Music Matters

For many of us, Easter means organs and churches and the sombre tones of Good Friday moving to the joy of Easter Sunday. But this year, Easter is pretty much cancelled, and churches are shut. So organs around the world are silent - but not on Music Matters: Kate Molleson presents a mini organ fest, with contributions from Glasgow-based organist John Butt, who demonstrates his own home digital organ, and Canadian organist Rachel Mahon, who looks forward to when Coventry Cathedral is again unlocked, and she can take up her post as Music Director. And Nicholas Thistlethwaite talks about his new book about organ building in Georgian and Victorian England, a time which saw a transformation from small pipe organs to the mighty Town Hall organs of the mid nineteenth century.

Music Matters speaks to Mark Pemberton, Director of the Association of British Orchestras, about the impact of Covid-19 on the financial stability of British orchestras and the livelihoods of the musicians who work for them. And we hear from conductor Jessica Cottis who reflects on the digital responses to the pandemic from across the musical world. Tom Service speaks to the French pianist François-Frédéric Guy about life during lockdown, and his recording project with the Sinfonia Varsovia featuring all of Beethoven’s piano concerti. And on the sad news of the death of the Polish composer and conductor, Krzysztof Penderecki, we hear Petroc Trelawny’s interview for Music Matters in 2009, and Lady Camilla Panufnik shares some of her more recent memories about the composer. Finally, we dive into the Music Matters archives for another chance to hear Tom’s encounter with one of music’s most inspiring figures: the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

Kate Molleson hears from the author, musician, and researcher Matt Brennan about his new book, ‘Kick It: A Social History of the Drum Kit’. We speak to the Scottish singer, songwriter, and composer, Karine Polwart, as she shares her ideas about music’s power to communicate in today’s world. As she embarks upon a project to share all thirty-six movements of Bach’s six Cello Suites during the coronavirus outbreak, Music Matters revisits a discussion with the cellist Alisia Weilerstein. And as artists the world over find new ways to continue communicating with their audiences, Kate speaks to the soprano Soraya Mafi, producer of Café Oto, Fielding Hope, and conductor Ilan Volkov about their creative responses to our current reality.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson, whose new CD juxtaposes the music of French composers Rameau and Debussy, author Christina Guillaumier on her new book The Operas of Sergei Prokofiev, as well as Russian music expert Gerard McBurney, and visits English National Opera in London to chat to cast and director Joe Hill-Gibbins of a new production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.

Kate Molleson heads down to Covent Garden where rehearsals are under way for a new production of Beethoven's Fidelio at the Royal Opera House. She speaks to conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, director Tobias Kratzer and soprano Amanda Forsythe, who sings Marzelline. Fidelio is sometimes considered a problem opera, with its mix of comic and serious, but Kratzer emphasises the deep themes of political revolution and unjust imprisonment, while for Pappano, Beethoven's score opened a new world for German opera, not least for Wagner. Kate also talks to Marta Gardolinska, Young Conductor in Association at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, about the challenges of forging a career as a conductor, and about her love of Polish music. And Music Matters joins the composer Valgeir Sigurdsson and director Stewart Laing as they discuss We Are In Time, a new music-theatre piece for the Scottish Ensemble about a heart transplant. It's a profound exploration of the emotional and scientific aspects of this most risky operation, w

As he returns to his native Scotland to conduct the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner’s mighty eighth symphony, Kate speaks to the conductor Donald Runnicles about his relationship with the composer’s music and a lifetime spent making music. Kate visits Xenia Pestova Bennett at Queen Mary University of London to hear about her second album which features a new instrument, the Magnetic Resonator Piano. She tells Kate about her creative responses to the effects that electromagnets can induce on a regular concert grand piano. And marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Henri Veuxtemps, Music Matters hears from the violinist Anne Akiko Meyers – the current custodian of the composer’s famous Guarneri del Gesù violin. She describes the sound characteristics of what is reportedly the world’s most expensive instrument. Kate also catches-up with the author Sophy Roberts to learn about her travels across Siberia in search of the backstories of keyboards scattered across an eleventh of the world’s landm

