Saturday, December 1, at 1:30 pm
Leos Janacek: The Cunning Little Vixen
Based on an illustrated tale published as a newspaper serial, this fanciful opera is one of Janacek's true masterworks - at once charming, frightening, tragic and, in the end, life-affirming. Patrick Summers leads the Houston Grand Opera.
Lisa Saffer (Vixen); Hector Vasquez (Forrester); Jennifer Root (Forrester's Wife); Ekaterina Gorlova (Young Vixen); Fiona Murphy (Fox Golden-Stripe); Meredith F. Flores (Cricket); Alina Slavik (Grasshopper); Jon Kolbet (Mosquito/Schoolmaster); Allan Lawrence (Frog); Maria Markina (Lapak/Woodpecker); Laurie Lester (Pepik); Rebeka Camm (Chocholka the Hen); Albina Shagimuratova (Frantik); Alicia Gianni (Rooster/Jay); Ryan McKinny (Badger); Bradley Garvin (Parson); Beau Gibson (Pasek); Liam Bonner (Harasta); Tamara Wilson (Pasek's Wife)
Saturday, December 1, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, December 1, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, December 2, at 12:00 noon
Guests Alexandre da Costa, violin; Margo Garrett, piano
Johannes Brahms: Sonatensatz: Scherzo
Manuel da Falla: Canciones Populaires
Eugene Ysaÿe: Sonata No. 3
Pablo de Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen
Jimi Hendrix, arr. Robert Lafond: Manic Depression
Sunday, December 2, at 1:00 pm
This edition of From the Top celebrates the 100th anniversary of the historic Chandler Music Hall nestled in the Green Mountains of Vermont. The program features performances by: French horn player Katherine Jordan, age 17, from Charlotte, Vermont; 16-year-old clarinetist Christopher Pell from New York; violinist Dorothea Talento, 18, from Woodstock, Vermont; the Cerberus Trio from the Chicago area (Kevin Hu, 14, violin; Ophelia Hu, 17, cello; Mira Luxious, 17, piano); and pianist Alvin Zhu, 16, from Pittsburgh.
Tuesday, December 4, at 8:00 pm
This special program, hosted by Murray Horwitz, features a concert by New York-based, Grammy-award winning band, the Klezmatics.
(Pre-empts first hour of Studio GPB)
Tuesday, December 4, at 9:00 pm
This special is a perennial NPR favorite, now well into its second decade. Acclaimed authors explore Hanukkah traditions in original stories written expressly for Hanukkah Lights. Hosted by Murray Horwitz and Susan Stamberg.
(Pre-empts second hour of Studio GPB)
Friday, December 7, at 3:00 pm
On the first Friday of the month at 3:00 pm, Georgia Public Broadcasting Radio offers the Consumer Call-in program, a live, one hour call-in where experts take calls and answer questions about consumer issues. The program, hosted by Rickey Bevington, includes experts such as Georgia's Secretary of State, Public Service Commissioner, and representatives from the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs. The program covers a wide variety of consumer topics from how to protect your identity to dealing with unfair business practices. You can e-mail your questions and comments to consumer@gpb.org. The number to call is 1-866-RADIO-GA (1-866-723-4642).
Friday, December 7, at 8:00 pm
Guest Kenny Werner
Pianist Kenny Werner is a musician for whom creativity is a credo and improvisation a way of life. Transforming brilliant technique into unbridled creativity is not only Werner's musical mission, it's the subject of his popular book Effortless Mastery. He and McPartland get together on a pair of Bill Evans tunes, "Very Early" and "Waltz for Debbie."
