This Week at The Classical Station
by Chrissy Keuper
Saturday and Sunday, August 3-4, 2024
Welcome to the weekend, Classical Music Lovers!
Painting of Igor Stravinski by Jacques-Émile Blanche, c. 1915.
Tune in Saturday at 6pm ET for the Saturday Evening Request Program to see what other listeners have chosen for our playlist. We love to hear your favorite music, so make your requests for next week!
On Sunday’s Great Sacred Music, performances by the English Concert Choir & Orchestra; the Chamber Choir of Europe; and organist Benjamin Sheen with works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and more. Our featured work this week is Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. Join Mick Anderson for Great Sacred Music every Sunday at 8am ET, right after Sing for Joy.
The Frahm-Lewis Trio: Noah Turner Rogoff (cello); Ting-Lan Chen (violin); and Nathan Buckner (piano).
Preview! highlights many new releases in the world of classical music. This week, Rob Kennedy speaks with the Frahm-Lewis Trio about their latest recording, La morte di Dussek. Join us every Sunday at 6pm ET for the latenew releases and interviews on Preview!
On these days in classical music history:
Émile Berliner working on a gramophone disc, c. 1910. (Photo from Les Archives du Musée des ondes Émile-Berliner – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
German-American inventor Emil Berliner died August 3, 1929, in New York, New York. Berliner’s inventions were major contributions to the history of music, at large. He invented the first prototype of the microphone (1877) with the carbon microphone, which was used in the first telephones made by Alexander Graham Bell. In 1875, Bell invented an electromagnetic microphone that could transmit speech, but it wasn’t commercially practical; he bought Berliner’s patent for $50,000. Thomas Edison also had a patent claim, leading to a 15-year legal battle over the rights. Berliner also invented the lateral-cut flat disc record, otherwise known as the “gramophone record,” used with a gramophone, and founded the United States Gramophone Company (1894); the Gramophone Company in London, England (1897); Deutsche Grammophon in Hanover, Germany (1898); and Berliner Gram-o-phone Company of Canada in Montreal (1899). In 1925, he invented an acoustic tile for use in auditoriums and concert halls. Where would classical music be without these inventions?
William Schuman teaching a class at Sarah Lawrence College, c. 1940. (From the Schuman Family Archives – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
American composer William Howard Schuman was born August 4, 1910, in New York, New York. Shuman played banjo and violin in his childhood, then went to business school. After seeing Arturo Toscanini conduct the New York Philharmonic in a 1930 concert at Carnegie Hall, Shuman dropped out of his business studies and took up composition at Malkin University. He wrote songs with lyricist Frank Loesser; trained at the Juilliard School of Music; taught at Sarah Lawrence University (1935-1945) was eventually appointed president of Juilliard (1945-1962); established the Juilliard String Quartet (1946); became president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (1962-1969); and then entered the private sector as chair of the board of Videorecord Corporation of America (1970). Schuman wrote symphonies, concerti, and other orchestral works; string quartets; ballets; an opera and other choral works; and remained a lifelong devotee of baseball. He also won the first Pulitzer Prize for Music (1943) for his Cantata No. 2, A Free Song.
Thank you for listening and for supporting The Classical Station. Enjoy your weekend!
Friday, August 2, 2024
Hello, Listeners!
It’s All-Request Friday! Tune in all day today (and tomorrow for the Saturday Evening Request Program) to hear what your fellow listeners have chosen for the playlist, and make your requests for next week!
Pianists Marina Lomazov and Joseph Rackers.
Join George Leef during Classical Café between 11am and 12pm ET on Wednesday August 7th for your chance to win a pair of tickets courtesy of the Vivace Music Foundation and the Vivace International Music Festival! The Festival’s finale is a Piano Extravaganza on August 10 at 7:30pm ET at the Wilson Center. Pianists Marina Lomazov and Joseph Rackers highlight the finale with Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals arranged for two pianos and chamber orchestra. Tune in to win!
On this date in classical music history:
The last photo of Enrico Caruso, just a few days before his death at the Hotel Vesuvio in Naples. c. 1921. (Photo by R. Carbone – Courtesy of Library of Congress)
Italian tenor and opera megastar Enrico Caruso died at the Hotel Vesuvio in Naples in 1921 at the age of 48. When he was a child, Caruso helped support his family as a street singer specializing in Neapolitan folk songs and he didn’t have any formal music training until age 18 when he began studying under Guglielmo Vergine. He made his opera debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples in 1894, within three years of beginning his training. Caruso quickly became a complete sensation in the opera world and was asked to perform in Moscow and St. Petersburg; in Buenos Aires; in Milan and Monte Carlo; then in London and New York. His American debut with the Metropolitan Opera was on opening night in 1903 and he opened every season with the Met (36 roles and 607 performances) until December of 1920. According to his son, Enrico Caruso, Jr., an on-stage injury during a performance early that month may have led to his death the next year: A piece of scenery fell and hit Caruso on the back, near his left kidney, during a performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah.
