Music For a While

This episode is a real smorgasbord—works, mainly short, by Domenico Scarlatti, Rachmaninoff, Duparc, Stravinsky, Jonathan Dove, and Jerome Kern, among others. A tasty, diverse spread. You may well want it all. Scarlatti, D., Sonata in G, K. 14 Rachmaninoff, Andante, Cello Sonata Duparc, Lento, Cello Sonata Lachenmann, “Five Variations on a Theme by Franz Schubert” […]

In honor of the recent “blue moon,” Jay plays four songs about the moon—two classical, two popular. He also has some Quincy Jones, some Cannibal Corpse (yup), some Villa-Lobos, and some Bruckner. Complain if you will, but not about a lack of variety. Rodgers & Hart, “Blue Moon” Bellini, “Vaga luna, che inargenti” Dvořák, “Song […]

That’s what Dido sings in Purcell’s opera, about her and Aeneas: “Remember me!” Jay is reminded of this when filling out forms on the Internet. In this episode, he plays Dido, plus Charlie Parker, Franz Schmidt, Leonard Bernstein, Lyle Lovett, and others. An unusually eclectic show—which also brings the Op. 1 by a young woman […]

That’s a lot to promise in one humble music podcast, isn’t it? Greatness, consolation, and transcendence? But it is truth in advertising. Handel, “Dopo notte atra e funesta,” from Handel’s “Ariodante” Pärt, “Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten” Mozart, Clarinet Concerto Trad., “Shenandoah” Brahms, Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8 Bach, “Mache […]

Mozart wrote his “Orphanage Mass” when he was twelve. Pretty good. Mendelssohn wrote his Octet in E flat when he was sixteen. Really good. Jay provides excerpts from these works, and also presents Chopin and Argerich, Strauss and Davidsen, and more. As the episode begins with Mozart, it ends with Mozart: a heavenly soprano aria […]

That is a line from a hymn. Jay says it must apply to Bach’s Cello Suites, which players of that instrument get to live with all life long — through good times and (maybe most important) bad. Of course, all of the pieces on this program may be called “great companions”: from the pens of […]

Jay begins with a gigue, a jig, by Leclair. We also have Haydn, Brahms, and Penderecki. (The Brahms is played by Leon Fleisher, the great American pianist who has died in recent days.) There are also two items from the American Songbook — one of them sung by Jack Teagarden, the other by Frank Sinatra. […]

The title of this episode pretty much tells the story: Jay discusses, plays, and celebrates piano duets. Schubert, “Marche militaire” No. 1 in D major, Op. 51, No. 1 Debussy, “En bateau,” from the “Petite Suite” Mendelssohn, Andante and Allegro brillant, Op. 92 Mozart, Concerto for Two Pianos in E flat

Actually, Jay says “an ingenious, joyful jolt.” He is speaking of the Toccata in G by Théodore Dubois. That’s how the podcast begins. We also get Grieg (and a memory of a TV game show, long ago). Lead Belly (singing “Study War No More”). Mozart, Hahn, and “America” — a fugue on “America,” which is […]

In honor of Independence Day, Jay does an all American program: ending with “Plenty Good Room,” the spiritual. He begins with some ballet, cowboy style: “Hoe Down” (Copland). Along the way, we have songs, piano pieces, an aria, some bluegrass—Happy Fourth, to all. Copland, “Hoe-Down,” from “Rodeo” MacDowell, “By a Meadow Brook,” from “Woodland Sketches” […]