Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Film Music

Castelnuovo-Tedesco A Composer for All Seasons

If ABC can blow-out its annual broadcast of “The Ten Commandments” 25 days before Passover, I can reflect on Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s “The Prophets,” which was always a staple of my Passover playlist over the decades I enjoyed doing a live radio air shift. The second of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s violin concertos was given its first performance at Carnegie Hall in 1933, with Jascha Heifetz the soloist and Arturo Toscanini on the podium. Its three movements are named for the Biblical figures Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Elijah.

But nevermind the Passover association. Castelnuovo-Tedesco is a composer for all seasons. His music is well-crafted, ingratiatingly tuneful, and a joy to listen to.

Furthermore, anyone who loves film music owes an incalculable debt to him. He wrote scores for some 200 movies (including “And Then There Were None,” with Barry Fitzgerald, and “The Loves of Carmen,” with Rita Hayworth), and as a teacher, his students included André Previn, Nelson Riddle, Herman Stein, Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith, and John Williams.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco was yet another refugee displaced by fascism in Europe who enriched the American cultural landscape. We can thank Toscanini for sponsoring his passage to the United States in 1939. He got out just in the nick of time. Already Italian Jewish citizens had been stripped of many basic human rights. Well before the imposition of Italian racial laws in 1938, Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s music had been banned from radio and public performances of his works had been cancelled.

Internationally, his works were embraced by top-flight musicians such as Heifetz, Andrés Segovia, and Gregor Piatigorsky.

The first piece of his I ever heard was the Guitar Concerto No. 1. I remember listening to it on the radio on my first drive to WWFM, the day before my job interview, in 1995, undertaken on a Sunday afternoon to be sure I knew the route from Philadelphia. There’s a lot for me wrapped up in this composer.

Thank you, and happy birthday, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco!

Violin Concerto No. 2 “The Prophets”

Segovia masterclass on the Guitar Concerto No. 1

Radio interview with Segovia and the composer

Toscanini conducts an adventurous program, including Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s “Overture to a Fairy Tale” (later known as the “Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture”)

April 3, 2024
Academy Awards Weekend: Film Music on KWAX

We’re entering Academy Awards weekend, and the winner is… YOU!

Why? Because I’ve recorded THREE BRAND NEW SHOWS for KWAX for your delectation.

Regardless of how you feel about the current state of the industry or the awards ceremony itself, you have to concede, there’s quite a rich history of impressive music written for film. And the Academy Awards is always the perfect excuse to go excavating.

I’ll be leaning heavily into the nostalgia, beginning today on PICTURE PERFECT. We’ll hear selections from what has been dubbed the greatest film music concert in history. Elmer Bernstein, Johnny Green, Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Alfred Newman, Alex North, David Raksin, Miklós Rózsa, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, and more turned out for the occasion – all of them to conduct their own music.

They were joined by Mahalia Jackson, Andy Williams, and Jack Benny. What could only be described as a Hollywood Bowl superconcert was broadcast live over the CBS television network on September 25, 1963.

Highlights were issued on what became a highly collectible LP. The content was expanded for a CD reissue on the Columbia Legacy label in 1995. However, based on my reading and the fact that I’m finding other selections in my personal library that were recorded at the venue on the same date, there’s still much that remains to be compiled. Put out whatever you’re holding back on a double-disc, please, Sony!

On today’s show, we’ll hear ten musical selections. I hasten to add, not everyone mentioned will be represented; nor were they even included on the commercial recordings. Tune in to KWAX at 8:00 pm EST/5:00 pm PST. (See the streaming information below).

Then be sure to join me tomorrow morning when I’ll present a potpourri of classic film themes on SWEETNESS AND LIGHT. Tune in sharp at 11:00 EST/8:00 PST to enjoy 90 seconds of introductory fanfares from the great studios of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

Finally, also tomorrow, on THE LOST CHORD, it’s another in an occasional series of programs devoted to concert works by composers better known for their work in film. Among the featured works will be “Pas de Deux,” a concerto for violin, cello and orchestra, by James Horner (“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “Braveheart,” “Titanic”), and the Concerto for Flute and String Orchestra by Jerome Moross (“The Big Countrty,” “The Cardinal,” “The Valley of Gwangi”). That show will stream Saturday at 7:00 pm EST/4:00 pm PST.

That should give you plenty of time to load up on the popcorn and buffalo wings for Sunday night’s ceremony. Listen to all three of these NEWLY-RECORDED RADIO SHOWS, wherever you are, at the link!

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EST)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EST)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EST)

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

More about “the greatest film music concert in history”

http://www.filmmusicsociety.org/news_events/features/2013/092313.html

March 8, 2024
Remembering Jerry Goldsmith Film Music Legend

When he was a kid, Jerry Goldsmith loved going to the movies to enjoy the music – just the way I loved going to the movies as a kid to enjoy Jerry Goldsmith!

