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KPAC Blog

The KPAC Blog features classical music news and analysis from all our classical hosts. From Ron Moore's detailed look at Wagner's masterpiece "Parsifal," to an inside look at the Latin Grammys from James Baker, the KPAC Blog features writings about some of the music played on air as well as other interviews and essays about classical music.

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Classical Spotlight
9:48 am
Wed May 1, 2013

Mastersingers Get Sendoff For Italy At Little Flower Basilica

Credit John Clare / Texas Public Radio
Conductor John Silantien
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“Bella Italia” will feature music to be performed by the San Antonio Mastersingers and the University of Texas at San Antonio Concert Choir in Italy, May 12–21. The program begins with Giovanni Palestrina’s "Ave Maria", "composed for St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican in Rome, where we've been invited to sing a Mass during this tour," says John Silantien, conductor of the groups.

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Classical Spotlight
9:15 am
Wed May 1, 2013

Children's Chorus Celebrates The Magic Within

Credit Chris Eudaily/TPR
Marguerite McCormick
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The Children's Chorus of San Antonio performs their annual Spring Song this Sunday at 3 p.m., with a theme "The Magic Within." 

Artistic Director and Founder Marguerite McCormick is excited for the program.

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Classical Spotlight
12:30 pm
Tue April 30, 2013

"Rite of Spring" Right On Target With Lux Musicae

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Credit courtesy of the artist
John Godoy conducts Stravinsky
Credit courtesy of the artist
Rehearsing the Rite of Spring
Credit courtesy of the artist
Conductor and Percussionist John Godoy
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There is a lot of attention being paid to Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." The ballet caused a riot at its premiere back in May 1913, and 100 years later is still gathering audiences. San Antonio audiences saw the Joffrey Ballet perform it on tour with pre-recorded music back in March.

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KPAC Blog
9:34 am
Tue April 30, 2013

Fairouz Fills Native Informant With New Sounds

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Credit courtesy of the artist
Composer Mohammed Fairouz
Credit courtesy of the artist
Just out on Naxos Records
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Not many composers under 30 years old can say they have had a Carnegie Hall premiere - or several recordings of their music. Mohammed Fairouz laughed when I mentioned that by the age of 26 he had accomplished this and more: "No, I'm only 27!" he said.

The latest from the Arab-American composer is called "Native Informant," out on the Naxos label, which features violinist Rachel Barton Pine in the title track.

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KPAC Blog
8:52 am
Tue April 30, 2013

Dynamic Duo Brings Spanish Flair To New Release

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Credit courtesy of the artist
New from Avie Records
Credit courtesy of the artist
Pablo Sainz Villegas
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The latest release from Augustin Hadelich and Pablo Sainz Villegas is hot! "Histoire du Tango" is filled with passion, flair, and a lot of notes - featuring music from Astor Piazzolla, Manuel de Falla, Nicolo Paganini, and Pablo de Sarasate.

"A mutual friend in New York introduced us, and we played at an Embassy," says guitarist Pablo Sainz Villegas. "It was so much fun, and we understood each other musically." So Villegas and Hadelich decided to record some of the works they played that night.

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The Two-Way
4:09 pm
Sun April 28, 2013

Janos Starker, A Master Of The Cello, Dies At 88

Credit Erich Auerbach / Getty Images
Hungarian-born American cellist Janos Starker died Sunday at 88. Starker's career included more than 165 recordings, as well as decades of teaching.
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Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 9:24 am

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KPAC blog
11:15 am
Sun April 28, 2013

Beethoven's Ultimate Piano Sonata, No. 32 in c minor

Luckily Beethoven could read his writing!
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Ultimate, a word that originally meant last in Latin has become a description of finest or best in English
or ne plus ultra in French. It can be argued that Beethoven's last or ultimate sonata fits both definitions.

Coming near the end of a life of breaking barriers and exercising his considerable will, the composer's last
sonatas are artistic works that have earned their immortality.

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Deceptive Cadence
12:04 am
Sat April 27, 2013

Madame Mao's Hollywood Fantasies

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Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see+ Gallery, Beijing, and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
A Chinese and a North Korean embrace in a pledge of everlasting (political) love. From Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
The "model works" engineered by Jiang Qing combine elements of 1930s Hollywood fantasy, Peking opera and classical ballet with heaping doses of political dogma.The Red Detachment of Women, 1973.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
The aesthetics of classical Peking opera, with its stylized performing techniques and facial gestures, was an important element of the "model works" that Jiang Qing and her collaborators created. Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, 1969.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
Another Zhang still from Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of see+ Gallery, Beijing, and Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto
Photographer Zhang Yaxin created incredible and indelible images as stills from the array of "model" operas and ballets planned and sanctioned by the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution.A Chinese and North Korean solider embrace in Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971.
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit courtesy of Naxos
Credit Zhang Yaxin / Courtesy of the see Gallery, Beijing and the Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto.
Some of the model works were expanded into a range of theatrical, politically acceptable iterations. First composed as an opera in 1964, The White-Haired Girl was also adapted into an opera-ballet and a film. The White Haired Girl, 1974.
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By Anastasia Tsioulcas

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 3:56 pm

During the chaos and oppression of China's Cultural Revolution, one curious new theatrical genre was born — and it was the child of the Communist Party. Jiang Qing (a.ka. Madame Mao), a former stage and screen actress and the notorious wife of Mao Zedong, led the creation of yang ban xi: "model works" that were meant, in words attributed to Chairman Mao, to "serve the interests of the workers, peasants, and soldiers and [conforming] to proletarian ideology."

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Classical Spotlight
2:47 pm
Thu April 25, 2013

'Blue Shades' And More From Composer Ticheli At TLU

Credit Charlie Grosso
Composer/Conductor Frank Ticheli
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Friday night marks the return of Frank Ticheli to Texas. He grew up near Dallas playing trumpet, studied composition at SMU and Michigan, and taught at Trinity University for several years.

Currently a USC professor, Ticheli will lead seven of his works with members of the Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble at Texas Lutheran University.

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KPAC Blog:
2:45 pm
Thu April 25, 2013

The Last Sonatas, Beethoven And Composing For The Ages

Rembrandt's depiction of the crucifixion, The Three Crosses.
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It is scary to realize that some of our planet's great art is there for what at the time was an accidental circumstance.

In 1819 Moritz Schlesinger, a music publisher, met with Beethoven and bargained for 60 songs and 3 piano sonatas. These were his last three piano sonatas - the pinnacle of his Late period - and took longer because of illness and other work.

Because of these circumstances there was talk of dropping the sonatas from the contract. The Piano Sonata No. 31 was finished Christmas Day 1821.

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