Merry Christmas!
Every year at this time we honor the memory of the great German-American musicologist, Karl Haas, host of the nationally syndicated radio program, Adventures in Good Music. Airing between 1970 and 2007, it was radio’s most widely listened-to classical music program. Following the show’s theme music, the second movement of Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Sonata, Haas would utter his trademark greeting, “Hello everyone.” One of the most popular episodes, The Story of the Bells, aired every year on Christmas Eve, and documented bell ringing throughout Europe and the Middle East.
Here are two recordings of the bells of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral which were made prior to the devastating fire of April, 2019. Now the bells ring out again celebrating the Cathedral’s rebirth.
A Cathedral Reborn
Here is an excerpt from the reopening ceremony of Notre Dame on December 7, 2024. Gustavo Dudamel leads Ariane Delacroix and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in the Pie Jesu from Fauré’s Requiem:
Featured Image: “Le Quai Saint-Michel et Notre-Dame”(1901), Maximilien Luce