Classically Speaking

This weekend, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra will play two compositions by Douglas Lilburn, a twentieth-century composer from New Zealand. Lilburn’s orchestral music is expressive and melodic. It has the impassioned yearning, the sense of bittersweet sadness paired with sweeping optimism that characterizes much of my favorite orchestral music. And yet, I’ve only just discovered Lilburn’s music because of the upcoming WV Symphony concert.  

WV Symphony Artistic Director and conductor Maestro Grant Cooper studied with Lilburn in New Zealand.  He attributes the sense of space in the music partially to the New Zealand landscape, and the expression of yearning to Lilburn and New Zealand’s role as outsiders in the European classical music mainstream.

Cooper is an advocate for Lilburn’s music, and he’s performed and conducted his music with different ensembles over the years. In our interview, Cooper gave a compelling description of Lilburn and New Zealand’s struggle for recognition and search for identity within the world of classical music. Listen to our discussion of Lilburn and his music:

Like classical music? Enjoy hearing it on the radio and learning more about it online? We need your help to support classical music; your donation right now to WV Public Radio help keep your trusted source for classical music.

You can donate and become a member here: Support WV Public Radio.

This is the Chocolate Challenge, so when you donate, you can also choose to have Holl’s Chocolates mailed anywhere in the country by Valentine’s Day (and if you donate by midnight January 27, you’ll be automatically entered to win an iPad). 

As if chocolate wasn’t incentive enough, I’m really happy with the classical recordings we have to share as thank you gifts.

Warner/Nuzova Duo: Russian Cello Music / Wendy Warner, cello; Irina Nuzova, piano

Wendy Warner studied with Rostropovich, and she carries on his legacy of great cello playing. She and Irina Nuzova play beautifully in these recordings of music by Rachmaninov, Miaskovsky, Prokofiev, Schnittke, and Scriabin. Especially of note is that this is the first American recording of Miaskovsky’s mellifluous Sonata No. 2, a work that’s rarely performed outside of Russia. This music was recently featured on Performance Today and was one of our favorite classical albums of 2010.  This recording of Russian cello music can be sent to you as thanks for a donation of $90 (or about $7 per month).

Chopin: The Essentials

When you donate $60 (or choose to send $5 per month) to WV Public Radio, we can send you this lovely Chopin collection. Beautiful, romantic piano music performed by great pianists that you frequently hear on the radio, including Olga Kern (interview), Jon Nakamatsu, Nobuyuki Tsujii, Frederic Chiu, and Alexandre Tharaud.  It’s a quick and pleasant tour through the essential Chopin – his waltzes, polonaises, mazurkas, ballades, sonatas, and concertos. Chopin: The Essentials wonderful introduction to Chopin and a great gift (perhaps paired with a box of chocolates?:)

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