Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WPRB

Vinyl Week on WPRB: Rare Out-of-Print Records

Playing from vinyl is always a tricky proposition (I already had the needle stick on me once), but I think one well worth the risks. I hope you’ll join me this morning on WPRB, as I share selections from my own extensive record collection as part of WPRB’s Vinyl Week.

All of the recordings we’ll hear today are either out of print or available only as part of costly reissued collections of a composer’s complete works (Hans Werner Henze on the Deutsche Grammophon label). I’ve gone out of my way to select music that, for the most part, is not available even in alternative, digital recordings. What you hear this morning, you may never hear again. If you’ve heard it before, I trust it hasn’t been for a very long time.

For me, I get to relive my college radio days, cueing records, potting down and flipping LPs mid-piece, agonizing over timings when none are listed. But it’s worth it to be able to get in touch again with the humanizing effect of snap, crackle and pop. Playing vinyl is as much a tactile experience as it is an aural one. Furthermore, I will be discovering a lot of the music, much of it acquired from my days as an antiquarian book dealer, right along with you, since at the moment I don’t happen to have a functioning turntable at home.

We’re enjoying music in record time this morning, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. I’ll be bringing it old school on Classic Ross Amico.

June 15, 2017
Princeton Festival on WPRB Vinyl Week

I hope you’re enjoying the show this morning. At 9:00, we’ll have a special visitor. Benedikt von Schroder will drop by to fill us in on upcoming events at The Princeton Festival, which runs through June 25. Then it’s back to spinning records until 11:00, as we continue with Vinyl Week, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.

June 15, 2017
Rare Vinyl Finds on WPRB This Week

I’ve been lifting heavy boxes and inhaling lungs full of dust mites so you don’t have to. Join me tomorrow morning on WPRB, when I’ll be making my contribution to Vinyl Week, with a full morning played from honest-to-goodness, old-fashioned records.

I’ve been digging deep this time, and I’ve accumulated a stack of Howard Hanson’s Mercury recordings that never made it to compact disc. I’ve also struck a rich vein of Louisville First Edition Records. There will be music by Mexican microtonalist Julian Carrillo, almost entirely absent from the current catalogue. Also Richard Mohaupt, whose recordings are wholly out-of-print. I have to play some Max Butting, just because I’ve got so much of it. Again, amazingly, there’s only a single disc of his works still in print. In addition, I’ve got a symphony by Romanian composer Sigismond Toduta, issued on authentic Romanian vinyl.

We’ll hear Norman Dello Joio’s “New York Profiles,” released on a 10-inch red vinyl LP (because I’ve never programmed anything from 10-inch red vinyl). Somehow, I came into the possession of one of Marc-André Hamelin’s records – not one of his recordings mind you, but an LP formerly in his collection – of Hans Werner Henze’s “Muses of Sicily.” If it was rejected by Hamelin (whose taste I respect immensely), then it’s good enough for me! I’ll be giving it a spin tomorrow.

Many of these records were distributed solely overseas, with liner notes in Czech, German, Portuguese, Romanian, Swedish, and Cyrillic. This ought to be interesting.

I’m particularly excited for the chance to hear John Addison’s Concerto for Trumpet, Strings and Percussion. Addison is principally remembered as a composer of quirky film scores like those for “Tom Jones” and “Sleuth.” This Louisville record, which I’ve never listened to, looks to be a pristine copy.

On top of all that, I’ll have a couple of special guests into the studio. At 9:00, I’ll be joined by Benedikt von Schroder from The Princeton Festival. He’ll fill us in on the rest of the season, which runs through June 25. Then, at 10:00, soprano Rochelle Ellis will be by to tell us about a performance of Brahms’ “A German Requiem,” which will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on Friday, the centerpiece of Lyn Ransom’s farewell concert after 30 years as artistic director of VOICES Chorale. (Princeton Festival artistic director Richard Tang Yuk will be taking over from her next season.)

I hope you’ll join me for some rare LP discoveries, or perhaps a reunion or two with some long lost friends, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. I’ll be giving you the needle, on Classic Ross Amico.

June 14, 2017
Schumann’s Birthday Romantic Piano Concertos on WPRB

There will be a battery of Romantic piano concertos this morning on WPRB, as you can probably imagine, as we celebrate the birthday today of Robert Schumann. We’ll be enjoying some of Schumann’s own music, of course, but also representative works by figures he admired and promoted, some of whom numbered among the finest pianists of the day.

At 9:00, we’ll joined by Steven LaCosse, who will be stage directing Beethoven’s only opera, “Fidelio, ” for The Princeton Festival. He’ll tell us a little bit about the production, which will be presented at McCarter Theatre Center on June 18 & 25.

The highlight of the morning may very well be a rarely heard recording from 1954 of Schumann’s “Manfred,” after the dramatic poem of Lord Byron. The overture is rather well known, but Sir Thomas Beecham recorded the entire thing, with narrator, lending his characteristic Beecham touch not only to the performance, but in his editorial decisions, “livening it up,” as it were, with a part-song or two and adding a ballet.

Get ready for a five hour Romantic interlude, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We’re ready to tickle some ivories, on Classic Ross Amico.

PHOTO: Robert and Clara Schumann get Romantic

June 8, 2017
Schumann’s Life Music on WPRB

A would-be concert pianist, he’s said to have destroyed his hand through the use of a finger-strengthening device of his own design. He took his underage sweetheart’s father, who also happened to be his teacher, to court to sue for the right to marry, ultimately winning that right the day before she came of age. He went mad from syphilis, hurled himself into the Rhine, and spent his final months in an asylum. His name was Robert Schumann, and he was one of the most romantic of Romantic composers.

Join me tomorrow morning on WPRB, as we celebrate Schumann on the anniversary of his birth with rarely-heard works by the musicians he championed, pieces by lesser-known figures from his circle, and fabulous recordings of some of his own enduring classics. A highlight will be Sir Thomas Beecham’s reading of incidental music composed for Lord Byron’s dramatic poem “Manfred.”

If you’ve got a craving for cravats, drop in (to the Rhine or otherwise) this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. It will be all the Schumann we can shoe in, on Classic Ross Amico.

June 7, 2017

Tag Cloud

RECENT POSTS