For some reason, I always equate Peter Serkin in my mind with Peter Fonda. Perhaps it’s because he’s like the Easy Rider of pianists. At one point, he even totally dropped out, moving to Mexico and not playing for a couple of years. When he returned, as often as not, he was a kind of countercultural champion of modernist works (he was one of the founders of the new music ensemble Tashi); but he is, after all, his father’s son (he was sired by legendary pianist Rudolf Serkin), so Bach and Beethoven have been just as important to him as an artist and as a person.

Hard to believe that Peter Serkin is 70 years-old today. We’ll honor him with several of his recordings, alongside those of the late violinist Ruggiero Ricci and composers Adolphe Adam, Ernest Bloch, Robert Farnon, and Leo Arnaud (he of Olympic fanfare fame).

I’ll be bearing the torch for great music and music-making, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.