Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WWFM

Afternoon Classical Delights WWFM

Looking for a little refreshment for your Monday afternoon? Drink deep from “Pliny’s Fountain.” Arthur Meulemans’ opulent tone poem could have made Ottorini Respighi weep with envy. It’s one of three rarely-heard highlights I’ll be presenting this afternoon, including a brassy symphony by Nikolai Myaskovsky and a melodically appealing string quartet by Reynaldo Hahn, a composer better known for his art songs. We’ll have those and much more, between 4 and 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

IMAGE: Pliny’s doves at their refreshment

August 29, 2016
Behzad Ranjbaran’s Persian Trilogy

I had heard Behzad Ranjbaran’s lyrical Piano Concerto at a concert of the Philadelphia Orchestra several seasons past, but it did not prepare me for the beauty and opulence of his “Persian Trilogy.” It’s rare for a contemporary composer to demonstrate such fluency in working on a large, romantic canvas. If you enjoy the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy, Paul Dukas or Ottorino Respighi, I think you’ll really enjoy this.

I’ll be presenting two-thirds of the “Persian Trilogy” – “Seven Passages” and “Seemorgh” – this Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” alongside a work for flute and cello, “Folk Songs (Set No. 9),” by Reza Vali. That’s a lot of music for an hour, so I really had to butcher my script in the editing process. But it was worth it.

I hope you’ll join me for “Roses of Persia,” a bouquet of Persian polyphonic music. Hear it tonight at 10 p.m. EDT on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org (where webcasts of past shows are also archived).

Pictured: The mythical bird Seemorgh, from the Persian epic, the “Shanameh.” She raises the abandoned newborn Zaal as her own. When Zaal goes out into the world, he is given one of her feathers, with which he is able to summon her in times of crisis.

August 28, 2016
Remembering Stephen Paulus Music

Today is the birthday of American composer Stephen Paulus. Though he made much of his career in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Paulus was born in Summit, NJ, in 1949. He served as composer-in-residence with both the Minnesota Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He was particularly noted for his choral and vocal works, including the second and best-known of his 11 operas, “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” Paulus died on Oct. 19, 2014, nearly 16 months after suffering a debilitating stroke.

We’ll celebrate this beloved voice in American music today in the 6:00 hour, as we listen to a Grammy Award-winning recording of his “Prayers and Remembrances,” featuring True Concord Voices & Orchestra. The work was recognized earlier this year in the category of Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Since Paulus had already passed, the award was accepted by his wife and his two sons. “Prayers and Remembrances” was written to mark the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. I hope you will join me for this moving and beautiful music.

I’ll also be playing something from a new album I received only this week (“Wind Concerti,” BCM+D Records) featuring contemporary American woodwind concertos, performed by the Temple University Wind Symphony with members of the The Philadelphia Orchestra and faculty from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance. The 2-CD set, which features music by Anthony Plog, Joel Puckett, Jay Krush, Jennifer Higdon, David Maslanka, and Adam Silverman, is a delight, and I can’t wait to share some of it with you.

Join me for American music and more today, Wednesday, between 4 and 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

Stephen Paulus Music

August 24, 2016
Vaughan Williams’ London Symphony on WWFM

Principally because of alluring musical flights of fancy like “The Lark Ascending,” Ralph Vaughan Williams has been somewhat pigeon-holed as the foremost proponent of the “cow-pat school” of English composition. While he certainly did spend a good deal of his life strolling the English countryside, he considered himself first and foremost a Londoner. Join me this afternoon at 1:00 EDT to partake of Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 2, “A London Symphony.”

Vaughan Williams claimed that while the work bore a programmatic subtitle, it was meant to be experienced primarily as “absolute” music. He preferred it be thought of as a symphony by a Londoner, as opposed to an attempt to portray the actual city.

Nonetheless, the symphony contains allusions to street music, barrel organs, the jingle of hansom cabs, and the Westminster Chimes, among other things, and it certainly is tempting to conjure images of the hustle and bustle of Piccadilly Circus and, perhaps, in the slow movement, one of the nocturne paintings of James McNeill Whistler.

It’s one of the featured highlights this afternoon, as the country mouse plays city mouse, from noon to 4 p.m., on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

PHOTO: Vaughan Williams and Foxy: “Did somebody say mouse?”

August 23, 2016
Debussy Birthday Celebration A French Holiday

It’s widely perceived that the French really understand how to enjoy life. Why else would Claude Debussy be sitting on a beach fully clothed and holding a parasol? Come to think of it, I guess everyone went to the beach dressed like that in those days (as I still prefer to do).

Join me for une petite vacance, as I celebrate the birthday of Claude Debussy, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

August 22, 2016

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