Classic Ross Amico

  • Classical Music Defies Winter’s Return on WWFM

    Classical Music Defies Winter’s Return on WWFM

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    Ross Amico
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    9 responses

    As we brace ourselves for a double nor’easter, I cast a skeptical eye at the calendar on this, the First Day of Spring. Then I gaze wistfully into my bag full of spring-related CDs. Surely there is some music here suitable for driving away Old Man Winter, a guest who has overstayed his welcome, drunk too much, and broken more than a few valuables.

    Following today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, and in defiance of the weather, we’ll offer blood sacrifices to the pagan gods, with Frank Bridge’s “Enter Spring,” Lodewijk Mortelmans’ “The Myth of Spring,” Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” and Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky’s “The Snow Maiden,” all in the interest of appeasing mercurial Nature.

    First, we’ll be laying down the Lawes – William Lawes, that is – on today’s Noontime Concert. Join me for a program of Lawes’ consort music, as presented by Parthenia Viols. The performances were recorded at New York’s Church of Saint Luke in the Fields last May. Parthenia will present a concert of “Tomb Sonnets,” featuring works by Josquin des Prez, Carlo Gesualdo, and Giovanni Gabrieli, among others, on March 25 at The Secret Theatre in Long Island City. To find out more, look online at parthenia.org.

    We’ll take viol music over vile weather, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

    IMAGE: Princeton’s own Patrick McDonnell tells it like it is

  • Bach 500 Support Classical Music & Skip the Fundraiser

    Bach 500 Support Classical Music & Skip the Fundraiser

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    Ross Amico
    in
    8 responses

    Perhaps you’re a little tired of hearing about Bach by now.

    If you don’t know what I’m talking about, The Classical Network is heading into the homestretch on its annual “Bach 500.” In case you haven’t caught any of the pitches over the past weeks, if we can persuade 500 listeners to donate to the station IN ANY AMOUNT, we will cancel the on-air fundraiser we’ve got planned for March 21st – Bach’s birthday – and instead kick back and enjoy a celebratory day of just Bach’s music.

    Have you become one of the 500 yet? It doesn’t take much. Kick in ten or twenty bucks, and you’ll be counted toward the total. Of course, if you can go higher, that’s even better! Do it now, at our website, wwfm.org (look under the membership thermometer at the right of the page), or call during regular business hours at 1-888-232-1212.

    To get you in the spirit, among the featured recordings I’ve selected for today’s afternoon commute, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, will be some Bach-related music by Max Reger and a characteristically superb performance of some Bach keyboard music by the great Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti.

    By all means, enjoy these musical offerings, but trust me when I say they will be that much more enjoyable once you’ve made the commitment to become one of the 500. Thank you for your support of WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!

  • WPRB: Time Travel Through Music & Early Music Fest

    WPRB: Time Travel Through Music & Early Music Fest

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    Ross Amico
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    4 responses

    Get ready for a morning of musical time travel on WPRB, as composers of the “present” look to the past to create works of lasting beauty.

    Among our featured selections will be a suite for recorders by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a “distant saraband” by Joaquin Rodrigo, three Gesualdo madrigals recollected by Igor Stravinsky, an update of the Baroque dance suite by Paul Lansky, some Renaissance Scottish dances by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, an orchestral juxtaposition of popular dances of the eras of both Elizabeths by William Alwyn, some variations on two cantigas of Alfonso the Wise by Vittorio Rieti, an organ processional in the French Baroque style by Robert Moran, and a Vespers setting for choir and Renaissance band by Kile Smith.

    If the playlist is to your liking, perhaps you’d like to sustain the mood by attending the Guild for Early Music Festival this afternoon at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. This year’s festival will take place on the two stages of the Seward Johnson Center for the Arts, from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Enjoy mini-concerts for cornetti, dulcians, recorders, and violas da gamba, then take a break to stroll the grounds and grab a cup of coffee – just keep an eye out for those peacocks! You’ll find more information at guildforearlymusic.org and groundsforsculpture.org.

    The music takes pride of place, this Sunday morning from 7 to 10 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. I’ll be operating under my nom de plumage on Classic Ross Amico.

  • Early Music Month: American Renaissance Sounds

    Early Music Month: American Renaissance Sounds

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    Ross Amico
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    4 responses

    This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we continue our celebration of Early Music Month with three works by contemporary American composers who look back to the Renaissance.

    William Kraft (b. 1923), long associated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, composed “Vintage Renaissance” for the Boston Pops. The work incorporates two 15th century melodies: “Danza,” by Francesco de la Torre, and an anonymous “bransle.”

    George Frederick McKay (1899-1970), the so-called “Dean of Northwest Composers,” founded the composition department at the University of Washington, where he taught for over 40 years. His “Suite on Sixteenth Century Hymn Tunes” is based on works by Louis Bourgeois (c. 1510-1559), compiler of Calvinist hymn tunes and composer of the Protestant doxology known as the “Old 100th.”

    Lukas Foss (1922-2009), the German-born musical prodigy who settled in the United States in 1937, composed his “Renaissance Concerto” in 1986. The work, for flute and orchestra, falls into four movements: “Intrada;” “Baroque Interlude” (on a theme of Rameau); “Recitative” (after Monteverdi); and “Jouissance” (after a 1612 madrigal by a composer of the name David Melville).

    I hope you’ll join me, as American composers cast an affectionate look back, on “It’s Never Too Late to Be Early,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network.

    Early Music America

  • Early Music Returns to WPRB

    Early Music Returns to WPRB

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    Ross Amico
    in
    5 responses

    “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” wrote George Santayana.

    To which Kurt Vonnegut responded, “I’ve got news for Mr. Santayana: we’re doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That’s what it is to be alive.”

    This Sunday morning on WPRB, we’ll have music by contemporary composers – that is to say, composers active within the last 80 years, give or take – who remember the past quite well, but who opt to repeat it anyway, though with delightful variations.

    In honor of Early Music Month, we’ll gaze into a distant mirror – make that a funhouse mirror – glimpsing courtly dances, Gregorian chant, madrigals, and hymn tunes, transformed by “contemporary” sensibilities.

    Among the morning’s highlights will be Princeton composer Paul Lansky’s “Semi-Suite” for guitar, completed in 1998, music that loosely, wittily, and, ultimately, movingly evokes dance suites of the Baroque Era; and the transporting “Vespers” of 2008 by Philadelphia composer, writer, and radio personality Kile Smith, a work that conjures “the musical flowering of the Protestant Reformation,” as heard in an authoritative performance by The Crossing and Piffaro, The Renaissance Band.

    Hopefully these will help get you in the mood for this year’s Guild for Early Music Festival, which will be held this Sunday afternoon at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. This year’s festival will take place on the two stages of the Seward Johnson Center for the Arts, from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Enjoy mini-concerts for cornetti, dulcians, recorders, and violas da gamba, then take a break to stroll the grounds and grab a cup of coffee — but keep an eye on those peacocks! You’ll find more information at guildforearlymusic.org and groundsforsculpture.org.

    Some things never go out of style. What goes around comes around, this Sunday morning from 7 to 10 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Travel back to Merrie Olde Princeton, on Classic Ross Amico.

    Early Music America

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