Composer of the Week Podcast

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully was the most influential French composer of the 17th Century, a key figure in the court of Louis XIV. This week, Donald Macleod explores how Lully rose from humble origins in Italy to become the most powerful musician in France, a story of lies, ambition and intrigue. Music Featured: Phaëton, LWV 61, Overture Le C...

Donald Macleod chats to composer Errollyn Wallen about her life and work Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen has been called a “renaissance woman of contemporary music”. She’s a remarkably versatile and prolific composer, pianist and songwriter and one of our most in-demand musical voices today. She was the first black woman to have a piece performed at the Proms in 1998 and her music ope...

Donald Macleod delves into the operas of Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini was man of the theatre to his fingertips. Born in Lucca in 1858, into a distinguished family of church musicians, Puccini was never destined to follow in his forebears’ footsteps. His fate was sealed when as a teenager he walked thirty miles to hear Verdi’s Aida. He knew immediately that theatre was his calling and from that...

Donald Macleod explores Mozart’s prolific final years. Five years before Mozart’s premature death aged 35, the composer felt at the top of his game. He was performing regularly in Vienna and his music was beloved throughout the city. However, the Austro-Turkish War between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire would soon have a negative impact on Mozart’s prospects, along with changing musi...

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Camille Saint-Saëns Camille Saint-Saëns once said “I produce music as an apple tree produces apples.” In his day, that fruit was gobbled up all across Europe where the composer was acclaimed as the greatest of all French musicians. Liszt called him the greatest organist in the world. Yet in France, and in his home city of Paris, he was not always so hi...

Donald Macleod is joined by the composer Mark-Anthony Turnage Mark-Anthony Turnage is a man with a reputation for shaking up the world of British classical music - a composer with a distinctive and rebellious creative voice. His work vividly fuses influences of jazz, soul and contemporary pop with music that remains boldly and defiantly avant-garde. It’s music that packs a punch, yet whose viscera...

As part of his 80th birthday celebrations in 2010, Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim looked back over his life and work, with Donald Macleod. The result is a fascinating retrospective of half a century of creativity, with the artist himself as tour guide. Along the way, he explodes a few myths about the inner workings of musical theatre. Sondheim starts by talking about his childhood, his parents'...

Donald Macleod explores a crucial decade in Sibelius’s life The 1910s were a crucial decade in Sibelius’s life. He would write some of his greatest works during these ten years, including his fourth and fifth symphonies and the beginnings of his sixth. Sibelius’s meditations on the symphony and its role in his creative life are a recurring theme in the week’s programmes. This period also reflects...

Donald Macleod and guest, Kevin Le Gendre follow the jazz adventures of Carla Bley One of the most original voices in jazz, composer, arranger, performer and band-leader Carla Bley has been determinedly pursuing her own musical path for more than sixty years. Her back catalogue of some fifty plus recordings tell the story of a musician who's responded in her own unique style to all the current tre...

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of composer, Luigi Cherubini An octogenarian when he died in 1842, Cherubini's long life places him alongside three giants of the age, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. When he was born in 1760, Mozart was four years old, and Haydn was in his thirties. Beethoven was born a decade after Cherubini. Standing among these luminaries, all of whom he admired, Cherubin...

To mark Sofia Gubaidulina’s 90th birthday, Donald Macleod and Gerard McBurney explore five different aspects of her progressive and distinctive music. Gubaidulina has been living in Germany since 1992 and is still busy composing today. When she was born in 1931 in Tatarstan, the Soviet Union was under Stalinist rule. Up until her emigration, she worked as a composer under the strictly regulated co...

Donald Macleod tries to get to the heart of JS Bach’s character, warts and all. Johann Sebastian Bach, who is now almost universally recognised as one of the giants of classical music, was not always so celebrated. In his own lifetime he received some public recognition but this contrasted with his regular complaints of unjust humiliations at the hands of his contemporaries and his employers. Was...

Donald Macleod attempts to unravel the enigmatic, remarkable story of Julius Eastman and his music. When this week’s composer died homeless and alone in 1990, almost no one knew, not even his friends, and his work threatened to disappear with him. Julius Eastman had lit up America’s contemporary music scene as a spellbinding performer and a visionary composer whose music is difficult to pigeonhole...

