Richard Strauss. We’ve all heard his music, or at least a little bit. We've all heard the awesome opening to Strauss uber-famous 1896 tone poem, Also Sprach Zarathustra. At least the first minute and fifty seconds or so, the Sonnenaufgang, or Sunrise. It’s the opening music for 2001, A Space Odyssey, and when I heard it, at age nine, it changed my life. The tone poem is based on a work by Friedrich Nietzsche. You don’t need to read the book. But you do need to hear Richard Strauss’s symphonic treatment of it. Richard Strauss was born on June 11, 1864, and he lived until the 8th of September 1949. Strauss enjoyed enormous success and fame in his life. And he saw his reputation destroyed. But he won it back. As Alex Ross, classical music critic for The New Yorker puts it, Strauss was “a supremely wily character.” But we’re here for the music.

Gustav Mahler and Symphony No. 2 in C Minor. Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, or Resurrection, came together in Mahler’s head after he heard the German Romantic era poem Auferstehung (Resurrection) at a colleague’s memorial service.

Jean Sibelius is known primarily for his symphonies and tone poems, and his achievements in these two forms are profound. Starting with Finlandia and continuing through En Saga and finishing with Tapiola, Sibelius displayed a mastery of the form. And his achievements in the symphony are no less profound. This edition starts with Symphony Number 1 in E Minor and finishes with the extraordinary one-movement Symphony Number 7 in C Major.

This edition of Classical And a Bit More, in honor of May Day, or International Workers’ Day, is devoted to music of protest, of resistance, and of pointed commentary on injustice. Included are British, American, Mexican, and Argeninian musicians; and this edition ends with the complete cast recording of the 1976 Lincoln Center Production of The Three Penny Opera.

Pesach, or Passover, is on April 22 this year. This holiday commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. For this occasion, Classical And a Bit More is starting with Kiddush followed by “Go Down Moses,” sung by Louis Armstrong. Then, starting the thread of the “other classical musics,” this edition showcases the music of the Sephardic Israeli musician Galeet Dardashti. The program finishes with Klezmer music by David Terras.

Jean Sibelius was born on the 8th of December 1865 in Hämeenlinna, in what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland, part of Czarist Russia. When Sibelius’s was in his teens, he came to embrace Finnish identity, learning Finnish. Sibelius went on to become a national hero, especially after Finland won independence from Russia in 1917. Before Sibelius took up composition, he was an ardent violinist. Kullervo is based on the Kalevala, which is an epic poem by Elias Lönnrot compiled from old Finnish and Karelian folk tales and myths from pre-Christian Finland. In other words, the Kalevala is a retelling of pagan mythology. Kullervo is a part of this epic poem. The poem played a major part in the independence movement of Finland in the nineteenth century.

Franz Liszt was born on the 22nd of October, 1811, in the Hungarian village of Doborján. And from a young age Liszt was recognized as a prodigy. Liszt’s performance debut at age 11 was a huge success. He went on to have a long and fabulously successful career. By 1840, he was touring Europe, greeted by rapturous crowds. This was “Lisztomania,” as described by Heinrich Heine. His piano playing set the standard for a century. And his compositions always point in new directions. This program features Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major; Liszt’s extraordinary Piano Sonata in B Minor; two of Liszt’s tone poems (a Lisztian invention); three etudes dedicated to Niccolò Paganini; and a rhapsody.

Thea Musgrave was born in Barnton, a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 27th of May, 1928. She was educated at the University of Edinburgh. From 1950 to 1954, Musgrave lived in Paris and studied with the composer Nadia Boulanger. That must have been a great time to live in Paris. And Boulanger was an extraordinary composer and teacher. The list of Boulanger’s students reads a bit like a who’s who of Twentieth Century music. Musgrave is a very prolific composer. Her catalog is quite extensive and includes numerous orchestral works as well as over a dozen operas. And she has a lively intellect. Concerning her views on being a woman composer, Musgave said, “Yes I am a woman, and I am a composer. Musgrave’s advice to young composers was, "Don't do it, unless you have to. And if you do, enjoy every minute of it." There is little doubt that Musgrave has loved her career. This edition features the “Concerto for Orchestra,” “Helios,” “Night Music,” “Memento Vitae,” “Loch Ness,” and a series of instrumental pieces discussing the various types of automobile drivers.

Barbara Strozzi was born in Venice on August 9, 1619. By the time Strozzi was twelve years old, her musical talents had developed remarkably. By age fifteen, Strozzi was a a skilled player of the lute and the theorbo in addition to her singing. At that time, Strozzi commenced the study of composition with the noted composer Francesco Cavalli. By the time Strozzi was seventeen, two volumes of her songs were published under the title Bizzarrie poetiche (poetic oddities), and her singing was gaining wide renown. Much of Strozzi’s work hints at gender disparities and challenges the gender roles of the time.

