Hailed as a "wide-ranging composer who deftly navigated the eras of Communism and of Putin" (The Telegraph), Rodion Shchedrin was widely regarded as one of contemporary music's leading—and most fascinating—figures upon his death on August 29 at the age of 92. This is partly because for Shchedrin, music was just music. "For me 'modern music' doesn’t exist," he once proclaimed. "That’s why I don’t like festivals of contemporary music. It should be just music." When such a wide view is taken, there is little you can't do, and Shchedrin did, indeed, range widely, creating a rich body of work that at times heart-wrenching, at others utterly whimsical, and always inventive.
Wednesday afternoon's Classical Music with Foley Schuler will feature several of Shchedrin's signature works, with some of his music in each hour, In 1 o'clock hour we'll be featuring his remarkable artistry on the piano as he is featured as soloist in his Piano Concerto No. 1. including his ballet on Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, one of a number of key works written for the great ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, to whom he was married for 57 years. The final (3 o'clock ) hour will contain two different, and delightful, shorter Concertos for Orchestra, one known as "Naughty Limericks" and the other as "Old Russian Circus Music."
You can hear Foley Schuler's musical selections—and stories behind the music—every weekday afternoon from 1 until 4 on blue Lake Public Radio.
