Stratton Rawson

Stratton Rawson is an independent film producer, screenwriter and music critic, who is also a senior producer at WNED-FM in Buffalo, New York, where he has been called, "Buffalo's Leonard Bernstein." [ [http://buffalonews.typepad.com/artsbeat/ "ArtsBeat," "The Buffalo News", April 28, 2008.] ]

He grew up in the Hudson Valley of New York State and took up the cello at an early age, spent 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 at SUNY Buffalo. [ [http://www.wned.org/fm/hosts.asp?host=Rawson "Stratton Rawson," WNED-FM, Buffalo.] ]

Rawson was one of the screenwriters of Frederick King Keller's "Tuck Everlasting" (1981). [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9806E1DF153BF936A35755C0A967948260&oref=slogin Canby, Vincent. "Katharine Hepburn and Friends," "The New York Times", June 5, 1981.] ] Rawson's films as a producer include "My Dark Lady" (1987) and "Vamping" (1984). He has worked on the crew of several films, including "The Natural" (1984).

The recording "Christophe Columb" (Mode, 1992) featured Rawson as the Magician and narrator. This was a 1992 production of a 1940 BBC Radio play by William Aguet with music by Arthur Honegger. A Downtown Music Gallery review detailed the background on this production::The art of the radio-play was a very important and respected creative mode of entertainment in Europe before the age of television, where subsidized radio stations encouraged experiments in this medium. Composers such as Britten, Hindemith, Gerhard, and Honegger were quick to take up the challenge, composing memorable scores which were designed from the start as close collaborations with poets and dramatists. Honegger was keen to reach the widest possible public while retaining his own musical ideas. He had already collaborated with numerous distinguished writers for the theater and had supplied scores for films, such as Abel Gance's Napoleon. All of this experience made readied him for a collaboration with William Aguet when "Christophe Colomb" was proposed for Radio Lausanne in 1940. "Christophe Colomb" is an ambitious radio-play, scored for 10 actors, an orchestra of 40 musicians, plus a large chorus with soloists. Perhaps it is due to these unusual forces that the piece faded into obscurity after its radio premiere. Through much hard work, Opera Sacra of Buffalo, New York reconstructed Christoph Colomb from the original manuscript and performed it with a new English translation of Aguet's surprisingly astute and politically correct text. [ [http://search2.downtownmusicgallery.com/lookup.cgi?item=2006_03_28_05_44_17 Downtown Music Gallery; "Christophe Colomb"] ]

Classical top ten

As a music critic and member of the WNED music staff, Rawson compiled his "Classical Top Ten" list:
* 1. J.S. Bach: Suite No. 3 in C for unaccompanied ‘cello
* 2. Barber: Knoxville, Summer of 1915
* 3. Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (“Choral”)
* 4. Berlioz: Harold in Italy
* 5. Brahms: Clarinet Quintet
* 6. Dvorak: Cello Concerto
* 7. Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks
* 8. Mozart: Divertimento (String Trio) in E-flat, K. 563
* 9. Schubert: String Quintet in C
*10. Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor

References

Listen to

* [http://external.nobts.classical.com/listen/browser.php?sbid=13&fcls%5B0%5D=SubGenre&fqid%5B0%5D=01b314e7ade9b232809991844b0db71f&fcls%5B0%5D=SubGenre&fnew=0&fp1%5B0%5D=253# "Christophe Columb" with Stratton Rawson as the Magician in the 1992 production of William Aguet's BBC Radio play (1940)]

External links

* [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Apr02/Honneger_colomb.htm MusicWeb International: Rob Barnett review (1992): "Christophe Colomb"]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=uXHWdt729z4C&pg=PA118&lpg=PA118&dq=rawson+%22stratton+rawson%22&source=web&ots=h8TiQouuKW&sig=ylnB7eCtRrMo3nY1gW5hsO_F2V8&hl=en "50 Years of Ghost Movies" by Staci Layne Wilson (2007)]