Positively Puzzled

Program Notes for Musica della sera broadcast of Thursday, November 29, 2012.  (Available for streaming until 12/6/12 on the KUSP Music Show Player .) This week's program of Musica della sera opens with a keyboard composition of Manuel Blasco de Nebra (1750-1784).  He, like his father, was organist for the Seville Cathedral. He died young, and only a fraction of his compositions have survived─but enough to show his expressive talent. The influence of Domenico Scarlatti is immediately noticeable, but more the introspective sweetness than the dazzling virtuosity.  I only recently discovered this composer from this Harmonia Mundi recording that KUSP possesses  It features Spanish pianist Javier Perianes , also new to me. The virtuosity and sweetness of Domenico Scarlatti follows in a performance of Georgian-American pianist Eteri Andjaparidze . I discovered Scarlatti in my young teens through the wonderful recordings of Vladimir Horowitz, so I'm quite at ho...

The latest Musica della sera show is now up on the Internet to enjoy on demand; see below for locating the link. This program will be available until Thursday, April 9, 2009 I can't remember the last time this happened, but I managed to do a whole show without going baroque. And yet, Bach figures into it anyhow. Listen to find out how. Liszt, Chopin, Dvorak figure prominently. (Ask me about the terrible pun I decided not to make at this time.) I was delighted to find, hidden on the shelves of the radio station's music library, a CD of Liszt's music for violin and piano; it had only been played once before, years ago. A beautiful performance by violinist Rachel Barton. Also featured, a brief horn recital, John Cerminaro playing works of Franz Strauss (Richard's dad!), Beethoven, and Fauré. You can see exactly what was played and who performed it by referring to the playlist (originally broadcast 4/2/2009). My wife, Meera Collier-Mitchell , and I take turns hostin...