A Birthday
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
Turning seventy todaywhat Oscar-winning composer famous for such scores for “Star Wars,” “Schindler’s List,” all of the Harry Potter films thus far, as well as for leading the Boston Pops for years?
But of course! John Williams will be heard from in his capacity as conductor and composer throughout the evening. We’ll enjoy some “Star Wars” and “Schindler’s List” excerpts, as well as who knows what. Stay tuned and raise a glass to this prodigious talent. Violinist Rachel Podger will be joined by Trevor Pinnock at the harpsichord in Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3. And one of harpdom’s leading ladies, Susann McDonald, heads of the harp department at Indiana University (previously at Juilliard) gives us Jan Ladislav Dussek’s Harp Sonata in E-flat.
Our second hour is devoted to a couple of incarnations of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden”: the art song of that name is sung by Renée Fleming, and his String Quartet No. 14, so nicknamed because some bars of the second movement’s derive from the song, is played by the Emerson String Quartet. The Emersons play live at Zankel Hall on February 15th, and they are worth the price of admission. Check it out!
Bach’s “Wedding Cantata” turns up in our last half, in a performance featuring silvery-voiced Dutch soprano Elly Ameling, who was born this day in 1934.
» View today's selected reading from "The Writer's Almanac"
Hosted by Garrison Keillor
But of course! John Williams will be heard from in his capacity as conductor and composer throughout the evening. We’ll enjoy some “Star Wars” and “Schindler’s List” excerpts, as well as who knows what. Stay tuned and raise a glass to this prodigious talent. Violinist Rachel Podger will be joined by Trevor Pinnock at the harpsichord in Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3. And one of harpdom’s leading ladies, Susann McDonald, heads of the harp department at Indiana University (previously at Juilliard) gives us Jan Ladislav Dussek’s Harp Sonata in E-flat.
Our second hour is devoted to a couple of incarnations of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden”: the art song of that name is sung by Renée Fleming, and his String Quartet No. 14, so nicknamed because some bars of the second movement’s derive from the song, is played by the Emerson String Quartet. The Emersons play live at Zankel Hall on February 15th, and they are worth the price of admission. Check it out!
Bach’s “Wedding Cantata” turns up in our last half, in a performance featuring silvery-voiced Dutch soprano Elly Ameling, who was born this day in 1934.
» View today's selected reading from "The Writer's Almanac"
Hosted by Garrison Keillor
