The Well-Tempered Ear
Online playlists return to Wisconsin Public Radio
7 Comments
PLEASE HELP THE EAR. IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
Good news!
News that deserve a big shout-out!
Online playlists for classical music programming have returned to Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR).
The user-friendly move comes after more than a year of absent playlists and, fortuitously, as WPR is conducting a spring membership drive seeking financial support from the public.
There is one major drawback: You still can’t check on pieces and performances in real time — that is, on the same day or even the same moment as you are listening. Now you have to wait until the next day to see the posting.
That is an unfortunate change from the past. And one hopes it will be fixed soon. Maybe WPR will even let listeners know if and when real-time postings will return.
The current one-day delay seems especially odd, given that the pieces played overnight on WPR — from Minnesota Public Radio, I believe — are posted right as they begin to air.
But at least now we don’t have to wait weeks or months to find out information about something you have probably already forgotten about.
The new format seems less straightforward and less user-friendly than the old one, which put the information right in front of you when you went to the home website and clicked on playlists for News and Music Network.
But now you just go to the date bar and choose the day you are looking for. Once you find the piece, you will notice the name of the show on which it aired such as “Morning Classics” or “The Midday.” You also find the time with the composer, title and performer.
If you also click on “More,” you will see additional details such as the record label and catalogue number. Here a link to try it out:
Home
The return of the playlists is especially useful now that WPR is programming so many neglected composers and so much unfamiliar music — something the current pledge drive seems to be explaining and emphasizing.
So let’s offer hearty congratulations and sincere thanks to WPR and its engineers for the move.
What do you think of the return of WPR playlists?
Have you used the new playlists?
What do you think about their usefulness and online display?
Should WPR playlists be posted in real time?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, air, Arts, audience, Bach, Baroque, Beethoven, big, blog, Cello, Chamber music, change, choral music, Classical music, composer, Concert, concerto, congratulations, day, daytime, display, drawback, Early music, emphasize, engineer, explain, Facebook, financial, financial support, Fundraising, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, link, listener, Ludwig van Beethoven, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, major, memership drive, Minnesota Public Radio, money, Morning Classics, Mozart, MPR, Music, National Public Radio, neglected, network, new, news, notice, NPR, old, online, opera, Orchestra, overnight, Overture Center, performer, Piano, piece, playlist, pledge drive, posting, program, programming, public, Radio, real time, share, shout-out, show, Sonata, support, symphony, tag, technology, thanks, The Ear, The Midday, time, title, unfamiliar, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, usefulness, user-friendly, Viola, Violin, vocal music, Wisconsin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, WPR
Classical music: Autumn arrives today. The Ear thinks Richard Strauss’ poignant orchestral song “September” is perfect for greeting Fall. What music would you choose?
3 Comments
IF YOU LIKE A CERTAIN BLOG POST, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD A LINK TO IT OR, SHARE IT or TAG IT (not just “Like” it) ON FACEBOOK. Performers can use the extra exposure to draw potential audience members to an event. And you might even attract new readers and subscribers to the blog.
By Jacob Stockinger
Fall officially arrives today.
The autumnal equinox takes place at 2:50 a.m. CST.
If you listen to Wisconsin Public Radio, it’s a certainty that you will hear music appropriate to the season. WPR does these tie-ins very well and very reliably — even during a pledge drive.
At the top of the list will probably be the “Autumn” section of three violin concertos from the ever popular “The Four Seasons” by the Italian baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi.
But there are lots of others, including late songs, piano sonatas and chamber music by Franz Schubert; slow movements from symphonies by Gustav Mahler; and many of the “autumnal” late works by Johannes Brahms, especially the short piano pieces and chamber music such as the Clarinet Trio, Clarinet Quintet and the two sonatas for clarinet or viola and piano.
Here is a link to a YouTube video with more than two hours of autumn music. You can check out the composers and the pieces, some of which might be new to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fddGrDV2gw
And if you want less music with some unusual choices, complete with individual performances, try this much shorter compilation:
http://www.classical-music.com/article/best-classical-music-inspired-autumn
Yet this time of year, when the days end earlier and the mornings dawn later, one work in particular gets to The Ear: It is “Four Last Songs” by Richard Strauss (below), one of the great masterpieces of the 20th century.
