Episode Playlist
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 67 - 09-09-2024( 0:57:24)
Episode Information
This week its all about the contemporary featuring mostly young and upcoming composers with a special emphasis on folk opera The Way Fourth by Rachel Grimes.
Rachael Grimes – The Hysterical Society from Folk Opera The Way Forth
Shara Nova performs Pain Changes from Said Lang’s 2013 album Death Speaks
Bora Yoon – Doppler Dreams from her 2013 album Sunken Cathedral
Bryce Dessner – Young Emily from his 2013 work Murder Ballades
Phenola Merrivale – Desdemona from her 2022 album Tus
Rachel Grimes – Patsy from The Way Forth
William Brittelle – Hey Panda from his album Mohair Timewarp
Steve Reich – 2x5
Published: 9/09/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 66 - 02-09-2024( 0:56:16)
Episode Information
This episode is all about Spain with a special focus on the Zarzuela, a uniquely Spanish musical form that incorporates operatic arias, popular songs and dance. From composer Pablo Sorozabal it’s Goodbye to Bohemia from his Zarzuela Don Manolito then from The Tavern By The Port is his most famous Zarzuela song No Puede Ser, performed by Placido Domingo.
Pedro Iturralde – Pequeña Czarda for Saxophone and Piano
Eugenia Osterberger – Adiós, Galicia
Zulema de la Cruz – Hill of the Sun
Antonio Soler – Sonato in D-Minor
Manuel de Falla – Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Published: 2/09/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 65 - 26-08-2024( 0:55:37)
Episode Information
This episode is mostly about the voice. There is Lieder song, contemporary choral music and art song with the Theme from 1961 film King of Kings and two unusual piano pieces to mix things up.
Caroline Shaw performing Firmament from the Blue Hour
Room Full of Teeth performing Mizzie Mazolis Vesper Sparrow
Film Score Composer Miklos Rozsa's Theme from 1961 film King of Kings
Robert Schumann - The Wonderful Month of May from A Poets Love Song Cycle
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Invisible Choirs from his Opera Thursday of Light
Tango composer Ángel Villoldo - El Choclo
Conspirare Choir perform Jake Runestad’s Wild Forces
Frederic Mompou - Piano Variations on a theme of Chopin
Published: 26/08/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 64 - 19-08-2024( 0:57:48)
Episode Information
From the NZ bush to the depths of Space, from classical era German romanticism to duelling Gauchos on a South America ranch - this week's episode covers a lot of ground!
Mopoke - an art song about the NZ native owl by Alfred Hill
The Boston Pops Orchestra performs the Main Title from 1977 film Star Wars from the score by John Williams
Tōru Takemitsu - Small Sky
Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason performs Clara Schumann’s Scherzo No. 2 in C minor, Op. 14
Linas Paulaukis - Is It Like This In The World
Alberto Ginastera - Four Dances from Estancia
Published: 19/08/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 63 - 12-08-2024( 0:56:31)
Episode Information
Taking my cue from The Blue Hour, a song cycle that explores the space between life and death, this week's selections take us to those places that sit somewhere between dream and reality.
Peggie Granville Hicks - Come Sleep, Come Sleep
Ryuichi Sakamoto - The Theme from 1983 film Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence
From the 'Blue Hour Song Cycle', Shara Nova and A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra perform Angelica Negrón’s 'A Black Map'
Domenico Cimarosa - Sonata Number One performed by pianist Roberte Mamou
Soprano Ruby Hughes performs The Chain of Flames from Rhian Samuel’s Clytemnestra
Leopold Godowsky’s Meditation performed by pianist Konstantin Scherbakov
From 1943 film Henry V - The Tenebrae Choir perform William Waltons Touch her Soft Lips
Elena Kats-Chernin - Butterflying
Antun Tomislav Šaban - Balada
Josef Matthias Hauer - Concerto For Violin and Orchestra
Published: 12/08/2024 12:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 62 - 05-08-2024( 0:58:13)
Episode Information
Episode 62 of the Joy Of Classical Music explores the emotional and physical landscape of the heart and mind.
Lora Fisher singing Broken Morning from Louis Andriessen’s 2018 song cycle The Only One
Constance Lambert - The Suite from film 1948 Karenina
Constant Lambert - The Rio Grande
Alexander Scriabin: Preparation for the Final Mystery - Part 1 - Universe
Gavin Bryars - A Native Hill
Samuel Barber - Agnus Dei
Ralph Vaughan Williams - English Folk Song Suite
Published: 5/08/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 61 – 29-07-2024( 0:59:52)
Episode Information
This episode is all about the piano and features pianists Glenn Gould, Arthur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Jacob Adler.
Horowitz palys Schubert, Rubinstein talks about the art of the pianist before playing Liszt, Gould tackles Webern and we finish with Adler playing English/Parsi composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji’s most famous work, the complex and wondrous Gulistān.
