The Morning Show 6-10a Monday – Friday
Dr. Dave’s Drive Time Elixir 3-7p Monday – Friday
WRCJ’s Program Director, Dr. Dave Wagner, is a lifelong Detroiter and well-known as an organist, pianist and music educator. He brings his vast musical knowledge and wry sense of humor to our morning airwaves with traffic and weather updates and his famous 7:15a “Sousalarm.” He returns weekday afternoons to ease your drive home with a mix of lighter classics and orchestrated popular tunes.
This morning, 6-26-2019, you played a choral piece which from afar sounded like folk music or perhaps a spiritual. The only words that I picked up on was “Cumberland Gap”. It was intriguing and beautiful! Would you kindly let me know what that piece was. My ancestors made their way into Kentucky via the Cumberland Gap.
Hello Nancy, yes Dave added that in. Cumberland Gap was the last part of “An American Folk Medley” sung by Chanticleer on their album “Wondrous Love”.
Ludovico Einaudi’s “Primavera” perhaps should be titled “Thiefavera”-
Sounds like counterfeit pastiche to me…
Simon And Garfunkel’s “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme”, the intro from Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose”, throw in a little Rick Wakeman’s intro to “Morning Has Broken” and maybe a bit of “Carol of the Bells, cover it all with schmaltzy keyboard arpeggios and shazam! Schlock casserole…
[Don’t get me wrong- I love WRCJ’s programming, but this piece seems out of place]
Uh oh. We will have to bring up those songs you mention and do a comparison…
About a week ago you played “she moves through the fair” are you able to look up and say which version you played?
Hello Jane, on the morning of June 14th we played a version sung by The King’s Singers from their cd called “Watching the White Wheat”.
Thank you! I love listening in the morning.
On a recent program you played the trumpet voluntary, which reminded me of Peter Sellers long ago plagiarising it to spoof a rock song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXxMvu8Bl_w
Ah yes, the Trumpet Voluntary comes up from time to time. That Peter Sellers, what a goofball.
Dear Dr. Dave, I am seeking your expertise. I am directing a play and I would like your ideas for a piece of music that would evoke the idea of a whirling snowstorm. I had thoughts of Carol of the Bells or something from Nutcracker but those seem too obvious. I like the idea of something cheery (think snowglobe), rather than a dreaded scary blizzard. Your thoughts? Thank you, Sue Rogers
p.s. I love your wacky sense of humor. When I swear off listening to the news, you make me smile–the news rarely does.
Hello Suzanne, we will send this along to Dr. Dave. Maybe our other listeners here will offer suggestions too?
Dr. Dave, Thank you so much for filling our lives with beautiful classical music. Thank you also for making your show fun and informative. We learn so much by listening.
I do have a question, both you and Chris always spoke so highly of the DSO recording made during the dead of winter in the abandoned United Artist’s Theater. Is that recording still available and what is it called.
Thank you Steve. Those DSO recordings started in 1978 and were on the London label. The first was an all Tchaikovsky disc, the second was a collection of Dvorak, Ravel, Liszt and Enescu Rhapsodies and the third one consisted of Bartok works. This page may be helpful:
https://www.dso.org/upload_files/content_pdfs/res/interact/Listen/HistoricalDiscography2005.pdf
The Tchaikovsky disc was re-released so you might still be able to find that one.
The last thing I remember about Chris was his aspiration to interview Renee Fleming prior to her recent local appearance. His great voice has been silenced. I suspected that he had had a stroke several months ago, but he sounded as good as ever last time on the radio. And, by the way, Dave, don’t go anywhere where I can’t hear you.
I don’t usually reply to my own comments, but here I go. My most recent contribution to WRCJ was in memory of Chris Felcyn and long overdue. Sometimes we don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone. After the demise of WQRS years ago, I was somewhat lost radio-wise. When you, Ann and Chris brought classical music back to the airwaves in the Detroit-Windsor area, it was like the world was new and several hundred years old, again. Keep up the good work and humor. Your station has my future financial support.
I love your station, since you started… I listen daily!
I’m not happy about the piece you just played:’Highway to Kill Kenny!’
Ken Friesen, Kingsville, ON…. it sets off my paranoia! The road are bad enough!
3 school buses in ditches on Wed.!
Oh, sorry about that. Maybe we could change the title in our database. Something like “Highway To… Be Very Easy And Clear For Kenny”.
always enjoy your show, whether morning or afternoon. one question: mat is the piece the classical broadcast closes at 7 p.m.
oh, and my wife wants to know: whence the music – any music you play? LPs? CDs? a big machine loaded with 200,000 hrs of classical music? an anonymous symphonic orchestra squeezed into a 60 square foot recording booth?
Dr.Dave’s theme song is a Bach Cello Suite being performed by Charles Curtis on the tableau from the album “An Imaginary Dance”. You can take a look at that cd at the link below. Actually we do have a big machine with thousands of hours of music on it that we play from. But also many, many cds and on rare occasions live ensembles in the studio but not as large as a symphony.
http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Imaginary-Dance-Charles-Curtis/dp/B004TB6G3Q
The Old Redford Theater, one of Detroit’s gems, takes vinyl and reports brisk sales. You have to bring them when there is an event going on. Might want to stay, too. It’s quite an experience.
http://redfordtheatre.com/events/
Hi Mary, thanks for the tip. There aren’t too many music stores around these days.
Dave,
thanks for being the best part of our daily routine – morning and evening. We wake up to you and listen to all your morning show on our days off and have dinner with you every evening. WRCJ is on all the time in our home. As Far as we’re concerned we can leave it on 90.9 and bust the knob off… 😉
Last Christmas the play list was so wonderful that we barely listened to our large selection of Christmas CDs, every work that was played just kept us leaving the station on.
Thanks for your dry, wry and “insider” humor. So gives us a chuckle all the time. Perhaps you may want to put your funny comments in a book. “The Insider’s Guide to Classical Humor.” 🙂
Thanks again for the long hours you devote to what you do, it makes a difference in our lives.
Mark and Carine Lutz (Ann Arbor)
p.s. my husband’s part time retirement job is for Enterprise Car Rental – he puts WRCJ on the cars he takes care of.
Wow, thanks for being such devoted fans! We shared your email with Dr. Dave. We do feel a little bad for those unused Christmas cds. Also, thanks to your husband for bringing WRCJ to new potential listeners at his job. We appreciate it!