Film composer Luis Bacalov has died. Many of the obituaries I’m seeing lead off with the credit for his Oscar-winning work on “Il Postino;” some prefer to front-load Quentin Tarantino’s repurposing of his music for “Kill Bill” and “Django Unchained.” I prefer to remember Bacalov from the original spaghetti westerns, back in the day when Django was played by Franco Nero. R.I.P.
The man:
http://exclaim.ca/film/article/r_i_p_italian_soundtrack_hero_luis_enriquez_bacalov
His music:
In America, you turn on radio. In Soviet Russia, radio turns on you!
As we listen to this fascinating music by artists who were used and abused under the Soviet system, consider how fortunate we are to be able to enjoy the kind of freedom represented by independent radio. WPRB 103.3 FM is in the final days of its “silent drive.” That means we don’t take up too much air time with repetitive pitches for your decadent capital. We just put the message out there a few times a shift and leave it to you to do what you feel is right.
If you enjoy the mix of unusual and neglected repertoire, and you find the personalized stamp on the programming a positive contribution to your day; and if you enjoy the passion and commitment of the hosts, who play all kinds of music – truly something to suit every immoral Western tendency – I hope you will find it in your heart and in your budget to support us.
WPRB is the radio station of Princeton University. However, we are independently owned and funded. That means we rely on the generosity of listeners just like you.
Don’t wait for Moose and Squirrel to do it for you. Please contribute today – and maybe pick up a t-shirt – at http://wprb.com/wprb-fundraising-drive-fall-2017/. WPRB’s silent drive ends tomorrow, November 17.
Then kick back and enjoy your petty bourgeois turpitude, until 11:00 EST, as we continue to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution, on Classic Ross Amico.
Not even Shostakovich’s fondness for pigs prepared him for Joseph Stalin.
This Thursday morning on WPRB, we’ll mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution, with music by composers who attempted to navigate an impossibly perilous course during the Soviet era.
We’ll hear Reinhold Gliere’s slightly embarrassing propagandistic runaway hit, “The Red Poppy,” in which enlightened Soviet sailors share their revolutionary spirit with oppressed coolies on the docks of Kuomingtang. We’ll also have a symphony by Tikhon Krennikov, who, in his role as Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, made life miserable for many of his more talented colleagues, especially Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Mieczyslaw Weinberg.
There was scarcely anyone who was left untouched by the culture of fear. Even five-time Stalin Prize winner Nikolai Myaskovsky was condemned by the authorities for writing music of an anti-Soviet, anti-proletarian, and formalist bent. Gavriil Popov was attacked for his forward-looking Symphony No. 1. The experience drove him to alcoholism and relegated his considerable talent to Socialist Realist tub-thumpers.
Terrified, Prokofiev wrote his cantata “Hail to Stalin,” even as his wife was sent to the Gulag. He would never see her again. Alexander Mosolov, too, spent years in the Gulag, despite his earlier celebrity as one the new regime’s star futurists. Weinberg, a “rootless cosmopolitan” (Soviet speak for Jew), nearly lost his life. He was saved only by Stalin’s fortuitously timed death.
Among the true curiosities of the morning will be an historic performance of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” in which the melody “God Save the Tsar” has been excised and replaced by a politically sanctioned snippet from Glinka’s opera, “Ivan Susanin” (ironically, once known as “A Life for the Tsar”). The performance will be led by the mercurial and magnetic Nikolai Golovanov. Golovanov, one of the most exciting conductors of the 20th century, showed up at the Bolshoi one day to be told he no longer had a job.
Hey, nobody said the New World Order was going to be easy. We’ll take a look at the public and private lives of the heroes, villains and victims of Soviet music, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. It won’t be just the workers who are revolting, on Classic Ross Amico.
D is for Da!
It also happens to be the key signature of Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 4. Shostakovich’s quartet will be one of two Russian works on this week’s “Music from Marlboro.”
The String Quartet No. 4 grew out of a newfound confidence, on the part of the composer, as a result of Stalin personally selecting him as a cultural ambassador to the West. Shostakovich persuaded Stalin that if that were going to be the case, then perhaps it would be a good idea to lift the ban on Soviet performances of his music. Otherwise, it might look a little peculiar to outsiders.
Papa Joe agreed, and Shostakovich promptly embarked on a new string quartet, which he loaded up with Jewish folk songs and all sorts of things that had a history of angering the “wise leader and teacher.” Fortunately for Shostakovich, who had walked a very precarious line with the authorities, his friends persuaded him not to allow the work to be performed publicly, and the composer put it in a drawer for another day.
That other day is now, and we’ll hear it performed by violinists Sylvie Gazeau and Yuzuko Horigome, violist Philipp Naegele, and cellist Robie Brown Dan, from the 1983 Marlboro Music Festival.
Anton Arensky’s Piano Trio No. 1 is in the key of D minor. Arensky, a pupil of that icon of Russian nationalism, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, gravitated more toward the cosmopolitan sound of Rimsky’s rival, Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky. His trio is full of good tunes, always charming, regardless of whether the music is melancholy, turbulent, reflective, or good humored. It’s the kind of piece that will have you humming for the rest of the day.
We’ll hear it performed by pianist Frederick Moyer, violinist Isodore Cohen, and cellist John Sharp, who played it at Marlboro in 1982.
What are you waiting for? Quit your Stalin. Join me for an hour of Russian music, major and minor, from the Marlboro Music Festival, this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page
Who likes leaf blowers? Not Aaron Copland!
We’ll celebrate the birthday of the Dean of American Composers this afternoon with a performance of his Symphony No. 3. That’s the one that incorporates the “Fanfare for the Common Man,” making for a rousing quarter hour. But listen carefully to the symphony’s other 30 minutes, too – the fanfare’s intervals are all over the place.
First, we’ll enjoy another Noontime Concert on The Classical Network. Join me for a Bach birthday bash featuring The Dryden Ensemble. The program was presented twice in March of this year, within days of the anniversary of Bach’s birth. On the program will be music by Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Jakob Froberger, Sylvius Leopold Weiss, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Bach himself. Performers will include oboist and artistic director Jane McKinley, violinist Vita Wallace, bass viola da gambist Lisa Terry, theorbist and lutenist Daniel Swenberg, and harpsichordist Webb Wiggins.
Dryden’s next program, “Bach’s French Taste” – focusing on Bach and the French composers he admired – will be presented this Saturday at 7:30 p.m., at Miller Chapel on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary, and Sunday at 3 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, Solebury, PA. The concerts launch Dryden’s 2017-2018 survey, “Bach for All Seasons.” Tickets are available at the door or online at drydenensemble.org.
Make America rake again! Also, join me from 12 to 4 p.m. EST. It’s music for common men by extraordinary composers, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
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