Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • Remembering Stephen Paulus Music

    Remembering Stephen Paulus Music

    Today is the birthday of American composer Stephen Paulus. Though he made much of his career in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Paulus was born in Summit, NJ, in 1949. He served as composer-in-residence with both the Minnesota Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He was particularly noted for his choral and vocal works, including the second and best-known of his 11 operas, “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” Paulus died on Oct. 19, 2014, nearly 16 months after suffering a debilitating stroke.

    We’ll celebrate this beloved voice in American music today in the 6:00 hour, as we listen to a Grammy Award-winning recording of his “Prayers and Remembrances,” featuring True Concord Voices & Orchestra. The work was recognized earlier this year in the category of Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Since Paulus had already passed, the award was accepted by his wife and his two sons. “Prayers and Remembrances” was written to mark the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. I hope you will join me for this moving and beautiful music.

    I’ll also be playing something from a new album I received only this week (“Wind Concerti,” BCM+D Records) featuring contemporary American woodwind concertos, performed by the Temple University Wind Symphony with members of the The Philadelphia Orchestra and faculty from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. The 2-CD set, which features music by Anthony Plog, Joel Puckett, Jay Krush, Jennifer Higdon, David Maslanka, and Adam Silverman, is a delight, and I can’t wait to share some of it with you.

    Join me for American music and more today, Wednesday, between 4 and 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

    Stephen Paulus Music

  • Bernstein Conducts Rózsa Rare 1943 Broadcast

    Bernstein Conducts Rózsa Rare 1943 Broadcast

    Leonard Bernstein conducts Miklós Rózsa? No way. YES, WAY!

    On November 14, 1943, a 25 year-old Bernstein strode onto the podium to replace an ailing Bruno Walter – without rehearsal – for what became his New York Philharmonic debut. The rest, as they say, is history. On the program was Robert Schumann’s “Manfred Overture,” Richard Strauss’ “Don Quixote” and Miklós Rózsa’s “Theme, Variations and Finale.” The concert was broadcast nationwide. The New York Philharmonic issued the CBS transmission on CD in 1996. To my knowledge, this is the only document of Bernstein conducting Rózsa, who is best known for his film scores – especially that for “Ben-Hur,” but in 1943, Rózsa was chin-deep in his film noir phase.

    You’ll be able to enjoy this historic concert broadcast and much more, as I salute Bernstein on his birthday anniversary, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll go loony for Lenny, on Classic Ross Amico.

  • Vaughan Williams’ London Symphony on WWFM

    Vaughan Williams’ London Symphony on WWFM

    Principally because of alluring musical flights of fancy like “The Lark Ascending,” Ralph Vaughan Williams has been somewhat pigeon-holed as the foremost proponent of the “cow-pat school” of English composition. While he certainly did spend a good deal of his life strolling the English countryside, he considered himself first and foremost a Londoner. Join me this afternoon at 1:00 EDT to partake of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 2, “A London Symphony.”

    Vaughan Williams claimed that while the work bore a programmatic subtitle, it was meant to be experienced primarily as “absolute” music. He preferred it be thought of as a symphony by a Londoner, as opposed to an attempt to portray the actual city.

    Nonetheless, the symphony contains allusions to street music, barrel organs, the jingle of hansom cabs, and the Westminster Chimes, among other things, and it certainly is tempting to conjure images of the hustle and bustle of Piccadilly Circus and, perhaps, in the slow movement, one of the nocturne paintings of James McNeill Whistler.

    It’s one of the featured highlights this afternoon, as the country mouse plays city mouse, from noon to 4 p.m., on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

    PHOTO: Vaughan Williams and Foxy: “Did somebody say mouse?”

  • Debussy Birthday Celebration A French Holiday

    Debussy Birthday Celebration A French Holiday

    It’s widely perceived that the French really understand how to enjoy life. Why else would Claude Debussy be sitting on a beach fully clothed and holding a parasol? Come to think of it, I guess everyone went to the beach dressed like that in those days (as I still prefer to do).

    Join me for une petite vacance, as I celebrate the birthday of Claude Debussy, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

  • Happy Birthday Dame Janet Baker A Legend

    Happy Birthday Dame Janet Baker A Legend

    Happy birthday, Dame Janet Baker!

    An appreciation that ran in The Telegraph in 2013:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/10252457/Janet-Baker-a-dame-but-not-a-diva.html

    A fascinating interview from earlier this year with Joyce DiDonato:

    Baker’s classic recording of Berlioz’s “Les Nuits d’ été with Barbirolli:

    Live (performance begins at 10:37):

    Elgar’s “Sea Pictures”:

    Baker as Purcell’s Dido:

    Baker as Berlioz’s Dido (in English!):

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