I played this over a week ago and still the tunes dance around inside my head – it’s the jazz- and latin-fuelled brilliance of the Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein’s smash hit musical, West Side Story – perhaps the greatest musical there is? What do you think? Listening time 34’… Listen
Bursting full of life, Ravel’s music for this everyday love story of shepherd meets goatherd meets Greek god of nature is dreamy, sensual, and downright thrilling, all delivered in glorious orchestral technicolor. Meet Daphnis & Chloé! Listening time: 25 mins (podcast 9′, music 16′)… Listen
Shakespeare reaches people across the world with his insights into our shared humanity and his plays have inspired countless composers to write music – providing their own way for us to connect to Shakespeare, each other and ourselves. Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest overture gives us a torrential storm, a big love theme that beats Romeo & Juliet, and one of the most atmospheric, goose-bump-inducing beginning and end to any piece of music. And almost no one knows it at all! Listening time 33 mins… Listen
One of music’s ultimate mood improvers, Dvořák’s “Slavonic Dances” put a smile on everyone’s face. Not merely shallow dance tunes, this is music that shows us the warmest, most generous view of humanity. It’s no wonder everyone loves them! Listening time: 10.5′ podcast and up to 35′ music.… Listen
Battered, bruised but not broken, Tchaikovsky’s emotional rollercoaster ride continues… Does this ride finish with squeals of terror or delight? [34 mins]… Listen
If you’ve got any new year sluggishness, sweep all that away with a blast of Respighi’s Roman Festivals – four vivid musical pictures featuring love songs and folk dances, wine, religion and state-sponsored violence (lions eating Christians)! Listening time c32 mins [8′ podcast, 24′ music]… Listen
In the dramatic final part of our drug-fuelled adventure with composer Hector Berlioz, the dreams turn to nightmare visions of murder, execution, witches and demons. It’s loud, exciting, brilliant, a bit crazy and I love it. Listening time: 21 mins … Listen
Driven to distraction and to drugs by a woman he’d never even spoken to, Hector Berlioz was consumed with passion. His obsession and fevered mind produced the unique, Symphony Fantastique. It’s brilliant, dramatic, original and gets three episodes of Cacophony! Listening time: 31 mins (into 9.5′; music 21′)… Listen
Some music conjures up a sense of place perfectly and no one has done it better than in Benjamin Britten’s depiction of the Suffolk coast of England. Bleak, angry, foreboding and special – this is Four Sea Interludes from the opera Peter Grimes. Listening time: 23 mins [Intro podcast 7′, Music 16′]… Listen