Composer of the Week Podcast Folgen

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 wasn’t until Higdon was in her teens that her musical curiosity directed her towards classical music. Formal studies followed, and she began to compose when she was 21 years old. Coming to classical music later on, has been, according to Higdon, a significant factor in her own musical language. She’s now one of the most performed living American composers. Having just completed her second opera and a concerto in the past year, Higdon is much in demand, with commissions on her books that take her right up to 2024.Recorded at the end of May, speaking to Donald Macleod from Articulate Studios in Philadelphia, USA, in an extended interview Jennifer Higdon gives a fascinating insight into her life and her musical preoccupations. Starting with strings on Monday, they move on to vocal writing, the influence of colour on music, the natural world and writing concertos, an area which has now become something of a speciality.Music Featured:Dance Card (No 5, Machina Rockus) String Poetic (II: Nocturne, arr for cello and piano) String Poetic (III: Blue Hills of Mist) Echo dash Voices Viola Sonata (II: Declamatory) Concerto for Orchestra (2nd mvt) Love Sweet (No 2, The Giver of Stars; No 5, A Fixed Idea) O magnum mysterium The Singing Rooms (III: The Interpretation of Dreams (excerpt); IV: Confession) Cold Mountain (Chorus: Our Beautiful Country) A Quiet Moment Love Came Down Blue Cathedral (excerpt) Scenes from the Poet’s Dreams (No 4, In the Blue Fields they sing) City Scape (III: Peachtree Street) Blue Cathedral Piano Trio (I: Pale Yellow; II: Fiery Red) City Scape (II: River sings a song to trees) Scenes From the Poet’s Dreams (II: Summer Shimmers Across the Glass of Green Ponds) Autumn Music Secret & Glass Gardens (excerpt) Splendid Wood (excerpt) All Things Majestic (I: Teton Range) Violin Concerto (III: Fly Forward) Concerto 4-3 for String trio and Orchestra (I: The Shallows) Percussion Concerto (excerpt) Zaka (excerpt) Concerto for Orchestra (3rd mvt) Harp Concerto (III: Lullaby)Presented by Donald Macleod Produced in Cardiff 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 Jennifer Higdon (born 1962) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000y70tAnd 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 the life and work of Manuel de FallaManuel 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 twentieth century. Falla’s enormous talent and unique musical voice meant he was thrust into the very centre of cultural life, despite himself. He was compelled to navigate his way alongside some of music’s most colourful and potent characters, and through momentous historical events.Music Featured: La Vida breve (Intermezzo from Act 1) Allegro de concierto Siete canciones populares Españolas No 7 Polo La Vida Breve (Act 2) Nancy Fabiola Herrera, mezzo-soprano (Salud) Cristina Faus, mezzo-soprano (La Abuela) Aquiles Machado, tenor (Paco) José Antonio López, baritone (Tío Sarvaor) Raquel Lojendio, soprano (Carmela) Josep Miquel Ramon, baritone (Manuel) Sequndo Falcón, flamenco (El Cantaor) Gustavo Peña, tenor (Una voz en la fraqua) El Amor Brujo: Ritual Fire Dance (arr. Falla for piano) El pan de Ronda que sabe a verdad Oración de las madres que tienen a sus hijos en brazos El corregidor y la molinera (extract) El Amor Brujo (complete) Noches en los jardines des España, III. En los jardines de la Sierra de Cordoba Siete canciones populares Españolas: No 1 El paño moruno Noches en los jardines des España, I. En el Generalife Fantasia Bética El sombrero de tres picos (Part II) Harpsichord Concerto Soneto a Córdoba El retablo de maese Pedro Psyche Homenaje “Le tombeau de Debussy” Balada de Mallorca Atlántida: La Salve en el Mar Homenajes El sombrero de tres picos (Part I)Presented by Donald Macleod Produced in Cardiff by Chris TaylorFor 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 Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000xr43And 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 pulls back the curtain on Berlioz’s greatest obsessionDonald Macleod explores the women who shaped Hector Berlioz’s life and workHector 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 relationships that shaped who he was and what he created, exploring the romantic obsessions of an especially obsessive man. We’ll also hear a movement of his Symphonie Fantastique each day – Berlioz’s best known work, and the musical embodiment of his most powerful infatuation.Music Featured: Marche Funèbre pour la dernière scène d‘Hamlet (Tristia, Op 18) Irlande (La belle voyageuse) Romeo et Juliette – Scène d’amour Lelio – Choeur d’ombres Symphonie Fantastique (1st movement – Reveries – Passions) Fleuve du Tage Tempest Fantasy Symphonie Fantastique, arr. Liszt for piano (2nd movement) Harold in Italy (1st movement - “Harold aux montagnes”) Requiem: Lacrimosa Chanson de Brigands (Lelio) Symphonie Fantastique (3rd movement - Scene aux champs) Benvenuto Cellini: Overture La Mort d’Ophélie Marche Hongroise Nuits d’été (1. Villanelle, 5. Absence) Symphonie Fantastique (4th movement – Marche au supplice) L’Enfance du Christ, Part II : La fuite en Egypte Béatrice et Bénedict, Act II No 10 : “Dieu, que viens j’entendre?....Il m’en souvient “ Au Cimetière (Nuits d’été) Rêverie et caprice for violin Les Troyens : Act IV, Nos 34b-37 ("O blonde Ceres…Nuit d’ivresse") Le dépit de la bergère, H. 7 Symphonie Fantastique (5th movement – Songe d’une nuit de sabbat)Presented by Donald Macleod Produced in Cardiff by Amelia ParkerFor 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 Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000xlhcAnd 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