Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Greek Myths Music for Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day!

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll be listening to music inspired by familiar tales from the Greek myths, as viewed from a distinctly female perspective.

Our featured work will be a recent recording, on Cedille Records, of the “Mythology Symphony” by Stacy Garrop. Garrop earned her degrees in music composition at University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, University of Chicago, and Indiana University Bloomington. She is an associate professor in composition at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. The symphony includes musical evocations of Medusa, The Sirens, The Fates, and Pandora.

Then we’ll have time for a few selections from the post-genre song cycle “Penelope” by Princeton composer Sarah Kirkland Snider. “Penelope” will be performed in its entirety by musicians of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra at Princeton High School Performing Arts Center, on Tuesday, May 17, at 7:30 p.m. Snider’s latest orchestral work, “Hiraeth,” a Princeton Symphony co-commission, will be performed by the orchestra at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, on Sunday, May 15, at 4 p.m. For more information, visit princetonsymphony.org.

I hope you’ll join me for “Myth Conceptions” – fresh perspectives on familiar tales from Greek mythology – this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

May 8, 2016
Tchaikovsky & Brahms: Best Frenemies Forever

They were totally B.F.F. — Best Frenemies Forever.

Prior to their unexpected meeting, Tchaikovsky had confided in his diary, “I have played over the music of that scoundrel Brahms. What a giftless bastard!” Brahms reciprocated by falling asleep during Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, in the presence of the composer.

Here’s a first-hand account of the introduction of the fastidious Tchaikovsky to the acerbic Brahms, with a special appearance by Edvard Grieg and his wife, Nina – making this almost as incident-packed as the new Captain America movie.

Tchaikovsky and Brahms: it is fun to learn what happens when two fine composers of different temperaments meet for the first time

Surprise! They actually delighted in one another’s company. In fact, they liked one another so well, they decided to do it again. However, the two never could reconcile themselves to one another’s music. When asked what he thought of the piano trio Brahms had been rehearsing, Tchaikovsky intimated, “Don’t be angry with me, my dear friend, but I did not like it.”

Happy birthday, boys.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

May 7, 2016
Golden Age Film Scores Return to Trenton

There’s a moment in the Billy Wilder classic “Sunset Boulevard” when Gloria Swanson, as a faded silent movie actress, remarks, “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”

Much the same could be said, setting aside the delusions of grandeur, of the great composers who worked during Hollywood’s golden age. It’s ironic that in the current era of vertiginous CGI that so many of our movies seem to lack dimension. There was a time when music with a strong profile was regarded as an essential element of the moviemaking process. It was a way of creating 3-D without the necessity of special glasses.

On May 14, the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra will remind us of what’s been missing, to great extent, from the movie-going experience in recent years. The program “Cinematic Classics” will be presented at Patriots Theater in the Trenton War Memorial. Works by composers Miklós Rózsa, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Bernard Herrmann and William Walton prove what can be achieved by a skilled musician with a gift for melody, an innate sense of drama, and good old-fashioned musical know-how.

For those of you who believe that they don’t make ‘em like they used to, this concert is highly recommendable. You can read more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/05/classical_music_njcp_performin_1.html

May 6, 2016
Western Film Scores Music for the Big Screen

Perhaps the weather in the Philadelphia-Princeton area has been more conducive to film noir, but this week on “Picture Perfect,” I’ll be giving you the chance to dream about the great outdoors. Sundrenched plains and horses, that is.

We’ll combat the effects of light deprivation with an hour of music from some big movie westerns – including “The Big Country” (1958, with music by Jerome Moross), “The Big Sky” (1952, by Dimitri Tiomkin), “Big Jake” (1971, by Elmer Bernstein) and “Silverado” (1985, by Bruce Broughton).

It’s all BIG this week, under the bright, open skies of the American west, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6 EDT, with a repeat Saturday morning 6; or you can listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

May 6, 2016
Cinco de Mayo Music & Margaritas

Cinco de Mayo. A day to celebrate Mexican victory over the French with most excellent margaritas. And of course music. Much music.

Join me this morning as we travel south of the border for works ranging from colonial times, to the birth of Mexican nationalism in music, to pieces by contemporary Mexican composers and those in the United States who were influenced by Mexican culture.

We’ll have our mouth full of nachos from 6 and 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. The oranges with our mezcal will take care of the vitamin C, on Classic Ross Amico.

#CincoDeMayo

May 5, 2016

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