Hrm. When I connected most recently, I heard Weill's b minor string
quartet (part of that aforementioned Weill weekend.) Last night there
was Walton's cello concerto and an hour of Couperin and Charpentier (the
latter an interesting modern Canadian composer, and not the Baroque French
composer I was expecting); other times I've heard Szymanowski (string
quartet 1- and the week before, quartet 2), Ginastera (sonata 1),
Rautavaara (harp/orch ballade), a Fretwork concert with works by John
Milton (sr.) and others, Martin's sonata da chiesa, Scriabin's piano
concerto, Bax's harp quintet and Nielsen's chaconne- and all of them this
month. I'm looking forward to hearing Holmboe quartets on the 22nd, Smit's
piano concerto on the 23rd and Liszt's missa choralis as well, perhaps if
I wake up early Moeran's phantasy quartet on the 26th. It helps that I
read the schedule (http://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules) and plan accordingly
(you should see my datebook- I'm obsessed ;)- it doesn't matter to me that
they sometimes play Beethoven 5 (which I also love, by the way) too. It
matters to me that they don't .only. play Beethoven 5, Vivaldi the Seasons,
and for variety a Rossini overture if we're very nice. On the contrary,
their schedule has been consistently interesting for years now (though it
was even better once, I'm told), and I've heard many works by tuning in
that I doubt I could have heard on many stations in the US- already, in
the first month or so of webcasting. You don't hear me complaining.
(btw, the performance of Nielsen's chaconne was Andsnes'; I already have
the piece on Naxos but had been meaning to hear this other performance,
said to be much better. I enjoyed it very much, needless to say.)
-Eric Schissel
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