Stratton Rawson
Music Director and BTPM Classical Afternoon HostStratton Rawson grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York State midway between the Hudson River and the Appalachian Trail in the shadow of some the oldest mountains on earth.
Stratton took up the cello at an early age in an attempt to drive his brothers crazy. He very nearly succeeded. As an adult Stratton’s bright passions forever paled after four years at SUNY Albany, a year of work for the Chancellor of SUNY, two years at the University of Wyoming and another four years--this time at SUNY Buffalo--in the shades of academe. The next decade and a half he spent making feature films on a home video budget. Amazingly, some of the films have made it to home video and are available at your local video outlet. And for the last decade or so, Stratton has been at BTPM Classical, where he can indulge his lifelong interest in great music and good talk.
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There came a day not too long ago when Richie asked Stratton if he would listen to one of the greatest Rock albums ever recorded. How could Stratton refuse? The album turned out to be “Loveless” by the band, My Bloody Valentine. After Stratton had listened to “Loveless” Richie asked Stratton what he thought. Stratton replied, “I now know what it was like for listeners who were used to hearing Haydn’s Symphonies when they first heard Beethoven’s Third Symphony, the 'Eroica'. Nothing would ever sound the same again.” -
Stratton didn’t think he had heard Richie right. Richie had dropped the name of a long-forgotten pianist who was once the best-known and highest-paid pianist in the United States. Radio made him a star. His name was Oscar Levant. So, Stratton said, let’s talk about him.
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Stratton has often been asked if he and Richie ever disagree. His answer has been that, in musical matters, he can’t think of any disagreement, putting the emphasis on the adjective “musical”. Well, that was true enough until they decided to talk about opera by discussing the two greatest opera composers of the 19th century, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner.
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Composers are rarely happy people. How do we know this? Because a few composers have told us this in their memoirs. Two of the best are the Memoirs of Hector Berlioz and X-Ray.
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Stratton often tells Richie how lucky they are because they have available to their ears over one thousand years of music. That’s why Stratton encourages Richie to introduce him to the popular music he pointedly refused to take notice of.
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Richie can’t really believe that Stratton has spent so much of his time listening to classical music that he has no notion of who Frank Zappa is or who Van Dyke Parks might be. But Richie knows that Stratton, who has a soft spot for Olivier Messiaen and Michael Tippett, is just the kind of guy who’d like the wild music-making of Zappa and Parks.
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When a listener begins to concentrate on a single composer’s works, they often listen for the piece in which the composer has found his or her own voice, a voice that from then on will mark the music they write as their own.
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The tale of the careers of two of the most famous women in the 19thcentury is now portrayed as a narrative of suppression and even oppression.
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Stratton and Richie become aware that even sweet, joyful music-making can hide a suspicious, even outraged, personality.
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Stratton asked Richie if he was ready to talk about the most vilified musician living in the 20thcentury. Richie asked Stratton if he meant Michael Jackson. “No,” Stratton replied.
