Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Roger Quilter

Christmas Rush Last Minute Cheer

Ready… set… GO!

It’s Christmas Eve! Let the last-minute insanity begin!

From the sound of it, Matthew Curtis’ “Christmas Rush” must be a pun – “rush” as in “hurry,” but also “rush” as in “euphoria.”

What strikes me about this piece is that even though Curtis was born in 1959, the music clearly pays homage to the golden age of British Light Music, with composers like Eric Coates and Roger Quilter being clear influences.

Don’t be like me – as you navigate the close aisles, frenetic parking lots, and long check-out lines, hang on to your good cheer!

December 24, 2022
Shelley’s Summer Serenade on The Lost Chord

Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory…

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” ‘tis an hour of seasonal works inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley and friends.

Hearken to Geoffrey Bush’s “A Summer Serenade,” from 1948, settings of poems by Shelley, James I of Scotland, Samuel Daniel, William Blake, Thomas Heywood, and the ever-prolific Anonymous.

Then listen, listen, Mary mine, to Arnold Bax’s “Enchanted Summer,” from 1918, the text drawn from Act II, Scene 2, of Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound.” Composed in the midst of a run of Bax’s better-known nature poems (on the one hand, “Into the Twilight” and “In the Fairy Hills,” and on the other, “Nympholept” and “The Garden of Fand”), the work opens with the play of light and shadow on a forest floor, traverses mysterious caves and crags, and conjures woodland spirits; dallies with “voluptuous nightingales;” and eavesdrops on the exchange of two fauns, who contemplate the wondrous things they have witnessed.

In conclusion, bring hot blushes to thy cheek, with one of Romantic poetry’s most protracted pick-up lines and Roger Quilter’s “Love’s Philosophy,” from 1905.

’Tis mine hope that thou wilt join me for “Summer Shelley, Some Are Not.” The dulcet music swells, this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org!

August 1, 2021
The Frankfurt Gang: English Music Rebels

The loose collective known as “The Frankfurt Gang” came together in 1890s, as students at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt-am-Main. Its members included Balfour Gardiner, Roger Quilter, Norman O’Neill, Cyril Scott, and the youngest of the bunch, the piano prodigy Percy Grainger. This brilliant array of talent bonded in a foreign land, united by a shared language and culture, but also a determination to break away from Teutonic dominance in music, with the goal of creating a fresh “English” art.

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll have music by four of these firebrands, including Gardiner’s “Overture to a Comedy,” Quilter’s “Where the Rainbow Ends,” Scott’s “Neptune” (refashioned from an earlier work inspired by the sinking of the Titanic), and one of Grainger’s choral settings of a text from Kipling’s “Jungle Book.”

The Hoch Conservatory of the day had the reputation of being one of the very finest in Europe. Clara Schumann had been on the faculty there until 1892 – within a few years of the Frankfurt Group’s arrival. In fact, at least one of them was there before Schumann’s departure.

Scott arrived at the school early, at the age of 12, and then later returned for a second stint. Gardiner was also there twice, taking a break to attend Oxford. Grainger was 13 at the time he was admitted. He was to remain at the Hoch Conservatory for four-and-a-half years.

Frankfurt alumni aim for the high notes this week. I hope you’ll join me for “Hochschule Musical,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

Hochschule reunion: (left to right) Grainger, Scott, and Quilter

July 12, 2020
The Frankfurt Group: English Music Pioneers

The Frankfurt Group, sometimes called the Frankfurt Gang, met at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt-am-Main in the 1890s. The group included Balfour Gardiner, Roger Quilter, Norman O’Neill, Cyril Scott, and the youngest of the bunch, the piano prodigy Percy Grainger.

Later, though never officially part of the group, other figures became closely associated, including Frederic Delius, Sir Thomas Beecham, and the composer Frederic Austin.

The Hoch Conservatory of the day had the reputation of being one of the very finest in Europe. Clara Schumann had been on the faculty there until 1892 – within a few years of the Frankfurt Group’s arrival. In fact, at least one of them, Cyril Scott had already been there.

Scott arrived at the school early, at the age of 12, and then later returned for a second stint. Balfour Gardiner was also there twice, taking a break to attend Oxford. Grainger was 13 at the time he was admitted. He was to remain at the Hoch Conservatory for four-and-a-half years.

What united this brilliant array of young talent in a foreign land? Well, there was shared language and culture, of course, but also a determination to break away from the dominant, Teutonic musical thinking of the time, and especially the place, to create a fresh English art.

I hope you’ll join me for “Hochschule Musical,” sampling works by members of the Frankfurt Group, this Sunday night at 10:00 EST on “The Lost Chord,” on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: Former classmates (clockwise from top) Percy Grainger, Cyril Scott, and Roger Quilter

January 22, 2017

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS