Sunday, May 20, 2007

In search of contemporary "classical" music

The music broadcast on KVOD tends to be tepid at best. I'm listening less and playing more mp3s of my own rather than just listening to the radio. But how do you find and hear new, interesting music? Generally speaking the FM classical stations focus on only short, easy-listening classical pieces. Lots of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart ...... and Ravel? Forget long pieces, contemporary, challenging classical music.

Saturday night at 10 pm, mountain time, though, KVOD plays some contemporary pieces. I try to listen, hoping to find a few gems every once in a while. The other week KVOD broadcast Jouni Kaipainen's Cello Concerto. I'd never heard of him. While the first movement didn't do much for me, the second and third were very nice. I decided to get a copy of my own from Amazon and, after listening again, think so still. The Cello Concerto comes with his Horn Concerto No. 1. Kaipainen isn't played much on the stations I monitor. Only 3 broadcasts of each, on the 3 "networked" stations, KVOD, WBHM and KUSC, in over 3 years. Too bad.