Sponsor

Saint Paul Sunday home page

PROGRAMS

2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1969 | List all shows

2001

April 12: Saint 0laf Choir

For nearly a century, the St. Olaf Choir has enthralled audiences around the world with extraordinary musicianship, a poetic acumen for phrasing and text, and its own rich and distinctive sound. Bill McGlaughlin welcomes the celebrated ensemble and its conductor, Anton Armstrong, into the Saint Paul Sunday studio this week for a special Easter program spanning five centuries. We'll hear music of Palestrina, Billings, Gretchaninoff, Copland, and two of the choir's former conductors: founder F. Melius Christiansen and noted living composer Kenneth Jennings. (more)

September 24: Emerson String Quartet performs Shostakovich

Few composers fathomed the chaos and pathos of 20th-century life as forcefully as Dmitri Shostakovich. The grim pressures he navigated as an artist and Soviet citizen, and his wide-ranging means of surviving and commenting on them, find particularly vivid expression in his fifteen string quartets. This Sunday, the eve of the hundredth anniversary of Shostakovich’s birth, the renowned Emerson String Quartet returns for a program devoted his string quartet cycle. As a form, the string quartet allowed Shostakovich a measure of freedom from official scrutiny and the license to voice extremes of a sensibility that was by turns exuberant, earthy, anguished, and, in its final years, beyond the reach of other means of articulation. (more)

July 04: REBEL

Italian Inspiration: The irresistible charm and originality of Italian music, whether openly embraced or officially banned, left an enduring impression on composers throughout 17th and 18th century Europe. This week on Saint Paul Sunday, the acclaimed ensemble REBEL joins Bill McGlaughlin to explore this remarkable influence as it was variously revealed by Vivaldi, Telemann, Purcell, and others. Listen to the performance in for what the Los Angeles Times calls "astonishingly vital music making." (more)

December 21: Lyra Concert; David Douglas, violin; Ellen Hargis, soprano

September 28: Pepe Romero, guitar

September 21: Imogen Cooper, piano

August 17: Eroica Quartet

July 27: Robison-Lubambo-Baptista Trio

July 20: Lang Lang

July 13: Jorja Fleezanis, violin; Cyril Huve, forte piano

March 02: Anonymous 4

February 23: Paul Coletti, viola; Phillip Bush, piano

February 16: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

January 12: TASHI

December 29: Grieg Trio

November 03: Kronos Quartet: Burman, Vrebalov and Osvaldo Golijov

Life Stories: For nearly three decades, Kronos Quartet has shown us the range and power of music of our own time. Dubbed "classical music's own Fab Four" by Rolling Stone, this group continues to draw musical inspiration from around the globe and from the depths of human emotion.

We'll journey along with Kronos and discover just what in the world they've been up to lately, from the film music of India to Mexican rock-and-roll, from gypsy tunes to a haunting memorial. Listen in for performances that reveal the ongoing curiosity and daring of Kronos Quartet. (more)

September 08: eighth blackbird features David Schober, Zohn-Muldoon, Albert

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: When American poet Wallace Stevens wrote his "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird", little could he have known that some 70 years later the enigmatic and beautiful lines of the poem's eighth stanza would be adopted, in spirit and name, by six brilliant young musicians. Happily, eighth blackbird—an Oberlin-trained sextet of violin, cello, flute, clarinet, piano, and manifold percussion—did just that. This week Bill McGlaughlin welcomes eighth blackbird into the Saint Paul Sunday studio for a program of three works composed especially for them. Movements from Thomas Albert's kaleidoscopic setting of the poem "Thirteen Ways" conclude the program with poignant evocations of Stevens's imagery and thought. (more)

September 01: David Finckel, cello; Wu Han, piano

August 18: Christian Tetzlaff, violin; Tanja Tetzlaff, cello

June 02: Brentano String Quartet

April 28: Leila Josefowicz, violin; John Novacek, piano

November 11: Hahn-Zhu play Brahms, Bach, Debussy

Shining Young Star: Bill McGlaughlin welcomes one of the world's preeminent young violinists into the studio this week. At just 21, Hilary Hahn has already won comparison with such violin legends as Heifetz and Gramiaux, and her performances have dazzled audiences worldwide. This week with pianist Natalie Zhu she performs sonatas by Debussy and Brahms, as well as J. S. Bach's breathtaking solo violin sonata in a minor. Along the way we'll get to know one of classical music's shining young stars. (more)

May 27: Ensemble Wien-Berlin/Elena Bashkirova, piano

May 06: OPUS ONE plays Dvorák, Hadyn, Hartke

For a taste of the congeniality, brilliance, and sheer joy of chamber music, listen in this week as guest host Jorja Fleezanis welcomes OPUS ONE, an ensemble of four soloists whose collaboration always yields astonishing performances. Violinist Ida Kavafian, violist Steven Tenenbom, cellist Peter Wiley, and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott will play the breathtaking "Gypsy Rondo" presto from Haydn's Trio G major (H. XV:25), the enchanting opening movement of Antonín Dvorák's Piano Quartet in E flat major (Op. 87), and living composer Stephen Hartke's sensually profound 1988 work The King of the Sun, including the imaginatively titled movements "Personages in the night guided by the phosphorescent tracks of snails" and "The flames of the sun make the desert flower hysterical." (more)

April 29: Cyril Huve, forte piano

January 21: Ahn Trio interpret Beethoven, Bernstein, Piazzolla

Sister Power: Chamber music got its start as "house music" -- performances at home, among family and friends. This week on Saint Paul Sunday, Bill McGlaughlin welcomes a brilliant threesome of sisters who began to perform together as children and have since shared their music with the world. Born in Korea, Ahn Trio -- comprised of violinist Angella Ahn and her twin sisters cellist Maria and pianist Lucia -- first caught America's eye when they were featured in a 1987 Time magazine cover story entitled "Asian-American Whiz Kids." In 1997, they appeared on MTV and went on to produce their own program special on the network called "Ahn-Plugged." This week on Saint Paul Sunday they'll perform music of Beethoven, Leonard Bernstein, and Astor Piazzolla. (more)

©2009 American Public Media