Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Godzilla Kurosawa Mother’s Day Music

Nothing says Mother’s Day like samurai warriors and radiation-induced thunder-lizards.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear concert music by two Japanese composers – both close friends – who were best recognized internationally for their work in film. Akira Ifukube studied with Alexander Tcherepnin. Though his “Japanese Rhapsody” of 1935 won first prize in an international contest judged by Albert Roussel, Jacques Ibert, and Arthur Honegger, among others, financial considerations led him to write 250 film scores. Undoubtedly, he is best known for his music for Godzilla.

Humiwo Hayasaka was Akira Kurosawa’s composer of choice, writing music for classic films such as “Rashomon” and “The Seven Samurai.” He wrote over 100 film scores in all, before his early death from tuberculosis at the age of 41. Prominent Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (who later scored Kurosawa’s “Dodes’kaden”) claimed Hayasaka as a formative influence. We’ll hear Hayasaka’s Piano Concerto, composed in 1948. The first movement is a massive elegy for the composer’s brother and all the dead of the Second World War; and the second, a contrasting movement of conspicuous playfulness.

Incidentally, Ifukube was also responsible for creating Godzilla’s trademark roar, which was produced by running a resin-covered leather glove along the loosened strings of a double bass. He emulated Godzilla’s footsteps by striking an amplifier box. Hear his distinctive roar tonight, as part of “Godzilla vs. Kurosawa,” Sunday at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 14, 2017
Happy Birthday Sir Arthur Sullivan!

All right, Savoyards, it’s Sir Arthur Sullivan’s birthday. Let’s see those “likes.”

Here’s the great John Reed. Why is this collection not on CD, in the form it was originally issued? Granted, all the numbers are drawn from complete recordings:

Seasonal Sullivan:

Sullivan without Gilbert – his “Irish Symphony” (though I still prefer Sir Charles Groves’ recording):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9irmDpqDSs

May 13, 2017
Massenet Fauré Birthday on WWFM Today

Today is the birthday of two outstanding French composers: Jules Massenet (born 1842) and Gabriel Fauré (born 1845). Massenet’s fluency and emotionally direct style made him the most successful French opera composer of his generation. Fauré was the radical who blew the dust off the Paris Conservatory and ushered in an era of unprecedented reform.

We’ll enjoy music by both this afternoon, along with a Divertimento by Sir Lennox Berkeley (born 1903) and works by Johann Baptist Wanhal (born 1739), who played string quartets with Haydn, Mozart and Dittersdorf, and Franz Anton Hoffmeister (born 1754), who published works by all four.

“Picture Perfect” comes your way at 6. I’ll be posting more about that in just a bit. Suffice it to say, I’ll be your host from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: Fauré (left) and Massenet enjoying a little fresh air

May 12, 2017
Poets on Film Movie Soundtracks & Scores

Time to invest in some quills and some laudanum. This week on “Picture Perfect,” the focus will be on poets in the movies.

We’ll have music from “Dead Poets Society” (1989), Peter Weir’s beautiful-but-vacuous take on the transformative powers of poetry, its “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” story arc made all the more poignant (and less cheap) by the passing of its beloved star, Robin Williams. Maurice Jarre, a long, long way from his Oscar-winning work on “Lawrence of Arabia,” wrote the music, which blends dulcimer and bagpipes (!) with electronics.

At least “Dead Poets Society” found a place in the hearts of the public. “Lady Caroline Lamb” (1973) did not. Sarah Miles plays Byron’s jilted lover, the wife of future prime minister William Lamb. Despite an impressive cast, which includes Jon Finch, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson and Richard Chamberlain (as Lord Byron, no less), and direction by venerable playwright and screenwriter Robert Bolt (“A Man for All Seasons”), the film received mixed reviews and tanked at the box office. The always fine Richard Rodney Bennett provided the atmospheric score.

“Il Postino” (1994) tells the story of a simple postman whose prosaic life is transformed through the power of metaphor. His model is the exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, played in the film by Philippe Noiret. The film’s writer and star, Massimo Troisi, died of a heart attack twelve hours after shooting was completed, having postponed surgery until he finished work. He was 41 years-old. Argentinian-Italian composer Luis Bacalov’s bandoneon-tinged score was honored with an Academy Award for Best Music.

Finally, we put a point on things with the rapier wit of “Cyrano de Bergerac” (1950). José Ferrer struts his stuff as the warrior-poet with the prominent proboscis, who never wants for words, save in the presence of his beautiful cousin Roxane. Ferrer elocuted – and fenced – his way to an Academy Award for Best Actor. The score is one of Dimitri Tiomkin’s finest, and we’ll hear a recording taken from the film’s original elements, under the crisp direction of the composer.

It’s poetry in motion this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 12, 2017
Nursery Rhymes Mother’s Day Music on WPRB

Three Blind Mice. Old King Cole. Peter, Peter, Pumpkin-Eater. All nursery rhymes recollected from childhood.

Join me Thursday morning on WPRB for music inspired by these and more – the children’s books “Peter Pan,” “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” and “Higglety Pigglety Pop!” and fairy tales of Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Brothers Grimm – as we salute the contributions of Mother, in advance of Mother’s Day.

We’ll find lots of sense in nonsense, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB and wprb.com. When I was a child, I understood as a child – and I still do, thanks to Mom, on Classic Ross Amico.

May 11, 2017

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