CACOPHONY - Great music makes life better!: Recent Episodes
Cacophony - Steve Thomas
Hear more. Feel more. Be more! Come with me and dive into some great classical music. For over 1000 years great musicians have explored what it means to live, love, die and everything in between: asking all our deep and universal questions. Escape the cacophony - the noise of your brain and daily life; tune into the music, your feelings and emotions ‘good’ and ‘bad’ …and find the space, stillness and love that underpins everything.
NB: May include loud noise, surprises, challenges, cacophonous racket. May cause shock, comfort, discomfort, smiles, tears, peace, transcendence.
www.cacophonyonline.com
A subtle extremist, in his Symphony no.51 Haydn throws down some extraordinary challenges to his horn players - can they beat the ‘immutable forces of nature’?
Listening time 30 mins (podcast 9′, music 21′)
Music here on YouTube, Spotify and [with links to first movement only] on Apple and Amazon played by The English Concert, conducted by Trevor Pinnock. They're playing on 'period instruments' which Haydn would recognise including valveless natural horns played by Anthony Halstead and colleague.
You can buy the recording as a download from Presto music (on its own or with a whole bunch of other Haydn symphonies)
What do you think? Tell me with a comment below! I’d love to hear from you!
Check out the playlist of 126 pieces by different women composers from the 32 countries that played in last year's Women’s World Cup of Classical Music: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Orj2ENFMutv-X1u6DO162hA&si=nw23RYztmTC-ntyr
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com. https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
A cool and funky wedding anniversary present - a 15 minute classic from the most famous composer alive, Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks is stylish, sophisticated and hugely enjoyable!
Listening time 23 mins (podcast 8', music 15')
Music here, played by the Ensemble InterContemporain conducted by Pierre Boulez, on Youtube, Spotify, and (links to the 1st movement) on Amazon and Apple Music.
If you like to watch people playing, this video is also good.
You can buy a hi quality download at Presto Music for a few quid.
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at www.cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com. https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
Pianist Rolf Hind introduces one of the epics of piano music. A heady mix of virtuoso composing and devout faith, Olivier Messiaen's 20 reflections on the infant Jesus, Vingt regards sur l'infant Jésus, brings us a two-hour deep dive of awesome power and beautiful stillness.
Listening time 38 mins (plus music 2hrs 8')
Music here on Youtube, played live in concert by Rolf Hind. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W34IlnsDX8&t=4521s]
Be quick and go see Rolf play this at Durham Cathedral.
Visit Rolfhind.com for more information on our excellent guest!
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at www.cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com. https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
Hot off the press! The wonders of modern tech allow us to enjoy Katharina Nohl's rhapsody for piano and orchestra, Spices, before it's even been performed by live musicians! And Katharina joins us to talk us through the recipe.
Listening time 33 mins (podcast 15', music 18')
The complete music here on Youtube.
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at www.cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
Check out our earlier conversation with Katharina about her life and Swiss female composers as part of Cacophony's Women's World Cup of Classical Music...
and visit https://www.katharina-nohl.ch/
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com. https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
Always entertaining the crowds, Haydn brings up his 50 with typical style (before settling down for 50 more symphonies). Not a famous piece but well worth a listen!
Listening time 27 mins (podcast 9', music 18')
Music here on Youtube, Spotify, Amazon and Apple Musics played by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Béla Drahos. You can buy the recording as a download from Presto music: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7926758--haydn-symphonies-volume-27
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at www.cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
Check out the playlist of 126 pieces by different women composers from the 32 countries that played in the Women's World Cup: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Orj2ENFMutv-X1u6DO162hA&si=nw23RYztmTC-ntyr
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com. https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
It's the Women’s World Cup of Classical Music! And it's THE FINAL!
USA vs Republic of Ireland
Complete music here: hthttps://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OoRjafAn_k1zTnHR8cH9qyj
Please listen to the music and then:
vote here: https://forms.gle/XJoU1Vr3MfWraQL48
Voting open NOW
Please share the podcast widely, by telling people you know and getting them to listen and vote!
If you want to explore further, there are podcast interviews with some of our curators at cacophonyonline.com or wherever you listen to Cacophony.
And if you're able to, you might like to buy us a coffee, and support women composers, which you can do at www.Kofi.com/cacophonyonline
Come back for more next time and thanks for listening!
Maja S K Ratkje joins Cacophony at the Women's World Cup to explore the fun and joy of writing music and choose pieces by her Norwegian colleagues. But there must be something in the Norwegian water, as there's the same tiny inspiration for several of the composers!
The complete pieces on Maja's list can be heard here:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Orpqp5R5jfX-LzBIjoUeRim
Listening time 31 min (podcast 18', music, 13')
Discover more about Maja and her music at her website:
https://ratkje.no and check out more of Cacophony's conversations with female composers.
What do you think? Leave a comment or easy voice-message at Cacophonyonline.com
If you can, please consider making a donation to support Cacophony at Ko-fi.com. If you’d like particularly to support female composers leave an appropriate message!
Please share the podcast with everyone you think would enjoy this… Any contributions, shares and support most gratefully received!
Come back for more next time.
Thanks for listening!
Cacophony/ Women’s World Cup of Classical Music logo created by Vanessa and Emmie Thomas.
It's the Women’s World Cup of Classical Music! And it's the semi finals. After 120 pieces of music just 4 countries remain:
Here's the second semi-final, Republic of Ireland vs England
Complete music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OqXAyfSjGcHdhcIAPACGBUA (23 mins total listen)
Please listen to the music and then:
vote here: https://forms.gle/ArHkWHnDJNZiEgV99
Make sure you play the other semi-final too, USA vs Spain
Voting is open until 18 August
Please share the podcast widely, by telling people you know and getting them to listen and vote!
If you want to explore further, there are podcast interviews with some of our curators at cacophonyonline.com or wherever you listen to Cacophony.
And if you're able to, you might like to buy us a coffee, and support women composers, which you can do at www.Kofi.com/cacophonyonline
Come back for more next time and thanks for listening!
It's the Women’s World Cup of Classical Music! And it's the semi finals. After 120 pieces of music just 4 countries remain:
Here's the first semi-final, USA vs Spain
Complete music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OpFLi3G5eGIszdc3xE_8ekJ (25 mins total listen)
Please listen to the music...
and then vote here: https://forms.gle/F2Pr1PZS9TgZvoSh7
Make sure you've listened to and voted in the other Semi-final: Republic of Ireland v England
Voting is open until 18 August
Please share the podcast widely, by telling people you know and getting them to listen and vote!
If you want to explore further, there are podcast interviews with some of our curators, including Sage Shurman and Inés Medina-Fernández at cacophonyonline.com or wherever you listen to Cacophony.
And if you're able to, you might like to buy us a coffee, and support women composers, which you can do at www.Kofi.com/cacophonyonline
Come back for more next time and thanks for listening!
It's the Women’s World Cup of Classical Music! And it's the quarter finals - just 8 countries remain.
Two matches here:
Republic of Ireland vs Morocco
England vs Brazil
Complete music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OqPCjANvZq4JBMnFdjHLhc9 (22 mins total listen)
Please listen to the music...
and then vote here: https://forms.gle/4hyhdmwDDAbxdMuTA
There are other 'matches' still in play so please check them out too at www.Cacophonyonline.com/wwc
Voting is open until 14 August
Please share the podcast widely, by telling people you know and getting them to listen and vote!
If you want to explore further, there are podcast interviews with some of our curators, including Roxanna Panufnik (England) and Gabriella di Laccio (Brazil) at cacophonyonline.com or wherever you listen to Cacophony.
And if you're able to, you might like to buy us a coffee, and support women composers, which you can do at www.Kofi.com/cacophonyonline
Come back for more next time and thanks for listening!
It's the Women’s World Cup of Classical Music! And it's the quarter finals - just 8 countries remain.
Two matches here:
Switzerland vs USA
Spain VS Portugal
Complete music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OqbB7IRXYcb0kwq0DVpEV-5 (22 mins total listen)
Please listen to the music...
and then vote here: https://forms.gle/kCcpLfNf3uhx3Lxz7
There are other 'matches' still in play so please check them out too at www.Cacophonyonline.com/wwc
Voting is open until 13 August
Please share the podcast widely, by telling people you know and getting them to listen and vote!
If you want to explore further, there are podcast interviews with some of our curators, including Katharina Nohl (Switzerland), Sage Shurman (USA) and Inés Medina-Fernández at cacophonyonline.com
And if you're able to, you might like to buy us a coffee, and support women composers, which you can do at www.Kofi.com/cacophonyonline
Come back for more next time and thanks for listening!
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians.
Singer, Gabriella di Laccio is our guide to music by women from Brazil - a melting pot of traditions and cultures that ends up with music that sounds... Brazilian!
Listening time: podcast 27mins, music playlist 20 mins
The complete music is available in the YouTube playlist.
You can discover more about Gabriella di Laccio on her website: https://www.gabrielladilaccio.com;
Donne - Women in Music, home of Gabriella's indispensable 'Big List' of Women composers is here at: https://donne-uk.org
What do you think? Leave a comment or easy voice-message at Cacophonyonline.com
If you can, please consider making a donation to support Cacophony at Ko-fi.com. If you'd like particularly to support female composers, or sponsor Brazil - leave an appropriate message!
Please share the podcast with everyone you think would enjoy this... Any contributions, shares and support most gratefully received!
Come back for more next time.
Thanks for listening!
Cacophony/ Women's World Cup of Classical Music logo created by Vanessa and Emmie Thomas.
It's the Women’s World Cup of Classical Music! We’re at the knock out stages: 16 countries remain, and 8 round 2 games will send half 'home'…
Two matches each day:
Morocco v France
Brazil v Germany
Complete music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OpVdvOxIuHYs0TIIOjiRoHk (20 mins total listen)
Please listen to the music...
and then vote here: https://forms.gle/MVmuQSdQd6zjyynT8
There are other 'matches' still in play so please check them out too.
The quarterfinals (last 8 teams) begin on 11 August '23
Please share the podcast widely, by telling people you know.
And if you want to explore further, there are podcast interviews with some of our curators at cacophonyonline.com
And if you're able to, you might like to buy us a coffee, and support women composers, which you can do at www.Kofi.com/cacophonyonline
Come back for more next time and thanks for listening!
It's the Women’s World Cup of Classical Music! We’re at the knock out stages: 16 countries remain, and 8 round 2 games will send half 'home'…
Two matches each day:
China v Republic of Ireland
Nigeria v England
Complete music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Oo-LmNLFWz31kxSBFO47Dv2 (20 mins total listen)
Please listen to the music...
and then vote here: https://forms.gle/LuianYpCjzbW2WzH9
There are other 'matches' still in play so please check them out too.
Please share the podcast widely, by telling people you know.
And if you want to explore further, there are podcast ionterviews with some of our curators including England's Roxanna Panufnik at cacophonyonline.com
And if you're able to, you might like to buy us a coffee, and support women composers, which you can do at www.Kofi.com/cacophonyonline
Come back for more next time and thanks for listening!
