Playlist: "Classics" Sunday 30th June 2013

 Ricky Ian Gordon: music & Mark Campbell: lyrics-"Gordon-Campbell: Rappahannock County" Naxos 8.669028-29-excerpts w/Kevin Moreno, Matthew Tuell, Aundi Marie Moore, Mark Walters, Faith Sherman-Virginia Arts Festival Orchestra-Rob Fisher, conductor

 "apologetica- daniel lentz" New Albion Records NA 097-"Apologetica" excerpts w/Dana Marsh, singer-I Cantori-Edward Cansino, dir-The Archbishop's Ensemble-Zdenka Vaculovicova, director-Bradford Ellis, keyboards

Charles Wakefield Cadman-"Cadman: Chamber Music" Naxos 8.559067-"The Legend of the Canyon Op. 68" /"From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water, Op. 45 no 1" w/Paul Posnak, piano-Peter Zazofsky, violin

William Thomas McKinley "Divergence-modern concert for strings" (sic) Navona NV 5858-"Concert Variations" w/ Glenn Dicterow, violin-Karen Dreyfus, viola-Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra-Carl St. Clair, conductor

 "Eric Moe-Meanwhile Back at the Ranch" New World Records 80741-2-"Preamble and Dreamsong from the 4-5 a.m. REM Stage" w/Moe, piano-Gabriela Diaz, violin

Alan Fletcher-"R. Strauss: Symphonic Poem 'Ein Heldenleben" Op. 40 etc.-Manfred Honeck cond. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra" Exton OVCL -00338
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra-Allegro (first movement) w/ Michael Rusinek, clarinet-Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra-Manfred Honeck, conductor

Leonardo Balada-"Balada; Caprichos Nos. 2, 3 and 4" Naxos 8. 572176-"Caprichos No.2: Samba" w/Andres Cardenas, violin-Gretchen Van Hoesen, harp-Jeffrey Turner, double bass






 

Playlist: "The Best of Broadway" 30th June 2013

George M. Cohan: music and lyrics-"George M." (original Broadway cast) Columbia CK 3200-excerpts w/Joel Grey, Jerry Dodge, Betty Ann Grove, Bernadette Peters, Jamie Donnelly, Jill O'Hara, Jacqueline Alloway-Jay Blackton, music director


Irving Berlin: music and lyrics-"Annie Get Your Gun"(1999 Broadway cast) Angel 7243 5 56812 2 5-excerpts w/ Tom Wopat, Ron Holgate, Peter Marx, Bernadette Peters-Marvin Laird, music director

My finale

Hello! My last WRCT broadcasts of “The Best of Broadway” and “Classics” are June 30^th. I’m leaving Pittsburgh in a few months to move to Omaha.

I’ve been hosting programs on WRCT since 2003 and continue to admire and respect the CMU students who have kept the station going, taking on the many responsibilities which make its existence possible.

The great thing about WRCT is that it allows students and other local people opportunities to create broadcasts based on their own interests, interests they want to share. So much music on radio, including on public stations, is controlled and dictated by people who run the stations where program hosts have little or no such freedom or creative input. 

I have been able to share what appeals to me most and that's what has always motivated me. When listeners have commented it was much appreciated, showing me that I’ve been connecting with interested people. And I can see on my blog view-counts that someone has looked at my playlists, suggesting that they liked something they heard. That’s good to know.

My theatre reviews have likewise had the same motivation. And I hope that readers have been stimulated to attend the wonderful live theatre that enriches this community.

If you enjoy what program hosts present on WRCT, it would be great if you told them, so that they can know you're there. Because, when you love what we love, that’s a kind of bonding. We become close without ever meeting face to face.

Namaste.

 

Playlist: "The Best of Broadway" Sunday 23rd June 2013

Maury Yeston: music and lyrics

"Nine" (2003 Broadway cast) ps classics PS-312-
excerpts w/Mary Stuart Masterson, Antonio Banderas, William Ulrich, Laura Benanti, Jane Krakowski-Kevin Stites, music director

"Titanic" (original Broadway cast) RCA Victor 09026-68834-2-excerpts w/ Brian D'Arcy James, John Cunningham, Ted Sperling, Michael Cerveris, Jennifer Piech, Theresa McCarthy, Erin Hill, David Elder, Martin Moran, Victoria Clark etc-Kevin Stites, music director

Playlist-"Classics" Sunday 23rd June 2013

Helen Humes-"The Essential Count Basie-Volume 2" Columbia LP CJ 40835-"Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" w/Basie,p-Harry Edison,tp-Lester Young,ts

 Helen Humes-"The Essential Count Basie-Volume 1" Columbia LP CJ 40608-"If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight" w/Buck Clayton,tp

 "Helen Humes" Contemporary LP M3571-"T'Ain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do", "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good," "When The Saints Go Marching In" w/Benny Carter,tp-Frank Rosolino, tb-Teddy Edwards, ts-Andre Previn, p-Leroy Vinnegar,b-Mel Lewis or Shelley Manne, dms

