Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Samuel Barber Rediscovered New Music

I’m only perhaps one sitting away from completing Howard Pollack’s biographical doorstop (at some 700 pages) “Samuel Barber: His Life & Legacy,” issued last month by University of Illinois Press. Barber was one of America’s greatest concert composers. Surely, you recognize him, at the very least, for his ubiquitous “Adagio for Strings.”

Pollack’s book is praiseworthy for a number of reasons, not least of which is that it kindles a desire in the reader to listen to Barber’s music, but also to revisit those pieces one may not have encountered in a very long time. Furthermore, it exposes even a fairly conversant Barberophile like myself to a number of works I never even knew existed.

One of these is the “Chorale for Ascension Day,” which Barber composed between “Antony and Cleopatra,” the opera that opened the Met at its new location in Lincoln Center in 1966, and “The Lovers,” his choral settings of poems by Pablo Neruda, given its premiere by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1970.

The chorale may not stand as one of Barber’s major works, but since I only just discovered it in time for Ascension Day, today, I figured I’d take the opportunity to give another plug to Pollack’s book, which goes into exhaustive detail about virtually everything Barber ever wrote, and to share a link to this, for me, until-now unknown music.

The work was originally composed for brass choir for the dedication of the new Gloria in Excelsis Tower at the Washington National Cathedral in 1964. The cathedral’s organist and choral director, Paul Callaway, had premiered Barber’s “Toccata Festiva” with the Philadelphia Orchestra to inaugurate the Academy of Music’s new Aeolian-Skinner organ in 1960.

Callaway likely saw to it that new works for the tower dedication were also commissioned from the likes of Lee Hoiby, John LaMontaine, Ned Rorem, and Stanley Hollingsworth. Soon after the premiere of Barber’s brass chorale, the composer provided Callaway with a setting of the piece for chorus, in this case employing a text by Robert Pack Browning.

The piece is also sometimes identified as “Easter Chorale.” On the basis of what I can find on YouTube, it appears that the choral version is much more common. All the brass ensembles, it seems, would rather play arrangements of “Adagio for Strings!”

“Chorale for Ascension Day”

Dedication of the Gloria in Excelsis Tower

1964 Dedication of the Gloria in Excelsis Tower

“Toccata Festiva”

“Adagio for Strings”

Learn more about Pollack’s book here:

https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=c044908&fbclid=IwAR1fG43rZrI31sNgSwMb7PJO05xooQ-Rke4YODIe1M2_xgTiFF7lVxA6k80

May 21, 2023
Czech Composers’ Illicit Love Affairs

After 28 years of intimacy, I imagine there are moments when any relationship can feel strained. Without proper maintenance, even the strongest edifice can develop fissures. Lack of appreciation, lack of trust, unapologetic exploitation, and downright condescension hasten the erosion of kindly feelings.

I’m not saying that was the case with these Czech composers, but only just emerging from the slight regard I experienced at WWFM, after nearly three decades of sharing my life’s blood, I feel an especial sympathy for those who were compelled to move on.

Happily, I have found a loving home at KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon, where my shows continue to air in syndication, while I regroup, record, and reestablish my presence.

All this is preamble to my thesis this week on “The Lost Chord,” on which I’ll present two examples of Czech composers whose newfound love resulted in flowering creativity.

Anyone at all acquainted with the life story of Leoš Janáček knows about his relationship with Kamila Stasslova. Stasslova was the married woman, 38 years Janáček’s junior, who was the recipient of his “intimate letters” (hence, the subtitle of his autobiographical String Quartet No. 2). Though the relationship was a chaste one, she instilled in the composer an ardor that propelled him to the creation of a series of masterworks that spanned his final decade. This is the music that essentially made Janáček’s reputation.

Less well-known perhaps is the case of Vitězslava Kaprálová. As both a composer and a conductor, Kaprálová undoubtedly would have achieved much greater things had her life not been cut short by tuberculosis at the age of 25. Among her teachers were Vitězslav Novák, Václav Talich, Charles Munch, Nadia Boulanger and Bohuslav Martinů.

Her relationship with Martinů deepened into one of romantic love, which fueled some of the older composer’s most powerful works, even as he grappled with his emotional turmoil, caught as he was between his wife and an irresistible attraction to his star pupil.

Kaprálová reciprocated, producing a number of pieces under Martinů’s influence, generally submitting them for his approval. One such work was the “Partita for Piano and String Orchestra,” composed in 1938 and 1939. Martinů is said to have made a substantial contribution to its final version.

But really the idea for this particular topic grew out of a consideration of Zdeněk Fibich, the unsung Czech master who was roughly nine years younger than Dvořák. Fibich lived something of a turbulent emotional life. When his first wife was about to give birth to twins, one of her sisters came to help out with the delivery. The sister and one of the newborns fell ill and died. They were followed within two years by the other child and Fibich’s wife.

Fibich promptly married another of his wife’s sisters, only to abandon her and the son she bore him, in favor of one of his pupils, Anežka Schulzová. He documented the affair, musically, in his collection of piano pieces, “Moods, Impressions and Reminiscences,” composed between 1892 and 1899. He referenced material therein in a number of works written during the last decade of his life.

One of these was the Symphony No. 2, which incorporates the musical reminiscence about the day he declared his love to Schulzová. This occurs in the second movement of the symphony, with another full-blown statement in the finale.

Alas, these Czechs are not alone in having bounced. I hope you’ll join me for “Bohemian Lifestyle: Illicit Love in Czech Music,” now exclusively in syndication. You’ll find my shows on KWAX, with a link to the times of their streaming below.

