Classical For Everyone

If you're exploring classical music, you'll bump into the term 'sonata' everywhere - piano sonatas, violin sonatas, trio sonatas… even sonata-form. This mini-episode untangles the many meanings of this surprisingly variable word, from its simple origins in Italian to its complex modern uses. And suggests perhaps why composers keep using it when they want you to really listen.

Composers have drawn inspiration from the sea for centuries but only with the rise of the larger orchestras of the nineteenth century did they get the palate needed to create fully persuasive depictions of it. So, apart from one piece for solo piano, major orchestral works are what you will hear in this episode... 'The Sea and Sinbad's Ship' from Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Sheherazade' an unfairly...

Spend any time with musicians who play in an orchestra it won't be long before they are sharing war stories of their experiences with dreadful conductors. The subtext of some of these conversations is a half-serious belief that the conductor is just a face for the poster, a body for fundraising events and a target for critics having a bad night… someone the orchestra could survive perfectly well w...

James Brown once sang, 'It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World' - and for centuries, classical music was exactly that. While talent knows no gender, opportunity certainly did, and countless musical voices were silenced by social barriers and prejudice. But some composers refused to be quiet. This episode introduces music by six women who found ways to make their voices heard: Fanny Mendelssohn, whose wo...

Ravel was born in the Basque borderlands of France in 1875 and much of his music can be thought of as Spanish rhythms meeting French elegance. He was accepted into the Paris Conservatory as a teenager to study piano but instead focused on composition. For the first couple of decades of his adult career he was not welcomed by the musical establishment of the day. But especially after the First Worl...

Sonata, cantata, concerto, adagio... for English speakers approaching classical music, these Italian terms can feel like an unnecessary barrier. This mini-episode explores how Italian became classical music's universal language… its journey from the cultural power of Renaissance Italy to today's international concert halls. A short look at why these terms are still with us, and (annoyingly) why kn...

Like many terms in classical music 'woodwind' is a vague catch all that is now a little out of date. After all, modern flutes aren't even made of wood anymore. But tradition is strong and everyone is going to keep calling them 'woodwinds'. More importantly, these instruments, whether crafted from wood, metal, or modern materials, have drawn composers to their distinct voices for over two centuries...

Composers respond to ideas, emotions, literature, people, history… and places. Places they've lived, places they've been and places they've only dreamed of. In this episode Felix Mendelssohn captures the echoes of Fingal's Cave, Peter Sculthorpe and William Barton evoke a rocky outcrop in Australia's Northern Territory, Charles Ives wanders through Central Park, Peter Maxwell Davies celebrates the...