 "Johnny Smith Quintet Featuring Stan Getz" Fresh Sound Records FSR CD 37-"Yesterdays," Cavu" w/ Stan Getz,ts-Sanford Gold, p

 "Johnny Smith and His New Quartet" Fresh Sound Records-FSR CD 80-"Blue Lights," "Bag's Groove' w/Johnny Rae, vibes

 "Johnny Smith" Verve LP V 8692-"The Shadow of Your Smile," "My Favorite Things" w/Hank Jones, p-George Duvivier, b-Don Lamond, dms

Sahib Shihab-"Howard McGhee" Bethlehem LP N-11-21-YP7126-BE (reissue)-"Transpicuous," "Tweedles" w/ McGhee, tp-Duke Jordan p

 Sahib Shihab-"The Modern Art of Jazz-Tony Scott" Seeco LP CELP 425-"Blues for Three Horns"w/Scott, cl-Shihab, bs-Jimmy Knepper, tb-Bill Evans, p

 Sahib Shihab-"Mal Waldron Sextets with John Coltrane-MAL 2" Prestige OJCCD-671-2-"From This Moment On" w/John Coltrane, ts-Idrees Sulieman, tp-Sahib, as-Waldron, p-Art Taylor,dms

 Sahib Shihab-"Milt Jackson-Plenty, Plenty Soul" Atlantic LP SD 8811-"Plenty,Plenty Soul" w/ Jackson, vibes-Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. as-Frank Foster,ts-Sahib, bs-Joe Newman,tp- Jimmy Cleveland, tb-Horace Silver, p-Art Blakey, dms

  "George Russell-The Jazz Workshop" RCA LP LPM 1372-"Ye Hypocrite, Ye Beelzebub," "Jacks' Blues," "Ezz-Thetic," "Night Sound," "Round Johnny Rondo" w/Hal McKusick, as-Art Farmer, tp-Barry Galbraith,g-Bill Evans, p-Milt Hinton, b-Joe Harris,dms

 George Russell -"The Gil Evans Orchestra-Out of The Cool" MCA Impulse LP MCA 5653-"Stratusphunk" w/Ray Crawford, g-John Coles, tp-Ron Carter,b-Evans,p-Charlie Persip, dms

Playlist:"Classics"-Sunday 16th June 2013

All the music is by Igor Stravinsky (born 17th June 1882)

"Stravinsky: Chamber Music & Historical Recordings" Sony SM2K 46297-"Ragtime" w/Columbia Chamber Ensemble-Toni Koves, cimbalom-Stravinsky, conductor

"Stravinsky:The Nightingale-Mavra-35 Songs" Sony SM2K 46 298-The Nightingale" Act 1-w/ Donald Gramm, tenor-Reri Grist, sop-Donald Gramm, bar-Marina Picassi, sop-Kenneth Smith & Herbert Beattie, bass-CBC Symphony Orchestra-Stravinsky, conductor

"Stravinsky: Ballets-Rattle" EMI 50999 9 677 11 2-"Apollo" w/City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra-Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

"Igor Stravinsky-Works for Piano & Orchestra-Crossley-London Sinfonietta-Esa-Pekka Salonen" Sony SK 45797-Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra w/Paul Crossley, -London Sinfonietta-Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor

"Stravinsky: Symphonies -Rehearsals and Talks" Sony SM2K 46 294-"Symphony of Psalms: Laudate Dominum" w/Festival Singers of Toronto-CBC Symphony Orchestra-Stravinsky, conductor

"Stravinsky: Symphonies-Berliner Philharmoniker-Rattle" EMI 50999 2 07630 0-Symphony in Three Movements-w/ Berlin Philharmonic-Rattle, conductor

Playlist: "The Best of Broadway-Sunday 16th June 2013

Benj Pasek & Justin Paul: music and lyrics-"Dogfight" (original off-Broadway cast) Ghostlight 8-4470-excerpts w/Linda Mendez, Derek Klena, Josh Segarra, Nick Blaemire, Anna Leigh Ashford-Bryan Perri, music director

Billy Goldenberg: music & Alan & Marilyn Bergman: lyrics:"Ballroom" (original Broadway cast) Sony Broadway SK 35762-excerpts w/ Dorothy Loudon. Lynn Roberts, Bernie Knee,Vincent Gardenia-Don Jennings, music director

Playlist: "Classics" Sunday 2nd June 2013

 Henry Wolking-"Cross Connections-Henry Wolking & Jams Scott Balentine" Navona NV 5903-"Gone Playin': Gone Sleepin’'" w/ Robert Walzel, clarinet-Moravian Philharmonic Strings-Petr Vronsky, conductor

 John Alden Carpenter-"Works of Carpenter" New World Records 80228-2-"Krazy Kat" w/ Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra-Calvin Simmons, conductor

