Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • Estonian Composers Eller Kapp Sumera

    Estonian Composers Eller Kapp Sumera

    This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll immerse ourselves in tones from Estonia.

    We’ll have music by the so-called father of Estonian music, Heino Eller. Eller, born in Tartu in 1887, studied violin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He also studied law. For 20 years, he was professor of music theory and composition at the Tartu Higher School for Music. In 1940, he became a professor of composition at the Tallinn Conservatory, where he taught until his death, in 1970.

    Eller composed many beautiful tone pictures. We’ll be listening to his violin concerto, in a performance taken from a concert given in celebration of the composer’s 80th birthday.

    Among Eller’s pupils were Eduard Tubin, Arvo Pärt, and Lepo Sumera. Sumera was born in Tallinn in 1950. In his teens, he studied with Veljo Tormis; then, beginning in 1968, with Eller, at what was then the Tallinn State Conservatory. He went on to compose six symphonies, as well as many chamber and choral works.

    In the 1980s, he became interested in electro-acoustic music. He founded the Electronic Music Studio at the Estonian Academy of Music in 1995. He served as its director until 1999. Sumera died of heart failure in the year 2000, at the age of 50.

    We’ll hear his Symphony No. 4, subtitled “Serena borealis,” composed in 1992. Western ears may detect the influence of minimalist techniques, but it’s worthwhile to note that the folk tradition of Estonian runo songs, handed down orally, relies equally on repetition. And the Estonian nationalists were nothing if not in tune with their musical past.

    Finally, we’ll hear from Artur Kapp, who lived from 1878 to 1952. Like Eller, Kapp studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where Rimsky-Korsakov was among his teachers. He himself became a professor at the Tallinn Conservatory, where he taught many notable Estonian composers, his sons, Eugen and Villem, among them. Kapp is considered the head of the Tallinn school of composition, a counterbalance to Eller, who is considered the head of the Tartu school.

    We’ll be listening to the finale from one of Kapp’s most enduring works, the oratorio “Job,” in a recording sent to me by the very generous Neeme Järvi (also born in Tallinn), in response to an enthusiastic letter I had sent him while he was still music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

    I’ll share the wealth, on this hour of musical discoveries from Estonia – “Tallinn’s Got Talent” – this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

  • Jean Cras’ Polyphème Opera Rediscovered

    Jean Cras’ Polyphème Opera Rediscovered

    For some, the holidays can be a lonely, melancholy time. If that’s the case for you, I’m sorry, but at least you’re not Polyphemus the Cyclops.

    The one-eyed giant Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon, is loved by the beautiful Galatea. But when the fickle teenager falls for the handsome, well-sculpted Acis, he is plunged into isolation and jealous rage.

    Join me tomorrow morning on WPRB, for another edition of Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy, as I fill in for Sandy Steiglitz to present the rarely-heard, though quite gorgeous “Polyphème” by Jean Cras.

    Cras, a career navy man, literally completed the work while at sea. The libretto, replete with nymphs and satyrs and an appearance by the Great God Pan (in a non-singing role), is in the style of Maurice Maeterlinck. The composer adapted the text from a dramatic poem by Albert Samain.

    In some tellings of the story (e.g., Handel’s “Acis and Galatea”), Polyphemus at least has the satisfaction of crushing his rival with a boulder. In Cras’ version (SPOILER ALERT!), Polyphemus blinds himself and wanders morosely into the sea.

    The opera, completed in 1914, was given its premiere in Paris in 1922. Like Polyphemus himself, it then disappeared without a trace until this very fine recording from 2003, on the Timpani label, conducted by Bramwell Tovey.

    The whole thing is a languorous exercise in hypnotic pantheism. Not surprisingly, given its source, the atmosphere is infused with the sea. If you find yourself lost in enchantment when listening to the music of Debussy or Ravel, you will absolutely love this opera.

    Keep an “eye out” for Jean Cras’ “Polyphème,” on “Sunday Morning Opera,” tomorrow morning from 7 to 10 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

    Of perhaps related interest: The dryly irreverent Bramwell Tovey will next conduct The Philadelphia Orchestra in a New Year’s Eve program at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (on Dec. 31, obviously), which will feature works by Bernstein, Gershwin and Johann Strauss II. He will return in April to conduct the world premiere of Pat Metheny’s “Duo Concerto for Vibraphone and Marimba.” More information may be found by searching the concert calendar at philorch.org.

  • Britten’s Carols Analyzed with Kapilow & Choir

    Britten’s Carols Analyzed with Kapilow & Choir

    What makes it great? Benjamin Britten, The American Boychoir, and Rob Kapilow musician. All three will join for a one-of-a kind event this Monday evening at 7 p.m. at Nassau Presbyterian Church, as performers and presenter parse out Britten’s beloved “A Ceremony of Carols,” followed by a complete performance of the work directed by Fernando Malvar-Luiz.

