Classical For Everyone
- Épisodes
- 109
- Parution
- hebdomadaire
- Dernier épisode
- 6 Nov 2026
À propos du podcast
Five hundred years of incredible music. No expertise is necessary. All you need are ears. If you've ever been even slightly curious about classical music then this is the podcast for you.
Épisodes 109
An American Celebration
A podcast about classical music is maybe not really a place for politics but I'm recording this episode a day after the midterm elections in the US. And I think that a lot of people all over the globe are …
Notes de l’épisode
A podcast about classical music is maybe not really a place for politics but I'm recording this episode a day after the midterm elections in the US. And I think that a lot of people all over the globe are pleased and perhaps relieved that the complicated machinery of democracy in 2026 was robust enough to survive various attempts to compromise or subvert it… and regardless of one's affiliations I think that is well worth celebrating. With some help from Aaron Copland, Jennifer Higdon, Leonard Bernstein, Joan Tower, George Gershwin, Phillip Glass and John Adams.
[Episode Image: Scaffolding Liberty]
Sviatoslav Richter - Part Two
The pianist Sviatoslav Richter's life can somewhat conveniently be broken up into two parts… before he was allowed to tour outside the Soviet bloc in 1960 when he was in his mid 40s… and after. This episode is …
Notes de l’épisode
The pianist Sviatoslav Richter's life can somewhat conveniently be broken up into two parts… before he was allowed to tour outside the Soviet bloc in 1960 when he was in his mid 40s… and after. This episode is mostly about that second part; and touches on Richter's expanded interest in Chamber Music, some famous recordings, his influence on piano repertoire and his later career. Plus there will be sensational music from Schumann, Schubert, Liszt, Mozart, Beethoven and Prokofiev.
[Episode Image: Richter c.1960s – photographer: Arje Plas]
Longing
We bring meanings to music that the composers often didn't intend. And this episode is going to be an example of that. There is something in some music that for me triggers a sort of longing. The writer and …
Notes de l’épisode
We bring meanings to music that the composers often didn't intend. And this episode is going to be an example of that. There is something in some music that for me triggers a sort of longing. The writer and composer Jan Swafford describes some of Mozart's music as having a 'deep yearning' and I think that is in the same general area. And you can't be too prescriptive about this. It is a bit different if there are lyrics but music on its own is generally suggestive rather than specific. And when I describe the music I'm going to play as inspiring feelings of 'longing'… that in itself is a broad and perhaps vague concept… the music might bring up feelings of someone you have lost… or of a place you can't return to… maybe a golden time you can't recapture… or an ache for someone you can't be with.
And of course it may do none of those things for you but for the next hour and a bit there will be music with maybe a hint of melancholy or wistfulness or searching or longing… from Frederic Chopin, Maurice Ravel, Gabriel Fauré, Edward Elgar, Anton Arensky, Jean Sibelius, Arvo Pärt, Johann Sebastain Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Aram Khachaturian and Ludwig van Beethoven.
[Episode image: 'A distant star' Chania, Crete.]
Sviatoslav Richter - Part One
The Soviet pianist Sviatoslav Richter, as I hope this and the following episode will illustrate, is one of the greatest musicians of the recording era… unsurpassed technical expertise matched with a profound …
Notes de l’épisode
The Soviet pianist Sviatoslav Richter, as I hope this and the following episode will illustrate, is one of the greatest musicians of the recording era… unsurpassed technical expertise matched with a profound depth of musicality. But those clichés (whilst true) could be applied to a not insignificant number of other players. So why Richter? More than most musicians he was touched by history. Born in 1915 and dying in 1997, he outlived the Soviet Union but his life was utterly entangled with that state and the impact its leaders had on the people under their iron fists, Richter included. There is I think something in Richter's absolute immersion in his music that was a result of these extraordinary times and his strategies to protect himself from them. And along with the first part of his story there will be music from Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Schubert and Rachmaninoff.
