Category: Daily Dispatch

I’ve been lifting heavy boxes and inhaling lungs full of dust mites so you don’t have to. Join me tomorrow morning on WPRB, when I’ll be making my contribution to Vinyl Week, with a full morning played from honest-to-goodness, old-fashioned records.

I’ve been digging deep this time, and I’ve accumulated a stack of Howard Hanson’s Mercury recordings that never made it to compact disc. I’ve also struck a rich vein of Louisville First Edition Records. There will be music by Mexican microtonalist Julian Carrillo, almost entirely absent from the current catalogue. Also Richard Mohaupt, whose recordings are wholly out-of-print. I have to play some Max Butting, just because I’ve got so much of it. Again, amazingly, there’s only a single disc of his works still in print. In addition, I’ve got a symphony by Romanian composer Sigismond Toduta, issued on authentic Romanian vinyl.

We’ll hear Norman Dello Joio’s “New York Profiles,” released on a 10-inch red vinyl LP (because I’ve never programmed anything from 10-inch red vinyl). Somehow, I came into the possession of one of Marc-André Hamelin’s records – not one of his recordings mind you, but an LP formerly in his collection – of Hans Werner Henze’s “Muses of Sicily.” If it was rejected by Hamelin (whose taste I respect immensely), then it’s good enough for me! I’ll be giving it a spin tomorrow.

Many of these records were distributed solely overseas, with liner notes in Czech, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Swedish, and Cyrillic. This ought to be interesting.

I’m particularly excited for the chance to hear John Addison’s Concerto for Trumpet, Strings and Percussion. Addison is principally remembered as a composer of quirky film scores like those for “Tom Jones” and “Sleuth.” This Louisville record, which I’ve never listened to, looks to be a pristine copy.

On top of all that, I’ll have a couple of special guests into the studio. At 9:00, I’ll be joined by Benedikt von Schroder from The Princeton Festival. He’ll fill us in on the rest of the season, which runs through June 25. Then, at 10:00, soprano Rochelle Ellis will be by to tell us about a performance of Brahms’ “A German Requiem,” which will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on Friday, the centerpiece of Lyn Ransom’s farewell concert after 30 years as artistic director of VOICES Chorale. (Princeton Festival artistic director Richard Tang Yuk will be taking over from her next season.)

I hope you’ll join me for some rare LP discoveries, or perhaps a reunion or two with some long lost friends, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. I’ll be giving you the needle, on Classic Ross Amico.