This Week at The Classical Station
by Chrissy Keuper
Saturday and Sunday, 19-20 April 2025
It’s the weekend, Listeners!
Join us for some wonderful music to accompany whatever you have planned.
Here’s what WE have planned:
On Saturday, join Peggy Powell at 1pm ET for Saturday On Point, featuring the orchestral suite from Reinhold Glière’s ballet The Bronze Horseman. Then at 6pm ET, Haydn Jones hosts the Saturday Evening Request Program (until midnight).
On Easter Sunday, Great Sacred Music will feature performances by the Sixteen; the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; and the London Symphony Orchestra, with works by Gustav Mahler; Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Phillip Stopford; and more. Join us at 8am ET, right after Sing for Joy. And tune in at 6pm ET for Preview!, as Tom Hayakawa spotlights some of the most recent recordings in classical music. Eduardo Eguez and La Campagnia del Madrigale perform Three Dances by Albert de Rippe; John Eliot Gardiner directs the English Baroque Soloists in a performance of Handel’s Water Music, Suite Number 1; and you’ll hear Imogen Holst’s Suite for String Orchestra, a work that is rarely performed since its premiere in 1943.
On these dates in the history of classical music:
Germaine Tailleferre, c. 1920. (Photograph from the Tailleferre Collection)
French composer Germaine Tailleferre was born April 19, 1892, just outside of Paris. Tailleferre studied piano with her mother and was an obvious prodigy; she had composed an opera by the time she was nine years old. She was a student at the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 12, where she won counterpoint and harmony competitions and befriended fellow students Darius Milhaud, Georges Auric, and Arthur Honegger (all would later become members of “Les Six”). Tailleferre’s father disapproved of her studies and disowned her, but she managed to support herself as a private music teacher. She wrote more than 170 works for piano; chamber ensemble; voice; and orchestra, as well as incidental music for theatre, radio, and film.
John Eliot Gardiner, c. 2022. (Photo by Sim Canetty Clarke – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
And a very Happy Birthday to English conductor John Eliot Gardiner, born April 20, 1943, in Fontmell Magna, Dorset. Gardiner sang with his family and in a church choir in his childhood, and was largely self-taught as a musician, playing the violin and conducting by the time he was 15 years old. As a student of history at King’s College, Cambridge, he began his formal conducting career with members of what would become the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra (the orchestra changed its name to the English Baroque Soloists in 1978). Gardiner conducted orchestras and ensembles throughout Europe and North America, including the English National Opera; the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; the CBC Vancouver Orchestra; and the Opéra National de Lyon. He founded the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in 1990; was principal conductor of the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra (1991-1995); founded the Constellation Choir and Orchestra in 2024; and he has recorded more than 250 albums with various ensembles and orchestras.
Friday, 18 April 2025
Happy Friday, Listeners!
Tune in to hear what your fellow listeners have chosen for you
on All-Request Friday (10am-10pm ET) and then again tomorrow on the Saturday Evening Request Program (6pm-12am ET).
Check the playlists to see what will play when and make your requests and dedications for next week.
HEADS-UP: Ticket Giveaway
Next Wednesday (April 23rd, between 11am-12pm ET) during Classical Café, George Leef will give away a pair of tickets to Triangle Wind Ensemble’s Voices, a performance of music that expresses the pain of loss, the innocence of childhood, and the resilience of the human spirit. Tune in and win!
On today’s date in classical music history:
Leopold Stokowski, c. 1945. (Photo by Otto Rothschild – Courtesy of Los Angeles Philharmonic Archives)
It’s the birthdate of British-American organist and conductor Leopold Stokowski in London in 1882, one of the most famous conductors of all time and best-known for his long tenure with the Philadelphia Orchestra, his long list of recordings with various orchestras, and his refusal to use a baton when conducting. Stokowski was one of the youngest students to enroll at the Royal College of Music (he was 13 years old) and was a member of Royal College of Organists by the time he was 16. While studying, he also worked as a church organist and choir director in London and attended The Queen’s College, Oxford. Stokowski moved to New York City and was organist and choir director of St. Bartholomew’s Church (1905) before continuing his conducting studies in Paris, where he made his conducting debut in 1909; he took a position as principal conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra later that year. He went on to conduct and record with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony of the Air, and many, many others. He was also the founder of the All-American Youth Orchestra, the New York City Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra and the American Symphony Orchestra. He was exceedingly popular (and controversial) and was a life-long advocate for the works of living composers; at the time, those included Richard Strauss, Jean Sibelius, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Claude Debussy, Alexander Glazunov, Camille Saint-Saëns, and more (he was the only conductor to perform all of Arnold Schoenberg’s orchestral works during the composer’s lifetime).
Thursday, 17 April 2025
A good day to you, Listeners! It’s almost Friday; just hang on and listen to some great classical music.
This week’s Thursday Night Opera House is a 1971 recording of Aldo Ceccato conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; the John Alldis Choir; and astounding soloists in Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata. Violetta (Beverly Sills), a courtesan, and Alfredo (Nicolai Gedda), a nobleman, are in a passionate love affair, but their relationship is in danger due to societal expectations, misunderstandings, and illness. Join Dr. Jay Pierson at 7pm ET to hear how this tragic opera plays out.
