Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WPRB

Conductors Composing Beyond the Podium

The best conductors are more than just interpreters. They are partners in creation, who will secret mansions into existence from the mere blueprint of a score. Many have had experience creating such worlds from scratch. This Thursday morning on WPRB, we’ll focus on original compositions by artists that have become better known for their reputations on the podium.

Skipping over, for the moment, musicians who have received plaudits as recognized composer-conductors (Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez), or those from the distant past (Felix Mendelssohn, Gustav Mahler), we’ll hear neglected music by Victor de Sabata, Antal Doráti, Sir Eugene Goossens, Otto Klemperer, Igor Markevitch, Jean Martinon, Paul Paray, André Previn, Evgeny Svetlanov, George Szell, and Wilhelm Furtwängler (on his birthday).

Join me for original works by conductors who genuinely know the score, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. The conductors are always properly grounded, on Classic Ross Amico.

January 25, 2018
Furtwängler & Conducting Composers on WPRB

Wilhelm Furtwängler is one of those conductors who seems to inspire near-fanaticism in many of his admirers. Set up as the polar opposite of Arturo Toscanini, who loved to declare absolute devotion to the score (whether it happened to be true or not), Furtwängler took what was on the page as the mere foundation on which to erect towering cathedrals in the sound.

This Thursday morning on WPRB, we’ll get to hear what happens when the architect and builder happen to be the same, as Wilhelm Furtwängler conducts his Symphony No. 2. We’ll enjoy it on the anniversary of Furtwängler’s birth.

In addition, there will be original compositions by other musicians best recognized by posterity as conductors – people like Antal Doráti, Otto Klemperer, Igor Markevitch, Paul Paray, André Previn, Evgeny Svetlanov, and George Szell.

I hope you’ll join me, as conductors compose themselves, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. The composers’ conduct will definitely be most becoming, on Classic Ross Amico.

January 24, 2018
Zhou Tian Grammy Nominee on WPRB Today

I hope you’ll join me this morning for music by Zhou Tian. Zhou was my guest on Classic Ross Amico when his work, “Broken Ink,” was performed by the Princeton Symphony Orchestra last season. Zhou’s brilliantly orchestrated Concerto for Orchestra has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of “Best Contemporary Classical Composition.” A recording, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, will provide the capstone to today’s survey of concertos for orchestra and genre-bending symphonies featuring solo instruments, which will continue until 11:00 EST on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com.

January 18, 2018
Symphony or Concerto Genre Bending Music

Hector Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” (viola and orchestra). Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 “The Age of Anxiety” (piano and orchestra). Benjamin Britten’s Cello Symphony. These genre-bending works break all the rules. Are they symphonies or concertos?

We won’t be hearing any of these this Thursday morning on WPRB, though we will be listening to a full playlist of “concertos” for orchestra and “symphonies” for orchestra with prominent part for solo instrumentalist.

Generally speaking, the concerto for orchestra is a large-scale piece in which the various sections of an orchestra are each given an opportunity to shine. The symphonies with a prominent solo instrument? Well, there is really is no rule for that. Why Vincent d’Indy’s “Symphony on a French Mountain Air,” for piano and orchestra, is not a concerto is anyone’s guess, beyond the French custom, usually applied to organ works, of calling concertos symphonies. Call it Gallic contrarianism, if you will.

Highlights of the morning will include music by one-time Classic Ross Amico guest Zhou Tian, whose Concerto for Orchestra has been nominated in the category of “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” for this year’s Grammy Awards; organ “symphonies” by Alexandre Guilmant and Aaron Copland; a concerto “symphonique” for piano and orchestra by Henry Charles Litolff; and a “symphony” for solo piano by Charles-Valentin Alkan.

Prepare yourself for identity crises and plenty of disorientation, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. Then, why should things be different this week from any other, on Classic Ross Amico?

January 18, 2018
Musical Hybrids on WPRB

Ah, humans… compelled to classify everything. The more confusing the world gets, the more we try to understand. But what’s the alternative?

At a time when everything seems so fluid – language, mores, sexuality, and even gender – I thought we’d take a look at some equally perplexing musical hybrids this Thursday morning on WPRB.

Concertos are usually understood to be works for solo instrument and orchestra. However, we’ll be focusing on concertos for orchestra alone. Likewise, symphonies are ordinarily purely orchestral endeavors. We’ll hear symphonies for orchestra and prominent instrumental soloist.

Among our featured highlights will be the Concerto for Orchestra – now Grammy-nominated for “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” – by one-time Classic Ross Amico guest Zhou Tian; a symphony for solo piano by Charles-Valentin Alkan; an organ symphony by Aaron Copland, and a “concerto symphonique” for piano and orchestra by Henry Charles Litolff.

We may not know whether it’s fish or fowl, but whatever it is I’ll be tossing it in the blender, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EST on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. It will be another breakfast of champions, on Classic Ross Amico.

January 18, 2018

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