Bartok, Vivaldi, and Hovhaness on Fretworks

This week on Fretworks, I'll have a couple of somewhat unusual selections as well as more expected fare.  For the holiday season, Brandon Yip and members of the San Francisco Guitar Quartet will begin the hour with Noel for Four Guitars by Robert Mayeur.  The Modern Mandolin Quartet will close the program with their arrangement of J.S. Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze. Hungarian composer Bela Bartok's Rumanian Folk Dances will be heard arranged for guitar, flute, and clarinet. JoAnn Falletta, who is better known as a conductor and as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Virginia Symphony Orchestras, is also a fine guitarist. She's accompanied by flutist Debra Wendells Cross and clarinetist Robert Alemany in our recording. The Concerto for Two Mandolins in G by Antonio Vivaldi will feature father and son as soloists. Angel and Lito Romero play a guitar arrangement of Vivaldi's enjoyable music with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. American composer Alan Hovhaness was of Scottish and Armenian descent and frequently drew inspiration from the Far East and other musical cultures, as well as from Renaissance polyphony.  His Symphony No. 39 for Guitar and Orchestra is from 1978. The first movement Adagio that we'll hear is about 20 minutes long, and guitarist Michael Long plays material inspired by the Far East. Join me Saturday evening at 7pm and Wednesday evening at 7pm for Fretworks on Classical 101. http://youtu.be/74fitf6E2BU