Best Rain Delay Media Podcasts (2024)

1
Strauss and Thomas in New York 2:00

2h ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis Browsing The New York Times for today’s date in 1867, under the banner “Amusements,” you would have seen this notice: “Mr. Theodore Thomas, returned home from his trip to Paris and Berlin, will resume personal control of the concerts given by his orchestra at Terrace Garden this evening.” Born in Germany in 1835, Theodore Thomas came to Am…

1
Schubert seeks a publisher 2:00

1d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis On today’s date in 1826, Franz Schubert completed what would be his last string quartet, published posthumously as his Opus 161. 1826 was a rather frustrating year for Schubert. Prospects for commissions didn’t pan out, and he wrote the following note to the oldest publishing house in Germany, Breitkopf & Härtel: “In the hope that my name …

1
Tower's musical islands 2:00

2d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis American composer Joan Tower says explaining her music is “sheer torture for me.” Understandably, she prefers to let her music speak for itself, and many of her works have simple, generic titles like Piano Concerto or Concerto for Orchestra. But audiences generally prefer more evocative titles, and on more than one occasion Tower has provi…

1
Robert Xavier Rodriguez 2:00

3d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis Interest in the life of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo has been on the rise since her death in 1954, so it’s not surprising that in 1991 she became the subject of the opera Frida, by American composer Robert Xavier Rodriguez, who was born in San Antonio on today’s date in 1946. Like Kahlo’s paintings, Rodriguez’ opera evokes Mexican folk t…

1
Beethoven symphonies and 20th century politics 2:00

4d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis No four notes in classical music are more familiar than those that open Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Their powerful psychological resonance has often extended beyond music into overtly political contexts. For example, on today’s date in 1941, the British Broadcasting Company began using those notes as a theme for radio shows beamed across E…

1
Angel City FC and the Booming Business of Women’s Sports 31:20

2d ago31:20

31:20

Angel City FC, the LA-based National Women’s Soccer League club, was recently named the most valuable franchise in the league. ACFC joined the NWSL as an expansion team in 2022 and shares BMO Stadium with LAFC. From the beginning, the club made headlines with a star-studded ownership group, which includes Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Serena Willi…

1
Music for the whirly-birds by Stockhausen and Wagner 1:59

5d ago1:59

1:59

Synopsis On today’s date in 1995, the four members of the Arditti String Quartet entered four helicopters warming up their engines at an airfield in Holland. Followed by video cameras, each player’s image and audio was relayed to huge video displays and loudspeakers on the ground for the mid-air premiere of a work titled — what else — Helicopter Qu…

1
Stravinsky meets Debussy 2:00

6d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis On today’s date in 1910, one week after his 28th birthday, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky attended the premiere performance of his ballet, The Firebird, at the Paris Opera, staged by the famous Ballet Russe ensemble of Serge Diaghilev. Recalling the premiere, Stravinsky wrote: “The first-night audience glittered indeed, but the fact that…

1
Loudon: Should NASCAR Let Teams Risk It? 1:03:52

4d ago1:03:52

1:03:52

Denny Hamlin is back after an up-and-down weekend in New Hampshire. Denny won the second stage and was expecting the race to end once it started to rain (4:40). Why did the track widen when the cars went to their wet tires (9:45)? Denny had a helpless feeling when he couldn’t run the same line as Christopher Bell (14:00). Plus, Denny explains the d…

1
Havergal Brian writes one for the record books 2:00

7d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the biggest, longest, most massively orchestrated symphony of all time is the Gothic Symphony by British composer Havergal Brian. The symphony was composed between 1919 and 1922, but didn’t receive its first performance until 40 years later, on today’s date in 1961, when Bryan Fairfax conduc…

1
William Grant Still's rain-delayed premiere 2:00

8d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis A New Yorker scanning the music pages of the New York Times for June 23, 1940 might have caught a headline announcing a new work by American composer William Grant Still, scheduled for its premiere the following day at an open-air concert by the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium. As bad luck would have it, storm clouds postponed th…

1
Roy Whelden's new music for an old instrument 2:00

9d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis On this date in 1787, an obituary in London’s Morning Post noted the passing two days earlier of Carl Friedrich Abel, 63, a composer, concert impresario and viola da gamba virtuoso. The viola da gamba was the forerunner of the modern cello. Its heyday was in the 17th century, but soon after the softer-voiced gamba lost out to the more powe…

1
Sean Hickey's Cello Concerto 2:00

10d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis There are dozens of famous cello concertos that get performed in concert halls these days, ranging from 18th century works by Italian Baroque master Antonio Vivaldi to dramatic 20th century works of Russian modernist Dmitri Shostakovich. American composer Sean Hickey was commissioned by Russian cellist Dmitry Kouzov to write a new one, whi…

1
The 'Cockaigne' Overture 2:00

11d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis On today’s date in 1901, English composer Edward Elgar conducted the first performance of his cheery, upbeat, and slightly rowdy Cockaigne Overture, a commission from the Royal Philharmonic Society dedicated to his many friends in British Orchestras. Now Cockaigne does not refer to the schedule two narcotic, but rather an old nickname for …

