Classic Ross Amico

Tag: KWAX

Mythical Women in Music Garrop and Snider

Medusa. Penelope. The Sirens. The Fates. Pandora.

Female characters from the classical myths provide the inspiration for Stacy Garrop’s “Mythology Symphony.” The movements of Garrop’s symphony – really more of a collection of symphonic poems – were composed between 2007 and 2013, on separate commissions from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (“Becoming Medusa”), the Albany Symphony Orchestra (“The Lovely Sirens” and “The Fates of Man”), and the Chicago College of the Performing Arts, Roosevelt University (“Penelope Waits” and “Pandora Undone”), where Garrop was associate professor of composition from 2000 to 2016.

Likewise, archetypes from Homer inform Princeton composer Sarah Kirkland Snider’s post-genre song cycle “Penelope.” Inspired by “The Odyssey,” Snider’s work originated as a music-theater monodrama, composed in 2007-08, on texts by playwright Ellen McLaughlin. A woman’s husband, a veteran of an unnamed war, returns home after 20 years. He suffers from brain damage and memory loss. The woman reads to him from Homer’s epic as together they journey through the healing process.

The cycle explores the subjects of memory, identity, and what it means to come home, alongside the terrors and traumas of war. Musically, “Penelope” straddles the worlds of chamber music and indie rock, with any demarcations between the two skillfully blurred and blended. We’ll hear selections from Snider’s song cycle to round out the hour.

Enduring myths of the ancient world are viewed from fresh perspectives this week, on “Myth Conceptions,” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EASTERN)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EASTERN)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EASTERN)

Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

April 13, 2024
Sir Neville Marriner A Centenary Celebration

Monday may be Tax Day, but much more pleasantly, it also happens to mark the centenary of Sir Neville Marriner, who was born on April 15, 1924.

This morning on “Sweetness and Light,” we’ll honor the prolific English conductor, who died peacefully in his sleep on October 2, 2016, three days after giving his last concert in Padua, Italy. The next day, he was scheduled to begin a tour of Austria, Germany, and Belgium, with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the orchestra he founded in 1958. At the time of his death, he was 92 years old.

Hardly gone, then, and certainly he left so many recordings, that he’ll continue to be remembered, with gratitude, for quite some time.

Under Marriner’s direction, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields became the most-recorded chamber orchestra in the world, the partnership yielding over 500 recordings.

Too many, obviously, to survey in an hour, so I’ll focus on four, which have meant a great deal to me, personally.

Marriner could always be counted on to deliver solid, interpretively, middle-of-the-road performances. Occasionally, he would even surprise by turning out a world-beater. He was the perfect choice to supervise the soundtrack for Milos Forman’s “Amadeus.” He was also a sensitive collaborator, in concerto and opera.

It seems there wasn’t much Marriner couldn’t accomplish in the studio, in the days when the major labels still dominated the classical music recording industry and, by extension, radio air time. Rare was the morning or afternoon drive that didn’t feature at least one recording by “Sir Neville and His Marriners,” as one host in the Philadelphia area memorably dubbed them.

There will be nothing taxing about the music this week, as we celebrate Sir Neville Marriner on “Sweetness and Light.” Start your day with a smile, this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 EDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it, wherever you are, here:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

April 13, 2024
Poetry at the Movies KWAX Picture Perfect

Time to sharpen your quill and replenish your laudanum. April is National Poetry Month. This week on “Picture Perfect,” the focus will be on poets at the movies.

We’ll hear music from “Dead Poets Society” (1989), Peter Weir’s beautiful-but-vacuous take on the transformative power of poetry, its “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” story arc made all the more poignant (and less cheap) by the passing of its beloved star, Robin Williams. Maurice Jarre, a long, long way from his Oscar-winning work on “Lawrence of Arabia,” wrote the music, which blends dulcimer and bagpipes (!) with electronics.

At least “Dead Poets Society” found a place in the hearts of the public. “Lady Caroline Lamb” (1973) did not. Sarah Miles plays Byron’s jilted lover, the wife of future prime minister William Lamb. Despite an impressive cast, which includes Jon Finch, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, and Richard Chamberlain (as Lord Byron, no less), and direction by venerable playwright and screenwriter Robert Bolt (“A Man for All Seasons”), the film received mixed reviews and tanked at the box office. The always fine Richard Rodney Bennett provided the atmospheric score.

