Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WWFM

Water Spirits in Music Rusalka Week

There have been innumerable pieces of music written about water spirits – sirens, naiads, lorelei, undines, mermaids and melusinas. This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll sample just a couple of these for Rusalka Week.

In Slavic mythology, a rusalka is a spirit that dwells at the bottom of a river or lake. She lures unsuspecting men with her song, invariably resulting in a watery doom. Rusalki are never more dangerous than in early June, when the spirits roam free.

Rusalka Week plays a role in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera, “May Night,” drawn from Gogol’s collection, “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka.” Alexander Dargomizhsky’s opera, “Rusalka,” is based on a dramatic poem by Pushkin. And the best known of the bunch, Dvorak’s “Rusalka,” was inspired by Czech fairy tales of Karel Jaromir Erben and Bozena Nemcova.

Of course, we won’t be listening to any of these. (We’ve treated Rimsky and Dargomizhsky in the past.) Instead, we’ll have a flute sonata from 1882, by Carl Reinecke, which bears the subtitle “Undine,” an allusion to a novella by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, which was very popular among the Romantics. Fouqué’s “Undine” tells the tale of a water spirit who marries a knight in order to gain a soul.

Then we’ll hear the complete ballet, “Les Sirènes,” from 1946, by Lord Berners. Berners, notorious for his sense of the absurd (a horse was a regular guest at his indoor tea parties) was a talented composer, writer and painter. “Les Sirènes,” after a scenario by Frederick Ashton, features mermaids combing their hair and singing on rocks at a seaside resort, where sirens of another sort behave coquettishly on shore.

I hope you’ll join me – you shouldn’t be out wandering during Rusalka Week anyway – for “Come on in, the Water’s Fine,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

I notice Dargomizhky’s “Rusalka” will be performed at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, as part of a Russian Opera Workshop, August 1-3. More information here:

http://www.russianoperaworkshop.com/

(Painting by Anna Vinogradova)

June 4, 2017
Jiří Bělohlávek: Remembering a Master Conductor

I regret to announce that the conductor Jiři Bělohlávek has died at the age of 71. Bělohlávek was music director of the Czech Philharmonic from 1990 to 1992, and then again from 2010 to the time of his death. His contract had been extended this year through 2021-2022.

Bělohlávek was a high-profile champion of music from his native land. I was fortunate enough to see him conduct on several occasions, most memorably leading performances of Dvořák’s “Rusalka” and the “New World Symphony.” I met him, briefly, following the latter, but I got the impression that his English was not very good. On the same occasion, I met Dvořák’s grandson, who spoke no English at all, as far as I could tell. Ironically, the grandson (also named Antonin) died earlier this week, at the age of 88.

Join me this evening at 6:00 EDT, following a broadcast concert from The Princeton Festival with Concordia Chamber Players at 4 (for which Glenn Smith will be your host), when I’ll remember Bělohlávek with an hour of his recordings, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

His obituary in The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/01/czech-conductor-bbcso-chief-jiri-belohlavek-dies-aged-71-illness

PHOTO: Antonin Dvořák III (left) with Jiři Bělohlávek

June 1, 2017
Farrenc, Ifukube, and Bravura Philharmonic on WWFM

Louise Farrenc was the only female on the faculty of the Paris Conservatory during the whole of the 19th century. Of course, she was only allowed to teach women, but she fought for, and eventually received, equal pay.

Join me this afternoon on The Classical Network, on her birthday anniversary, as we listen to her Symphony No. 3. We’ll also mark the birthdays of “Godzilla” composer Akira Ifukube, countertenor Alfred Deller, mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett, the “English Gershwin” Billy Mayerl, and French Baroque master Marin Marais.

The afternoon will begin with a visit from Chiu-Tze Lin, music director of the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra. She’ll drop by to talk about this Sunday’s season finale, which will take place at Princeton Alliance Church in Plainsboro. The concert will feature winners of the orchestra’s 2017 Young Artists Competition and a performance of “The Moldau” from Bedřich Smetana’s masterpiece of Czech nationalism, “Ma Vlast.”

I hope you’ll join me on your afternoon commute (hopefully you won’t be driving all the way from Bohemia), from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Chiu-Tze Lin conducts the Bravura Philharmonic

May 31, 2017
Avengers Theme & Classical Music Today

Are you a fan of “The Avengers?” No, not Iron Man, Captain America, and Hulk, but Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg.

If so, perhaps you’d be interested to join me this afternoon on The Classical Network to hear a symphony by the series’ composer, Laurie Johnson. His “Symphony (Synthesis)” achieves what few works of the so-called Third Stream ever do: successfully unite elements of jazz with classical symphonic form. And yes, as an encore, we’ll enjoy Johnson’s snazzy “Avengers” theme.

We’ll also celebrate the birthdays today of composer Riccardo Zandonai, clarinetist Benny Goodman, harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, and pianist Zoltan Kocsis. Since Glenn Smith will be hosting today’s concert broadcast at 4 p.m. EDT – an organ recital from last year’s The Princeton Festival with Kristiaan Seynhave, which will air in place of our usual Noontime Concert – we’ll have a clean slate from noon to 4.

Jolly good, then. Grab your umbrella and bowler, and join me on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 30, 2017
Memorial Day Remembrance on The Classical Network

If the rain is keeping you indoors on this Memorial Day, consider tuning in to The Classical Network this afternoon for some musical remembrances of those who laid down their lives in war. We’ll also have a nostalgic diversion by Samuel Barber, who served in the U.S. Army Air Force; an operatic intermezzo by Enrique Granados, who died after his ship was torpedoed by a German submarine; and nods to the birthday anniversaries of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Isaac Albeniz, and Frederick Septimus Kelly, who survived injury at Gallipoli only to be killed on the Somme.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

More about “In Flanders Fields” and the history of the poppy as “flower of remembrance” here:

http://www.womensoutdoornews.com/2017/05/memorial-day-flanders-fields/

May 29, 2017

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