Published: 29/07/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 60 - 08-07-2024( 0:57:59)
Episode Information
We kick off Episode 60 with Anna Netrebko and Elīna Garanča Mira performing Mira O Norma Si, Fino All'ore Estreme from Vincenzo Bellini’s 1835 opera Norma.
Also:
English Composer Ralph Vaughn Williams
Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera
English Composer Henry Purcell
American Composer Samuel Barber
French Composer Arthur Honegger
American Composer Moondog
Spanish Composer Joaquin Rodrigo
Published: 8/07/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 59 – 01-07-2024( 0:54:54)
Episode Information
This week it’s all about the voice. We feature choral works, arias and art songs starting with Marie Sophie Pollak and the Ensemble Concerto Munich performing G F Handel’s Eternal Source of Divine Light.
Also:
Wings by Japanese Composer Toru Takemitsu
Four Short Songs by Canadian composer, conductor, writer, pianist and teacher John Beckwith
Finnish Composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s The Singer
American composer John Cage’s Four 2
Italian composer Francesco Cavalli’s aria O Luci Belle
Indian American composer Reena Esmail’s This is the Love Between Us
The aria This Is Prophetic from American Composer John Adams’s opera Nixon in China
Kyrie and Gloria from Polish British Composer Roxanna Panufnik’s Westminster Mass
Sicilian American Paul Creston’s Nocturne for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra.
Published: 1/07/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 58 - 24-06-2024( 0:56:48)
Episode Information
A radio show and podcast created and first aired at Free FM 89.0, a member of the Community Access Media Alliance Aotearoa/New Zealand. Supported by NZ on Air. freefm.org.nz and @freefm89 on Facebook and Instagram
Published: 24/06/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 57 - 17-06-2024( 0:54:34)
Episode Information
This week we open with Egyptian soprano Fatma Said singing
Kan Agmal Yom from her album A Tribute to Mohamed Abdelwahabth, a prominent 20th-century Egyptian singer, actor, and composer
Also:
American film score composer Jerome Moross
Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo
English Composer Arnold Bax
American Jazz Age composer John Alden Carpenters
Chinese/American Composer Tan Dun
Published: 17/06/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 56 - 10-06-2024( 0:58:10)
Episode Information
This is the third and final of our three episodes exploring the work of New Zealand composers and performers and we open with Dame Kiri Te Kanata performing PoKarekare Ana from her 1999 album Maori Songs.
Also:
Pianist Margaret Neilson playing Rangatiki born composer Douglas Lilburn
Dunedin based Composer Anthony Ritchie
Waikato based Composer Michael F Williams
New Zealand’s first professional composer Alfred Hill
Hamilton born composer Dame Gillian Whitehead
Kiwi Pianist Michael Houston playing Chinese composer and educator Gao Ping’s (formerly of the University of Waikato) Dance Fury, an homage to Astor Piazzolla, the master of Tango.
Wellington based Greek/New Zealander John Psathas
Published: 10/06/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 55 - 03-06-2024( 0:58:28)
Episode Information
This is the second part of our three-part exploration of the music of Aotearoa/ New Zealand and today we open with one time Ngaruawahia resident and basso profundo Inia Te Wiata singing Te Range Pai’s Hine E Hine from his 1961 album Home Little Māori Home.
Also:
Auckland Composer Eve De Castro Robinson
Wellington Composer Jenny McLeod
Auckland Composer Edwin Carr
Te Awamutu born Composer Tim Finn with Wellington Composer Tom McCloud
Amberley born Composer Ross Harris
Published: 3/06/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 54 - 27-05-2024( 0:57:31)
Episode Information
We open today's episode with a track from Te Awamutu born Basso profundo Oscar Natzka album The Great Recordings 1931-50. At age 26 he was the youngest bass ever to sing a principal’s role at The Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden but his career was to be short lived.At age 39 he collapsed on stage in New York dying two weeks later. For the next three weeks it’s all about Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Featured:
Taranaki born composer Larry Pruden
Percussionist, Composer and Drag artist Gareth Farr
Dunedin born Composer Dorothy Freed
Christchurch born Composer and Violinist Salina Fisher
Cambridge born Composer David Farquhar
Published: 27/05/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 53 - 20-05-2024( 0:58:28)
Episode Information
A radio show and podcast created and first aired at Free FM 89.0, a member of the Community Access Media Alliance Aotearoa/New Zealand. Supported by NZ on Air. freefm.org.nz and @freefm89 on Facebook and Instagram
Published: 20/05/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 52 - 13-05-2024( 0:58:4)
Episode Information
This week we open with Uncle Sam’s Farm: The Prologue – Parts 1 And 2 from Missy Mazzoli's 2018 opera Proving Up.
Also Featured:
American film score composer Alfred Newman
Spanish composer Fransisco Valls
African/American composer William Grant Still
Published: 13/05/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 51 - 06-05-2024( 0:58:28)
Episode Information
This week's episode opens with the aria Is That You My Love from David Hertzberg’s opera The Wake World, which is based on a story by infamous occultist Alistair Crowleys. Wake World was voted Best Opera of 2018 by the Music Critics Association of North America.
