At last! The day is upon us!

We’ll light 112 candles for Dmitri Shostakovich for his birthday. I thought I’d announce the plan right up front, since, understandably, Shostakovich didn’t care much for surprises.

We’ll hear the Symphony No. 10 in one of the most acclaimed Shostakovich recordings of recent years, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons. That’s the one with the harrowing Stalin scherzo. Shostakovich is said to have written the symphony following the wise leader and teacher’s death. It was Shostakovich’s first symphony to be composed since his second denunciation in 1948. He had been accused, alongside Prokofiev and Khachaturian, under the Zhdanov decree of promoting “formalism” – decadent Western tendencies – in his music, a serious business. People had disappeared for less.

According to the book “Testimony,” alleged to have been taken down from Shostakovich’s own observations by the musicologist Solomon Volkov, the Symphony No. 10 is “about Stalin and the Stalin years. The second part, the scherzo, is a musical portrait of Stalin, roughly speaking. Of course, there are other things in it, but that’s the basis.”

Also encoded, in the symphony’s third movement, is the composer’s famous signature, DSCH, which appears alongside one meant to suggest his student, Elmira Nazirova (E La Mi Re A), with whom Shostakovich was in love. The themes alternate and draw gradually closer.

The authenticity of “Testimony” as an official memoir has been much disputed. Though some of the details may have been fabricated, it does seem to add up to a larger truth. We’ll hear Shostakovich’s symphony at 2:00.

First, it’s another Noontime Concert from Gotham Early Music Scene, or GEMS, and it’s an unusual one. Douglas Lundeen, principal horn of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and an associate professor at Rutgers University, will push the outer limits of GEMS’ traditional area of focus (i.e. Early Music) to present works from the 19th and 20th centuries performed on a French piston horn. Composers will include Robert Planel, Henri Tomasi, Eugene Bozza, Charles Gounod, and Paul Dukas. The concert took place at St. Bartholomew’s Church, 50th Street and Park Avenue, in New York City. GEMS’ free lunchtime concerts series is offered on Thursdays at 1:15 p.m. To learn more, visit gemsny.org.

Lundeen’s program reflects that of his new release, “Le cor francais authentique (The Truly French Horn),” issued on the Affetto Records label. Affetto is the Princeton-based company founded by engineer John C. Baker. Baker handles the audio for many of the broadcast concerts heard on WWFM. Lundeen’s album was recorded at All Saints’ Church, Princeton.

The 1:00 hour will be devoted to further releases on Affetto. We’ll decompress from the intensity of the Shostakovich at 3:00 with ballet music by a composer who helped him greatly, Alexander Glazunov.

Happy birthday, Shostakovich! We’ll help ourselves to a stimulating variety of great music, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

The many moods of Shostakovich