Arts Desk

Throughout the week

Listen to WRTI's Arts Desk features for a daily look into the world of music, arts, and culture. Listen to brief features throughout the day!

Classical Album of the Week: British Pianist Samantha Ege’s Four Women, Music for Solo Piano

By Heather McDougall • Jun 14, 2019

June 10, 2019. Four Women is not just the debut album of pianist Samantha Ege, it’s a window onto a labor of love. A British artist of Jamaican and Nigerian heritage, Ege has dedicated the last several years of her life to amplifying under-represented women composers—both Europeans and African-Americans— inlcuding Florence Price, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Ethel Bilsland, and Margaret Bonds.

Violinist Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Elgar's Violin Concerto, and the Mystery of the Five Dots

By • Jun 3, 2019
Lars Gundersen

Sir Edward Elgar wrote his violin concerto for the great Austrian violinist Fritz Kreisler, who premiered it in 1910. Among those who champion it today is a violinist who feels a personal connection when performing it.

Classical Album of the Week: Ian Bostridge and Antonio Pappano in Songs of Whitman and War

By • Jun 3, 2019

June 3, 2019. To commemmorate the 75th anniversary of the Allied Invasion of Normandy, known as D-day, which takes place on June 6th, WRTI presents our Classical Album of the Week, "Requiem: The Pity of War," the latest recording by English tenor Ian Bostridge, with Antonio Pappano at the piano.

This Is What You Should Know About Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1

By Meridee Duddleston • Jun 3, 2019
Getty Images/Skodonell


Can You Play This Gorgeous Rachmaninoff Clarinet Solo? If So, You've Arrived!

By • May 30, 2019

A melody in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony was made famous to fans of Eric Carmen’s pop tune “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again.” But in the symphony, that melody leads to one of the most beautiful, and difficult, clarinet solos in the literature. WRTI’s Susan Lewis has the story.

This Is What Happened When Beethoven Traded Despair for Triumph

By • May 20, 2019

It was the fall of 1802 when Ludwig van Beethoven confessed his nearly fatal despair about his growing deafness, in what’s now known as his "Heiligenstadt Testament." His music then took a daring new turn. WRTI’s Susan Lewis talks with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas about Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, "Eroica."

Classical Album of the Week: The Spectacular Naughton Twins' American Postcard

By • May 19, 2019

May 20, 2019. Just in time for Memorial Day, our Classical Album of the Week features all American composers, in duo pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton's third commercial release.

The Story Behind the Famous Bugle Call, "Taps"

By Meridee Duddleston • May 19, 2019
The Washington Post/Getty Images

The powerful sound of a bugler playing “Taps” is a call to remember those who gave their lives in the service of the United States.

This Is What The Basset Horn Symbolized To Mozart In His Masonic Funeral Music and Requiem

By • May 13, 2019
Scott Rodgerson/Unsplash

Wolfgang Amadeua Mozart died in 1791 at age 35, before he finished his Requiem mass. But it wasn't the only funeral music he composed. WRTI's Susan Lewis has more on an earlier work that provides context for his musical journey. 

Classical Album of the Week: Himmelsmusik, A Little Piece of Early Music Heaven from L'Arpeggiata

By Heather McDougall • May 13, 2019

May 13, 2019. Himmelsmusik, German for “heavenly music," is the latest project of Austrian theorbo player Christina Pluhar and her early-music ensemble L’Arpeggiata, based in France.

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