Classical Music Playlist, June 2, 2023From her new album, “Childhood Tales,” pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason is the soloist in Ernst von Dohnányi’s orchestral “Variations on a Nursery Song” for today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, June 1, 2023A new release of the Florence Price Violin Concerto No. 1 from 1939 with the Philadelphia Orchestra and violinist Randall Goosby is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, May 31, 2023The premiere of the Symphony No. 1 by 23 year old Sergei Rachmaninoff was so poorly performed it psychologically broke him. After his death the symphony was hailed a triumph. It’s today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, May 30, 2023Written originally for Minnie “Maud” Powell, a champion of music by African-American and female composers, the Violin Concerto in G-minor by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, May 29, 2023For Memorial Day and including his 1942 “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Aaron Copland’s stirring and heroic Symphony #3 that he wrote to reflect the euphoric mood of the country at the end of WW2 is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, May 26, 2023"The Forsaken Merman" by English composer Ernest Farrar is based on a poem about a merman's mortal wife who returns to land and forsakes her family despite her tears for doing so. It’s today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, May 25, 2023Inspired by tales of the Arabian Nights, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s entire 45-minute “Scheherazade” is today’s colorful Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, May 24, 2023The Viola Concerto by 26 year old William Walton that established him as a leading British composer is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, May 23, 2023What was originally a Serenade for the celebrations of a family friend’s enoblement, months later Mozart reworked into his Symphony #35, the “Haffner” Symphony. It’s today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, May 22, 2023Antonín Dvořák found writing his Piano Quartet No. 2 very easy going, with “melodies coming to me in droves.” It’s today’s Midday Masterpiece with the Emerson String Quartet joined by pianist Menahem Pressler who just passed away on May 6th.
