Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WPRB

Mysterious Mountain Hovhaness on WPRB

The most important accoutrement of any mountaineer is his or her feather. Don’t forget your feather. It’s what keeps you lighter than air.

This Thursday morning on WPRB, we’ll climb every mountain. Why, you ask? Because they’re there.

Also, because my guest this morning will be Daniel Spalding, music director of the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey. The Capital Philharmonic will be presenting Alan Hovhaness’ “Mysterious Mountain” as part of its season opener, this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton. Also on the program will be music by Hector Berlioz and Camille Saint-Saëns (the mighty “Organ” Symphony, with Joseph Jackson at the console). Spalding will be on hand at 10:00 this morning to tell us more about this exciting event.

Between now and then, we’ll get an Alpine start, crimping and heel hooking our way to the summit, with selections about mountain demons, trolls and brigands. There will be a refreshing concerto of sorts on French mountain airs. We’ll hear a string quartet “from the Monkey Mountains.” In addition, there will be music evocative of downhill skiing, an alphorn concerto, a musical avalanche, at least one volcanic eruption, and even some yodeling.

More mountaineering tips and wisdom will be dispensed, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Ignore me at your peril, on Classic Ross Amico.

October 19, 2017
Men and Mountains Radio: Classical Music Journey

Mountains can be the bearers of mystical revelations or shattering catastrophe. They are the wellsprings of folk song, beacons for recreation, escapes from the world of men, and safe harbor for exiles, brigands and monsters.

This Thursday morning on WPRB, the focus will be on “Men and Mountains.” I borrow the name from a work by the original cranky Yankee, Carl Ruggles, who was a good friend of Charles Ives. We’ll hear Ruggles’ rugged masterwork, alongside music by Hugo Alfvén, Frederick Delius, Vincent d’Indy, Jon Leifs, E.J. Moeran, Vítězslav Novák, and Karol Szymanowski, among others.

At 10:00, I’ll be joined by Daniel Spalding, music director of the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey, which will be presenting Alan Hovhaness’ “Mysterious Mountain” at the center of a program which will also include music by Hector Berlioz and Camille Saint-Saëns (the mighty “Organ” Symphony, with Joseph Jackson at the console). Spalding will be on hand to tell us more about this exciting event, which will take place this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton.

I’ll meet you at base camp, this Thursday morning, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Get ready to scale dizzying heights with Classic Ross Amico.

October 18, 2017
Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Birthday Salute

Though he was affectionately known as “Uncle Ralph,” there was more to the man and his music than is suggested by his unpressed, avuncular persona. Ralph Vaughan Williams, more than anyone, elevated the music of the English countryside to high art. He reexamined the past, as he pushed to the future; he peered inward, even as he expressed the universal. Traditionalist and revolutionary, romantic and modernist – his was a remarkable career, and his body of work was more diverse than many realize from the countless performances of “The Lark Ascending” and the “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” for which he is best known.

This Thursday morning on WPRB, we’ll attempt to convey the full genius of Ralph Vaughan Williams, with an assortment of his recordings from all across the spectrum. We’ll hear his bleakest symphony (conducted by Boult in 1954), as well as his most hopeful (conducted by Barbirolli in 1944). We’ll hear an orchestral fantasy from one of his least-known operas, and the final act of another, which became the basis for one of his most beloved works. We’ll hear rare gems issued by major labels, such as EMI and London/Decca, in their glory days, as well as hard-working independents that specialize in English music, such as Dutton Vocalion Records and Albion Records, the record label of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society. We’ll hear a recording made by David Munrow, unheard since its release on LP in 1977. We’ll hear works inspired by Spenser and Shakespeare and Aristophanes. Sir David Willcocks will conduct one of RVW’s substantial choral works, and the composer himself with lead a rollicking performance of one of his most hilarious overtures.

