A subtle extremist, in his Symphony no.51 Haydn throws down some extraordinary challenges to his horn players - can they beat the ‘immutable forces of nature’? Listening time 30 mins (podcast 9′, music 21′) Music here on YouTube , Spotify and [with links to first movement only] on Apple and Amazon played by The English Concert, conducted by Trevor Pinnock. They're playing on 'period instruments' which Haydn would recognise including valveless natural horns played by Anthony Halstead and colleagu...
Jul 30, 2024•9 min•Ep. 224
A cool and funky wedding anniversary present - a 15 minute classic from the most famous composer alive, Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks is stylish, sophisticated and hugely enjoyable! Listening time 23 mins (podcast 8', music 15') Music here, played by the Ensemble InterContemporain conducted by Pierre Boulez, on Youtube , Spotify , and (links to the 1st movement) on Amazon and Apple Music . If you like to watch people playing, this video is also good. You can buy a hi quality download at Presto Mus...
Jan 26, 2024•8 min•Ep. 223
Pianist Rolf Hind introduces one of the epics of piano music. A heady mix of virtuoso composing and devout faith, Olivier Messiaen's 20 reflections on the infant Jesus, Vingt regards sur l'infant Jésus, brings us a two-hour deep dive of awesome power and beautiful stillness. Listening time 38 mins (plus music 2hrs 8') Music here on Youtube , played live in concert by Rolf Hind. [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W34IlnsDX8&t=4521s ] Be quick and go see Rolf play this at Durham Cathedral. Vis...
Jan 12, 2024•37 min•Ep. 222
Hot off the press! The wonders of modern tech allow us to enjoy Katharina Nohl's rhapsody for piano and orchestra, Spices, before it's even been performed by live musicians! And Katharina joins us to talk us through the recipe. Listening time 33 mins (podcast 15', music 18') The complete music here on Youtube . What do you think? Tell me with a comment at www.cacophonyonline.com ! I'd love to hear from you! Check out our earlier conversation with Katharina about her life and Swiss female compose...
Oct 22, 2023•15 min•Ep. 221
Always entertaining the crowds, Haydn brings up his 50 with typical style (before settling down for 50 more symphonies). Not a famous piece but well worth a listen! Listening time 27 mins (podcast 9', music 18') Music here on Youtube , Spotify , Amazon and Apple Musics played by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Béla Drahos. You can buy the recording as a download from Presto music: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7926758--haydn-symphonies-volume-27 What do you think? Tel...
Sep 30, 2023•9 min•Ep. 220
It's the Women’s World Cup of Classical Music! And it's THE FINAL! USA vs Republic of Ireland Complete music here : hthttps://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OoRjafAn_k1zTnHR8cH9qyj Please listen to the music and then: vote here : https://forms.gle/XJoU1Vr3MfWraQL48 Voting open NOW Please share the podcast widely, by telling people you know and getting them to listen and vote! If you want to explore further, there are podcast interviews with some of our curators at cacophonyonline.com or wh...
Aug 19, 2023•2 min•Ep. 219
Maja S K Ratkje joins Cacophony at the Women's World Cup to explore the fun and joy of writing music and choose pieces by her Norwegian colleagues. But there must be something in the Norwegian water, as there's the same tiny inspiration for several of the composers! The complete pieces on Maja's list can be heard here : https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Orpqp5R5jfX-LzBIjoUeRim Listening time 31 min (podcast 18', music, 13') Discover more about Maja and her music at her website : https...
Aug 18, 2023•18 min•Ep. 218
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians. Singer, Gabriella di Laccio is our guide to music by women from Brazil - a melting pot of traditions and cultures that ends up with music that sounds... Brazilian! Listening time: podcast 27mins, music playlist 20 mins The complete music is available in the YouTube playlist . You can discover more about Gab...
Aug 09, 2023•27 min•Ep. 213
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians. In this episode we turn to Canada, where Melissa Hui's selection is typically diverse with living composers who are first nations, Canadian born and immigrant. Melissa brings her thoughtfulness and insight to a playlist that might challenege our perceptions, but will leave us satisfied. Listening time: podc...
Aug 03, 2023•26 min•Ep. 208
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians. We shift the focus to England, with Roxanna Panufnik's choice of rich and satisfying pieces from a line up of stellar composers. Listening time: podcast 20mins, music playlist 23 mins The complete music is available in the YouTube playlist . You can discover more about Roxanna Panufnik on her website : http...