It's the Women’s World Cup of Classical Music! We’re at the knock out stages: 16 countries remain, and 8 round 2 games will send half 'home'…
Two matches each day:
USA v Argentina
Sweden v Portugal
Complete music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OqtuiT4QJV1mFMXF_dHIknJ (19 mins total listen)
Please listen to the music...
and then vote here: https://forms.gle/6ckkBYLYzxrFjeua6
There are two round 1 groups [groups F & H] still in play, plus yesterday's knock out games (Round 2 Day 1), so please check them out too.
Please share the podcast widely, by telling people you know.
And if you want to explore further, there are podcast ionterviews with some of our curators including Sage Shurman from USA at cacophonyonline.com
And if you're able to, you might like to buy us a coffee, and support women composers, which you can do at www.Kofi.com/cacophonyonline
Come back for more next time and thanks for listening!
It's the Women’s World Cup of Classical Music! We’re at the knock out stages: 16 countries remain, and 8 round 2 games will send half 'home'…
Two matches each day:
Switzerland vs Costa Rica
Spain vs Philippines
Complete music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OrIqbA4g82KKV1x7xb38pDI (14 mins total listen)
Please listen to the music...
and then vote here: https://forms.gle/4VNrVAPrMUZhzFKP7
There are two round 1 groups [groups F & H] still in play, so please check them out too.
And if you want to explore further, there are conversations with some of our curators, Katharina Nohl for Switzerland, Ines for Spain and others at cacophonyonline.com
Pleasse share the podcast widely, by telling people you know.
And if you're able to, you might like to buy us a coffee, and support women composers, which you can do at www.Kofi.com/cacophonyonline
Come back for more next time and thanks for listening!
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians.
In this episode we turn to Canada, where Melissa Hui's selection is typically diverse with living composers who are first nations, Canadian born and immigrant.
Melissa brings her thoughtfulness and insight to a playlist that might challenege our perceptions, but will leave us satisfied.
Listening time: podcast 26mins, music playlist 31 mins
The complete music is available in the YouTube playlist.
You can discover more about Melissa and her music on her website: https://sites.google.com/view/melissahui/home
What do you think? Leave a comment or easy voice-message at Cacophonyonline.com
If you can, please consider making a donation to support Cacophony at Ko-fi.com. If you'd like particularly to support female composers, or sponsor England - leave an appropriate message!
Please share the podcast with everyone you think would enjoy this... Any contributions, shares and support most gratefully received!
Come back for more next time.
Thanks for listening!
Cacophony/ Women's World Cup of Classical Music logo created by Vanessa and Emmie Thomas.
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music and the climax of round 1, a group stage where each team plays the others in their group. The teams in the football are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
Group H:
South Korea v Germany and
Morocco v Colombia
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
Listen to the music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Oq8c3anDPZ2wcshVZCwGgHD
Vote here: https://forms.gle/1Qjft3Na6Aza3ZfD6 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Step 4 - Listen to the other final group games... voting in all of them closes on Thursday 3 August.
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians including Germany's Marion von Tilzer.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music and the climax of round 1, a group stage where each team plays the others in their group. The teams in the football are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
Group G:
South Africa v Italy
Argentina v Sweden
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
Listen to the music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OoxDCDChr5or9nhkhaJCzQy
Vote here: https://forms.gle/7dzVuAfq4iWfe28q7 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Step 4 - Listen to the other final group games... voting in all of them closes on Thursday 3 August.
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music and the climax of round 1, a group stage where each team plays the others in their group. The teams in the football are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
Group F features:
Panama v France
Jamaica v Brazil
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
Listen to the music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OrmBPt7yOFTxfiCo_mkuBi8
Vote here: https://forms.gle/XG1LwEiUbjur9ky4A (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Step 4 - Listen to the other final group games... voting in all of them closes on Thursday 3 August.
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music and the climax of round 1, a group stage where each team plays the others in their group. The teams in the football are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
Here's Group E:
Portugal v USA
Vietnam v Netherlands
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
Listen to the music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OoY6-T1jZlaLzPMWv-FZl5F
Vote here: https://forms.gle/x8rBhqDz7dsjsH9X6 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Step 4 - Listen to the other final group games... voting in all of them closes on Thursday 3 August.
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians, including Sage Shurman for USA and Marion von Tilzer for The Netherlands.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music and the climax of round 1, a group stage where each team plays the others in their group. The teams in the football are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
Here's Group D:
Haiti v Denmark
China v England
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
Listen to the music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Op-YRXxSsrj4WNYTvLmoUS2
Vote here: https://forms.gle/1TULod1Bz8Mgwu6d9 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Step 4 - Listen to the other final group games... voting in all of them closes on Thursday 3 August.
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians, including England's Roxanna Panufnik and others.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music and the climax of round 1, a group stage where each team plays the others in their group. The teams in the football are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
Here's Group C: Japan v Spain and Zambia v Costa Rica
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
Listen to the music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Op0GTCHNsOLYl4ltF3CA4wN
Vote here: https://forms.gle/MC7i1onqyrCmcdUz6 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Step 4 - Listen to the other final group games... voting in all of them closes on Thursday 3 August.
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians, including Spain's Inés Medina Fernández and others.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music and the climax of round 1, a group stage where each team plays the others in their group. The teams in the football are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
Here's Group B:
Canada v Australia
Republic of Ireland v Nigeria
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
Listen to the music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Orb9YF_cFHFuLQRdchFeR9G
Vote here: https://forms.gle/ukNNWyzmpu7Dd2dp8 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Step 4 - Listen to the other final group games... voting in all of them closes on Thursday 3 August.
