Classic Ross Amico

Category: Daily Dispatch

Military Symphonies for Memorial Day

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” in anticipation of Memorial Day, we’ll have two symphonies composed for the armed forces.

Morton Gould wrote his Symphony No. 4 for the United States Military Academy at West Point. It was his first large scale piece for symphonic band. The score calls for a “marching machine,” but the recording we’ll hear, issued on the Mercury label, employs the feet of 120 musicians of the Eastman School Symphony Band. Frederick Fennell directs the Eastman Wind Ensemble.

Samuel Barber composed his Symphony No. 2 in 1943, while he was serving in the U.S. Army Air Force. 20 years later, he revised and published the slow movement as a separate opus, titled “Night Flight,” and then jettisoned – and actually tried to destroy – the rest. The work was reconstituted after the composer’s death, and is now back in circulation. We’ll hear a recording with Marin Alsop and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

I hope you’ll join me for “Orchestrated Maneuvers” – American military symphonies for Memorial Day – tonight at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Corporal Samuel Barber with the score of his Second Symphony

May 28, 2017
Jerry Goldsmith Hollywood Star Celebration

On May 9, Jerry Goldsmith finally received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Goldsmith, the composer of over 200 film and television scores, died in 2004 at the age of 75.

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll hear selections from four of Goldsmith’s classic scores, including “Patton” (just in time for Memorial Day), “Chinatown” (composed in only ten days), “The Wind and the Lion” (like all of these, Oscar-nominated), and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (the theme really caught fire when used in the television series “Star Trek: The Next Generation”).

Join me in celebrating “A Star for Jerry,” this Friday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 26, 2017
Kalniņš Symphony Rocks WWFM Today!

When his rock band ran afoul of the Soviet authorities, classically-trained Latvian composer Imants Kalniņš turned to writing symphonies. His Symphony No. 4 was his eloquent response, as much indebted to illegal rock groups of the West as it was to Latvian folklore. Hear Kalniņš stick it to the man this afternoon, on his 76th birthday. We’ll also have a Piano Concerto by Keith Emerson, of the progressive rock group Emerson, Lake & Palmer, among our featured works, from 4 to 6 p.m. EDT.

Then, immediately following, stick around for music of Jerry Goldsmith on “Picture Perfect,” on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 26, 2017
Ravel’s War A Memorial Day Tribute

With the outbreak of World War I, Maurice Ravel did his patriotic duty and enlisted in the French army. He was rejected from the infantry and the air force on account of his diminutive size and precarious health, but he learned to drive a truck and cared for the wounded at Verdun on the Western Front.

Ravel survived the war, but six of his friends were not so lucky. His “Le tombeau de Couperin” was ostensibly written as a tribute to the Baroque master, Francois Couperin, but each of the movements is dedicated to one of the fallen. Hear it this morning on WPRB103.3 FM and wprb.com, as part of a Memorial Day salute to the musical dead of all countries – the soldiers who laid down their lives in combat and the unfortunate civilians who were collateral casualties.

We’ll have pieces of war and prayers for peace until 11:00 EDT on Classic Ross Amico.

Read more about Ravel’s war experiences here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z2nk6sg

PHOTO: Ravel in uniform

May 25, 2017
Foulds’ World Requiem on WPRB

Coming up on WPRB in the 9:00 hour EDT: John Fould’s “A World Requiem.”

Scored for a mass of soloists, choristers and orchestral musicians to rival those of Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand,” the Requiem was conceived by Foulds as a memorial to the dead of all nations in the wake of the First World War. It was given its first performance at Royal Albert Hall on Armistice Night, November 11, 1923. It then lay in neglect for 80 years, until its resurrection by Leon Botstein, who conducted the work’s revival at Royal Albert Hall on November 11, 2007. We’ll hear his recording of the piece, which was issued two months later, on the Chandos label.

Listen now to WPRB103.3 FM or wprb.com. We remember the soldiers who laid down their lives in combat and the unfortunate civilians who were collateral casualties, in our salute to the musical dead of all countries, for Memorial Day, on Classic Ross Amico.

May 25, 2017

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