Classical Music Playlist, March 3, 2021
We have works by a different female composer every weekday during March, Women's History Month.
Margaret Bonds was born in 1913 into a home that was a meeting place for African American artists and intellectuals during a Chicago Cultural renaissance. Her mother, Estella, was a gifted musician who gave Margaret her first music lessons. One of the later visitors to their home was Florence Price when she moved to Chicago in 1927 and became a dear friend to both Margaret and Estella and taught piano to Margaret during her high school years.
At Northwestern University, Margaret endured vicious racism and prejudice but found inspiration to continue where she could and graduated with both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in piano and composition. She then continued to teach, compose and perform in Chicago. This included being the first Black soloist to appear with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and as the featured soloist in the Woman’s Symphony Orchestra of Chicago’s performance of Price’s Piano Concerto in D Minor.
In 1939 she moved to New York City where she attended Julliard and became involved with the city's musical life a composer and pianist, and in the cultural life of the Harlem neighborhood where she lived. Bonds formed a Chamber Music Society of black musicians who performed black classical composers, she helped to establish a community center and served as the music director at a local church.
She met poet Langston Hughes in 1936 and formed a lifelong friendship. Especially during the 1950s she set many of his poems to music. About this time, one of her most recorded compositions was “Troubled Water," her fantasia on the spiritual "Wade in the Water." Her inclusion of gospel, jazz and blues in her music brought attention and numerous commissions including from soprano Leontyne Price.
Bonds died in Los Angeles in 1972 at the age of 59.
The life of Margaret Bonds is far more rich than this brief sketch. An online search will return countless articles that detail her many compositions, collaborations and influence on the American music scene.
6:00 a.m.
Margaret Bonds
Troubled Water
Althea Waites, piano
6:06 a.m.
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Grand Concerto for bassoon and orchestra in F major
USSR Symphony Chamber Ensemble Valery Popov, bassoon
6:32 a.m.
Emmanuel Chabrier
Pastoral Suite (Suite Pastorale)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; John Eliot Gardiner, conductor
6:52 a.m.
Maurice Ravel
Miroirs: Alborada del gracioso (Morning Song of the Jester)
Lyon National Orchestra; Leonard Slatkin, conductor
7:00 a.m.
Josef Myslivecek
Symphony in D major F 29
London Mozart Players; Matthias Bamert, conductor
7:13 a.m.
Aaron Copland
Rodeo
Buffalo Philharmonic; JoAnn Falletta, conductor
7:33 a.m.
Tessa Lark
Applachian Fantasy
Tessa Lark, violin
7:38 a.m.
Franz Liszt
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6 "Carnival in Pest" in D major
Budapest Symphony Orchestra; Andras Korodi, conductor
7:53 a.m.
Gustav Holst
The Planets: Mars, Bringer of War Opus 32
Philharmonia Orchestra; William Boughton, conductor
8:01 a.m.
Georg Philipp Telemann
Polish Concerto (Concerto Polonois) in G major
Apollo's Fire; Jeannette Sorrell, conductor
8:12 a.m.
William Alwyn
Elizabethan Dances (1957)
London Symphony Orchestra; Richard Hickox, conductor
8:32 a.m.
Julie Amacher
New Classical Trax
American Public Media Julie Amacher
8:39 a.m.
Margaret Bonds
3 DREAM PORTRAITS: II. Dream Variation
Will Liverman, baritone; Paul Sanchez, piano
8:42 a.m.
Edvard Grieg
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 Opus 46
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Paavo Berglund, conductor
8:59 a.m.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Rondo for piano & orchestra in A major K 386
Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Charles Mackerras, conductor John O'Conor, piano
9:08 a.m.
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Swan Lake Suite Opus 20
Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Georg Solti, conductor
9:36 a.m.
Florence Price
Fantasie Negre No. 4
Lara Downes, piano
9:42 a.m.
Claude Debussy
Suite Bergamasque
Lyon National Orchestra; Jun Markl, conductor
10:00 a.m.
Carl Maria Von Weber
Concertino for Clarinet and Orchestra in Eb major Opus 26
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Neville Marriner, conductor Andrew Marriner, clarinet
10:10 a.m.
Hubert Parry
Symphony No. 3 "English" in C major
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Matthias Bamert, conductor
10:46 a.m.
Rafael Diaz
Al fondo de mi lejania se asoma tu casa
Georgina Isabel Rossi, viola; Silvie Cheng, piano
10:53 a.m.
Franz Joseph Haydn
Serenade in F major Opus 3/5
I Solisti Italiani
11:00 a.m.
Camille Saint-Saens
SAMSON ET DELILA: Bacchanale Opus 47
Minnesota Orchestra; Eiji Oue, conductor
11:08 a.m.
