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’s theme is literary, with music inspired by the poems and stories of Edgar Allan Poe. The composers are Dominick Argento, André Caplet, Gordon Getty, Josef Holbrooke, John Ireland, Nikita Koshkin, Darius Milhaud, Christopher Rouse and Florent Schmitt.
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding, you’ll hear American music every month this year. Since February is also Black History Month, this week’s program brings you music by African American composers: Basile Barès, William Levi Dawson, Ulysses Kay, Jessie Montgomery, Robert Owens, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and Florence Price.
Music inspired by painting and sculpture is in store this week. The composers are Anna Cline, Jean Françaix, Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, Franz Liszt, Ottorino Respighi and Carlos Simon.
