Classical Music Playlist, June 19, 2026With "Autochthonous" defined as ”indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists,” the “Autochthonous” Symphony No. 4 by William Grant Still that depicts the American people and our fusion of musical cultures is today's Midday Masterpiece
Classical Music Playlist, August 29, 2025Robert Schumann depicts the Rhineland landscape, folk songs and Cologne’s gothic Cathedral in his “Rhenish” Symphony No. 3 in a period instrument performance for today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 28, 2025For the most part, French composers wrote ballet and opera until the late 1800s when some began to compose symphonies. In 1890, Ernest Chausson wrote his only symphony. It’s today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 27, 2025In 1905, the same year he retired from the Paris Conservatory after 34 years, French composer Théodore Dubois wrote his Quintet for Piano, Oboe and String Trio. It’s today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 26, 2025American conductor David Robertson said of Vassily Kalinnikov’s Symphony No. 1, “Anyone who likes Tchaikovsky — anyone — is going to adore this symphony on first hearing.” It’s today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 25, 2025In his Concierto de Aranjuez, Joaquín Rodrigo evoked the gardens at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez in Spain: “the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds and the gushing of fountains” that he sensed as a blind man. It’s today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 22, 2025The 1915 Symphony No. 2 by Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar, recorded in 1983 by the orchestra to whom he dedicated it, is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 21, 2025The romantic String Quartet No. 2 by Alexander Borodin that he composed as a 20th anniversary gift for his wife and recalls their courtship is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 20, 2025Drama, sparkle, romance and pageantry fill Alexander Glazunov’s Symphony No. 5, today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 19, 2025Performed on a darker-toned and lower-pitched basset clarinet of Mozart’s time, his Clarinet Concerto in A — his final instrumental composition — is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 18, 2025Composed as a demonstration of how American composers can create a uniquely “American” sounding classical music, in 1893 Czech composer Antonín Dvořák composed his Symphony No. 9 “From the New World.” It’s today’s Midday Masterpiece.
