Composer Profile - John Wilbye
Lucie Skeaping looks at the life and music of John Wilbye, who spent the majority of his career in the service of the Cornwallis family of Hengrave Hall in his home county of Suffolk.
Feb 25, 2018•17 min
The Early Music Show
An exploration of early music, looking at early developments in musical performance and composition in Britain and abroad. UK only: please note that not all episodes are podcast.
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Episodes
Opera of the Nobility - 18th Century Disruptors
Hannah French delves into the battle between the two opera companies in London in the 1730s - King George II's Royal Academy of Music with its musical director Handel - and the Prince of Wales' Opera of the Nobility under the guidance of Nicola Porpora. After four seasons of in-fighting and warring between the two factions, expensive set and costume designs and overpaid starry performers, both companies went bankrupt in 1737.
Feb 18, 2018•30 min
Couperin's Concerts Royaux
Lucie Skeaping marks the 350th anniversary of the birth of François Couperin with a programme devoted to the four suites of chamber music he wrote for Louis XIV in 1715 - Les Concerts Royaux.
Feb 04, 2018•17 min
The music of ancient Greece
Lucie Skeaping talks to Prof Armand D'Angour of Jesus College Oxford about the music and poetry of ancient Greece, from Homer to Mesomedes via Sappho, Euripides, Pindar and Athenaeus.
Jan 28, 2018•54 min
Les 24 Violons du Roi
Hannah French with music and stories from Les vingt-quatre violons du Roi - an ensemble based at the French court of Versailles but renowned throughout Europe during the 17th century, with music by Lully, Rebel, Delalande, Boesset, Aubert, Dumanoir and many others.
Jan 14, 2018•29 min
The Spirit of Bach - Dame Emma Kirkby
As part of the Spirit of Bach season, Dame Emma Kirkby shares some of her memories of singing Bach alongside some of her favourite recordings of other performers, including Christoph Prégardien, Barbara Schlick, Peter Kooi and Hana Blažíková.
Dec 24, 2017•20 min
Telemann at the Opera
Lucie Skeaping looks at the operas of Telemann. It's said he composed more than 50 works for the stage, although only 35 of them appear in his catalogue. Most of them were premiered in either Leipzig or Hamburg, where he made his home for the major part of his career.
Dec 12, 2017•26 min
Music at the Court of Catherine the Great
Lucie Skeaping introduces music from the court of Catherine the Great in Russia. We hear how the queen, despite having personally little interest in music, but aware of its cultural importance, brought Italian composers to St Petersburg as she wanted to position Russia as a cultural powerhouse to compete with their European neighbours in the west. The programme focuses on opera and sacred works, some written especially for her court, some adapted, by composers such as Galuppi, Paisiello, Sarti a...
Nov 13, 2017•23 min
Performer Profile - The Dufay Collective
Lucie Skeaping celebrates 30 years of the Dufay Collective in conversation with the ensemble's Director William Lyons.
Nov 07, 2017•28 min
Telemann's Paris Quartets
Hannah French marks the 250th anniversary of the death of Georg Philipp Telemann with a programme devoted to the composer's visit to Paris in 1737. Telemann was a huge star at this point in his career, so he was feted in France, where his celebrated Paris Quartets were performed.
Oct 22, 2017•21 min
Queen Mary's Big Belly
Lucie Skeaping is joined by Gabriel Crouch, director of the vocal ensemble Gallicantus and Magnus Williamson, Professor of Early Music at Newcastle University, to discuss music surrounding the fascinating hopes and tragedies of Queen Mary I's "phantom pregnancy" of 1555.
Oct 01, 2017•24 min
Giovanni Carbonelli
Lucie Skeaping talks to violinist Bojan Cicic and musicologist Michael Talbot about the life and music of the Italian violinist and composer Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli who came to London and played in the orchestra for many of Handel's works, and had a second career as a vintner and purveyor of fine wines to the royal court.
Sep 24, 2017•21 min
Bach's arrival in Cothen
In the fading light of December 1717, a carriage rumbles along the road to Cöthen. As the candlelit moated castle comes into view, the approaching family crane their necks to get a better look at their new home-town. The rural setting is a far cry from the hubbub of Weimar but there's promise in the air. The family are of course the Bachs, Johann Sebastian and his wife Maria Barbara, and four children: nine-year-old Catharina Dorothea, seven-year-old Wilhelm Friedman, three-year-old Carl Philipp...
Sep 17, 2017•23 min
Seductive, Voluptuous and Profane - Portuguese Love Songs
Lucie Skeaping talks to lutenist and director Zak Ozmo about his project based on 18th-century Portuguese love songs, known as "modinhas". In this programme we will explore the history of the 18th-century Portuguese modinha and myths that surround the creation of this fascinating genre. The themes are recognisable, the melodies haunting, and the genre is still able to stir the passions today as it did over two hundred years ago.
Aug 13, 2017•58 min
The English Virginals
Harpsichordist Sophie Yates visits Westwood Manor in Wiltshire to look at a recently restored 1538 ottavino virginals and discusses the history of the instrument, which had cult-like status in Elizabethan and Jacobean society.