And it’s the anniversary of the first festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music (founded in 1922), which began on this date in Salzburg, Austria, in 1923. The festival featured music by Alban Berg, Béla Bartók, Arnold Schoenberg, Serge Prokofiev, Leoš Janáček, and many, many others. What a festival! See the program here.
We love classical music and we love our listeners. Consider a gift of support if you are a listener of The Classical Station but haven’t yet made the leap to being a member. A donation of any amount is certainly appreciated and goes a long way toward keeping us on the air, sounding fantastic, and updating our music library. You’ll be supporting the music you love AND public radio, at the same time! (And those are just two of the benefits of membership.) We thank you for the support and for listening. Enjoy the day!
Thursday, August 1, 2024
A very good day to you, Classical Music Lovers!
On this week’s episode of Thursday Night Opera House:
Giuseppe Sinopoli conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in this 1984 recording of Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (1893). It’s Puccini’s version (1893) of the story outlined by Jules Massenet in Manon (1884), which we heard last week: Manon (Mirella Freni) is bound for a life in a convent, but she falls in love with the dashing Chevalier des Grieux (Placido Domingo) and tragedy ensues. Join Dr. Jay Pierson for the passion and the drama of opera, every Thursday at 7pm ET.
On this date in the history of classical music:
Henri Adrien Marie Verbrugghen, c. 1920. (Unknown photographer, State Library of New South Wales – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Belgian-American violinist, conductor, and composer Henri Verbrugghen was born August 1, 1873, in Brussels. Verbrugghen studied with Jenő Hubay and Eugène Ysaÿe at the Brussels Conservatorium and toured England and Scotland with Ysaÿe, giving recitals throughout England and eventually settling in Scotland, where he joined the Scottish Orchestra (1893); became leader and deputy-conductor (1902); chief violin professor at the Athenaeum, Glasgow, and conductor of the Glasgow Choral Union (1911). Just a few years later, government officials in Australia appointed Verbrugghen director of the brand-new New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music in Sydney (1915), and he formed the New South Wales State Orchestra. But conflicts over his salary led to his resignation (1921) and he emigrated to the U.S., where he guest-conducted the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra (now the Minnesota Orchestra). He was so popular that the MSO appointed him music director and his tenure (1923-32) included the orchestra’s first recordings and radio broadcasts.
Benjamin Britten, c. 1968. (Photo by Hans Wild, for London Records – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
And on this date in 2004, a previously unpublished work by British composer Benjamin Britten made its world premiere at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Organist Timothy Bond performed Britten’s Voluntary on Tallis’s Lamentations (1940), written while Britten was living in New York. The manuscript for that piece and other unpublished works (the music for the play They Walk Alone, and two pieces for organ) were found in Britten’s home in Suffolk, England, after his death.
Tomorrow is All-Request Friday, so tune in to hear what great music your fellow listeners have chosen for our day. Our request shows are weekly, so if there’s anything special you want to hear (and anyone special you’d like to dedicate it to), we want to know! Make your requests here for All-Request Friday and the Saturday Evening Request Program.
And thank you as always for listening to The Classical Station, and for supporting public radio AND great classical music.
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Hello, Listeners!
We’ve been hearing from quite a few of you via our social media pages and we love it. Keep reaching out to us on Facebook, Instagram, and X, and remind your friends that if they love classical music, we’re here for them. They can listen to our FM signal on these stations in areas of NC, VA, WV, MO, and MI, or online wherever they may be.
On today’s date in classical music:
Ignacio Cervantes, c. 1900. (Photo from La Trova Tradicional Cubana by Dulcila Cañizares (1992) – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Cuban pianist, composer, and conductor Ignacio Cervantes was born in 1847 in Havana and is generally thought of as the leading Cuban composer of the 19th century. The early piano prodigy was a student of Juan Miguel Joval, Nicolás Ruiz Espadero, and Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who encouraged Cervantes to attend the Conservatoire de Paris. Cervantes followed Gottschalk’s advice, studying under Antoine François Marmontel and Charles-Valentin Alkan. He was awarded first prizes in composition (1866) and harmony (1867) and went on to write compositions for piano, orchestral works, and operas and zarzuelas, all highlighting native Cuban music and melodies. He toured extensively in the U.S. and in Mexico, where he lived while in political exile until returning to Cuba in 1900.
