Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

JoAnn Falletta’s WPRB Radio Fest

It’s a Falletta Fest! All recordings of works conducted and/or played by JoAnn Falletta this morning on WPRB.

Falletta is in Princeton with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for this year’s NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, five days of intensive compositional evaluations and consultations, master classes and career-building opportunities, which will culminate in a live concert performance of participating composers’ works. The concert, including four new works and a piece by Institute director Steven Mackey, will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium Saturday at 8 p.m.

We’ll celebrate Falletta’s return by sampling from her vast discography, with orchestral music by, among others, Romeo Cascarino, Kenneth Fuchs, Jack Gallagher, E.J. Moeran, Jerome Moross, Behzad Ranjbaran, Igor Stravinsky, and Marcel Tyberg, performed by orchestras with which Falletta has had fruitful associations, including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, and the Women’s Philharmonic.

We’ll also listen to a couple of new releases of music by Richard Strauss and Vítězslav Novák, issued on the Naxos label, a rare recording featuring Falletta as guitarist, and two that she made with her husband, the clarinetist Robert Alemany.

Falletta herself will drop by around 9:00 to talk about the institute and some of her other projects. She’s always very busy, with plenty of concerts, festivals and recordings in the pipeline.

I hope you’ll join me this morning for some entrancing musical rarities, courtesy of JoAnn Falletta, on Classic Ross Amico, from 6 to 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.

July 13, 2017
Accordion Advocate Talks Polka & More

When asked if there’s anything about the accordion he wishes the public knew, Robert Young McMahan responds he wishes there was a lot that they didn’t.

“Polka is at the top of my list,” he says. “Lawrence Welk is second.” But he hastens to add that, even though Welk “wasn’t cool,” he helped popularize the instrument. “The arrangements were quite good, and Myron Floren played quite well, for what they were doing.”

He winces at the mention of “Lady of Spain” (“I was hoping you weren’t old enough to know that,” he says), and he hates the term “squeezebox.”

McMahan’s lifelong passion for the accordion is evident in every sentence, as he vacillates between wistfulness at the instrument’s waning popularity among Americans (in part he blames Elvis, who caused youngsters to gravitate to the electric guitar), and hope, in the acknowledgment of up-and-coming talent from Scandinavia, Russia, and the Far East.

A professor of music on the faculty of The College of New Jersey, he is secretary of the American Accordionists’ Association. Each year, the association holds its conference in a different American city. This year, hundreds of accordionists and accordion aficionados will descend on the Westin Princeton at Forrestal Village, from July 12 to July 16. Festival registration will begin at 3:00 this afternoon, with exhibits opening at 5.

McMahan, whose wife, Anne, is president of Princeton Friends of Opera, will give a lecture about the accordion and opera, on July 13 at 9 a.m. He will also participate in a gala concert, performing music of Lukas Foss, alongside violinist Emmanuel Borowski and cellist Cecylia Barczak, on July 14 at 7 p.m.

The conference will include music of all genres (presumably even polka), workshops, and scholarship competitions. You can find out more about it in my article in this week’s edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo, out today.

http://www.princetoninfo.com/index.php/component/us1more/?Itemid=6&key=7-12-17mcmahan

July 12, 2017
JoAnn Falletta Returns to WPRB

I am very pleased to announce that JoAnn Falletta has agreed to return as my guest this week on WPRB.

Falletta is in Princeton as part of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Edward T. Cone Composition Institute. Four emerging composers will have their works rehearsed and performed by the NJSO, participate in masterclasses with Institute Director Steven Mackey, receive feedback from NJSO musicians, and benefit from career-building advice from music-industry leaders.

Falletta will help mentor the composers and then conduct the orchestra in representative works by Noah Kaplan, Sam Lipman, Alyssa Weinberg, and another former Classic Ross Amico guest, Saad Haddad, alongside Mackey’s “Four Iconoclastic Episodes.” The concert, which is open to the public, will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium this Saturday at 8 p.m.