Jul 22, 2023•19 min•Ep. 191
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians. Elena Kats-Chernin presents her choices of music from Australia - composers who all work hard and write music of vitality, invention, intensity and often fun! Listening time: podcast 24mins, music playlist 25 mins The music is available in the YouTube playlist What do you think? Leave a comment or easy voic...
Jul 20, 2023•23 min•Ep. 188
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians. In this epsiode, Inés Medina Fernández presents her choices of music from Spain, carefully chosen from accross the country and including including famous musical names we might know - but pieces we definitely won't! Listening time: podcast 24mins, music playlist 20 mins The complete music is available in th...
Jul 19, 2023•24 min•Ep. 186
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians. This episode features music from the Netherlands and Marion von Tilzer's choices of music that gets us more connected. We'll hear how, when a performer is relaxed, it can be like being in the audience...or writing the music afresh, and why the Netherlands is famous for painters...but not composers... Listen...
Jul 17, 2023•21 min•Ep. 185
It's Cacophony …at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians. This epsiode we hear top young composer, Sage Shurman, getting super excited - in a pretty chilled Californian kind of way - for both the World Cup football and her choices of pieces by living women American composers for the Women's World Cup of Classical Music. Can the USA win both? - That will be down to...
Jul 16, 2023•19 min•Ep. 184
It's Cacophony …at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians. In this episode we hear from Katharina Nohl, founder of the Swiss Female Composers Festival, with her choices of music from Switzerland and how giving female composers greater exposure helps plant their music in the collective memory of society. The complete music is available in the YouTube playlist . You ...
Jul 15, 2023•26 min•Ep. 183
By turns grand and genial with moments of great inventiveness and wit, Louise Farrenc's Nonet for wind and strings is a bit of magic! Listening time 37 mins (podcast 7', music 30') Music here on Youtube , Spotify , Amazon and Apple Musics (tracks 7-10) played by the Intercontinental Ensemble with tons of style and (unlike some of the other recordings) totally in tune! You can buy the recording as a download from Presto music: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9312834--arc Thanks to ...
Jun 22, 2023•7 min•Ep. 182
Meeting his boss's insatiable desire for new content 'forced' [his word] Joseph Haydn to write original, inventive music that sounds as fresh and full of life today as when it was written. And he wrote so much great music that I only heard this piano trio for the first time this week - and it's wonderful stuff. Listening time 19 mins (podcast 6', music 13') The music is here, played by the incomparable Beaux Arts Trio on Youtube and Spotify . If you're listening on Apple or Amazon you need a lin...
Jun 11, 2023•7 min•Ep. 181
110 years ago in Paris, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring caused a furore and changed music forever. Did the police have to be called? It's still a piece that shocks and stuns and is filled with something amazing every second. Listening time c45 mins (podcast, 12', Music 33') Music here on Spotify , Amazon and Apple Music played by the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie with conductor, Peter Eötvös. You can buy the recording or stream it too at Presto Music There are plenty of video performances on Youtu...
May 31, 2023•13 min•Ep. 180
A rarity from Wales (a Welsh rare-bit?), Grace Williams's orchestral piece Penillion surprises, delights and has an epic grandeur. It's terrific stuff and I think you'll love it! Listening time 25 mins (podcast, 7', Music 18') Music here on Youtube played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes What do you think? Tell me with a comment at www.cacophonyonline.com ! I'd love to hear from you! If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways: – help with...
May 21, 2023•7 min•Ep. 179
Another great, short piece, here's the first of Joan Tower's Fanfares celebrating risk-taking and adventurous women. This is both celebratory and substantial, plus a workout for brass and percussion. Listening time 8 mins (podcast 5.5', music 2.5') Listen to the music, Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No.1, here on Youtube , Spotify , Apple Music or Amazon music played by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. You can buy a recording of the piece here at Prestomusic.com (bu...
May 10, 2023•6 min•Ep. 178
A short podcast about the shortest of pieces, yet Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man still packs a punch and seems to point to big issues. 'No taxation without representation'? Perhaps today's call should be 'No representatives (from the Head of State down) who don't pay their taxes!' Listening time c10 minutes (podcast 6', music 3') Listen to the whole piece here, played by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas on Youtube , Spotify , Apple Music and Amazon music ...
