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Related Pieces
Piece Description
Pulitzer-prize winning composer Ned Rorem is a rare combination: musical figure of great distinction, and accomplished writer of memoirs and essays. He has spent decades living a life interesting enough to write about, and writing music interesting enough to be seen apart from his life! Rorem is especially appreciated for his musical settings of American, English and French poems which have resulted, by now, in a huge body of much-admired song repertoire. In this hour he discusses, in his distinctive way, his aesthetic; his childhood studying piano on the 'wrong side of the tracks;' his take on 12-tone music ('of course I was part of that serial movement,' he once wrote,--'the part that talked against it'); his technique in setting great poems to music; and his studies and early work with Virgil Thomson. His views on Beethoven, the Beatles and Barbra Streisand are also very much in evidence. Excerpts from his compositions, and some works by others that have interested and/or inspired him, are used throughout.
3 Comments
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Review of WNYC's Fishko Files: An Hour with Ned RoremThere is one thing I really love and admire about Sarah Fishko's work -- her capacity to be at once engaged with and yet detached from her material. This interview with Ned Rorem is an extraordinarily apt example of this: Just as Rorem defines his own visions of "red" and "blue" (read German and French), Fishko lets the listener experience Ned Rorem's charm while staying true as a compass point to -- forgive me -- the necessity of art. And as we learn in the course of this hour, Ned Rorem is a galvanizing thinker about how, and where, and why we choose art to express ourselves. I hope that PDs with classical music programming in their charge will find an hour for this. It's worth more than that, of course, but so much of what we hear on the classical air is Dawn of the Dead material, it's a wonder there's anyone living actually doing anything. Fishko's Rorem interview is a terrific reminder that this music matters every bit as much as a dope slap from Click and Clack. |
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Review of WNYC's Fishko Files: An Hour with Ned RoremWNYC'ss "cultural attache" Sara Fishko talks with American composer Ned Rorem. This 59 minute interview, with plenty of music and interesting and amusing musical anecdotes, is worth hearing if only to hear Rorem say, and then explain convincingly, how French music is "profoundly superficial", and German music is "superficially profound." The back and forth between the composer and host includes well chosen excerpts from Rorem's own compositions, including the Barcarolles, the Concerto for Piano Left Hand, Eleven Studies and several songs. Rorem remembers some of his early run-ins with Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Virgil Thompson, and presents a compelling theory linking composition to acts of musical thievery and cover up. Rorem is a fascinating and compelling thinker who expresses ideas and opinions easily, and no matter the complexity, he always speaks in listener language. Though highly opinionated - he never annoys or condescends. More importantly, he always provides clear and intelligent support of those strong opinions. Highly suitable for evening and weekend classical music programming. I could hear this on a Saturday afternoon after the MET and easily on a Sunday afternoon or late morning. |
Timing and Cues
TOTAL TIME: 59:00
Segment A 30:23
oc:....thoughts on songs, Streisand, sin and Paris; that and more after a break.
Break :59 with music under
Segment B 27:36
oc: ....."thank you/ thank YOU" and music ends, then "This program was made
possible by a grant from the Kaplen Foundation."
Musical Works
1) Rorem: 11 Studies for 11 Players, (Allegretto)
Various chamber players
New World, 80445
2) John Alden Carpenter, Skyscrapers
Kenneth Klein cond. London Symph. Orch
EMI 49263
3) Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire
Simon Rattle cond. Nash Ensemble
Chandos 6534
4) Rorem, 1st of 3 barcarolles
Leon Fleischer, piano
Philips 456775
5) Rorem Dance Suite (Overture)
Goldina/Loumbrozo, pianists
Phoenix USA PHCD138
6) Leonard Bernstein, Clarinet Sonata
Stoltzman, clarinet/Vallecillo, piano
RCA Victor 09026-62685
7) Rorem, Violin Concerto
Kremer, violin/Bernstein cond. NY Phil
DG 429 231
8) Virgil Thomson, Five Ladies for Violin and Piano
Leventhal, violin/Tomassini, piano
NorthEastern NR240-CD
9) Rorem, 11 Studies for 11 Players (Fugato)
See #1
10) Rorem, Early in the Morning (Poem by Rober Hillyer)
Donald Gramm, Rorem at the piano
Columbia LP MS 6561
11) Rorem, Spring and Fall (Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins)
Gramm/Rorem, as above
12) Rorem, O You Whom I Often and Silently Come (Whitman)
Regina Sarfaty/Rorem, as above
13) Rorem, Spring (Gerard Manley Hopkins)
Phyllis Curtin/Rorem, as above
14) Rorem, To You (Walt Whitman)
Gramm/Rorem, as above
15) Break: Rorem, 6 Variations for 2 Pianos
Clinton/Narboni, pianists
Vanguard, SVC 106
16) Rorem, String Quartet
Emerson String Quartet
DG 289 453 506
17) The Beatles, 3 songs from Beatles Anthology, Capitol/EMI
18) Rorem, Piano Concerto for Left Hand and Orchestra
Graffman, piano/Previn cond. Curtis Orchestra
New World Records 80445 (CD)
19) Claude Debussy, Beau Soir
From "Classical Barbra," Barbra Streisand
with Ogerman cond. Columbia Sym. Orch
Columbia LP 33452
20) Edith Piaf, L'escale
from "La Vie en Rose"
Replay Music RMCD 4103
21) Rorem, Evidence of Things Not Seen (Hymn for Evening)
NY Festival of Song
New World 80575
22) Rorem, Early in the Morning
Susan Graham/ Malcolm Martineau
Erato 80222
23) Closing, same as # 1
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Posted on July 28, 2008 at 12:40 PM | Permalink
Review of WNYC's Fishko Files: An Hour with Ned Rorem
A thorough introduction to the important American composer and provocateur, with a generous range of musical excerpts from his work. The interview shows off Rorem's characteristic candor and eccentric opinions -- for example, failing to see what's so great about Beethoven.