Programs & Hosts

Five O’Clock Favorite

Hosted by
Christa Wessel

Five O’Clock Favorite

Every weekday at 5:00 PM PT

Every weekday at 5:00 PM PT, All Classical Radio and host Christa Wessel invite listeners to be part of the programming. During the Five O’Clock Favorite, you’ll hear a listener-suggested piece of music along with a personal story about their choice. With pieces that are fun and familiar, music for remembrance and reflection, and everything in between, the Five O’Clock Favorite is a perfect way to ease your commute, end your workday, or start off your evening soundtrack on All Classical Radio. 

graphic for five o clock fav

Your Host
Christa Wessel

Weekdays at 5:00, you’ll find me in my happy place on the radio: sharing your Five O’Clock Favorite. This special program is an opportunity for me to celebrate listeners’ memories and favorite pieces of classical music. Our stories connect us to each other, and this daily segment allows us to hear what’s in the hearts of our friends and neighbors. I hope you’ll submit your suggestion for a future Five O’Clock Favorite!

Christa Wessel
woman with glasses sitting on a blue couch, leaning slightly forward — Photo by Christine Dong

Submit your favorite piece:
Suggestions are easiest to honor if they’re 20 minutes or less.

Recent Favorites

Air date: April 26, 2023

Carmina Burana: Selections, Carl Orff

Suggested by John in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin

We have season tickets to the Madison Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra. The final concert this year will feature a performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. I really enjoy this composition and was looking forward to attending the performance. But, upon checking our calendar, I discovered we wouldn't be able to go to this concert since we will instead be attending our grandson’s graduation from Lewis & Clark College in Portland the weekend of the concert. Because of this, I'd love it if you'd feature a part of Carmina Burana on the Five O’clock Favorite.

Air date: April 25, 2023

Koyaanisqatsi, Philip Glass

Suggested by Jeff in Portland, Oregon

"Koyaanisqatsi" is a Hopi word meaning "life out of balance." Philip Glass wrote the score to this non-narrative motion picture which offers prophetic warnings on man and nature, construction and destruction. Seeing it in the cinema - with Dolby sound - the film was 70mm sensory overload for me. It's a perfect five o'clock favorite for those who've seen this movie and recall its frenzied time lapse photography of urban life and, most especially, traffic. Philip Glass, ever the adventurist composer, throws everything he's got into the soundtrack. I recommend the title theme particularly as a contemplative observation of the gravity of human involvement in the natural world. This film - and its music - shook me to the very core and made me more aware than ever of our, that is to say MY impact long before "Climate Crisis" became the watchword of our era.

Air date: April 24, 2023

Dancing at Lughnasa, Bill Whelan

Suggested by Elizabeth in Portland, Oregon

I fell in love with this piece after I heard it on an episode of The Score. This music makes me want to get up and dance because of the upbeat and enthusiastic melody. Whenever I need some positivity in my day, I just listen to this music and it makes me smile. So thank you to Edmund Stone for sharing such wonderful movie music that I would not have found on my own.

Air date: April 21, 2023

Grand Canyon Suite: On the Trail, Ferde Grofe

Suggested by Mike in Tualatin, Oregon

This is the first piece of classical music I can remember hearing. (Well) Over 60 years I was in kindergarten in Southern California. One day we had a very rare rainy and stormy day. Since we could not go outside and play our teacher had us all lie down and she put on Ferde Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite. She told us if we closed our eyes we could hear the Sunrise, the donkeys clip-clopping down the trail, and that there would even be a thunderstorm. Those mental images have stuck with me to this day and I am sure it is what started my life long love of classical music. “On the Trail” is the movement that I think of first when I think back to that day.

Air date: April 20, 2023

Adagio for Strings, Samuel Barber

Suggested by Susan in Portland, Oregon

This was one of the first classical pieces I fell in love with. In 1971, my freshman year in college, my roommate, a music major, came back from a music history class and said, "You have to hear this!" and placed a record on the stereo. Out came the sounds of Barber's "Adagio for Strings" conducted & played by George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. It was love at first hearing.

