I suppose it’s no secret – there’s an 80th birthday concert coming up at Bargemusic in Brooklyn tomorrow night – but it sure as hell stunned me to learn that Andrew Rudin is now four score. In addition to being a very fine composer, the evergreen Rudin, of course, was once a regular presence on the airwaves as a music host at WWFM.

A former student of George Rochberg, Rudin writes uncompromising music of great integrity, yet manages to communicate with the listener without pandering. Nowhere is that more evident than in his attractive Piano Concerto, a recording of which I will include, among my featured works today, between 4 and 6 p.m. EDT, on The Classical Network. If you like Bartók or Ravel, give this one a shot.

I’ll also mark the birthday anniversaries of Eugen d’Albert, Yefim Bronfman, Jorge Mester, and Victor de Sabata.

There’s nothing quite like Schubert for a good palate cleanser. Wait a minute, that’s sherbet I’m thinking of. At any rate, come 6:00, enjoy an all-Schubert hour on the next “Music from Marlboro.”

Among the melancholy masterpieces churned out during Schubert’s remarkably productive final year, the Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, D. 898, actually comes across as comparatively light-hearted.

We’ll hear it performed at the 2008 Marlboro Music Festival by pianist Jonathan Biss, violinist David Bowlin, and cellist Marcy Rosen. Biss, who is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, was recently named co-artistic director (with Mitsuko Uchida) of Marlboro Music.

Finally, we’ll turn to what may have been the last music Schubert ever wrote. “The Shepherd on the Rock,” D. 965, was completed barely a month before the composer’s death at the age of 31. This multi-sectional “lied” traverses a broad range of emotions, as a shepherd listens to echoes from the valley below, grapples with feelings of loneliness, and finds hope in the prospect of Spring and renewal.

Marlboro legends, soprano Benita Valente, clarinetist Harold Wright, and pianist Rudolf Serkin, set down a classic recording of the work in 1960. We’ll hear a live performance captured at Marlboro nine years later.

In all, it will be a playlist in celebration of births and renewals, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page