Just in case anyone needs to reminded: Judy Kuhn is the voice that raised a generation of theatre hearts.

Andreas Scholl & Tamar Halperin - Purcell: Music for a while - Live YouTube video by AVROTROS Klassiek

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 110: Henry Purcell & John Dryden's "Music for a While"

Performed here by countertenor Andreas Scholl and harpsichordist Tamar Halperin, there's a certain sense to baroque music of being simultaneously historically distant and still vibrant when it's sung into the air.

Germaine Tailleferre: Valse lente - Anna Zassimova, piano (live performance) YouTube video by philo-media

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 109: "Valse Lente" by Germaine Tailleferre

Some days, a piece like this just meets you where you are.

A “Grandiloquent Word of the Day” meme featuring the word “Kingling.” Below, the word is defined as “a little king; a weak, petty, or insignificant potentate.” To the right, a detailed black-and-white illustration shows a smug, short man in royal robes and holding a large crown over his own head that he is about to place upon his own head. A taller man stands behind the little king, holding a large money bag marked with a dollar sign, suggesting bribery or corruption. Beneath the definition is a long, satirical example sentence criticizing the “kingling” as boastful, corrupt, and morally depraved.

Kingling [KING-ling]
(n.)
- A little king; a weak, petty, or insignificant potentate.

Tim Mead - Vivaldi – Stabat Mater (RV 621) - Eia mater, fons amoris - Largo YouTube video by PittsburgTN

#YearOfWonder2026, Day 108: Vivaldi's "Stabat Mater", mov. 7 "Eia mater, fons amoris"

Two things to appreciate about this: the rare opportunity (in most music) to hear a countertenor, and the lovely way Vivaldi sets the instruments and vocals in juxtaposition without repetition between them.

Timo Andres plays “Ellis Island” by Meredith Monk YouTube video by Timo Andres

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 107: "Ellis Island" by Meredith Monk

Written to accompany silent footage from the island, this piece evokes a forward flow of elements that relate with each other, but are individual at the same time.

[EXTRAIT] ALCINA by Haendel "Tornami a vagheggiar" (Sabine Devieilhe) YouTube video by Opéra national de Paris

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 106: "Tornami a vagheggiar" from Händel's "Alcina"

Few composers write more notes per syllable than Händel, and Sabine Devielhe acquits herself brilliantly here, nailing the music, the intention, and the comedy.

Frederic Chopin - Piano Concerto N? 2. II Larghetto Arthur Rubinstein, piano (23) YouTube video by Aleksandra Pavlović

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 105: Chopin's 2nd Piano Concerto, 2nd mov. Larghetto

Rubinstein brings his mastery to this piece, which was written when Chopin was only 19. I can't help but wonder what it would feel liked played with a gentler touch.

FRÜHLINGSGLAUBE Schubert's setting of poem by Johann Ludwig Uhland YouTube video by Brownstone Baritone

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 104: Franz Schubert's "Frühlingsglaube"

Sung here by Peter Kendall Clark in the time of social distancing on his brownstone steps, it's good reminder that music must continue being made in times of challenge.

"Nun muss sich Alles, Alles wenden."

Tannhauser Overture (Richard Wagner) Solti-k zuzenduta YouTube video by Ioritz Madariaga Goiri

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 103: Wagner's Overture to "Tannhäuser"

As on Day 37, I place the baton purposefully in Sir Georg Solti's hand for this composer's work. His artistry in leading an orchestra is S-tier. The music is good.

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody - Hungarian Rhapsody Live in Budapest YouTube video by Victor Miranda

Shared for no particular reason:

Richard Strauss: "Metamorphosen" mit Esa-Pekka Salonen | NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester YouTube video by ARD Klassik

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 102: "Metamorphosen" by Richard Strauss

Composed in 1945 for just 23 strings, this piece feels like you're stepping through rubble, taking stock of destruction and loss. As Burton-Hill notes: "It is a singularly moving musical response to the senselessness of war -- any war."

Every war is unholy.

