Classic Ross Amico

  • Lost Chord & Picture Perfect Archives Updated

    Lost Chord & Picture Perfect Archives Updated

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    Ross Amico
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    6 responses

    I am happy to announce, on the heels of having caught up yesterday on my “Picture Perfect” webcasts, I have now uploaded all my past-due programs of “The Lost Chord.”

    Everything should be up to date, on the station website, and ready for your listening pleasure.

    You can scroll through the offerings after you follow the link below. Look for the “Listen” button once you click on an individual show.

    Going forward, both of my recorded programs, “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord,” should be uploaded on Monday afternoon, probably around 3 p.m., following their weekend broadcast.

    Please let me know if you encounter any difficulties. Again, thank you for your patience. I was lost, but now I am found!

    https://www.wwfm.org/programs/lost-chord-ross-amico

    I have also located the audio for the October 11th “Picture Perfect,” focusing on the films of Brian De Palma. So that’s been uploaded too, to the “Picture Perfect” archive.

    https://www.wwfm.org/programs/picture-perfect-ross-amico

  • MLK Day on The Classical Network

    MLK Day on The Classical Network

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    Ross Amico
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    5 responses

    We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day this afternoon on The Classical Network.

    The much-anticipated centerpiece of today’s program, for me anyway, will be “New Morning for the World: Daybreak of Freedom,” by Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Schwantner. It’s an inspiring piece, built on texts drawn from King’s speeches, and I look forward to sharing it with my listeners every year.

    So far there have been three recordings of the work. I have cycled through all of them, but the one that remains my favorite is its first, featuring narration by former Pittsburgh Pirate Willie Stargell. It’s hard to believe that Stargell, beloved by so many, was himself subjected to discrimination and harassment over the course of his career. It makes you realize how short history is. And if we follow the news, it’s evident the struggle for peace, tolerance and equality is not over.

    Stargell appears with the Eastman Philharmonia as he did at the world premiere, which took place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on January 15, 1983 (King’s birthday).

    Sadly, the recording has never been issued on compact disc, but we’ll hear it today, provided the turntable is in good working order. (If not, I’ll have a back-up ready to go, just in case).

    We’ll also hear “Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed,” by Adolphus Hailstork – whose knockout oratorio, “Done Made My Vow,” was the featured work on last night’s edition of “The Lost Chord” – and selections from Dashon Burton, Bass-Baritone’s album, “Songs of Struggle & Redemption: We Shall Overcome.”

    In addition, as time allows, we’ll mark the anniversary of the births of as many of the following as we can: Johann Hermann Schein, Joseph Hector Fiocco, Ernest Chausson, Guillaume Lekeu, Mischa Elman, Walter Piston, Alexander Tcherepnin, Yvonne Loriod, and Ivan Fischer.

    We judge a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his music, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

    By the way, if you have off from work today, consider taking a break from your community service to support kids from thirteen Trenton schools. Young musicians of Trenton Music Makers will convene at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, 122 Alexander St., this afternoon at 5:30 p.m., for its annual Martin Luther King Day Jr. Day concert. You can learn more and register for this free event at trentonmusicmakers.org.

  • MLK’s Message on WWFM

    MLK’s Message on WWFM

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    Ross Amico
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    6 responses

    I hope you’ll join me for my annual broadcast of “New Morning for the World: Daybreak of Freedom,” by Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Schwantner. The work incorporates texts by Martin Luther King, Jr. I’ll be airing the out-of-print LP, with Willie Stargell the narrator, among my featured works, between 4 and 7 pm. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

    “Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith. In music… there is a stepping stone towards all of these.”

    – Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • Adolphus Hailstork MLK Tribute on WWFM

    Adolphus Hailstork MLK Tribute on WWFM

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    Ross Amico
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    3 responses

    I’ve been a fan of Adolphus Hailstork since the 1980s. That’s when I first heard “Done Made My Vow,” as part of a concert broadcast over the radio.

    “Done Made My Vow” (1985), often described as a gospel oratorio, was inspired in part by speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. So uplifting was the marriage of words and music, I hoped for years that it would be recorded. Then one day I stumbled across a copy in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gift shop.

    On the eve of MLK Day, I hope you’ll join me for this extraordinary piece, scored for speaker, chorus and orchestra. It’s my featured highlight this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord.”

    Hailstork has been part of the fabric of American music since at least the 1970s. Born in Rochester, New York, in 1941, he earned his BA from Howard University, his MA from the Manhattan School of Music – where his teachers included with Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond – and his doctorate from Michigan State, where his studied with H. Owen Reed. Then he was off, like so many of his great American forebears, to study at Fontainebleau with Nadia Boulanger. Hailstork is now composer-in-residence at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

    He is perhaps best known for his choral music, though it was the wistful slow movement of his Symphony No. 1, composed for a summer music festival in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, that next caught my ear.

    His brief but boisterous curtain-raiser “Celebration!” was included in Paul Freeman’s legendary “Black Composers Series,” recorded for Columbia Records back in the 1970s. Freeman remained a champion of Hailstork’s work for the rest of his career. I particularly recommend his recording of “Sonata da Chiesa,” a multi-movement work for string orchestra, inspired by Hailstork’s impressions as a boy chorister singing at the Cathedral of All Saints in Albany.

    As preamble to the oratorio, we’ll also enjoy his rhythmically exciting “Variations for Trumpet” (1981).

    The music is hale, but the sentiments are King. I hope you’ll join me for “Done Made My Vow.” That’s “All Hail Hailstork,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

    “Sonata da Chiesa” (1992):

    Symphony No. 1 (1988): Mov’t II, Lento ma non troppo:

    “Motherless Child” (2002):

    “Celebration!” (1974):

  • Ashkenazy Retires Suddenly at 82

    Ashkenazy Retires Suddenly at 82

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    Ross Amico
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    4 responses

    Vladimir Ashkenazy, one of the foremost pianists of the past half century, has abruptly announced his retirement. Curiously, this was done with no advance notice. There will be no farewell tour. All engagements have been cancelled for 2020, effective immediately. It’s unclear whether or not this will extend to his conducting. Hopefully illness is not a factor. Ashkenazy is 82 years-old.

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