Grab your favorite comfort food and tune into this tasty deep-dive of all things classical, each week here on WRBB.

Mac’nClassicalCheese

Welcome to the 4th and probably last :( Piano Palooza! On Piano Palooza shows I just play piano music. Today we'll hear French Impressionist composer Poulenc's piano concerto in full, then some small late romantic pieces to fill out the show. Hand slipped and Rachmaninoff &amp; Scriabin preludes appeared. It can't be helped.

Today's show focuses on Dvorǎk's cello concerto, performed by the zinger of a player János Starker. I find Starker to be a very open player in that he attacks the music, but does so with a staggering emotional depth that leaves me in awe. Ironically, early in his career Dvorǎk said he would never write a cello concerto. In his opinion, the instrument didn't have the musical 'chops' to pull off a solo with an orchestral accompaniment. However, that opinion changed decades later when he heard his friend, cellist &amp; composer Victor Herbert, perform his own cello concerto. Completely moved by the piece, Dvorǎk went on to produce what became one of the most famous &amp; recognizable cello concertos of all time..which is what we'll hear today. We'll also hear a movement from Herbert's concerto before listening to the Dvorǎk to see exactly what inspired this masterpiece. Enjoy!

Today's inspiration is Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3, a 3 movement symphony. We'll hear the piece in full, and then have some smaller (but still late romantic era) pieces with a similar mood.

HALLOWRBB! ooooo ~~~~~ spooky ~~~~ yes I used this as an excuse to play 1930s/40s big band because what's more haloweenie than some twilight zone bops

Romantic era sampler - We have Mendelssohn for Early Romantic. Elgar, Grieg and Tchaikovsky for Romantic. Lalo and Sibelius for Late Romantic. And Barber for Neo Romantic.

Been watching a lot of Ghibli movies and wanted to do an episode with some calm film/videogame music before the phase ends. Hand slipped and a few classical pieces appeared too.

I've re-entered my Vaughan Williams phase.

A symphony in FULL by Louise Ferrenc. She's a romantic composer and the piece does have a lot of your typical romanticism, but there are def some classical and (a *few) baroque influences tossed in there as well. Then a chamber piece NOT in full by Beethoven who is sorta the gold standard for string quartets. I only wanted to play the 2nd movement but felt pressure to commit to the piece in full as much as possible just to stay on theme. One day I'll play a chamber piece in full.

Guys I love Mahler so much .

Today's theme is Storytime #2. The last time I used this theme I think I focused on ballets and operas, but THIS time I focused on overtures...I say focused, but only for 1/2 the episode...and that's including Firebird Suite. I threw in a cello concerto for kicks, and added the presto from the Dvořák sextet to end with something fun. Then there's some elevator music peppered in there too for the transitions.

Welcome to the 3rd rendition of Piano Palooza! That means only solo piano music today, no accompaniments, no extra instruments, just pianos! The queue is mainly contemporary &amp; late romantic stuff, per usual, but the last 3 pieces are performed by Ruth Slenczynska who is currently the oldest (known) living student of Rachmaninoff. Damn.

Piano Palooza 3!

Hey everyone, this episode is a sort of 'hats off' to my local classical station back home in Indiana. The station is WICR 88.7 the diamond. Woo! I went and checked out their track lists from last weekend and came across some composers I hadn't heard of (Moszkowski and Reinecke), and some pieces I didn't know. I checked out the 2 composers and we have a piece from each of them today. The Piano quintet is new to me and it's so fun! If anyone can tell me who is objectively a favored composer between Schumann and Schubert please let me know because apparently it's obvious. I would guess Schumann but I also like Schubert so idk. And the rest of the show is a piano trio by Mendelssohn performed by 3 mediocre players...I kid. It's Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, and Itzhak Perlman.

Hats off to Michael

Welcome back to another week of classical music! This week I'm focusing on Japanese contemporary music, and while most pieces on today's playlist come from anime, there are a few exceptions. The past few days have been peaceful and I wanted to keep the vibe going so I've been watching Studio Ghibli movies...hence this playlist. I hope everyone finds these whimsical pieces relaxing.

