April 1st. I’ve been searching the internet for a sound clip of “April’s Fool” by Billy Mayerl, without success. I did, however, come across this film of Mayerl horsing around. It includes a brisk rendition of his greatest hit, “Marigold.”
PHOTO: Billy Mayerl with his best friend, Bogey
Happy birthday, Papa Haydn. Thank you for your unflagging invention and reliable good humor. Your music lifts my spirits. Also, my cat loves it.
Nadia Reisenberg performs the Piano Sonata No. 50:
Mov’t I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yplgeQrBcgw
Mov’t II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TumWz1ht00o
Mov’t III https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pve3qwyFy8I
The Symphony No. 98 (Lenny brings it Old School):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DguvuZR9r8
Only Bernstein could generate more excitement by simply conducting with his face!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU0Ubs2KYUI
PHOTO: At first glance, I thought he was eating a breadstick
Thank you so much for all of your well-wishes yesterday, in terms of my Facebook anniversary. I really appreciate all of your support. I enjoy being able to put together a little something every day, knowing that you’re out there, reading.
Sadly, today marks another anniversary: that of my last regular air shift at WWFM. As you may know, I anchored weekend mornings there for 18 ½ years. That was augmented with substitutions and, for a time, an expanded schedule. At its peak, I was pulling five shifts a week, Wednesday through Sunday, also writing and producing the Friday noon broadcast concerts.
Then the budget cuts came, and out of necessity the station went with a syndicated service out of Minnesota. Thankfully, finances have improved somewhat and live announcers again pepper the schedule, though I personally have only been back for perhaps two or three pledge drives. I do, however, continue to record my weekly syndicated shows, “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord,” for which I am grateful, and produce special programs like the Scheide tribute, when asked. (If you missed it, you can listen to it here: http://wwfm.org/webcasts.shtml.)
I still do miss putting together the live shows. There’s really nothing quite like sharing music with an audience in real time. Also, a three- or four-hour shift allows plenty of opportunity to work on fun and/or illuminating themes and to share new discoveries. It leaves a bit of a hole in my life not to be able to do that. Hence, little diversions like the Facebook page, which I initiated last year on the eve of my last regular shift.
Which brings me to the point: I had thought about pushing for this as 2014 was winding down, but I’m a fairly laid-back guy, and I’m not all that comfortable with self-promoting. However, I’m guessing there must be at least 20 of you reading this page who have not yet “liked” it. Actually, I know that to be the case, because I see the numbers, and some days I’m getting well over 80 hits.
So I’m coming to you with hat in hand. Are there enough of you out there who would like to help me to get to 100? Sustain me through this melancholy anniversary, won’t you? Brother, can you spare a “like?”
The last piece I ever played on a regular weekend morning air shift: John Foulds’ “Keltic Lament”:
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett could do it all: from twelve-tone to torch songs, from film music to jazz. Bennett was a brilliant musician who never really seemed to find his niche and continues to be undersold – despite the knighthood he acquired in 1998.
This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we remember Bennett with an hour of his music, including his later, generously melodic “Partita for Orchestra,” his thornier Violin Concerto from 1975, and selections from his most celebrated film score, that for “Murder on the Orient Express.”
Even so, it hardly encompasses the enormous variety of his pursuits. Late in life, Bennett began to diversify even further, preferring to paint and work in collage.
Howard Ferguson, one of his teachers at the Royal Academy of Music in London, regarded him as perhaps the greatest talent of his generation, though, he opined, he lacked a personal style. I’m not sure I agree with this, but when one is all over the map with one’s interests, one becomes very difficult to pigeonhole.
Bennett died in 2012. I hope you’ll join me, on what would have been his 80th birthday, for “A Nod to Rod,” tonight at 10 ET. A repeat will air Wednesday evening at 6; or you can enjoy it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.
PHOTO: The young Bennett, looking very Mod, with skinny tie and cigarette
BTW – Not to detract from my post on Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, but today also marks the one year anniversary of the creation of Classic Ross Amico. Thank you for reading my page.
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