Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Leonard Bernstein

Presidents Day Music on WPRB

I realize that the mere mention of “president” these days is the equivalent of dropping a torch on a powder keg. Nevertheless, tomorrow morning on WPRB, I will go forward with my annual observance of Presidents Day. I trust everyone is adult enough to celebrate our democracy with music inspired by Washington, Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Chester Alan Arthur, JFK, and Richard Nixon without having a meltdown in the comments section.

New this year will be “A White House Cantata,” derived from Leonard Bernstein’s final, failed musical (written with Alan Jay Lerner), “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” which flopped loudly in 1976. The work parallels a century’s worth of American presidents, from Washington through Theodore Roosevelt, with commentary from African American White House servants. After the show folded, the composer recycled several of the numbers in his later concert works. (And yes, I am aware that Adams was the first president to occupy the White House.)

Join me as we follow our precedent of being presidential, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I’ll be practicing arithmetic on the back of a coal shovel and hurling silver dollars across the Potomac, on Classic Ross Amico.

February 16, 2017
Aaron Copland’s Jazz Concerto Birthday

He was America’s foremost composer of “art music.” What he was not was George Gershwin.

Join me this afternoon, as we celebrate the birthday of Aaron Copland with, among other things, his Piano Concerto, composed in 1926. Copland was still feeling his way toward his “populist period” (which began with “El Salón México,” not given its premiere until ten years later), when he wrote this concerto, which spikes 1920s modernism with American jazz.

The composer was the soloist in the work’s first performance, which featured the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. The critics panned it, but Copland’s mother beamed with pride. The composer wrote, “I was delighted when Ma said it was her proudest moment and that my playing in the Concerto made all those music lessons worthwhile!”

It retained its reputation as a shocker until 1947, when Leonard Bernstein revived it with Leo Smith as the soloist, and it struggles still, even next to Copland’s own Clarinet Concerto. In the meantime, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” (from 1924) has never been out of the repertoire.

Hear this underexposed work today, between 4 and 7:00 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

November 14, 2016
Labor Day Music for the Working Class

Who wants to work today? You, you, and you!

Climb aboard this morning and earn your keep, as we listen to music about labor and for the worker in anticipation of Labor Day. This will be an international affair, with Prokofiev’s “Le pas d’acier” (“The Steel Step”), a love story set in a factory, Manuel Rosenthal’s “Les petits métiers” (“The Small Trades”), and Nikolai Medtner’s “Three Hymns in Praise of Toil.”

There will also be two Danish symphonies: Rued Laangaard’s Symphony No. 14, “The Morning,” which culminates in the start of the work day, and Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3, “Sinfonia espansiva,” concluding with “a hymn to work and the healthy activity of living.”

Naturally, it being an American holiday, we’ll have plenty of music by our native composers, as well, including the construction worker ballet “Skyscrapers” by John Alden Carpenter, Frederick Shepherd Converse’s tone poem about automobile manufacturing, “Flivver Ten Million,” and a suite from that quintessential film about violent longshoremen, “On the Waterfront,” by Leonard Bernstein.

We’ll be busting our hump for the man, from 6 to 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I coulda been somebody; I coulda been a contender, on Classic Ross Amico.

September 1, 2016
Leonard Bernstein Birthday Salute on WPRB

Our birthday salute to Leonard Bernstein is underway!

Featured highlights this morning will include that dark horse among great American symphonies, the “Symphony for Classical Orchestra,” by Harold Shapero (now playing), a powerhouse recording from Lenny’s later years of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 “Leningrad,” and a concert broadcast of his debut with the New York Philharmonic, from 1943. Bernstein was a brash (and severely hungover) 25 year-old at the time. We’ll get to hear that around 8:00 this morning. Bernstein was perhaps the greatest of American conductors, but he was touched by genius in so many areas – as composer, pianist, and teacher among them. Ideally we’ll have time for representative recordings of those, as well.

I hope you’ll be on hand, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM or at wprb.com. We’ll try not to get ash on the keyboard, on Classic Ross Amico.

August 25, 2016
Bernstein’s 1943 Debut on WPRB

Don’t miss it! Playing right now: the original CBS radio broadcast of Leonard Bernstein’s legendary 1943 debut with the New York Philharmonic. We’re remembering Bernstein on his birthday until 11 a.m. EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

PHOTO: Bernstein in a hair-raising performance from 1946

August 25, 2016

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