Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Labor Day Classical Music Tribute on WWFM

As Americans, we work hard, and frequently for too little compensation. This afternoon on WWFM, I’ll be playing selections to honor the integrity of the American worker for Labor Day. We’ll hear Aaron Copland’s “John Henry” and John Alden Carpenter’s construction worker ballet, “Skyscrapers.”

We’ll also have uplifting works in celebration of the American spirit, including Walter Piston’s Symphony No. 4 and Elie Siegmeister’s “American Sonata.” Picnics and the great outdoors will also be a recurring theme, with pieces like John Corigliano’s “Gazebo Dances” and A.J. Weidt’s “Sweet Corn.”

So go ahead, crack open a cool one and enjoy yourself. You’ve earned it. It’s back to the mines tomorrow. Hard times come again no more, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

September 5, 2016
American Composers Hit the Road

I’m not sure that I would characterize Virgil Thomson’s music as being full of gas – though I suppose an argument could be made on occasion concerning his prose! That said, he did write what might very well be the only ballet set in a service station. The success of “Filling Station,” written for Leon Kirstein’s Ballet Caravan, gave Aaron Copland the confidence to follow through on his own Caravan commission, which resulted in “Billy the Kid.”

You’ll have a chance to hear “Filling Station” tonight, on “The Lost Chord,” as American composers hit the road for Labor Day.

Also on the program will be Frederick Shepherd Converse’s “Flivver Ten Million,” which celebrates the Ford Motor Company’s affordable assembly line automobile, from its creation in a Detroit factory to the manifest destiny of America’s roadways.

John Adams’ “Road Movies” has nothing to do with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, alas; what it is, however, is a violin sonata written firmly within the American tradition, with a special affinity at its core with Copland’s Violin Sonata.

Finally, we’ll hear one of Michael Daughtery’s most performed works, the exuberant “Route 66,” inspired by the storied “Main Street of America.”

Join me as we put the pedal to the metal, for “The Last Roads of Summer,” this Sunday night at 10 EDT on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

September 4, 2016
Is Wagner’s Music Bad For You?

Is Wagner’s music bad for you? Probably.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/may/22/wagner-bad-for-your-mental-health

September 3, 2016
NJ Classical Music Concerts 2016-2017 Season

With Labor Day weekend upon us, the whirring flywheels and pistons of the area’s cultural institutions are nearly up to speed.

In today’s Trenton Times, I take a look at some of the orchestral concerts poised to open the 2016-2017 season. Included are representative programs of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, the Westminster Community Orchestra, and Sinfonietta Nova.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/08/classical_music_2016-17_concer.html

There wasn’t room to mention additional orchestral concerts in New Brunswick, just a half an hour’s drive to the north, courtesy of the State Theatre New Jersey – which will host the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (9/24, 10/9, 10/29/11/13, 11/27, 1/8, 1/15, 1/28, 2/12, 4/8, 4/23, 5/14), the Warsaw Philharmonic (10/23, including Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Symphony No. 4!), the Bamberg Symphony (2/12), and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (2/19) – and the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, which performs excellent and diverse programs under the direction of Kynan Johns.

The RSO’s opening concert will feature Mason Bates’ “Mothership” alongside Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” with pianist Michael Bulyachev-Okser, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (Nicholas Auditorium, Mason Gross School of the Arts, on 9/24). You can find the complete season schedule by clicking on the PDF file at the bottom of this page:

http://www.masongross.rutgers.edu/music/rutgers-symphony-orchestra

I was also remiss in not mentioning the Princeton University Orchestra (as I had intended to do), which begins its season on 10/22 & 10/23 with Samuel Barber’s “School for Scandal Overture,” scenes from Berlioz’s “Romeo and Juliet,” and Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1. The complete schedule, including a springtime Mahler 5, can be found here:

Current Season

All in all, a well-orchestrated season.

PHOTO: Violinist Daniel Rowland will be soloist and conductor as the Princeton Symphony Orchestra opens its season with works by Antonio Vivaldi and Astor Piazzolla, at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on 9/15 at 8 p.m.

September 2, 2016
Labor Day Movie Music on WWFM

Heigh ho! I’m pleased to announce that “Picture Perfect” will return to WWFM The Classical Network with music from movies appropriate for the Labor Day weekend. We’ll hear hard-working selections from “The Molly Maguires” (by Henry Mancini), “Modern Times” (by Charlie Chaplin and David Raksin), “Metropolis” (by Gottfried Huppertz) and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (Frank Churchill and Larry Morey). Tune in, as home from work you go, this Friday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network or at wwfm.org.

September 2, 2016

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