See what people have been saying about The King of Instruments
These days there are many sources where classical music lovers can get their hit of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, et al, including streaming services and physical media. But another source is what might be called “curated” radio programs. The DJ doesn’t just announce what’s coming up next but gives some background about the music and strives for some variety of offerings throughout the day. Plus you don’t have to know in advance what music to search for—the DJ will surprise you, many times with interesting music you may never have heard before or an ensemble or interpretation that is out of the ordinary.
A distinct subset of classical music lovers is pipe organ aficionados. And the number and variety of instruments world-wide that they like to hear and discuss is mind-boggling. And yet these folks are not served very well by radio stations. Even the big ones like WFMT in Chicago or the BBC will play only a few organ pieces throughout the year (usually on a Bach birthday anniversary or a brief piece on a morning drive program). And the selection on streaming services like Spotify is very limited, including the pieces offered and the instruments on which they are played.
In this environment, “King of Instruments” on Classic 107.3 provides a unique and valuable service to pipe organ fans, especially those who are not internet savvy. For one thing it is curated by Mark Scholtz and Bill Stein, both of whom are professional organists and deeply knowledgeable about the history and construction of pipe organs. In addition, they play recordings of a wide variety of instruments (many of them in out-of-the-way locations) that would be otherwise unavailable to even the most avid collector. And the programming is similarly varied. One hour might be devoted to a particular organ builder; another to, say, a woman composer; another to music written for a celebratory occasion like a holiday; others on a particular theme or composer. All of it is smoothly produced with detailed playlists and excellent sound reproduction.
This is a unique and finely-crafted program that I hope will continue to be supported. – John Huxhold, Contributor to St. Louis Post-Dispatch
From “All Hail the King of Instruments” by Rene Spencer Saller.
The two hosts, Mark Scholtz and Bill Stein, speak smoothly but never smarmily. They’re authoritative but never pedantic when they introduce these composers, works, performers, and organs. I especially enjoy learning how many ranks and manuals a particular organ has, when it was built, and by whom, because these details aren’t as readily available as, say, the birth and death dates of a specific Baroque contrapuntist. Having listened to a good dozen or more of these archived programs, I find that the hosts provide precisely the correct amount of nerdly detail. Scholtz and Stein leave you feeling cheerful and enlightened, not bored and hopelessly overwhelmed by unrelated factoids.
The best part, of course, is the music. Despite the hundreds of organ annotations and blurbs that I have cranked out over the past decade, The King of Instruments constantly reminds me how little I know and how lightly I have scratched the surface of the repertoire…
The King of Instruments is a highly enjoyable listen if you’re looking for a pleasant soundtrack rather than a college-level lecture enumerating the differences between the French and German schools of organ building…
I’m especially grateful for the shows that focus on the many composers and musicians whose works have been historically underrepresented and underprogrammed, talented people who more than deserve our attention. Many of them are featured on the following first-rate episodes: Women Organists, American Women Composers, European Women Composers, and Black Composers. The good news is that these marginalized artists are getting programmed more frequently, and audiences are increasingly eager to hear music that has been unfairly neglected or deemed unworthy of the canon; the bad news, at least from the annotator’s perspective, is that there is seldom much in the way of reliable information on these works, which means it’s that much easier to make and perpetuate errors. (Ask me how I know, lolsob!) These research challenges make me even more grateful for resources like The King of Instruments. For instance, I thought I knew a fair amount about Florence Price, a brilliant Black American composer who has interested me for a long time and about whom I have written intermittently. Despite this knowledge, I learned a few new facts about her from The King of Instruments and enjoyed a performance that I probably wouldn’t have heard otherwise. I also appreciate the fact that even though the hosts might focus on the artists’ shared race or gender in those aforelinked episodes, they don’t pigeonhole their subjects on the basis of demographic data. For instance, the female composer Fanny Mendelssohn, the prodigiously talented sister of Felix Mendelssohn, is represented in her brother’s episode, which makes sense when you consider how close the two siblings were and how deeply they influenced and complemented each other.