Composer of the Week
533 episodes - English - Latest episode: 16 days ago - ★★ - 219 ratingsBBC Radio 3's Composer Of The Week is a guide to composers and their music. The podcast is compiled from the week's programmes and published on Friday, it is only available in the UK.
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Episodes
Michael Tippett
February 01, 2019 13:00 - 1 hour - 71.8 MBDonald Macleod and Oliver Soden look at Michael Tippett through his intense personal relationships. Michael Tippett was a particularly absorbent composer, soaking up an incredibly wide range of inspirations and influences from the world around him, and perhaps most often from outside the field of music. His huge intellectual capacity and endless interest in other people combined with immense charisma to make him a personality to which everyone who met him seemed irresistibly drawn. His - of...
Franz Liszt
January 25, 2019 13:00 - 1 hour - 78.5 MBDonald Macleod delves into the life and work of Franz Liszt through five striking images. Franz Liszt was the most photographed man of the 19th century and the most sculpted man aside from Napoleon - one of the most recognisable figures of his age. Donald Macleod delves into the life and work of the prolific composer and virtuoso pianist through five intriguing images. Through these, he examines the promotion of Liszt as a child prodigy, and how his persona of the ‘dramatic virtuoso’ was cr...
Jean-Philippe Rameau
January 18, 2019 13:00 - 59 minutes - 54.8 MBDonald Macleod explores the operas of Jean-Phillipe Rameau. At his death in 1764, Rameau, by then an octogenarian, had more than 30 stage works to his credit. It’s a remarkable achievement when you consider he produced his first opera at the age of 50. Up to that point, although details about his life are surprisingly patchy, he appears to have held a succession of posts in the provinces, as an organist, teacher and theoretician, seemingly without even a whiff of greasepaint. Then, at an ag...
Felix Mendelssohn
January 11, 2019 13:00 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBDonald Macleod journeys through the life of Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn was a leading figure of German music in his day, and became something of an international celebrity. He was at the very forefront of music making during the 1830s and 1840s, as a composer, conductor, pianist and organist. He began as a highly gifted and versatile prodigy, and rose to become one of Germany’s first rank composers of the early romantic period. He composed music in many genres including concertos, orator...
Heinrich Schütz
December 28, 2018 13:00 - 56 minutes - 52 MBDonald Macleod journeys through Christmas week in the company of Heinrich Schütz. Donald begins by dipping a toe into the fertile archival territory of Schütz’s own writings, a fascinating window onto the life of the composer. Then we’re to the Striezelmarkt for a pastry and a glass of Glühwein, with a look at Christmas in 17th-century Dresden. Onwards to Venice, where Schütz studies with Gabrieli and hobnobs with Monteverdi. Next, things turn serious, as Schütz is swept up in the convulsio...
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
December 21, 2018 13:00 - 1 hour - 63.9 MBDonald Macleod surveys the life and work of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Rimsky-Korsakov’s music is filled with lush orchestration and hints of orientalism and folk music. These elements and his role as a leading member of “The Mighty Handful” of composers who sought to forge a truly nationalistic music have led him to be regarded as the main architect of the Russian style of composition we know today. We hear about Rimsky Korsakov’s lifelong relationship with the sea, his fascination with myths...
Camille Saint-Saëns
December 07, 2018 13:00 - 1 hour - 61.8 MBDonald Macleod delves into the character and music of Camille Saint-Saëns This week’s episode begins with a look at Saint-Saëns the innovator, who introduced new-fangled ideas to an opera-loving Parisian public. Donald investigates the driving force behind the composer’s unstoppable ambition and his dogged determination to find an audience for his music. Next, the playful side of Saint-Saëns’ character - one which he kept under wraps in public, yet amongst friends and in private corresponde...
Billy Strayhorn
November 23, 2018 13:00 - 1 hour - 66.5 MBDonald Macleod looks at five key environments that shaped Billy Strayhorn's personal and musical trajectory. Donald starts the journey in Homewood, Pittsburgh, where Billy Strayhorn’s early life was over-shadowed by poverty and a violent father. Over six years of toil as a “soda jerk and delivery boy” he saved up for music college, but an Art Tatum record showed him that everything he loved about classical music was there in one form or another in jazz. Strayhorn cut free and moved to New Y...
Gioachino Rossini
November 16, 2018 13:00 - 1 hour - 56.4 MBDonald Macleod presents five takes on the life and music of Gioachino Rossini. Donald starts by unpacking the winning formula Rossini hit on right at the start of his operatic career. Aged 18, Rossini was thrown in at the deep end, learning on the job at Venice’s Teatro San Moisè, and the structural groundplan he concocted for his early farces continued to come in handy later in life. Rossini is best known as a composer of comic operas, but Donald introduces us to his serious side, looking...
