There will be a battery of Romantic piano concertos this morning on WPRB, as you can probably imagine, as we celebrate the birthday today of Robert Schumann. We’ll be enjoying some of Schumann’s own music, of course, but also representative works by figures he admired and promoted, some of whom numbered among the finest pianists of the day.

At 9:00, we’ll joined by Steven LaCosse, who will be stage directing Beethoven’s only opera, “Fidelio, ” for The Princeton Festival. He’ll tell us a little bit about the production, which will be presented at McCarter Theatre Center on June 18 & 25.

The highlight of the morning may very well be a rarely heard recording from 1954 of Schumann’s “Manfred,” after the dramatic poem of Lord Byron. The overture is rather well known, but Sir Thomas Beecham recorded the entire thing, with narrator, lending his characteristic Beecham touch not only to the performance, but in his editorial decisions, “livening it up,” as it were, with a part-song or two and adding a ballet.

Get ready for a five hour Romantic interlude, this Thursday morning from 6 to 11 EDT, on WPRB 103.3 FM and wprb.com. We’re ready to tickle some ivories, on Classic Ross Amico.

PHOTO: Robert and Clara Schumann get Romantic