Celebrating Early Music and Early Music Performance

Lovingly crafted by Nick Fritsch , Early Music enthusiast and President of Lyrichord Inc, over twenty of these productions will shortly be available to listen to as part of the Early Music Radio play list and are currently available for download directly from Lyrichord Discs Inc,  completely free of charge.

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Podcast One:   “The Countertenors” Part 1, is the first program of the series. Lyrichord president and program host Nick Fritsch introduces co-host; countertenor Jeffrey Dooley and they discuss the history of the countertenor voice and its resurgence in the 20th century. Examples of early music recordings by American countertenor Russell Oberlin are discussed and played, along with selections from Drew Minter and Larry Lipnik.

Podcast Two:   In this episode of the Lyrichord Early and Classical Show podcast, Nick Fritsch and Jeffrey Dooley continue their exploration of the countertenor voice, this time concentrating on duets between countertenors and sopranos in both renaissance and baroque music.  Duets featuring countertenor Marshall Coid and soprano Jullianne Baird and Jeffrey Dooley's own duets with tenor Howard Crook, are featured and Jeffrey discusses the development of the careers of countertenor Alfred Deller, James Bowman, Mark Deller and others.

Podcast Three:   In part three of "The Countertenors", Jeffrey Dooley provides back-story about making the landmark Nonesuch recording “Purcell Airs and Duets”, Nick and Jeffrey then dig back to the 14th Century to play an example of the countertenor voice in ensemble renaissance polyphony by Kevin Moll's group Schola Discantus, and then move to the realm of fantasy with Dooley's historically anomalous excursion into Stephen Foster's music, performed by countertenor with baroque ensemble.

Podcast Four:   The next episode of the Lyrichord Early and Classical Show podcast pays tribute to the career of the late Joseph Iadone, lutenist and pioneering figure in the American early music revival. An original member of the New York Promusica, and protege of composer Paul Hindemith, Iadone was also accepted into Yale, prior to finishing high school! Various aspects of Iadone's rich life in life in music are discussed, along with examples of performances on the Lyrichord Early Music Series.

Podcast Five:   Episode five of the Lyrichord Early and Classical Show podcast - Why do those harpsichords sound so different than they used to? Nick and Jeffrey discuss the unusual path that revival harpsichords took in the early 20th century, propelled by techniques of mass production as well as the enormous popularizing of the instrument by harpsichordist Wanda Landowska. Performances on revival instruments and compared to performances on historically authentic instruments in favor today.  Landowska protégé, harpsichordist Paul Wolfe's performances on two different revival instruments highlight this episode.

Podcast Six:   On this episode of the Lyrichord Early and Classical Show Podcast Show - An exploration into the origins, history, and development of one of the oldest wind instruments in Western music: The Recorder. Many examples of medieval and renaissance solo and ensemble recorder playing are played and discussed. The differences between the instrument's later cousins the Baroque and modern flute are explored. Highlights include pieces performed by the Pro Arte Recorder Ensemble of Argentina, and selections from Istanpitta I and II by Early Music New York (AKA: New York's Ensemble for Early Music).