Japanese Contemporary: Anime

Welcome to baroque mornings! We're starting off with Bach who is like the godfather of baroque music, and if you read on you'll see that musicians have ~opinions~ when it comes to playing Bach. So we have movements from 2 of his violin concertos played by my *favorite Bach violinist, Hilary Hahn. Then 2 movements from his concerto for violin and oboe played by one of my friend's favorite Bach violinists, Janine Jansen. Concertos are pieces written for a solo instrument, like a violin, playing the main melody while an orchestra accompanies them. Even though the orchestra is playing too, they are like the band supporting a lead singer. Their accompaniment is important and can be great music on it's own, but the main event is the soloist. Concertos are 3 movements except in unique cases (hats off to Glazunov you sneaky enigma). Sometimes, a composer loves the form so much that they add another voice to the main line and write for more than one soloist. It's rare but Bach did it a few times, and there are some famous ones by Beethoven (his triple concerto), and Brahms (his double). Then we have obligatory movements from Handel's Water Music and Corelli's Concerto Grosso. The rest of the show is unaccompanied, solo piano music by Bach. There are 2 Inventions and 1 Sinfonia, all played by someone regarded as the best interpreter of Bach for piano, Glenn Gould. The inventions are written in 2 voices, and the sinfonias in 3 (the sinfonias are actually crazy and I still forget it's just one person playing sometimes, so get excited!) And then to close, we have some movements from the Goldberg Variations: a set of pieces which introduces a theme in the 1st movt., the "Aria", and then plays a series of variations based off this theme. We will hear variations 6, 9, 11, and 25.

Mac'nClassicalCheese

Gooood morning fellow classical listeners! This morning's set list is inspired by one piece, the first piece of the show....drumroll pleaseee....Edward Elgar's "Sospiri"! So 2 summers ago in 2022, I started listening to classical music more than I had in years and I discovered a lot of new pieces and got into a lot of (relatively) contemporary composers. The big ones were Rachmaninoff, Vaughan Williams, Scriabin, Sibelius, and Elgar. This piece specifically, and the closing piece of today's show, "Andante Festivo," were 2 of my favorites. The other 2 favorites I had from that era of classical exploration were movement 2 from Barber's violin concerto (performed by Hilary Hahn lol), and Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. But I've already played those 2 pieces on the show before:) Can't believe it took me this long to play Andante Festivo and Sospiri, but they are so so pretty. So basically, key takeaway is that today's show is all about beautiful melodies that are a *wee* bit dramatic, but on the whole kind of light and remind me of sunny, peaceful days out in nature. So I hope this playlist, like the title of the piece it revolves around, is kind of like a breath of fresh air. Let's play some tunes!

Sospiri, E. Elgar

Goooood Morning, and welcome back to some cheese and classical music and mac in that exact order. Today's episode is ballet music! I've played some movements from Ballets in past episodes but this is the first episode completely comprised of ballet music. So if you've ever been confused by how classical music pieces are organized because they have all those movements with various numbers and intricate titles, ballet music might seem even more intimidating or confusing because when you look at an album of ballet music you see sooooo many pieces. This is because ballets are comprised of small movements that play back to back. Each movement accompanies a different dance or scene in the ballet, and this is why there are so many. Today's lineup features a *heavy* dose of Tchaikovsky, because who does ballet better than Tchaik? Then we have some rando pieces from Adam, and Chopin. Rando because Chopin was not famous for composing ballet music...or really anything other than piano music BUT! We love him no matter what cuz he just kills melodies and also ~angst~. And I really don't know much about Adam as a composer in general. Then Prokofiev and Delibes, the former being an overall knockout composer, and the latter being lesser known but pretty high ranked when it comes to ballet works specifically. Enjoy!

Ballet #1

Hey fellow Mac'nCheese lovers. Welcome to our ~love~ themed episode *cue the vomit*. But don't worry! The music is not lovesick-puppy-eyed-hallmark-movie-hershey-chocolate-lovesick. It's just a tad on the romantic side and quite pretty. So sit back, relax, make your coziest bowl of mac, and enjoy today's Valentine-themed lineup!

