Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Morricone’s Olympic Anthem Italy or Princeton

Allegedly, Ennio Morricone has stated that he will write a new Olympic anthem, but only if Milan is selected as host for the 2026 Winter Games.

If Princeton is selected, I will write the anthem, and for half the fee.

Ennio Morricone will write Olympics anthem – if Italy wins

May 16, 2019
Beethoven Birthday Bash on Music from Marlboro

I’m staring at a pile of musical birthday gifts for Claudio Monteverdi, Michael Balfe, Nikolai Tcherepnin, Lars-Erik Larsson, Arthur Berger, and John Lanchbery. That’s an awful lot of wrapping for any classical music host. I hope you’ll be on hand to reap the benefits, as I’ll be jumping out of a cake repeatedly from 4 to 6 p.m. EDT.

Then, at the end of a long day of picking scotch tape off my fingers, there really is only one remedy. On this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” it will be an all-Beethoven affair.

Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97, known as the “Archduke,” was one of 14 works the composer wrote for his friend and patron Archduke Rudolf of Austria. Rudolf, an amateur pianist, was the youngest child of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II.

Beethoven himself appeared at the keyboard at the work’s premiere in 1814. His encroaching deafness so diminished his former prowess as a performer that he retired from concertizing after a repeat performance a few weeks later. The violinist and composer Louis Spohr summed up the discomfiture and pity felt by those in attendance, by stating, “I am deeply saddened by so hard a fate.”

The music remains unbowed. Today, the “Archduke” Trio is as noble and inspiring as ever.

We’ll hear it performed at the 2006 Marlboro Music Festival by pianist and Marlboro co-artistic director Mitsuko Uchida, violinist Soovin Kim, and cellist David Soyer of the legendary Guarneri Quartet.

Also on the program will be a performance of Beethoven’s “Three Marches for Piano Four Hands,” a remarkable collaboration between an 87 year-old Mieczyslaw Horszowski and an 18 year-old Cecile Licad.

There are plenty of gifted composers, but it’s hard to beat Beethoven. Beethoven takes the cake, on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

Beethoven, ready to celebrate his unbirthday

May 15, 2019
Remembering Flutist Robert Stallman

I’m very sorry to learn of the death of my friend, the flutist Robert Stallman. Bob was one of several artists I got to know while living in Philadelphia, as a proprietor of an antiquarian book business. I scored big points by being able to identify him (“…like the flutist?”) by his name on his credit card.

Bob and I palled around and ate a lot of lunches together. He was always neck-deep in some project or other, producing his own CDs and creating arrangements of the works of his beloved Mozart and Schubert. These went beyond mere transcriptions. They involved all sorts of creative decisions, and Bob inevitably arrived at polished and ingenious solutions to every kind of puzzle.

I absolutely recommend his recording of Mozart “New” Quintets for Flute and Strings, on his own label, Bogner’s Café.

Stallman studied with Jean-Pierre Rampal, recorded with Placido Domingo, and championed the music of his friend, the English composer Stephen Dodgson. In addition, he gave first performances of works by John Harbison, Karel Husa, William Thomas McKinley, and Burr Van Nostrand, among others.

He was crazy about music, of course, but he was also fond of literature and good food. His apartment walls were adorned by letters and autographs of the great composers, which he collected.

We started to drift apart after he and his wife, Hannah, moved to Massachusetts, maybe four or five years ago. We did do a telephone interview over the air in 2015. Prior to that, he was my guest several times on “The Lost Chord.”

Bob was 73 years-old. I will always remember him as cheerful, garrulous, and boundlessly enthusiastic. Often, he seemed almost boyish. He was certainly far younger than his years.

I’ll honor Bob with one of his recordings, following Otto Klemperer’s performance of Beethoven’s “Miss Solemnis” – which is to say around 3:40 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

http://www.aboutrobertstallman.com/

May 14, 2019
Klemperer A Monumental Life in Music

Otto Klemperer was as monumental as his music-making. At 6 foot 5, he wore a look of granitic intensity. Seat him in front of a camera, and he assumed the gaze of a raptor staring down a field mouse.

An associate, friend, and disciple of Gustav Mahler, Klemperer championed new works by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Hindemith. He tolerated no coughing or sneezing from his audience. When the New York Philharmonic failed to offer him a music directorship after 14 weeks as guest conductor, he fired off a scathing missive: “That the society did not reengage me is the strongest offense, the sharpest insult to me as artist, which I can imagine… This non-reengagement will have very bad results not only… in New York but in the whole world.” He settled in London, where a new orchestra, the Philharmonia, was created specifically for him.

Klemperer’s power of indestructibility is legendary. No one and nothing could stop him. Not Hitler, not the U.S. State Department (that refused to renew his visa), not even a brain tumor. He made Rasputin look like a mayfly.

His catalogue of misfortunes would have destroyed a lesser man. He suffered from severe cyclothymic bipolar disorder. He underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor “the size of a small orange.” When placed in an institution, he escaped. Later, he took a severe spill, requiring him to conduct from a chair. When he set himself on fire (while smoking in bed), he tried to douse the flames with spirits of camphor.

I’m not sure what kind of woman would have the courage to get near him, but he managed to sire Werner Klemperer (a.k.a. Colonel Klink). On one occasion, Georg Solti knocked at the door of his dressing room, and when Klemperer answered, he was in his boxers and covered in lipstick.

Klemperer’s career was capped by a glorious Indian summer that spanned 20 years. This juggernaut of the podium finally ground to halt at the age 88.

Like the man, his recordings are built to last. We’ll celebrate one of the 20th century’s greatest conductors with a few of them, on his birthday.

First, on today’s Noontime Concert, it’s a double-dollop of Baroque music courtesy of Gotham Early Music Scene, or GEMS. Dan McCarthy, Baroque viola, and Dongsok Shin, harpsichord, will perform music by Johann Gottlieb Graun, from a program titled “The Emergent Viola.” Then Vox Aquarum will offer “Anthems and Devotions by Henry Purcell.”

These performances were captured at GEMS’ Midtown Concerts series, held at the chapel of St. Bartholomew’s Church, 325 Park Avenue, in New York City. Free concerts take place at St. Bart’s on Thursdays at 1:15 p.m. For more information, visit GEMS’ website, gemsny.org, and click on the events calendar.

We’ll be verklempt for Klemp – and partial to Purcell – from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 14, 2019
Doris Day Dies at 97 Animal Lover RIP

Doris Day died this morning at the age of 97. She liked animals better than people. Me too. R.I.P.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/13/entertainment/doris-day-dead/index.html

May 13, 2019

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