Alberto Ginastera. Tres piezas Op. 6. Cuyana. YouTube video by Rodrigo Vasco

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 101: Alberto Ginastera's "Tres piezas" 1. Cuyana

This piece from 1940 takes you for a ride, not in the way many contemporary/modernist pieces do, but within tonality and key, still consistently feeling fresh and vibrant.

It depends on whether Greg sticks to the "no points" by episode 10 I think...

Mozart: Concertos K242 / Solti, Schiff, Barenboim YouTube video by geezenstac1

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 100: Mozart's Concerto in F major for Three Pianos:

It's not often one hears three pianos sharing the stage (even this piece has been rewritten for only two), but when those three are played by three of the most famous conductors, it's even more worth the time to watch.

En la Macarenita - trad. Andalusion; arr. Bob Chilcott YouTube video by Stellenbosch Madrigal Singers

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 99: "En la Macarenita", arranged by Bob Chilcott

This is a perfectly fine modern madrigal, but I chose this video because I think more music should be performed in the dark or dim lighting. It adds something.

"Le Printemps" Op. 18 Darius Milhaud YouTube video by Dúo Pereira-Daian (violín y piano)

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 98: "Le Printemps" (Spring) by Darius Milhaud

This piece rustles with activity, tossing energy back and forth between the violin and piano. Not the vein one might expect from someone who taught both Brubeck and Bacharach, but a beautiful encapsulation of the season.

Gershwin - Promenade - Walking the Dog | Wayne Marshall | WDR Funkhausorchester YouTube video by ARD Klassik

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 97: "Walking the Dog" by George Gershwin (from "Shall We Dance")

I forget sometimes that Gershwin died at 38, given how large he looms in music and popular song even now. This piece has become an orchestral standard as popular as any of his vocal tunes, and for good reason.

Nicholas.

Haydn - Clock Symphony - Andante - GECA/Greilsammer YouTube video by Geneva Camerata

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 96: The 2nd movement of Haydn's 101st Symphony, aka the "Clock" Symphony

When someone writes a hundred symphonies, and the 101st is still a delight, the muse is with them.

Fanfare for the Common Man YouTube video by Palatine High School Music

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 95: "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Copland

Most people know this piece, so I offer you this imperfect but skilled performance by a large high school orchestra, student-played, student-conducted, as a reminder that the future is theirs.

(Copland conducts it himself below.)

Sung here by Polish soprano Zofia Kilanowicz, Burton-Hill notes that this piece "asks us to look tragedy directly in the eye." Górecki chose for his central text a prayer written by a teenage girl on the wall of a Gestapo prison in southern Poland -- asking heaven not for tears but for support.

Sir Gilbert Levine conducts Gorecki Symphony 3, Mvt. 2 YouTube video by Thunderstruck12

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 94: The 2nd movement of Henryk Górecki's "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs"

Brahms: Intermezzo Op. 117 no. 2 | Paul Lewis (live) YouTube video by harmonia mundi music

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 93: Brahms' Intermezzo in B♭ minor:

Burton-Hill spends a portion of this page feeling the need to defend Brahms from those who dismiss his work. I would too. This is warm, sensitive, and evokes a specific if unnameable emotional state.

I try to share live performance videos of these pieces, because there's something about the single happening of music in performance that is uneditable and irrevocable, the way music should live in the air. These sisters demonstrate that well.

Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24 Spring, I. Allegro, Evelyn and Annabelle Song YouTube video by Evelyn Song

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 92: Beethoven's 5th Violin Sonata "Spring", mov. 1 Allegro

Burton-Hill observes that Beethoven seems impatient with classical traditions, and is straining to jump off and swim in the Romantic waters. That pull forward is what keeps his music lively even after all this time.

Martha Argerich is becoming my go-to pianist for this journey, partly because she has a lifelong career which has been filmed across decades. This piece, played in her 30s has a balance of mature mastery without losing the exuberance of her youth. Watch her hands lead the piano like a dance partner.

Martha Argerich plays Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 (1977) YouTube video by medici.tv

#YearOfWonder2026 Day 91: Tchaikovsky's first Piano Concerto, mov. 1 - Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso

Tchaikovsky was told that this was unoriginal and "had better be destroyed." Instead it's become one of the more familiar openings to a classical piece in the canon.