WFMT collaborates with the Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation and Indiana University piano professor Alexander Toradze this month to explore the breadth and depth of composer/pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff. The great Russian musician's grandson Alexander Rachmaninoff has also personally curated many of the special recordings we'll hear throughout the month. WFMT will feature recordings from Rachmaninoff's own collection – some of them no longer commercially available. Professor Toradze and several of his prized students will join us on the afternoons of February 25-27 in our Fay and Daniel Levin Studio for live Rachmaninoff performances. And on February 21 at 4pm, producer and host Jon Tolansky presents Sergei Rachmaninoff: The Path to Eternity. It's the colorful, moving and often dramatic life story of the great composer and pianist revealed through the words of his grandson, friends, relatives, scholars and a wide array of world-class musicians. You can read Jon Tolansky's essay by clicking on the third link below.
Two Lyric Opera premieres this month! Lyric's first-ever Damnation of Faust by Berlioz, and the beloved The Marriage of Figaro. That's Berlioz, Saturday, Feb 20 at 7:15pm and Mozart, Sunday, February 28 at 1:45pm
Berlioz
Celebrating Scott Joplin
WFMT honors an American original with Scott Joplin: A Radio Play, featuring his ragtime compositions for piano with book and lyrics by Kathleen Lombardo and additional music by Robert Lombardo.
Directed by Mignon McPherson Nance
Ilya Levinson, music director
Friday, February 5 at 9pm
World of Robert Schumann
An encore broadcast of the life of another great composer/pianist through the insights of numerous biographers and performers including Eugene Istomin, John Browning and more.
Live from WFMT: Joe Genualdi
Kerry Frumkin hosts the violinist and one of the founding members of the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Monday, February 22 at 8pm.
Mass Appeal
Drawing on musical masterworks over eight centuries, host Bill McGlaughlin samples Latin Masses from Palestrina, Bach, Haydn, Mozart and much more. February 22-26 at 7 pm.
