Joanna Lumley & The Maestro

Joanna & The Maestro are overjoyed to be back, and this time they're bringing some friends with them. In a brand new series Joanna Lumley and composer and conductor Stephen Barlow once again invite listeners into their home for more fascinating, funny journeys into their lifelong shared passion; classical music. Joining them for the ride are comedians, musicians, broadcasters and national trea...

This mini episode sees Stephen having flashbacks to the most challenging piece of music he’s ever had to play, Joanna asks about composers who've been lost in time, and we investigate the first ever real opera... Got questions for Joanna and Stephen? Drop them a line hello@joannaandthemaestro.com

It’s hard work talking about classical music all day. Perhaps we need an interval - no - not that kind of interval! In this episode Stephen explains how intervals are the building blocks of music, and Joanna reveals what stage performers really get up to in the interval break.

Do all classical pieces have to be long? Apparently not. Are there some brief classical hits? Yes indeed. Stephen and Joanna also discuss whether composers ever write music for their own funerals. Plus, a listener is distracted by a dog riding a horse. Seriously. Got questions for Joanna and Stephen? Drop them a line hello@joannaandthemaestro.com

They were the most complex machines ever constructed (before the industrial revolution). The best are said to have “bite” and the biggest has over 33,000 pipes. We’re talking about the organ - aka “The King of Instruments”. Both Mozart and Bach adored these kaleidoscopes of sound, so when and why did they fall out of fashion? And what debt do we owe these monumental instruments today?

Joanna and Stephen return to your questions about the King’s coronation. They discuss the old and new compositions and commissions from the day and the breathtaking conductorship of Andrew Nethsingha and Sir Antonio Pappano.

In this episode we dive into the life and works of Richard Strauss, one of Stephen’s favourite composers. Joanna and Stephen take a tour through his ‘ultra-modern’ operas Elektra and Salome and also chat about his enduring legacy of work along the way. If there are other composers you’d like Joanna and Stephen to do a deep dive on let them know at hello@joannaandthemaestro.com.

Joanna and Stephen spill the beans on the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. As favoured guests, they tell us about their favourite moments from inside Westminster Abbey on the special day.

Have you ever wondered how musical styles become synonymous with certain countries, regions and places? What is it about the Italian school that defines it from, say, the Nordic or the French school? In this episode Joanna and Stephen take a whistle stop tour through 2 centuries of ‘The English School’, exploring everyone from Elgar to Goehr, Sullivan and Stanford.

This week Joanna and Stephen dive into the inbox to tackle your questions, like: What music makes them cry? Is modern classical too ‘clever’? And what does the maestro hear when he listens to music? Got a question for Joanna and Stephen? Drop them a line hello@joannaandthemaestro.com

Mark Kermode, Britain’s most loved film critic, is Joanna and Stephen's special guest, discussing his favourite soundtracks, composers and we go on a deep dive into the music of ‘The Exorcist’ - Mark's ‘gateway drug’ for discovering countless classical delights.

Another round of your brilliant questions. Joanna and Stephen tackle a big one, is opera just for the upper class? (Spoiler alert: It isn’t). Plus, if you could be any composer in the world, who would you be? And what’s the greatest James Bond theme? Got a question for Joanna and Stephen? Drop them a line hello@joannaandthemaestro.com

Joanna and Stephen invite another guest into their home. Classical music aficionado Sean Rafferty discusses his lifelong love of music, and our trio discuss learning to play music, the culture of arts in Ireland and what happens when a bomb goes off while you’re broadcasting.

This week our intrepid classical crusaders tackle questions like; if Joanna and Stephen were pieces of music, what would they be? Where should you start when it comes to collecting CDs or vinyl? And is Beethoven's 5th Symphony really the GOAT? Got questions for Joanna and Stephen? Drop them a line hello@joannaandthemaestro.com

We need to talk about musicals. The most popular ones tour up and down the country and play to packed out theatres 8 times a week. No need for state-backing here! So why can’t opera do the same? In this episode, Joanna and Stephen discuss how musicals and opera differ from one another, and how directors push ‘the art of the possible’ to achieve such monumental feats in the world of musical theatre...

What happens when it all goes wrong? What’s the most embarrassing thing that can happen to a conductor? Conducting with your flies down? And have Joanna or Stephen ever dozed off during a show? Got questions for Joanna and Stephen? Drop them a line hello@joannaandthemaestro.com

Captain, We Hit A Schoenberg! Did Arnold Schoenberg break Classical music? Widely considered the greatest composer of the 20th century, Schoenburg’s innovations in ‘atonality’ (a term he detested throughout his life) changed the trajectory of music forever. In this episode, Joanna and Stephen explore the ripples of Schoenberg’s (much preferred) ‘emancipated dissonances’, through modern British com...

Its question time again! This week Joanna and Stephen discuss your questions on nicknames for operas and where to start with listening to them. Stephen also reveals how one becomes a Maestro…

In this episode the Maestro turns the tables on Joanna and asks her questions about her life, her career as an actress and how she became a diarist for the Times. Joanna talks about why she wanted to become an actress, how being a model held her back and why she’ll keep wearing make up till the day she dies. We also hear why her favourite ever part was playing Hedda Gabler at the Dundee Repertory...

What drove 16th century composer, Carlo Gesualdo, to commit homicide? To baton or not to baton? And how do composers really interpret a score?

Have you ever wondered how a conductor deciphers the individual musical parts and melodies from a whole opera score? In this episode, Stephen and Joanna deconstruct Richard Strauss’ monumental opera, Salome - a score which contains the so-called “most sickening chord in all opera”.

What did Joanna and Stephen play at their wedding? Why does everyone die in opera? And what the heck does Pythagoras have to do with music?

Love them or hate them, everyone has one. In this episode, we’re discussing National Anthems. In Japan they sing of generations reigning eight thousand years. The French sing of slaughtering enemies until their ‘blood should water our fields’ and in New Zealand they celebrate ‘the hairy man who summons the sun and makes it shine’. Joanna and Stephen reveal the stories behind these bombastic pieces...

We’ve turned the tables! Welcome to a mini episode where you get to ask Joanna & The Maestro your absolutely fabulous musical questions.

Ade Edmondson joins Joanna and Stephen to kick off season two! The actor, comedian and musician discusses his own complicated relationship with classical music, his jack-of-all-trades mentality to learning instruments and why his Dad never approved of Led Zeppelin. We also hear about Ade’s own experience making music and reveal Jennifer Saunders’ top driving anthems.