“Barbarella” must have been a real trip – literally – back in the day. But they still haven’t perfected virtual LSD, so now it’s just a slog. At least for me. Still, there was certainly plenty interesting to talk about it. It takes a lot of talented and quirky people to make a movie as bad as “Barbarella.”
At the risk of inflicting whiplash, we’ll shift gears pretty severely tomorrow night, for a three-way conversation about Robert Wise’s “The Andromeda Strain” (1971). Rob Kash will be our guest, as we don the hazmat suits for a deadly-serious adaptation of this Michael Crichton contagion thriller.
Your comments are the only antidote, as we livestream on Facebook, this Sunday evening at 7:00 EST!
Throughout the month of February, to coincide with Black History Month, I’ve been reaching into the archive for relevant material from “The Lost Chord,” originally broadcast over WWFM – The Classical Network.
My four-part survey, “Black to the Future,” celebrates the compact disc reissue – after 40 years – of Columbia Records’ landmark Black Composers Series. These visionary recordings, made under the direction of conductor Paul Freeman (pictured), were originally released on vinyl between 1974 and 1978. Now collected into a 10-CD box set by Sony Classical, they provide a rare overview of 200 years-worth of neglected music, from a time when most of it was essentially unknown. Indeed, there are still plenty of fascinating discoveries to be savored.
The third installment includes a Romantic violin concerto by Cuban composer José Silvestre de los Dolores White y Lafitte (José White, for short), a cello sonata written for Janos Starker by David Baker, and “Eight Miniatures for Small Orchestra” by Panamanian composer Roque Cordero.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” rise above your earthly concerns and keep looking up, with an hour of music about flight and aviation.
We’ll begin with selections from “The High and the Mighty” (1954). John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, and Robert Stack star in this high-altitude drama about a harrowing flight from Honolulu to San Francisco. Dimitri Tiomkin supplied the Academy Award-winning music for William Wellman’s thriller, a forerunner to the airborne disaster craze of the 1970s.
James Stewart may have been a little long-in-the-tooth for “The Spirit of St. Louis” (1957). Stewart was 22 years older than his subject, Charles Lindbergh, at the time of his historic flight across the Atlantic. But Billy Wilder’s film was a passion project for the actor, who, as a USAAF pilot during World War II, attained the rank of Brigadier General. Franz Waxman composed the ageless score.
“Airport” (1970), after the best-selling novel of Arthur Hailey, kicked-off the most enduring of all-star disaster franchises. Burt Lancaster heads the cast, and Helen Hayes won her second Oscar as a spirited stowaway. It also marked the first appearance in the series by George Kennedy, who rose through the ranks during all the subsequent “Airport” films. The score was the last by Alfred Newman, rounding off an illustrious career. Newman supplied original music for over 200 films – on TOP of his duties as music director at 20th Century Fox, a position he held for 20 years. In all, Newman earned seven Academy Awards.
Finally, we’ll turn to “The Blue Max” (1966). George Peppard, James Mason, and Ursula Andress star in this movie about a German pilot’s quest for glory, as he strives for the titular reward – a decoration for valor – during the First World War. In order to attain it, he must shoot down 20 aircraft. Obviously, in a film heavy with dogfighting, there is much aerial photography and stunt piloting. The score, a comparatively early one for Jerry Goldsmith, has always been a fan favorite.
Get a bird’s-eye view of flight and aviation, this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies. Classic film music is the wind beneath our wings, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Today is the 95th birthday of György Kurtág. It is fortunate that he has been so long-lived, since it wasn’t until an age when most people contemplate retirement, in his 60s, that his international reputation really began to take off.
The aphoristic Hungarian master was born on this date in 1929. He forged a lifelong friendship with György Ligeti, while studying at Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy, where he also met the woman who would become his wife. Márta, a pianist, died in 2019 at the age of 92.
Following the Hungarian uprising of 1956, Kurtág spent an extended period in Paris, where he studied with Olivier Messiaen, Darius Milhaud, and Schoenberg pupil Max Deutsch. It was also during this time that he was introduced to the music of Anton Webern and the plays of Samuel Beckett. When Ligeti directed him to a performance of Beckett’s “Endgame,” Kurtág described it as one of the strongest experiences of his life.
He returned to Budapest, where eventually he wound up teaching at his alma mater for 26 years. Gradually, he built a reputation as one of the most respected composers of his time. A meticulous artist, Kurtág’s works are like finely honed miniatures. But these are not pieces for display in the curio cabinet. Rather they are exquisitely crafted microcosms, notable for their poetry and flashes of expressive intensity.
Sadly, the U.S. premiere of his opera, “Fin de partie,” after “Endgame,” which was to have taken place with the New York Philharmonic in June, has been cancelled, thanks to Covid. The work was enthusiastically received following its La Scala debut in 2018. Hopefully it will be rescheduled soon.
For now, a glass of pálinka for György Kurtág on his 95th birthday!
Zoltán Kocsis, Kurtág, and Márta play “Játékok” (“Games”)
Wind Quintet, Op. 2
Six Short Pieces for Guitar
Seven Songs for Soprano and Cimbalom, with Barbara Hannigan
Inclement weather got you down? As long as the power holds, there’s no reason to be glum.
In recent days, my inbox has been a logjam of press releases for streamed concerts. It’s still a big, wide, wonderful world of music out there, and there’s something for just about every taste.
My pick for the weekend – and I realize it may not be everyone’s cup of cocoa – is a FREE stream of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s most opulent opera, “Das Wunder der Heliane” (“The Miracle of Heliane”). Korngold was a celebrated child prodigy and an opera composer well before he came to Hollywood to write music for Errol Flynn and Bette Davis. “Heliane” is a heady blend of eroticism, pathos, and redemption. I can’t speak for the production, but the music is guaranteed to be transporting. The opera is being offered on-demand, from Deutsche Oper Berlin, now through Sunday at 9 am EST (assuming the times on the website are German). Visit https://www.deutscheoperberlin.de/de_DE/das-wunder-der-heliane-als-video-on-demand?fbclid=IwAR0gsLk8oT5GFsq5q_73iwq6K9IVVBhOc9e7W5jYxn8ZwOvuKXvcKqbmx14
Closer to home, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra has posted the first of a four-part series devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach’s “The Musical Offering.” The installments, which include illuminating commentary by PSO assistant conductor Nell Flanders, will be released weekly over the coming month and can be viewed FREE. Part One is posted now at https://princetonsymphony.org/
Whether because of the political zeitgeist, for Black History Month, or the natural result of cumulative exposure to the repertoire, there has been a really nice representation of music by Black composers recently. And the development is a welcome one. This weekend, The Philadelphia Orchestra will present Florence Price’s Piano Concerto, alongside works by Rossini and Schubert. The on-demand concert will be available starting tonight at 8 pm and will stream through next Thursday at 11 pm EST. Tickets available at https://philorch.org/
If new music is more your thing, Bang on a Can will present a marathon of 16 world premieres by living composers, including avant-garde icon Alvin Lucier and Princeton’s own Bora Yoon. Streaming of the four-hour event will begin this Sunday at 1 pm EST. The marathon is FREE and can be viewed at https://live.bangonacan.org/
As always, free may be free, but donations are welcome – indeed encouraged – and help support the performers and organizations.
Snowbound? ‘S no problem! There’s still plenty to munch on. Classical music is like grilled cheese for the soul, and it’s a lot easier on the arteries.
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