Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

1991 One Meridian Fire Then and Now Beards

On the night of February 23, 1991, One Meridian Plaza, a high-rise office building located in Center City Philadelphia, burst into flame. It was a serious fire. Lives were lost.

At the time, I was working as a humble clerk at Barnes & Noble, located on Chestnut near Broad, essentially right across the street. When I arrived on Sunday morning, Chestnut was blocked, since it was close enough that debris, and indeed the building itself, could have tumbled down onto the store front. I remember spending the morning over at the Philadelphia Art Museum (back in the days of free admission, Sundays until 1 p.m.), I stood on the steps, immortalized by “Rocky,” watching the smoke billow into the sky.

By Monday, a new work strategy was in place: employees were to go around the back of the bookstore and pound on the fire door (located on Sansom, across from the Union League), to be let into the basement to help out with receiving.

There, we all cheerfully went to seed. Much coffee was consumed, and the menfolk all started in on their solidarity beards. After a week or two, a good friend of mine took a look at me and commented, “Man… that beard makes you look like nobody famous.”

Two weeks into self-isolation, I am now working on my Corona beard, and again, I’m looking like nobody famous. Here are a few photos of some well-known composers who thankfully outgrew their flirtations with facial hair.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Bearded Mahler, Bernstein, Bartók, and Ravel

March 28, 2020
“On a Positive Note” Airs Earlier

So as not to conflict with “Picture Perfect,” Rachel Katz has adjusted the afternoon start time of her new segment, “On a Positive Note.” “On a Positive Note,” which made its debut yesterday, is a daily six-minute segment spotlighting musicians who are sharing their music and lifting spirits as we “shelter in place.” The segment will now air on weekdays at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. EDT. A positive solution! Listen today on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org. (“Picture Perfect” begins at 6.)

March 27, 2020
Music Never Sleeps NYC 24-Hour Marathon

Better brew yourself some strong coffee. Even at the worst of times, the city never sleeps.

Cellist Jan Vogler has solicited commitments from dozens of his musician friends and colleagues, all stir crazy and eager to share, to participate in a 24-hour marathon, “Music Never Sleeps.”

Performers will include Joshua Bell, Jeremy Denk, Bela Fleck, Jennifer Koh, Midori, Nico Muhly, Gil Shaham, Orli Shaham, Chris Thile, Brooklyn Rider, The Knights, Sandbox Percussion, Time for Three, and many others. Charitable causes will be announced, and viewers will be encouraged to contribute, if they can, to the well-being of New York City’s artists. Social distancing will be strictly observed.

The marathon will be live streamed on Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms, beginning tonight at 6 p.m. You’ll find more information at musicneversleepsnyc.com.

March 27, 2020
Hemingway’s Hollywood: Scores for Classic Film Adaptations

This week on “Picture Perfect,” as I continue to cultivate my Corona beard, we’ll get in touch with our masculine side, with music from movies inspired by the writings of Ernest Hemingway.

Seemingly at odds with Hemingway’s minimalist, “iceberg” style, big screen adaptations of the writer’s work show what the stories don’t tell. In the case of “The Killers” (1946), the screenwriters, unapologetically, just made stuff up, an entire back story explaining the motivations for the hit of boxer “Swede” Anderson. Fortunately, those screenwriters happened to include an uncredited John Huston, who virtually codified noir with “The Maltese Falcon.”

“The Killers” provided Burt Lancaster with his break-out role. It also features a knock-out score by Miklós Rózsa, in which he uses the dum-dee-dum-dum motto later made famous by the television series “Dragnet.”

George C. Scott reunited with his “Patton” director, Franklin J. Schaffner, for an adaptation of Hemingway’s posthumously published novel, “Islands in the Stream” (1977). Scott gives one of his best performances as a Hemingway-like figure living on a Caribbean island. “Patton” composer Jerry Goldsmith wrote the music. Goldsmith spoke of it often as his favorite score.

Hemingway himself handpicked the leads for “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (1943), with Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman falling in love against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. The music was written by the prolific and versatile Victor Young.

Finally, Spencer Tracy is the whole show, as he faces off against a large marlin, in the “The Old Man and the Sea” (1958). Dimitri Tiomkin’s music earned him his fourth Academy Award.

I hope you’ll join me for an hour of laconic grace and stoic manliness on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies. Everyone, come to Papa, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner – infinitely more attractive than my Corona beard

March 27, 2020
Pierre Boulez Celebrates 95th Birthday

In his early days, he was the enfant terrible who railed against tradition and even called for the violent destruction of the opera houses. Later, he grew into a revered conductor of Debussy, Stravinsky, Bartók, and even Bruckner. He was music director of the New York Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony, and the Ensemble Intercontemporain – a group he founded – and guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, and many others.

Today is the birthday of Pierre Boulez. Boulez would have been 95 today. He died in 2016.

Here is one of his most famous works, “Le Marteau sans Maître” – “The Hammer without a Master” – settings of surrealist poems by René Char, perhaps most easily digested in live performance. You’ll find translations of the texts posted beneath the video:

Boulez on Boulez:

Boulez conducts Bruckner:

PHOTO: The Hammer finds its Master

March 26, 2020

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