Music Matters
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MusicMat: 18 MAY 13: Wagner 200
As part of Radio 3's Wagner week, Tom Service travels to Switzerland to explore Richard Wagner's life before Bayreuth - his years as a poltical exile in Zurich, and at the Wagner family home at Tribschen on the shores of Lake Lucerne. Tom's guides to Wagner's Swiss years are the authors Chris Walton and Eva Rieger. He also meets Wagner's great-granddaughter Dagny Beidler, and the director of the Zurich Festival Elmar Weingarten. Stephen Evans reports on Wagner's complex relationship with his...
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MusicMat: 11 MAY 13: Florez Bernstein Martland
This week Suzy Klein meets Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez and discovers why he always keeps his phone at the side of the stage when he performs. Louis Andriessen pays tribute to his pupil and friend Steve Martland who died earlier this week. Marin Alsop and Nigel Simeone review a new book in which Jonathan Cott retells the story of the night he had dinner with the composer, conductor and vital life force that was Leonard Bernstein and Suzy delves into the inner workings of a piano as she...
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MusicMat: Bel Canto Bully
With Tom Service, including a report from the new Mariinsky II in St Petersburg which opens this weekend and is expected to transform the existing Mariinsky Theatre and Concert Hall into one of the world's premiere performing arts centres for classical music, opera and ballet. Author Philip Eisenbeiss comes into the Music Matters studio to talk about his new biography of the legendary impresario Domenico Barbaja, who dominated European operatic stages for thirty years at the height of the...
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MusicMat: Sir Colin Davis Tribute
Suzy Klein pays tribute to Sir Colin Davis. With interviews from the BBC Archive as well as music from across his vast recorded output. Head of Music at the Royal Opera House David Syrus, LSO principal clarinettist Andrew Marriner and tenor Ian Bostridge remember their friend and colleague. Ahead of his Wigmore Hall concert, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani explains to Suzy how the two different instruments he will use tell of the changing attitudes to the harpsichord and the music written for...
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MusicMat: 13 April 13 Francis Poulenc Special Edition
Tom Service marks the fiftieth anniversary of Francis Poulenc's death by visitng the composer's home city of Paris, to trace his remarkable musical life. He talks to pianist Graham Johnson, Poulenc's great-nephew Benoit Seringe,Gabriel Tacchino, Georges Prêtre and musicologists Barbara Kelly and Nicolas Southon.
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MusicMat: 06 April 13: Leif Ove Andsnes, A Late Quartet
Pianist Leif Over Andsnes discusses his on-going journey through Beethoven's Piano Concertos, Tom Service visits a performance simulator at The Royal College of Music, choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan discusses Stravinsky's Petrushka and violinists from real-life string quartets review a new film starring Christopher Walken and Philip Seymour Hoffman about life in a fictional quartet.
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MusicMat: 30 Mar 13: Baroque
As Radio 3’s Baroque Spring Season draws to a close Tom Service explores the changes in the performance and perception of Baroque music over the last 40 years. From the early Dutch and British pioneers of the early music movement in the 1960s, through to today, historically informed performance practice has grown from a small band of devotees to a movement which now influences how every professional ensemble approaches the Baroque repertoire. With contributions from Christopher Hogwood,...
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MusicMat: Nicola Benedetti
Suzy Klein meets the violinist Nicola Benedetti ahead of a major tour of Scotland. As the LA Philharmonic takes up residency at the Barbican, we find out about YOLA - Youth Orchestra LA - and how it's changing the lives of young people in the city. Suzy also meets David Wright, author of a new book about the history of the ABRSM, and finds out how much music exams have changed over the year - or not!
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MusicMat: 09 Mar 13 Peter Bazalgette, Nicolas...
On this week's Music Matters: the new chairman of the Arts Council England,Sir Peter Bazalgette. Zo Martlew and Professor Susan Hallham discuss the future of one to one music teaching. A new book of letters by composer, conductor, critic, and lexicographer Nicolas Slonimsky. Plus Geoff Baker on the future of Venezuela's El Sistema after Hugo Chavez' death
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MusicMat: 03 Mar 13: Tallis Scholars, Tetzlaff, Benjamin
Tom Service interviews violinist Christian Tetzlaff, talks to George Benjamin and Martin Crimp about their much acclaimed new opera 'Written on Skin', celebrates 40 years of the Renaissance vocal group The Tallis Scholars with director Peter Philips and 60 years on from the deaths of Stalin and Prokofiev looks at their reputations now and then.
