This Week at The Classical Station
by Chrissy Keuper & Mark Schreiner
Saturday and Sunday, 21 and 22 February 2026
Ahoy, me mateys! You just know that Saturday afternoons were made for great ballet music. This Saturday, relax with your shipmates at 1pmET for a jaunty musical tale of pirates on Saturdays On Point. Join host Peggy Powell for Le Corsaire, the 19th-century ballet with music by Adolphe Adam, inspired by Lord Byron’s 1814 swashbuckling poem.
This treasure chest of a work is renowned for its opulent, exotic and high-energy music—particularly its famous pas de deux.
It’s a longstanding tradition at The Classical Station that Saturday evenings are programmed by our listeners, and that tradition continues on the Saturday Evening Request Program at 6pmET with host Haydn Jones.
Want to know when your request will be played? Download a copy of the playlist.
Sunday mornings are for the best in sacred music on The Classical Station.
We’ll begin at 7:30amET with Sing for Joy, the best in sacred choral music from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, hosted by the Rev. Alexandra Jacob.
Then, at 8amET, our James Steelmon will host three hours of specially curated Great Sacred Music, with selections spanning the Renaissance to the 20th century, including J.S. Bach’s Cantata BWV 127 (Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott, “Thou who, a God, as man yet come”) and Mozart’s Missa Brevis in F, K. 192.
At 6pmET, join us for Preview! and the best in new and recent classical releases. This week, nocturnes: pieces that evoke the nighttime, and we’ll spotlight nocturnes by John Field (the creator of the nocturne) performed by Alice Sara Ott, and one by Henriette Bosmans, performed by Raphael Wallfisch and Sharron Griffiths.
Thursday, 19 February 2026
Thursday Night Opera House
Dr. Jay’s month-long look at grand opera’s great romantic tragedies continues tonight with Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette.
The opera follows Shakespeare’s tragedy, chronicling the passionate and forbidden love between two young people caught up in the violent feud between their powerful families in 14th-century Verona.
We’ll hear a 1995 RCA Red Seal studio production of Leonard Slatkin conducting the Munich Radio Orchestra and Bavarian Radio Choir.
Read a review of this recording in Interclassical magazine.
Stars include:
- Plácido Domingo, tenor, Roméo
- Ruth Ann Swenson, soprano, Juliet
- Paul Charles Clarke, tenor, Tybalt
- Sarah Walker, mezzo-soprano, Gertrude
The curtain rises at 7:00 pm ET, only on The Classical Station.
Friday, 20 February 2026
Happy Friday, everyone!
Your Requests & Dedications
It’s All-Request Friday, and we’ve got your requests and dedications, served up just the way you like ‘em.
We’ve made it easy to discover when your request will be played. Just download our handy request program playlists. Remember: Request playlists come hot and fresh to you from our never-closes, music-programming bakery, so keep checking the website for the latest updated lists as showtime approaches.
Here’s how to submit a request for the next All-Request Friday.
Intergalactic. Planetary!
This evening, join us as the Classical Station blasts off into space!
The star-stuff happens during our Concert Hall program. At 8:00 p.m. Eastern, you’ll enjoy — in its entirety — Gustav Holst’s The Planets, Op. 36.
(We know you love it. You voted it No. 11 on our list of 100 listener favorites!)
Saturday and Sunday, 21 & 22 February 2026
Le Corsaire
Saturdays On Point
Ahoy, me mateys!
You just know that Saturday afternoons were made for Great Ballet Music. This Saturday, relax with your shipmates at 1:00 pm ET for a jaunty musical tale of pirates!
Join host Peggy Powell for Le Corsaire, the 19th-century ballet with music by Adolphe Adam, inspired by Lord Byron’s 1814 swashbuckling poem.
This treasure chest of a work is renowned for its opulent, exotic and high-energy music—particularly its famous pas de deux.
Saturday Evening Request Program
It’s a longstanding tradition at The Classical Station that Saturday evenings are programmed by our listeners. That tradition continues this Saturday, starting at 6:00 pm Eastern, with host Haydn Jones.Want to know when your request will be played? Download a copy of the playlist.
Great Sacred Music
Johann Sebastian Bach
Sunday mornings are for the best in Great Sacred Music.
We’ll begin at 7:30 am ET with Sing for Joy, a very sweet 30-minute program of the best in sacred choral music from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. The host is the Rev. Alexandra Jacob.
Then, at 8:00 am ET, our James Steelmon will host three hours of specially curated Great Sacred Music, with selections spanning the Renaissance to the 20th century.
At approximately 9:00 am ET, James will play Bach cantata BWV 127 (Herr Jesu Christ, wahr’ Mensch und Gott, “Thou who, a God, as man yet come”). The day’s featured choral work follows: Mozart’s Missa Brevis in F, K. 192.
Monday, 16 February 2026
Welcome to a new week, Listeners! Join us right here for your soundtrack.
Tonight at 7pmET on Drop the Needle, Vince Tillona continues his exploration through our vinyl archive with recordings by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Benjamin Britten.
We’ll hear Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 in E-Flat Major, K. 543, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karl Böhm. Released in 1966 on the Deutsche Grammophon label, the performance — still frequently anthologized — was one part of a celebrated series of recordings of the complete cycle of Mozart symphonies made by Böhm and the Philharmoniker in the 1960s. Watch a video clip of Böhm conducting Mozart’s No. 39.
Then at 8pmET, Monday Night at the Symphony features the Hollywood glitz that only the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra can provide.
Since its founding in 1919, the LA Phil has grown into a global cultural institution. We’ll hear recordings of music by Tchaikovsky, Wagner and more conducted by Carlo Maria Guilini, Erich Leinsdorf and Gustavo Dudamel.
Check this out: Étude in Black, the 1972 episode of Columbo, in which the LA Phil orchestra (and its technicians and staff) appear.
Tomorrow on Classical Café, George Leef profiles his weekly Legendary Performer: Pianist Menahem Pressler.
Vadim Gluzman Photo: Marco Borggreve
And on Wednesday (February 18th) at 11amET, he’ll give away tickets to see violinist Vadim Gluzman with the North Carolina Symphony! More information here.
On this Day in Classical Music History:
The son of composer Eduard “Edi” Strauss, and nephew of “Waltz King” Johann Strauss II — Johann Maria Eduard Strauss III — was born on this day in Vienna in 1866.
Born into the third generation of a family that held in many hearts (especially those of his father and uncle) the deed and title to the very concept of Viennese light classical music, expectations were high, perhaps unreasonably so.
Comparisons were made. His operetta Katze und Maus, for example, was so disliked that some critics suggested he only continue working under a pseudonym to keep the family name untarnished. Even so, as the 20th century dawned, the very Strauss style that brought them fame was becoming old-fashioned. Each day, the Austrian capital was less the Vienna of the Strausses and more the stage for new composers like Franz Lehár. By 1900, things were going so badly that Strauss III’s father moved to dissolve the Strauss Orchestra.
Where history rewards Strauss III is for his decision to invite Deutsche Grammophon microphones into the Theater an der Wien in 1905 for a series of recordings. With Strauss III conducting Strauss Orchestra players and family music, those microphones captured for all time the artistry of the musicians who worked with the Strausses and knew their music best. Listen to similar recordings Strauss III made for the Columbia label.
He died in Berlin in 1939, at the age of 72.