Often on the edge, in life and music, Beethoven goes to extremes on the piano to show us the extreme depth of his feelings. His Appassionata Sonata is every bit as intense as its name suggests! Listening time 33 mins (podcast 10′, music 23′)… Listen
Eternal source of light divine is three beautiful and brilliant minutes of Handel, as effective at setting us up for the day as any yoga routine (though you can do that too of course)! It’s a quietly awe-filled salute to the sun. Listening time 10mins… Listen
In his Cello Suites, JS Bach catapulted the instrument into the solo spotlight and discovered new worlds of sound and possibilities, full of riches to explore. Nominally it’s dance music but its depth and beauty bring us stillness and solace. Listening time 25 mins… Listen
After three years ‘vegetating’ in New York, Béla Bartók produced a handful of late great pieces. A dying man’s birthday gift to his wife, his often easygoing and playful last piano concerto is, perhaps, my favourite concerto of all time… Listening time 35 mins.… Listen
What’s in a name? Not much it seems. An ‘Intermezzo’ is often a short piece that breaks up something bigger… but Brahms used it as his go to name for any short piano pieces where nothing else came to mind! In any case, these three Intermezzos for solo piano from late in Brahms’s life are beautiful, wistful, dreamy and give us a perfect break from whatever you’ve got going on… Like all Brahms pieces they’re musically perfect too. [21′]… Listen
When the organisers of the Paris Universal Exposition in 1889 invited gamelan players from Indonesia, they introduced French composers to a whole world of new and exciting possibilities and a new direction in music. Debussy led the way and his … Listen
No haunted house would be complete without the soundtrack of organ music, right? The supreme example is Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, but the films and TV only ever give us 10 seconds… …crank up the volume so … Listen
Schubert wrote some great music that hardly any of us know. In his penultimate Piano Sonata we eavesdrop on his search for answers and acceptance. [4 parts] The music: Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata No.20 in A D.959 1. Allegro 2. … Listen