[Episode Image: Richter c.1960 Time Life - Walter Sanders]
Mozart Opera Overtures
Why Mozart Opera Overtures? Well, whilst they were not really intended to be stand-alone pieces they have in many instances become favourites of concert programmers and broadcasters, not to mention the public …
Notes de l’épisode
Why Mozart Opera Overtures? Well, whilst they were not really intended to be stand-alone pieces they have in many instances become favourites of concert programmers and broadcasters, not to mention the public. And with most of them being about five minutes long you can fit eleven of them into a podcast episode! They are also in a way an interesting lens into the development of a composer… since Mozart wrote his first opera very early and completed two in the final year of his life. And in between he wrote another 15 to 20 operas depending on how you define them. So I'm going to play them in chronological order. And as a parallel they chart the changes in the make-up of a theatre orchestra in this time of intense development… the late 1760s to the early 1790s. What we think of as the modern orchestra was starting to settle at this time and the difference in the resources, in terms of instruments, Mozart had from the beginning of his career to the end is striking. And music is pretty damn sensational.
[Episode image: 'Cosi Fan Tutte' – Opera Australia.]
Film Music
Who knew that Camille Saint-Saens of 'Carnival of the Animals' fame wrote the world's first film score? Or that the Pulitzer Prize for music has been given to only one work for the screen. Or that five …
Notes de l’épisode
Who knew that Camille Saint-Saens of 'Carnival of the Animals' fame wrote the world's first film score? Or that the Pulitzer Prize for music has been given to only one work for the screen. Or that five composers, including the American music theatre legend Richard Rodgers, were approached for 'Lawrence of Arabia' before the job fell to an unknown Frenchman who was given six weeks to get the job done. Or that one of the great 20th century symphonies started out as music for a movie. Well I certainly didn't… until I started working on the 'Film Music' episode of 'Classical For Everyone'.
[Episode image: The Embassy Cinema; Wellington, New Zealand.]
Diving For Pearls – Part Two
[Please feel free to leap straight into this second part of the 'Diving for Pearls' episode but there's background information in the first half you might enjoy if by chance you have missed it.] How did the …
Notes de l’épisode
[Please feel free to leap straight into this second part of the 'Diving for Pearls' episode but there's background information in the first half you might enjoy if by chance you have missed it.]
How did the term 'baroque', the French version of a very old Portuguese word for a misshapen pearl… which became an insult applied to complicated music… and was then rehabilitated as a description of an ornate style of art and architecture… become the term now almost universally used to describe music written between 1600 and 1750? And what has 'diving' got to do with anything? The answers are in this two part episode of Classical For Everyone exploring lesser known Baroque composers. And there's a merman. But way more importantly… there is amazing music by Rameau, Rebel, Caldara, von Biber, Marais, Keiser, Leonarda, Strozzi, Stradella, Scarlatti, Locatelli and Valentini.
[Episode image: The Canning Jewel (reverse) – Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum.]
Diving For Pearls – Part One
How did 'baroque', the French version of a very old Portuguese term for a misshapen pearl… which became an insult applied to complicated music… and was then rehabilitated as a description of an ornate style of …
Notes de l’épisode
How did 'baroque', the French version of a very old Portuguese term for a misshapen pearl… which became an insult applied to complicated music… and was then rehabilitated as a description of an ornate style of art and architecture… become the term now almost universally used to describe music written between 1600 and 1750? And what has 'diving' got to do with anything? The answers are in this two part episode of Classical For Everyone exploring lesser known Baroque composers. And there's a merman. But way more importantly… there is amazing music by Rameau, Rebel, Caldara, von Biber, Marais, Keiser, Leonarda, Strozzi, Stradella, Scarlatti, Locatelli and Valentini.
[Episode image: The Canning Jewel – Collection, Victoria & Albert Museum.]
Night and Darkness
It could be argued that Night and Darkness are sort of the same. The Night is Dark. That's kind of the point. But there are brightly moonlit nights and there are very dark nights; in more ways than one, and …
Notes de l’épisode
It could be argued that Night and Darkness are sort of the same. The Night is Dark. That's kind of the point. But there are brightly moonlit nights and there are very dark nights; in more ways than one, and then there is darkness that is as black as night. So it's "Night and Darkness"… including symphonic night music from Gustav Mahler, a song of a rose on a summer night from Hector Berlioz, a night of love from Augusta Holmès, Ludwig van Beethoven's political prisoner crying out from a pitch black dungeon, Sergei Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil and Arnold Schoenberg's music of two lovers sharing secrets walking through a dark forest at night.