All Love

Heyyyy everyone. Look at this tiny little playlist. It's so adorable right? This playlist is inspired by the first piece, Les Preludes, "The Beginnings" by Liszt. This piece is the FIRST EVER symphonic poem which I've kinda waxed poetic about so I won't get too into it again...but! Here I go. So a symphonic, or "tone" poem is a single movement piece written for orchestra, and it is based off a preexisting work of art or literature. This symphonic poem by Liszt is inspired by a poem of the same name by Alphonse de Lamartine. This piece also marks the early Romantic Era in classical music (mid 1800s) when composers started breaking down forms (like the symphony being 4 movements) and creating works in their own forms (like the tone poem) and making pieces that were emotional, personal, theoretical, existential, etc. You get the idea. It's like the teen-angst-self-realization-phase of classical music. So to complement this opening piece we have a work for solo piano, also by Liszt, from his 3 part work "Years of Pilgrimage", and this is from the first part, "Year 1: Switzerland," movement 8, "Homesickness." And then we have Chopin piano concert no. 2 in its entirety to finish out the rest of the show! I don't have the energy to go into Liszt and Chopin drama/history but the pieces today all fit together I promise.

Early Romantic (Liszt Les Preludes)

This week's focus is on Spanish music, and more specifically, Spanish guitar music. The most famous composer in that genre is Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999). We will also hear from an earlier Spanish composer today, Isaac Albéniz, or rather, Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (1860-1909) who, as many pianists do, composed primarily for piano, and we will hear a movement from his Suite Española No. 1, "Granada." This movement is meant to be the first in the suite, but for some reason in this recording it is listed as movement 4. Could be a publishing error, could be because people disagree about the correct order. Who knows? I do not. Moving on. So it's a great piece, and it was originally written for piano but we will hear an orchestrated version today. We also have some non-spanish composers for pieces that either have Spanish influence in them, like Saint-Saëns' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, or that fit with sub-theme today (romantic melodies), like Bruch's Scottish Fantasy. Enjoy!

Spanish Music #1

Welcome to Season 4 of Mac'nClassical Cheese!! Guess who wasn't on air the first few minutes of this show? That's right, me. Cuz I forgot everything in the last 3 weeks or however long its been since being in the studio. BUT WE PUSH ON. Today's show is the first ever chamber music show. Kinda crazy that this hasn't happened before. It's almost like it's the classical genre I listen to least...but it's not because I dislike it! I think I'm just a simp for impressionism and romanticism and most of the chamber I know is earlier music, so. There we have it. That being said, the point of this show was to play all the music I didn't hear on my classical station at home growing up, and to play all the stuff I found in high school and college that I wish I knew about. But maybe I should also play some of the stuff that originally got me into classical music. Food for thought. But now on to the music!

Chamber Music #1

Andddd its the end of season 3 and the fall semester, so, like they do in the movies, we have some sappy, romantic, pretty, and emotional music to close out the show and leave us feeling all warm and mushy inside. There are some film scores queued up today from Finding Nemo, 1917 (both by Thomas Newman), the Theory of Everything, 2 different Harry Potter movies, Moonlight (by Nicholas Britell aka bae), Pride and Prejudice, and, wasn't expecting this myself, but How to Train Your Dragon...the third one. And then some classical pieces: a super quick andante from Pelleas et Melisande, the big famous variation from Elgar's Enigma Variations (variation 9: Nimrod), the adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from the ballet...Spartacus, and the piece I hate on from time to time because I'm a Rachmaninoff stan and he has SO MUCH MORE TO OFFER THAN symphony 2 movt. 3, but it is pretty, so it closed out the show. And that's all folks! Or rather — That's a wrap!

That's a Wrap!

Today's show is more atmosphere/mood focused with the main themes being reflection &amp; mortality — Fun! But really, these are all just beautiful pieces; Pärt , Britell and Brahms create a starry soundscape that the rest of the pieces flow through with reminiscing and hopeful melodies.

Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise

Today we have an episode built around one of my favorite pieces: the 2nd movement of Rachmaninoff's 3rd symphony. Now many (if not most) people recognize Rachmaninoff's 3rd movement of his 2nd symphony as one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. I will never say anything against Rachmaninoff, he is at this time my favorite composer...BUT! I think the 2nd symphony is fine — at least compared to his 3rd which I find to be one of the most gorgeous melodies and orchestrations I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. This piece is big, dramatic and romantic and is reminiscent of overtures and love themes from ballets and old film scores. Because of that, the pieces I chose to fill out today's episode are, you guessed it: BIG. DRAMATIC. ROMANTIC. We have some old film scores and ballets of course too because I can't just say that it sounds like them and not follow up — so let's dive in!

Dedicated to Rachmaninoff Symphony No.3 movt.2

Welcome to the second iteration of piano palooza!! Piano palooza episodes feature solo piano music. This time around we have a selection of late romantic and early contemporary pieces.

