88.5 WFDD - Kairoff at the Keyboard: Recent Episodes
88.5 WFDD - Public Radio For The Piedmont
Steinway recording artist and Wake Forest University Professor of Music Peter Kairoff has performed as piano and harpsichord soloist all over the world, and he brings his talent, knowledge, and accessible style to each Kairoff at the Keyboard episode.
Peter makes classical music engaging, easy to understand, and his passion for the music is infectious. What makes Romantic music romantic? Who was Bach, and what made him so great? What exactly is musical form? Find out the answer to these questions and everything else you ever wanted to know about Classical music but were afraid to ask with Kairoff at the Keyboard.
Credit: Public Domain (http://bit.ly/2ySa6cC)
What if you took a long, metal string, stretched it out taut, and then plucked it with a feather quill? Admittedly, just one string pluck has a puny sound compared with the modern-day piano. But, add another forty-seven strings or so, and you get the mighty harpsichord! Peter demonstrates why this wonderful plucked string instrument has captured the imagination of major composers from Bach to the Beatles, and beyond.
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Credit: Public Domain (http://bit.ly/2ALwo0a)
Claude Debussy's music continues to be described as "impressionistic", even though the composer himself hated the term. Debussy just wanted to be known as a French composer. Peter shares how visual impressionism can help shed light on Debussy's music.
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These days, if you have a tough time falling asleep, you might grab yourself a melatonin, turn in early and hope for the best. But a few hundred years ago, a fellow by the name of Johann Goldberg got a musical presciption from a guy named Bach to help him rest. That's how the legend goes anyway, and Peter's sticking to it with Johann Sebastian Bach's astonishing Goldberg Variations.
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Credit: Public Domain (http://bit.ly/2AMUgAz)
Peter sings without singing with a little help from Felix Mendelssohn. His Songs Without Words was conceived as a song with a singer, yet it has no words. Peter explores the powerful influence of song in Mendelssohn's music for piano.
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Johannes Brahms, ca. 1870 -- Credit: Public Domain (http://bit.ly/2zOPnaO)
The Romantic Era in music--basically the 19th century--was much more deeply influenced and inspired by literature than love. Peter explores the ways in which Romantic composers like Mendelssohn, Brahms and Schumann told stories through sound, pushing performers to their technical limits to reveal the deep emotional content within musical romanticism.
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Credit: Public Domain (http://bit.ly/2z8vjmA)
Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest composers in all of music history, but what exactly made him so great? In this episode, Peter shows Bach's ability to combine multiple melodies together. It's called counterpoint, and in Bach's hands this glorious music appeals to the mind as well as the heart.
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Bela Bartok, 1927 -- Credit: Public Domain (http://bit.ly/2zNCLkg)
Composer Béla Bartók was the father of ethnomusicology, scouring the villages of Eastern Europe for folk songs. He took those tunes, added a little Bach, a pinch of Beethoven and created music like we've never heard before. Peter takes us backstage with Bartók!
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Credit: Public Domain (http://bit.ly/2A5ivxx)
In this episode, Peter demonstrates what makes Beethoven such a giant in the world of classical music. Many of the composer's greatest contributions were the result of his ongoing fascination with musical motives.
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Horatio William Parker, 1905 -- Credit: Public Domain (http://bit.ly/2hHsku4)
Peter pays tribute to wonderful late 19th century American composers, some of whom were once considered among the best in the world. Over time, music by George Whitefield Chadwick and Horatio Parker may have fallen off the radar, but it sounds just as sweet as ever in the capable hands of Kairoff at the keyboard.
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Credit: Public Domain (http://bit.ly/2zRq4oy)
Brahms was composing in the late 19th century, but he worshipped music of the past. In this episode, Peter shows us how Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven all find their way into Brahms' music. Motives, counterpoint and more are all revealed.
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