Classic Ross Amico

Howard Hanson’s Bold Island Inspiration

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Ross Amico

August 22, 2021

in Daily Dispatch

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For many, the prospect of having to work through vacation can be a real drag; but for the creative artist, getting away can be a welcome opportunity to really get things done.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear three pieces associated with Bold Island, Maine, the summer home of Howard Hanson.

For 40 years, Hanson was director of the Eastman School of Music. In that capacity he nurtured and championed innumerable American composers, giving literally thousands of premieres at the helm of the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, an ensemble he founded. The lucky ones made it onto Hanson’s records on the Mercury label.

Hanson, of course, was himself a composer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1944, for his Symphony No. 4 “Requiem,” written in memory of his father. But his best-known music, undoubtedly, is his Symphony No. 2 “Romantic,” composed in 1930.

The famous “Hanson sound” is one of heart-on-the-sleeve romanticism, characterized by glowingly nostalgic melodies, though he also had his severe side. After all, he was born in Wahoo, Nebraska, to Swedish parents, and a certain Nordic austerity can be detected, especially in his later works.

His Symphony No. 6, of 1967, is more tightly argued than his earlier, more famous symphonies. Its six brief movements are built on a recurring motif. At times, it can sound a bit like Sibelius, though Hanson very much remains his own man. Hanson being Hanson, he doesn’t really skimp on the lyricism, but he doesn’t exactly indulge it to the same extent he does in the earlier works. Still, predictably, the symphony was derided as old-fashioned by the genuinely austere musical establishment of the day.

The Bold Island connection is through Hanson’s “Summer Seascape No. 2,” written a few years earlier, and clearly the blueprint for the symphony. In fact, the opening of the symphony is identical.

Hanson’s first “Summer Seascape” forms the centerpiece of his “Bold Island Suite,” a separate work composed in 1961. The suite also contains movements with the descriptive titles “Birds of the Sea” and “God in Nature.”

The North Atlantic inspires some august music, on “August Hanson,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Not-very-austere Puffins off the coast of Maine
Land That Time Forgot Burroughs Sci-Fi

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Ross Amico

August 21, 2021

in Daily Dispatch

5 responses

It occurs to me, I never got around to sharing last week’s show. I suppose it’s only appropriate that I, Old Man Time, would have forgotten “The Land That Time Forgot” (1974). To be fair, I was awfully tired on Sunday night. But you know what? I just watched it, and it turned out to be a pretty entertaining conversation, if I do say so myself.

“The Land That Time Forgot” is based on yet another rip-roaring adventure by Edgar Rice Burroughs. We hope you’ll join us THIS Sunday for a visit with author and Burroughs authority Scott Tracy Griffin. Griffin has spent most of his life steeped in Burroughsiana and shares his wealth of knowledge through public speaking, interviews, film commentary, comics, and lavish coffee table books. He’s the author of “Tarzan: The Centennial Collection” and “Tarzan on Film.”

As a massive Burroughs fan myself, I’ve been looking forward to this show for a long time. But then, as you know, I was raised by apes. I hope you’ll join us for the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, with Scott Tracy Griffin. Bring your Burroughs questions to the comments section, as we livestream on Facebook, this Sunday evening at 7:00 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner
Artistic Drama Behind the Masterpieces on Screen

by

Ross Amico

August 21, 2021

in Daily Dispatch

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How to translate visual art to the big screen? Generally, by focusing on the drama in the artists’ lives, that’s how.

And what drama!

This week on “Picture Perfect,” expand your palette with music from movies about the great artists. “The Agony and the Ecstasy” (1965), based on the novel of Irving Stone, dramatizes the friction between Michelangelo (Charlton Heston) and his benefactor, Pope Julius II (Rex Harrison), over the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. For his part, Michelangelo would have been perfectly content to stick to sculpture. Alex North’s score is an Early Music banquet, with allusions to – and sometimes outright quotations of – music of the Renaissance.

Stone had another bestseller in “Lust for Life” (1956), about the tormented Vincent van Gogh. This time Kirk Douglas plays one of his most sympathetic roles – and looks remarkably like the artist. Anthony Quinn turns up as his “frenemy,” the painter Paul Gaugin, and earns an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The great Miklós Rózsa wrote the music, softening up the edges of his brawny Hungarian sound with the softer palette of the French Impressionists.

John Huston brought Pierre La Mure’s novel about Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to the big screen as “Moulin Rouge” (1952) – not to be confused with the more recent Baz Luhrmann spectacle starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, which relegated the artist to a supporting role. José Ferrer dominates the earlier version, spending most of the film walking through off-camera trenches and shuffling along on his knees. Georges Auric, one of the composers of Les Six (which also included Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud), captures the spirit of the titular cabaret. The score became one of Auric’s best-known, thanks to the waltz becoming a popular hit, “Where is Your Heart?”

