Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Princeton Symphony Orchestra

St Patrick’s Day Music & Princeton Symphony Preview

It’s never too early to begin celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, so I hope you’ll join me early tomorrow morning on WPRB. Just as St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland, we’ll drive all the cobwebs out of our brains with cleansing reels, tin whistles, and sentimental airs.

We’ll have music from Ireland and on Irish themes, with works by native composers John Larchet, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, and Joan Trimble; composers of Irish descent Edward Joseph Collins, Henry Cowell, and Augusta Holmès; and Irishmen-for-a-day Ludwig van Beethoven, Frank Martin, and Romeo Cascarino, for starters.

We’ll cram in all the weeping and drinking and step dancing and fighting that we can before 10:00, at which time we’ll shift gears, and I will be joined by Christopher Lyndon-Gee. Lyndon-Gee will be guest conducting the Princeton Symphony Orchestra at Richardson Auditorium this Sunday afternoon at 4, in a program featuring music by Sir Edward Elgar and Carl Nielsen.

Lyndon-Gee, a prolific recording artist who has garnered five Grammy nominations, will talk a bit about the weekend’s program, and then surprise us with a selection of his recorded performances. His catalog skews heavily toward unusual and neglected repertoire, which very much makes him a man after my own heart.

It will be all the green beer you can drink, tomorrow morning from 6 to 10 EDT. Then we’ll hide all the bottles for a visit from Christopher Lyndon-Gee from 10 to 11, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I hope you’ll assist me in setting a Guinness world-record (if you know what I mean), on Classic Ross Amico.

March 15, 2017
NJ Orchestras Spring for Strings with Gavilán & Graffin

As we prepare to turn the clocks ahead this weekend, two local orchestras are ready to spring for strings.

Cuban violinist Ilmar Gavilán will join members of the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey for a concert to be held in the intimate setting of the Trenton War Memorial ballroom on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and French violinist Philippe Graffin will be a guest of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on Mar. 19 at 4 p.m.

Gavilán, a founding member of the Harlem Quartet, will perform audience favorites by Fritz Kreisler (“Praeludium and Allegro in the Style of Pugnani”) and Pablo de Sarasate (“Zigeunerweisen,” or “Gypsy Airs”). Also on the CPNJ program will be Mozart’s Divertimento in D major, K. 136, and Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings.”

Graffin will be the soloist in Sir Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto. Also on the PSO program will be Carl Nielsen’s distinctive and dynamic Symphony No. 4, known as the “Inextinguishable.” The tempestuous work, written against the backdrop of World War I, celebrates the indomitable life force. Most notably, the symphony features a thrilling duel between timpanists positioned on either side of the orchestra. Christopher Lyndon-Gee will act as guest conductor for one of the most powerful works by Denmark’s greatest composer.

The allure of Elgar was so strong for Graffin that he left Paris to live in London for two decades, where he worked with Yehudi Menuhin and studied the work’s original manuscript.

Read more about both violinists in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2017/03/classical_music_ilmar_gavilan.html

PLEASE NOTE: The Harlem Quartet will join pianist Igal Kesselman and host Rob Kapilow for the next “What Makes It Great?” Kapilow and the musicians will deconstruct Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, followed by a complete performance of the work. Hear it tonight at 8:00 EST, with a repeat tomorrow afternoon at 1:00, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: Gavilán (left) and Graffin

March 10, 2017
Singularity Quartet Plays Memory on Classical Network

As I type here, with strings tied around every finger, I’m lucky if I can remember what day it is. But the Singularity Quartet, with youth on its side, has managed to put together an entire program constructed on the theme of memory. Join me for today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network for four pieces performed by this remarkable saxophone ensemble.

The program will open with a setting by the quartet’s Scotty Philips of Josquin de Pres’ 16th century chanson, “Mille Regretz.” Philadelphia composer David Ludwig’s “Josquin Microludes” weaves fragments of the material into his own original composition, which he likens to “channel surfing,” as recognizable snippets of Josquin emerge throughout the work’s five movements.

Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang’s “revolutionary etudes” references Frederic Chopin’s famous etude. The three-movement piece grew out of the composer’s fascination with Chopin’s ability to “make a ridiculously fast and vaguely minor scale last forever.” Lang is the current artist-in-residence at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study.

Finally, Dutch composer Tristan Keuris’ “Music for Saxophones” conjures a memory of significance for Singularity Quartet alto saxophonist Cole Belt, since encountering this piece in his years as an undergraduate contributed significantly to his decision to take up the instrument.

The original concert took place on December 4 at the Institute for Advanced Study’s Wolfensohn Hall, as part of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s chamber music series.

Singularity Quartet will do the heavy lifting. All you need to remember is to tune in today at 12:00 EST, to WWFM – The Classical Network or wwfm.org.

PLEASE NOTE: The members of Singularity, Saxophone Quartet – (left to right) Thomas Giles, Bryan McNamara, Scotty Philips, and Cole Belt – will appear as guests of my colleague, David Osenberg, on this week’s “Cadenza,” which will be broadcast on Thursday at 10 p.m.

March 7, 2017
Saad Haddad Wins Ives Fellowship

Congratulations to Saad Haddad, Composer. The American Academy of Arts and Letters has named Haddad a recipient of a Charles Ives Fellowship. Ives’ widow, Harmony, bequeathed to the Academy the royalties to Ives’ music, enabling Ives awards in composition to be bestowed since 1970. The award brings with it a prize of $15,000.

Haddad appeared as my guest last month on Classic Ross Amico on WPRB 103.3 FM. His work, “Manarah,” was heard on a concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra on January 29. The PSO will present a newly commissioned work from Haddad on one of next season’s concerts. I wish him the very best.

Fascinatingly, the Academy houses the actual contents of Ives’ studio, which has been painstakingly reproduced, as it originally appeared in the composer’s home in Redding, CT, as part of the institute’s Manhattan gallery. You’ll find more information here:

http://artsandletters.org/exhibition/charles-ives-studio/

PHOTO: Saad Haddad (left) with PSO music director Rossen Milanov

March 1, 2017
Groundhog Day Music Fest on WPRB

All hail the wise and venerable Groundhog!

This morning on WPRB, we’ll salute the Grand Prognosticator, on his special day, with a musical menagerie of extraordinary abilities. We’ll have music about amazing animals, ranging from insects to eagles to great whales, including Francis Poulenc’s “The Model Animals,” Leoš Janáček’s “The Cunning Little Vixen Suite,” Miklós Rózsa’s “The Jungle Book,” Peter Schickele’s “Bestiary,” and more. The procession begins at 6:00 EST.

Then at 10:00, we’ll have a visit from Saad Haddad, Composer, who will share some of his music and talk a bit about his use of electronic processing to suggest the sounds of his Middle Eastern heritage. Haddad’s fascinating “Manarah” was heard on a concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra this past Sunday.

This weekend, the PSO will present its Saturday Evening POPS! Concert. Broadway singer Sierra Boggess will join the orchestra for a program that will illustrate the transition of the musical from stage to screen and back again. The conductor for the concert will be Lucas Richman. Richman has had ample experience working in film, and his concert piece “Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant” certainly reflects a cinematic sensiblity. We’ll hear it this morning, in the 9:00 hour, supporting the clever and entertaining poems of Jack Prelutsky. Get ready to hear all about the Ballpoint Penguins, the Shoehornets, the Zipperpotamuses, and the Clocktopus.

It will be a morning of zoological and cryptozoological wonders for Groundhog Day, from 6 to 10:00 EST (Saad Haddad will join me from 10 to 11), on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I’ll be doling out the feed and shoveling up after everyone, on Classic Ross Amico.

Punxsutawney Phil is expected to make his forecast around 7:20 EST

February 2, 2017

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