When Sir Kenneth Branagh decided to adopt Mozart's opera The Magic Flute for film in 2006, an unlikely setting came to mind: the trenches of World War I.

During his recent visit to The Greene Space, András Schiff joined WQXR host Jeff Spurgeon to discuss and perform the music of J.S. Bach — a composer who has long been central to the Hungarian pianist's artistry. 

In this video, Juilliard organ department chairman Paul Jacobs shows us how Bach is played on the pipe organ.

Here in New York, WQXR, the sister station of our co-producer WNYC is launching something they're calling Bach 360°. It's a proper Bach-a-thon — a ten-day Bach marathon festival that explores what Johann Sebastian's music means to modern listeners.

Earlier this week, classical pianist Van Cliburn died at age 78. In a piece written on the day of his death, Soundcheck host John Schaefer described him this way: 

"...one classical pianist was a larger-than-life, rock-star figure on at least two continents. He was a pop-music phenomenon, with a debut album that went triple platinum. Everyone knew who he was."

The pianist, who became a household name by winning the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow at the height of the Cold War in 1958. WNYC's classical sister station, WQXR, recorded Van Cliburn's triumphant post-victory concert at Carnegie Hall that year -- we take a listen with WQXR host Jeff Spurgeon. 

It was 1958. In the midst of the Cold War, the inaugural Tchaikovsky International Competition took place in Moscow. Amid a climate of fear and mutual suspicion between Americans and Russians, a 23-year-old Texan named Van Cliburn performed a breath-taking rendition of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto.

Beyoncé sang at the presidential inauguration on Monday, though many people are saying that she actually lip-synched her performance. Commenting on Beyoncé's potential lip-synching are Jay Cowit, technical director for The Takeaway, and Jeff Spurgeon, the morning host of WQXR, New York Public Radio's classical music station.

If Handel's Messiah is the quarterback of holiday music, Bach's Christmas Oratorio is the second-string walk-on. But on Sunday, WQXR gives Bach's underplayed work a starting spot in the lineup.

For the past two days, a battery-powered radio has been the only connection to the outside world for many New Yorkers. And for many of them, music, particularly classical music, offered a brief respite from the confusion outside. Jeffrey Spurgeon is the morning host of WQXR.

There we were in Central Park, watching the rehearsal for that evening’s concert broadcast, when in the distance was a children’s choir, writes Jeff Spurgeon. See what happens next.

The New York Philharmonic offered some big sounds in its season-ending program, and served them up on a really big plate: the Drill Hall at the New York Armory. Jeff Spurgeon reports.

Every day, the piano manufacturers at Steinway & Sons face an essential question: How to balance craftsmanship with making a profitable instrument. See how it happens in this video tour.

On Monday, the French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard spoke with WQXR’s Jeff Spurgeon about programming and the distractions a performer sometimes endures.

For Disney fans, the world may seem a little smaller today. Jeff Spurgeon of WQXR joins us to discuss the legacy of the late Disney songwriter Robert Sherman.

"When I hear recordings by pianist Rudolf Firkušny, whose was born on February 11, 1912, the word that comes to mind every time is 'warmth,'" writes Jeff Spurgeon.