This episode begins with Pärt’s “Hymn to a Great City.” (That would be New York.) Elsewhere, there are songs, setting Langston Hughes and Mark Van Doren. Oscar Peterson plays a pop song, adding various musical ingredients. Finally, there is a tribute to Edith Mathis, the Swiss soprano, who has died at eighty-seven. Much to listen to, and maybe even think about.
Pärt, “Hymn to a Great City”
Wheeler, “If I Had a Wife”
Tchaikovsky/Wild, Pas de quatre (“Dance of the Cygnets”) from “Swan Lake”
Bonds, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
Prokofiev, Sonata for Solo Violin
Modugno, “Volare”
Wood & Mellin, “My One and Only Love”
Bach, “Alleluja” from “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen”
