{"podcast":{"title":"Composers Datebook","slug":"composers-datebook-550176","podcast_index_feed_id":550176,"rss_url":"https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/composers-datebook","website_url":"https://www.yourclassical.org/composers-datebook","image_url":"https://img.apmcdn.org/1486eb29dcac7f11a5275eaa0d424ba7c6b9afc7/uncropped/8588a0-20210225-composers-datebook-2000.jpg","author":"American Public Media","episode_count":30,"summary":"Composers Datebook™ is a daily two-minute program designed to inform, engage, and entertain listeners with timely information about composers of the past and present. Each program notes significant or intriguing musical events involving composers of the past and present, with appropriate and accessible music related to each.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-20T04:27:54.224736+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/composers-datebook-550176"},"episode":{"title":"Martinu's 'Frescoes'","slug":"martinu-s-frescoes","published_at":"2026-08-26T05:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/composers-datebook-550176/martinu-s-frescoes","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/composers-datebook-550176","url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/5/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/VnCzW2iO9G8z4eDWfXCd/play.publicradio.org/podcast/o/composers_datebook/2026/08/26/datebook_20260826_128.mp3","audio_url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/5/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/VnCzW2iO9G8z4eDWfXCd/play.publicradio.org/podcast/o/composers_datebook/2026/08/26/datebook_20260826_128.mp3","summary":"Synopsis Piero della Francesca was a 15th century Renaissance painter, whose series of frescoes, Legend of the True Cross , inspired one of the best orchestral works of 20th-century Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu. In 1952, he made a trip to the Tuscan hill town of Arezzo, where he saw the frescoes and got the idea for a new symphonic work that would attempt to capture in music what Piero had captured in painting. What he sought to replicate was, as he put it, “a kind of solemn, frozen silence and opaque, colored atmosphere … a strange, peaceful and moving poetry.” He linked the first movement of his score to one Tuscan fresco showing the Queen of Sheba and some women kneeling by a river; and the second to another depicting the dream of the Emperor Constantine. The third movement was intended, in his words, as “a kind of general view of the frescoes.” Martinu’s orchestral triptych, The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca , received its premiere performance on today’s date at the 1956 Salzburg Festival in Austria, with the Vienna Philharmonic led by the eminent Czech conductor, Rafael Kubelik. Music Played in Today's Program Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1950): Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca ; Vienna Philharmonic; Rafael Kubelik, conductor; Orfeo C521-991 (recorded August 26, 1956)","meta_description":"Synopsis Piero della Francesca was a 15th century Renaissance painter, whose series of frescoes, Legend of the True Cross , inspired one of the best orche…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":120,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/composers-datebook-550176/episodes/martinu-s-frescoes/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/composers-datebook-550176/martinu-s-frescoes.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}