WRTI Spotlight

The Boston Early Music Festival ended on June 19th. The New York Times called it "...an early-music fan's idea of paradise for a week." Listen to one of the Festival highlights: The Orchestra at Play - Festive Concertos, Suites, and Sinfonias by Bach, Handel, Corelli, and Vivaldi--from NPR

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A song cycle inspired by Civil War-era tunes is adapted for a soldier's return from Afghanistan by stage director Peter Sellars, and features soprano Dawn Upshaw.--from NPR

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This recent broadcast features young musicians with connections to our region - they're up to remarkable things beyond playing classical music. You'll meet a 14-year-old pianist who has appeared in a major feature film, a teenage flutist who's recorded with one of the world's greatest jazz musicians, and a From the Top alum who's started a new urban orchestra training program in Philadelphia. You'll also meet an outstanding 11-year-old guitarist, and hear the world-famous American Boy Choir from Princeton. Missed it live? No problem! Listen now...

Sunday, June 12

3 to 5 pm

The best seat is right where you happen to be this Sunday as the Kimmel Center brings you two concerts recorded during the recent PIFA festival. Organist Thierry Escaich recreates the organ sounds of Paris 1910 to 1920. Pianist Jeffrey Siegel is back for another fabulous performance of Keyboard Conversations - this concert profiles Paris in 1911 with works by Ravel and Debussy.

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June 7th marked the birth date of Hungarian-born conductor and pianist George Szell. It's not a round-numbered anniversary - the 114th - but there is a birthday present of sorts. A brand new biography, Michael Charry's George Szell: A Life of Music, was published by University of Illinois Press last week. Szell is best remembered as the man who, over 24 years, meticulously molded the Cleveland Orchestra into one of the finest ensembles in the world.--from NPR

We're going to pick up the thread from last month's Discoveries and follow it a bit further. Felix Mendelssohn convinced two friends of his, Ignaz Moscheles and Ferdinand David, to work with him in Leipzig. Moscheles and David both taught Friedrich Gernsheim. We'll hear his music, and that of one of his students, who has one of the more recognized names of any composer.

On Saturday, June 18th, from 1 to 3:30 pm, WRTI brings you the Lyric Opera of Chicago's recent production of Gilbert and Sullivan's THE MIKADO. With an all-star cast including James Morris, Stephanie Blythe, and Toby Spence, and fabulous music that you'll be humming all day long, this popular operetta is not to be missed. Tune in!

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Tune in on Saturday, May 14th at 12 noon to hear Wagner's DIE WALKURE, the last broadcast in the Metropolitan Opera's 2010/2011 Saturday radio broadcast season. James Levine conducts. Soprano Deborah Voigt sings Brunnhilde.

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The famous pianist and composer Ignaz Moscheles sat next to the 15-year-old boy on the piano bench, about to give a piano lesson as a favor to the boy's father. In less than a minute, Moscheles, a sensation on the continent, lionized in England, one of a handful of pianists vying for that ever-shifting "greatest" title, knew that he was "sitting next to a master, not a pupil." He had encountered prodigies before, but never had he seen anyone like Felix Mendelssohn.