Classic Ross Amico

Tag: New Jersey

Raritan River Music Festival NJ 2024

More accurate than a Farmers’ Almanac is a prediction for enjoyable music-making in scenic West-Central New Jersey. That’s right, the first of the warm-weather music festivals is practically upon us. Now in its 36th year, Raritan River Music will beat the summer crush, once again presenting acclaimed soloists and ensembles in a variety of programs to be performed at historic venues in Raritan and Warren Counties.

The first of this season’s concerts will take place this Saturday at 7:30 pm, at Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown. A trio of musicians from the Philadelphia-based Tempesta di Mare Baroque Orchestra will perform music by Bach, Couperin, Marais, and Telemann, among others, on flute, recorder, viola da gamba, cello, theorbo, and lute.

On Saturday, May 17 at 7:30 pm, at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartsville, pianist David Korevaar will share repertoire from his new release, “Beethoven: Heroic to Hammerklavier,” on the Prospero Classical label. The program will include the Sonata in F Major, Op. 54, the Sonata in F Minor, Op. 57 “Appassionata,” the Sonata in E Minor, Op. 90, and the Sonata in A Major, Op. 101.

On Saturday, May 24, at 7:30 pm, at Stanton Reformed Church in Stanton, Raritan River Music founders (and Warren County residents) Michael Newman and Laura Oltman, a.k.a. the Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo, will be joined by the Bergamot String Quartet for “Music from the NEW World: 21st Century Masterpieces.” The program will include RRM-commissioned works by Daniel Binelli and Lowell Liebermann, the premiere of a new string quartet by New Jersey composer Payton MacDonald, selections by Bergamot violinist and composer Ledah Finck, and a work by Pulitzer Prize-and-Grammy Award-winning Princeton University alum Caroline Shaw.

The festival will conclude on Saturday, May 31, at 7:30 pm at Historic Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington, with “Americana Meets Old Masters.” Classical favorites and showpieces by Gershwin, Piazzolla, Bach, Rimsky-Korsakov, and others will be played on marimba, vibraphone, and piano by Greg Giannascoli, Behn Gillece, and Ron Stabinsky. Sounds like a good time to me.

The festival can also be accessed via online streaming. For more information, directions, and archived videos of past concerts, visit raritanrivermusic.org.

May 8, 2025
NJ MVC Heaven vs. Hell South Brunswick

I love the MVC on Route 130 in Dayton, NJ, the one that serves South Brunswick. Every time I go there, everyone is so nice and I never have a problem. Whenever I choose the one closer to home, the one in the Trenton area, it’s like running a gauntlet, with the employees lining up with chains and broken bottles, ready to challenge me to produce six points of identification.

For those of you with question marks over your heads, in New Jersey the MVC is the same as everyone else’s DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles). It stands for Motor Vehicle Commission. We’ve got to be different, because, look at us, we’re New Jersey. We won’t even pump our own gas.

To add to my enjoyment, every time I go to South Brunswick, I am issued a number preceded by the letter K. Classical music people inevitably associate that with a Köchel number. The Köchel catalogue is a system that was devised in the 19th century by Ludwig von Köchel to organize what he thought were the complete works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart into chronological order. So K = Köchel = Mozart in the minds of most classical music folks. Unless they’re deranged Scarlatti people, in which case they think of it as a Kirkpatrick listing.

Yesterday I was rewarded with K085 – Mozart’s Miserere in A minor. I must say, a miserere is uncannily appropriate for a visit to the average MVC.

To make yesterday’s visit even more delightful, I discovered a second Köchel number on my new license plate. I’ll refrain from posting what that is, exactly, since I already share too much of myself on social media, and I don’t want any pranksters reporting my license plate for random crimes I didn’t commit (or any I did commit, for that matter). Suffice it to say, the number stands for another dreary sacred work. That’s me all over.

So, not as good as last time, maybe, when I got K231, which translates into one of Mozart’s most scatological canons, “Leck mich im Arsch” (literally, “Lick Me in the ***”). You can read about that visit here:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1032769507642112&set=a.883855802533484

BONUS FOR SCARLATTI-PHILES: I must say you have the advantage this time, as here’s the Keyboard Sonata in F major, K (Kirkpatrick listing) 85:

August 28, 2024
Strange Skies Over PA and NJ

Anyone else in Eastern Pennsylvania or Central Jersey experience “Close Encounters” skies last night? There had been severe thunderstorm warnings for the Princeton area, but beyond some ominous rumblings and darkening skies, there wasn’t much to show for it. It did get awfully dark.

