“Picture Perfect” will not be heard this week because of today’s pop-up fundraiser. The show will return next Saturday at 7:00 EST, with a program of music from fairy tale movies. I hope you’ll join me then.
In the meantime, please consider supporting great music on the radio with your contribution right now, by calling 1-888-232-1212 or donating online at wwfm.org.
Less than $25K to go to meet our goal of $70K. Thank you for your continued support of WWFM – The Classical Network!
Last night, Roy and I were initiated into “The Secrets of Isis” (1975-77). Thank you so much to our special guests, Lisa Everetts, of the podcast POP ninja, and Brian Cutler Actors Studio, who played Rick Mason on the show, for joining us in paying tribute to actress Joanna Cameron. Their insights and anecdotes provided valuable glimpses behind the scenes and into Cameron’s personality.
If you are an “Isis” fan, DEFINITELY check out Everett’s podcast, recorded with cohost Patrick Bennett. The entire month of March was devoted to “The Shazam!/Isis Hour,” with extensive conversations with the casts of both shows. Follow the link below, and scroll down for appearances by Michael Gray (Billy Batson) and John Davey (the second Captain Marvel) on March 3, Joanna Cameron on March 10, Joanna Pang and Brian Cutler on March 17, Jackson Bostwick (the first Captain Marvel) on March 24, and Jill Vance Keenan (Cameron’s stunt double) on March 31. A very impressive reunion!
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1265612
Next time, Roy and I will welcome my good friend and Tolkien connoisseur, Paul Miller, who will join us for some reminiscences about the Rankin-Bass adaptation of “The Hobbit” (1977). You know, the one featuring the vocal talents of Orson Bean, John Huston, Hans Conried, Otto Preminger, Cyril Ritchard, and Brother Theodore as Gollum! This eagerly-awaited NBC television special was first broadcast on Thanksgiving weekend.
We’ll be chipping the glasses and cracking the plates (that’s what Bilbo Baggins hates), on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Troll us in the comments section, as we livestream on Facebook, NEXT SUNDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 28, AT 7:00 EST. (Note that we will be off on Black Friday!)
https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner
Have a happy Thanksgiving!
IT’S A THANKSGIVING MIRACLE!
Today’s membership drive wrapped up a little early – which means that “PICTURE PERFECT” is on the air!! Pull up a chair and join me for a Thanksgiving feast of Americana film scores.
None other than Aaron Copland wrote the music for a big screen adaptation of Thorton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning play “Our Town.” The composer was at the height of his “populist” period. “El Salón México” and “Billy the Kid” had already been written, and “Fanfare for the Common Man,” “Lincoln Portrait,” “Rodeo” and “Appalachian Spring” would follow within just a few years. Clearly, there was no better choice in capturing the essence of small-town America.
The concert version of “Our Town” has been in circulation for decades, but it was only in 2011 that a complete recording of the score was made available, briefly, as a digital download.
Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire star in “Friendly Persuasion” (1956), based on the novel by Jessamyn West. The film’s portrayal of family and the resolution of moral conflict, as pacifist Quakers deal with issues both big and small – from the American Civil War, to the introduction of a “sinful” musical instrument into the household – make “Friendly Persuasion,” in my opinion, a good choice for this time of year.
The film was up for six Oscars, with Dimitri Tiomkin’s score nominated twice. The title song went on to become the popular hit “Thee I Love.” Only Dimitri Tiomkin would use balalaikas to depict Quaker life!
“Witness” (1985) may seem like an unusual choice for Thanksgiving, with its themes of police corruption and violence, but when honest cop Harrison Ford goes on the lam, he experiences the “plain” lifestyle of a close-knit Amish community. The highlight of Maurice Jarre’s score is a sequence called “Building the Barn,” in which the community comes together to raise a barn for a newly married couple.
Finally, we’ll hear selections from “Plymouth Adventure” (1952), with its depictions of William Bradford, John Alden, Miles Standish and Priscilla Mullins. Spencer Tracy stars as the cynical captain of The Mayflower, Gene Tierney is his forbidden love interest, Van Johnson appears as Alden, and Lloyd Bridges is the first mate.
The music is by Miklós Rózsa, who already, at this stage of his career, was MGM’s go-to composer for historical drama. Seven years later, Rózsa would take home his third Academy Award for his classic score to “Ben-Hur.”
It’s never too early to give thanks. There’s not a turkey among them, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!
Martha Scott and William Holden in “Our Town” (1940)
Classic Ross Amico has now exceeded 600 followers. Thanks to everyone for being there for my daily screeds!
Today is the birthday of Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859-1935), and I’ve got Georgia on my mind.
A pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Ippolitov-Ivanov made his name as a musical spokesperson for the Caucasus. He spent his formative creative years in Georgia, as director of the music academy and conductor of the orchestra in Tblisi. Though he would return to Russia to become a professor at – and eventually director of – the Moscow Conservatory, as a well as a prominent conductor of the Russian Choral Society and at Bolshoi Theatre, clearly the music of Georgia had become deeply ingrained. He returned to Georgia in 1924 to reorganize the Tblisi Conservatory. His compositional output includes works on Georgian, Armenian, and Turkish themes.
Of course, his best-known piece is the “Procession of the Sardar,” from his “Caucasian Sketches.” It climaxes the Suite No. 1, which can be heard here:
A composer born in Georgian of whose works I am particularly fond is Zakaria Paliashvili (1871-1933). Regarded as the Father of Georgian Music, Paliashvili studied composition at the Moscow Conservatory under Sergei Taneyev (a pupil of Tchaikovsky). He then returned home to collect folk songs, co-found the Georgian Philharmonic Society, and head the Tblisi Conservatory.
I discovered Paliashvili’s music online, probably close to 20 years ago, when I stumbled across a Georgian website that was selling CD-Rs of his operas. The posted excerpts from “Abeselom and Eteri” were especially gorgeous. Apparently, Deutsche Grammophon issued a recording on LP, back in the 1970s. Alas, it’s now long out of print.
For a long time, I hedged about sharing my credit card number with an unknown merchant in Georgia, but finally a few years ago, with no Paliashvili evidently forthcoming, I figured what the hell. I ordered all the available operas and managed to get one of them on the air, back when I was filling in for Sandy Steiglitz on her Sunday Morning Opera show on Princeton’s WPRB 103.3 FM.
I also managed to get my hands on a copy of Paliashvili’s “Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom,” on the Olympia label, and played that on “The Lost Chord” on WWFM – The Classical Network a number of years ago.
A quick search on YouTube reveals a nice sampling of Paliashvili’s music, including this highlight from “Abeselom and Eteri”
By Georgia, here’s the whole thing!
And a staged performance from 2016
His opera “Daisi”
“Elegy” for piano
“Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom”
Ah, internet, I knew you were good for something.
PHOTOS: Gorgeous Georgians Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (honorary, left) and Zakaria Paliashvili
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