Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Picture Perfect

Western Film Music on Picture Perfect

This week on “Picture Perfect,” hit the sundrenched plains and wide-open spaces, with music from outsized movies set in the American West.

We’ll be living large with selections from “The Big Country” (Jerome Moross), “The Big Sky” (Dimitri Tiomkin), “Big Jake” (Elmer Bernstein), and “Silverado” (Bruce Broughton).

It’s all BIG, on “Picture Perfect,” this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Big thanks to everyone who contributed to our recent end-of-the-fiscal-year fundraiser. I am happy to report that we exceeded our goal of $75,000. Here’s looking forward to another year of great music on the radio. Thank you, listener-members, for stepping up and aiming high!

July 3, 2021
Oscar Weekend Snubbed Scores Spotlighted

Does anyone even know it’s Academy Awards weekend? Has anyone actually seen any of the movies? Or at least heard of most of them? No doubt about it, this will be Oscar’s strangest year.

Since I’m still cut off from studio broadcast, thanks to COVID-19, we’ll have to forgo my annual three-hour celebration of the movies – a festive playlist made up of music associated with Academy Award winning classics, alongside selections from the current year’s nominees.

Be that as it may, Oscar doesn’t always get it right.

As something of a stopgap, this week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll revisit some enduring and culturally significant movies, most of which were honored in other categories, but were denied the statuette for Best Original Score.

Tune in for selections from “Citizen Kane” (Bernard Herrmann), “The Magnificent Seven” (Elmer Bernstein), “The Big Country” (Jerome Moross), and “Gone with the Wind” (Max Steiner).

One doesn’t need a statuette to be a winner. I hope you’ll join me for “They Been Robbed,” on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

If you’re really jonesing for the glories of Oscars past, last year’s Oscar Party is still available as a webcast – though of course, last year’s nominees are no longer current. Make yourself a bowl of popcorn and listen here:

https://www.wwfm.org/post/picture-perfect-february-7-oscar-party-2020

April 24, 2021
Restoration Cinema Beauty Patches and Film Scores

Beauty patches are back!

This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s an hour of lace and licentiousness, with music from movies set during the reign of Charles II.

“Restoration” (1995) features quite the cast, with a pre-“Iron Man” Robert Downey, Jr. as a young doctor torn between duty and debauchery. He succumbs to the latter at the court of Charles, played by Sam Neill, before finding redemption as he battles the Great Plague and braves the Fire of London. The film also stars David Thewlis, Polly Walker, Meg Ryan, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Grant.

The main title of James Newtown Howard’s score takes its impetus from Henry Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen.” And indeed there are baroque inflections throughout.

George Sanders plays Charles in “The King’s Thief” (1955). Edmund Purdom is a highwayman who pilfers an incriminating book from David Niven. An aristocratic schemer, Niven will stop at nothing to get it back. The swashbuckling score is by Miklós Rózsa.

I don’t recall Charles making an appearance in “The Draughtsman’s Contract” (1982), Peter Greenaway’s saucy, though strangely aloof, Restoration opus. However, there is plenty of licentiousness and an abundance of outlandish wigs. And, it being a Greenaway film, it is certainly strange in more ways than one. Michael Nyman’s score puts a minimalist spin on baroque sources.

Finally, “Forever Amber” (1947) is based on a then-scandalous novel by Kathleen Winsor, about an ambitious young woman’s rise through the bedchambers of the Royal Court. The film was directed by Otto Preminger. Linda Darnell is Amber. Once again, George Sanders plays Charles, eight years before reprising the role for “The King’s Thief.” Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene, and Jessica Tandy are also in the cast. Philadelphia-born composer David Raksin, he of “Laura” fame, plays fast and loose with music of the era.

Bwoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! It’s so naughty! Everyone, giggle into your handkerchiefs and wear ribbons on your shoes. We’ll be powdering our faces and going heavy on the rouge, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 10, 2021
Doreen Carwithen Unsung Film Composer

This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll shine a light on the shamefully underutilized talent of Doreen Carwithen.

In 1941, Carwithen studied harmony and composition with William Alwyn at London’s Royal College of Music. For both, it was love at first sight. Their fateful pairing led to a decades-long romance that culminated in their marriage, finally, in 1975.

The reason for the delay was, unfortunately, at the time of their meeting, Alwyn happened already to be married. The double-life caused tremendous stress. Alwyn, in particular, descended into alcoholism and suffered a nervous breakdown. Finally, his doctor urged him that, if he was going to live at all, he should get on with it already and live honestly.

