Composer of the Week Podcast Folgen

Donald Macleod explores “the poet of the piano”, Fryderyk Chopin. Donald starts this week’s episode with a look at how Chopin’s Polish heritage shaped his music. Although he left the country at the age of 20, dance forms like the polonaise and mazurka left a strong mark on his writing. Next, we catch fleeting glimpses of the composer through his letters, and his relationship with his instrument, the piano. Chopin’s reticence to perform made his rare appearances extremely lucrative, but he much preferred the more intimate and sociable surroundings of the salon, where his trademark light touch could be appreciated to the full. We hear about Chopin through the eyes of his most illustrious contemporaries – his lover George Sand, and fellow composers Franz Liszt and Robert Schumann. To end, stories of the composer’s ever-feeble health – Berlioz is supposed to have said Chopin was “dying all his life” – which makes the scale of his achievement all the more heroic.Music featured: ‘Życzenie’ (The maiden’s wish), Op 74 No 1 Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor, Op 21 (3rd mvt, Allegro vivace) 4 Mazurkas, Op 17 Polonaise No 5 in C minor, Op 40 No 2 Polonaise No 6 in A flat, Op 53 (‘Heroic’) Ballade No 4 in F minor, Op 52 2 Mazurkas (Mazurka in G; Mazurka in B flat) Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor, Op 11 (2nd mvt, Romance—Larghetto) Preludes, Op 28 3 Mazurkas, Op 50 (No 1 in G; No 2 in A flat; No 3 in C sharp minor) 2 Nocturnes, Op 55 (No 1 in F minor; No 2 in E flat) Etude in A flat, Op 25 No 1 (‘Aeolian Harp’) ‘Krakowiak’: Grand Concert Rondo in F, Op 14 Mazurka in B minor, Op 33 No 4 Andante spianato, Op 22 No 1 Impromptu No 3 in G flat, Op 51 Nocturne in F sharp minor, Op 48 No 2 Barcarolle, Op 60 Etude in C, Op 10 No 1 Ballade No 2 in F, Op 38 Variations in B flat major on ‘La ci darem la mano’, from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, Op 2 Scherzo No 4 in E, Op 54 Sonata in G minor for piano and cello, Op 65 (2nd and 3rd movements) Mazurka in G minor, Op 67 No 2 2 Nocturnes, Op 27 (No 1 in C sharp minor, Larghetto; No 2 in D flat, Lento sostento) Scherzo No 3 in C sharp minor, Op 39 Ballade No 3 in A flat, Op 47 Sonata No 3 in B minor, Op 58 (3rd movement, Largo) Waltz in E flat, Op 18 (‘Grande valse brillante’) Berceuse, Op 57Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC WalesFor full tracklistings, 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 Fryderyk Chopin https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00066mvAnd 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 on Jacques Offenbach - maestro of the Cancan and much more besides. Today’s episode we meet Offenbach on the brink of defeat – when he decides to launch his own theatre company, ‘Les Bouffes-Parisiens’ in a tiny wooden shack on the Champs-Elysées. It was an instant and enduring success; over the next quarter-century, more than 50 of Offenbach’s musical comedies were to début there. We get an insight into the character of this driven creative artist – the man who “cannot stop working”. He even had his carriage kitted out with a writing desk, so that he could continue composing, scoring or revising as he travelled between venues. Next, we hear about his A-team librettists, Meilhac and Halévy, and a mysterious stranger makes him an offer he can’t refuse. Offenbach is whisked to the United States on a concert tour, where he is particularly fascinated by the women. Finally, Donald looks at Offenbach’s gout-ridden final years, and the opera he left unfinished on his death (The Tales of Hoffmann).Music featured: Orphée aux enfers (extracts) Les deux aveugles (Overture) Monsieur Choufleuri restera chez lui (extracts) Valse de Zimmer (Dernier Souvenir) Boléro (from Grande scène espagnole, Op 22) Lischen et Fritzchen (Act 1, ‘Je suis Alsacienne’) Le papillon (extract) Boule de neige (‘L'Hospodar nous invite a luncher avec lui, lunchons!’) Barbe-bleue (Act 1, Couplets de Boulotte: “Y’a des bergers dans le village”) La belle Hélène (extract) La vie Parisienne (Act 3, finale) La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (Act I, finale) La Perichole (extract) La boulangerie à des écus (‘Ce qu’ j’ai?’) Vert-Vert (overture) American Eagle Waltz La vie Parisienne (Act 2, beginning) Les belles Américaines La Belle Hélène (Act 2, ‘On me nomme Hélène le blond’) La jolie parfumeuse (Act 1, ‘Je peins, je crayonne’) Les contes d’Hoffmann (extract)Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC WalesFor full tracklistings, 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 Jacques Offenbach https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00061hqAnd 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 introduces six composers who flourished under the rule of Elizabeth I.The composers of 16th century England flourished under the rule of Elizabeth I, rapidly developing a diverse musical culture unparalleled anywhere on the continent, a truly Golden Age for English music. In this week of programmes Donald Macleod explores six composers who were key to this ascent - Thomas Morley, John Bull, Peter Philips, Thomas Weelkes, Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Tomkins. These composers were all active at around the same time as the “Father of British Musick” William Byrd and John Dowland, and all either studied or worked with Byrd, but they don’t often receive the same attention as those more famous names.Music featured: Morley: It was a Lover and his lass / Hard by a Crystal Fountain / Now is the month of maying; Sing we and chant it; On a fair morning / Cruel, Wilt Thou Persever / Magnificat and Nunc Dimitis from First Service / Tomkins: Fantasia a 6 no. 18 / Too Much I Once Lamented (for Byrd) / Oft did I marle (c.1622) / Know You Not / Cloris When As I Woo / O Let Me Live for True Love / Be Strong and of good courage / Offertory / Thou Art My King / Pavan “for these distracted times” / The Lady Folliot’s Galliard / Burial SentencesBull: Chromatic Pavan and Galliard MB 87a/b / Pavan No 2 (from Parthenia) / Almighty God, Which by the leading of a Star / Fantasia on a fugue of Sweelinck / Coranto – Alarm / Pavan & Galliard “St Thomas Wake”Philips: Hodie beata Virgo Maria; Surgens Jesus; Ave Verum Corpus / Pavan & Galliard (arr. Philips based on Morley’s originals) / Lasso, non e morir / Amarilli (after G. Caccini) / Gaude Maria virgo / Salve Regina / Pavan & Galliard in memory of Lord Paget / Pavan and Galliard DolorosaGibbons: Prelude in D minor / See, See the World is Incarnate / The Silver Swan (c.1611) / Fantasia No 5 in G minor / O Clap your hands / Lord Salisbury’s Pavan and Galliard from Parthenia / Nay Let me weep (Part 1) / O Lord in thy Wrath, Rebuke me NotWeelkes: As Vesta was from Latmos Hill Descending / O Lord, Grand the King a Long Life / O Care Thou Wilt Dispatch Me (Parts 1 and 2) / Come, Sirrah Jack, ho! / Thule, the period of cosmology – The Andalusian merchant / Death hath deprived me of my dearest friendAlfonso Ferrabosco the Elder: Questi ch'indizio fan del mio tormentoPresented by Donald Macleod Produced by Sam Phillips for BBC WalesFor full tracklistings, 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 England’s Golden Age https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005nlyAnd 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