Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WPRB

WPRB Sunday: Theater Music & Vaughan Williams

The subject may be “incidental,” but the music is center stage, this Sunday morning on WPRB. Join me for music written for the theater by the likes of Ludwig van Beethoven, Karl-Birger Blomdahl, Aaron Copland, Gabriel Fauré, Jean Sibelius, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

The featured highlight of the morning will be a complete performance of Vaughan Williams’ “The Wasps,” written for a 1909 Cambridge University production of Aristophanes’ satire. The composer re-arranged parts of the music to create a five-movement concert suite – the overture is especially well-known – but the complete, original, 80-minute score went unheard for nearly a century after its premiere. In fact, this is its first recording, set down in 2005. Bawdiness and spleen characterize the highly vernacular translation by David Pountney.

Everyone knows where a wasp wears its stinger, this Sunday morning from 7 to 10 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We’ll do our best to stay ahead of the behind, on Classic Ross Amico.

February 25, 2018
Rediscovering Lost Incidental Music

The play’s the thing – not only to uncover the conscience of the king, but to inspire music from untold composers down the ages. We refer to this kind of music, somewhat belittlingly, as “incidental.”

No doubt, there are instances of incidental music having entered the standard concert repertoire – Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt,” Georges Bizet’s “L’Arlésienne,” Felix Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – but so much more numerous are those that have suffered from neglect. Generally speaking, even under the best circumstances, the music is distilled into concert suites, offering but a few numbers, while some excellent work by some very fine composers goes unheard.

This Sunday morning on WPRB, we’ll listen to incidental music by composers both well-known and perhaps not-quite-so, and marvel at the ingenuity on display, as acts are bridged and scenes are set in flourishes that last no more than a few moments.

The highlight of the morning will be a complete performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Wasps,” written for a 1909 Cambridge University production of Aristophanes’ satire. Vaughan Williams re-arranged parts of the music to create a five-movement concert suite – the overture is especially well-known – but the complete, original, 80-minute score had faded from memory until this 2005 world premiere recording. The whole is held together by judicious narration and a pinch of salty dialogue.

Join me for these unstung pleasures. We offer them incidentally, this Sunday morning from 7 to 10 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Needless to say, it will all be very “playful,” on Classic Ross Amico.

February 24, 2018
Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha on WPRB

This Sunday morning on WPRB, we’ll defy the elements to bring you Scott Joplin’s most ambitious endeavor, the opera “Treemonisha.”

Joplin, of course, is rightly celebrated as the master of the piano rag, but in “Treemonisha” he aspired for something more – a “serious” opera in the European tradition, though infused with rhythms and melodies that could have come from no one else. In fact, the work is often described erroneously as a “ragtime opera.”

Sadly, Joplin never lived to see his magnum opus fully staged. “Treemonisha” received its sole read-through in 1915, at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem, with the composer at the keyboard. In fact, the work’s existence was virtually unknown until its revival in 1972, in a joint production of the music department of Morehouse College and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The opera went on to be performed by companies all over the United States, making its Broadway debut in 1975. In 1976, Joplin was honored with a posthumous citation from the Pulitzer Prize committee – a mere 59 years after his death.

I hope you’ll join me for Joplin’s “Treemonisha.” The opera will cap three hours of light classics written or influenced by African-American composers – including a performance by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, from its ongoing “Black Manhattan” series on New World Records – this Sunday morning, from 7 to 10 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We may be expecting some white stuff overnight, but we’ll be drinking our coffee black, on Classic Ross Amico.

February 17, 2018
British Light Music on WPRB Sunday

“Here’s a fat leather purse –
How the fellow did curse
When I told him to “Stand and deliver!”
Yes, that partly explains
Why I blew out his brains
And then threw his remains in the river!”

That’s just the kind of romance you’ll experience this Sunday morning on WPRB, when you join me for Harold Fraser-Simson’s “The Maid of the Mountains.” This tale of love among the brigands was one of London’s greatest stage hits during the First World War.

You’ll be able to enjoy it as part of a morning devoted to British Light Music, this Sunday from 7 to 10 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. I’ll be doing the heavy lifting in order to keep it light, on Classic Ross Amico.

February 11, 2018
Sunday Morning Light Music on WPRB

Seeing as there’s already so much grief in the world – and who wants to deal with it on a Sunday – I thought I’d mark my return to WPRB by acting on a longstanding dream of mine to create of a little oasis of blitheness and melody.

That’s right, classical music’s answer to Sheridan Whiteside is about to unveil his new “light music” show. Enjoy characteristic dances, marches, ballet, operetta, film music, parlor songs, music hall, piano miniatures, light classics, folk-inflected music, and standards from the Great American Songbook. I hope you’ll plan to make them all a part of your Sunday morning routine.

The inaugural effort will be an exercise in “Keep Calm and Carry On,” as the playlist will be conjured wholly from the blithe spirit of the British Isles. Among the featured highlights will be an ample selection from the vaguely-recollected Edwardian musical comedy “The Maid of the Mountains” by Harold Fraser-Simson, some carefree nonsense about Italian brigands in love.

Join me for the creation of this little musical Cockaigne, this Sunday morning from 7 to 10 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Get ready to see the light, with Classic Ross Amico.

February 10, 2018

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