Donald Macleod and guest, Kevin Le Gendre follow the jazz adventures of Carla Bley One of the most original voices in jazz, composer, arranger, performer and band-leader Carla Bley has been determinedly pursuing her own musical path for more than sixty years. Her back catalogue of some fifty plus recordings tell the story of a musician who's responded in her own unique style to all the current trends, from free and experimental jazz in the 60s and 70s to 80s soul, blues and R&B. In later dec...
Nov 19, 2021•1 hr 12 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and work of composer, Luigi Cherubini An octogenarian when he died in 1842, Cherubini's long life places him alongside three giants of the age, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. When he was born in 1760, Mozart was four years old, and Haydn was in his thirties. Beethoven was born a decade after Cherubini. Standing among these luminaries, all of whom he admired, Cherubini was a composer, conductor, teacher, administrator, theorist and music publisher, who enjoyed a muc...
Nov 12, 2021•1 hr 1 min
To mark Sofia Gubaidulina’s 90th birthday, Donald Macleod and Gerard McBurney explore five different aspects of her progressive and distinctive music. Gubaidulina has been living in Germany since 1992 and is still busy composing today. When she was born in 1931 in Tatarstan, the Soviet Union was under Stalinist rule. Up until her emigration, she worked as a composer under the strictly regulated conditions determined by Soviet cultural policies. This week, we get an insight into the life of a com...
Nov 05, 2021•1 hr 16 min
Donald Macleod tries to get to the heart of JS Bach’s character, warts and all. Johann Sebastian Bach, who is now almost universally recognised as one of the giants of classical music, was not always so celebrated. In his own lifetime he received some public recognition but this contrasted with his regular complaints of unjust humiliations at the hands of his contemporaries and his employers. Was the composer hard done by or were these problems of his own making? This week, Donald Macleod tries ...
Oct 15, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Donald Macleod attempts to unravel the enigmatic, remarkable story of Julius Eastman and his music. When this week’s composer died homeless and alone in 1990, almost no one knew, not even his friends, and his work threatened to disappear with him. Julius Eastman had lit up America’s contemporary music scene as a spellbinding performer and a visionary composer whose music is difficult to pigeonhole. A gay, black man in the predominantly white world of new music, Eastman was often misunderstood. H...
Oct 08, 2021•1 hr 13 min
Donald Macleod follows Wagner's journey towards building the Bayreuth Festival. This week, Donald Macleod follows Wagner on his decades-long journey to realise his dream of building his own music theatre, and establishing a festival there dedicated to his music. We see how Wagner’s revolutionary ideas and vaulting ambition struggled against the reality of securing supporters, raising finances, and inspiring audiences. Music Featured: Das Rheingold, Scene 1: “Lugt, Schwestern! Die Weckerin lach i...
Oct 01, 2021•1 hr 8 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Béla Bartók. Music Featured: For Children Piano Concerto No 3 Contrasts Hungarian Sketches Kossuth 14 Bagatelles, Nos 4 & 5 Piros Alma / Red Apple 44 Duos for Two Violins (No 44, Transylvanian Song) Allegro Barbaro Romanian Folk Dances for Orchestra Transylvanian Dance String Quartet No 2 (i Moderato; ii Allegro molto capriccioso) Orchestral Suite No 2 (ii Allegro scherzando) Three Hungarian Folk Tunes The Miraculous Mandarin Suite Village Scenes ...
Sep 24, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Donald Macleod explores some of the challenges Telemann faced as he struggled for success Georg Philipp Telemann was one of the most celebrated musicians of the 18th century. In Europe, his fame eclipsed that of his close contemporaries Handel and Bach and he left behind him a vast legacy of works. This week, Donald Macleod turns the spotlight on this often forgotten musical superstar, exploring the many challenges he met, the influence of his family and friends and the composer’s involvement in...
Sep 17, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Donald Macleod turns his attention to Rachmaninov’s great choral works Rachmaninov has been seen as the last great champion of Russian Late Romanticism. He was a celebrated pianist and conductor, as well as a composer, and his musical legacy includes his hugely popular piano concertos. This week, Donald Macleod turns his attention to Rachmaninov’s great choral works and his story during the periods in which they were composed. These choral masterpieces are both sacred and secular, and include th...
Sep 10, 2021•53 min
Donald Macleod and Andrew Graham-Dixon build a picture of music and art in Josquin's time The humanist Cosimo Bartoli described Josquin as the Michelangelo of Music. A master of polyphonic choral writing, Josquin was as widely admired in his own lifetime as posthumously. While Josquin was a dominant force in music, the Franco-Flemish area with which he’s associated, also produced some remarkable painters, who, like Josquin and his fellow composers, exported their style, technical accomplishments...
