Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WWFM

Classical Music Birthdays Princeton Composers on WWFM

Our chests swell with local pride this afternoon, as we hear music by Princeton composers Steven Mackey, Paul Lansky, and Milton Babbitt (on his birthday). Then things turn all cinematic, as we sample from some classic film scores by two titans of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Max Steiner and Dimitri Tiomkin, also born on May 10. Maxim Shostakovich, whose birthday it is, will conduct music by his father, and we’ll enjoy music by Baroque violinist Jean-Marie Leclair, born on this date in 1697.

That’s a lot of birthday cards to fill out, but we’ll manage, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 10, 2017
Zhou Tian’s Broken Ink on The Classical Network

I hope you’ll join me this afternoon on The Classical Network. Following today’s Noontime Concert, we’ll hear selections from the original version of Chinese-American composer Zhou Tian’s “Broken Ink.” Originally titled “Poems from the Song Dynasty,” the work received its US premiere (the world premiere of its revision) in a concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Rossen Milanov, this past weekend.

Zhou’s “Broken Ink” is a multi-movement meditation on Song Dynasty poetry, an important part of the cultural heritage of the composer’s native Hangzhou, explored through the means of a Western symphony orchestra. Zhou re-imagines the lost art of Classical Chinese poetry, a multidisciplinary form which was sung as much as it was spoken. (Increasingly, it also became tied to painting.) Though the melodies have been forgotten, the composer avoids interpreting the texts too scrupulously, choosing instead to reflect on their bittersweet nature, in a work full of touching melodies and driving rhythms.

Zhou’s “Viaje” for flute, cello and piano, written for Mimi Stillman’s Dolce Suono Ensemble, will be performed as part of a memorial concert in honor of composer Steven Stucky, at the Curtis Institute of Music’s Gould Hall at Lenfest Hall, 1616 Locust Street, in Philadelphia, tonight at 7 p.m. More information is available at http://www.dolcesuono.com.

His “Grand Canal,” a work which incorporates traditional Chinese instruments and bears the influence of Chinese opera (and which was presented here by the PSO as part of its 2012-13 season), will be performed by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, in Columbus, OH, this weekend. You can find out more at http://www.columbussymphony.com.

Tune in this afternoon for the original version of Zhou Tian’s “Broken Ink.” It will be among my musical selections, between 2 and 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 9, 2017
Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony Live Tonight

Be there for the B minor.

Join The Classical Network for a live broadcast of “What Makes It Great,” featuring composer, conductor, author, and commentator Rob Kapilow. The event will take place tonight at 8:00 at Princeton High School, where select young musicians from three area youth orchestras – the Youth Orchestra of Central Jersey, the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra, and the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County – will combine into an All-Star Youth Orchestra to perform Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the so-called “Unfinished.”

Kapilow will discuss what makes the symphony “great,” his observations illustrated with passages played by the orchestra, and then the orchestra will perform the symphony in its entirety. A Q&A session will follow. The concert will be broadcast and also streamed live on the station’s Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/wwfmtheclassicalnetwork/.

Admission is free. For directions and additional venue details, see the WWFM events calendar:

http://wwfm.org/community-calendar/event/147952

Please note: because the concert will be broadcast live, The Classical Network requests that members of the audience be in their seats by 7:50 pm.

“Exploring Music” will not be heard tonight. Tune in on Tuesday at 6 p.m. for a double-dollop of Bill McGlaughlin.

Today, yours truly will host into the early evening hours, providing music for your afternoon commute and getting you primed for the 8 p.m. broadcast of “What Makes It Great.” I’ll be spinning the discs, beginning at 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

May 8, 2017
Picture Perfect New Underwriter Rice Insurance

“Picture Perfect” has a new underwriter! Thanks so much to Joseph Rice and Rice Insurance Agency of Somerville, NJ, for their generous support.

Tune in to WWFM – The Classical Network at 6 p.m. EDT, on this, the eve of the Kentucky Derby, to hear music from movies about horse races.

May 5, 2017
Mimi Stillman Plays Mozart on The Classical Network

Flutist Mimi Stillman will be my guest this afternoon, for today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, as we present a program of “Mozart Woodwind Masterpieces.”

Stillman will join members of her Dolce Suono Ensemble to perform the Flute Quartet in D major, K. 285. Then Ricardo Morales – Clarinetist, principal clarinetist of The Philadelphia Orchestra, will join the ensemble for the Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581. On the second half of the program, Charles Abramovic will be at the keyboard for a special arrangement of the Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat major, K. 452. Stick around – there might even be an encore or two. The concert was recorded on March 21 at Trinity Center for Urban Life in Philadelphia.

Next Tuesday, May 9, Dolce Suono will convene for a special memorial concert for Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Stucky. The program will include a Philadelphia premiere by the late composer; DSE commissions of works from Stucky, Fang Man, and Zhou Tian; and world premiere performances of pieces by DSE Young Composers Competition winners, performed by baritone Randall Scarlata. That concert will take place at the Curtis Institute of Music’s Gould Hall at Lenfest Hall, 1616 Locust Street, in Philadelphia. You can learn more at http://www.dolcesuono.com.

Later this afternoon, we’ll enjoy the unabashedly epic Symphony No. 2 by Swedish composer Hugo Alfvén. Yesterday was the anniversary of Alfvén’s birth, and – what with all the May Day revelry – we really didn’t get to do him justice, beyond a brief festive polonaise. Alfvén composed his Second Symphony at the age of 26. The work traces an at times intense trajectory from youthful high spirits to solemn grandeur, concluding with a powerful chorale-prelude and fugue in D minor. While “absolute” in form, the composer confided that everything he ever wrote contains a hidden program. The symphony was influenced by two near-death experiences, from which the composer emerged stronger than before.

There will be much strength to be derived from our music today, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: Ricardo Morales (left); Mimi Stillman and Charles Abramovic

May 2, 2017

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