Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Granados at 150 A Musical Celebration on WPRB

Enrique Granados’ life may have been cut short in 1916, at the age of only 49, but his music continues to age well. Granados is widely celebrated for his evocative aural postcards of his native Spain, most notably his collections of piano miniatures, the “Spanish Dances,” and “Goyescas” (the latter inspired by paintings of Francisco Goya). But there was so much more to this remarkable composer.

Join me this Thursday morning on WPRB, as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Granados’ birth. We’ll get the day started with a full five hours of his music, including an assortment of his rarely-heard orchestral, choral and chamber works, and, yes, even a recording of his one-act opera “Goyescas,” which the composer cannily adapted from his popular piano pieces.

Performers will include Ataulfa Argenta, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Maria Bayo, the Beaux Arts Trio, Montserrat Caballe, Alicia de Larrocha, Victoria de los Angeles, Andres Segovia, Ramón Vargas and Granados himself.

The playlist will also feature the rarely-heard symphonic poem “Dante,” and world premiere recordings of the “Suite on Galician Folk Songs,” “Song of the Stars,” and the lyric poem “Liliana,” as arranged by Granados’ friend and champion Pablo Casals.

If you’re a fan of fandangos with a craving for castanets, you’ll want to join me, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We’ll do it up grand for Granados, on Classic Ross Amico.

July 27, 2017
Granados Premiere on WPRB for 150th Year

Plenty of world premiere recordings this morning on WPRB, thanks to the Naxos label, as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Spanish master Enrique Granados. Right now, we’re listening to his “Suite on Galician Songs,” a 30-minute, folk-inflected work for orchestra. In the 8:00 hour, we’ll hear his “Song of the Stars,” a masterpiece gone missing for nearly a century, scored for piano, organ and three choruses. We’ll also have songs, instrumental music, the complete one-act opera “Goyescas,” and the rarely-heard symphonic poem “Dante,” between now and 11 a.m. EDT. We subscribe to the maxim “No Spain, no gain,” on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.

July 27, 2017
Granados Casals and Liliana on WPRB

A nice photo of Enrique Granados with his friend Pablo Casals, both evidently (and justifiably) proud of their moustaches. Casals arranged Granados’ lyric poem “Liliana” for concert performance. We’re enjoying it right now, as part of a full morning of Granados’ music, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of his birth, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.

July 27, 2017
Marlboro Music: Schumann & Brazilian Composers

This week’s “Music from Marlboro” serves up a Robert Schumann sandwich on Brazilian bread. The hour will open with “Five Songs for Voice and Bassoon” by Francisco Mignone, and conclude with the String Quartet No. 6 by Heitor Villa-Lobos. In between will be the “Andante and Variations” by Schumann, scored for the rather peculiar combination of two pianos, two cellos and horn. The husband and wife team of Claude Frank and Lilian Kallir perform.

I hope you’ll join me for more selections from the Marlboro Music archive, this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

PHOTO: Schumann pianists Claude Frank and Lilian Kallir, married at Marlboro in 1959 (with pianist Eugene Istomin, their best man, standing left)

July 26, 2017
Did New Jersey Doom Composer Granados?

Is it just my guilty conscience, or did New Jersey kill Enrique Granados?

The great Spanish composer was persuaded to work his masterful set of piano miniatures, titled “Goyescas,” into an opera by none other than Ernest Schelling (whose birthday, by coincidence, is today). Schelling, born in Belvidere, NJ, was the barnstorming pianist who gave the U.S. premiere of “Goyescas” in its piano guise. He would later become music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Granados honored Schelling’s suggestion, with the idea of unveiling his new work at the Paris Opera. However, the outbreak of war caused him to shift his focus to New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where “Goyescas” received its world premiere on January 28, 1916, opening to enthusiastic reviews.

It was Woodrow Wilson, former president of Princeton University and former governor of New Jersey – then President of the United States – that really did Granados in. The positive reception of “Goyescas” led Wilson to extend an invitation to the composer to come play at the White House, an offer Granados could hardly refuse. As a result, Granados delayed the date of his departure, and a few weeks later, he and his wife were drowned in the English Channel, after their ship, the S.S. Essex, was torpedoed by a German u-boat.

I think New Jersey, and in particular Princeton, owes him something. Therefore, I hope you’ll join me tomorrow morning on WPRB, as we honor Granados on the 150th anniversary of his birth, with a full morning of his music, including an assortment of his rarely-heard orchestral, choral and chamber works, and, yes, his opera “Goyescas.”

We genuflect before one of music’s great moustaches, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. It will take plenty of caffeine before I can properly enunciate “sesquicentennial,” on Classic Ross Amico.

July 26, 2017

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