[Episode image: Night Sky. Christian Hoiberg Digital Photography School.]
Frederic Chopin
I have been asking myself why it has taken close to a hundred episodes before I got around to one devoted to Chopin. When I was chatting with Claude about doing the episode he described my neglect of the …
Notes de l’épisode
I have been asking myself why it has taken close to a hundred episodes before I got around to one devoted to Chopin. When I was chatting with Claude about doing the episode he described my neglect of the composer as, and I quote, 'an alarming gap… genuinely startling given Chopin's centrality to the repertoire and his obvious appeal to audiences'. So, if even my AI buddy is scratching his virtual head (and frankly being a little pretentious and unsupportive); then there may be listeners to the show who feel the same. So, with the help of eight pianists, a couple of cellists, a conductor and an orchestra let me make it up to you with an hour and a bit of the music of Frédéric Chopin.[Episode image: Detail from 'Chopin Playing the Piano in Prince Radziwill's Salon' by Henryk Siemiradzki 1887.]
Germans In Italy
Let's be fair, this is a deeply flawed title. Why? Well the idea is to play music written by German composers when they were living in or visiting Italy. But in the 18th century… which is when most of the music …
Notes de l’épisode
Let's be fair, this is a deeply flawed title. Why? Well the idea is to play music written by German composers when they were living in or visiting Italy. But in the 18th century… which is when most of the music comes from… Germany and Italy as we know them today did not exist. And to make things worse… the whole episode is really an excuse to play some music by a man now well and truly owned by modern Austria… which also didn't exist. What became Italy, Germany and Austria were a wonderfully confusing collection of kingdoms, republics, city states, free imperial trading centres, ecclesiastical principalities, and electorates. And you can imagine how catchy that sort of accuracy would have made the title. So please forgive 'Germans in Italy'. My clickbaity title will not diminish the pleasure I hope you are going to get from music by Heinrich Schutz, Johann Rosenmüller, Georg Friederich Handel, Johann Adolf Hasse, Johann Christian Bach, Christoph Willibald Gluck and the composer I alluded to earlier as the emblem of contemporary Austrian tourism… who was in fact from the sovereign ecclesiastical state of Salzburg… Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. [Episode image: Map of Italy. English, Circa 1788. "ITALY from the best AUTHORITIES" printed in London.]
Chamber Music Three + A Festival Conversation
In two earlier episodes I have referred to Chamber Music as 'Music For Small Spaces'. But if you search more broadly for that term you will come up with very little. If you want music for small groups of …
Notes de l’épisode
In two earlier episodes I have referred to Chamber Music as 'Music For Small Spaces'. But if you search more broadly for that term you will come up with very little. If you want music for small groups of instruments often performed in intimate spaces then, in English at least, you are going to be looking for 'chamber music'. And in this episode there will be chamber music from Maurice Ravel, Douglas Lilburn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Karol Szymanowski, Laurie Anderson, Johannes Brahms, Michael Norris and Antonin Dvorak. Plus I will be talking a little about chamber music festivals and playing ten minutes of a conversation I had with the violinist Justine Cormack about the At the World's Edge Festival she co-founded in Aotearoa New Zealand.
[Episode image: Courtesy of At The World's Edge Festival; Photographer: Nat Symonds.]
Felix Mendelssohn
In the latest episode of the 'Classical For Everyone' podcast… Scottish caves and rescuing Bach, becalmed boats and banking intrigue, Shakespearean fairies and a garment sellers' orchestra, a prophet in the …
Notes de l’épisode
In the latest episode of the 'Classical For Everyone' podcast… Scottish caves and rescuing Bach, becalmed boats and banking intrigue, Shakespearean fairies and a garment sellers' orchestra, a prophet in the wilderness… and a stolen statue. And… if that wasn't enough… eleven pieces of music from Felix Mendelssohn... perhaps the most gifted and quietly underrated composer of the nineteenth century.[Episode image: Portrait of Mendelssohn by Wilhelm Friedrich von Schadow, 1834.]
