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Evening Music

Friday, December 24, 2004
  • Handel Messiah - Sir Thomas Beecham - Rca
    Handel Messiah - Sir Thomas Beecham (Rca)

    Christmas Eve

    Christmas Eve. What a perfect time to listen to Handel’s Messiah. WNYC pulls out all the stops with this broadcast of Sir Thomas Beecham's classic 1959 recording. And just wait till you see who the performers are...

This is a Messiah from the late romantic British tradition, with a lush orchestration by Sir Eugene Goosens, a huge chorus, and some of the biggest operatic voices of the day: soprano Jennifer Vyvyan, mezzo Monica Sinclair, tenor Jon Vickers, bass Giorgio Tozzi, alto Catherine Robbin, and tenor Bruce Fowler. Handel himself couldn't have imagined the grandeur of his masterpiece in this performance. Would he have approved? It's impossible to say, but the results are certainly impressive.

But first, just to warm us up, some traditional and not so traditional Christmas music, from “I Wonder as I Wander” to Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.” Turn out all the lights but those on your tree, and perhaps a candle or two, and settle back for an evening a great Christmas music.

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The Mostly Mozart Festival on WNYC

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This year's annual Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center is rife with sounds stretching the spectrum of Requiems, Metamorphoses, and Passions — including the American premiere of composer-in-residence Kaija Saariaho's tale of the sufferings of French mystic Simone Weil, who died of starvation in protest to the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1943.

Deerhoof/Metropolis Ensemble Live Webcast

Evening Music

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Related Links:
Video: Deerhoof fans perform leaked track for WNYC
View photos from the concert
Deerhoof on Spinning on Air (March 18, 2007)
NPR Music
Metropolis Ensemble
Deerhoof
Celebrate Brooklyn!
Wordless Music
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Wordless Music

Concerts on Demand

WNYC presents web-exclusive concerts from the Wordless Music Series, hosted by Radio Lab's Jad Abumrad. Devoted to the desegregation of musical boundaries, Wordless Music pairs rock and electronic musicians with more traditional chamber and new music performers, to create an entirely new concert experience.

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