Saturday, December 8, at 1:30 pm
Christoph Willibald von Gluck: Iphigénie en Tauride
Gluck's 1779 opera is based on a French play by Guymond de la Touche, itself based on a drama by Euripides. When Agamemnon gathered the Greek armies before the Trojan War, the goddess Diana sent unfavorable winds to prevent them from sailing. Her oracle set a condition: to earn the right to sail to Troy, King Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter. Over the protests of his wife Clytemnestra, he accepted these terms and killed his young daughter Iphigenia. In the play Iphigenia in Tauris, Euripides imagines that Diana actually saved Iphigenia and delivered her to distant Tauris (Tauride), where she served the enemy Scythians as Diana’s high priestess, while Iphigenia’s family believed her dead. Many years later, Iphigenia's brother Orestes and his lifelong friend Pylade arrive in Tauride, but fail to recognize the priestess as Orestes' long-lost sister. The Scythian king, Thoas, has been ordered to execute all strangers who come to his country, in fear of his own overthrow and death. Thoas instructs Iphigenia to sacrifice the two Greek men on the altar of Diana. Orestes welcomes death; he is half-mad with guilt, having been pursued by Furies since he killed his mother Clytemnestra in revenge for her murder of his father Agamemnon after the return from Troy. However, he wants to save his friend Pylade, and persuades Iphigenia to help Pylade escape, which she does, giving him a letter to take to her sister Electra back in Greece. Still she cannot bring herself to kill Orestes, and at last they realize they are in fact brother and sister. King Thoas bursts in and is about to sacrifice Orestes himself when Pylade returns with Greek soldiers to save Orestes. The goddess Diana herself appears to stop the fighting, pardon Orestes, and send the re-united siblings back home in peace.
Louis Langrée, conductor; Susan Graham (Iphigénie); Plácido Domingo (Oreste);
Paul Groves (Pylade); William Shimell (Thoas)
Saturday, December 8, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, December 8, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, December 9, at 12:00 noon
Guests Guarneri String Quartet
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K. 465 (Dissonant): movement I
Maurice Ravel: String Quartet in F major: movements I & IV
Antonín Dvorak: String Quartet No. 11 in C major, Op. 61: movements II & IV
Sunday, December 9, at 1:00 pm
This week's program comes from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and features two young musicians who participated in the 2006 Parkening International Guitar Competition, Timothy Callobre, age 13, from Pasadena, California, and Carlo Carrieri, 18, originally from Pisa, Italy. We'll also hear performances by French horn player Eliodoro Valleallo, 16, from Santa Cruz, California, and the members of J3: Jieun Kim, 17, clarinet; Jin Suk Yu, 17, violin; and pianist Julie Lee, 16; all studying at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan.
Friday, December 14, at 8:00 pm
Christmas Special
Piano Jazz swings in the holiday season! McPartland and her guests from seasons past, present, and future share their favorite memories and unique musical performances of Christmas classics and original holiday tunes. Surprises abound and musical gifts are offered for your listening pleasure.
Saturday, December 15, at 1:00 pm - note early start time
Charles Gounod: Roméo et Juliette
Gounod's 1867 opera is based on the Shakespeare play, the immortal story of Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, the children of feuding houses in Renaissance Italy, whose passionate love results in their deaths, but also in the reconciliation of their families.
Placido Domingo, conductor; Anna Netrebko (Juliette); Isabel Leonard (Stephano); Roberto Alagna (Romeo); Nathan Gunn (Mercutio); Robert Lloyd (Friar Laurence)
Saturday, December 15, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, December 15, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, December 16, at 12:00 noon
Guests Steven Isserlis, cello; Ana-Maria Vera, piano
Felix Mendelssohn: Variations Concertantes in D major, Op. 17
Joseph Suk: Ballade for Cello and Piano in d minor, Op. 3, No. 1
Joseph Suk: Serenade for Cello and Piano in A major, Op. 3, No. 2
Bohuslav Martinu: Sonata No. 3
Sunday, December 16, at 1:00 pm
This week, we're helping to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the the Classics for Kids Foundation, in the first ever From the Top from Montana's Big Sky Country, recorded at Wilson Auditorium in Bozeman. Our young performers include: the Werner Cello Quartet (Helene, 18; Lucien, 16; Mariel, 15; and Andree, 13) from Belgrade, Montana; flutist Lauren Osaka, age 17, from San Jose, California; pianist Emily Stearns, 18, from Butte, Montana; 12-year-old harpist Tess Michel from Helena, Montana; and violinist Francisco Garcia Fullana, 17, from Spain, now studying in New York.
