Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Classical Music Surprise WWFM This Thursday

Surprise!

I’ll be filling in for David Osenberg this Thursday afternoon on The Classical Network, which means we’ll have three more hours together in which to enjoy some of our personal favorites.

These are pieces drawn from the 88 playlists submitted for last week’s “Play It Again” membership campaign. Naturally, we couldn’t get to everything – we still won’t – but maybe some of your favorites will turn up alongside those of other WWFM listeners. Of course, we hope that we strike upon some of your favorites every day of the year and perhaps introduce you to some new ones.

Your contributions have allowed us to discover new worlds and share music of fantastic beauty for the past 35. If you donated last week or at any time over the last twelve months (or, for that matter, within the entire existence of the station), you’re the best. If you have not donated, please consider doing so. It may seem like a bottomless pit, but if we’re to think of it that way, so is food shopping, a trip to the gas station, or putting a new roof on the house. And those things aren’t even fun! If not for the generosity of listeners like you, there would be no WWFM. I offer this as a gentle reminder that your contributions are always gratefully accepted at wwfm.org.

We’ll begin today by sampling the artistry of LaShir, the Jewish Community Choir of Princeton. The choir’s director, Marsha Bryan Edelman, will be along to tell us all about the history of the organization – the oldest Jewish choir in Central Jersey that does not serve the liturgical needs of a synagogue – and its upcoming spring concert, which will take place at Westminster Choir College’s Hillman Hall this Sunday at 2 p.m. The program, which will be made up of repertoire sung in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, and English, will be offered free and open to the public.

In addition, we’ll be sure to celebrate the birthdays today of two fabulous conductors, George Szell and Neeme Järvi. I venture to guess there will be a little something for everyone, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

June 7, 2018
Mendelssohn Genius at 16 Marlboro Music Fest

What were you doing when you were 16 years old? If you were Felix Mendelssohn, you would have been composing one of the most astonishing works in the repertoire. And the year after that you would go on to write an equally impressive overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings in E-flat is the work that established him as music’s foremost preternatural genius. Hear a 1960 performance from the legendary Marlboro Music Festival, featuring violinists Jaime Laredo, Alexander Schneider, Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley, violists Michael Tree and Samuel Rhodes, and cellists Leslie Parnas and David Soyer. Holy smokes! In case you didn’t notice, the personnel includes the entire Guarneri String Quartet, technically founded at Marlboro four years later, and then some.

The piece was chosen as another one of our listener favorites. I’ll be continuing to mop up some of last week’s playlists compiled for our “Play It Again” membership campaign, along with some thoughtful choices to commemorate the anniversaries of D-Day and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. The fundraiser may be over, but, by all means, if you feel moved to support us, you may do so at any time at wwfm.org.

The favorites continue at 4:00 EDT; “Music from Marlboro” begins at 6:00. Join me in commiseration over our misspent youth, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

June 6, 2018
Clipper Erickson Revives R Nathaniel Dett’s Music

Clipper Erickson, piano, doesn’t like to sit still. As a performer and as a recording artist, he is seemingly everywhere at once.

In the past month or so, he has performed at least two solo recitals, on top of George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, with the Warminster Symphony Orchestra, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 – twice – with the Knox-Galesburg Symphony in Illinois and locally with the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey. He’s also anticipating his latest CD release, “Tableau, Tempest and Tango,” due out on Navona Records, PARMA Recordings, on July 13.

The indefatigable pianist, who is on the faculty of Westminster Conservatory of Music in Princeton and Boyer College of Music and Dance – Temple University, is gearing up to present his latest program in a crusade to resurrect the half-forgotten music of R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943).

Erickson will be joined by soprano Deborah Ford, baritone Gregory Hopkins, and Mostly Motets, for a mixed program of Dett’s music at St Michael’s Church, Trenton NJ, on June 10 at 3 p.m.

Dett was born in what is now Niagara Falls, Ontario. The grandson of Underground Railroad refugees, he became an important figure in American music of his time. Yet he is remembered today, if at all, for a lone piano suite, “In the Bottoms,” or perhaps only for its two-minute concluding dance, “Juba,” which was championed by Percy Grainger, among others.

Erickson was the first to record Dett’s complete piano works. His performances have been issued on an album titled “My Cup Runneth Over,” also on Navona, for which he provides his own liner notes. The two-CD set was made possible, in part, through the financial backing of St. Michael’s, where Erickson serves as organist.

You can read more about Dett’s debt to Erickson, the Revolutionary history of the church, and more, in my article in this week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo, out today. Here’s the online version:

http://www.princetoninfo.com/index.php/component/us1more/?Itemid=6&key=6-6-18erickson

Erickson plays “Juba:”

June 6, 2018
Barbara Strozzi Baroque Composer Spotlight

Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677) was a significant anomaly in an art form that, until the 20th century, did not exactly nurture women. She was a singer, but also a composer. More astonishingly, she appears to have been recognized for it.

