Extra Eclectic

In the grand tradition of works like Benjamin Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" comes Steve Reich's "The Four Sections" - a kind of minimalist take on the time-honored tradition of showcasing what the different sections of the orchestra can do (with a title that's suitably minimalist as well). Steve Seel features Reich's majestic orchestral work this week, as well as pieces by John Adams, Judd Greenstein, Paul Bowles, and more.

Sometimes, good things come in small packages, and that's what Steve Seel features on this week's edition of the show: miniatures, from Mark Mellits, Anna Meredith, Vivian Fung, and others. Plus, the premiere of new music by the British/Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova.

His day job is drummer for the band Wilco. But Glenn Kotche has also distinguished himself as an accomplished composer of classical music, writing for ensembles including the Kronos Quartet and Eighth Blackbird, in addition to performing the percussion instruments on his own pieces himself. In this edition of Extra Eclectic, Steve Seel features Glenn Kotche with both Kronos and Eighth Blackbird in one grand ensemble. That plus music by John Cage, Evan Ziporyn, Nico Muhly, and more.

If there's one thing that has changed definitively in classical music, it's that there are plenty of composers who are as much at home in rock n' roll for their "day-jobs" as classical. It's true for composers from Bryce Dessner (guitarist for the band The National) to Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, who's classical bona fides are not only strong, but Grammy winning as well. Steve Seel features music by both on this week's program.

"For most people today, the spiritual dimension has been lost. My intention is to provide food for the soul, and this is what I preach in my works," says Latvian composer Peteris Vasks. His Violin Concerto, "Distant Light," provides ample food for the soul on this week's program. Steve Seel also features spiritual-themed works from Terry Riley ("Sun Rings: One Earth, One People, One Love") and James Wilson ("The Green Fuse"), and music by Evan Ziporyn, Daniel Wohl, and Sarah Kirkland Snider.

Composer John Adams wanted to depict "the current pounding and smashing" the cliffs of California's rocky coastline in his work The Dharma at Big Sur. But rather than open with aggressive music, his work for violin and orchestra almost sounds like a meditative religious epiphany. Steve Seel features Adams' music on this week's show, in addition to works by John Cage, Lou Harrison, Douglas Knehans, and more.

From the classic 20th-century minimalism of Steve Reich's "Pulse" and the electronica-tinged "Scale of Volitility" by Emilie Levianaise-Farrouch, to Bryce Dessner's dramatic, sweeping "Concerto for Two Pianos" written for Katia and Marielle Labeque, Steve Seel has the gamut of sounds from minimalism to "maximal-ism" mapped out on this week's program. Steve also features works by Keith Jarrett, John Cage, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, and more.

It's a program of winds and windy music this time out - in the first hour, Steve Seel features music from wind instruments, from Joseph Schwantner, Marc Melits, Christopher Theofanidis and others, and in the second hour, it's music on "windy" themes, including John Luther Adams' "Canticles of the Holy Wind," Ludovico Einaudi's "Cold Wind," and more.

If you think that a banjo can't play with a symphony orchestra, don't tell banjo great Bela Fleck. In fact, Fleck's "Juno Concerto" is the second time he's written a concerto for banjo and orchestra. Steve Seel plays Fleck's amazing work on this week's program. In the second hour, it's an array of contemplative modern works, from Arvo Part, Georgs Pelecis, and an award winning composer who hails from the Canadian Northwest Territories, Carmen Braden.

This week on Extra Eclectic, Steve Seel explores themes of space, galaxies, and communication with extra-terrestrial beings -- in such works as Urmas Sisak's "The Milky Way" and Nimrod Borenstein's "The Big Bang and Creation of the Universe." Also, a salute to the classical endeavors of Jon Lord, known best to many as the man who spent years behind the Hammond organ in the rock group Deep Purple.