One of the highlights of my week is that I received a personal email from Peter Van De Graaff, DJ and producer of the Beethoven Satellite Network (BSN), which can be heard overnight seven days a week on many public radio stations across the country. If you love classical music, this show is a national treasure.
Mr. Van De Graaff and I have covered some of the same ground: he grew up in Chicago, went to BYU in Utah and DJ'd at KBYU there, and then he went back to Chicago public radio, where BSN originates. Peter has the dream job, in my estimation: he chooses his own selections from an enormous, wide-ranging ouvre of music available to him, and airs them. He chooses from the "top fifty" (Beethoven's Fifth, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Pictures at an Exhibition, etc.) some of the time, and it's always good to hear those, newcomers listen for them, but much of his stuff is innovative to me, and I am ensorcelled by it. Last night he played “Nobilissima Visione,” a ballet by Paul Hindemith, the great German composer who fled Hitler because of another work, an opera, which opposed totalitarianism. The subject of the ballet is Francis of Assisi. Tonight he's playing one of the "Ancient Airs and Dances" by Respighi, a work I'm quite familiar with, but it sounds awfully good tonight.
I don't know if Peter actually works the graveyard shift; probably not. But I could sure handle that. (Worked the graveyard in Chicago five decades ago and I have fond memories of it. That time of day is so peaceful, big city or not.) Anyhow, if anyone is interested, BSN is on WUOL, 90.5 FM, which also has streaming audio at www.wuol.org, so you can get it there from 11 p.m.-6 a.m. EDT.
Thanks, HP, for music, one of Your Good and Perfect Gifts. Amen.
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