Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Dominick Argento A Remembrance

American composer Dominick Argento died on February 20 at the age of 91. Acclaimed particularly for his vocal works, Argento was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his song cycle, “From the Diary of Virginia Woolf,” in 1975. This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” I’ll offer a remembrance of the man and his achievements.

Argento was born in York, PA, to Sicilian immigrant parents, who were inn-keepers and restaurateurs. However, it was in the Twin Cities that he would flourish. He became a professor of music at the University of Minnesota and one of the founders of what is now Minnesota Opera.

He was recognized as a master of modern opera, the most significant American operatic composer between Gian Carlo Menotti in the 1950s and Philip Glass in the 1970s. His success is all the more remarkable, considering Argento spent virtually his entire career very far away from the artistic centers on either coast.

Largely self-taught as a child, he was accepted into the Peabody Conservatory, after service in WWII. There, among his teachers, were Nicolas Nabokov and Hugo Weisgall. Later, he continued his studies with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence. Howard Hanson, Bernard Rogers, and Alan Hovhaness were also important mentors. Argento received his doctorate from the Eastman School in 1958. He then moved to Minneapolis, where he lived for the next six decades, summering in Florence with his wife, the soprano Carolyn Bailey.

In Minneapolis, he worked closely with the newly-formed Guthrie Theatre. His local successes attracted national nation and led to commissions from major opera houses from all over the country. His song cycles were championed by some of the great singers, including Frederica von Stade, Janet Baker, and Håkon Hågegard. “Casa Guidi,” a song cycle on texts of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, was recorded by Von Stade and received a Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

Beginning in the early ‘70s, Argento also devoted himself to choral music, in large part because of his association with Philip Brunelle and the Plymouth Music Series of Minneapolis’ Plymouth Congregational Church.

In common with Benjamin Britten, Argento’s musical language could be, on occasion, a little quirky, yet always he strove for accessibility. Among his own students were Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus.

We’ll hear music from one of his 14 operas, “The Dream of Valentino,” from 1993. Accordionist William Schimmel will strut and slither in “Valentino Dances.”

That will be followed by “Six Elizabethan Songs” from 1958. Originally scored for voice and piano, it was subsequently arranged by the composer in 1962 for voice and Baroque ensemble. The added colors of flute, oboe, violin, cello, and harpsichord lend the work a kind of refracted authenticity, conjuring a loosely apposite sound world to the individual texts by Thomas Nash, Samuel Daniel, William Shakespeare, Henry Constable, and Ben Johnson. The performance will be by Patrice Michaels and the Rembrandt Chamber Players.

Finally, Argento was composer laureate of the Minnesota Orchestra, having been commissioned to write no less than seven works for the ensemble. We’ll hear “A Ring of Time,” conceived for the 1972-73 season, the orchestra’s 70th anniversary. Argento considers different measurements of the passage of time – the seasons of the year and the times of the day – in the work’s four movements: “Spring,” “Summer,” “Fall,” and “Winter.” The Minnesota Orchestra will be conducted by Eiji Oue.

Time has passed for Domenick Argento. I hope you’ll join me for an hour of musical remembrances on “Argento Mementos,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 3, 2019
Remembering André Previn a Musical Giant

It’s been impressive and heartwarming to observe the outpouring of affection for André Previn the past couple of days. Previn, of course, died on Thursday at the age of 89.

A fabulous and frequently stunning musician, he was not only a top conductor, but also a fine pianist – fluent in both the classical and jazz worlds – a talented composer, totally without pretense, a crackerjack writer of film scores and musical arrangements, an author, an entertaining raconteur, and a sly wit. He was a true Renaissance man, like Leonard Bernstein, though he tended to play his cards a little closer to the vest. His love life could be a little over the top – he was married five times – and who knows, if he had come up in the age of Twitter, maybe he would have taken more of a beating.

