Classic Ross Amico

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WPRB: Time Travel Through Music & Early Music Fest

Get ready for a morning of musical time travel on WPRB, as composers of the “present” look to the past to create works of lasting beauty.

Among our featured selections will be a suite for recorders by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a “distant saraband” by Joaquin Rodrigo, three Gesualdo madrigals recollected by Igor Stravinsky, an update of the Baroque dance suite by Paul Lansky, some Renaissance Scottish dances by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, an orchestral juxtaposition of popular dances of the eras of both Elizabeths by William Alwyn, some variations on two cantigas of Alfonso the Wise by Vittorio Rieti, an organ processional in the French Baroque style by Robert Moran, and a Vespers setting for choir and Renaissance band by Kile Smith.

If the playlist is to your liking, perhaps you’d like to sustain the mood by attending the Guild for Early Music Festival this afternoon at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. This year’s festival will take place on the two stages of the Seward Johnson Center for the Arts, from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Enjoy mini-concerts for cornetti, dulcians, recorders, and violas da gamba, then take a break to stroll the grounds and grab a cup of coffee – just keep an eye out for those peacocks! You’ll find more information at guildforearlymusic.org and groundsforsculpture.org.

The music takes pride of place, this Sunday morning from 7 to 10 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. I’ll be operating under my nom de plumage on Classic Ross Amico.

March 18, 2018
Daylight Saving Time Survival Guide

Get ready for the worst day of the year (after New Year’s and Valentine’s Day).

Tomorrow morning, much of the United States will “spring forward” as we enact once again the hideous custom of Daylight Saving Time.

All across the country bleary-eyed folk will adjust their clocks, only to wind up destroying things or injuring themselves because of disrupted sleep cycles. The risk of stroke always spikes the day after the time shift, and productivity plummets on Monday due to worker fatigue. But it’s all worth it, I suppose, just so that we can have a little extra light at the end of the day should we decide to take a walk in the evening.

With this in mind, it may seem rather selfish to recommend that you join the most sleep-deprived of us all (me) this Sunday morning on WPRB, as I present three hours of music about clocks, time, sleep, dreams, sleeplessness, somnambulism, and morning come-too-soon.

But present it I shall, for your consideration, this Sunday from 7 to 10 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. The evenings will be brighter, even as the circles around my eyes grow darker, on Classic Ross Amico.

March 10, 2018
WPRB Sunday: Theater Music & Vaughan Williams

The subject may be “incidental,” but the music is center stage, this Sunday morning on WPRB. Join me for music written for the theater by the likes of Ludwig van Beethoven, Karl-Birger Blomdahl, Aaron Copland, Gabriel Fauré, Jean Sibelius, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The featured highlight of the morning will be a complete performance of Vaughan Williams’ “The Wasps,” written for a 1909 Cambridge University production of Aristophanes’ satire. The composer re-arranged parts of the music to create a five-movement concert suite – the overture is especially well-known – but the complete, original, 80-minute score went unheard for nearly a century after its premiere. In fact, this is its first recording, set down in 2005. Bawdiness and spleen characterize the highly vernacular translation by David Pountney.

Everyone knows where a wasp wears its stinger, this Sunday morning from 7 to 10 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We’ll do our best to stay ahead of the behind, on Classic Ross Amico.

February 25, 2018
British Light Music on WPRB Sunday

“Here’s a fat leather purse –
How the fellow did curse
When I told him to “Stand and deliver!”
Yes, that partly explains
Why I blew out his brains
And then threw his remains in the river!”

That’s just the kind of romance you’ll experience this Sunday morning on WPRB, when you join me for Harold Fraser-Simson’s “The Maid of the Mountains.” This tale of love among the brigands was one of London’s greatest stage hits during the First World War.

You’ll be able to enjoy it as part of a morning devoted to British Light Music, this Sunday from 7 to 10 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. I’ll be doing the heavy lifting in order to keep it light, on Classic Ross Amico.

February 11, 2018
Sunday Morning Light Music on WPRB

Seeing as there’s already so much grief in the world – and who wants to deal with it on a Sunday – I thought I’d mark my return to WPRB by acting on a longstanding dream of mine to create of a little oasis of blitheness and melody.

That’s right, classical music’s answer to Sheridan Whiteside is about to unveil his new “light music” show. Enjoy characteristic dances, marches, ballet, operetta, film music, parlor songs, music hall, piano miniatures, light classics, folk-inflected music, and standards from the Great American Songbook. I hope you’ll plan to make them all a part of your Sunday morning routine.

The inaugural effort will be an exercise in “Keep Calm and Carry On,” as the playlist will be conjured wholly from the blithe spirit of the British Isles. Among the featured highlights will be an ample selection from the vaguely-recollected Edwardian musical comedy “The Maid of the Mountains” by Harold Fraser-Simson, some carefree nonsense about Italian brigands in love.

Join me for the creation of this little musical Cockaigne, this Sunday morning from 7 to 10 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Get ready to see the light, with Classic Ross Amico.

February 10, 2018

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