 John Corigliano-"Corigliano: Music for String Quartet" Naxos 8.559180-"Snapshot: Circa 1909" and "A Black November Turkey" w/Corigliano Quartet

 John Adams-"Adams: Shaker Loops-The Wound Dresser" Naxos 8.559031-"The Wound Dresser" w/Nathan Gunn, baritone-Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra-Marin Alsop, conductor

 Michael Daugherty-"Spokane Symphony Orchestra -Daugherty-Letters from Lincoln" E1 E1E CD 7725-"Letters from Lincoln: Letter to Mrs. Bixby-Gettysburg Address" w/Thomas Hampton, baritone-Spokane Symphony-Eckart Preu, conductor

 "Jennifer Higdon-Summer Shimmers" Koch KIC-CD-7738-"Summer Shimmers" w/Susan Glaser, flute-Stephen Taylor, oboe-Todd Palmer clarinet-Marc Goldberg, bassoon-Joseph Anderer, horn-John Novacek, piano

 John Adams-"Adams: Shaker Loops-The Wound Dresser" Naxos 8.559031-"Shaker Loops: Loops and Verses-A Final Shaking" w/Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra-Marin Alsop, conductor

 Howard Richards-"Seeking & Finding-Bakker-Richards" Navona NV 5877-"The Noise of Waters" (text: James Joyce) and "The Song of the Rain" (text: Kahil Gibran) w/Kühn Choir-unidentified pianist-Marek Vorlicek,conductor

 "Jennifer Higdon-Summer Shimmers"Koch KIC-CD-7738-"Dash" w/Susan Glaser, flute, Todd Palmer,clarinet-John Novacek, piano

Playlist: "The Best of Broadway" Sunday, 2nd June 2013

 Richard Rodgers: music & Oscar Hammerstein II: lyrics

 "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella" (sic) (2013 Broadway cast) Ghostlight Records 8447-2-excerpts w/ Santino Fontana, Laura Osnes, Victoria Clark-Andy Einhorn, music director

"State Fair" (1996 Broadway cast) DRG 94765-excerpts w/John Davidson, Charles Goff, Kathryn Crosby, Ben Wright, Andrea McArdle, Scott Wise, Donna McKechnie-Kay Cameron, music director


 

Theatre review: "The Kreutzer Sonata" from Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre

A one-person play comes full of burdens and expectations. The performer has to do everything  alone to make it believable and significant. Thus, the audience is bound to judge the result as much by the artist as by the writer and, even without thinking about it, the director.  When the performer is famous the burden increases due to expectations.

Certainly, by now, regular theatre-goers in Pittsburgh have witnessed and often admired the talents of locally-renowned Martin Giles. Now he takes center stage in Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre’s production of Nancy Harris’ stage adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s famed novella The Kreutzer Sonata. Giles and director Alan Stanford make it clear that what you witness does not call attention to a potentially bravura performance but tells the story, superbly saying what Harris and Tolstoy want to say.     

Harris has created richly evocative dialogue to fill out a tale about a man named Pozdynyshev. In a train compartment, he tells unspecified passengers about his life, his marriage, of jealousy and his killing of his wife plus subsequent imprisonment. Harris includes a disturbing description of the stabbing, by the way. En route, Pozdynyshev ruminates on sex, relationships between men and women and, equally, on the force of music. And he details how his wife, an amateur pianist, seems to have developed a sensual connection with his violinist friend Trukhachevsky when they began rehearsing and then performing Beethoven’s Sonata No 9 usually known as “The Kreutzer Sonata.”  

There are things which you could infer en route, such as compassion for the wife and/ or empathy for the guilt and sorrow that Pozdynyshev must feel so deeply that he has to atone by repeating his story to strangers. These elements remain buried in the shadows of Jim French’s sparsely-lit stage. With all of Giles’ integrity and talent, he does not reach across the platform and make you want to hold his hand in sympathy. That kind of deep emotion does not surface. But, within the telling, he eloquently illuminates the moments of tenderness and makes charming the flashes of humor without ever going off-track.  Equally he makes dynamically clear those times of mind-altering anger and disillusionment about how a seemingly ideal life is bound to fall into disarray.   

Director Stanford’s evident choice of having the stage constantly in near- darkness seems symbolically appropriate although, eventually, more gloomy than necessary. He and scenic designer Gianni Downs have come up with an imaginative setting, showing what looks like a abandoned home with shrouded furniture where Jessi Sed0n-Essad’s evocative projections glimmer with remembrances of things past, or become surfaces showing flickering, sometimes ghostly shadows of events gone by.

Giles inhabits this space supremely well, but this well-conceived production does not call on us to admire the acting. Rather, it plunges us into a well-written story, one in which every note becomes clear.  

The Kreutzer Sonata plays through June 22^nd at Henry Heymann Theatre in the Stephen Foster Memorial, Oakland. 412/ 561-6000 or pictheatre.org.