Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • John Williams’ “Of Grit and Glory” Premiere

    John Williams’ “Of Grit and Glory” Premiere

    In January, I posted a link to an inspiring new piece of television music by John Williams. “Of Grit and Glory” was composed for ESPN’s College Football Playoff National Championship broadcast. It’s use in the introductory montage was undeniably effective, but for those who longed to be able to hear it without the distraction of talking heads and roaring crowds, I am happy to report that someone has posted a video of the work’s world premiere concert performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the composer conducting. This is especially good news, as ESPN has taken down the original video.

    The performance may lack some of the pizzazz of that of the pick-up band that recorded it for ESPN, but that’s the difference between a live concert with a lot of music and limited rehearsal time and an intensive, well-miked recording session, in which the focus is on getting a four-minute piece just right.

    Here’s the complete Chicago program, with photos from the concert. For a Williams fan, it looks especially alluring, with a chance to hear some new works and some old favorites, and one or two rarities along the way.

    https://www.jwfan.com/?p=14921&fbclid=IwAR3UHXVTjvIeUDDBymxqfP61dxggu9BLB8InvQnw9t1uIfasJona7xv7_kU

    Hopefully the theme will appear on a commercial release in the near future. In the meantime, better save the audio quick, before the video disappears!

    Along with “Helena’s Theme” for the forthcoming Indiana Jones movie, it’s nice to have confirmation that the old wizard still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

  • Christopher Gunning Poirot Composer Dies

    Christopher Gunning Poirot Composer Dies

    I just learned the composer Christopher Gunning has died. I have a few of his concertos and symphonies in my own collection, but fans of David Suchet’s Poirot will certainly recognize this:

    Here’s a video of Gunning at home, talking about some of his symphonies:

    And a substantial teaser for his Violin Concerto:

    Gunning was 78 years-old. R.I.P.

  • Bluebeard’s Enduring Myth & Bartók’s Castle

    Bluebeard’s Enduring Myth & Bartók’s Castle

    Like any myth worth its salt, the disturbing fairy story of Duke Bluebeard embeds itself in the recesses of the unconscious, only to color and confirm subterranean anxieties or perceived truths about the wider world.

    The best-known version of the story is the one by Charles Perrault, set down in the 17th century. Perrault’s popular retellings of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, and Puss in Boots served to codify these timeless folk tales for the modern age.

    Bluebeard as an archetype informs the characterizations of so many of the tortured antiheroes of the Gothic novel – the mysterious and brooding nobleman who lives in a dank castle of many chambers that surely contain their share of skeletons, be they literal or figurative.

    Sometimes Bluebeard really is the menace of Perrault, the volatile madman who lives in a house full of corpses. At others (as in “Jane Eyre”), he is a tragic hero who harbors a guilty secret that cuts him off from all happiness, love, and normalcy. Only gradually do the heavy doors grind open on rusty hinges to reveal their truths. The chambers are like the dark corners of his psyche, vulnerabilities he holds close, to the point of near-destruction or even beyond. Only understanding and acceptance have the power to alter his world.

    That said, sometimes Bluebeard really is a murderous creep who’s all about control and over-the-top cruelty.

    And what about his bride, named Judith in Béla Bartók’s opera, “Bluebeard’s Castle?” Is her curiosity a liberating force or a destructive one? The parable of fatal curiosity extends back through the Biblical stories of Lot’s wife and Eve and the Classical myths of Pandora, Eurydice, and Psyche.

    The tale positively drips with allegory. If there is anything that is clear about the Bluebeard story, it’s that it would take two very special people to make this unusual relationship work. There’s no way any outside observer would ever, ever, EVER understand.

    On Béla Bartók’s birthday, I stumbled across this 1988 film of “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle.” It’s not sung in the original Hungarian. English-speaking viewers may find that a plus; anyone else, I think, will find compensation in its atmosphere and insight.

    In whatever language, the music is still terrific. Happy birthday, Béla Bartók!

  • Wild Movie Music Picture Perfect on WWFM

    Wild Movie Music Picture Perfect on WWFM

    This week on “Picture Perfect,” March goes out like a lion… and a bear… and a baby elephant… and the tiger Shere Khan!

    We’ll hear selections from John Barry’s music for “Born Free” (1966), based on Joy Adamson’s memoir about the raising of Elsa, an orphaned lion cub who grows to adulthood and is eventually released into the Kenyan wilderness. The music proved a double Academy Award winner for Barry, who was recognized for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

    Jerome Moross, best known for his music to “The Big Country,” had such a strong personality that his immediately recognizable sound extended even to his work on the National Geographic special, “Grizzly!” (1967), a documentary about a pair of ecologists studying North American bears. “Grizzly!” sports an energetic Americana score that is very much cut from the same cloth.

    The Korda Brothers’ adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” (1942) stars the charismatic Indian actor Sabu, as Mowgli, raised by wolves, who yearns to reconnect with his human roots. (For the record, Kipling pronounced “Mowgli” so that the first syllable rhymes with “cow.”) Miklós Rózsa wrote the enchanting score.

    And we can’t get through the hour without hearing Henry Mancini’s “Baby Elephant Walk,” from “Hatari!” (1962). So many exclamation points in these wilderness titles! The film was directed by Howard Hawks and starred John Wayne. In case you’re wondering, “Hatari!” is Swahili for “Danger!”

    Take a walk on the wild side, with a spring in your step, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

  • Haydn Wood’s Enduring Melody

    Haydn Wood was born on this date in 1882. Although his name is pronounced “Hayden,” his parents, both musicians, indeed named him for Franz Joseph Haydn. Wood composed larger works for the concert hall, including concertos for piano and violin, and there was once a symphony, now lost, but his reputation rests on his light music and songs. He composed over 200 ballads.

    This was one of his biggest hits, one of the great tear-jerkers of the First World War. Wood was riding atop a double-decker bus when the melody came to him. He hopped off and jotted it down onto an envelope by lamplight. The text was added by Frederick Weatherly.

    During the war, the song sold 50,000 copies of sheet music. Its singing was used in the rehabilitation of shell-shocked soldiers, who had lost the ability to speak. It was recorded many, many times.

    These days, it’s often employed to add flavor to period dramas. Of the earliest recordings, John McCormack’s rendition was notably popular.

    Happy birthday, Haydn Wood!

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