Donald Macleod begins the second leg of his “Tour de France” in three weeks focused on French composers across the centuries. This week, Donald introduces us to the remarkable life story and unsung musical innovations of Hélène de Montgeroult. There aren’t many composers who can claim that music saved their life – at least, in the literal sense. But for Hélène de Montgeroult, it was her astounding powers of improvisation that got her out of the stickiest situation imaginable, hauled in front of the guillotine during the French Revolution. This week, we’ll follow her rollercoaster tale and hear how she had her own revolutionary impact on the piano literature. Described as a precursor of Romanticism, anticipating the language of Schubert and Mendelssohn, audiences said her playing “made the keys speak”. She broke ground as the first female professor at the Paris Conservatoire and left behind 600 pages of music, including a complete course for piano which elevated the technical study into a miniature lyrical artform. As Donald pieces together her tantalising story, he’s joined by pianist Clare Hammond, who has spent recent years getting to know Montgeroult and recording an album of her études. Music Featured: Etude No 66 in C minor Etude No 101 in C sharp major Sonata in E flat, Op 1 No 2 Sonata in D major, Op 5 No 1 (1st mvt) Sonata in A minor, Op 2 No 3 (2nd mvt) Etude No 38 in A minor Etude No 65 in E flat minor Etude No 17 in E flat major Etude No 55 in F minor Etude No 19 in F major Sonata in A minor, Op 2 No 3 (1st and 3rd mvt) Sonata in F sharp minor, Op 5 No 3 Etude No 107 in D minor Sonata in F minor, Op 5 No 2 Etude No 114 in F minor Sonata in G minor, Op 2 No 1 Thème varié dans le genre moderne Sonata in D major, Op 5 No 1 (2nd-4th mvts) Etude No 82 in C minor, Etude No 104 in G sharp minor Etude No 74 in C minor Etude No 26 in G major Etude No 73 in D major Fugue No 1 in F minor Fugue No 3 in G minor Etude No 110 in A major Etude No 112b in A flat major Sonata in A minor, Op 2 No 3 Etude No 106 in B major Etude No 62 in E flat major Fantaisie in G minor Sonata in C major, Op 2 No 2 Etude No 112 (1st mvt) Etude No 111 in G minor Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Amelia Parker for BBC Audio Cardiff For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0018ylr And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z
Donald Macleod begins three weeks focused on French composers, in honour of this month’s ‘Tour de France’ cycle race. "I have followed the theatre since the age of twelve", so said Rameau to a young composer who wrote to him for advice. It's an intriguing insight into a man who didn't produce his first opera until the age of fifty. Quite why it took him that long isn't clear. Up to that point he had been a church musician, following in his father's footsteps, holding a succession of posts mainly in the South of France. He also taught and established himself as a theoretician of some note. A brief, early sojourn in Paris, a mecca for any theatrical hopeful, ended abruptly when he was still in his twenties. It wasn't until he returned to Paris in 1723 that Rameau was able to start writing music for theatrical entertainments, at first for the popular Fairs, and then finally in 1733 for the Paris Opera. In the midst of constant cultural rows over the merits of French and Italian oper...
Donald Macleod surveys one of the most famed Spanish composers of the Renaissance, Tomás Luis de Victoria. Tomás Luis de Victoria has become the most famed Spanish composer of the Renaissance and ranks alongside Palestrina and Lassus as one of the greatest composers of the 16th century. He was a singer, organist, scholar, teacher, and a priest but it was in composition that he made his most significant impact. His motets, Offices for the Dead and music for Holy Week are admired for their great beauty and intensity and his musical talent thrust him into the orbit of Spain’s royal family and the most senior clerics in Rome. His devotion to God sat at the heart of his creative life; and he wrote, “there is not a single thing as useful as music, which, reaching our hearts soft but deeply, provides a clear benefit not only for our soul but also for our body.” Music Featured: O magnum mysterium Ave Maria Missa pro defunctis (Taedet animan meam) Missa pro defunctis (excerpt) Missa pro...
Donald Macleod explores Dvořák’s American years and uncovers what he achieved during his time there. Antonín Dvořák became the first Czech composer to achieve global fame. His gift for transforming the folk styles of his native Bohemia into richly Romantic classical music won him admirers far beyond his homeland. Consequently, Dvořák was approached to leave Europe and serve as director of the newly established National Conservatory of Music in America. His sponsors hoped he would help foster a new and distinctive American musical style, less reliant upon Germanic traditions. During his time in America, from 1892 – 1895, Dvořák composed many of his most celebrated works, including his 9th symphony and his cello concerto. Before leaving, he’d started work on his Cello Concerto, inspired by his yearning for the Bohemian countryside. Back at home, Dvořák also completed his String Quartet No 13 which some have seen to be his final work to have musical associations with Amer...
