Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WWFM

John Adams at 70 A Composer’s Legacy

There’s something oddly appropriate about a composer named John Adams arriving between the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington.

Adams turns 70 today. Considered by some to be America’s foremost living composer, he emerged from the fog of minimalism to become the most versatile and substantial of those who have embraced the style.

Personally I’ve always been divided on Adams’ music. Some of it I find fun (“Short Ride in a Fast Machine,” “Grand Pianola Music”), some of it I find to be quite good (“Shaker Loops,” “El Niño”), some of it I find to be boring, clumsy or downright embarrassing (“Harmonium,” for as much as I could stand of “Doctor Atomic”).

I concede that my reactions are very subjective. There’s no arguing against Adams’ influence or his standing. Happy birthday, sir, and congratulations on your long-term success.

Adams’ music will be featured today alongside that of fellow birthday celebrants Christopher Rouse, Georges Auric, Robert Fuchs and Michael Praetorius, when I take to the airwaves from 4 to 7 p.m. EST on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

February 15, 2017
Beat the February Blues with Classical Music

February starting to get to you? Join me this afternoon for an arrangement by Leopold Godowsky of a waltz by Johann Strauss II, guitar music by Fernando Sor, and a clarinet quintet by George Kleinsinger of “Tubby the Tuba” fame. I’ll also have a romantic violin concerto for Black History Month. All in all, we’ll do our best to keep it warm and light (or at least melodic), from 4 to 7 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

IMAGE: The twinkle-toed Strauss brothers

February 13, 2017
Leontyne Price 90th Birthday Celebration

With talent like that of Leontyne Price, the Price is always right. Join me today on The Classical Network, as we celebrate this extraordinary soprano on her 90th birthday.

We’ll hear a recording of the Verdi Requiem, made toward the beginning of her career, in the late 1950s, opposite Jussi Björling, who was getting toward the end of his (he died three months later). Filling out the vocal quartet will be Rosalind Elias and Giorgio Tozzi. It’s a fascinating document full of great singing and an unusual, mercurial touch lent by conductor Fritz Reiner, who will lead the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Then we’ll have a blistering account of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Price lending her voice to Schiller’s celebratory text, alongside Maureen Forrester, Philadelphia’s David Poleri, and Giorgio Tozzi, as a possessed Charles Munch shovels hot coals under the players of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Finally, a more intimate side of Price will be revealed in the “Hermit Songs” of Samuel Barber, with the composer at the piano.

All this to follow our noontime concert today, which will feature the Quatuor Modigliani in music of Mozart, Schumann and Dvorak, on a program captured live at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Pa., as presented by the Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem.

At 6:00, it’s “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies. I’ll fill you in on a little more about that on my Facebook page later on this afternoon. Suffice it to say, if you tune in early, I will treat you to a medley of some of Jerry Goldsmith’s best-loved themes on this, the anniversary of his birth. Goldsmith died in 2004.

It will be a long day for Classic Ross Amico, but worth every minute, from noon to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

February 10, 2017
John Williams 85th Birthday Salute

Hard to believe, John Williams is 85 years-old today. Oh Johnny, how do I love thee? Enough to go to battle with Norman Lebrecht on his blog, slippedisc.

John Williams is 85 tomorrow

I hope you’ll join me today, as I give Williams a more proper birthday salute, from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

Thank you, John, for all the great music. You’ve been an essential part of the soundtrack of my life for 40 years. Long may you reign.

PHOTOS (clockwise from left): Williams with the 2016 AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, the first bestowed upon a composer; Williams with his “Star Wars” Oscar in 1978; Williams conducting sometime in the 1970s; Williams takes a bow.

February 8, 2017
Gervase de Peyer Remembered on WWFM

Gervase de Peyer, longtime principal clarinetist of the London Symphony Orchestra and a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, died on Saturday at the age of 90. Join me this afternoon on WWFM, as we celebrate his artistry with recordings he made as a chamber musician and as a concerto soloist.

We’ll also observe birthday anniversaries of the great Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau; Austrian immigrant Karl Weigl, a pupil of Zemlinsky, who lived his final decade in the United States; and American composer Stephen Albert, who died too young, in an automobile accident in Cape Cod, at 52 years-old.

Variety is the spice of life – or death, as the case may be – from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

February 6, 2017

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