Music For The Very, Very Young
A good friend asked if I could do an episode of music for her very young daughter. So, welcome to a bit of a Classical For Everyone podcast experiment. On the plus side for the intended audience… There's not a …
Notes de l’épisode
A good friend asked if I could do an episode of music for her very young daughter. So, welcome to a bit of a Classical For Everyone podcast experiment. On the plus side for the intended audience… There's not a lot of talking. And the show is well under an hour. This might be balanced by the host's attempt to channel the children's books of his (distant) youth. Like I said, it's an experiment. But the music is terrific… Some perhaps expected… some not so much… The beginning of Michael Haydn's Toy Symphony, Edvard Greig's 'In the Hall of The Mountain King', 'Aquarium' from Camille Saint-Saëns' Carnival Of The Animals, 'I'm The Birdcatcher' from Wolfgang Mozart's opera 'The Magic Flute'. Peter Tchaikovsky's 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy' from his ballet 'The Nutcracker'; the ending of Joaquin Rodrigo's 'Concert for Aranjuez', the beginning of Johann Sebastain Bach's 'Third Brandenburg Concerto', the Prelude to Georges Bizet's opera 'Carmen', Elena Kats-Chernin's 'The Dance Of The Paper Umbrellas' and the Overture to Giacchino Rossini's opera 'The Barber of Seville'. [Episode image: 'The Walk To Paradise Garden' by W. Eugene Smith, 1946.]
Sunday Night Special … Camille Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony)
The name comes from the night of the week when for some of us, the frustrations of insomnia hit the hardest… and because my preferred antidote is getting lost in some music. Of course this series is for …
Notes de l’épisode
The name comes from the night of the week when for some of us, the frustrations of insomnia hit the hardest… and because my preferred antidote is getting lost in some music. Of course this series is for everyone… but it is perhaps intended a little more for those of you whose sleep has been troubled. The idea of the special is to play just one piece, uninterrupted and in its entirety… with a few minutes of background explained at the end of the episode. This month… Camille Saint-Saën's 3rd Symphony. Known as the Organ Symphony for reasons that will become pretty obvious. In this performance Daniel Barenboim conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the organist is Gaston Litaize. [Episode Image: Portrait of Saint-Saëns by Benjamin Constant. Background: Illustration of St John's Hall, London; where the premiere took place. The Hall was demolished in 1905.]
Neglected Beethoven
Is Ludwig van Beethoven neglected? No, not at all. But with the well-deserved emphasis on his symphonies, a couple of piano concertos and a handful of piano sonatas and string quartets; there is another roughly …
Notes de l’épisode
Is Ludwig van Beethoven neglected? No, not at all. But with the well-deserved emphasis on his symphonies, a couple of piano concertos and a handful of piano sonatas and string quartets; there is another roughly eighty hours of music to explore. And in the same way that maybe Picasso, Rembrandt, Shakespeare and Dickens created very little that is not of extraordinary quality… there is a bunch of incredible music that is not going to be encountered by the casual listener and that is what I want to feature in this show. An overture, excerpts from a misnumbered piano concerto, a string quartet, a piano sonata and from the Triple Concerto. [Episode image: Johannes Gelert sculpture of Beethoven photographed in Lincoln Park outside Chicago mid-20th Century by Percy Sloan.]
Not Dead Yet - Two
When a podcast is about five hundred years of music, there is going to be a reasonable amount of music from people who are no longer with us. Now if you combine that with the baggage of the term 'classical' …
Notes de l’épisode
When a podcast is about five hundred years of music, there is going to be a reasonable amount of music from people who are no longer with us. Now if you combine that with the baggage of the term 'classical' then you can kind of forget that there is a lot of music being written, performed, recorded and released right now. Music by composers who are still very much amongst the living. And you are going to hear from seven of them in this episode… Gabriela Ortiz, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Maria Grenfell, Unsuk Chin, Anna Clyne, Paul Stanhope and Joe Hisaishi. I hope you enjoy the second 'Not Dead Yet' show from the 'Classical For Everyone' podcast.
