Classic FM Playlist & Schedules

Listen all day every day to locally programmed classical music on Classic FM. Start your day with Bruce Paulsen from 6 to 10 a.m., followed by Diane Jones from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Marie Lamb will take you through your weekday afternoons until 6 p.m.

WCNY Classic FM 2017-18 Holiday Program Schedule

Tuesday, December 12

6:00 PM Itzhak Perlman’s Chanukah Radio Party (WQXR)

Join the superstar violinist as he tells the story of the Jewish Festival of Lights, and shares his favorite recordings for the holiday – some serious, some silly. This special includes numbers from Itzhak Perlman’s radio-addicted childhood in Israel; evocative songs in Yiddish and Ladino; classical music that revolves around the Maccabee heroes of the story; and Chanukah gems by American folk singers. The master storyteller also regales you with jokes and memories, plus tales of three classic Chanukah symbols: the menorah, the latke, and, of course, the dreidel. A good time for the whole family!

Thursday, December 14

8:00 PM The New York Philharmonic This Week with Alec Baldwin

HANDEL: Messiah CONDUCTOR: Ton Koopman SOLOISTS: Sunhae Im, soprano; Andreas Scholl, countertenor; Jörg Dürmüller, tenor; Detlef Roth, baritone; Westminster Symphonic Choir

Saturday, December 16

1:00 Metropolitan Opera with Mary Jo Heath and Ira Siff

BELLINI: Norma with Angela Meade, Jamie Barton, Joseph Calleja, and Matthew Rose. Joseph Colaneri conducts. After the Met, at approximately 4:15, Marie Lamb brings you our annual “Chanukah with Great Jewish Opera and Concert Stars.”

Sunday, December 17

1:00 Feminine Fusion: Women in Classical Music with Diane Jones

“Seasonal Music: Winter” Music by women inspired by the winter season.

6:00 Harmonia with Angela Mariani

“A Baroque Christmas in the New World” Celebrate this holiday season with festive music from 17th- and 18th-century Mexico, Peru and Bolivia performed by the musicians of the Historical Performance Institute at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University.

7:00 Pipedreams with Michael Barone

An American Organist’s Christmas…soloists, composers and instrument builders all around our country celebrate the holiday season.

Monday, December 18

6:08 Holiday Requests from Our Listeners (local)

BY REQUEST: Marie Lamb plays holiday favorites that have been requested by CLASSIC FM listeners! Send Marie your requests at marie.lamb@wcny.org or call (315) 453-2424 and leave Marie Lamb a voice mail. Please give Marie your requests by Friday, December 15th at 5 PM.

7:00 Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin

“Holiday Celebration” All around the world, winter holidays are celebrated, and their music is wonderful to hear, regardless of which tradition you observe. Bill gets us started with Nova Stella, medieval Italian Christmas music with a very early staging of the nativity. We will enjoy Christmas in Paris with music from Debussy, Charpentier and Poulenc and a Polynesian traditional hymn, “Anau Oia Ea”, plus an excerpt from “Amahl and the Night Visitors” from the original television production. Bill plays us one of his favorites from Ernest Bloch, Sacred Service. On our final day we will listen to Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Christmas Carols”, and this week’s celebration will end with more holiday cheer from David Bowie and Bing Crosby.

Wednesday, December 20

8:00 SymphonyCast with Alison Young

BACH: Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 (Cantatas 1-3, 6) Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; St. Thomas Boys’ Choir; Gotthold Schwarz, conductor; Catalina Bertucci, soprano; Susanne Krumbiegel, contralto; Tilman Lichdi, tenor, Evangelist; Martin Lattke, tenor; Andreas Scheibner, bass.

Thursday, December 21

6:08 PM MENOTTI: Amahl and the Night Visitors (complete opera) In a long-standing Classic FM holiday tradition, we are bringing you Gian Carlo Menotti’s complete one-act opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” the first opera ever composed for American television, with the original cast of the 1951 NBC-TV broadcast. The soloists are Chet Allen, Rosemary Kuhlmann , Andrew McKinley, Davis Aiken, Frank Monachino, and Leon Lishner. Thomas Schippers conducts.

