© 2026 Western New York Public Broadcasting Association

140 Lower Terrace St.
Buffalo, NY 14202

Toronto Address:
130 Queens Quay E.
Suite 903
Toronto, ON M5A 0P6


Mailing Address:
Horizons Plaza P.O. Box 1263
Buffalo, NY 14240-1263

Buffalo Toronto Public Media | Phone 716-845-7000
BTPM NPR Newsroom | Phone: 716-845-7040
Differing shades of blue wavering throughout the image
Give Now
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
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
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
    Oscar Levant at the piano
    Stratton didn’t think he had heard Richie right. Richie had dropped the name of a long-forgotten pianist who was once the best-known and highest-paid pianist in the United States. Radio made him a star. His name was Oscar Levant. So, Stratton said, let’s talk about 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
    Verdi vs. Wagner
    Stratton has often been asked if he and Richie ever disagree. His answer has been that, in musical matters, he can’t think of any disagreement, putting the emphasis on the adjective “musical”. Well, that was true enough until they decided to talk about opera by discussing the two greatest opera composers of the 19th century, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner.
  • 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
    In Their Own Words | Ray Davies & Hector Berlioz
    Composers are rarely happy people. How do we know this? Because a few composers have told us this in their memoirs. Two of the best are the Memoirs of Hector Berlioz and X-Ray.
  • 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
    Neo Romantics
    Stratton often tells Richie how lucky they are because they have available to their ears over one thousand years of music. That’s why Stratton encourages Richie to introduce him to the popular music he pointedly refused to take notice of.
  • 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
    Frank Zappa & Van Dyke Parks
    Richie can’t really believe that Stratton has spent so much of his time listening to classical music that he has no notion of who Frank Zappa is or who Van Dyke Parks might be. But Richie knows that Stratton, who has a soft spot for Olivier Messiaen and Michael Tippett, is just the kind of guy who’d like the wild music-making of Zappa and Parks.
  • 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
    Michael Tippett & David Del Tredici
    When a listener begins to concentrate on a single composer’s works, they often listen for the piece in which the composer has found his or her own voice, a voice that from then on will mark the music they write as their own.
  • 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
    Clara & Fanny
    The tale of the careers of two of the most famous women in the 19thcentury is now portrayed as a narrative of suppression and even oppression.
  • 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
    Murder
    Stratton and Richie become aware that even sweet, joyful music-making can hide a suspicious, even outraged, personality.
  • 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
    Virtuoso
    The Oxford Dictionary of Music claims that the term "virtuoso " is from Italian and means “exceptional performer.” By the late 18th century, it changed.
  • 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.