Exploring classical music in all its glories and complexities. From the sweetest melodic to the cutting edge of the avant-garde... from the deep past to the fre...
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 96 - Nothing But Bartok - 31-03-2025
Episode 96 of The Joy of Classical Music is nothing but the legendary Hungarian composer and staunch anti-fascist Bela Bartok. While the focus is on his last great masterpiece, 1943’s Concerto for Orchestra, we have just enough time to fit in a few snippets of other works.
Béla Bartók - 4 Slovak Folksongs for Mixed Choir (1917)
Zoltán Kocsis plays Evening in Transylvania from Ten Easy Pieces.
Bella Bartók - Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, IV. Allegro molto - The Berlin Philharmonic
Bela Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner Chicago Symphony Orchestra 1955.
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56:12
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 95 - The Outliers - 24-03-2025
This episode features music from composers whose work isn’t easily pigeonholed. The best description might be ‘genre fluid’ or ‘boundary defying’. On the menu is music by Moondog, Frank Zappa, Meredith Monk, Harry Partch, Joan La Barbara, Blue Gene Tyranny and La Monte Young.
Moondog - High on a Rocky Ledge
Frank Zappa - I Don't Know If I Can Go Through This Again
Meredith Monk - Travel Dream Song
Harry Partch - Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions from a Highway Railing at Barstow, California.
Joan La Barbara - Poems 43, 44, 45
Blue Gene Tyranny - 13 Detours
Moondog - Single Foot
La Monte Young - The Well Tuned Piano
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56:46
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 94 - Bits and Bobs 3 - 17-03-2025
Episode 94 of The Joy of Classical Music is a potpourri of bits and bobs, all manner of interesting works from the renaissance to the cutting edge of modernity. On the menu:
The Swingle Singers performing Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fugue in D Minor
Aaron Copland - Heart We Will Forget Him
Edgard Varèse - Tuning Up
Chico Marx - I’m Daffy over You
Andrea Gabrieli - Jubilate Deo
Stewart Greenbuam - Études for Daydreamers: IV. 7 or 8 to be in before 9
Peggy Glanville Hicks - Three Gymnopédies
Alice Sara Ott performs John Field: Nocturne No. 9 in E Minor
Harpo Marx - Lullaby Doll
The Danish National Symphony Orchestra performs Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks Theme
Nkeiru Okoye - African Sketches: IV. Drums Calling
Nadine Sierra performs Floresta do Amazonas by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Robert Muczynski - Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano
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55:45
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 93 - The Leftovers - 10-03-2025
Sometime I run out of time and don’t get to play everything I’ve selected for an episode so for this episode, we’ll be listening to the leftovers, music I wanted to play but couldn’t.
Charles Ive’s Runaway Horse on Main Street performed by “The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band
Richard Farrell plays Liszt Rigoletto Paraphrase.
William Kapell plays Chopin’s Mazurka, Op. 6, No. 2 in C-Sharp Minor
Kurt Weill - Four Walt Whitman Songs
Gerald Finzi - Introit in F Major
Barbara Hannigan performs Henri Dutilleux - Correspondances for Soprano And Orchestra
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55:47
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 92 - The Pianists - 03-03-2025
Episode 92 of the Joy of Classical Music is wall to wall piano and among the many delights is Kiwi pianist Richard Farrell, a celebrated international concert pianist who died in a car accident in1958 at the tender age of 31. The featured pianist is Chinese Kiwi Jain Liu with Douglas Lilburn’s 1949 work, Sonata.
Daniel Trifonov plays Igor Stravinsky’s Serenade in A for Piano: I. Hymn
Arthur Rubinstein plays Manuel De Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance
Martha Argerich plays Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2
Anna Zassimova plays Nikolai Medtner’s Canzona Matinata
Vladimir Horowitz plays Drammatico from Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No3 in F-Sharp Minor
Richard Farrell plays Brahms - Klavierstucke Op. 119 No. 1
Jeremy Denk plays William Byrd’s A Voluntarie, for my Ladye Nevell
Jian Liu plays Douglas Lilburn’s Sonata
Exploring classical music in all its glories and complexities. From the sweetest melodic to the cutting edge of the avant-garde... from the deep past to the freshest contemporary. All of it. The joy of classical music.
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