Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Vaughan Williams

Supporting the Arts Small Acts Big Impact

I’ll probably never have the bank account to know what it’s like to be a big-time patron of the arts on the scale of a Medici or a Guggenheim; but thanks to crowdfunding platforms even I am able to do my own small part to help underwrite projects that are of particular interest to me.

So I can feel an extra degree of satisfaction that there’s a two-volume chronicle of Jerry Goldsmith’s career and music on the way and that Intrada Records has just completed sessions for a compact disc release of Frank Skinner’s score to “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,” also imminent.

I’m especially proud to have been able to kick in for a couple of CDs of Vaughan Williams world premieres for Albion Records, the recording branch of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, including “Beyond My Dreams,” devoted to the composer’s incidental music for Greek plays (other than “The Wasps”), released in 2017, and “Royal Throne of Kings,” devoted to his music for Shakespeare, newly issued.

This Saturday will mark Vaughan Williams’ birthday anniversary, and since I believe some potential listeners are not seeing my Facebook teasers for my light music show, “Sweetness and Light,” until too late, if I post them the morning of broadcast, this week I am giving you several days’ notice that I will be including selections from the new Shakespeare disc in a program that will emphasize RVW’s lighter music.

So if you’re a Ralph Vaughan Williams’ fan (he’s one of my favorite composers), do take note! We’ll be humming along with Uncle Ralph on “Sweetness and Light,” this Saturday morning at 11:00 EDT/8:00 PDT, exclusively on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Stream it wherever you are at the link:

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

Ogle the complete Albion Records catalogue here:

Albion Records

October 10, 2024
Finnish Radio Bliss Lost in Translation

I am in bliss with the Finns at Yle Klassinen (accessible via my internet radio). However, beyond the names of the composers and the performers, I can’t understand a word that the hosts are saying! Thankfully, they’ve got the playlists posted at their website. Of course, I still have to use the translate function, which results in occasional inadvertent hilarity, as with this translation of one of Vaughan Williams’ best-loved pieces, scheduled to stream later tonight:

Vaughan Williams: The Bread Rises to the Heights (Hilary Hahn, violin, and London SO/Colin Davis)

How much yeast is in Hahn’s RVW is debatable:

Current playlist posted here:

https://areena.yle.fi/podcastit/1-70823375

PHOTO: Lark bread bun – as far as I know, a Russian, not a Finnish tradition!

July 22, 2024
Easter with Vaughan Williams and Metaphysical Poets

For me, it just isn’t Easter until I’ve heard Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Five Mystical Songs.” I defy anyone not to be uplifted by the opening song of the cycle, titled, well, “Easter.” The songs are settings of poems by George Herbert (1593-1633). This week on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll hear a classic recording, with bass-baritone John Shirley-Quirk, as part of a program devoted to the 17th century metaphysical poets.

We’ll also hear William Alwyn’s “Lyra Angelica” of 1954, a harp concerto inspired by Giles Fletcher’s epic poem of 1610, “Christ’s Victorie and Triumph.” The composer regarded it as his most beautiful piece, and I am inclined to agree. The work likely received its widest exposure when Michelle Kwan elected to skate to it during the 1988 Olympics.

Finally, we’ll have a lute song setting by John Hilton of a poem by John Donne, “Wilt thou forgive that sinne,” from an album on the Harmonia Mundi label, titled “The Rags of Time.”

I hope you’ll join me for “Donne Deal” – an hour of metaphysical therapy – on “The Lost Chord,” now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!

Remember, KWAX is on the West Coast, so there’s a three-hour difference for those of you listening in the East. Here are the respective air-times for all three of my recorded shows (with East Coast conversions in parentheses):

PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday on KWAX at 5:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (8:00 PM EASTERN)

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday on KWAX at 8:00 AM PACIFIC TIME (11:00 AM EASTERN)

THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday on KWAX at 4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME (7:00 PM EASTERN)

Stream all three, at the times indicated, by following the link!

https://kwax.uoregon.edu/

March 30, 2024
Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto Princeton

Anyone else plan to be in attendance when Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Tuba Concerto is performed in Princeton this weekend?

The work will appear on two concerts by the Princeton University Orchestra, on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Wesley Sanders (’26) will be the soloist. Also on the program will be Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto, with Kaivalya Kulkami (’26), and Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, with Daniel Lee (’27). Michael Pratt will conduct.

Looking ahead, there’s more English music in the offing for the spring, when Edward Elgar’s milestone oratorio “The Dream of Gerontius” will be performed on April 19 & 20.

All concerts will be held at Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall on the campus of Princeton University. I last heard the students play “Ein Heldenleben” there last season and was suitably impressed.

View the rehearsal clips on the Princeton University Orchestra Facebook page. Then, for tickets and information, visit music.princeton.edu/events/

PHOTO: Vaughan Williams, looking as miserable as you would imagine, being serenaded by the tuba. The composer wrote the first ever concerto for the instrument in 1954. A late and unusual work, the piece was dedicated to Philip Catelinet, principal tubist of the London Symphony Orchestra. “Glorious John” Barbirolli conducted the premiere. These are the forces heard on the work’s first recording. Give a listen, and I’ll see you at Richardson.

February 29, 2024
MLSO Shines with Gipps Bloch & Vaughan Williams

The Main Line Symphony Orchestra and conductor Don Liuzzi deserve breakfast in bed – an English breakfast, of course – for last night’s impressive rendering of Ruth Gipps’ Symphony No. 2, a work I never dreamed I would ever get to hear live. Their performance of Ernest Bloch’s “Schelomo,” with the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Yumi Kendall the cello soloist, was also very fine. Of course, I can turn down no opportunity to hear Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 5. The program will be repeated at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, PA, this afternoon at 1:00. Thank you, MLSO!

For more information, visit http://www.mlso.org.

November 18, 2023

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