Welcome to Classical Pacific on Hawaii Public Radio HPR 2. I’m your host, John Kalani Zak.
Welcome to Classical Pacific for Tuesday, June 13th, 2017. I hope you had a wonderful Kamehameha Day weekend.
Today would be a good day to spend some time in France, n’est-ce pas? We’ll enjoy the Offenbach/Rosenthal “Gaité Parisienne,” performed by the Montréal Symphony under the direction of Charles Dutoit. We’ll also hear “L’Arlesienne” and Gounoud’s “Symphony Number 1 in in D Major.”
In my student days at the Sorbonne, I would, on occasion, sit in on rehearsals at various theaters and concert halls. Impetuous youth! I always found that if you looked like you belonged there, they would assume you were someone’s kid hanging out for a visit. It worked like a charm at movie studios in Hollywood, too. I used to watch whatever was being taped at NBC as my form of summer entertainment. I even had enough moxie to ask if NBC would donate some of their used lighting equipment to my high school video program...and they did! We tend to lose that bold and brash attitude as time goes on.
What I remember so fondly of my time in Paris was the fact that music was everywhere, wafting from each coffee bar and boîte. Even the tinny tunes accompanying Punch and Judy puppet performances were entertaining. In the pop and folk music scene, Georges Moustaki was on top. I still love his music. Summer concerts were everywhere on balmy evenings when there would be a gentle glow in the sky until 10:30 or later. On Sundays, one could hear free organ concerts at Notre Dame Cathedral. Of course, the Opéra Garnier was the ultimate. Sometimes we could get student discounts, and we would follow up our gala evening with a Croque Monsieur sold from a stall on Boulevard Saint Michel. Isn’t it wonderful how music can evoke emotions from times past. Merveilleux!
I think I'll have a Madeleine and ponder all of that just a bit more.
Classical Pacific began in February, 2017, as a result of Hawaii Public Radio’s ongoing commitment to give listeners across Hawaii and around the world more of what they love, on two networks: HPR 1 and HPR 2. Airing five days a week at 3 P.M. Hawaii time, the series features the finest of the world’s classical music, while also shining a spotlight on orchestras, artists, and composers of the Pacific region, including Polynesia, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, The U.S., Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia. We’ll also add spice with indigenous and World music that is creating new musical languages and collaborations worldwide.
Classical Pacific and all Hawaii Public Radio programs are available online at our website: hawaiipublicradio.org. You can also download the free app for your mobile device and take HPR with you whenever and wherever you travel! Just type H - P - R in the search box of your App. store!