These are some of the attractions you can expect, as we salute Ralph Vaughan Williams on his birthday. I hope you’ll join me this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We’ll do our best to keep the cat hairs out of the cake, on Classic Ross Amico.

PHOTO: Vaughan Williams engaged in a shedding contest with his friend, Foxy

October 12, 2017
Ralph Vaughan Williams Birthday Celebration

It’s never truly autumn until we can celebrate the birthday of Ralph Vaughan Williams. One of England’s greatest composers, Vaughan Williams looked back to his country’s agrarian roots as a roundabout way of securing the future of its cultural identity. This Thursday morning on WPRB, we will salute the great man in all his rumpled glory by sampling from a broad cross-section of his multifaceted output.

As did so many composers who were caught in the wildfire of nationalism that swept across Europe from the mid-19th century forward, Vaughan Williams rebelled against the prevailing academicism that stretched its tendrils all the way from Germany to choke the musically “provincial” outlands. He emerged from an environment that had produced far too many knock-offs of Mendelssohn and Brahms. Vaughan Williams would revolutionize his compatriots’ perception of art music by embracing the sounds of the English countryside.

However, much like Béla Bartók, he was no simplistic, twee purveyor of folk music. On the contrary, the rhythms and inflections of his native land were already in his DNA. The songs he documented while roaming the fields and fens with his colleague, Gustav Holst, merely brought to the surface what was already innate. What he expressed in his original music was thoroughly digested and deeply personal.

Some of Vaughan Williams’ best loved works are imbued with nostalgia for a faded world, but the composer pushed forward, as well, through two world wars and into the Great Beyond. He was not a conventionally religious man, but mysticism seems to color a fair amount of his music. Other pieces stare desolation unflinchingly in the face. His lessons with Maurice Ravel made him a thoughtful orchestrator, so that throughout his life he deployed his instrumental forces with considerable creativity and expertise. Given the proper attention, there is much to engage on all levels of his music.

I hope you’ll join me as we salute this fascinating composer with five hours of lesser-known works and recordings of historic significance. While you might not want to take his instruction on the best way to tie ties, musically you will be in the hands of a master, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. You can put your faith in Ralph (pronounced “Rafe”), on Classic Ross Amico.

Ralph Vaughan Williams Society

October 11, 2017
Age of Exploration Music Adventure on WPRB

No smartphones. No Starbuck’s. No 7-Elevens.

In their place, strange microbes, uncharted shoals, unknown perils.

Once they left, they were really gone, and they didn’t know when – or if – they were coming back. Now that’s adventure!

Regardless of how you may personally feel about some of the behavior of the great European explorers, you have to admit, they had cojones.

This Thursday morning on WPRB, in advance of Columbus Day, the focus will be on the Age of Exploration, the push, beginning in the late 15th century, toward discovery – and yes, in many cases, conquest and colonization – of new lands.

We’ll hear music inspired by Henry Hudson, Sir Walter Raleigh, Juan Ponce de Leon, Francisco Pizarro, and of course Christopher Columbus. We’ll even include a few works in honor of Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson, who arrived in North America 500 years before Columbus’ first voyage.

As a special treat, Sir Edmund Hillary will narrate “Landfall in Unknown Seas,” composed by Douglas Lilburn to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of Abel Tasman in New Zealand. From the early years of the 20th century, we’ll travel to the polar regions with Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott. And to bring us up to the present, we’ll listen to Joaquin Rodrigo’s salute to NASA and its commitment to the final frontier, “In Search of the Beyond.”

For centuries, the great explorers were celebrated as heroes. In more recent decades, the best we can hope for is a more nuanced view. But consider this: without the courage of these bold rascals, where would most of us be? On an overcrowded continent without coffee or potatoes. That sounds like a very cranky existence indeed.

I hope you’ll be able to rise above any personal revulsion to join me for these armchair explorations, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We’ll provide the suntan lotion and mosquito repellant, on Classic Ross Amico.

October 5, 2017

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