CACOPHONY: GREAT CLASSICAL MUSIC

The song goes that life is a rollercoaster, baby, and few can give us all the emotional ups and downs as well as Tchaikovsky. The first part of this ride is stormy, turbulent, passionate and full of l...

8 Apr 202112min

Punchy, gut-churning and wow-inducing: Miserere by Scottish composer James MacMillan reflects deep religious faith and 1000 years of church music tradition, with music to move all of us, regardless of...

2 Apr 20213min

Sometimes the best things happen by accident! Allegri's 'Miserere' is famously beautiful, ethereal and transports us out of ourselves - or maybe deeper within. But the 'best bit', when one of the sing...

1 Apr 20217min

I'm always a bit surprised to find myself humming bits of Ma Vlast - My Country by one of the Czech's favourite sons. I guess I must really love it! Feared by the Nazis, loved by the Czechs, this is t...

6 Mars 20219min

American composer Amy Beach was so popular that her followers held ‘Beach Clubs’* to play and listen to her music! Her Quartet for strings is lean and powerful, as well as being a great jump-off into ...

27 Feb 20217min

Poignant, peaceful, maybe even transcendental music for choir with cello: Svyati by John Tavener is the result of a lifetime of spiritual enquiry and of perfecting a simple and profound musical style....

20 Feb 20215min

What's in a name? Not much it seems. An 'Intermezzo' is often a short piece that breaks up something bigger... but Brahms used it as his go to name for any short piano pieces where nothing else came t...

7 Feb 20216min

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 T...

29 Jan 20217min