Wednesday, December 5

A sobering item from the Nutcracker beat: In honor of the mother and baby panda at Zoo Atlanta, the Atlanta Ballet this year incorporated two panda characters into the Chinese Dance in act two. Sunday one of the be-panda-ed ballerinas lost her bearings and plummeted off the stage into the orchestra pit. The teenaged dancer was rushed to the hospital and remains in critical but stable condition (read more here). The silver lining to the company's decision to use canned music rather than a live orchestra is that, with an empty pit, no other artists were hurt. We wish the young dancer a full recovery.

For calendar listings, please see Tuesday's entry below.

To see the art by Viktor Hartmann that Modest Mussorgsky immortalizes in Pictures at an Exhibition, take a look here.


11 AM . . . .

  • Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture. Danish National Sym Orch, Dausgaard (Chados 10416)
  • Bach: Suite No. 1 in G major for solo cello. Jean-Guihen Queyras (Harmonia Mundi 901970.71)
  • Alkan: Concerto for Solo Piano, Op.39/8: Allegro assai. Marc-Andre Hamelin (Hyperion 67569)
12 N . . . . . .
  • Handel: Messiah: comfort ye; Every valley; And the glory of the Lord. Bruce Fowler, Boston Baroque, Pearlman (Telarc 80322)
  • Piazzolla/Scott: Oblivion. Imani Winds (Koch 7661)
  • Haydn: "Miracle" Symphony (Symphony No. 96). Lausanne Chamber Orch, Lopez-Cobos (Denon 18079)
  • Shatin: Nun, Gimel, Hei, Shin. New London Children's Choir, Corp (Naxos 8.559410)
  • Telemann: Concerto in C major for oboes, strings and continuo. Berlin Baroque Soloists, Kussmaul (DG 5761)
1 PM . . . . .
  • Phalese: Three tunes. Baltimore Consort (Dorian 90601)
  • Wieniawski: Reverie in F-sharp minor. Helen Callus, Philip Bush (ASV 1184)
  • Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition. Oslo Phil, Jansons (EMI 50824)
  • Chopin: Waltz No. 3 in A minor. Helen Callus, Philip Bush (ASV 1184)