Artists, musicians and composers introduce fifty key pieces of classical music composed between 1950 and 2000. As featured in the BBC Radio 3 programme, Hear & Now.
50 Available Episodes (50 Total)Average duration: 00:11:50
Nov 25, 2012
Witold Lutoslawski's Jeux Venitiens
00:10:36
Conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen celebrates the music of Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski and his landmark work from the early 1960s, Jeux Venitiens. Writer Paul Griffiths explains how the composer used chance within the score to create rhythmic complexity; and we hear from Lutoslawski himself, in conversation with Thea Musgrave in 1973.
Nov 18, 2012
Bernhard Lang's Differenz/Wiederholung 2
00:12:02
Composer Matthew Shlomowitz makes the case for Austrian composer Bernhard Lang’s Differenz/Wiederholung 2, a setting of texts by Gilles Deleuze, William Burroughs and Christian Loidl. Commentator Graham McKenzie highlights the jagged soundworld of this music, and the composer’s use of repetition.
Nov 11, 2012
Eliane Radigue's Songs of Milarepa
00:11:24
Author and journalist Rob Young nominates French composer Eliane Radigue's Songs of Milarepa, which combines drone-like electronics with the voices of Lama Kunga Rinpoche and Robert Ashley singing and reading the words of the 11th-century Tibetan Buddhist poet Jetsun Milarepa. With commentary from Richard Whitelaw, Head of Programmes at Sound and Music.
Nov 04, 2012
Heiner Goebbels's Surrogate Cities
00:11:37
Hear and Now presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch celebrates the music of German composer Heiner Goebbels, focusing on the Suite for Sampler and Orchestra from his 1994 cycle Surrogate Cities. Commentary comes from Graham McKenzie of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and we also hear the voice of the composer himself.
Oct 27, 2012
Gerard Grisey's Partiels
00:12:22
Composer Julian Anderson singles out Partiels for orchestra, from French spectralist Gerard Grisey’s cycle of works Les Espaces Acoustiques. With commentary from writer Paul Griffiths.
Oct 20, 2012
Igor Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles
00:09:32
Composer John Woolrich nominates Stravinsky's last completed work with orchestra, Requiem Canticles. Commentator Paul Griffiths explains how this sparsely scored "pocket requiem", written in 1966 in a modern serial style, contains many of the hallmarks of his very earliest pieces.
Oct 13, 2012
Per Norgard's Symphony No.2
00:12:48
Novelist and critic Philip Hensher makes the case for Per Norgard's Symphony No.2, one of the first works in which the Danish composer used his own 'infinity series' to determine melody and form. With commentary from Paul Griffiths.
Oct 06, 2012
John Zorn's Carny
00:13:11
Critic and Hear and Now presenter Tom Service nominates American composer John Zorn’s Carny, a work for solo piano from 1989. The piece assembles a wide range of musical quotations and genres, juxtaposing Stockhausen and Bartok with cartoon music and boogie woogie. Author and journalist Rob Young provides some background to the work and to Zorn himself, a highly regarded improviser and producer as well as composer.
Sep 29, 2012
Jean Barraque's Chant apres chant
00:12:53
Pianist Nicolas Hodges nominates Jean Barraque's Chant apres chant, one of just a handful of surviving works by this contemporary of Boulez and Stockhausen whose death in 1973 at the age of 45 robbed the contemporary music world of one of its most innovative and deeply expressive voices. With commentary from writer Paul Griffiths.
Sep 22, 2012
Alvin Lucier's I am sitting in a room
00:11:29
Sound artist Kaffe Matthews on Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room and how it’s provided an inspiration for her own work in the field of site specific music; David Toop explains how the piece explores both the acoustic properties of enclosed spaces and the complexities of the human voice; and we hear from the composer himself about his approach to live performance.
Nov 25 | 00:10:36
Witold Lutoslawski's Jeux Venitiens
Nov 18 | 00:12:02
Bernhard Lang's Differenz/Wiederholung 2
Nov 11 | 00:11:24
Eliane Radigue's Songs of Milarepa
Nov 04 | 00:11:37
Heiner Goebbels's Surrogate Cities
Oct 27 | 00:12:22
Gerard Grisey's Partiels
Oct 20 | 00:09:32
Igor Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles
Oct 13 | 00:12:48
Per Norgard's Symphony No.2
Oct 06 | 00:13:11
John Zorn's Carny
Sep 29 | 00:12:53
Jean Barraque's Chant apres chant
Sep 22 | 00:11:29
Alvin Lucier's I am sitting in a room
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