Classic Ross Amico

Tag: KWAX

Biblical Epics on Film Radio Show KWAX

This week on “Picture Perfect” it’s the second installment in a mini-festival of very big films, as we present another hour of Biblical epics, though this time with a twist. Rather than go directly to the Gospels, these are all films adapted from bestselling historical novels.

Lloyd C. Douglas’ “The Robe” was given the Hollywood treatment in 1953. Richard Burton plays Marcellus, the Roman tribune who oversees the crucifixion and wins Christ’s robe in a game of dice. Victor Mature (last week’s Samson) is his well-oiled slave, Demetrius, and Jean Simmons, his childhood sweetheart, now betrothed to Caligula (a scene-stealing Jay Robinson).

“The Robe” holds the distinction of being the first film released in CinemaScope. Allegedly, it is also the only Biblical epic ever to yield a sequel (“Demetrius and the Gladiators”). The score, by Alfred Newman, has always been popular.

Thomas B. Costain’s “The Silver Chalice” was brought to the big screen in 1954. The film introduced Paul Newman in the lead, as a lowborn artisan commissioned to fashion a decorative casing for the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper (i.e. the Holy Grail).

The film is interesting in that it features quasi-abstract sets by stage designer Rolfe Gerard and a stunning score by Franz Waxman, which incorporates the “Dresden Amen,” also used in Wagner’s “Parsifal.” However, Newman was mortified by his performance and famously took out an ad in Variety, essentially to apologize.

“Barabbas” is worlds away from the usual Hollywood epic. Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel of Pär Lagerkvist, the film is a ruminative slog through the guilt-ridden psyche of the title character, played by Anthony Quinn. Barabbas is the thief who is pardoned to make way for the crucifixion of Christ. He spends the rest of his life searching for meaning in a meaningless world.

In a quixotic attempt at verisimilitude, director Richard Fleischer shot the crucifixion scene during an actual solar eclipse. Mario Nascimbene (who composed the music for last week’s “Solomon and Sheba”) wrote the score.

Finally, we’ll wrap things up with music from one of the all-time Oscar champs, “Ben-Hur,” from 1959. Based on the 1880 novel of General Lew Wallace, “Ben-Hur” was honored with 11 Academy Awards, including those for Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler) and Best Actor (Charlton Heston).

The highlight of the film, of course, is the amazing chariot race, but there is a grandeur to the whole which makes it difficult to look away. Miklós Rózsa wrote the magnificent score, arguably the best of any film of its kind. (Parenthetically, today is the composer’s birthday!)

The “Ben-Hur” Oscar record has been tied twice – in 1998, by “Titanic,” and in 2004, by “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” – but this is before computer generated imagery, folks. They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

The New Testament is all-new, by way of adaptations from historical novels, this week on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

April 18, 2025
Paris Spring Music KWAX Radio

This morning on “Sweetness and Light,” join me for an hour of cherry blossoms and sunshine, birdsong, and café au lait. It’s our annual celebration of spring in the City of Light!

We’ll hear April-and-Paris themed songs by Charles Trenet and Vernon Duke, a suite for four pianos by Darius Milhaud, a jaunty work for trumpet and winds by Jean Françaix (who sounded the “x” when pronouncing his name), a couple of pieces of British Light Music on Parisian themes, and the world premiere recording of George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” performed by musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra (masquerading as the Victor Symphony), with the composer himself on the celesta. It’s music as good as spring itself!

I hope you’ll join me for an hour of cafés and croissants, boulevards, blossoms, and bisous, on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PST, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it, wherever you are, at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

April 12, 2025
Rainbow Songs & Spring Showers on KWAX

Surely, the most famous song about rainbows must be “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, an Academy Award winner from “The Wizard of Oz.” Last year, there was a Kansas-style dust-up over whether or not Arlen may have lifted his indelible melody from an obscure Norwegian pianist-composer he heard perform when he was a boy – 29 years earlier. You can draw your own conclusions this week, on “Sweetness and Light,” as we listen to the Concert Etude, Op. 38, by Signe Lund.

In fact, several works on the program will be associated with rainbows. We’ll also enjoy a suite from Roger Quilter’s “Where the Rainbow Ends” and an arrangement by Robert Farnon of Frédéric Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, the big central melody of which was appropriated for the song “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.” The balance of the playlist will be devoted to showers and the promise of spring.

I don’t know what the weather is like where you are, but early spring is always a mercurial time. However, as they say, April showers bring May flowers. I’ll be waiting for you with an umbrella and smile, on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it wherever you are at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

April 5, 2025
Elmer Bernstein’s Magnificent Western Film Scores

Elmer Bernstein scored films in just about every genre – from “The Man with the Golden Arm” (1955) to “The Ten Commandments” (1956) to “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962) to “The Great Escape” (1963) to “Animal House” (1978) to “The Age of Innocence” (1993) to his final project, the Oscar-nominated “Far from Heaven” (2002) – but he had a particular knack for the western.

His swaggering theme for “The Magnificent Seven” (1960) is just about synonymous with most people’s idea of western adventure. (It also sold a heck of a lot of cigarettes when it was licensed by Marlboro.)

Not surprisingly, “The Magnificent Seven” put Bernstein much in demand as a western composer, and he wrote scores for many, including most of the films of John Wayne’s final decade. What’s striking is just how much he was able to vary them. His work for “The Comancheros” (1961) is very different from that for “True Grit” (1969), for instance, and “The Shootist” (1976), Wayne’s final film, is different still.

You’ll be able to sample some of them, when we saddle up for seven magnificent western scores of Elmer Bernstein, for the composer’s birthday, on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT

Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

April 4, 2025
Renaissance Dances on KWAX Radio Spring Rebirth

Spring is a time of rebirth – a renaissance, if you will – so I thought it might be fun, this week “Sweetness and Light,” to round out Early Music Month with an hour of Renaissance dances. Most of these will be reimagined by 20th century composers – though with a couple of notable exceptions – and in the case of Ralph Vaughan Williams, we’ll hear a wholly original work employing early instruments. (When’s the last time you heard RVW’s “Suite for Pipes?”)

It will be venison and peacock for breakfast. Put your hands up for a program of courtly and rustic dances on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it wherever you are at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

March 29, 2025

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