Farewell to two New England musical mainstays

Wednesday's classical music will include tributes to two outstanding contributors to the classical music life of New England and beyond.  You may have heard today on Morning Edition of the death of violinist and teacher Roman Totenberg; read the moving comments by his daughter, NPR's Nina Totenberg here.   The last leading exemplar of the pre-World War II violin style, Totenberg played with a natural, vocal quality that may sound easy, but was the result of a life's refinement.  Though he enjoyed an excellent performing career, Totenberg was if anything more celebrated as a teacher, demanding the best from his students right to his last moments.  Late in the 10:00 hour this morning, we'll broadcast his performance of two movements from a Bach Solo Sonata; the Brahms Sonata No. 3 in D minor with pianist Dean Sanders comes up this afternoon.  And tomorrow afternoon, we'll feature Roman Totenberg's performance with the Warsaw Philharmonic of Beethoven's Violin Concerto.

Also, yesterday's local paper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, published the obituary for composer and UMass Amherst professor emeritus Bruce MacCombie, who died at his home in Amherst on May 2.  A UMass alumnus who went on to a varied career as teacher, dean and administrator, Bruce MacCombie produced a not large but delectable corpus of compositions of which we'll enjoy two:  his sultry, brilliantly-colored "Chelsea Tango" late in the 10:00 hour today, and his "Nightshade Rounds," played by guitarist Sharon Isbin Thursday afternoon on WFCR.