Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Ross Amico

Presidents Day Music on WPRB

I realize that the mere mention of “president” these days is the equivalent of dropping a torch on a powder keg. Nevertheless, tomorrow morning on WPRB, I will go forward with my annual observance of Presidents Day. I trust everyone is adult enough to celebrate our democracy with music inspired by Washington, Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, Chester Alan Arthur, JFK, and Richard Nixon without having a meltdown in the comments section.

New this year will be “A White House Cantata,” derived from Leonard Bernstein’s final, failed musical (written with Alan Jay Lerner), “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” which flopped loudly in 1976. The work parallels a century’s worth of American presidents, from Washington through Theodore Roosevelt, with commentary from African American White House servants. After the show folded, the composer recycled several of the numbers in his later concert works. (And yes, I am aware that Adams was the first president to occupy the White House.)

Join me as we follow our precedent of being presidential, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I’ll be practicing arithmetic on the back of a coal shovel and hurling silver dollars across the Potomac, on Classic Ross Amico.

February 16, 2017
Presidents Day Party on WPRB with Presidential Music

It will be quite the party as we celebrate Presidents Day this morning on WPRB, what with the rhinoceri, Washington and Lincoln.

We’ll have a full playlist of presidential music, with works inspired by the Gettysburg Address, the legend of the cherry tree, and “George Washington slept here.” We’ll also have room for nods to some other presidents, including Chester Alan Arthur, who disliked “Hail to the Chief” so intensely that he commissioned John Philip Sousa to write a new piece.

Wasn’t the whole reason we tossed out the English because of their pedantic Oxford commas? Join me as we stick a feather in our cap and call it what we want, from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Our commas are nothing if not uncommon, on Classic Ross Amico.

February 16, 2017
Leontyne Price 90th Birthday Celebration

With talent like that of Leontyne Price, the Price is always right. Join me today on The Classical Network, as we celebrate this extraordinary soprano on her 90th birthday.

We’ll hear a recording of the Verdi Requiem, made toward the beginning of her career, in the late 1950s, opposite Jussi Björling, who was getting toward the end of his (he died three months later). Filling out the vocal quartet will be Rosalind Elias and Giorgio Tozzi. It’s a fascinating document full of great singing and an unusual, mercurial touch lent by conductor Fritz Reiner, who will lead the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Then we’ll have a blistering account of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Price lending her voice to Schiller’s celebratory text, alongside Maureen Forrester, Philadelphia’s David Poleri, and Giorgio Tozzi, as a possessed Charles Munch shovels hot coals under the players of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Finally, a more intimate side of Price will be revealed in the “Hermit Songs” of Samuel Barber, with the composer at the piano.

All this to follow our noontime concert today, which will feature the Quatuor Modigliani in music of Mozart, Schumann and Dvorak, on a program captured live at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Pa., as presented by the Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem.

At 6:00, it’s “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies. I’ll fill you in on a little more about that on my Facebook page later on this afternoon. Suffice it to say, if you tune in early, I will treat you to a medley of some of Jerry Goldsmith’s best-loved themes on this, the anniversary of his birth. Goldsmith died in 2004.

It will be a long day for Classic Ross Amico, but worth every minute, from noon to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

February 10, 2017
Snow Day No Ross Amico on WPRB

Due to the impending weather event (up to 12 inches of snow according to some sources), I hope you won’t mind too awfully if I sit out for “Classic Ross Amico” tomorrow morning on WPRB. My car is barely road-worthy even under the best of circumstances, and anyway I’ve been sick for the past two days (hence my paper-thin tone by the end of my air shifts). Taking a break will allow me to sit in my pajamas all day, propped up in bed, reading a book.

Who or what, exactly, will take my place is uncertain. It might be a Princeton student or at any rate someone within walking distance of the station, or it might be the automation, which could not by any means pass for classical. (I’m told this will change, beginning in the 5 a.m. hour, in the coming weeks.) For as much as I would love to do a snow show, it would hinge on my actually being able to get to the station to do one! All in all, this could be a good time to reacquaint yourselves with your CD collections.

Thank you for your interest. I’m hoping to be back next Thursday, from 6 to 11 a.m., on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com, with Classic Ross Amico.

UPDATE: It looks as if the shift will be split between two student DJs, Nicky and Bobby, starting at 7 a.m. They’ll likely draw pretty heavily from the station’s arcana section, so a lot of the music will be contemporary and/or avant-garde. The name Pauline Oliveros has been bandied. Thanks, guys!

February 9, 2017
WPRB’s Spring Schedule Returns Beloved Shows

I’m very happy to announce that, after several months off, Sandy Steiglitz of Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy will return to the airwaves tomorrow morning on WPRB. I hope you will join her for Charles Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette,” from an historic Met broadcast featuring Jussi Björling and Bidú Sayão. The “pre-show,” a potpourri of arias and scenes, will begin at 05:30 EST; the opera itself will commence at 07:00.

WPRB has published its spring schedule. You might also be interested to know that Marvin Rosen of Classical Discoveries (which will continue to be heard from 5:30 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday mornings) will also be settling in on Mondays for the return of “Treasures of Early Music” (also from 5:30 to 11). So if you enjoy music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque, set your alarm to 103.3 FM.

In addition, I will be coming back for another season of Classic Ross Amico, which will be heard as always on Thursdays from 6 to 11 a.m. I can’t deal with getting up any earlier, so please make note. If you tune in at 5:30, you may get blasted out of bed by the overnight playlist, which tends toward that bebop the kids are listening to these days.

WPRB, of course, offers all kinds of music throughout its broadcast day, from classical to world, from jazz to alt rock, from folk to classic rock, from ambient to I don’t-know-what-the-hell-you-call-it. You press the button, you win a prize, when you tune in to WPRB 103.3 FM and wrpb.com.

February 4, 2017

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