Sunday Baroque

Khari Joyner is a Renaissance man … AND he’s a man very much of our time. The talented cellist has multiple degrees in music AND math. He loves baroque music AND he’s a champion of contemporary works. He’s also a philanthropist who uses his musical gifts to support several charitable organizations. You can hear him give a gorgeous performance of 17th century cello music on Sunday Baroque this weekend.

Caroline Shaw is a Grammy-winning composer, singer, and violinist whose early inspiration came from her Suzuki-teaching mother and local public radio in Greenville, NC. She spoke with Suzanne about her genre-crossing career—from Pulitzer-winning compositions to scoring projects for TV and film.

June is “National Rivers Month” – an occasion to focus on the environmental health and importance of rivers. This weekend you’ll hear some of Georg Philipp Telemann’s music celebrating the Alster River in Hamburg, and 17th century melody that was used as the basis for a VERY famous 19th century composition about a river. It’s on Sunday Baroque this weekend.

Can you imagine the pressure of growing up in the BACH family?? Johann Sebastian Bach carried on a tradition that was nurtured by his father, uncles, cousins, and other ancestors. The musician also had several children who followed in his footsteps, and some achieved great success.

Dancing was an important part of the culture in the baroque era, and the French King in particular loved dancing. One of his court musicians, Jean Baptiste Lully, contributed to a huge collection called CHOREOGRAPHY, and his music is among the highlights on Sunday Baroque this weekend.

June is the annual celebration of National Rose Month. It’s an opportunity to recognize and appreciate the many varieties of roses, and to explore their beauty and their symbolism of love and friendship, passion and desire, beauty and elegance.

In the poem “In Flanders Fields” the poet John McRae describes the poppies that sprang up on the World War 1 Flanders battlefields, where so many soldiers lost their lives. Poppies have become a symbol of Memorial Day, and you’ll hear two different composers’ musical depictions of the flower on Sunday Baroque this Memorial Day Weekend.

19th century minister Henry Ward Beecher said, "The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom." For some musicians, the mother’s TALENT was also the child’s classroom. This Mother’s Day weekend you’ll hear performances by some musical moms and their talented offspring.

The scope of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio ISRAEL IN EGYPT is the Passover story. Handel premiered it in three sections: The Lamentation of the Israelites for the Death of Joseph, Exodus and Moses’ Song. When it premiered in 1739, it was criticized for being “too solemn for common ears.” But over time, it has come to be regarded as one of Handel’s triumphs. You’ll hear selections from Israel in Egypt on Sunday Baroque.

April is National Humor Month, and Sunday Baroque will celebrate the occasion with music reflecting a Baroque era musical sense of humor. You’ll hear a comic concerto, a wacky French opera about a hideous swamp beast, and musical folly to amuse and entertain you on your all-important day of rest.