Classic Ross Amico

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Shakespeare’s Music A Classic Radio Celebration

The Bard ain’t all brooding and codpieces. But even if he were, what’s not to like?

It’s certainly difficult to dislike the music of Gerald Finzi. Enjoy his incidental music written for a production of “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” around 6:30 this morning.

FUN FACT: If you find Shakespeare’s language a challenge to absorb, just try to wrap your head (and tongue) around “honorificabilitudinitatibus.” It is the longest word to appear in any of the Shakespeare plays – spoken by Costard in Act V, scene 1 – and can be defined as “the state of being able to achieve honors.” You won’t catch me trying to pronounce it at 6:30 in the morning.

In the 7:00 hour, it’s the tragedy of “King Lear,” with incidental music by Mily Balakirev, played with gusto by the forces of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra. Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture” would not exist without Balakirev, certainly not in the form we know it today. The older composer suggested the subject to Tchaikovsky and shepherded him through a series of revisions, in fact rather immodestly offering his own “King Lear” Overture as a model.

The 8:00 hour brings the symphonic study “Falstaff,” by Sir Edward Elgar, which the composer regarded as his finest piece (though it failed to catch on with the public); and then starting in the 9:00 hour, we’ll enjoy the dramatic symphony “Romeo and Juliet” by Hector Berlioz, a work seldom heard in its entirety due to its extraordinary length (about an hour and 40 minutes).

These are merely highlights, as we continue with our observation of the quadricentennial of the death of William Shakespeare (on April 23, 1616), on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We thrill to the quill, every Thursday morning in April from 6 to 11 EDT, on Classic Ross Amico.

April 14, 2016
Shakespeare 400 WPRB Celebrates the Bard

To sleep, Perchance to dream…

Ha! Not much chance of that on a Thursday morning, not when I have to be on the air at 6:00.

Every Thursday morning in April, we’ll honor the Bard, as we mark the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. We’ll hear overtures, incidental music, symphonic poems, art songs, choral works, and operatic highlights inspired by the plays and sonnets. Some of the pieces may be familiar, or marginally so; others have been criminally underplayed.

Tune in over the coming weeks to enjoy works like Constant Lambert’s “Romeo and Juliet,” Gerald Finzi’s “Love’s Labours Lost,” Josef Bohuslav Foerster’s “From Shakespeare;” Paul Moravec’s “Tempest Fantasy,” Florent Schmitt’s “Antony and Cleopatra;” Alexander Zemlinsky’s “Cymbeline,” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ beloved “Serenade to Music,” set to a text from “The Merchant of Venice.”

All the world’s a stage, this morning and over the next three Thursdays, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Brush up your Shakespeare, on Classic Ross Amico.

#Shakespeare400

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted.

– “The Merchant of Venice,” Act 5, scene 1

April 7, 2016
Shakespeare Month on Classic Ross Amico

April marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. We’ll mark the occasion on Classic Ross Amico with a full month of programs inspired by his writings. That’s 20 hours worth of Shakespeare-related works – minus the weekly musician interviews, of course – as we enjoy overtures, incidental music, symphonic poems, art songs and choral works, all with a distinctive Bardic slant.

We’ll take a short break tomorrow in the 9:00 hour, as we are joined by representatives of Foundation Academies Charter School in Trenton. Students of the Academy will join cellist Michelle Djokic, artistic director of Concordia Chamber Players, for a fundraising concert at the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie Mansion, this Saturday at 4 p.m.

Then on Sunday at 3 p.m., the students will attend Concordia’s next concert at Trinity Episcopal Church, Solebury, PA, that will feature works by Mozart, Brahms and Michael Daugherty. Hopefully you will consider being there, as well. We’ll hear more about it, plus the Foundation Academy’s “Stand Partners” program, during the course of their visit.

Then it’s back to the Bard! It’s all Shakespeare this month, every Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Where there’s a Will, there’s a way, on Classic Ross Amico.

#Shakespeare400

April 6, 2016
Haydn: Papa of the Symphony

Even in his own lifetime, Franz Joseph Haydn was known as “Papa.” His benevolent handling of his musicians at the court of Esterháza and beyond earned him their undying affection.

His Symphony No. 45, the “Farewell” Symphony, is a famous example of Haydn looking out for his men. When the musicians were kept on longer than expected at the Prince’s summer palace, a full day’s ride from their homes and families, Haydn composed this “protest symphony” as a suggestion to his employer that perhaps it was time to return to Eisenstadt.

In the final movement, the musicians stop playing one by one, snuff out the candles on their music stands, and leave the orchestra, until just two muted violins remain. (One of these was played by Haydn himself in the first performance.) The Prince got the message, and gave the command for the journey back to be undertaken the next day. Hence, Haydn was able to press his point, characteristically, with good humor and without conflict.

The nickname of “Papa” clung to him even after his death, as musicians, audiences and musicologists acknowledged their debt to the man who had trail-blazed the enduring forms of both the symphony and the string quartet.

I hope you’ll join me this morning, as we pay tribute to this seminal figure on his birthday. Despite his charm, craftsmanship and fairly consistent level of inspiration, Haydn remains, in many respects, in the shadows of Mozart and Beethoven.

The playlist may not be all-Haydn – there could be a few tributes by later composers and perhaps a nod or two to the 18th century by some 20th century neoclassicists – but we’ll try to keep the flavor distinctly Haydnesque.

Be prepared to have your socks charmed off (with benevolence, of course), from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Come to Papa, on Classic Ross Amico.

PHOTO: The composer, enjoying some of that Haydnesque flavor

March 31, 2016
Haydn’s Birthday on Classic Ross Amico

Tomorrow is the birthday of Franz Joseph Haydn. It may seem uncharacteristic of me, given my obvious preference for music composed after about 1890, but I’ve always been partial to Papa, and I am inclined to pay him homage.

I can’t promise that I will be playing all-Haydn on my show tomorrow morning on WPRB; but then again, I can’t promise that I won’t. If I feel the need to spice it up a bit, I may stir in a little neoclassicism, courtesy of composers like Bohuslav Martinu and Harold Shapero, and garnish it with a tribute or two by composers like Marcel Grandjany and Norman Dello Joio.

On the other hand, I could diminish my listenership considerably with back-to-back airings of Haydn’s wonderful oratorios, “The Creation” and “The Seasons.” The timings indicate that they would just about fit. Though if there’s anything to be learned from Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” it’s that just because we can doesn’t mean that we should.

This is truly the most classic insight into the making of Classic Ross Amico. Odds are that I’ll show up with a suitcase full of CDs ten minutes before air-time and start making my decisions then.

There’s no Haydn the fact that I’m ill-prepared. Tune in to share in my humiliation, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll remember Papa, on Classic Ross Amico.

PHOTO: Is that a pinky ring?

March 30, 2016

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