Keep in mind, the station is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour time difference – actually rather convenient for those of us located in the vicinity of WWFM. Here are the conversions of the respective air-times:

PICTURE PERFECT – Fridays on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)

THE LOST CHORD – Saturdays on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

In radio as in life: Vítězslava Kaprálova finds new love with Bohuslav Martinů

May 20, 2023
Raritan River Music Festival Continues

Three out of four ain’t bad. In fact, it looks pretty good.

The Raritan River Music festival will continue this weekend, with its third concert (of four) held in historic venues in West-Central New Jersey. The Mohawk Trail Piano Trio will present “Musical Monuments: Masterpieces by Anton Arensky and Florence Price.”

Price, whose music is only now being revived in a big way, was the first Black woman to have a symphony played by a major orchestra (the Chicago Symphony in 1933). Arensky studied with Rimsky-Korsakov and taught Rachmaninoff, but his primary influence as a composer was Tchaikovsky.

Trios by these two composers should make for a lovely program. Chamber music by Arensky and Price will be performed by resident artists of western Massachusetts’ Mohawk Trail Concerts, at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartsville this Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Next week, the series will conclude, with flutist Clare Hofmann and harmonica virtuoso Robert Bonfiglio of the Grand Canyon Music Festival. They’ll be joined by electric violist/composer Martha Mooke. Among the featured works will be “Serenade for the Grand Canyon” by Philadelphia-born Arnold Black, whose centennial it is this year.

The program will also include “Fairy Fantasy,” a new piece commissioned by Raritan River Music from venerable Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, performed by the Newman & Oltman Guitar Duo ; and a new work by Diné-American composer Raven Chacon, recipient of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

That concert will take place on May 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown.

For further details about either program, directions to the venues, and information about online streaming, visit raritanrivermusic.org.

May 19, 2023
Picture Perfect: Movies Named After Women on KWAX

What’s in a name? “Picture Perfect” on any other station would smell as sweet.

Even so, something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

WWFM may have uprooted my weekly shows, which likely ends my association with the station after 28 years, but thankfully “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” have the capability to flourish in syndication. I’ve new equipment at the house, and I’ll begin experimenting with the new set-up probably today. Which means, after three years of being barred from the WWFM studios, I’ll be able to start producing new episodes!

Your best bet for hearing my shows at a human hour, and in the context of a respectful, very respectable classical music station, is by streaming them from KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon – which by the way, is managed by fellow WWFM exile Peter Van de Graaff. Check out KWAX and see if it’s not classical radio the way you remember it from better days: the music is presented complete, the hosts are pleasant and unobtrusive, and nothing about it is condescending or dumbed down. You’ll find a link at the end of this post.

When I explained to the kind folks at KWAX what’s going on with WWFM, they couldn’t have been nicer. I have been assured that “Picture Perfect” will continue to be welcomed there on Fridays.

This week, it’s a show built around movies with women’s names for titles. This permits us to flit across a broad array of genres – contemporary drama, Regency Era comedy of manners, 1940s film noir, and 16th century costume picture.

In “Rachel, Rachel” (1968) Joanne Woodward plays a repressed, small-town schoolteacher, who learns to take control of her own life. The film marked the directorial debut of Woodward’s husband, Paul Newman. “Rachel, Rachel” was nominated for four Academy Awards, including those for Best Actress and Best Picture. Newman picked up a Golden Globe and a New York Critics Circle Award for his direction. The lovely Americana score is by Jerome Moross.

In “Emma” (1996), adapted from novel of Jane Austen, Gwyneth Paltrow plays a high-spirited though somewhat-clueless matchmaker, who fails to recognize her own feelings or those of the men around her. Among the supporting cast are Alan Cumming, Toni Collette, Ewan McGregor, and Jeremy Northam. Screenwriter and director Douglas McGrath fell in love with the book while an undergraduate at Princeton University. Rachel Portman wrote the Academy Award-winning score.

The Otto Preminger film noir “Laura” (1944) also sports quite the cast, including Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Judith Anderson, and Vincent Price. The equally impressive theme, heard in multiple permutations throughout the film, was written by Philadelphia-born composer David Raksin. Outfitted with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, it went on to become the second most-recorded song during the composer’s lifetime, behind only Hoagie Carmichael’s “Stardust.”

Finally, “Diane” (1956) takes us back to 16th century France, with a plot concerning Diane de Poitiers, played by Lana Turner. A member of the court of Francis I, Diane becomes the mistress of the king’s son, Henri d’Orléans, portrayed by a very young Roger Moore. Their illicit love unfolds against the backdrop of Medici intrigue and lust for power. Miklós Rózsa, MGM’s go-to-composer for historical spectacles, wrote the music.

Roses actually do very well when transplanted. All it takes is a little care. I hope you’ll join me for “What’s in a Name?” on “Picture Perfect,” smelling just as sweet in syndication on KWAX!

Keep in mind, the station is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour time difference – actually rather convenient for those of us located in the vicinity of WWFM. Here are the conversions of the respective air-times of my shows:

PICTURE PERFECT – Fridays on KWAX at 5:00 PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EDT)

THE LOST CHORD – Saturdays on KWAX at 4:00 PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EDT)

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

PHOTO: Austen’s Emma, now enjoying her roses on KWAX

May 19, 2023
Princeton’s Unknown Composer You Know

Here’s my editor, after I just squandered another day of my life pounding out a 1700-word piece against a 1200-word quota. I won’t spill the beans about it just yet, but it has something to do with a composer who lived in Princeton for about a quarter century, beginning in 1856. You may not know his name, but if you’re at all connected to the university, you know his music. I’m hopeful the article will run in next week’s U.S. 1 newspaper – out on Wednesday – unless it’s waylaid by vampires, extraterrestrials, or Jack the Ripper!

May 18, 2023

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