Show Notes
For the final episode of the season a host of musical big wigs – from Stephen Hough to Steven Isserlis, Errollyn Wallen to Tom Service – phone in to give the boys recommendations for summer reading. Sam also waxes lyrical on the panharmonium, a precursor to the modern synthesiser for which Beethoven wrote his Wellington Sieg, whilst Tim speaks to New York-based author Annik LaFarge about her upcoming book, Chasing Chopin: A Musical Journey Across Three Centuries, Four Countries, and a Half-Dozen Revolutions.
More from The Classical Music Pod
Sam chats to composer Eric Whitacre about their experience recording The Sacred Veil together with VOCES8. The 12-movement work is a collaboration between Whitacre and poet-lyricist Charles Anthony Silvestri, and comprises texts by Silvestri, Whitacre and Silvestri’s late wife Julie. Its intimate score ‘tells a story of courtship, love, loss and the search for solace’.
Today’s episode is all about geography. Tim talks international competition politics and how Rachmaninov’s disputed legacy ties into the debate. Meanwhile Sam forges a musical map of Middle Earth in a Lord of the Rings analytical pilgrimage. All topped off with a very literal fluffy-dog story. Live long and prosper.
Tim travels to the home of Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir for a classical chat. They discuss Icelandic’s outsized musical pedigree, her upcoming role as Featured Artist at the Aldeburgh Festival, her cameo in Todd Field’s Tár and the importance (or unimportance) of a work’s conceptual inspiration in the ears of the listener.
In today's episode Sam and Tim discuss recent concert hall dramas as unionised musicians seize the means of sound production. Meanwhile Sam peers into the gilded musical cages of Jane Austin’s Sense and Sensibility in the next instalment of his film music series.
Tim speaks to the US singer, composer and producer Caroline Shaw. They cover her various composer hats, the upcoming performance of her Four Portraits at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and their shared appreciation for Abba and Fiona Apple.