In the concert hall, Alwyn – a contemporary of William Walton and Michael Tippett – enjoyed comparative success as a symphonist. Carwithen, too, got off to a promising start. Her overture “ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another)” was conducted by Adrian Boult at Covent Garden in 1947. She also wrote two award-winning string quartets. But the cinema promised more lucrative employment. Carwithen was the first selected by J. Arthur Rank to enter the college’s new film music program.

Combined, during their heyday, in the 1940s and ‘50s, Alwyn and Carwithen wrote the music for over 100 films. Alwyn, in particular, scored such high-profile projects as “The Crimson Pirate,” “A Night to Remember,” and “The Swiss Family Robinson.” Carwithen, although groomed for the very purpose, was not given the same opportunities. In all, she scored only six dramatic features. The rest were documentaries and shorts.

Neither were her concert works, though well-received, met with the same enthusiasm or eagerness by either programmers or publishers. In 1961, she became Alwyn’s secretary and amanuensis, and following his death in 1985, devoted herself to the preservation of his legacy.

After her own death, in 2003, discovered among her papers were sketches for an unfinished string quartet (her third), a symphony, and a cello concerto. One can only imagine that, as an artist, her potential remained unfulfilled.

We’ll do our best to level the playing field this week, dividing the hour between Alwyn and Carwithen, 50/50, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Remember, you can help support “Picture Perfect” by making a donation at wwfm.org. Enjoy a sense of satisfaction as you cause the mercury to rise in the thermometer on the station’s homepage. Less than 100 contributions in any amount will bring this year’s Bach 500 to a close. Tomorrow is Bach’s birthday, the end of the campaign, so why not do it now? Thank you for your support of The Classical Network!

https://wwwfm.secureallegiance.com/wwfm/WebModule/Donate.aspx?P=DEFAULT&PAGETYPE=PLG&CHECK=vOU2bz5JCWmgCDbf53nm9ezWDeZ%2beA1M

March 20, 2021
St Patrick’s Day Irish Music WWFM

On behalf of the O’Dalaigh clan, on me mother’s side, sincere wishes for a happy St. Patrick’s Day! If you be lookin’ for music on Irish themes, here be a few shamrocks to keep you shaking – webcasts of select installments of me WWFM shows, “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord.” You need merely follow the the links and click on “listen.”

PICTURE PERFECT, “Presentiments of St. Patrick” (air date: 3/13/20)

Raise a pint (or two or three) to selections from the moving pictures, including “The Luck of the Irish” (Cyril J. Mockridge), “Angela’s Ashes” (John Williams), “Circle of Friends” (Michael Kamen), and “The Quiet Man” (Victor Young).

https://www.wwfm.org/post/picture-perfect-march-13-presentiments-st-patrick

THE LOST CHORD, “Airs of Erin” (air date: 3/14/21)

Laugh and weep along to John Kinsella’s Symphony No. 3, “Joie de vivre,” and Arnold Black’s “Laments and Dances from the Irish,” after melodies of Turlough O’Carolan.

https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-march-14-airs-erin#stream/0

THE LOST CHORD, “The Sharing of the Green” (air date: 3/15/20)

Enjoy a mulligan stew of works by Irish composers John Larchet, Philip Hammond, Howard Ferguson, and A.J. Potter, and works on Celtic themes by Percy Grainger, Sir Arnold Bax, and John Foulds.

https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-march-15-sharing-green

THE LOST CHORD, “Irish Ties Are Smiling” (air date: 3/17/19)

Irish-American composer Edward Joseph Collins (1886-1951) reflects on his heritage with “Variations on an Irish Tune,” “Variations on an Irish Folksong,” and the Irish Rhapsody “Hibernia.”

https://www.wwfm.org/post/lost-chord-march-17-irish-ties-are-smiling

And if you be feelin’ generous with that pot o’ gold there, make a donation to WWFM, if you please. If we receive 500 contributions, IN ANY AMOUNT, by March 21, we’ll be celebratin’ that great Irish composer, Johann Sebastian McBach, on his birthday, with just his music. No fundraising.

But first we be needin’ to reach that goal! Go raibh míle maith agat! A thousand times, thank you for your generous support of WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!

https://wwwfm.secureallegiance.com/wwfm/WebModule/Donate.aspx?P=DEFAULT&PAGETYPE=PLG&CHECK=vOU2bz5JCWmgCDbf53nm9ezWDeZ%2beA1M

March 17, 2021

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