Eternal source of light divine is three beautiful and brilliant minutes of Handel, as effective at setting us up for the day as any yoga routine (though you can do that too of course)! It’s a quietly awe-filled salute to the sun. Listening time 10mins… Listen
In his Cello Suites, JS Bach catapulted the instrument into the solo spotlight and discovered new worlds of sound and possibilities, full of riches to explore. Nominally it’s dance music but its depth and beauty bring us stillness and solace. Listening time 25 mins… Listen
Brilliant and meaningful, North by Southwest may have been the initial name for Billy Strayhorn’s Suite for The Duo, a brilliant, late work for horn and piano: it’s a title that suggests confusion and conflicting ideas about the dying composers direction of travel. It’s a great piece: virtuosic but raw and written with a total understanding of both horn and piano and what they can do.
It’s a longer episode than normal because (amazingly) I was able to speak with Willie Ruff, the horn play for whom it was written. Willie, now in his nineties, joined me from his home in Alabama and he talked about his life and career, the Mitchell-Ruff duo, Strayhorn and how Suite for The Duo came to life. (37 mins)
… Listen
Heat, danger, emptiness and space. Plenty of all of this in Peter Sculthorpe’s excellent Kakadu – inspired by northern Australia but featuring universal themes of humanity, life, death, and timelessness. Listening time c22 mins… Listen
It’s not about that sort of passion, but this symphony La Passione is intense, dark, thrilling, and one of Haydn’s best! Listening time c30 minutes (podcast 5.5′, music 23′)… Listen
One of my favourite joyful but heavyweight quick fixes, Robert Schumann’s original Symphony no.4 is an intense and inventive stream of consciousness full of light and life. It’s a thrill. Shame Schumann didn’t see it that way…
Listening time c35 minutes… Listen
So much more than just a famous TV theme tune, Prokofiev’s music for Romeo and Juliet is full of intensity, drama, passion, wit and the occasional brilliantly pure dance number. Simultaneously draining and energising it’s a fabulous demonstration of the sheer power of music. I love it. Listening time 41 mins.… Listen
I’m no fan of horror films – too scary for me – but, in any case, nothing really scares us more than the thoughts in our heads! I do love scary music though and Béla Bartók wrote the best. Music for strings, percussion and celesta is unusual, gripping, terrifying and thrilling. It’s also brilliant at clearing my mind of any ‘unneccessary’ thinking. Listening time, 40 mins.… Listen
n Haydn came to London he was treated like a superstar: wined and dined by the great and good, and his concerts were the hottest ticket in town. The ‘Miracle’ Symphony, no.96, was Haydn’s first written for Londoners and is designed to win us over with its charms. Music to put a smile on our faces and a spring in our step! Listening time c32 (music 22′, podcast 10′)… Listen