Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WWFM

William Scheide Memorial & The 10th Day

THE TENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

Ten lords a-leaping. I wish I could train them to do audio editing, thereby dividing my workload by 11.

I imagine, though, everything going horribly wrong, leading to some kind of Sorcerer’s Apprentice-style catastrophe, with ten manic lords clicking mice and pushing files around and destroying everything I’ve already worked so hard to accomplish. (Then again, I’ve already got Bill Zagorski for that, so I had better keep one ear open for what’s going on in Production 2.)

You may as well know, since the promo is already in rotation, I am doggedly at work on producing a memorial program for William H. Scheide, the Princeton philanthropist, humanitarian and Bach scholar, who died in November at the age of 100.

This Tuesday would have been Scheide’s 101st birthday. The plan is to honor his legacy with a two-hour program, for which I’ll have interviewed eight subjects – all people who knew him very well. These accounts will be interspersed with relevant musical examples, including many rare recordings of the Bach Aria Group, an ensemble Scheide founded and directed for over 30 years.

The memorial is slated to air Tuesday at noon, on http://www.wwfm.org. Which means I may as well sleep here tonight, since I’ll have to be here all day tomorrow if I’m to have a prayer of getting everything in shape by the end of Monday. I already look like Ben Gunn, and probably smell like him too. Anybody have any cheese?

January 3, 2015
The Fifth Day of Christmas Labors

THE FIFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

The Twelve Days of Christmas have, for me, given way to the Twelve Labors of Hercules. Newspaper articles, radio shifts, scripts, production work, interviews, commuting, holiday appointments, email email email, and an additional, special project on an epic scale to air on WWFM on January 6. More on that later, once I finish cleaning the Augean Stables.

December 29, 2014
Hoffnung Music Festival A Hilarious Concert

THE FOURTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we do our best to maintain a festive spirit with selections from the notorious – and uproarious – Hoffnung Music Festival concerts.

Gerard Hoffnung was born in Berlin in 1925. His family fled the Nazis while he was still a boy and settled in London, where Gerard became more English than the English. Over the next two decades, he attained celebrity through his work as a cartoonist, a sparkling panelist and a public speaker. He was lauded as a brilliant improviser with a dry wit and a masterly sense of timing. In addition, he played the tuba well enough that he was able to tackle the Vaughan Williams concerto.

Following his participation in an April Fool’s concert in 1956, Hoffnung embarked on the enterprise which, aside from his cartooning, ensured a kind of immortality – the first of the Hoffnung Music Festival concerts. The concerts brought together representatives of England’s finest musical talent to lampoon what, especially at the time, could be perceived as a rather stodgy art form.

For the inaugural effort, Sir Malcolm Arnold wrote “A Grand, Grand Overture” for an orchestra augmented by a rifle, two electric floor polishers and a vacuum cleaner. (The work was dedicated to President “Hoover.”) Sir William Walton walked on to conduct a one-word excerpt from his cantata “Belshazzar’s Feast,” in which he picked up the baton and the chorus shouted, “Slain!”

There would be three Hoffnung concerts in all. Alas, the third was presented posthumously. Hoffnung collapsed at his home in 1959 and died of a cerebral hemorrhage three days later, at the age of only 34! He was a mere child by today’s standards, yet he seemed his entire life to be a brilliant middle-aged man, always at the peak of his form.

I hope you’ll join me for “Have a Ball: Laughing in the New Year with the Hoffnung Music Festival Concerts,” this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat New Year’s Eve at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

PHOTOS: Gerard Hoffnung and one of his creations

December 28, 2014
Happy Birthday Beethoven! Celebrate & Support WWFM

Happy birthday, Ludwig van!

There’s not much I need to say about Beethoven. Not satisfied merely to be the summation of his era, he pushed so hard that he’s influenced the development of music history ever since.

Today, The Classical Network will honor The Master with a full day of his symphonies, beginning at 10 a.m. ET. It will also honor the listener by broadcasting them complete and uninterrupted. Along the way there will be some colorful commentary and some fun additions.

This is also a 10k “challenge day,” as Princeton’s Municipal Capital Management LLC has challenged the station and its listeners to bring in $10,000. If that goal is achieved before the final notes of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony have sounded, Municipal Capital Management will match every dollar up to $10,000, resulting in (doing the simple math) $20,000 for WWFM. At which point, an Ode to Joy would certainly be in order.

If you enjoy programs like “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord,” or any of the other music that comes your way courtesy of The Classical Network, please consider lending your support.

Remember, your pledge today will be doubled. You can donate online at http://www.wwfm.org, or by calling 1-800-232-1212.

On behalf of The Classical Network, thank you!

December 16, 2014
Christmas Music Advent Calendar & More

Since it appears I am no longer doing live air shifts at WWFM, other than the odd pledge drive – and therefore have no outlet for my love of Christmas music, beyond the limited scope of my specialty shows – I thought I would make the most of Facebook and, this being the first day of Advent, initiate kind of a musical Advent calendar.

Every day through Christmas, I will try to offer something seasonal, if not in the body of my regular post, then as a special “Advent calendar” supplement.

I’ll kick things off with music of Sergei Lyapunov. After all, today is his birthday (see my main post). Here is his “Fêtes de Noël” (“Christmas Festival”), Op.41:

It falls into four tableaux:

No. 1 “Nuit de Noël” (“Christmas Night”)
No. 2 “Cortège de mages” (“Procession of the Magi”)
No. 3 “Chanteurs de Noël” (“Christmas Carolers”)
No. 4 “Chant de Noël” (“Christmas Carol”)

And since my guest tonight on “The Lost Chord” is Peter Schickele, here is P.D.Q. Bach’s “Consort of Christmas Carols.”

http://grooveshark.com/#!/search/song?q=PDQ+Bach+A+Consort+of+Choral+Christmas+Carols+%5B3%5D+%28S.+359%29

No. 1 “Throw the Yule Log On, Uncle John”
No. 2 “O Little Town of Hackensack”
No. 3 “Good King Kong Looked Out”

The “Consort of Christmas Carols” will be among the works performed on Dec. 5, when Schickele appears at The College of New Jersey in Ewing. “The Lost Chord” can be heard at 10 p.m. ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6, at http://www.wwfm.org.

Happy Holidays!

November 30, 2014

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