Thursday, June 7

I was already planning to start the show with Schubert when I came across the poem for today's Writer's Almanac, "The Junior High School Band Concert" by David Wagoner, which begins:

When our semi-conductor
Raised his baton, we sat there
Gaping at Marche Militaire,
Our mouth-opening number.
It seemed faintly familiar
(We'd rehearsed it all that winter),
But we attacked in such a blur,
No army anywhere
On its stomach or all fours
Could have squeezed though our cross fire.

It then became imperative to end the show with Schubert too - played by a thoroughly professional ensemble, I hasten to add.

11 AM

• Schubert: Symphony No. 9 in C major, "Great." Scottish Chamber Orch, Mackerras (Telarc 80502)

12 N

• Handel: Esther: "Tune your harps." Mark Padmore, English Concert, Manze (Harmonia Mundi 907422)
• Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57, "Appassionata." Fazil Say (Naive 5016)
• Arnold: Dream City. East Winds (Naxos 8.570294)
  
• Gershwin: An American in Paris. Cincinnati Pops, Kunzel (Telarc 80542)
• Schmelzer: Sonatae Unarum Fidium: Sixth Sonata. Holloway, Assenbaum, Mortensen (ECM 1668)

1 PM

• Orff: Carmina Burana: excerpts for winds. Indiana State Univ Faculty Winds (Elf 1011)
  
• Stanford: Symphony No. 7 in D minor. Bournemouth Sym, Lloyd-Jones (Naxos 8.570285)
• Schubert: Marche Militaire. Vienna Phil, Knappertsbusch (London 421 634)