8:00 PM The New York Philharmonic This Week with Alec Baldwin

“Winter Jukebox” CONDUCTORS: Leonard Bernstein, Danny Kaye, Zubin Mehta, Skitch Henderson, Sir Andrew Davis, Alan Gilbert, Bramwell Tovey, André Kostelanetz SOLOISTS: Skitch Henderson, piano; Frank Huang, violin; Judith Blegen, soprano J. STRAUSS, Jr.: Overture to “Die Fledermaus” MOZART: German Dance in C, “Sleigh Ride” BERNARD: Winter Wonderland SUESSDORF: Moonlight in Vermont ANDERSON: Sleigh Ride GRIEG/arr. SEIDL: March of the Trolls from “Lyric Suite” VIVALDI: Winter from “The Four Seasons” VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Fantasia on “Greensleeves” POULENC: Gloria in G PROKOFIEV: Lt. Kije Suite: Troika PROKOFIEV: Three Selections from “Winter Bonfire: Children’s Suite” No. 2: Winter Holiday; No. 4: Around the Bonfire; No. 8: Home Again TCHAIKOVSKY: Selections from “The Nutcracker” MAHLER: Movement 1 from Symphony No. 4 OFFENBACH: Ballet of the Snowflakes from “Le Voyage dans la Lune HUMPERDINCK: Children’s Prayer from “Hänsel und Gretel”

Saturday, December 23

11 AM Concierto with Frank Domínguez

Frank will host his annual “Concierto Christmas” show, featuring music for the holiday season from Hispanic composers and performers. Feliz Navidad!

1 PM Metropolitan Opera with Mary Jo Heath and Ira Siff

For your family’s holiday enjoyment, the Met presents Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” with Adam Plachetka, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Christiane Karg, Serena Malfi, and Luca Pisaroni. Harry Bicket conducts. After the Met at about 4:35, Marie Lamb brings you our annual “Christmas with Great Opera Stars.”

6 PM-8 PM Deck the Concert Hall!

In this holiday version of “The Concert Hall”, Bruce Paulsen brings you a classic program from the archives of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. Grant Cooper, conductor; Syracuse Children’s Chorus (Barbara Marble Tagg, director). CUSTER: Holiday Medley; Bob CHILCOTT: Three Carols (world premiere); Randol Alan BASS: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (Patrick Mason, narrator) HUMPERDINCK: Excerpts from “Hänsel und Gretel” (Patrick Mason, baritone); RUTTER: Jesus Child/Donkey Carol/Star Carol; GRUBER: Stille Nacht (Silent Night)

Terry MIZESKO: Two movements from “A Chanukah Celebration”; David ELLIOTT: Christmas Lights (arr. Custer); ANDERSON: Sleigh Ride; VARIOUS: Christmas Carol Sing-Along (Recorded December, 1997)

Sunday, December 24

Midnight-7 AM Christmas Music with Peter Van de Graaff (WFMT)

11:00 Classic Sinatra with Leo Rayhill

Leo Rayhill and Diane Jones celebrate with Frank Sinatra, plus his family and friends, featuring songs for the season!

12:00 CIAO! with Joey Nigro and Jim Battaglia

Joey, Jim, and Super-Producer John share Italian and Italian-American music and traditions for the holiday season, along with other surprises for the holidays! Buon Natale a tutti!

1:00 Feminine Fusion: Women in Classical Music with Diane Jones

“Holiday Program 2017” Music by women for the winter holiday season.

2:00 Syracuse Society for New Music – Fresh Ink with Neva Pilgrim

“Luminescence” Jane Antonia CORNISH: Luminescence; Wayne OQUIN (b. 1977): O Magnum Mysterium, 2013; Eriks ESENVALDS: A Drop in the Ocean, 2006; Christopher ROUSE: Karolju (back by popular demand!)

4:00 A Festival on Nine Lessons and Carols (Holiday programming from APM)

Pipedreams host Michael Barone presents this service of spoken-word and music (choral and organ), recorded live earlier today from the chapel of King’s College in Cambridge, England. The 30-voice King’s College Choir performs the legendary “Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols” service of Biblical readings and music.

6:00 Harmonia with Angela Mariani

“Music for the Holiday Season” This week on Harmonia, we’ve handpicked a variety of early music recordings – new and old – to help get you into the spirit of the holiday season. We’ll hear music by Bach, Schütz and Biber, plus chant from Norway’s Nidaros Cathedral and a featured recording of medieval English carols.

7:00 Pipedreams with Michael Barone

Holiday Seasonings…an international buffet of tasty carols and instrumental solos for Christmas time.

9:00 Bill Knowlton’s Bluegrass Ramble

Spend your Christmas Eve by listening to Bill’s annual Audio Christmas Card: fifteen-minute uninterrupted segments of bluegrass and oldtime country Christmas hymns, carols, songs and instrumentals. Included are The Roys, Larry Sparks, Dr. Ralph Stanley, and Doyle Lawson.

Monday, December 25

6AM Christmas Favorites with Diane Jones

Spend Christmas morning with Diane as she plays two hours of beloved holiday classics!