Reinhard Goebel, c. 2016. (Photo by Christa Bleier – Courtesy of Van Magazine)
And today is the birthday of German violinist, conductor, and musicologist Reinhard Goebel, born in Siegen in 1952. Goebel founded the groundbreaking early-music ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln in 1973. In 1990, he began to notice he had a form of focal dystonia which caused partial paralysis of his left hand. He began holding and fingering his violin with his right hand while bowing with his left and played that way until 2001, while continuing to direct the ensemble. He gave up the instrument entirely in 2006 to focus on conducting and the group disbanded in 2009. He continues to conduct orchestras and chamber groups large and small, including Berliner Barock Solisten, which he has headed since 2018.
Watch this space later this week for information about another ticket giveaway, courtesy of the Vivace Music Foundation and the Vivace International Music Festival!
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Tuesday, July 30, 2024
A very good day to you, Listeners!
Join George Leef during Classical Café tomorrow, Wednesday, July 31, between 11am and 12pm Eastern for a chance to win a pair of tickets courtesy of the Vivace Music Foundation and the Vivace International Music Festival! Pianist Marc-André Hamelin and violinist James Ehnes will team up for a program of Szymanowski, Fauré, and Beethoven on August 3 at 7:30pm Eastern at the Wilson Center in Wilmington, NC. Tune in to win! (Good luck.)
Tell us about your favorite music! Put in your requests for All-Request Friday and the Saturday Evening Request Program and be the DJ for your fellow listeners.
On today’s date in the history of classical music:
George Szell, c. 1965. (Photo by Joop van Bilsen for ANEFO – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
This date marks the death of pianist, conductor, and composer George Szell in 1970 in Cleveland, Ohio. Szell was born in Budapest, Hungary, and was an early piano prodigy. He began conducting with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra when he was 16. When he was 18, Richard Strauss appointed Szell to the staff of the Berlin State Opera (1915); he went on to conduct in opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe, the U.S., and the Soviet Union. When war broke out again in Europe in 1939, Szell settled in the U.S. permanently. He conducted the Metropolitan Opera from 1942 until 1946, then became a naturalized citizen and was appointed musical director of the Cleveland Orchestra. Szell led, toured, and recorded with the CO until his death, and he remains a legendary part of the orchestra’s history.
You can hear many legendary musicians when you listen to great classical music on The Classical Station. Your support sustains our ability to broadcast and stream, it helps us keep our music library stocked with the best music in the world, and as a member of WCPE, you have a stake in our mission to educate and improve lives with classical music. We thank you so much for your support over the years.
Monday, July 29, 2024
Join George Leef during Classical Café this Wednesday, July 31, between 11am and 12pm Eastern for a chance to win a pair of tickets courtesy of the Vivace Music Foundation and the Vivace International Music Festival! Pianist Marc-André Hamelin and violinist James Ehnes will team up for a program of Szymanowski, Fauré, and Beethoven on August 3 at 7:30pm Eastern at the Wilson Center in Wilmington, NC. Tune in to win!
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.
This week, Monday Night at the Symphony features the Philadelphia Orchestra, founded in 1900. The program includes music by Camille Saint-Saens, Sergei Rachmaninov, Joaquin Rodrigo and more, conducted by Eugene Ormandy and current Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. There will be a special performance by guitarist and composer, John Williams. Join us for the concert at 8pm Eastern.
On today’s date in the history of classical music:
Portrait of pianist and professor at Saint-Petersburg Conservatory, Sophie Menter by Ilya Repin, c. 1887. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Pianist, composer, and teacher Sophie Menter was born in 1846 in Munich, Germany. When she was 15, she gave her first public performance with Franz Lachner conducting Carl Maria von Weber‘s Konzertstück for Piano and Orchestra. She toured extensively throughout Europe. During her performances of Franz Liszt’s piano works at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, she met the composer and became his protégé. Liszt referred to her as his “piano daughter.” She was also good friends with Pyotr Tchaikovsky (you can read some of their letters to each other here). Menter was made an honorary fellow of the London Philharmonic Society in 1883 and was a professor of piano at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory from 1883 to 1886, but left to continue performing.
Mikis Theodorakis in Paris, c. 1967. (Photo by ANEFO – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
And it’s the birthdate of Greek composer and lyricist Mikis Theodorakis in 1925 on the island of Chios. Theodorakis is credited with more than 1,000 compositions and is most well-known for his film scores to Zorba the Greek and Serpico. He began composing in his youth without access to musical instruments and was a soldier before becoming a music student, fighting in the Greek People’s Liberation Army against the British in 1944-45 and in the Greek Civil War from 1946-49. He was arrested, exiled, and tortured, and remained an important political figure in Greece for the rest of his life.