On Now

John Birge
Listen to the Stream
  • On the Town: Lonely Town 9:18 Leonard Bernstein
    Orchestra of St. Luke's
    Dawn Upshaw, s
    Buy Now
  • Rhapsody in Blue 9:00 George Gershwin
    Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
    Erich Kunzel
    Eugene List, piano
    Buy Now
Playlist
Other MPR Radio Streams
Choral Stream
MPR News
Radio Heartland

You can now listen to Classical and Choral Music on your iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) or Android device.

Blog Archive

October 2011
S M T W T F S
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          


Master Archive

Recent Entries

Categories

Contact Us

Purchase the Music

  • Buy the music you've heard on-air! Your purchase helps support our classical service.
    ArkivMusic

Services

Classical Notes

Classical Notes: October 12, 2011 Archive

< October 11, 2011 | Main | October 14, 2011 >

The SPCO: Bach - The Art of the Fugue

Posted at 12:14 AM on October 12, 2011 by ClassicalMPR
Filed under: Johann Sebastian Bach

This Thursday through Saturday (Oct. 13-15), The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra is exploring selections from J.S. Bach's The Art of the Fugue.

From their site:

This season, for the first time in the orchestra's history, the SPCO presents Bach's Art of Fugue, the monumental cycle of fugues and canons left unfinished at the composer's death. The first of two programs, this concert honors The Art of Fugue as the epitome of musical craft by prefacing it with Mendelssohn's Sinfonia No. 12, and Leon Kirchner's Music for 12, a masterpiece of the twentieth-century repertoire.


Here, Patrick Castillo, Director of Artistic Planning, discusses Art of Fugue.

Ticket information and details are available on the SPCO site.

Broadcasts of our extensive Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra recordings can be heard Monday nights at 8 p.m. on Classical MPR stations and webstream.

The London Philharmonic Makes Video Game Music Record

Posted at 3:30 PM on October 12, 2011 by Emily Reese (1 Comments)

The London Philharmonic is set to release an album full of video game favorites on November 8.

This is an upward trend, if classical knows what's good for it. Thousands upon thousands of people started listening to classical music back in the days of powerhouse film composers like Bernard Herrmann, Ennio Morricone, Elmer Bernstein and, of course, John Williams. I don't have statistics on hand, but this is a blog, so I don't need them. It's a fact, though, because it's how I got into it, and how dozens of my friends got into classical music.

And video game music is how today's generation has an opportunity to become interested in buying concert tickets and classical albums.

I witnessed this firsthand when I attended Video Games Live! at Orchestra Hall in January. The hall was as full as always, with droves of fanboys and fangirls cheering and singing along to all their favorite orchestral pieces from all their favorite video games.

There are 21 tracks on the album - music includes Mass Effect, Legend of Zelda, Uncharted, Oblivion, Halo and more.

I'm glad the London Phil is catching on, especially in light of this news from yesterday; I very much doubt this will be their final dip in the gaming pool, and for that, I thank them.

In addition to being an on-air host on Classical MPR, Emily Reese hosts and produces "Top Score" a podcast about video game music

Comment on this post

Become a Sponsor