This Week at The Classical Station
by Chrissy Keuper
Thursday, 10 April 2025
It’s Friday Eve, All. Thank you for spending the week with us!
Thursday Night Opera House is a 1997 recording of Antonio Pappano conducting the London Symphony Orchestra; the Philharmonia Orchestra; Tiffin Boys’ Choir; London Voices; and legendary soloists in the three operas that make up Giacomo Puccini’s Il Trittico: Il Tabarro; Suor Angelica; and Gianni Schicchi, each a story about love, loss, and living with both.
Join Dr. Jay Pierson at 7pm ET for gorgeous music and human frailty (and strength).
And tomorrow is All-Request Friday, so tune in to hear all the great music and special dedications,
and then make your own requests and special dedications for next week right here.
On this day in classical music history:
Yefim Bronfman with the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, c. 2024.
A very Happy Birthday to Israeli-American pianist Yefim Bronfman, born in Tashkent in what is now Uzbekistan in 1958 into a family of musicians: his father Naum a concertmaster for a local orchestra; his mother Pauline a pianist; and his older sister Elizabeth a violinist. The family emigrated to Israel in 1973 and Bronfman became a student at the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University and debuted with the Israel Philharmonic in Tel Aviv later that year. In 1976, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1976 and attended the Juilliard School, the Marlboro School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music (he became a citizen in 1989). Bronfman won the Avery Fisher Prize in 1991, and has made many, many recordings with the world’s most-recorded orchestras. He also performs regularly and has quite a busy tour schedule for 2025.
Wednesday, 9 April 2025
Hello, All!
We hope you’re enjoying the week, and that you’re receiving some inspiration from all the great classical music.
On this date in classical music history:
Florence Price, c. 1940. (Photo by George Nelidoff – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of American composer Florence Price in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1888. She received her earliest music lessons from her mother, who taught music, and Price was 11 when she published her first composition. She graduated from a catholic school at age 14 (she was valedictorian) and then studied organ, composition, counterpoint, and piano pedagogy at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she wrote her first string trio and her first symphony and graduated with a performance diploma in organ and a teaching certificate. Price taught music in Arkansas and then Atlanta, Georgia, where she was named head of music at a historically Black college that is now Clark Atlanta University. She eventually settled and flourished in Chicago, Illinois (until her death in 1953), and her work was a major component of the Chicago Black Renaissance. She was the first African-American woman to be credited as a composer and the first to have a composition performed by a major orchestra. Price composed more than 300 works, including four symphonies; several concertos; chamber music and music for solo instruments; and choral works and art songs. It wasn’t until 2009 that the true breadth of her work was realized, when most of her works and papers were found in a house where her family had spent their summers.
Tuesday, 8 April 2025
A very good day to all of you!
Thank you so much for listening to The Classical Station and for supporting us since we went on the air in 1978. It is such an honor to play great classical music for you, all day long, every day.
(And saying more about great classical music:
Get those requests and dedications in for All-Request Friday and the Saturday Evening Request Program!)
On this date in classical music history:
Portrait of Giuseppe Tartini, c. 1770s. (Artist unknown – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of Venetian violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini in 1692 in Pirano (now Piran, Slovenia). Tartini studied violin and music as part of his preparation to become a Franciscan friar; he also studied law at the University of Padua. In 1721, Tartini was named Maestro di Cappella at Padua’s Basilica di Sant’Antonio and was also a Kapellmeister in Prague from 1723-1725. He was apparently the first owner of a violin made by Antonio Stradivari (which was eventually given to violinist Karol Lipiński and is thus known as the Lipinski Stradivarius). Tartini began a violin school in Padua in 1726, which attracted students from all over Europe; he taught violin, harmony, and music theory. He was a prolific composer, especially for the violin, and he wrote more than a hundred pieces for the violin, mostly concerti; his best-known work is his Violin Sonata in G Minor, the Devil’s Trill Sonata. He also wrote some sacred works, including a Miserere and a Stabat Mater; some trio sonatas; and a sinfonia.
Monday, 7 April 2025
It’s a brand new, fresh, unassuming week. Let’s have a good one, and fill it with great classical music.
First, we want to thank you from the bottom of our music-loving hearts for showing your support over the last week-and-some and donating to The Classical Station. We honor your committment to OUR committment to making this wonderful music available to listeners all over the world. You’re the BEST!
Tonight’s Monday Night at the Symphony features recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Meet us at the symphony at 8pm ET.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) on Classical Café, George Leef presents his weekly Legendary Performer feature. This week it’s conductor and composer Yevgeny Svetlanov.
And on Wednesday (April 9th, between 11am-12pm ET) during Classical Café, George will give away a pair of tickets to the North Carolina Symphony’s performance of Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, Op. 36, each variation depicting one of Elgar’s acquaintances, friends, or family members. Tune in to win tickets for the performance of this classic work, along with Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, “Unfinished Symphony,” and Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss.
On this date in classical music history:
Leif Ove Andsnes. (Photo by Helge Hansen, Sony Music Entertainment – Courtesy of leifoveandsnes.com)
A very Happy Birthday to Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes in 1970 in Karmøy; Andsnes studied at the Bergen Music Conservatory and made his debuts with the Oslo Philharmonic (1987 and 1989) and then the Cleveland Orchestra (1990). He is a specialist in the works of Edvard Grieg and has made lots of recordings of other composers’ works as well, both as a soloist and with the world’s most renowned orchestras. Andsnes is an Artistic Adviser and gives masterclasses at Bergen’s Prof. Jirí Hlinka Piano Academy. Among his many awards and lauds: he was named a Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav; is a recipient of the Peer Gynt Prize; was the youngest musician and first Scandinavian (2004-05) to curate Carnegie Hall’s “Perspectives” series; was the subject of the 2015-16 London Symphony Orchestra’s Artist Portrait Series; was Pianist-in-Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic and Artist-in-Residence of the New York Philharmonic and Sweden’s Gothenburg Symphony; and received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award, the Gilmore Artist Award, and eight Gramophone Classical Music Awards.