Friday, December 21, at 8:00 pm
Guest Andrew Hill
With his heady, bop-rooted explorations of improvised music, pianist and composer Andrew Hill pressed the boundaries of jazz and influenced a generation of players. Sadly, Hill passed away in 2007, but on this Piano Jazz from 2005, Hill demonstrated his mastery of melody, rhythm, and technique on his own "Nickodemus," before joining McPartland for "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square."
Saturday, December 22, at 12:30 pm - note early start time
Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace
Premiering in 1945, Prokofiev's story of love and war is based on the epic novel by Leo Tolstoy, set before and during Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. Natasha Rostova is a young girl of modest family who is engaged to Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. Upset by the rejection of Andrei's socially snobbish father, she loses faith in his love and falls for the charming cad Count Anatol Kuragin, who is already married. Natasha's elopement with Anatol is foiled by the intervention of her godmother, Maria Akhrosimova, and Anatol's honest and decent brother-in-law, Count Pierre Bezukhov, but Andrei is devastated when he learns of her betrayal. When the French invade, Andrei is offered a staff position, but he refuses, preferring to go into battle with his men. As Napoleon advances, the Russian army retreats, sacrificing Moscow to French occupation in the interests of future victory. Pierre, a civilian observer of the war, learns that Natasha has been caring for the wounded at her family’s country home, and that, unknown to her, Andrei is among the injured men. Then Pierre and several other Muscovites are arrested for resistance activities. As the prisoners are led away, Napoleon arrives with his officers, appalled to see Moscow burning at the hands of its own citizens. Andrei lies wounded and delirious, wishing that he could see Natasha once more. She finds him and tries to apologize. He again declares his love, and Natasha stays at his bedside as he dies. Winter comes, and in driving snowstorms, the French retreat. They are attacked by partisans who free the surviving Russian prisoners, Pierre among them. Pierre learns that Andrei has died but Natasha is alive, and Russia is saved.
Valery Gergiev, conductor; Marina Poplavskaya (Natasha Rostova); Ekaterina Semenchuk (Sonya); Larisa Shevchenko (Mme Akhrosimova); Kim Begley (Pierre Bezukhov); Alexej Markov (Prince Andrei Bolkonsky); Vassily Gerello (Napoleon): Samuel Ramey (Field-Marshal Kutuzov)
Saturday, December 22, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, December 22, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, December 23, at 12:00 noon
Guests Ellen Hargis, soprano; Paul O’Dette, lute and theorbo
Anonymous (16th cent.): Tous les bourgeois de Châtres
Anonymous (15th cent.): Au Saint-Nau
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger: Preludio settimo
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger: Figlio, dormi
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger: Sarabanda
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger: Villan di Spagna
Tarquinio Merula: Canzonetta spirituale sopra alla nanna (Hor che tempo)
Anonymous (17th cent.): Long cold nights
Anthony Holborne: As it fell on a holie eve
Anonymous (16 cent.)/ Francis Cutting: Greensleeves
Anonymous (17th cent.): All hail to the days
Frank Loesser (arr. Pat Obrien): What Are you Doing New Year’s Eve?
Sunday, December 23, at 1:00 pm
This edition of From the Top was recorded at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts in Philadelphia. We'll feature a bold performance on the Kimmel Center's newly inaugurated Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ - 7000 pipes strong - by 12-year-old organist Maria Markovitch from Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, along with violinist Fabiola Kim, 16, from Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and the Youth Chamber Orchestra of the Temple University Music Preparatory Division under the direction of Luis Biava. We'll also hear pianist Julia Sheriff, 16, from Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; clarinetist Jay Dubin, 18, from Lawrenceville, New Jersey; and the Gray Charitable Trust Piano Trio of the Settlement Music School.
