On the afternoon of March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake hit off the northeast coast of Japan. The magnitude 9.0 quake crushed roads and buildings and unleashed a mountainous wall of sea water a dozen stories tall. In all, about 16,000 people died that day. French composer Yannick Paget has been living and working in Japan since 2004. He poured out his grief into his music, writing a solo for violin and orchestra that he calls "Tears of Sakura." We'll hear the world premiere, from a concert in Osaka, Japan.
Episode Playlist
Hour 1
Frederic Chopin: Scherzo from Sonata in G Minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 65
David Finckel, cello, Wu Han, piano
Giovanni Battista Sammartini: First movement from Symphony in F, JC 36
Milano Classica, Marcello Scandelli, director and cellist
First Baptist Church, Savannah, Georgia
Joseph Haydn: Flute Trio No. 17 in F
Tara Helen O'Connor, flute, Alisa Weilerstein, cello, Anne-Marie McDermott, piano
Spoleto Festival USA, Charleston, South Carolina
Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose Suite (Ma Mere l'Oye)
The New York Philharmonic, David Robertson, conductor
Avery Fisher Hall, New York City
Grizzly Bear (Arranged by Brian Smith): Foreground
Revien
Ramsey Concert Hall, Athens, Georgia
Robert Schumann: Spanish Love Song No. 8, Op. 138 (High, High are the Mountains)
Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano, Wu Han, piano
Music@Menlo, Atherton, California
Johannes Brahms: Liebeslieder Waltz No. 9, Op. 52 (On the Danube Shore)
Erin Morley, soprano, Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano, Paul Appleby, tenor, Kelly Markgraf, baritone, Wu Han, piano
Music@Menlo, Atherton, California
Franz Liszt: The Gnomes' Dance, from Two Concert Etudes, S. 145, R. 6
George Li, piano
Fraser Performance Studio, Boston
Hour 2
Sergei Prokofiev: First movement from Symphony No. 1 in D, Op. 25 (Classical)
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Antoine Brumel: Sanctus, from Missa et Ecce Terrae Motus (Earthquake Mass)
The Sixteen, Harry Christophers, director
Ealing Abbey, London, England
Yannick Paget: Tears of Sakura, for Violin and Orchestra (Elegy for Japan in memoriam March 11, 2011)
Simon Bernardini, violin, the Osaka Kyoiku University Orchestra, Yannick Paget, conductor
Osaka Kyoiku University, Osaka, Japan
Ludwig van Beethoven: Wind Octet in E-flat, Op. 103
Festival Musicians
Music From Angel Fire, Taos, New Mexico
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Rondo in C for Violin and Orchestra, K. 373
Arabella Steinbacher, violin, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Carnegie Hall, New York City
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