Culture

Philadelphia’s Wanamaker Organ: Power, Warmth, and Lyricism

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Last week, Macy’s announced that it is closing its Center City Philadelphia store in the iconic Wanamaker’s Building. Built between 1904 and 1911 during the ascendancy of Wanamaker’s department store, the magnificent Beaux-Arts structure was designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham. Flanked by majestic columns, and clad in polished marble, its soaring seven-story tall central atrium culminates in a Renaissance-style mosaic ceiling. For shoppers, this Grand Court functioned as a bustling indoor …

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Bells and the Rebirth of Notre Dame

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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 …

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Peter Schickele’s “Last Tango in Bayreuth”: An Awful Lot of Bassoons

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Last Wednesday, May 22, marked the 211th anniversary of Wagner’s birth. During his lifetime, the German Romanticist became a cult-like figure, revealing magical new orchestral colors and pushing tonality and formal scale to their ecstatic limits. In contrast with Brahms the traditionalist, Wagner appeared to offer a radical new vision. Looking back on Wagner’s work, Claude Debussy more accurately described it as “a beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a dawn.” The …

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Remembering Peter Schickele, Zany Creator of “P.D.Q. Bach”

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Peter Schickele, the American composer and classical music satirist, passed away on January 16, 2024 at his home in Bearsville, New York. He was 88. Born in Ames, Iowa, Schickele was a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Juilliard School. He studied with Roy Harris and Vincent Persichetti. As a composer, he produced numerous symphonic, choral, and chamber works, as well as music for film and the Broadway stage. Yet, he will …

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The Bells of Saint Petersburg

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At The Listeners’ Club, every Christmas we remember Karl Haas, the German-American musicologist and host of the long-running radio program, Adventures in Good Music. One of the program’s most popular episodes, The Story of the Bells, aired for many years on Christmas Eve. It documented the varied sounds of church bells across Europe and the Middle East. As the bells of Zurich faded away in the episode’s opening moments, with infectious enthusiasm Haas declared, …

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“I Stood on De Ribber Ob Jerdon”: Marian Anderson

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During a career which spanned forty years, the American contralto Marian Anderson (1897-1993) performed at major concert venues which included the Metropolitan Opera. Her repertoire included opera, lieder, and African American spirituals. In 1939, when segregation prevented her from singing at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C., Anderson performed at an open air Easter Sunday concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, which was organized with the assistance of Eleanor Roosevelt. The integrated …

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The Bells of Vienna/Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Christmas Carols”

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Today’s post celebrates the memory of Karl Haas, the German-American musicologist and host of the long-running radio program, Adventures in Good Music. One of the program’s most popular episodes, The Story of the Bells, aired for many years on Christmas Eve. It documented the varied sounds of church bells across Europe and the Middle East. In Haas’ words, “It’s an awesome sound…a sound which leaves no room for human voices.” To continue this tradition, …

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