Classic Ross Amico

Eugene Ormandy Underrated Maestro

by

Ross Amico

November 18, 2020

in Daily Dispatch

5 responses

What’s the big deal about this guy, Jenő Blau? Well, you probably know him better by his adopted name, Eugene Ormandy.

Ormandy, a Hungarian-born violinist who had studied with Jenő Hubay (for whom he was named), became a naturalized American citizen in 1927. He ultimately wound up directing The Philadelphia Orchestra for 44 years. In that capacity, he became one of the world’s most-recorded conductors.

However, in some respects, he remains a vastly underrated one. Sure, he was a superb interpreter of 19th century and post-romantic classics (his Columbia recording of Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” was one of my go-to favorites as a teen, and he was an authoritative conductor of Rachmaninoff and Sibelius), but he also championed much contemporary music and new works written by his adopted countrymen. Also, if ever there was a more sensitive accompanist in the concerto repertoire, I don’t know of him.

One of my favorite Ormandy records was also one of his later ones. Throughout his career Ormandy succeeded in selling Sibelius’ “Four Legends from the Kalevala,” a collection of tone poems inspired by the Finnish national epic the “Kalevala,” for the early masterpiece that it is.

Here again is the final section, “Lemminkainen’s Homeward Journey,” even more thrilling, in 1940:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzQMyCsB8eQ

The legendary Philadelphia strings in Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis”

Hindemith, “Concert Music for Strings and Brass”

Ivan Davis joins Ormandy and the Philadelphians for Liszt’s “Hungarian Fantasy,” slight abridged:

Bruckner “Te Deum” with Temple University Choir

World premiere performance of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto:

Shostakovich Symphony No. 4:

Reinhold Glière’s “Russian Sailor’s Dance”

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, with Eugene Istomin

Ormandy conducts “Scheherazade” (complete). This is the Philly Orchestra I remember from my college years.

Debussy, “Reverie”

Saint-Saens’ Symphony No. 3 “Organ”

Happy birthday, Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985)!
Celebrating 9 Decades of David Amram

by

Ross Amico

November 17, 2020

in Daily Dispatch

6 responses

Celebrate nine decades of David Amram.

Amram, born in Philadelphia on this date in 1930, has always been equally at home in classical music, jazz, folk, and world music. The composer of over 100 orchestral and chamber works, music for Broadway and film (including the scores for “Splendor in the Grass” and “The Manchurian Candidate”), and two operas, he’s also the author of three books: “Vibrations: The Adventures and Musical Times of David Amram” (1968), “Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac” (2002), and “Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat” (2007).l;

Amram was raised on a farm in Bucks County. There, he was introduced to classical, jazz, and cantorial music by his father and uncle. He took piano lessons and experimented with instruments of the brass family, finally settling on the French horn. Following a year at Oberlin, he lit out for George Washington University, where he studied history. While there, he performed as a freelance hornist with the National Symphony. He also studied privately with two musicians in the orchestra.

Amram became a pioneer of the jazz French horn, as well as the New York Philharmonic’s first composer-in-residence (designated as such in 1966). He’s worked with artists ranging from Dizzy Gillespie to Bob Dylan to Leonard Bernstein, from Jack Kerouac to Arthur Miller, from Christopher Plummer to Johnny Depp. He’s a musician without boundaries, who has always been open to new experiences.

And he’s still going strong. He was to have appeared with his quintet in Marlboro, NY, today to celebrate his 90th birthday, the first such event of 13 scheduled to take place in the U.S. and abroad. However, like everything else, the celebration has been postponed because of the virus.

In the meantime, he is participating in a free weekly Zoom series, on which he’s been reading from his book, “Offbeat: Collaborating with Jack Kerouac.” More information is posted on his website, davidamram.com.

A note on today’s calendar listing, about the postponed concert, suggests an alternative mode of celebration: “Write him a note, call him or best of all, he requests that you send him an ESP thought-wave-o-gram, be creative yourself and look forward to the new vaccine and new administration making us all healthier than ever in the next year!!!”

Working on my ESP thought-wave-o-gram now. Happy birthday, David Amram!

