Week of January 13, 2025: Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) – A child prodigy later hailed by Liszt as “the greatest organist in the world,” Camille Saint-Saëns led a fascinating life filled to the brim with music. We will sample his five symphonies, five piano concertos, operas, operettas, incidental music, and chamber music, as well as many piano and solo organ works. Bill’s playlist will delight you, including the Carnival of The Animals performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, with solo pianists Claude Frank and Lillian Kallir.

Week of January 20, 2025: Maiden Voyages – Ludwig van Beethoven, Joseph Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn, and Dmitri Shostakovich are titans of music, but, as Bill considers their first symphonic efforts, he reveals the adversities and ordeals of each composer attempting to develop their individual musical voices. Maiden voyages into the deep of music, include Johannes Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, and Symphony No. 1 by Sergei Prokofiev.

Week of January 27, 2025: The Violin Concerto – There is a saying in much of Eastern Europe, “Every child is born with a violin under their pillow.” Parents dream of their child becoming a great violinist, not a doctor or a lawyer as so many do in America. Most composers have written at least one violin concerto hoping to challenge the soloist while creating a work of beauty. We will listen to many of today’s most popular concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jean Sibelius, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and listen to Bill tell the stories of some concertos that were originally rejected by the soloists as being technically unplayable.