Mozart’s music is brilliant, right? Even people who claim to know nothing about music say that. Well, it’s true! In this Divertimento the 16 year-old Mozart really hits the spot with a piece of perfection, delight and joie de vivre. Listening time 20mins… Listen
Another forgotten gem from a late 18th century woman composer, Marie Emmanuelle Bayon Louis’s overture to d’Épine, Mayflower, is boisterous and brilliant.… Listen
Delicate, sparkling and perhaps surprisingly touching, here are three short diversions from the various trials of modern life – written 300 years ago by Couperin and brilliantly rewritten in 2006 by Thomas Adès who takes delight in the sound of music. Listening time 20mins… Listen
300 years ago JS Bach was writing music at the cutting edge – with the newest instruments and freshest ideas. I’m joined by Jason Lai, who says Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.5 is an ‘unbelievable box of delights’ in our conversation about this conversational music, that’s both moving and full of life. Listen time 34 mins.… Listen
We love this movement from Mozart’s 5th – and last – violin concerto, written to play himself, at the age of 19. It’s elegant and sophisticated and then wild and free. It’s a great piece for a dance around your … Listen
No haunted house would be complete without the soundtrack of organ music, right? The supreme example is Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, but the films and TV only ever give us 10 seconds… …crank up the volume so … Listen
…Not for Vivaldi. His Summer is all oppressive heat, flies and sudden storms; brilliantly realised in music that’s short, intense and too hot to handle: Music here: (ending at 46’20” – it’s a performance of the complete Four Seasons) or … Listen
The composer Handel knew what the people wanted – and it was normally more Handel. Here’s a piece written to go in the interval of a Handel show! Emotional, passionate, invigorating. Intro: Music here: And here: Total listen time 20′
