This week’s focus is musical buffoonery! Music is a language, and like all others it has its jokes, witticisms, and puns. For composers, clowning around with music takes the same skills as writing a great symphony. And, these fun, charming works show the genius of the composers who have written them.
Clowning Around
Playlist
Episode 1
Rameau: La Poule from Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin
Christie, hps.
HM 901121
5:07
Satie: Parade
Minneapolis Symphony/Dorati
Merc 434335
14:23
Stravinsky: Pulcinella
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
DG 445541
22:34, 4:28
Satie: Sonatine Bureaucratique
Thibaudet, p.
Lon 470 290
3:12
Episode 2
Barber: Souvenirs (excerpts)
Browning & Slatkin, p.
RCA 60732
1:32, 8:16
Piston: Suite from The Incredible Flutist
St. Louis Symphony/Slatkin
RCA 60798
16:42
Stravinsky: Circus Polka & Greeting Prelude
London Phil/Mackerras
Classics for Pleasure 573441
3:35, :53
Ibert: Divertissement
Cincinnati Pops/Kunzel
Tela 80294
15:06
PDQ Bach: March of the Cute Little Wood Sprites
Turtle Mountain Naval Base Tactical Wind Ensemble
Tel 80307
1:13, 2:52
Episode 3
Mozart: Don Giovanni, Act I (excerpt)
Vienna Phil/Muti; Ramey, bs.
EMI 54255
5:45
Donizetti: Don Pasquale (excerpt)
Philharmonia Orchestra/Muti; Nucci, bar.; Bruscantini, bar.
EMI 47068
6:06
Puccini: Gianni Schicchi (excerpts)
LSO/Pappano; Gheorghiu, s.
EMI 56587
9:01, 2:05
Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (excerpts)
La Scala/Prêtre; Domingo, ten.; Pons, bar.
Phil 411484
10:01
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (excerpt)
CSO/Solti; Opie, bar.
Lon 452606
5:38
Wagner/Russell: The Ring of the Nibelungs (an analysis)
Anna Russell, n. & p.
Sony 47252
3:25
Schickele: Last Tango in Bayreuth
Tennessee Bassoon Quartet
Telarc 80307
2:40
Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia (excerpt)
LSO/Levine; Milnes, bar.
EMI 66040
4:34
Episode 4
Mozart: A Musical Joke (excerpts)
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Arab 6617
3:54, 1:02, 4:37
Hindemith: Ludus Tonalis (excerpt)
Mustonen, p.
Lon 444803
14:32
Haydn: Symphony No. 60,Il Distratto
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
DG 437783
25:06
Episode 5
Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Berlin Phil/Levine
DG 289 469 250
10:38
Kodaly: Hary Janos, I, II, IV & VI
Montreal Symphony/Dutoit
Lon 444322
12:52
Mozart (arr.), Chopin (arr.): Hoffnung Music Festival (excerpts)
Hoffnung Symphony Orchestra
EMI 63302
1:24, 5:19
Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28
Philharmonia Orchestra/Leinsdorf
EMI 65613
14:31
Sousa: Liberty Bell March
Eastman Wind Ensemble/Fennell
Mercury 434300
4:37