Jean Sibelius
Symphony No. 5 in Eb major Opus 82
San Francisco Symphony; Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
11:40 a.m.
Leonard Bernstein
Facsimile: II. Allegretto
New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, conductor
11:50 a.m.
George Friederich Handel
SAMSON: Let the Bright Seraphim
Canadian Brass
11:57 a.m.
Robert Schumann
Overture, Scherzo & Finale in E major Opus 52
Staatskapelle Dresden; Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor
12:15 p.m.
Mauro Giuliani
Guitar Concerto No. 1 in A major Opus 30
English Chamber Orchestra; Raymond Leppard, conductor Angel Romero, guitar
12:45 p.m.
Margaret Bonds
THE BALLAD OF THE BROWN KING: I. Of the Three Wise Men
The Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra; Malcolm J. Merriweather, conductor Noah Stewart, tenor
12:49 p.m.
Fanny Mendelssohn
Overture in C major
The Women's Philharmonic; JoAnn Falletta, conductor
1:01 p.m.
Antonio Vivaldi
Flute Concerto No. 1 "La Tempesta di Mare" (The Storm at Sea) in F major Opus 10 RV 433
Tokyo Bach-Mozart Ensemble Masahiro Arita, flute
1:10 p.m.
Josef Suk
Serenade for Strings in Eb major Opus 6
Virtuosi of Prague; Oldrich Vlcek, conductor
1:37 p.m.
Frederic Chopin
Variations on Mozart's "La ci darem la mano" in Bb major Opus 2
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; Charles Mackerras, conductor Emanuel Ax, piano
1:56 p.m.
Wenzel Matiegka
Etude in C major
David Leisner, guitar
1:59 p.m.
Antonin Dvorak
My Home Overture Opus 62
Scottish National Orchestra; Neeme Jarvi, conductor
2:10 p.m.
Hans Gal
Symphony No. 3 in A major Opus 62
Orchestra of the Swan; Kenneth Woods, conductor
2:46 p.m.
George Phillip Telemann
Suite No. 6 for flute, harpsichord, lute & viola in D minor TWV 42
Camerata Koln
3:01 p.m.
David Lyon
Short Suite
Royal Ballet Sinfonia; David Lloyd-Jones, conductor
3:12 p.m.
Johan Svendsen
Symphony No. 2 in Bb major Opus 15
Latvian National Symphony; Terje Mikkelsen, conductor
3:46 p.m.
Ludwig Van Beethoven
FIDELIO Overture Opus 72
Philadelphia Orchestra; Riccardo Muti, conductor
3:54 p.m.
Margaret Bonds
The Bells
Lara Downes, piano
3:59 p.m.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Russian Easter Festival Overture Opus 36
Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, conductor
4:15 p.m.
Camille Saint-Saens
SAMSON ET DELILA: Grande fantasie
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Geoffrey Simon, conductor
4:30 p.m.
Mark O'Connor
Appalachia Waltz
Yo Yo Ma, cello; Mark O'Connor, violin; Edgar Meyer, bass
4:37 p.m.
Luigi Boccherini
Symphony No. 6 in D minor Opus 12/6 G 506
London Festival Orchestra; Ross Pople, conductor
4:55 p.m.
David Guion
The Harmonica Player
Byron Janis, piano
4:56 p.m.
Reinhold Gliere
The Red Poppy: Russian Sailor's Dance
Boston Pops Orchestra; John Williams, conductor
5:01 p.m.
Felix Mendelssohn
Ruy Blas: Overture Opus 95
London Symphony Orchestra; Claudio Abbado, conductor
5:10 p.m.
Thomas Simpson
Volta I and Volta II
The King's Noyse; David Douglass, conductor
5:13 p.m.
Saverio Mercadante
Flute Concerto in E minor
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Neville Marriner, conductor Irena Grafenauer, flute
5:35 p.m.
George Friederich Handel
Concerto Grosso No. 3 in G major Opus 3/3 HWV 314
Handel & Haydn Society; Christopher Hogwood, conductor
5:43 p.m.
Alexander Voormolen
Baron Hop Suite No. 1
Residentie Orkest Den Haag; Matthias Bamert, conductor
6:01 p.m.
Dmitri Shostakovich
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor Opus 35
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana; Alexander Vedernikov, conductor Martha Argerich, piano; Sergei Nakariakov, trumpet
6:23 p.m.
Franz Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 30 "Alleluja" in C major
Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra; Adam Fischer, conductor
6:37 p.m.
Paul Schoenfield
Cafe Music
Eroica Trio
6:55 p.m.
Margaret Bonds
3 DREAM PORTRAITS: No. 3 - I, Too
Will Liverman, baritone; Paul Sanchez, piano
6:56 p.m.
Margaret Bonds
He's Got the Whole World In His Hands
Leontyne Price, soprano