Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Fantasia

  • Night on Bald Mountain Halloween History

    Night on Bald Mountain Halloween History

    31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN (DAY 15)

    On this date in 1886, Modest Mussorgsky’s “A Night on Bald Mountain” was given its posthumous debut. The premiere took place in St. Petersburg, with the Russian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

    Mussorgsky’s rough-hewn textures, idiosyncratic harmony, slap-dash orchestration, and illogical modulations were often viewed as “mistakes” by his well-intentioned contemporaries. The composer was notoriously fond of alcohol, flamboyantly reckless, until a series of seizures sent him into a rapid decline. A week after his 42nd birthday, Modest Mussorgsky was dead.

    Understandably, many of the artistic choices of this raging bull of a man were regarded with skepticism and even pity.

    It is through the arrangements, revisions and completions of his friend, Rimsky-Korsakov, that “A Night on Bald Mountain,” “Boris Godunov,” and “Khovanschina” became world-famous. It is only in recent decades that Mussorgsky’s original thoughts have been reassessed. And you know what? The guy may have been a total slob, but he was brilliant.

    “A Night in Bald Mountain” exists in several incarnations, the first dating all the way back to 1867. It was a symphonic poem; it was outfitted with a chorus for a collaborative project by members of the Mighty Handful (the opera-ballet “Mlada”); and it was plugged into one of Mussorgsky’s own operas, “Sorochinsky Fair,” left incomplete at the time of the composer’s death.

    Some fifty years after “Bald Mountain’s” debut in the Rimsky edition, Leopold Stokowski made his own arrangement for the Walt Disney classic, “Fantasia.” And it’s been scaring the hell out of little kids ever since. Happy Hallowe’en!

    Behold, the demon Chernabog:

    “The Scary Origins of Disney’s Most Evil Character”

  • Sorcerer’s Apprentice Halloween Day 1

    Sorcerer’s Apprentice Halloween Day 1

    31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN (DAY 1)

    For Paul Dukas’ birthday, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”

    https://video.disney.com/watch/sorcerer-s-apprentice-fantasia-4ea9ebc01a74ea59a5867853

  • Fantasia’s Rite & Princeton Girlchoir Benefit

    Fantasia’s Rite & Princeton Girlchoir Benefit

    We’re fighting for the “Rite” to party this week. Coming up in just a few minutes, we’ll hear a vintage recording of the Philadelphia Orchestra performing “The Rite of Spring,” as we continue our celebration of the 75th anniversary of Walt Disney’s “Fantasia,” which was released on November 13, 1940.

    Also keeping us young at heart, representatives of Princeton Girlchoir will drop by at around 9:30 to tell us about the group’s upcoming benefit concert, “Children Making a Difference,” which will be held at Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton this Saturday at 5:00. You can find out more about it at http://www.princetongirlchoir.org.

    It’s all recordings conducted by Leopold Stokowski this morning, until 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM and online at wprb.com.

  • Disney’s Fantasia: A Glorious Folly at 75

    Disney’s Fantasia: A Glorious Folly at 75

    Try to forget for the moment that – between the acquisition of Marvel, The Muppets, Pixar, Star Wars and ABC (to say nothing of the cruises, resorts and theme parks) – Disney now owns the world. “A Night on Bald Mountain” was NOT intended as autobiography. This morning, we cast our thoughts back to simpler times when a visionary animator threw caution to the winds to forge “a new style of motion picture presentation.”

    A guaranteed money-loser from the start, “Fantasia” was spared no expense as it pushed the state of animation, audio reproduction and family entertainment. There was no way, with the possibility of overseas distribution curtailed by World War II, this was going to be anything other than a quixotic venture. When was the last time Disney took a gamble on a scale of “Fantasia?” Now it’s considered bold if they adapt a comic book that’s not “Iron Man.”

    I hope you’ll join me his morning as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Disney’s most glorious “folly,” released on November 13, 1940. We’ll have abundant recordings of Leopold Stokowski, some made for the film (in experimental stereophonic sound), some earlier (in glorious mono) and some later, from his “Phase Four” period and beyond.

    It’s all Stokie from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com. Chernobog requests your presence, on Classic Ross Amico.

  • Fantasia’s 75th Anniversary Celebration

    Fantasia’s 75th Anniversary Celebration

    This week marks the 75th anniversary of the release of Walt Disney’s “Fantasia.” The film, of course, is made up of eight animated sequences, ranging from the comical to the visionary, set to a Chernobog’s handful of the world’s classics, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski.

    Tomorrow morning on WPRB, we mark the event with vintage performances of music presented in the film, alongside additional works, all conducted by Stokowski.

    “Fantasia” was first rolled out as a 13-city theatrical roadshow on November 13, 1940. A curio and a money-loser at the time of its release, its artistic vision, episodic, often non-narrative structure, and expense, in terms of both production and the installation of special equipment during its initial tour (“Fantasia” was the first commercial film presented in stereophonic sound) ensured that it couldn’t possibly recoup its costs, especially during wartime.

    However, subsequent decades have solidified the film’s stature as a cult classic, reissued many times, so that it now stands, when adjusted for inflation, as the 22nd most profitable film in U.S. entertainment history.

    The creative marriage of Disney and Stokowski was bound to yield fascinating results. Disney envisioned “a new style of motion picture presentation” that would bring classical music to an audience (among which he included himself) that ordinarily “walked out on this kind of stuff.”

    Stokowski would prove to be an ideal choice. The conductor’s ability to conjure unusual colors from one of the world’s finest orchestras was captured on eight optical sound recording machines over seven weeks at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music. This kind of thing simply wasn’t done in 1939!

    The development of “Fantasound” pioneered simultaneous multi-track recording, overdubbing and noise reduction techniques, all processes still in wide use today.

    I hope you’ll join me tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 ET, as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of “Fantasia,” on WPRB 103.3 FM and online at wprb.com. We vicariously shake hands with the Mouse, on Classic Ross Amico.

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Aaron Copland (94) Beethoven (95) Composer (114) Film Music (150) Film Score (143) Film Scores (255) Halloween (102) John Williams (198) KWAX (233) Leonard Bernstein (105) Marlboro Music Festival (125) Movie Music (165) Mozart (91) Opera (215) Philadelphia Orchestra (90) Picture Perfect (174) Princeton Symphony Orchestra (110) Radio (90) Ross Amico (244) Roy's Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner (290) The Classical Network (101) The Lost Chord (269) Vaughan Williams (107) WPRB (397) WWFM (881)

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