Also featured:
German composer Gottfried Huppertz
Japanese Composer Takashi Yoshimatsu
New York composer Missy Mazzoli.
Mexican composer Arturo Marquez
American composer Kurt Weill
Published: 6/05/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – 29-04-2024( 0:55:27)
Episode Information
This is the final part of our brief exploration of music inspired by artists and their paintings and that was the aria I Go, I Go To Him from Igor Stravinsky’s opera The Rake's Progress. Stravinsky’s opera is based on a series of eight paintings by English artist William Hogarth which depict the decline and fall of Tom Rakewell, the spendthrift son of a rich merchant.
Also:
British composer Harrison Birtwistle’s Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum was inspired by Swiss artist Paul Klee's 1922 water colour Twittering Machine
Russian/American composer Alla Pavlova, was so moved at the sight of Vincent’s Starry Night that she wrote a four part symphony called Vincent in homage
Published: 29/04/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 49 - 22-04-2024( 0:57:5)
Episode Information
This is part two of our brief and fragmentary exploration of music inspired by artists and their paintings and we open with the aria That was You Know I Want To Help You from composer Bernard Rand's 2010 opera Vincent.
Also featured:
Hungarian composer Sandor Veress was so taken by the work of Swiss artist Paul Klee that he wrote a seven part suite called Homage to Paul Klee to express his admiration.
In his 1990 opera Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara took scenes from the life of Vincent van Gogh starting in the mental hospital at Saint-Rémy, where he painted The Starry Night. The story moves back and forth in time through his memories Rautavaara took material from this opera to create his Sixth Symphony, Vincentiana.
Published: 22/04/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 48 - 15-04-2024( 0:58:28)
Episode Information
The next three episodes are all about music inspired by artists and their paintings and we start with composer Michael Gordon’s Vincent Van Gogh’s Video Opera. From 1991 this opera is based on letters written by the Dutch master.
Also:
Claude Debussy's composition The Sea was inspired by Katsushika Hokusai’s masterpiece The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.
German composer Max Reger wrote four symphonic poems based on works of Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin. The Play of the Waves pays homage to Bocklin’s painting Playing in the Waves.
French composer Henri Dutilleux wrote The Starry Night in 1978 as a response to Van Gogh’s painting which he described as ‘an enormously powerful and disturbing masterpiece.”
Published: 15/04/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 47 - 08-04-2024( 0:58:31)
Episode Information
This week it’s all about France and we begin with the aria Farewell, Pastourelles from Maurice Ravel's children’s fantasy opera The Child And The Spells.
Also featured:
Georges Auric
Guillaume de Machaut
Gabriel Fauré
André Jolivet
Olivier Messiaen
Melanie Bonis
Published: 8/04/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 46 – 01-04-2024( 0:55:39)
Episode Information
In the final part of our three-part exploration of the American 20th century we play the music of:
George and Ira Gershwin
Arnold Schoenberg
Leonard Bernstein
Harry Partch
Samuel Barber
John Alden Carpenter
Published: 1/04/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 46 - 01-04-2024( 0:55:39)
Episode Information
A radio show and podcast created and first aired at Free FM 89.0, a member of the Community Access Media Alliance Aotearoa/New Zealand. Supported by NZ on Air. freefm.org.nz and @freefm89 on Facebook and Instagram
Published: 31/03/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 45 - 25-03-2024( 0:58:28)
Episode Information
Across the course of the American 20th century composers revelled in the possibilities offered by modernity. They explored the landscape, the social milieu, the machines and engines, factories and cities, the chaos, the calm and the uncertainty. They explored the potential of electricity, examined the musical traditions of non-Western cultures pushing out the boundaries of formal art music while reshaping the entirety of its potential.
In Part two of our exploration of the American century we play the music of:
Scott Joplin
Aaron Copland
Lou Harrison
Ferdinand Rudolph von Grofé
Published: 25/03/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 44 - 18-03-2024( 0:58:28)
Episode Information
Across the course of the 20th century America became the world’s economic and cultural powerhouse and little happened without something of America being involved, classical music included. With that in mind for the next three episodes we are celebrating the music of the American 20th century.
Todays episode features:
Gian Carlo Menotti
Ellen Zwilich
Virgil Thomson
Joseph Schwantner
George Crumb
Published: 18/03/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music - Special – 11-03-2024( 0:58:27)
Episode Information
In this Joy Of Classical Music Special Puerto-Rican born New York based composer, guitarist and visual artist Gabriel Vicens talks about his new album Mural. All Gabriels work including Mural is available on Bandcamp. Just type his name into the Bandcamp search engine and it will take you right to his site. Otherwise Mural can be purchased via Stradivarius Records online.
Featured Music:
1. The Way We Are Created
2. Mural
3. El Matorral
4. Carnal 6:25
Published: 11/03/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music- Ep 43 – 04-03-2024( 0:58:28)
Episode Information
This week's episode opens with the aria Now Grasp Your Daughter from Lou Harrison's 1970 opera Young Caesar. An exploration of the early life of the great Roman Emperor with a particular focus on his love affair with King Nicomedes IV of Bithynia, the unabashed theme of gay love was deeply controversial for the time and the opera, though highly acclaimed, struggled to find its feet.