Trailer for “David Amram: The First 80 Years”:

Amram Horn Concerto:

Amram with Dizzy Gillespie:

Amram jamming at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2011:
Philly Orchestra Celebrates 120 Years

by

Ross Amico

November 16, 2020

in Daily Dispatch

7 responses

Happy birthday, The Philadelphia Orchestra! Looking pretty good for 120.

The Fabulous Philadelphians gave their first public concert under Fritz Scheel on this date in 1900. The event took place at the orchestra’s former home of the Academy of Music, located on the southwest corner of Broad and Locust Streets. On the program were works by Carl Goldmark (“In Spring” Overture), Beethoven (Symphony No. 5), Tchaikovsky (Piano Concerto No. 1), Weber-Berlioz (“Invitation to the Dance”), and Wagner (“Entry of the Gods into Valhalla”).

The soloist on that occasion was Ossip Gabrilowitsch. Gabrilowitsch’s teachers at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory included Anton Rubinstein and Nikolai Medtner. He then studied for two years in Vienna under the legendary pedagogue Theodor Leschitizky. Not only was Gabrilowitsch a prominent pianist, he was also offered the music directorship of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which he politely declined. Later, he became founding director of the Detroit Symphony in 1918. He was also Mark Twain’s son-in-law. In my possession is a biography I picked up at a library sale a few years ago, “My Husband, Gabrilowitsch,” that I noticed had been inscribed by Twain’s daughter, Clara Clemens!

Fritz Scheel was succeeded as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra by Carl Pohlig in 1908. Leopold Stokowski (pictured) followed in 1912; Stoky would lead the group for the next 24 years. Then came Eugene Ormandy, who held the podium until 1980 – 44 years. Ormandy passed the baton to Riccardo Muti, who directed from 1980 to 1992. Muti was followed Wolfgang Sawallisch, who remained with the orchestra for the next decade. Sawallisch was succeeded by Christoph Eschenbach in 2003. Eschenbach was followed by Charles Dutoit, appointed “Chief Conductor” in 2008. And, bringing us up to the present, Yannick Nézet-Séguin arrived, with vitality to burn, in 2012. What a history!

Looking forward to next week’s Digital Stage concert (available November 25-29), which will include the Philadelphia premiere of Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1. Price’s symphony was the first by an African American woman to be performed by a major orchestra (the Chicago Symphony, in 1933). Also on the program will be Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.” For more information on this and other Philadelphia Orchestra events, visit philorch.org.

Thank you, Philadelphia, for taking a chance on substantial works by composers such as Price and Louise Farrenc. I was there, in the hall, for Farrenc’s Symphony No. 2. So sorry not to be able to attend the Price performance in person. Perhaps next year.

Happy 120th!

PHOTO: The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music in 1916, ready to go for the American premiere of Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand”
Happy Birthday Curly Joe Gebrauchsmusik

by

Ross Amico

November 16, 2020

in Daily Dispatch

2 responses

Happy birthday to the man some historians describe as the most arcane of the movie Stooges. Somewhere between Joe Besser and Curly Joe DeRita, Paul Hindemith enjoyed a brief stint as Curly Joe Gebrauchsmusik. In this capacity, his most riotous gag was laying a flugelhorn down on Moe’s jelly sandwich. Musicians loved him, but audiences tended to find him tedious.

Here’s Curly Joe Gebrauchsmusik playing his flugelhorn in bed. Because that’s just the kind of guy he was. Writing music even when most people would be sleeping. When asked why it was he didn’t just sleep like everyone else, he replied, “There will be plenty of time for that when I’m in the audience.”
Space Travel Crossword Celebrate SpaceX Launch

by

Ross Amico

November 15, 2020

in Daily Dispatch

4 responses

With the projected launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, this Sunday night at 7:27 EST (by coincidence, on the birthday of astronomer and composer William Herschel), this week’s Classic Ross Amico crossword is all about space travel and space exploration.

To fill out the puzzle, follow the link and select “solve online” at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be able to type directly into the squares. Once you feel you’ve exhausted the puzzle, you’ll find the solutions by clicking on “Answer Key PDF.”

Commence the classical music countdown here:

https://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/2020.11/1514/15145144.060.html