And tomorrow is All-Request Friday, so check out the playlist to see what your fellow listeners have chosen for you, tune in to hear all the great music and special dedications, and then make your own requests and special dedications for next week.
On this day in classical music history:
Adophus Hailstork, c. 2022. (Photo by Elman Studio – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
A very Happy Birthday to American composer Adolphus Hailstork III, born in 1941 in Rochester, New York. Hailstork studied violin, piano, organ, and voice, first at Howard University, Washington, D.C., then the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, France, as a student of Nadia Boulanger’s, then the Manhattan School of Music as a student of Vittorio Giannini and David Diamond, and finally Michigan State University, where he received his PhD in composition and had his first teaching job (1969-1971). Hailstork was a professor at Youngstown State University, Ohio, (1971-1976); Composer-in-Residence at Virginia’s Norfolk State University; and professor of music and Composer-in-Residence at Old Dominion University in Virginia. His compositions are blends of African, American, and European musical traditions, and include choral works and songs; compositions for chamber and wind ensembles; orchestral works; and works for solo instruments.
Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Hello, All!
We hope you’re enjoying the week, and that you’re receiving some inspiration from all the great classical music.
Ah, Spring!One of the many wonderful things about coming to work at The Classical Station is the garden that greets us.
We send out a huge THANK YOU to the Wake Forest Garden Club
for maintaining this lovely space for us.
On this date in classical music history:
Federico Mompou, c. 1955. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of Catalan-Spanish pianist and composer Federico Mompou, born in Barcelona in 1893. Mompou began his formal studies in piano at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu, then attended the Conservatoire de Paris, then directed by Gabriel Fauré, who was an early inspiration to the young Mompou; Mompou was nine years old when he first saw Fauré perform. Mompou was extremely shy, which made performance difficult (he would only play for friends and private parties for the rest of his life), so he focused on composition instead. He went home to Barcelona during World War One (1917) and by the time the war was over and he returned to Paris in 1921, Mompou was well-known as a composer and his works were being performed regularly throughout the city’s musical circles. Quite a bit of Mompou’s music remained unpublished and unknown until 2007, when about 80 works were discovered at his home and in the files of the National Library of Catalonia.
Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Good Day, All!
Thank you so much for listening to The Classical Station and for supporting us since 1978.
It’s always time to put in your requests and dedications for All-Request Friday and the Saturday Evening Request Program, and you can do that right here.
On this date in classical music history:
Sir Neville Marriner conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, c. 2015. (Photo by Sarah Lee)
It’s the birthdate of English violinist and conductor Sir Neville Marriner in Lincoln in 1924. Marriner studied violin and conducting at the Royal College of Music in London. He was a member of the second violins of the London Symphony Orchestra, taking the place of those who joined the armed services after the outbreak of the Second World War, and then joined himself in 1941; a kidney condition forced Marriner out of armed service, so he returned to the RCM (he became a professor in 1948) and also attended the Paris Conservatoire. He was a violinist with the Philharmonia Orchestra in the 1950s; was principal second violin with the London Symphony Orchestra; and was one of the London Mozart Players. Marriner founded the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in 1958 (and was musical director until 2011); was the founder and first music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (1969-1978); was music director of the Minnesota Orchestra (1979-1986); was principal conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (1986-1989); and he conducted many other orchestras, including the New York Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic. In 2014, he became the oldest conductor of a Proms concert at age 90. Marriner made more than 600 recordings including more than 2,000 different works, and made the most recordings of any orchestra with one conductor with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. He is regarded as one of the world’s greatest and most famous conductors of all time.
Monday, 14 April 2025
Welcome to the new week, Listeners! Join us all week for great classical music.
Tonight, Monday Night at the Symphony features recordings by the German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra with music by Antonin Dvorak, Robert Schumann and Manuel de Falla, conducted by Pietari Inkinen, Stanislav Skrowaczewski, and Karel Mark Chichon.
Wednesday on Classical Café (April 16th, between 11am-12pm ET), George Leef will give away a pair of tickets to Burning Coal Theatre’s production of Merrily We Roll Along, a Tony Award winner about friendship and the high price of success.
Tune in to win tickets!
On this date in classical music history:
Julian Lloyd Webber, c. 2013. (Photo by Stephen Schowns – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
A very Happy Birthday to British cellist and conductor Julian Lloyd Webber, born in 1951 in London. Lloyd Webber attended the Royal College of Music and studied with Pierre Fournier in Geneva, making his professional debut in 1972 in London. Since then, he has performed and recorded with the world’s greatest orchestras and is a particular champion of new works. He retired from performance in 2014. Lloyd Webber has served as President of the Elgar Society; Principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire; writer and presenter of ‘Classic Cellists at the BBC’ for BBC TV and of ‘Music in the Air: 100 years of Elgar’s Cello Concerto’ for Classic FM; and co-founder of the Music Education Consortium with James Galway and Evelyn Glennie.