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background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
Entering Music

The Progressives

Published June 5, 2026 at 10:00 AM EDT
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background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that

Stratton and Richie don’t generally talk about politics, but when Richie said he wanted to talk about “progressives,” Stratton, the old history major, got excited. He thought about “Fighting Bob” La Follette, Joe Hill, and Theodore Roosevelt, who invited cellist Pablo Casals and Samuel Coleridge Taylor, the black Anglo-African composer, to the White House. Is that what Richie meant? Not quite.

Entering Music 2026
Latest Episodes
  • background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
    Genius Destroyed
    At the turn of the 20th century, celebrity was invented as a substitute for genius, while the steady rise of the middle class meant the beginning of mass marketing and the establishment of “popular” music.
  • background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
    Arnold Schoenberg
    Stratton asked Richie if he was ready to talk about the most vilified musician living in the 20thcentury. Richie asked Stratton if he meant Michael Jackson. “No,” Stratton replied.
  • background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
    Arvo Pärt
    After talking about Shostakovich, who often lived and worked as though there was a gun to his head, Richie and I wanted to talk about another composer who went silent for a long time.
  • background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
    Invitation to Dance
    While watching an old film, Roberta, a 1934 musical comedy starring Irene Dunne and Joel McCrea with music by Jerome Kern, Stratton heard a great tune called “I Won’t Dance,” with lyrics by Dorothy Fields.
  • background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
    Mistakes
    After a lifetime of listening to recordings of great pieces of music that have been made note-perfect, when Stratton is seated at a concert, and he hears a mistake, it really bothers him.
  • background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
    Leonard Bernstein
    Stratton finally caught the movie Maestro, about the life of Leonard Bernstein. He was appalled. The film was about Bernstein’s marriage and his efforts to be a both a loving husband and a doting father while having love affairs with other men. Who watching that film, Stratton wondered, would ever learn that Leonard Bernstein was America’s pre-eminent musical genius? He had to check in with Richie about this.
  • background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
    The Ear Worm
    Richie has a problem; he’s got a tune stuck in his head. And it’s not his tune. Can Stratton help?
  • background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
    Amazing Ms. Maestro
    Online Stratton was asked to name the 10 best conductors leading orchestras today. He took what he thought was a bold step; he included JoAnn Falletta’s name. When he saw the 25 or so lists submitted from correspondents around the world, 19 listed among their 10 choices JoAnn Falletta. Could it be? Then just a few weeks ago Richie announced that we should do an episode about JoAnn, “because, you know, she’s a great conductor.”
  • background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
    Psychedelica
    Nancy, our Music Librarian, was telling Stratton about a piece of music that she thought was “psychologically brilliant”. But what Richie heard her say was that the piece of music was “psychedelically brilliant”. Being Richie, he loved that description. When we explained that he got it wrong, he proclaimed, “who really wants to hear a piece because it’s psychologically brilliant, but anyone would want to hear a piece that’s psychedelically brilliant.”
  • background is a sheet of music with a purple overlay. Photo of Stratton on the left and a photo of Richie on the right. Below that in bold, white text is "Entering Music", with "Fridays at 10 am" and a white BTPM Classical logo below that
    Tim Smith & Hans Rott
    When Stratton asked Richie if he knew of a 20th Century composer whose music was reviled at first, but whose reputation is enjoying a reappraisal, he answered immediately, “Tim Smith, leader of the Cardiacs”. As luck would have it, Stratton claimed not to know Tim Smith’s name; nor had he ever heard of the Cardiacs. Richie sent him some files.