Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

PNB Scores to Be Broadcast Live on the Radio


Recommended Posts

I don't know how I missed this, but local radio station KING-FM, which is accessible over the internet, is broadcasting live from PNB four times this season, beginning on Friday, 25 September at 7:30pm PDT (10:30pm EDT) with Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet".

http://www.king.org/pages/4029853.php

(Click the "Listen Online" button.)

Link to the info on the PNB website:

http://www.pnb.org/Season/09-10/RomeoJuliette/#EventsOffers

The other scores aren't listed, and I don't see a press release in the "News Room" part of the website. I wouldn't be surprised if "The Sleeping Beauty" and "Coppelia" were among them, too.

There should be more audience reaction noise than in a concert version, but what an unusual idea.

Has any other ballet company done this?

Link to comment

I've heard tap dancers on the radio before, as part of an interview, but I cannot remember if there's been another live broadcast of a dance performance. Here's a copy of the press release, including the dates for the other programs (the other three program-length productions this year)

tune in tomorrow!

Pacific Northwest Ballet Partners with Classical KING FM for Four Live Broadcasts of Season Ballets!

98.1 fm or online at www.king.org/listen

Roméo et Juliette

7:30 pm, Friday, September 25, 2009

Music by Sergei Prokofiev (Op. 64, 1935-36)

Nutcracker

7:30 pm, Friday, November 27, 2009

Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Op. 71, 1891-92)

The Sleeping Beauty

7:30 pm, Friday, February 5, 2010

Music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Op. 66, 1889)

Coppélia

7:30 pm, Friday, June 4, 2010

Music by Leo Delibes (Coppélia, ou la Fille aux Yeux d’Émail, 1869-70; with excerpts from Sylvia, ou la Nymphe de Diane, 1876, and La Source [Naïla], 1866)

SEATTLE, WA — Pacific Northwest Ballet is proud to announce a new partnership with KING FM, bringing the classical music station’s listeners live performances by the PNB Orchestra performing some of the most popular ballet scores of all time. Tune in this season to hear Romeo et Juliette, Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, and Coppelia. The live broadcasts begin tomorrow with Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s tragic tale of tenderness and violence, stunningly scored by Sergei Prokofiev. Listen to KING FM on Friday, September 25 at 7:30 pm on 98.1 fm or online at www.king.org/listen.

For the rest of the season’s broadcasts, see the listings above.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) was a leading Soviet composer and brilliant pianist. He left Russia in 1918 and lived in Germany and Paris for the next sixteen years, with frequent trips to America for concert appearances. In 1934, he settled in Moscow and composed prolifically until his death. Among his best known works are the ballet scores Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella and Prodigal Son; the opera The Love for Three Oranges; the children's classic, Peter and the Wolf; the film score and cantata for Alexander Nevsky; and the Classical Symphony.

The first Soviet performance of Romeo and Juliet was given at the Kirov Theater on January 11, 1940. Preceding the first performance there were many disagreements between the choreographer, Leonid Lavrovsky, and Prokofiev. The dancers failed to understand the music; and the orchestra, in a last-ditch effort to avoid a disaster, tried to cancel the performance. Despite so little hope for success, the ballet was well received and has been popular ever since. Prokofiev's glorious ballet score is frequently called his masterpiece. Its thematic melodies— by turns sweetly tender, sweepingly passionate, hotly fierce and chillingly eerie—provide counterpoint and impart eloquent support to the narrative.

Léo Delibes (1836–1891) was born in St. Germain de Val and died in Paris. He learned music as a child from his mother and uncle. Renowned as a composer for dance, he had a gift for illustrating action, creating atmosphere, and inspiring movement. Although he spent many years as a church organist, he was drawn more to the theater, and he composed many light operas. The decisive advance in his career came in 1870, with his full-length ballet Coppélia, which includes melodic national dances, descriptive passages introducing the main characters, and musical effects that have captures audiences for more than 100 years.

George Balanchine wrote, “I have often said that Delibes is one of my favorite composers for dance. In our new Coppélia, we used the entire score of the three-act version. The first dance drama of really uniform excellence deserves no less! No part of the ballet is subordinate to any other; most important of all, ballet music in Coppélia participates in the dance drama as never before. Delibes’ charming, melodic music assisting the plot and unifying the music and dance. Tchaikovsky was greatly inspired by Delibes’ score to write his own ballet music. Delibes is the first great ballet composer; Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky are his successors.”

