No, I'm not talking about the UA basketball or football teams, but actual felines. Why, you ask? Isn't that our target demographic? Of course not, but that's not what one of our wire services thinks.
You didn't hear this story on the air this morning, but it actually came across one of our wire services, whose name I won't mention here. Here is the story in un-edited form. Enjoy the lead.
(Phoenix, AZ) -- If you're a cat living in Phoenix, Tampa or San Francisco, you're one fortunate feline. These places are among those on the CATalyst 2009 Top 10 Cat-Friendly Cities list. The CATalyst Council, which includes members of veterinary community, nonprofit groups, animal welfare organizations, and others, ranked the top 25 metropolitan areas in the U.S. based on a variety of factors including the number of cat owners, the quality of veterinary care, and cat-friendly community ordinances. Other cities favorable to felines are Portland, Oregon; Denver; Boston; and Seattle; as well as, San Diego, Atlanta, and Minneapolis.
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offbeat,
April 1st 2009 at 6:17 —
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posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel
Here are a couple of Handel concerto grosso reviews I wrote for two different publications a few months ago ...
Handel: Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 Nos. 7-12. Martin Pearlman conducting Boston Baroque (Telarc 80688)
Handel dashed off his dozen concerti grossi published as Op. 6 in barely a month, but it’s been a full 15 years since Martin Pearlman and Boston Baroque recorded the first half of the set. Now, at last, here’s the rest of the group, and it was well worth the wait.
In 1739, Handel’s publisher, John Walsh, was eager to cash in on the popularity of the concerti grossi of Corelli and Geminiani, so he asked Handel for something in the same manner. Handel quickly complied, and made his work a bit easier by dropping in quotes from his just-completed Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, not to mention pieces by Scarlatti and Muffat. Despite the borrowings, the whole set sounds like vintage Handel, and Pearlman and his little band of string players know exactly what to do with it.
As in their recording of the first half of the collection, and their more recent treatment of the Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music, the playing is quite suave. The period-instrument group easily meets Handel’s greatest challenge: conveying stateliness without stiffening up. Beyond that, the musicians can also sound light, playful, even Italianate, as in the final concerto. Throughout, there’s a suppleness that stops well short of affectation, even while Pearlman devotes great attention to such details as attacking musical paragraphs differentely from the way of attacking individual phrases within them. The only complaint: Telarc shouldn’t have taken a decade and a half to complete this fine cycle. James Reel
HANDEL Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 * Martin Gester, cond; Arte dei Suonatori * BIS SACD-1705/06 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 163:39)
Both pronunciations of the word “polish” come into play here. First, with the long “o”: Arte dei Suonatori is a first-rate Polish period-instrument ensemble that has previously recorded Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Telemann for BIS, and made a fabulous version of Vivaldi’s La Stravaganza with Rachel Podger for Channel Classics. Now the group is featured on a BIS survey of Handel’s Op. 6 concerti, those for strings only, and here’s where the other pronunciation comes in: These are wonderfully polished performances. The solo work is nimble, the textures are clear, the tempos are lively and lithe in the fast movements and stately in the slow ones, the latter carrying a plaintive elegance reminiscent of Corelli. The interpretations are not particularly extravagant; this is—after all, Handel rather than Vivaldi—and the ornamentation is fairly restrained by current standards. Because director Martin Gester’s tempos are not hard-driven (though neither are they sluggish) and repeats are generous, the dozen works spill over to a third CD. The package is sold for the price of two, which is fine, but with performances of this quality one wants even more; I wish BIS had added Handel’s Op. 3 set and charged full price. The SACD sonics are up to the label’s usual standards, clear projection in a resonant space that gives firm support to the bass line. Good liner notes by David Vickers add to the value of the package.
At this writing, there seems to be no SACD competition for this Handel Op. 6 set, but Gester’s edition is a top choice in any format, alongside the rather more driven Andrew Manze/Academy of Ancient Music version on two conventional Harmonia Mundi CDs and the elegant Martin Pearlman/Boston Baroque version on Telarc. James Reel
Classical Music,
March 31st 2009 at 10:22 —
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March 31st 2009 at 0:15 —
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posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel
Just as our week-long membership drive gets underway at KUAT-FM, we get news that we may have future fundraising competition from NPR:
Times have gotten so tough that National Public Radio is considering something it hasn't done for a generation: a pledge drive.
With NPR facing a projected $8 million budget deficit and looming cutbacks, some of its most prominent program hosts are urging management to consider a direct, on-air appeal to NPR's listeners—something that's prohibited by the organization's bylaws.
You can find the full Washington Post article here. I doubt that NPR will get very far with this idea, because local stations are sure to howl that they can’t afford to have precious income from their local listeners possibly diverted to the network, especially in this economy.
radio-life,
March 30th 2009 at 7:24 —
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This is an interesting week at Arizona Public Media, so don't be alarmed if you're listening to one of our radio stations and accidentally hear it identified as the other. Also, some of you may unexpectedly be saying goodbye to Channel 6 this week, if you've been ignoring the warnings. Now, on the the explanations.
First all, both KUAZ and KUAT-FM are conducting what we call a "Coordinated Fundraising Campaign." That means the same talent is pitching for both stations, one break after another. So, minutes after pitching for donations for Classical music on KUAT-FM, they do it all over again, but pitch for NPR listeners on KUAZ and that process continues all day. This is all live and can lead to confusion as to which station is in the active break. I've heard problems already and there no doubt will be more.
AZPM is also doing TV fundraising this week, but that's really a different beast and not my area of expertise, so I won't talk about that.
On an unrelated TV note, Channel 6's analog TV signal goes away at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, ahead of the recently-extended analog shutoff date of June 12th. You can read all about that in a newspaper guest opinion from our head honcho here.
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radio-life,
March 30th 2009 at 7:20 —
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