CACOPHONY: GREAT CLASSICAL MUSIC

Even more irresistible than the Italian football team and their ace national anthem is Verdi's overture to Nabucco. It's rousing and joyous and one of my favourite things.   Music here, on  Youtube or Spotify,  super-stylishly played by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado. Listening time: 13 mins (Intro podcast, 6'; music 7')   What do you think? Let us know with a commen...

I get floored every time by these six songs of lost youth, love and life written on the cusp of World War 1 by a young composer who didn't make it through. Raw, simple and unforgettable. Music here, with the terrific partnership of Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside, on  Youtube or Spotify.   Listening time: 21 mins (Intro podcast, 8'; music 13') Here you'll find all the words to the songs .   Re...

How Scottish do you have to be to be worthy of the name? If you're going to write a Scottish Symphony should it contain Scottish music? Does Mendelssohn pass the test? Regardless, his Symphony No.3 is brilliant, moving and surprising...   Music here on Youtube or Spotify  (full piece. Part 2 on the Youtube vid starts at 20:46) Listening time: 29 mins (Podcast 9', music 20') or 49' if you listen to...

Every time I hear it, I'm amazed by the power and emotion in Mendelssohn's music. Inspired by a trip to Scotland, his Symphony No.3 delights and surprises, without resorting to bagpipes!   Music here on Youtube or Spotify Listening time: 32 mins (Podcast 12', music 20')   I'd love to hear from you! If you liked this (or didn't) please tell me with a comment at cacophonyonline.com If you really lik...

Asked to write funeral music for his friend and patron during the middle of a war, with millions dying all around plus a shortage of musicians, Heinrich Schütz finds hope, beauty and joy among the devastation. His Musikalische Exequien [Funeral Music] is a 400-year old masterpiece that still works its magic.   Music here on Youtube or Spotify , sung with urgent intensity by The Sixteen. Listening...

Come on the fantastic - and fantastical - musical adventure that is Anna Clyne's This Midnight Hour. You'll be thrilled, excited, maybe a bit scared, ultimately consoled... or maybe not... What does this great music do to you?   Music here on youtube  with video, or listen here on Spotify. Listening time 19 mins (podcast 5', music 12-14').   Please let me know what you think of This Midnight Hour...

Exhilarating and fun, Beethoven's fourth symphony is like one of the best days out. This is Beethoven in the best of moods and relishing what's possible. It's a joyful ride!   Music here on Youtube or Spotify .  Listening time 43 mins (podcast 11', music 32')   What do you think? Let us know with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com   If you like it, why not buy a download? You can get that here for l...

This is a new discovery for me - and it's deeply wonderful. Beethoven's late string quartet song of thanks: written as he recovered from severe illness, it's music that heals and restores our mind and soul.   Music here on Youtube, beautifully filmed and played by the Danish String Quartet.  Or on Spotify  with the fab Takacs Quartet. Listening time: 31 mins (Podcast 12', music 17/19') If you like...

Why is Beethoven - perhaps - the greatest composer of them all? One thing he does is expand everything - the volume goes up to 11 and down to almost nothing. Also he cared deeply, about music and humanity. In his Coriolan Overture he makes us care about an obscure Roman general intent on [self-]destruction... and it's electrifying. Listening time 14 mins (Podcast 6', Music 8')   Music here with pi...

After three years 'vegetating' in New York, Béla Bartók produced a handful of late great pieces. A dying man's birthday gift to his wife, his life-affirming, often easygoing and playful last piano concerto is, perhaps, my favourite concerto of all time... Listening time 35 mins (Podcast 11', Music 24')   Music here with pictures on youtube , or here on Spotify   If you want to buy a recording you...

When Tristan & Isolde take a magic love potion it's not exactly happy ever after. Love wins in the end, it's just they're both dead. Passionate, overwhelming, transformative music from Richard Wagner sends them on their way and leaves us all in a state of transcendent bliss.  Listening time 30 mins (Podcast 11', Music 19') Music here on Youtube and Spotify .   The Youtube video from the Orchestra...

Democracy and our rights, that earlier generations fought and went to prison, to obtain are fragile and always need to be looked after closely. Ethel Smyth's life and music serve as a good reminder to us all that we need to be ready to stand up and make our voices heard in order to make change happen.  Listening time 19 mins (Podcast 11', Music 8') Music here on Youtube   The lower banner in the p...

