Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Princeton Symphony Orchestra

Princeton Symphony: Clyne’s “Seamstress”

I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat…

Anna Clyne’s “The Seamstress,” a work for violin and orchestra after a poem of William Butler Yeats, will open this Sunday’s concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Jennifer Koh will be the soloist. Also on the program, music director Rossen Milanov will conduct Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2. The concert will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium Sunday afternoon at 4. Milanov will deliver a pre-concert talk at 3.

A PSO “Behind the Music” event will take place tomorrow afternoon at 3, at The Arts Council of Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center. Insights into Clyne’s music will be offered, with Koh discussing her collaborative relationship with the composer, and Milanov his method of preparing her scores for live performance. The event is free and open to the public, with advanced reservations available through the PSO, at princetonsymphony.org or 609-497-0020.

Clyne and Koh talk to me about “The Seamstress” in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2015/09/classical_music_pso_opening_se.html

Of perhaps related interest, Milanov and the PSO can be heard, along with guest soloists soprano Michelle Johnson, mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore, tenor Zach Borichevsky, and baritone Hugh Russell, and the Princeton High School Choir, in a broadcast concert of last season’s PSO finale, “Viva Verdi,” tonight at 8 ET, on WWFM – The Classical Network, at 89.1 FM or online at wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: Anna Clyne (left) with Jennifer Koh and Rossen Milanov

September 25, 2015
Blood Moons Popes & Purrs on WPRB

Some regard a “blood moon” eclipse as a portent of the End of Days. Others blanch at the cataclysmic implications of swapped air shifts.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/doomsday-predicted-as-blood-moon-coincides-with-sukkot/

Chances are you will either be in synagogue this morning, or you’ll wish you were, when flighty bird Classic Ross Amico sits in for the always reliable Marvin Rosen at WPRB. Ah well, we might as well make the best of it.

We’ll be jumping on the media bandwagon this week to salute Pope Francis and maybe grumble a little bit about the situation in Philadelphia, where the Pope Fence is going up and tow trucks are impounding cars all across Center City.

We’ll honor the Pope (it’s not his fault) with music inspired by his namesake, St. Francis. Francis brought forth musical tributes from many composers across the centuries. We’ll hear from Kenneth Fuchs, Paul Hindemith, Franz Liszt, Francis Poulenc, Joaquin Rodrigo, Sir William Walton, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Leo Sowerby.

Also, because of Francis’ well-known affinity with and for the critters, we’ll leaven the proceedings with works evocative of the animal kingdom, pieces like Samuel Barber’s “The Monk and His Cat,” Jennifer Higdon’s “An Exaltation of Larks,” Peter Schickele’s “Bestiary,” and of course Gioachino Rossini’s “Cat Duet.”

Marc Uys, Executive Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, will drop by at around 9:00 to tell us a little bit about the PSO’s upcoming season, which will begin on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, when violinist Jennifer Koh will perform Anna Clyne’s “The Seamstress” (after a poem of William Butler Yeats) and Rossen Milanov will conduct Sergei Rachmaninoff’s wonderfully wistful Symphony No. 2.

Due to Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Marvin Rosen’s Classical Discoveries will be heard on THURSDAY this week, from 5:30 to 11 a.m. ET. Despair not! This is only a temporary circumstance. Marvin will return to his regular Wednesday slot next week, and I’ll be back on Thursdays.

For the time being, I hope you’ll join me for St. Francis and friends, this morning from 6 to 11, on WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com. The fur will fly this week, on Classic Ross Amico.

September 23, 2015
St. Francis & Animal-Inspired Classical Music

If you’ve got Francis Fever, but you’re too pooped to Pope, you can avoid the excitement of impassible bridges and car impoundments simply by staying home and turning on the radio. I can’t promise it will be like a vicarious thumbs up from the Pontiff, but you’ll hear plenty of music inspired by his namesake, St. Francis, and the animals he respected and loved.

The historical Francis was the son of a prosperous silk merchant, who renounced his worldly life and took a vow of poverty, inspiring others to follow him and in the process creating three religious orders. Two years after his death in 1226, he was proclaimed a saint by Pope Gregory IX. He is patron saint of animals and the environment, and one of the two patron saints of Italy (the other being Catherine of Siena). You’ll notice pets and their owners lined up around Catholic and Anglican churches on October 4, the Feast Day of St. Francis. FUN FACT: St. Francis is alleged to have been the inventor of the Christmas crèche, or the Nativity scene.

We’ll have musical salutes to Francis by Kenneth Fuchs, Paul Hindemith, Franz Liszt, Francis Poulenc, Joaquin Rodrigo, Leo Sowerby, and Sir William Walton, interspersed with musical evocations of four-legged, winged and scaled friends, such as Samuel Barber’s “The Monk and His Cat,” Jennifer Higdon’s “An Exaltation of Larks,” Peter Schickele’s “Bestiary,” and of course Gioachino Rossini’s “Cat Duet.”

As if all that weren’t enough, we’ll be graced by the presence of Marc Uys, Executive Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, who will drop by at around 9:00 to tell us a little bit about the PSO’s upcoming season, which will begin on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, when violinist Jennifer Koh performs Anna Clyne’s “The Seamstress” (after a poem of William Butler Yeats) and Rossen Milanov conducts Sergei Rachmaninoff’s wonderfully wistful Symphony No. 2.

Do keep in mind that we will be heard at a special time this week. Due to Yom Kippur, Marvin Rosen’s Classical Discoveries will air on THURSDAY morning from 5:30 to 11 ET; Classic Ross Amico will appear in Marvin’s usual slot, WEDNESDAY morning, though in my case it will be from 6 to 11. That extra half hour’s sleep makes all the difference!

I hope you’ll join us on WPRB 103.3 FM, or online at wprb.com. We’re pulling the old switcheroo this week, on Classic Ross Amico.

September 22, 2015
Princeton Symphony’s #Quartweet Composition Project

Do you have ambitions to be a composer, but can’t afford to spend your summer like Gustav Mahler, scribbling in the Alps? The Signum Quartett and Princeton Symphony Orchestra provide an intriguing alternative. Express your musical thoughts in 140 characters or less, as part of the #quartweet project. Read more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2015/08/classical_music_princeton_symp_2.html

August 14, 2015
Princeton Symphony & Sinfonietta Nova Celebrate Nordic Music

Now that moderate temperatures and Daylight Saving Time have lulled us into a sense of security, it’s okay for local symphony orchestras to trot out the Nordic composers.

On Saturday, Sinfonietta Nova will present music by the great Danes, Carl Nielsen and Niels Wilhelm Gade (on a concert which will also include works by Pablo de Sarasate and William Boyce), and on Sunday, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra will perform music by Jean Sibelius (on a concert which will also include works by Robert Schumann, Jules Massenet and Sebastian Currier).

Sinfonietta Nova will appear at the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Princeton Junction (Saturday at 7:30 p.m.); the Princeton Symphony will perform at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium (Sunday at 4 p.m.).

Put on your Bermuda shorts and read all about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2015/03/classical_music_two_orchestras.html

PHOTOS: They scoff at your snow: Jean Sibelius (left) and Carl Nielsen

March 13, 2015

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