François Couperin
November 09, 2018 13:00 - 51 minutes - 46.7 MBDonald Macleod marks 350 years since the birth of François Couperin, one of France’s most dazzling musical talents. Donald begins by leading us through a gallery of the musical portraits that Couperin composed – depicting his contemporaries Lully and Corelli, his aristocratic patrons, and well-known mythological figures. Next, he delves into Couperin’s extraordinary musical family tree, boasting a long line of 7 Couperins who served as organist of St Gervais in Paris. Throughout his glitter...
Anton Bruckner
November 02, 2018 13:00 - 1 hour - 59.8 MBDonald Macleod explores five personality traits of the strange genius Anton Bruckner. Donald starts with Bruckner’s obsessive tendencies – from bar-counting to full-blown ‘numeromania’ which landed him in a sanatorium. We hear about Bruckner’s unshakeable religious belief, his influential divine visions, and his music for the church. Next, his veneration for Wagner - he was transformed by the experience of hearing Tannhaüser, and paid frequent tribute to the man he was wont to call “the mas...
Dora Pejačević
October 26, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 73.1 MBDonald Macleod introduces a first in Composer of the Week’s seventy-year history, the Croatian Countess Dora Pejačević. Donald is joined by Professor Koraljka Kos and Professor Iskra Iveljic to discuss the known facts about the life and music of this Countess and her family. Although Pejačević was born into one of the most influential aristocratic families in Croatia, she became rather critical of her own class in later life. Through her position she did have the opportunity to study in Ge...
Hubert Parry
October 12, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 62.4 MBMarking the centenary of his death, Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Hubert Parry. Donald begins with the story of Parry's early years, rooted at Highnam Court in Gloucestershire, before looking at the period he was centred around Orme Square in London, the home of his teacher and mentor Edward Dannreuther. We hear about Parry’s connection with the long-running Three Choirs Festival: Parry’s father, Thomas Gambier Parry, was energetic and generous in his efforts to ensure the F...
Thea Musgrave
October 05, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 64 MBDonald Macleod is in conversation with Thea Musgrave as she celebrates her 90th birthday. Donald and Thea begin by discussing her dream of becoming a composer, and the dreams that have inspired her works. Born in Edinburgh, Thea left her medical degree for music, winning a composition prize which took her to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger. A dream about a subversive clarinettist helped formed the idea for her breakthrough commission from the CBSO, the Concerto for Orchestra. They talk ...
Sergei Rachmaninov
September 28, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 59.6 MBDonald Macleod explores Sergei Rachmaninov’s years in America. Reluctant even to visit at first, and once there always more than a little homesick, this proudly Russian composer in fact lived in the United States of America for 25 years, from the end of the First World War until his death in 1943. His life there was principally that of a virtuoso performer, not a composer; and Rachmaninov gave recitals for presidents, recorded discs for Thomas Edison, and felt obliged to rattle off his “hat...
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
September 14, 2018 12:00 - 58 minutes - 53.3 MBDonald Macleod explores the conflicted relationships and mysteries in the life of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Donald begins this week’s episode by looking at Tchaikovsky’s early years as a civil servant, wrestling with the tension between his desire to compose music and his responsibilities as a bureaucrat in St Petersburg. We hear about some of the composer’s tricky relationships - with the ascendant Nationalist school of Russian composers, and also with money. His need to earn a living and...
Ernest Chausson
September 07, 2018 12:00 - 59 minutes - 54.9 MBDonald Macleod explores the friendships, influences and struggles in the life and work of Ernest Chausson. Amédée-Ernest Chausson grew up in Paris during a period of great political, social and economic upheaval in France, from the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War to the advent of the Third Republic. His family, however, was materially little affected, profiting from their involvement in Napoleon’s remodelling of the medieval city into wide open boulevards. Living a bourgeois lifestyle am...
Alfred Schnittke
August 03, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 59 MBDonald Macleod explores the strange, brilliant and occasionally nightmarish world of the Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke. The music of Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) is like being lost in a hall of mirrors. Staring back at you is the whole of music history - from Bach to modern pop via tangos, Soviet work songs, Gregorian chant and Viennese waltzes - refracted and distorted, and woven together to create a uniquely personal style. Thrilling, grotesque, occasionally nightmarish - Schnittke cr...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
July 27, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 57.4 MBDonald Macleod explores the life and work of undisputed master, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Josquin des Prez
July 20, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 81 MBDonald Macleod and Jeremy Summerly discuss elusive Renaissance master, Josquin des Prez.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
July 13, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 67.1 MBDonald Macleod explores the life and work of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams
Luciano Berio
July 06, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 64.3 MBDonald Macleod explores the life and work of Italian experimental composer, Luciano Berio
Carl Maria von Weber
June 22, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 57.4 MBDonald Macleod examines the life and work of German composer Carl Maria von Weber
Charles Gounod
June 15, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 59.2 MBDonald Macleod explores the life and work of French composer Charles Gounod
Giovanni Gabrieli
June 01, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBDonald Macleod delves into the life and work of Giovanni Gabrieli
Maurice Ravel
May 25, 2018 12:30 - 1 hour - 68.2 MBDonald Macleod explores the life and work of French composer Maurice Ravel.
