Ray Hawthorne

On the next Modern Notebook: music for solo cello by Reena Esmail composed as an interlude between two Haydn Sonatas, titled Varsha, which in Hindi means “The Rainy Season.” And throughout the piece, Esmail uses Hindustani raags which are often sung to beckon rain.Then, Tampa-based flutist Taylor Irelan joins Tyler Kline to discuss his new album titled The Journey, which features new works for flute and piano by LGBTQIA+ composers.Also featuring music by Baljinder Sekhon, Deena T. Grossman, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, Viet Cuong, and others; and performances by cellist Claire Bryant, steel pan soloist Dave Gerhart with the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, saxophonist Dylan Ward, and more.Listen to Modern Notebook, Sunday night from 8 to 10 ET on Classical WSMR 89.1 and 103.9. Streaming at wsmr.org.

Hear an exuberant dance for two bass clarinets by Anna Meadors from Andy Hudson’s latest album is coming up on the next Modern Notebook: a piece that is, in part, about the “unspoken joy in playing music.”And in the second hour: the sounds of jammed radio signals dating back to World War II is the source of inspiration for Annie Gosfield’s work for violin and electronics titled Long Waves and Random Pulses, music which features a solo violin emulating the scratchy sounds and tones of those radios.Plus, music by Iman Habibi, Ayala Asherov, Bosba Panh, Mark Ingebretson, Fumiko Miyachi, and others; and performances by violinist Pauline Kim Harris, guitarist Jamie Monck, Cobalt Duo, Duo Montagnard, and others.Tune in for Modern Notebook, Sunday night from 8 to 10 ET on Classical WSMR 89.1 and 103.9. Listen online at wsmr.org.

On Modern Notebook this week, what does a “found” poem art song sound like? In her piece Landscapes, Regina Harris Baiocchi deconstructs an essay by a landscape architect to derive poetry which she then transforms into song.Then: David Clay Mettens’ work Avaloch Sketches is not just music composed for two friends, but for a married couple… and so he imagines the movements of the piece each taking the form of a different kind of relationship between flute and cello.Plus, music by brin solomon, Gity Razaz, Anthony Cheung, Eleanor Alberga, and others; and performances by clarinetist Andy Hudson with pianist Inara Zandmane, violist Katharina Kang Litton, mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen with violist Michael Hall and pianist Marianne Parker, flutist Emlyn Johnson and cellist Daniel Ketter, pianist Brianna Matzke, and more.Tune in for the next Modern Notebook, Sunday night from 8 to 10 ET on Classical WSMR 89.1 and 103.9; streaming at wsmr.org.

Coming up on the next Modern Notebook, Tyler Kline shares music by Nico Muhly performed by the Claremont Trio, as well as a work for cello and voice by Yaz Lancaster titled “diepenveen.”

Composer Amy Beach once remarked that a piece of music could be “a veritable autobiography” for a composer, and this is certainly the case with her Piano Concerto in c-sharp minor.

While many regard Carl Nielsen as a composer “born to write symphonies,” he had quite a bit of difficulty when it came to producing his Fifth Symphony.