Donald Macleod explores Handel’s crucial relationship with the British monarchy, and how he and the Georgian Kings helped forge a new sense of British culture and identity. What could be more quintessentially British than a rousing chorus of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus? Or his anthem Zadok the Priest, which has been performed at every British coronation since 1727? Yet, though the composer became was a naturalised British subject, he was born in Germany and kept his German accent all of his life. The same was true of the two Kings Handel served, George I and George II. This week, as we head towards a royal jubilee weekend, Donald Macleod explores Handel’s crucial relationship with the British monarchy, and how he and the Georgian Kings helped forge a new sense of British culture and identity. Music Featured: Messiah: Hallelujah Chorus Agrippina, Act 2: "Pensieri, voi mi tormentate" Handel: Concerto Grosso in B flat, Op 3 No 1 Rinaldo, Act 1: “Cara Sposa” ‘Utrecht’ Jubilate Te ...
This month, Donald Macleod takes a new look at one of Britain’s best loved composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams, as part of Radio 3's 'Vaughan Williams Today' season - marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Over the course of four weeks and twenty programmes, Donald will be delving into Vaughan Williams' life story and work in intriguing detail, and he’ll also be talking to some of the leading authorities on Vaughan Williams to share and explore fresh perspectives on a variety of overlooked and less well known aspects of his life and work, forming a comprehensive and absorbing portrait of a composer whose body of work has had such an enduring impact on British cultural life. In this, the final week of Composer of the Week’s landmark series, Donald will focus primarily on the years 1948-1958, the final decade of Vaughan Williams’ life. The composer was, by this point recognised as the Grand Old Man of English music, and for a younger generation of British composers ...
This month, Donald Macleod takes a fresh look at one of Britain’s most popular composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams, as part of Radio 3's 'Vaughan Williams Today' season - marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Alongside programmes which delve into Vaughan Williams' life story and music in fascinating depth, over the course of four weeks and twenty programmes, Donald will also be talking to some of the leading authorities on Vaughan Williams to share and explore share new perspectives on a variety of overlooked and less well known aspects his life and work, forming a comprehensive and absorbing portrait of a composer whose body of work has had such an enduring imprint on British cultural life. In the third week of this landmark series, Donald focuses on the years 1931-1947, a dramatic period in not just Vaughan Williams’ life, but in the wider world too, encompassing the second World War. Vaughan Williams was 67 when Britain and France declared war on the Reich, so t...
All this month, Donald Macleod takes a fresh look at this much loved composer as part of Radio 3's 'Vaughan Williams Today' season, celebrating the 150th anniversary of his birth. He’ll unpack Vaughan Williams' life story in fascinating detail over the course of four weeks and leading authorities on the composer will join him to share their new perspectives. They'll be exploring some of the overlooked aspects of his life and music, as well as the qualities that have left such an enduring imprint on British cultural life. This week Donald chronicles Vaughan Williams’ life through the years 1914 to 1930. When War was declared, although he was 42 Vaughan Williams immediately joined up. He was accepted as an ambulance orderly with the rank of private. Throughout the War, wherever he was posted throughout Europe, he made music with anyone and everyone. He spent much of his spare time starting up a singing class, training a choir, getting together whoever was available, whenever they ha...
This month, Donald Macleod takes a fresh look at Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of the UK’s most significant music figures, as part of Radio 3's 'Vaughan Williams Today' season, marking the 150th anniversary of his birth. Ralph Vaughan Williams is one of the UK's most significant musical figures. This month, Donald Macleod takes a fresh look at this much loved composer as part of Radio 3's 'Vaughan Williams Today' season, marking the 150th anniversary of his birth Donald will be telling Vaughan Williams' life story and exploring his music in fascinating detail over the course of four weeks and twenty programmes. Interleaved with Donald's in-depth narrative accounts, some of our leading authorities on Vaughan Williams will be joining him to share new perspectives. They'll be unpacking the overlooked and less well known aspects of a composer whose body of work and diverse interests have made such an enduring imprint on British cultural life. The first week of this landmark series will f...
Donald Macleod and guest Sarah Willis explore some of the greatest “one-hit wonders” in classical music - Johann Pachelbel, Engelbert Humperdinck, Paul Dukas, Gregorio Allegri, Henryk Górecki, Tomaso Albinoni, Giovanni Pergolesi, Pietro Mascagni, Carl Orff and Julius Fučík. Classical music is littered with composers who are famous for just a single piece of music. In a special week of Composer of the Week programmes, Donald Macleod is joined by Berlin Philharmonic horn player Sarah Willis to explore ten of these composers and examine episodes from their lives, alongside their compositions – both their popular hits and some of their less familiar music. They also try to isolate why certain works have captured the popular imagination of audiences around the world. Music Featured: Pachelbel: Canon & Gigue for 3 violins and continuo in D major Pachelbel: Christ lag in Todesbanden Humperdinck: Erinnerung Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel (excerpts) Humperdinck: Königskinder, "Verdorb...