Supposedly I will be covering at least part of the 10-to-2 shift tomorrow on WRTI. This will be my live classical radio debut in Philadelphia. Of course, it’s a request shift, so there are bound to be lots of moving parts. I may not be around for the whole thing, or I’ll be sitting off-mic for some of it (it’s been suggested that it will be a training run), but I just wanted to put it out there for you, my legions of expectant Facebook followers.
WRTI can be heard locally at 90.1 FM, or online at wrti.org.
Apologies if any of you were stuck sitting in a cubicle somewhere hoping for a few seconds of escapism courtesy of Classic Ross Amico. Unfortunately, I was up to my eyeballs trying to figure out how to synthesize all the abundant material for a newspaper article about two mega-events coming up in Princeton, beginning this weekend: the Golandsky Institute International Piano Festival, and the Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, a workshop for young composers, with JoAnn Falletta and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
The reminders from my editors that they were expecting an article from me began to arrive around 4:00, four hours past deadline. I uploaded the last of the photos around 6. All in a day’s work.
Speaking of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, belated congratulations to Gemma New, associate conductor of the NJSO, who has been named music director of Ontario’s Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. New, 28, is also founder/director of the Baltimore-based new music collective, the LUNAR ensemble.
Apparently, the announcement was made back in May, but you know how it is when you’re working. You’ll find the press release here:
Tune in this afternoon to WRTI for the first of my Philadelphia Orchestra interviews. As part of the intermission features on this week’s concert broadcast, conductor-in-residence Cristian Măcelaru, born in Romania, will talk about his great composer-compatriots George Ensecu and György Ligeti.
Ligeti, born in Transylvania, will be represented by his rarely-heard “Concert românesc” (hear Măcelaru talk about the interesting use of the horns in the piece). Măcelaru concludes the concert with a roof-raising performance of Enescu’s “Romanian Rhapsody No. 1.” He comments that it has always been his dream to perform the work with The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Sarah Chang will be the soloist in Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. The program will also include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1.
The broadcast begins at 1 ET. Listen in the Philadelphia area at 90.1 FM, search for additional frequencies at wrti.org, or avail yourself of the station’s internet streaming.
Other commitments this afternoon? Listen to the interview (already posted) here:
Is there a more neglected composer among symphonists of the “Greatest Generation” of American composers than David Diamond? I think not. Diamond composed 11 symphonies, and every one that I’ve heard has been wholly worthwhile. Yet, criminally, some of them have not even been recorded.
This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we celebrate Diamond’s centenary (he was born on July 9, 1915), with his Symphony No. 4 and the orchestral fantasia “The Enormous Room,” after the autobiographical novel of E.E. Cummings.
In between, we observe the centenary of a seemingly disparate figure, George Perle (born on May 6, 1915). Diamond would occasionally construct a theme on a tone row, but his music was essentially tonal. Perle, by contrast, was twelve tone all the way, yet he managed, much like his musical hero, Alban Berg, to keep it lyrical. Despite their different approaches, both composers, Diamond and Perle, are quite direct in their appeal to the receptive listener.
I had been toying with the idea of programming Perle’s “Lyric Intermezzo,” a piano suite that manages to convey a romantic sensibility by way of serialism (it was inspired by Schumann’s “Waldszenen”). In the end, however, I opted for his eminently listenable – and Pulitzer Prize-winning – Wind Quintet No. 4.
I hope you’ll join me for “Pearls from Perle, Diamonds from Diamond,” 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 http://www.wwfm.org.
I can’t guarantee any fife and drum music (I didn’t bring any), but you never know.
Nonetheless, I can promise wall-to-wall American composers, as we anticipate Independence Day. These may include (and won’t be limited to) George Antheil, Paul Bowles, Romeo Cascarino, John Corigliano, Daniel Dorff, Irving Fine, Lou Harrison, Bernard Herrmann, Jennifer Higdon, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Peter Schickele, Caroline Shaw, Michael Torke, and George Walker.
I am very pleased to add that Jerry Rife, for 30 years conductor of The Blawenburg Band, has found time in his busy schedule to join me around 9:00 to share just a little bit about the band’s upcoming concerts at Princeton Shopping Center (tonight at 7 p.m.), Yardley Community Centre in Yardley, Pa. (July 4 at 4 p.m.), and Hopewell Train Station (July 6 at 7:30 p.m.).
It’s pure Americana this week, when you tune in Classic Ross Amico, this morning from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, at WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com – classical music radio as the Founding Fathers intended.
