PRX - Pieces for Format: Actuality
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When describing Beethoven's astonishing accomplishments as a composer, it's hard to know where to start. Pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy ...
Bought by WETS
- Added: Sep 30, 2008
- Length: :26
- Purchases: 1
Composer Jennifer Higdon's career path does not line up with that old saying, "those who can't do... teach." She's one of the busiest, most perfor...
Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM
- Added: Sep 30, 2008
- Length: :26
- Purchases: 1
When composer Jennifer Higdon accepts a commission from a performer to write a new piece, she takes a few steps before writing the very first note....
- Added: Sep 30, 2008
- Length: :29
(Stephen Hough Received a 2008 Gramophone Award.) The pianist as composer and arranger is a tradition that goes back to Franz Liszt. They often s...
- Added: Sep 26, 2008
- Length: :23
By all accounts, composer Francis Poulenc was just a normal, average guy. No crazier than the next person. But his music could not be more schizop...
- Added: Jul 31, 2008
- Length: :20
At one time, Hungary was one of the leading cultural centers in the world, much like Paris, Vienna and New York. Hungary was occupied by many diff...
- Added: Jun 30, 2008
- Length: :25
Some orchestras stake their reputation and trademark on a certain sound. Others rely on their celebrity conductor. (The Chicago Symphony Orchestr...
- Added: Jun 30, 2008
- Length: :34
Pianist Orli Shaham's most recent recording is an all-Mozart disc she made with her brother Gil. She's played Mozart all of her life, and fittingl...
Bought by WHRV
- Added: Apr 30, 2008
- Length: :27
- Purchases: 1
The trouble with cliches is that they tend to lose meaning after the 15th hearing. So instead of saying Mozart brilliantly practiced the art of "l...
- Added: Apr 30, 2008
- Length: :25
Working without a conductor creates both creative and practical challenges for an orchestra: how do you get the music started? For the conductor-...
- Added: Apr 30, 2008
- Length: :32
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performs without a conductor. We know they make it work, but how do they make it work? Long time Orpheus violinist ...
- Added: Apr 30, 2008
- Length: :23
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra goes conductor-less; they determine their musical interpretations amongst themselves. While that approach is somethi...
- Added: Apr 30, 2008
- Length: :21
Getting started, whether you're writing a term paper, a novel or a piano concerto, can be tough. But you have to get off to a good start. That's ...
- Added: Mar 31, 2008
- Length: :21
The Piano Concerto No. 5 by Saint-Saens is known as the "Egyptian" Concerto, because it includes a melody from a song Saint-Saens heard while vacat...
- Added: Mar 31, 2008
- Length: :25
The Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2 begins quite dramatically with a thick, almost foggy texture. But, in the second movement, pianist Jean-Yves ...
- Added: Mar 31, 2008
- Length: :19
Star gazing, and our occasional infatuation with celebrities, dates back long before movies and television. Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (ZHhahn-Ev...
- Added: Mar 31, 2008
- Length: :25
Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet has recorded nearly every piano work by Erik Satie. His music could be melancholy and mysterious. Thibaudet says Sati...
- Added: Mar 31, 2008
- Length: :23
The Canadian Brass knows their way around holiday music – they've made numerous holiday recordings in their 30 plus years. They're the first to ad...
- Added: Nov 25, 2007
- Length: :21
Holiday music recordings are a dime a dozen, with a few exceptions. Some really stand out, but all holiday recordings, with or without creative me...
- Added: Nov 25, 2007
- Length: :24
The Canadian Brass has dozens of holiday music recordings – in their most recent holiday CD, they continue their tradition of giving some familiar ...
- Added: Nov 25, 2007
- Length: :21
Choosing a title for a new piece of music can be as tough as writing the very first note. Composer Michael Torke tries to avoid titles that push l...
- Added: Oct 31, 2007
- Length: :27
Like many composers Michael Torke worries about coming up with the right titles for his music. When he wrote "Javelin," he wondered if the title m...
- Added: Oct 31, 2007
- Length: :21
Composer Carl Maria von Weber is a favorite of clarinetists - including David Shifrin. Weber's Grand Duo concertante is, basically, 19th century s...
- Added: Oct 31, 2007
- Length: :20
The clarinet was most likely invented by Johann Christoph Denner in 1690. While Denner may have been the inventor, David Shifrin says it was Mozar...
- Added: Oct 31, 2007
- Length: :26
The word "spiritual" continues to have a wide range of applications when discussing religion and the 21st century lifestyle. Conductor Herbert Blo...
- Added: Oct 31, 2007
- Length: :23