Winter
Winter... Now if you are in the northern hemisphere maybe think of this as a form of aural air conditioning. But if, like me, you are near the bottom of the planet then the music will be bringing up sensations …
Notes de l’épisode
Winter... Now if you are in the northern hemisphere maybe think of this as a form of aural air conditioning. But if, like me, you are near the bottom of the planet then the music will be bringing up sensations you are all too familiar with. I hope that wherever you are listening to this you are not shivering too much or sweating too much and that for the next hour and a quarter some wintery music will bring you some pleasure. Music from Geirr Tveitt, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Frederic Delius, Frederic Chopin, Sergei Prokofiev, Benjamin Britten, Josef Haydn, Johannes Brahms, Jabra Latham, Morten Lauridsen, Henry Purcell and Franz Schubert. [Episode Image: Central Park NY.]
Music For Pets
There may have been wine involved when the decision to put together a show of music for pets was first discussed. But when I was presented with art for the episode featuring a the surprisingly gifted cavoodle …
Notes de l’épisode
There may have been wine involved when the decision to put together a show of music for pets was first discussed. But when I was presented with art for the episode featuring a the surprisingly gifted cavoodle, Bob; it was too late to go back. So, music for pets it is. But I don't imagine you lining up your Spots, Tiggers, Fidos, Nuggets and Bobs for them to listen appreciatively to your audio device. No, the music is really more about a selection of the animals that we happen to enjoy as pets. And like all the themes for Classical for Everyone it is an excuse to find some wonderful music… And in this episode it is going to come from… Aaron Copland, Bernd Deutsh, Antonio Vivaldi, Jessica Wells, Domenico Scarlatti, Camille Saint-Saens, Bright Sheng, Sergei Prokofiev, Bohuslav Martinu, Nigel Westlake and Maurice Ravel. [Episode Image: Bob.]
The Other Russians
Who are 'the other Russians'? Well, I've played a fair bit of music by Russian and Soviet era composers in the show. Tchaikovsky got two whole episodes and there has been relatively frequent appearances by …
Notes de l’épisode
Who are 'the other Russians'? Well, I've played a fair bit of music by Russian and Soviet era composers in the show. Tchaikovsky got two whole episodes and there has been relatively frequent appearances by Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Shostakovich. But there are a quite a number of other composers more than worthy of a good listen who I have largely ignored… 'the other Russians'. So for this episode I have music by Glinka, Balakirev, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Scriabin. Most of it is orchestral but there is nine minutes of opera and some very sweet miniatures for solo piano at the end of the show. [Episode Image: The curtain of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg – Wikimedia Commons]
Sunday Night Special … Ralph Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 6
The name comes from the night of the week when for some of us, the frustrations of insomnia hit the hardest… and because my preferred antidote is getting lost in some music. Of course this series is for …
Notes de l’épisode
The name comes from the night of the week when for some of us, the frustrations of insomnia hit the hardest… and because my preferred antidote is getting lost in some music. Of course this series is for everyone… but it is perhaps intended a little more for those of you whose sleep has been troubled. The idea of the special is to play just one piece, uninterrupted and in its entirety… with a few minutes of background explained at the end of the episode. This month… Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sixth Symphony. The BBC Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Andrew Davis.
Franz Schubert 1
He was taught by Antonio Salieri and his music was admired by Ludwig van Beethoven… but he enjoyed very little success in his short lifetime. It would take decades after his death for his music to make its way …
Notes de l’épisode
He was taught by Antonio Salieri and his music was admired by Ludwig van Beethoven… but he enjoyed very little success in his short lifetime. It would take decades after his death for his music to make its way onto concert stages… and for him to become one of the best loved composers who ever lived. If you are new to his music I hope that over the next hour and a bit I'll give you a sense of why that is the case. I'm going to concentrate on music Schubert wrote between 1814 and 1822, that is between the ages of 17 and 25, including sections from two symphonies, two piano sonatas and a piano quintet; and three songs. [The image for this episode is a watercolour of Schubert by his friend Wilhelm August Rieder from 1825.]