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MusicMat: 16 Feb 2013 Bernard Haitink, Pierre Schaeffer
In a rare interview conductor Bernard Haitink talks to Tom about the very earliest days of his career at Netherlands Radio and why today’s politicians must prioritise the arts. A new English translation of writings by the musique concrete composer Pierre Schaeffer is reviewed by Simon Emmerson and Rob Young, and Tom finds out about a 40,000 year old flute at the British Museum's Ice Age Art exhibition.
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MusicMat: Simone Young
Tom Service talks to the Australian conductor Simone Young, reviews two new books about Arturo Toscanini, and discovers the connections between music, language and autism. Plus we mark the anniversary of the death of Wagner.
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MusicMat: Britten biographies, brass bands and film music
Tom Service explores new revelations about Benjamin Britten's life from Paul Kildea and Neil Powell as we look at their two fresh biographies of the composer in this centenary year. Are we facing the demise of the brass band? As bands struggle to clinch sponsorship deals, Tom investigates the future of the British institution. And film music at the Howard Assembly Room in Leeds.
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MusicMat: Lutoslawski
Tom Service presents a special edition of Music Matters marking the centenary of the birth of Witold Lutoslawski. Born in Poland, he created much of his music - including the Concerto for Orchestra, four symphonies, and works for Mstislav Rostropovich, Anne Sophie Mutter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Heinz Holliger - against the backdrop of the most turbulent decades in the country's history.
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MusicMat: 12 JAN 13: Philip Glass' The Perfect American;...
Presented by Tom Service, including Philip Glass' new opera exploring the life, and especially the death, of Walkt Disney; Tom travels to Edinburgh, meeting Robert Irvine, the editor of a new collection of Robert Burns' poetry and songs, and tenor Tom Walker and pianist David McGuiness, who perform Burns songs specially for the programme; Tom also talks to the composer Brian Ferneyhough as he celebrates his 70th birthday; and Suzy Klein meets the Tchaikovsky Competition winning pianist...
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MusicMat: 05 JAN 13: Dowland; Midori; Blitzstein
Presented by Tom Service John Dowland - composer, diplomat, spy and possible traitor was born 450 years ago in 1563. This week Tom explores the life and music of a man who was one of the greatest composers of Elizabethan England. He is joined by counter-tenor and Dowland fan Iestyn Davies and Dowland expert Peter Holman to explore the man and his music. Japanese-American violinist Midori has been involved in music education projects in schools and hospitals since she was in her early 20s....
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MusicMat: Charles Rosen, Hanseatic League, Mumming
Suzy Klein talks to Sir Nicholas Kenyon about the late pianist and writer Charles Rosen, finds out about the musical traditions of the Hanseatic League, heads to a Wiltshire pub to meet the Potterne Christmas Boys and discover more about the tradition of Mummers Plays and chooses her highlights from the Music Matters year.
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MusicMat: 08 DEC 12: Harvey, Christie, RNCM
Tom Service talks to the composer Julian Anderson, conductor Martyn Brabbins and the musicologist Jonathan Cross about the life and work of Jonathan Harvey who died this week. Also on the programme, Tom Service interviews conductor William Christie about his baroque group, Les Arts Florissants. The Royal Northern College in Manchester. Tom visits the college's Oxford Road site and talks to former and current students to find out what makes the RNCM so special.
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MusicMat: Andras Schiff, Britten Letters, Irvine Arditti
Pianist Andras Schiff talks to Tom Service about Beethoven's piano sonatas. Dame Janet Baker and Michael Kennedy look though the latest volume of Benjamin Britten's letters. There's a new book focusing on photographs of Benjamin Britten, and an interview with violinist Irvine Arditti.
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MusicMat: A History of Opera, Calixto Bieito & Meredith...
Tom Service talks to Roger Parker and Carolyn Abbate, authors of A History of Opera: The Last 400 Years, which tells the story of the artform from Monteverdi to John Adams, and reviews the book with tenor Ian Bostridge and historian Sarah Lenton. Tom also meets the controversial opera and theatre director Calixto Bieito during rehearsals for his production of Bizet's Carmen at English National Opera; and talks to the American composer and performer Meredith Monk as she approaches her 70th...
