Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Ross Amico

Solar Eclipse Playlist: Music Inspired by Sun Moon Stars

The last solar eclipse I viewed was on August 21, 2017 – just before a live air shift, as a matter of fact, so I thought why not share the playlist?

Oh hell, I’ll share the related Facebook post for that day, as well, with the playlist to follow. I hope it inspires you. Remember not to gaze directly at the sun without your special glasses, and enjoy the flooded earthquake Devil Comet eclipse!

If anything, once we’ve all damaged our retinas trying to view today’s solar eclipse, we’ll have developed a heightened appreciation for our remaining, unimpaired sense of hearing. Bask in the warm afterglow of today’s syzygy by joining me on [REDACTED] for a playlist curated from a wide repertoire of works inspired by the sun, the moon, and the heavens.

Highlights will include “Hymn to the Sun” from Pietro Mascagni’s opera “Iris,” ballet music from Jacques Offenbach’s operetta “Voyage to the Moon,” Kenneth Fuchs’ horn concerto “Canticle to the Sun,” reflective of St. Francis of Assisi’s appreciation of Brother Sun and Sister Moon, and George Frideric Handel’s “Total Eclipse” from the oratorio “Samson.” There will also be musical responses to the mythological figures of Apollo (the sun god), Helios (the personification of the sun), and Phaeton (Helios’ son, ill-equipped to handle his father’s blazing chariot).

Make us the bright spot of your day, as we celebrate the eclipse, from 4 to 7 pm EDT, on [REDACTED] and [REDACTED].org.

CLASSICAL MUSIC WITH ROSS AMICO, 8/21/2017

4:00 PM

ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA: SUNRISE
COMPOSER: Richard Strauss
ENSEMBLES: Boston Symphony Orchestra
CONDUCTOR: Seiji Ozawa

4:03 PM

SUNRISE SERENADE
COMPOSER: Aulis Sallinen
ENSEMBLES: Finnish Chamber Orchestra
CONDUCTOR: Okko Kamu

4:11 PM

HELIOS OVERTURE
COMPOSER: Carl Nielsen
ENSEMBLES: Philadelphia Orchestra
CONDUCTOR: Eugene Ormandy

4:22 PM

SAMSON (Act I, SCENE 2): TOTAL ECLIPSE
COMPOSER: George Frideric Handel
ENSEMBLES: The English Concert
SOLOIST: Mark Padmore, tenor

4:29 PM

HOROSCOPE
COMPOSER: Constant Lambert
ENSEMBLES: BBC Concert Orchestra
CONDUCTOR: Barry Wordsworth

5:02 PM

PHAÉTON
COMPOSER: Camille Saint-Saëns
ENSEMBLES: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
CONDUCTOR: Lorin Maazel

5:11 PM

SYMPHONY NO. 2 in D MAJOR “THE FALL OF PHAETON”
COMPOSER: Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf
ENSEMBLES: Prague Chamber Orchestra
CONDUCTOR: Bohumil Gregor

5:32 PM

LE COQ D’OR: HYMN TO THE SUN (rec. 1947)
COMPOSER: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
ENSEMBLES: Orchestra
SOLOIST: Lily Pons, soprano

5:38 PM

CANTICLE TO THE SUN
COMPOSER: Kenneth Fuchs
ENSEMBLES: London Symphony Orchestra
SOLOIST: Timothy Jones, horn

6:02 PM

IRIS: HYMN TO THE SUN
COMPOSER: Pietro Mascagni
ENSEMBLES: Bavarian Radio Chorus; Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra
CONDUCTOR: Giuseppe Patané

6:12 PM

VOYAGE TO THE MOON: BALLET OF THE SNOWFLAKES
COMPOSER: Jacques Offenbach
ENSEMBLES: Philharmonia Orchestra
CONDUCTOR: Antonio de Almeida

6:25 PM

APOLLO
COMPOSER: Igor Stravinsky
ENSEMBLES: Columbia Symphony Orchestra
CONDUCTOR: Igor Stravinsky

6:55 PM

ESTRELLITA (LITTLE STAR)
COMPOSER: Manuel Ponce
SOLOIST: Aaron Rosand, violin; John Covelli, piano
ALBUM: Heifetz Transcriptions

April 8, 2024
Fat Tuesday A Fasnacht Memory and Playlist

Fat Tuesday! I braved the snows this morning to secure a King Cake – complete with the traditional choking hazard of a tiny plastic baby boy – but I fear this year’s quest for the Holy Grail of Fasnachts has been called due to inclement weather.

If I’ve ever had a wholly satisfying fasnacht since my grandmother died, I don’t recall it. When I was a kid, I’d blow in one day after school, an oblivious whirlwind, to find the air heavy with the scent of freshly-made doughnuts. I never knew when it would happen or understood the significance. All I knew is that I’d come home one afternoon and my grandmother would be serving up heaven from an electric fryer.

A fasnacht – which you’ll also see spelled fastnacht, faschnaut, or faschnacht (and which we always pronounced “fosh-knot”) – is a fried doughnut made on Shrove Tuesday – or Fat Tuesday, if you prefer – the last day before Lent. Traditionally, the making of doughnuts was a way to clear out all the tasties a Christian is not supposed to eat again until Easter. In any case, one could use a good fast after consuming so much fried lard!

Now THOSE were doughnuts. The closest I’ve been able to find out in the real world are Italian zeppoli. Not quite the same, but they share a similar, unhealthy, fried, powdered-sugary goodness. However, zeppoli, like fasnachts, can vary. A light and puffy zeppola would bear little resemblance to my grandmother’s fasnachts, which were always cakey.

I miss those doughnuts. My grandmother was an undistinguished cook, but boy could she make fasnachts.

