Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Jewish Composers

Jewish Music for the High Holy Days on WPRB

If a blast on the shofar sends you into ecstasies, have I got the show for you!

There will be shofars aplenty over the course of my five hours on WPRB this morning, as we listen to music by Jewish composers and/or on Jewish themes, in honor of the High Holy Days.

There will be works by composers such as Paul Ben-Haim, Herman Berlinski, Ernest Bloch, David Diamond, Sril Irving Glick, John McCabe, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Paul Schoenfield, Dmitri Shostakovich, David Stock, and Philadelphia natives Louis Gesensway and Amanda Harberg.

We’ll also be upholding an annual WPRB tradition, initiated by Teri Noel Towe, of airing a recording of Pablo Casals performing Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei.”

A number of these composers aren’t even Jewish – and a few of the pieces aren’t particularly “Jewish” sounding – but all of them pay tribute to the fecundity and soulfulness of the Jewish experience.

Join me this morning from 6 to 11 ET, at WPRB 103.3 FM or wprb.com, for music for the Days of Awe, the ten days that span Rosh Hashanah (the New Year) to Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). If you need anything, just “give a challah,” to Classic Ross Amico.

September 17, 2015
Jewish Music for the High Holy Days

Coming up in the next hour, it’s “The Chagall Windows,” English composer John McCabe’s luminous, strange and beautiful impressions of the stained glass tableaux located at the synagogue of the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Also, we’ll hear Philadelphia native Amanda Harberg’s “Elegy” for viola and piano, a work dedicated to one of her teachers, Marina Grin.

It’s all music by Jewish composers or on Jewish themes for the High Holy Days this morning until 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.

September 17, 2015
Shanah Tovah Radio: Jewish Composers on WPRB

Shanah tovah!

Once again, if you’re Jewish, allow me to wish you a sweet and happy new year. If you’re not, I hope you’ll sit back and enjoy the music, as tomorrow morning on WPRB, I’ll be offering works by Jewish composers and/or on Jewish themes.

By request, I’ll continue a WPRB tradition, initiated by the great Teri Noel Towe, of airing a recording of Pablo Casals in Max Bruch’s “Kol Nidrei.” I also have “Kol Nidre” settings by Jacob Weinberg, Arnold Schoenberg and Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek. That’s right – he, of “Donna Diana” fame.

Not all of these composers were Jewish, of course. I’ll give the goys some poise with music on Jewish themes by Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Maurice Ravel, and John McCabe’s “Chagall Windows,” inspired by the stained glass creations that frame the synagogue of the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.

And let’s not forget John Duffy’s Emmy Award-winning music for the PBS television series “Heritage: Civilization and the Jews.”

I’ve got a box full of CDs featuring works by Paul Ben-Haim, Herman Berlinski, Leonard Bernstein, Ernest Bloch, David Diamond, Matthew H. Fields, Lukas Foss, Srul Irving Glick, Alexander Krein, Paul Schoenfield, Leon Stein, David Stock, Franz Waxman, and Philadelphia natives Louis Gesensway and Amanda Harberg.

Just how much of this music I’ll actually be able to get on the air remains to be seen. Prepare to be awed by music for the Days of Awe, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 ET, on WPRB 103.3 FM or at wprb.com. We’re all sticky with apples and honey on Classic Ross Amico.

PHOTO: Learn the proper way to make a shofar here:

https://sites.temple.edu/historynews/2013/09/04/from-the-philadelphia-jewish-archives-shana-tova-happy-jewish-new-year/

September 16, 2015
Schoenberg’s Jewish Journey Birthday Tribute

Today is the birthday of dodecaphonic icon Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). Schoenberg, who was born Jewish, converted to Protestant Christianity in 1898 – not, as might be assumed, for professional reasons or in an attempt to assimilate, but because of a nagging spiritual hunger.

He formally converted back to Judaism in defiance of the National Socialists, who came to power in 1933. He was on vacation in France, when he was warned that it would dangerous for him to return to Germany. He reclaimed membership in the Jewish faith in a Paris synagogue. Schoenberg was summarily denounced by the Nazis as a Jew and an exponent of degenerate art. He was dismissed from his post at the Prussian Academy of Letters, where he had taught since 1925.

Unbowed, he drafted a “Four-Point Program for Jewry,” calling for a united Jewish party and the creation of an independent Jewish state. He emigrated to the United States, eventually settling in Los Angeles, where he taught at U.C.L.A.

Throughout his career, Schoenberg produced a number of works on Jewish themes, including his opera “Moses und Aron” (which he worked at between 1930 and 1932, before his second conversion). In 1938, the year of Kristallnacht, he composed a setting of “Kol Nidre.” And in 1947, he wrote “A Survivor from Warsaw.” He also worked at an oratorio, “Die Jakobsleiter,” between 1917 and 1922.

Even through his period of religious experimentation, Schoenberg always identified as a Jew. It’s not quite Yom Kippur yet, but here is his “Kol Nidre.”

Happy birthday, Arnold Schoenberg.

September 13, 2015

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