If, as Edison said, genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, where does that leave room for stimulation? I’ll let you know when I get to the bottom of my double-bagged, 20-ounce tea. The Bumble – well, The Bumble is as The Bumble does.
The snow begins tomorrow night in the Philadelphia-Trenton-Princeton area, and we’re back up to projected accumulations of at least a foot. Thankfully my new boots are in the mail, and I’ve got plenty of bread and milk.
While the rest of you are standing in line at the grocery store, I’ll be at WPRB this morning, setting the tone for the impending snowpocalypse, with music of a decidedly wintry nature. As time allows, we’ll take trips to the North Pole, with George Lloyd’s epic Symphony No. 4 – the “Arctic” symphony – and to the South – with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 7, the “Sinfonia Antarctica.” (If we run short, we may have to resort to selections from RVW’s film score to “Scott of the Antarctic,” which was the symphony’s source.)
Representatives of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, including composer-in-residence Jing Jing Luo, will drop by at around 9:00 to talk about their upcoming concert at Richardson Auditorium, on January 31 at 4 p.m. Luo’s work, “Tsao Shu” (“Grass Scripts”), was inspired by her fascination with Chinese calligraphy. Also on the PSO program will be music by Mozart and Kodaly.
Then at around 10:00, we’ll enjoy a chat with visitors from the orchestra Grand Harmonie. Grand Harmonie will present the U.S. authentic instrument premiere of Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” in a semi-staged performance, at Richardson this Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
We’ll also feature Dawn Upshaw’s Grammy Award-winning recording of Maria Schneider’s “Winter Morning Walks.” Upshaw will perform three songs by Osvaldo Golijov on the upcoming concert of the Princeton Symphony.
Get ready to scrape your windshields, from 6 to 11 ET on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll be Bumbling through another shift, on Classic Ross Amico.
