Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

  • Haydn and Ravel at Kaufman Music Center

    Haydn and Ravel at Kaufman Music Center

    There will be no hiding from Haydn, and we’ll revel in Ravel, on today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, as we bring you another program from Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Music Center. The award-winning Verona Quartet will perform Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 50, No. 1 “Prussian” (1787) and Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F major (1903).

    Kaufman Music Center is located at 129 West 67th Street in New York City. The center is home to Merkin Concert Hall, as well as Lucy Moses School, a community arts school for all ages, and Special Music School, a K-12 public school for musically gifted children. Merkin’s Tuesday Matinee series presents rising stars from all over the world, which have won some the most prestigious international prizes and have delighted audiences on the stages of major concert halls both here and abroad.

    The next program in the series will feature pianist Xuesha Hu. She will perform Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata, Samuel Barber’s Sonata in E minor, Mendelssohn’s “Scottish Fantasy,” and Liszt’s “Dante” Sonata. The concert will take place on February 6 at 2 p.m. You’ll find more information, including a complete schedule, at kaufmanmusiccenter.org.

    Following today’s concert broadcast, I hope you’ll stick around for music by the late Finnish master Einojuhani Rautavaara, among my featured composers, between 12 and 4 p.m., on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

    PHOTO: Two gentlemen – and ladies – of Verona

  • Remembering Igor Zhukov & Composer Birthdays

    Remembering Igor Zhukov & Composer Birthdays

    Pianist Igor Zhukov, an Emil Gilels pupil who remains largely unrecognized in the West, died on Friday at the age of 80. We’ll hear one of Zhukov’s remarkable concerto recordings this afternoon on The Classical Network. There will also be plenty of birthdays to observe, including those of composers Daniel-François-Esprit Auber, Havergal Brian, Frederic Cowen, Frederick Delius, Ludolf Nielsen, and Georg Christoph Wagenseil, as well as those of performers Malcolm Binns and Cho-Liang Lin. I honestly don’t know if there will be enough cake to go around. Join me for eight birthdays and a funeral, this Monday, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

  • Gordon Jacob Rediscovered on The Lost Chord

    Gordon Jacob Rediscovered on The Lost Chord

    This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we honor the accomplishments of Gordon Jacob.

    Jacob is perhaps best remembered these days as an orchestrator. He did a popular arrangement for full orchestra of Vaughan Williams’ “English Folk Song Suite,” originally composed for symphonic band; he orchestrated Sir Edward Elgar’s Organ Sonata; and his arrangement of the ballet “Les Sylphides” has been eclipsed only by that of Roy Douglas.

    But he was also a prolific composer himself. In all, he wrote some 400 works. In fact, when weighing the size of his output against his reputation, it’s tempting to underestimate – as the Angel did his Biblical namesake – Jacob’s tenacity.

    We’ll listen to an example of his work as an arranger, the “William Byrd Suite,” in a classic recording on the Mercury label, and his rarely-heard Symphony No. 1, dedicated to the memory of his brother, who died in the First World War, in its world premiere recording on the Lyrita label.

    I hope you’ll join me as we grapple with the range of Jacob’s accomplishments, in “Wrestling Jacob,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

    In the meantime, follow the link for a witty survey ranking the various depictions of Jacob wrestling the angel in Western Art:

    http://the-toast.net/2014/09/16/famous-paintings-jacob-wrestling-angel-ranked-much-actions-resemble-slow-dancing/

  • Mozart Stockhausen Flute Concerto Rare Find

    Mozart Stockhausen Flute Concerto Rare Find

    Here’s an interesting discovery for Mozart’s birthday – a recording of the Flute Concerto No. 1 in G major, K. 313, conducted by Karlheinz Stockhausen, employing Stockhausen’s own cadenzas!

    Movt. I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idBfzgaKV2w

    Movt. II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pv6iLajXzc

    Movt. III https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLsiG7Qpj_A

  • Korngold’s Hollywood Composers

    Korngold’s Hollywood Composers

    Errol Flynn writes a ballet? Charles Boyer composes a tone poem? Claude Rains writes a cello concerto!

    This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ve got three examples from Hollywood’s Golden Age of movies about fictional composers. These, of course, required music allegedly written by the characters, and this was provided by two-time Academy Award-winner Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

    Korngold is probably best known to movie buffs as the composer for Flynn swashbucklers such as “The Adventures of Robin Hood” and “The Sea Hawk,” but his filmography is more varied than one might at first suspect. No matter what the subject, Korngold could be counted on to bring that opulent fin de siècle gloss, developed in a Vienna steeped in Mahler and Strauss.

    We’ll hear music from “Escape Me Never” (1947), a slightly preposterous melodrama about two composer brothers who become rivals in love; “The Constant Nymph” (1943), about a would-be romantic bond between a composer struggling to find his true voice and an admiring girl on the verge of womanhood who develops deeper feelings for him; and “Deception” (1946), about a cellist reunited with his former love, who had believed him killed during the war, and the vindictive composer who attempts to shatter his psyche through grueling rehearsals of his latest concerto.

    “Deception” was Korngold’s last, wholly original score, though he was lured back to Hollywood for one final project, “Magic Fire” (1955), a biopic of the composer Richard Wagner, for which he adapted selections from Wagner’s operas. Furthermore, Korngold makes an appearance onscreen (!) as conductor Hans Richter. The film was subject to heavy cuts prior to its U.S. release and was not a success.

    Hollywood seldom gets it right when it comes to portraying the process of the composer, but Korngold, true to his name, did his best to spin gold from corn, producing some appropriately grand utterances, albeit condensed to only a few minutes of screen time. Quite a task for this figure who made his greatest mark in opera.

    Join me for these examples of Korngold as ghostwriter, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

    Follow the link to hear Korngold improvise on themes from “The Flying Dutchman” (with entertaining stills):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4bNEw1nu3I

    MAGIC FIRE: When the actor who was hired to play Hans Richter failed to show, Korngold was rushed into make-up (hence, the fake beard). This is the only existing footage of Korngold conducting.

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