Theme & Variations introduces a new topic each week, presenting a wide range of music associated with that theme. Drawn from a millennium of Western classical music, the selections are an eclectic mix of familiar favorites and rarities. Theme and Variations is produced locally in Discover Classical's studios by host Joe Law.
This week brings you the first of two programs paying tribute to some of the composers and performers who died in 2025: Luigi Alva, Leon Bates, Enrique Bátiz, Christoph von Dohnányi, Sofia Gubaidulina, Bernhard Klee, Edith Mathis, Per Nørgård, Roger Norrington, Lalo Schifrin, Peter Seiffert, Klaus Thumemann and Maria Tipo.
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding, you’ll hear American music every month this year, beginning with selections from nineteenth-century composers: Amy Beach, John Bray, George Frederick Bristow, George Whitefield Chadwick, William Henry Fry, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine and Thomas Wiggins.
This week brings you a second program paying tribute to some of the composers and performers who died in 2025: Roberta Alexander, Alfred Brendel, Stuart Burrows, Ronald Corp, Alan Cuckston, Andrew Davis, Gary Graffman, Isaiah Jackson John Nelson, Gary Karr, Rodion Shchedrin, Benita Valente and Richard Wernick.
