Composer of the Week Podcast Folgen

Donald Macleod begins three weeks focused on French composers, in honour of this month’s ‘Tour de France’ cycle race. "I have followed the theatre since the age of twelve", so said Rameau to a young composer who wrote to him for advice. It's an intriguing insight into a man who didn't produce his first opera until the age of fifty. Quite why it took him that long isn't clear. Up to that point he had been a church musician, following in his father's footsteps, holding a succession of posts mainly in the South of France. He also taught and established himself as a theoretician of some note. A brief, early sojourn in Paris, a mecca for any theatrical hopeful, ended abruptly when he was still in his twenties. It wasn't until he returned to Paris in 1723 that Rameau was able to start writing music for theatrical entertainments, at first for the popular Fairs, and then finally in 1733 for the Paris Opera. In the midst of constant cultural rows over the merits of French and Italian operatic style, Rameau flourished as a theatre composer. At one point he was so successful the management of the Paris Opera decreed no more than two of his works should be mounted per season, to allow other composers to get a look in! He completed his final opera, a masterpiece, Les Boréades in 1763, the year before he died at the age of eighty. Across the week Donald Macleod focuses on this remarkable period in Rameau's life, from the first of his theatrical works to his last.Music Featured:Naïs (Overture) Naïs (Prologue: Lancez, lancez la foudre) Achante et Céphise (Act: excerpt) Un horizon serein (Les Boréades) La poule (Suite in G minor) Hippolyte et Aricie (Act 3: Quels biens!) Hippolyte et Aricie (Act 4, Sc 1 to 3) Dardanus (Overture) Castor et Pollux (Act 2: excerpt) Castor et Pollux (Act 4, Sc 3) Dardanus (Act 1, Sc 1: Cesse, cruel Amour, de regner sur mon âme) Dardanus (Act 2, Sc 3) Dardanus (Act 4, Sc 1) Les fetes d'Hébé (excerpt) Les surprises d’amour (Ouverture) Les surprises d’amour (Act 1, Sc 6: The Abduction of Adonis) Hippolyte et Aricie (Act 1, Sc 1: Temple sacre, séjour tranquille) Platée (Act 1, Sc 5 and 6: excerpt) Platée (Act 2, Sc 2 to 4) Le Temple de la Gloire (Act 3, Finale) Les indes galantes (excerpt) Zaïs (Act 4, Sc 3 to 4) Anacréon (Sc 6) Pygmalion (Sc 3) Pygmalion (Sc 4) Les fêtes de Polymnie (Prologue, Sc 3) Zoroastre (Act 3: excerpt) Achanté et Céphise (Act 3: excerpt) Achanté et Céphise (Act 3: excerpt) Les Boréades (Act 2: excerpt) Les Boréades (Act 4: Entrée de Polymnie)Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Johannah SmithFor full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018qjvAnd you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

Donald Macleod surveys one of the most famed Spanish composers of the Renaissance, Tomás Luis de Victoria.Tomás Luis de Victoria has become the most famed Spanish composer of the Renaissance and ranks alongside Palestrina and Lassus as one of the greatest composers of the 16th century. He was a singer, organist, scholar, teacher, and a priest but it was in composition that he made his most significant impact. His motets, Offices for the Dead and music for Holy Week are admired for their great beauty and intensity and his musical talent thrust him into the orbit of Spain’s royal family and the most senior clerics in Rome. His devotion to God sat at the heart of his creative life; and he wrote, “there is not a single thing as useful as music, which, reaching our hearts soft but deeply, provides a clear benefit not only for our soul but also for our body.”Music Featured: O magnum mysterium Ave Maria Missa pro defunctis (Taedet animan meam) Missa pro defunctis (excerpt) Missa pro defunctis (excerpt) Magnificat octavi toni O Magnum Mysterium Vadam et circuibo civitatem a 6 Ascendens Christus in altum Super flumina Babylonis Missa O magnum mysterium Ave maris stella a 4 Gaude Maria Nigra sum sed formosa Ardens Est Cor Muem Magnificat septimi toni Lamentations for Maundy Thursday Conditor alme siderum a 4 Aurea luce a 4 O Ildephonse Pange Lingua ‘more hispano’ a 4 Victimae paschali Laudes a 8 Veni, Sancte Spiritus a 8 Missa pro Victoria a 9 Missa Surge Propera a 5 (Credo) O quam gloriosum O vos omnes Missa pro defunctis (excerpt) Versa est in luctum Libera me (Absolution) Missa Salve regina a 8 Alma Redemptoris MaterPresented by Donald Macleod Produced by Luke WhitlockFor full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018862And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

