Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Fredric March A Cinematic Mark Twain

Fredric March as Mark Twain? Well, it ain’t Hal Holbrook.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” the focus is on real-life writers as characters in the movies.

Good writers captivate so completely with their words, it’s easy to imagine that they must lead very colorful lives – all the more so when they are given the big screen treatment.

Music lends an extra dimension to the fictionalized Brontë sisters, in “Devotion” (Erich Wolfgang Korngold); Iris Murdoch, in “Iris” (James Horner); the Bard of Avon, in “Shakespeare in Love” (Stephen Warbeck); and Samuel Clemens, in “The Adventures of Mark Twain” (Max Steiner).

Writers are such characters, aren’t they? Join me for an hour of cinematic scribes. Everything’s writ large, this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

November 8, 2019
Herbert Chappell Dawn of the Dead Composer Dies

The composer and producer Herbert Chappell has died. Chappell had his fingers in a lot of pies. For television, he wrote music for “The Pallisers” and “Paddington Bear.” He also worked in feature films in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

He achieved a popular and critical success with his documentary “African Sanctus,” which follows composer David Fanshawe on his quest to write and record his most famous work. The piece juxtaposes the Latin Mass with traditional African music.

Without doubt, however, Chappell’s greatest coup was the deal he cut on behalf of Decca records for his production of the first “Three Tenors” telecast. No one, not even the tenors themselves, anticipated its staggering success. This led to some resentment on behalf of the artists, who had taken their cut upfront. (Luciano Pavarotti, a Decca artist, was able to renegotiate his contract for an additional $1.5 million.)

Let’s just say that Herbert Chappell was not your stereotypical starving artist.

To include in my “31 Days of Halloween” posts, I was hoping to locate an online audio file of Chappell’s “Boy Wizard,” an overture clearly inspired by Harry Potter. Instead, I came up with countless videos of “The Gonk,” which achieved cult status thanks to its use in George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead.”

More recently the music has been used to sell Newcastle Brown Ale:

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7I07/newcastle-brown-ale-great-times

Herbert Chappell was 85 years-old.

A more complete biography:

http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/short-bio/herbert-chappell

“The Gonk:”

A little more substantial, Chappell’s “Caribbean Concerto” for guitar and orchestra:

PHOTOS: (counterclockwise from top) Chappell, the Three Tenors, and three zombies

November 7, 2019
Herbert Chappell Dawn of the Dead Composer Dies

The composer and producer Herbert Chappell has died. Chappell had his fingers in a lot of pies. For television, he wrote music for “The Pallisers” and “Paddington Bear.” He also worked in feature films in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

He achieved a popular and critical success with his documentary “African Sanctus,” which follows composer David Fanshawe on his quest to write and record his most famous work. The piece juxtaposes the Latin Mass with traditional African music.

Without doubt, however, Chappell’s greatest coup was the deal he cut on behalf of Decca records for his production of the first “Three Tenors” telecast. No one, not even the tenors themselves, anticipated its staggering success. This led to some resentment on behalf of the artists, who had taken their cut upfront. (Luciano Pavarotti, a Decca artist, was able to renegotiate his contract for an additional $1.5 million.)

Let’s just say that Herbert Chappell was not your stereotypical starving artist.

To include in my “31 Days of Halloween” posts, I was hoping to locate an online audio file of Chappell’s “Boy Wizard,” an overture clearly inspired by Harry Potter. Instead, I came up with countless videos of “The Gonk,” which achieved cult status thanks to its use in George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead.”

More recently the music has been used to sell Newcastle Brown Ale:

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7I07/newcastle-brown-ale-great-times

Herbert Chappell was 85 years-old.

A more complete biography:

http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/short-bio/herbert-chappell

“The Gonk:”

A little more substantial, Chappell’s “Caribbean Concerto” for guitar and orchestra:

PHOTOS: (counterclockwise from top) Chappell, the Three Tenors, and three zombies

November 7, 2019
Herbert Chappell TV Music Legend Dead at 85

The composer and producer Herbert Chappell has died. Chappell had his fingers in a lot of pies. For television, he wrote music for “The Pallisers” and “Paddington Bear.” He also worked in feature films in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

He achieved a popular and critical success with his documentary “African Sanctus,” which follows composer David Fanshawe on his quest to write and record his most famous work. The piece juxtaposes the Latin Mass with traditional African music.

Without doubt, however, Chappell’s greatest coup was the deal he cut on behalf of Decca records for his production of the first “Three Tenors” telecast. No one, not even the tenors themselves, anticipated its staggering success. This led to some resentment on behalf of the artists, who had taken their cut upfront. (Luciano Pavarotti, a Decca artist, was able to renegotiate his contract for an additional $1.5 million.)

Let’s just say that Herbert Chappell was not your stereotypical starving artist.

To include in my “31 Days of Halloween” posts, I was hoping to locate an online audio file of Chappell’s “Boy Wizard,” an overture clearly inspired by Harry Potter. Instead, I came up with countless videos of “The Gonk,” which achieved cult status thanks to its use in George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead.”

More recently the music has been used to sell Newcastle Brown Ale:

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7I07/newcastle-brown-ale-great-times

Herbert Chappell was 85 years-old.

A more complete biography:

http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/short-bio/herbert-chappell

“The Gonk:”

A little more substantial, Chappell’s “Caribbean Concerto” for guitar and orchestra:

PHOTOS: (counterclockwise from top) Chappell, the Three Tenors, and three zombies

November 7, 2019
Victoria Bond Opera & Ives Recital on WWFM

I’ve got the engine purring on the Classic Ross Amico interview machine.

Join me this afternoon on The Classical Network for a chat with composer Victoria Bond. Bond’s new opera, “Clara,” inspired by the life of Clara Schumann, will be performed at Symphony Space in New York City, this Friday at 7 p.m. A second performance will follow in Rhinebeck, NY, on Sunday at 3.

I’ll talk with Bond at 4:00 today. We’ll get to hear a selection from the opera, as well as music from her latest release, “Instruments of Revelation,” on the Naxos label.

Then at 5:00, violinist Stefan Jackiw will tell us about his exciting Ives recital, with pianist Jeremy Denk, that will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium tomorrow night at 8. The program will include not only all four violin sonatas of Charles Ives, but also demonstrations – with the help of Princeton University Glee Club – of some of the hymns, songs and marches to which the composer alludes.

Following our conversation, we’ll get to hear Jackiw and pianist Max Levinson perform, on their album of the complete Brahms’ violin sonatas, issued on Sony Classical.

At 6:00, it’s “Music from Marlboro,” and a salute to pianist Mieczyslaw Horszowski. We’ll hear performances of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Ildebrando Pizzetti, captured at the legendary Marlboro Music Festival.

Along the way, we’ll also celebrate Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone, and march king John Philip Sousa on their birthdays.

Experience music from Bach to Bond, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

November 6, 2019

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