Every weekday morning at 10 a.m., the hosts at Classical MPR play a standout work based on the theme for the week. We call them Morning Glories.
As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, this week's Morning Glories will focus on musicians and food!
Monday
Felix Mendelssohn: Concert Piece for Clarinet and Basset Horn
One of the greatest clarinetists of Mendelssohn's time was also an amazing cook. Mendelssohn had grown quite fond of Heinrich Baermann, and his mouth-watering dumplings. When Baermann and his son were in Berlin for a concert tour, they made a trade — a concert piece, for a dish of dumplings. The way to a composer's heart is through his stomach.
Tuesday
Edward Elgar: Cockaigne Overture
Cockaigne — imaginary land of extreme luxury and ease where physical comforts and pleasures are always immediately at hand, rivers of wine, houses built of cake and barley sugar, streets paved with pastry, and shops that gratuitously give goods to everyone. Roast geese wander about inviting people to eat them, and buttered larks fall from the skies like manna.
Wednesday
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4
According to Anton Schindler's biography of Beethoven, one of the composer's favorite dishes was macaroni and cheese. In the original German text, the dish is called "Macaroni mit Parmesan-Käse." When Beethoven was in the middle of one of his marathon composing sessions, he ordered his housekeepers not to disturb him with such trivialities as food and told them to leave his supper in the room for him to eat whenever he finished. Macaroni with Parmesan cheese was expensive in Beethoven's day. Macaroni cost three times more than rice, and Parmesan cheese had to be imported from Italy.
Thursday
No Morning Glories today — Happy Thanksgiving!
Friday
Aaron Copland: Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra (Richard Stoltzman, clarinet)
Mr. Stoltzman is also a skilled, Cordon-bleu trained pastry chef — "Culinary Clarinetist." Like many musicians who are constantly on the road, Mr. Stoltzman enjoys sampling the local cuisine, but when he's home he loves to do the cooking himself, especially baking.
Early in his career, he took some classes at London's Cordon Bleu school. The actual process of baking pleased him so much that he continued his training during summers at Marlboro. Mr. Stoltzman first made a linzer torte in 1974, when Rudolf Serkin asked him to bring along a dessert following a Mozart concert in Vermont. Recently he presented his linzer tortes again for a pre-concert supper at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.
His recipe has been featured on the Splendid Table.
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