paul Plishka with the Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Daniel Oren
EBU
This week’s opera, Puccini’s La Boheme is based on a book by Henri Murger called Scènes de la Vie de Bohème . It wasfirst a play, then a novel and eventually an opera.
Murger ,like other French Romanticists, associated Bohemia with the lifestyle of struggling young artists and writers, underfed but strong on drinking and lovemaking, and called those who indulged in it bohémians.
Murger knew what he was talking about, because he was a bohéme himself. When he met the flower girl Lucile Louvet, Mimi’s real-life model, he lived in a shabby room under the roof of Cénacle des Buveurs d’Eau (Club of the Water-Drinkers) whose members drank anything but.
Here, in the heart of St Germain-des Prés, where today an optician and a carpet dealer are waiting for customers, we have to imagine Act 1 of La Boheme.
Act Two is supposed to take place in the Latin Quarter, the neighbourhood of the university and its student population. In fact, the Café Momus was located on the opposite side of the Seine, next to the Louvre and the church of St-Germain-l’Auxerrois, whose bells had given the starting signal to the ghastliest bloodbath in the city’s history, the massacre of St Bartholomew’s Day. For 20 years the Momus was the favourite hangout of Parisian writers, Honoré de Balzac and Victor Hugo among them.
So where are the Rodolfos and Mimis hanging out today?
Probably at the Café Charbon, Le Mécano, La Mercerie or another noisy, junk-filled restobar on Rue Oberkampf in the proletarian Faubourg St Antoine, which has become très à la mode in recent years.
Sunday 27 March
7pm
New Horizons
Iris de Ment, Polyphonic Spree & others
Presented by William Dart
CFM
In tonight’s New Horizons, William Dart keeps the faith with Iris de Ment and The Polyphonic Spree.
Dallas symphonic group, The Polyphonic Spree is less a band than a happening, in the 1960s sense of the word.
When the group takes to the stage for a live performance, its two dozen members are costumed in flowing robes of snowy white, an appropriate backdrop for their happy and uplifting musical message that’s catchy pop minimally laced with gospel. Fans have compared them to the Beach Boys with a smidgen of lively Godspell-like attitude thrown into the mix.
The Polyphonic Spree was founded by Tim De Laughter, who led Tripping Daisy until 1999 when a drug overdose killed his band mate, guitar player Wes Berggren. Tripping Daisy folded and De Laughter and the other surviving members of the group pulled together as The Polyphonic Spree.
The group boasts a ten-member choir, a pair of keyboardists, as well as a percussionist, bassist, guitarist, flute player, trumpeter, trombonist, violist, a French horn player, a theremin player, and an electronic effects wizard.
Road tours require more than a dozen full-sized vans and they perform both in intimate clubs and gigs as big as 2003’s Reading Festival.
Monday 28 March
Noon
An Easter Sequence
Jenny Wollerman (soprano), Max Kenworthy (organ), Orpheus Choir, Wellington Sinfonia, Andrew Cantrill (conductor)
Leighton, Rutter
CFM
This afternoon we are broadcasting a special Easter concert which includes two British 20th century works, Easter Sequence by Kenneth Leighton and John Rutter’s Requiem composed in1985.
Rutter is one of the most prolific contemporary composers. His works include large and small-scale choral compositions, orchestral and instrumental pieces, a piano concerto, children’s operas, music for television and pieces for specialist groups such as the King’s Singers.
Rutter studied music at Cambridge University and is a choral conductor of note. He knows how to write for choirs so as to provide a challenge yet still within the competent singer’s skills.
His Requiem contains haunting music and conveys peace and acceptance of death, not a furious foreboding as in Verdi’s Requiem (1874).
This afternoon’s soprano soloist, Jenny Wollerman studied at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, graduating in 1991 with a Master of Music in Opera. She has since appeared throughout Australasia , as well as in Britain, Belgium and Ireland, including performances with the Tasmanian, Adelaide and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, for Opera Ireland and in five New Zealand International Festivals.
Monday 28 March
8pm
Music for Easter
The Graduate Choir, Terence Maskell (conductor)
C Wood, Byrd, Philips, Stanford, Madden, Dawson, Vaughan Williams, Fauré
CFM
Tonight’s concert from the Graduate Choir features a programme of music for Easter, opening with This Joyful Eastertide by C Wood.
