Classic Ross Amico

Tag: WWFM

Rachel Barton Pine on The Classical Network

When you tune in to The Classical Network this afternoon at 4:00 EST, you’ll be able to enjoy a conversation with Rachel Barton Pine, Violinist. Pine will be a guest of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra this Sunday, when she appears as the soloist in Niccolò Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1. The concert will take place at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall. Also on the program will be works of Leoš Janáček and Igor Stravinsky. Pine will tell us a little more about the concert, her insights, and her work promoting music by Black composers, both through her foundation and a new recording on the Cedille Records label.

We’ll round out the hour with a recording on Boston Records of Princeton Symphony music director Rossen Milanov conducting a performance of Reinhold Glière’s Harp Concerto, with Gretchen Van Hoesen, principal harpist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

At 8:00 tonight, Carl Hemmingsen will host a broadcast concert with Milanov conducting the Princeton Symphony. Guest soloist Simone Dinnerstein will perform the Keyboard Concerto No. 7 by Johann Sebastian Bach and the Piano Concerto No. 3, a PSO co-commission, by Philip Glass. The program will also include works by Mason Bates and Maurice Ravel.

In matters unrelated to the PSO, it’s also the birthdays today of Paul Hindemith, Antipodean colossus Alfred Hill, and neglected Baroque master Guillaume Dumanoir. We’ll celebrate with some of their music, and more, in the 5:00 hour.

At 6:00, we’ll turn our attention to music for the silver screen, as we do every Friday, on “Picture Perfect.” This week, we’ll anticipate Thanksgiving with film scores by Aaron Copland, James Horner, Hugo Friedhofer, and John Williams.

It’s a veritable cornucopia! Give thanks for variety in music. Make us your horn of plenty, at WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

November 16, 2018
Copland & Friends Birthday Concert Today

I hope you’ll join me for music by Aaron Copland, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Leopold Mozart, on their birthday anniversaries (including Copland’s “Appalachian Spring,” in its original version for chamber ensemble of 13 instruments, on “Music from Marlboro”), today from 4 to 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

November 14, 2018
Election Day Music on The Classical Network

Election Day. I found these Uncle Sam clothespins for you to wear in the voting booth. Just like Grandma used to make.

Once you’ve completed your civic duty, I hope you’ll join me on The Classical Network for today’s Noontime Concert, a recital with commentary by harpsichordist Dylan Sauerwald. Sauerwald will present “Clashing Influences: Vienna in the Late 17th Century,” with works by Johann Caspar Kerll and Georg Muffat. The program, part of the free midday concert series presented by Gotham Early Music Scene (or GEMS), was recorded at Saint Bartholomew’s Church, 50th Street and Park Avenue, in New York City. The concerts are held every Thursday at 1:15 p.m. This 45-minute broadcast recital will commence this afternoon at 12.

Interestingly, the music was written at a time when Columbia (then Columbina) was but a glint in Samuel Sewall’s eye. Sewall, of Salem witch trials notoriety, was the creator of one of the most enduring symbols of our future republic.

Later in the afternoon, I’ll be joined by Eric Houghton and Ruth Ochs of the Westminster Conservatory of Music. Houghton’s “Pioneer Songs” will be performed at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The cycle of fifteen symphonic songs, for vocal soloists, choir, and narrator, celebrates the first successful passage of wagon trains to California in the 1840s. Ochs will conduct the performance, which will feature the Westminster Community Orchestra, the Westminster Community Chorus, and the Glassbrook Vocal Ensemble. Our interview will take place at 3 p.m.

Along the way, we’ll also hear Roy Harris’ Symphony No. 9, dedicated to the city of Philadelphia. Harris was himself a product of the prairies. He was born in a log cabin in Lincoln County, OK, on Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 1898. Though he was celebrated in the 1930s and ‘40s as one of our great American symphonists, by 1962, the year of his Ninth Symphony, his reputation had plummeted. Harris’ music is a fascinating blend of the old and new. I always think of him as an American Sibelius. His symphonies are tied closely to the land and to the American character of his prime – confident, morally certain, and totally devoid of irony. Each movement of the Ninth sports an epigraph from the U.S. Constitution; the last is lent further gravitas through the inclusion of subtitles drawn from Whitman.

I can’t promise it will be an all-American afternoon, but I can guarantee that we’ll be united in music, today from 12 to 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

November 6, 2018
Central Jersey Autumn Colors and Music

In recent years, I’ve noticed that autumn doesn’t really arrive at full force in Central Jersey until right around the turn of November. True to form, Saturday was a gloriously moody day, a kaleidoscope of sunshine and clouds that set off the luminous foliage to its best advantage.

Of course, it was also probably the windiest day of the season. There was a price to pay for the mesmerizing whirl of fallen leaves, in that now a lot of the trees stand in varying degrees of undress. Also, may I just say, the clean-up crews are a little to vigilant with their leaf-blowers – which I think should be banned, in any case – so that all too often the lawns and streets are left as barren presentiments of bleak winter. I want to crunch through shriveled leaves, dammit, and collect the damp ones that still cling to life and color.

Be that as it may, now that we’ve more or less put away the Hallowe’en decorations for another year, it’s time to fully embrace the season in music, so expect a fair amount of autumnal color to dress up my playlists over the coming week.

Alongside the usual birthday celebrations, I’ll be itching for a leaf battle, between 4 and 7 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

November 5, 2018
Jules Verne Movie Music for Dark Days

With a time change imminent (tomorrow night, we fall back) and Election Day right around the corner, we’ll shun the darkness with music from movies inspired by Jules Verne’s novels of science, progress, and adventure.

We’ll hear evocative selections from four films inspired by Verne’s novels, including “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” (1954) by Paul J. Smith, “In Search of the Castaways” (1962) by William Alwyn, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1959) by Bernard Herrmann, and “Around the World in 80 Days” (1956) by Victor Young.

Verne takes us to some very strange places, yet manages to overcome all obstacles. Still, it’s always a good idea to bring a harpoon, just in case.

Grab your gear and climb aboard. It’s music inspired by Jules Verne this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

November 2, 2018

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