Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Earth Day Sculthorpe’s “Earth Cry”

April 22 is Earth Day. Few composers have embraced environmental concerns quite as extensively as the Australian Peter Sculthorpe, many of whose works draw inspiration from the Australian outback, the bushland, Aboriginal elements, and the natural heritage of Oceania. Much of his music is tied up with the preservation of the environment and, more recently, concern over climate change.

Sculthorpe’s “Earth Cry” is a very good example. Here’s a fine performance, posted on YouTube, though it seems to lack the didgeridoo so prominent on the more recent Naxos recording.

Sculthorpe will turn 85 on April 29.

April 22, 2014
Pets Music and Facebook

Has anyone ever set up a Facebook account and not posted a picture of their pets within a week? Personally, I think I’ve exercised remarkable restraint.

I don’t know about you, but my animals are great music lovers. My dog, Corgi, a foxy lass of indeterminate breed, was a great opera lover. She used to fall asleep with her head against the speaker while listening to the Metropolitan Opera.

The imperious Hannah (a.k.a. Ki-TEH) also enjoys vocal music, though for a while she and I were working our way through all the Haydn symphonies.

She definitely prefers music to silence during the long hours I spend writing on the computer, preferably typing with one hand while rubbing her belly with the other. Until she’s had enough, that is. She can be a harsh mistress.

I don’t know Lena S. Lee, but this is a sweet tribute. Here she is with Samuel Barber’s “The Monk and His Cat.”

April 21, 2014
Easter Sacred and Secular Celebrations

Two celebrations of Easter:

Sacred: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7NGSpGm_ag

Secular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsdUXmB7yco

Have a happy Easter, everyone. “Easter Parade” airs on Turner Classic Movies: TCM tonight at 8 ET, part of an evening of Irving Berlin musicals.

April 20, 2014
Shakespeare’s Musical Legacy: 450th Anniversary

We don’t know when, exactly, Shakespeare was born, but his baptismal date was April 26, 1564. From this, scholars have generally fixed his natal day as April 23. This year marks the 450th anniversary of the happy occasion. Therefore, we honor the Bard this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” with a handful of works inspired by Shakespeare plays and characters.

English composer Walter Leigh was killed in action during World War II, at the age of 37. He inherited from his teacher, Paul Hindemith, a facility in churning out music on demand. His suite after “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” written for open air performance, is a mash up of Elizabethan, Restoration and English pastoralist styles.

With the rise of fascism in Europe, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco fled Italy and, like many musical Europeans, settled in Hollywood. There he contributed to some 200 film scores. Throughout the 1930s, he had written concertos for Gregor Piatigorsky, Andrés Segovia and Jascha Heifetz. He is probably best known for his guitar pieces (of which he wrote roughly 100).

His output certainly reveals a strong predilection for the works of Shakespeare. He composed an opera after “The Taming of the Shrew,” four dances after “Love’s Labours Lost,” 33 Shakespeare songs and settings of 35 of the sonnets. Between 1930 and 1953, he also composed eleven overtures after Shakespeare plays, of which “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a delectable charmer.

Though he spent some very important years abroad, so that his reputation never emerged from the shadows of Dvořák and Smetana, Josef Bohuslav Foerster lived long enough (91 years) to become regarded as the grand old man of Czech music. His suite, “From Shakespeare” pays tribute to a number of female characters from Shakespeare plays, including Perdita from “The Winter’s Tale,” Viola from “Twelfth Night,” Lady Macbeth, and Katharina from “The Taming of the Shrew.”

In addition to these, we’ll have time for a song by Shakespeare contemporary Sir Thomas Morley.

It only scratches the surface – not surprisingly, the Bard has inspired hundreds of composers over the centuries – but hopefully the selections will make for an enjoyable hour of music.

Listen to “Great Shakes,” Sunday night at 10:00 ET, with a repeat Thursday at 11, or enjoy it as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.

“…Pardon, gentles all,
The flat unraisèd spirits that hath dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object.”

April 19, 2014
Biblical Epics Music from Classic Film Novels

This week on “Picture Perfect” it’s the second installment in a mini-festival of very big films, as we present another hour of Biblical epics, though this time with a twist. Rather than straightforward tellings of the events related in the Gospels, these are all films adapted from bestselling historical novels.

Lloyd C. Douglas’ “The Robe” was given the Hollywood treatment in 1953. Richard Burton plays Marcellus, the Roman tribune who oversees the crucifixion and wins Christ’s robe in a game of dice. Victor Mature (last week’s Samson) is his well-oiled slave, Demetrius, and Jean Simmons, his childhood sweetheart, now betrothed to Caligula (a scene-stealing Jay Robinson).

“The Robe” holds the distinction of being the first film released in CinemaScope. Allegedly, it is also the only Biblical epic ever to yield a sequel (“Demetrius and the Gladiators”). The score, by Alfred Newman, has always been popular.

Thomas B. Costain’s “The Silver Chalice” was brought to the big screen in 1954. The film introduced Paul Newman in the lead, as a lowborn artisan commissioned to fashion a decorative casing for the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper (i.e. the Holy Grail).

The film is interesting in that it features quasi-abstract sets by stage designer Rolfe Gerard and a stunning score by Franz Waxman, which incorporates the “Dresden Amen,” also used in Wagner’s “Parsifal.” However, Newman was mortified by his performance and famously took out an ad in Variety, essentially to apologize.

“Barabbas” is worlds away from the usual Hollywood epic. Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel of Pär Lagerkvist, the film is a ruminative slog through the guilt-ridden psyche of the title character, played by Anthony Quinn. Barabbas is the thief pardoned to make way for the crucifixion of Christ. He spends the rest of his life searching for meaning in a meaningless world.

In a quixotic attempt at verisimilitude, director Richard Fleischer shot the crucifixion scene during an actual solar eclipse. Mario Nascimbene (who composed the music for last week’s “Solomon and Sheba”) wrote the score.

Finally, we’ll wrap things up with music from one of the all-time Oscar champs, “Ben-Hur,” from 1959. Based on the 1880 novel of General Lew Wallace, “Ben-Hur” was honored with 11 Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler) and Best Actor (Charlton Heston).

The highlight of the film, of course, is the amazing chariot race, but there is a grandeur to the whole which makes it difficult to look away. Miklós Rózsa wrote the magnificent score, arguably the best for any film of its kind.

The “Ben-Hur” Oscar record has been tied twice – in 1998, by “Titanic,” and in 2004, by “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” – but this is before computer generated imagery, folks. They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

Tune in for music from movies based on historical novels inspired by the New Testament, this Friday evening at 6 ET, or enjoy it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

April 17, 2014

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