Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Anne Akiko Meyers Returns to NJ with Márquez

I first saw Anne Akiko Meyers with the Philadelphia Orchestra at The Mann Center back in 1991 (playing Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto), and she was very special indeed. Ten years earlier, at the age of 11, she was already performing on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.” The next year, she made her “Top 5” debut, with the New York Philharmonic. Meyers has long since been in demand as one of the world’s top-tier violinists.

This weekend, she will be the soloist on the opening concerts of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in Arturo Márquez’s Violin Concerto “Fandango,” a piece that was given its premiere, by Meyers, last summer at the Hollywood Bowl.

The concerto will form the core of a Latin-inflected program that will also include Ruperto Chapí’s prelude to the zarzuela “La Revoltosa” and the U.S. premiere of Marcos Fernández-Barrero’s homage to Leonard Bernstein, “America.”

Joaquín Turina’s evocative “Danzas fantásticas” and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s colorful “Capriccio espagnol” will lend further zest to this musical paella.

Music director Rossen Milanov will conduct.

The concerts will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium this Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 pm. For tickets and more information, visit princetonsymphony.org.

Meyers on “Living the Classical Life”

September 8, 2022
Unpacking The Man Who Fell to Earth

“The Man Who Fell to Earth” (1976) may have traveled without luggage, but there certainly is a lot to unpack.

Nicholas Roeg’s determinedly experimental adaptation of Walter Tevis’ novel (he also wrote the books that formed the bases for Paul Newman’s “The Hustler” and the recent Netflix sensation “The Queen’s Gambit”), “The Man Who Fell to Earth” is kind of like E.T.’s lost weekend.

David Bowie, in his big screen debut, is the ethereal visitor from a dying planet who plans to return home with the necessary resources to save his people. However, he becomes increasingly mired in earthly distractions: media saturation, addiction (both chemical and interpersonal), human foibles, and institutional interference. Also, everyone he meets seems to spend so much of their time naked. And I’m talking really ‘70s naked.

Disorienting at times to the point of semi-coherence, “The Man Who Fell to Earth” is the perfect metaphor for a Roy and Ross conversation. You’ll need something stronger than water when ranking your favorite Rip Torn nude scenes in the comments section, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Interplanetary travel has seldom been so trippy as when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:30 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

September 8, 2022
WWFM Classical Memories Celebrating 40 Years

Searching through my saved photos for some WWFM – The Classical Network memories. Here are four of many. Help us celebrate 40 years with your donation of $40 (or more) at 1-888-232-1212 or online at wwfm.org. Thank you for everything you do to support the music we love to share.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: cueing up a symphony by Janis Ivanovs; group hug with Bill Zagorski and Rachel Katz; between membership pitches with Michael Kownacky; New Year’s hijinks with Carl Hemmingsen

September 7, 2022
WWFM Celebrates 40 Years Support Classical Music

WWFM – The Classical Network, West Windsor NJ’s classical music station, signed on for the first time on this date in 1982.

I was hired in September 1995 and served as weekend morning host for the next 19 years. After that, I made the move to weekday afternoons to share hosting and programming duties with David Osenberg.

My specialty show, “The Lost Chord,” devoted to unusual and neglected repertoire, aired for the first time in 2003; “Picture Perfect,” my film music show, made its debut in 2010. Though I have not been back in the studios since the arrival of COVID-19 in March 2020, these syndicated shows continue to be heard.

To my knowledge, only Ted Otten, Michael Kownacky, Alice Weiss, and the recently-retired Win Howard have had a longer, continuous association with the station.

So as one of the old-timers, I appeal to those of you for whom the station has made a real difference over the past decades to honor The Classical Network’s 40th birthday with a gift in the amount of $40 – or more, if the spirit takes you.

Call 1-888-232-1212, or fill out the quick-and-easy form at wwfm.org (linked directly here):

https://wwwfm.secureallegiance.com/wwfm/WebModule/Donate.aspx?P=DEFAULT&PAGETYPE=PLG&CHECK=vOU2bz5JCWmgCDbf53nm9ezWDeZ%2BeA1M&fbclid=IwAR0GBmO74UKPZ9uNPi13gv2-LRUsvJ1bw1CtVm6g3ziNLCO9QrxoQoqhEUg

Every donation to The Classical Network makes a difference in keeping classical music on the airwaves in our community and streaming around the world.

Thank you for your part in allowing us to share all the great and engaging music that’s continued to enrich our lives over the past 40 years. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Here’s a rare WWFM staff photo taken in the old broadcast booth in 2003. Since then, on-air operations have been moved next door to a computer-laden room with a better window. The room in the photo now serves as one of our production studios.

Pictured, from left to right:

(front) Darlene Berson, Sandy Steiglitz, and Nancy Fish;

(middle) Walt Gradzki, Marjorie Herman, Diane D’Ascoli, Jeffery Sekerka, and Phil Joiner

(back) Bliss Michelson, Alice Weiss, Andrew Rudin, Glenn Smith, and Yours Truly.

Of those pictured, only Alice remains as a full-time employee, with Walt and Glenn returning on a contractor basis. I continue to maintain a toehold through “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” – a total investment of 27 years.

September 6, 2022
Lars Vogt, Pianist & Conductor, Dies at 51

Cancer has claimed the pianist Lars Vogt.

At what should have been middle age, Vogt was also in the process of branching out into conducting. He served as music director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia from 2015. In 2020, he took up the directorship of the Paris Chamber Orchestra. In June, his contract there was extended through 2025.

Vogt received his diagnosis in February 2021. Sad enough for such a talented musician to be cut down in the prime of life – he was only 51 years-old – but he also leaves behind a wife and three children.

The courage and optimism he conveyed in interviews over the past 18 months is to be admired. R.I.P.

Vogt plays Beethoven, beautifully

With a poignant Brahms encore

Vogt singles out the solace to be found in Brahms, following his diagnosis, here

The Time Remaining

September 5, 2022

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