Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

NJ Symphony Plays Shakespeare

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra music director Jacques Lacombe promises to transform the winter of our discontent to glorious summer, with a great deal more than the lascivious pleasing of a lute. The orchestra will embark on a three-week musical exploration of Shakespeare-inspired works, January 9-25, including an appearance at Princeton’s Richardson Auditorium, on January 16, and two performances at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, on January 10 & 25.

Violinist Sarah Chang will appear in all six venues that will be hosting the series (including NJPAC in Newark, bergenPAC in Englewood, the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, and the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown), playing a suite by David Newman from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.” “West Side Story,” obviously, is a musical update of “Romeo and Juliet.”

Also on the series will be such favorites as Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture” and selections from Prokofiev’s ballet on the same subject, but also concert rarities such as Elgar’s “Falstaff,” Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s suite from “Much Ado About Nothing,” Sergei Taneyev’s completion of Tchaikovsky’s love duet from a projected opera on “Romeo and Juliet,” and selections from Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra.”

For more information, check out my article in today’s Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2014/12/classical_music_nj_symphony_or_1.html

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.

– “The Tempest,” Act III, Scene 2

January 2, 2015
Jules Verne Film Music Adventure on Picture Perfect

THE NINTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we begin the New Year with science, progress and adventure, courtesy of Jules Verne.

We’ll hear music from four films inspired by Verne novels, including “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” composed by Paul J. Smith; “In Search of the Castaways,” by William Alwyn; “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” by Bernard Herrmann; and “Around the World in 80 Days,” by Victor Young.

Grab your gear and climb aboard, tonight at 6 ET, with a repeat tomorrow morning at 6, or listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

P.S. Don’t forget to bring a harpoon!

January 2, 2015
Marvin Rosen Viva 21st Century Marathon on WPRB

Here are some more souvenirs from Marvin Rosen’s 25-hour “Viva 21st Century” marathon, which was broadcast over WPRB 103.3 FM. As you can see, the homestretch was not a lonely one. More photos on Marvin’s page, which for some reason I am having a hard time linking.

December 31, 2014
Elgar’s Enigma Decoding New Year’s Blues

THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

New Year’s Eve, my nemesis. The most depressing day of the year.

Fortunately, I’ll be working tonight, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to ignore all the hollow attempts at merriment. But it hasn’t happened so far, that I can remember. Once, I even flew through the night to Europe, hoping to confound the natural passage of time. But it’s always midnight somewhere, and the flight attendants vexed me with a champagne toast.

At any rate, I hope whatever you are doing, you have a better attitude, and that you are all safe and genuinely happy with your New Year’s lot.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty happy with my life. It’s just New Year’s I hate!

To coat the bitter pill, I’d like to talk for a minute about Sir Edward Elgar. For over a hundred years, musicologists have puzzled over the hidden theme Elgar claims to have left off of his “Enigma Variations” – which, come to think of it, is a great New Year’s Eve piece, since it celebrates friendship as an antidote to what the composer claimed was his sense of loneliness as an artist.

“Through and over the whole set, another and larger theme ‘goes,’ but is not played,” Elgar wrote.

Since then, theories as to the theme’s identity have ranged from “Rule, Britannia” to the “Dies Irae” to “Pop Goes the Weasel.” Here’s an interesting article from 1991 that posits the elusive theme may have been taken from Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/07/arts/new-answer-to-a-riddle-wrapped-in-elgar-s-enigma-variations.html

In this clip, someone actually uses the opening of the “Enigma” to harmonize “Auld Lang Syne.”

What do you think?

Ernest Tomlinson takes this theory about as far as it can go, suggesting that “Auld Lang Syne” underlies not only Elgar’s magnum opus, but also most of the world’s great masterpieces. He puts his money where his mouth is, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, by sending up no less than 152 familiar melodies in his “’Auld Lang Syne’ Variations.’”

Happy New Year, everyone.

PHOTO: Sir Edward takes a pipe for Auld Lang Syne

December 31, 2014
Sixth Day of Christmas with Composers

THE SIXTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

Classical Discoveries ‘ Marvin Rosen has kindly saved me the trouble of coming up with another fresh post in the middle of an insane work week. Here is a photo of me lounging on the “frat couch” in the studios of WPRB 103.3 FM, during my drop-by on Sunday morning to Marvin’s 25-hour “Viva 21st Century” marathon.

With me are, left to right, composers Robert Moran (never to be trusted), Susan T. Nelson, and Amanda Harberg. Daniel Dorff is off-camera, probably talking to Marvin.

The photo was taken by Marvin’s wife, Beata, who wore the loveliest necklace. She’s definitely the power behind the throne, keeping Marvin well-supplied with green tea and energy snacks.

Good to be on the radio again on a Sunday morning.

December 30, 2014

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