Piano Palooza #2

This week's episode is part 2 of the theme: Out to Sea! While part 1 was full of exciting and adventure-worthy music that featured folk tunes and dances, this second half of the theme showcases pieces that are more peaceful and contemplative in their energy, and they tend to focus on cultivating a mood, color, or feeling, rather than adhering to a specific form or structure.

Out to Sea Pt.2

Today's theme is going to be split into 2 parts! Cue the excitement! The theme is Out to Sea, and this first part is like adventure on the high seas. Think pirates, think big waves, and lots of high energy music infused with folk tunes and dances.

Out to Sea Pt.1

Today's show is going to feature folk music influences. Folk music is any music that is native to a culture or country that likely doesn't have its origins in any written music. Most folk music, regardless of where it is from, is based on pentatonic scales. The scale most of us are used to is a 7 note scale whereas a pentatonic scale is a 5 note scale. Whats more, our scale (do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do) has semitones or half steps between the notes. Think of that sound like a musical staircase when something or someone is ascending into the clouds in a cartoon. How all those notes sound squished together? It's half steps. The pentatonic scale has no half steps; what you see (or hear) is what you get. 5 simple notes. Because of this, when classical composers created pieces around folk themes, the entire style of the piece was changed and took on a very unique, and distinctly non-classical sound. This is because the whole scale that the piece is built on (all of its harmonies and key changes) are built on a less complicated scale. So in short: the unique sounds of these pieces can be traced back to scales! What's more, folk music was not really acceptable or "serious" enough to be used in classical music for many years. Classical music is built around very specific forms and a heavy amount of rules, but in the 1800s (during what's known as the Romantic period of classical music), many of those rules and forms were breaking down. And with this change in thinking, many composers started incorporating pieces from their home countries or places they traveled to into their music. Dvořák in particular popularized the use of folk music in classical music.

Folk Songs

Kicking off season 3 with a different take on a repeat theme: Dawn to Dusk. This time, instead of pieces literally written about specific times of day, we have a selection made based on tone and feeling. We'll start with our first ever Swiss composer, Arthur Honegger with a movement from his symphonic tone poem Pastorale Summer for "dawn," then move onto the 2nd movement of Sibelius' 2nd symphony which will take us through morning &amp; afternoon. Mahler's lost andante from his 1st symphony, Blumine, will lead us into early evening followed by a Nocturne for strings by Dvorák for "sunset." Richard Strauss' last song of his Four Last Songs cycle will be our piece for midnight, performed by Jessye Norman, and to close out the day/close out the night we have the beautiful 2nd movement from Mahler's 5th symphony, performed by the Berlin Phil in 2022 with Dudamel conducting.

Dawn to Dusk #2

And just like that we've come to the end of season 2! It's ok, don't cry, we'll be back in the fall with a FULL season of classical tunes. This episode is the most disorganized moment the show will ever experienced b/c it was a *crazy week. So this is me compensating by choosing a random collection of pieces that I find relaxing and comforting. We'll start with movt.1 from Tchaik Symphony 6. It's an odd choice for summer because it's got that Tchaikovsky ability to make you think of being cozy in winter, but that's why I thought it would be a nice comfort piece. Then we'll hear two 2nd movements back to back, both very romantic and lyrical, followed by a gentle piece by Fauré and a short interlude (elevator music if you will) to take a breather before closing the show with "The Pines of the Janiculum" from Respighi's Pines of Rome. It's our closer because it's a perfect reset piece – it's like the music equivalent of walking into a forest clearing or the top of a mountain and taking a deep breath.

Criss-cross applesauce on the carpet b/c it's story time! Nearly all these pieces are from operas, ballets, or movie scores. For some context about opera and ballet music: usually a story exists already and then someone writes a score (the music) for that opera or ballet. So in turn, music for operas and ballets are story-driven works – they are not just random melodies with random ups and downs in tempo or feeling, each part of these pieces corresponds to what is going on in the story. Other than this, there are 3 pieces that I'll call out because they aren't self-explanatory: the Prayer of St. Gregory which is based on a Biblical story, Elgar's Serenade for Strings which is included because a "serenade" is actually a specific term that means music played in the evening, outdoors, and usually meant to invoke the image/feeling of one lover serenading another "in the moonlight". I cannot make this up. It is apparently that specific, so I counted it as a story-related song. And then the last piece, the 1st movt. of Tchaik's Symphony 3. I really wanted to play this because there is a beautiful, dark melody hidden in it, AND there is actually a crazy backstory that has to do with this guy named Vladimir Shilovsky if you're interested in some *tea.