1
From MLS to Premier League With Tim Bezbatchenko 31:01

9d ago31:01

31:01

When Tim Bezbatchenko realized he wasn’t going to be a Major League Soccer player, he knew he still wanted to be around the sport—so after attending law school (while playing on a USL team), he got a job at MLS headquarters. That led to successful stints as president and general manager of Toronto FC, which hoisted an MLS Cup during his tenure, and…

1
An Antheil premiere (or two) 2:00

12d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis On today’s date in 1926, avant-garde musical piece Ballet Mechanique, scored for multiple pianos and percussion, had its public premiere at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris. Its composer was a 25-year old American named George Antheil. Antheil’s piece had its private premiere earlier that year at the palatial Parisian home of a very…

1
Paul Fetler's 'Capriccio' 2:00

13d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis On today’s date in 1985, a brand-new piece of music had its premiere in a brand-new concert hall in Minnesota. American composer Paul Fetler wrote his jaunty Capriccio to celebrate both the first concert of the seventh season of conductor Jay Fishman’s Minneapolis Chamber Symphony and the new Ordway Music Theater in St. Paul, which had ope…

1
Iowa: Blown Tires, Missed Setups & Charter Talk 1:14:58

11d ago1:14:58

1:14:58

Denny Hamlin is back in studio after a 24th-place finish in Iowa. Denny discusses what happened with his car and why the No. 11 team missed the setup. Even still, Denny looked to have a chance to finish in the top 10 until he got caught up in an accident with Kyle Larson. Before this weekend’s race, many were critical of the partial repave at Iowa …

1
Bach is back 2:00

14d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis As Leipzig’s chief provider of both sacred and secular music, Johann Sebastian Bach probably gave a huge sigh of relief on today’s date in 1733. The death of Imperial Elector Friedrich Augustus the First of Saxony earlier that year had resulted in a four-month period of official mourning, which meant NO elaborate sacred music at Bach’s Lei…

1
Francis Johnson 2:00

15d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis Today we celebrate Francis Johnson, born in Martinque in the West Indies on today’s date in 1792. He emigrated to Philadelphia in 1809 at 17. As a teen, Johnson was a master of the violin and the keyed bugle, an early precursor of the trumpet. By his 20s, he was a popular bandleader around Philadelphia. Johnson experimented with various co…

1
David Ward-Steinman's 'Cinnabar' 2:00

16d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis “Listening to inner voices” is a phrase that can mean a lot of things. For violists, providing those inner voices, musically speaking, is their daily bread and butter. In the modern orchestra, the viola provides the alto voice in the string choir, filling in harmonies and musical lines between the violins on top and the cellos and double b…

1
Bernstein, Blitzstein and Brecht 2:00

17d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis Bernstein, Blitzstein and Brecht … it sounds a little like a law firm, doesn’t it? But today, we celebrate the anniversary of an important musical partnership involving those three gentlemen. Marc Blitzstein and Leonard Bernstein were two American composers who shared a passion for musical theater. Bertolt Brecht was a German poet and play…

1
Thomas Greene Wiggins 2:00

18d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis On this date in 1908, Thomas Greene Wiggins died in Hoboken, New Jersey at 59. Known as “Blind Tom Wiggins,” he was one of the most celebrated — and cruelly exploited — Black concert performers of the 19th century. Born enslaved in Georgia in 1849, Wiggins and his parents were offered for sale in an ad reading: “Price: $1,500 without Tom, …

1
How Europe Has Shaped USMNT’s Haji Wright 29:13

16d ago29:13

29:13

Haji Wright’s introduction to international soccer when he scored the lone goal for the United States against Holland in the 2022 World Cup’s Round of 16. Since then, the 26-year-old winger, who has played all over Europe, signed with Coventry City of the English Championship, where he just had his best season yet with 19 goals—seven of them match …

1
Music for the birds by Dvořák 2:00

19d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis There’s a long list of composers ranging from Vivaldi to Messiaen who have incorporated bird song into their musical works. Today we make note of one of them. On this date in 1893, great Czech composer Antonín Dvořák was vacationing with his family in Spillville, Iowa, spending the hot summer months with a small Czech community who had set…

1
Hovhaness and the world's biggest vocal soloist 2:00

20d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis On this date in 1970, the New York Philharmonic, led by Andre Kostelanetz, introduced the world’s largest vocal soloists in the premiere performance of And God Created Great Whales, by American composer Alan Hovhaness. The New York Times review found the music accompanying the recorded songs of whales “fairly inconsequential,” but pleasant…

1
Sonoma: “Hell No. It F****** Detonated” 1:05:23

18d ago1:05:23

1:05:23

Denny Hamlin and co-host Jared Allen are back after a short trip to Sonoma. Denny explains what happened on lap 2, which saw his engine fail, ending his day. Stages 1 and 2 had 8 cautions, and Denny explains why this might have happened. Tyler Reddick had a good day until he made contact with Kyle Larson after pitting (12:00). Kyle Larson had a fas…

1
Marsalis and Swing 2:00

21d ago2:00

2:00

Synopsis Wynton Marsalis says it all began with a dare in the 1990s from German conductor Kurt Masur, then Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. “He came to a concert of mine when I was like 28 or 29, and said he wanted me to write for the New York Philharmonic. I started laughing like, man, I have never even written for a big band,” Marsali…

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