Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Shakespeare

Shakespeare Birthday Music on WPRB

First comes Groundhog Day, then comes Easter, then comes Shakespeare’s birthday. All that remains is for us to lock up a sacrifice in the Wicker Man on April 30 and Sulis will have been appeased.

We don’t know when, exactly, the Bard was born, but his baptismal date is April 26, 1564. Since it’s human nature to try to keep things neat, his natal day is generally held to be April 23, the very date of his death in 1616.

I hope you’ll join me this morning, as we celebrate the Bard, with a full morning of music inspired by his plays. We’ll hear selections from composers who were Shakespeare’s contemporaries, right on down to Paul Moravec’s “Tempest Fantasy,” which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2004.

Other treats will include a recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams conducting his own “Serenade to Music,” after a text from “The Merchant of Venice,” a reconstructed duet from a projected opera on the subject of “Romeo and Juliet” by Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky, and incidental music for a production of “Antony and Cleopatra” by French composer Florent Schmitt, in an opulent recording conducted by JoAnn Falletta.

Just some of the ingredients that will go into a secret recipe made public from 6 to 11 a.m. EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We engage in a little Shake and bake, on Classic Ross Amico.

If music be the food of love, bake on.

April 20, 2017
Shakespeare Radio Hour WPRB

Shall I compare thee to a rainy Thursday?

Join me tomorrow morning on WPRB as I remember William Shakespeare (1564-1616), in advance of his birthday anniversary on April 23.

We’ll hear music inspired by a number of his plays, including “Antony and Cleopatra,” “As You Like It,” “Hamlet,” “Measure for Measure,” “The Merchant of Venice,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Othello,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” and “The Tempest,” by composers such as Geoffrey Bush, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Gerald Finzi, Joseph Joachim, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Paul Moravec, Florent Schmitt, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Johan Wagenaar, Richard Wagner, and Sir William Walton.

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have Classic Ross Amico thrust upon them.

April 19, 2017
Shakespeare Music on WPRB
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun. At least for today in the Princeton area, with increasing clouds, afternoon showers anticipated, and highs in the upper 50s. The musical forecast, however, is for 100 percent Shakespeare.

We’ll round out our month-long, Thursday morning salute to the Bard with the last of four installments commemorating the quadricentennial of his death, on April 23, 1616. Is the date etched into your memory yet? Fret thee not: the next major anniversary will be the 500th anniversary of his birth, in 2064 – by which time, I fancy, many of us will be able to congratulate him in person.

In this first hour, we’ll have musical greatness thrust upon us, with selections from Ernest Chausson’s “The Tempest,” Gabriel Fauré’s incidental music for “Shylock” (after “The Merchant of Venice”) and Sir Alexander Mackenzie’s merry – and extended – overture for “Twelfth Night.”

Those now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, from 6 to 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. The fewer the listeners, the greater the share of honour, on Classic Ross Amico.

Hark, hark! the lark at heaven’s gate sings,
And Phoebus ‘gins arise,
His steeds to water at those springs
On chaliced flowers that lies;
And winking Mary-buds begin
To ope their golden eyes:
With every thing that pretty is,
My lady sweet, arise:
Arise, arise.
- “Cymbeline,” Act II, scene 3
BTW: The birders among you might be interested to know that, according to the Scottish geologist Sir Archibald Geikie, in his 1916 book “The Birds of Shakespeare,” the Bard references all of the following in his plays: the Blackbird, Bunting, Buzzard, Chough, Cock, Cormorant, Crow, Cuckoo, Dive-dapper, Dove and Pigeon, Duck, Eagle, Falcon and Sparrowhawk, Finch, Goose, Hedge Sparrow, House Martin, Jackdaw, Jay, Kite, Lapwing, Lark, Loon, Magpie, Nightingale, Osprey, Ostrich, Owl, Parrot, Partridge, Peacock, Pelican, Pheasant, Quail, Raven, Robin, Snipe, Sparrow, Starling, Swallow, Swan, Thrush, Turkey, Vulture, Wagtail, Woodcock and the Wren.

Interestingly, the House Sparrow gets four mentions – in “Hamlet,” “As You Like It,” “The Tempest” and “Troilus and Cressida.”
April 28, 2016
Shakespeare on WPRB This Morning

Roughly two hours to go in our month-of-Thursdays salute to William Shakespeare.

Yet to come: Frank Bridge’s “There is a willow grows aslant a brook,” his atmospheric reflection on the death of Ophelia; Gerald Finzi’s “Let us Garlands bring,” song settings of some of the Bard’s memorable texts; a suite from Florent Schmitt’s “Antony and Cleopatra,” in a recent recording by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by JoAnn Falletta; and a special treat from the pen of Erich Wolfgang Korngold – his imaginative arrangements of music by Felix Mendelssohn made for a 1935 film version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which starred James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, and a 15 year-old Mickey Rooney as Puck.

How now, spirit! Whither wander thee? It’s all Shakespeare this morning until 11:00 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend…

April 28, 2016
Shakespeare on WPRB Final Show April 28

Time is growing short.

Tomorrow marks the final installment of our four-part salute to William Shakespeare on WPRB. Every Thursday morning in April, we have been honoring the Bard with music inspired by his writings, to mark the 400th anniversary of his shuffling off this mortal coil on April 23, 1616 (also the anniversary of his birth, though 52 years earlier).

We have five hours in which to hear any or all of the following: Frank Bridge’s “There is a willow grows aslant a brook,” Ernest Chausson’s “The Tempest,” Cecil Cole’s “Comedy of Errors Overture,” Gabriel Fauré’s “Shylock,” Gerald Finzi’s “Let us Garlands bring,” Florent Schmitt’s “Antony and Cleopatra,” Bedrich Smetana’s “Richard III,” and Johan Wagenaar’s “The Taming of the Shrew Overture,” among others.

‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. Conscience does make cowards of us all, on Classic Ross Amico.

#Shakespeare400

April 27, 2016

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