Composer of the Week Podcast

Donald Macleod on Jacques Offenbach - maestro of the Cancan and much more besides. Today’s episode we meet Offenbach on the brink of defeat – when he decides to launch his own theatre company, ‘Les Bouffes-Parisiens’ in a tiny wooden shack on the Champs-Elysées. It was an instant and enduring success; over the next quarter-century, more than 50 of Offenbach’s musical comedies were to début there....

Donald Macleod introduces six composers who flourished under the rule of Elizabeth I. The composers of 16th century England flourished under the rule of Elizabeth I, rapidly developing a diverse musical culture unparalleled anywhere on the continent, a truly Golden Age for English music. In this week of programmes Donald Macleod explores six composers who were key to this ascent - Thomas Morley, J...

Donald Macleod explores the music of Dmitry Shostakovich through the lens of his family life. In this week’s episode, Donald introduces us to Shostakovich - the family man. Turning his attention to the middle of the Russian composer's life, we hear the story of his relationships with his two children (Galina, born in 1936, and Maxim, born in 1938) and his first wife Nina, who he was married to fro...

Donald Macleod surveys the life and music of Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky. In this week’s episode, Donald explores the composer who is said, in his music, to have ushered in the 20th century: Igor Stravinsky. His name is probably still most associated with the utterly extraordinary, revolutionary evening that prompted that accolade – the premiere of The Rite of Spring in Paris on the 29th...

Donald Macleod follows Amy Beach’s quest to create a uniquely American sound in her music. Amy Beach was born in the 19th century and, like all women composers of her generation, she found her path to greatness strewn with obstacles. This week, Donald Macleod charts her struggle to take control of her own destiny and become one of America’s most cherished cultural figures; a composer who helped le...

Donald Macleod tells the real story behind one of the most popular masterpieces ever composed. In 1741 Handel packed his bags and left London for Dublin, where he spent nearly nine months writing and performing in the city. The main work that he premiered there was a new oratorio which proved to be one of the landmarks of his career. Across the week we hear the whole of Handel’s Messiah, uncover t...

Donald Macleod surveys the life, loves and music of Alban Berg. As a youngster, Berg loved the music of Brahms, Mahler and Richard Strauss and composed 34 songs as a teenager. Maybe this would have been the end of it, but his brother Charly secretly took some of these songs to show a music professor in the city - Arnold Schoenberg. This week’s episode begins with a look at their stimulating but of...

Donald Macleod explores the prolific life of Joseph Haydn, with a spotlight on his masses Joseph Haydn’s prodigious creativity earned him the titles Father of the Symphony and Father of the String Quartet. However, he was also occupied with sacred music throughout his career. This week, as Donald Macleod follows Haydn’s journey from humble choirboy to Europe’s most celebrated composer, he shines t...

Donald Macleod surveys the life and work of Francis Poulenc, a man full of contradictions This week Donald Macleod explores five aspects of Poulenc’s personality and how they find expression in his music. 'In Poulenc there is something of the monk and something of the rascal' said the composer’s friend Claude Rostand - but there were other sources of inspiration that drove him. From the gregarious...

Donald Macleod explores the music, and what little is known of the life, of Baroque master Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. Biber’s first appearance in the historical records is in his early 20s, when we find him in the service of Karl Liechtenstein, prince-bishop of Olomouc in central Moravia. In this week’s episode, we meet Biber as he runs an errand for his boss, but mysteriously absconds en rou...

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of the bandoneon virtuoso and composer Astor Piazzolla, through five key locations. All his life he fought against the tide, and in the end, he was the victor. Astor Piazzolla was a rebel with a cause. A virtuoso bandoneon player and a composer, he set out to break tango free from its roots, and make it a music with a future far beyond the dance halls and...

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Hector Berlioz Berlioz is perhaps unique among composers in having had a literary gift almost the equal of his musical one. He earned his bread-and-butter living as a writer, turning out witty and often acerbic music criticism for the influential Journal des débats and Gazette musicale among others. Donald starts this week with a look at Berlioz throug...