Today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network will be devoted almost exclusively to Strozzi’s music. Brooklyn Baroque will present “Barbara Strozzi and Her World.” The program will also include a sonata by virtuoso cellist Domenico Gabrielli.

Strozzi was the adopted (and possibly biological) daughter of Giulio Strozzi. Giulio was one of the driving forces behind the propulsive growth of opera in Venice in the first half of the 17th century. He was a poet and librettist, a regular collaborator of Claudio Monteverdi and others. He was also unusually supportive of his daughter’s talent, arranging for her studies with Francesco Cavalli (of “La Callisto” fame) and even founding an academy for its display, in order to help legitimize it in the eyes of the public.

Barbara’s music was published and it’s thought that later in life she was able to support herself by means of her investments and compositions. Did she bolster her income as a courtesan, or was this a fabrication of her jealous (male) rivals? Many important details of her life have had to be fleshed out by hearsay and conjecture. After all, she lived 400 years ago, and society hasn’t been particularly attentive to its female artists.

Today’s broadcast comes our way courtesy of Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS). The program was presented on October 26, 2017 at St. Bartholomew’s Church, 50th Street and Park Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan, where free concerts are held every Thursday at 1:15 p.m. The 2017-2018 season will conclude on June 28. This Thursday, Empire Viols will present “Strictly Organic: Transcriptions of Organ Trios by J.S. Bach and J.L. Krebs.” For a complete schedule of lunchtime performances, look online at midtownconcerts.org.

GEMS also hosts evening concerts. The ensemble Voyces will present “Angels Cry Aloud: Masters of the Roman Collegio Germanico,” featuring music by Victoria, Carissimi, and Charpentier, at Trinity Lutheran Church, 309 St. Paul’s Avenue, Staten Island, tonight at 7:30 p.m. Artek will present “Madrigal Madness,” highlighting the work of Monteverdi, at 17 Frost Gallery, 17 Frost Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Friday at 7:30 p.m. Angelica Women’s Chamber Choir will present “Sanctuary,” a program that seeks refuge from life’s turbulence, with repertoire ranging from the Middle Ages to the present, at the Church of St. John of Nepomucene, 411 East 66th St., New York City, Sunday at 3 p.m.

Gotham Early Music Scene is a non-profit corporation that supports and promotes artists and organizations in New York City devoted to early music – music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical periods. For more information and GEMS’ events calendar, look online at gemsny.org.

Following today’s Noontime Concert, I’ll return to some of the unplayed “favorites” left over from last week’s “Play It Again” membership campaign. These will be drawn from lists submitted by WWFM hosts, partners, and listeners. We’ll hear more of this music, in its entirety, until 4 p.m. EDT. David Diamond’s Symphony No. 2 will be a particular highlight.

If you haven’t gotten around to making your contribution to WWFM – The Classical Network, remember, you may do so at any time at wwfm.org. As always, thank you for your support!

June 5, 2018
WWFM Thanks You for “Play It Again” Success!

THANK YOU!

Radio fundraising drives are such that as soon as we cross the finish line, we all basically stagger away, our brains like skillets full of fried eggs. So it is only at the end of an intervening weekend that I get around to thanking you for participating in WWFM’s “Play It Again” personal playlist campaign.

You’ll recall that this was structured so that favorites of WWFM listeners and partners were incorporated into the station’s programming. The delightfully varied choices informed the week’s playlists, culminating in a top-40 countdown with, granted, many (though not all) of the usual suspects, though ranked in an often surprising order of popularity.

You’ll find the final top-40 posted on the station’s Facebook page, by following the link:

The results were compiled from 88 playlists – 1,100 entries. Understandably, with so many nominations, not everything made it to the air.

Therefore, I thought I’d do a little mopping up during my shifts this week, and broadcast some of the music we didn’t get around to playing. Not to worry, I won’t be fundraising, beyond perhaps an occasional “thank you” during which I may mention the continuing option of supporting us at our website, wwfm.org. But really it is intended as a show of thanks to everyone who participated, and a celebration, of sorts, of the diversity of the choices. Also, it makes my job as a host and programmer very easy.

I’m sorry to say, we did come up a little short of our goal, which means we will have to come back with our hats in our hands at the end of June, so that we can collect the extra money we need in order to close out the fiscal year (which ends at 11:59 p.m. on June 30) in the black.

For now, let’s all just kick back and take a hard-earned break and enjoy the music. I’ll be playing complete pieces – no more excerpts or individual movements – from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Again, thank you for your support!

June 4, 2018

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