Classic Ross Amico

Tag: The Lost Chord

Pulitzer Music Prize History & Preview

Tomorrow afternoon, the Pulitzer Prize committee will announce this year’s winners and nominees. In anticipation, tonight on “The Lost Chord,” we look back on the history of the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Really, other than Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” and Ives’ Symphony No. 3, how often do you get to hear this stuff? Okay, the operas of Menotti and Robert Ward get revived from time to time, and Jennifer Higdon has been very fortunate for a composer in her prime. Yet most of the Pulitzer winners remain elusive.

We’ll have a chance to sample three of them, as part of our annual “Pulitzer Surprises” show – including the very first, William Schuman’s “A Free Song” (1943), recorded for the first time only in 2011, and the most recent, Caroline Shaw’s “Partita for 8 Voices” (2013).

Shaw – at 30, the youngest recipient in the history of the category – is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University. Her work for string quartet, “Ritornello 2.sq.2.j,” will be performed by the JACK Quartet in Princeton this Tuesday.

The “Partita” is certainly the highlight of tonight’s program, with a dizzying array of genres and techniques ably navigated by the a cappella ensemble, Roomful of Teeth.

Also on the program will be a sampling of William Bolcom’s “12 New Etudes for Piano,” the Pulitzer-winner from 1988.

You can hear it tonight at 10:00 ET, with a repeat Thursday night at 11, or catch it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

April 13, 2014
Persian Music’s Opulent Revival on The Lost Chord

I had heard Behzad Ranjbaran’s lyrical Piano Concerto at a concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra several seasons past, but it did not prepare me for the beauty and opulence of his “Persian Trilogy.” It’s rare for a contemporary composer to demonstrate such fluency in working on a large, romantic canvas. If you enjoy the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Paul Dukas or Ottorino Respighi, I think you’ll really enjoy this.

I’ll be presenting two-thirds of the “Persian Trilogy” – “Seven Passages” and “Seemorgh” – this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” alongside a work for flute and cello, “Folk Songs (Set No. 9),” by Reza Vali. That’s a lot of music for an hour, so I really had to butcher my script in the editing process. But it was worth it.

The program is titled “Roses of Persia: A Bouquet of Persian Polyphonic Music.” You can catch it at 10 ET, with a repeat Thursday night at 11. Later, the show will be archived as a webcast. Enjoy it here, at http://www.wwfm.org.

Pictured: The mythical bird Seemorgh, from the Persian epic, the “Shanameh.” She raises the abandoned newborn Zaal as her own. When Zaal goes out into the world, he is given one of her feathers, with which he is able to summon her in times of crisis.

April 6, 2014
Radio Shows Movies and More on Facebook

Welcome to my Facebook page. Check back frequently for links to my radio shows, “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord,” to my newspaper articles and other related material, and for recommendations of and occasional insights into recordings, books and classic movies. My website is under construction. Thanks for reading.

March 30, 2014
Fool’s Paradise Ballet on WWFM

Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we anticipate April Fool’s Day with Knudage Riisager’s ballet “Slaraffenland” (usually translated as “Fool’s Paradise”). Inspired by Bruegel’s painting “The Land of Cockaigne,” the scenario imagines a Promised Land “where roasted pigeons fly around in the air with knives and forks in their backs, and the streets are paved with marzipan and chocolate.”

Riisager was born in 1897 to Danish parents living in Estonia. He studied music at Copenhagen University and then in Paris with Albert Roussel. Though he was a prolific composer, with some 400 works to his name, including symphonies, concertos, chamber music and songs, he is probably best known, if at all, for his ballet music.

Tune in Sunday at 10 pm ET, with a repeat Thursday at 11 pm ET, at wwfm.org.

March 30, 2014

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