Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Rossen Milanov

Princeton Symphony Explores “Hiraeth”

“There isn’t a precise English translation, but loosely, it means homesickness tinged with longing for the lost or departed, or people that have passed on. It’s this idea of homesickness for a place you can no longer get back to.”

That is Princeton composer Sarah Kirkland Snider’s explanation of “Hiraeth,” from the Welsh, the title of her new piece, to be performed by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra this weekend.

The work, the product of a PSO co-commission with the North Carolina Symphony, is at the heart of a program, “Passion & Affection,” which will also include Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture,” Johann Strauss II’s “Wine, Women and Song,” and a suite from Richard Strauss’ “Der Rosenkavalier.” PSO music director Rossen Milanov will conduct. The concert will take place at Richardson Auditorium on Sunday at 4 p.m.

Snider and Milanov will discuss their collaboration on “Hiraeth” in a PSO “Behind the Music” event at the Arts Council of Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center tomorrow at 4 p.m.

On Tuesday, May 17 at 7:30 p.m., musicians of the PSO will present Snider’s song cycle “Penelope,” on a special concert at the Princeton High School Performing Arts Center. Playwright Ellen McLaughlin provided the texts, which will be sung by Carla Kihlstedt. The performance will be led by PSO assistant conductor John Devlin. The concert is free and open to the public with ticketed reservations via the orchestra’s website, http://www.princetonsymphony.org.

Local lovers of orchestral music are spoiled for choice this weekend. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will also perform at Richardson Auditorium, tonight at 8 p.m. Augustin Hadelich will be the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, the centerpiece of a program that will include Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides Overture” and Brahms’ Serenade No. 1. Jérémie Rhorer will conduct.

Last but not least, the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra will present a concert of “Cinematic Classics,” featuring music by Miklós Rózsa, Bernard Herrmann, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and William Walton, at the Trenton War Memorial tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. Odin Rathnam will be the soloist in Korngold’s Violin Concerto. Also on the program will be music from “El Cid,” “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “Psycho,” “Vertigo,” and “Henry V.” Daniel Spalding will conduct.

The Trenton Times has been getting tighter with space in the print edition over the past few months, often resulting in some fairly hairpin edits to my articles. The chopped up versions run on Fridays. You can read my unexpurgated piece on the Princeton Symphony concerts here:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/05/classical_music_pso_performing_1.html

May 13, 2016
Princeton Symphony’s World Tour with Upshaw and Luo

Armchair travelers, rejoice! The Princeton Symphony Orchestra will offer a trip around the world this weekend. Book passage to Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium this Sunday at 4 p.m., as the orchestra embarks for Hungary (by way of Zoltán Kodály), Spain, Eastern Europe, and Amherst, Massachusetts (by way of Osvaldo Golijov), China (by way of Jing Jing Luo), and Bohemia (by way of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart).

The PSO continues its season-long celebration of the creativity of women with not one, but two notable guest artists. Dawn Upshaw will be the soloist in Golijov’s “Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra.” Singer and composer are frequent collaborators, with Upshaw frequently described as Golijov’s muse.

The PSO’s other notable guest is composer-in-residence Jing Jing Luo. Luo, a native of Beijing, is “a self-taught calligrapher in Chinese ink brush painting,” an art she says she has practiced since childhood.

The title of her work, “Tsao Shu,” alludes to “Chinese cursive writing, with ink brush, not with pen.” She elaborates, “The piece, it’s about the motion of the calligraphy with the ink brush, the motions of the stroke. Each stroke in calligraphy is reflected in music through the string section, percussion section, woodwind and brass.”

Luo will join PSO music director Rossen Milanov for a pre-concert talk on Sunday at 3 p.m. Milanov will conduct the program, which will also include Kodály’s “Dances of Galanta” and Mozart’s Symphony No. 38, the “Prague” Symphony.

