
- Program List
Below are many of the more than 200 five-hour 'weeks' of Exploring Music that have been created since 2003. To sort through the shows by composers Click Here. To see the Playlist for a given show, click on the show and then on the 'playlist' button beneath any of the five one-hour programs.
AACTIVE 3/1 - 3/14 Ravel, MauriceAmerican Masters, Part I American Masters, Part II American Masters, Part IIIAmerican Masters, Part IVAmerican Masters, Part V American Masters, Part VIAn Intelligent Conversation: String Quartets Arias & BarcarollesArtists in Exile, Part IArtists in Exile, Part II Autumn Leaves Autumnal Masterpieces BBach Sleeps in on SundaysBach to BeethovenBach's Christmas Oratorio Bach's Not-So-Minor B-Minor MassBallad of East and West Baltic MusicBarber, SamuelBartok, BelaBeethoven and that Danged MetronomeBeethoven and the PianoBeethoven at Parnassus, Part IBeethoven at Parnassus, Part IIBeethoven Piano SonatasBeethoven Quartets Berlioz, HectorBernstein, Leonard: The ComposerBill's Keepers Boulanger, NadiaBrahms, Johannes, Part IBrahms, Johannes, Part IIBritten, Benjamin Bruckner, Anton CCall for ScoresCarnegie Hall, Part 1Carnegie Hall, Part 2Cello Concertos Child's PlayChopin, FredericClash of the Titans Clowning AroundCopland, Aaron Corigliano, JohnCzech out those Bohemians DDebussy, Claude Demons, Spooks and Other Things That Go Bump in the NightDirector's ChoiceDistant Neighbors Don't Shoot the Piano PlayerDvořák, AntoninDvorak, Tchaikovsky & Borodin String Quartets EElgar, EdwardEmotion and Meaning in MusicEnescu, GeorgesEspañaFFamilies of Instruments Family Matters: All in the FamilyFauré, GabrielFit for a KingFleisher, LeonFour SeasonsFranck, CésarFrom the Mountains to the SeaFrom This Mighty River: Music of the Children of J S BachGGame of Pairs, Part I Game of Pairs, Part IIGershwin, GeorgeGet the PictureGitana: Gypsy Music and Its InfluencesGreen and Pleasant Land Grieg and SibeliusHHandel, George FridericHaydn and Mozart QuartetsHaydn SymphoniesHidden Gold, Part IHHidden Gold, Part IIHindemith, PaulHit or MythHoliday CelebrationHomageHow Strange the Change from Major to Minor, Part IHow Strange the Change from Major to Minor, Part IIII Didn't Know About YouI Hear a Rhapsody I Hear America SingingI Lost it at the MoviesIn a Family WayIncidentally SpeakingIntimate Conversations: Conversations with Samuel Rhodes and David FinckelInvitation to the Dance, Part IInvitation to the Dance, Part II Invitation to the Dance, Part IIIIt Takes Two to TangoIt Was a Lover and His Lass Italian SouvenirsJJanáček, LeošKKeyboard SmorgasbordLLatin CarnivalLes Cinq PlusLes SixLife Among the Dead: Requiem MassesListener's Choice, Part IIListener's Choice, Part III Liszt, FranzLittle Night Music Little Traveling Music, Please London, The Music of, Part 1London, The Music of, Part 2MMaestro, Part IMaestro, Part IIMagnificent MagyarsMahler, Gustav, Part IMahler, Gustav, Part IIMaiden Voyages Martha Graham and her MusicMendelssohn, FelixMendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms String QuartetsMerrie EnglandMillennium of Women in MusicMozart at his ZenithMozart Piano ConcertosMozart's Birthday BashMozart: Bright Lights, Big CityMusic for the MassesMusic from the Magic Box Music in 19th Century Paris: Waterloo to Bismarck Music in the Time of WarMusic of ScandinaviaMusical CryptogramsMusical LandscapesNNationalismNew Releases, Part INew Releases, Part IINew Releases, Part III, week 1 of 2New Releases, Part III, week 2 of 2 New Wine in Old Bottles Nielsen, Carl Ninth SymphoniesNobody Ever Builds a Statue to a CriticOOrpheus in the New World Outward BoundPPacific Overtures, Part 1Pacific Overtures, Part 2Pastoral SymphoniesPiano ConcertosPolandPorts of Call, Part I Ports of Call, Part II Poulenc, FrancisProkofiev, SergeiProud Tower, Part IProud Tower, Part