Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Philadelphia Orchestra

Ormandy’s Lost American Legacy

Eugene Ormandy, of course, was born in Hungary. His birth name was Jenő Blau. But he became a naturalized American citizen in 1927 and directed the Philadelphia Orchestra for 44 years.

In that capacity, he championed much contemporary music and works by his adopted countrymen –facts frequently forgotten next to his legacy as a superb interpreter of the 19th century classics.

In fact, much of his American legacy has dropped out of print. In the late 1990s, Albany Records briefly attempted to rectify the situation by reissuing some of Ormandy’s recordings of lesser-heard American music. In the event, the series only reached three discs, but each of them is a treasure.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear two works by Pulitzer Prize-winners, both of whose music has sadly fallen out of fashion. The first is William Schuman, the very first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1943, for his “Cantata No. 2, ‘A Free Song.’” At the height of his fame, Schuman was also President of Lincoln Center.

We’ll hear music he composed in 1955, called “Credendum – Article of Faith,” which was written in response to the first ever commission by the U.S. government for a symphonic work.

Norman Dello Joio was the recipient of the Pulitzer in 1957 for his “Meditations on Ecclesiastes.” The concert suite from “Air Power” was adapted from 22 individual scores he composed for the CBS television series, about the history of aviation, which aired from November 1956 through spring of 1957. Its individual sections underscore the early days of flight, with its barnstormers and daredevils, followed by those of air battles and war scenes.

I hope you’ll join me for these rarely heard recordings of American music, conducted by Eugene Ormandy. That’s “All-American Ormandy,” tonight at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

November 12, 2019
Rachmaninoff Rarities: Lost Chord Broadcast

Don’t fear the Reaper!

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” listen in for historic recordings of Sergei Rachmaninoff, including a newly discovered demo of his “Symphonic Dances,” with the composer playing, humming, and singing at Eugene Ormandy’s piano in 1940.

Ormandy will introduce “Isle of the Dead” and conduct a special memorial performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra, given only days after Rachmaninoff’s death in 1943.

And the pianist will make a meal out of the Ukrainian folk song, “Bublichki,” or “Bagels,” at a party in 1942.

That’s “Rach of Ages” – Sergei Rachmaninoff in rare, vintage recordings. I’ll present a random harvest, this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Some rare home movies, with a personal reminiscence by Alexander Greiner, manager of the concert and artist department at Steinway & Sons from 1928 to 1958.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=506&v=QB6-gT-dt18&feature=emb_logo

LIFE OF THE PARTY: Depending on the source, Igor Stravinsky described him as either “six-foot-six of Russian gloom” or “a six-and-a-half foot scowl.”

November 10, 2019
Remembering Wolfgang Sawallisch & Philadelphia

I remember being told by a friend over coffee, back in the early ‘90s – still a few years away from the brushfire circulation of news on the internet – that Wolfgang Sawallisch was to be the next music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Sawallisch?!!

It was a name I associated with Old World integrity and classic (mono) recordings of Richard Strauss. Also, a fabulous, underrated recording of “Ma Vlast” I had discovered while doing college radio, with the Suisse Romande Orchestra, of all things.

Had he ever even been to the United States? How old was he? I guess at the time he must have been around 70. In the event, he died in 2013, only six months shy of his 90th birthday. Philadelphia would prove to be the high-profile capstone of a very respectable, indeed enviable, if not exactly glamorous career.

Still, after the intensity and flash of Riccardo Muti, it would be a nice corrective. And I offer that as a Muti fan. This was Philadelphia, after all, where Ormandy roosted for 40 years.

While Sawallisch was not the most thrilling music director (the word
“kapellmeister” was bandied a lot), he provided solid leadership and proved on more than one occasion that on a good day he could still surprise.

I remember a concert on which he programmed works by Kodály and Miklós Rózsa (the rarely-heard Viola Concerto), which were interspersed with performances by a traditional Hungarian band, complete with cimbalom. He may have to some degree drained Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Symphony No. 8 of some of its Finnishness, but at least he secured its premiere. When a severe snowstorm meant the orchestra couldn’t make it in for a scheduled concert of scenes from Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” and “Die Walküre” (including all of Act I), he made the impromptu decision to throw open the doors of the Academy of Music and play the accompaniment himself at the keyboard, with Deborah Voigt, Heikki Suikola, and chorus, for the enjoyment of anyone who cared to show up.

He was generally all about Beethoven and Bruckner and, yes, Strauss – a concert performance of “Ariadne auf Naxos” was a highlight of his tenure (with Werner Klemperer, Colonel Klink, as the Majordomo!) – but he could also turn around and play the tar out of something like Bohuslav Martinu’s Symphony No. 4. All in all, not a bad legacy.

I hope you’ll join me – once again over coffee – as I remember Wolfgang Sawallisch, with a selection of his recordings, as conductor and pianist. They’ll be among my featured highlights on this, his birthday, this afternoon from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

August 26, 2019
Marian Anderson Birthday Celebration

Arturo Toscanini lauded hers as “a voice that comes once in a hundred years.”

Join me as we celebrate the Lady from Philadelphia, Marian Anderson, on her birthday, with a 1939 recording of Brahms’ “Alto Rhapsody,” featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy.

1939 was the same year, you’ll recall, as her ultimate demonstration of turning lemons into lemonade: when Anderson was barred from performing at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, on account of her race, she sang instead from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial – to 750,000 people on the mall and a national radio audience estimated in the millions.

Anderson’s Brahms performance will be just one of the highlights of a birthday-heavy afternoon, which will also include music and/or performances by Louis Coerne, Mirella Freni, Viktor Kalabis, Gidon Kremer, Morten Lauridsen, Lotte Lehmann, Sir Hubert Parry, and Wilhelm Peterson-Berger.

Your presence will be your present, from 4 to 6 p.m. EST. Then stick around for a party favor in the form of Max Reger and Mendelssohn, on “Music from Marlboro,” following at 6, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

February 27, 2019
Stokowski’s Wagner Philadelphia Orchestra

With the exception, perhaps, of his own transcriptions of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Leopold Stokowski recorded more Wagner with the Philadelphia Orchestra than any other single composer.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll revisit some of Stoky’s early recordings, originally issued on 78s, including the controversial “Liebesnacht,” the original version of his symphonic synthesis after “Tristan und Isolde” – an arrangement that infuriated listeners, with its inconclusive ending – and the “Liebestod,” which he undertook by popular demand, in order to provide a more satisfactory conclusion.

We’ll also hear baritone Lawrence Tibbett, in a role he never sang on stage, in a superb recording of “Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music.”

That’s “Magic Fire” – Leopold Stokowski’s early Wagner recordings with the Philadelphia Orchestra” – this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 20, 2018

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