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Apparently this story broke a day or two ago, but I am only just learning of it. Perhaps you are, too.
Joseph Kovacs was concertmaster of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (unrelated to the present organization) under Nicholas Harsanyi, back in the 1950s. He studied under Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music, where he won the prestigious Hubay prize. Kovacs died on April 27 at the age of 91.
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May the Fourth be with you!
Join me this morning on WPRB, as we listen to music by John Williams performed by the FilmHarmonic Brass. It’s one of at least 11 recent releases we’ll enjoy, with composers spanning from Robert Schumann to Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw and performers ranging from the Philadelphia-based choral ensemble The Crossing to Yo-Yo Ma.
We’ll also have a couple of special guests in the studio. At 9:00, Clipper Erickson, piano, will drop by to share music from his new release of instrumental works by Laurie Altman. Erickson will be performing music by R. Nathaniel Dett and Modest Mussorgsky in recital at Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton on Saturday at 5 p.m.
At 10:00 this morning, I’ll be joined by composer Zhou Tian, whose “Broken Ink” will be given its US premiere by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rossen Milanov, at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on Sunday at 4 p.m. Our conversation will be followed by a broadcast of Zhou’s brilliantly orchestrated Concerto for Orchestra, written for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. (As an added bonus, tune in early, around 6:15, to hear Zhou’s “Morning after the Deluge,” performed by the Society for New Music.)
It will be raining new releases, hallelujah, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Après le déluge, c’est Classic Ross Amico.
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I welcome a couple of very special guests to the WPRB studios this morning.
At 9:00, Clipper Erickson, piano, will drop by to share music from his new release of instrumental works by Laurie Altman. Erickson will be performing music by R. Nathaniel Dett and Modest Mussorgsky in recital at Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton on Saturday at 5 p.m.
At 10:00 this morning, I’ll be joined by composer Zhou Tian, whose “Broken Ink” will be given its US premiere by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rossen Milanov, at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on Sunday at 4 p.m. Our conversation will be followed by a broadcast of Zhou’s brilliantly orchestrated Concerto for Orchestra, written for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
It’s all new releases until 11:00 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.
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What’s new? Why, new releases!
It’s been too long since I last did one of these shows, which means I’ve got a shelf-full of material from which to choose. Join me tomorrow morning on WPRB to hear Yo-Yo Ma perform the cello concerto, “Azul” (Spanish for “Blue”), by Osvaldo Golijov, with The Knights (orchestra), on Warner Classics & Erato. Watch out for that hyper-accordion!
Caroline Shaw reaches across the centuries to Dietrich Buxtehude in “To the Hands,” performed by Philadelphia-based The Crossing (choral ensemble), as part of a fascinating concept album on the Innova Recordings label, “Seven Responses,” in which contemporary composers reflect on Buxtehude’s cycle of seven cantatas, “Membra Jesu nostri patientis sanctissima” (“Most Holy Limbs of Our Suffering Jesus”).
At 9:00, Clipper Erickson, piano, who is on the faculties of both Westminster Conservatory of Music and Boyer College of Music and Dance – Temple University, will drop by the studio to talk about his new release of piano music by Laurie Altman, on Neos (record label). Erickson will be performing music by R. Nathaniel Dett and Modest Mussorgsky in recital at Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton on Saturday at 5 p.m.
At 10:00 tomorrow, I’ll be joined by composer Zhou Tian, whose “Broken Ink” will be given its US premiere by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rossen Milanov, at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on Sunday at 4 p.m. Our conversation will be followed by a broadcast of Zhou’s brilliantly orchestrated Concerto for Orchestra, written for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. The recording was issued on the orchestra’s Fanfare Cincinnati label.
We’ll also hear new recordings of music by John Adams performed by Alarm Will Sound (Cantaloupe Music), Richard Strauss by JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (Naxos), Schumann by pianist Joyce Yang and the Alexander String Quartet, and John Williams by the FilmHarmonic Brass (Roven Records).
May the Fourth be with you, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We find release in recent acquisitions, on Classic Ross Amico.
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She was an extraordinary figure of her time. 26 years before women were granted the right to vote in the United States, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach composed a symphony that conquered Boston.
The “Gaelic Symphony,” as she titled it, was written in 1894. It was conceived in direct response to a call by prominent Czech composer Antonin Dvořák for Americans to break away from the European models they had for so long venerated. Instead, he urged Americans to open themselves up to their own surroundings, to find what was uniquely American and forge a distinctive national sound. For a Boston resident, English, Scottish, and Irish melodies would have been natural resources.
To coincide with the 150th anniversary of Beach’s birth, the Westminster Community Orchestra will revive this rarely-heard work, on Saturday at 8 p.m. The concert will take place at Princeton Meadow Event Center. Also on the program will be Mendelssohn’s “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage” and a recent opus, “The Heroine’s Theme,” by Westminster Master of Music in Composition student Caeleb Tee.
You will find my article on Amy Beach and the “Gaelic Symphony” in this week’s U.S. 1, a handsome newspaper, established in 1984, with a circulation of nearly 20,000. Copies are available up and down the Route 1 corridor of Central NJ – including, of course, Princeton. Or you can follow this link.
http://www.princetoninfo.com/index.php/component/us1more/?Itemid=6&key=5-3-17ochs
Ruth Ochs, conductor of the Westminster Community Orchestra for the past 12 years, will be my guest this afternoon on WWFM – The Classical Network. Tune in at 4:00 p.m. EDT to enjoy our conversation about Amy Beach and the “Gaelic Symphony.”
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