Composer of the Week Podcast

This week, the world-renowned pianist Angela Hewitt chooses five contrasting aspects of the piano sonatas to discuss with Donald Macleod. In 2020, Hewitt reaches the end of her survey of Beethoven’s piano works with the last recording in her acclaimed series of his 32 piano sonatas. Begun in 2005, her Beethoven odyssey has been taken at a deliberately measured pace, to give ample space and time to...

“Music is a study of my own self and of the human spirit”, so says the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Her passion for music is all consuming, with the inspiration to compose reflecting the breadth of her interests, in poetry, literature, fine arts, and cinematography to name but a few. One of the foremost composers of our time, Kaija Saariaho was born in 1952 in Helsinki. She studied with the mo...

This week, Donald Macleod follows Ludwig van Beethoven through the years of 1816-1821; a period when the composer was groping towards yet another extraordinary and revolutionary flowering of his creativity. However, something was holding him back. Beethoven had resolved to become the legal guardian of his nephew, Karl, and to remove him from the care of his mother, Johanna. The resulting court bat...

Donald Macleod is joined by five guests to explore Beethoven’s wider world. Beethoven’s lifetime was one of tumultuous change. In a week of programmes exploring this wider world around Beethoven, Donald Macleod is joined by five guests to discuss some of the various elements which combined to define the Spirit of the Age – the economy, the wider world of the arts, engineering, medicine and belief....

Donald Macleod explores Beethoven's life and music through the years 1813-1815. This week, Donald Macleod explores Ludwig van Beethoven’s life through the years of 1813-1815 – a time of great change throughout Europe as Napoleon was overthrown. For Beethoven, it was undoubtedly the most successful period of his entire career, as he began, at last, to receive public recognition for his music. Howev...

Donald Macleod delves into the life and career of the piano prodigy Marie Jaëll. For the first time in the history of Composer of the Week, Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Marie Jaëll [1846-1925]. Jaëll was a piano prodigy, a composer across a wide spectrum of genres including opera and chamber music, and a revolutionary when it came to the art of teaching and playing the piano. She...

Donald Macleod meets professional musicians to get the performer’s eye view of Beethoven. During Beethoven’s life, great technical advances were being made to musical instruments such as the keyboard and the horn. It was also a period when virtuoso musicians of all kinds began to tour Europe and Beethoven was able to meet some of the greatest exponents of different instruments and learn from them....

Donald Macleod follows Beethoven through the years 1810-1812. This week, Donald Macleod explores Ludwig van Beethoven’s life through 1810-1812, a period of great financial hardship for all of Vienna in the aftermath of Napoleon’s second occupation of the city. Beethoven struggled through this economic depression, composing his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies with little hope of getting performances....

Donald Macleod explores Ludwig van Beethoven's varied and rich correspondence. More than 1,770 of Beethoven's letters still survive and, this week, Donald Macleod delves into five different areas of this extensive correspondence. We’ll hear exchanges with some of his closest friends and patrons, a secret admission about his hearing and the details of a petty argument that gets blown out of all pro...

Donald Macleod journeys through Johann Sebastian Bach’s relationship with the organ. Johann Sebastian Bach is often acknowledged as one of the greatest composers of all time and yet, during his lifetime, he was often more famous as an organist. Bach became very much in demand as a performer and a teacher. He was often asked to advise on the design and renovation of expensive church instruments. He...

Donald Macleod follows Ludwig van Beethoven through the years 1807-1809. This week, Donald Macleod explores Ludwig van Beethoven’s life through the years of 1807-1809. This was a period which ended with the traumatic second occupation of Vienna by Napoleon’s forces, and a time when Beethoven himself was feeling increasingly restless in the city after his plans to gain financial stability were thwa...

Donald Macleod and Anastasia Belina explore the lives and music of Augusta Holmès and Henri Duparc. Imagine creating a grand spectacle that demands 1,200 performers, along with the most lavish sets and costumes. You might think that the figure behind such an extraordinary achievement would have staked a claim on immortality, yet despite achieving considerable fame in her own lifetime, this is not...

Donald Macleod explores Beethoven’s sketches and letters to see what they reveal about his life and music. This week Donald Macleod is joined by Beethoven scholar, Erica Buurman and biographer, Jan Swafford to investigate some the many documents and papers that Beethoven left behind after his death, which are now scattered in archives and collections across the world. Donald and his guests explore...