Donald Macleod explores Dvořák’s American years and uncovers what he achieved during his time there.Antonín Dvořák became the first Czech composer to achieve global fame. His gift for transforming the folk styles of his native Bohemia into richly Romantic classical music won him admirers far beyond his homeland. Consequently, Dvořák was approached to leave Europe and serve as director of the newly established National Conservatory of Music in America. His sponsors hoped he would help foster a new and distinctive American musical style, less reliant upon Germanic traditions. During his time in America, from 1892 – 1895, Dvořák composed many of his most celebrated works, including his 9th symphony and his cello concerto. Before leaving, he’d started work on his Cello Concerto, inspired by his yearning for the Bohemian countryside. Back at home, Dvořák also completed his String Quartet No 13 which some have seen to be his final work to have musical associations with America.Dvořák’s had set out to encourage American musicians to look to their own traditions rather than simply following behind Europe. He may not have been entirely successful but he did encourage others in that aim, such as Harry T. Burleigh. Burleigh said of Dvořák that he’d assisted in changing attitudes of African American’s towards their own folk tradition, and most importantly, that Dvořák "was a man of the people".Music Featured: Symphony No 9 in E minor, Op 95 “From the New World” (excerpt) Piano Trio No 4 in E minor, Op 90 “Dumky” (Lento maestoso) Carnival Overture, Op 92 Requiem, Op 89 (Introitus) Symphony No 4 in D minor, Op 13 (excerpt) Silent Woods, Op 68 No 5 Symphony No 8 in G, Op 88 (excerpt) Requiem, Op 89 (Confutatis Maledictis) Symphony No 6 in D, Op 60 (Scherzo: Furiant) Symphony No 8 in G, Op 88 (Allegretto grazioso – Molto vivace) Te Deum, Op 102 Southland Sketches (excerpt) - Harry T. Burleigh Symphony No 9 in E minor, Op 95 “From the New World” (excerpt) Sonatina for violin and piano, Op 100 (Larghetto) Swing Low, Sweet Chariot – Arr. Harry T. Burleigh Go Down Moses – Arr. Harry T. Burleigh Symphony No 9 in E minor, Op 95 “From the New World” (Largo) String Quintet, Op 97 “American” (excerpt) Symphony No 9 in E minor, Op 95 “From the New World” (Allegro con fuoco) Humoresques, Op 101 No.7 (excerpt) Suite in A, Op 98B (Allegro) String Quartet No 12 in F, Op 96 “The American” (Vivace) Humoresques, Op 101 (excerpt) Biblical Songs, Op 99 (excerpt) Among the Fuchsias, from Five Songs of Laurence Hope - Harry T. Burleigh Worth While, from Five Songs of Laurence Hope - Harry T. Burleigh Cello Concerto in B minor, Op 104 (excerpt) Lullaby, B194 - Dvořák Arr. J. Suk String Quartet No 14, Op 105 (Molto vivace) Cello Concerto in B minor, Op 104 (Adagio ma non troppo) String Quartet No 13 in G, Op 106 (excerpt) Cello Concerto in B minor, Op 104 (Finale)Presented by Donald MacleodProduced by Luke WhitlockFor full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Dvořák and America https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00182rpAnd you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z