Florence Price, the wonderful African-American composer you’ve probably never heard of was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on April 9, 1887. That’s seventy years before Little Rock High was integrated. Florence Price composed symphonies, violin concertos, piano concertos, song cycles, solo piano music, and a lot more. Her life was marked by the obstacles thrown in her path for no reasons other than gender and race. And her achievements were remarkable.

La Traviata is a tragedy. I’m not going to say any more about the plot than that. I am going to invite you to listen to Maria Callas’s singing, her phrasing, her expressiveness, and her command of the part. Followed by Verdi’s Messa de Requiem, often just called the Verdi Requiem. This extraordinary work was composed in 1873 in memory of the Italian novelist and philosopher Alessandro Manzoni, whom Verdi greatly admired.

Die Dreigroschenoper. The Three Penny Opera. Die Dreigroschenoper. The Three Penny Opera. One of the great theatrical works of Weimar and, for that matter, of the entire Twentieth Century. Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann and collaborators put together of the more compelling pieces of musical theatre, using John Gay's 1728 Beggar's Opera as a starting point. Brecht moved the action to the eve of Queen Victoria's inauguration. There are half a dozen irresistible characters. And it's all set to the enticing, seductive music of Kurt Weill. The remarkable songs include Mackie Messer (Mack the Knife); Kanonensong, Brecht's scathing send-up of British imperialism; Liebeslied, a great song of romantic longing; Die Ballade von der Sexuellen Hörigkeit ("The Ballad of Sexual Dependency"); Zuhälter Ballade (usually known as "Tango Ballad"); Ballade vom angenehmen Leben (“Ballad of Good Living”), MacHeath’s celebration of living high on the hog; Pirate Jenny, the great song of working class revenge; Das Lied von der Unzulänglichkeit Menschlichen Strebens ("The Song of the Insufficiency of Human Striving"); and Salomonsong, perhaps the most direct critique of greatness ever. All asking the question, "Wovon left Der Mensch?" ("How Does the Human Live?"). The original production itself was chaotic. Reportedly the producer was looking for a replacement show just hours before opening. This recording, from 1988, features the great Ute Lemper singing the role of Polly Peacham and the fierce and unforgettable Italian singer Milva in the role of Jenny. The program rounds out with a few selections from Ute Lemper's work, two renditions of Three Penny Opera songs by the German rock band Slut, and concludes with Cristina's brutally beautiful East Village version of Tango Ballade, "The Song of Immoral Earnings".

Giuseppe Verdi wrote La Traviata at a time in his life when he was living openly with his lover, Giuseppina Strepponi. The plot of La Traviata concerns one Violetta Valéry, a famous and wealthy courtesan. She is putting on a great bash to celebrate her recovery from a recent illness. Violetta’s current lover is Baron Douphol. But a young man, Alfredo Germont, really loves her. Violetta is interested, but she also wants her freedom. Alas, Alfredo is impecunious. And Alfredo’s family is not at all thrilled with his happy relationship with a courtesan. In this performance, the role of Violetta is sung by the great Maria Callas in the famous 1958 Covent Garden, London performance. I have to think that Violetta’s travails, and the travails of other singers of this role, had to resonate with Callas

The Mahler obsession. And it’s an obsession. Gustav Mahler’s life and career spanned the transition between romanticism and modernism. He offered suffered from ill health. Mahler was born in 1860 and died in 1911. Yet during those 51 years he conducted several major European orchestras and was briefly conductor of the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. All the while writing nine symphonies and more. Gustav Mahler was by often imperious and at the same time depressed. His relations with musicians were often bad. Mahler was an uncompromising perfectionist. Musicians who worked under his direction were often full of admiration colored with hatred of him.

We know Johann Sebastian Bach for the almost mathematical precision of his work, beautiful mathematical precision, and behind that, Bach's extraordinary passion. Bach's passion meant he did his own tuning. And he wanted to lay a path forward for others. Out of that Bach provided Das Wohltempierte Klavier, or the Well-tempered Clavier. A clavier was an early version of the piano, and this work, or rather, this collection of 48 pieces of music, consists of 24 preludes and fugues in every key in the tuning system we have come to know was “western.” The Well-tempered Clavier starts out with C major, then goes to C Minor, and then C Sharp major, and so on. And every one of these works stands alone as a beautiful piece of music. All in service of being in tune.

To hear Beethoven the way Beethoven's contemporaries heard him, we need period instruments in ensembles balanced as they were back then. And attention to period details. And the person to take us there is Jordi Savall, directing Les Concerts des Nations. Beethoven's Seventh Symphony in A Major represented a turning point in his career. And Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in D Minor, premiering just three year's before his death, states powerfully Beethoven's hopes and ideals.