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Music

Sound Irish, 2000

Sounds Irish features a sampling of Ireland's prominent classical artists and ensembles, presenting music by the National Symphony of Ireland, the Irish Chamber Orchestra, pianist John O'Conor, the RTE Vanbrugh String Quartet, choral phenomenon Anúna, and composer/pianist Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin. Listeners will also enjoy host Tom Crann's conversations with several of the musicians.

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Handel's Messiah

It's a scenario that plays out every year, and one in which you yourself may have been an observer, or even a participant. The audience is assembled in the concert hall, or church, or school auditorium. The orchestra tunes, the conductor appears, the conversations come to a halt, there is a welcoming round of applause. The orchestra strikes up a brief, vigorous overture. Then the tenor soloist rises to his feet and intones the opening words, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people" - and another performance of Handel's Messiah is underway.

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Antonin Dvorak: Maestro in the Midwest

ANTONÍN DVORÁK started life as the son of a peasant in the provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and ended it as one of the most famous musicians in the world, whose pieces were eagerly received by audiences in the capitals of Europe and America. And there can't be too many American music lovers, especially in the Midwest, who haven't thought about retracing some of the steps of the remarkable journey that Dvorák took to the United States in the 1890s.

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A Hitchcock Musical Mystery

When you think about music and film directors, Alfred Hitchcock might not be the first name to come to mind. Stanley Kubrick was a greater recycler of classical music, Quentin Tarantino has done the same for Motown, Bergman and Zeffirelli have filmed more operas - and the list could continue. But Hitchcock has his share of big music moments. As the film world commemorates his 100th birthday on Friday, August 13, heres a chance to see how many you can identify.

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Joaquin Rodrigo: Spanish composer for the guitar

JOAQUIN RODRIGO, the Spanish composer who died July 6, 1999, at the age of 97, was a rarity among contemporary composers—a composer who was not only respected, but beloved. His compositions, with their bright instrumentation and vivid evocations of Spain, won the affections of music lovers all over the world, and one of them, the "Concierto de Aranjuez," became the most popular guitar concerto ever written.

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Summer's musical fireworks

Fourth of July concerts are a little like Thanksgiving dinners. The items on the bill of fare aren't always identical - some people go with Copland instead of Gershwin, rutabagas instead of mashed potatoes - but there's a strong family resemblance all the same. So if you're taking John Adams's advice (who said that Independence Day should be "solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and iluminations") and heading out to a Fourth of July concert, here's a look at some of the items you may well hear.

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Thomas Adès: classical music's new phenom

When Minnesota Orchestra performs a new composition by Thomas Adès later this month, it may not be a media event quite on the order of the Ricky Martin boom, or Queen Amidala's problems on the green planet Naboo. Still, it could turn out to be part of something just as noteworthy. In the world of classical composers right now, Adès is the bright young British star who has gone, in a very short time, from being a student at Cambridge to a sought-after composer whose works are performed all over the world.

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An Orchestra of One: Richard Johnson's Winslaphones

Sometimes a conventional instrument just won't do. So composer Richard Johnson built his own - the winslaphones. Made from parts of a trumpet, trombone, euphonium, and a host of other instruments, the winslaphones produces an incredible array of sounds and tones.

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100 Years of the Maple Leaf Rag

The explosive popularity of the Maple Leaf Rag, like so many other seminal events in American history, was founded on fortuitous chance. The club that inspired the song functioned for only a year and a half. Scott Joplin, the composer, spent only a few years of his life in Sedalia before he moved on to St. Louis and New York. The music publisher met Joplin only by chance; one story has it that he liked the music he heard one day when he stopped off for a beer.

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Minnesota Opera presents "The Turning of the Screw"

The Turn of the Screw was composed in 1954, based on the densely written Victorian ghost story by Henry James. With its 16 scenes plus prologue in two acts, it is definitely an opera to be seen, as well as heard. Britten intended, in fact, for the work to exist as a live opera, not to be listened to only for its music. Only three recordings of The Turn of the Screw even exist, one of which was conducted by Britten himself. As scenes from the Minnesota Opera's production demonstrate, the dramatically stunning visuals are a highlight of the opera.

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