RN Documentary: A Christmas Edition of The Stars of Music with Gary Goldschneider and Dheera Sujan
From: Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Series: RN Documentaries
Length: 29:59
Concert pianist and astrologer Gary Goldschneider talks to Dheera Sujan about the origins of Christmas music, illustrating examples with music he plays on his Bechstein as well as unusual CD recordings. They talk about the astrological significance of Christmas and the birth date of Jesus. A light hearted easy to listen to program for the festive season with several pieces of traditional and newer Christmas songs.
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Piece Description
Concert pianist and astrologer Gary Goldschneider talks to Dheera Sujan about the origins of Christmas music, illustrating examples with music he plays on his Bechstein as well as unusual CD recordings. They talk about the astrological significance of Christmas and the birth date of Jesus. A light hearted easy to listen to program for the festive season with several pieces of traditional and newer Christmas songs.
Transcript
Hello and Merry Christmas ? I?m Dheera Sujan with this special festive edition of The Stars of Music.
now before we proceed any further I want to present my credentials rightaway. I?m a lapsed Hindu who spent her childhood celebrating all the traditional Christmas rituals in sweltering Australia. With this kind of muzak plaguing my steps, I like everyone around me, did the usual rounds in shopping malls buying uneccesary gifts for family who never liked them. I partook of unsuitably heavy Christmas dinners consisting of fowl roasted in ovens only marginally hotter than the air we were breathing, and I strung cotton wool on the ever more spindly tinsel Christmas tree my mother stored in a mothball laden trunk for the rest of the year.
But here?s the crunch. I love Christmas. ? I love watching re runs of the Sound of Music and eating Christmas leftovers. I love opening presents in...
Read the full transcript
John Biewen
Posted on December 21, 2006 at 10:42 AM | Permalink
Review of RN Documentary: A Christmas Edition of The Stars of Music with Gary Goldschneider and Dheera Sujan
The confluence of music and...astrology? OK, you tell yourself. Don't rush to judgment. You listen as the host introduces her guest, the "pianist and astrologer."
The guy is highly engaging, and he talks mostly about Christmas carols and the history thereof while sitting at the piano and playing illustrations of his points. He pops around from Mahler to Mel Torme to Schubert to the Beatles. Thankfully, perhaps, astrology comes up only a couple of times. "Some people believe [Jesus] was a Pisces." I, for one, did not know this.
Host Dheera Sujan does a fine job. There's plenty of interesting stuff in here for people who like smart talk about music. I'm still not sure what astrology is doing in this radio show, but hey. 'Tis not the season to get snarky. It's a good show for Christmas, especially for music stations. Astrology aside, I would call this program "St. Paul Sunday-esque." And that's a compliment.