Also on the menu:
Dutch Recordist Lucie Horsch
Chinese American composer Tan Dun
Catalonian composer Roberto Gerhard
Estonian composer Eduard Tubin
Published: 4/03/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 42 - 26-02-2024( 0:58:28)
Episode Information
This episode is all about China and to quote Chinese American pianist and academic Hao Huang:
“Western classical music wasn’t introduced to the Chinese public until Christian missionaries came in the 19th century, but it quickly gained popularity and prestige as a symbol of the Western “culture of scientific progress and modernisation.”
The rigours of classical training fit the Confucian value of self-cultivation through self-discipline. Confucius believed that the study of music was “an indispensable way to train the mind,” and considered it more important than mathematics and writing.
Hau Huang goes on to note that 36 million Chinese children are currently studying Western classical music traditions, that’s 6 times the number of American children and wonders if the future of Western Classical music might just be in the hands of Asian musicians.
Featured Composers:
Xian Xinghai
Zhou Long
Tan Dun
Qigang Chen
Zhu Jian
Published: 26/02/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 41 - 19-02-2024( 0:58:28)
Episode Information
This week we play music from composers who died in Nazi death camps.
Hans Krasa – murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz
Gideon Klein – executed by Nazi soldiers trying to erase evidence from advancing Allied forces.
Ilse Weber – murdered alongside with her young son Tommy in the gas chambers at Auschwitz
Mordechai Gebirtig – executed in the Krakow ghetto for the crime of being Jewish
Pavel Hass – murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz
Viktor Ullmann – murdered in the gas chambers at Auschwitz
Erwin Schulhoff – died of tuberculosis at Wülzburg prison while awaiting transportation to a death camp.
To quote Viktor Ullman on his internment:
“By no means did we sit weeping on the banks of the waters of Babylon. Our endeavour with respect to the arts was commensurate with our will to live.”
Published: 19/02/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 40 – 12-02-2024( 0:57:34)
Episode Information
This week we begin with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and soprano Jane Sheldon performing Eliza’s Aria from the Wild Swans Ballet Suite by Soviet born Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin.
Then it's A Love Song from composer and accordion specialist Pauline Oliveros, Irwin Swack's violin concerto Waters of Memory, two piano sonatas inspired by popular music styles from Kiwi composer Jenny McLeod, a 75th birthday tribute to Stephen Hawking, a famous children's song by Japanese composer Kōsaku Yamada and an excerpt from Franz Sheker’s popular 1912 opera A Distant Sound, the story of a musician who sacrifices his happiness as he pursues the mystery of the beguiling sound in his head.
Published: 12/02/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 39 - 05-02-2024( 0:58:22)
Episode Information
Today we open with the aria News Has a Kind of Mystery from the opera Nixon in China by John Luthor Adams, before visiting Franz Shrecker's glorious 1900 composition Intermezzo for String Orchestra, Op. 8.
A victim of nazi persecution Shrecker's work was almost lost, but not quite. We feature a little something from one of the world's most popular composers, Estonian composer Arvo Part and a snippet from Mica Levi's score for the 2014 sci-fi film Under the Skin.
Also on the menu is composer, gay activist, record salesperson, music critic, firefighter, florist, nurse and painter Lou Harrison, and Pulitzer Prize winners Charles Ives and Jennifer Higdon, whose stunning Southern Harmony explores the melodies of the American south.
Published: 5/02/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 38 - 29-01-2024( 0:58:28)
Episode Information
We open with the aria News Has a Kind of Mystery from the opera Nixon in China by John Luthor Adams before visiting Franz Shrecker's glorious 1900 composition Intermezzo for String Orchestra, Op. 8. A victim of nazi persecution Shrecker's work was almost lost, but not quite.
We feature a little something from one of the world's most popular composers, Estonian composer Arvo Part and a snippet from Mica Levi's score for the 2014 sci-fi film Under the Skin.
Also on the menu is composer, gay activist, record salesperson, music critic, firefighter, florist, nurse and painter Lou Harrison, and Pulitzer Prize winners Charles Ives and Jennifer Higdon, whose stunning Southern Harmony explores the melodies of the American south.
Published: 29/01/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 37 - 19-01-2024( 0:57:56)
Episode Information
A radio show and podcast created and first aired at Free FM 89.0, a member of the Community Access Media Alliance Aotearoa/New Zealand. Supported by NZ on Air. freefm.org.nz and @freefm89 on Facebook and Instagram
Published: 22/01/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 36 - 15-01-2024( 0:58:9)
Episode Information
Today we open with an Aria from Aaron Copland’s 1954 opera The Tender Land, we listen to the theme from the highest grossing Hollywood film of 1959, there's a song from English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, a visit to the Mothership with the world's second most performed composer, there's some romance for violin and piano from the first American woman to compose a full symphony and an adaptation of dada gibberish by Finnish conductor/composer Essa Pekka Salonen.
