Category: Daily Dispatch

  • November Introspection Music on WPRB

    November Introspection Music on WPRB

    Between the weather and the election, November is off to a very strange start. I am sure I am not alone in feeling rather subdued this week. It seems only appropriate, then, that tomorrow morning on WPRB, the focus will be on intimacy, introspection and solace. We’ll enjoy music for various chamber combinations – string quartets, woodwind quintets, that sort of thing – so as not to agitate or jangle too many nerves.

    It will be a morning of genuine concord, from 6 to 11 EST, at WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. You’ll find me relaxing with a scotch in the bath, on Classic Ross Amico.

  • Chamber Music Intimate Conversations

    Chamber Music Intimate Conversations

    Chamber music. Intimate conversation between friends.

    Join me for a morning of civilized discourse, as we enjoy a string quartet by Niels Wilhelm Gade, a clarinet sonata by Max Reger, a quintet for flute, violin, viola, cello and harp by Jean Cras, a piano quintet by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, a quartet for clarinet, violin, cello and piano by Peter Schickele, a duet for two cellos by Friedrich August Kummer, a double sextet by Steve Reich, and more.

    Violinist Vladimir Dyo and Clipper Erickson, piano, will join me in the 10:00 hour. They’ll tell us a little bit about a chamber concert they’ll be performing at 1867 Sanctuary at Ewing this Monday at 8 p.m, with colleagues Allen Krantz, guitar, and Ovidiu Marinescu, cello. The program will include works by Krantz, Astor Piazzolla, Gaspar Cassado, Frederic Chopin, Mauro Giuliani, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

    The election is over. Time to conduct ourselves with dignity, if only for a few hours, from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Let’s make beautiful music together, on Classic Ross Amico.

  • Bass-Baritone Birthday Bash on WWFM

    Bass-Baritone Birthday Bash on WWFM

    It’s all about the bass!

    Join me this afternoon as we celebrate the birthdays of dueling bass-baritones Thomas Quasthoff (who will sing Schubert) and Bryn Terfel (who will sing Gerald Finzi). We’ll also hear Finzi’s elegy for orchestra, “The Fall of the Leaf.”

    In addition, we’ll remember American composer Burrill Phillips, a product of the Eastman School, who later taught there. Can music of his teacher, Howard Hanson, be far behind?

    Plenty of solace and beauty to be found today, from 4 to 7:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

  • Election Day Music Escape American Composers

    Election Day Music Escape American Composers

    It’s Election Day – AT LAST???

    In 24 hours, it will all be over, except for the lawsuits, the counter-lawsuits, and the recounts.

    Join me in rising above the the anxiety with an afternoon of inspirational music. We’ll begin with a concert featuring PUBLIQuartet, captured live during last season’s Downtown Concert Series in Freehold, NJ. The program will include music by Britten, Debussy, Piazzolla, and Villa-Lobos, alongside works by contemporary American composers, such as Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw.

    PUBLIQuartet reinvigorates the classical chamber repertoire with plenty of sass and panache. The ensemble caught the attention of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Colbert invited them to perform an improvised soundtrack to a live stream of the final presidential debate in real time on the show’s Facebook page.

    The Downtown Concert Series’ next concert will feature the Mobius Trio, which will appear at historic St. Peter’s Church in Freehold on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

    Following today’s broadcast of PUBLIQuartet, I hope you’ll stick around for more American music. Aaron Copland will make a statement with his “Statements for Orchestra,” from 1934. Peter Boyer will remind us of the American Dream, with “Ellis Island: The Dream of America,” a work that employs the actual words of immigrants who came to this country in search of a better life. Peter Schickele will stir the musical melting pot with his String Quartet No. 1 “American Dreams,” from 1983, a piece reflective of Appalachian fiddle music, fox trots, waltzes, blues, bop, and even birdsong. And if you don’t like the way the returns are going, you can always contemplate foreign real estate with Michael Torke’s “An American Abroad,” from 2002.

    Why worry? It won’t change anything. So why not make us your stress-free zone? Relax, recharge, and rejoice in the American experience, from 12 to 4:00 p.m. EST. It will be the second leg of a marathon of American music, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

  • Zoltán Kocsis Hungarian Pianist Dies at 64

    Zoltán Kocsis Hungarian Pianist Dies at 64

    A great pianist has died. Hungarian pianist and conductor Zoltán Kocsis died yesterday afternoon. He was 64 years-old. This is especially disturbing to me, since on all my recordings he looks like a kid. And then it occurred to me, he was only 38 when he received the Gramophone Award for his fine album of Debussy piano works. Is 1990 really so far away? Time is passing.

    Kocsis cofounded the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer in 1983 (again, so long ago). He became chief conductor and artistic director of the Hungarian National Philharmonic in 1997. His recordings of Debussy and Bartók are particularly fine. He was also a great champion of the works of György Kurtág (who, at 90 years-old, is still very much with us).

    I’ll be honoring Kocsis this afternoon with some of his recordings, between 4 and 7:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.


    Kocsis obituary in the Washington Post. Brace yourself for the photo.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/hungarian-pianist-and-conductor-zoltan-kocsis-dies-at-age-64/2016/11/06/de032dee-a457-11e6-ba46-53db57f0e351_story.html

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