Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Youth Orchestra & Girlchoir Concerts This Weekend

For two local organizations that focus on young musicians, the future is now. Three concerts to be performed this weekend by the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey (YOCJ) and the Princeton Girlchoir will demonstrate that music is shaping tomorrow today.

On Sunday at 3 & 7 p.m., YOCJ will present two separate programs at The College of New Jersey’s Kendall Hall. The afternoon program will include performances by its String Preparatory Orchestra, Wind Symphony and Pro Arte Orchestra. The evening program will include performances by the Saxophone Choir and Symphonic Orchestra.

Jennifer Montone will be the soloist for the Symphonic Orchestra concert, performing Emmanuel Chabrier’s “Larghetto” for horn and orchestra. Montone is the Principal Horn of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She also teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School. Her recording of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Horn Concerto with the Warsaw National Philharmonic was the recipient of a Grammy Award in 2013.

On March 21, Montone will visit West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North to conduct an interactive master class with students and brass ensembles. The master class is free and open to the public.

Also on Sunday evening, at 6 p.m., the Princeton Girlchoir will take to the stage at McCarter Theatre Center’s Matthews Theatre for its winter concert, “United in Song.” The program will bring together the organization’s six choirs, which range from the youngest beginners to the most polished pre-collegiate singers. The repertoire will include a wide variety of selections, from classical and folk song to contemporary.

The choirs will be directed by Lynnel Joy Jenkins, Melissa Keylock, Fred Meads and John Wilson. Two of the selections will feature the full battery of 290 girls. The last, Benjamin Britten’s “A New Year Carol,” will incorporate Princeton Girlchoir alumni.

Find out more about both organizations and all three events in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

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

January 20, 2017
Sabatini, Swashbucklers & Silver Screen Gold

Though Rafael Sabatini’s popularity has faded somewhat over the decades, in his day the Italian-English writer might have been regarded as the heir apparent to Alexandre Dumas. His bestselling novels are full of romance and swordplay. However, I’m not sure if any of them have really endured in the public consciousness.

Sabatini’s incident-filled pages seem ready-made for the silver screen. Film adaptations of “Scaramouche,” “The Sea Hawk” and “Captain Blood” were made during the silent era. A long-lost John Gilbert classic, adapted from Sabatini’s “Bardelys the Magnificent,” has only recently been rediscovered. Several of these, of course, were remade, more or less, to great success during the era of talking pictures.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll hear Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s music for the Errol Flynn classics “Captain Blood” (1935) and “The Sea Hawk” (1940). The former film provided Flynn with his breakout role; the latter actually has nothing at all to do with Sabatini’s original plot, despite his onscreen credit.

We’ll also enjoy Alfred Newman’s rollicking main title music for the pirate opus “The Black Swan” (1942), which starred Tyrone Power, and one of Victor Young’s most rousing and melodically inventive scores, for “Scaramouche” (1952), which featured Stewart Granger in probably the best swashbuckler of the 1950s.

“Picture Perfect” sets sail at 6:00 this evening. Tune in a little earlier to enjoy a broadcast concert by Concordia Chamber Players, as always compellingly curated by the ensemble’s artistic director, Michelle Djokic.

The program will include one of Korngold’s finest chamber works, his Suite for Two Violins, Cello and Piano Left-Hand, written for the one-armed Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein (for whom Ravel wrote his famous piano concerto); also the String Quartet No. 1 by Korngold’s teacher, Alexander Zemlinsky. Glenn Smith will be your host for this special concert, which will come your way at a special time.

You’ll get two faces of Korngold today, with Concordia Chamber Players at 4 p.m. EST and on “Picture Perfect” at 6 p.m., on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

January 20, 2017
Youthful Music Britten Copland on WPRB

Youth may be wasted on the young, at least according to George Bernard Shaw, but a skillful composer knows how to make the most of youthful talent.

Join me tomorrow morning on WPRB, as we listen to music written for young musicians, by such composers as Benjamin Britten, Aaron Copland, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Zoltán Kodály, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Robert Moran, Carl Orff, and Grace Williams.

We’ll also be visited by representatives of the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey, which will perform two concerts this Sunday at Kendall Hall on the campus of The College of New Jersey in Ewing, and the Princeton Girlchoir, which will appear at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton on Sunday night.

It will be a veritable fountain of youth tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I may be an old soul, but I’m also nothing if not young at heart, on Classic Ross Amico.

Benjamin Britten and his menagerie, rehearsing the chamber opera “Noye’s Fludde”

January 19, 2017
Youth Music on the Radio This Sunday

O sweet bird of youth!

No, it’s not Tennessee Williams. Rather, it’s a full morning of music written especially for young performers.

We’ll have selections by Benjamin Britten, Aaron Copland, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Zoltán Kodály, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, William Mathias, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Robert Moran, Carl Orff, and Grace Williams, among others.

Furthermore, in the 9:00 hour, Larisa Epps will drop by from the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey. YOCJ will present two concerts this Sunday at Kendall Hall on the campus of The College of New Jersey in Ewing. She’ll tell us a little bit about the programs and her worthwhile organization. Then at 10:00, we’ll be joined by Hilary Butler of the Princeton Girlchoir, which will appear at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton on Sunday night.

I welcome you into my sandbox, this morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Radio can certainly age you, but the music will keep you young, on Classic Ross Amico.

January 19, 2017
Roberta Peters Legendary Met Soprano Dies

I am sorry to report that soprano Roberta Peters has died. Rushed to the Metropolitan Opera as a last-minute substitute with no rehearsal time in 1950, she was propelled to stardom.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/arts/music/roberta-peters-soprano-with-a-dramatic-entrance-dies-at-86.html?_r=0

Here she is performing with her ex-husband, Robert Merrill, ten years after their amicable divorce:

They were only married for ten weeks. They remained good friends and continued to perform quite well together.

January 19, 2017

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