Music Matters speaks to the violinist Tasmin Little about her involvement in music education, life as a recording artist, and her plans as she prepares to step down from the concert platform after an illustrious career that has spanned more than three decades. Kate Molleson hears from music journalist Philip Clark as he reflects on the time he spent shadowing the Dave Brubeck Quartet during their British tour as well as the epic interview he recorded with the jazz legend – all the subject of his new book Dave Brubeck: A life in time. Philip speaks about Brubeck’s early career, the bandleader’s unique improvisation and compositional styles, and his creative relationships with fellow band members. Two current jazz composers – Liam Noble and Laura Jurd – also share their views about the man who is synonymous with Take Five. Kate also talks to David Dolan and Karen Chan Barrett about their respective research projects using the power of EEG and fMRI scanning techniques to uncover what happens in the brains of mus

Image Credit: Chris ChristodoulouAnother chance to hear a special interview with Sir Roger Norrington, as he speaks to presenter Tom Service about his distinguished career in music, and in particular his relationship with Beethoven in the composer's 250th anniversary year, including his groundbreaking and seminal recordings of the symphonies with the London Classical Players, and his distinctive and influential approach to historically informed performance practice in music from Monteverdi and Schutz to Mahler and Debussy.

Tom Service speaks to Carlo Rizzi, Sir Mark Elder, and four leading conductors

Violinist Nicola Benedetti leads an international career as a violinist but she is also one of the world’s leading advocates for high quality music education and the transformational effect music can have on all young people. She talks to presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch about her Foundation and her passion to inspire and enrich the lives of children across the UK. And in Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year, the Belcea Quartet marks a quarter century of its own by performing all of the composer’s string quartets at Wigmore Hall. Corina, Krzysztof, Axel and Antoine take time out from their rehearsals at London’s iconic venue, and speak to Sara backstage about the intensity of ensemble life and their lived experience as four individual musicians. Belinda Sykes is the founder of London-based ensemble Joglaresa and is living with terminal cancer. She talks to Sara about her determination to continue performing onstage and her love for making music with her fellow band members. And as Opera North’s new production of

This week Kate talks a bracing walk along the sea shore in Blyth, Northumberland, and talks to wildlife sound recordist and composer Chris Watson about his life and work. Starting out as a musician at the centre of the Sheffield electronic revolution, making music with tape recorders with his band Cabaret Voltaire, influenced by the sounds of heavy industry, Chris eventually turned his back on the lure of pop-fame to pursue a career in TV and film, providing the sound tracks for nature programmes from around the world. Kate also discusses what makes a musical masterpiece with French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, and hears about his approach to reinterpreting the Beethoven piano concertos and French piano music. Scottish folk musician Alasdair Roberts reveals what influences him and why he feels his music is not quite in the mainstream. And, as the League of Nations celebrates its centenary, academic researchers Laura Tunbridge and Sarah Collins investigate a spin off international project using music and cult

As the second decade of this century draws to a close Tom Service talks to the composer Steve Reich at his upstate New York home about emotion in music, his love for J.S. Bach and the creative thought process as he writes a new work for the autumn of 2021. With 2020 and a big birthday for Ludwig van Beethoven around the corner, violinist James Ehnes speaks to Tom about how the music of Beethoven continues to surprise. And as we approach the third decade of the new millennium – our 21st century is fresh out of its painful adolescence – Tom hears from composer Gerald Barry, the Director of Music at London's Southbank Centre, Gillian Moore, the vocal and movement artist and composer Elaine Mitchener, and the Creative Director of the Aurora Orchestra, Jane Mitchell, for their take on the creative classical music temperature of the third millennium – so far...

Tom Service talks to director Richard Eyre, whose celebrated production of Verdi's La Traviata for the Royal Opera House has clocked up 25 years. Soprano Angela Gheorghiu was its first Violetta, and Tom catches up with her, and with one of the production's more recent Violetta's, Ermonela Jaho. And starting at the site where La Traviata was first performed, just south of Piccadilly, Professor Susan Rutherford takes Tom on a tour of the streets of London to learn more about the city’s historical soundscapes as they’re reflected in a new book she co-edited with the scholar Roger Parker – London Voices, 1820–1840. Staying in the world of opera, Tom is joined by both Roger and the director Annabel Arden to review a new book on Rossini's operas in their time. Tom also hears from its author, Emanuele Senici. And we pay tribute to the conductor Mariss Jansons who died this week, with an interview he gave in 2017.

