Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WWFM

Paul Angerer Remembered on WWFM

I don’t know if you remember Paul Angerer. The Austrian violist and later conductor died on Wednesday at the age of 90. We’ll hear him leading a Handel concerto grosso at around 4:35 EDT. Then I’ll follow that up with one of Angerer’s own compositions (yes, he was also a composer). Tune in now to WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

July 28, 2017
Astral Artists Shine with Shaw & Bruckner on WWFM

Today’s Noontime Concert will come our way courtesy of Philadelphia’s Astral Artists. Astral laureates the Jasper String Quartet will be joined by Annie Wu, flutist, for a program of music by Mozart, Debussy, Takemitsu, Ginastera, and Pulitzer Prize winner (and Princeton University PhD candidate) Caroline Shaw. The concert was recorded in Benjamin Franklin Hall at the American Philosophical Society. Tune in this Tuesday at 12 p.m.

Then stick around for a recent recording of Shaw’s “To the Hands,” her contribution to a project initiated by the Philadelphia-based chorus, The Crossing, which invited seven contemporary composers to come up with musical responses to Dietrich Buxtehude’s 1680 collection, “Membra Jesu nostri patientis sanctissima” (“Most Holy Limbs of Our Suffering Jesus”), often referred to, affectionately, as the “limb” cantatas.

At around 2:00, our featured work will be a symphony by Anton Bruckner, which we’ll hear in a transcendent performance conducted by Sergiu Celibidache.

We’ll go out on a limb today, and more, from noon to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Composer Caroline Shaw – in 2013, at the age of 30, she became the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music

July 25, 2017
Peter Serkin at 70 A Piano Maverick

For some reason, I always equate Peter Serkin in my mind with Peter Fonda. Perhaps it’s because he’s like the Easy Rider of pianists. At one point, he even totally dropped out, moving to Mexico and not playing for a couple of years. When he returned, as often as not, he was a kind of countercultural champion of modernist works (he was one of the founders of the new music ensemble Tashi); but he is, after all, his father’s son (he was sired by legendary pianist Rudolf Serkin), so Bach and Beethoven have been just as important to him as an artist and as a person.

Hard to believe that Peter Serkin is 70 years-old today. We’ll honor him with several of his recordings, alongside those of the late violinist Ruggiero Ricci and composers Adolphe Adam, Ernest Bloch, Robert Farnon, and Leo Arnaud (he of Olympic fanfare fame).

I’ll be bearing the torch for great music and music-making, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

July 24, 2017
Remembering Kurt Masur on His 90th Birthday

When Kurt Masur died two years ago at the age of 88, many of his obituaries lauded him as the conductor who rebuilt the New York Philharmonic. Masur, longtime kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, brought no-nonsense discipline and a meat-and-potatoes diet of Beethoven and Brahms to Manhattan’s flagging flagship ensemble.

He may not have always been the most exciting conductor, or the most charismatic, but he exuded authority and demanded respect. This was the man who managed to get a new concert hall built in East Germany during the Cold War and was permitted to lead the Gewandhaus Orchestra, ensconced behind the Iron Curtain, on international tours. In 1989, when violence threatened to erupt in the streets, Masur brokered peace, inviting protesters in to his concert hall to meet with the East German leadership.

An unlikely candidate for the directorship of the New York Philharmonic, he improved the sound of both the orchestra and its hall, brought in new players like principle cellist Carter Brey, and began collaborating with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Interestingly, given his devotion to the core repertoire, Masur during his New York tenure also spearheaded the commissioning of over 40 new works.

In addition, he held important posts with the Orchestre National de France, the London Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, and, earlier in his career, the Dresden Philharmonic.

I hope you’ll join me today, on what would have been Masur’s 90th birthday, as we listen to a selection of his recordings, including music by Felix Mendelssohn, Max Bruch, and Franz Liszt. We remember the maestro, from noon to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Kurt Masur with the London Philharmonic at his old stomping ground, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, in 2010

July 18, 2017
Peter Schickele Birthday Bash on WWFM

Peter Schickele is best known for his “discovery” of the last and least of Bach’s alleged progeny, P.D.Q. Bach (the 21st of Bach’s 20 children). P.D.Q. Bach has been the vessel for musical parody ranging from high to low (frequently low) for more than 50 years – this often at the expense of Schickele the “serious” composer. Schickele, a pupil of Roy Harris, has composed over 100 works. It seems strange to describe them as serious, since, although they are not outright comic, they often convey a kind of genial wit. We’ll enjoy two faces of Peter Schickele today, on his birthday.

We’ll also hear Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” after James Agee’s nostalgic reminiscence. It’s a coin toss as to whether it will be sung by Eleanor Steber, who commissioned the work, or Dawn Upshaw, who made one of the finest recordings of the digital age. Both singers were born on this date.

In addition, there will be music by August Söderman, Woijiech Kilar and Donald Francis Tovey, all with birthday anniversaries on July 17.

That’s a lot of candles to blow out. I’m saving my breath for between 4 and 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

July 17, 2017

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