Sunday afternoons are special on WSHU. Every week, David Bouchier puts a different spin on classical music - anecdotes about the great composers, poetry, musical history, and even musical jokes. Sunday Matinée may explore the hidden links between music and literature, composers' letters, music for a special season of the year, or music designed to make you think. Whatever the theme, David Bouchier gives classical music a new dimension on Sunday afternoons.

Musical performances don't always go exactly as planned. There were near riots at the opening nights of Rossini's Barber of Seville and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Beethoven once played a few wrong notes, and got his knuckles rapped. Itzhak Perlman's violin string broke, but he played on anyway. Join David Bouchier for an entertaining program about Famous Musical Disasters this week on Sunday Matinee.

Among the highlights (subject to change):

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Don Giovanni Overture (stage machinery breakdown)
  • Fritz Kreisler: String Quartet in a (Hostile audience)
  • Georges Bizet: Carmen Suite No. 1 (Dog joins the cast)
  • Johann Strauss II: The Blue Danube (murdered by the notorious Portsmouth Sinfonia)
  • Claude Debussy: Prelude à l'aprés midi d'in faune (Bad opening night)
  • Gioacchino Rossini: Barber of Seville Overture (Catastrophic opening night)
  • Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Most riotous first night in history)
  • Daniel Auber: The Mute of Portici Overture (Starts a political revolution)
  • Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 (Orchestra refuses to play)
  • Gioacchino Rossini: Tosca "Vissi d'arte" (Soprano goes higher than she expected)
  • Johann Strauss II: Die Fledermaus (overture) (soprano ruins the plot)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in D (Pianist destroys piano)
  • Richard Wagner: Lohengrin Overture (Lohengrin misses the boat)
  • Sergei Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf (selection) (David Bouchier watches his musical score disappear)
  • Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoletto Overture (Tenor swallows his mustache)
  • Pablo Sarasate: Carmen Fantasy (selection)(Perlman's violin string snaps - or does it?)
  • Ludwig Van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 17 "The Tempest" (Beethoven plays some wrong notes and is admonished by a princess)
  • Jean-Baptiste Lully: Mascarade Overture (Stabs himself with a conducting stick)
  • Franz Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 96 "The Miracle" (Concert audience has a miraculous escape)

    • Stories in this program come from one or more of the following sources: Victor Borge: My Favorite Comedies in Music (M.Evans, 1994) Herbert Kupferberg: Book of Classical Music Lists (Penguin, 1985) Norman Lebrecht: Book of Musical Anecdotes (Free Press 1985) Nicolas Slominsky: Slominsky's Book of Musical Anecdotes (Schirmer, 1998) Hugh Vickers: Great Operatic Disasters (St. Martins, 1979)


    Join David Bouchier for Famous Musical Disasters on Sunday Matinee, from 1 till 6, right after Sunday Baroque, only on WSHU and WSUF.

    This program is produced in the Long Island Studio of WSHU & WSUF, on the campus of Suffolk County Community College in Selden, New York.

    This page and its contents are copyright WSHU-FM, Fairfield, CT., and David Bouchier.

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