Classical Stories

Join us for "The Sounds of the Season" from now until New Year's Day. Highlights include New Year's Day from Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic and Georges Pretre conducting, the Top 50 Jazz Hot 11 tunes from 2009, New Year's Eve with BP, Maureen Malloy, and Bob Craig, the Metropolitan Opera's Hansel and Gretel, and more...

Happy Holidays From All of Your Friends at WRTI!
We wish you peace, health, and happiness in the New Year, and many joyful hours of music brought to you by your favorite radio station.

Join us today for 12 hours of music by Beethoven beginning at 6 am

Ludwig van Beethoven towers as one of history's greatest classical composers. He triumphed over a total loss of hearing to write some of the most heroic, uplifting music the world has ever known. His repertoire includes nine symphonies, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, sixteen string quartets, and one opera. Tune in today to hear some of the best works and recordings of Beethoven, curated by your very own WRTI hosts.

Wednesday, December 16

6 am to 6 pm

Ludwig van Beethoven towers as one of history's greatest classical composers. He triumphed over a total loss of hearing to write some of the most heroic, uplifting music the world has ever known. His repertoire includes nine symphonies, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, sixteen string quartets, and one opera. On December 16th tune in to hear the best works and recordings of Beethoven, curated by your very own WRTI hosts. It's "Lots of Ludwig" for 12 hours! Please join us.

Sunday, August 30

5 to 6 pm

Trailblazers and Tchaikovsky:

Gustavo Dudamel Conducts the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra

As composer Kile Smith's Vespers is released on CD, we listen back to David Patrick Stearns report on the recording of the work last summer by Piffaro, the Renaissance wind band, and the virtuoso vocal group The Crossing. A CD-release party is scheduled for Saturday night, May 9th, at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church after a Piffaro concert.

Jason Peifer visits Painted Metaphors: Pottery and Politics of the Ancient Maya at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. The exhibition features 1,300-year-old-pottery from the highlands of Guatemala.

This week's show is a premiere of sorts. Our guest Gabriela Imreh is an outstanding pianist, and she and her husband, conductor Daniel Spalding are detectives as well. Imreh shares the fascinating story of their precious discovery--Vittorio Giannini's Piano Concerto, a major work that she went on to record. The Concerto had almost been forgotten since its first performance in 1937; Imreh and her husband brought it back to life. Hear their story on this week's Crossover.

Are you curious to know what five works are essential to a classical music collection, according to Dave Conant? Wondering who Dave's heroes from history are? Or what books are sitting on his nightstand?

If you're losing sleep pondering these questions and more, don't fret. They're all answered in a recent profile of WRTI's executive director and classical host that was featured in The Philadelphia Inquirer in May.

Read the profile about Dave.

Jill Pasternak speaks with soprano Tonia Tecce, composer/arranger Byron Olsen, and conductor Ettore Stratta. The three recently collaborated on Tecce's latest album featuring classical and Broadway favorites, What a Wonderful World.

Tonia Tecce, soprano

Resources:

A different sort of reality show is dominating the ratings - the classical radio ratings, that is. It's a weekly show that travels from Honolulu to Tuscaloosa in which participants are routinely teased and their personalities probed.

By Karin Brookes