With so much rain falling over the past week (at least in Princeton, NJ, and Eugene, OR), it’s useful to remember that April showers bring May flowers. Not that rain doesn’t bring its own consolations, at least when you’re Classic Ross Amico.
This week on “Sweetness and Light,” we’ll start your day with no less than three works that bear some relation to Elizabeth von Arnim’s lightest and most ebullient novel, “Enchanted April” – including a substantial suite from the score to a 1991 film version, by Richard Rodney Bennett. If you’re wondering what that otherworldly timbre is, it’s an electronic instrument called the ondes Martenot.
In addition, there will be a couple of April fools: John Foulds (we’ll hear his buoyant “April – England,” alone worth the price of admission) and Billy Mayerl (his energetic piano miniature “April’s Fool”).
T.S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month. American composer Rick Sowash wouldn’t necessarily disagree, as we’ll note in his tuneful, though undeniably bittersweet Clarinet Trio No. 2, subtitled “Enchantement d’avril.” (That’s right, “Enchanted April.”)
The clouds will part for Trevor Duncan’s light music classic, “Enchanted April,” the very thing to chase away the blues.
While surely into each life some rain must fall, we’ll be holding out a bright umbrella and a cup of cheer, when you tune in for a playlist of April enchantments on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it, wherever you are, at the link:
IMAGE: “Enchanted April” by Robert LaDuke, an artist who’s new to me, but I love his retro vibe!
Leave a Reply