March 24, 2016 Library of Congress and WETA Classical 90.9 to Collaborate on New Radio Series

Press Contact: Jennifer Gavin (202) 707-1940
Public Contact: Anne McLean, (202) 707-8432

The Library of Congress and WETA Classical 90.9 will launch a new edition of the "Concerts from the Library of Congress" radio series on April 1, 2016. Continuing a distinguished broadcast tradition that began in 1925, the series presents 13 one-hour programs produced from the Library's splendid 2015-2016 anniversary concert season. Listeners will experience performances by world-class artists, recorded in the superb acoustic environment of the Library's historic Coolidge Auditorium. Each program offers an insider's look into the vast collections of the world's largest music library.

The series will be produced in association with Classic Digital Syndications and offered free of charge to public radio stations nationwide. Dan DeVany, WETA's vice president and general manager for radio, is executive producer for the series. Co-producers are Anne McLean, the Library's senior producer for concerts and special projects, and Victor Muenzer, founder and president of Classic Digital Syndications.

Bill McGlaughlin, winner of the prestigious Dushkin and Peabody broadcasting awards, will host the programs. Joining him as guest hosts are expert curators and concert staff from the Library's Music Division, including concert producers David Plylar and Nicholas Alexander Brown and music specialist James Wintle. Violinist Nicholas Kitchen and Dan DeVany will also participate as guest hosts. Their encounters with such rarities as a manuscript of a cantata by J.S. Bach illuminate the performances and enhance the listener's experience. Moments of music history come alive in excerpts from several memorable concerts by legendary figures who have performed on the Library's stage, including Béla Bartók and Leopold Stokowski.

About Classical WETA 90.9 FM

Classical WETA 90.9 FM is the exclusive home of classical music in Greater Washington. Each week, the station attracts nearly 500,000 broadcast listeners as well as tens of thousands of online listeners from around the globe who stream the station at classical.weta.org and listen via iTunes. The station provides opera broadcasts of world-class companies on Saturday afternoons, including live performances of The Metropolitan Opera and performances by the Washington Concert Opera. Among the station's programs is Front Row Washington, which presents classical performances by renowned soloists and ensembles, recorded at venues throughout the nation's capital. In addition, VivaLaVoce features classical vocal music available by live stream at vivalavoce.org External and via the HD2 signal of Classical WETA 90.9 FM.

The Library of Congress is an unparalleled world resource. Its rich music holdings include manuscripts, scores, sound recordings, books, libretti, music-related periodicals and microforms, copyright deposits and musical instruments. Manuscripts of note include those of European masters such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms and those of American masters such as Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein and Charles Mingus.

Classic Digital Syndications is a leading producer of classical-music programming for the national market. Headed by Victor Muenzer, the company is known for such innovative programs as "Indianapolis On-The-Air" and "Center Stage from Wolf Trap," produced in association with WETA-FM. Grammy-winner Muenzer, founder of two record labels and a production company, has produced more than 70 recordings.

Further information is available on the Library's website at https://www.loc.gov/concerts/radio. For distribution information and sample programs, please contact Victor Muenzer, CD Syndications, at cdsyndications.com.

Program Listings

Concerts from the Library of Congress
2016 90th Anniversary Series

Brahms and Beach
St. Lawrence Quartet with Pedja Muzijevic, piano
Kim Kashkashian, viola and Peter Nagy, Piano
With guest host Anne McLean, Senior Producer for Concerts and Special Projects, Library of Congress Music Division
In this hour you will hear the Library's glorious Stradivari instruments in Amy Beach's lush, rhapsodic piano quintet from 1907. Beach was very successful as both pianist and composer, with wide exposure to American and European audiences for her compositions. The Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered her Piano Concerto--with Beach as soloist--as well as her Gaelic Symphony. Accompanying her quintet: a beautiful performance of a Brahms sonata, on the Library's remarkable 1690 "Tuscan-Medici," one of only 10 Stradivari violas in the world.
Beach: Quintet for piano and strings in F-sharp minor, op. 67
Brahms: Sonata in E-flat major for viola and piano, op. 120, no. 2