This week Tom talks to composer Jonathan Dove as he celebrates six decades of composing. He also speaks to Lilian Hochhauser about her career promoting great Russian artists in the UK, including the composer Shostakovich, pianist Sviatoslav Richter and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. The percussionist Claire Edwardes and scholar Michael Hooper also join Tom from Sydney to review the Australian music scene and modernism in the 1960s and 1970s; and pianist Philip Thomas shows Tom an app for composing your own version of John Cage's Concert for piano and orchestra.

Tom Service visits conductor Jaap van Zweden in his office at the Lincoln Center in New York as he begins his second season as Music Director of New York Philharmonic. They talk about the orchestra's commitment to commissioning new music and the work he is doing on orchestral sound. Yuja Wang has been resident at the Barbican in London this week. Tom calls in on her there and learns about her love for Schubert and a new work written especially for her by John Adams. Meanwhile on the Southbank, Shakespeare's history plays are the focus for folk musician Ellie Wilson. She has composed music for Henry VI and Richard III. Tom finds Ellie at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse where she muses about writing music for Shakespeare and her new album featuring the music of Epping Forest. And, as we approach 12th December, Tom looks ahead to culture and music in the post-election landscape in the company of Ayesha Hazarika, Fraser Nelson and Fergus Linehan.

Odaline de la Martinez, Alfred Brendel, and a lost work by Vaughan Williams

Tom Service talks to Steve Reich, for many one of the most important composers alive today. He visits Carnegie Hall and St George’s Episcopal Church Rutherford Place where Dvorak played a key role in the development of black American classical music. Then to The New School which opened in 1919 as a centre of intellectual and artistic freedom where John Cage studied and taught experimental composition as well as Judson Church where choreographers, artists, and composers met in a socially engaged space to redefine what it is to make art in a spiritual and secular community. Tom also talks to composers and performers Claire Chase and Kamala Sankaram who breathe life and sound into this city, creating a multi-dimensional song that’s as vibrant and visionary as New York has always been.

This week Kate Molleson talks to one of the great mezzo-sopranos, Alice Coote as she prepares for her role as Orpheus in Wayne McGregor’s production of Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Gluck at English National Opera this season. As the curtain rises on English National Opera's Orpheus season Kate explores how myth of Orpheus has resonated through time with conductor John Butt, classicist Charlotte Higgins, singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and Netia Jones, director of Philip Glass’s opera Orphée. Orlando Figes talks about his new book "The Europeans, Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture" which tells how Europe's cultural life transformed during the course of the 19th century through the lives of the great singer Pauline Viardot, her husband Louis, and the writer Ivan Turgenev. Photography © Jiyang Chen

In the last programme of season, Tom Service is joined by composer Tansy Davies, theatre and opera director Adele Thomas, and the Chief Executive of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Stephen Maddock to revisit some of the big issues that faced music and culture in the last year. They look at the impact that music has had on the environment, education, healthcare and as a beacon for social inclusion.Soprano, Renée Fleming is a champion for the work being done at the intersection of health and music. She has spearheaded the first ongoing collaboration between the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, where she is Artistic Director and America’s National Institutes of Health. Renée Fleming talks to Music Matters about how music can move and comfort the human spirit and about how scientists are now discovering that music can teach us a lot about the brain itself. And pianist, Stephen Hough talks to Tom about his new book Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More which he describes as his not

Tom meets the acclaimed Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto (pictured), ahead of performances in the UK with the Aurora Orchestra, to speak not about violins but conducting. Music Matters marks the definitive folk label Topic Records' 80th birthday, the oldest independent record label in the world, with Eliza and Martin Carthy and Shirley Collins. Breath is vital to music - but are we breathing correctly? Tom speaks to saxophonist Amy Dickson about her 'Take a Breath' project and to flautist Carla Rees, who is involved in artist Caroline Wright's 'The Breath Control Project' at The Coronet, London. This project is an exploration of the inhalations and exhalations that form the melody, rhythm and punctuation of our existence. And a conversation with visionary director Peter Sellars.Photo credit: Felix Broede