8:00 Holidays at Hendricks (WCNY)

Bruce Paulsen hosts Classic FM’s beloved annual holiday program from Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University.

9:30 The Nutcracker (WCNY)

Diane Jones is your host for Tchaikovsky’s complete Nutcracker ballet.

11:00 A Leroy Anderson Christmas (WFMT)

Back by popular demand…the WFMT Radio Network invites you to celebrate the holidays with the music of Leroy Anderson! This program is hosted by conductor Leonard Slatkin and the composer’s son Kurt Anderson, and features recorded performances of Leroy Anderson’s Christmas music with Leonard Slatkin conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra, and Leroy Anderson conducting his “Pops” Concert Orchestra. Listeners will also hear Leroy Anderson talking about how he wrote some of his famous Christmas music, and what Christmas meant to him.

NOON The Film Score: Music for the Winter Holidays (WFMT)

Michael Phillips, host of WFMT’s “The Film Score”, presents music of the holidays and wintertime from the silver screen. In addition to beloved standards (“White Christmas,” from “Holiday Inn”), Michael introduces film music, ranging from “It Happened in Sun Valley” (from “Sun Valley Serenade”) to Alexandre Desplat’s wintry, folk-inspired score for “The Grand Budapest Hotel” to Bernard Herrmann’s bracing sleigh ride accompaniment composed for the Orson Welles drama “The Magnificent Ambersons.”

1:00 Musical Gifts: Joshua Bell and Friends (WQXR)

Celebrate the season with superstar violinist Joshua Bell, performing traditional favorites and holiday arrangements from his holiday CD, “Musical Gifts: Joshua Bell and Friends” that celebrate the warmth, beauty and magic of the season. Featuring special guests Michael Feinstein, Frankie Moreno, the Young People’s Chorus of New York and more. WQXR’s Elliott Forrest hosts.

2:00 An Anonymous 4 Christmas (WQXR)

For Christmas, the legendary group Anonymous 4 sings medieval music from England, France and Spain that praises the Virgin Mary. The devotional songs come from the Codex Las Huelgas, Montpellier Codex, and Cantigas de Santa Maria. Anglo-American ballads such as “The Cherry Tree Carol” and “A Virgin Unspotted” add a homespun seasonal touch.

3:00 A Mexican Baroque Christmas with the Rose Ensemble (PRX)

This holiday program features over two centuries of festive Christmas dances and songs from the great cathedrals of Puebla and Mexico City. With rich instrumental and percussive accompaniment, solos and choruses burst forth in this program that’s a far cry from the same old Christmas show. Hosted by public radio veteran Tom Crann, with the Rose Ensemble’s Artistic Director, Jordan Sramek.

4:00 Christmastime in New York (WQXR)

The Choir of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine performs at the Medieval Sculpture Hall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a program that spans hundreds of years and describes the story of the Nativity. The program includes settings of the “O Magnum Mysterium” text by T. L. da Victoria, Morten Lauridsen, and Francis Poulenc; works by Byrd, Biebl, and Hassler; as well as music by Eric Whitacre, Francis Poulenc, William Byrd and Morten Lauridsen. Kent Tritle, conductor; Nimet Habachy, host.

5:00 Holidays at Hendricks (WCNY)

(Repeat from this morning) Bruce Paulsen hosts Classic FM’s beloved annual holiday program from Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University.

Saturday, December 30

1:00 Metropolitan Opera with Mary Jo Heath and Ira Siff

The Met presents an operetta that’s a favorite for the New Year season, Lehár’s “The Merry Widow” with Susan Graham, Paul Groves, Andriana Chuchman, Taylor Stayton, and Sir Thomas Allen. Ward Stare conducts.

Sunday, December 31

1:00 Feminine Fusion: Women in Classical Music with Diane Jones

“On the Eve” Music by women to bring in the New Year.

7:00 Pipedreams with Michael Barone

An Organist’s Yearbook…our traditional summing-up of some of the year’s happenings in the world of the King of Instruments.

9:00 Bill Knowlton’s Bluegrass Ramble

The New Year’s Eve Ramble takes a look at some of the bluegrass and oldtime country CDs released during 2017. Included are New York’s own Gibson Brothers, Doyle Lawson & Paul Williams, Flashback, and the Molly Rose Band.

Monday, January 1, 2017

11:00 AM-1 PM New Year’s Day from Vienna 2017 (NPR)

The Vienna Philharmonic presents its ever-popular annual New Year’s Day concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. Listen with people in over 90 countries to your favorite waltzes, polkas and more… a festive way to start off the New Year. Riccardo Muti will conduct.