Weekend Feature

[navneeth]

We can already notice that trend in the requests in the past week or so. Of course many of them are Christmas songs (AFAICT), but I'd love to hear the full Messiah. Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Vivaldi are oft-played.

[Nicole Marie]

We are playing the Messiah, full length!


http://www.beethoven.com/messiah.htm

[Catmando]

We are playing the Messiah, full length!


http://www.beethoven.com/messiah.htm

Excellent!!


All we like sheep!

[navneeth]

We are playing the Messiah, full length!


http://www.beethoven.com/messiah.htm

Super!

(How long is the Messiah, btw? I just realised...it could just make the internet bill sky rocket! OR I may just have cut down on regular B.com)

[Catmando]

(How long is the Messiah, btw? I just realised...it could just make the internet bill sky rocket! OR I may just have cut down on regular B.com)

I think the Messiah is at least 2 hours, if I'm not mistaken.

I take it you do not have "unlimited" hours internet package?

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

We are playing the Messiah, full length!

Hallelujah!

[navneeth]

I think the Messiah is at least 2 hours, if I'm not mistaken.

In that case, I guess it's not a problem.

I take it you do not have "unlimited" hours internet package?

It's available, but that's not that package we subscribe to at the moment. We can get it by paying USD 9 or 10 more p.m. May be we'll move to that sometime.

[Nicole Marie]

We play the St Martin in the Fields version which is just over 2 hours. This version was recorded in Dublin which is the city that the Messiah was first performed in. It's a great recording!

[navneeth]

The Evolution of Classical Music Weekends

Trace the musical traditions from Medieval, Renaissance (if you have the CD's) to 20th century. This will not possible in a single weekend but over many weekends. Instead of composer bios, you could educate us about the role of a particular (type of) instrument over various periods, or the evolution of the symphony as we move from Haydn to Mahler and Shostakovich.

How does that sound?

[Catmando]

Saturday Night at the Opera feature - R. Wagner - Die Meistersinger der Nuremberg

This was the first time I was able to catch the Opera feature on Saturday evening.

I enjoyed it....alot more than I thought I would. I was very skeptical about enjoying Wagner's opera, but I did for the most part. I didn't get a chance to hear all of it, but caught it from the very beginning to about the middle of Act III. The music was wonderful, and I felt it had alot of unique parts and sounds to it (maybe it's just me).

There was an early aria in Act I (kind of soft and slow) with male voice, that I found absolutely gorgeous. Don't remember which movement, but it must have been around No. 4 or 5 of Act I.

I wish I had been able to watch a DVD of the opera while this was on, or had a translated libretto to follow, but I did look up a little bit on Allmusic.com and would follow which movement it was on, and read up a bit on the opera.

2 thumbs up to this feature Beethoven Radio!

[Catmando]

The Russians are coming for lunch this Saturday?

I wonder if they'll stick around for dinner and evening entertaining?

[Catmando]

Nicole,

I have a question, and some comments about the Weekend features, and daily features as well.

Is Beethoven Radio planning to look at updating some of the features (weekend or weekday)? If so, would there be consideration for a "Chamber Music" Saturday afternoon feature, or a "Chamber Hour" during weekdays? It's an important genre that tends to be ignored.

Now some of my comments on the existing features:

*Again, there is a lot of attention devoted to film music, even more lately. Two daily features, a weekend feature, which have always been there, but now there seems to be more film music played in between the daily features.

*For the Mozart and Beethoven Saturdays in particular, it seems like it is the same line up of works and in the same order. Perhaps some different works should be inserted into the mix, especially considering the vast output of great music from these composers.

*Was there not a Baroque Saturday at one point? Was it unpopular, which is why it was removed.

These are just my comments, and I've felt it long overdue to express them.

Thanks.

[Nicole Marie]

Weekend features are programmed based on requests so yes, the more popular requests win. Film, Beethoven, Mozart, Russians are popular. There is a lot that goes into planning the weekend features but I'll bring it up with Scott and see what we can do. A Baroque Saturday is a great idea!

For this weekend's opera we are featuring Strauss' Egyptian Helene! This is a great opera and not often presented - I think folks will enjoy it!

[barfle]

Mazeppa?

Whew!