Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Philadelphia

Romeo Cascarino Philly’s Unsung Opera Genius

With a name like Romeo, he had to learn to use his fists.

Composer Romeo Cascarino grew up in an unforgiving neighborhood in South Philadelphia. While navigating the School of Hard Knocks, he taught himself privately, gleaning the mechanics of music theory from books checked out of the Free Library of Philadelphia. He was discovered by composer Paul Nordoff, who recognized his genius, and the two became more friends than master-disciple.

For many years, Cascarino was a professor of composition at Combs College of Music. The recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, he labored at his magnum opus, the opera “William Penn,” for the better part of three decades. The work received its premiere at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music in 1982 to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city.

Metropolitan Opera singer bass-baritone John Cheek sang the title role, Cascarino’s wife, soprano Dolores Ferraro, created the part of Gulielma, Penn’s wife, and Christofer Macatsoris conducted the Philadelphia Singers and the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia.

Cascarino died in 2002; September 28th would have been his 95th birthday. Ferraro and arts writer Tom DiNardo sat down with me in 2012 to share their reminiscences and insights into Cascarino the man and the composer. I’ve assembled some of their remarks and punctuated the conversation with rare audio from the family archives, as well as studio recordings made by JoAnn Falletta and Sol Schoenbach, former principle bassoonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

A seductive, twilit beauty informs much of Cascarino’s output. If only he had completed “William Penn” 30 years earlier, I believe it would have been as well known as Carlisle Floyd’s “Susanna” or Robert Ward’s “The Crucible.”

I hope you’ll join me for a rebroadcast of “Remembering Romeo,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

September 24, 2017
William Henry Fry Birthday Fry Day?

When is Saturday “Fry Day?” Why, when it’s the birthday of William Henry Fry, of course!

Fry was born in Philadelphia in 1813. A pioneering figure in American music, he was the first native-born composer to write on a large scale. He composed orchestral works and the first opera by an American to be performed publicly in his lifetime (“Leonora,” in 1845). He was an outspoken advocate of American music – that is, music composed by Americans – at a time when German imports ruled the roost. It would be decades before American music would gain a toehold in the concert halls, which makes Fry an even more remarkable figure.

He studied music with a former bandleader in Napoleon Bonaparte’s army, who went on to become the head of Philadelphia’s Musical Fund Society. Fry himself would become the society’s secretary.

Fry was also a journalist, a writer on music, and the first music critic to write for a major American newspaper. He was a foreign correspondent for the Philadelphia Public Ledger and acted as music critic for the New York Herald Tribune.

He composed seven symphonies, all of them of a descriptive nature. His “Santa Claus Symphony,” after Clement Moore, is more of a Straussian tone poem. My personal favorite is the “Niagara Symphony,” written for P.T. Barnum, conceived for enormous forces augmented by a mindblowing eleven timpani.

Fry died of tuberculosis, “accelerated by exhaustion,” in Santa Cruz (Saint Croix) in the Virgin Islands in 1864, at the age of 51.

There is some discrepancy regarding the date of his birth, with some sources giving August 10, and others August 19. So maybe it’s not Fry Day, after all.

Happy birthday (perhaps belatedly), William Henry Fry.

The “Niagara Symphony” (it begins quietly):

August 19, 2017
Chinese New Year: Remembering Ma Sicong

新年好

It’s Chinese New Year! Welcome the Year of the Rooster by revisiting this article I wrote for the Trenton Times in 2012, about Chinese violinist and composer Ma Sicong, a political exile who lived out his life in Philadelphia, and whose music was revived locally by West Windsor’s Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2012/03/bravura_philharmonic_orchestra.html

Ma Sicong’s Symphony No. 2:

Ma Sicong works for violin:

Ma receives a write-up in Life Magazine (as “Ma Sitson”):

https://books.google.com/books?id=fFYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA33-IA7&lpg=PA33-IA7&dq=ma+sitson&source=bl&ots=lIbQrfR9mt&sig=ty77F5853DbQMAH6xFaAGaOqqx0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jQAVT86gNufu0gGZs5zDAw&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=ma%20sitson&f=false

January 28, 2017
Thanksgiving Travel With Philadelphia Music

Get ready to creep over the river and through the woods – with millions of other folks attempting to do exactly the same thing. I’ll be there to keep you company this afternoon, as you tap the breaks, with a basket full of Thanksgiving goodies.

We’ll anticipate the holiday with an abundance of American music, with the aim of keeping everyone in a positive frame of mind. Just keep repeating to yourself, what would William Penn do?

That must have been what Louis Gesensway did when he came to write “Four Squares of Philadelphia.”

Gesensway was born in Latvia in 1906. A violin prodigy, he was one of the founders of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He came to Philadelphia at the age of 19, where he played in the orchestra under Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy.

In his mid-20s, he took a leave of absence to study composition with Zoltán Kodály. “Four Squares of Philadelphia” was described by the composer as a “symphonic poem for large orchestra, narrator and street criers.”

The piece opens with a recitation of Penn’s prayer, then continues with musical evocations of Washington Square (captured in early morning, during Colonial times, with street criers hawking their wares), Rittenhouse Square (on a bright and cheerful afternoon), Logan Square (with its fountains at dusk), and Franklin Square (at night, reflective of noisy bridge traffic, with a side excursion into Chinatown, and interjections from the honky tonk joints that used to be located about the square in the 1950s).

No telling what Penn would have thought of the honky tonk joints, but all in all, he was a pretty fair-minded guy. Also, he knew to be thankful. It took him 60 days to reach his destination, traveling from a cell in London to his “greene country towne” in America. Think of that as you gaze through the windshield at countless taillights stretching to the horizon.

“Four Squares of Philadelphia” will be among our featured works this afternoon. We’ve much to be thankful for, from 4 to 7:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Statue of Penn high atop the city he founded

November 23, 2016
Ross Amico Jazz WRTI Tonight

If you’ve never had the chance to hear Classic Ross Amico spinning the jazz, I’ll be donning the pork pie from 6 to 9 tonight on WRTI 90.1 FM in Philadelphia and at wrti.org. Stay cool, fools!

June 4, 2016

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