Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Adolphus Hailstork

NY Phil Concert a Czech Birthday Celebration

Yes, I am emerging from a cold, but I am very much on the mend, and I can’t help it, I bought my ticket in November, so damn it, I am on my way to hear the New York Philharmonic! Also, the weather is supposed to be fairly mild this afternoon, so I will dress sensibly, try not to overdo things, and hope for the best (and of course mask in the hall).

First, I plan to swing by the Czech Center New York to take in their “Famous Czech Composers” exhibit – devoted to Bedřich Smetana, Antonin Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, and Bohuslav Martinů – which will run through March 31st. It’s only appropriate, since today happens to be Smetana’s birthday! (Total coincidence.) I confess I’ve been going back and forth on it, since I’m not sure that I buy into the exhibit’s apparent “graphic novel” approach, but supposedly there are also costumes from the first New York productions of some of the operas (including Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride”). And who knows what else I’ll see? It was at the Czech Center that I once shook the hand of Dvořák’s grandson!

https://new-york.czechcentres.cz/en/program/slavni-cesti-skladatele

Then I’ll grab dinner at some dive before heading over to the newly-renovated David Geffen Hall for a concert with the Philharmonic. The program will include William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 2 “Song of a New Race” – my second-favorite William Grant Still symphony (I’ll be hearing No. 1, the “Afro-American Symphony,” with Neeme Järvi and the New Jersey Symphony, later in the month) – but it is as icing on the cake next to the main attraction: Adolphus Hailstork’s stirring oratorio “Done Made My Vow.”

I was bowled over by this piece from the first time I heard it as part of a concert broadcast over the radio, back in the 1980s. I finally stumbled across a recording with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2012. I never dreamed I would ever actually have a chance to hear it live! The work is scored for speaker, vocal soloists, and orchestra. Among tonight’s guest artists is Simon Estes, whose birthday it also is today. Estes having recently retired from opera, I am guessing he will be the narrator. The concert will be repeated on Saturday at 8 p.m.

https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/2223/the-march-to-liberation?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6fafBhC1ARIsAIJjL8m7u-is9f2iViziNoKiBf9epbPytxuTSQJkgh82NT70zRBHByNyFbQaAqwiEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

With luck, I will be back in bed, reading the Kalevala, by 11:30.

Happy birthday, Smetana and Simon Estes!

March 2, 2023
Adolphus Hailstork & “Done Made My Vow”

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.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” I hope you’ll join me for this extraordinary piece, scored for speaker, chorus and orchestra.

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 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.

For many years, Hailstork was composer-in-residence at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where he taught. 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 Hailstork’s 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,” on “All Hail Hailstork,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.

AND, if you are as swept away by it as I was, you might be interested to know that the New York Philharmonic will be performing it on the same series of concerts with William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 2 “Song of a New Race,” March 2-4!

Hailstork’s “Sonata da Chiesa” (1992)

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

“Motherless Child” (2002)

“Celebration!” (1974)

February 19, 2023
MLK Day on The Classical Network

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.

January 20, 2020
Adolphus Hailstork MLK Tribute on WWFM

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):

January 19, 2020
MLK Day Music Inspired by King’s Words

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.”

So said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On this MLK Day, we’ll hear at least two works inspired by King’s speeches.

“New Morning for the World: Daybreak of Freedom,” by the Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Schwantner, has become something of a contemporary classic. My preferred performance of the piece is from an out-of-print LP, featuring narration by former Pittsburgh Pirate Willie Stargell. However, last year I played a digital recording, with Raymond Bazemore and the Oregon Symphony conducted by James DePreist. This year, I thought we’d give a try to Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. You’ll be able to hear it in this afternoon in the 4:00 hour.

Then at 6:00, I’ll be sharing a recording of Adolphus Hailstork’s inspiring oratorio “Done Made My Vow,” which also incorporates texts from King’s speeches, with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Morgan State University Choir.

In between, we’ll mark the birthday anniversaries of Placido Domingo, Henri Duparc, Nikolai Golovanov, Antonio Janigro, and Alexander Tcherepnin.

The music is King, on this MLK Day, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

January 21, 2019

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