Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WPRB

Ross Amico Returns to WPRB! Princeton Airwaves

Classic Ross Amico returns to the airwaves! Beginning tomorrow, and for the next 14 weeks, I will be manning Thursday mornings at WPRB 103.3 FM, broadcasting from a bunker deep beneath Princeton University’s Bloomberg Hall.

The shift will extend from 6 to 11 a.m. ET, though apparently it is not unusual for hosts to turn up earlier and start spinning discs at 5:30. I’m suffering from a “summer cold” at the moment, so we’ll have to see about that.

Tune in for guest appearances by Sandy Steiglitz, host of WPRB’s @Sunday Morning Opera with Sandy (heard Sundays, from 6 to 10 a.m.), and Marvin Rosen, host of Classical Discoveries (Wednesdays, 5:30 to 11 a.m.), “Classical Discoveries Goes Avant Garde” (Wednesdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and “Treasures of Early Music” (Mondays, 5:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.).

Sandy will help us celebrate the birthday anniversary of American baritone Robert Merrill, and Marvin will introduce a special surprise from his own collection, long out of print and never issued on CD, which I am very excited to hear again after decades.

At 9:00, we’ll be joined by Richard Tang Yuk, who will talk a bit about The Princeton Festival, which begins in earnest this Saturday. Tang Yuk, the festival’s artistic director, will conduct three performances of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” June 13, 21 & 28, at McCarter Theatre. For more information on festival events, look online at http://www.princetonfestival.org.

What else can you expect to hear? I’m still trying to figure that out. But you can bet there will be nods to American composer Alan Shulman, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, and conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky, on the 112th of his.

The signal is strong – it can be heard as far away as Philadelphia on old school analogue radio – but it is also accessible worldwide at http://www.wprb.com.

Join us tomorrow and keep it classy with Classic Ross Amico.

PHOTO: Marvin and me, exuding class

June 3, 2015
Haddon Hall Opera Mother’s Day Breakfast

Perhaps as an alternative to waiting in line at the diner on Mother’s Day, you can cook breakfast for Mom at home and listen to “Haddon Hall.” Sir Arthur Sullivan’s rarely-heard light opera, given its premiere in 1892, will be the featured work on Sandy Steiglitz’s “Sunday Morning Opera.”

“Haddon Hall” is one of the works Sullivan composed without Gilbert, in the wake of the team’s temporary dissolution following “The Gondoliers.” Savoy Opera impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte, no doubt crestfallen at the G & S separation, introduced Sullivan to Sydney Grundy. The result was a mild satire that left audiences accustomed to Gilbert’s barbed observations vaguely dissatisfied.

The opera dramatizes the elopement of Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall in 1563, against her father’s wishes, with John Manners, son of Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland. The conflict may have been in part religious (the Vernons were Catholic, the Manners Protestant); it was most certainly financial (as the second son of an earl, Manners’ prospects were uncertain). If all this sounds a tad dry to American sensibilities, Grundy moves the action forward a century to about 1660, recasting it against the backdrop of unrest between Royalists and Roundheads. Isn’t that much more interesting?

There’s also a fuming Scottish stereotype in the person of “The McCrankie,” a particularly strict Puritan from the Isle of Rum, who sings to the accompaniment of bagpipes and drinks whisky from a flask, ha ha.

Anyway, the music should be nice. Purportedly, it bears the stamp of Sullivan’s only grand opera, “Ivanhoe,” which had been completed only the year before.

“Haddon Hall” enjoyed a vogue among amateur groups in the 1920s, but has since drifted into obscurity. The 2000 recording features Mary Timmons, Maxwell Smart (no shoe phone jokes, please), and Alan Borthwick. The performance is conducted by David Lyle.

“Sunday Morning Opera” can be heard on WPRB Princeton at 103.3 FM, beginning at 5:30 a.m. The main attraction begins at 7:00. After the opera, in the time remaining, Sandy will celebrate the birthday of Richard Tauber. You can listen online at http://www.wprb.com.

More about “Sunday Morning Opera” here: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~san/schedule.html

PHOTO: When men were men, and women were women – if only we could tell them apart

May 9, 2015
William Scheide Radio Tribute Princeton

If you just can’t get enough of William H. Scheide and the Bach Aria Group, tune in tomorrow morning to Princeton’s WPRB 103.3 FM (or listen online at http://www.wprb.com) for a belated birthday salute from Teri Noel Towe. Towe, host of Towe on Thursday, was an intimate friend of Scheide for over 40 years. The two shared the microphone on a number occasions, and Teri will revisit one of those. The program is bound to include some personal reminiscences. You can listen from 6 to 11 a.m. ET.

Of perhaps related interest, my WWFM tribute, “William H. Scheide: A Job Well-Done” (sporting a title ripped from a Towe quote), which originally aired yesterday (the 101st anniversary of Scheide’s birth), will be rebroadcast Friday evening at 8, at 89.1 FM or online at http://www.wwfm.org. I’ll be tweaking the files between now and then so that the rebroadcast will contain subtle differences, including a couple of alternate music files.

My thanks to Teri for his suggestions, and to Mark Laycock for sending me audio from the Scheide 100th birthday concert, which took place last year at Richardson Auditorium.

January 7, 2015
Marvin Rosen Viva 21st Century Marathon on WPRB

Here are some more souvenirs from Marvin Rosen’s 25-hour “Viva 21st Century” marathon, which was broadcast over WPRB 103.3 FM. As you can see, the homestretch was not a lonely one. More photos on Marvin’s page, which for some reason I am having a hard time linking.

December 31, 2014
Sixth Day of Christmas with Composers

THE SIXTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

Classical Discoveries ‘ Marvin Rosen has kindly saved me the trouble of coming up with another fresh post in the middle of an insane work week. Here is a photo of me lounging on the “frat couch” in the studios of WPRB 103.3 FM, during my drop-by on Sunday morning to Marvin’s 25-hour “Viva 21st Century” marathon.

With me are, left to right, composers Robert Moran (never to be trusted), Susan T. Nelson, and Amanda Harberg. Daniel Dorff is off-camera, probably talking to Marvin.

The photo was taken by Marvin’s wife, Beata, who wore the loveliest necklace. She’s definitely the power behind the throne, keeping Marvin well-supplied with green tea and energy snacks.

Good to be on the radio again on a Sunday morning.

December 30, 2014

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