Bach Collegium Japan with Masaaki Suzuki, Conductor & Artistic Director
Joanne Lunn, soprano
With guest host Dan DeVany, vice president and general manager for radio, WETA Classical 90.9
Occupying the very peak of historically informed performance worldwide, the brilliant, critically acclaimed Bach Collegium Japan is noted for integrity, impeccable style, and moving, luminous performances. Bach guru Masaaki Suzuki invites British soprano Joanne Lunn to add her ravishing voice to a Bach cantata, and you'll hear some dazzling instrumental playing, including a knockout Vivaldi recorder concerto performance from Andreas Böhlen.
Vivaldi: Oboe Concerto in C major, RV 450
J.S. Bach: Cantata no. 51, "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen," BWV 51
Vivaldi: Concerto in C major for recorder, strings and continuo, RV 443

Michelangelo Quartet
This quartet of chamber music all-stars made a rare U.S. appearance in November 2015, offering a masterly interpretation of Ludwig van Beethoven's first "Razumovsky" string quartet. Paired with it in this program is a performance by the Claremont Trio of three evocative, short pieces by Helen Grime, inspired by chalk and pastel miniatures by American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler.
Beethoven: String Quartet in F major, op. 59, no. 1 ("Razumovsky")
Grime: Three Whistler Miniatures
The Little Note in Yellow and Gold; Lapis Lazuli; The Violet Note

Music for a While
Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano
Jonathan Cohen, harpsichord and portative organ
Thomas Dunford, archlute
With guest host James Wintle, music specialist, Library of Congress Music Division
A gleaming, radiant voice and elegant musicianship have won this regal Swedish singer a large and growing fan base in opera houses and concert halls worldwide. A charming closeup of this major artist, heard in repertoire you won't have heard from her before: Renaissance gems by English and French master composers including Purcell, Dowland, Charpentier and Rameau—plus an unexpected jewel from Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk.

The Virtuoso Horn
Eric Ruske, French horn
Jennifer Frautschi, violin
Gloria Chien, piano
With guest host Nicholas Alexander Brown, Concert Producer and Music Specialist, Library of Congress Music Division
Listeners won't want to miss this gorgeous, soaring performance of Johannes Brahms's op. 40 Horn Trio, plus a look at the composer's manuscript of the work. And from the Library's archives: more excellent horn playing in a vintage performance of Richard Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, written as a "Symphonic Birthday Greeting" for the composer's wife, Cosima. The conductor is Leopold Stokowski, a longtime friend of the Library, who studied scores here for decades, conducting not only concerts, but recording experiments on the Library's stage.
Brahms: Trio in E-flat major, op. 40, for violin, horn and piano
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll, performed by The Symphony of the Air
Coolidge Auditorium concert, 1960

Bartók and Borromeo
With guest host Nicholas Kitchen, the Borromeo Quartet's first violinist
Hear the charismatic Borromeo players in a riveting performance of Béla Bartók's magisterial Fifth Quartet (1935), a landmark Library of Congress Coolidge Foundation commission. Recorded on the Library's Stradivari instruments, this concert was a special 90th anniversary marathon performance of all six quartets by the composer. Finishing the program are some moments from Bartók's own Library concert, a now-legendary duo recital appearance with violinist Josef Szigeti.
Bartók: Quartet no. 5 (Library of Congress commission)
Beethoven: Cavatina, from the string quartet in B-flat major, op. 130
From the archives:
Excerpts from the historic Béla Bartók-Josef Szigeti concert, April 13, 1940

Apollo's Fire: The Power of Love
Jeannette Sorrell, Artistic Director and Conductor
Amanda Forsythe, Soprano
"Apollo's Fire is burning hot … setting the classical world aflame,"(Cleveland Plain Dealer)with packed houses in Europe and at home, and five best-selling CDs on the Billboard classical charts. Tune in for an exhilarating hour with "The U.S.A.'s hottest Baroque band" (Classical Music Magazine): scintillating portrayals—vocal and instrumental—of the delights of first love and the delusions and madness of passion.
Ucellini: Aria quinta, sopra la Bergamasca, arr. Sorrell (from Sonate, arie et correnti, op. 3)
Handel: "Il primo ardor" from Ariodante, HWV 33
Grave from Oboe Concerto no. 3, HWV 287
"Geloso tormento" from Almira, HWV 1
Vivaldi: Concerto for Four Violins in B minor, RV 580, op. 3/10
Handel: "Piangerò la sorte mia" from Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17
Purcell: "If Love's a Sweet Passion," from The Fairy Queen