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians, including Australia's Elena Kats-Chernin with other group B curators to follow!
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music and the climax of round 1, a group stage where each team plays the others in their group. The teams in the football are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
Here's Group A: Switzerland v New Zealand and Norway v Philippines
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
Listen to the music here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Op6BwL0P8F918sHcEVuZSrK
Vote here: https://forms.gle/VqrPFeauv56TvzVFA (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Step 4 - Listen to the other final group games... voting in all of them closes on Thursday 3 August.
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians, including Switzerland's Katharina Nohl with the other group A curators to follow!
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music, Match Day 11!
Each day the teams in the football matches are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
TODAY:
Germany v Colombia
Morocco v South Korea
Listen here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OpQp2K2XwR5CcpazZxpWWE5
Vote here: https://forms.gle/fPpLaVKuGBEynwG68 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians, including England's Roxanna Panufnik, exploring creativity and music from their country written by women.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music, Match Day 10!
Each day the teams in the football matches are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
TODAY:
Sweden v Italy
Panama v Jamaica
France v Brazil
Listen here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OoOt9wQxeQTfHQkbvVZitFj
Vote here: https://forms.gle/q9cySAurP1mF4N797 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians, including England's Roxanna Panufnik, exploring creativity and music from their country written by women.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music, Match Day 9!
Each day the teams in the football matches are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
TODAY:
England v Denmark
Argentina v South Africa
China v Haiti
Listen here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OqMm13Dy9t32jFeW_QYvLQI
Vote here: https://forms.gle/NtVUnt2Y5Qkhyq1T7 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians, including England's Roxanna Panufnik, exploring creativity and music from their country written by women.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music, Match Day 8!
Each day the teams in the football matches are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
TODAY:
USA v Netherlands
Portugal v Vietnam
Australia v Nigeria
Listen here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OqK3guty8F_C-QYbvrGxwCB
Vote here: https://forms.gle/KXNruHXsLFg8FdHRA (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians exploring creativity and music from their country written by women.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music, Match Day 7!
Each day the teams in the football matches are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
TODAY:
Spain v Zambia
Japan v Costa Rica
Canada v Republic of Ireland
Listen here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OqIDyiYlFU7Y_YUKVPl54xC
Vote here: https://forms.gle/SffEsDSTZyL8UCLr8 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians exploring creativity and music from their country written by women.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music, Match Day 6!
Each day the teams in the football matches are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
TODAY:
Colombia v Korean Republic
New Zealand v Philippines
Switzerland v Norway
[Listening time: Podcast 2mins, music c24 mins]
Listen here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OrxnpesXoo-wbjpuiF60u8d
Vote here: https://forms.gle/NC1c7cybMyTUAkvd8 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Step 4: Explore further with Cacophony's interview with Swiss composer Katharina Nohl at https://www.cacophonyonline.com/2023/07/15/wwcswitzerland/ and others on the website too.
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music, Match Day 5!
Each day the teams in the football matches are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
TODAY:
Brazil v Panama
Italy v Argentina
Germany v Morocco
[Listening time: Podcast 2mins, music c22 mins]
Listen here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Orv3XaYx7K39SP90ksEei5F
Vote here: https://forms.gle/uhhANGRQJMFJsCJK8 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians exploring creativity and music from their country written by women.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music, Match Day 4!
Each day the teams in the football matches are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
TODAY:
Netherlands v Portugal
France v Jamaica
Sweden v South Africa
[Listening time: Podcast 2mins, music c17 mins]
Listen here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Op7XgyLysHBoWlicYb2IkBE
Vote here: https://forms.gle/BURQna3u1p63uNPa8 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians exploring creativity and music from their country written by women.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians.
We shift the focus to England, with Roxanna Panufnik's choice of rich and satisfying pieces from a line up of stellar composers.
Listening time: podcast 20mins, music playlist 23 mins
The complete music is available in the YouTube playlist.
You can discover more about Roxanna Panufnik on her website: https://roxannapanufnik.com
What do you think? Leave a comment or easy voice-message at Cacophonyonline.com
If you can, please consider making a donation to support Cacophony at Ko-fi.com. If you'd like particularly to support female composers, or sponsor England - leave an appropriate message!
Please share the podcast with everyone you think would enjoy this... Any contributions, shares and support most gratefully received!
Come back for more next time.
Thanks for listening!
Cacophony/ Women's World Cup of Classical Music logo created by Vanessa and Emmie Thomas.
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music, Match Day 2!
Each day the teams in the football matches are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
TODAY:
Zambia v Japan
England v Haiti
Denmark v China
USA v Vietnam
[Listening time: Podcast 2.5mins, music c29 mins]
Listen here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OqnAojMz2DUSoMZqL4FKbzh
Vote here: https://forms.gle/rDUm9bB3yJzejZkSA (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians exploring creativity and music from their country written by women.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music, Match Day 2!
Each day the teams in the football matches are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
TODAY:
Nigeria & Canada
Philippines & Switzerland
Spain & Costa Rica.
[Listening time: Podcast 3mins, music 24 mins]
Listen here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9OoEmnU_pqIS5u8SJjYrtwJz
Vote here: https://forms.gle/tAV4fUwBkjHXfYLG7 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians exploring creativity and music from their country written by women.
Donate - if you're able to, please visit
https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians.
Elena Kats-Chernin presents her choices of music from Australia - composers who all work hard and write music of vitality, invention, intensity and often fun!
