Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Shakespeare

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 Radio April Broadcasts

Get ready to hoist a glass with Sir John. Coming up at around 8:30, it’s Edward Elgar’s symphonic study “Falstaff.”

Then at 9:00, we’ll be joined by William Hobbs, music director of Westminster Opera Theatre, and Trent Blanton, stage director for Westminster’s production of Verdi’s “Falstaff,” which will be performed at the Robert L. Annis Playhouse on the campus of Westminster Choir College in Princeton this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Later, it’s on to the dramatic symphony “Romeo and Juliet,” by Hector Berlioz.

It’s all music inspired by Shakespeare every Thursday morning in April, as we remember the Bard on the 400th anniversary of his death (on April 23, 1616), on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

April 14, 2016
Shakespeare on the Radio This Week

Strike up, pipers!

This Thursday morning on WPRB, we continue with our commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare – on April 23, 1616 – with the second of four programs devoted to music inspired by his sonnets and plays.

Depending on how timings align, tomorrow’s playlist may include Mily Balakirev’s incidental music for “King Lear,” Sir Edward Elgar’s symphonic study “Falstaff,” and Hector Berlioz’s dramatic symphony “Romeo and Juliet,” among others. But who knows? I’ve got a whole suitcase full of Shakespeareana, which I’ll keep playing and replenishing through the end of the month.

What’s certain is that we’ll be joined in 9:00 hour by William Hobbs, music director of Westminster Opera Theatre, and Trent Blanton, stage director for a production of Verdi’s “Falstaff,” which will be performed at the Robert L. Annis Playhouse on the campus of Westminster Choir College in Princeton this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

To borrow from Juliet, our only love springs from our only hate, every Thursday in April from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Radio is such sweet sorrow, on Classic Ross Amico.

April 13, 2016
Shakespeare’s Cinematic Legacy: Walton & Olivier

April 23 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. We’ll honor the Bard on “Picture Perfect” over the coming weeks with music from film adaptations of his plays.

William Walton may be the composer most associated with the cinematic Bard, thanks to his collaborations with Laurence Olivier. While Walton participated in three superb Olivier productions, beginning with “Henry V” in 1944, and continuing with “Hamlet” in 1948 and “Richard III” in 1955, the two had actually been brought together on an earlier Shakespeare project, in which Olivier appeared solely as an actor – a very charming version of “As You Like It.” The 1936 film was directed by Paul Czinner and starred his wife, Elisabeth Bergner, as Rosalind. Olivier appeared as the love-struck Orlando.

Walton’s “Henry V” would become one of the most celebrated film scores of all time, certainly in terms of a so-called concert composer working in the cinema. The music is best known in a concert arrangement by Muir Mathieson, who conducted the orchestra on the film’s actual soundtrack. We’ll hear a recording that restores the composer’s original orchestration AND incorporates the chorus, as in the film.

For Walton’s work on Olivier’s 1948 adaptation of “Hamlet,” the composer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. The film won four Oscars in all, including that for Best Picture. Olivier directed himself in an Academy Award-winning performance. It was the first foreign film to be honored as Best Picture.

Finally, we’ll turn to “Richard III,” from 1955, by which time both Olivier and Walton could be addressed as “Sir.” (Olivier was knighted in 1947; Walton received his knighthood in 1951.) Olivier gives a wry performance as the scheming Duke of Gloucester. While he very much enjoyed their ongoing partnership, Walton felt there was a limit to just how many ceremonial fanfares and battle charges he could compose. Across the head of the score he inscribed the instruction, in Italian, “Con prosciutto, agnello e confitura di fragole” – “With ham, lamb and strawberry jam.” Nevertheless, he manages to turn in yet another superb score.

I hope you’ll join me for an hour of fanfares and battle charges, with an interlude of brooding over the skull of Yorick, this Friday evening at 6 EDT, with a repeat Saturday morning at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

Here’s an appreciation of Walton’s Shakespearean achievements that ran in The Telegraph during the composer’s centenary in 2002, rightly noting his influence on John Williams:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/classicalmusic/3574714/The-last-great-movie-composer.html

#Shakespeare400

April 8, 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

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