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Performance Today®

Embracing Summer

"I have embraced the summer dawn." French composer Arthur Honegger wrote those words upon completing his "Summer Pastorale." And if Honegger embraced the dawn, then perhaps Othmar Schoeck could say the same for the evening, with his "Summer Night." On this first day of summer, we'll hear both works. Plus, music for the hours in between: Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun."

Episode Playlist

Hour 1

William Grant Still: Summerland
The Oregon String Quartet

William Grant Still: Quit dat Fool'nish
Zina Schiff, violin, Cameron Grant, piano

George Gershwin and Gabriela Montero: Improvisation on Summertime
Gabriela Montero, piano
City Recital Hall, Sydney, Australia

Jeff Lambert: Minnesota Winter and Chicago Summer
The Minneapolis Guitar Quartet
International Festival-Institute at Round Top, Round Top, Texas

Arthur Honegger: Summer Pastorale
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Christian Zacharias, conductor
Ordway Center, St. Paul

Othmar Schoeck: Summer Night, Op. 58
The Basel Chamber Orchestra, Paul McCreesh, conductor
Wartburg Castle, Eisenach, Germany

Colin Jacobsen: Shur Landing, from Achille's Heel
Brooklyn Rider
Union College, Schenectady, New York

George Gershwin: Lullaby for String Quartet
Ani Kavafian and Lilly Francis, violins, Paul Neubauer, viola, Peter Wiley, cello
OK Mozart Festival, Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Hour 2

Edvard Grieg: Summer Evening and Remembrances
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano

Richard Wagner: Prelude to Act 3 of Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg
The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, England

Francis Poulenc: Two Songs
Leonid Sirotkin, English horn, Katya Kramer-Lapin, piano
DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana

Claude Debussy: L'ame Evaporee
Leonid Sirotkin, English horn, Katya Kramer-Lapin, piano
DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana

Claude Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
The London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev, conductor
Barbican Hall, London, England

Samuel Barber: Summer Music, Op. 31
The Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet
Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Athens, Georgia

Peteris Vasks: Andante from Violin Concerto, Distant Light
Pekka Kuusisto, violin, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Ordway Center, Saint Paul

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