Listening time: podcast 24mins, music playlist 25 mins
The music is available in the YouTube playlist, except Gambambara which is here: https://youtu.be/uW9N4lU-97I
What do you think? Leave a comment or easy voice-message at Cacophonyonline.com
The Women's World Cup of Classical Music is underway at www.cacophonyonline.com
If you can, please consider making a donation to support Cacophony at Ko-fi.com. If you'd like particularly to support female composers, or sponsor Australia - leave an appropriate message!
Please share the podcast with everyone you think would enjoy this... Any contributions, shares and support most gratefully received!
Come back for more next time.
Thanks for listening!
Cacophony/ Women's World Cup of Classical Music logo created by Vanessa and Emmie Thomas.
It's the Women's World Cup of Classical Music and it's Match Day 1.
Each day the teams in the football matches are replaced by short pieces of music written by women from the countries.
You listen and vote for your favourites!
It's a month long glorious celebration of music written by women from around the world.
TODAY:
New Zealand & Norway
Australia & Republic of Ireland
[Listening time: Podcast 3mins, music 12 mins]
Listen here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCXUbmBaA9Orj2ENFMutv-X1u6DO162hA
Vote here: https://forms.gle/Z5TcK5xbGrjxQY3A9 (opens in new window - we don’t take any of your data… so it’s just click to vote and click to send)
Step 3: Support your favourites, support your country by telling your friends and sharing!
Steps to infinity:
Please share the podcast with someone you know, someone who you think would enjoy this, someone from one of the countries involved
Share it on all your social media!
Dive deeper - explore Cacophony...at the Women's World Cup a series of podcast interviews with leading female musicians exploring creativity and music from their country written by women
Donate - if you're able to, please visit https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline and make a small or large donation - why not sponsor a country!
Thanks for listening, thanks for supporting!
Come back next time!
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians.
In this epsiode, Inés Medina Fernández presents her choices of music from Spain, carefully chosen from accross the country and including including famous musical names we might know - but pieces we definitely won't!
Listening time: podcast 24mins, music playlist 20 mins
The complete music is available in the YouTube playlist.
You can discover more about Inés Medina-Fernández on her website: https://www.inesmedinafernandez.com
What do you think? Leave a comment or easy voice-message at Cacophonyonline.com
If you can, please consider making a donation to support Cacophony at Ko-fi.com. If you'd like particularly to support female composers, or sponsor Spain - leave an appropriate message!
Please share the podcast with everyone you think would enjoy this... Any contributions, shares and support most gratefully received!
Come back for more next time.
Thanks for listening!
Cacophony/ Women's World Cup of Classical Music logo created by Vanessa and Emmie Thomas.
It's Cacophony… at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians.
This episode features music from the Netherlands and Marion von Tilzer's choices of music that gets us more connected. We'll hear how, when a performer is relaxed, it can be like being in the audience...or writing the music afresh, and why the Netherlands is famous for painters...but not composers...
Listening time: podcast 21mins, music playlist29 mins
The complete music is available in the YouTube playlist.
You can discover more about Marion von Tilzer on her website: https://marionvontilzer.com
What do you think? Leave a comment or easy voice-message at Cacophonyonline.com
If you can, please consider making a donation to support Cacophony at Ko-fi.com. If you'd like particularly to support female composers, or sponsor The Netherlands - leave an appropriate message!
Please share the podcast with everyone you think would enjoy this... Any contributions, shares and support most gratefully received!
Come back for more next time.
Thanks for listening!
Cacophony/ Women's World Cup of Classical Music logo created by Vanessa and Emmie Thomas.
It's Cacophony …at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians.
This epsiode we hear top young composer, Sage Shurman, getting super excited - in a pretty chilled Californian kind of way - for both the World Cup football and her choices of pieces by living women American composers for the Women's World Cup of Classical Music. Can the USA win both? - That will be down to you to decide!
Listening time: podcast 19mins, music playlist 16 mins
The complete music is available in the YouTube playlist.
You can discover more about Sage Shurman on her website: http://sageshurman.com
What do you think? Leave a comment or easy voice-message at Cacophonyonline.com
If you can, please consider making a donation to support Cacophony at Ko-fi.com. If you'd like particularly to support female composers, or sponsor the USA - leave an appropriate message!
Please share the podcast with everyone you think would enjoy this - and come back for more next time.
Thanks for listening!
Cacophony/ Women's World Cup of Classical Music logo created by Vanessa and Emmie Thomas.
It's Cacophony …at the Women’s Football World Cup! A glorious celebration of music from around the world, all written by women, and chosen specially for Cacophony by leading female musicians.
In this episode we hear from Katharina Nohl, founder of the Swiss Female Composers Festival, with her choices of music from Switzerland and how giving female composers greater exposure helps plant their music in the collective memory of society.
The complete music is available in the YouTube playlist.
You can discover more about Katharina Nohl on her website: https://www.katharina-nohl.ch
What do you think? Leave a comment or easy voice-message at Cacophonyonline.com
If you can, please consider making a donation to support Cacophony at Ko-fi.com. If you'd like particularly to support female composers, or sponsor Switzerland - leave an appropriate message!
Please share the podcast with everyone you think would enjoy this - and come back for more next time.
Thanks for listening!
Cacophony/ Women's World Cup of Classical Music logo created by Vanessa and Emmie Thomas.
By turns grand and genial with moments of great inventiveness and wit, Louise Farrenc's Nonet for wind and strings is a bit of magic!
Listening time 37 mins (podcast 7', music 30')
Music here on Youtube, Spotify, Amazon and Apple Musics (tracks 7-10) played by the Intercontinental Ensemble with tons of style and (unlike some of the other recordings) totally in tune! You can buy the recording as a download from Presto music: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9312834--arc
Thanks to Emmie for timely-making of a giant daisy chain!