Published: 15/01/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 35 – 08-01-2024( 0:54:57)
Episode Information
We kick off this week's episode with a glorious aria from Japanese composer Ikuma Dan’s opera Twilight Heron before diving deep into an eclectic mix that includes Russian composer Shostikovich, Canadian composer Linda Catlin Smith, some Hungarian folk arrangements courtesy of Bella Bartok and a little something from Austrian/American composer Arnold Schoenberg, whose innovations altered the course of 20th century music.
Published: 8/01/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 34 - 01-01-2024( 0:54:21)
Episode Information
Today's episode is all about the legendary American avant-garde composer John Cage. We listen to his music and music from those friends, pupils and associates he inspired. To quote the man himself:
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
Published: 1/01/2024 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 33 - 25-12-2023( 0:55:9)
Episode Information
Today's focus is on German composer Hans Werner Henze and his symphony No.3 but not before we touch base with Caroline Shaw, an aria from French opera Louise, NZ pianist Michael Houstoun and a Japanese saxophonist colloquially known as Mr Fuzzy Bird.
Published: 25/12/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 32 - 18-12-2023( 0:58:12)
Episode Information
This week we are listening to the music of two extraordinary composers - Lili Boulanger and Vítězslava Kaprálová. Both died aged 25 but not before they gifted the world an extraordinary body of work.
Published: 18/12/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 31 – 11-12-2023( 0:58:14)
Episode Information
This week we open with an aria from The Bartered Bride, a comic opera where true love prevails over social ambition, we visit the battlefields of 13th Century Novgorod via Sergei Prokofiev's score to Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 film Alexander Nevsky. There's a saxophone sonata from the most popular American composer of the 1940s and 50s, a delightful piece from Ukrainian composer Julia Gomelskaya who died in a car crash in 2016 and we finish up with Franz Liszt and a composition purportedly said to represent the sea. And that's just to start.
Published: 11/12/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 30 - 04-12-2023( 0:59:49)
Episode Information
This week it’s all about the Czech Republic. Of course an hour long episode only provides enough space for a meagre snapshot of one nation's musical legacy and today's music only serves as a rough introduction. More Czech music will feature in future episodes.
Among the featured music is a curious composition by Erwin Schulhoff. His 1919 composition Sonata Erotica is basically the female orgasm notated for performance. The 'climax' of that year's Prague Spring Festival, it was to be Schulhoff's nadir. When the Nazis invaded a few years later they branded him a degenerate and sent him to a death camp. He did not survive.
Published: 4/12/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 29 - 27-11-2023( 0:55:33)
Episode Information
And somehow we are back in Finland again and this time it's all about the Kalevala, that nation's national epic, which we explore through two compositions: Uuno Klami's Kalevala Suite and Jean Sibelius's Tapiola.
Published: 27/11/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 28 - 20-11-2023( 0:55:18)
Episode Information
1935 Pirate Film Captain Blood, the world's most performed Mexican orchestral work, an evisceration of the British class system and then there's Arseny Avraamov's Symphony of Factory Sirens. Composed for the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution it involves navy ship sirens and whistles, bus and car horns, factory sirens, cannons, the foghorns of the entire Soviet flotilla in the Caspian Sea, artillery guns, machine guns, hydro-airplanes and a large choir.
Published: 20/11/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 27 - 13-11-2023( 1:0:26)
Episode Information
Among our usual eclectic mix is Joan Tower's one movement orchestral work Made In America, which draws its inspiration from the song America The Beautiful. There's a snippet from Meredith Monk's opera Atlas, an exploration of the life of a Belgian French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist opera singer but mostly this week's episode is about Romantic composer Robert Schmann.
Published: 13/11/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 26 - 06-11-2023( 0:52:15)
Episode Information
After two weeks in Finland and two further weeks in Australia we are back to our usual eclectic musical mix. Starting in Norway we tarry for a while in England and Australia before landing in Russia and taking in the entirety of the most frequently performed work in the classical repertoire, Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.
Published: 6/11/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 25 – 30-10-2023( 0:58:48)
Episode Information
In the second part of our journey across Australia we visit the Kakadu National Park, visit the set of a Hitchcock movie and explore the influence of Aboriginal culture on Australian art music before finishing with Deborah Cheetham's glorious symphonic composition Dutala (The Space Between The Stars).
Published: 30/10/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 24 – 23-10-2023( 0:58:57)
Episode Information
This week and next it's all about Australia. We start at Cloudstreet in Perth, the setting for the 2016 operatic adaptation of Tim Winton's revered 1991 Novel of the same name and finish with Australia's greatest composer, the wildly eccentric Percy Grainger. Along the way we touch base with all facets of formal Australian art music.
Published: 23/10/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 23 – 16-10-2023( 0:57:59)
Episode Information
Finland spends $91 per person per year on art and culture and it shows. While NZ, a nation of similar size, population and GDP supports five professional orchestras, Finland supports 30. In today's episode we take a brief look at that nation's vast compositional catalogue.
