Classic Ross Amico

  • Support Classic Ross Amico on WPRB #wprb75

    Support Classic Ross Amico on WPRB #wprb75

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    Ross Amico
    in
    5 responses

    Do you like what I’ve been doing at WPRB? Have you enjoyed the music? The guests? The five-hour exercises in thematic excess? Then, please, call in today and help cement my standing there with a strong show of listener support, at 609-258-1033.

    Classical Discoveries’ Marvin Rosen will join me from 6 to 11 ET, to beat the drum and cry for your pennies. Hopefully you’ll have some dough left over after your outstanding show of support for Marvin’s show yesterday.

    Like Marvin (though on a more modest scale), I’ve got some special “thank you” gifts to sweeten the pot (click on the image below). PLEASE NOTE: Because of the limited quantities of the titles, only those who pledge by telephone will be able to collect these special gifts.

    Listen in for music by Aaron Copland, Lou Harrison, Zoltán Kodály, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Steven Mackey, Miklós Rózsa, Florent Schmitt, Marcel Tyberg, and more Reinhold Gliere than you could comb out of your Stalinesque mustache. And to our telephone volunteers: good luck distinguishing E.J. Moeran (the English pastoralist) from Robert Moran (composer of “Game of the Antichrist”)!

    This is my first WPRB 103.3 FM pledge drive, and it would be great if we could drum up a few thousand dollars to help validate my existence. Pledge early and often for Classic Ross Amico, at 609-258-103.3 or wprb.com – and thank you!

    In addition to the authorized WPRB swag –the 75th anniversary commemorative pin and sticker set ($15), the t-shirt ($45), the lunch box and history booklet ($103.30), the retro bag ($250), a grab at immortality (and our eternal gratitude) through having your named inscribed on a station wall plaque ($500), and the anniversary banquet reservation ($1000) – consider picking up one of the following tasties for the low, low price of $45 dollars:

    BUILT FOR BUFFALO – World premiere concertos by Aguila, Hagen and Ewazen (SIGNED BY JOANN FALLETTA), BEAU FLUEVE RECORDS 610708-094951

    COPLAND, AARON – CELLULOID COPLAND, TELARC 80583

    DEBUSSY, CLAUDE – THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (with Edgar Allan Poe-inspired music by Andre Caplet & Florent Schmitt), EMI 47921

    FLEISHER, LEON – ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE, BRIDGE 9429

    GLIERE, REINHOLD – MACAL CONDUCTS GLIERE (Symphony No. 2 & “The Red Poppy,” w/the New Jersey Symphony), DELOS 3178

    GLIERE, REINHOLD – Symphony No. 3 “Ilya Muromets” (SIGNED BY JOANN FALLETTA), NAXOS 8.573161

    HARRISON, LOU – A PORTRAIT, ARGO 455 590-2

    KODALY, ZOLTAN – SUMMER EVENING: WORKS BY ZOLTAN KODALY AND JOSEF SUK, DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 447 109-2

    KORNGOLD, ERICH WOLFGANG – THE SEA HAWK: PREVIN CONDUCTS KORNGOLD, DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 471 347-2

    MACKEY, STEVEN – AMERICAN GRACE, CANARY CLASSICS 11

    MORAN, ROBERT – GAME OF THE ANTICHRIST (SIGNED BY THE COMPOSER), INNOVA 251

    MOERAN, E.J. – Cello Concerto (SIGNED BY JOANN FALLETTA), NAXOS 8.573034

    ROZSA, MIKLOS – CONCERTOS FOR VIOLIN AND CELLO, TELARC 80518

    TYBERG, MARCEL – Symphony No. 2 (SIGNED BY JOANN FALLETTA), NAXOS 8.572822

    #wprb75

  • Classical Music Friendship WPRB Fundraiser

    Classical Music Friendship WPRB Fundraiser

    by 

    Ross Amico
    in
    6 responses

    When Classical Discoveries’ Marvin Rosen bought a prized Richard Arnell disc out from under me at Princeton Record Exchange, who knew that it would lead to such a rewarding musical friendship. Marvin has since more than made up for that early indiscretion and not only showered me with his duplicates (including a few of the Richard Arnell symphonies), but he has volunteered to help me out at WPRB on more than one occasion. Tomorrow will be one of those.

    I hope you’ll join us, as Marvin will be my copilot. We’ll be playing selections from an assortment of “thank you” gifts, personally selected by me, of music by Aaron Copland, Lou Harrison, Zoltán Kodály, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Steven Mackey, Miklós Rózsa, Florent Schmitt, and Marcel Tyberg. In addition, there will be more Reinhold Gliere than might comfortably be digested. Laugh along, as we confuse the telephone volunteers by offering music by both E.J. Moeran and Robert Moran.

    It’s all part of the fun, as we attempt to raise funds, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Get ready to pad out your CD collection, tomorrow morning between 6 and 11 ET, as we offer music from George Perle to Jerome Kern, on Classic Ross Amico.