Pieter Wispelwey - Cellist
This episode features a living musician, still very much in his prime… the Dutch cellist, Pieter Wispelwey. So, what prompted me to choose him? Well, a few things. I've been a fan for a long while and have been …
Notes de l’épisode
This episode features a living musician, still very much in his prime… the Dutch cellist, Pieter Wispelwey. So, what prompted me to choose him? Well, a few things. I've been a fan for a long while and have been lucky enough to hear him play a number of times over the last three decades. And about 18 months ago the record company Channel Classics released a big box of CDs of recordings he made for the company… and they're terrific. And Wispelwey is equally at home with music from any of the last several centuries. Plus he is still touring… so for many of you listening to this podcast… he will be on a stage near you at some point and I recommend you grab the opportunity to hear him play. And perhaps most importantly I can get to play you some of the best music written for the cello… from Johann Sebastian Bach, Josef Haydn, Pyotr Illich Tchaikovsky, Benjamin Britten, Antonin Dvorak, Antonio Vivaldi, Dmitri Shostakovich and Peter Sculthorpe. [The episode photograph is by Michel Garnier.]
Seville… Love and Dreams
Music from and about Seville, the city of Carmen's tobacco factory and Figaro's barber shop; the city of flamenco and fiestas; the city where more operas are set than any other; and the city where almost eight …
Notes de l’épisode
Music from and about Seville, the city of Carmen's tobacco factory and Figaro's barber shop; the city of flamenco and fiestas; the city where more operas are set than any other; and the city where almost eight centuries of Spanish dominance does not seem to have been able to erase the sense of the proximity of North Africa and the cultural heritage of the Moorish world. Music by Isaac Albeniz, Joaquin Rodrigo, Georges Bizet, Joaquin Turina, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Francisco Guerrero and Giochhino Rossini. All of whom revel in the shifting mirage and extravagant reality that is Seville.
[The episode image is of La Giralda… the belltower of Seville Cathedral… once the minaret of the Grand Mosque of Islamic Seville.]
Muses... Worth Repeating*
Much music has been inspired by love, passion or obsession… but only in a handful of cases has the person who was the inspiration… the muse… become publicly linked to a work. Here are the stories of six of …
Notes de l’épisode
Much music has been inspired by love, passion or obsession… but only in a handful of cases has the person who was the inspiration… the muse… become publicly linked to a work. Here are the stories of six of them… Alma Schindler, Josephine Brunsvik, Kamila Stösslová, Peter Pears, Clara Wieck and Mathilde Wesendonck. And the music they inspired… by Gustav Mahler, Ludwig van Beethoven, Leos Janacek, Benjamin Britten, Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner.
[The episode image is a photographic portrait of Alma Schindler taken about eighteen months before she met Mahler. It is likely the image was made by Moriz Nähr but the attribution is difficult to confirm.]
*This episode is from back in April 2025. Whilst I am away from the microphone and the CD library for another week, I'm repeating one of my very favourite episodes. Enjoy.
The Sea… Worth Repeating*
Composers have drawn inspiration from the sea for centuries but only with the rise of the larger orchestras of the 1800s did they get the palate needed to create fully persuasive depictions of it. So, apart …
Notes de l’épisode
Composers have drawn inspiration from the sea for centuries but only with the rise of the larger orchestras of the 1800s did they get the palate needed to create fully persuasive depictions of it. So, apart from one piece for solo piano, major orchestral works are what you will hear in this episode... 'The Sea and Sinbad's Ship' from Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Sheherazade', an unfairly short interlude from Benjamin Britten's opera 'Peter Grimes', the overture to Richard Wagner's 'The Flying Dutchman', Claude Debussy's 'The Sunken Cathedral', New Zealander Gareth Farr's massive 'From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs' and more Debussy… 'Games of the Waves' from 'La Mer' or 'The Sea'.
