Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies at 80

Happy birthday, Max. I like your style.

You were an angry young man of English music, but you never lacked a sense of humor. Your “Eight Songs for a Mad King,” inspired by George III, calls for players to perform in large bird cages; “Miss Donathorne’s Maggot,” inspired by the historical figure who became the basis for Dickens’ Miss Havisham, serves up instrumentalists as decorations on her wedding cake.

You’ve lived in the Orkney Islands, in northernmost Scotland, since 1971. You founded the St. Magnus Festival there in 1977. When a protected swan hit a power line on your property in 2010, you seized the opportunity and planned to eat it. When the police arrived, you offered them swan terrine.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4361079.stm

You were knighted in 1987, and – thanks to changes brought about in reaction to your predecessor’s erratic behavior – you were the first Master of the Queen’s Music not to die while holding the honor (now a ten-year post).

Your symphonies, organic and austere, are often compared to those of Sibelius by critics in the British press. Every once in a while I’ll take one of them down from my collection, but can never seem to get into them. However, I adore your music on Scottish themes, which skillfully blends your wild tendencies with folk inflections and listener-friendly programs.

Keep rocking the boat, Max. I know you’ve done an about-face concerning the monarchy, but you’ve still got that mischievous glint.

Happy 80th birthday!

The three faces of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies:

“Eight Songs for a Mad King”

Symphony No. 3

“An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkioMJJaz1I

PHOTO: Mad Max turns 80

September 8, 2014
Leopold Stokowski Cartoon Cameo Mystery

Classic movie fans will have to stay sharp (and likely hit the pause button a few times) to catch all the cameos and references in this Warner Brothers Merry Melodies short.

Of particular interest is an appearance by Leopold Stokowski in a hairnet (although he conducts with a baton).

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/82363595/

Stokowski will conduct Aram Khachaturian’s Symphony No. 2, tonight on “The Lost Chord.” The show airs at 10 PM, with a repeat Friday morning at 3. Or you can catch it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

September 7, 2014
Khachaturian’s Lost “Bell” Symphony on “The Lost Chord”

I don’t know what got into me – maybe I feel beleaguered? – but this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” I’ll be presenting Leopold Stokowski’s rarely-heard recording of Aram Khachaturian’s Symphony No. 2, sometimes called “The Bell.”

Khachaturian wrote the work in 1943, the height of World War II, while he was holed up at a Composers Union retreat with Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Miaskovsky and Gliere. He said of the piece, “The Second Symphony is a requiem of wrath, a requiem of protest against war and violence.”

The symphony’s nickname alludes to a kind of alarm that opens and closes the work. Overall, the tone is one of resolution in the face of tragedy.

Stokowski’s recording, long unavailable, was originally issued on United Artists Records in the late 1950s. It reappeared briefly on compact disc, on the EMI label, in 1994, and again in 2009, as part of a 10-disc box set of entrancing Stokowski performances.

The master tapes have not weathered the years well, alas, so there are moments of distortion, but the power of the piece transcends any technical limitations. There is certainly nothing wanting in the performance.

To round out the hour, we’ll hear the Russian-born pianist, Nadia Reisenberg, in a selection from her 1947 Carnegie Hall recital, Khachaturian’s most famous piano work, the “Toccata.” Reisenberg studied at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music under Josef Hoffman.

Join me for these rare Khachaturian performances, “Khach As Khach Can,” tomorrow night at 10 ET, with a repeat Friday morning at 3. Or listen to the webcast later, at your convenience, at http://www.wwfm.org.

In the meantime, here’s an even rarer Khachaturian document of the composer singing about the glories of Armenian wine!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtKHrg7w3_o

PHOTO: Troika! (Right to left) Khachaturian with Shostakovich and Prokofiev

September 6, 2014
Trenton Times Chamber Music & Media Changes

Last week, I put together my annual season round-up of area orchestral concerts; this week, the focus is on chamber and instrumental music.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2014/09/chamber_music_ensembles_announ.html

It also happens to be the last article to be supervised by my long-suffering editors, Jim Berrie and Michael Mancuso. Over the years, Jim and Michael have come to expect copy one-third longer than quota, turned in at least 24 hours late. I’ve greatly appreciated their personable approach and unflagging sense of humor. They always made everything a lot less stressful than it could have been. I will miss them both.

Big changes coming to The Times of Trenton, as NJ Advanced Media absorbs Advance Publication newspapers. Starting next week, I fear I may have to think less like a Victorian novelist and more like a haiku poet.

Here’s the official line, published in March:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/03/faq_nj_advance_media.html

And an article about pervasive layoffs, from April:

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/04/layoffs_at_star-ledger_njcom_other_advance_newspapers_top_300_1.html

So it goes.

PHOTO: Sunset for some at the Times

September 5, 2014
Tall Ships Movie Soundtracks Picture Perfect

Summer vacation may be over, but it’s never too late to run away to sea. This week on “Picture Perfect,” we listen to music from movies featuring tall ships.

Though Gregory Peck cuts a dashing figure as “Captain Horatio Hornblower” (1951), the movie itself is a bit episodic, adapted as it was from three of C.S. Forester’s Hornblower novels. Canadian-born master of British Light Music Robert Farnon wrote the music, lending another dimension to this nautical adventure.

Alan Ladd and James Mason engage in a battle of wills in “Botany Bay” (1953). Ladd plays a doctor wrongly accused of a crime, being transported to a penal colony in New South Wales on a ship under the harsh command of Mason. In perhaps the film’s most memorable sequence, Mason has one of his charges keelhauled. Franz Waxman wrote the score.

If it all sounds a mite familiar, it’s because the story was by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, authors of “Mutiny on the Bounty.” The classic film version dates from 1935, with Clark Gable butting up against Charles Laughton’s Captain Bligh. The 1962 version bears a certain notoriety, mostly for Marlon Brando’s eccentric performance, which turns Fletcher Christian into a fop, and the fact that he essentially directed all his own scenes himself. The film was colossal failure, earning back only $13 million of its $19 million budget. Nonetheless, it managed to inspire Bronislau Kaper to compose one of his most monumental scores.

Finally, we’ll hear music from a recent release, on Sepia Records, of the soundtrack to “Windjammer” (1958), the only film shot using the Cinemiracle process. The film documents the round-trip, transatlantic journey of a Norwegian vessel from from Oslo to the Caribbean to New York to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and then back home again. Morton Gould wrote the evocative score, which alternates dance rhythms and sea shanties with a recurring melody suggestive of the sweeping romance of the high seas.

Join me as we recommission these tall ships on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies. You can enjoy it this Friday evening at 6, or catch it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org,

September 4, 2014

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