This Week at The Classical Station
by Chrissy Keuper
Saturday and Sunday, 26-27 April 2025
We’re here all weekend with great classical music to accompany all of your plans!
Saturday:
Peggy Powell is your guide for Saturday On Point at 1pm ET with Adolphe Adam’s ballet La Filleule des Fées (The Fairies’ Goddaughter). Then, join Haydn Jones at 6pm ET for the Saturday Evening Request Program. (Here’s the playlist; make requests for next week’s programs here.)
Sunday:
This week’s Great Sacred Music includes stunning performances by the Harvard University Choir; Gloriae Dei Cantores, and Kathleen Battle with works by William Byrd; Gustav Mahler; Traditional Russian Orthodox chants; and more. Join us at 8am ET, right after Sing for Joy.
And at 6pmET, Preview! will feature I Bassifondi performing 4 guitar works by Francesco Corbetta; Clarinet Concerto No. 1 by Carl Maria von Weber; and violinist Stephanie Gonley and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. Join Tom Hayakawa for the best in new classical releases.
On these dates in the history of classical music:
Esteban Sánchez (Date & photographer unknown)
Spanish pianist Esteban Sánchez was born April 26, 1934, in Orellana la Vieja. Sánchez studied with his grandfather, a local choirmaster, and then attended the Real Conservatorio in Madrid and furthered his studies in Rome and Paris. He won numerous performance awards and released his first recording at the age of 20, then spent more than 20 years performing and recording. In 1978, Sánchez returned to Madrid to teach at the Badajoz Conservatoire. He remains mostly unknown outside of Spain, though in musical circles he was considered a genius.
Igor Oistrakh, left, and Yehudi Menuhin at the Royal Festival Hall, London, c. 1989. (Photo by Reuters, Alamy – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Soviet-Russian violinist Igor Oistrakh was born in Odessa on April 27, 1931, and began studying violin at age six with his father and other teachers. Oistrakh was 12 when he enrolled in Moscow’s Central Music School, Moscow, and 17 when he won the International Violin Competition in Budapest and enrolled in the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, winning the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in 1952 and joining the faculty of the Conservatory in 1958. Oistrakh taught and toured internationally until his death in 2021.
Friday, 25 April 2025
Happy Friday, Listeners!
It’s All-Request Friday (10am-10pm ET) and then we’ll play your favorites and dedications again tomorrow on the Saturday Evening Request Program (6pm-12am ET).
Want to see what’s on the list?
Want to make requests and dedications for next week?
HEADS-UP: Ticket Giveaway
Next Wednesday (April 30th, between 11am-12pm ET) during Classical Café, George Leef will give away a pair of tickets to Cary Ballet Company’s full-length production of the ballet Coppélia by Léo Delibes. Dr. Coppélius has built Coppélia, a mechanical doll that is so lifelike that she fools the inventor’s fellow villagers, including Franz who is captivated by her beauty. But Franz’s fiancée Swanhilda schemes to reveal the truth and reclaim his love.
Tune in to win tickets to see this classic ballet!
On today’s date in the history of classical music:
Scott Yoo with the Mexico City Philharmonic, c. 2016. (Photo by Milton Martínez, CDMX – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
A very Happy Birthday to Korean-American violinist and conductor Scott Yoo, born in 1971 in Tokyo, Japan. Yoo grew up in Connecticut, was taking violin lessons at age three, and soloed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at age twelve before studying at the Juilliard School of Music and winning various competitions. He is a founder of the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra and has conducted and recorded with orchestras worldwide, including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; the San Francisco, Colorado, Indianapolis, Utah, and New World Symphonies; the London Symphony Orchestra; the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; and the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra. Yoo is also the host and executive producer of the PBS program Now Hear This (Great Performances).
Thursday, 24 April 2025
We’ve made it. It’s Friday Eve.
