This Week at The Classical Station
by Chrissy Keuper
Saturday and Sunday, 13-14 September 2025
Welcome to the weekend, All! Here’s some fantastic music to go with all your plans.
This weekend:
Join Peggy Powell at 1pm ET for Saturday On Point, your weekly spotlight on classical music for dancers on the stage. This week, Jacques Offenbach’s Le Papillon.
And join Haydn Jones at 6pm ET for your requests and dedications on the Saturday Evening Request Program.
Here’s the playlist
Make requests and dedications for next week’s programs here
Your sacred Sunday morning starts at 7:30am ET with Sing For Joy from St. Olaf College, followed at 8am ET by James Steelmon with Great Sacred Music, featuring Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K 626, and selections from King David by Arthur Honneger.
And at 6pm ET, Tom Hayakawa will be with you for Preview!, highlighting new and recent classical releases. This week, new recordings from Quatuor Hanson (with clarinetist Arthur Stockel) and Capricornus Consort Basel.
On these dates in the history of classical music:
Maurice Jarre with his lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival, c. 2009. (Photo by Johannes Eisele, Reuters)
French composer and conductor Maurice Jarre was born September 13, 1924 in Lyon. Jarre began his formal studies at the Sorbonne in engineering, but ended up following his heart to the Conservatoire de Paris to study percussion and composition. He was the director of the Théâtre National Populaire when he recorded his first film score in 1951 (for the French film Toute la mémoire du monde by Alain Resnais). A decade later, he was asked to write the score for David Lean’s epic 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, which won Jarre the first of three Academy Awards for Best Original Score and cemented his role as composer for all of Lean’s films, as well as many others (which garnered three BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes, and a Grammy Award, in addition to his Academy Awards). Jarre also wrote music for television and was a proponent of synthesized music, though he ultimately said electronic scores were more difficult and expensive to produce than orchestral scores.
Michael Haydn in a portrait by Franz Xaver Hornöck, 1805. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
And Austrian composer Michael Haydn (younger brother of Josef) was born September 14, 1737 in Rohrau. At age eight, Haydn found himself in Vienna and built a musical career alongside his brother; he was a renowned singer and substitute organist by the age of twelve, often composing and performing his own music. In 1762, he was appointed concertmaster at Salzburg and he stayed in the post for 44 years while composing, teaching (his students included Carl Maria von Weber and Anton Diabelli), and performing. In addition to his instrumental works, Michael Haydn is best known for his sacred vocal music (which his brother Josef felt was superior to his own) and he was a profound influence on the music of his contemporary and friend, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Friday, 12 September 2025
A very Happy Friday to you, Listeners!
Join us for requests and dedications from your fellow listeners on All-Request Friday (and tomorrow on the Saturday Evening Request Program).
Here’s the playlist
Make requests for next week’s shows
On this date in the history of classical music:
John Mauceri in Glasgow, c. 2020. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
A very Happy Birthday to American conductor, composer, and actor John Mauceri, born in New York City in 1945. Mauceri studied music theory and composition at Yale University School of Music, where he made his conducting debut in his senior year and was then appointed to the faculty as music director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra and the school’s opera program. Through his long and legendary career, Mauceri has appeared with most of the world’s great orchestras and in the world’s best-known opera houses and on Broadway. He has been especially focused on preserving American music (particularly Broadway musicals and Hollywood film scores) and has made many historic first recordings of music that was banned by the Nazi regime.
Thursday, 11 September 2025
A good day to you, Listeners!
Come celebrate Friday Eve with Thursday Night Opera House, featuring James Levine conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus, and famed soloists in Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo, a tale of forbidden love and royal responsibilities against a backdrop of political intrigue and religious fervor in 16th-century Spain.
Join Dr. Jay Pierson for the opera at 7pm ET.