Donald Macleod explores the triumphs, friends and foes of Beethoven’s ‘heroic’ phase. This week, Donald Macleod follows Ludwig van Beethoven through the years of 1804-1806; the beginning of what many commentators have called his ‘heroic’ phase. Having weathered a profound psychological crisis, triggered by his failing hearing, Beethoven now throws himself into his composing with renewed energy and...

Donald Macleod explores the enduring power, pathos and innovation of Beethoven’s late string quartets with guests Laura Tunbridge and Edward Dusinberre. Just two years before he died, Beethoven returned to an old treasured form, the string quartet. The five quartets he ended up writing would come to be his final major works, and would change the paradigm beyond recognition. Though dismissed by aud...

Donald Macleod continues his journey through the life of Ludwig van Beethoven. In this week’s episode, Donald Macleod traces Beethoven’s story through the momentous years of 1802 and 1803. It was a time that saw remarkable developments in Beethoven’s creativity as he pursued a self-declared ‘new path’ for his music. He undertook his most ambitious works yet, pouring his whole self into his art. At...

Donald Macleod explores Beethoven’s vocal music with Iain Burnside and Simone Young. In this week’s episode, Donald Macleod and his guests discuss some personal favourites from Beethoven's vocal music, taking in the giants of choral repertory like the Missa Solemnis and the ninth symphony, his opera Fidelio and orchestral vocal music, as well as relishing the astonishing variety of his song-writin...

Donald Macleod continues his journey through the life of Ludwig van Beethoven. In this week’s episode, Donald Macleod traces Beethoven’s story through the years 1799-1801. As he reaches his thirtieth birthday, we see Beethoven finally emerging as a mature composer and beginning to produce the enduring works that will mark him out as one of the great artists of his age. But there are clouds on the...

Pianist Jonathan Biss shares the wonder of Beethoven's piano sonatas with Donald Macleod. Recorded at the piano, in the Angela Burgess Recital Hall at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Jonathan shares his life-long passion for Beethoven with Donald. As they talk, he demonstrates how and why Beethoven's piano sonatas advanced the genre far beyond anything that anyone had ever achieved previousl...

Donald Macleod follows Beethoven’s progress as he seeks out wealthy Viennese patrons for his music. This week, Donald Macleod follows Beethoven through the years 1796-99, as the young composer learns to negotiate the privileged and moneyed circles of Vienna’s culture-loving aristocracy. Few can resist his extraordinary charisma as a virtuoso pianist but will he also be able to persuade them of his...

Donald Macleod and Erica Buurman examine some of Beethoven’s personal possessions at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. This week, Donald Macleod takes us to Beethoven’s home town of Bonn and the Beethoven-Haus museum which now occupies the building where he was born. Donald is joined by Erica Buurman, director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, and together they explore some of the ev...

Donald Macleod uncovers the story and prolific output of American composer Florence Price. Florence Price became a highly successful classical composer, organist, pianist and teacher of music during the twentieth century in America. She was the first African-American woman to be recognised as a composer of symphonic music, and also the first African-American woman to have her works performed by on...

Donald Macleod follows Beethoven as he sets himself up in his new home of Vienna. All through 2020, Donald Macleod takes an unprecedented deep dive into the compelling story and extraordinary music of Ludwig van Beethoven. In this uniquely ambitious series, told across 125 episodes of Composer of the Week, Donald puts us inside Beethoven’s world and explores his hopes, struggles and perseverance i...

Donald Macleod looks at five themes in Claudio Monteverdi's life through the letters he wrote. Claudio Monteverdi’s compositions range from the secular to the sacred. He is a composer whose work spans the Renaissance and Baroque periods of musical history, and is known as a pioneer of the development of opera in Italy throughout the early 17th century. Throughout the week, Donald looks at five the...

Donald Macleod is joined by Raphael Wallfisch and Sara Bitlloch to discuss Beethoven’s early chamber music. All through 2020, Donald Macleod takes an unprecedented deep dive into the compelling story and extraordinary music of Ludwig van Beethoven. In this uniquely ambitious series, told across 125 episodes of Composer of the Week, Donald puts us inside Beethoven’s world and explores his hopes, st...