Story Time!

Today's show is all about THEMES! A theme in classical music is like a repeated melody that the music is built around, or it circles back to. It can also be tied to a certain person or thing in a story. Like in a movie, or in a ballet, there are themes (so specific melodies) in the music for certain characters that let you know when someone is coming in and out of the story. Today you'll hear a theme from Henry Purcell that Benjamin Britten used for his Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (also used in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice on solo violin for that one Darcy &amp; Lizzie dance), a fantasia on a theme and variants on a theme by Ralph Vaughan Williams, then two pieces that showcase character's themes – "Gayane's Adagio" from Gayane Suite, and Yumeji's Theme from Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood For Love. Our first ever guitar work, Fantasía para un Gentilhombre by Joaquín Rodrigo which is based on a theme by the earlier Spanish Baroque composer Gaspar Sanz, then 2 movie themes! The Medallion calls from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, because it sounds JUST like that Gaspar Sanz theme...and then the love theme from the Star Wars prequels. Finally, we get to a bit of a cheat, Soarin, which is theme park music, cuz why not, and then finishing with *the* most famous, the romance variation from Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, played by the incredible Arthur Rubinstein.

On a Theme

Welcome back! It's season 2 and like last season, I'm kicking off the show with some of my favorite pieces. This time, it's all solo piano though! This is the first of what will likely be many Piano Palooza's because there are SO many amazing works for solo piano to enjoy. Unlike any other instrument, a piano can play a piece without any accompaniment and it still sounds so full. The instrument allows for a lot of resonance that most other instruments cannot carry off or sustain throughout a whole piece, and the pianist's ability to play multiple voices at once with both hands lets you write complex pieces with many layers. This Piano Palooza is mainly pieces from the Romantic Era of classical music (so late 1800s, early 1900s) with 2 small exceptions – Mozart &amp; Beethoven – because their selected pieces fit in with the type of pieces I chose for the show, which were fantasies/romances/impromptus. All of these types of music indicate a breaking away from standard form. This means the pieces are much more free, complex sounding, and beautiful. You'll see that the Rachmaninoff and Scriabin pieces don't have these titles, but that's because they were active late enough in the 1900s that most forms had already been broken down.

Piano Palooza 1!

Closing out the end of vol.1 of this show, our theme today is essentially: Magic! Some pieces are quite literally related to magic – Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and (of course) Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter. Other pieces are just ethereal and whimsical, like music from impressionist-romaticist-neoclassicist-toomany'ists'justmakeupyourmindmusichistorians French composers, and some are a bit more intense and dark (i.e. Sibelius's Swan of Tuonela b/c its based off Finnish folklore). AND our first ever contemporary composer, Max Richter, will kick off this episode with a piece that sounds a LOT like the theme for the tree of souls thing in the new Avatar film franchise.

Dreamscapes

Pivoting from last week's nature theme, today's pieces each correspond to a time of day. *Queue the "oohs" and "ahs"* We'll start with a song that's not by a classical group, rather the rock group The Moody Blues who recorded their album Days of Future Passed with The London Festival Orchestra. Their opening piece, The Day Begins, is a beautiful orchestral overture of sorts with some narration at the end. We will move from here into dawn (Pride and Prejudice 2005 score), then morning ("Morning Mood" from Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite), afternoon (Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), dusk (Gibbs's Fancy Dress Suite), and finish in the night (Transfigured Night by Schoenberg, and Night and Love by Holmès)

Dawn to Dusk

Before there was digital media, fast traveling news, and easy access to transportation that could take you miles from your home, the natural world was much more of an influence for artists. Many composers wrote pieces that were influenced in some way or another by nature – whether it was a pieces written after a specific geological site like Mendelssohn's The Hebrides Overture, or just a general nod to nature like Glazunov's music for the allegorical ballet, The Seasons. We have a mix of popular pieces and some hidden gems today and will be closing out with likely the most famous piece in the playlist, the 1st movement from Beethoven's 6th Symphony, "Pastoral."

Soundscapes

We're kicking off the show with a selection of second movements! It's not a hard and fast rule, but second movements are usually a bit slower – a time to breathe in a piece – and because of this, they usually showcase beautiful melodies. Some of my favorite melodies are from second movements so it seemed like a nice and easy way to get us into the groove of classical music.