Right now, we’re enjoying music by the Polish violin virtuoso Henryk Wieniawski on themes from Gounod’s “Faust.”
Coming up in the next hour, we’ll have highlights from Arrigo Boito’s opera “Mefistofele.” Perhaps better known as the outstanding librettist for Verdi’s “Otello” and “Falstaff,” Boito could be quite the composer himself.
We’re celebrating Goethe until 11:00 this morning on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com.
Tomorrow marks the birthday anniversary of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), widely regarded as Germany’s greatest literary figure. Goethe’s significance in German culture cannot be overestimated.
His novel, “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” virtually initiated the Romantic movement, with its protagonist’s relentless subjectivity and precipitous despair instigating a cult of suicide. His bildungsroman, “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship,” was praised as one of the greatest novels ever written. And the influence and perpetual reinvention of his dramatic poem “Faust” would appear to be inexhaustible.
Goethe captivated the imagination of virtually every major German-language composer of the 19th century. We’ll honor him with a full program inspired by his works, including lieder, symphonic poems, symphonies, operas and oratorios.
So much Romanticism is a presentiment of fall and chill nights passed gazing up at the moon through withered leaves in a Caspar David Friedrich tricorn.
Join me tomorrow morning at 6 ET for five hours of music inspired by the writings of Goethe, on WPRB 103.3 FM or at wprb.com. You don’t have to sell your soul to experience great music on Classic Ross Amico.
Why should these morose looking clowns have all the fun?
Join me for five hours – yes, FIVE HOURS – of musical evocations of the circus, a theme which is not perhaps as one-note as it may read, with works like Lord Berners’ “Luna Park,” Douglas Moore’s “The Pageant of P.T. Barnum,” Walter Piston’s “The Incredible Flutist,” Nino Rota’s “La Strada Ballet,” Erik Satie’s “Parade,” and Rodion Shchedrin’s “Old Russian Circus Music.” Sure, there will be plenty of 4/4 swagger and graceful trapeze waltzes, and also film scores from some classic circus movies. But hopefully you won’t walk away with a sugar headache from too much cotton candy.
I can’t claim that it will be the Greatest Show on Earth, but I hope you will spend some time with me under the Big Top. I’ll be there from 6 to 11 ET, at WPRB 103.3 FM, or online at wprb.com. It’s all latex and spangles this week, on Classic Ross Amico.
BTW – I’ve got you coming and going today. Listen to me on your way to work at WPRB, from 6 to 11. Then hear me on your way home on WRTI 90.1 FM (or wrti.org), from 2 to 6. I’ll be launched from a cannon over the lunch hour.
All summer long we boys
dreamed ’bout circus joys!
Down Main Street comes the band,
Oh! “Ain’t it a grand and glorious noise!”
We take our inspiration from Charles Ives’ “The Circus Band” this week, with a program of musical evocations of the Big Top.
We’ll hear works like Douglas Moore’s “The Pageant of P.T. Barnum,” Nino Rota’s “La Strada Ballet” and Rodion Shchedrin’s “Old Russian Circus Music.” We’ll also have snappy circus favorites like Julius Fucik’s “Entry of the Gladiators,” Juventino Rosas’ “Over the Waves” (a.k.a. the trapeze music), and Aram Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance,” with perhaps even a circus-oriented film score or two.
Is this kind of thing really sustainable for FIVE HOURS??? Tune in tomorrow to WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com, from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, to find out. We’ll keep the plates spinning on Classic Ross Amico.
Somewhat slower than the speed of light, Classic Ross Amico descends into the catacombs beneath Bloomberg Hall. Far from the influence of his enemy, the Sun, he takes a page from William Faulkner to salute the “Light in August.” (Although at this hour, I have to say, it’s easier to embrace “As I Lay Dying.”)
The airwaves will be awash in music about light, color, rainbows and kaleidoscopes, with the possible inclusion of works by George Barati, Sir Arthur Bliss, Sir Edward Elgar, Andrei Eshpai, Jennifer Higdon, Uuno Klami, Morten Lauridsen, Roger Quilter, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Miklós Rózsa, Joseph Schwantner, Christopher Theofanidis, and Michael Torke, among others.
Sandra Milstein-Pucciatti, cofounder and managing director of Boheme Opera NJ, will drop by around 10:00 to tell us what to expect from a free concert of arias and duets, scheduled to take place tonight at 7 in Joseph Lawrence Park in Bordentown. The program will include selections from opera and musical theater. You can find out more about Boheme Opera at bohemeopera.com.
The music will be full of sweetness and light this morning, even if your host is not. I hope you’ll join me from 6 to 11 ET, at WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com. Trip the light fantastic with Classic Ross Amico.
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