Want to hear something very scary? On Halloween, WRTI brings you all sorts of eery classical music and jazz inspired by witches, ghosts, and the supernatural!
We'll start off your day in a ghastly and ghostly way with the ethereal Song of the Birds in the 6 AM hour. Then, brace yourself! Gregg Whiteside brings you Breakfast with Bach with a fright! It’s the Toccata and Fugue in D minor that Leopold Stokowski made famous in those opening scenes of Fantasia.
The devil pays a visit—not one, not two, but three times! In the 9 AM hour we’ll hear Tartini’s violin sonata knick-named the “Devil’s Trill” as well as the Devil’s Polka by Czech composer Vít?zslav Novák.
Later on, Bliss Michelson brings us a duo rendition of El Diablo Suelto (“The Loose Devil”) performed by master guitarist John Williams and his colleague Alfono Montes on the cuatro. Leading up to midday, the witches arrive! Smetana’s dark and foreboding Macbeth and the Hexen is coupled with Dvo?ák’s Noon Witch.
Midday Mozart takes an ominous turn with highlights from the composer’s revered Requiem, which will be followed by the opening of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden and more ghoulish sounds from Dvo?ák in his symphonic poem, The Water Goblin.
The afternoon continues with Wagner’s chilling ghost ship overture, The Flying Dutchman, and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, the doomed March to the Scaffold is not to be missed!
Kevin Gordon kicks off the 5 PM hour with "Film at Five" featuring music from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and then it’s back-to-back spookiness with Liszt’s Danse Macabre, Verdi’s heart-stopping Dies Irae and finally Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, from our Classical Album of the Week.
Thursday night at 6 PM, Bob Craig will put a spell on you with the help of Nina Simone. Vince Guaraldi will get you dancing to the "Great Pumpkim Waltz", and Nancy Wilson will let you know when "The Masquerade is Over" We'll start the dancing back up when Miles Runs the "Voodoo Down." And the evening wouldn't be complete without some "Witchcraft" and "Dead Man's Blues."
Of course, if you're the type who doesn't frighten easily, we don't stand a ghost of a chance scaring you. Ryan Gottlieb will bring you some sweets as well starting at 9 PM, like Lee Morgan's "Candy," Lucy Yeghiazaryan's "Sweet Pumpkin" and many arrangements of "Stolen Sweets."
Frightened or not, you're sure to enjoy these and many more selections we'll play all day this Halloween.