IIRRachmaninoff, SergeiRavel, Maurice Respighi, OttorinoRimsky-Korsakov and His PupilsRoaring 20's Russian Five: The Mighty Handful SSchool DaysSchubert String QuartetsSchubertiade, Part ISchubertiade, Part IISchuman, WilliamSchumann, Robert Shakespeare Shostakovich, Dmitri, Part IShostakovich, Dmitri, Part IISlipped Through the Cracks Songs of PartingSounds of the City of Lights SoundtracksSpanish SchoolSpring is Here St-Saëns, Camille St. Matthew PassionStrauss, RichardStravinsky, IgorString Quartets from Fibich to SibeliusStrings Plus OneSweet Home Chicago Symphony, Part 01Symphony, Part 02Symphony, Part 03Symphony, Part 04Symphony, Part 05Symphony, Part 06 (French)Symphony, Part 07 (Russian)Symphony, Part 08Symphony, Part 09Symphony, Part 10 (Alexander Scriabin to Samuel Barber)Symphony, Part 11Symphony, Part 12TTchaikovsky, Peter, Part ITchaikovsky, Peter, Part IIThe Big Five I: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Part IThe Big Five II: New York Philharmonic, Part IThe Big Five II: New York Philharmonic, Part IIThe Gathering Storm: Music from the Great Depression to WWIIThrough the Mail SlotTo the Finland Station, Part ITo the Finland Station, Part IITone Poems Too Darn BigTriple PlayTudor MusicTwo Very Different Worlds Delius and HolstUUnder the Hood, Part IUnder the Hood, Part II Unfinished Symphonies VVariationsVaughan Williams, RalphVenice: The Glories ofVerdi, Giuseppe, Part IVerdi, Giuseppe, Part IIVienna, Part IVienna, Part II ViolaViolin Concerto Virtuoso, The World ofVoices from the EastWWagner's Ring CycleWagner, RichardWalton, WilliamWater MusicWhat Else Ya Got?Wind QuintetsWunderkinder, Part IWunderkinder, Part IIYYin and Yang: The Play of Opposites, Part 1Yin and Yang: The Play of Opposites, Part 2You and the Night and the Music
Little Traveling Music, Please
Wanderers, farewells, and sightseeing; people are always on the go. This week, Bill calls up, “A Little Traveling Music, Please” from the pens of Handel, Smetana, Duke Ellington, and more. Reflections from such travels infuse themselves into their works, as we will discover throughout the week. We will hear selections from Beethoven’s Les Adieux, Schubert’s Die Schöne Mullerin, and Haydn’s Farewell Symphony.
Musicians are often found on the road, either traveling to join a new orchestra or moving towards a new inspiration. Reflections from such travels infuse themselves into their works, as we will discover throughout the week.
We leave the port with a nautical voyage by Mendelssohn, taking us to a past once explored by Beethoven, and continue streaming along three different takes on a barcarolle--otherwise known as a Venetian gondolier's song. Gershwin brings Americana to the City of Lights, and Schickele concludes with a ragtime tune for brass.
Mendelssohn: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage
Leipzig Gewandhaus/Masur
Berlin Classics 0091572
11:02
Purchase
Offenbach: Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffman
Brussels National Opera Orchestra & Chorus/Cambreling; Norman, Murray, soloists
EMI 49641
4:18
Purchase
Chopin: Barcarolle, Op. 60
G. Ohlsson, p.
Arabesque 6686
8:38
Purchase
Menotti: Barcarolle fr. Sebastian
Philadelphia/Ormandy
CBS 45660
3:40
Purchase
Gershwin: An American in Paris
LSO/Previn
EMI 66943
18:01
Purchase
Schickele: A Little Moseying Music
The Chestnut Brass Company
Newport 85638
2:28
Purchase
The slow pace of sea travel gives one plenty of time to ponder on a tune. This segment is filled with aquatic adventures and river reveries, beginning Copland's arrangement of "The Boatman's Song" from Old American Songs. Just across the pond is Vltava in present-day Czech Republic, its beauty captured by Smetana. Wagner brings us to a scene at the Rhine.
Copland: “The Boatman’s Song” fr. Old American Songs
Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Copland; Warfield, bar.
