This Week, Dec 2 - Dec 6, 2013, on the Evening Concert on WILL-FM

This week on the Evening Concert we devote Monday and Tuesday to Hanukkah specials: “Candles Burning Brightly”, “Eternal Echoes”, “Hanukkah Lights 2013” and “Hanukkah in Story and Song”; Wednesday, Yuja Wang is the soloist in Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Piano Concerto in San Francisco; Thursday Mitsuko Uchida plays and conducts Mozart Piano Concertos in Cleveland. Friday, it's Prairie Performances with Roger Cooper".

WEEK OF DECEMBER 2 – 3– 4 –5 - 6, 2013

In 2013, the first (full) day of Hanukkah falls on Thanksgiving Day, which will not happen again until the year 79811 CE (!)

Monday December 2: Hanukkah Specials

Candles Burning Brightly

Mindy Ratner and Bill Morelock host an hour long celebration of Chanukah, the Jewish Festival of Lights with music from Jewish communities around the world, an exploration of holiday traditions, and a special story reading by the incomparable Theodore Bikel.   FRIMER: Al Hanissim; TRAD.: Shehecheyanu; PARCHI: Aleh Neiri, et.al.

Eternal Echoes for Hanukkah

Host James David Jacobs, violinist Itzhak Perlma, and Hankus Netsky, a pioneer in the revival of klezmer music, explore the musical common ground of Jewish sacred music from diverse cultures. Features performances by Itzhak Perlman in new, unique arrangements by Netsky (director of New England Conservatory’s acclaimed Contemporary Improvisation department and the founder of the world-renowned Klezmer Conservatory Band). TRAD.: Maoz Tsur; TRAD.: Brave Old Sirbas; Abe SCHWARTZ: Romanian Doyne; et.al.

Tuesday December 3:  Hanukkah Specials

 Hanukkah Lights 2013

A perennial NPR favorite, Hanukkah Lights features Hanukkah stories and memoirs written by acclaimed authors expressly for the show, as read by NPR's Susan Stamberg and Murray Horwitz. (No playlist available)

Chanukkah in Story and Song

Narrated by Leonard Nimoy; sung by vocal sextet The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, which has created a short Thanksgiving preamble featuring a setting of ee cummings' inspired poem, "i thank You God." TRAD. CHASSIDIC: Chanukah, Oy Chanukah; TRAD. ISRAELI: Mi Y'Malel; et.al.

Wednesday December 4:  San Francisco Symphony (#13-24)

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor and *Yuja Wang, piano

FAURE: Pavane, Op.50

SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 3 in C Major, Op. 52

*RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30

 [SFS fill: SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 4, Op. 63 (SFS/Michael Tilson Thomas)]

Thursday December 5: Cleveland Orchestra (#13-21)

Mitsuko Uchida, conductor and *piano
*MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453

MOZART: Divertimento in B-flat Major, K. 137

*MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major

[COR fill: RACHMANINOFF: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. (Kirill Gerstein, pno.; Cleveland Orch.; Semyon Bychkov, cond.)]

Friday December 6: Prairie Performances with Roger Cooper

Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra (10/26/13)

Michael Luxner, cond.; Hye-Jim Kin, violin