This coffee break wraps up the discussion on hidden messages or symbols in music. In a whirlwind, we check out the music of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Modest Mussorgsky, and Mr. Somers himself to investigate the story behind the music. So

#154 The Reflection of the Sacred - The Hidden Messages of Bach and Mozart

Mar 3rd, 2020 23m 6s

This coffee break circles back to Bach, always a wonderful thing, to explore additional hidden signatures in his Mass in B Minor. We listen to the Credo, Gloria, 0 and Et in terra pax to hear how the structure of the composition reflects his re

#153 Bach's Easter Eggs

Feb 25th, 2020 28m 25s

This coffee break continues its discussion about composers hidden signals or messages (Easter Eggs) in their compositions. We take a close look at JS Bach and the Art of the Fugue and listen to his signature name in the piece. We question why h

#152 Tchaikovsky's Hidden Message

Feb 18th, 2020 25m 11s

Was there a message hidden in a phrase of Tchaikovsky's Symphony #6 in B Minor? Was there a connection with this hidden phrase and the composer's death only 9 days after he conducted the piece? This coffee break tries to answer those questions

# 151 The Opera Ain't Over Until ...

Feb 4th, 2020 25m 53s

This coffee break wraps up our discussion on the challenges of appreciating opera. This time we listen to music which helps underscore the action and see how it adds another layer to the opera experience by listening to excerpts from Bellini's

#150 I Can Get it for You Wholesale - The Cost of Attending Opera

Jan 28th, 2020 22m 14s

This coffee break continues discussing the challenges to opera attendance. On the list for this show--Ticket price. The overwhelming spectacle of opera can't be conjured on the cheap. We listen to the magnificence of Verdi's Don Carlos and Wagn

#149 Endless Opera - The length of a performance

Jan 21st, 2020 22m 36s

The length of time of a performance is one of many reasons to avoid opera in this day and age. After we sneak a peek at how opera is used in some movies, this coffee break examines the length of time that opera takes to perform. We look at Moz

#148 What's Opera, Doc?

Jan 15th, 2020 22m 17s

Opera! Haters gonna hate. Mark Twain once said, "I know of no agony comparable to the listening to an unfamiliar opera… that sort of intense but incoherent noise which always so reminds me of the time the orphan asylum burned down.” Mr. Herro

#147 "O Fortuna" Big and Small

Jan 7th, 2020 26m 2s

We are going backwards in this coffee break. For the past few shows we have heard how composers have expanded the sound of previous composer's works. This time we start off with a larger version of Carmina Burana then go smaller. Orff's discipl

# 146 Maurice Covers Modest - Continuing Examining Pictures at an Exhibition

Dec 30th, 2019 25m 46s

This coffee break continues the exploration of how Maurice Ravel's orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition launches the piece into a different realm of sound. But does Ravel's version really give the sense of claustrophob

#145 Sampling Offenbach - Composers Reworking Others' Compositions

Dec 17th, 2019 23m 30s

This coffee break revisits the idea of composers reworking and revitalizing works of composers long-dead. More than 50 years after Offenbach's death, his Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffmann was reworked by Manuel Rosenthal for Diaghelev Ballet Ru

#144 Play It Again, Modest - Classical Covers

Dec 10th, 2019 23m 20s

This coffee break explores how composers update their own or other composers' work to expand on themes or sometimes change the piece completely. Mr. Somers discusses his piano work Christmas Pastorale and how 48 years later arranged it to inclu

#143 The Last Words on Silence - Orff, Mahler, and Sibelius

Dec 3rd, 2019 22m 29s

This coffee break wraps up the discussion on the use of silence and pauses to dramatically frame music. We delve into Carl Orff's Carmina Burana masterpiece which warns about the power of luck and fate. Mahler's 10th Symphony shows how the bass

# 142 Yakking About Silence - Negative Space as a Frame

Nov 26th, 2019 20m 59s

This coffee break continues its wordy discussion about the power of silence in music. We listen to a Bach piece (CPE Bach, that is) that illustrates the importance of cadence points in creating drama and surprise. Is there a joke hidden in a Ha

#141 Silence Has So Much to Say - Exploring Negative Space

Nov 19th, 2019 20m 57s

Music grows out of the silence that precedes it, so says Mr. Somers in this discussion how silence, or hesitation, can make a piece of music extraordinary. We listen to the Mahler's Third Symphony to hear how pauses can make the musical experie

#140 - Nose to the Grindstone - A Last Look at Making a Living While Chasing the Dream

Nov 12th, 2019 25m 36s

This coffee break complete the exploration of how composers supported themselves while chasing their passion of music. Debussy lived in a Russia as a piano teacher in the house of a patron. Dvorak had to move to England to get fair compensation

#139 Working Class Heroes - Composers in a Gig Economy

Nov 6th, 2019 23m 39s

YCCB continues its review of the economic life of composers and musicians. We look at Bizet who struggled financially most of his life and even was a music transcriber to support himself. Sadly for him, the popularity of his music came after hi

#138 Hard Way To Make An Easy Living - The Rise of the Conductor

Oct 29th, 2019 21m 21s

This coffee break continues the discussion of how the greats of classical music made a living. We discuss how the the size and complexity of the new compositions made the creation of the conductor a necessity--a new job was formed. Louis Spohr,

#137 Genius on Commission - Composers Become Free Agents

Oct 22nd, 2019 28m 43s

This coffee break continues the discussion on how classical composers and musicians made a living. We followed the trail of patronage by the Church and by royalty, but support of artists developed in other areas. Arcangelo Corelli's Christmas C

# 136 Takin' Care of Business - How JS Bach Made a Living

Oct 15th, 2019 25m 35s

Your Classical Coffee Break returns to the topic of what artists must do to support themselves. We listen to Giovanni Gabrieli's Canon in 12 in Echo and discuss his success in working within the Church structure. Then we turn to JS Bach and dis

#135 Working for a Living

Oct 8th, 2019 23m 18s

This coffee break begins the discussion on how artists support themselves as they pursue their passion. To explore this subject, at least pertaining to Western Culture, Mr. Somers goes back 1,000 years to see how artistry and the Church were in

#134 No Emotions Please!

Oct 1st, 2019 22m 14s

This coffee break follows the evolution of the twelve-tone movement right into the post-Webern period. First off, we listen to Eliot Carter's Concert for Orchestra and a composition by Milton Babbitt to hear how abstract the sound had become in

# 133 Alban Berg and Anton Webern - 12 Tone Contrasting Styles

Sep 24th, 2019 22m 6s

This coffee break we take a listen to Alban Berg's startling opera Wozzeck, called an "emblematic opera of the 1920s, a harbinger of the unease and aching void of the 20thcentury, haunted by war and death, the misery of the human condition set

#132 Can't Find Our Way Home - Twelve Tone Compositions

Sep 17th, 2019 23m 21s

This coffee break tries to find it's way home in the twelve tone composition world by listening to music by Arnold Schoenberg, particularly pieces that seem like waltzes and marches, and particularly his highly influential Pierrot Lunaire. We e