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MusicMat: Henze & Carter tribute 10 Nov 2012
A tribute to two towering musical figures in the 20th and 21st centuries who died recently: composers Hans Werner Henze and Elliott Carter. With the help of a wide range of archive material Tom Service explores their life, work and legacy with a panel consisting of musicologist Paul Griffiths and composers Detlev Glanert and Mark-Anthony Turnage, also including collaborations from other musicians, among them composer/conductor Pierre Boulez, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and violinist Irvine...
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MusicMat: Is Classical Music Really for Everyone?...
Live from the Northern Rock Foundation Hall at the Sage, Gateshead. Tom Service is joined by a distinguished panel comprising opera director Graham Vick, journalist Paul Morley, cellist, cabaret artist and composer Zoe Martlew and Northumbrian smallpiper Kathryn Tickell to discuss the question: "Is classical music really for everyone?"
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MusicMat: Solti at 100 20 Oct 2012
Tom Service presents. We visit two exhibitions in London marking the centenary of the birth of legendary conductor Sir Georg Solti: one at the Barbican Centre, in the company of cellist Sussane Beer and choir master David Temple, and the other one at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with John Tooley and David Syrus, at one point members of its management. Also an interview with Barry Millington, author of the new book 'Richard Wagner, The Sorcerer of Bayreuth', which is reviewed by...
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MusicMat: 13 Oct 2012 Kent Nagano, Pierrot Lunaire,...
Tom Service talks to conductor Kent Nagano, marks the centenary of Schoenberg's ground-breaking piece Pierrot-Lunaire with soprano Jane Manning and conductor Daniel Harding, as well as assessing the reputation of Saint-Saens with cellist Steven Isserlis and getting to grips with an Inside Out Piano created by pianist Sarah Nicolls.
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Music Matters: ENO's Julius Caesar, Contemporary Piano,...
As part of the BBC Piano Season Tom Service talks to pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Noriko Kawai and Rolf Hind about the challenges of performing contemporary piano music and what the future may hold for the piano repertoire and author Stuart Isacoff tells Tom why the piano is so important to musicians from Mozart to modern jazz. Tom also talks to the director Michael Keegan-Dolan and conductor Christian Curnyn about the new English National Opera production of Handel's Julius Caesar which...
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MusicMat: Wagner's Ring & BCMG 29 Sep 12
Tom Service talks to the Italian singer Anna Caterina Antonacci about her unique voice, about saying no to opera directors when necessary and about why she left her homeland for good. We travel to the heart of the Midlands to eavesdrop on one of the most successful ensembles of the country, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group as they celebrate their 25th birthday: Tom talks about it with, among others, conductor Simon Rattle, composers Thomas Ades, Oliver Knussen, Colin Matthews and...
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MusicMat: John Cage
As Radio 3 celebrates the centenary of composer John Cage's birth, Tom Service looks back at his life and work, and asks how are we to understand Cage today? Joined by Cage biographers Mark Swed and David Nicholls, Tom hears from a chorus of Cage's colleagues and friends, and asks whether as Cage's former teacher Arnold Schoenberg said, he was not "a composer, but an inventor - of genius", or if his works, rooted in ideas as diverse as the Chinese book of changes, the I-Ching, Zen buddhism...
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MusicMat: Northern Ireland
Tom Service travels to Northern Ireland to take the temperature of its music making. Starting in Derry-Londonderry he investigates how music has come to symbolise new relationships and new hope for the city. Moving on to Belfast Tom visits the MAC, a brand new arts centre which has just opened in the city’s cathedral quarter. There’s the latest from NI Opera and the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s University.
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MusicMat: Debussy
A special Debussy edition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth.
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MusicMat: Versailles
Tom Service travels to Versailles to discover more about the Royal Opera House there, widely considered to be one of Europe's most beautiful court theatres. Re-opened in September 2009 after an extensive restoration programme, it now plays host to many of the world's leading exponents of Baroque music. And two books fall under the Music Matters spotlight: Hugh Macdonald's Music in 1853 - The Biography of a Year looks at a period of about ten months, during which Berlioz, Liszt and Verdi were...
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MusicMat: Women in new music, Mozart reassessed
Tom Service talks to soprano Dawn Upshaw about her passion for singing new work. He discusses with author Rhiannon Mathias the life and work of a trio of composers who before the Second World War were pushing the boundaries of British music: Elizabeth Maconchy, Elisabeth Lutyens, Grace Williams. In his new book on Mozart, renowned Bach scholar and Harvard professor Christoph Wolff asks us to reassess our ideas of Mozart's last years. Tom talks to the widows of three of 20th Century music's...