Goldsmith, born on this date in 1929, wrote indelible scores for dozens of films, such as “The Sand Pebbles” (1966), “The Blue Max” (1966), “The Flim-Flam Man” (1967), “Planet of the Apes” (1968), “Patton” (1970), “Papillon” (1973), “Chinatown” (1974), “The Wind and the Lion” (1975), “MacArthur” (1977), “The Boys from Brazil” (1978), “The Great Train Robbery” (1979), “Alien” (1979, butchered in sound editing), and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979).

For television, he wrote for “Dr. Kildare,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “The Waltons.”

By the 1980s, the films began to get weaker. It seemed like Goldsmith was always getting tossed the projects John Williams passed on, or cheap knockoffs of Williams’ successes. By his final decade, he was stuck writing for such garbage as “The Mummy” (1999), “The Haunting” remake (1999), and “Looney Tunes: Back in Action” (2003). A notable exception was “L.A. Confidential” (1997), but rarely were his later projects up to his talent.

Goldsmith had a reputation for being able to compose at white heat, so he was frequently called upon to write replacement scores for films like “The River Wild” (1994), “Air Force One” (1997) and “The 13th Warrior” (1999). He composed and recorded the score to “Chinatown,” one of the best of the 1970s, in only ten days.

Incredibly, he was honored with but a single Academy Award (of 18 nominations), for his influential score to “The Omen” (1976). Goldsmith died in 2004, at the age of 75. If he were to come back today, he would mop the joint with all the moody droners and computer noodlers, with their narrow palettes and paucity of inspiration.

Happy birthday, Jerry. I hope they’re still making good movies wherever you are.

Goldsmith discusses film music, circa 1986

Documentary from 1993

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUemenAQYQ4

Introducing and conducting his music with the National Philharmonic in 1989

Introducing and conducting his music, and others’, with the BBC Concert Orchestra in 1994

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR6c8QWIh90

Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqofviC4PG4

February 10, 2024
Sci-Fi Heroes Postponed Tune in to Film Music

The heroes are on hold!

Due to forces beyond our control (groundhogs munching on the power cables?), Roy and I regret to have to postpone our parallel countdown of favorite “Heroes of Sci-Fi.”

However, that frees up your evening so that you can enjoy music from semi-documentaries on my film music show, “Picture Perfect,” courtesy of composers Aaron Copland (“The Cummington Story”), Virgil Thomson (the Pulitzer Prize winning “Louisiana Story”), Ulysses Kay (“The Quiet One”), and Morton Gould (“Windjammer”). I’ll be jamming on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon, tonight at 8:00 EST/5:00 PST.

Stream it here:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

Then keep watching the skies for a make-up date for Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. We can’t wait to compare our lists of sci-fi and fantasy heroes and to read and share your comments. It’s guaranteed to be an “off” night, whenever it is! In the meantime, have a relaxing evening, and thank you for your understanding!

February 2, 2024
Carl Davis A Titan of Film Music Passes

The sound of silents is dead.

In addition to providing original music for countless silent classics, which he often conducted live with screenings of the films, and frequently recorded, Carl Davis wrote music for the television series “The World at War,” “Pride and Prejudice” (with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth), and countless others.

Among his scores for contemporary film were those for “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons), which was honored with a BAFTA for Best Film Music, Ken Russell’s adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s “The Rainbow,” and Roger Corman’s “Frankenstein Unbound.” Surely, his most ambitious undertaking on behalf of the silents was his work on a restoration of Abel Gance’s epic “Napoleon,” for which he composed and arranged nearly five hours of music.

He assisted Paul McCartney in the composition of the “Liverpool Oratorio.” He also wrote orchestral concert works and music for the ballet.

Though he made Britain his home since 1961, Davis was actually born in Brooklyn. He attended Bard College, where he studied composition with Paul Nordoff. He also studied with Hugo Kauder and later with Per Nørgard. Early on, he obtained valuable conducting experience with organizations such as the New York City Opera and the Robert Shaw Chorale. In 1959, his revue “Diversions” won an off-Broadway award.

He traveled to the Edinburgh Festival in 1961. His success there led to an invitation to compose music for the BBC satirical series “That Was the Week That Was.” Other TV and radio commissions followed, and Davis made a healthy living for himself in the U.K. He enjoyed a close relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

At the time of his death, he was 86 years old.

By coincidence, Carl Davis will conduct music by Charlie Chaplin for “Modern Times” on my syndicated film music show, “Picture Perfect,” tomorrow on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon. Stream it on the East Coast this Friday at 8:00 PM EDT (5:00 PDT).

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

R.I.P. Carl Davis.

“The World at War”

“Pride and Prejudice” (with Melvyn Tan on the fortepiano)

On composing the score to “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”

“Napoleon”

Collaborating with Paul McCartney on “Liverpool Oratorio”

“Liverpool Oratorio” (complete)

An interview with Carl Davis

August 3, 2023

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