"Giving Thanks" offers a contemporary celebration of gratitude, with classical music and stories of Thanksgiving.
This year, Thanksgiving falls on the Feast Day of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music! Host John Birge is using the occasion to invite one of the world's most treasured composers to the table. John Rutter is a choral music icon, and new piece for VocalEssence gives thanks for the joy of music. Audiences will hear the world premiere of Rutter's When Music Sounds, and how gratitude inspires him.
Conductor Nic McGegan will share an 18th century recipe for St. Cecilia punch that will liven up any Thanksgiving celebration, and we'll revisit the poetry of former "Giving Thanks" guest and American Poet Laureate Donald Hall, who passed away this year.
"Giving Thanks" is new for 2018, but continues our tradition of sharing a spellbinding story from actor Charles Laughton, giving thanks for art that connects us all to the creative spirit.
Hour 1
• Traditional: We Gather Together — Boston Pops
• Bernstein: Candide, "Make Our Garden Grow" — Tanglewood Chorus
• Bernstein: Turkey Trot — Boston Symphony
• Copland: Down a Country Lane — St. Paul Chamber Orchestra
• Donald Hall: Seasons at Eagle Pond
• Copland: Our Town — London Symphony
• John Rutter on Thanksgiving music
• Rutter: The Gift of Each Day; Look to the Day — Cambridge Singers
• Dylan Thomas: The Ox-Cart Man
• Sibelius: The Harvesters — Hungarian State Symphony
• John Rutter introduces his new piece
• Rutter: When Music Sounds — VocalEssence
• Scarlatti: Cecilian Vespers, Gloria — Philharmonia Baroque
• Nic McGegan on St. Cecilia Day feasts
Hour 2
• Bernstein: Simple Song — Boston Pops
• Donald Hall: Valley of Morning
• Traditional: Morning has Broken — American Boychoir
• William Byrd: Haec Dies — Cambridge Singers
• John Rutter introduces "This is the Day"
• Rutter: This is the Day; Look at the World — Cambridge Singers/Rutter
• Handel: Ode for St. Cecilia, Overture — Handel and Haydn Society
• Max Richter: Autumn Music 2 — Angele Dubeau
• From Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums," Chartres Cathedral story; Psalm 104 — read by Charles Laughton
• Traditional, arr. Stephen Paulus: We Gather Together — Dale Warland Singers
• William Coulter: Simple Gifts
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