Published: 16/10/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 22 - 09-10-2023( 0:57:43)
Episode Information
In 2019, 174 composers were invited by the BBC's Music Magazine to select the greatest living composers and of the three selected, one was Kaija Saariaho who died on the 22 June 2023 aged 70. This episode is all about the life and music of Finnish Composer Kaija Saariaho.
Published: 9/10/2023 10:45:00 a.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 21 - 02-10-2023( 0:55:46)
Episode Information
There's a trip to the movies with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, some ground-breaking acoustic-electrictronica courtesy of Kiwi composer Douglas Lilburn, a plea for peace with Frank Ticheli's Earth Song and a visit to Ukraine that includes a conversation with pianist Lubomyr Melnyk who holds the world record for the most notes played per second.
Track 1
Viktorija Kaminskaite performing ‘A Voice A Little While Ago’ from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.
Track 2
Myroslav Skoryk – A Melody
Track 3:
Lubomyr Melnyk – The Continuous Music Man
Track 4:
Illirion – Lubomyr Melnyk
Track 5:
Frank Ticheli - Earth Song
Track 6:
Douglas Lilburn - The Return
Published: 2/10/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 20 - 25-09-2023( 0:58:37)
Episode Information
In today's episode, Indian classical collides with Western Classical then there's the word that shall not be spoken, the title of a composition by the late Julius Eastman, a fragile but brilliant figure who loved to provoke. Then there's the tragic figures of Ivor Gurney and Lili Boulanger. Gurney, undone by severe mental illness, nevertheless produced some beautiful and enduring music as did Boulanger who died of TB aged 24. Then there's filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's later period masterpiece Ran and its evocative score by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. Based on King Lear, Ran is another sort of tragedy. Perhaps beauty from tragedy is the theme for today.
Track 1. Reena Esmail - TaReKiTa performed by The Los Angeles Master Chorale
Track 2. Reena Esmail - Ram Tori Maya performed by Carnegie Hall’s The Orchestra Sings project
Track 3. Tōru Takemitsu - The opening movement from the motion picture Ran.
Track 4. Caroline Shaw - ‘Its Motion Keeps’ performed by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
Track 5. Julius Eastman - Evil
Track 6. Saint Saens - The Swan performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Kathryn Stott
Track 7. Lili Boulanger - The Old Buddhist Prayer
Track 8. Ivor Gurney - A Gloucestershire Rhapsody
Published: 25/09/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 19- 18-09-2023( 0:58:14)
Episode Information
From the grim depths of Soviet Russia to the bright tropical rainforests of Hawaii, birds are a bit of a theme today with the now extinct Hawaiian Kauai and the English Lark featuring. Then there's Terry Riley, minimalist composer and tape loop pioneer regaling us with his strange and joyous visions. Otherwise it's the usual eclectic mix.
Track 1. Sylvia McNair performing Hark! Hark! the Echoing Air from Henry Purcell’s 1692 semi opera, The Fairy Queen.
Track 2. Alexander Liebermann - The Last Song of the Kauai
Track 3. Gavrill Popov - Chamber Symphony for Seven Instruments performed by the USSR Radio Symphony Orchestra
Track 4. Terry Riley A Rainbow in the Curved Air
Track 5. Maurice Ravel - Valley Of The Bells
Track 6. Sergei Rachmaninoff - How Peaceful performed by Norwegian trumpet virtuoso Tine Thing Helseth
Track 7. Sergei Rachmaninoff - How Peaceful performed by soprano Anna Netrebko.
Track 8. Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending performed by The London Philharmonic
Published: 18/09/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 18 - 11-09-2023( 0:57:26)
Episode Information
From Wales to Poland to Japan to France to the USA. It's an international affair that explores art song, film scores, the classics and the not so classic, that would be some formal electronica from computer creative Laurie Spiegel
Track 1. Andrea Bocelli and Bryn Terfel performing At the back of the Holy Temple from George Bizet’s 1863 opera The Pearl Fishers
Track 2. Miklós Rózsa - the theme form the 1959 film Ben-Hur performed by the John Wilson Orchestra
Track 3. Toshi Ichiyanagi - The first movement from Cloud Atlas performed by Yukie Nagai
Track 4. City Boy by Judd Greenstein performed by the Now Ensemble
Track 5. Edgard Varese - Ionisation performed by the Ensemble Intercontemporain
Track 6. Listen by Scott Gendel performed by mezzo-soprano Dominique Cooper
Track 7. Marion Bauer - Coyote Song performed by Helene Lindqvist
Track 8. Arthur Rubinstein plays Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 in E flat
Track 9. Rebecca Clarke - A Dream sung by soprano Hélène Lindqvist
Track 10. Laurie Spiegel - Drums
Published: 11/09/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 15 – 05-09-2023( 0:55:11)
Episode Information
We conclude our three-part celebration of women composers with NZ composer Janet Jennings who talks about her life and two works, A Daughter of Eve and Voices Of Women.
