Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Holy Week

Haydn’s Birthday & Holy Week Music

In the name of all that’s holy, it’s Haydn’s birthday!

Franz Joseph Haydn, father of the modern symphony, progenitor of the modern string quartet. It’s only just that the possessor of such fecund creativity would be dubbed “Papa.”

On top of all the secular symphonies, concertos, string quartets, operas, and instrumental works, Papa Haydn composed an impressive body of sacred music.

An obvious choice for Holy Week would be “The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross,” an hour-long meditation, culminating in a certainly-taking-its-time-getting-here earthquake. I admit to finding the piece a bit of a slog. Composed in 1786 for a Good Friday service at Cádiz Cathedral in Spain, the work exists in several forms, but is most frequently heard in a version for string quartet. The quartet version was adapted by Haydn in 1787. He also turned it into an oratorio in 1796. Occasionally, you will even encounter it in an authorized piano version. But for me, I need the colors of an orchestra to make it through the piece, which is like being trapped in the world’s longest church service as a kid.

Here’s the full work, with chorus and orchestra.

Also appropriately somber, but thankfully a little more varied, is his “Stabat Mater” from 1767.

More easily digestible are the symphonies, of which Haydn composed 104 (that were numbered). Three are associated with Holy Week.

Symphony No. 26 “Lamentation” (1768-9)

Symphony No. 49 “La Passione” (1790)

Symphony No. 30 “Alleluia” (1765). This one employs in its first movement a Gregorian plainchant melody. Technically, I suppose, you shouldn’t be listening to the “Alleluia” until Easter, but your secret is safe with me.

I don’t care what day it is, I think I’m going to be listening to as many of the symphonies as I can today.

Happy birthday, Haydn!

March 31, 2021
Easter Music on WPRB Holy Week Special

It’s wholly works for Holy Week this morning, or just about.

I hope you’ll join me on WPRB for 500 years of Easter music, ranging from Richard Davy’s “Stabat Mater” (1490) through Osvaldo Golijov’s “La Pasión según San Marcos” (2000). In between, we’ll also enjoy reflective (and occasionally bombastic) works by Gregorio Allegri, William Alwyn, George Frideric Handel, Franz Liszt, Victor de Sabata, Ottorino Respighi, Edmund Rubbra, John Tavener, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

At 9:00, we’ll take a break for a special visit from Douglas Martin, artistic director of American Repertory Ballet, and Marc Uys, executive director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. They’ll drop by to talk about Martin’s new ballet, “Pride and Prejudice,” which sets the classic novel by Jane Austen to music by Ignaz Pleyel. The PSO will provide live musical accompaniment for the dancers, at McCarter Theatre Center on April 21 & 22.

Otherwise, we’ll make a habit of the rabbit, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I’ll be putting all my eggs in one basket, on Classic Ross Amico.

April 13, 2017
Holy Week Music on WPRB

Have you got a passion for Passions? Do you think Stabat Maters matter? Tune in to WPRB this Thursday morning for music for Holy Week. That’s right, it’s wholly music for Passiontide.

Well, not wholly. We’ll have some selections of a broadly mystical nature (William Alwyn’s harp concerto, “Lyra Angelica,” for instance), works of a meditative bent (for example, John Tavener’s “Song of the Angel”), and perhaps a couple of pieces concerning hope and renewal (such as Edmund Rubbra’s “Resurgam Overture”).

Otherwise, it will be music inspired by the Passion story, ranging roughly from Palm Sunday through, possibly, the observance of Russian Easter. Some of it will be purely orchestral (Victor de Sabata’s “Gethsemani”) and some will include vocal soloists and chorus (Osvaldo Golijov’s Latin-inflected “La Pasión según San Marcos”).

In addition, a certain listener has been requesting Eugene Ormandy’s recording of Respighi’s “Church Windows” since June, probably. Now seems as good a time as any to blast that out. For my own edification, I have to play Vaughan Williams’ “Five Mystical Songs,” with the great John Shirley-Quirk. It just isn’t Easter for me without the “Five Mystical Songs.”

At 9:00, we’ll take a break from Holy Week for a special visit from Douglas Martin, artistic director of American Repertory Ballet, and Marc Uys, executive director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. They’ll drop by to talk about Martin’s new ballet, “Pride and Prejudice,” which sets the classic novel by Jane Austen to music by Ignaz Pleyel. The PSO will provide live musical accompaniment for the dancers, at McCarter Theatre Center on April 21 & 22.

This is a radio show, not a church service, so nobody freak out if an “Alleluia” or a “Gloria” slip into the mix, okay? We’re here to celebrate the music, not to scrupulously observe the minutiae of tradition. I’ll be lining the CD cases with Easter grass, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com, and wishing you peace, hope, and happiness, on Classic Ross Amico.

April 12, 2017
Maundy Thursday: Origins & Passion Week Music

Is it Maundy, or is it Thursday? Why, it’s Maundy Thursday!

“Maundy” is most likely derived from the Latin “mandatum,” as in “Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos” (“A new commandment I give you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you”). Or it could come from the Middle English and Old French words “maund” and “mendier,” respectively, after the Latin “mendicare,” meaning to beg.

In any case, we are now entering the holiest days of the Christian calendar. Maundy Thursday commemorates Jesus’ washing of the feet of his disciples, the Last Supper, and the betrayal and arrest of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.

This morning on WPRB, we’ll have music inspired by the events of Passion Week, when Christians mark the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. We’ll have a setting of the Stabat Mater, a poignant work for string quartet inspired by Christ’s reflections in the garden on the eve of his crucifixion, and a symphonic poem inspired by the same.

It won’t all be hardcore, however. We’ll also have music of a more generalized reflective or mystical nature. For instance, later on in this hour, we’ll hear William Alwyn’s gorgeous harp concerto, “Lyra Angelica,” which was popularized by figure skater Michelle Kwan when she used it as the basis for one of her performances during the 1998 Winter Olympics.

I hope you’ll join me this morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com, as we get passionate about Holy Week on Classic Ross Amico.

PHOTO: Early 13th century depiction by an unknown artist of Christ washing the feet of his disciples, located in the Basilica di San Marco in Venice

March 24, 2016
Holy Week Music Judas’s Betrayal on WPRB

Not only did Judas betray Jesus, he forgot to bring horseradish to the Last Supper. Have you ever had gefilte fish without horseradish? Thanks a lot, Judas.

Also, he was a lousy kisser.

If you stick around for the remainder of my shift, here’s some of the music you’ll get to enjoy: Ottorino Respighi’s “Church Windows,” Maurice Duruflé’s “Four Motets on Gregorian Themes,” Victor de Sabata’s symphonic poem “Gethsemani,” Karol Szymanowski’s “Stabat Mater,” and Paul Creston’s Symphony No. 3 “Three Mysteries.”

Those and more, as we continue our musical observation of Holy Week for this Maundy Thursday, until 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com

March 24, 2016

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