When to play what and reality.

I tend to listen to my local FM classical music station at night, either preparing for bed, or, as is often the case, while snuggling in bed prior to sleep. The ear-plugs are in so not to bother my wife, a classical music lover but a sleeper first. Many nights I've listened to KVOD out of Denver for hours after the lights have gone out. Sometimes hours and hours.

The reason for setting the scene is that I've come to wonder why this station, and probably others, chooses to broadcast pieces when they do. Last night at around 10:30 they broadcast Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #1. I wasn't exactly snoozing, but it jolted me more awake. The brass seemed too loud and too throbbing for this time of night. Later they played Mozart's "Coronation" piano concerto, which, too, seemed out of place for the late hour. Maybe it's me, but at that time of night I expect long, soothing romantic symphonies ala Mahler, Bruckner, etc. Of course these composers are too long for the radio these days, but why not hope? Anyway, I got to thinking what is an appropriate time for different types of classical music? Baroque all the time? Contemporary only late on Saturday nights the way KVOD does it? Renaissance early in the morning? Classical only at supper time? Should it correspond to the orchestration? The average volume? It's length? Composer? Period? I don't have an answer, but for some reason I want to hear intellectual depth and challenge late at night. On KVOD I don't seem to get it. When I lived in Connecticut, I faithfully listened to WQXR. The late evening was for the late romantics -- not always, but most frequently. Denver was and is a cow town. We get whatever the programming director wants to foist on us, unfortunately. Artistic consistency and planning aren't important.

One other point of interest. I went to a chamber concert performed by musicians from the Colorado Music Festival on the afternoon of April 20th, 2008. My wife and I hosted 2 of the performers, both friends who had visited with us over the past 5 or 6 summers. After the concert, while driving home, I had the car radio tuned to KVOD and lo and behold, the rarest of pieces! They were broadcasting a performance of Beethoven's 9th symphony. While listening I could tell it was a live recording. It had somewhat of a hollow sound, with an occasional audience cough, etc. The Colorado Music Festival had ended its season a few years ago with it, so I suspected it was the CMF orchestra under Michael Christie. It went on, so when I got home I immediately put it on my home radio and continued listening. I was surprised to find out it was not CMF but the Boulder Philharmonic, performed the same year, under the baton of Michael Butterman. Okay, so far, so good. What surprised me next was a week later when I checked my web site (http://classicalfmradio.org) and looked for the frequency count of symphonies I discovered that it had not been counted. Was my programming that bad? How could I have missed it? I investigated and discovered that the KVOD listing for Sunday, April 20th, did not include anything by Beethoven during that time slot. Mozart, Resphigi, Vivaldi, Schubert, Hayden, etc, but not Beethoven. I hadn't tuned to another station; I hadn't mistaken the piece since both my wife and our Japanese guest were with me and agreed. So I can only conclude that the daily listings from the KVOD only partially reflect reality. Should I be surprised? I guess not.