Sep 03, 2021•1 hr 25 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Antonín Dvořák. In an era overloaded with brooding and overwrought, Romantic sensibilities, Antonín Dvořák’s music shone with grace and joy and humanity. Audiences were enchanted and adopted Dvořák as one of the 19th century’s most beloved composers. He was especially in demand in Britain and the USA, and enjoyed successful visits both countries. Dvořák was never happier, though, than at home in his native Bohemia, listening to the birds singing, feed...
Aug 06, 2021•54 min
Donald Macleod in conversation with award winning American composer Jennifer Higdon. If you were to ask Jennifer Higdon what her biggest musical influence might be, she’s more likely to cite Lennon and McCartney than Bach or Beethoven. Born in 1962 in New York, the soundtrack of her childhood was the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter Paul and Mary, the Rolling Stones, and reggae. A move to Atlanta, Georgia, and then to a farmhouse in rural Tennessee, added bluegrass and country music. It ...
Jul 30, 2021•1 hr 31 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla was not well suited to the role of national musical icon. He was at his happiest, living a simple, monkish existence in his spartan Granada villa; fussing over his music in pleasant isolation or enjoying the company of a few close friends. He was generous but withdrawn, quietly and devotedly religious, and had a horror of being dragged into the violent political conflicts that wracked Spain during the first half of the ...
Jul 16, 2021•1 hr 15 min
Donald Macleod pulls back the curtain on Berlioz’s greatest obsession Donald Macleod explores the women who shaped Hector Berlioz’s life and work Hector Berlioz was one the most innovative and rebellious musicians of 19th century France. He was a man of unwaveringly high expectations, in his wider life as well as his music. As the quintessential Romantic, one friend said that love was the “alpha and omega of his existence”. This week Donald Macleod looks at Berlioz through the passions and relat...
Jul 09, 2021•1 hr 13 min
Donald Macleod explores the musical life of Benjamin Britten Music Featured: Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (Nos 7 & 8) Phantasy Quartet Nocturne (On This Island) Ballad of Heroes (2nd mvt) Suite for Violin and Piano (Lullaby; Waltz) Hymn to St Cecilia Calypso Young Apollo for Piano and Strings Violin Concerto in D minor (1st & 2nd mvt) An American Overture Ceremony of Carols (Nos 7 & 8) Peter Grimes, Prologue Peter Grimes, “Old Joe has gone fishing” Four Sea Interludes, Op 33...
Jul 02, 2021•1 hr 10 min
This week, Donald Macleod explores Purcell’s work during his short life in the context of the turbulent times in which he lived. This was a period of intense political and social change, encompassing three different monarchies, the plague, the great fire of London, and the arrival of another deadly pandemic. Music featured: Blow up the trumpet in Sion, Z10 Welcome, vicegerent of the mighty king, Z340 Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei, Z135 Sonata a 4 No 4 in D minor, Z805 Theodosius, or The For...
Jun 25, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and music of the 19th-century French singer, pianist, composer and influential society figure, Pauline Viardot. “When I want to do something, I do it in spite of water, fire, society, the whole world”, an indicator if ever there was one, of the inner steel of this week’s composer. Born in 1821, Pauline Viardot possessed an array of exceptional qualities. As one of the opera stars of her age, she was admired from Paris to St Petersburg as a sublime interpreter of ...
Jun 18, 2021•1 hr 14 min
Robert Simpson - once described as "Britain's most important composer since Vaughan Williams", and "one of the century's most powerful and original symphonists" - was a man of integrity, a champion of lesser-known composers, and a man who lived his own life by strict principles: pacifism, socialism and what he called "anti-pessimism". This week, in Simpson's centenary year, Donald Macleod looks back at the life and work of Robert Simpson - from his childhood in the Salvation Army, to his experie...
Jun 04, 2021•1 hr 14 min
Donald Macleod explores some of the many turning points in Fauré’s career Gabriel Fauré’s story begins during the second half of the 19th century, when the musical world was dominated by the heavily romantic voices of composers like Wagner, Brahms and Liszt. Fauré became a key protagonist in a musical revolution that opened audiences ears to new modes of expression - modern, refined and utterly French. As a composer, and as a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, he left a huge legacy on the music...
May 21, 2021•56 min
Robert Schumann’s early training was focused towards his ambition to become a celebrated concert pianist, but a hand injury quickly put that career option out of reach. Schumann turned instead to composition and put all that piano study to good use, writing many important works for his own instrument. This week, Composer of the Week unpacks the moments in Schumann’s life when he was creating some of his most famous and notable piano works, including one of the most iconic Romantic pianos concert...