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) studied at the Conservatory in St. Petersburg, where George Balanchine later studied piano in addition to his studies in dance. Tchaikovsky is one of the most popular and influential of all romantic composers. His work is expressive, melodic, and grand in scale, with rich orchestrations. His output was prodigious and included chamber works, symphonies, concerti for various instruments, operas, and works for the piano. His works for the ballet include Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker, the latter two composed in close collaboration with choreographer Marius Petipa.

Balanchine had a special affinity for Tchaikovsky. “In everything that I did to Tchaikovsky’s music,” he told an interviewer, “I sensed his help. It wasn’t real conversation. But when I was working and saw that something was coming of it, I felt that it was Tchaikovsky who had helped me.”

# # #

Link to comment

Interesting idea, and a lot more adventurous than just playing a studio recording. What a wonderful bit of publicity for the PNB. Not to mention an honor for the PNB orchestra.

Please keep up informed as to how it works out.

P.S. I recall tap dancing on the radio when I was a child. (Ted Mack Amateur Hour, or something like that.) One thing it had in common with the upcoming Seattle broadcasts: there was a live audience who COULD see the performance. Somehow that made it quite okay.)

Link to comment

I have a questions for listeners of KING FM. This is going somewhat off topic I guess, but it's still related.

I've heard angry reports that KING adds in "marker" tones (likes beeps I guess) to some of their live broadcasts. In particular to broadcasts from the Seattle Opera with the purpose of discouraging people to make off the air or off the web recordings.

Have any regular listeners heard this kind of "effect". Or are the reports just so much hot air? If so will the broadcasts from PNB be marked?

Thanks for any comments!

Link to comment
P.S. I recall tap dancing on the radio when I was a child. (Ted Mack Amateur Hour, or something like that.) One thing it had in common with the upcoming Seattle broadcasts: there was a live audience who COULD see the performance. Somehow that made it quite okay.)

Well, for me it always reinforces the relationship between the dancer and the music -- most dance performed with/to music has a symbiotic relationship with the score, but with tap it's very clearly articulated.

Link to comment
I have a questions for listeners of KING FM. This is going somewhat off topic I guess, but it's still related.

I've heard angry reports that KING adds in "marker" tones (likes beeps I guess) to some of their live broadcasts. In particular to broadcasts from the Seattle Opera with the purpose of discouraging people to make off the air or off the web recordings.

Have any regular listeners heard this kind of "effect". Or are the reports just so much hot air? If so will the broadcasts from PNB be marked?

Thanks for any comments!

I'm old enough that I remember when some FM stations broadcast whole albums, and would play tones at the beginning of the session so that people who were recording the program could set their stereos...

I don't know if KING does anything in particular to discourage recording -- if they do, it's probably in coordination with the performing organizations, and might have something to do with their union contracts. But that's just speculation.

Link to comment

I just noticed this at the bottom of the Soloist headshots/bios page in the All-Tharp Program (reformatted):

LISTEN to the BALLET ON KING FM!

Following the success of last year's live broadcasts, Pacific Northwest Ballet is thrilled to announce that classical KING FM will once again bring its listeners a season of performances by the PNB Orchestra, live from McCaw Hall. Featuring some of the most popular ballet scores of all time, the 2010-2011 PNB on the Air season includes the (first) Saturday evening broadcasts of:

Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" -- November 27 [2010]

Prokofiev's "Cinderella" -- February 5 [2011]

Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" -- April 9 [2011]

Adam's "Giselle" -- June 4 [2011]

The curtain goes up at 7:30pm on 98.1 Classical KING FM, or online at www.king.org/listen.

Link to comment

No mention of conductors in the notice -- it was a small box at the bottom -- but unless something has changed since the original announcement in "The Seattle Times", Emil de Cou will conduct "Cinderella" in February and "Giselle" in June. Doug Fullington told us in a pre-performance lecture that "Giselle" will be concurrent with the Dance Critics Association meeting in Seattle. That means the amassed critics will hear him.

http://seattletimes....8423_pnb11.html

Link to comment
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...