Classic Ross Amico

Tag: The Classical Network

March Music Madness on The Classical Network

Is it too much to hope for a brisk March?

We’ll put the early spring into our step, this afternoon on The Classical Network, and enliven your Friday with a program in 4/4 time.

An all-march afternoon? That’s the fact, Jack!

Marches for band. Symphonic marches. Light music marches. Marches for piano. Marches for string quartet. Funeral marches. Coronation marches. Circus marches.

Fear not, it won’t be all march-or-die, an incessant barrage of three-minute quick marches in 4/4 time. Some of the marches will be embedded in larger works. Some of the works will merely suggest marches.

There will be plenty of time for you to do your warm-ups, during today’s Noontime Concert, as Lenape Chamber Ensemble will perform works by Beethoven (the String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 4), Charles Ives (the Violin Sonata No. 2), and Camille Saint-Saëns (the Piano Trio No. 2).

The next Lenape program will take place this weekend, presented on two concerts, tonight at 8:15 p.m. at Upper Tinicum Lutheran Church in Upper Black Eddy, PA, and Sunday at 3 p.m. at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown. Lenape musicians will perform Franz Schubert’s “Rosamunde” Quartet, Carl Reinecke’s “Undine” Sonata,” and Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quartet in C minor. For more information, look online at http://www.lenapechamberensemble.org.

Then join me for Beethoven, Ives, and Saint-Saëns, followed by an afternoon of March madness, this Friday from 12 to 6 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

March 6, 2020
Ross Amico Takes Over The Classical Network Today!

Surprise! Get ready for SEVEN HOURS of Classic Ross Amico today, as I fill in for my colleague, Carl Hemmingsen, early this afternoon on The Classical Network; then stick around for my usual late afternoon air shift.

I’ll be celebrating a number of notable birthdays along the way, with symphonies by Jan Kalivoda (a.k.a. Johann Kalliwoda) and Charles-Marie Widor, a complete ballet of Léo Delibes, and a nod to guitarist Andrés Segovia.

At 6:00, I’ll be your host for “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies. This week, we’ll salute actor Kirk Douglas, who died on February 5 at the age of 103. We’ll hear selections from “Spartacus” (Alex North), “The Bad and the Beautiful” (David Raksin), “Lust for Life” (Miklós Rózsa), and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” (Paul J. Smith).

First, on today’s Noontime Concert, once again, we’ll travel to the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, for another Concerts on the Slope. Concerts on the Slope was founded in 2012 to present top-notch chamber music performances featuring rising young artists from New York City and around the world. Today’s broadcast emanates from St. John’s Episcopal Church. On the program will be works by Andy Akiho, Nick DiBernardino, Thomas Kotcheff, David Crowell, Dave Molk, and Pulitzer Prize winner Julia Wolfe, performed by Sandbox Percussion.

There’s plenty of room in the box for everyone. Just don’t get sand in my sandwich, as I’ll need all the fuel I can get, from 12 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

February 21, 2020
Remembering Milne & de Leeuw on The Classical Network

Sadly, the past week has left us short of two fine musicians.

Pianist Hamish Milne died on Wednesday at the age of 80, and conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw died on Valentine’s Day at 81.

This afternoon on The Classical Network, we’ll celebrate both artists with selections from their recorded legacies.

Milne will be represented by one of his many performances of Nikolai Medtner – a friend and contemporary of Sergei Rachmaninoff – whose music was something of a specialty. We’ll also hear Milne as soloist in a Romantic piano concerto, to be announced.

De Leeuw will conduct Steve Reich’s “Tehillim,” vibrant settings of Hebrew Psalms. He’ll also sit down at the keyboard for a highly individual performance of Erik Satie’s “Gymnopédies.”

First, on today’s Noontime Concert, Piffaro, The Renaissance Band will present a program titled “Burgundian Beginnings & Beyond,” a Franco-Flemish feast of instrumental works by Guillaume Dufay, Robert Morton, Antoine Busnois, Josquin des Prez, Pierre de la Rue, and Nicholas Gombert. Directors Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemken will join host David Osenberg for this Early Music concert at 12 p.m.

I’ll be along around 1:40. Settle in for a heymish afternoon with Hamish Milne and “Tehillim,” from 2 to 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

February 18, 2020
WWFM Thanks You Classical Music Supporters

It was a pretty tiring day yesterday. You know, after listening to all that Mozart. (Too many notes!) But it would be rude of me, now that my powdered wig is at the cleaners, not to at least take up my quill and scratch out a belated thank you note for your continued support of WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org. You are the strings in our fiddles. You are the buckles on our shoes. Your generous patronage lends extra lift to our mincing minuets. Sirs and Madams, we are your most obedient servants.

January 28, 2020
Graupner, Bach, and a Baroque Birthday!

A show of hands! How many of you are familiar with the name Christoph Graupner?

I thought so.

Join me today on The Classical Network, on Graupner’s birthday, as I share music by this neglected master. Despite the fact that Graupner is now little more than a footnote in music history, he was highly regarded in his day. In fact, he was offered the cantorate in Leipzig (where he had studied with Johann Kuhnau).

Finances were particularly rocky in Graupner’s Darmstadt. The opera house was closed, court musicians were not being paid. Musical opportunities were withering. Even so, Graupner’s patron insisted he be held to his contract.

In the end, things worked out for the best. Graupner’s back salary was paid in full, and he was given a substantial raise into the bargain. As for the cantorate? It went to Johann Sebastian Bach.

Of course, the first choice for the position had been George Philipp Telemann. But Telemann also decided to remain where he was – in his case Hamburg – after he too was promised more money.

Graupner graciously wrote Bach a glowing recommendation. Like so many forgotten figures of the Baroque, his recognition once again received a substantial boost with the rise of the authenticity movement, and a nice cross-section of his own music is now available in recordings.

It’s also the birthday of Graupner contemporary Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel. Again, you may not know the name, but if you’re a Bach fan, there’s a good chance you know at least some of his music. He is the composer of “Bist du bei mir,” long attributed to Bach because of its inclusion in one of Anna Magdalena Bach’s notebooks

Like Bach, Stölzel wrote a ton of church music, including a crushing number of cantatas. Unlike Bach, he also wrote operas – 18 of them. In fact, “Bist du bei mir” was originally written for the opera “Diomedes.” Now we hear it at weddings.

Don’t forget, Monday on The Classical Network also means “Bach at One.” As stated right in the title of the program, that will come your way at 1 p.m. EST.

I’ll be along at 4. If Baroque is not really your thing, I’ll also have music by Vasily Kalinnikov, a too short-lived Russian Romantic composer, and Richard Addinsell – he of “Warsaw Concerto” fame.

It’s nice to be known for something. Don’t forget to join me in remembering, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Catch the Baroque wave (in both wig and music): clockwise from left, Bach, Graupner and Stölzel

January 13, 2020

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