Not Brahms and Liszt on WMBR Cambridge

Alley Stoughton in the WMBR Studios
Alley Stoughton in the WMBR Studios

Not Brahms and Liszt is a weekly radio program on MIT's student and community radio station, WMBR, featuring classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries, from Reich to Nyman to Wolfe to Higdon and onward. Alley Stoughton serves as the program's host, producer and engineer. Not Brahms and Liszt is broadcast on:

Mondays from 4-5:30pm
88.1 FM, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
streaming on wmbr.org

In the aftermath of the pandemic, WMBR is in the process of transitioning to hybrid programming, with some shows being remotely produced (as during the main part of the pandemic) and some being produced live, in our studios. The plan is to continue pre-producing Not Brahms and Liszt, at least for now.

There's a 52-second promo for Not Brahms and Liszt. Thanks to Ken Field for engineering it!

For most people, "classical music" is Western art music from the 18th and 19th centuries. Most of the symphony orchestra repertoire comes from this period, as do the playlists of classical music radio stations. Although this period of music has many gems, much of its music tends to bore listeners who grew up on rock and jazz. It's no wonder symphony orchestras are struggling, with ever-aging audiences listening to museum music. But classical music didn't die with the dawning of the 20th century, and the classical repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries is edgy, challenging, stimulating and beautiful — anything but boring. Not Brahms and Liszt brings the modern classical repertoire — from Reich to Nyman to Wolfe to Higdon and onward — to WMBR.

"Brahms and Liszt" is Cockney rhyming slang for "pissed", as in drunk. Here is what ChatGPT reckons Not Brahms and Liszt would be like.

Requests, feedback and information about upcoming concerts can be emailed to [email protected]. Alley Stoughton is @[email protected] on Mastodon.

New modern classical releases will be gratefully accepted and considered for airplay. Emails with links to digital downloads may be sent to [email protected]. And physical media may be mailed to:

WMBR
C/O Alley Stoughton, Classical Music Director
142 Memorial Drive, Room 050-030
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA

Weekly Email List

If you would like to receive a weekly email containing information about that week's show plus a link (good for two weeks only, no downloads) to the high-quality audio of the show, join the Not Brahms and Liszt Google Group here. If you want to sign up but don't have or want to create a Google account, email Alley Stoughton at [email protected], and she'll add your email address manually.

Concert Calendar

Shows

Click a show's top-link for the WMBR Track-Blaster listing (only works after the show has been broadcast). The most recently broadcast two weeks of shows have links for listening to the shows' high-quality audio via Samply. You can listen via your web browser, or using the Samply app on iOS. If you have a fast internet connection, you can listen losslessly; otherwise, Samply uses an adaptive AAC which produces very good fidelity. You can't download the audio, except within the iOS app. You can only listen to a program for two weeks from the broadcast date, even within the iOS app.

Alley Stoughton ([email protected])