CBS 42430
3:12
Purchase
Smetana: Die Moldau from Má Vlast
Czech Phil/Neumann
Supraphon 11 0711-2
12:32
Purchase
Wagner: Dawn & Siegfried’s Rhine Journey from Götterdämmerung
CSO/Reiner
RCA 63301-2
13:11
Purchase
Ibert: Escales (Ports of Call)
National Orchestra l’ORTF/Martinon
EMI 64276
15:23
Purchase
Grofe: New Orleans from Mississippi Suite
New York Phil/Kostelanetz
CBS 37759
4:05
Purchase
In this section, Bill explores a variety of farewells.
Beethoven's farewell, Les Adieux, is marked by sorrow and joy as he bids adieux, misses, then reunites with a friend (in sections marked "Farewell," "Absence" and "Reunion." Beethoven inadvertently wrote his own farewell, as he passed away before finishing a requiem mass.
We begin the next leg of our musical journey with Schubert's "Das Wandern" from his song cycle Die Schöne Mullerin. The first song in the cycle, “Das Wandern”, introduces us to a young miller boy as he proclaims his love for travel and the brook that is his guide.
The next segment of our journey is both dour and autobiographical. Mahler's "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" is the song of a young boy who upon losing his love to another packs up his bags. Mahler saw himself in this character, as he had just experienced a breakup of his own.
Where Mahler wrote music to revel in heartbreak, Hadyn wrote this next symphony to solve it. Haydn's Farewell Symphony is both a treat to listen to and an ingenious ploy to get more vacation time.
Our next farwell is from Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte, where two pairs of sweethearts bid farewell. The earnest beauty of the music is ironic, considering that in the next act the two men will return in disguise in order to test their lover's fidelity.
One of the prices of being a successful performer is constant travel. Lizst was one of the most successful composer-performer hybrids of all time, and so spent a lot time on the road. He transformed his experiences on the road into a series of piano works called Année de Pèlerinage. In this segment, we listen to two pieces from that collection, “Au Lac de Wallenstadt” and “Les Jeux d’eaux á la Villa d’Este.”
We close this segment with two of the most famous songs of travel in the repertoire, Vaughn William's "Whither Must I Wander?" and "The Vagabond" from the songs of travel.
Schubert: “Das Wandern” from Die Schöne Mullerin
Fischer-Dieskau, br.; Moore, p.
EMI 75922
2:17
Purchase
Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
ECO/Tate; Allen, bar.
EMI 49943
17:02
Purchase
Haydn: Symphony No. 45, Farewell (excerpt)
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/Brown
Hänssler 98189
7:12
Purchase
Mozart: Cosi fan tutti (excerpt)
Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus/Böhm; Schwarzkopf, Ludwig, Kraus, Taddei, Berry, soloists
EMI 69330
2:00
Purchase
Liszt: Au Lac de Wallenstadt fr. Année de Pèlerinage
Watts, p.
EMI 64599
3:32
Purchase
Liszt: Les Jeux d’eaux á la Villa d’Este fr. Annee de Pelerinage
Kocsis, p.
Phil 420174
7:50
Purchase
Vaughan Williams: “Whither Must I Wander?” & “The Vagabond” fr. Songs of Travel
Terfel, bar.; Martineau, p.
DG 445946
3:57, 3:06
Purchase
Handel: The Arrival of Queen Sheba fr. Solomon
Academy of Ancient Music/Hogwood
L’Oiseau-Lyre 410553
3:17
Purchase
Wagner: Walkürenritt from Die Walküre
Berlin Phil/Tennstedt
EMI 68616
5:06
Purchase
Prokofiev: Troika from Lt. Kije
St. Petersburg Phil/Temirkanov
RCA 60984
2:40
Purchase
Phillips: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere
Eastman-Rochester Orch/Hanson
Mercury 434319
5:22
Purchase
Delius: Walk to the Paradise Garden from A Village Romeo & Juliet
LSO/Barbirolli
EMI 62527
9:42
Purchase
Alkan: Le Chemin de fer
Martin/Ringeissen
Naxos 8.553434
Purchase
Honegger: Pacific 231
Bavarian Radio & TV Symphony Orch/Dutoit
Erato 33171
6:15
Purchase
Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras (excerpt)
French Radio National Orchestra/Villa-Lobos
EMI 761015
4:03
Purchase
Ellington/Strayhorn: Take the “A” Train
Duke Ellington Orchestra
2:56
Purchase
Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
San Francisco Symphony/de Waart
Nonesuch 79144
4:14
Purchase