Donald Macleod follows Wagner's journey towards building the Bayreuth Festival. This week, Donald Macleod follows Wagner on his decades-long journey to realise his dream of building his own music theatre, and establishing a festival there dedicated to his music. We see how Wagner’s revolutionary ideas and vaulting ambition struggled against the reality of securing supporters, raising finances, and...

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Béla Bartók. Music Featured: For Children Piano Concerto No 3 Contrasts Hungarian Sketches Kossuth 14 Bagatelles, Nos 4 & 5 Piros Alma / Red Apple 44 Duos for Two Violins (No 44, Transylvanian Song) Allegro Barbaro Romanian Folk Dances for Orchestra Transylvanian Dance String Quartet No 2 (i Moderato; ii Allegro molto capriccioso) Orchestral Suite N...

Donald Macleod explores some of the challenges Telemann faced as he struggled for success Georg Philipp Telemann was one of the most celebrated musicians of the 18th century. In Europe, his fame eclipsed that of his close contemporaries Handel and Bach and he left behind him a vast legacy of works. This week, Donald Macleod turns the spotlight on this often forgotten musical superstar, exploring t...

Donald Macleod turns his attention to Rachmaninov’s great choral works Rachmaninov has been seen as the last great champion of Russian Late Romanticism. He was a celebrated pianist and conductor, as well as a composer, and his musical legacy includes his hugely popular piano concertos. This week, Donald Macleod turns his attention to Rachmaninov’s great choral works and his story during the period...

Donald Macleod and Andrew Graham-Dixon build a picture of music and art in Josquin's time The humanist Cosimo Bartoli described Josquin as the Michelangelo of Music. A master of polyphonic choral writing, Josquin was as widely admired in his own lifetime as posthumously. While Josquin was a dominant force in music, the Franco-Flemish area with which he’s associated, also produced some remarkable p...

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Antonín Dvořák. In an era overloaded with brooding and overwrought, Romantic sensibilities, Antonín Dvořák’s music shone with grace and joy and humanity. Audiences were enchanted and adopted Dvořák as one of the 19th century’s most beloved composers. He was especially in demand in Britain and the USA, and enjoyed successful visits both countries. Dvořák...

Donald Macleod in conversation with award winning American composer Jennifer Higdon. If you were to ask Jennifer Higdon what her biggest musical influence might be, she’s more likely to cite Lennon and McCartney than Bach or Beethoven. Born in 1962 in New York, the soundtrack of her childhood was the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and Peter Paul and Mary, the Rolling Stones, and reggae. A move to...

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla was not well suited to the role of national musical icon. He was at his happiest, living a simple, monkish existence in his spartan Granada villa; fussing over his music in pleasant isolation or enjoying the company of a few close friends. He was generous but withdrawn, quietly and devotedly religious, and had a horror of...

Donald Macleod pulls back the curtain on Berlioz’s greatest obsession Donald Macleod explores the women who shaped Hector Berlioz’s life and work Hector Berlioz was one the most innovative and rebellious musicians of 19th century France. He was a man of unwaveringly high expectations, in his wider life as well as his music. As the quintessential Romantic, one friend said that love was the “alpha a...

Donald Macleod explores the musical life of Benjamin Britten Music Featured: Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (Nos 7 & 8) Phantasy Quartet Nocturne (On This Island) Ballad of Heroes (2nd mvt) Suite for Violin and Piano (Lullaby; Waltz) Hymn to St Cecilia Calypso Young Apollo for Piano and Strings Violin Concerto in D minor (1st & 2nd mvt) An American Overture Ceremony of Carols (Nos 7...

This week, Donald Macleod explores Purcell’s work during his short life in the context of the turbulent times in which he lived. This was a period of intense political and social change, encompassing three different monarchies, the plague, the great fire of London, and the arrival of another deadly pandemic. Music featured: Blow up the trumpet in Sion, Z10 Welcome, vicegerent of the mighty king, Z...

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of the 19th-century French singer, pianist, composer and influential society figure, Pauline Viardot. “When I want to do something, I do it in spite of water, fire, society, the whole world”, an indicator if ever there was one, of the inner steel of this week’s composer. Born in 1821, Pauline Viardot possessed an array of exceptional qualities. As one of...