Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Philadelphia Orchestra

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
Laycock’s “Musicopia” Premieres in Philadelphia

Sweet! Mark Laycock’s new work, “Musicopia! Suite for Orchestra” will receive its world premiere in Philadelphia this Saturday.

Laycock should be a familiar name to music-lovers in Central Jersey. He was music director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra for over two decades, and has returned to Philadelphia and Princeton in recent years to lead memorable concerts with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. His performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Westminster Symphonic Choir, given in honor of the 100th birthday of humanitarian, philanthropist, and patron of the arts William H. Scheide, was filmed and broadcast nationally as part of PBS’ “Great Performances” series.

Now living in Berlin, a base that allows easy access to the orchestras of Europe, Laycock has developed a quiet sideline as a composer. He has written a Flute Concerto, a Concerto for Saxophone Quartet, and the work he considers his magnum opus, “Via Dolorosa,” scored for vocal soloists, English horn, double chorus and orchestra.

“Musicopia!” is named for the Philadelphia-based organization that provides opportunities for young people to experience, learn, perform, and appreciate music. Young performers will debut Laycock’s suite on this Saturday’s concert, which will take place at 5:00 at The Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, 1904 Walnut Street.

Learn more about the new piece and the organization’s worthy mission as I am joined by Laycock and Denise Kinney, executive director of Musicopia, this afternoon at 4:08 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 9, 2018

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