*This episode is from the group that launched the podcast back in February 2025. Whilst I am away from the microphone and the CD library for a couple of weeks, I'm repeating some of my favourite episodes. Enjoy.
Maurice Ravel... Worth Repeating*
Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937) is arguably the most beloved composer France has given the world… able to take classical and pre-classical forms, absorb the harmonic colours of Impressionism, draw on the dance …
Notes de l’épisode
Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937) is arguably the most beloved composer France has given the world… able to take classical and pre-classical forms, absorb the harmonic colours of Impressionism, draw on the dance traditions of his Basque mother's heritage, and infuse his later work with the energy of early jazz. All of it synthesised into a language that is quite distinctly his own. In this episode… a section of his first Piano Concerto, the Pavane for a Dead Princess, a little taste of his String Quartet, the amazing orchestral work La Valse, or The Waltz, the 'Blues' section of his second Violin Sonata… and the irresistible 'Bolero'. Plus a little biography thrown in.
*This episode is from the group that launched the podcast back in February 2025. Whilst I am away from the microphone and the CD library for a couple of weeks, I'm repeating some of my favourite episodes. Enjoy.
Recent Discoveries Two
Recent Discoveries Two This episode is the second one called 'recent discoveries'. And that should only be taken in the very personal sense of 'recent discoveries' for me. Some of it is indeed recent but in …
Notes de l’épisode
Recent Discoveries Two
This episode is the second one called 'recent discoveries'. And that should only be taken in the very personal sense of 'recent discoveries' for me. Some of it is indeed recent but in addition to music written in the last few years, there are a couple of pieces that date back to the early and mid-20th century so they were well and truly discovered before I encountered them. I want to apply a little bit of gentle pressure on behalf of the unfamiliar. I am going to hope that you will be pleasantly surprised by how good music by people whose names might not know can be… Music from Maria Grenfell, Gabriela Ortiz, Daniel Asia, Ethel Smyth, Herbert Howells, and the perhaps more recognisably… Dmitri Shostakovich.
Before Dawn
Music for the hour before dawn. Which is in no way intended to be too prescriptive… the episode can be listened to any time… but I hope it is music that has a calmness and perhaps a contemplative tone that …
Notes de l’épisode
Music for the hour before dawn. Which is in no way intended to be too prescriptive… the episode can be listened to any time… but I hope it is music that has a calmness and perhaps a contemplative tone that suits the hour when there is a glow in the sky, things are at their most quiet… and you have the world to yourself. The music is by Felix Mendelssohn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Luys Milan, Josef Haydn, Georg Friedrich Handel, Rachel Portman, Nicholas Gombert, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Sebastian Bach. Regular listeners to the podcast might recognise a couple of pieces from earlier episodes. Forgive me for playing favourites. Now, for this show I am going to be pretty sparing in talk; but I'll add a few paragraphs on each piece to the episode's page at classicalforeveryone.net.
The Oboe
Time for some music from one of the oldest instruments in the orchestra. True to the Old French word its English name came from… 'hautbois' with 'haut' meaning both high and loud and 'bois' meaning wood… the …
Notes de l’épisode
Time for some music from one of the oldest instruments in the orchestra. True to the Old French word its English name came from… 'hautbois' with 'haut' meaning both high and loud and 'bois' meaning wood… the oboe found its place as the earliest woodwind instrument through its high range and penetrating volume. And whilst it can be piercing when required, it can also be playful, can manage a soaring lyricism and can epitomise grace and beauty. Music from Jennifer Higdon, Josef Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Camille Saint-Säens, Richard Strauss, Samuel Barber, Ross Edwards and Antonio Vivaldi. Plus… musicians with knives.
Voici les 40 derniers épisodes sur 109. Les épisodes plus anciens se trouvent dans le flux du podcast.
Podcasts similaires
Plus de podcasts : Musique
C’est votre podcast ?
Confirmez-le avec une entrée dans votre flux : vous recevez ici un code, vous l’ajoutez comme podcast:txt dans le canal de votre flux, et nous le vérifions. Votre podcast apparaît ensuite comme « vérifié » sur SoundNode.