Martin Bookspan interviews American composer and teacher Peter Mennin. Mennin talks about his life; about both of his careers: as the president of Juilliard School and as a symphonic composer; about his work with Juilliard Orchestra; about the future of both types of young contemporary composers: avant-garde and classical music composers. The composer discusses in detail each of the following works, excerpts of which are then played during the interview: Piano concerto (first movement) (1958), Symphony no. 7: Variation-symphony (for full orchestra) (1963-1964).
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Martin Bookspan interviews American composer, pianist, and writer on music Phillip Ramey. Ramey comments on his studies composition at DePaul University in Chicago; on his teacher, composer Alexander Tcherepnin; and about musical traditions in Chicago. He talks about his career as a pianist and composer. He discusses each of the following works, which are then played in their entirety: Piano sonata no. 1, Night music (for percussion), Commentaries (for flute and piano), Leningrad rag (freely based on Scott Joplin's Gladiolus rag), 5 Epigrams for piano, 3 Epigrams for violin and piano, and Piano fantasy.
Content types:
Sounds
Formats:
CD
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Tape contains live performance of the Primarvera String Quartet in in Coolidge Auditorium at Library of Congress. The concert was broadcast on WETA with announcer Steve Ember. Paul Seiko Chihara composed the second piece for the quartet in 1978. The encore of the concert is the first movement of Five songs for string quartet, arranged by Stanley Silverman from George Gershwin's song "He loves, [and] she loves" from Funny face.
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Tapes contain live performance of the Primavera String Quartet in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. The concert was broadcast on NPR, on WNYC-FM. Reporter Andrew Berger provided commentary for each piece, using the composers' biographies and additional information about the pieces. During intermission on Reel 1, Berger conducts a taped interview of the members of the string quartet, who share their personal experiences of performing with Primavera, and talk about Tchaikovsky's Third string quartet, a memorial dedicated to his friendship of Ferdinand Laub. The interview resumed on Reel 2, followed by the rest of the concert. Five songs for string quartet are arranged from these George Gershwin songs: 1. "He loves, [and] she loves," 2. "Fascinating rhythm," 3. "Do it again," "Clap yo' hands," and 5. "Sweet and low down." A surprise encore of an unidentified Kurt Weill arrangement is also performed.
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
2 recordings
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
An unidentified speaker expounds on the idea of the final judgment of the individual more than the end of world, drawing primarily on the gospels of Christianity but also mentioning the idea of final judgment in Judaism, Islam, and other religions. The theme of personal salvation, from a Christian perspective is also extensively discussed.
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Radio program which solicited programming requests from the listening audience. Listeners would write to the studio with ideas for skits, and the actors on the show would perform those skits on the air. Skits were written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee. Each program features a different all-star cast.
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
31 recordings
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Martin Bookspan interviews American classical music composer and conductor Richard Yardumian. Yardumian talks about his musical family, his older brother Elijah Yardumian, a concert pianist and a product of the Curtis Institute, who served as a musical mentor to his younger brother; about his career as a composer, and his early start to composing at age 14 even before he began his formal musical education. He discusses the twelve-note technique that he created (not the same as twelve-tone system, used in conjunction with the music of Schoenberg and other twelve-tone composers). The composer also discusses each of the following works, excerpts of which are then played during the interview: Armenian suite, Desolate city, Violin concerto (1949), Piano concerto (second and third movements) (1957), and two excerpts from the mass Come Creator Spirit: Holy, Holy, Holy (Sanctus) and Lamb of God (Agnus Dei) (dedicated to the 125th anniversary of Fordham University) (1966).
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Edward Albano (Rigoletto) ; Dorothy Chapman (Gilda) ; Mike Raggini (Duke) ; Imerio Ferrari (Sparafucile) ; Elizabeth Hoeppel (Madalena) ; Miguel Sandoval, conductor.
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
4 recordings
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
The collection consists of noncommercial recordings of radio broadcasts of primarily classical music. The largest portion of the collection consists of broadcast of The New York Philharmonic, with selected concerts from 1952-1963. Conductors of the New York Philharmonic concerts on these recordings include Franco Autori, Leonard Bernstein, Guido Cantelli, Dmitri Mitropoulos, Paul Paray, George Szell, and Bruno Walter. Guest soloists include Claudio Arrau, Robert Casadesus, Van Cliburn, Clifford Curzon, Rudolf Firkušný, Zino Francescatti, Jascha Heifetz, Myra Hess, Byron Janis, Martha Lipton, Artur Rubinstein, Irmgard Seefried, Rudolf Serkin, and Richard Tucker.