Donald Macleod visits Debbie Wiseman at home to discuss her long and varied career. Debbie Wiseman has over two hundred credits for her music, ranging from television and film, to the concert hall and music for royal pageantry. Not only is she a multi-award winning composer, but also a teacher, pianist and conductor, often performing in and recording her own works. This week, Donald Macleod visits...

Donald Macleod travels alongside J S Bach as he moves from place to place throughout his life. Donald begins with Bach’s early years in the towns of Eisenach and Ohrdruf, where his excellence as a singer and organist was first recognised. He first moved to Weimar at the age of 18, to work as a court musician, and later as an organist and concertmaster – it was here that he would write most of his...

Donald Macleod explores Max Bruch’s violin works. Melody, said Bruch, represents the “soul of music” and nowhere is that better represented than in his famous violin concerto. It’s a work which brought him fame and fortune, but it’s also a work he came to hate, since he felt its popularity suppressed performances of his other compositions. It’s a sentiment that has some justification, since Bruch...

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of African-American composer William Grant Still (1895-1978). This week Composer of the Week looks at Still’s transformative period of study with mentor Edgard Varèse, the writing of his breakthrough 1st Symphony the ‘Afro-American’, being embraced by the American musical establishment and becoming the first African-American to conduct a major US symphony...

Donald Macleod and Oliver Soden look at Michael Tippett through his intense personal relationships. Michael Tippett was a particularly absorbent composer, soaking up an incredibly wide range of inspirations and influences from the world around him, and perhaps most often from outside the field of music. His huge intellectual capacity and endless interest in other people combined with immense chari...

Donald Macleod delves into the life and work of Franz Liszt through five striking images. Franz Liszt was the most photographed man of the 19th century and the most sculpted man aside from Napoleon - one of the most recognisable figures of his age. Donald Macleod delves into the life and work of the prolific composer and virtuoso pianist through five intriguing images. Through these, he examines t...

Donald Macleod explores the operas of Jean-Phillipe Rameau. At his death in 1764, Rameau, by then an octogenarian, had more than 30 stage works to his credit. It’s a remarkable achievement when you consider he produced his first opera at the age of 50. Up to that point, although details about his life are surprisingly patchy, he appears to have held a succession of posts in the provinces, as an or...

Donald Macleod journeys through the life of Felix Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn was a leading figure of German music in his day, and became something of an international celebrity. He was at the very forefront of music making during the 1830s and 1840s, as a composer, conductor, pianist and organist. He began as a highly gifted and versatile prodigy, and rose to become one of Germany’s first rank compo...

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of George Gershwin. When a second-hand piano was hoisted through the window of the Gershwin family’s Lower East Side apartment, a window was quite literally opened onto a new world. Donald begins by looking at Gershwin’s early and lifelong love of the instrument. For many, he was the foremost composer of the "jazz age" and it's through jazz-inflected inte...

Donald Macleod journeys through Christmas week in the company of Heinrich Schütz. Donald begins by dipping a toe into the fertile archival territory of Schütz’s own writings, a fascinating window onto the life of the composer. Then we’re to the Striezelmarkt for a pastry and a glass of Glühwein, with a look at Christmas in 17th-century Dresden. Onwards to Venice, where Schütz studies with Gabrieli...

Donald Macleod surveys the life and work of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Rimsky-Korsakov’s music is filled with lush orchestration and hints of orientalism and folk music. These elements and his role as a leading member of “The Mighty Handful” of composers who sought to forge a truly nationalistic music have led him to be regarded as the main architect of the Russian style of composition we know today....

Donald Macleod delves into the character and music of Camille Saint-Saëns This week’s episode begins with a look at Saint-Saëns the innovator, who introduced new-fangled ideas to an opera-loving Parisian public. Donald investigates the driving force behind the composer’s unstoppable ambition and his dogged determination to find an audience for his music. Next, the playful side of Saint-Saëns’ char...

Donald Macleod looks at five key environments that shaped Billy Strayhorn's personal and musical trajectory. Donald starts the journey in Homewood, Pittsburgh, where Billy Strayhorn’s early life was over-shadowed by poverty and a violent father. Over six years of toil as a “soda jerk and delivery boy” he saved up for music college, but an Art Tatum record showed him that everything he loved about...