‘Classical Thursday’: Celebrating Black History
This week’s featured archive, celebrating Black History Month, is “Classical Thursday” with Nancy Vayhinger. The show, which aired on February 16th 2023, was themed “Redemption and Benediction.” Listen to the archive below!
The show featured…
🎵 — Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with Emmanuel Ax at the piano, for Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, a glorious and uplifting offering, as only Beethoven can be.
🎵 — A selection of modern pieces by young Black and Minority Ethnic English composers, including “The Spark Catchers,” a modern classical piece from 2020 by Hannah Kendall, inspired by the poem of Lemn Sissay, commemorating the 1888 “Matchstick Girls” strike at the Bryant and May match factory in London, where for decades women had been enduring disfiguring injuries from white phosphorous. This strike was one of the first in a labor movement that would ultimately become the Labor Party in England.
🎵 — And the sublime Jessye Norman (featured photo, from https://citaty.net/autori/jessye-norman/) singing a selection of African American spirituals from her 1981 recording Amazing Grace.
Show playlist:
- 2:02pm Mass in C Major, Op. 86: I. Kyrie by San Francisco Symphony on Mass in C Major, Op. 86: I. Kyrie (WMG – SFS Media), 2015
- 2:30pm Mass in C Major, Op. 86: IV. Sanctus by San Francisco Symphony on Mass in C Major, Op. 86: IV. Sanctus (WMG – SFS Media), 2015
- 2:48pm Anonymous: Steal Away by Jessye Norman on Amazing Grace (UMG – Decca Music Group Ltd.), 2013
- 2:51pm Anonymous: Were You There by Jessye Norman on Jessye Norman – Spirituals (Universal Music Ireland Ltd.), 1979
- 2:56pm Franck: Panis Angelicus, FWV 61, No.5 by Jessye Norman on The Essential Jessye Norman (UMG – Decca Music Group Ltd.), 2005
- 3:02pm The Green Fuse by Chineke! Orchestra/Anthony Parnther on Spark Catchers (NMC Recordings), 2020
- 3:13pm The Spark Catcher (Live) by Chineke! Orchestra/Kevin John Edusei on Spark Catchers (NMC Recordings), 2020
- 3:23pm Elegy (In Memoriam Stephen Lawrence) by Chineke! Orchestra/Anthony Parnther on Spark Catchers (NMC Recordings), 2020
- 3:33pm Trad / Arr Jennings : “Keep your hand on the plow” by Chanticleer on Trad / Arr Jennings : “Keep your hand on the plow” (WMG – Warner Classics International), 2006
- 3:36pm Trad / Arr Jennings : Poor Pilgrim – Medley by Chanticleer on Trad / Arr Jennings : Poor Pilgrim – Medley (WMG – Warner Classics International), 2006
- 3:52pm “Be still and know that I’m God” by Chanticleer on “Be still and know that I’m God” (WMG – Warner Classics International), 2006