Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WWFM

Reflective Music November Afternoon WWFM

November afternoons are tailor-made for reflection, music and beauty.

Pour yourself something warming, and then join me for a potpourri of birthday observances, as we’ll celebrate the music of composers Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Francisco Tárrega and Malcolm Williamson, and performances by pianists Géza Anda (Bartók) and Idil Biret (Chopin) and conductor James DePriest (Lars Erik-Larsson), with a few other surprises along the way (I’m thinking Bach, Pablo de Sarasate, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Jean Sibelius).

It will all come your way today between 4 and 7 p.m. EST. I’ve the perfect mug for radio, so tune in to WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

November 21, 2016
Eugene Ormandy Underrated Maestro

What’s the big deal about this guy, Jenő Blau? Well, you probably know him better by his adopted name, Eugene Ormandy.

Ormandy, a Hungarian-born violinist, who had studied with Jenő Hubay (for whom he was named), became a naturalized American citizen in 1927. He ultimately wound up directing the Philadelphia Orchestra for 44 years. In that capacity, he became one of the world’s most-recorded conductors.

However, in some respects, he remains a vastly underrated one. Sure, he was a superb interpreter of 19th century and post-romantic classics, but he also championed much contemporary music and new works written by his adopted countrymen. Also, if there was a more sensitive accompanist in the concerto repertoire, I don’t know of him.

Join me this afternoon, from 4 to 6 EST, as we honor Eugene Ormandy on the anniversary of his birth (in 1899), on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

November 18, 2016
Aaron Copland’s Jazz Concerto Birthday

He was America’s foremost composer of “art music.” What he was not was George Gershwin.

Join me this afternoon, as we celebrate the birthday of Aaron Copland with, among other things, his Piano Concerto, composed in 1926. Copland was still feeling his way toward his “populist period” (which began with “El Salón México,” not given its premiere until ten years later), when he wrote this concerto, which spikes 1920s modernism with American jazz.

The composer was the soloist in the work’s first performance, which featured the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. The critics panned it, but Copland’s mother beamed with pride. The composer wrote, “I was delighted when Ma said it was her proudest moment and that my playing in the Concerto made all those music lessons worthwhile!”

It retained its reputation as a shocker until 1947, when Leonard Bernstein revived it with Leo Smith as the soloist, and it struggles still, even next to Copland’s own Clarinet Concerto. In the meantime, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” (from 1924) has never been out of the repertoire.

Hear this underexposed work today, between 4 and 7:00 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

November 14, 2016
Bass-Baritone Birthday Bash on WWFM

It’s all about the bass!

Join me this afternoon as we celebrate the birthdays of dueling bass-baritones Thomas Quasthoff (who will sing Schubert) and Bryn Terfel (who will sing Gerald Finzi). We’ll also hear Finzi’s elegy for orchestra, “The Fall of the Leaf.”

In addition, we’ll remember American composer Burrill Phillips, a product of the Eastman School, who later taught there. Can music of his teacher, Howard Hanson, be far behind?

Plenty of solace and beauty to be found today, from 4 to 7:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

November 9, 2016
Zoltán Kocsis Hungarian Pianist Dies at 64

A great pianist has died. Hungarian pianist and conductor Zoltán Kocsis died yesterday afternoon. He was 64 years-old. This is especially disturbing to me, since on all my recordings he looks like a kid. And then it occurred to me, he was only 38 when he received the Gramophone Award for his fine album of Debussy piano works. Is 1990 really so far away? Time is passing.

Kocsis cofounded the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer in 1983 (again, so long ago). He became chief conductor and artistic director of the Hungarian National Philharmonic in 1997. His recordings of Debussy and Bartók are particularly fine. He was also a great champion of the works of György Kurtág (who, at 90 years-old, is still very much with us).

I’ll be honoring Kocsis this afternoon with some of his recordings, between 4 and 7:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

Kocsis obituary in the Washington Post. Brace yourself for the photo.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/hungarian-pianist-and-conductor-zoltan-kocsis-dies-at-age-64/2016/11/06/de032dee-a457-11e6-ba46-53db57f0e351_story.html

November 7, 2016

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