Music Matters Folgen

Ahead of the release of Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s long-awaited film about Leonard Bernstein, Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to the conductor and composer’s daughters - Jamie and Nina - about their parents' relationship, listening to music with their father as children, and how it feels to see their lives recreated on screen. Sara is joined by critics Jessica Duchen and Lillian Crawford who share their thoughts, among other things, about Bradley Cooper’s conducting of Mahler’s Second Symphony in Ely Cathedral - a central scene in the film.Sara talks to American/Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith about a new recording of her chamber works by long-time collaborators Thin Edge New Music Collective. Linda has become a leading voice in Canadian musical culture and she tells Sara about her love of spacious and sparse music, and how stepping away from her composition to weed or wash-up can inspire new ideas.Tomorrow's Warriors is an organisation which has supported and nurtured young musicians in jazz for over 30 years, including artists such as Soweto Kinch, Nubya Garcia, Moses Boyd, Shabaka Hutchings and recent Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective. Sara meets its co-founders, Gary Crosby and Janine Irons, to talk about how Tomorrow's Warriors began, how they've gone on to have such a big impact on the UK jazz scene, and the vital need for young people to have access to musical experiences.

As his new recordings with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra of the complete symphonies of Anton Bruckner - all eleven of them - hit the record stores, Tom Service speaks to the German conductor Christian Thielemann. He tells Tom about what had, for him, been a burning desire to embark on the journey to record all of the composer’s symphonies, as well as the consolations of working with one of the world’s greatest orchestras. Thielemann shares his vision, too, for audiences in the German capital following the recent news he’ll succeed Daniel Barenboim as the General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera. With preparations well underway for this year’s London Jazz Festival, Tom catches-up with the ‘Queen of African Music’ - Angélique Kidjo. She describes her first encounter with Beethoven among the vinyl records of classical music her father had collected before the disruption of Benin’s dictatorships, and speaks about her escape to Paris in the 1980s, as well as the joyous spirit of defiance and power of music in the conflicts she’s witnessed in Sudan and Uganda. And as ensembles around the country gear up for the finals of this year’s National Brass Band Championships, Music Matters eavesdrops on the preparatory rehearsals of last year’s winner’s, Foden’s Brass Band. With contributions from principal cornet, Mark Wilkinson, principal trombone and Chairman, John Barber, flugel horn player, Melanie Whyle, and conductor, Russell Gray, Tom also speaks to the composer of this year’s test piece, Edward Gregson, about his ‘Of Men and Mountains’, which will be performed by twenty bands at this year’s championships.

Presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch speaks to one of the most treasured and celebrated British mezzo-sopranos, Dame Janet Baker. Following the recent celebrations of her 90th birthday, she reflects on her life in music, the physical and mental toll of performance, and a singer’s responsibility to always serve both the composer and the musical score.Serving the score of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, the much-lauded conductor John Wilson joins Sara to discuss his sumptuous new album - the first ever complete recording of the musical’s original Broadway manuscript. He explains the painstaking research behind the restoration of Robert Russell Bennett’s original orchestrations, how he approaches the task of preparing repertoire for the stage, and how to create the magical sound of musical theatre during its ‘golden age’ in the 1940s. Recently returned from filming concerts performed for soldiers fighting on the frontline, the BBC correspondent Mark Urban tells Music Matters about the current situation inside Ukraine. Sara speaks to composer and performer Ihor Zavhorodnii, and violinist Vera Lytovschenko, about their efforts to bring musical relief to residents in schools, hospitals and bomb shelters, and hears how they’re trying to reach and serve audiences inside their war-torn country. She hears, too, from the Chief Music Editor of Ukrainian Public Radio’s cultural station, Oleksandr Piriyev, who describes how he’s promoting Ukrainian music through the European Broadcasting Union.