Monday, December 24, at 10:00 am
A live, two-hour broadcast from the chapel of King’s College in Cambridge, England, presenting the legendary Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols service, including Biblical readings and music performed by the 30-voice King’s College Choir.
(Pre-empts second hour of Performance Today and first hour of Midday Music)
Monday, December 24, at 12:00 noon
In one of the great holiday traditions in America, the choirs of Atlanta’s Morehouse and Spelman Colleges – two of the most prestigious historically black institutions in the nation – get together to present a spine-tingling concert program. This encore presentation features the best works of the last several years. It’s a joyous celebration of the schools’ tradition of singing excellence, with their trademark mixture of spirituals and carols. Korva Coleman hosts.
(Pre-empts second hour of Midday Music)
Monday, December 24, at 1:00 pm
Clarence Fountain and his legendary gospel group have won four Grammy Awards in the last four years. In this encore presentation from the Discoveries at Disney Hall series of specials, we join them on stage as they present their own take on the Christmas classics “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World,” along with some gospel favorites including “I’m a Soldier in the Army of the Lord.” Hosted by Renee Montagne.
(Pre-empts third hour of Midday Music)
Monday, December 24, at 8:00 pm
An updated version of a public radio tradition, hosted by NPR’s Lisa Simeone. Master comedian Jonathan Winters presents a distinctive reading of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic, from a special performing edition prepared by Dickens for his own presentations. Also featuring Mimi Kennedy.
(Pre-empts first hour of Studio GPB)
Monday, December 24, at 9:00 pm
This year NPR introduces a new radio tradition, with this program of stories from the NPR archives that touch on the meaning of Christmas. David Sedaris, Bailey White, John Henry Faulk – these and other NPR voices, past and present, tell stories of the season. Hosted by Lynn Neary.
(Pre-empts second hour of Studio GPB)
Tuesday, December 25, at 11:00 am
WHYY and NPR present an encore presentation of Handel’s holiday masterpiece performed by one of the world’s great orchestras, the “Fabulous Philadelphians,” joined by the nationally-renowned Philadelphia Singers Chorale. Acclaimed British choral master Richard Hickox conducts. Hosted by Fred Child and Melinda Whiting.
(Pre-empts two hours of Midday Music)
Tuesday, December 25, at 1:00 pm
An encore presentation of one of NPR’s most popular holiday programs, hosted by Fred Child. From the beautiful acoustics of St. Vincent’s Church in Petaluma, California, inspiring sounds of the season from one of the world’s finest choral ensembles, the twelve men of Chanticleer, led by Joseph Jennings.
(Pre-empts third hour of Midday Music)
Tuesday, December 25, at 8:00 pm
From member station WACG in Augusta, The Augusta Opera at St. Paul’s returns to GPB. Now in its 24th season in the spectacular acoustics of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, this moving and powerful concert of Christmas music has become an established Augusta holiday tradition. Maestro Mark Flint conducts the Augusta Opera Chorus and Orchestra, and the Augusta Children’s Chorale.
(Pre-empts Studio GPB)
Tuesday, December 25, at 10:00 pm
NPR offers an encore presentation of a Carnegie Hall concert performance of selections from one of the most joyous and sumptuous works of Johann Sebastian Bach. The Collegiate Chorale performs three of six sacred cantatas, each depicting a different scene from the story of Christ’s birth, known collectively as the Weihnachts-Oratorium, or Christmas Oratorio, along with some traditional holiday favorites. Robert Bass leads the acclaimed Chorale and soloists, including soprano Lisa Saffer, mezzo-soprano Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, tenor Paul Austin Kelly, and baritone James Maddalena. John Schaefer is the host.
