Aotearoa / New Zealand… New Sounds and Cultures for Classical Music
Even if you have listened to a fair bit of classical music I’m quietly confident you will not have heard a note of any of what I am going to play you in this episode… unless you happen to hail from or reside in that jewel of a nation… New Zealand / Aotearoa. Trust me, if you can overcome a nervousness about the unfamiliar… you are going to hear some remarkably good music… by composers Anthony Richie, Gillian Whitehead, Martin Lodge, Tabea Squire, John Psathas, Douglas Lilburn and Claire Cowan.
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1:17:36
The Clarinet… In The Twentieth Century
This episode starts in Paris in 1909 and ends up in Buenos Aires in 1994… and the music includes a healthy dose of the influence of jazz. If you have a small voice inside saying this is going to be a little more ‘modern’ and a little less ‘enjoyable’, I hope you’ll trust me to prove that voice wrong… or more particularly that you’ll trust Clause Debussy, Malcolm Arnold, Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky and Osvaldo Golijov.
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1:11:12
Music for Small Spaces… aka ‘Chamber Music’.
There’s no way around the fact that this entire corner of classical music is generally known by the term ‘chamber music’ but please don’t let that stop you from experiencing some incredible music… even if you find the term, as I do, just plain odd. This is music originally intended for smaller performance spaces… sometimes even just a dining room… and by virtue of that the connection between players and audience is more ‘intimate’. The music in the episode is by Phillip Glass, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Brahms and Paul Stanhope.
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1:02:30
Stanley Kubrick’s Music… The impact of a well-placed tune.
No other filmmaker has used classical music to better effect than the American director Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999). Whilst composers did score some of his films, Kubrick frequently used existing classical pieces… in particular for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barry Lyndon & The Shining. Kubrick’s choices are fascinating and did a lot to get classical music to new audiences. And, besides, how else could I get Schubert, Handel, Ligeti, Penderecki and two Strausses into the one episode of Classical For Everyone?
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1:27:42
Antonio Vivaldi… So much more than changes in the weather.
If you have hit play for this episode then that means you are in that part of the population who have not been entirely turned off Vivaldi by the overuse of his deservedly popular set of violin concertos… ‘The Four Seasons’. I am glad you are going to join me for an hour of exquisite music… a concerto for two violins and cello, a mandolin concerto, a song from his semi-opera Andromeda liberata, a cello sonata, a section from his Stabat Mater for solo voice and small ensemble, and because it has to be done… a concerto for violin that is all about ‘Winter’
Five hundred years of incredible music. No expertise is necessary. All you need are ears. If you’ve ever been even slightly curious about classical music then this is the podcast for you.
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