The Graduate Choir was formed almost 4 years ago and comprises 34 choristers aged between 18-32 years.
Based in South Auckland, the choir is directed by Terence Maskell, head of Music at Aorere College and one of this country’s foremost choral directors.
The choir represents the cultural diversity of New Zealand. The majority of its members are Maori and Polynesian but it also draws from Asian and European communities.
Whilst they are renowned for their interpretation of the serious choral repertoire, they are appreciated for their versatility in delivering accessible crowd pleasers as well. Unique features are their blend of warm rich tone, their internationally representative status and outstanding calibre of musicianship.
In 1993 The Graduate Choir won First Place in the Classic Sing Competition.
Tuesday 29 March
8pm
Sound Lounge
Secret Sounds
CFM
In tonight’s Sound Lounge we’re broadcasting "Secret Sounds" a musical journey compiled from live recordings made in Victoria University’s Adam Art gallery during May and June 2001.
The featured artists during the series of four concerts were Leo Tadagawa, a Jew’s harp specialist from Japan, Mark van Tongeren, a throat singer from the Netherlands, and Benny Sokkong, a traditional Kalinga musician from the Northern Philippines.
Among the other soloists heard in in these concerts were Jeff Henderson, Philip Dadson, Budi Putra, Richard Nunns, Chris O’Connor, Andrew Menzies and Leila Adu.
Many other musicians participated including students from Victoria University School of Music and ensembles such as gamelan Padhang Moncar and the throat-singing choir Paraphony.
Tonight’s presenter is leading New Zealand composer, Jack Body.
Wednesday 30 March
8pm
Salzburg Festival 2004
Christine Schäfer (soprano), Birgit Remmert (contralto), Michael Schade (tenor), Oliver Widmer, Anton Scharinger (basses), Concentus Musicus Vienna, Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor)
Bach
Austrian Radio
Tonight’s concert from last year’s Salzburg Festival is a performance of Bach’s Cantata No 201, with a top line up of soloists including Michael Schade (tenor), Oliver Widmer and Anton Scharinger (basses), Birgit Remmert (contralto) and Christine Schäfer (soprano).
Christine Schafer’s diverse opera credits to date include the roles of Konstanze, Ilia, Lulu and Cherubino at the Salzburg Festival; Konstanze, Gilda and Sophie at Covent Garden; Lulu at the Met marking her house debut; Pamina and Handel’s Cleopatra for De Nederlandse Opera, Sophie in San Francisco; Lulu at the Glyndebourne and Innsbruck Festivals; Zdenka in Houston; Zerbinetta in Munich as well as Pierrot Lunaire with Boulez in both Berlin and at the Chatelet.
With an impressively wide-ranging concert repertoire spanning works from baroque through contemporary, Christine Schafer enjoys a flourishing concert career with regular appearances on the major concert stages of Europe and America. Christine has a long-standing co-operation with Claudio Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Pierre Boulez, Christoph Eschenbach and Sir Simon Rattle and is a regular guest of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, Chicago Symphony, Ensemble Intercontemporain and Consentus Musicus.
After a successful 1988 recital debut at the Berlin Festival singing Aribert Reimann’s Nachtraume, Christine Schafer has gone on to develop an international recital career, making regular tours of North America and appearances at such renowned venues as London’s Wigmore Hall and Vienna’s Musikverein. As part of the inaugural Ruhr Triennale in 2002, Christine Schafer presented her much-anticipated interpretation of Schubert’s Winterreise in a staging by Oliver Hermann.
A much recorded artist, Christine Schafer’s discography includes Konstanze in Mozart’s Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail with Les Arts Florissants/William Christie (Erato); a collection of Mozart and Strauss with the Berlin Philharmonic/Abbado, Bach’s Wedding Cantatas with Musica Antiqua Koln/Goebel, Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Boulez’ Pli selon Pli with the Ensemble Intercontemporain/Boulez and a recital disc of Debussy and Chausson, accompanied by Irwin Gage, all for Deutsche Grammophon.
Some earlier recordings include Haydn’s Creation with Rilling, Reimann’s Nachtraume and Kinderlieder, Bach’s St John’s Passion with the Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chorknaben, Mozart Canzonettas with the wind ensemble of the BPO/Fischer-Dieskau as well as Schubert and Schumann Lieder as part of Graham Johnson’s acclaimed series for Hyperion.