CACOPHONY: GREAT CLASSICAL MUSIC

Packed with memorable Czech songs about pigeons, nightingales, love, life and unploughed fields, Vítěslava Kaprálová's Rustic Suite mixes countryside charm with the confident orchestral swagger of a 23 year old receiving acclaim in Paris and London. Music full of life and good tunes! Listening time 21 mins (music 16', podcast 5')   The music is here, played by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra c...

Small but perfectly formed, Germaine Tailleferre's Little Suite is seven minutes of innocent delight from a composer looking to escape from the trials of a difficult life. It may be short, but it's packed with memorable tunes and a joyous spirit. Irresistible!  Listening time c14 minutes (podcast 7', music 7') It's not available commercially, but this Youtube video  has an excellent performance fr...

It's a riot of colour at the carnival in Stravinsky's wonderful ballet, Petrushka, with dancing (of course), puppets, romance (kind of), fighting, and a wild bear. It's got everything - even a French song about a woman's prosthetic limb, but you have to listen for an explanation...! Total listening time 48 mins (podcast 13', music 35') The music is here in full, played by The Cleveland Orchestra c...

Who doesn't love gazing at the sea? It's something that brings out the meditative in all of us as we stare at it and think deep thoughts. Claude Debussy didn't want us to think too hard - just to listen. In La Mer, he brings The Sea to us wherever we are, in all its beauty and wonder. Total listening time 36 mins (podcast 11', music 25') The music is here in full, played by The Hallé Orchestra (fr...

An epic and spiritual adventure for choir, Joby Talbot's Path of Miracles captures the hope, the expectation and the moments of overwhelm (both positive and negative) of travellers on the ancient and still popular pilgrimage trail the Camino de Santiago (Way of St James). Simon Clark, scientist, author and singer joins me to share his passion for the piece and guide us on a journey of musical and...

Music that seems to conjure all the tastes, smells and senses of Spain - or my expectations of them (as someone who's hardly been there): Spanish dances for piano by Enrique Granados. Perfect music if you just want to feel warmer, but it's also an opportunity to bask (Basque? [sorry]) in some gloriously wistful melancholy that seems to underpin all six of these pieces. Somehow it's not a melanchol...

Not the World Cup was a "glorious celebration of classical and world music" that ran alongside a small men's football competition in late 2022. Each team in each game of the football was represented by a short piece of (largely classical) music - 110 pieces in all from 107 composers (including 41 pieces by women): loads of great music and loads of new discoveries. I got together with my friend the...

An extraordinary, ambitious, blend of art and science, Johanes Kepler's Harmony of the World is a 17th century attempt to understand what the then known universe sounded like - on a planetary level! In the 1970s, using the latest technology Professors Willie Ruff and John Rodgers were able to make Kepler's Harmony into music - an extended piece of electronica, hypnotic and thought provoking. Launc...

This is a brief announcement to tell you about Not the World Cup of (largely) classical music, which is running during the football world cup as a complement or alternative. It's lots of fun and you can find it on the Cacophony Youtube   or at cacophonyonline.com   https://www.youtube.com/@cacophonypodcast Please listen, please vote, please share!  

Urbane sophistication mixes with poetry and drama in Clara Schumann's Piano Trio, her biggest piece from a small catalogue of great music. Better known in recent times as the wife of Robert Schumann, it was Clara who was an international star as the leading pianist of their day. It was composing, though, that brought her the greatest joy and her music is full of deep inspiration and honesty. Liste...

Brand new old music in this episode: a great forgotten symphony by a composer forgotten for around 150 years, Emilie Mayer. It's memorable, tuneful and inventive - a real discovery! Listening time 48' total (podcast 13', Music 35') Music here on Youtube ,  Spotify  and Amazon Music  played on a brand new recording by the NDR Radiophilharmonie Orchestra conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend. You can bu...

Terror, excitement and delight - all there in handfuls as Carl Maria von Weber takes us into the depths of the forest for a folk tale of magic, sorcery,  love, good and evil. One of my long time favourites and a brave new world for German opera in Der Fresichütz ("The Free-shooter"). Are you brave enough to go down to the woods today? Listening time, c20mins (podcast 9', music 10') Performances he...

At a time when everything seemed on the brink and the old ways no longer looked fit for purpose, Anton Webern was part of a musical revolution - giving us new ways of hearing music and seeing the world. His six pieces for large orchestra are whole worlds compressed into a few minutes of bleak beauty, terrifying dissonance and even more disturbing silence. It's compelling. Listening time 22 mins (p...

