Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • New Classical Music Gifts WPRB Show 2015

    New Classical Music Gifts WPRB Show 2015

    As you may have noticed, a good many of my WPRB programs have been exercises in excess. I basically choose a theme (Goethe, the circus, Hallowe’en, “Fantasia”) and run with it. I show up with a whole box full of stuff, and I just keep playing from it until I hit the five-hour mark.

    Of course, that doesn’t tell the whole story. The point is, when you deal with themes all the time, a lot of worthwhile music tends to fall through the cracks. In particular, I’ve been eyeing the mountains of promotional copies that have been accumulating in my apartment and thinking, something really has to be done about this.

    This Thursday morning on WPRB, I’ll be playing from all new releases, or at the very least from albums which have been released in 2015. We’ll hear recordings issued on the Ancalagon, Beau Fleuve Records, BMOP, Bridge, DaCapo, Delos, Innova and Navona labels, and probably a whole lot more.

    Over the course of the show, you may encounter selections from violinist Lara St. John’s “Shiksa,” a collection of new works inspired by Central European, Mediterranean and Near Eastern folk music; flutist Mimi Stillman’s latest, “Freedom,” featuring music by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, David Finko and Richard Danielpour; cellist Louise Dubin’s “The Franchomme Project,” a long-overdue tribute to Auguste Franchomme, friend, confidante and musical partner of Frederic Chopin; Nadav Lev Guitarist and Composer’s “New Strings Attached,” a compilation of pieces by young Israeli composers; Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP)’s traversal of the complete Lukas Foss symphonies; “Infinite Jest,” a San Francisco Symphony CD devoted to the works of John Adams; Danish Romantic piano trios performed by – well, The Danish Piano Trio; and JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s recent issue of Sibelius orchestral favorites, titled “The Essential Sibelius” (and what Sibelius isn’t?).

    With the holidays fast approaching, you never know how many of these might make for interesting gift ideas. I hope you’ll join me tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM or at wprb.com, for a show made up entirely of CDs straight out of the shrinkwrap. It’s all brand-spanking new, on Classic Ross Amico.

    DISCLAIMER: Tom Jones will not be played on this program!

  • David Amram Celebrates 85 Years

    David Amram Celebrates 85 Years

    David Amram turns 85 today.

    Amram, born in Philadelphia in 1930, has always been equally at home in classical music, jazz, folk and world music. He’s composed over 100 orchestral and chamber works, music for Broadway and film (including scores for “Splendor in the Grass” and “The Manchurian Candidate”), and two operas. He’s also written three books, with a fourth in the works.

    He was raised on a farm in Bucks County, where he was introduced to classical, jazz and cantorial music by his father and uncle. He took piano lessons and experimented with instruments of the brass family, finally settling on the French horn. Following a year at Oberlin, he lit out for George Washington University, where he studied history. While there, he performed as an extra hornist with the National Symphony. He also studied privately with two musicians in the orchestra.

    Amram became a pioneer of the jazz French horn, as well as the New York Philharmonic’s first composer-in-residence (named in 1966). He’s worked with artists ranging from Dizzy Gillespie to Bob Dylan to Leonard Bernstein, from Jack Kerouac to Arthur Miller, from Christopher Plummer to Johnny Depp. He’s a musician without boundaries, who has always been open to new experiences.

    Trailer for the documentary, “David Amram: The First 80 Years”:

    Amram Horn Concerto:

    Amram with Dizzy Gillespie:

    Amram (at the age of 80) performing at the Philadelphia Folk Festival:

    Happy birthday, David Amram, still going way strong.

  • Hindemith’s Frog He Went a-Courting Surprise

    Hindemith’s Frog He Went a-Courting Surprise

    Anyone who thinks of Paul Hindemith as a dry-as-dust note-spinner should give a listen to his “Variations on ‘A Frog He Went a-Courting’” (1941). The English-language folksong, about the amphibious swashbuckler who woos Miss Mousy (with the consent of her Uncle Rat), dates back to the 16th century. Hindemith uses the tune as the basis for a challenging work-out for cello and piano, while at the same time charming the socks off his listeners.

    Happy birthday, Paul Hindemith, uh huh.

    Additional versions by Burl Ives…

    Elvis….

    and Tom and Jerry.

  • Ormandy’s Lost American Music

    Ormandy’s Lost American Music

    It’s not so much that I am out of ideas, but it is mighty convenient that I had so much material left over from last week’s show, consisting of rarely-heard recordings of American music performed by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

    This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” I reach for the already conveniently stacked CDs to cue up three more gems.

    Samuel Barber was born in West Chester, Pa., not far from Philly, in 1910. He attended Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music and had his first orchestral work, the “School for Scandal Overture,” performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1931, when he was 21 years-old.

    His “First Essay for Orchestra” was sent to Arturo Toscanini in the same mail as his “Adagio for Strings.” Toscanini performed both works with the NBC Symphony in 1938, but it was Eugene Ormandy who made the first recording of the “Essay,” with the Philadelphians, in 1940.

    Vincent Persichetti was born in Philadelphia in 1915, and he died there in 1987. In between, he attended Combs College of Music, the Curtis Institute (where he studied conducting with Fritz Reiner) and the Philadelphia Conservatory. He taught at Combs and the Philly Conservatory. Then he received an invitation from William Schuman (some of whose music we heard last week) to take up a professorship at Juilliard.

    Persichetti was one of our great composers, but to this day he remains underappreciated, more respected than loved. His Symphony No 4 of 1951 must be one of his most immediately attractive works.

    Finally, John Vincent may be the most undeservedly neglected composer in Ormandy’s entire discography. Ormandy described his recording of Vincent’s Symphony in D (“A Festival Piece in One Movement”) as “one of the best we have ever done,” and the piece itself as “one of the finest compositions created by an American composer in the past decade.” The 1954 work sounds at times like Sibelius gone to the rodeo, but my, is it good stuff!

    I hope you’ll join me for “All-American Ormandy II,” rarely-heard recordings of Barber, Persichetti and Vincent, on “The Lost Chord,” 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.

    To help get you in the mood, here’s an in-depth interview with Persichetti by Bruce Duffie:

    http://www.bruceduffie.com/persichetti.html

  • Copland Cat Photo Americas Composer Birthday

    Copland Cat Photo Americas Composer Birthday

    I bought me a cat!

    Aaron Copland shares a candid moment with a lounging, four-legged friend.

    Happy birthday to America’s great composer!

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