“Love from the first sight, immediately.”
So said the Armenian-American pianist Sergei Babayan, speaking once about a formative influence, the Argentine piano great Martha Argerich. Notably, Babayan wasn’t recalling a visual impression, but rather the first time he encountered Argerich on record, playing a Chopin concerto. Hearing that performance as a young musician, he was dumbstruck by “that kind of freedom, where there was no obstacle between what a person feels and how that person expresses it.”
The two pianists, born 20 years apart, would eventually establish a close collaboration rooted in that shared freedom of musical expression. This Valentine’s Day, it will provide one lovely facet of our classical programming at WRTI, as we hear Argerich and Babayan playing selections from Prokofiev’s immortal ballet Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, as recorded on their album Prokofiev for Two. (Tune in to hear it just after 10 a.m.)
Love, in all of its dimensions, will be a through line in our on-air programming all day Saturday. The theme will prevail from the start, as we kick things off at 8 a.m. with an arrangement of the Scottish folk song “Eriskay Love Lilt,” which was anglicized in the first volume of Songs of the Hebrides in 1909. The version we’ll hear was recorded by The Sixteen, a renowned choral ensemble conducted by Harry Christophers, with Christopher Glynn on piano. (The arranger is Roderick Williams.)
This selection will flow naturally into the next: another traditional Scottish song, “My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose,” from the poem by Robert Burns. The violin soloist is Nicola Benedetti, who won the BBC Young Musician of the Year award at age 16. According to Alan Titchmarsh at ClassicFM, Benedetti “revived listeners’ interest in the popular tune, arranging it for the first time for violin and orchestra.” The arrangement we’ll hear is by Paul Campbell, in a recording by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra led by Rory Macdonald.
Opera fans will have plenty to enjoy in our Saturday broadcast, starting just after 9:30 a.m. with an aria from Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Op. 68: “Ya vas liubliu (I love you beyond measure),” as performed by baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led by Seiji Ozawa. Later, at noon, we’ll hear two arias from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, with performances by mezzo Frederica von Stade and soprano Benita Valente. (This is a preview of sorts, as Saturday’s 1 p.m. broadcast from The Metropolitan Opera will feature a 1986 recording of Mozart’s Idomeneo.)
Tchaikovsky, a key presence on any Valentine’s Day classical playlist, will also surface via the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, as performed by The Philadelphia Orchestra with Riccardo Muti. We’ll also hear a recording by cellist Sol Gabetta with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, performing “None But the Lonely Heart” — the last of the composer’s six romances for voice and piano, from 1869.
The melancholy air of that piece is as appropriate as the more swooning fare, acknowledging that the full measure of love contains not just infatuation, but also heartache. But fear not: we’ll hear plenty of reassurances elsewhere in the broadcast, including the George Gershwin classic “Love Is Here to Stay,” in a version recorded by violinist Joshua Bell with the London Symphony Orchestra, led by John Williams.
We’ve only scratched the surface here, so be sure to tune in to WRTI throughout our Saturday classical broadcast. You should know, too, that Julian Booker has a special evening of love songs planned, in a jazz and soul mode, for The Get Down. Happy Valentine’s Day!