Apr 30, 2023•6 min•Ep. 177
Often on the edge, in life and music, Beethoven goes to extremes on the piano to show us the extreme depth of his feelings. His Appassionata Sonata is every bit as intense as its name suggests! Listening time 33 mins (podcast 10', music 23') Listen to the whole piece here, played by Maurizio Pollini on piano on Youtube , Spotify , Apple Music (this links to mvt 1 and you need tracks 23,24,25) and Amazon music (also mvt 1 and you need tracks 7,8,9) You can buy the piece as a high quality download...
Apr 19, 2023•10 min•Ep. 176
Lost for 150 years and then, because it was so good, presumed to have been written by her brother, Fanny Mendelssohn's Easter Sonata for piano is passionate, intense, lyrical and dramatic... and the story of its rediscovery is no less compelling. Listening time c36 mins [11' podcast, 21 or 25' music] The complete music is here in the original 1970s recording by Eric Heidsieck on Spotify , Youtube , Amazon and Apple Music I think I prefer this more recent rendition by Sofya Gulyak on Youtube , ta...
Apr 10, 2023•11 min•Ep. 175
English folk music is often typically nostalgic and melancholy. Cacophony goes in search of happiness with Malcolm Arnold's English Dances - pretty, witty and bright! Listening time 24 mins (podcast 6', music 18') Music here, played by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Penny on Youtube , Spotify , Apple Music (tracks 1-8 English Dances Set 1 op.27 and Set 2, op.33) and Amazon (tracks 1-8). You can buy a whole cd (also including the other 'national'(and Cornish!) dances as a h...
Mar 29, 2023•6 min•Ep. 174
Haunting and melancholy music from my hometown, Vaughan Williams's Norfolk Rhapsody No.1 features the old songs of fisherman and the last days of a way of life. Like the local landscape it's bleak but beautiful! Total listening time 18 mins (podcast 7', music 11') Here's Joe Anderson, James ‘Duggie’ Carter and the Reverend Alfred Huddle: The music is here on Youtube , Spotify Apple Music and Amazon. , played by The Hallé conducted by Mark Elder (and it's available to buy as a high-quality downlo...
Mar 20, 2023•8 min•Ep. 173
Packed with memorable Czech songs about pigeons, nightingales, love, life and unploughed fields, Vítěslava Kaprálová's Rustic Suite mixes countryside charm with the confident orchestral swagger of a 23 year old receiving acclaim in Paris and London. Music full of life and good tunes! Listening time 21 mins (music 16', podcast 5') The music is here, played by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marko Ivanovic on Youtube , Spotify , and links to the album (where you want tracks 1-3) a...
Mar 10, 2023•5 min•Ep. 172
Small but perfectly formed, Germaine Tailleferre's Little Suite is seven minutes of innocent delight from a composer looking to escape from the trials of a difficult life. It may be short, but it's packed with memorable tunes and a joyous spirit. Irresistible! Listening time c14 minutes (podcast 7', music 7') It's not available commercially, but this Youtube video has an excellent performance from the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France with conductor Mikko Franck. Enjoy it? Let us know wit...
Mar 02, 2023•7 min•Ep. 171
It's a riot of colour at the carnival in Stravinsky's wonderful ballet, Petrushka , with dancing (of course), puppets, romance (kind of), fighting, and a wild bear. It's got everything - even a French song about a woman's prosthetic limb, but you have to listen for an explanation...! Total listening time 48 mins (podcast 13', music 35') The music is here in full, played by The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez - a master of clarity and excitement on Youtube , Apple Music and Amazon....
Feb 20, 2023•14 min•Ep. 170
Who doesn't love gazing at the sea? It's something that brings out the meditative in all of us as we stare at it and think deep thoughts. Claude Debussy didn't want us to think too hard - just to listen. In La Mer , he brings The Sea to us wherever we are, in all its beauty and wonder. Total listening time 36 mins (podcast 11', music 25') The music is here in full, played by The Hallé Orchestra (from Manchester, UK) conducted by Mark Elder on Youtube , Spotify , and links to the album at Apple M...
Feb 10, 2023•11 min•Ep. 169
An epic and spiritual adventure for choir, Joby Talbot's Path of Miracles captures the hope, the expectation and the moments of overwhelm (both positive and negative) of travellers on the ancient and still popular pilgrimage trail the Camino de Santiago (Way of St James). Simon Clark, scientist, author and singer joins me to share his passion for the piece and guide us on a journey of musical and maybe spiritual fulfilment! Listening time: podcast 24 mins, music 62' Music here on Youtube , Spoti...
Jan 30, 2023•24 min•Ep. 168
