Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

St Patricks Day Classic Ross Amico

Get ready to get your Irish up! Brace yourself for the cosmic convergence of St. Patrick’s Day and Classic Ross Amico.

Join me tomorrow morning, when we’ll have music from Ireland and on Irish themes, with works by native composers Philip Hammond, Sir Hamilton Harty, John Larchet, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, and Joan Trimble; composers of Irish descent Edward Joseph Collins, Henry Cowell, Augusta Holmès and Sir Arthur Sullivan; and Irishmen-for-a-day Sir Arnold Bax, Ludwig van Beethoven, Percy Grainger and Frank Martin, for starters.

We’ll take a short break in the 9:00 hour to speak with pianist Orli Shaham, who will be bringing her interactive program, Baby Got Bach, designed for kids 3 to 6, to Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium this Sunday at 1 p.m. Joining her for this special event will be So Percussion and Rachel Richardson of American Ballet Theatre. For more information, look online at princetonuniversityconcerts.org.

I hope you’ll join me in hoisting a Guinness, weeping over a sentimental air or two, and taking the occasional shillelagh in the teeth, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Our Irish eyes are smiling (on our mother’s side), on Classic Ross Amico.

#StPatricksDay

March 16, 2016
Ides of March Schumann & Julius Caesar

Beware the Ides of March!

Now that I’ve got you looking over your shoulder, here’s Robert Schumann’s “Julius Caesar Overture.”

Schumann has been in the news recently, as sketches for his Piano Trio No. 1 have resurfaced in the U.S. and been purchased by the Saxony State Library, with the help of the German federal government and cultural foundations in both Germany and the U.S.

You can read more about it here:

http://www.thestrad.com/cpt-latests/notes-for-schumanns-piano-trio-no-1-bought-for-six-figure-sum/

“Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!” *

(*With apologies to the “Carry On” movies)

March 15, 2016
Ben Johnston at 90 Microtonal Music Pioneer

Today is the 90th birthday of American original Ben Johnston. Johnston, born in Macon, GA, in 1926, is regarded as one of the foremost composers of microtonal music.

A former apprentice of Harry Partch, Johnston exceeded even his master in his experiments with just intonation, a method of tuning based on the intervals of the harmonic series. Equal temperament, in which the intervals of the chromatic scale are distorted to create major and minor scales, with the ability to modulate from key to key, had been the standard in Western music for hundreds of years.

However, to get something, you often have to give something up. The compromise of equal temperament is a finite system. Johnston (and Schoenberg before him) realized that by the 20th century the musical resources bestowed by an adherence to equal temperament were on the verge of exhaustion. The exploration of microtones opened up new horizons by allowing for an expandable scale of more than forty divisions to an octave.

Johnston’s great achievement is to take a radical concept and render it in such a way as to make it comparatively accessible to untutored listeners. Check out his String Quartet No. 4 “Amazing Grace,” composed in 1973:

To coincide with the composer’s nonagintennial, the Kepler Quartet has completed a recording project encompassing all ten of Johnston’s string quartets. The final installment is scheduled for release next month.

Here’s a fascinating article, which appeared today on NewMusicBox, by the quartet’s second violinist, Eric Segnitz, on the process of documenting these challenging works.

http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/ben-johnston-celebrating-90-years-with-10-string-quartets/

Happy birthday, Ben Johnston!

#BenJohnston90

March 15, 2016
Florence Foster Jenkins Mania Three Films!

They say that bad news comes in threes. But who would expect THREE films inspired by Florence Foster Jenkins?

Florence Foster Jenkins, if you don’t know, was the Philadelphia matron and patron of the arts who began mounting vocal recitals in 1912, when in her early 40s. Despite her dubious sense of pitch and rhythm and seeming indifference to the nuances of breath control and the proper pronunciation of foreign languages, Jenkins shot to fame on the unintentional hilarity of her performances.

Her swan song was her “finest” – a recital at Carnegie Hall on October 25, 1944, that achieved a kind of transcendence through the sheer scope of its awfulness. Jenkins was 76 years-old.

Some find her recordings funny – and to an extent, they undeniably are – but it is difficult to not feel a little embarrassment for her and a touch of pity. If not for the fact that she was so blissfully oblivious, that is. This could have been the role of a lifetime for Margaret Dumont (who actually trained as an opera singer).

The most high-profile of the three films is one starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant and directed by Stephen Frears (“Dangerous Liaisons,” “The Queen” and “Philomena”).

A 2015 French film, “Marguerite,” is now making the rounds in the U.S. on limited release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnr78V0se3s

And in January, Joyce DiDonato announced that she will appear in reenactments as part of a new documentary.

Joyce DiDonato to star in documentary feature film as Florence Foster Jenkins

Jenkins’ legendary recordings can be heard on the cult album, “The Glory(????) of the Human Voice.”

March 14, 2016
Georgian Opera on WPRB Sunday

Sandy Steiglitz is under the weather, and I’ve got Georgia on my mind.

Join me tomorrow as I fill in as a last-minute substitute for this week’s “Sunday Morning Opera.” I am looking forward to sharing a rarely-heard work by Zakharia Paliashvili (1871-1933), who is regarded as the “Father of Georgian Music.”

“Abesalom and Eteri,” composed between 1909 and 1918, is based on the medieval Georgian folk poem, “Eteriani.” In the best Romantic tradition, the story is one of star-crossed love in an historical setting. The musical language is an appealing fusion of folk song and pageantry. In 2004, excerpts from the work were adapted into the National Anthem of Georgia.

The recording we’ll hear was issued on the Deutsche Grammophon label back in the 1979, but to my knowledge it has been unavailable in the West for decades.

Join me this Sunday morning from 7 to 10:00 EDT (remember tonight is the clock change, as we spring forward into Daylight Saving Time) for this rare opportunity to enjoy Paliashvili’s “Abesalom and Eteri,” on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

Best wishes to Sandy, and get well soon!

March 13, 2016

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