Mozart's music is brilliant, right? Even people who claim to know nothing about music say that. Well, it's true! In this Divertimento the 16 year-old Mozart really hits the spot with a piece of perfection, delight and joie de vivre. It's one of the pieces where Mozart moves from young prodigy to straight out master. Listening time: 20 mins (podcast 5', music 14') Performances here on Youtube , Spo...

Perhaps the shortest music that will ever feature on Cacophony, Eternal source of light divine is three beautiful and brilliant minutes of Handel, setting us up for the day as effectively as any yoga routine (though you can do that too of course)! It's a quietly awe-filled salute to the sun. Listening time: 10 mins (podcast 6', music 4') Performances here on Youtube , Spotify , Amazon and  Apple M...

In his Cello Suites, JS Bach catapulted the instrument into the solo spotlight and discovered new worlds of sound and possibilities, full of riches to explore. Nominally it's dance music but its depth and beauty bring us stillness and solace.  Listening time: 25 mins (podcast 7', music 18') Performances here on Youtube , Spotify  and  Apple Music  (whole album link) played by the wonderful David W...

Carrying a fragile flower whilst walking a tightrope. Finding the balance between beauty and chaos. Being pulled along by forces outside of our control. On Cacophony we talk about 'diving into great music': Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Metacosmos might be the biggest dive yet - into a black hole! Universal and yet personal, her music is distinctive, compelling, moving and profound. Listening time: 23 mi...

With the wonders of our imagination and some great music to help, all things are possible - so let's enjoy the views from the top of a mountain: leaving the house (or even getting out of bed) is entirely optional. Richard Strauss takes us over the top (in every sense) in his epic, excessive, exuberant Alpine Symphony, with great views and plenty of thrills but also moments that inspire deeper cont...

Brilliant and meaningful, North by Southwest may have been the initial name for Billy Strayhorn's Suite for The Duo, a brilliant, late work for horn and piano: it's a title that suggests confusion and conflicting ideas about the dying composers direction of travel. It's a great piece: virtuosic but raw and written with a total understanding of both horn and piano and what they can do. It's a longe...

Heat, danger, emptiness and space. Plenty of all of this in Peter Sculthorpe's excellent Kakadu - inspired by northern Australia but featuring universal themes of humanity, life, death, and timelessness.  Listening time c22 minutes (podcast 6', music 16') Music here: on Youtube , on  Spotify or Apple Music  played by the Queensland Orchestra, conducted by Michael Christie with William Barton on di...

It's not about that sort of passion, but this symphony La Passione is intense, dark, thrilling, and one of Haydn's best! Listening time c30 minutes (podcast 5.5', music 23') Music here: on Youtube , live in concert with video, on  Spotify or Apple Music  (Apple Music is a link to the first track only, sorry) played by Il Giardino Armonico, conductor, Giovanni Antonini.   You can buy this recording...

One of my favourite joyful but heavyweight quick fixes, Robert Schumann's original Symphony no.4 is an intense and inventive stream of consciousness full of light and life. It's a thrill. Shame Schumann didn't see it that way... Listening time c35 minutes (podcast 10', music 25') Music here: on Youtube , Spotify or Apple Music  (Apple Music is a link to the first track only, sorry) played by the b...

Another forgotten gem from a late 18th century woman composer, Marie Emmanuelle Bayon Louis's overture to d'Épine is boisterous and brilliant. You can listen to the piece here played by the excellent and stylish Academy of Ancient Music. Listening time 11 minutes (podcast 5', music 6')   What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com , Facebook or Twitter....

So much more than just a famous TV theme tune, Prokofiev's music for Romeo and Juliet is full of intensity, drama, passion, wit and the occasional brilliantly pure dance number. Simultaneously draining and energising it's a fabulous demonstration of the sheer power of music. I love it. Listening time 41 minutes (podcast 11', music 30') There's a mistake: Tybalt is Juliet's cousin, not her brother....

Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story ( Cacophony ep.117 ) features the driving funky rhythms at the expense of the wit, poetry and driving funky rhythms of the song numbers... so this episode features four of my favourites. Listening time 22 minutes (podcast 7', music 15')   Here are complete performances of my choices on Youtube  and  Spotify  from the soundtrack album of Steven Spie...