Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Mozart

All Saints’ Day Mozart & Musical Saints

It’s November 1. All Saints’ Day.

While Mozart may have been no saint, he certainly did write some divine music. I hope you’ll join me for today’s Noontime Concert, as we enjoy his Serenade No. 10 in B-flat for 13 wind instruments, the so-called “Gran Partita.” The performance, by the period instrument ensemble Grand Harmonie, took place at Harvard Memorial Chapel in Cambridge, MA, on October 17, 2015. Grand Harmonie’s next concert, an all-Mozart program, will be held on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at St. Ignatius of Antioch, 552 West End Ave., in New York City. For more information, look online at grandharmonie.org.

Following the noon concert, we will continue with the afternoon’s programming, which will be devoted to some musical saints. Featured will be Franz Liszt’s “St. Francis of Assisi’s Sermon to the Birds,” Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St. Anne” Prelude and Fugue, Sir Arnold Bax’s “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” Norman Dello Joio’s “The Triumph of Saint Joan,” and Ottorino’s “Church Windows” (which includes panels devoted to St. Michael the Archangel, St. Clare, and St. Gregory the Great), as well as music by St. Hildegard von Bingen.

I hope you’ll join me between 12 and 4 p.m. EDT for some heavenly music, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

November 1, 2016
WWFM Today Strauss & Concordia Concerts

Immediately following today’s installment of “What Makes It Great,” it’s Richard Strauss’ “Ein Heldenleben” (“A Hero’s Life”), in an acclaimed recording that, to my knowledge, has never been played on this station, with Semyon Bychkov and the West German Radio Orchestra.

Coming up at 4:00 EDT, stay tuned for a special concert presented by Concordia Chamber Players. The broadcast will feature Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581, and Beethoven’s String Quintet in C major, Op. 29. Concordia’s next concert will take place this Sunday at Trinity Episcopal Church, Solebury, PA, (outside New Hope) at 3 p.m. The program will include works by E.J. Moeran, Bohuslav Martinu and Sir William Walton. Find out more at concordiaplayers.org.

I’ll be with you until 4 today. Keep listening to WWFM – The Classical Network, and pledge your support at wwfm.org. Thanks!

October 18, 2016
Ponchielli Perlman and Rediscovered Mozart

Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh…

Today is the birthday of Amilcare Ponchielli. It’s possible you may not know his name, but you certainly know his music, thanks to Allan Sherman and Walt Disney.

Join me this afternoon at 4:00 sharp for his most famous piece, “The Dance of the Hours” from the opera “La Gioconda.” We’ll also have a chance to hear his charming Quartet for Winds with Piano.

Then in the 5:00 hour, among our featured works, we’ll have the so-called “Odense” Symphony, which generated a lot of buzz in the 1980s, when the rediscovered piece (uncovered in Odense, Denmark) was thought to be the creation of one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

We’ll also celebrate the birthday today of Itzhak Perlman. At some point during the late afternoon, I would like to play his recording of Karl Goldmark’s Violin Concerto in A Minor. I don’t think it has been heard on the station for a little while. We’ll also enjoy a Brahms violin sonata in the 6:00 hour.

But it will be a riot of ostriches, elephants, gators, and hippopotami to begin, as I’ll be doing the heavy lifting from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

August 31, 2016
SF Burger King Uses Classical Music to Curb Crowds

This San Francisco Burger King takes a page from the London Underground and blasts classical music to keep vagrants off the premises. Can there be a better endorsement for Haydn and Mozart? Apparently a good symphony is more reliable than mosquito repellent.

http://abc7news.com/news/classical-music-blaring-from-sf-burger-king-aims-to-curb-crowds/1334346/

May 16, 2016
Handel Praised by Beethoven Mozart Haydn

Beethoven is remembered to have praised Handel on numerous occasions. “Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived,” he said. “I would uncover my head and kneel down on his tomb.” On his deathbed, he indicated an edition of Handel’s works and said, “There is the truth.”

Upon hearing the “Hallelujah Chorus,” Haydn wept and declared, “He is the master of us all.”

Mozart said, “He understands effect better than any of us – when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt.”

Berlioz? Berlioz called him “a tub of pork and beer.” Knowing what I do of Handel, he probably would have enjoyed that best of all.

Happy birthday, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759).

“Ariodante” was the opera I hated most when I first heard it in 1990. Now I hold it dear. Funny how things change.

“Scherza infida”

“Dopo notte”

February 23, 2016

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