Classic Ross Amico

Tag: KWAX

Hans Gál Tragedy and Triumph on the Lost Chord

He was a remarkable figure, who weathered much to create works of lasting beauty. This week on “The Lost Chord,” it’s the tragedy and triumph of Hans Gál.

Gál was born outside Vienna in 1890. He studied with, among others, Eusebius Mandyczewski, lifelong friend of Johannes Brahms. Gál himself became a serious Brahms scholar, co-editing the master’s complete works, in cooperation with Mandyczewski, in ten volumes. He edited other scholarly volumes on Brahms, as well.

It was while Gál was director of the Mainz Conservatory of Music that the Nazis came to power. Forced out of his position, he returned to Austria. Then the Anschluss drove him to Great Britain.

There, he made friends with the musicologist Donald Francis Tovey. Tovey, also a friend of Brahms, was based at Edinburgh University. Though Gál would be held in an internment camp during the war, Tovey eased the way for his subsequent employment at Edinburgh. Gál flourished there, becoming a respected member of the faculty and an influential teacher. He remained in Scotland for the rest of his very long life. He died there in 1987 at 97 years-old.

Gál composed in nearly every genre. He was lauded by many of the greatest musicians of his day. Yet somehow his music and reputation haven’t really pervaded the wider musical consciousness.

We’ll hear two works by this neglected composer, issued on the Avie label, which has done much to document Gál’s orchestral, chamber and instrumental music.

First, we’ll have the Piano Sonata, Op. 28, from a complete, 3-CD set devoted to Gál’s output for the keyboard. Gál was about 37 years-old at the time of the sonata’s composition. It’s sobering to think he yet had 60 years of life ahead of him!

Then we’ll hear his Cello Concerto, from 1944. Gál’s mother died in 1942. Shortly after, his aunt and sister took their own lives to avoid deportation to Auschwitz. Unable to bear up under the strain, the composer’s youngest son also committed suicide at 18 years-old. For all the turbulence and tragedy in Gál’s life, he managed to craft a rewarding and mellifluous work, which on occasion offers glimpses of his beloved Brahms. The concerto is elegiac, lyrical and deeply personal.

I hope you’ll join me for “Gál’s Worthy,” worthwhile music of Hans Gál, on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Keep in mind, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

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

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

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

August 5, 2023
Villa-Lobos’ Rainforest Sound on KWAX

We’re having a heat waaaave… a tropical heat wave…

What better conditions than these in which to enjoy some of the rainforest inspirations of Heitor Villa-Lobos?

Happily, there will be no vaccinations or machetes required for this particular expedition, when you join me for “The Lost Chord” on KWAX.

Heitor Villa-Lobos held a unique position in Brazilian music, blazing many trails, both figuratively and literally, to create a distinctive national sound, materials for which he found in the streets and jungles of his native land.

He turned his back on European models, learning much of his craft through osmosis. Through experiment and exploration, he arrived at his own unique harmonic language.

Around 1905, he began physically to explore the Brazilian rainforest, where he came into contact with and absorbed the traditions of its indigenous cultures. The expeditions continued for the better part of a decade. He was fond of relating a story about how he once escaped from a pack of hungry cannibals.

He used this field work to form the basis of two works he wrote in 1916, which draw from Brazilian legends and so-called primitive folk material. Both have been variously described as ballets and symphonic poems: “Amazonas,” about an Indian maiden’s encounter with a metaphorical monster, and its companion piece of sorts, “Uirapuru,” about a legendary bird that sings its song in an enchanted forest. We’ll have a chance to hear both.

In between, we’ll also listen to the “Danses Africaines” (or “Characteristic African Dances,” so-called), based on tribal music of the Caripunas Indians, in its original version for piano, from 1914-16, AND in its later orchestration, from 1953. The piano set was condemned by uptight critics as “degenerate” at its first performance in 1922.

These formative “jungle pieces” all date from the same era of the composer’s development. Though their first performances took place over many years, collectively their exotic allure brought Villa-Lobos to international celebrity.

Villas-Lobos once commented, “I don’t use folklore, I am folklore.” He remains Brazil’s most famous composer. For that matter, all of Latin America’s.

It’s not much of a stretch to imagine ourselves in the forests of the Amazon this week, as we travel off the beaten path with Heitor Villa-Lobos. Join me for “A Night in the Tropics” on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Keep in mind, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

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

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

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

July 29, 2023
Aquatic Trauma in Movie Music

When heat index values crest 100, nothing is as refreshing, it seems, as a nice swim. But spare a thought for what lurks beneath. This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll think twice about heading into the water with an hour of music from movies featuring aquatic traumas.

“Beneath the 12-Mile Reef” (1953) stars Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, and Peter Graves in a Romeo and Juliet story about two families of competing fishermen along the Gulf coast of Florida, one working class and of Greek origin, and the other a family of privileged WASPs. Gilbert Roland is the Greek patriarch who runs afoul of an improbably large octopus. Bernard Herrmann wrote the music, which employs no fewer than nine harps (one for each arm, and a spare).

A young Henry Mancini was one of three composers to work on “Creature from the Black Lagoon” (1954). Mancini, soon to be world famous for “Moon River,” “Baby Elephant Walk,” and “The Pink Panther,” was teamed with veteran film composer Hans J. Salter and Herman Stein. None of the three were credited on screen – typical of what was then considered just another low-budget B-movie.

What can I say about John Williams’ masterful music for “Jaws” (1975)? It’s right up there with “Psycho” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” in terms of most recognized and most frequently parodied. Everyone remembers the primal shark theme, but what is sometimes overlooked is that “Jaws” is also one of the great adventure scores, the music effortlessly navigating the choppy waters of suspense, horror, and seafaring swashbuckler. The composer was recognized with a richly-deserved Academy Award (his second of five).