I would be appalled by some “authentic” Pennsylvania Dutch fasnachts, which look too soft and are served with butter and maple syrup. I need an austere fistful of claggy dough that I can enjoy with a cup of coffee.

At any rate, it’s all doughnuts, alcohol, and orgies today, as tomorrow the streets will be strewn with bottles and bodies for the start of Lent.

For now, indulge in a Classic Ross Amico Carnival/Mardis Gras playlist and laissez les bons temps rouler!

“Mardi Gras” by Edward Joseph Collins

Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Prelude and Carnival from “Violanta”

Niccolò Paganini, “Variations on ‘Carnival of Venice’”

Sviatoslav Richter plays Robert Schumann, “Faschingsschwank aus Wien” (“Carnival Jest from Vienna”)

Nelson Freire plays Heitor Villa-Lobos, “Mômoprecóce” (“Carnival of the Brazilian Children”) – hold your nose through the BBC intro

Luiz Bonfá, “Manhã de Carnaval” on a Yamaha Silent Guitar

Igor Stravinsky, “Petrouchka,” set at a Shrovetide fair

Creole composer Edmond Dédé, “Méphisto masque” (with kazoo choir)

Charles Lucièn Lambert, “Bresiliana”

Hershy Kay, “Cakewalk,” after Louis Moreau Gottschalk

“Carnevale Veneziano: The Comic Faces of Giovanni Croce”

Roman Carnival scene from Hector Berlioz’s “Benvenuto Cellini”

Not my idea of a fasnacht

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/blog/116/fastnacht-day.html

The many faces of fasnacht

https://lancasteronline.com/features/how-to-make-your-own-fasnachts-plus-readers-share-fasnacht-day-memories/article_87673992-6d45-11eb-9845-8b2d7db963f3.html?fbclid=IwAR31us5uk1FD9OGRVbI31qYYLGJbhf5tl8VANdsVnbqDgGWdOgJQy3MD43o

PHOTOS King Cake choking hazard (top); fasnachts best resembling my grandmother’s recipe

February 13, 2024
Happy Birthday Liszt A Generous Musical Genius

It’s Franz Liszt’s birthday, and I usually give him a pretty good write-up, since on top of all his musical achievements – his innovations, his influence, and his transcendental technique – he also happened to be a pretty good guy, if not without his foibles. In particular, he was exceptionally generous, often engaged in charitable causes and championing the needy, whether they be pupils, colleagues, or anonymous victims of disaster, and he always did so quietly and with the greatest humility. In a lot of ways, he also basically changed music, though it was often the case that others implemented or assimilated his original ideas with greater success.

Of course, as was the case with any Romantic virtuoso, there was also a whiff of diablerie about his reputation.

If you want to check out some of my previous posts on the subject, you can search Facebook under “Classic Ross Amico Liszt.” If you have the option to click on “photos” under the search bar, it could bring many of them up in a conveniently browsable form. Then just click on the photos for the texts.

Sadly, I’ve got a lot to do today, so I must sheepishly defer to a silly cartoon. I love Liszt, and that’s a fact.

You can learn more about his “Mephisto Waltzes” here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephisto_Waltzes

Jeffrey Swann was the first pianist to record all of them on a single record.

Here, I made it easy for you to search the older posts.

Happy birthday, Liszt!

October 22, 2023
Autumn Classical Music Crossword Puzzle Fun

It’s ginger snaps for breakfast! For the first weekend of autumn, here’s the revival of another Classic Ross Amico crossword puzzle. The answers are all related in one way or another to classical music and the season.

Of course, I wouldn’t ask you to do anything I wouldn’t do myself. When filling out the puzzle this morning, I was delighted to find among the answers my old favorite “VAUGHANWILLIAMS;” also “PANUFNIK,” whose birthday it happens to be today.

Follow the link and select “solve online” at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be able to type directly into the squares. Once you feel you’ve exhausted the puzzle, you’ll find the solutions by clicking on “Answer Key PDF.”

Take it or leaf it! Celebrate autumn by raking through 50 colorful clues here:

https://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/2020.09/2707/27072447.189.html

September 24, 2023
Rainy Day Fun Princeton Books Music Crossword

You wouldn’t guess it now in the Princeton area, but there’s more rain on the way this afternoon. In fact, rain is in the forecast, to a greater or lesser extent, for the next week or more, mostly in the form of scattered thunderstorms. But you know how it is. It’s a very unstable time of year.

When it pours down rain, you can waste the opportunity by doing what I can’t help noticing a lot of people do much of the day anyway – flip through your phone. OR you could unplug and enjoy some quiet time with a book.

Even if I were Burgess Meredith in a post-apocalyptic world with “time enough at last,” my life couldn’t possibly be long enough to read everything I would like to. And that goes for listening to music also.

Having just polished off the “Kalevala” – the Finnish national epic that inspired so much of Sibelius’ music – and recently posted a photo of my library, reading is much on my mind lately.

Here’s one of many Classic Ross Amico crossword puzzles I compiled while we were all sitting at home during the first wave of COVID in 2020-21, a puzzle that celebrates two of life’s great pleasures – books and music!

To fill out the puzzle, follow the link and select “solve online” at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be able to type directly into the squares. Once you feel you’ve exhausted the puzzle, you’ll find the solutions by clicking on “Answer Key PDF.”

Rain or shine, summer is a great time to catch up on your reading. Pour yourself something cheering, relax, and enjoy!

https://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/2020.08/0206/02062839.850.html?fbclid=IwAR0k-_3ekCIGTo3h8stMi2A6pWYJd2uzd_oC7cKDvHdyXxGAH-mRvxaJk0c

June 25, 2023

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