George Benjamin (b 1960)
Donald Macleod is joined by Sir George Benjamin to discuss his musical influencesComposer of the Week marks the sixtieth birthday of the celebrated British composer Sir George Benjamin. This week, Ben...
11 Dec 20201h 16min
Beethoven Unleashed: Pain and Persistence
This week, Donald Macleod reaches the final chapters of his year-long biography of Beethoven. The composer’s remaining years, 1825-1827, were marred by failing health and a traumatic family crisis but...
4 Dec 20201h 34min
Beethoven Unleashed: Freedom and Joy
Conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner, joins Donald Mcleod to discuss Beethoven’s symphoniesThey have been described as “the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man”, “an expressio...
20 Nov 20201h 23min
James Price Johnson
James P. Johnson is known as the Father of Stride Piano, and composed the most iconic work that captures the essence of the Roaring Twenties, the Charleston. Both pianist and composer, he not only wro...
13 Nov 20201h
Beethoven Unleashed: Titan
This week, Donald Macleod explores Ludwig van Beethoven’s life through the years of 1822-1824 – a period during which the composer completed his greatest late masterpieces. It was also a time at which...
6 Nov 20201h 24min
Desmarets and Boismortier
Donald Macleod steps into the French baroque with Desmarets and BoismortierDonald Macleod discovers the stories of two very colourful figures of the French baroque, Henri Desmarets and Joseph Bodin de...
30 Okt 202059min
Beethoven Unleashed: Piano Sonatas
This week, the world-renowned pianist Angela Hewitt chooses five contrasting aspects of the piano sonatas to discuss with Donald Macleod. In 2020, Hewitt reaches the end of her survey of Beethoven’s p...
23 Okt 20201h 27min
Kaija Saariaho (b 1952)
“Music is a study of my own self and of the human spirit”, so says the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Her passion for music is all consuming, with the inspiration to compose reflecting the breadth o...
16 Okt 20201h 22min
