Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • Remembering Milne & de Leeuw on The Classical Network

    Remembering Milne & de Leeuw on The Classical Network

    Sadly, the past week has left us short of two fine musicians.

    Pianist Hamish Milne died on Wednesday at the age of 80, and conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw died on Valentine’s Day at 81.

    This afternoon on The Classical Network, we’ll celebrate both artists with selections from their recorded legacies.

    Milne will be represented by one of his many performances of Nikolai Medtner – a friend and contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff – whose music was something of a specialty. We’ll also hear Milne as soloist in a Romantic piano concerto, to be announced.

    De Leeuw will conduct Steve Reich’s “Tehillim,” vibrant settings of Hebrew Psalms. He’ll also sit down at the keyboard for a highly individual performance of Erik Satie’s “Gymnopédies.”

    First, on today’s Noontime Concert, Piffaro, The Renaissance Band will present a program titled “Burgundian Beginnings & Beyond,” a Franco-Flemish feast of instrumental works by Guillaume Dufay, Robert Morton, Antoine Busnois, Josquin des Prez, Pierre de la Rue, and Nicholas Gombert. Directors Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemken will join host David Osenberg for this Early Music concert at 12 p.m.

    I’ll be along around 1:40. Settle in for a heymish afternoon with Hamish Milne and “Tehillim,” from 2 to 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

  • Webcasts: Love Eternal & Educational Bonds

    Webcasts: Love Eternal & Educational Bonds

    Last weekend’s “Picture Perfect” (“Love Eternal”) and “The Lost Chord” (“Educational Bonds”) are now posted as webcasts. Follow the respective link (below) and click on the “Listen” button.

    “Love Eternal,” music from “Somewhere in Time” (John Barry), “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” (Bernard Herrmann), “Always” (John Williams), and “Wuthering Heights” (Alfred Newman):

    https://www.wwfm.org/post/picture-perfect-february-14-love-eternal

    “Educational Bonds,” selections by African-American composer Margaret Bonds and her teachers, Florence Price and William Levi Dawson:

    https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-january-16-educational-bonds

  • Presidents Day Music Potomac WWFM

    Presidents Day Music Potomac WWFM

    I hope you’ll join me in celebrating Presidents Day on this lovely Tuesday afternoon. I’ll been hurling CDs across the Potomac, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

  • Presidents Day Classical Music Special

    Presidents Day Classical Music Special

    Hail to the Chiefs!

    You’d better sail through those white sales. You’ll want to be near an electronic device at 4:00 today for my annual State of the Union on The Classical Network. I’ll be revving up the musical automatons at the Hall of Presidents for Presidents Day.

    We’ll hear works inspired by Thomas Jefferson, Chester A. Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and of course George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Of course, I already played an hour’s worth of music in celebration of Lincoln for his birthday (February 12), but our 16th president inspired more note-spinning than can be crammed into a stovepipe hat.

    If you’re looking to buy a roll of quarters, you may be out of luck, the banks are closed. But Washington will be well represented, in Virgil Thomson’s naïf ballet “Parson Weems and the Cherry Tree” (a Bicentennial commission), George Antheil’s rousing concert overture, “McKonkey’s Ferry (Washington at Trenton),” and John Lampkin’s “George Washington Slept Here.”

    Composer Victoria Bond wrote four portraits of presidential character, for narrator and instrumental soloist. These were released on her album, “Soul of a Nation,” on the Albany Records label. The title track incorporates a violin for Thomas Jefferson, “The Indispensable Man” a clarinet for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “The Crowded Hours” a trumpet for Theodore Roosevelt, and “Pater Patriae” a flute for George Washington. I’ll select one of these for airplay this afternoon.

    Peter Lieberson’s “Remembering JFK” was composed for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy inauguration. Its moving narration, compiled from the president’s own words, will be delivered by Richard Dreyfuss. Where have all the statesmen gone?

    And, as an added curiosity, Chester A. Arthur disliked “Hail to the Chief” so intensely that he asked John Philip Sousa to write a replacement anthem. We’ll find time for that, too.

    There may be no mail today, but we’ll sure sift through plenty of junk. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating Presidents Day, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

  • Hamish Milne Medtner Champion Dies

    Hamish Milne Medtner Champion Dies

    Sad day for fans of Nikolai Medtner. One of his great champions, Hamish Milne, has died.

    Medtner was a good friend of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Both artists emerged from the same piano class at the Moscow Conservatory. Rachmaninoff was a lifelong advocate of Medtner’s music. Though undeniably Rach was the more successful of the two, Medtner developed a reputation as something of a pianist’s pianist.

    In fact, Rachmaninoff believed wholeheartedly in his friend’s superior talent. He once described him as “the greatest composer of our time.” Rach dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 4 to Medtner. Medtner returned the kindness by dedicating his own Piano Concerto No. 2 to Rachmaninoff. He also provided emotional support for Rach during his frequent periods of self-doubt.

    Medtner made another important friend in Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Bahadur, twenty-fifth Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore. Bahadur founded a Medtner Society in London to record all of the composer’s works.

    Milne did his very best to carry on the tradition. A glance at his discography reveals an obvious preference for Medtner’s music. In addition, he recorded underplayed gems by Anatoly Alexandrov, William Sterndale Bennett, Ferruccio Busoni, Hermann Goetz, Sergei Lyapunov, Julius Reubke, Carl Maria von Weber, and Haydn Wood. He was the first pianist to set down a comprehensive survey of Medtner’s music since the composer’s own recordings, released all the way back in the 78 era.

    At the time of his death, Milne was 80 years-old.

    Medtner, Dithyramb, Op. 10, No. 2

    Piano Sonata in G minor:

    Interview with Melanie Spanswick:

Tag Cloud

Aaron Copland (94) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (152) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (107) John Williams (198) KWAX (233) Leonard Bernstein (105) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (167) Mozart (91) Opera (222) Philadelphia Orchestra (91) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (110) Radio (90) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (269) Vaughan Williams (107) WPRB (397) WWFM (881)

DON’T MISS A BEAT

Receive a weekly digest every Sunday at noon by signing up here

RECENT POSTS