Classical Music Playlist, December 3, 2024Nicknamed for the rolling timpani that opens the work, the "Drumroll" Symphony No. 103 by Haydn is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 13, 2024In celebration of today’s 1655 birthday of Johann Christoph Denner, the man credited with inventing the clarinet, we’ll play the Johannes Brahms Clarinet Quintet for today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 12, 2024The Piano Concerto in F-Sharp Major by English composer Sir Hubert Parry that won both rave reviews and descriptions as “avant-garde” at its 1880 premiere is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 9, 2024Celtic influences colored much of the early music of English composer Arnold Bax. Later, Nordic moods inspired him, and both intermingle in his 1932 Symphony No. 5, today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 8, 2024Written with opportunities for the soloist to show off their skillful technique and poetic lyricism, the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Frédéric Chopin is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 7, 2024Leader and mentor to a group of young composers that he directed to create a distinctly Russian national music, the Symphony No. 1 by Mily Balakirev is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 6, 2024A symphony’s worth of musical ideas are condensed into the single movement Symphony No. 7 by Jean Sibelius, today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 5, 2024Robert Schumann’s only Violin Concerto, written just before his permanent admission to a sanitarium in 1854 and the manuscript kept from the public for over 80 years until 1937, is today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 2, 2024Well-crafted and demanding of the soloist (and featuring the unusual beginning of a minute-and-a-half piano solo), the popular Piano Concerto No. 2 by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, August 1, 2024Composed after threatening Soviet critiques of his music, the Symphony No. 5 by Dmitri Shostakovich was a triumphant success and pleased Soviet officials, critics and the public and became his most popular symphony. It’s today's Midday Masterpiece.
Classical Music Playlist, July 31, 2024With subtle hints of ragtime and jazzy syncopation popular in 1931, the Symphony No. 2 by American composer Randall Thompson is today’s Midday Masterpiece.
