Music composed for the Olympics or inspired by Brazil this morning as we look forward to the Summer Games in Rio. The opening ceremonies take place tomorrow night. Tune in to WPRB 103.3 FM or wprb.com this morning until 11 EDT to enjoy works by Michael Torke, John Harbison, David Gunn, Darius Milhaud, John Williams and Mikis Theodorakis. We’re going for the gold, on Classic Ross Amico.
Tag: Ross Amico
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Staycation Summer Road Trip on WPRB
Why travel abroad this summer, when there’s plenty to see right here?
This Thursday morning on WPRB, we’ll load up the RV and accompany composers on a trip around the country. We’ll have musical evocations of our states, cities and natural wonders. Along the way, we’ll travel Route 66 with Michael Daugherty, view some road movies with John Adams, and stop off to fill the tank with Virgil Thomson. We’ll even get lost in Philadelphia with Paul Lansky – during the Democratic National Convention, no less!
“The man who goes alone can start today,” wrote Henry David Thoreau, “but he who travels with another must wait until the other is ready.” I’m perfectly happy to wait until tomorrow.
Join me from 6 to 11 a.m. EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll do our best not to sing along with the radio, on Classic Ross Amico.
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Grimm & Mahler A Musical Fairy Tale
It will be a very Grimm morning this morning, to complement our grim weather. Join me as I celebrate the birthday of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) with one of his early works, and one not that often heard: “Das klagende Lied” (“Song of Lamentation”). “Das klagende Lied,” written while the composer was yet a student at the Vienna Conservatory, is based in part on the Grimm fairy tale “The Singing Bone.”
In addition, there will be other Grimm-inspired music by the likes of Philip Glass, Engelbert Humperdinck, William Hurlstone, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Robert Moran, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Bernard Rogers, Robert Schumann, and Elinor Remick Warren.
As I remarked to the witch in the candy cottage, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Join me for a morning as grim as the weather, with tales from the Brothers Grimm, from 6 to 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. I’ll be introducing the music in an enchanted sleep, on Classic Ross Amico.
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St John’s Eve Midsummer Magic on Classic Ross Amico
June 23. St. John’s Eve. By the time “the iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve,” bonfires will have been lit, love potions will have been sought, and the night will be alive with supernatural beings.
Anyway, it’s a big deal in Europe, where it pervades the folklore of the British Isles, Scandinavia, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Russia and elsewhere. In Sweden, Midsummer is a national holiday.
The influence is felt vicariously in the United States by way of the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence in Disney’s “Fantasia,” Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and Igmar Bergman’s “Smiles of a Summer Night.”
Among our featured highlights this morning will be a recording of “St. John’s Eve” by Gunnar de Frumerie. The allegorical ballet features appearances by John the Baptist, Salome, the Seven Deadly Sins, Angels, and the Devil, all tied up with Swedish Midsummer traditions.
How now, spirit! Robin Goodfellow will squeeze the juice of love-in-idleness onto sleeping eyelids, from 6 to 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll be singeing our tails leaping over bonfires, on Classic Ross Amico.
PHOTO: Young women engage in a Ukrainian St. John’s Eve ritual
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Ross Amico Jazz WRTI Tonight
If you’ve never had the chance to hear Classic Ross Amico spinning the jazz, I’ll be donning the pork pie from 6 to 9 tonight on WRTI 90.1 FM in Philadelphia and at wrti.org. Stay cool, fools!
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