I am very sorry to learn that Anthony Checchia has died, a great lost to the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society (which he cofounded), the Marlboro Music Festival, and the City of Philadelphia. Condolences to all, especially his widow, the soprano Benita Valente.
Category: Daily Dispatch
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Dvořák’s Quirky Passions Beyond Music
This exhibition is past, but I found it interesting to read about a few of Dvořák’s “guilty pleasures,” beyond trainspotting and feeding pigeons.
https://www.nm.cz/en/program/exhibitions/the-guilty-pleasures-of-antonin-dvorak
More about Dvořák and pigeons in this Classic Ross Amico post from last year:
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1165039271081801&set=a.883855802533484
And another on Dvořák and trains from 2018:
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1062790070554949&set=a.279006378933326
Happy birthday, Antonin Dvořák, “guilty” as charged.
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Saygun Turkish Composer Black as Hell Music
There is a Turkish proverb: “Coffee should be black as Hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.”
The music of Ahmed Adnan Saygun is very good coffee indeed. Saygun (pictured, right) rode a wave of Turkish nationalism to become his country’s foremost composer in the Western classical tradition. Perhaps best remembered abroad as an associate of Béla Bartók (pictured, left), Saygun was a prominent ethnomusicologist, but also an important educator and cultural administrator.
On this, the anniversary of his birth (in 1907), savor an hour of Saygun’s sometimes sweet, often astringent, always rewarding music, including a selection of “Etudes on Aksak Rhythms” (1964), his Suite for Violin and Piano (1956), and the Piano Concerto No. 1 (1951-57).
The refreshments are guaranteed to be aromatic, bold, and rich, on “Turkish Toughie” – this Saturday’s edition of “The Lost Chord” – now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
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Leonard Rosenman A Centenary Celebration
Today marks 100 years of film composer Leonard Rosenman.
Rosenman, who studied with Arnold Schoenberg, Roger Sessions, and Luigi Dallapiccola, was known for writing some of the most challenging movie music in history, including the uncompromising score for “Fantastic Voyage” (1966). His music for “The Cobweb” (1955) is credited with being the first predominantly twelve-tone score composed for a motion picture.
Yet James Dean fans retain a particular affection for him, thanks in large part to his romantic interludes in “East of Eden” and “Rebel without a Cause” (both 1955). It was Dean who essentially discovered him and introduced him to director Elia Kazan.
Fantasy and science fiction junkies embrace him, not only for his music for “Fantastic Voyage,” but also that for “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” (1970), the Ralph Bakshi animated version of “The Lord of the Rings” (1978), and “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986.)
Rosenman was the recipient of two Academy Awards, which he won back-to-back, for his work adapting music of Handel, Schubert, and others for Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon” (1975), and for his score interleaving Woody Guthrie songs, for “Bound for Glory” (1976). He died in 2008 at the age of 83.
Rosenman may have had some thorns, but by any other name he could also smell as sweet. Happy centenary, Leonard Rosenman!
“Rebel without a Cause”
“East of Eden”
“The Cobweb”
“Fantastic Voyage”
“Star Trek IV”
Rosenman wins Oscar for “Barry Lyndon”
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Back to School with Sweetness and Light
This week on “Sweetness and Light,” we’re headed back to school.
We’ll have frothy music on scholastic themes. None frothier than a head of beer, conjured perhaps by Emil Waldteufel’s “Estudiantina,” or “Band of Students.” Listeners of a certain age may associate this music with a popular jingle for Rheingold Beer. Clearly its inclusion suggests a double-significance – not that I condone riotous student behavior (unless, of course, I’m invited)!
I’ll also share one of my favorite lesser-heard works of Ralph Vaughan Williams: the “Charterhouse Suite,” a collection of light dances for strings, named for the public school the composer attended, beginning at the age of 15. Pendants will add that the work was actually arranged from an earlier “Suite of Six Short Pieces” for piano.
Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 55 is often referred to as the “Schoolmaster.” Passages are said to be strikingly similar to those in a lost Haydn divertimento, identified as “The Schoolmaster in Love.” In particular, it’s been suggested that the dotted rhythm of the second movement of the symphony calls to mind a schoolmaster’s wagging finger – disrupted at intervals by musical sighs as he swoons with love.
Along the way, we’ll also enjoy music by Richard Addinsell, Gilbert & Sullivan, and Sigmund Romberg.
Put on your school clothes, boys and girls, and learn your lessons well. You’ll get a gold star when you join me for “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Stream it wherever you are at the link:
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