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MusicMat: Jubilee, Xenakis and Folk Song
On the Jubilee weekend, Suzy Klein looks at the history of music making on the River Thames. She looks at a brand new collection of English folk songs and also travels to Rouen to use the UPIC machine designed in the 1970s by composer Iannis Xenakis, which turns pictures into music.
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MusicMat: Murray Perahia and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Music Matters with Tom Service. Today, an interview with the pianist Murray Perahia and a look at the life and career of the German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who has died.
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MusicMat: Gatti, Falstaff, Ravel and George Benjamin
Conductor Daniele Gatti and director Robert Carsen ahead of a new production of Verdi's Falstaff at the Royal Opera House. There’s the music of Ravel, and how French decadence in the nineteenth century shaped his work. And composer George Benjamin who has spent the last 3 years year tucked away writing his latest opera - Written on Skin. Ahead of a major retrospective of his work at the Southbank Centre in London this weekend, Tom Service meets the composer to discuss both the challenges...
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MusicMat: Carousel
Tom Service travels to Leeds to find out about Opera North's new production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musical Carousel, first performed in 1945 and a staple of the repertoire ever since. As a new book is published about the great Swedish tenor Jussi Bjorling, author Stephen Hastings, director Mike Ashman and tenor Toby Spence discuss what made him unique as an artist, and how his musical development was influenced by developments in the recording industry. Tom also catches up with...
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MusicMat: Einstein on the Beach
Tom Service talks to Philip Glass about his opera Einstein on the Beach and to Gerald Barry about his new operatic setting of The Importance of Being Earnest. There's Lothar Koenigs Music Director at Welsh National Opera, and a look at a new book about the trumpet.
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MusicMat: Harnoncourt
Suzy Klein presents this week's edition of Music Matters, which features a rare interview with the conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt. One of the great musical figures of 20th and 21st Centuries, renowned as a pioneer in the world of conducting, Harnoncourt was a key player in the development of the 'period performance' of classical, baroque and early music, in particular the music of JS Bach. In more recent years he has broadened his repertoire to include sometimes surprising composers like...
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MusicMat: Ferrier, Ellington, Currie and Britten
Tom Service heads to Blackburn to hear about the fascinating life of British contralto Kathleen Ferrier, interviews star percussionist Colin Currie with his sticks in hand and hears an exclusive Elliot Carter performance, talks to Geoffrey Smith and Julian Joseph about a new book by David Schiff that places Duke Ellington at the heart of the musical 20th Century, and heads to the British Library to see their newly acquired draft manuscript of Benjamin Britten's Young Persons Guide to the...
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MusicMat: Italian special
In a special edition of Music Matters, Tom Service travels to Florence to discover more about the birth of opera, in the company of the Florence-based opera critic Matteo Sansone, and economic historian Richard Goldthwaite, who has recently discovered diaries and account books belonging to Jacopo Peri, composer of the first ever opera, Dafne. Tom also travels to Formigine to spend some time with Spira mirabilis, a conductor-less and flexible ensemble, as they work on Haydn on period...
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10 Mar 12: Music Matters - Kleiber, Gelb, Weir, Rake
Tom Service meets Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, to talk about the challenges of running an international opera house for the 21st century. As a new production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress opens at Scottish Opera, Tom examines the reasons for the enduring appeal of this work, with the help of Stravinsky authority Jonathan Cross and conductor Sian Edwards. The composer Judith Weir talks about the inspiration behind her opera, Miss Fortune, which...
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MusicMat: Music Nation
As Radio 3 launches Music Nation, the first nationwide countdown event for the London 2012 Festival, Suzy Klein explores the cultural past, present and future of the Olympics. She is joined in the studio by journalist Richard Morrison and Director of Arts for the British Council Graham Sheffield to discuss the successes, failures and possible legacy of the Cultural Olympiad.
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MusicMat: Anne-Sophie Mutter
Tom Service meets the acclaimed violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter ahead of concerts with the LSO. Mutter was invited by Herbert von Karajan to play with the Berlin Philharmonic at the age of 13 and has since been one of the biggest stars of the classical music world, playing everything from the great warhorses of the concerto repertoire to contemporary works written specially for her. As the Royal Opera House in London prepares to stage Dvorak's opera Rusalka for the very first time, Tom delves...