“The Picasso Summer” (1969) is a departure from the usual formula of focusing on the artist himself. Instead, a young couple (Albert Finney and Yvette Mimieux), admirers of Picasso’s work, take off on a European adventure in an attempt to track him down. Originally Picasso had agreed to appear, but he was driven off by some off-screen drama involving a matador friend and Yul Brynner’s wife! The film was based on a short story by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury hated the adaptation, as did the studio, and “The Picasso Summer,” after being heavily cut and patched with new footage, was never released theatrically in the United States. The film is striking for its extended animation sequences inspired by Picasso’s paintings, and for its score by Michel Legrand.

I hope you’ll join me for brushes with the great artists, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Edgar Rice Burroughs Worlds with Scott Tracy Griffin

by

Ross Amico

August 20, 2021

in Daily Dispatch

4 responses

I set my foot upon the stack of Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks that have fueled my summer – 6 Tarzan books, 8 from the John Carter of Mars series, all 3 of the Caspak novels, and a Burroughs lark titled “The Cave Girl” – raise my eyes to the full moon, and give vent to the wild, uncanny challenge of the bull ape!

Collectively, these will supply so much pulp and grist for a conversation with Scott Tracy Griffin, on the next “Roy’s Tie Dye Sci Fi Corner.”

A veritable fount of Burroughsiana, Griffin is the author of two lavishly-illustrated, delightfully informative tomes, “Tarzan: The Centennial Celebration” and “Tarzan on Film.”

Of course, Burroughs’ imagination roamed far beyond the jungle habitat of Tarzan of the Apes – one of the most famous literary creations of all time – to explore lost continents, the hollow earth, neighboring planets, and beyond the farthest star. Nobody knew how to build fantastic worlds over the course of a series quite like Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Ray Bradbury, a lifelong fan, called him “probably the most influential writer in the entire history of the world.” There’s no question he was one of the most popular writers in the first half of the 20th century.

He was also a pioneer of merchandizing, so that his creations came to dominate print, movies, radio, and related memorabilia. In fact, Burrough’s ape man became the first pop cultural icon to achieve global recognition. Not bad for a frustrated adventurer and failed businessman who didn’t publish his first story until the age of 35!

We hope that you’ll swing on by for a wild time with Scott Tracy Griffin, on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Don your loincloths in the comments section, as we livestream on Facebook, THIS SUNDAY NIGHT AT 7:00 EDT!

https://www.facebook.com/roystiedyescificorner

Five-minute intro to Burroughs that does a good job of placing him in context of his world

Opera singer Lloyd Thomas Leech, one of those who claimed to have recorded the M-G-M Tarzan yell, singing Leoncavallo’s “Mattinata”

Animated demo of John Carter for a projected 1936 film

Tarzan at tax time

Carol Burnett on “The Jack Benny Program” (Tarzan parody begins about 11 minutes in)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqV9WAVJiAo
Beyond Romanian Rhapsody Discover Enescu’s Genius

by

Ross Amico

August 19, 2021

in Daily Dispatch

7 responses

Why exactly is composer George Enescu apoplectic? Because, still, 66 years after his death, all we ever hear is his Romanian Rhapsody No. 1.

Enescu (1881-1955), arguably Romania’s greatest musical export, was a child prodigy who excelled also as a violinist, a pianist, a conductor, and a teacher. At the age of seven, he became the youngest student ever to be admitted to the Vienna Conservatory. He graduated before his 13th birthday. From there, he went to Paris and embarked on a charmed career with too many highlights to detail here. Pablo Casals, described him as “the greatest musical phenomenon since Mozart.”

He composed his biggest hit, the Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 (1901), at the age of 19. So popular did it prove that it became a kind of millstone to Enescu. People didn’t want to hear anything else. They still don’t!

On Enescu’s birthday, give the gift of an open mind and take a few minutes to sample some of his other music!

A lovely piece for a summer’s day, the Decet for Winds (1906)

A live performance of Enescu’s first published piece, the “Romanian Poem” (1898), written when he was only 16:

Concert Overture on Popular Romanian Themes (1948)

Enescu plays his own Violin Sonata No. 3 (1926), with legendary Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti:

Lipatti plays Enescu’s Piano Sonata No. 3 (1933-35)

Symphonie Concertante for Cello and Orchestra (1901)

The visionary Symphony No. 3, with choral finale (1916-18; rev. 1921-51)