March 18, 2010

Night Flight

Flying at night is no big deal these days. It was a huge deal during World War II. Weather reports were sketchy, maps were occasionally correct. Cockpit instruments were unreliable. Not to mention the existential anxiety of getting shot at. American composer Samuel Barber was in the Army Air Force during World War Two. His piece "Night Flight" is evocative of the inky darkness, but also the beautiful calm of being above it all. We'll hear Barber's Night Flight played by the London Symphony Orchestra. Also: "Playing and hearing music by Chopin, you learn not only what the piano can do, you learn about its soul." American pianist Jonathan Biss joins us to talk about, and play, music by Chopin and Schumann.

Today's Playlist

Performance Today audio is available for seven days following broadcast.

hour 1

Carlo Gesualdo
Peccantem Me Quotidie
Chanticleer
Pietro Nardini
Sinfonia in D, B. 537
The Lausanne Chamber Orchestra with conductor Fabio Biondi
Salle Metropole, Lausanne, Switzerland
Frederic Chopin
Three Mazurkas , Op. 59
Pianist Jonathan Biss
Union College, Schenectady, New York
Robert Schumann
Kreisleriana, Op. 16
Pianist Jonathan Biss
Samuel Barber
Reincarnations, Op. 16
Chanticleer
Ordway Center, Saint Paul
Samuel Barber
Night Flight, Op. 19a
The London Symphony Orchestra with conductor David Measham

hour 2

Henry Purcell
Incidental music to The Married Beau, Z. 603
The Academy of Ancient Music with conductor Christopher Hogwood
Ned Rorem
Katherine, from After Reading Shakespeare
Cellist Matt Haimovitz
OK Mozart Festival, Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Felix Mendelssohn
Nocturne, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61
Pianists Jeffrey Kahane and Wu Han
Music@Menlo, Palo Alto, California
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Symphony No. 9 in E minor
The North German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Christopher Hogwood
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

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