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at www.cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com. https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
Meeting his boss's insatiable desire for new content 'forced' [his word] Joseph Haydn to write original, inventive music that sounds as fresh and full of life today as when it was written. And he wrote so much great music that I only heard this piano trio for the first time this week - and it's wonderful stuff.
Listening time 19 mins (podcast 6', music 13')
The music is here, played by the incomparable Beaux Arts Trio on Youtube and Spotify. If you're listening on Apple or Amazon you need a link for each movement/ track:
Amazon mvt 1 / Amazon mvt 2
Apple mvt 1/ Apple mvt 2
You can buy a recording of the piece as a high-quality download for a couple of quid here at Presto Music. Be sure to get the right one - the full title of the piece is: Haydn: Piano Trio No. 19 in F, Hob.XV:6
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at www.cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com. https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
110 years ago in Paris, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring caused a furore and changed music forever. Did the police have to be called? It's still a piece that shocks and stuns and is filled with something amazing every second.
Listening time c45 mins (podcast, 12', Music 33')
Music here on Spotify, Amazon and Apple Music played by the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie with conductor, Peter Eötvös. You can buy the recording or stream it too at Presto Music
There are plenty of video performances on Youtube. I like this one, played by the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France with Mikko Franck. The TV director really captures the personalities in the orchestra and gets in nice and close.
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at www.cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com. https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
A rarity from Wales (a Welsh rare-bit?), Grace Williams's orchestral piece Penillion surprises, delights and has an epic grandeur. It's terrific stuff and I think you'll love it!
Listening time 25 mins (podcast, 7', Music 18')
Music here on Youtube played by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at www.cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com. https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
Another great, short piece, here's the first of Joan Tower's Fanfares celebrating risk-taking and adventurous women. This is both celebratory and substantial, plus a workout for brass and percussion.
Listening time 8 mins (podcast 5.5', music 2.5')
Listen to the music, Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No.1, here on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon music played by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin. You can buy a recording of the piece here at Prestomusic.com (but you have to scroll all the way to the end of a long track listing)
On Youtube you can watch the work's dedicatee, Marin Alsop conduct this alongside Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man.
And here there's a nice interview with Joan Tower - she seems like a fun person!
Copland's Fanfare was featured last time on Cacophony.
Stravinsky's Petrushka was episode 138.
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at www.cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com. https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
A short podcast about the shortest of pieces, yet Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man still packs a punch and seems to point to big issues.
'No taxation without representation'? Perhaps today's call should be 'No representatives (from the Head of State down) who don't pay their taxes!'
Listening time c10 minutes (podcast 6', music 3')
Listen to the whole piece here, played by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon music
You can buy the piece as a high-quality download from Presto music.
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com: https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
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 to the whole piece here, played by Maurizio Pollini on piano on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music (this links to mvt 1 and you need tracks 23,24,25) and Amazon music (also mvt 1 and you need tracks 7,8,9)
You can buy the piece as a high quality download from Presto music.
Thanks to Vanessa Thomas for this episode's artwork!
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
– help with the costs of running it (and me) with a one-off contribution or with a regular payment at ko-fi.com: https://ko-fi.com/cacophonyonline
– share this episode with someone you know
– share the 100 second trailer: http://cacophonyonline.com/trailer
– subscribe/ review and keep listening!
More episodes at: www.cacophonyonline.com/
Thanks for listening!
Lost for 150 years and then, because it was so good, presumed to have been written by her brother, Fanny Mendelssohn's Easter Sonata for piano is passionate, intense, lyrical and dramatic... and the story of its rediscovery is no less compelling.
Listening time c36 mins [11' podcast, 21 or 25' music]
The complete music is here in the original 1970s recording by Eric Heidsieck on Spotify, Youtube, Amazon and Apple Music
I think I prefer this more recent rendition by Sofya Gulyak on Youtube, taken from a 2013 BBC Radio 3 broadcast.
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
If you want to play the piece yourself you can download the music for free from Dr Angela Mace Christian's website!
Here, you can listen to Cacophony's recent episodes on Clara Schumann's piano trio or the 16 year old Felix Mendelssohn inspired by Shakespeare.
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English folk music is often typically nostalgic and melancholy. Cacophony goes in search of happiness with Malcolm Arnold's English Dances - pretty, witty and bright!
Listening time 24 mins (podcast 6', music 18')
Music here, played by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Penny on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music (tracks 1-8 English Dances Set 1 op.27 and Set 2, op.33) and Amazon (tracks 1-8). You can buy a whole cd (also including the other 'national'(and Cornish!) dances as a high quality download here
The Dvořák Slavonic Dances talked about in this episode were covered previously on Cacophony.
What do you think? Tell me with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com! I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
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Haunting and melancholy music from my hometown, Vaughan Williams's Norfolk Rhapsody No.1 features the old songs of fisherman and the last days of a way of life. Like the local landscape it's bleak but beautiful!
Total listening time 18 mins (podcast 7', music 11')
Here's Joe Anderson, James ‘Duggie’ Carter and the Reverend Alfred Huddle:
The music is here on Youtube, Spotify Apple Music and Amazon., played by The Hallé conducted by Mark Elder (and it's available to buy as a high-quality download from Presto Music ). What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
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The picture credit goes to William Norris - who's visited King's Lynn as a tourist more recently than me!
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Packed with memorable Czech songs about pigeons, nightingales, love, life and unploughed fields, Vítěslava Kaprálová's Rustic Suite mixes countryside charm with the confident orchestral swagger of a 23 year old receiving acclaim in Paris and London. Music full of life and good tunes!
