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.

"Beethoven always sounds to me like the upsetting of a bag of nails, with here and there a dropped hammer," wrote the English critic John Ruskin. And that was the least of the insults heaped on Beethoven's head. Nobody loves a critic, and the relationship between composers and critics has never been a happy one, even when the critics were composers themselves. When Mendelssohn met Berlioz in Italy for the first time, he described him as "A regular freak, without a vestige of talent." Music criticism is full of mistaken judgements and devastating put-downs. It can be rude, outrageous and sometimes very funny. Join David Bouchier for a program that brings the best composers face to face with their best and worst critics.

Among the highlights (subject to change):

  • George Gershwin: An American in Paris
  • Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D
  • Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat "Eroica"
  • Edward Grieg: Lyric Pieces (selection)
  • Claude Debussy: La Mer
  • Frederic Chopin: Ballade No. 3
  • Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade (selection)
  • Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat
  • Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger (overture)
  • Camille Saint-Saens: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in a
  • Robert Schumann: Carnaval (selections)
  • Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in c

Note: for more outrageous musical judgements, see The Lexicon of Musical Invective by Nicolas Slominsky (Norton: 2000)


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

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