Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Picture Perfect

Live Radio Shift Pledges Needed Now

LIVE AIR SHIFT ALERT! I’ve been given my first live shift since being removed from the weekend mornings at the end of March. I’ll be on tomorrow from 1 to 4 p.m., asking for your pledges of support. It may be my last live shift for quite some time. My understanding is that I will still be selecting all my own music.

Because of the pledge drive, “Picture Perfect” will be heard this week on Saturday, at 4 p.m ET. In keeping with the drive’s Americana theme, the focus will be on the film scores of Elmer Bernstein (including “The Magnificent Seven” and “To Kill a Mockingbird”). “The Lost Chord” will air, as usual, Sunday night at 10, and will feature an hour of vintage Gershwin recordings.

Remember, the station really needs the dough. Even if you’re not happy with some of the changes, it’s still 24 hours of classical music. Also, WWFM remains the distributor of specialty shows like “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord.”

Feel free to express your likes and dislikes, but remember a generous pledge will get your opinions taken more seriously. Do not hold out hopes that I will be restored to weekend mornings. Unless a big time patron steps forward by the end of the month to subsidize my chair, it ain’t going to happen.

Your pledges, especially between 1 and 4 tomorrow, but anytime, with perhaps a kind word for your humble host, are greatly appreciated.

Listen and donate here: http://www.wwfm.org.

Thank you for supporting The Classical Network.

June 26, 2014
Pirate Movie Music Scores on “Picture Perfect”

Ahoy! This week on “Picture Perfect,” we sharpen our sabers and head for the high seas with an hour of music from pirate movies.

We’ll exhume a buried treasure full of scores by Franz Waxman (“Anne of the Indies”), Elmer Bernstein (“The Buccaneer”), William Alwyn (“The Crimson Pirate”), Alfred Newman (“The Black Swan”) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (“The Sea Hawk”).

Remember, Turner Classic Movies: TCM is showing pirate movies every Friday night in June. You’ll be able to catch “The Crimson Pirate” tomorrow night at 8 ET and “The Sea Hawk” June 20 at 11:45, part of a full night of Errol Flynn films.

Comb out your beards and polish your hooks, me mateys. We vary piracy with a little burglary, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6, or listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

June 12, 2014
English Abroad Film Scores WWFM

“Picture Perfect” follows the English abroad this week, with music from “Enchanted April” (Richard Rodney Bennett), “A Passage to India” (Maurice Jarre), “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (Thomas Newman) and “Around the World in 80 Days” (Victor Young).

Bennett, quite the accomplished concert composer (and occasional singer of torch songs), provides a sensitive score for the 1991 Merchant/Ivory adaptation of Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel about four English ladies who spend an idyllic month at an Italian villa.

Jarre received his third Academy Award for his music to David Lean’s final film, the 1984 adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel of repression and racial tension in colonial India.

Newman incorporates traditional Indian elements into his score for “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” the 2012 surprise hit about English pensioners reinventing themselves in their retirement abroad.

Young won his only Oscar (alas, bestowed posthumously) for “Around the World in 80 Days,” the star-studded, light-as-a-feather, though admittedly charming megawinner at the 1956 Academy Awards. It takes longer to watch the movie than it does to read Verne’s novel – though it does provide a rare opportunity to see Ronald Colman in color.

The weekend’s coming, so pack your valise and head on over to http://www.wwfm.org, Friday at 6 p.m. ET.

And don’t forget, past and recent installments of “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” are archived for your enjoyment at the WWFM website. Click on “webcasts” and then select the show.

April 3, 2014
Radio Shows Movies and More on Facebook

Welcome to my Facebook page. Check back frequently for links to my radio shows, “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord,” to my newspaper articles and other related material, and for recommendations of and occasional insights into recordings, books and classic movies. My website is under construction. Thanks for reading.

March 30, 2014

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