Listening time 21 mins (music 16', podcast 5')
The music is here, played by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marko Ivanovic on Youtube, Spotify, and links to the album (where you want tracks 1-3) at Apple Music and Amazon.
What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
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Small but perfectly formed, Germaine Tailleferre's Little Suite is seven minutes of innocent delight from a composer looking to escape from the trials of a difficult life. It may be short, but it's packed with memorable tunes and a joyous spirit. Irresistible!
Listening time c14 minutes (podcast 7', music 7')
It's not available commercially, but this Youtube video has an excellent performance from the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France with conductor Mikko Franck.
Enjoy it? Let us know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com
Maurice Ravel's Mother Goose, mentioned in this episode, featured in Cacophony some time ago and it's here.
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It's a riot of colour at the carnival in Stravinsky's wonderful ballet, Petrushka, with dancing (of course), puppets, romance (kind of), fighting, and a wild bear. It's got everything - even a French song about a woman's prosthetic limb, but you have to listen for an explanation...!
Total listening time 48 mins (podcast 13', music 35')
The music is here in full, played by The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez - a master of clarity and excitement on Youtube, Apple Music and Amazon.
What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!
The recording linked above is available to buy as a high-quality download from Presto Music (where it seems to be cheaper by track than to buy the whole album).
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Who doesn't love gazing at the sea? It's something that brings out the meditative in all of us as we stare at it and think deep thoughts. Claude Debussy didn't want us to think too hard - just to listen. In La Mer, he brings The Sea to us wherever we are, in all its beauty and wonder.
Total listening time 36 mins (podcast 11', music 25')
The music is here in full, played by The Hallé Orchestra (from Manchester, UK) conducted by Mark Elder on Youtube, Spotify, and links to the album at Apple Music and Amazon.
The recordings linked above are available to buy as high-quality downloads from Presto Music for under GB£5!
This episode's title is a line borrowed from an epic poem by Spike Milligan.
What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!
There are more great episodes featuring the sea at Cacophony. Check out episodes: 29, 63 and 81 for music by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Benjamin Britten and Ethel Smyth. Also, the previous episode, 136, which takes us on a journey ending at Finisterre on the Atlantic coast of Spain.
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An epic and spiritual adventure for choir, Joby Talbot's Path of Miracles captures the hope, the expectation and the moments of overwhelm (both positive and negative) of travellers on the ancient and still popular pilgrimage trail the Camino de Santiago (Way of St James).
Simon Clark, scientist, author and singer joins me to share his passion for the piece and guide us on a journey of musical and maybe spiritual fulfilment! Listening time: podcast 24 mins, music 62'
Music here on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon.
f you like to see your singers in action, there's a live concert video performance on Youtube here.
Path of Miracles was commissioned and premiered by the choir Tenebrae and their conductor Nigel Short. Their recording and performances remain the 'benchmark' for this increasingly popular piece. You can buy the above recording as a cd or high-quality download here, direct from the choir.
The text is a mix of ancient Latin and early European languages (often taken from religious writings or music) alongside an English text writen by the poet Robert Dickinson. The complete words are here (starting on Page 4).
Simon Clark’s The Wikicast is on all major podcast platforms and his science videos are on his Youtube channel. Simon also appears on Cacophony episode 134, unpicking some celestial science as we investigate The sound of the solar system?
What do you think? Let me know with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com. I ‘d love to hear from you!
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
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Music that seems to conjure all the tastes, smells and senses of Spain - or my expectations of them (as someone who's hardly been there): Spanish dances for piano by Enrique Granados. Perfect music if you just want to feel warmer, but it's also an opportunity to bask (Basque? [sorry]) in some gloriously wistful melancholy that seems to underpin all six of these pieces. Somehow it's not a melancholy that makes one feel sad - it seems as uplifting and nourishing as the warm sun on a cold winter's day. Listening time 12 mins plus music 25'.
The music is here in full, played by Alicia de Larrocha on Youtube, Spotify, and links to the album on Apple Music and Amazon.
Alicia de Larrocha was one of the great interpreters of Spanish music. These pieces haven't been recorded by many pianists, but de Larrocha did more than once. The recordings linked above are available to buy as high-quality downloads from Presto Music. You can also get her earlier recording (pretty much as good, maybe with slightly less good sound) and it's cheaper if you buy the whole album not individual tracks (a bit of care is required with your basket!).
What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!
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Not the World Cup was a "glorious celebration of classical and world music" that ran alongside a small men's football competition in late 2022.
Each team in each game of the football was represented by a short piece of (largely classical) music - 110 pieces in all from 107 composers (including 41 pieces by women): loads of great music and loads of new discoveries.
I got together with my friend the conductor and writer Lev Parikian to pick some highlights and talk about a few of the things we learnt - about music, about how we listen and how it makes us feel.
Listening time 41 mins.
Here's a Youtube playlist of our favourite things of all from Not the World Cup
and a playlist of everything that was clipped in the episode.
What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I'd love to hear from you!
You can learn more about Lev Parikian, his books, gigs, writing, nature projects, etc., at: https://levparikian.com and also on Substack & Twitter.
