Classic Ross Amico

  • Schumann Birthday Celebration on The Classical Network

    Schumann Birthday Celebration on The Classical Network

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    Ross Amico
    in
    2 responses

    Now the Schumann is on the other foot.

    Join us on The Classical Network, as we pick up our celebration of the birthday today of Robert Schumann. Among our featured works will be the rarely-heard Violin Concerto, with Elmar Oliveira the soloist. We’ll also mark the birthdays of Tomaso Albinoni, Erwin Schulhoff, and Emanuel Ax.

    The afternoon will begin with a visit from Dr. Lyn Ransom, outgoing artistic director of VOICES Chorale. To cap her 30-year tenure with the ensemble, Ransom will conduct a farewell concert featuring soloists, chorus, and orchestra, in Johannes Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem” and Randall Thompson’s “Frostiana.” The concert, part of a VOICES gala weekend, will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on June 16 at 8 p.m.

    The music is Romantic with a capital “R” today (when it’s not Baroque or Dadaist). If the Schumann fits, wear it, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

  • Schumann’s Birthday Romantic Piano Concertos on WPRB

    Schumann’s Birthday Romantic Piano Concertos on WPRB

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    Ross Amico
    in
    4 responses

    There will be a battery of Romantic piano concertos this morning on WPRB, as you can probably imagine, as we celebrate the birthday today of Robert Schumann. We’ll be enjoying some of Schumann’s own music, of course, but also representative works by figures he admired and promoted, some of whom numbered among the finest pianists of the day.

    At 9:00, we’ll joined by Steven LaCosse, who will be stage directing Beethoven’s only opera, “Fidelio, ” for The Princeton Festival. He’ll tell us a little bit about the production, which will be presented at McCarter Theatre Center on June 18 & 25.

    The highlight of the morning may very well be a rarely heard recording from 1954 of Schumann’s “Manfred,” after the dramatic poem of Lord Byron. The overture is rather well known, but Sir Thomas Beecham recorded the entire thing, with narrator, lending his characteristic Beecham touch not only to the performance, but in his editorial decisions, “livening it up,” as it were, with a part-song or two and adding a ballet.

    Get ready for a five hour Romantic interlude, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We’re ready to tickle some ivories, on Classic Ross Amico.

    PHOTO: Robert and Clara Schumann get Romantic

  • Schumann’s Life Music on WPRB

    Schumann’s Life Music on WPRB

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    Ross Amico
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    7 responses

    A would-be concert pianist, he’s said to have destroyed his hand through the use of a finger-strengthening device of his own design. He took his underage sweetheart’s father, who also happened to be his teacher, to court to sue for the right to marry, ultimately winning that right the day before she came of age. He went mad from syphilis, hurled himself into the Rhine, and spent his final months in an asylum. His name was Robert Schumann, and he was one of the most romantic of Romantic composers.

    Join me tomorrow morning on WPRB, as we celebrate Schumann on the anniversary of his birth with rarely-heard works by the musicians he championed, pieces by lesser-known figures from his circle, and fabulous recordings of some of his own enduring classics. A highlight will be Sir Thomas Beecham’s reading of incidental music composed for Lord Byron’s dramatic poem “Manfred.”

    If you’ve got a craving for cravats, drop in (to the Rhine or otherwise) this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. It will be all the Schumann we can shoe in, on Classic Ross Amico.

  • Szell Järvi and Conductor Birthdays on WWFM

    Szell Järvi and Conductor Birthdays on WWFM

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    Ross Amico
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    5 responses

    It’s a conductor’s holiday! I hope you’ll join me for recordings of triple-threat George Szell, on the anniversary of his birth. We’ll hear Szell as conductor, pianist, and composer. It’s also the 80th birthday of Neeme Järvi. We’ll have more conductors (or better) than you can shake a stick at, today from 4 to 7 p.m., on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

  • I Love to Singa: Al Jolson’s Cartoon Classic

    I Love to Singa: Al Jolson’s Cartoon Classic

    by 

    Ross Amico
    in
    4 responses

    “I love to singa, about the moona and the Juna and the springa…”

    Owl Jolson:

    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ijkn_i-love-to-singa_shortfilms

    Al Jolson and the irrepressible Cab Calloway:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jchyev9bNk

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