Classic Ross Amico

Tag: H. Paul Moon

Balliett’s “St. Mark Passion” Film Premieres

To coincide with Good Friday, documentarian H. Paul Moon unveils his new film of Douglas Balliett’s “St. Mark Passion.” The film dropped at 8:00 this morning (3 p.m. Jerusalem time) and is now archived for viewing on demand.

If you don’t have time to listen it today, do try to catch it over the weekend. The idiom is attractive, the work is substantial and, although I only learned of it as the premiere showing was already in progress (I joined it about 45 minutes in), it strikes me as music that will bear repeated listening.

The performance was captured at New York’s Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and features the Theotokos Ensemble, with the composer himself directing and playing viol.

If you’re a regular attendee of concerts of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Balliett’s name and visage may strike you as familiar – his twin brother, Brad, with whom Doug frequently collaborates (as the Brothers Balliett), is the PSO’s principal bassoonist. Brad is also on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory and the Juilliard School, so it’s possible you might recognize him from those places too!

Doug teaches at Juilliard as well, as a professor of Baroque bass and violine. He writes cantatas for weekly church services and leads the Theotokos Ensemble every Sunday at St. Mary’s Church on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. As a performer, he has played with many notable ensembles. Prior to its premiere, his “St. Mark Passion” was given a reading by one of them, William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants. Not bad!

He’s also a poet, and for three years, he hosted a radio show dedicated to living composers with his brother on WQXR.

Here’s Paul’s film of the oratorio. Try it; you’ll like it.

https://zenviolence.com/balliett

Learn more about Doug Balliett at his website.

https://www.dougballiett.nyc/

Elaborating on the Brothers Balliett and the ten-point “manifesto” that governs their creative process:

https://www.dougballiett.nyc/brothers-balliett

Doug’s remarks about the Passion:

https://www.dougballiett.nyc/st-mark-passion

April 18, 2025
Caspar David Friedrich 250th Anniversary & Met Exhibit

Anyone who collected classical music records during the golden age when great paintings were always used as cover art, or who has purchased his or her share of literary paperbacks, will surely recognize the work of Caspar David Friedrich. He’s an artist that’s always appealed to me, especially as I seem never to have developed beyond my Byronic teens, thank goodness. I’m very much looking forward to the upcoming exhibition of his works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 8- May 11, billed as the first comprehensive display of the artist’s paintings in the United States. Today marks the 250th anniversary of his birth. Wishing a melancholy semiquincentennial to Caspar David Friedrich!

https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/caspar-david-friedrich-the-soul-of-nature

Filmmaker H. Paul Moon interacted with some Friedrich’s most famous paintings at the Alte Nationalgalerie of Germany in October 2023:

September 5, 2024
Scrooge Reimagined A Passionate Christmas Carol

Think you’re played-out on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol?” Consider giving this one a shot.

“The Passion of Scrooge” is not just a filmed performance of a work by composer Jon Deak (who, from 1973 to 2009, was also a bassist with the New York Philharmonic); it is a collaborative documentary in which the film direction is every bit as expressive and essential to the overall experience as anything that happens musically or onstage.

The award-winning filmmaker, H. Paul Moon, has received perhaps his widest exposure through the nationwide television broadcast, on PBS, of his documentary “Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty.” Moon traveled from D.C. to the studios of WWFM – The Classical Network to talk with me about Barber – who was born in West Chester, PA, and attended Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music – in 2017.

We met up again, a couple of years ago, to chat about his work on “Scrooge.” I’m delighted to find that he posted the audio file of our conversation.

Contemporary, challenging, and thought-provoking, “The Passion of Scrooge” strips away the accrued nostalgia for a well-worn holiday tradition to get at the heart of Dickens’ message.

Moon’s film is on BluRay and DVD and is also available for online streaming. To learn more about it, listen to our conversation – with selections from Deak’s opera – or visit scroogeopera.com.

At Paul’s suggestion, the balance of the hour during his visit to WWFM was devoted to a recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “On Christmas Night,” a rarely-heard masque also inspired by “A Christmas Carol.” Here’s a link to the music if you’d like to reconstruct the full experience.

Zen Violence Films

December 14, 2021
Whitman’s Cinema & Music Bicentennial Celebration

I am proud to have documentarian H. Paul Moon of Zen Violence Films as a follower of this page. Paul has been working very hard to get ready for the Walt Whitman bicentennial. Here is his definitive analysis of every appearance by Whitman in cinema and television.

This video essay is part of a trilogy of Moon’s short films about Whitman that will be screened at Rhizome DC, located in the Takoma neighborhood of Washington, on May 31, the actual anniversary of Whitman’s birth.

Watch it in preparation for tomorrow night’s broadcast of “The Lost Chord,” the last in a four-part series celebrating Whitman in music. Of the literally hundreds of musical responses inspired by Whitman’s verse, I’ve been able to touch on only ten composers. But what variety! Tune in this week for two openhearted and ecstatic works for chorus and orchestra by Howard Hanson and Lowell Liebermann. “Joy, Shipmate, Joy” will air this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network.

And if you just can’t get enough of Whitman, Rachel Katz will also focus on “the Good, Gray Poet” on “A Tempo,” as she speaks with Malcolm J. Merriweather, music director of The Dessoff Choirs. The group will present three world premieres of Whitman settings, again on the actual anniversary of his birth, as part of a Whitman Bicentennial Festival. The concert will take place at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew in New York City on May 31. “A Tempo” can be heard on WWFM The Classical Network Saturday evening (tonight) at 7:00 EDT.

If you miss the Whitman broadcasts, both will be archived at the WWFM website sometime next week, as have been past installments of “The Lost Chord” series. You’ll find them at wwfm.org. Click on “About Us,” then “Our Programs A-Z,” and then the individual shows, which are listed alphabetically. (“The Lost Chord” appears under the letter T.)

Or if you have the time and the patience to scroll through everything, simply click on “Classical” and then “Webcasts.”

Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find!

May 25, 2019
Samuel Barber Doc Premieres Tonight

This documentary about the great American composer Samuel Barber airs tonight at 8 on WHYY Philadelphia, with a repeat on 7/21 at noon. This will mark the world broadcast premiere, and the coverage area includes the composer’s hometown of West Chester, PA. Barber studied composition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His “Adagio for Strings,” recognized the world over, is one of the most famous pieces written by an American composer, the introspective flip side of “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” Like so much of Barber’s music, it is revealing not only of the American character, but the broader human condition.

You can also view the documentary here, on demand:

Thanks again to filmmaker H. Paul Moon for making the trip in to WWFM – The Classical Network yesterday to share some of his insights into the composer and his experiences in the undertaking of this worthy project, “Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty.”

July 15, 2017

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