Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Mozart Birthday Bash on WWFM!

Well, the day is finally upon us. Get ready for wall-to-wall Mozart, as Alice Weiss (9 to noon), Ross Amico (noon to 3), and David Osenberg (3 to 6) select from their own favorites to celebrate the master’s 261st birthday. I’ve already pulled aside a couple of concertos, a wind serenade, and some rarely-heard incidental music. I’m also flirting with the idea of playing one of the larger choral works. It will all hinge on what Alice comes up with this morning. Also, David has invited me to sit in to talk with him for a little bit about why we love “The Marriage of Figaro,” and to play excerpts from some of the recordings. So my 3:00 quitting time may be a little fluid.

I’ll be back at 6:00, of course, for “Picture Perfect.” The Mozart celebration is underway right now, on WWFM – The Classical Network, and at wwfm.org.

Rock me, Amadeus!

January 27, 2017
PSO Concert Explores Heritage and Identity

Four composers featured on the next concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra have traveled far, both geographically and genealogically, yet all manage to retain a strong sense of heritage at their core.

Celebrated clarinetist David Krakauer will join the PSO and its music director, Rossen Milanov, for a program of music rooted in explorations of personal and cultural identity. The program, “Un/Restrained,” will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium this Sunday afternoon at 4:00.

On the concert will be klezmer-infused works by Krakauer, Osvaldo Golijov and Wlad Marhulets – composer. Saad Haddad, Composer will use live processing of acoustic instruments to suggest the microtonal music of his Arabic past.

Rounding off the afternoon will be Rudolf Barshai’s arrangement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 into a Chamber Symphony. Shostakovich’s quartet is deeply personal – intense, harried, neurotic, enigmatic, visceral, and unforgettable. It’s also full of veiled self-references, including allusions to his other works, among them a piano trio that quotes a Jewish folk song.

Read more about this fascinating program in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2017/01/classical_music_david_krakauer.html

January 27, 2017
Silk Road Soundtrack Adventure

Put on a comfortable pair of walking shoes. This week on “Picture Perfect,” we travel the Silk Road.

We’ll have music from “The Adventures of Marco Polo” (1938), with Gary Cooper, of all people, as the medieval merchant-explorer. The score was the first by Hugo Friedhofer (born in San Francisco, despite his über-German name). Freidhofer had labored as an orchestrator for bigger-named composers, such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner. He would go on to win an Academy Award for his music for “The Best Years of Our Lives.”

Then we’ll hear selections from two big screen tellings of the exploits of Genghis Khan. “Genghis Khan” (1965) had quite a multi-national cast, in the best Old Hollywood tradition: Omar Sharif, Stephen Boyd, James Mason, Robert Morley, Francoise Morleac, Telly Savalas, Eli Wallach, Woody Strode, and hordes of extras. The music was by Yugoslavian composer Dusan Radic.

“Mongol” (2007) was a joint production of Russia, Germany and Kazakhstan, which was actually shot in China. The music was by Finnish composer Tuomas Kantelinen, in the film supplemented with contributions by the Mongolian rock band Altan Urag. (We’ll stick with the orchestral stuff.)

The score is striking for its use of khöömii throat-singers, female soloists lamenting and ululating over the orchestra, as well as the unique art of “urtiin duu” – traditional Mongolian long-singing. “Mongol” received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

Finally, we’ll have selections from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), with music by Tan Dun. The film was the winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Score. It was also nominated for Best Picture.

Yo-Yo Ma performs the cello solos on the soundtrack. One of the tracks is titled “Silk Road.” A couple of years earlier Ma had founded his Silk Road Ensemble.

I hope you’ll join me for 7000 miles in sensible shoes this week, as we travel the Silk Road, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

January 27, 2017
Mozart’s Birthday A Salieri Celebration

Mediocrities everywhere, I absolve you!

Join me tomorrow morning (Thursday) on WPRB, as we steel ourselves for Mozart’s birthday. Mozart was born on January 27, 1756. How will we mark the occasion? Why, by listening to music written by other composers in tribute to him, of course. Not a note of actual Mozart will be heard! Mwah-ha-ha-hahaha!! That makes me so happy.

Composers from the 18th century to the present pay homage to “the creature” tomorrow, from 6 to 11 a.m. EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll be channeling Antonio Salieri, on Classic Ross Amico.

January 26, 2017
Mozart Tributes WPRB Celebrates a Master

“Mozart! Forgive your assassin! I confess, I killed you!”

Poor Antonio Salieri. Wracked with guilt (at least, according to playwright Peter Shaffer) for having “killed” Mozart.

We’re killing Mozart with kindness this morning on WPRB, as we salute the 18th century master on the eve of his birthday anniversary. However, we won’t hear a single note of Mozart, except perhaps as filtered through the sensibilities of others. It will be a full morning of Mozart tributes, ranging from the composer’s day to our own, as old favorites by Tchaikovsky and Reger exist cheek-by-jowl with works by living composers Calvin Bowman, Jonathan Dove, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Kevin Puts.

It’s a cheeky concept, but you have to admit, it’s a lot more interesting, and certainly a lot more creative, than playing all-Mozart, which will be the case with most classical music stations tomorrow (as I will amply demonstrate when the time comes).

We make the most of Mozart this morning, from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I forgo contredanses for contrarianism, on Classic Ross Amico.

At 9:00, I’ll be joined by Jerry Kalstein, president of Boheme Opera NJ. Boheme Opera will be presenting semi-staged performances of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” (a.k.a. the prequel to Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro”) at The College of New Jersey, this Sunday at 3 p.m., and at Cherry Hill West High School, on Saturday, February 4, at 7 p.m. Tune in to our interview to find out more, or look online at bohemeopera.com.

January 26, 2017

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