Battered, bruised but not broken, Tchaikovsky's emotional rollercoaster ride continues... Does this ride finish with squeals of terror or delight?    You may want to listen to episode 79 before this (but it's not essential)   Listening time: 34 mins (Podcast 10', music 24') Episode 2 music here on Youtube   or Spotify  (but start at track 2). Whole piece here on Youtube or Spotify   Did you enjoy...

The song goes that life is a rollercoaster, baby, and few can give us all the emotional ups and downs as well as Tchaikovsky. The first part of this ride is stormy, turbulent, passionate and full of loss and yearning, as Tchaikovsky is battered by what fate and life throws at him. As the other song [almost] goes: He gets knocked down, but he gets up again! Listening time: 31 mins (Podcast 12', mus...

Punchy, gut-churning and wow-inducing: Miserere by Scottish composer James MacMillan reflects deep religious faith and 1000 years of church music tradition, with music to move all of us, regardless of belief.   Music here on Youtube or Spotify . (Listening time 16 mins: podcast 4', music 12')   Please help Cacophony grow and develop by doing some of these things:   Leave a comment to tell us what...

Sometimes the best things happen by accident! Allegri's 'Miserere' is famously beautiful, ethereal and transports us out of ourselves - or maybe deeper within. But the 'best bit', when one of the singers soars high above the others, wasn't actually composed at all - could it be music's greatest mistake? And how did it happen? Let's find out...   Music here on Youtube or Spotify . (Listening time 2...

I'm always a bit surprised to find myself humming bits of Ma Vlast - My Country by one of the Czech's favourite sons. I guess I must really love it! Feared by the Nazis, loved by the Czechs, this is the acceptable face of nationalism, and its full of great tunes and causes deep satisfaction. Music here on Youtube or Spotify . (Listening time 32 mins: podcast 10', music 23')   Please help Cacophony...

American composer Amy Beach was so popular that her followers held ‘Beach Clubs’* to play and listen to her music! Her Quartet for strings is lean and powerful, as well as being a great jump-off into the world of string quartets: a place fraught with danger for the players, where composers go to bare their souls.  Take a listen and join the Beach Club! Music here on Youtube or Spotify . (Listening...

Poignant, peaceful, maybe even transcendental music for choir with cello: Svyati by John Tavener is the result of a lifetime of spiritual enquiry and of perfecting a simple and profound musical style. Beautiful.   Listening time 19 mins (Intro 5', music 14') Music on youtube or Spotify   Please leave a comment to tell us what you think at Cacophony's website. Please subscribe to the podcast and sh...

What's in a name? Not much it seems. An 'Intermezzo' is often a short piece that breaks up something bigger... but Brahms used it as his go to name for any short piano pieces where nothing else came to mind!  In any case, these three Intermezzos for solo piano from late in Brahms's life are beautiful, wistful, dreamy and give us a perfect break from whatever you've got going on... Like all Brahms...

Delicate, sparkling and perhaps surprisingly touching, here are three short diversions from the various trials of modern life - written 300 years ago by Couperin and brilliantly rewritten in 2006 by Thomas Adès who takes obvious delight in the sound of music. Listening time 20' [podcast intro 7', music 13'] Francois Couperin liked nice titles - we're listening to The amusements, Sleight of hand an...

Great music to mark the US Presidential hand-over! Raucous fun alongside the deep and meaningful, Three Places in New England is challenging, confusing, complex, silly and surprising music that leaves me baffled but smiling and moved too! A hundred years old but way ahead of its time from one of America's first great composers, Charles Ives. Listening time 28mins (10' intro, 18' music)   Listen to...

If you've got any new year sluggishness, sweep all that away with a blast of Respighi's Roman Festivals - four vivid musical pictures featuring love songs and folk dances, wine, religion and state-sponsored violence (lions eating Christians)! Listening time c32 mins [8' podcast, 24'  music]   Listen to the the music here on youtube or spotify and also here with pictures, played by the same Italian...

Three musical geniuses really make the magic come alive in Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's adaptation of Tchaikovsky's  classic, Nutcracker. Essential Christmas listening to bring joy to the word! For the original Tchaikovsky Nutcracker check out Episode 50 of Cacophony  Music on Youtube or Spotify Listening time 38 mins [8' podcast, 30'  music]   Please like, rate and share the podcast. Plea...

There's so much unknown great music out there! You almost certainly won't have heard this great piece or have heard of its writer. I certainly hadn't. Henriëtte Bosman's wrote her Concert Piece for violin and orchestra for her fiancé. He died before he could play it, and in her grief she couldn't compose any more. Then the war and Nazi occupation of Amsterdam cut short her career as a performer to...