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Classically Speaking

Classical music in West Virginia and Beyond

Catching up with Mark McVey (two interviews!)

(Interviews) Permanent link

By Mona Seghatoleslami

· February 10, 2010

J. Mark McVey

Huntington native Mark McVey will be performing with the West Virginia Symphony this Friday and Saturday in Charleston.

You can listen to my radio story about his upcoming concert here: “Huntington Native Returns to Perform with WV Symphony.”

McVey last sang with the WV Symphony two years ago as part of gala concert. His performance of "Bring Him Home" from Les Mis was (of course) wonderful, and I was really taken with his dark, dramatic interpretation of "Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera (so often I've heard people ignore the creepy undertones and sing it as a plain love song).

Before that concert, we spoke then about his journey from singing in church choirs in Huntington to starring on Broadway. That 2008 interview, which hasn’t been available online since we moved to our new site, is now available right here:

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Mark McVey, January 2008

Here he is singing "Bring Him Home," as Jean ValJean in a performance of Les Mis at the Hollywood Bowl in 2008:

Last Edited by editor at 2/10/2010 4:54 PM Comments (0)

The Big Game, Prog-Rock Brahms, and Amore

(News, Commentary, Just for Fun) Permanent link

By Mona Seghatoleslami

· February 9, 2010

Last year during the Super Bowl, I heard a few commercials using classical music. I caught two this year, with some help (thank you, @MMmusing)

Bolero by Maurice Ravel

and

Mozart, Piano Sonata in B-flat, K. 570

- - -

For those who prefer the arena of love to football stadium -- Yesterday’s radio program included music for Viola d’Amore, and I described the instrument briefly. You can see some beautiful pictures on the Viola d’Amore Blog maintained by Mauro Righini. Violist Garth Knox has one of my favorite non-traditional albums of Viola d'Amore music

Speaking of “amore,” let me know if you have any romantic classical music requests this week. Just send me an email.

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In other news, looks like Santana is not the only one who has borrowed from Brahms. Last week, we featured Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 (from the new Berlin/Rattle Complete Brahms Symphonies set ). A listener named David called in to mention that the progressive rock band Yes had their own interpretation of this music: