Thanksgiving Special: “Giving Thanks”

Thursday November 25: THANKSGIVING SPECIAL FROM APM (American Public Media)

Giving Thanks

“Giving Thanks” shares music and stories that reflect the meaning of gratitude.

Special guests for 2021: Stanley Tucci joins our Thanksgiving table to talk about his new book Taste: My Life Through Food, a memoir about food, family, and life – and his classic foodie films Big Night and Julie & Julia. Naomi Shihab Nye shares her poems celebrating her Palestinian-American heritage, and our shared humanity.

“Giving Thanks” sounds the way Thanksgiving feels: inviting, warm, and festive. No clichés about pilgrims and pumpkin pies. Instead, it’s a contemporary, thoughtful celebration of spirit of the holiday. Music from Eric Whitacre, Bach, Copland and more complete the scene.

John Birge, host; Stanley Tucci, guest; Naomi Shihab Nye, guest

HOUR I

Traditional: We Gather Together - Boston Pops

Henry Purcell: The Yorkshire Feast Song: Symphony - Kings Consort

Stanley Tucci on Thanksgiving and family

Francisco Torroba: The Harvest - Minneapolis Guitar Quartet

Jean Sibelius: The Harvesters - Kansas City Symphony/Michael Stern

Schumann: Scenes from Childhood - Claudio Arrau, piano

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8, “Pathetique”: 2nd mvt. - Claudio Arrau, piano

Naomi Shihab Nye reads “Daily”

Ludovico Einaudi I Giorni (The Days) - La Pieta

Puccini: O mio babbino caro - Richard Stoltzman, clarinet

Mendelssohn: Concert piece No. 2: 3rd mvt - Sabine & Wolfgang Meyer, clarinets

Stanley Tucci on the meaning of food

Copland: Our Town - James Tocco, piano

Handel: Largo - Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

Tchaikovsky: November - Moscow Chamber Orchestra

Francis Purcell Warren: A Sunday Evening in Autumn - Stephen Isserlis, cello; Stephen Hough, piano

Naomi Shihab Nye reads “Muchos Gracias por Todo”

Bernstein: Candide: Make our Garden Grow - Boston Pops

HOUR II

Traditional: Thanksgiving Hymns - Jacqueline Schwab, piano

Stanley Tucci on illness, recovery, and gratitude

di Capua: O Sole Mio - Paula Robison, flute; Charleston Symphony

Verdi: Rigoletto: La donna e mobile - Enrico Caruso, tenor

Beethoven: Contredanses - Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields

Naomi Shihab Nye reads “Arabic Coffee”

Jay Ungar & Molly Mason: Harvest Home Suite: Thanksgiving Hymn

Eric Whitacre: October - North Texas Wind Symphony

Trad, arr. Stephen Paulus: We Gather Together - Dale Warland Singers