Cereal Music playlist for 02/11/2014

Program: 
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Chorale Variations
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Psalm
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La Valse
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Symphony No. 2, op. 31
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Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, op. 36
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Symphony No. 49, "La passione"
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The recordings of Paul Ben-Haim's "Psalm" and Maurice Ravel's "La Valse" were both from an April 1990 live recording from Tel Aviv, Israel, featuring the Berlin Philharmonic side-by-side on stage with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Zubin Mehta. This coincided with the conclusion of the Berlin Philharmonic's historic tour of Israel.

E. York Bowen (1884-1961) was an English composer of the first half of the 20th century, popular in his day as a composer and pianist. But after his death, most of his works, save for a few concerti and sonatas for piano and viola, remain unpublished and rarely performed, especially his larger works. Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Philharmonic recorded Bowen' 1st and 2nd Symphonies in 2011 on the Chandos. His first symphony, written in 1902 at age 18, is fair but still not quite mature. His 2nd symphony, however, composed seven years later (1909), is far more grand in scope and instrumentation, and represents the sound of a stronger and more confident Late Romantic English composer, not unlike Elgar in tone, but with his own powerful style. Both works are still unpublished, and likely have never been performed before in the United States. This is almost certainly the only existing recording of these works.

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