1987 portrait by Paul Struck, courtesy Mrs. Zdenka Papandopulo
Tonight from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. CST on 98.7WFMT Radio Chicago, and via free streaming anywhere in the world at wfmt.com, we'll listen to several pieces from a new Albany Records CD recording of piano music of Croatian composer and conductor Boris Papandopulo (1906-1991) performed by Wisconsin-based pianist Nicholas Phillips.
A leading figure in 20th century music in Croatia and the former Yugoslavia, Papandopulo was the son of a Greek nobleman and the Croatian soprano Maja Strozzi (1881-1962) for whom, as Maja de Strozzi-Pečić, Stravinsky said he wrote his Four Russian Songs of 1918-19. (Mme. Strozzi-Pečić is mentioned and praised by Thomas Mann in Doctor Faustus.) The leader of important Croatian choral groups from the 1920s on, Papandopulo was the creator of many stage works and the director of the opera in many cities in his region and even a regular guest conductor in Cairo. His solo piano output is small but interesting and even pleasing in its combination of regional sounds and rhythms with wider 20th century tendencies.
The program will then be posted at wfmt.com/criticalthinking for free podcast, download, streaming indefinitely.
See you on the radio!
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