Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Magnificent Ambersons Lost Cut Found?

If this project is successful, it will be the most exciting cinematic discovery since the complete “Metropolis” was uncovered in Buenos Aires in 2008. Then maybe Orson Welles and Robert Wise will be reconciled in heaven.

After shooting wrapped for “The Magnificent Ambersons” in 1942, Welles took off for Rio de Janeiro to begin work on his next project, entrusting Wise, his editor, to carry his plans to fruition – which he dutifully did. However, following a disastrous preview screening, Wise suddenly found himself in an awkward position. RKO ordered him back into the editing booth to reconfigure Welles’ original blueprint, this time under hardnosed studio supervision. Furthermore, he was instructed to shoot a new ending. Needless to say, Welles and Wise, both nominated for Academy Awards for “Citizen Kane” (Welles won, with Herman Mankiewicz, for his screenplay), would never work together again.

In all, 43 minutes of footage were cut from “The Magnificent Ambersons” and melted down for nitrate during World War II, dashing any hope that the film might be restored to its original version.

Until now.

Could we actually see “The Magnificent Ambersons” in the form Welles originally intended?

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April 13, 2021
Unexpectedly Beastly Radio WWFM

If you tuned in to “The Lost Chord” tonight expecting the Bulgarian program, unfortunately there’s been a mix-up, so instead we’re hearing “A Feast of Beast,” a fairy tale program I had earmarked for Mother’s Day. Enjoy selections from Georges Auric’s film score for Jean Cocteau’s “La Belle et la Bête” and a suite from Robert Moran’s opera “Desert of Roses,” airing now, from 10 to 11 pm EDT on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 12, 2021
Bulgarian Music This Sunday Vladigerov & Bermel

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’re off to Bulgaria.

Pancho Vladigerov – despite his Mexican-sounding first name and Swiss birth – was a seminal figure in Bulgarian music. He was the country’s first major composer to harness Bulgarian folk traditions to classical forms.

Fairly well known in Central Europe during the 1920s, when he was an associate of the theatrical impresario Max Reinhardt, Vladigerov had many of his works published by Universal Edition and recorded by Deutsche Grammophon. He was a composer of opera, ballet, symphonic music, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, chamber music, songs, choral works, and piano pieces.

Tonight, we’ll hear a generous selection from Vladigerov’s “Bulgarian Dances” of 1931.

Also on the program will be American composer Derek Bermel’s affectionate souvenir of his studies in the region, “Thracian Echoes” of 2002. Bermel served as artist-in-residence at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study from 2009 to 2013. His “Thracian Echoes” was performed locally by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in 2011.

There will be no balking in the Balkans. Skim the cream of Bulgarian music, on “Bulgar Wheat,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 11, 2021
Local Music Events to Brighten a Rainy Day

Looking for a little musical cheer on a rainy Sunday? Here are four musical events with local connections to enjoy.

The Bucks County-based ensemble La Fiocco – directed by Dr. Lewis Baratz, host of WWFM’s “Well-Tempered Baroque” – will host Early Music keyboard virtuoso Corina Marti. Marti will perform on a reconstruction of a hand-pumped portative organ, the clavisimbalum, and an early 16th century-type harpsichord. The program will include works by Francesco Landini, istampittas from anonymous English, Italian, and French sources, intabulations from the 15th century Faenza Codex, and pieces from the 16th century Amerbach Codex. The concert will be streamed from the neo-Romanesque St. Marienkirche in Basel, Switzerland. LINKS TO THE CONCERT AND ZOOM RECEPTION WILL BE SENT PRIOR TO THE PERFORMANCE, so if you’re interested, register ASAP! The concert will debut this afternoon at 3:00 EDT, and will be available on-demand through 4/17. For more information, visit lafiocco.org.

During an ordinary, Covid-free season, La Fiocco would be performing at 1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, in Ewing, NJ, or at Trinity Episcopal Church, Solebury, PA (near New Hope). Another ensemble that makes Solebury its home is Concordia Chamber Players. The ensemble’s artistic director, cellist Michelle Djokic, will be joined by violinist Siwoo Kim and violist Milena Pajaro-vande Stadt, in a concert filmed at ArtYard in Frenchtown, NJ. On the program will be works by Carlos Simon, Milad Yousufi, Igor Stravinsky, Johann Sebastian Bach, Zoltan Kodaly, Erno Dohnanyi, and Georges Enescu. The video will premiere at 5:00 EDT, and remain posted for your viewing and listening pleasure, at concordiaplayers.org.

On Friday, Princeton composer Julian Grant’s latest, a vocal chamber music work/pocket opera on the subject of a Russian folk tale, received its world premiere, courtesy of Harvard Musical Association. Grant’s “Salt” forms the centerpiece of a concert by Emmanuel Music that also includes plenty of Beethoven: selections from his Scottish and Irish folksongs, the song cycle “An die ferne Geliebte” (“To the Distant Beloved”), and the Presto movement from the Piano Trio, Op. 1, No. 1. The video is now posted. Grant’s piece begins about 48 minutes in, but, by all means, start at the beginning of the concert and enjoy the entire program! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCTXlzq_6Zk

Finally, if you’re in need of a lift, Princeton Symphony Orchestra brass provide a surge of hope and nobility via Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” The performance was recorded in Princeton’s Palmer Square. Watch it now, and turn that frown upside down, at princetonsymphony.org.

April 11, 2021
Restoration Cinema Beauty Patches and Film Scores

Beauty patches are back!

This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of lace and licentiousness, with music from movies set during the reign of Charles II.

“Restoration” (1995) features quite the cast, with a pre-“Iron Man” Robert Downey, Jr. as a young doctor torn between duty and debauchery. He succumbs to the latter at the court of Charles, played by Sam Neill, before finding redemption as he battles the Great Plague and braves the Fire of London. The film also stars David Thewlis, Polly Walker, Meg Ryan, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Grant.

The main title of James Newtown Howard’s score takes its impetus from Henry Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen.” And indeed there are baroque inflections throughout.

George Sanders plays Charles in “The King’s Thief” (1955). Edmund Purdom is a highwayman who pilfers an incriminating book from David Niven. An aristocratic schemer, Niven will stop at nothing to get it back. The swashbuckling score is by Miklós Rózsa.

I don’t recall Charles making an appearance in “The Draughtsman’s Contract” (1982), Peter Greenaway’s saucy, though strangely aloof, Restoration opus. However, there is plenty of licentiousness and an abundance of outlandish wigs. And, it being a Greenaway film, it is certainly strange in more ways than one. Michael Nyman’s score puts a minimalist spin on baroque sources.

Finally, “Forever Amber” (1947) is based on a then-scandalous novel by Kathleen Winsor, about an ambitious young woman’s rise through the bedchambers of the Royal Court. The film was directed by Otto Preminger. Linda Darnell is Amber. Once again, George Sanders plays Charles, eight years before reprising the role for “The King’s Thief.” Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene, and Jessica Tandy are also in the cast. Philadelphia-born composer David Raksin, he of “Laura” fame, plays fast and loose with music of the era.

Bwoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! It’s so naughty! Everyone, giggle into your handkerchiefs and wear ribbons on your shoes. We’ll be powdering our faces and going heavy on the rouge, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 10, 2021

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