The Joy of Classical Music

This episode of the Joy of Classical Music speaks to the resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of 250 years of Russian aggression and oppression. The featured composition is Valentyn Bibik’s Cry and Prayer, a work of memory dedicated to the victims of the Holodomor.

The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra perform Mykhailo Verbytsky - Ukraine’s glory has not perished.

The Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra perform Myroslav Skoryk - The High Pass: Melody

Violinist Solomia Soroka and Pianist Arthur Greene perform Yevhen Stankovych - Ukrainian Poem

The Crimean Chamber Choir Perform Mykola Leontovych - Shchedryk

The National Choir of Ukraine perform Yevhen Stankovych — Prophet from Passions for Taras

National Academic Ukrainian Folk Choir perform Taras Shevchenko - My Thoughts

Lviv National Opera performs Yevhen Stankovych - Earth, Give your Blessing from Folk Opera When The Fern Blooms.

Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus perform Mykola Lysenko - Prayer for Ukraine

The Academic Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine perform Valentyn Bibik — Cry and Prayer

New Adventures in Music is a series within a series devoted to the thrill of musical discovery and the joy of listening. This week, there’s two new releases from Harmonia Mundi - Zachary Wilder’s Brooklyn Suite and The Toronto Symphony Orchestra: Béla Bartók and from that album, we’re featuring The Miraculous Mandarin, a controversial work that banned for decades across much of Europe. There’s also a song about Ruth Bader Ginsberg and composer Francis Poulenc’s amazing Concerto for Clarinet and Piano, a work that was commissioned by big band leader and clarinetist Beeny Goodman in 1962.

Zachary Wilder performs Franz Schubert - Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795, Op. 25: No. 4, Danksagung an den Bach.

Zachary Wilder performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492: Giunse alfin il momento — La clemenza di tito, K. 621: Ah, grazie si rendono.

David Shifrin and Robert Blocker perform Francis Poulenc - Sonata for Clarinet and Piano.

Patrice Michaels performs Dissenter of de Universe. 5 Opinions and a Comment.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra performs Bella Bartok - The Miraculous Mandarin.

This week I am doing something I have only ever done once before, devoting a whole episode to one piece of music - Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No.3. I’ll be playing the 1992 Nonesuch recording, which Robin Hilton, host of NPR’s All Songs Considered, described as revealing the "soul of the universe" in a "wondrous way”.

Nonesuch Selects: Flea talking about Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No.3.

Robert Greenberg - Music as a Mirror of History - Henryk Górecki: Symphony No. 3

Nonesuch Selects: Sarah Kirkland Snider talks about Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No.3

The London Sinfonietta, conducted by David Zinman with soprano Dawn Upshaw perform Henryk Górecki - Symphony No. 3.

New Adventures in Music is a series within a series devoted to the thrill of musical discovery and the joy of listening. This week we have three new and recent releases as well as a tribute to French electronic music pioneer, the composer Éliane Radigue, who died on the 23rd of February this year. The episodes featured work episodes is her 1983 magnetic tape composition Elimination of Desires but keep an ear out for Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong’s joyful 3 movement concerto - Re(new)al.

Yang Bao - The Riddle

Albany Symphony and Sandbox Percussion perform Viet Cuong -
Re(new)al: I - Hydro, Re(new)al: 2 - Wind, Re(new)al: 3 - Solar.

Gilda Lyons and Robert Frankenberry perform gather-summon offering from Magic and Desire: Songs of Intimate Connections

Yang Bao - Human and I

Éliane Radigue - Elimination of Desires

This week, it’s cloud music from The Land of the Long White White Cloud.

Jian Liu performs David Hamilton - Clouds Over Aoraki.

The NZ Trio perform Jenny McLeod - Clouds

Nick Nock - Land Of The Long White Cloud

Gillian Whitehead: Clouds Over Mata-au

Ross Harris - Dark Clouds

Gillian Rivers, Ciaran Wright, Hunter Craig, and Josh Meads perform John Rimmer - Clouds over Pirongia

The Florida State Percussion Ensemble perform John Psathas - Cloud Folk