Track 1:
A Daughter of Eve
Track 2:
Voices of Women
Published: 5/09/2023 8:45:00 a.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 17 – 04-09-2023( 0:58:12)
Episode Information
Ep 17 Jeremy Mayall Part 2
1. Jeremy Mayall - Space Time Continuum
2. Flutter - Composed by Jeremy Mayall, lyrics by Shoshana Sachi, sung by Julia Booth
3. Jeremy Mayall - As Time Passes
4. Jeremy Mayall - The Long White Cloud
5. Pierre Boulez with the Ensemble Intercontemporain - Répons
6. Jeremy Mayall: OneFatMan - A Typical Day In Suburbia from his 2004 pop/hip/hop album A Typical Day In Suburbia
Published: 4/09/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 16 - 28-08-2023( 0:58:12)
Episode Information
Jeremy Mayall Interview Part One
Track 1. Kia Eke Panuku from the album AWE by Horomona Horo and Jeremy Mayall
Track 2. Jeremy Mayall - Fourteen Moments for Three performed by NZTrio
Track 3. Jeremy Mayall - The Effect Of Bundled Sticks On Sound performed by Ben Hoadley (bassoon) with Chris Lam Sam (electronics)
Track 4. Floating Points with Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra - Movement 1 from the album Promises
Track 5. Jeremy Mayall - Opening theme from the Shepherd soundtrack
Track 6. Jeremy Mayall - We Are All Stardust.
Published: 28/08/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 14 - 21-08-2023( 1:2:22)
Episode Information
Our celebration of Women in Music continues
1. Soprano Dawn Upshaw performs Tania Leons Mothers Prayer
2. Everything You Need to Know about Florence Price
3. "Andante Cantabile" from Florence Price's "String Quartet in a minor
4. Angélica Negrón - El Colapso
5. Meredith Monk: Strand (Gathering) from Songs of Ascension
6. Meredith Monk – ‘I Believe in the Healing Power of Art’ An Audio Documentary
7. Margaret Monk - Road Songs from David Byrne’s 1986 film True Stories
8. Kaija Saariaho - Ballade
9. Alla Pavlova: Symphony No. 4 "Path to Shambala”
Published: 21/08/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 13 – 14-08-2023( 1:2:30)
Episode Information
As I have been putting this series together I find myself endlessly grateful to Wikipedia and YouTube for their vast archives, especially YouTube whose musical offerings are almost unsurpassed. As I have been exploring the music on offer I have watched numerous live orchestral concerts from the 1940s through to the 1980s and was surprised by the lack of women. Until the 1990s it seems that orchestras were a male dominated affair and as for women composers, good luck with that. Until the last couple of decades it seems female musicians were largely on the outer and I can’t help but imagine all that squandered potential, but in recent times things have changed considerably and with that in mind the next three episodes are all about women and the fulfilment of that potential.
1. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performs Sergei Rachmaninov’s Vocalise
2. Ina Boyle - Phantasy
3. Margaret Bonds - Troubled Water.
4. Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion - Other Song
5. Emahoy Tsegué Maryam Guèbrou - The Garden of Gethesemanie
6. Juhi Bunsal - In Perfect Light
7. Excerpt from Deborah Cheetam’s opera Pecan Summer
8. Excerpt from Deborah Cheetham’s opera Eumeralla: A War Requiem for Peace: IV.
9. Joan Tower - Sequoia
10. Jenny McLeod - A&P Show
Published: 14/08/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 12 - 07-08-2023( 1:3:26)
Episode Information
We start in Quebec with a rock band, pass through Japan and end in Estonia with an often overlooked genius. On the way there is the usual eclectic mix with a focus on Aaron Copland’s Fanfare For The Common Man.
1. Emerson Lake and Palmer - Fanfare for the Common Man
2. Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man
3. Joan Tower - Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman
4. Maurice Ravel - Boat on the Ocean
5. Toru Takemitsu - Rain Spell
6. Christina Ludwig performs Franz Schubert’s To Music
7. Hildur Guðnadóttir - Theme from. the motion picture Tar
8. Hildur Guðnadóttir - Fólk fær andlit
9. Claude Debussy - Children's Corner
10. Eduard Tubin - Symphony No. 1 in C Minor: I. Adagio - Allegro Feroce
Published: 7/08/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 11 – 31-07-2023( 0:59:33)
Episode Information
We are back to our eclectic journeying and today’s adventures include New Zealand and Wolastoq Tribal territory in Eastern Canada and take in Einstein, Beethoven, murder ballads, noir and art song.
1. Inia Te Wiata - The Maori Flute
2. Jeremy Dutcher - Pomok naka Poktoinskwes
3. Michael Houstoun performs Beethoven’s Piano sonata No15 in D Major, Opus 28
4. The Philip Glass Ensemble perform Train from Einstein on the Beach, an opera by Philip Glass
5. Bryce Dessner - Murder Ballades, Omie Wise,
6. Aaron Copland - Quiet City
7. Erik Franklin - Weavers
Published: 31/07/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 10 – 24-07-2023( 0:57:20)
Episode Information
Classical music is dynamic and constantly evolving, building on what has gone before while pressing forward in search of new territory and with that in mind this week we’ll be looking at some of the genres young stars.