Lili Boulanger
May 11, 2018 13:16 - 1 hour - 56.9 MBDonald Macleod explores the life of Lili Boulanger, the first female winner of France's most prestigious composition competition, the Prix de Rome
Aaron Copland
May 04, 2018 13:28 - 1 hour - 56.9 MBAaron Copland is the composer who, more than any other, defined the sound of American classical music. Copland's life spanned every decade of the 20th Century, and this week Donald Macleod explores the composer's life and music against the background of the events of that Century.
Giuseppe Verdi
April 20, 2018 12:00 - 1 hour - 66.9 MBDonald Macleod pieces together the truths as he traces Verdi's life and music.
Johann Pachelbel
April 13, 2018 11:05 - 1 hour - 63.2 MBDonald Macleod unravels the rich musical legacy of a composer known almost exclusively for one iconic work: the "Canon in D".
Carlo Gesualdo
March 30, 2018 10:50 - 1 hour - 62.8 MBDonald Macleod looks at the life and music of Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, notorious for the murder of his first wife and cousin, Maria d'Avalos.
Claude Debussy
March 23, 2018 13:03 - 1 hour - 59.9 MBDonald Macleod looks at the development of Debussy's career against his personal life
Joseph Haydn
March 16, 2018 11:50 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBDonald Macleod explores a hugely successful episode in Haydn's life, his London years.
Rachel Portman
March 09, 2018 11:50 - 1 hour - 75.7 MBDonald Macleod joins the Oscar winning film composer Rachel Portman in her studio in London, to chat about her life and music for film and the concert platform.
Richard Strauss
March 02, 2018 13:00 - 59 minutes - 54.5 MBDonald Macleod introduces the life and music of the German composer and conductor, Richard Strauss.
John Dowland
February 23, 2018 15:40 - 1 hour - 58.2 MBDonald Macleod introduces John Dowland, and those influenced by his exquisite melodies.
Jean Sibelius
February 16, 2018 13:00 - 1 hour - 69.9 MBDonald Macleod delves into the life and work of the man who is almost universally recognised as Finland's greatest ever composer – Jean Sibelius.
Toru Takemitsu
February 09, 2018 13:00 - 58 minutes - 54 MBDonald Macleod explores the life and music of the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu.
Handel
February 02, 2018 13:00 - 56 minutes - 51.5 MBDonald Macleod introduces a variety of music across the whole of Handel's life
Lutoslawski
January 26, 2018 13:29 - 1 hour - 61.9 MBDonald Macleod is joined by Dr Nicholas Reyland to explore Witold Lutoslawski's life
Schubert
January 12, 2018 11:50 - 48 minutes - 44.7 MBDonald focuses on five years through Franz Schubert's short life.
21st Century Opera
December 08, 2017 11:53 - 58 minutes - 53.8 MBPaul Griffiths joins Donald Macleod to give opera a health check in the 21st century.
Thelonious Monk
November 24, 2017 11:50 - 1 hour - 69 MBDonald Macleod and Brian Priestley celebrate the centenary of jazz legend Thelonious Monk
Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture: Soviet Russia (1953-1991)
November 17, 2017 11:50 - 1 hour - 80.2 MBDonald and Marina Frolova-Walker look at the lives and masterpieces of the musicians.
Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture: Soviet Russia (1917-1953)
November 10, 2017 11:50 - 1 hour - 68.6 MBDonald and Marina Frolova-Walker look at the lives and masterpieces of the musicians.
Puccini
October 20, 2017 10:50 - 1 hour - 84.7 MBDonald Macleod and Sir Antonio Pappano trace the developmental line of Puccini's heroines
Vivaldi's operas
October 13, 2017 10:50 - 1 hour - 59.7 MBA look behind the curtain and onto the stage to explore the world of Vivaldi's operas
Mussorgsky
September 29, 2017 10:50 - 46 minutes - 42.9 MBDonald Macleod explores Mussorgsky's music, with the spotlight on his songs
Alexander Goehr - Part 2
September 15, 2017 10:51 - 39 minutes - 35.8 MBDonald Macleod in conversation with composer Alexander Goehr at his home near Cambridge
Alexander Goehr - Part 1
September 15, 2017 10:50 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBDonald Macleod in conversation with composer Alexander Goehr at his home near Cambridge