Previn never achieved the level of public adulation that Lenny did, which is why the tsunami of love from all quarters kind of comes as a surprise to me. A pleasant surprise, granted. Criticisms of some of his musical performances were akin to damning with faint praise. On the other hand, when he was on, he was really on. The man could conduct the tar out of Rachmaninoff, Vaughan Williams, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and William Walton, and he could surprise in his easy mastery of composers such as Richard Strauss.

I was lucky enough to see him conduct live twice. In 1995, he led a luminous performance of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 5, with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, which he recorded with the ensemble shortly thereafter. As is generally the case – Curtis is one of the top conservatories in the world – the students played like gods.

Later, I saw him lead the Philadelphia Orchestra, in 2009. On the program was Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 and Strauss’ “Symphonia Domestica.” It was a shock to realize at that point that Previn was 80, and it was with concern that I watched as he stepped with evident care onto the stage, as if he were living the famous Danny Kaye routine. It was painful to see, and one of those instances where you wonder if the conductor is even going to make it to the podium.

The Mozart may not have been transcendent, but it was still a joy to hear him play (he conducted from the keyboard), even if some of the facility was diminished; but the Strauss, which he conducted from a chair, was as assured as it had been when he made his knock-out recordings of the complete tone poems with the Vienna Philharmonic.

I was also fortunate enough to interact with him twice. The first time was wholly by chance. It was in the early ‘90s, a day like any other day, and I walked out of my apartment building in Philadelphia to encounter André Previn passing on the street. Startled, I said the first thing that popped into my head – which was, I am embarrassed to report, “Maestro! Good to see you!” To which he replied with a wry smile, “Good to see you, too.”

It was on 18th Street, below Spruce. He was heading south into a residential neighborhood, where he must have been staying, because at the time there was nothing else in that direction. Of course, I lived a block and half from the Curtis Institute.

The second time was an actual conversation, in which we got to talk music. It was in the late ‘90s or early 2000s, and Previn was engaged in recording a couple of Korngold albums. I know it was after he did the symphony, but it may have been before he recorded the film scores, both for Deutsche Grammophon. He remarked that he would love to record the complete “Die tote Stadt” with Renée Fleming, but it was a matter of getting their schedules to mesh. Can you imagine? Unfortunately, it never came to pass. I also asked him why he didn’t include the overture in his otherwise fine recording of Korngold’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” His answer, again with that smile: “I didn’t know there was an overture!”

Because of the timing of his death, it’s been hard to engineer a proper tribute, but I will be working Previn’s recordings into my air shifts over the coming week. So you’ll have a good chance of encountering his artistry if you tune in on Monday from 4 to 7 p.m., Tuesday from 1 to 4 p.m., and Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m. In fact, I am planning to make the playlist on Tuesday all-Previn, encompassing his talents as conductor, pianist, and composer.

On Friday at 6 p.m., “Picture Perfect” will focus on his work in the film industry. He was involved with 50 movies, and on top of everything else won four Oscars.

Then next Sunday night, February 10, on “The Lost Chord,” I’ll present an hour of his original concert music, at 10 p.m.

All times are EST, and all shows can be heard on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

Finally, Patrick Jonathan reminded me of this classic Morecambe and Wise sketch with “Mr. Preview” conducting the Grieg Piano Concerto. As an American, it is my only exposure to Morecambe and Wise, but it has the reputation of being the ne plus ultra of the team’s career.

March 2, 2019
Chopin Brouwer Saint David and Previn on WWFM

There’s so much going on, and I’ve got only two hours to touch on everything today on The Classical Network!

To begin with, March 1 is the anniversary of the birth of Frederic Chopin. You can’t ignore that. It’s also the 80th birthday of Cuban composer and guitarist Leo Brouwer. AND it’s the feast day of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales.