(Pre-empts Night Music)
Friday, December 28, at 8:00 pm
Guest Matt Savage
Pianist Matt Savage is a 14-year-old piano genius - an exceptional feat for anyone, much less this young man who has been diagnosed with autism. A number of television shows and documentaries have featured Savage's savant-like qualities, but on Piano Jazz, he's given free rein to show off his enthusiasm for jazz and improvisation, playing his own tunes "Wobble Waltz" and "Kid Sister."
Saturday, December 29, at 1:30 pm
Engelbert Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel
Adelheid Wette, the composer’s sister, wrote the text of this opera, based on a classic fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, the original cautionary tale of why children should never wander off into the forest, or take sweets from strangers. Sent to pick strawberries, brother and sister Hansel and Gretel get lost in the woods and spend the night there. In the morning, they are enticed by a gingerbread house and caught by the evil witch who lives there. She puts a spell on Hansel and plans to cook and eat him. The children manage to break the spell, and Gretel fools the witch, trapping her in her own oven, which explodes. All the other gingerbread children enchanted by the witch come back to life, and Hansel and Gretel's parents finally find them for the grand happy ending.
Vladimir Jurowski, conductor; Christine Schäfer (Gretel); Alice Coote (Hansel); Rosalind Plowright (Gertrude); Philip Langridge (The Witch); Alan Held (Peter)
Saturday, December 29, at 8:00 pm
Dick Wallace hosts this locally produced folk music show. Playlists are available at the Music Americana archive page.
Saturday, December 29, at 9:00 pm
Harry O'Donoghue hosts this locally produced Celtic music program. Playlists are available at the Green Island archive page.
Sunday, December 30, at 12:00 noon
Guest Claude Frank, piano
Robert Schumann: Arabesque
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sonata in C major No. 10, K. 330
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata No. 31, Op. 110
Sunday, December 30, at 1:00 pm
Historic Mechanic's Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, celebrates its 150th anniversary by hosting From the Top this week. We'll hear music performed by: trumpet player Kyla Muscovich, age 15, from Tarrytown, New York; pianist Andy Zhou, 16, from Andover, Massachusetts; 13-year-old violinist Elizabeth Basoff-Darskala from Philadelphia; cellist Patrick McGuire, 17, from Westford, Massachusetts; and the Afinado Wind Quintet (clarinetist John Diodati, 16, from Andover, Massachusetts; oboe, Lauren Halyo, 16, from Williamsburg, Virginia; horn player Cynthia Simpson, 17, from Prattville, Alabama; flutist Priscilla Wadsworth, 17, from West Blocton, Alabama; and bassoonist Matt Sachs, 17, from Columbia, Maryland).
Sunday, December 30, at 8:00 pm and Sunday, January 6, at 10:00 am
This month's edition of Cover to Cover was recorded earlier this year at Brandon Wilde Life Care Community in Augusta, Georgia, home of author Naomi Williams. In front of an audience of fellow residents, she talked and took questions about her new novel, Jacob's Daughter (Harbor House, 2007). Set in the South Carolina Lowcountry in the first half of the 20th century, the novel is the story of Deborah Jernigan, who, from the moment she was born, defied the conventions of the Southern society around her. Her life is devoted to books and ideas, and she constantly questions the world around her in search of answers to many of life's greatest questions. Join host St. John Flynn and Naomi Williams for this special edition of Cover to Cover.
Monday, December 31, at 10:00 pm
It’s a special treat as Garrison Keillor celebrates New Year’s Eve from St. Paul. Garrison will be joined by the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band and other Prairie Home Companion favorites for a terrific evening of music and laughter.
(Pre-empts Night Music and first hour of Classical 24)
Tuesday, January 1, at 1:05 am
For more than 25 years, NPR listeners have counted down and sung along – and danced the night away – to these jazzy parties with live music from coast to coast as the new year is welcomed in different time zones.
(Pre-empts three hours of Classical 24)
Tuesday, January 1, at 11:00 am
This New Year’s Day, NPR takes us direct to the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna for the most popular classical music concert in the world, the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Day concert. Korva Coleman hosts.
(Pre-empts two hours of Midday Music)
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Page updated 11/27/07