Midday Music Thursday 12/04/08

For novelty value, the highlight of today's Midday Music occurs in the noon hour. Mark Kuss calls his ten little pieces for cello and piano Ten American Folksongs but what they're really based on is ad jingles. In this season of buying, we'll hear the whole set: Roto-Rooter, Winston Cigarettes, Intel (that one's pretty short), State Farm Insurance, Bumble Bee Tuna, Union Label, Nestle's Chocolate, Old Spice, Oscar Mayer and Delta Airlines. Other highlights of the show include Antonin Dvorak's Cello Concerto with soloist Pieter Wispelwey and Niels Gade's First Symphony.

Please note: I've learned that Friday, December 5, will be the final edition of Midday Music Requests with Alan Cooke.

After that Fridays will become Theme Days, hosted by our staff in Savannah, and I'll be open to working your requests into regular shows Monday through Thursday; e-mail middaymusic@gpb.org with suggestions. For now, please tune in to GPB Radio or gpb.org this Friday from 11 to 2 with your last requests and thanks for Alan.

11 AM

  • Surinach: Piano Quartet (1944): Allegro deciso. Ames Piano Quartet. Albany 1052.
  • Popper: Serenade for cello and piano, Op. 54/2. Mark Kosower, Jee-Won Oh. Naxos 8.570570.
  • Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104. Pieter Wispelwey, Budapest Festival Orch, Fischer. Channel 25807.
12 N
  • Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet: Dance of the Five Couples; Romeo at the Fountain. Berlin Phil, Abbado. DG 289 453 439.
  • Schubert: Impromptu in G-flat, Op. 90/3, D. 899. Vladimir Ashkenazy. London 466 462.
  • Hovhaness: Prayer of St. Gregory. I Fiamminghi, Werthen. Telarc 80392.
  • Kuss: Ten American Folksongs. Fred Raimi, Mark Kuss. Gasparo 359.
  • Bizet: L'Arlesienne: Incidental Music. Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowksi. Naive 5130.
1 PM
  • Gade: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, "On the Fair Plains of Zealand." Danish National Radio Sym, Kitajenko. Chandos 9422.
  • Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467: Mvts 2-3. Jonathan Biss, Orpheus Chamber Orch. EMI 17270.