Then shortly after 8:00, a strange orange glow infused my living space. I went outside and gazed straight up, and the strangest clouds were hovering over the building and billowing toward the north. It was like they were upside down, pregnant with foreboding, about to give birth to a funnel cloud or unveil a Spielbergian mothership. I never saw anything like it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the phone with me at the moment, and by the time I thought to run in and grab it, the formation had begun to change. But as I rounded the building was able to get some shots.

Not the same as being there, of course, and these clouds were nowhere near as uncanny as those that loomed directly overhead. If ever I were going to be abducted by alien forces, yesterday evening would have been it.

July 1, 2024
Raritan River Music Festival NJ May Concerts

That’s right! It’s already upon us! The first of the warm-weather music festivals will begin this weekend, as Raritan River Music presents its 35th season at historic venues in West-Central New Jersey throughout the month of May. All concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m.

This Saturday, the Daedalus Quartet will perform William Grant Still’s “Lyric Quartet,” Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, and the New Jersey premiere of “Deep Summer Folklore” by Andrew Davis at Stanton Reformed Church in Stanton.

On May 11, Hot Club of Philadelphia, inspired by the Quintette du Hot Club de France, which flourished in Paris in the 1930s and ‘40s under the direction of guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli, will bring its distinctive blend of Manouche Jazz (a.k.a. Gypsy Jazz), Hot Jazz, and French Swing, along with Americana styles, to Bethlehem Presbyterian Church in Pittstown (Grandin).

On May 18, festival directors and curators Michael Newman and Laura Oltman of the Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo will welcome special guests Celil Refik Kaya and João Luiz for an evening of new commissions and a Leo Brouwer 85th birthday celebration. Through Raritan River Music’s New Music Commissioning Program (and an acclaimed “Music from Raritan River” CD of world premiere recordings), dozens of new compositions have been performed and published worldwide. Newman & Oltman have developed an especially significant relationship with Cuban master Leo Brouwer, several of whose pieces they have premiered and recorded. The concert, which will take place at Historic Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington, will also feature new music by Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Moravec.

The festival will conclude on May 25 with the Manhattan Chamber Players performing piano quartets by Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák at Old Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartville.

For more details and information about online streaming, visit raritanrivermusic.org.

May 3, 2024
Earthquake in NJ My Unexpected Experience

Well, there’s something you don’t experience every day. I was sitting here in the kitchen, doing some work on the computer, as a fox was grazing out under the birdfeeder. Then came the rumbling, as if one of those road-repaving behemoths were grinding through the neighborhood. Except there are no roads back here. The fox took off into the woods and the building shook for a good minute, I’d say. By then, all the neighbors were out, looking around, and the texts began to fly. A 4.8 magnitude earthquake, reported to have originated near Lebanon, NJ. Not something we experience around here every day, thankfully. No apparent damage, no loss of power. I felt sheepish even googling it, as the results turned up images of yesterday’s massive quake in Taiwan.

The last earthquake I experienced was in Philadelphia in 2011. I was sitting at my desk in my third-floor walk-up and felt this gradually intensifying shuddering. But if you’ve ever lived in Philadelphia, you know how it is: there are all these barbaric workmen always up to something. I thought maybe somebody was jumping around on the roof again. Then the vibrations increased, and I looked over at the plants in the window, and they were moving all over the place. Particles rained against the dropped ceiling.

Somebody was walking down the street, and she started to look around. Already by that point, I suspected an earthquake. I thought maybe I had better head for a crossbeam, but by the time I got to the front door, it had stopped. I went down to the street and saw three people standing on the corner. We exchanged notes, and were relieved to find that our experiences had not been unique to our respective buildings. For once, Philadelphia landlords were not to blame.

A short while later my phone rang. I saw it was the number of a certain radio station I was working for, at the time, but then when I picked up, it was this completely strange woman, calling for her daughter. It was disorienting for both of us at first, but then we realized the phone signals had somehow become scrambled. We laughed about it for a bit. She was calling from 17th and Race. I was at 11th and Pine. She said she was sitting at work and could see the buildings across the street move.

After that, I tried to call out, but was unable to get a signal. The phone didn’t work again for about an hour. In the meantime, I just sat there at the computer and listened to the helicopters.

That was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake out of Richmond, VA.

My best wishes for everyone’s safety, and my heart goes out to those who live with the looming threat and destructive force of the real thing.

April 5, 2024

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