The conflict in “The Swimmer” (1968) is not a giant octopus, nor a great white shark, nor a prehistoric gill man, but rather the progressive psychological breakdown of an upper middle class Connecticut man who believes he’s living the American Dream.

Adapted from a short story by John Cheever, “The Swimmer” stars Burt Lancaster as the man, who acts on a quixotic impulse to travel all the way home, across county, by way of a network of suburban swimming pools. The adventure starts out well enough, with Lancaster and everyone he encounters full of optimism and fun; but the further he moves along his allegorical journey, the more the enterprise, the climate, and the people begin to grow cold.

“The Swimmer” is a decidedly downbeat tale which could make the viewer as reluctant to dip a toe into a chlorinated in-ground swimming pool as the shark-infested waters of Peter Benchley’s Amity Beach. The score is by Marvin Hamlisch, of all people, and it suits the film brilliantly.

Better stick to the bath. Dreams of aquatic refreshment are all wet this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Keep in mind, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

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

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

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

PHOTO: “Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies…”

July 28, 2023
Arthurian Music Lost Chord from the West Coast

King Lot, Lancelot, Camelot – that’s a lot of “lots.”

This week on “The Lost Chord,” we put the “art” in “Arthur” with musical treatments of the Arthurian legends by two peripatetic American Romantics. We’re a little peripatetic ourselves as, for reasons beyond our control, the show is now being broadcast from KWAX on the West Coast!

But one cannot expect to attain the Grail without a quest. You’ll find the time and streaming information at the end of this post.

As for what we’ll hear, we’ll begin with “Excalibur,” a symphonic poem after Arthur’s enchanted sword, by Louis Coerne (pronounced “Kern”). Coerne was born in Newark, NJ, in 1870. As was the custom at the time, he studied abroad, in France and Germany, then closer to home with John Knowles Paine. In Munich, he pursued organ and composition studies with Josef Rheinberger.

After that, it was back and forth to Germany, between church and conducting appointments in the United States, and then the assumption of a series of academic posts throughout the American Northeast and Midwest. Despite all the worn shoe leather, in his 52 years he managed to produce 500 works.

The remainder of the hour will be devoted to the Straussian tone poem “Le Roi Arthur,” a work in three movements, by George Templeton Strong, son of the famous Civil War diarist, born in 1856. Strong Jr. studied at the Leipzig Conservatory, where Joachim Raff was among his teachers. For a time, he played viola in the Gewandhaus Orchestra. He rubbed shoulders with Liszt and Wagner, then was lured back to the United States by the offer of a teaching position (by former European transplant Edward MacDowell) at the New England Conservatory.

However, in part because the work didn’t agree with him, and in part because of health issues, Strong soon took off for Switzerland, where he settled on the banks of Lake Geneva. There, he dedicated the remainder of his life to painting watercolors and composing. Even after musical fashion had changed, he continued to play an active role in Geneva’s musical life.

I hope you’ll join me for “Kinetic Yankees in King Arthur’s Court.” Break a lance for Arthur, on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Keep in mind, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

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

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

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

July 22, 2023
King Arthur Movie Music on KWAX

This week on “Picture Perfect,” the Once and Future King of film music shows continues on KWAX, with selections from movies inspired by the legends of King Arthur.

The legends provide so much grist for “Prince Valiant” (1954), based on Hal Foster’s enduring comic strip, set in the days of Arthur, though Val himself is a Viking prince of the kingdom of Scandia. Janet Leigh plays Princess Aleta, James Mason the villainous Sir Brack, Victor McLaglen Val’s Viking pal Boltar, and Sterling Hayden a preposterous Gawain. For the title role, Robert Wagner dons the signature page-boy haircut. The score, by Franz Waxman, is every bit as vivid as the film’s Technicolor, and a clear prototype for the exuberant, leitmotif-driven music of John Williams.

“The Mists of Avalon” (2001), adapted from Marion Zimmer Bradley’s novel, takes the ingenious approach of retelling the Arthurian stories from the perspective of the oft-marginalized female characters. The revisionist approach breathes fresh life into the familiar tales, so that the book was greeted with critical and popular acclaim upon its release in 1983. A television miniseries, starring Julianna Margulies, Angelica Huston and Joan Allen, was produced for TNT, with music by Lee Holdridge.

“First Knight” (1995) features an unlikely cast of Sean Connery as Arthur, Richard Gere as Lancelot, and Julia Ormond as Guinevere. The film is unique, to my knowledge, in being based on the writings of medieval French poet Chrétien de Troyes, as opposed to the more frequently-employed source, Sir Thomas Malory.

The score is by Jerry Goldsmith. It was actually a bit of a rush job for Goldsmith, who stepped up at the very last minute to replace Maurice Jarre. Jarre had been approached to write music for what was originally a three-hour cut of the film. However, he only had four weeks in which to do so. Goldsmith, very well-known for his ability to write at white heat, was able to complete the score, and record the music in the allotted time.

“Knights of the Round Table” (1953) may lack the gravitas and grit of “Excalibur” – in my opinion, the most powerful of the Arthurian films – but it does sport some undeniably satisfying 1950s spectacle. The glossy and pat MGM production stars Robert Taylor as Lancelot, Ava Gardner as Guinevere, and Mel Ferrer as Arthur. The fine score is by Miklós Rózsa, from the height of his “historical epic” phase.

It’s more than just a knight at the movies. Polish up on music for the films of King Arthur, on “Picture Perfect,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

For streaming information, see below.

Keep in mind, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for the Trenton-Princeton area. Here are the respective air-times of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

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

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

Stream them here!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

July 21, 2023

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