Classic Ross Amico

  • Carnival Music Feast on The Classical Network

    Carnival Music Feast on The Classical Network

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    Ross Amico
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    Shrove Tuesday. Mardi Gras. Fastnacht Day.

    The last day to stuff down as many doughnuts as you can before the start of Lent.

    To mark the occasion, this afternoon on The Classical Network, we’ll glut ourselves with music related to Carnival.

    Among the featured highlights will be Heitor Villa-Lobos’ fantasy for piano and orchestra, “Momôprecóce” (“Carnival of the Brazilian Children”); Robert Schumann’s cryptogrammatic “Faschingsschwank aus Wien” (“Carnival Jest from Vienna”); and Igor Stravinsky’s Shrovetide ballet “Petrouchka,” in a recording conducted by Princeton Symphony Orchestra music director Rossen Milanov.

    We’ll also enjoy a touch of Mardi Gras, with some pieces on Creole themes; a set of variations on “Carnival of Venice;” musical depictions of stock characters of the commedia dell’arte; and “Manhã de Carnaval,” from the film “Black Orpheus.”

    First, on today’s Noontime Concert, it’s a Telemann blow-out. Tempesta di Mare – Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra will present “Fire and Invention,” part of its Telemann 360° project.

    Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) left behind an enormous catalogue of monumental compositions in every style and genre (with 3000 works to his credit, the Guinness Book lists him as the most prolific composer of all time), yet so much of it remains unrecognized, or even unperformed.

    The sheer volume of his output has made it difficult for posterity to wrap its collective head around the full scope of his accomplishments. Tempesta is doing its best to change all that. Today’s concert will include a Concerto for Orchestra, a collection of Entr’actes, and a Violin Concerto, featuring Tempesta principal violinist Emlyn Ngai.

    Tell your friends to tune in for Telemann. Then stick around for plenty of fried, buttery goodness. Abandon yourself to the debauchery of Carnival, from 12 to 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

  • Strauss’ Lawsuit The “Funiculì, Funiculà” Story

    Strauss’ Lawsuit The “Funiculì, Funiculà” Story

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    Ross Amico
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    When he came to work it into the finale of his grand symphonic fantasy “Aus Italien” (“From Italy”) in 1886, the 22 year-old Richard Strauss assumed “Funiculì, Funiculà” was a traditional Neapolitan folk song.

    Imagine his chagrin when he learned that the song was actually composed in 1880, by one Luigi Denza, to lyrics by Peppino Turco.

    The subject is a funicular cable car that used to service passengers to Mount Vesuvius, before it was predictably destroyed in an eruption in 1944. The song became a huge international success and sold over a million copies.

    This meant that Strauss found himself embroiled in a lawsuit, which resulted in his having to pay a royalty fee every time “Aus Italien” was performed.

    This would be irksome to any composer, but Strauss especially has often been singled out for his love of money. Stravinsky used to spell his name using dollar signs in place of the esses.

    Fate seems to have been in on the joke. Strauss’ fortune was twice obliterated, by both world wars, and – also because of war – he was never paid for his opulent ballet “Josephs-Legende.”

    Strauss was not the only composer to step wrong in regard to “Funiculì, Funiculà.” Rimsky-Korsakov used it as the basis for his “Neapolitan Song,” and Arnold Schoenberg transcribed it for string quartet. Whether Denza ever tried to sue Rimsky-Korsakov is unknown. Schoenberg clearly credited the original composer. Maybe he was just too scary to sue.

    Join me this afternoon, when Luigi Denza (now in the public domain) will be among my birthday honorees, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

  • Michel Legrand Birthday Broadcast on WWFM

    Michel Legrand Birthday Broadcast on WWFM

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    Ross Amico
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    It’s Michel Legrand’s birthday. I will wait for you, with music from “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” among others – including works by Arrigo Boito, Johann Baptist Cramer, Rudolf Ganz, Ingvar Lindholm, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giacomo Puccini, and more – from 4 to 7 p.m. EST. It never rains but it pours, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

  • Handel’s Ariodante Arias Celebrate His Birthday

    Handel’s Ariodante Arias Celebrate His Birthday

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    Ross Amico
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    Happy birthday, George Frideric Handel!

    The many moods of “Ariodante”:

    Scherza infida (Joyce DiDonato)

    Dopo notte (Emily D’Angelo)

  • Mardi Gras Music from New Orleans

    Mardi Gras Music from New Orleans

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    Ross Amico
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    3 responses

    This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” it’s Mardi Gras season. We’ll adorn ourselves in purple, gold, and green, and carve ourselves some King Cake, as we listen to music from and about New Orleans.

    Henry F. Gilbert, a slightly older contemporary of Charles Ives, and a composer of the New England School, was concerned with introducing folk song and the vernacular to the concert hall. His interest in the music of African Americans, then considered controversial, is reflected in works like “The Dance in Place Congo,” from 1908, a programmatic piece on Creole themes, suggestive of Sunday afternoon festivities of off-duty New Orleans slaves gathered in Congo Square.

    We’ll also hear a piece by Chicago area composer Edward Joseph Collins, actually titled “Mardi Gras,” from 1923. Collins described the work as “boisterous and bizarre by turns,” evocative of the spirit of Carnival, with its enormous masks and clowns on stilts, colored streamers, confetti, lurid lights, fantastic floats and grotesque costumes.

    Three Creole Romantics will offer some insiders’ views, as we hear works by Edmond Dédé, Charles Lucièn Lambert, and Louis Moreau Gottschalk, all figures born in New Orleans.

    Laissez les bons temps rouler! I hope you’ll join me for “Louisiana Purchases,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

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