Classic Ross Amico

  • Remembering Stephen Paulus Music

    Remembering Stephen Paulus Music

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    Ross Amico
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    Today is the birthday of American composer Stephen Paulus. Though he made much of his career in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Paulus was born in Summit, NJ, in 1949. He served as composer-in-residence with both the Minnesota Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He was particularly noted for his choral and vocal works, including the second and best-known of his 11 operas, “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” Paulus died on Oct. 19, 2014, nearly 16 months after suffering a debilitating stroke.

    We’ll celebrate this beloved voice in American music today in the 6:00 hour, as we listen to a Grammy Award-winning recording of his “Prayers and Remembrances,” featuring True Concord Voices & Orchestra. The work was recognized earlier this year in the category of Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Since Paulus had already passed, the award was accepted by his wife and his two sons. “Prayers and Remembrances” was written to mark the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. I hope you will join me for this moving and beautiful music.

    I’ll also be playing something from a new album I received only this week (“Wind Concerti,” BCM+D Records) featuring contemporary American woodwind concertos, performed by the Temple University Wind Symphony with members of the The Philadelphia Orchestra and faculty from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. The 2-CD set, which features music by Anthony Plog, Joel Puckett, Jay Krush, Jennifer Higdon, David Maslanka, and Adam Silverman, is a delight, and I can’t wait to share some of it with you.

    Join me for American music and more today, Wednesday, between 4 and 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

    Stephen Paulus Music

  • Vaughan Williams’ London Symphony on WWFM

    Vaughan Williams’ London Symphony on WWFM

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    Ross Amico
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    Principally because of alluring musical flights of fancy like “The Lark Ascending,” Ralph Vaughan Williams has been somewhat pigeon-holed as the foremost proponent of the “cow-pat school” of English composition. While he certainly did spend a good deal of his life strolling the English countryside, he considered himself first and foremost a Londoner. Join me this afternoon at 1:00 EDT to partake of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 2, “A London Symphony.”

    Vaughan Williams claimed that while the work bore a programmatic subtitle, it was meant to be experienced primarily as “absolute” music. He preferred it be thought of as a symphony by a Londoner, as opposed to an attempt to portray the actual city.

    Nonetheless, the symphony contains allusions to street music, barrel organs, the jingle of hansom cabs, and the Westminster Chimes, among other things, and it certainly is tempting to conjure images of the hustle and bustle of Piccadilly Circus and, perhaps, in the slow movement, one of the nocturne paintings of James McNeill Whistler.

    It’s one of the featured highlights this afternoon, as the country mouse plays city mouse, from noon to 4 p.m., on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

    PHOTO: Vaughan Williams and Foxy: “Did somebody say mouse?”

  • Debussy Birthday Celebration A French Holiday

    Debussy Birthday Celebration A French Holiday

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    Ross Amico
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    It’s widely perceived that the French really understand how to enjoy life. Why else would Claude Debussy be sitting on a beach fully clothed and holding a parasol? Come to think of it, I guess everyone went to the beach dressed like that in those days (as I still prefer to do).

    Join me for une petite vacance, as I celebrate the birthday of Claude Debussy, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

  • Broadway Scam Life Imitates Art

    Broadway Scam Life Imitates Art

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    Ross Amico
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    Life imitates art: Real-life Broadway producer defrauds investors over proposed musical about Kathleen Battle!

    http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/manhattan-producer-allegedly-bilked-pals-fake-broadway-show-article-1.2758102

  • Dvořák’s Dark Tales Erben’s Haunting “Bouquet”

    Dvořák’s Dark Tales Erben’s Haunting “Bouquet”

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    Hallowe’en comes early, this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” as we listen to music inspired by stories from Karel Jaromir Erben’s “Kytice,” or “Bouquet.”

    Like the Brothers Grimm in Germany, Erben synthesized native folk tales into often gruesome fairy stories. In doing so, he became an important figure in the establishment of a Czech national identity. His stories are recited by Czech schoolchildren and recalled proudly by the Czech people. Despite its influence, “Kytice” did not appear in a complete English translation until 2013.

    Antonin Dvořák was particularly fond of Erben’s tales. In 1896, he composed a series of symphonic poems after Erben ballads, including “The Water Goblin,” “The Noon Witch” and “The Wood Dove.” Erben’s influence also hangs over Dvořák’s most famous opera, “Rusalka.”

    We’ll salute Erben with two Dvořák works: the symphonic poem “The Golden Spinning Wheel,” and the final scene from the dramatic cantata “The Spectre’s Bride.”

    “The Golden Spinning Wheel” is a Cinderella story gone very, very wrong, as a wicked stepmother and stepsister not only murder but dismember an unfortunate maiden favored by the king. Not to give too much away, but the titular appliance proves their undoing.

    “The Spectre’s Bride” is another in the seemingly infinite variations on the tale of a young woman being swept off by the ghost of her lover. The climax of Dvořák’s cantata places the heroine in a cottage besieged by howling spirits, as a corpse on the table, prepared for burial, stirs to do their bidding.

    Forget Dvořák’s “Slavonic Dances.” Join me for “Erben Legends,” as we celebrate Karel Jaromir Erben, this Sunday night at 10 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

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