Classic Ross Amico

  • Child Alice A Carroll Mahler Masterpiece Rediscovered

    Child Alice A Carroll Mahler Masterpiece Rediscovered

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    Ross Amico
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    If Lewis Carroll and Gustav Mahler had a love child, this would be it.

    David Del Tredici’s “In Memory of a Summer Day,” part one of his massive “Child Alice,” won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1980. The work was inspired by two prefatory poems from Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There” and “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” It was performed for the first time in its completed form – including part two (an additional 73 minutes of music) – at Carnegie Hall in 1986.

    “Child Alice” was revived only last year by soprano Courtenay Budd and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), conducted by Gil Rose. A recorded performance was issued last month, with the same forces, on the BMOP Sound label. It is one of several stimulating releases from BMOP to arrive in my mailbox over the past 12 months.

    We will sample from “Child Alice,” among our featured recordings, this Thursday morning on WPRB, as I remove the shrink wrap from a number of CDs I have been unable to work into my usual thematic format. Curiously, I’ll also be including a selection from one of several releases of chamber music by a distant cousin of Carroll, Stephen Dodgson – composer.

    In addition, there will be a corker of a new release in the form of world premiere recordings of music composed for a trio of Greek plays by Ralph Vaughan Williams, issued on Albion Records, the official label of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society.

    With the holidays fast approaching, you might be looking for some interesting stocking stuffers. Join me this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM or at wprb.com. It will beat the hell out of batteries and new razors, on Classic Ross Amico.

  • New Classical Music 2017 on WPRB

    New Classical Music 2017 on WPRB

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    Ross Amico
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    5 responses

    Ah, the crinkle of shrink wrap. That’s what was heard in my home yesterday, as I began piling up CDs released over the past months that I haven’t been able to work into any of my shows. Thematic programming can be a challenge – admittedly therein lies a lot of the fun – but there is much music of worth that can fall through the cracks.

    This Thursday morning on WPRB, we’ll have a chance to enjoy some fairly recent recordings issued by Albion Records (the label of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society), Azica Records, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), Bridge Records, Inc., Centaur Records, Inc., Chandos Records, innova Recordings, Naxos, New World Records, Other Minds Records, and the Sono Luminus label, among others. If something catches your ear, record information will be made available at wprb.com.

    Perhaps you’ll get some ideas for inspired stocking stuffers or hear something worthwhile on which to blow your Hanukkah gelt. Join me for a full playlist of interesting 2017 releases, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We’ll find release in the new, on Classic Ross Amico.

  • Linda Holt on WPRB Discussing “The Black Spaniard”

    Linda Holt on WPRB Discussing “The Black Spaniard”

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    Ross Amico
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    5 responses

    Linda Holt will join Marvin Rosen for the last hour or so of Classical Discoveries this Wednesday morning on WPRB. Holt is the author of “The Black Spaniard,” a work of historical fiction about Beethoven. She’s expected between 9:50 and 11:00 EST. Listen in at WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.

  • Nielsen & Sibelius at Marlboro

    Nielsen & Sibelius at Marlboro

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    Ross Amico
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    5 responses

    We head north for this week’s “Music from Marlboro” for selections by the most famous composers from Denmark and Finland, respectively.

    Like “The Ugly Duckling” of his compatriot, Hans Christian Andersen, Carl Nielsen emerged from humble beginnings to blossom into Denmark’s national composer. Internationally, Nielsen has flitted in and out of the seemingly inescapable shadow of Finnish master Jean Sibelius. Both men were born in 1865. In fact, Nielsen was six months older. But it is an unfair comparison, not so much apples and oranges; more like kipper and pickled herring.

    The very fact that Nielsen is not referred to reductively as “The Sibelius of Denmark” is attributable to an unusually strong individual voice. His music is modern, yet traditional; Scandinavian, yet Germanic. Most important, it is full of personality, freshness and vitality.

    Nielsen’s Wind Quintet of 1922 reflects the composer’s optimism and good humor. Each part was tailored to the personality of the individual performer for which it was written (members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet). There is also something of the outdoors about the piece. Nielsen was always fascinated by nature, and there are ample suggestions of bird song woven into the texture of the work’s pastoral neoclassicism.

    We’ll enjoy a recording made at Marlboro in 1971, with Paula Robison, flute; Joseph Turner, oboe; Larry Combs, clarinet; William Winstead, bassoon; and Robin Graham, horn.

    Sibelius, too, was influenced by nature. However, the very subtitle of his String Quartet in D minor, “Voces Intimae,” suggests a looking inward. The piece was composed in 1909, between the Third and Fourth Symphonies. It is the only chamber work of Sibelius’ maturity. The composer wrote to his wife, “It turned out as something wonderful. The kind of thing that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death. I will say no more.” Ah, sweet nothings.

    We’ll hear it performed at the 2005 Marlboro Music Festival, by Dan Zhu and Sarah Kapustin, violins; Samuel Rhodes, viola; and Amir Eldan, cello.

    The prevailing winds will be from the north (strings, too, for that matter), on “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

    Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

    HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW: Carl Nielsen (left) and Jean Sibelius

  • St Nicholas Day Miracle on WWFM

    St Nicholas Day Miracle on WWFM

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    Ross Amico
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    6 responses

    Happy St. Nicholas Day!

    Coming up on WWFM at 4:30 p.m. EST, it’s “The Miracle of Saint Nicholas” by Joseph-Guy Ropartz. Ropartz, a native of Brittany, and a pupil of Jules Massenet and César Franck, focuses on the infamous Nicholas legend in which three boys are slain by a butcher, and chopped up and pickled in brine, with the aim of passing them off as ham. Nicholas restores the youths, and the butcher repents. The story would later be set by Benjamin Britten, as part of his cantata, “Saint Nicholas.”

    ‘Tis the season, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

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