Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Blood Moons Popes & Purrs on WPRB

Some regard a “blood moon” eclipse as a portent of the End of Days. Others blanch at the cataclysmic implications of swapped air shifts.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/doomsday-predicted-as-blood-moon-coincides-with-sukkot/

Chances are you will either be in synagogue this morning, or you’ll wish you were, when flighty bird Classic Ross Amico sits in for the always reliable Marvin Rosen at WPRB. Ah well, we might as well make the best of it.

We’ll be jumping on the media bandwagon this week to salute Pope Francis and maybe grumble a little bit about the situation in Philadelphia, where the Pope Fence is going up and tow trucks are impounding cars all across Center City.

We’ll honor the Pope (it’s not his fault) with music inspired by his namesake, St. Francis. Francis brought forth musical tributes from many composers across the centuries. We’ll hear from Kenneth Fuchs, Paul Hindemith, Franz Liszt, Francis Poulenc, Joaquin Rodrigo, Sir William Walton, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Leo Sowerby.

Also, because of Francis’ well-known affinity with and for the critters, we’ll leaven the proceedings with works evocative of the animal kingdom, pieces like Samuel Barber’s “The Monk and His Cat,” Jennifer Higdon’s “An Exaltation of Larks,” Peter Schickele’s “Bestiary,” and of course Gioachino Rossini’s “Cat Duet.”

Marc Uys, Executive Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, will drop by at around 9:00 to tell us a little bit about the PSO’s upcoming season, which will begin on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, when violinist Jennifer Koh will perform Anna Clyne’s “The Seamstress” (after a poem of William Butler Yeats) and Rossen Milanov will conduct Sergei Rachmaninoff’s wonderfully wistful Symphony No. 2.

Due to Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Marvin Rosen’s Classical Discoveries will be heard on THURSDAY this week, from 5:30 to 11 a.m. ET. Despair not! This is only a temporary circumstance. Marvin will return to his regular Wednesday slot next week, and I’ll be back on Thursdays.

For the time being, I hope you’ll join me for St. Francis and friends, this morning from 6 to 11, on WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com. The fur will fly this week, on Classic Ross Amico.

September 23, 2015
Franciscan Music on WPRB Today

We’re honoring Pope Francis, albeit vicariously, by way of his sainted namesake. Up next, it’s Peter Schickele’s “Bestiary,” a work for Early Music ensemble and narrator. Later on this morning, Paul Hindemith’s St. Francis of Assisi ballet “Nobilissima Visione” and Pulitzer Prize-winner Leo Sowerby’s “Canticle of the Sun.”

Stroke the docile menagerie until 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com.

September 23, 2015
Hello Autumn!

Now that that pesky air shift is out of the way, I can get back to writing about something worthwhile. Like the fact that today is the first day of autumn, praised be! Bring on the soups, the baked goods, the sweaters, the colored leaves, the moody skies, the used book shopping on weekend afternoons, the carved pumpkins, the black-and-white horror movies, the Brahms, and a welcome cup of tea. See you next year, summer, but hopefully not too soon!

Dream along to Respighi’s “Poema autunnale”:

PHOTO: The leaves make it more challenging to see the chipmunks

September 23, 2015
St. Francis & Animal-Inspired Classical Music

If you’ve got Francis Fever, but you’re too pooped to Pope, you can avoid the excitement of impassible bridges and car impoundments simply by staying home and turning on the radio. I can’t promise it will be like a vicarious thumbs up from the Pontiff, but you’ll hear plenty of music inspired by his namesake, St. Francis, and the animals he respected and loved.

The historical Francis was the son of a prosperous silk merchant, who renounced his worldly life and took a vow of poverty, inspiring others to follow him and in the process creating three religious orders. Two years after his death in 1226, he was proclaimed a saint by Pope Gregory IX. He is patron saint of animals and the environment, and one of the two patron saints of Italy (the other being Catherine of Siena). You’ll notice pets and their owners lined up around Catholic and Anglican churches on October 4, the Feast Day of St. Francis. FUN FACT: St. Francis is alleged to have been the inventor of the Christmas crèche, or the Nativity scene.

We’ll have musical salutes to Francis by Kenneth Fuchs, Paul Hindemith, Franz Liszt, Francis Poulenc, Joaquin Rodrigo, Leo Sowerby, and Sir William Walton, interspersed with musical evocations of four-legged, winged and scaled friends, such as Samuel Barber’s “The Monk and His Cat,” Jennifer Higdon’s “An Exaltation of Larks,” Peter Schickele’s “Bestiary,” and of course Gioachino Rossini’s “Cat Duet.”

As if all that weren’t enough, we’ll be graced by the presence of Marc Uys, Executive Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, who will drop by at around 9:00 to tell us a little bit about the PSO’s upcoming season, which will begin on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, when violinist Jennifer Koh performs Anna Clyne’s “The Seamstress” (after a poem of William Butler Yeats) and Rossen Milanov conducts Sergei Rachmaninoff’s wonderfully wistful Symphony No. 2.

Do keep in mind that we will be heard at a special time this week. Due to Yom Kippur, Marvin Rosen’s Classical Discoveries will air on THURSDAY morning from 5:30 to 11 ET; Classic Ross Amico will appear in Marvin’s usual slot, WEDNESDAY morning, though in my case it will be from 6 to 11. That extra half hour’s sleep makes all the difference!

I hope you’ll join us on WPRB 103.3 FM, or online at wprb.com. We’re pulling the old switcheroo this week, on Classic Ross Amico.

September 22, 2015
Pope Francis Music on Yom Kippur

As Pope Mania grips the East Coast and anxiety levels skyrocket among Philadelphians who are bracing for a long weekend essentially kept under house arrest, I thought I’d add kerosene to the holy water by filling the airwaves with music in honor of Pope Francis.

How to do a salute to Pope Francis on Yom Kippur and not come across as insensitive? That’s the dilemma I faced when Marvin Rosen asked if I would switch with him for the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

So as not to be reviled as classical radio’s equivalent of Torquemada, I am reshelving some of the masses I had been considering. Instead I have struck upon the happy idea to play works inspired by St. Francis – the Pope’s namesake – and interleaving them with music inspired by animals. St. Francis, after all, had a marvelous affinity for our four-legged friends. And who doesn’t love animals?

I hope you’ll join me, if you’re able, on WEDNESDAY this week, to enjoy Francis-oriented works by Hindemith, Liszt, Poulenc, Rodrigo, Walton, Leo Sowerby and Kenneth Fuchs, and plenty of music for the critters. I’ll be handing out the treats from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, on Classic Ross Amico.

Then come back on THURSDAY morning for Marvin Rosen’s Classical Discoveries. Sleep isn’t so important to Marvin, so he’ll be there, as always, from 5:30 to 11, keeping company with the roosters, at WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com.

September 21, 2015

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