Tune in to WPRB this Thursday morning at 9:00 to hear Falletta talk about the institute and some of her other projects. As music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, she’s always very busy, with plenty of concerts, festivals and recordings in the pipeline. Falletta has championed dozens of works that could easily be classified as unusual and neglected. She is also an indefatigable champion of new music.

To celebrate her return to Princeton, we’ll enjoy a full morning of her recordings, including selections from new releases of music by Richard Strauss and Vítězslav Novák on the Naxos label. Mark your calendars for another Falletta Fest on Classic Ross Amico, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.

Meet the composer, Saad Haddad:

http://www.njsymphony.org/about-njso/newsroom/in-the-news/meet-the-cone-institute-composers-saad-haddad

July 12, 2017
Marlboro Music Festival Broadcasts

Since 1951, Marlboro Music has been a mecca for musicians and chamber music-lovers. The Classical Network is pleased to announce the debut of its newest broadcast concert series, “Music from Marlboro,” featuring performances from the Marlboro archive, beginning Wednesday evening at 6:00.

The Marlboro Music School and Festival brings together the world’s most acclaimed artists and exceptional young talent in the foothills of rural, southern Vermont, for seven weeks of relaxed, inspired and joyful music-making. Concerts of the Marlboro Festival can be enjoyed over five weekends, between mid-July and mid-August. This year’s festival will be held from July 15 to August 13, on the campus of Marlboro College (a separate institution). More information about Marlboro Music may be found at marlboromusic.org.

The Classical Network has been granted privileged access to the Marlboro archives, which contain many, many performances never before heard beyond the confines of the festival, all of them featuring chamber music luminaries and stars of tomorrow.

The series will commence with “Three Marches for Piano Four Hands,” by Beethoven, with an 87 year-old Mieczyslaw Horszowski and an 18 year-old Cecile Licad; the “Divertimento for 13 Solo Instruments,” by Marlboro co-founder Adolf Busch; and Carl Reinecke’s Octet for Winds in B-flat major, Op. 216. Future weeks will bring performances by Marlboro legends Rudolf Serkin, Marcel Moyse, Alexander Schneider and Pablo Casals, along with fascinating glimpses of rising stars and top musicians of tomorrow.

I hope you’ll join me Wednesdays at 6 p.m. EDT for “Music from Marlboro,” on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

PHOTO: Horszowski and Licad, teacher and pupil, share the stage at Marlboro

July 12, 2017
Herbert Blomstedt at 90 A Conducting Legend

While Herbert Blomstedt may not be the most glamorous conductor, he is one of the most reliable. Occasionally, he’s even inspired. A professional conductor can’t hope for more than that. For me, his Hindemith recordings lift the composer’s music to a whole other level, and I was privileged to experience his acclaimed Nielsen live in Philadelphia.

Now, at the age of 90, Blomstedt shows no signs of slowing down, with dozens of concerts on this year’s schedule, from Europe’s most storied orchestras (the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics) to the San Francisco Symphony, which he directed from 1985 to 1995.

A devout Seventh-day Adventist, Blomstedt does not work on Saturdays. He does not consider conducting work, but rather an expression of his religious devotion; he does, however, count rehearsals. He abstains from meat, alcohol and coffee.

Interestingly, he was born in Massachusetts, but his parents returned the family to Sweden, the country of their origin, when he was only 2.

Join me this afternoon, as we mark the maestro’s 90th birthday by listening to some of his finest recordings. They’ll be among our featured offerings today from 12 to 4 p.m., on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Happy birthday, Herbert Blomstedt!

A brief interview that ran in the New York Times back in February, concurrently with his latest appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/arts/music/herbert-blomstedt-is-turning-90-he-is-also-conducting-over-90-concerts-this-year.html

In more detail, as always, with Bruce Duffie:

http://www.bruceduffie.com/blomstedt.html

PHOTO: Blomstedt (left) hanging with Brahms

July 11, 2017

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