Air date: April 19, 2023

10 Pièces pour orgue: No. 4. Toccata in B Minor, Eugene Gigout

Suggested by Carter in Portland, Oregon

I recently acquired a free tone wheel organ off of Facebook Marketplace. My roommate and I both play piano and have been learning to play the organ now. We discovered Eugène Gigout while exploring classical organ pieces, and he's been a favorite of mine since then. I think classical organ music is often overlooked, and I especially enjoyed this particular piece, so I thought I'd share.

Air date: April 18, 2023

Carolan’s Dream; Sheebeg and Sheemore, Turlough O'Carolan

Suggested by David in Portland, Oregon

My suggestion for a Five O’Clock Favorite is some music by the Irish itinerant harpist Turlough O’Carolan. My introduction to O’Carolan’s music was in the late 1970s and I was an instant fan - fan as in fanatic! At that time I was a member of a handbell ensemble and I transcribed a number of his pieces for our group to play. The music suited the handbells perfectly and it was always a big hit when performed at our concerts. Forty five years later and it has never gotten old for me.

Fast forward to 2016 when I travelled to the west of Ireland with two of my sisters to visit the area where our Irish ancestry is rooted. It was a wonderful, eye-opening experience. By chance we were not far from the place where O’Carolan is buried, so I went and visited his grave. What I did on a whim turned into a surprisingly stirring moment for me, both for the moving inscription on his tombstone: "Turlough O'Carolan, harper, composer, poet singer. Our great solace in our great need." and for the hundreds of coins, pebbles, and other tokens left there by his admirers. I left one too.

Air date: April 14, 2023

The Mission: Gabriel’s Oboe, Ennio Morricone

Suggested by Lynn in Vancouver, Washington

This beautiful piece of music has been a favorite of mine since I watched the movie The Mission when it first came out in the mid 80s. While the movie, and the entire score by Ennio Morricone is powerful, Gabriel’s Oboe is haunting and breathtaking. I grew up listening to the major works of Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven, etc., and had never really appreciated contemporary classical music. This piece changed all that for me, and opened up my mind to many composers and compositions.

Air date: April 13, 2023

Violin Concerto (in the Style of Vivaldi): Movement 2, Fritz Kreisler

Suggested by Kirke in Albany, Oregon

I heard this on a Sunday morning with Lynnsay Maynard and thought that the middle movement was just the thing to calm the soul while driving home. (But DON'T let it go on to the third movement! :)

Air date: April 12, 2023

Procession of the Nobles, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Suggested by Jeff in Portland, Oregon (they/them)

We ride a bicycle EVERYwhere. We derive great joy from a good ride to run errands, to see friends, to simply be anywhere we can. In fact, one could ride a bike to and through just about ANYwhere. And when "The Procession of the Nobles" is presented by our friends @allclassical, we get a real boost.

But honestly, EVERYone deserves a boost like this all the time. The "nobility" here belongs to every listener -- especially those who Nobly Contribute to perpetuate a radio service non pareil on the spectrum. Stay noble, keep going, carry on and always - always - move FORWARD!

Air date: April 11, 2023

Opus, Ryuichi Sakamoto

Suggested by Jennifer in Portland, Oregon

This is one of my favorite pieces of Ryuichi Sakamoto's. I first heard it not long after I moved to Portland, back when everyone was on MySpace; a friend had it playing on their page, and I became entranced. It always brings me back to the time when I was in a new, unfamiliar place, unsure of what was ahead of me, but hopeful... and now I feel a touch of sadness that he's gone.

Air date: April 10, 2023

Organ Concerto No. 15, G. F. Handel

Suggested by Janelle Chorzempa in Portland, Oregon

Our family is mourning the loss of a wonderful brother, uncle, and great uncle as well as an amazing musician. Daniel Chorzempa died in Florence Italy on March 25th. In honor of his life and the love we shared as a family, we would appreciate hearing one of his many recordings. Our last gathering as a family was at the Pitti Palace in Florence, where he played a concert for us in one of the galleries. It was an amazing time for our family. Even though we cannot hear him in person, we are so grateful we can listen as a family through your program and recall that magical concert. Thank you.