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MusicMat: Richard Goode 11 Feb 2012
Tom Service talks to veteran pianist Richard Goode as he visits London for a recital of Schumann and Chopin. Also, as a number of concerts across Britain mark the 75th anniversary of Polish composer Karol Szymanowksi's death, musicologists Adrian Thomas and Stephen Downes discuss the work and legacy of one 20th-Century greatest composers. Also interviewed are conductor Edward Gardner and tenor Piotr Beczala. Also, Sir Antonio Pappano, the Royal Opera House's Music Director, talks to Tom...
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MusicMat: Death of Klinghoffer, Roger Go to Yellow...
Tom Service explores John Adams' and Alice Goodman's compelling and controversial opera The Death of Klinghoffer, as English National Opera prepares for its London stage premiere. He speaks to the composer from his Californian home, as well as heading to rehearsals to meet librettist the Revd. Alice Goodman, director Tom Morris, and conductor Baldur Bronniman. A new book on the life of conductor Charles Munch for the first time delves into the legacy of a man who was an enigmatic performer...
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MusicMat: Brahms Albumblatt Delius Hough Dallapiccola
In this week's programme Andrs Schiff gives the first broadcast of a new piece by Johannes Brahms in a soon to be published edition by Christopher Hogwood. They join Tom Service in the studio to explain the fascinating provenance and re-discovery of this little piece written by the 20 year-old Johannes. Tom also delves into the life and music of Frederick Delius 150 years after his birth, is it time to banish his image as a sentimental pastoral composer? Written in Italy at the end of the...
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MusicMat: Jonathan Biss 14 Jan 2012
Tom Service interviews young American pianist Jonathan Biss about why he’s in awe of Beethoven’s music. Also, two big events in the UK both devoted to one of the most prominent figures in 20th-Century music: first, it's 'Prokofiev, Man of the People?', a London Philharmonic Orchestra festival of concert, film and stage music at the South Bank Centre - Vladimir Jurowski talks to Tom about it. For the other we travel to Glasgow as we eavesdrop into a new production of the Russian composer's...
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MusicMat: New Music 20x12
British music old and new falls under the Music Matters spotlight today. A new book edited by Lewis Foreman reconsiders the composer John Ireland, 50 years after his death. We take a look at one of the new pieces that forms part of New Music 20x12, a work by Anna Meredith for the National Youth Orchestra, using only their bodies and mouths in beat-boxing and body percussion to create a unique sonic tapestry. And Tom talks to the composer Alexander Goehr as the BBC Symphony Orchestra prepares...
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MusicMat: Andreas Staier 17 Dec 2011
Tom Service interviews harpsichordist Andreas Staier as he prepares for a London recital tackling one of the greatest works ever written for the keyboard: Bach's 'Goldberg Variations'; as Christmas looms we visit King’s College Chapel in Cambridge to meet composer John Rutter and historian Christopher Page and talk about the medieval pre-history of the carol and its contemporary significance. Also, a new book with a collection of essays reassessing the legacy of composer Gyorgy Ligeti, one...
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MusicMat: Fleming; 21st century oboe; Stravinsky Ballet
Suzy Klein interviews American soprano Renee Fleming about her career on the opera stage and the concert platform. Christopher Redgate demonstrates his 21st century oboe a new instrument that expands the range and abilities of the oboe. She also talks to the author of a new book that explores the creation and reception of Stravinsky's ballets while choreographer David Bintley and Stravinsky author Stephen Walsh review it for us. Finally Suzy visits Bath to explore the 300 year history of...
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MusicMat: Michael Gove, Peter Conrad
Tom Service talks to Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, about the National Plan for Music, and the future of music on the National Curriculum. Michael Finnissy tells Tom why he decided to complete Mozart's Requiem, and what it says about contemporary attitudes to death. Tom talks to Peter Conrad about his new book "Verdi And/Or Wagner", and is joined by directors Graham Vick and Francesca Zambello to discuss the perceived aesthetic rivalry between the two composers. Finally, a...
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MusicMat: The Symphony since 1945
In this special edition of Music Matters, Tom Service and guests consider the symphony since 1945. With Nicholas Kenyon, Managing Director of the Barbican Centre in London, Berlin-based critic Shirley Apthorp, and composer David Matthews who has written 7 symphonies so far. We also hear from composers Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr, Rodion Shchedrin and John Corigliano.