    #wprb75

  • Support WPRB Classical Discoveries Pledge Drive #WPRB75

    Support WPRB Classical Discoveries Pledge Drive #WPRB75

    by 

    Ross Amico
    in
    3 responses

    Would you trust these men with your music? Classic Ross Amico, on the phones and on the air, with Classical Discoveries’ Marvin Rosen, until 11 a.m. ET. Make your pledges in support of the new and unusual in “classical music” at 609-258-1033 or at wprb.com.

    This is the one chance this year for you to support Classical Discoveries and WPRB. The station holds but a single, week-long pledge drive per year. That’s it. I’m sure if you wanted to send the station a check at some point, they won’t turn it away, but if you want to be counted toward the ambitious goal of $75,000 to celebrate WPRB’s 75th year, you need to act this week.

    Take a look at these lipsmacking “thank you” gifts Marvin has assembled for you. These will be on offer only until 11, at WPRB 103.3 FM. All pledges are greatly appreciated, but because of the limited quantities of the titles, only those who pledge by telephone will be able to collect these special gifts.

    http://www.classicaldiscoveries.org/index_10_14_2015_temporary_file.html#CDs

    Then I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow, when we’ll do it again, in support of Classic Ross Amico, with a fresh batch of “thank you” gifts supplied by me. Better start fishing the change out of your sofas. We sincerely appreciate your support at Classical Discoveries, Classic Ross Amico, and WPRB.

    Make your pledges at 609-258-1033, or at wprb.com – and thank you!

    #WPRB75

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No 5 Birthday

    Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No 5 Birthday

    by 

    Ross Amico
    in
    4 responses

    Today is the birthday of one of my favorite composers of all time, Ralph Vaughan Williams. Since it’s a holiday, perhaps you’ll have time to luxuriate in his radiant Symphony No. 5, an unexpected of ray of hope composed during the darkest days of World War II (1938-1943). Some of the ideas were incorporated from work on his opera “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”

    The symphony is dedicated to another one of my all-time favorites, Jean Sibelius. When Sibelius heard the work in Stockholm, conducted by Malcolm Sargent, he wrote, “This symphony is a marvelous work… the dedication made me feel proud and grateful… I wonder if Dr. Williams has any idea of the pleasure he has given me?”

    It’s ironic that Vaughan Williams, a self-professed agnostic (who had softened his stance from atheism), often proved to be an exceptionally spiritual composer. The audience at the symphony’s premiere, with the 70 year-old composer conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra, emerged from Royal Albert Hall feeling enriched and empowered to face anything the future threw their way. Vaughan Williams’ music stirred in its listeners a determination to strive for light and life. The music somehow embodied everything the Allies were fighting for.

    Happy Birthday, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).

    Here’s Vaughan Williams conducting his Symphony No. 5 in 1952:

    And a recording of the work in more up-to-date sound, with the late, great Vernon Handley:

    PHOTO: RVW and Foxy

  • Forgotten Swiss Music Bloch & Huber

    Forgotten Swiss Music Bloch & Huber

    by 

    Ross Amico
    in
    3 responses

    Enough with your jokes about alphorns and cuckoo clocks! Tonight on “The Lost Chord,” we listen to forgotten music from Switzerland.

    Ernest Bloch, who is best known for his music on Jewish themes (such as his Hebraic rhapsody “Schelomo”), actually spent most of his life in the United States. He died in Portland, OR, in 1959, at the age of 78.

    50 years earlier, while still in Switzerland, he composed his song cycle “Poèmes d’automne.” At the time, he was at work on his opera, “Macbeth,” but was sidelined when he made the acquaintance of a young poet by the name of Beatrix Rodès. He fell instantly in love with her, and set four of her poems within two months. Rodès would eventually become his mistress, though in the end Bloch chose to remain with his wife. It’s said that the texts, even in the original French, are of dubious literary quality.

    The composer arranged them to form a kind of progression, in which a woman passes from sadness and desolation, to peace and love, to lamentation for the passing of her beauty, to an air of serenity as she becomes a priestess.

    Okay, so it’s not his strongest work, but it is seasonal and interesting to listen to.

    Hans Huber, who lived from 1852 to 1921, was the composer of nine symphonies (of which he acknowledged eight), five operas, and a number of concertos for various instruments. His four concertos for piano are somewhat unusual in that, like Brahms’ experiments in the form, they are made up of four movements, with the addition of a scherzo, as opposed to the customary three.

    The Piano Concerto No. 3 first appeared on a concert in Basel, in February of 1899, which also included Beethoven’s “Leonore Overture No. 3” and Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy.”

    It’s an unusual piece, for, among other things, presenting in the first movement the theme from the work’s finale as the underpinnings of a passacaglia.

    I hope you’ll join me for an hour of forgotten music from Switzerland – “Swiss Missed” – tonight at 10 ET. Please note, because of WWFM’s impending “Around the World in 80 Hours” pledge drive, there will be no Wednesday repeats of “The Lost Chord” for the next two weeks. Catch it tonight, or listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

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