This Week at The Classical Station
by Chrissy Keuper
Saturday and Sunday, 8-9 March 2025
Welcome to the weekend, Listeners! We’re honored to spend it with you.
On Saturday, join Peggy Powell at 1pm ET for Saturday On Point, featuring Aram Khachaturian’s ballet Gayne.
And then Haydn Jones has the Saturday Evening Request Program at 6pm ET.
Here’s the playlist, and you can make requests for next week’s programs here.
On Sunday, start your sacred morning with Great Sacred Music and the Cambridge Singers, King’s College Choir, and organist Mark Pacoe, with works by John Rutter, Maurice Durufle, Fredrik Sixten, and more. Our featured work is Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.
Join us at 8am ET, right after Sing for Joy.
At 6pm ET, Tom Hayakawa hosts Preview!, which features Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 8, “Lutzow”, performed on a Baroque-era tangent piano; a choral work by Orlando di Lasso, guaranteed to transport you to the Renaissance era; and more of the latest releases from the classical music world, including a new recording by the Nash Ensemble.
On these dates in classical music history:
Alan Hovhaness (center) with Tatsuo Sasaki (left) and André Kostelanetz (right), c. 1975. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness (born Alan Vaness Chakmakjian) was born March 8, 1911, in Somerville, Massachusetts. At age four, Hovhaness was inspired to write his first composition, a cantata based on a song by Franz Schubert, and he studied piano until his teenage years, when he chose to focus on composition. He wrote two operas while in school at Arlington High School, which were performed at the school. In 1929, he began studies at Tufts University and then the New England Conservatory of Music, where he won the Samuel Endicott prize for composition with his Sunset Symphony (also known as Sunset Saga). Hovhaness was easily one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century, with more than 500 numbered compositions including more than 70 symphonies; overall, he may have written more than a thousand works, as he was also famous for destroying many of his early compositions. Many of his works were inspired by Armenian cultural themes and music, though he was also inspired by many other sources and styles, especially the ragas and other Carnatic music of India and gagaku music of Japan. During his career, Hovhaness taught at the Boston Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music, and he received Guggenheim Fellowships in composition in 1953 and 1954. He gained international fame in 1955 with his Symphony No. 2, Mysterious Mountain, which remains one of his best-known and most beloved compositions.
Jane Antonia Cornish, c. 2021. (Photo by Ms. Cornish – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
And a very Happy Birthday to British composer Jane Antonia Cornish, born March 9, 1975, in Kent. Cornish was an early student of violin, piano, and composition, and she attended the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) and the Royal College of Music (RCM). She’s won the Edward Hecht Composition Prize, the RNCM Composition Prize, and the Associated Board Prize for the Most Outstanding Scholar of the Year; she is a Major Scholar of the RNCM; and she was the first woman to win a British Academy Award (BAFTA) for music (2005). Cornish was also named a member of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (2019).
Friday, 7 March 2025
Happy Friday! We hope it’s been a very good week for you all.
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).
Here are the playlists, and don’t forget to make your requests and dedications for next week.
HEADS-UP: Ticket Giveaway
Next Wednesday (March 12th, between 11am-12pm ET), George Leef will give away a pair of tickets to the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle’s La Vida Breve, the story of Salud, a young Romani woman who is desperately in love. The drama is set to music by Manuel de Falla, with spicy dancing by Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana and songs in Spanish with English supertitles. Join George to win some tickets!
On today’s date in the history of classical music:
Denyce Graves in Washington, D.C., c. 2009. (Photo by Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy – Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
A very Happy Birthday to American mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, born in Washington, D.C., in 1964. Graves graduated from the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in 1981, then studied voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory. She trained with the Wolf Trap Opera Company and the Houston Opera Studio before making her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1995. Graves has also performed in opera houses worldwide, including the Royal Opera House, London, and La Scala, Milan, and in concerts and recitals. She performed in a 2001 national memorial service for the victims of 9/11; for the 2005 U.S. Presidential Inauguration; and in the U.S. Capitol in 2020 when her friend U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lay in state. In 2022, Graves sang in the stage premiere of The Hours (Kevin Puts) with the Metropolitan Opera; her schedule in 2025 includes performances with the Welsh National Opera (WNO) and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. Graves is also founder and Artistic Director of The Denyce Graves Foundation, inspired by singer (and North Carolina native) Mary Cardwell Dawson, founder of the National Negro Opera Company (1941).
Thursday, 6 March 2025
Happy Friday Eve, Listeners!
We hope you’re having a wonderful week, and we thank you for spending it with The Classical Station.
Tomorrow is All-Request Friday (10am-10pm ET), so check out the playlist to see what your fellow listeners have asked to hear, and make your requests and special dedications for next week.
This evening’s Thursday Night Opera House is the 1958 recording of Franco Capuana conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, and astounding soloists in Giacomo Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West). Set against the backdrop of the 1850s California Gold Rush, Minnie (Renata Tebaldi) fights the law to save Dick Johnson, aka the outlaw Ramerrez (Mario del Monaco), the man she loves.
Join Dr. Jay Pierson at 7pm ET for the drama!
On this day in classical music history:
Pretty Yende in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Los Angeles Opera, c. 2015. (Courtesy of prettyyende.com)
A very Happy Birthday to South African soprano Pretty Yende, born in 1985 in Piet Retief, Mpumalanga. Yende grew up in a family that loved to sing; after seeing a television advertisement that featured the famous Flower Duet from the opera Lakmé (Léo Delibes) when she was 16, she was moved to study opera at the South African College of Music (University of Cape Town) and at the Accademia Teatro alla Scala, Milan (where she also performed in her first roles). Yende won prizes in several vocal competitions from 2008 through 2011 (including the Vincenzo Bellini International Competition, 2010). She has performed worldwide in concerts and recitals (including Carnegie Hall), as well as in roles in productions by the Metropolitan Opera; the Theater an der Wien (Vienna); La Scala, Milan; and the Paris Opera. Yende also sang for the 2023 coronation of Charles III and Camilla in Great Britain; had her first performance with the Oper Frankfurt in 2024; and is scheduled for more performances throughout Europe in 2025.
Wednesday, 5 March 2025
A very good day to you all!
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On this date in classical music history:
A very Happy Birthday to Russian pianist and composer Daniil Trifonov, born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1991. Trifonov was a piano student at age five and a student at the Gnessin School of Music at age nine. He went on to further study at the Cleveland Institute of Music and while he was there, he won first prize in the International Tchaikovsky Competition and the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition; was a prizewinner at the International Chopin Piano Competition; and signed a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon (his first album was a live recording of his debut solo recital at Carnegie Hall, which was nominated for a Grammy Award). Trifonov has performed all over the world with many, many orchestras and gives solo recitals, as well. He is regarded as one of the (if not “the”) leading virtuosi of the modern era and is held in the same regard as the most legendary pianists in the history of classical music, and he also composes works for piano, chamber ensemble, and orchestra.