Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

July 4th Movie Music Celebrating Independence

With the Fourth of July right around the corner, fortify yourself with an hour of cinematic fifes and drums. This week on “Picture Perfect,” we look ahead to Independence Day.

We’ll hear selections from the 2000 film, “The Patriot,” in which slow-burning pacifist Mel Gibson is pushed too far by ruthless British officer Jason Isaacs and reverts to his bloody French and Indian War ways. By the end of the film, he is literally waving the flag to John Williams’ triumphant score.

Then we’ll hear a suite from the 1942 Jack Benny-Ann Sheridan fixer-up comedy, “George Washington Slept Here,” based on the play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman – not really about the Revolution, beyond the fact that the ramshackle Pennsylvania farm house purchased by a transplanted New York couple is alleged to have been the resting place of the Revolution’s most famous general. The music is by Adolph Deutsch.

The 1985 film, “Revolution,” seemed to have everything going for it. The director was Hugh Hudson, whose “Chariots of Fire” was the big winner at the 1981 Academy Awards; its star was Al Pacino; and its composer was John Corigliano, who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Symphony No. 2 and an Academy Award for “The Red Violin.” Yet “Revolution” bombed horribly – so horribly that Pacino gave up making movies for the next four years. James Galway plays the flute and pennywhistle on the film’s soundtrack.

Finally, we’ll hear music from the longest continuously-shown film in cinematic history, “Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot,” created exclusively for the tourist attraction of Colonial Williamsburg. The film features future “Hawaii Five-O” star Jack Lord, and the score is by none other than Bernard Herrmann.

Here’s a clip from “Williamsburg,” with some of Herrmann’s music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0VXfVhenXQ

We celebrate Independence Day this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PLEASE SUPPORT IT RIGHT NOW BY CALLING 1-888-232-1212. THANK YOU!

PHOTO: George Washington wagers he can crack a walnut with his bare hand in “Williamsburg: The Story of a Patriot”

June 30, 2017
America Through Foreign Eyes on WPRB

Show me the money!

That’s what Richard Wagner said when he was approached to write something for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. He responded with an execrable march, which he himself admitted he had only done for the $5000, a very great sum at the time. America was, after all, the Land of Opportunity.

But not everyone’s motives were so transparently mercenary. Ernest Bloch composed his epic rhapsody for orchestra, “America,” in sincere appreciation of his adopted homeland. Tune in to WPRB this morning to hear these works and others like them, as we celebrate America from foreign perspectives, in anticipation of Independence Day.

We view the promise of America from distant shores this morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. May the Fourth be with you, on Classic Ross Amico.

June 29, 2017
Support Classical Music Like Tchaikovsky’s Patron

Nadezhda von Meck understood the value of patronage. Thanks to her, Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky was able to create 13 years worth of masterpieces, works that have given pleasure and enrichment to audiences, right down to the present day. Now that’s a good investment.

We can’t all be as generous as Meck. However, it is possible for all of us to get a taste of what it is like to support great music. Feel good about sustaining a proud legacy. Join WWFM – The Classical Network during the final week of its fiscal year. Help us balance our budget, so that we can go on sharing the music of Tchaikovsky, Bach, Mahler, and all the others. Call 1-888-232-1212 or contribute online at wwfm.org.

Thank you for doing your part to make the world a better place.

June 29, 2017
Support Classical Music on The Classical Network

Last year, the manuscript for Johann Sebastian Bach’s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro in E-flat Major, BWV 998, sold at auction for over $3 million. For $3 million, WWFM – The Classical Network could cancel its fundraising for over two years. With a much more modest contribution, you could do your part to enable live and recorded performances of music by Bach and other classical favorites to continue to be made available at the touch of button. Enrich your life and your community by supporting The Classical Network today at 1-888-232-1212 or wwfm.org. As always, we thank you for your generosity.

Anika Hutschreuther plays the Fugue, exquisitely:

June 28, 2017
America Through a Foreign Lens on WPRB

On the suggestion of a loyal listener, who alerted me to the fact that Sir Arnold Bax’s Symphony No. 7 was dedicated to “The People of America,” I thought I would take a different tack this year when putting together my show in honor of Independence Day, which I will observe tomorrow morning on WPRB.

Instead of targeting the strike zone of American patriotism that encompasses composers who came of age during the Great Depression and World War II (much of whose music I admire and even love very much), we’ll view America and the American experience through a foreign sensibility. Some of the composers will be immigrants, excited and even grateful to have made the United States their home, and some will be visitors. Some, such as Richard Wagner, who wrote his dreadful “American Centennial March” for the 1876 celebrations in Philadelphia, will merely have been looking to cash a paycheck.

Not all of the music will sound American (eg. Bax’s Symphony No. 7, given its premiere in conjunction with the 1939 New York World’s Fair); some of it will be self-consciously so (Ernest Bloch’s “America”).

Join me tomorrow, as we welcome the tired, the poor, the huddled masses of the world’s composers, yearning to celebrate the United States, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. I’ll be stirring the musical melting pot, on Classic Ross Amico.

June 28, 2017

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