Aug 03, 2017•42 min
York Early Music Festival - Young Artists' Competition 2017
Lucie Skeaping presents highlights of the York Early Music Festival Young Artists' Competition, and announces this year's winners.
Jul 30, 2017•58 min
Handel's Water Music
Hannah French delves into the history and musical detail of one of Handel's best-known pieces - his Water Music, first performed for King George I on the River Thames in July 1717. A contemporary article from the Daily Courant reported the event thus: "On Wednesday evening, 17 July 1717, at about 8 o'clock, the King took water at Whitehall in an open barge wherein were also the Duchess of Bolton, the Duchess of Newcastle, the Countess of Godolphin, Madam Kilmanseck, and the Earl of Orkney and we...
Jul 02, 2017•25 min
Canada 150: early music in Quebec
As part of Radio 3's Canada 150 celebrations, Hannah French explores the vibrant early music scene in Montreal. Period performance is thriving in Canada, intriguingly more so than in the USA. Hannah visits some of Montreal's prestigious early music venues and chats to some of the scene's biggest names in the lead-up to the 15th Montreal Baroque Festival. Featuring gamba player Susie Napper - artistic director of Les Voix Humaines; soprano Suzie Leblanc - founder and director of Le Nouvel Opéra; ...
Jun 25, 2017•30 min
Canaletto at the Queen's Gallery
Lucie Skeaping visits the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace to take a look at the current exhibition of works by Canaletto, in the context of some of the music from the Venice of that period, including works by Vivaldi, Albinoni, Marcello, Lotti and Galuppi.
Jun 18, 2017•30 min
Monteverdi 450: Selva Morale e Spirituale
Monteverdi 450: Lucie Skeaping looks at the collection of late sacred works by Monteverdi, entitled 'Selva Morale e Spirituale'.
May 14, 2017•14 min
Breaking Free - Martin Luther's Revolution: Developments in Catholic Music
As part of Radio 3's Breaking Free: Martin Luther's Revolution season marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in Germany in 1517, Lucie Skeaping looks at music written for the Catholic church as a result of the reforms at the Council of Trent, with music by Palestrina and Giaches de Wert, and also music written by later catholic composers such as Jacobus Handl, Charpentier and Carissimi.
May 07, 2017•14 min
Breaking Free - Martin Luther's Revolution: The Lead-Up...
As part of Radio 3's Breaking Free: Martin Luther's Revolution, Lucie Skeaping looks ahead to the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation in northern Europe, and some of the composers active in the very early years of the 16th Century. 500 years ago, in October 1517, the German cleric Martin Luther published what became known as his '95 theses', in which he attacked the common church practice of selling 'Indulgences' - people being led to buy their way out of God's punishment for having sinned ...
Apr 30, 2017•19 min
Roman Holiday
Hannah French presents a programme dedicated to the Swedish composer Johan Helmich Roman. He was not only one of his country's most celebrated Baroque composers and leader of the Swedish opera through the Age of Liberty, but also something of a traveller. Roman spent time in London, where he performed for Handel and Geminiani, before setting off across Europe where he met some of the leading musicians of his day, including Pepusch and Johann Jacob Bach.
Apr 23, 2017•23 min
Mary Magdalen
Lucie Skeaping discusses the role of Mary Magdalen at Easter with Susan Haskins (cultural historian and author of the book Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor) who chose the music to celebrate this day. The programme includes pieces by Bach, Crecquillon, Mazzocchi, Gabrieli and excerpts from the medieval Carmina Burana.
Apr 16, 2017•27 min
European Union Baroque Orchestra
Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of The European Union Baroque Orchestra.
Mar 26, 2017•27 min
I Fagiolini Profile
Lucie Skeaping celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of the ground-breaking vocal group I Fagiolini, in conversation with their founder and director Robert Hollingworth.
Mar 05, 2017•28 min
William Lyons on David Munrow
Director of The Dufay Collective, William Lyons, celebrates the life and work of one of his musical heroes - early music specialist, historian, multi-instrumentalist, broadcaster and pioneer David Munrow, who took his own life in 1976 during a state of depression at the age of just 33. Munrow perhaps did more than anyone else in the second half of the 20th century to popularise early music in Great Britain, despite a career lasting barely ten years. This was underscored when the Voyager space pr...
Feb 19, 2017•16 min
Thomas Campion
Lucie Skeaping marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of English composer, poet and physician Thomas Campion.
Feb 12, 2017•24 min
Bach's Orchestral Suites
Hannah French looks in depth at JS Bach's four orchestral suites, which play something of a Cinderella role to the Brandenburg Concertos. Though they are some of Bach's most festive works, they remain an incomplete set, never published, or even considered a collection in his lifetime. Basically, they are suites of dance-pieces in French Baroque style preceded by an ouverture. This genre was extremely popular in Germany during Bach's day, and he showed far less interest in it than was usual. Tele...
Jan 30, 2017•14 min
Antonio Lotti
Lucie Skeaping marks the 350th anniversary of Italian composer Antonio Lotti's birth with some of his famous choral works alongside lesser known pieces of chamber music and opera.
Jan 08, 2017•15 min
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