Classic Ross Amico

Tag: GEMS

Cello Baroque on The Classical Network

Hello, cello!

Today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network will be a Baroque recital for solo cello, presented by Loretta O’Sullivan.

On the program will be music by Johann Sebastian Bach – his Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009 – and a Passacaglia by Heinrich Biber. These are the bricks of an edifice held together by grout in the form of four caprices by Giuseppe Maria Dall’Abaco, according to Sullivan, “…each with its own color, texture and mood.”

The program was presented on November 20, 2017 at St. Bartholomew’s Church, 50th Street and Park Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan, where free lunchtime concerts are held every Thursday at 1:15 p.m. The 2017-2018 schedule has run its course, but concerts will resume in the fall.

Today’s broadcast is made possible in part by Gotham Early Music Scene, or GEMS. GEMS is a non-profit corporation that supports and promotes artists and organizations in New York City devoted to early music – music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical periods. For more information and updates to GEMS’ events calendar, look online at gemsny.org.

Then stick around as we celebrate the birthdays of musicologist and composer Sir Donald Francis Tovey, composers Wojciech Kilar and Peter Schickele – with an appearance by Schickele’s alter ego, P.D.Q. Bach – and sopranos Eleanor Steber and Dawn Upshaw.

I’ll provide the music; you provide the ice cream cake, this afternoon from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

July 17, 2018
Medieval Music on The Classical Network

This Tuesday at noon on The Classical Network, we present another gem from GEMS – Gotham Early Music Scene – as the ensemble Marginalia enlivens your lunch hour with a program of medieval French music. The broadcast will feature selections from the 13th century, including songs of the trouvères and troubadours, as well as instrumental dances. Marginalia consists of Dongmyung Ahn, rebec and vielle; Christa Patton, harp, pipe and tabor; and Peter Walker, bagpipe and voice.

Today’s program was recorded at St. Bartholomew’s Church, 50th Street and Park Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan. The next Midtown Concert will take place there this Thursday at 1:15 p.m., when Hollinshead & Bass (mezzo-soprano Barbara Hollinshead and lutenist and guitarist Howard Bass) will present “Time, Cruell Time!,” with music reflective of the passage of time by Thomas Campion, Robert Johnson, John Dowland, and others. You’ll find a complete schedule of free lunchtime performances at midtownconcerts.org.

In addition, GEMS presents evening concerts. Talisman Medieval (David Yardley, countertenor and harp, and Christopher Preston, tenor and harp) will present a program of medieval and newly-composed medieval-inspired music, this Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Church of the Transfiguration, 1 East 29th Street, Manhattan.

On Sunday at 4 p.m., Juilliard415 will present “Madness and Enchantment,” with Luigi Boccherini’s Sinfonia in D minor “From the House of the Devil,” Georg Philipp Telemann’s “Burlesque de Quixotte,” and excerpts from Henry Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen.” Jonathan Cohen will direct, at Corpus Christi Church, 529 West 121st Street, Manhattan.

Gotham Early Music Scene is a non-profit organization that supports and promotes artists and organizations in New York City devoted to early music – music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and early Classical periods. For more information on these and other programs presented by GEMS, look online at gemsny.org.

Then stick around – among my featured works this afternoon, between 12 and 4 p.m. EST, will be a concerto by Anton Rubinstein and a symphony by Eduard Tubin. Rubinstein is fine, and we’re cruisin’ for some Tubin, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

January 9, 2018
GEMS Early Music Concerts in NYC on The Classical Network

I’ll be arriving by gondola for today’s Noontime Concert, as The Classical Network continues its partnership with Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS).

We’ll hear selections from another one of GEMS’ Downtown Concerts: The Queens Consort will present a program titled “Venetian Masters,” with music by Dario Castello, Biagio Marini, Giovanni Lagrenzi, Marco Uccellini, and Antonio Vivaldi.

Concerts in GEMS Downtown Concerts series are held at Saint Bartholomew’s Church, 50th St. and Park Avenue, in midtown Manhattan. You’ll find a complete schedule of free lunchtime performances at midtownconcerts.org.

In addition, GEMS presents evening concerts, such as “Big Wig: A French Baroque Dance Mix,” with music by Rameau, Lully, Purcell, and Handel, which will be performed by New York Baroque Incorporated, directed by Grammy-winning baroque violinist Robert Mealy, and featuring virtuoso baroque dancers Caroline Copeland and Carlos Fittante. That concert will take place on December 20 at 7 p.m. at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tickets to the event will include same day museum admission. A special 10th anniversary GEMS gala reception will follow the concert.

Other upcoming highlights include a program of “Christmas Vespers” by Johann Rosenmüller, to be presented by the ensemble Artek with members of Les Sacqueboutiers de Toulouse on December 29 at 8 p.m. at Old Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, 273 Mott Street, in Tribeca.

The next concert of The Queens Consort, “Music for Yuletide,” will take place on December 16 at 7 p.m. at Saint Mark’s Church, 30-50 82nd Street, Jackson Heights, Queens.

You’ll find more information about GEMS and a complete listing of events, at gemsny.org.

Following today’s Noontime Concert, stick around for more music, including Stephen Dodgson – composer’s cantata “Last of the Leaves,” Gerald Finzi’s “The Fall of the Leaf,” and Lawrence Ashmore’s “Four Seasons,” among others. I’ll keep mining the gems until 4:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

December 5, 2017
Baroque & Rococo Lunch Concerts in NYC

Get ready for a lively lunch hour of Baroque and Rococo music courtesy of Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS). On today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, we’ll hear selections from two of GEMS’ Downtown Concerts: Tableau Vivant will present a program titled “Telemann in Paris,” consisting of Telemann’s “Paris Quartets;” then the New York Classical Quartet will perform Luigi Boccherini’s String Quartet in F major, Op. 64, No. 1.

Concerts in GEMS Downtown Concerts series are held at Saint Bartholomew’s Church, 50th St. and Park Avenue, in midtown Manhattan. You’ll find a complete schedule of free lunchtime performances at midtownconcerts.org.

In addition, GEMS presents evening concerts, such as “Christmas at the Court of Henry VIII,” with music by Robert Fayrfax, which will be performed by the early music choir Polyhymnia (at the Church of St. Ignatius of Antioch on November 11); and “Viennese Masters,” with quartets by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, which will be performed by the period instrument ensemble House of Time (at the Lounge at Hudson View Gardens on November 17, and at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on November 18). You’ll find more information about GEMS, in this, its tenth anniversary season, at gemsny.org.

Then stick around for more music, with yours truly, until 4:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Luigi Boccherini: Rococo never looked so intense

November 7, 2017
GEMS Concert & Havergal Brian’s Gothic Symphony WWFM

On Tuesday and Thursday, this week and next, The Classical Network renews its partnership with Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS). Join me on today’s Noontime Concert for a recital from the Chapel at St. Bartholomew’s Church in midtown Manhattan of works by Girolamo Frescobaldi. The performer, harpsichordist Gavin Black, is founder and director of the Princeton Early Keyboard Center.

Then stick around for Havergal Brian’s Symphony No. 1, his “Gothic Symphony.” At nearly two hours in length, the “Gothic” is one of the longest symphonies ever written, and certainly one of the largest, requiring multiple choirs and orchestras. The composer had to paste multiple sheets together in the writing of the piece in order to accommodate its titanic demands. Brian dedicated the work to Richard Strauss, who declared it magnificent.

Join me for music from Gotham, and then the “Gothic Symphony,” this afternoon from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, 50th St. & Park Ave., New York City

June 6, 2017

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