Donald Macleod introduces a first in Composer of the Week’s seventy-year history, the Croatian Countess Dora Pejačević. Donald is joined by Professor Koraljka Kos and Professor Iskra Iveljic to discuss the known facts about the life and music of this Countess and her family. Although Pejačević was born into one of the most influential aristocratic families in Croatia, she became rather critical of her own class in later life. Through her position she did have the opportunity to study in Germany ...
Oct 26, 2018•1 hr 20 min
Marking the centenary of his death, Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Hubert Parry. Donald begins with the story of Parry's early years, rooted at Highnam Court in Gloucestershire, before looking at the period he was centred around Orme Square in London, the home of his teacher and mentor Edward Dannreuther. We hear about Parry’s connection with the long-running Three Choirs Festival: Parry’s father, Thomas Gambier Parry, was energetic and generous in his efforts to ensure the Festiva...
Oct 12, 2018•1 hr 8 min
Donald Macleod is in conversation with Thea Musgrave as she celebrates her 90th birthday. Donald and Thea begin by discussing her dream of becoming a composer, and the dreams that have inspired her works. Born in Edinburgh, Thea left her medical degree for music, winning a composition prize which took her to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger. A dream about a subversive clarinettist helped formed the idea for her breakthrough commission from the CBSO, the Concerto for Orchestra. They talk about...
Oct 05, 2018•1 hr 10 min
Donald Macleod explores Sergei Rachmaninov’s years in America. Reluctant even to visit at first, and once there always more than a little homesick, this proudly Russian composer in fact lived in the United States of America for 25 years, from the end of the First World War until his death in 1943. His life there was principally that of a virtuoso performer, not a composer; and Rachmaninov gave recitals for presidents, recorded discs for Thomas Edison, and felt obliged to rattle off his “hated” P...
Sep 28, 2018•1 hr 5 min
Donald Macleod explores the conflicted relationships and mysteries in the life of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Donald begins this week’s episode by looking at Tchaikovsky’s early years as a civil servant, wrestling with the tension between his desire to compose music and his responsibilities as a bureaucrat in St Petersburg. We hear about some of the composer’s tricky relationships - with the ascendant Nationalist school of Russian composers, and also with money. His need to earn a living and suppo...
Sep 14, 2018•58 min
Donald Macleod explores the friendships, influences and struggles in the life and work of Ernest Chausson. Amédée-Ernest Chausson grew up in Paris during a period of great political, social and economic upheaval in France, from the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War to the advent of the Third Republic. His family, however, was materially little affected, profiting from their involvement in Napoleon’s remodelling of the medieval city into wide open boulevards. Living a bourgeois lifestyle amongs...
Sep 07, 2018•1 hr
Donald Macleod is joined by Bernstein protegée, conductor Marin Alsop, to look back at Bernstein’s hectic life as composer, pianist, thinker and entertainer. There are no neutrals when it comes to Leonard Bernstein: exhibitionist, a playboy touring Italy in a Maserati, an exhilarating conductor, provocative thinker, ‘one of the most electrifying personalities of our time’. 2018 marks the centenary of this life-affirming composer who always preferred to call himself, simply, ‘musician’. Donald an...
Aug 24, 2018•1 hr 13 min
Donald Macleod explores the strange, brilliant and occasionally nightmarish world of the Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke. The music of Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) is like being lost in a hall of mirrors. Staring back at you is the whole of music history - from Bach to modern pop via tangos, Soviet work songs, Gregorian chant and Viennese waltzes - refracted and distorted, and woven together to create a uniquely personal style. Thrilling, grotesque, occasionally nightmarish - Schnittke creates ...
Aug 03, 2018•1 hr 4 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and work of undisputed master, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Jul 27, 2018•1 hr 3 min
Donald Macleod and Jeremy Summerly discuss elusive Renaissance master, Josquin des Prez.
Jul 20, 2018•1 hr 28 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and work of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams
Jul 13, 2018•1 hr 13 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Italian experimental composer, Luciano Berio
Jul 06, 2018•1 hr 10 min
Donald Macleod examines the life and work of German composer Carl Maria von Weber
Jun 22, 2018•1 hr 3 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and work of French composer Charles Gounod
Jun 15, 2018•1 hr 5 min
Donald Macleod delves into the life and work of Giovanni Gabrieli
Jun 01, 2018•1 hr 6 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and work of French composer Maurice Ravel.
May 25, 2018•1 hr 14 min
Donald Macleod explores the lifelong friendship between Brahms and the great violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim - and the music of genius that resulted
May 18, 2018•59 min
Donald Macleod explores the life of Lili Boulanger, the first female winner of France's most prestigious composition competition, the Prix de Rome
May 11, 2018•1 hr 2 min
Aaron Copland is the composer who, more than any other, defined the sound of American classical music. Copland's life spanned every decade of the 20th Century, and this week Donald Macleod explores the composer's life and music against the background of the events of that Century.
May 04, 2018•1 hr 2 min
Donald Macleod pieces together the truths as he traces Verdi's life and music.
Apr 20, 2018•1 hr 13 min
Donald Macleod unravels the rich musical legacy of a composer known almost exclusively for one iconic work: the "Canon in D".
Apr 13, 2018•1 hr 9 min
Donald Macleod looks at the life and music of Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, notorious for the murder of his first wife and cousin, Maria d'Avalos.
Mar 30, 2018•1 hr 9 min
Donald Macleod looks at the development of Debussy's career against his personal life
Mar 23, 2018•1 hr 5 min
Donald Macleod explores a hugely successful episode in Haydn's life, his London years.
Mar 16, 2018•1 hr 4 min
Donald Macleod joins the Oscar winning film composer Rachel Portman in her studio in London, to chat about her life and music for film and the concert platform.
Mar 09, 2018•1 hr 23 min
Donald Macleod introduces the life and music of the German composer and conductor, Richard Strauss.
Mar 02, 2018•59 min
Donald Macleod introduces John Dowland, and those influenced by his exquisite melodies.
Feb 23, 2018•1 hr 4 min
Donald Macleod delves into the life and work of the man who is almost universally recognised as Finland's greatest ever composer – Jean Sibelius.
Feb 16, 2018•1 hr 16 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and music of the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu.
Feb 09, 2018•59 min
Donald Macleod introduces a variety of music across the whole of Handel's life
Feb 02, 2018•56 min
