Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WPRB

JoAnn Falletta on WPRB Tomorrow!

I am elated that JoAnn Falletta has accepted my invitation to drop by WPRB tomorrow. She has always been a conductor after my own heart.

As music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra (among her numerous other credits), she has championed dozens of works which could easily be classified as unusual or neglected. She is also an indefatigable champion of new music.

Falletta is in Princeton this week with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, as part of this year’s Edward T. Cone Composition Institute. The institute is an intensive workshop and lab for young composers who are shepherded through the process of getting their music from manuscript through rehearsals to performance. They are also provided with valuable career insights into what it means to be a professional composer.

The program will culminate in a public concert made up of four world premieres, including Luke Carlson’s “The Burnished Tide,” Brendan Faegre’s “Dirt to Gold,” Shuyin Li’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” and Reinaldo Moya’s “Siempre Lunes, Siempre Marzo,” tomorrow night at Richardson Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Institute director Steven Mackey’s “Urban Ocean” will also be heard.

Tomorrow morning on WPRB, Falletta will talk a little bit about the institute and some of her other upcoming projects. She is a prolific recording artist. The entire show will be devoted to selections from her extensive discography.

Some of the composers you can expect to hear will include Miguel del Águila, Romeo Cascarino, Eric Ewazen, Kenneth Fuchs, Gustav Holst, E.J. Moeran, Jerome Moross, Behzad Ranjbaran, and Marcel Tyberg, among others. You may even get to hear Falletta play the guitar.

Expect her visit around 9:00. I hope you’ll join me, tomorrow morning from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, at WPRB 103.3 FM, or online at wprb.com. Keep it classy with glassy-eyed Classic Ross Amico.

July 15, 2015
Hear Ross Amico Live & On Demand Radio

Last chance to hear Classic Ross Amico live until Thursday morning (on WPRB). Of course, you can always enjoy the rerun of Sunday night’s “The Lost Chord” (“Port of Riches”) on WWFM tomorrow evening at 6. For today: WRTI, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET. Stock up at 90.1 FM or wrti.org.

July 14, 2015
David Diamond Centennial & This Week in Classical Music

Today is the 100th birthday of American composer David Diamond. I hope you’ll join me this morning for some 24-carat music.

George Antheil, Paul Ben-Haim, Percy Grainger, Joseph Holbrooke, Gordon Jacob, Gustav Mahler, Gian Carlo Menotti, Carl Orff, Ottorino Respighi, George Rochberg, Jacob Weinberg, and Henryk Wieniawski all had or have birthday anniversaries this week, as did some notable performers. We’ll get to what we can.

Also, Adrienne Sirken will join me around 10:00 to share some information about the The Golandsky Institute Summer Symposium and International Piano Festival. There’s a full week of outstanding musicianship ahead, with appearances in Princeton by pianist Ilya Itin; tenor Alex Richardson, cellist Sophie Shao, and pianist Thomas Bagwell; the remarkable monk-pianist Father Seán Duggan; young artist Wei Luo; jazz legend Dick Hyman; and clarinetist Richard Stoltzman with Yehudi Wyner. Learn more, if you just can’t wait, at http://www.golandskyinstitute.org.

Diamonds may be forever, but Classic Ross Amico thrives only from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, a veritable mayfly. Enjoy the music at WPRB 103.3 FM or online at wprb.com.

This is what I wish I were playing this morning, but somebody else got there first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QAyE0HAB7s

This is music to make you feel good about life. Bless you, David Diamond. You deserve a cupcake.

July 9, 2015
WPRB’s Ross Amico Celebrates David Diamond

And now, for my next trick…

If you tune in tomorrow morning to WPRB 103.3 FM, you may encounter music by the following: George Antheil, Paul Ben-Haim, Boris Blacher, Percy Grainger, Joseph Holbrooke, Gordon Jacob, Gustav Mahler, Bohuslav Martinu, Gian Carlo Menotti, Carl Orff, Ottorino Respighi, George Rochberg, Jacob Weinberg, and Henryk Wieniawski – but I’m not sure, since I’m such a poor planner. However, they’re all in the box and ready to go, along with much else!

You will definitely hear David Diamond, since July 9th marks the 100th anniversary of his birth (though I see a couple of my colleagues have already played my favorite pieces, including the eternally fresh “Rounds for String Orchestra”).

Adrienne Sirken will drop by around 10:00 to tell us about the The Golandsky Institute Summer Symposium and International Piano Festival. There’s a full week of amazing music-making ahead, including appearances in Princeton by pianist Ilya Itin; tenor Alex Richardson, cellist Sophie Shao, and pianist Thomas Bagwell; the remarkable monk-pianist Father Seán Duggan; young artist Wei Luo; jazz legend Dick Hyman; and clarinetist Richard Stoltzman with Yehudi Wyner. Find out more right now at http://www.golandskyinstitute.org.

Hopefully it will be worth setting your alarm (and mine). Join me tomorrow morning, from 6 to 11 ET, at WPRB 103.3 FM or wprb.com.

When classes are out, Classic Ross Amico is in.

PHOTO: Nothing up my sleeve… PRESTO!

July 8, 2015
Mahler & Menotti: A Tale of Two Birthdays

Okay, today is the birthday anniversary of the seething Austrian genius Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), who declared on a walk with Sibelius that “the symphony must be like the world; it must embrace everything” and confided to his wife, “My time will come.” We all know about him.

It is also the birthday of Italian-American Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007), a prolific composer of opera and the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes (for “The Consul,” in 1950, and “The Saint of Bleecker Street,” in 1955); yet somehow Menotti is basically remembered for his one-act Christmas opera, “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” written for NBC in 1951.

“Amahl,” broadcast live on Christmas Eve, was the first opera commissioned for television. The composer continued to work on the score until perilously close to air time. In fact, his partner, Samuel Barber, had to be brought in to help complete the orchestrations. Despite the time crunch, the opera was a ratings smash, and for the next 15 years “Amahl” became a Christmas broadcast tradition.

Chet Allen, who originated the role of Amahl, was a chorister with the Columbus Boychoir, which was founded in Columbus, OH, in 1937. By the time of the opera’s telecast, the choir had relocated to Princeton, NJ. In 1980, the group would be renamed The American Boychoir. Since the opera fell a few minutes short of the top of the hour, the choir was brought on to perform carols appropriate for the season.

Though he wrote the work for television, Menotti shrewdly realized its potential for the stage. Allen would reprise the role of Amahl at the New York City Opera in 1952. Since then, “Amahl” has enjoyed a robust history of professional and community performances.

Menotti will always be remembered as an opera composer (in his day, he was regarded as the heir of Puccini, admiringly by some, derisively by others), but his concert works are certainly worthy of interest. Join me on WPRB 103.3 FM, or at wprb.com, this Thursday morning between 6 and 11 ET to hear Menotti’s Piano Concerto from 1945, in a 1961 performance by the great Earl Wild.

In the meantime, for you lovers of licorice, “This is my box”:

PHOTO: Menotti (right) and friend

July 7, 2015

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