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MusicMat:Dennis Brain biography 12 Nov 2011
Tom Service presents. As a new biography of Dennis Brain, one of the greatest horn players of all time is launched virtuoso David Pyatt and amateur player Jasper Rees, review the book and talk about what made him such a legend. Also, an interview with the critically-acclaimed German composer Thomas Larcher about a song cycle written for tenor Mark Padmore, who also features. Tom talks to Jerome Hilier and Owsley Brown III, the directors of 'Music Makes A City', a new documentary about the...
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MusicMat: Live at Free Thinking
Has music changed the world? That's the question presenter Tom Service debates with some of classical music's brightest brains. Joining Tom on his panel of guests are Pamela Rosenberg, former director of San Francisco Opera and the Berlin Philharmonic, composer Christopher Fox, musicologist Christopher Page, violinist and expert on music and the brain Paul Robertson and Director of Learning and Participation for The Sage Gateshead Katerine Zeserson. Broadcast live from The Sage Gateshead on...
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MusicMat: Liszt
In a special edition to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Franz Liszt, Tom Service reconsiders aspects of the man and his music in the company of pianists Louis Lortie and Leslie Howard, conductor Gianandrea Noseda, and composer Kevin Volans. Kenneth Hamilton demonstrates Liszt's pioneering writing for the piano, and historian Tim Blanning explains how being born in 1811 helped him become one of the most famous figures of the 19th century.
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MusicMat: Gunther Schuller 15 Oct 2011
As he prepares to launch his autobiography 'Gunther Schuller: A Life in pursuit of Music and Beauty' Tom Service talks to the American composer, conductor, horn player and jazz musician. At the age of 85 Schuller has been at the heart of the American musical scene since the 1940s, collaborating with renowned composers like Cage, Babbitt and Varese, and conductors like Toscanini, Dorati and Stokowski. A larger than life character, Schuller explains how he lead a double life as accomplished...
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MusicMat: 08 Oct 11: Joseph Calleja
Tom Service talks to Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja, about the future of opera, discusses the legacy of American choreographer Merce Cunningham and how to preserve contemporary dance, roots through the William Alwyn archive at Cambridge University library and discusses the complexities of music and politics with the British Council's Cathy Graham and authority on cultural diplomacy John Holden.
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MusicMat: 01 Oct 12: Boulez Special
Tom Service introduces a special edition devoted to the French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez. Boulez's name used to strike fear into the heart of the musical establishment, whether the composers, the orchestras, or the opera houses. In Paris in the late 40s and 50s, he was a brilliant provocateur as well as composer: a scourge of mediocrity and anything less than full-blooded experimentation. But times have changed. Now aged 86, he reflects on the central themes of his life and work,...
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MusicMat: Chrstiopher Hogwood
In the first programme of the new season Tom Service is joined by Richard Morrison of The Times and Elaine Padmore, outgoing Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House, to preview some of the classical music highlights of the 2011-12 season. There's also a new biography of conductor Hans von Bulow, and an interview with Christopher Hogwood as he celebrates his 70th birthday. And Tom meets David Pountney as he prepares to take up the reins at Welsh National Opera.
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MusicMat: Peter Maxwell Davies
Tom Service travels to Sanday, one of the northernmost Orkney Isles, to meet the Master of the Queen's Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. He tells Tom how his beliefs, his strong opinions on social and political issues - from the Iraq war to climate change - and his relationships, are inseparable from the music he writes.
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MusicMat: Thomas Ades
In an exclusive and extended interview, Tom Service talks to British composer Thomas Ads. Perhaps one of the most brilliant and successful classical composers of his generation, his dazzling and communicative operas are performed all over the world. His orchestral works and solo pieces are in the repertoire of performers from conductor Simon Rattle to cellist Steven Isserlis, but he has not given a full-length interview for British radio in many years. Today's Music Matters is devoted to a...
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MusicMat: Harrison Birtwistle
Harrison Birtwistle's Violin Concerto receives its UK premiere at the Proms on 7th Sept 2011. Tom Service journeys into Birtwistle's musical imagination. He meets Harry as he's better known at home in Wiltshire and a fortnight later they meet again at rehearsal in Boston where he talks candidly about his hopes for the concerto. As the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Christian Tetzlaff get to grips with the new work ahead of its premiere, we experience the process of Birtwistle's ideas being...
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