Songs of the Earth: 25 Hours on our Planet —LA Master Chorale, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra/John Mauceri (Philips 438867)
Earth Day 2018 is Sunday April 22 nd so we have an opportunity to showcase this 1994 release that is not only sumptuously recorded, but also cleverly conceived. Seven selections take us through one day on Earth, from Dawn one day to Sunrise the next. The program begins with Daybreak from Daphnis & Chloe by Ravel and continues with Grieg’s Morning from Peer Gynt. Noon is represented by Carl Nielsen’s Helios Overture, followed by Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The final three pieces are as surprising as they are apt: Dusk is a cue from Franz Waxman’s score for the 1949 film Night unto Night (starring Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors and Broderick Crawford). Love Night and Transfiguration is an arrangement of music from Acts 2 and 3 of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde arranged by Leopold Stokowski. We complete the circle with the magnificent Sunrise section from Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. Members of the Los Angeles Master Chorale lend their voices to the Ravel and Schoenberg evocations of Dawn. Happy Earth Day!