Air date: April 7, 2023

Thais: Meditation, Jules Massenet

Suggested by Lois in Salem, Oregon

This is so enchanting

Air date: April 6, 2023

Artists Quadrille, Johann Strauss, Jr.

Suggested by Liane in Portland, Oregon

This on behalf of my brother David White, 77 years of age and blind since birth. He has perfect pitch, knows most of the pieces you play, who wrote them. in what key, and what the titles are before you announce the info. He can play almost anything on the piano after hearing once. He listens daily and every year during your fundraiser he asks that I donate $365 for him. In short he is a big fan. Strauss, the New Year's program from Vienna, and the Saturday Operas are special favorites of his.

Air date: April 5, 2023

Rustle of Spring, Christian Sinding

Suggested by Pie in Portland, Oregon

I thought that it was appropriate for the season!

Air date: April 4, 2023

Nocturne No. 2 in E flat, Opus 9 no 2, Frederic Chopin

Suggested by Bob in Big Horn, Wyoming

I’m not suggesting Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending as a 5:00 O’clock Favorite because it gets plenty of air time; but I do want to share a story about it.

Many years ago I was directing a summer camp for high school kids in the mountains of Montana. One of the camp traditions was to have a dance on the last night of the session. After the dance all the kids and a few courageous chaperones would bring their sleeping bags to the lodge and spend the night on the floor. Needless to say, they didn’t get a lot of sleep and they were difficult to wake up in the morning. A veteran of the camp had set up his impressive sound system and served as the disk jockey for the dance. I asked him to play The Lark Ascending as a wake-up call and gave him a CD.

The lark had not risen far when one of the boys shouted, “Play some real music!” or some words expressing that sentiment. To my relief, he was quickly silenced by numerous other voices saying, “Be quiet, I want to hear this.” And no one else spoke until the last note faded away. The mood for the rest of the morning was rather somber and reflective rather than the usual boisterous blather. Several kids asked me what that was so they could buy a copy. Real music has a power to lift kids and larks.

If you did want to play something for me as a 5:00 O’clock Favorite I would request Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat major just because I like it a lot.

Air date: April 3, 2023

The Green Leaves of Summer (from The Alamo), Dmitri Tiomkin

Suggested by Susan in Elliot Lake, Ontario

In 1992 the Burnaby, BC School District, where I was teaching at the time, decided to sponsor a teachers' band. They offered us free lessons and instrumental rental if we chose to join. I had played violin in high school, and taken some more lessons as an adult, but I had never played a wind instrument. I thought it would be a challenge, and so I signed up. My choice of an instrument was the oboe, based primarily on my love for the haunting music and melancholy chords of The Green Leaves of Summer, from the 1960s movie, The Alamo. My goal was to learn that piece, and be able to play it to my own satisfaction. And I did just that. Now, whenever I hear the evocative tones of an oboe I am taken back to that experience, and my determination to do justice to a beautiful piece of music, composed by a truly wonderful composer, Dimitri Tiomkin.

Air date: March 31, 2023

Doctor Strange: Strange Days Ahead, Michael Giacchino

Suggested by Steven in Corvallis, Oregon

I feel like this is one of the more memorable and unique heroic themes from the last few years of movies. I love the use of sitar in addition to the grand orchestration. This is something I listen to when I need to get pumped up for work.

Air date: March 30, 2023

Miserere, Gregorio Allegri

Suggested by Pie in Portland, Oregon

By far the most beautiful piece of music to relax to.

Air date: March 29, 2023

MLK, U2 (arr. Bob Chilcott)

Suggested by Robert in Darien, Connecticut

I am a primary care physician and practice in the NYC metropolitan area. I listen to All Classical Portland because my daughter lives in Portland and because it’s an awesome station. March through June, 2020 was a harrowing time for me, dealing with so many Covid patients. Back then we knew so little about the virus. It was a scary and exhausting situation. My hospital treated thousands of Covid patients in that initial surge. My chief solace then was to listen to choral music. Late at night, with my wife sleeping beside me, I would listen through headphones to a playlist of songs, culminating in this pensive elegy to Martin Luther King. It is a gem, short but sweet, and beautifully rendered by The King’s Singers. Three years later I am still grateful that I had the gift of music to provide a tranquil refuge during those troubling times.

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