Classical Music Playlist, June 17, 2026“The Spider’s Feast” by French composer Albert Roussel is a pantomime-ballet that depicts insects in a garden, with a spider in its web as the centerpiece. It’s today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, October 22, 2025With two contemplative middle movements that reflect the sad year he had while composing it, the Piano Trio No. 2 by Robert Schumann begins and ends in cheerful moods. It’s today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, October 21, 2025Tchaikovsky found in the “Suite” format a freedom to compose in different styles within the same piece unlike the more restrictive conventions of a “Symphony.” Tchaikovsky’s “Suite No. 2” is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, October 20, 2025Danish composer Niels Gade wrote his Symphony No. 5 as a birthday gift for his wife. It’s an unusual symphony in that it features a piano. It’s today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, October 17, 2025Autumn is a great time to get married so maybe find some inspiration for a harvest-themed ceremony in the “Rustic Wedding Symphony” by Hungarian composer Karl Goldmark, today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, October 16, 2025With its evocations of snow-covered mountains, sleigh rides on starry nights and summer scenes, the arctic Lapland region is depicted in the Symphony #3 by Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger for today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, October 15, 2025Finnish composer & clarinetist Bernhard Crusell was very proud of his Clarinet Concerto No. 2, the written score of it is even included in a painted portrait of him. It’s today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, October 14, 2025Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 7, written for Soviet Children’s Radio but with an underlying sense of melancholy as he endured financial distress, illness and his own death, is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, October 13, 2025A free-form composition in which the “dumka” musical form is exploited into both brooding and cheerful territories, the Piano Trio No. 4, “Dumky,” by Antonín Dvořák is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, October 10, 2025The final symphony by one of the most important figures in the musical life of late 1700s Vienna, Czech composer Pavel Vranický, is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, October 9, 2025French composer Camille Saint-Saëns was born on this date in 1835. To mark his birthday today, the classic 1959 recording from the Boston Symphony Orchestra of his “Organ” Symphony No. 3 is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