To celebrate, join us for **Thursday Night Opera House, featuring a 1976 recording of Yves Abel conducting l’Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, le Chœur de l’Opéra de Bordeaux, and legendary soloists performing Jules Massenet’s Thaïs. A monk, Athanaël (Thomas Hampson), attempts to convert a courtesan, Thaïs (Renee Fleming), to Christianity, only to find himself falling in love with her. Tune in at 7pm ET for forbidden passion and astounding music.
** An archival broadcast recording by late host Al Ruocchio
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.
On this day in classical music history:
György Kósa, c. 1927. (Photographer unknown – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of Hungarian composer György Kósa in Budapest in 1897. Kósa was ten years old when he began music studies with composer Béla Bartók; he then attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music as a composition and piano student. During World War One, Kósa was a répétiteur for the Hungarian State Opera. After the war, he gave performance tours in Europe and North Africa and worked as a pit orchestra conductor in a few theaters in Tripoli, Libya before returning to Budapest in 1927 as a professor of piano at the Franz Liszt Academy. Kósa taught at the academy for many years as he composed operas, ballets, orchestral and chamber music, and works for voice.
Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Hello, Listeners!
We hope you’re having a good week and enjoying all the great classical music.
On this date in the history of classical music:
Violet Gordon Woodhouse at Folkington Manor, c. 1900. (Photographer unknown – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of British keyboardist Violet Gordon-Woodhouse (née Violet Kate Eglinton Gwynne) in London in 1872. Gordon-Woodhouse began musical studies on the piano, but she ultimately specialized as a harpsichordist and clavichordist and is claimed to be the first person to make a recording playing the harpsichord. Gordon-Woodhouse was a major musical figure in her time and only performed privately for friends and select groups. Her repertoire was largely based in early music, though she also performed works by more contemporary composers, including Frederick Delius, who dedicated a work for harpsichord to her.
Tuesday, 22 April 2025
A very good day to you all! Thank you for listening and for supporting The Classical Station.
On this date in classical music history:
Kathleen Ferrier (front) & Louise de Vries in Orfeo & Eurydice, c. 1949. (Photo: ANEFO – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
It’s the birthdate of English contralto Kathleen Ferrier in 1912 in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Ferrier was an early and talented pianist and won competitions while she supported herself as a telephonist with the General Post Office. She didn’t begin formally training as a singer until her 20s; she entered and won a competition at the Carlisle Festival in 1937, which opened up opportunities to train and perform. Ferrier was recruited by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts during World War Two and that was the true beginning of her professional career; she performed in recitals and concerts nationwide throughout and following the war. She was also a regular performer for BBC radio broadcasts. Ferrier made her stage debut in 1946 at the Glyndebourne Festival in Benjamin Britten’s opera The Rape of Lucretia. Ferrier was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1951, at the height of her fame; her final public appearance was in 1953, just a few months before her death.
Monday, 21 April 2025
Hello, All! Come and join us for all the Great Classical Music.
Tonight, Monday Night at the Symphony features the Philharmonia Orchestra with music by Johannes Brahms, Edward Elgar, and Gioachino Rossini, and includes a performance by pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja. We’ll see you at the symphony at 8pm ET.
Tuesday on Classical Café, join George Leef for his Legendary Performer; this week it’s French conductor Paul Paray.
And on Wednesday, (April 23th, between 11am-12pm ET), George 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.
On this date in classical music history:
Randall Thompson composing in Gstaad, Switzerland, c. 1967. (Photo inscribed to Joel Cohen, director of Camerata Mediterranea and director emeritus of The Boston Camerata)
It’s the birthdate of American composer Randall Thompson in 1899 in New York City. Thompson attended Harvard University before becoming assistant professor of music and choir director at Wellesley College and receiving his doctorate at University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. He went on to teach at the Curtis Institute of Music (and served as director in 1941-1942); at the University of Virginia; and at Harvard University. Thompson is particularly noted for his many choral and vocal works, but he also wrote three symphonies. He was also the first recipient of the University of Pennsylvania Glee Club Award of Merit in 1964.