May 14, 2021•55 min
This week, Donald Macleod explores Aaron Copland’s most productive decade, and features some of his best loved works in full. During this time Copland hit his prime. He became recognised as America’s leading composer, winning the Pulitzer Prize in Music and an Academy Award for his work in Hollywood. He toured Europe and South America, absorbing diverse influences from each, and composed key works including his Symphony No.3, Appalachian Spring, Lincoln Portrait, Fanfare for the Common Man and R...
May 07, 2021•1 hr 8 min
Donald Macleod explores five aspects of Satie This week, Donald Macleod looks at Satie as a trailblazer and humourist as well as his penchant for composing in threes, his copious, playful and highly idiosyncratic writings and his serious side. Music featured: Trois Gymnopédies (No 1, Lent et douloureux) Trois Sarabandes (No 2) uspud – ballet chrétien (3rd act) Le piège de Méduse Relâche – ballet instantanéiste Vexations (très lent) Embryons desséchés (No 1, ‘d’Holothurie’ – Allez un peu) Parade ...
Apr 30, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Donald Macleod explores Chopin’s time in Britain Chopin made just two trips to Britain, both in later life. These visits are often portrayed as a disaster - a calamitous mistake of no worth to Chopin which hastened the composer’s death. This week, Donald Macleod explores these two trips in depth, during which the virtuoso pianist gave six of the thirty public concerts he gave during the whole of his life, and also made many private appearances meeting the great and the good of British society. M...
Apr 23, 2021•1 hr 24 min
Donald Macleod surveys the string quartets of Joseph Haydn. From his opus 0 and opus 1 of the 1750s to his unfinished opus 103 of 1803, Haydn’s 68 string quartets span the major part of his compositional life. While he wasn’t the inventor of the form, he’s fully deserving of the epithet, the “father of the string quartet” as he elevated the form to new heights. It’s his ideas that take the quartet from its 18th century antecedents to the conventions that are rather more familiar to us today. The...
Apr 16, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Maurice Ravel is one of France’s most enigmatic, original and beloved composers. While less prolific than some of his contemporaries, Ravel was a master of detail - his works are elegant and exquisitely crafted, and precision was a guiding force in both his creativity and personality. He is often linked with impressionism for his painterly approach to orchestration and vivid soundworlds of his piano writing, but his distinctive voice bears influences from the baroque, to the exotic, to jazz. Ove...
Mar 26, 2021•1 hr 6 min
This week, Donald Macleod looks at Handel’s life and work during an important decade of his life. The 1730s saw Handel create some of his best-loved works, but also saw him fall out with singers and patrons in London, endure a stroke and attendant poor mental health, and mourn the death of one of his chief supporters, Queen Caroline. Music Featured: Esther HWV 50b (revised version 1732) (excerpts) Trio Sonata in C Major, HWV 403 Acis and Galatea, HWV 49 (Act I: Aria: Hush, ye pretty warbling qui...
Mar 19, 2021•1 hr 11 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and music of the English composer Ruth Gipps. Ruth Gipps was born in Bexhill-on-Sea in 1921. Her Swiss-born mother was an accomplished pianist and, recognising her daughter’s aptitude, taught her piano from an early age. Gipps was four years old when she gave her first public performance, at Grotrian Hall in London. It was from that moment on, she said later, that she knew without a shadow of a doubt, that playing the piano was her job and that she wanted to be a...
Mar 12, 2021•1 hr 28 min
Donald Macleod explores the life and music of the young Richard Strauss During Richard Strauss’s lifetime the sound and form of music altered radically. He was born at the tail end of the 19th century and saw the emergence of twelve tone music and atonality from younger composers like Arnold Schoenberg and his pupil Alban Berg. Strauss belonged to a previous generation and his music came to be regarded as conservative in style, but at the start of his career, Strauss had been seen as something o...
Mar 05, 2021•1 hr
Felix Mendelssohn was one of the most gifted and versatile musicians the world has ever seen. As a child prodigy he was likened to Mozart and he grew to become one of the most famous and beloved composers in Europe, during the middle of the 19th century. His life was cut tragically short, at the age of 38, while he was at the very height of his powers. This week, Donald Macleod focuses on the final five years of Mendelssohn’s life, and follows the composer through his extremely hectic work sched...
Feb 26, 2021•51 min
Donald Macleod finds connections between Mozart’s operas and the composer’s own life Born in 1756, the theatre was a life-long passion for Mozart. Starting at the tender age of just 11, in the space of 22 years he produced an astonishing 24 theatrical works. His destiny was to follow in his father’s footsteps, as a court musician. Instead, by 1781, after a disagreement over his frequent absences from court, Mozart parted ways with his employer, the Elector of Cologne. He left Salzburg and servit...
Feb 19, 2021•1 hr
