Vive la France! This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll celebrate Bastille Day with the bittersweet stylings of French composer Michel Legrand. The recipient of three Academy Awards (and 13 nominations), along with five Grammys, Legrand wrote music that tugs at the heart even as it lifts the soul.
Take a nostalgic journey down Memory Lane (or perhaps Rue de Mémoire?) with indelible selections from a handful of his over 200 film and television scores, including “Summer of ’42,” “The Picasso Summer,” “The Go-Between,” “Yentl,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” and “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.” Le Grand, indeed!
The best of the classic European film composers always seemed to grasp the fundamental sadness of existence. There is poignancy in beauty and beauty in poignancy this week. Get out your handkerchiefs for music of Michel Legrand, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
For streaming information, see below.
Keep in mind, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)
Stream them here!
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