The second of the four songs is “September” and fits the bill very nicely.
In the YouTube video at the bottom, you can hear it sung by Renée Fleming, who will perform a recital next spring in Madison at the Wisconsin Union Theater. She is accompanied by the Houston Symphony Orchestra under conductor Christoph Eschenbach.
Here are the lyrics of the poem, in which summertime is the protagonist, by Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse:
The garden is in mourning
Cool rain seeps into the flowers.
Summertime shudders,
quietly awaiting his end.
Golden leaf after leaf falls
from the tall acacia tree.
Summer smiles, astonished and feeble,
at his dying dream of a garden.
For just a while he tarries
beside the roses, yearning for repose.
Slowly he closes
his weary eyes.
Is the Ear the only person who wishes that the Madison Symphony Orchestra and maestro John DeMain, who has a gift for finding great young voices, would perform Strauss’ “Four Last Songs” some autumn?
With the right vocal soloist it could make for a memorable season-opening concert.
What music do you identity with the fall season?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: #20thCentury, #AmericanMusician, #AutumnalEquinox, #BaroqueMusic, #BlogPost, #BlogPosting, #ChamberMusic, #ChristophEschenbach, #ClarinetMusic, #ClarinetQuintet, #ClarinetSonata, #ClarinetTrio, #CompactDisc, #FacebookPost, #FacebookPosting, #FourLastSongs, #GermanComposer, #GermanLanguage, #GermanWriter, #GustavMahler, #HermannHesse, #HoustonSymphony, #HoustonTexas, #ItalianBaroque, #italianComposer, #ItalianMusic, #JohannesBrahms, #JohnDeMain, #KurtMasur, #LeipzigGermany, #MadisonSymphonyOrchestra, #MusicalInterpretation, #NobelPrize, #OrchestralAccompaniment, #PianoMusic, #PianoPieces, #PianoSonata, #PledgeDrive, #RenéeFleming, #RichardStrauss, #SlowMovement, #SopranoSinger, #StringMusic, #TheEar, #TheFourSeasons, #ViolaSonata, #ViolinConcerto, #VocalMusic, #WisconsinPublicRadio, #WisconsinUnionTheater, #YouTubevideo, 20th-century, accompaniment, American, appropriate, Arts, astonished, Autumn, autumnal, Baroque, beautiful, blog, Brahms, CD, Cello, Chamber music, choice, Christoph Eschenbach, clarinet, classic, Classical music, classicalmusic, close, Compact Disc, compilation, composer, concerto, conductor, dawn, day, diva, dream, drive, dying, Early music, equinox, eyes, Facebook, fall, feeble, forward, Four Last Songs, Franz Schubert, Garden, German, Germany, Gewandhaus, gift, golden, great, Gustav Mahler, hear, Hermann Hesse, Houston, Im Abendrot, interpretation, Jacob Stockinger, Jessye Norman, Johannes Brahms, John DeMain, Kurt Masur, late, leaf, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, like, link, list, Madison, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Maestro, Mahler, masterpiece, mourning, Music, Nobel Prize, Orchestra, perfect, performer, Piano, piano music, pieces, pledge, pledge drive, poem, Poetry, popular, post, posting, protagonist, recital, recording, Renée Fleming, repose, Richard Strauss, rose, roses, Season, September, share, sing, singer, Slow movement, smiles, Sonata, song, soprano, Strauss, string music, sublime, summertime, sunset, symphony, tag, tears, Texas, The Ear, The Four Seasons, tie-in, tree, United States, unusual, Viola, Violin, Violin concerto, Vivaldi, vocal music, voice, weary, wisconsin public radio, Wisconsin Union Theater, WPR, Writer, young, YouTube
Recent Comments
 | Nina Rieselbach on Does sacred music bring you cl… |
 | Nancy Klatt on Does sacred music bring you cl… |
 | welltemperedear on YOU MUST HEAR: Chaminade’s… |
 | D. on YOU MUST HEAR: Chaminade’s… |
| welltemperedear on YOU MUST HEAR: Chaminade’s… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 