Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • Song of Songs Love & Music on The Lost Chord

    Song of Songs Love & Music on The Lost Chord

    The Song of Songs. Attributed to King Solomon, this Biblical book contains some of the most ardent poetry ever written. Whether interpreted as the communion of man and woman, or as something of a more allegorical nature – the relationship, depending upon one’s system of belief, between God and Israel, between God and the Church, or between Christ and the human soul – over the centuries it has inspired some meltingly lovely music.

    Since it is customary to read from the Song of Songs as part of the observance of Passover, this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” in anticipation of Pesach, we’ll sample two complementary settings: one by Sir Granville Bantock – selections from his massive, 2 ½ hour oratorio – and one by Lukas Foss – a more intimate song cycle, in which divine and romantic love unite in understated metaphor.

    What if I told you your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate? If you fall for that, there’s plenty more where that came from, on “King Solomon’s Lines,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

  • Florence Price Overnight Success

    Florence Price Overnight Success

    It took nearly 90 years for her to become an overnight success.

    Florence Price was the first African American woman to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra. Her Symphony No. 1 was played by the Chicago Symphony, conducted by Frederick Stock, in 1933.

    But it’s only fairly recently, after decades of comparative neglect, that her music has finally begun to gain traction. Now she’s being played everywhere.

    Is her sudden popularity a result of social or political trends? Who cares? When the music is this beautiful, everyone wins.

    The Chicago Symphony plays Price in 2021 – the Andante Moderato for string orchestra, after a Quartet in G major:

    Happy birthday, Florence Price.

  • Bible Movie Epics: Samson, Solomon & More

    Bible Movie Epics: Samson, Solomon & More

    With Passover and Easter right around the corner, we’re entering the peak season for Bible movies. This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of music from epics inspired by the Old Testament – including “Samson and Delilah” (Victor Young), “Solomon and Sheba” (Mario Nascimbene), “Sodom and Gomorrah” (Miklós Rózsa) and “The Ten Commandments” (Elmer Bernstein).

    We begin and end with two Cecil B. DeMille productions. DeMille could always be counted on to give his audience a good show. Both “Samson” and “The Ten Commandments” feature sultry temptresses, violent, bare-chested men, and plenty of austere moralizing. The climactic special effects in both films are still sublime.

    Tyrone Power was originally cast as Solomon in King Vidor’s “Solomon and Sheba.” However, he died of a massive heart attack during shooting (at the age of 44), paving the way for Yul Brynner to assume the role of the wise king. Brynner, of course, would later become DeMille’s pharaoh Rameses. With Gina Lollobrigida as the Queen of Sheba, you know there has to be an orgiastic dance.

    Miklós Rózsa characterized “Sodom of Gomorrah” as “an intriguing subject which developed into a bad picture,” and most critics agreed. Any film that casts Stewart Granger as Lot should be taken with a pillar of salt. Rózsa determined not to score any more Biblical epics after “Sodom,” though his music is nothing to be ashamed of. It possesses that classic Rózsa epic sound, much beloved, thanks to his work on “Quo Vadis,” “Ben-Hur” and “King of Kings.”

    Chariots! Tunics! Histrionic acting! It’s going to be epic, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!

    PHOTOS: Victor Mature’s stuffed lion vs. Charlton Heston’s cotton candy beard

  • Somewhere in Time Secrets Revealed

    Somewhere in Time Secrets Revealed

    We lost all track of time last night, as we discussed “Somewhere in Time” (1980). I suppose it’s only appropriate, given the subject matter. Still, the show ran to three hours! Then we stopped the stream on the assumption that everyone had had enough, and we wound up talking for another hour, until 11:00 pm!

    Thank you, Jo Addie, for sharing your recollections of working on the film. Jo is president of INSITE, the International Network of Somewhere In Time Enthusiasts. In that capacity, she has done great things for the film’s legacy – getting it restored and reissued on home video, getting it back into theaters for a limited run, producing documentaries, keeping up with the cast and crew, overseeing the newsletter, and hosting annual “Somewhere in Time” weekends on Mackinac Island.

    You can learn all about it and her amazing journey, and marvel at how spontaneity and serendipity can literally change the course of one’s life, by listening to her story here:

    Then definitely do check out the INSITE website, where you’ll find lots more great anecdotes and information:

    https://www.somewhereintime.tv/

    Ironically, in three hours, there was very little time to actually discuss the content of the movie itself, so maybe we’ll have to go back in time and address it again at some point.

    For the immediate future, Roy’s got another special guest lined up for tomorrow: actress and dancer Tanya Lemani. Fans of the original “Star Trek” television series will remember Lemani from the episode “Wolf in the Fold” (1967).

    Wolf down your dinner and make the trek to the comments section for an out-of-this-world conversation. You’ll be howling for more, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, when they livestream on Facebook, this Sunday evening at 7:00 EDT!

    https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

    PHOTO: Jo Addie with Christopher Reeve on the set of “Somewhere in Time”

    https://www.somewhereintime.tv/

  • Somewhere in Time: Jo Addie Interview

    Somewhere in Time: Jo Addie Interview

    BREAKING! Jo Addie will be joining us tonight on “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner” to share her reminiscences of “Somewhere in Time” (1980). A series of happenstances led Addie to appear through most of the film as an extra. During her three weeks on the intimate shoot on Mackinac Island, she got to know everyone pretty well, and she’s full of anecdotes about cast and crew, including actors Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, and Teresa Wright, writer Richard Matheson, and director Jeannot Szwarc.

    Addie is also longtime president of INSITE (International Network of Somewhere In Time Enthusiasts, founded by Bill Shepard in 1990). In this capacity, she hosts “Somewhere in Time” weekends at Mackinac’s Grand Hotel, conducts interviews, produces documentaries, and oversees the publication of the society’s fan magazine.

    Furthermore, I love the fact that her husband, Jim, worked for many years as an audio engineer at Chicago’s classical music station, WFMT!

    Join us on a sentimental journey to 1912, by way of 1980, when we meet up “Somewhere in Time,” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!

    https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

    PHOTO: Jo Addie (left) with Jane Seymour, on a visit to the plaque that now marks the location where the film’s time-defying lovers first meet.

    More insight into INSITE here:

    https://www.somewhereintime.tv/intro1.htm

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