On Saturday at 4 p.m., Luo will converse with composer and PSO board member Julian Grant about Chinese culture and its influence on her art and music. The discussion will take place at the Arts Council of Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center for the Arts. The Saturday event is free with ticketed reservations through the PSO website, princetonsymphony.org.

Read more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/01/classical_music_pso_performing.html

PHOTO: Upshaw armchair traveling with Golijov

January 29, 2016
Princeton Symphony: Clyne’s “Seamstress”

I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat…

Anna Clyne’s “The Seamstress,” a work for violin and orchestra after a poem of William Butler Yeats, will open this Sunday’s concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Jennifer Koh will be the soloist. Also on the program, music director Rossen Milanov will conduct Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2. The concert will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium Sunday afternoon at 4. Milanov will deliver a pre-concert talk at 3.

A PSO “Behind the Music” event will take place tomorrow afternoon at 3, at The Arts Council of Princeton’s Paul Robeson Center. Insights into Clyne’s music will be offered, with Koh discussing her collaborative relationship with the composer, and Milanov his method of preparing her scores for live performance. The event is free and open to the public, with advanced reservations available through the PSO, at princetonsymphony.org or 609-497-0020.

Clyne and Koh talk to me about “The Seamstress” in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2015/09/classical_music_pso_opening_se.html

Of perhaps related interest, Milanov and the PSO can be heard, along with guest soloists soprano Michelle Johnson, mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore, tenor Zach Borichevsky, and baritone Hugh Russell, and the Princeton High School Choir, in a broadcast concert of last season’s PSO finale, “Viva Verdi,” tonight at 8 ET, on WWFM – The Classical Network, at 89.1 FM or online at wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: Anna Clyne (left) with Jennifer Koh and Rossen Milanov

September 25, 2015
Oscar Music Night Picture Perfect & PSO’s Silver Screen

If, like me, you are nutty in the nutbone for classic movie music, you might want to join me tomorrow night for a special two-hour “Picture Perfect,” as we look ahead to the 87th Academy Awards.

Beginning at 6 ET, we commence our annual Oscar party, with wall-to-wall music from Academy Award-winning films, with selections from “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “Ben-Hur,” “The Godfather” and many others. We’ll also sample from this year’s nominees for Best Original Score.

Then at 8, I’ll introduce the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, in a broadcast of their February 7 concert, held at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, as music director Rossen Milanov takes the podium for the orchestra’s first ever “Silver Screen Salute.”

The concert will include music from “Gone with the Wind,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Star Wars,” among others. The American Boychoir will appear in John Williams’ “Empire of the Sun,” “Amistad” and “Saving Private Ryan,” as well as in “Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz.”

Milanov and Chris Collier of the Princeton Garden Theatre will join me at intermission to talk about movies and the PSO concert.

Butter up the popcorn! We’re ready for our close-up. Four hours of movie music magic, on “Picture Perfect” and the PSO’s “A Silver Screen Salute,” starting Friday evening at 6, at http://www.wwfm.org.

PLEASE NOTE: There will be no webcast for the PSO concert, so be there, or be square!

February 19, 2015
Princeton Symphony Salutes the Silver Screen

Lights! Camera! Music?

The Princeton Symphony Orchestra will present “A Silver Screen Salute” on February 7 at 8 p.m.

The concert, which will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium, will include some of film’s most evocative music, including themes from “Gone with the Wind,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Star Wars.”

Also featured will be Academy Award winning music by Franz Waxman for “Sunset Boulevard,” Bernard Herrmann’s score for Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” Ennio Morricone’s poignant melodies for “Cinema Paradiso,” and John Williams’ Indiana Jones march from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

The PSO will be joined by The American Boychoir for selections from Williams’ “Empire of the Sun,” “Amistad,” and “Saving Private Ryan,” as well as Herbert Stothart’s score for “The Wizard of Oz,” on themes of Harold Arlen.

NPR arts commentator Bob Mondello will host the event. Read more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2015/01/princeton_symphony_orchestra_p.html

PHOTO: PSO Music Director Rossen Milanov, ready for his close-up

January 30, 2015

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