1. Juhi Bansal - Waves of Change (music, surfing and identity)
2. Caroline Shaw - Partita for 8 Singers: No. 1. Allemande
3. Attacca Quartet with Caroline Shaw - And So
4. David Hertzberg’s Spectre of the Spheres performed by the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra
5. Leonard Mark Lewis - Warm Summer Sun
6. Lucie Horsch - Pašona Kolo
7. Gabriella Smith - Bard of a Wasteland
8. Bryce Dessner’s Raphael performed by the Ensemble Intercontemporain
Published: 24/07/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 9 – 10-07-2023( 0:58:14)
Episode Information
We continue our exploration of that strange and exhilarating landscape where Classical meets Jazz.
1. The Swingle Singers performing Prelude no.11 from J S Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier
2. Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia: Section III performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with The Swingle Singers
3. Herbie Hancock performs Maurice Ravel’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra In G
4. Dmitri Shostakovich -Suite for Jazz Orchestra, Waltz No. 2
5. Igor Stravinski - Piano Rag Music
6. Igor Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto performed by Woody Herman
7. George Antheil - Jazz Symphony
8. Leonard Bernstein - 3 Dance
Episodes from his musical On the Town
Published: 10/07/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 8 – 03-07-2023( 0:56:18)
Episode Information
For today’s episode and the next we explore that strange and wondrous landscape where Classical meets Jazz.
1. The Swingle Singers perform Bach
2. John Lewis’s Three Little Feelings from Gunther Schuller’s album project Birth of the Third Stream
3. NZ pianist Michael Houston performs Mike Nock’s In the Time of Sukura
4. George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue
5. Copland Plays his own Piano Concerto from Jazz in the Concert Hall recorded in 1964.
Published: 3/07/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 7 – 26-06-2023( 0:56:24)
Episode Information
Today we begin our travels in 4th century Byzantium take in Austria, France, Russia, Italy and on the way there much strangeness, wonder and beauty to explore.
1. Anna Netrebko Elīna Garanča perform "Mira O Norma Si, Fino All'ore Estreme’ from the Opera "Norma" by Vincenzo Bellini
2. Claude Debussy - Clair de Lune
3. A short audio documentary about Austrian composer Anton Webern then we listen to his Variations, Op 27 played by Glenn Gould
4. Dmitri Shostakovich - Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102
5. Ioannis Arvanitis - Hymn to St. Basil
Published: 26/06/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 6 – 19-06-2023( 0:56:55)
Episode Information
Today’s journey includes 16th century England,19th century Italy with a diversion to the Planet of the Apes before Ethiopia and the Baltic sea. On offer is the avant-garde, the High Renaissance, some circular Ethiopian compositional styles and lots more besides.
1. Angela Gheorghiu performs Vissi d'arte from Tosca by Puccini
2. A short audio documentary about John Cage then it’s his composition Sonata V
3. Soprano Emma Kirby performs Part 1 scene 3 from Joseph Haydn’s The Creation
4. Thomas Tallis - Spem in Alium
5. Jerry Goldsmith - The Planet of the Apes.
6. Handel - Zadok the Priest
7. Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou - The Homeless Wanderer
8. The Baltic Sea Orchestra performs Sunlight by Max Richter
Published: 19/06/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy Of Classical Music Ep 5 – 12-06-2023( 0:54:36)
Episode Information
We start today’s adventures in Baroque England before visiting Ukraine, France, New Zealand and finishing up in Appalachia. Art songs, symphonies, piano music and arias. It’s all here.
1. Kathleen Battle performs "Ombra Mai Fu / Largo" by G.F. Handel
2. Stefania Turkevych - Time Passes
3. Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No.1
4. Douglas Lilburn - A Song of Islands
5. Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring
Published: 12/06/2023 11:44:23 a.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 4 – 05-06-2023( 0:53:16)
Episode Information
In today’s episode we begin in Ukraine pass through Hollywood, Russia and medieval Germany and on the way touch on the art songs, film scores, scared music, concrete music and listen to the most English composer of his generation.
Published: 5/06/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 3 – 29-05-2023( 0:57:22)
Episode Information
In this episode travel from Renaissance Italy to contemporary New York and on the way touch on opera, the avant-garde, film score music, electronica and some joyous snippets from Russian/American composer Alla Pavlova’s work The Old New York Nostalgia Suite.
Published: 29/05/2023 10:00:00 p.m.
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 2 – 22-05-2023( 0:58:29)
Episode Information
In this episode travel from Renaissance Italy to contemporary New York and on the way touch on opera, the avant-garde, film score music, electronica and some joyous snippets from Russian/American composer Alla Pavlova’s work The Old New York Nostalgia Suite.
Published: 22/05/2023 10:00:00 p.m.