Classic Ross Amico

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Tropical Heat Wave Music Escape

So long, Old Man Winter – at least for the time being.

We’ll have an abundance of bananas and bongos this morning, as we travel south to equatorial climes, during what will seem in the Northeastern United States like a veritable heat wave. Too late for Indian Summer and too early for the Groundhog, it nevertheless provides us with some incentive to don our beachcombers and Bermuda shorts, musically speaking. We’ll enjoy a full morning of music evocative of the Caribbean, the Amazon, and Latin America. Some of the works will be by European and (North) American composers; most will be by those native to the regions.

For those of you listening from outside the Northeast, under very different weather conditions, consider yourself snow birds, bound for the tropics.

Join me as I crack coconuts with a machete this morning, from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’re having a heat waaave… a tropical heat wave…, on Classic Ross Amico.

January 12, 2017
Remembering Musicians Lost in 2016

Several days into 2017, and we can safely pause to catch our breath, knowing that the Reaper has completed his harvest for the last calendar year. Tomorrow morning on WPRB, once again we’ll look back over the appalling number of artists we lost in 2016.

Last week, with limited time at our disposal, we were able to honor composers Inocente Carreño, Karel Husa, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Arne Running, conductors Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Sir Neville Marriner, pianist Zoltán Kocsis, flutist Aurèle Nicolet, guitarist Alirio Diaz, and harpsichordist Temple Painter.

Tomorrow, we’ll pick up the thread, hopefully celebrating the careers and contributions of composers Leslie Bassett, Pierre Boulez, Marcel Farago, Ursula Mamlok, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Steven Stucky, conductors Gilbert Kaplan, Louis Lane and Otto-Werner Mueller, cellists Jules Eskin and Heinrich Schiff, oboist Neil Black, countertenor Russell Oberlin, harmonica player Toots Thielemans, choral director Gregg Smith, and the 64 members of the Red Army Choir.

Thankfully, samples of their talents have been documented on recordings. We’ll reap the rewards, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wwfm.org. Time and tide wait for no man, on Classic Ross Amico.

January 5, 2017
Remembering Artists Lost in 2016 on WPRB

O cruel, cruel 2016. You’ve robbed us of so many wonderful artists.

Join me tomorrow morning on WPRB, as we remember just a few of them, including, among others, composers Pierre Boulez, Karel Husa, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Steven Stucky, conductors Nicholas Harnoncourt and Sir Neville Marriner, guitarist Alirio Diaz, pianist Zoltan Kocsis, countertenor Russell Oberlin, and cellist Heinrich Schiff.

Of perhaps local interest will be Marcel Farago, longtime cellist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, who also happened to be a composer, clarinetist Arne Running, who performed with the Riverside Symphonia,based in Lambertville, who was also a composer, and harpsichordist Temple Painter.

These remembrances will take place from 6 to 9:00 EST. At 9:00, I will be joined by special guest Gail Wein, president of Classical Music Communications, who will talk a little bit about what she does and play from some of the CDs she’s been enjoying recently.

We’ll bid good riddance to 2016, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11:00 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Let’s pray that 2017 has less of a sting, on Classic Ross Amico.

More about Classical Music Communications here:

http://www.classicalmusiccommunications.com/

December 29, 2016
Remembering Lost Musical Giants on WPRB
1. A year so merciless, it will take two weeks to memorialize its dead.
Join me this week and next on WPRB, as we celebrate the lost artistry of composers Leslie Bassett, Pierre Boulez, Inocente Carreño, Marcel Farago, Karel Husa, Ursula Mamlok, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Arne Running and Steven Stucky, conductors Nicholas Harnoncourt, Louis Lane and Sir Neville Marriner, choral director Gregg Smith, flutist Arèle Nicolet, guitarist Alirio Diaz, pianist Zoltán Kocsis, cellists Jules Eskin and Heinrich Schiff, countertenor Russell Oberlin, harmonica player Toots Thielemans, harpsichordist Temple Painter, and the Red Army Choir.

These musical remembrances will air this morning, from 6 to 9, and next Thursday morning, from 6 to 11.

At 9:00 this morning, I will be joined by special guest Gail Wein, president of Classical Music Communications, who will talk a little bit about what she does and play from some of the CDs she’s been enjoying recently. Some of those will include music by Aaron Copland, Ben Johnston, Steven Mackey, Astor Piazzolla, and Louis Vierne.

It will be a full morning by anyone’s standards. We’ll have our fill, from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wrpb.com. I’ve had it up to here, on Classic Ross Amico.

More about Classical Music Communications here:

http://www.classicalmusiccommunications.com/
December 29, 2016
Beyond the 20 Carols Christmas Music Rediscovered

A thousand years of Christmas music, and every year it’s just about reduced to the same old 20 carols.

If, like me, you are frustrated by the countless regurgitations of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” for every conceivable vocal and instrumental combination, plugged in perfunctorily to a well-worn playlist, between Mozart and Dvořák, join me tomorrow morning on WPRB, when we’ll go completely anti-commercial, anti-ADD, and completely balls-out Christmas.

Our featured work will be Franz Liszt’s “Christus,” three hours of hardcore Jesus music, of which only the first 70 minutes or so deal with the Christmas story. In fact, Part III contains a 40-minute setting of the “Stabat Mater dolorosa.” You won’t hear that at the shopping mall.

Okay, so maybe it’s not for everyone, but the music does have its rewards. Forget “Jingle Bell Rock.” Brew yourself something strong, send your regrets to the office “holiday party,” if you can, and seclude your wittily antlered self in a quiet place with no distractions to marvel at this massive oratorio-cum-symphonic poem.

Due to the length of this extraordinary work (almost exactly three hours, played uninterrupted), it will begin in the 7:00 hour. That will insure that the piece will have run its course by the time Will Constantine Jr. rolls in at 11:00 for “Blues, Bop and Beyond.”

If you want jolly, call up Rankin-Bass. For the rest of you, join me tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Santa’s not the only one who’s got a little Liszt, on Classic Ross Amico.

December 22, 2016

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