Word on the street was, it was going to be something special. Advance ticket sales were hot. To pack as many people as possible into the theater, ladies were asked not to wear hoop skirts. Gentlemen were advised to please leave their swords at home. It was the premiere of Handel's Messiah in 1742. It's a work that still packs people into concert halls, nearly 270 years later. In today's show, one of the best Messiah performances from last season, by the Academy for Ancient Music Berlin and the Rias Chamber Chorus, from a concert in Berlin.
Episode Playlist
Hour 1
George Frideric Handel: Passacaglia from Radamisto
The Academy for Ancient Music Berlin
Eric Whitacre: Nox Aurumque (Night and Gold)
VocalEssence and the Saint Olaf Choir, Eric Whitacre, director
Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis
Alexander Scriabin: Prelude No. 12 in G-sharp Minor, Op. 11
Yuja Wang, piano
Schwetzingen Festival, Schwetzingen, Germany
George Frideric Handel: Excerpts from Messiah, HWV 56
The Academy for Ancient Music Berlin and Rias Chamber Chorus, soloists, Hans-Christoph Rademann, conductor
Konzerthaus, Berlin, Germany
Hour 2
Morten Lauridsen: So They Say, from the Songs of the Roses
The Chamber Choir of Europe, Morten Lauridsen, piano, Nicol Matt, conductor
Antonio Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in F Minor, Op. 8, No. 4, RV 297 (Winter from the Four Seasons)
Margaret Batjer, violin, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
Royce Hall, Los Angeles
Otto Nicolai: Moonrise, from the Merry Wives of Windsor
The Vienna Philharmonic and Singing Union of Friends of Music in Vienna, Franz Welser-Most, conductor
Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria
Anonymous (Arranged by David Douglass): New Year's Eve and Long Cold Nights
The King's Noyse
Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul
Morten Lauridsen: Excerpts from Lux Aeterna
Polyphony and the Britten Sinfonia, Stephen Layton, conductor
Morten Lauridsen: Sure on this Shining Night
Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson, director
Long Center for the Performing Arts, Austin, Texas
Antonin Dvorak: Song to the Moon, from Rusalka
The Metropolitan Opera Brass
Astor Piazzolla: Summer from the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violin, the New Century Chamber Orchestra
First United Methodist Church, Palo Alto, California
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American Public Media’s Performance Today® is America’s most popular classical music radio program and a winner of the 2014 Gabriel Award for artistic achievement. The show is broadcast on hundreds of public radio stations across the country, including at 1 p.m. central weekdays on Minnesota Public Radio. More information about our stations can be found at APM Distribution.
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