Giving Thanks: A celebration of fall, food, and gratitude

Giving Thanks offers a contemporary celebration of gratitude, with classical music and stories of Thanksgiving.

Host John Birge and foodie film alumni Stanley Tucci help commemorate the spirt of Thanksgiving. Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye ushers in Giving Thanks by reading a selection of her poems that celebrate her heritage and our shared humanity. Whether you are early in the kitchen, on the road to a family gathering, or relaxing after the feast, Giving Thanks provides the perfect atmosphere for Thanksgiving: the warmth of great music, and truly memorable words.

Don't have time for the full two-hour program? Listen to the one-hour version, featuring conversation with Stanley Tucci, Naomi Shihab Nye and other highlights from Giving Thanks.

Hour 1

• Traditional: We Gather Together — Boston Pops

• Henry Purcell: The Yorkshire Feast Song: Symphony - Kings Consort

• Stanley Tucci on Thanksgiving and family

• Francisco Torroba: The Harvest - Minneapolis Guitar Quartet

• Jean Sibelius: The Harvesters - Kansas City Symphony/Michael Stern

• Schumann: Scenes from Childhood - Claudio Arrau, piano

• Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8, Pathetique: 2nd mvt. - Claudio Arrau, piano

• Naomi Shihab Nye reads Daily

• Ludovico Einaudi I Giorni (The Days) - La Pieta

• Puccini: O mio babbino caro - Richard Stoltzman, clarinet

• Mendelssohn: Concert piece No. 2: 3rd mvt - Sabine & Wolfgang Meyer, clarinets

• Stanley Tucci on the meaning of food

• Copland: Our Town - James Tocco, piano

• Handel: Largo - Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

• Tchaikovsky: November - Moscow Chamber Orchestra

• Francis Purcell Warren: A Sunday Evening in Autumn - Stephen Isserlis, cello; Stephen Hough, piano

• Naomi Shihab Nye reads Muchas Gracias por Todo

• Bernstein: Candide: Make our Garden Grow - Boston Pops

Hour 2

• Traditional: Thanksgiving Hymns - Jacqueline Schwab, piano

• Stanley Tucci on illness, recovery, and gratitude

• di Capua: O Sole Mio - Paula Robison, flute; Charleston Symphony

• Verdi: Rigoletto: La donna e mobile - Enrico Caruso, tenor

• Beethoven: Contredanses - Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields

• Naomi Shihab Nye reads Arabic Coffee

• Jay Ungar & Molly Mason: Harvest Home Suite: Thanksgiving Hymn

• Eric Whitacre: October - North Texas Wind Symphony

• From Jack Kerouac’s The Dharma Bums, Chartres Cathedral story; Psalm 104 - Read by Charles Laughton

• Trad, arr. Stephen Paulus: We Gather Together - Dale Warland Singers

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