Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Spring

Celebrating Shakespeare Music and Spring

Okay, so we don’t know when exactly Shakespeare was born. We do know that he was baptized on April 26, 1564. He died on April 23, 1616. Scholars have found the potential symmetry irresistible; therefore his birthday has traditionally been observed on the same day as his death. To borrow from “The Tempest,” our little lives are not only rounded with a sleep, it seems; if we’re famous enough, and we die close enough to our natal day, our birthdays are also rounded down.

It doesn’t really matter when Shakespeare was born, but I look forward to celebrating the Bard every year. So many of his insights remain fresh, and the plays tie in beautifully with the spirit of renewal that springtime fosters. Also, there is just so much interesting and vital music inspired by his writings.

We’ll sample as much of it as we can – what masques, what dances shall we have – this Monday, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 23, 2018
Classical Music Defies Winter’s Return on WWFM

As we brace ourselves for a double nor’easter, I cast a skeptical eye at the calendar on this, the First Day of Spring. Then I gaze wistfully into my bag full of spring-related CDs. Surely there is some music here suitable for driving away Old Man Winter, a guest who has overstayed his welcome, drunk too much, and broken more than a few valuables.

Following today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, and in defiance of the weather, we’ll offer blood sacrifices to the pagan gods, with Frank Bridge’s “Enter Spring,” Lodewijk Mortelmans’ “The Myth of Spring,” Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” and Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky’s “The Snow Maiden,” all in the interest of appeasing mercurial Nature.

First, we’ll be laying down the Lawes – William Lawes, that is – on today’s Noontime Concert. Join me for a program of Lawes’ consort music, as presented by Parthenia Viols. The performances were recorded at New York’s Church of Saint Luke in the Fields last May. Parthenia will present a concert of “Tomb Sonnets,” featuring works by Josquin des Prez, Carlo Gesualdo, and Giovanni Gabrieli, among others, on March 25 at The Secret Theatre in Long Island City. To find out more, look online at parthenia.org.

We’ll take viol music over vile weather, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

IMAGE: Princeton’s own Patrick McDonnell tells it like it is

March 20, 2018
Happy Groundhog Day Waiting for Spring

Happy Groundhog Day!

As you probably know by now, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, prognosticating an early spring. We’ll have 17 hours of blazing sunshine before you know it.

I’d have posted earlier, but somebody was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay past deadline on his article. Come to think of it, my sick beard makes me look a little bit like this groundhog.

Here’s Vaughan Williams’ “Folk Songs of the Four Seasons,” with its chorus “Early in the Spring” (following a prologue, “To the Ploughboy”).

February 2, 2016

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