On this day in classical music history:
Margaret Tynes, c. 1959. (Photo by Carl Van Vechten – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of legendary American soprano Margaret Tynes in 1919 in Saluda, Virginia. Tynes was considered a prodigy and won her first award for singing (competing against adults) at the age of six. Tynes attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (where she was also crowned Miss A&T, 1939-1940); studied voice at the Juilliard School; and gained a graduate degree in music education at Columbia University. She quickly became a leading soprano, first on Broadway and then in opera houses around the world, including the New York City Opera and the Metropolitan Opera; Wiener Staatsoper, Prague State Opera; and Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and many more. Tynes also performed oratorios and concert pieces for concerts and recitals. She was the first American singer to perform at the Budapest Opera after World War II, and she was among a group of performers assembled by Ed Sullivan and the US State Department to take part in the American National Exhibition in Moscow (USSR) in 1959.
Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Need some wonderful music for your Wednesday? We’ve got it for you, right here.
On this date in the history of classical music:
A portrait of Larry Sitsky by Sister Mary Brady, c. 1971. (National Portrait Gallery, Australia)
A very Happy Birthday to Australian composer and pianist Larry Sitsky, born in Tianjin, China, in 1934. Sitsky studied piano and began composing in his childhood, and continued his studies of both at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music (now Sydney Conservatorium of Music) before winning a scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory. He was on the faculty of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music before using a grant from the Myer Foundation to research Ferruccio Busoni. In 1966, Sitsky was appointed Head of Keyboard Studies at the Canberra School of Music; then served as Head of Musicology and Head of Composition Studies; and is also a founding member and Emeritus Professor of the Australian National University in Canberra. He was also the first Australian invited to the USSR on a cultural exchange visit (1977), and has won many awards for his compositions (including his String Quartet); his opera The Fall of the House of Usher (based on the tale by Edgar Allen Poe) was the first opera performed at the Sydney Opera House in 1973.
Tuesday, 9 September 2025
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On this date in classical music history:
It’s the birthdate of Guatemalan composer Jesús Castillo in San Juan Ostuncalco in 1877. Castillo was the first musician to research Guatemala’s native Quiché culture and folk music, which he incorporated into his orchestral and piano works and his opera, Quiché Vinak. The Orquesta Sinfónica Jesús Castillo (Guatemala’s national youth orchestra) is named for him.
Monday, 8 September 2025
New week: Check.
Great classical music: Check.
Join us right here.
This evening at 7pm ET, join Vince Tillona for Drop the Needle and the warmth of vinyl recordings. This week’s show features Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s final composition, his Symphony No. 6, “Pathetique.”
Then at 8pm ET, Monday Night at the Symphony features recordings of the Warsaw Philharmonic performing works by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Antonín Dvořák (on his birthday) under the direction of Witold Rowicki (who leads the ensemble in Schumann’s Piano Concerto) and Antoni Wit.
On Tuesday, tune in for Classical Café with George Leef for this week’s Legendary Performer:
German-Austrian conductor Carlos Kleiber.
On Wednesday, George will give away tickets (between 11am and noon ET) to North Carolina Opera’s production of Cinderella by Jules Massenet.
On this date in classical music history:
Carlos Sánchez Málaga, date unknown.
It’s the birthdate of Peruvian composer and conductor Carlos Sánchez Málaga in Arequipa in 1904. Málaga was an early student of the piano and attended the San Andrés in La Paz, Bolivia. He was a professor at the city’s Conservatory before moving to Lima to take a position as interim director of the Alcedo Music Academy. In 1932, he co-founded the Bach Music Institute and served as director until 1943, when was named permanent director of the National Academy and received the Luis Duncker Lavalle Prize for the Promotion of Culture. Málaga made it his mission to promote the academy to National Conservatory of Music; set up Regional Music Schools in Arequipa, Trujillo, Piura, and Cuzco; and instituted the first School Choir Competitions. He was director of the Peruvian Navy Bands and was a choir director on Peru’s National Radio. In his spare time, Málaga wrote works for piano; strings; and the voice (including choral arrangements of popular songs and melodies).