Schumann Sampler
Richard Goode, piano and from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center:
Daniel Hope, violin
Paul Neubauer, viola
David Finckel, cello
Wu Han, piano
With guest host David H. Plylar, concert producer and music specialist, Library of Congress Music Division
You'll hear memorable performances of two Robert Schumann works in this hour, from artists well-known in the world's great concert halls. His second piano quartet, with its romantic, graceful Andante cantabile movement, is a favorite for chamber music lovers. The artists are a formidable quartet of star players and good friends: Daniel Hope, violin; Paul Neubauer, viola; David Finckel, cello; and Wu Han, piano. And to open, pianist Richard Goode performs the elusive, mercurial Humoreske, a rarely-heard piece of many moods.
Schumann: Humoreske, for solo piano, op. 20
Schumann: Quartet in E-flat major for piano and strings, op. 47

Cello Collection
Alban Gerhardt and Anne-Marie McDermott
Amit Peled and Noreen Polera
Lynn Harrell
For cello lovers in particular, a sampling from concerts, old and new, that feature stellar cellists, and an encounter with the Library's magnificent Stradivari "Castelbarco" cello. Works by Barber, Bloch, Schubert and others.

Handel and Haydn Society at 200
Harry Christophers, Artistic Director
With guest host Nicholas Alexander Brown, concert producer and music specialist, Library of Congress Music Division
The superlative musicians of Boston's famed H + H travel to Washington as part of a splendid Bicentennial celebration honoring 200 years of excellence. Founded in 1815, the venerable Society is considered the nation's oldest continuously performing arts organization, with a storied history that has seen the U.S. premieres of masterworks like Handel's Messiah and Mendelssohn's Elijah. Harry Christophers conducts a 26-voice choir and chamber ensemble in works by William Byrd, Mozart and J.S. Bach, and a new work co-commissioned by the Society and the Library: Gabriela Lena Frank's "My angel, his name is freedom."

Ensemble Intercontemporain
Matthias Pintscher, Music Director
This extraordinary, standard-setting French chamber ensemble is a major force in the music world. A highpoint of our 90th anniversary celebration, the Ensemble's November 2015 appearance at the Library exhibited a virtuosic command of style, and the tradition of uncompromising artistry established by founder Pierre Boulez. The centerpiece of this hour is a masterwork from the Second Viennese School: Alban Berg's Chamber Concerto for piano, violin and 13 winds.

In the Reeds, featuring Calefax
With guest host David H. Plylar, concert producer and music specialist, Library of Congress Music Division
Ockeghem: Mort, tu as navré de ton dart, arr. Raaf Hekkema
Franck: Prélude, fugue et variation, op. 18, arr. Jelte Althuis
Nancarrow: excerpt from Selected Studies for player piano, arr. Raaf Hekkema
R. Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, op. 28, arr. Olivier Boekhoorn
Adventuresome and engaging, the Dutch reed quintet Calefax intrigues audiences with its own transcriptions of an interesting range of music, from Renaissance polyphony to an irresistible rendition of a favorite orchestral classic.

Debussy and Dvořák
Jennifer Koh, violin and Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano
Pavel Haas Quartet
Rounding off this 2015-2016 series is a "best of the best" package featuring artists at the top of their games. The admirable violinist Jennifer Koh delivers a breathtaking Debussy sonata performance with pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute. And the Pavel Haas Quartet demonstrates "the best qualities of the Czech tradition—warmth, sonorousness, individuality, intensity" (Gramophone) in Antonín Dvořák's op. 96 string quartet. Listeners will enjoy hearing these superb, quintessentially Czech artists summon a vivid impression of the American countryside.
Debussy: Sonata for violin and piano
Dvořák: String Quartet in F major, op. 96 ("American")

###

PR 16-059
2016-03-24
ISSN 0731-3527