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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After a lifetime of listening to recordings of great pieces of music that have been made note-perfect, when Stratton is seated at a concert, and he hears a mistake, it really bothers him. -
Stratton finally caught the movie Maestro, about the life of Leonard Bernstein. He was appalled. The film was about Bernstein’s marriage and his efforts to be a both a loving husband and a doting father while having love affairs with other men. Who watching that film, Stratton wondered, would ever learn that Leonard Bernstein was America’s pre-eminent musical genius? He had to check in with Richie about this.
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Richie has a problem; he’s got a tune stuck in his head. And it’s not his tune. Can Stratton help?
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Online Stratton was asked to name the 10 best conductors leading orchestras today. He took what he thought was a bold step; he included JoAnn Falletta’s name. When he saw the 25 or so lists submitted from correspondents around the world, 19 listed among their 10 choices JoAnn Falletta. Could it be? Then just a few weeks ago Richie announced that we should do an episode about JoAnn, “because, you know, she’s a great conductor.”
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Nancy, our Music Librarian, was telling Stratton about a piece of music that she thought was “psychologically brilliant”. But what Richie heard her say was that the piece of music was “psychedelically brilliant”. Being Richie, he loved that description. When we explained that he got it wrong, he proclaimed, “who really wants to hear a piece because it’s psychologically brilliant, but anyone would want to hear a piece that’s psychedelically brilliant.”
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Richie has often told us that Danny Elfman’s score to “Batman” was what inspired him to pursue music as his vocation. Stratton on the other hand discovered Danny Elfman not just as another very good film composer, but as a composer of what Stratton would call concert pieces in the best tradition of classical music. After reviewing Elfman’s unlikely journey as a music maker, Richie and Stratton discuss Stratton’s belief that Elfman has become a composer who is forging the future of classical music.
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Stratton noticed that Richie has a brother who is a working musician. He began to wonder about other brothers who both have made music their livelihood. In the classical period there were the Haydn brothers, Joseph and Michael. Then in the full bloom of musical romanticism two young pianists became the toast of Russia, the brothers Anton and Nicolai Rubinstein. In our time at least two successful “bands” were built around brothers; The Kinks featuring Dave and Ray Davies, and the British band with the warring brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher.
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JAZZ FUSION is a distinct strain of American musical practice; one that Stratton has largely ignored over a lifetime of music listening. Can Richie really catch him up by, once again, making Stratton apply his considerable skills as a listener to a genre of music that has enriched Richie’s own life?
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Stratton’s plan was to talk about pieces that reference “the sea”, except Richie wants to talk about pieces that he describes as “oceanic” instead. It’s all about what lurks below the surface.
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Richie introduces Stratton to jangle pop through three songs by the Scottish Band, Teenage Fanclub. To his own surprise, Stratton becomes a fast fan which prompts conversation about melody, craftsmanship, and the joy of the unexpected.
