Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Pilgrim’s Progress Thanksgiving on WPRB

In the words of the Duke, “Whoa, take ‘er easy there, Pilgrim.”

It’s understandable that the Pilgrims would have been agitated. By the time the Mayflower left England, they had already been living on board ship for a month and a half. Then 300 miles out to sea, the Mayflower’s sister ship, the ironically named Speedwell, began to leak and they had to return to port. The now extremely overcrowded Mayflower embarked once more. It took 66 days to cross the Atlantic. By the time they finally landed, well north of their projected target of Northern Virginia (the territory then encompassing the Hudson Valley), they had long exhausted their supply of sandwiches and their collective blood sugar level was plummeting. Fortunately, the locals were kind enough to help them out, and Puritanism took root in America. And we’ve been paying for it ever since.

Still, we, like the Pilgrims, have much to be thankful for, and this morning on WPRB we’ll celebrate our good fortune with music by American composers on the subjects of gratitude, flight from religious persecution, the torments of Puritanical repression, Native American themes, and New England, Southern and mountain folk music and hymn tunes.

So go ahead and help yourself to a second slice. It will be more powerful than a tryptophan coma, from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll be loosening our belts in front of the football game, on Classic Ross Amico.

November 17, 2016
William Penn Opera Rare Broadcast

Trust me. If you are interested in American opera or local history, you won’t want to miss this one.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, I’ll be sitting in for Sandy Steiglitz on WPRB’s Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy to host a rare broadcast of Romeo Cascarino’s “William Penn.”

Cascarino, born in South Philadelphia in 1922, labored at this, his magnum opus, for 25 years, from 1950 to 1975. It was given its premiere at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia in 1982, to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city. Metropolitan Opera singer bass-baritone John Cheek assumed the title role, and Christopher Macatsoris conducted the Philadelphia Singers and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.

I will be joined in the studio by a very special guest: Dolores Cascarino, the composer’s widow, who created the role of Gulielma (as Dolores Ferraro), Penn’s wife. She will offer anecdotes about – and insights into – this beautiful and haunting opera.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: if Cascarino had completed “William Penn” within a few years of starting it, in the 1950s, the opera would now be mentioned in the same breath as Carlisle Floyd’s “Susannah” and Robert Ward’s “The Crucible.” It’s that good.

Join me for this one-of-a-kind broadcast of a first-rate, virtually unknown American opera, in a recording which is not commercially available, with valuable insights from the composer’s closest confidante, who sang in the work’s first performance.

It all comes your way on this week’s “Sunday Morning Opera,” which will be heard from 7 to 10 a.m. EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

November 17, 2016
Jules Eskin Boston Symphony Cellist Dies at 85

The beloved cellist Jules Eskin has died. Eskin was principal cellist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 53 years. Eskin was living history. His association with the orchestra extended back to the days of Serge Koussevitzky.

Born in Philadelphia in 1931, Eskin was picked up by the Dallas Symphony at the age of 16, where he performed under the direction of Antal Dorati. He studied with Janos Starker in Dallas, then with Gregor Piatigorsky and Leonard Rose at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 1948, he was a fellowship student at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he performed in the TMC Orchestra under Koussevitzky. He then spent three years as principal cello of the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell and seven years with the New York City Opera. In addition, he participated in the Marlboro Music Festival and played in the Casals Festival Orchestra in Puerto Rico. He joined the BSO as principal cello in 1964, when Erich Leinsdorf was music director.

Eskin died yesterday at his Brookline home. The cause of death was cancer. Earlier, he had withdrawn from the Boston Symphony for a season to undergo cancer treatments in 1981. He is survived by his wife, BSO violinist Aza Raykhtsaum. The couple celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in January. Eskin announced his retirement from the orchestra only last month. He was 85 years-old.

We’ll honor him with some of the recordings he made with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, of which he was a founding member, this afternoon from 4 to 7:00 EST on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

November 16, 2016
Voice Trio Concert at Temple Judea

On today’s Noontime Concert, Emily Burn, Victoria Couper, and Clemmie Franks, the female vocal trio known as Voice, will present a program titled “If Music Be the Food of Love.”

The concert will be made up of songs exploring the beauty, heartache, and humor of love, with repertoire drawn from medieval France and Germany, 18th century catches, and arrangements of Shakespearean and traditional songs from England and Scotland. Also on the program will be works commissioned by the group from contemporary British composers.

The concert took place at Temple Judea of Bucks County in February. Temple Judea is located in Furlong, PA. Voice will be joined by the Temple Judea Choir for several of the selections. To find out more about Temple Judea, which will host the Grammy Award winning Turtle Island String Quartet this Saturday at 7:30 p.m., visit templejudea.org.

Following the noontime concert broadcast, I hope you’ll stick around for Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 9, among our featured works. The concert will begin at 12:00 EST. I’ll be there, spinning the platters until 4, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

November 15, 2016
Aaron Copland’s Jazz Concerto Birthday

He was America’s foremost composer of “art music.” What he was not was George Gershwin.

Join me this afternoon, as we celebrate the birthday of Aaron Copland with, among other things, his Piano Concerto, composed in 1926. Copland was still feeling his way toward his “populist period” (which began with “El Salón México,” not given its premiere until ten years later), when he wrote this concerto, which spikes 1920s modernism with American jazz.

The composer was the soloist in the work’s first performance, which featured the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. The critics panned it, but Copland’s mother beamed with pride. The composer wrote, “I was delighted when Ma said it was her proudest moment and that my playing in the Concerto made all those music lessons worthwhile!”

It retained its reputation as a shocker until 1947, when Leonard Bernstein revived it with Leo Smith as the soloist, and it struggles still, even next to Copland’s own Clarinet Concerto. In the meantime, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” (from 1924) has never been out of the repertoire.

Hear this underexposed work today, between 4 and 7:00 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

November 14, 2016

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS