Daring to Compose

The hurdy-gurdy has strings like a violin, a keyboard, and a hand crank that produces a wheezing drone. Composer Missy Mazzoli was fascinated by this sound and wanted to make a whole orchestra sound like a big hurdy-gurdy.  Tune in for the Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres by Missy Mazzoli on today’s episode.

Finnish violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto shares a connection with the music and character of his fellow countryman, Jean Sibelius. On today’s program, Kuusisto and the German Symphony Orchestra perform two seldom-heard gems by Sibelius at a concert in Berlin.

As a young man, composer Shawn Okpebholo firmly believed he would someday write music for the Imani Winds. Twenty years later, that wish has come true with a new piece. It's music inspired by justice, hope, and a desire for harmony. The Imani Winds play Rise by Shawn Okpebholo on today’s show.

Conductor Joana Mallwitz aims for new concert hall audiences to experience the orchestra's vibrant energy, feeling the floors tremble. In today’s program, we'll hear a result of Mallwitz’s enthusiasm as she leads the Berlin Philharmonic in Paul Hindemith’s “Symphony: Mathis der Maler.”

Three hundred years ago, Johann Sebastian Bach began his role as the music director at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, a position for which he was only the third choice. To impress his uncertain employers, Bach composed ambitious new cantatas every week during his first few years, including the one we will hear today: the Sinfonia from J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 42, from a concert featuring conductor Nathalie Stutzmann and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Pianist Imogen Cooper loves how Franz Schubert's music can shift from moment to moment. She says, “It's as if he takes you by the shoulders, swings you around, and says, 'That was then, this is now.'" Tune in today to hear Cooper's interpretation of Schubert's Impromptus at a recent concert presented by the Frederic Chopin Society in St. Paul, Minnesota.

People do all kinds of things on the subway to pass the time. When Alan Shulman was 25, he wrote his first major composition… on the New York City subway. Join us today to hear music by Alan Shulman, written in transit between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Three hundred years ago, Johann Sebastian Bach began his role as the music director at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, a position for which he was only the third choice. To impress his uncertain employers, Bach composed ambitious new cantatas every week during his first few years, including the one we will hear today: the Sinfonia from J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 42, from a concert featuring conductor Nathalie Stutzmann and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

In December 1884, Edvard Grieg premiered a suite of five short celebratory pieces written for his hometown of Bergen, Norway. That suite has become one of his best-known and best-loved works. On today's show, we'll hear Grieg's Holberg Suite from a concert in Skaneateles, New York. 

Philip Glass's "Mad Rush" often divides listeners—is it meditative or merely repetitive? Pianist Simone Dinnerstein finds it an amazing piece that keeps her grounded in the present moment. Today’s show features her compelling performance from a recent concert at Spivey Hall, located just outside Atlanta in Morrow, Georgia.