Episodes

  • Public Radio Music Day with the Pittsburgh Symphony

    Public Radio Music Day with the Pittsburgh Symphony
    Oct 31 2024
    Members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra joined WQED-FM live on Public Radio Music Day (October 23, 2024), to play three pieces from Stravinsky's Tale of the Soldier (Histoire du soldat). They played The Soldier's March, Airs by the Stream, the Little Concert. Anna Singer talked with Douglas Rosenthal, David Sogg, and Jeremy Branson about the piece and the group. Members of the group included: Ron Samuels, clarinet; David Sogg, bassoon; Neal Berntsen, trumpet; Douglas Rosenthal, trombone; Jeremy Branson, percussion; Dennis O'Boyle, second violin; John Moore, bass.
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    15 mins
  • Christoph Eschenbach

    Christoph Eschenbach
    Oct 30 2024
    Pianist and Conductor Christoph Eschenbach returns to Pittsburgh after many years as Music Director of the Philadelphia, Houston and National Symphony orchestras. He talks about his program of Schumann’s Second Symphony, and the Brahms Violin Concerto with Ray Chen. He remembers his first Pittsburgh concert in 1972 with William Steinberg and hundreds of other concerts he played and conducted at Heinz Hall. He points to the recent Ukraine benefit concert he gave at Carnegie Hall in New York as a highlight added recently with Anne Sophie Mutter. Jim Cunningham also asks him about his years in Washington DC, Philadelphia and Houston and if he could share any wisdom having had such a vast range of musical experiences dating back to his extremely challenging youth during the years of WWII.
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    17 mins
  • Pittsburgh Symphony Live - 9/27/24 - Postconcert Interviews

    Pittsburgh Symphony Live - 9/27/24 - Postconcert Interviews
    Sep 28 2024
    WQED-FM broadcast the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert live on Friday September 27, 2024. Jim Cunningham spoke with WQED-FM's Anna Singer, PSO Principal Cellist Anne Martindale Williams and Post-Gazette Classical Music Critic Jeremy Reynolds after the concert.
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    9 mins
  • Pittsburgh Symphony Live - 9/27/24 - Intermission Interviews

    Pittsburgh Symphony Live - 9/27/24 - Intermission Interviews
    Sep 28 2024
    WQED-FM broadcast the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert live on Friday September 27, 2024. Jim Cunningham spoke with PSO Music Director Manfred Honeck and guest soloist - violinist Augustin Hadelich backstage during intermission.
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    10 mins
  • Pittsburgh Symphony Live - 9/27/24 - Preconcert Interviews

    Pittsburgh Symphony Live - 9/27/24 - Preconcert Interviews
    Sep 28 2024
    WQED-FM broadcast the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concert live on Friday September 27, 2024. Jim Cunningham spoke with WQED President and CEO Jason Jedlinski, WQED Board Chair Emeritus Millie Myers, and PSO Contrabassoon James Rodgers backstage prior to the concert.
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    8 mins
  • Andrew Reamer

    Andrew Reamer
    Sep 7 2024
    Pittsburgh Symphony Principal Percussionist Andrew Reamer spoke with Jim Cunningham just a few hours before the final concert of the Pittsburgh Symphony European Festival tour September 7 2024 in Vienna, Austria. He talks about the special events of the tour which began at the Salzburg Festival. It is an emotional event for Mr. Reamer because it is his last concert as he will begin his retirement after 35 years. He looks back at some of the special events that took place having been hired by Lorin Maazel in 1989 and participated in 40 tours. Andy has also been a favorite soloist in the annual Thanksgiving concert with the Feuerfest Polka, playing the anvil while wearing colorful costumes. Many of his family members are on the tour, including his wife, Ruth Ann, who also recently retired from her longtime job as a columnist in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He hopes to return as a guest from time to time and will continue his work with the Drummer’s service company, which his father founded. The Cleveland Orchestra is also on tour in Vienna using a bass drum he made as does the Pittsburgh Symphony.
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    19 mins
  • David McCarroll

    David McCarroll
    Sep 4 2024
    The Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony David McCarroll spoke about the two German European Tour concerts at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg Germany. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra was on its way an afternoon rehearsal with Yefim Bronfman playing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3. The program consists of John Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine, Stravinsky’s Suite From the Firebird and Puccini’s Turandot Suite. David discusses the tour so far with Anne Sophie Mutter, who will be performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
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    13 mins
  • William Caballero and Cynthia Koledo de Almeida

    William Caballero and Cynthia Koledo de Almeida
    Sep 3 2024
    The Principal Horn of the Pittsburgh Symphony, William Caballero, and Principal Oboe, Cynthia Koledo de Almeida, talk about the 2024 European Festivals Tour just before the first of two concerts at the Elb Philharmonie in Hamburg, Germany. They describe the extraordinary success of the Salzburg Festival concert, the beauty of the South Tirol in Merano Italy, and the confetti at the end of the concert in Dusseldorf with Anne Sophie Mutter. The Pittsburgh Symphony has met the challenges of very warm concert halls and a few players being sidelined temporarily with Covid. Cynthia can’t recommend schnitzel with tofu in Austria but they’ve found lots of good things to eat and loved a guided tour with Manfred Honeck of Anton Bruckner’s final resting place at St. Florian Monastery. All in all the trip has been rapturously received everywhere and the Orchestra is feeling great.
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    24 mins