• English Abroad Film Scores WWFM

    English Abroad Film Scores WWFM

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    “Picture Perfect” follows the English abroad this week, with music from “Enchanted April” (Richard Rodney Bennett), “A Passage to India” (Maurice Jarre), “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (Thomas Newman) and “Around the World in 80 Days” (Victor Young).

    Bennett, quite the accomplished concert composer (and occasional singer of torch songs), provides a sensitive score for the 1991 Merchant/Ivory adaptation of Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel about four English ladies who spend an idyllic month at an Italian villa.

    Jarre received his third Academy Award for his music to David Lean’s final film, the 1984 adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel of repression and racial tension in colonial India.

    Newman incorporates traditional Indian elements into his score for “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” the 2012 surprise hit about English pensioners reinventing themselves in their retirement abroad.

    Young won his only Oscar (alas, bestowed posthumously) for “Around the World in 80 Days,” the star-studded, light-as-a-feather, though admittedly charming megawinner at the 1956 Academy Awards. It takes longer to watch the movie than it does to read Verne’s novel – though it does provide a rare opportunity to see Ronald Colman in color.

    The weekend’s coming, so pack your valise and head on over to http://www.wwfm.org, Friday at 6 p.m. ET.

    And don’t forget, past and recent installments of “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” are archived for your enjoyment at the WWFM website. Click on “webcasts” and then select the show.


  • Fool’s Paradise Ballet on WWFM

    Fool’s Paradise Ballet on WWFM

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    Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we anticipate April Fool’s Day with Knudage Riisager’s ballet “Slaraffenland” (usually translated as “Fool’s Paradise”). Inspired by Bruegel’s painting “The Land of Cockaigne,” the scenario imagines a Promised Land “where roasted pigeons fly around in the air with knives and forks in their backs, and the streets are paved with marzipan and chocolate.”

    Riisager was born in 1897 to Danish parents living in Estonia. He studied music at Copenhagen University and then in Paris with Albert Roussel. Though he was a prolific composer, with some 400 works to his name, including symphonies, concertos, chamber music and songs, he is probably best known, if at all, for his ballet music.

    Tune in Sunday at 10 pm ET, with a repeat Thursday at 11 pm ET, at wwfm.org.


  • Radio Shows Movies and More on Facebook

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    Welcome to my Facebook page. Check back frequently for links to my radio shows, “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord,” to my newspaper articles and other related material, and for recommendations of and occasional insights into recordings, books and classic movies. My website is under construction. Thanks for reading.


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