“Il Postino” (1994) tells the story of a simple postman whose prosaic life is transformed through the power of metaphor. His model is the exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, played by Philippe Noiret. The film’s writer and star, Massimo Troisi, died of a heart attack twelve hours after shooting was completed, having postponed surgery until he finished work. He was 41 years-old. Argentinian-Italian composer Luis Bacalov’s bandoneon-tinged score was honored with an Academy Award for Best Music.

Finally, we put a point on things with the rapier wit of “Cyrano de Bergerac” (1950). José Ferrer struts his stuff as the warrior-poet with the prominent proboscis, who never wants for words, save in the presence of his beautiful cousin Roxane. Ferrer elocuted – and fenced – his way to an Academy Award for Best Actor. The score is one of Dimitri Tiomkin’s finest, and we’ll hear a recording taken from the film’s original elements, under the crisp direction of the composer.

It could be verse. Poetry warms the soul this week. It’s poetry in motion, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EASTERN)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EASTERN)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EASTERN)

Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

April 12, 2024
Mily Balakirev Russian Musical Kingmaker

Mily Balakirev was Russia’s musical kingmaker.

Balakirev, of course, was the founder of the “Mighty Handful,” or “The Russian Five,” that collective of Russian nationalist composers that also included Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, and Cesar Cui.

He had very strong ideas about what Russian music should be, and he was not at all bashful about telling other composers what to do. He essentially micromanaged the early careers of his acolytes, which included not only “The Five,” but on several occasions Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky.

In his later years, though Balakirev’s influence was on the wane, he made two final, important contributions. He was responsible for introducing the prodigy Alexander Glazunov to Rimsky-Korsakov, and he was blessed with one last, very talented disciple, Sergei Lyapunov.

I hope you’ll join me later today, as we listen to music by this last of the Russian nationalists, who was as much influenced by the keyboard prowess of Liszt as he was the patriotic zeal of his mentor. Among our featured works will be his “Solemn Overture on Russian Themes” and “Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes.” He also wrote the music that became “The Lost Chord” signature tune. This will be included, without my voice, for a change, with selections from his “Transcendental Etudes.”

That’s “One Past Five,” music by Sergei Lyapunov, on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EASTERN)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EASTERN)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EASTERN)

Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

WHEN BEARDS WERE IN: Top left, Mily Balakirev; bottom left (clockwise), Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; right, Sergei Lyapunov

April 6, 2024
April Enchantments: Music for Spring Showers

With so much rain falling over the past week (at least in Princeton, NJ, and Eugene, OR), it’s useful to remember that April showers bring May flowers. Not that rain doesn’t bring its own consolations, at least when you’re Classic Ross Amico.

This week on “Sweetness and Light,” we’ll start your day with no less than three works that bear some relation to Elizabeth von Arnim’s lightest and most ebullient novel, “Enchanted April” – including a substantial suite from the score to a 1991 film version, by Richard Rodney Bennett. If you’re wondering what that otherworldly timbre is, it’s an electronic instrument called the ondes Martenot.

In addition, there will be a couple of April fools: John Foulds (we’ll hear his buoyant “April – England,” alone worth the price of admission) and Billy Mayerl (his energetic piano miniature “April’s Fool”).

T.S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month. American composer Rick Sowash wouldn’t necessarily disagree, as we’ll note in his tuneful, though undeniably bittersweet Clarinet Trio No. 2, subtitled “Enchantement d’avril.” (That’s right, “Enchanted April.”)

The clouds will part for Trevor Duncan’s light music classic, “Enchanted April,” the very thing to chase away the blues.

While surely into each life some rain must fall, we’ll be holding out a bright umbrella and a cup of cheer, when you tune in for a playlist of April enchantments 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/

IMAGE: “Enchanted April” by Robert LaDuke, an artist who’s new to me, but I love his retro vibe!

https://www.meyergalleries.com/artist/robert-laduke

April 6, 2024

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