Compact Discoveries

Series produced by Fred Flaxman

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One-hour unusual, audience-appealing, theme-driven classical music programs.

Compact Discoveries (R) is a series of one-hour, classical music radio programs, which, true to its title, introduces listeners to some of the most exciting and unusual compositions to be found on compact discs.

The approach is relaxed, informal and light. The presenter -- award-winning writer/producer Fred Flaxman -- shares his love of music and sense of discovery like one friend talking to another.

Fred sometimes uses humor, sound effects, personal essays, clips from old-time radio programs, and non-classical music to make his theme-based hours interesting and fun. The music is always carefully selected to appeal to the widest possible audience for classical music and to attract new listeners to the genre.

Fred's amusing themes range from "Brazilian Beats" and "Discs for Dishwashing" to "Musical Gardens" and "Best Music for Back Rubs." The programs often feature little-known composers who have written pieces that people will like on first hearing, such as Ernesto Nazareth, Kurt Atterberg, Rene Touzet, Clara Schumann, Cecile Chaminade, Tyzen Hsiao and Joaquin Nin.

Maximum scheduling flexibility is achieved by considering these programs as one-hour building blocks. They can be scheduled one or more times a week; they can be scheduled back to back to create two or three-hour blocks. Fred doesn't say "this program" when he's talking; he says "this hour," making stacking easy. Also, the program/hours are evergreens, except for those created for specific holidays and seasons of the year.

The series began as a local program on WXEL-FM, West Palm Beach, Florida. It was quickly picked up for national distribution via satellite by one of the nation's most prestigious radio syndicators. The series switched to less expensive, more convenient PRX distribution via the internet on Jan. 1, 2006.

Broadcast by stations from Manila in the Philippines to Eugene, Oregon, to West Palm Beach, Florida, the response of listeners has been 100 percent positive. For more information, including short descriptions and complete scripts for each program, go to www.compactdiscoveries.com.

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Compact Discoveries (R) is a series of one-hour, classical music radio programs, which, true to its title, introduces listeners to some of the most exciting and unusual compositions to be found on compact discs.The approach is relaxed, informal and light. The presenter -- award-winning writer/producer Fred Flaxman -- shares his love of music and sense of discovery like one friend talking to another.Fred sometimes uses humor, sound effects, personal essays, clips from old-time radio programs, and non-classical music to make his theme-based hours interesting and fun. The music is always carefully selected to appeal to the widest possible audience for classical music and to attract new listeners to the genre.Fred's amusing themes range from "Brazilian Beats" and "Discs for Dishwashing"... Show full description


253 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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Arthur Foote was an American composer who wrote beautiful European music. Fred Flaxman presents three examples.

Bought by WNMU-FM


  • Added: Aug 20, 2015
  • Length: 57:00
  • Purchases: 1
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More beautiful music by this Italian-born tunesmith. This is the fourth of four one-hour programs featuring the music of this gifted, highly-access...

Bought by GCR (Global Community Radio)


  • Added: Aug 07, 2015
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 1
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Fred Flaxman presents Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Concerto for Two Guitars and his Piano Concerto No. 2. The prize-winning guitarists in this program are...

  • Added: Jul 30, 2015
  • Length: 58:00
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Fred Flaxman presents the first recording of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's "Four Dances from 'Love's Labour's Lost'" and his "Piano Concerto No. 1 in...

  • Added: Jul 22, 2015
  • Length: 58:00
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A very tuneful guitar concerto and melodious violin concerto by this 20th Century Italian-born composer.

Bought by WNMU-FM


  • Added: Jul 08, 2015
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 1
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Jean Sibelius's "Symphony No. 2" and "Finlandia" are still two of his most performed and recorded works in 2015, almost 150 years after his birth o...

  • Added: May 15, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
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Music by Jean Sibelius which is still greatly loved and often played 150 years after his birth in Finland on December 8, 1865. This program, includ...

  • Added: May 15, 2015
  • Length: 58:00
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Rossini called his "Petite Messe Solennelle" a "Small Solemn Mass," but it is very large, not very solemn, and sounds more like one of his operas t...

  • Added: Apr 17, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
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Antonin Dvo?ák’s Czech Suite, Czech Dances by Bed?ich Smetana, two Czech waltzes by Oskar Nedbal and the Poem from the Idyll “At Twilight” by Zden?...

  • Added: Apr 08, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
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Manuel De Falla wrote two of his best orchestral pieces 100 years ago this year: "Nights in the Gardens of Spain" and "Love, the Magician." Produce...

  • Added: Mar 16, 2015
  • Length: 58:00
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Music by a Mexican composer, Manuel Ponce… a German composer, Siegfried Wagner… a Hungarian composer, Béla Bartók… and an English composer, Albert ...

  • Added: Feb 22, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
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Fred Flaxman presents Jerome Kern's "Mark Twain: A Portrait for Orchestra," "Overture to Show Boat," a Russian arrangement of "Smoke Gets in Your E...

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Jan 24, 2015
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 1
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Jerome Kern's greatest hits sung by Kiri Te Kanawa, Sylvia McNair, William Warfield, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Barbara Cook, and others.

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Jan 05, 2015
  • Length: 59:00
  • Purchases: 1
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Each one-hour Compact Discoveries program is devoted to a different theme. But every year we discover wonderful music that doesn't fit a theme we a...

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Dec 27, 2014
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 1
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New in 2014 for Hanukkah: Fifteen great Jewish tunes, including traditional folk songs, klezmer, dance music, and other festive songs.

  • Added: Dec 03, 2014
  • Length: 57:00
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Music making its premiere in 1914 included Maurice Ravel’s "Trio for Piano, Violin, and Cello," "The Oceanides" by Jean Sibelius, Scott Joplin’s "M...

Bought by KREV-LP


  • Added: Nov 10, 2014
  • Length: 58:00
  • Purchases: 1
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Pfitzner wrote three gorgeous cello concertos, which are all heard here. He also was an interesting, controversial man. This makes for a program wh...

  • Added: Oct 11, 2014
  • Length: 01:03:11
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Fred Flaxman concludes his trilogy of programs inspired by this famous fictional character with the ballet by Ludwig Minkus.

  • Added: Sep 22, 2014
  • Length: 59:00
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These include works by Anton Rubinstein, Kara Karayev, and Jesus Guridi.

  • Added: Sep 08, 2014
  • Length: 58:00
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In this first hour of music inspired by the Spanish classic novel, Fred Flaxman presents Richard Strauss's "Don Quixote" and the Overture and "The ...

Bought by WMNR


  • Added: Aug 21, 2014
  • Length: 57:00
  • Purchases: 1