And let me express my regret right away to any of you of Welsh descent: I had fully intended to do a “Picture Perfect” (this evening at 6:00) made up entirely of music from movies set in Wales. However, because of some last-minute editing issues – I had not anticipated having to jettison half of my recorded script for this week’s edition of “The Lost Chord” on account of having chosen way too much music for my memorial to the late Dominick Argento (to air Sunday at 10:00 p.m.) – I am falling back on an encore broadcast of PP from three years ago.

It’s still a good show (“Behind-the-Scenes Hollywood”), and timely, as it runs so close upon the heels of Oscar. Listen in for music by Franz Waxman (“Sunset Boulevard”), David Raksin (“The Bad and the Beautiful”), Dominic Frontiere (“The Stunt Man”), and Ludovic Bource (“The Artist”).

In the meantime, I will do my best to include a few works by Welsh composers, between 4 and 6 p.m. It is also, after all, the birthday of the Welsh harpist John Thomas.

And of course, we lost André Previn yesterday. It pains me to have to postpone a proper memorial – he was such a superb and versatile musician – but you can tune in next week for all-Previn playlists on both “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord.” In the meantime, Previn will be represented on every one of my weekday air shifts, including this afternoon’s.

I’ll do the best that I can, with my abbreviated Friday, from 4 to 6 p.m. EST. Don’t forget, “Picture Perfect” is on the way at 6! My weekend will be well-earned today, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 1, 2019
Philly Inquirer’s Feline Future

This cat definitely has a future with the Philadelphia Inquirer.

February 28, 2019
Mendelssohn & Reger: Bridging Worlds at Marlboro

On this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” we’ll have music by two undersold composers who seemed trapped between two worlds.

While Felix Mendelssohn and Max Reger were very much figures of their respective times, they both found abundant inspiration in music of the past, frequently the distant past. In addition, they often gave the impression of being just a little tentative when it came to exploring musical trends of the present.

Common to both was an overarching respect for the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. It was Mendelssohn, of course, who at the age of 20 would engineer the first modern performance of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion.”

Reger composed a lot of fugues and sets of variations, fancying himself the heir of Beethoven and Brahms; but also, in his own gargantuan, overbaked way, modeling himself on the Baroque’s most outstanding genius.

Though both Mendelssohn and Reger subsumed romantic characteristics into their music, neither did so at the expense of traditional forms. There are exceptions to every rule, as they say, but generally speaking Mendelssohn’s more emotional utterances seemed to flow most convincingly in the works of his early maturity.

When he came to write his String Quartet in A minor, it was not Bach but Beethoven who was foremost in his thoughts. The composer was 18 years-old at the time of Beethoven’s death in 1827. He was clearly intoxicated by the Master’s late quartets, which had only recently been published.

Though certainly influenced by Beethoven, Mendelssohn’s own essay in the form is quite at odds with the introspection of Beethoven’s Op. 135. In contrast, he infuses his own quartet’s Classical structure with a passionate Romanticism. That the synthesis would be so successful is hardly surprising from a teenaged marvel who, within the last two years, had already written an astonishing Octet for Strings and the overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” In his quartet, Mendelssohn also explores the possibilities of cyclic form more exhaustively than just about any other composer before César Franck.

We’ll hear the Quartet in A minor performed at the 1995 Marlboro Music Festival by violinists Lisa-Beth Lambert and Hiroko Yajima, violist Annemarie Moorcroft, and cellist Sophie Shao.

There are times when Reger’s music can be beyond rigorous. In fact, it might be better termed “Regerous.” Perhaps the craziest exemplar of vertiginous Teutonic counterpoint, he could write organ music of such density that the individual voices get lost in a tangle, deep inside a knot, somewhere in an impenetrable thicket.

However, on two pianos, it all seems to make sense. The program will begin with a 1977 performance of Reger’s “Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue,” Op, 96, performed by Marlboro stalwart Luis Batlle and a 19 year-old Yefim Bronfman.

Were they born too late, or merely uneasy with the more progressive impulses of their times? Quiet your head and enjoy the music. I hope you’ll join me for works by Reger and Mendelssohn on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

February 27, 2019

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