Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WPRB

ARB Ballet & PSO Pride and Prejudice on WPRB

Dropping by the WPRB studios at 9:00 EDT will be Douglas Martin, artistic director of American Repertory Ballet, and Marc Uys, executive director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. They’ll tell us a little bit about Martin’s new ballet, “Pride and Prejudice,” which sets the classic novel by Jane Austen to music by Ignaz Pleyel. The PSO will provide live musical accompaniment for the dancers, in its world premiere performances at McCarter Theatre Center on April 21 & 22.

Listen this morning at WPRB103.3 FM or at wprb.com.

April 13, 2017
Holy Week Music on WPRB

Have you got a passion for Passions? Do you think Stabat Maters matter? Tune in to WPRB this Thursday morning for music for Holy Week. That’s right, it’s wholly music for Passiontide.

Well, not wholly. We’ll have some selections of a broadly mystical nature (William Alwyn’s harp concerto, “Lyra Angelica,” for instance), works of a meditative bent (for example, John Tavener’s “Song of the Angel”), and perhaps a couple of pieces concerning hope and renewal (such as Edmund Rubbra’s “Resurgam Overture”).

Otherwise, it will be music inspired by the Passion story, ranging roughly from Palm Sunday through, possibly, the observance of Russian Easter. Some of it will be purely orchestral (Victor de Sabata’s “Gethsemani”) and some will include vocal soloists and chorus (Osvaldo Golijov’s Latin-inflected “La Pasión según San Marcos”).

In addition, a certain listener has been requesting Eugene Ormandy’s recording of Respighi’s “Church Windows” since June, probably. Now seems as good a time as any to blast that out. For my own edification, I have to play Vaughan Williams’ “Five Mystical Songs,” with the great John Shirley-Quirk. It just isn’t Easter for me without the “Five Mystical Songs.”

At 9:00, we’ll take a break from Holy Week for a special visit from Douglas Martin, artistic director of American Repertory Ballet, and Marc Uys, executive director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. They’ll drop by to talk about Martin’s new ballet, “Pride and Prejudice,” which sets the classic novel by Jane Austen to music by Ignaz Pleyel. The PSO will provide live musical accompaniment for the dancers, at McCarter Theatre Center on April 21 & 22.

This is a radio show, not a church service, so nobody freak out if an “Alleluia” or a “Gloria” slip into the mix, okay? We’re here to celebrate the music, not to scrupulously observe the minutiae of tradition. I’ll be lining the CD cases with Easter grass, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com, and wishing you peace, hope, and happiness, on Classic Ross Amico.

April 12, 2017
Bruch’s Odysseus Rediscovered

It says something about how highly regarded was Max Bruch’s “Odysseus” that none other than Johannes Brahms selected it for his farewell performance in 1875 as Director of the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna. Bruch’s oratorio racked up an impressive number of performances. Within two years of its premiere in 1873, it was given no less than 45 times. In fact, in Bruch’s heyday, the work was considered second in excellence only to his imperishable Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor.

Yet by the time of the composer’s death, in 1920, he was considered an artifact of a bygone era. “Odysseus” was a relic of the 19th century, and in the 19th century it would remain, until liberated by musicologist and conductor Leon Botstein in the late 1990s. Thanks to Botstein, we’ll get to enjoy the complete oratorio today on WPRB, as we listen to a full morning of music inspired by Homer.

Bruch’s oratorio perhaps unforgivably omits the cathartic bloodletting at the tale’s climax, when Odysseus slays his wife’s unwanted suitors, who have overrun his home in his absence. But Benjamin Britten was not so squeamish. Britten embraced all the inherent drama and adventure of epic vengeance in his music for radio, “The Rescue of Penelope.” We’ll cap the morning with this full-blooded work, which will be narrated by Dame Janet Baker.

Along the way, we’ll also have music by Gabriel Fauré, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Ernst Boehe, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jacques Offenbach, John Harbison, Hector Berlioz, and Jerome Moross, among others.

There will be more wine for Polyphemus, from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’re always trying hard to rock your world, on Classic Ross Amico.

April 6, 2017
The Odyssey on the Radio Classical Music Adventure

There are times when curiosity drives us to have our crew lash us to the mast and then stuff their ears with wax. Tomorrow morning on WPRB may very well be one of those, as we follow in the steps of Odysseus, both at the Trojan War and on his long journey back to Ithaca.

We’ll have music inspired by Circe, the Cyclops, the Golden Apple, Helen of Troy, the Lotus Eaters, the Sirens, Ulysses’ bow, and the rescue of Penelope, from composers such as Hector Berlioz, Ernst Boehe, Benjamin Britten, Max Bruch, Gabriel Fauré, John Harbison, and Jerome Moross.

I’ll be tied up from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll find the odd in “The Odyssey” (and “The Iliad,” for that matter), on Classic Ross Amico.

April 5, 2017
Papa Haydn: Beyond the Familiar Composer

Come to Papa – Papa Haydn, that is.

Franz Joseph Haydn, affectionately known as “Papa,” was the father of the modern symphony and the modern string quartet, but how much do we really know about the master? As is the case with so many composers, we tend to hear the same pieces over and over again.

Today, on the eve of Haydn’s 285th birthday, we look past the ordinary to get a peripheral view of Papa, with music inspired by Haydn, music by Haydn’s colleagues, and rarely-heard works by Haydn himself.

Other composers we may encounter along the way will include Johannes Brahms, Norman Dello Joio, Marcel Grandjany, Johann Michael Haydn (the composer’s brother), Roman Hoffstetter, Anton Kraft, Andre Previn, Maurice Ravel, Johann Peter Salomon, Alfred Schnittke, Ananda Sukarlan, and Joseph Weigl (Haydn’s godson). We’ll even have a piano concerto by Haydn Wood, who was named for Haydn by his music-mad parents, though they pronounced it “Hayden.”

At 10:00, I’ll be joined by representatives of Boheme Opera NJ, who will talk a little bit about the company’s upcoming production of “Lucia di Lammermoor,” which will be performed at The College of New Jersey’s TCNJ-Kendall Hall on April 7 at 8 p.m. and April 9 at 3 p.m., so we might just hear a selection or two by Donizetti, as well.

It’s a little early for Father’s Day, this morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. All the same, we celebrate Papa Haydn, on Classic Ross Amico.

IMAGE: Franz Joseph Haydn demonstrates that Papa knows best

March 30, 2017

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