    What Kapilow, host of the long-running program “What Makes It Great?,” does can hardly be described as lecturing.

    “It’s an unusual kind of evening designed to get people to hear music in a different way, to get them involved in music in a different way,” he says. “The whole idea of ‘What Makes It Great?’ is to invite people into an evening designed to really get them inside a piece of music, from the composer’s point-of-view, to see what makes it tick. There’s an hour of discussions and demonstrations with the choir, with the audience singing as well, you know, so that when they do hear the complete performance after intermission, they’ll hear it with new ears. That’s really the goal. And then, of course, they get to ask anyone a question – me, the conductor, the choir, the kids, whatever they want.”

    “What Makes It Great?” has undergone a gradual evolution over the past two decades, from its beginnings as a brief segment on NPR’s “Performance Today” to its current format of a two-hour commentary-with-concert event. Monday’s appearance is sponsored by WWFM – The Classical Network, the current producer of the radio broadcasts. WWFM can be heard locally at 89.1 FM and globally at wwfm.org.

    “A Ceremony of Carols” will be heard in a somewhat different guise on The American Boychoir’s popular “Home for the Holidays” concert. That program will be present at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on Dec. 18 at 4 p.m.

    Find out what distinguishes the two in my article in today’s Trenton Times:

    http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/11/classical_music_rob_kapilow_am.html

  • WWFM Salutes Barbirolli Kajanus & Chung

    WWFM Salutes Barbirolli Kajanus & Chung

    It was Ralph Vaughan Williams who dubbed Sir John Barbirolli “Glorious John.” This afternoon on WWFM, we’ll enjoy some of his glorious recordings.

    In fact, it’s a great day for conductors. We’ll also salute Robert Kajanus, a colleague of Jean Sibelius, who did much to promote the music of his friend, including making the first recordings of the Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 3 & 5.

    In addition, it’s the birthday of South Korean conductor Myung-Whun Chung, a pupil of Messiaen, who demonstrates a certain flair for the music of Danish composer Carl Nielsen.

    We’ll enjoy examples of their artistry and more, between 4 and 6 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

    Then stayed tuned to hear music written for film adaptations of girls’ literary classics on “Picture Perfect” at 7:00. More on that to come!

  • Literary Classics Movie Music on Picture Perfect

    Literary Classics Movie Music on Picture Perfect

    This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll have music from movies based on girls’ literary classics. Of course readers of either gender have enjoyed these books, but with female protagonists and female authors, they have proved great favorites among generations of female readers. All of them have been adapted for film numerous times.

    We’ll hear selections from a 1993 version of “The Secret Garden.” Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel tells of an ill-tempered child who loses her neglectful parents in India, only to blossom at the discovery of the titular garden on her uncle’s otherwise gloomy estate on the Yorkshire moors. Agnieszka Holland directed. The film was released through Francis Ford Coppola’s independent studio, American Zoetrope. Its music was by Zbigniew Preisner.

    Another popular novel by the same author, from 1905, is “A Little Princess.” Alfonso Cuarón directed his adaptation in 1995. In his version, a well-bred English girl, again brought up in India, is placed in a boarding school in New York. Her fortunes change when her father goes missing in action during World War I. The girl entertains her fellow students by reciting tales from the Hindu epic, “The Ramayana.” Her Indian connection is reflected in Patrick Doyle’s score.

    “Little Women,” by Louisa May Alcott, follows the lives of four sisters of the March family, as they pass from childhood to adulthood in Concord, Massachusetts, during and after the American Civil War. A sensation on its publication in 1868, the book remains one of the most beloved of all time. In 1994, it received its fifth adaptation for the big screen, with Winona Ryder as Jo and Susan Sarandon as Marmee. Thomas Newman, one of the sons of famed film composer Alfred Newman, and the cousin of Randy Newman, wrote the music.

    Finally, “Heidi,” by the Swiss writer Johanna Spyri, recounts the events in the life of a young girl who shares a home with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. There have been roughly 20 film or television productions of “Heidi” to date. This one, from 1968, starred Jennifer Edwards, daughter of Blake Edwards and stepdaughter of Julie Andrews. Maximilian Schell, Jean Simmons and Michael Redgrave were in the supporting cast. The music was written by an up-and-coming composer then known as “Johnny Williams.” And there’s plenty in the score to indicate great things to come.

    I hope you’ll make “Picture Perfect” your secret garden tonight. It comes your way at 7:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

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