I’m part of a long podcast from Radio Allegro in Canada, interviewed by a very smart and lively guy, Ashley Foot. The podcast is called “The Sounds of Summer 2006,” and I’m one of several people who pick a piece of summer music we love. And, OK, I picked a piece of autumn music I’d heard in the winter, “Harvest Moon,” the deeply beautiful Neil Young song (from his ’90s album of that name), as he sings it in the Jonathan Demme concert film, Heart of Gold. I’ve raved about that film here; it’s not just an unforgettable human and musical document, but a model example of how to put a musical performance on film. We in classical music would just about drop dead with joy if we did one quarter as well.
So on the podcast, I talk about the song, and, bless me, I just about start crying. It’s not just the beauty of the music, or of the idea behind the song, a deepening love story involving people who aren’t youthful any more. The people involved are right on the film, too — Young and his wife, who’s one of the backup singers. At the end of the performance, he sings “I’m still in love with you/I want to see you dancing. And he turns around to look at her, and all the backup singers start smiling, and I just lose it. You might, too, if you see the film, now available on DVD.
But you can hear the song on the podcast, and hear my talk about the future of classical music as well. I do a lot of radio, from time to time, but this session, with someone I’d never known of before, for an organization I’d never heard of, is one of my happiest radio experiences.
I start at around an hour and 18 minutes into the podcast. You can hear it on the Radio Allegro http://www.radio-allegro.com/ website, or on http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=eK4NgdMrdyQ&offerid=78941&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewPodcast%253Fid%253D157456650%2526partnerId%253D30iTunes. (The iTunes link won’t work unless you have iTunes on your computer.)