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
195 recordings
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
The collection consists of noncommercial recordings of radio broadcasts of primarily classical music. The largest portion of the collection consists of broadcast of The New York Philharmonic, with selected concerts from 1952-1963. Conductors of the New York Philharmonic concerts on these recordings include Franco Autori, Leonard Bernstein, Guido Cantelli, Dmitri Mitropoulos, Paul Paray, George Szell, and Bruno Walter. Guest soloists include Claudio Arrau, Robert Casadesus, Van Cliburn, Clifford Curzon, Rudolf Firkušný, Zino Francescatti, Jascha Heifetz, Myra Hess, Byron Janis, Martha Lipton, Artur Rubinstein, Irmgard Seefried, Rudolf Serkin, and Richard Tucker. Orchestras with a smaller representation of recordings in the collection include the Boston Symphony Orchestra in concerts conducted by Pierre Monteux and Charles Munch, the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Guido Cantelli and Pierre Monteux, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Eduard van Beinum, Josef Krips, and Rafael Kubelík. Opera recordings include selected Salzburg Festival broadcasts from 1952-1958, with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Rudolf Baumgartner, Karl Böhm, Joseph Keilberth, and Herbert von Karajan. Böhm also conducts for the 1956 reopening of the Vienna State Opera House. Bayreuth Festival productions from 1953 and 1954 are conducted by Joseph Keilberth, Hans Knappertsbusch, and Clemens Krauss. Bayreuth vocalists include Hans Braun, Gré Brouwenstijn, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Josef Greindl, Hans Hotter, Martha Mödl, and Eleanor Steber. Recordings of selected Firestone Hour (later the Voice of Firestone) programs from 1952 to 1956 contain opera, operetta, and orchestral selections as well as popular songs. Featured vocalists include Eugene Conley, Nadine Conner, Jerome Hines, Roberta Peters, Risë Stevens, and Ferruccio Tagliavini.
Content types:
Sounds and Other
Extent:
195 recordings
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Martin Bookspan interviews American composer of contemporary classical music Robert Moevs. Moevs talks about his teachers, Walter Piston and Nadia Boulanger; about both of his careers, as a teacher at Harvard University and Rutgers University, and as a composer; and about his students. He discusses each of the following works, excerpts of which are then played during the interview: Attis (text by G. Catullus Veronensis) (1958), A brief mass (for chorus, organ, vibraphone, guitar, and double bass) (1968), Phoenix (for solo piano )(1971), Et occidentem illustra (Dante) (for chorus and orchestra, based on Divina commedia by Dante Alighier) (1964).
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Martin Bookspan interviews composer and pedagogue Robert Starer. Starer talks about his career as a composer. He discusses in detail each of the following works, excerpts of which are then played during the interview: Dialogues (for clarinet and piano), On the nature of things: part 5. A little nonsense (anonymous text), and part 6. Grieve not, dear love ( words by John Digby, Earl of Bristol) (for mixed chorus, a cappella), Concerto (third and fourth movement, for violin, cello and orchestra), Concerto a tre (last movement, for clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and strings), and Symphony no. 3 (first and second movement) (1969).
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
The Rudy Grillo Sound Recordings consist of 56 audiotapes and papers relating to Grillo's work as a producer for WBAI-FM, a listener-supported radio station in New York City.
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
56 recordings
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
David Garland plays a compilation tape of various unidentified film music tracks composed by Ennio Morricone in the 1970s: Revolver (1972), Tre donne (Three women, 1971), Kill the fatted calf and eat it (1970), Veruschka (1971), Spazmo (1974), Forza G (1971) and other unidentified films. According to Garland, this is his "favorite driving tape". The tape was compiled for Garland by longtime listener Peter Muller. [Side A] (starts at 3:36) ; Side B (starts at 34:10)
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Martin Bookspan interviews American composer Stephen Albert. Albert discusses his life and career as a composer, and his passion to write music for the human voice. He also speaks about his work with the conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini. The composer discusses each of the following works, excerpts of which are then played during the interview: Supernatural songs (for soprano, piano, and chamber orchestra, words from W.B. Yeats' Supernatural songs) (1963), Leaves from the golden notebook (first movement), Winter songs (for tenor and orchestra), Wolf time (for soprano and orchestra with amplification, text from the Völuspá, the tenth century Icelandic edda) (1969), Bacchae (text extracted from Euripides ; translated by William Arrowsmith) (1968).
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
"In Stomp, the members of the Combine used music, scenes and film to talk about their lives and times. The group was predominately comprised of dropouts from various programs at the University of Texas, and the show explains in part their journey from college kids to hippies"
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Richard Tucker (Duke of Mantua) ; Adelaide Bishop (Gilda) ; Richard Meredith (Rigoletto) ; Ruth Slater (Maddalena) ; Robert Morton (Sparafucile) ; with featured dramatic players of Chicago Theatre of the Air ; Unidentified orchestra ; Henry Weber, conductor.
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
Teresa Sterne, pianist. Introduction (0:35) -- Chaconne in D minor : arr. from Violin partita, no. 2, BWV 1004 / J.S. Bach ; arr. by Busoni (14:19) -- Intermezzo in E flat minor / Brahms (5:09) -- 2 preludes, op 34, no. 2 and 10 / Shostakovich (4:10) -- Mephisto waltz / Liszt ; arr. by Busoni (12:12).
Content types:
Sounds
Extent:
1 recording
Repository/Collector:
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center