Celebrating the 111th birthday of the great Chilean-born pianist (and later a longtime resident of Douglaston, NY) Claudio Arrau by revisiting one of our “Great Chopinists” episodes from Radio Chopin. Listen to the episode here or read below: (more…)
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa backstage at the Kennedy Center with Yr Hmble Srvnt and WDAV supporter Catherine Connor
Hard to believe we’re three-quarters of the way through Radio Chopin. Here’s episode 150. Listen to it here, or read below:
Charles Gounod’s opera, Faust. Act One, Scene One: Faust sits alone, bitter, despondent, reflecting on a life spent in a futile attempt to find the meaning of existence. He resolves to take his own life and is raising a vial of poison to his lips when …outside a joyous peasant chorus stops him.
When you listen to a moment right in the middle of one of Chopin’s most evocative Mazurkas, you hear unisons. Chopin used to fuss at his students over those brief bars. Wilhelm von Lenz writes:
“Nobody ever managed to satisfy him with these unisons, which have to be played very lightly; the chords were an easier matter: but these unisons! ‘They’re women’s voices in the choir,’ [Chopin] would say, and they were never played delicately enough, never simply enough. One was barely allowed to breathe over the keyboard, let alone touch it.”
This has to be a childhood memory. The Mazurka in B-flat minor is redolent with nostalgia from start to finish, and how it ends! If biographer James Huneker hears correctly, Faust’s impulse returns, only this time it’s the whole earth and the scene is set in a sorrowful heaven:
“Sweet melancholy driving before it joy and being routed itself, until the annunciation of the first theme and the dying away of the dance, dancers and the solid globe itself,” he writes, “…as if earth had committed suicide for loss of the sun. The last two bars could have been written only by Chopin. They are ineffable sighs.” – Jennifer Foster
So, for episode 100 of Radio Chopin, we thought we’d visit Chopin’s original home, in the Polish town of Zelazowa Wola.
“Today, trees – and pianos – remain the story of Zelazowa Wola. The park surrounding the manor includes more than 500 species of trees and shrubs. Piano teachers make pilgrimages here to put “Chopin acorns” in the pockets of their promising students. Inside, there are three 19th-century pianos; outside, there’s a modern grand, where every summer, there is a daily Chopin recital, from soloists ranging from greenest amateur to the most established pro.” Nicely told, Mike McKay!
Fun story to write for NPR Music’s Classical pages about a great concert this Spoleto season at the newly-redone Dock Street Theatre, with a stellar cast including pianist Inon Barnatan, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and violinist Livia Sohn….
You can hear the entire concert (nicely recorded as always by South Carolina ETV’s Skip Beach) here. And read the whole story on the other side… (more…)
Fascinating visit with the remarkable Polish jazz pianist Leszek Mozdzer on the Spoleto Festival, as we recorded an interview between him and Jennifer Foster in the Cato Center. Here’s the link to the program:
http://www.spoletofest.org/june-1-2010st
Great dissection of how he channels Chopin into “the Mozdzer Motor” – and his John Cage-like habit of putting drinking glasses, combs, and even his own CDs on the piano strings to combat boredom. Oh, and along the way we revealed to Mozdzer his unwitting hand in creating the Spoleto Today theme song!
We even had the chance to shoot a little video:
And here are more “Chopin Impressions” from Mozdzer:
Episode 50 of Radio Chopin considers the saga of the wonderful Argentinian pianist Ingrid Fliter…“My parents met through Chopin’s music. It was during a party. Fifty years ago. My father was playing — as an amateur pianist — some Chopin waltzes in a party and my mother was there and that took her attention! That’s why she got in love with him. And that’s…that’s the reason why I say that if it wouldn’t be for Chopin music I wouldn’t be here!” Check out the story…and why many consider her part of the new generation of Great Chopinists…here.
We’re celebrating the 200th anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin’s birth this year at WDAV with an ambitious new series: Radio Chopin. No fewer than 200 two-minute stories about the music, the people, the events, and the stories surrounding the “poet of the piano.” Our midday host Jennifer Foster is at the helm, and I imagine you’ll be hearing from all of the WDAV voices between now and Dec. 31. Heck, we’re even building an entire website for the project. What an adventure! Stay tuned, and enjoy Episode 1 by our multimedia producer Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr, concerning a famous, if mispronounced, little Waltz…
http://www.radiochopin.org/images/players/episodes/episodes.php?id=450
British conductor Christopher Warren-Green named as Music Director and a region rejoices.
Roedeo Productions 
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