It's a fluid conversation but things break down a bit like this:
01:56 Wistful piano pieces and surprise winners [Music by Dolores Castegnaro, Enrique Granados, Julio Fonseca]
04:30 Giving things a chance/ deciding quickly this isn’t for you/ music that transports you/ powerful openings [Iris Szeghy, Karl Jenkins, John Williams]
08:16 Curation - contrasts and similarities [Hector Villa Lobos, Arthur Honegger, Reena Esmail, Kamancheh music played by Narges Dehghani, Sufi music from the group Hadarrattes Souiriyattes]
11:45 Universal music in a world of nationalism, colonialism, borders and nationality
16:10 Strange new worlds: non-western music to western ears and sensibilities - Korea Republic and Africa [M. Birvaa, Unsuk Chin, Anne-Marie Nzie]
21:27 Moods and complexity: Joy, sadness and sheer energy [John Adams, ND Jobins balafon music]
24:49 Authenticity and craft [Astor Piazzolla, Dana al Fardan]
26:28 Biases, choosing pieces from classical music’s ‘big players’ & pre-conceptions [Orlande de Lassus, Hector Berlioz, Johann Sebastian Bach]
32:55 Music that’s not by white guys and a Mayer detour
34:48 The final matches and final thoughts [Felix Mendelssohn, Eddie Mora, José Pablo Moncayo, Gabriela Ortiz]
The Cacophony episode on Emilie Mayer's 7th symphony, which excited Lev so much, can be found here.
ALL the music from the epic NWC adventure can be found by exploring the Cacophony website.
...and some of the pieces discussed have their own 'normal' Cacophony podcast episodes where they're discussed in a bit more depth:
Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No.3, "Scottish" (the 'winner' for Germany)
Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose suite ('should' have been the winner...)
Reena Esmail: Darshan
John Adams: Short ride in a fast machine
John Williams: Olympic fanfare and theme
Cacophony podcast episodes are normally released on the 10th, 20th and 30th of each month. It's a podcast bringing you great music that you may or may not know, but I think you'll love, all aimed at helping us Hear more, feel more and 'be' more! All at www.cacophonyonline.com or direct to your podcast player at bit.ly/cacolink
If you’d like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:
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An extraordinary, ambitious, blend of art and science, Johanes Kepler's Harmony of the World is a 17th century attempt to understand what the then known universe sounded like - on a planetary level! In the 1970s, using the latest technology Professors Willie Ruff and John Rodgers were able to make Kepler's Harmony into music - an extended piece of electronica, hypnotic and thought provoking.
Launched to great acclaim, Harmony of the World was then included on the famous Voyager spacecraft Gold Records, an explainer-for-aliens of earth and its people, currently somewhere in interstellar space!
Prof Ruff tells the story with Dr Simon Clark alongside me to explain the science and what it all means. There's more from the great Willie Ruff on his website
Listening time: 25mins+ (podcast 23', Harmony of the World up to 45')
Harmony of the World is here on Youtube.
There's a comprehensive website on the Voyager missions which includes loads of interesting information on the Gold Record: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov
Simon Clark's podcast The Wikicast is available on all major podcast hosts and his science videos are on his Youtube channel
What do you think? Let me know with a comment at cacophonyonline.com. I 'd love to hear from you!
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Photo credit: NASA/ JPL
This is a brief announcement to tell you about Not the World Cup of (largely) classical music, which is running during the football world cup as a complement or alternative. It's lots of fun and you can find it on the Cacophony Youtube or at cacophonyonline.com
https://www.youtube.com/@cacophonypodcast
Please listen, please vote, please share!
Urbane sophistication mixes with poetry and drama in Clara Schumann's Piano Trio, her biggest piece from a small catalogue of great music. Better known in recent times as the wife of Robert Schumann, it was Clara who was an international star as the leading pianist of their day. It was composing, though, that brought her the greatest joy and her music is full of deep inspiration and honesty.
Listening time 38 mins (podcast 13', music 25')
Music here on Youtube, Spotify and (links to track 1 only:) Apple Music & Amazon Music played by the Beaux Arts Trio. You can buy this classic recording as a download here.
There are plenty of other recordings but notably in the last few weeks one from tip-top violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and friends. If you like the piece, check it out too. She emphasises the drama over the classy ease and sophistication.
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Brand new old music in this episode: a great forgotten symphony by a composer forgotten for around 150 years, Emilie Mayer. It's memorable, tuneful and inventive - a real discovery!
Listening time 48' total (podcast 13', Music 35')
Music here on Youtube, Spotify and Amazon Music played on a brand new recording by the NDR Radiophilharmonie Orchestra conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend. You can buy this brand new recording as a download here.
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Terror, excitement and delight - all there in handfuls as Carl Maria von Weber takes us into the depths of the forest for a folk tale of magic, sorcery, love, good and evil. One of my long time favourites and a brave new world for German opera in Der Fresichütz ("The Free-shooter"). Are you brave enough to go down to the woods today?
Listening time, c20mins (podcast 9', music 10')
Performances here on Youtube, Spotify, Amazon and Apple Music with the Dresden Staatskapelle conducted by Carlos Kleiber. If you like it, you can buy it as a high quality download here.
I don't generally like hacking big chunks from an opera, but the Wolf's Glen scene is quite something and worth a listen on its own. It's 15 or so minutes: Caspar goes down to the glen, summons Samiel (some sort of satanic spirit) and makes the deal for the bullets. Max comes to join him - he's fearful and plagued by a vision of Agathe, Caspar somehow convinces him to stay and the seven bullets are forged in the magic fire amid increasing terror and desperation. It's all in German, but the only words you need to know are the numbers 1-7 (eins, zwei, drei, vier, fünf, sechs, sieben) and help - hilf! Spotify or Youtube links here.
There's a hyper-real movie version which is quite gruesome and almost manages to do Weber's requested special effects justice.
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At a time when everything seemed on the brink and the old ways no longer looked fit for purpose, Anton Webern was part of a musical revolution - giving us new ways of hearing music and seeing the world. His six pieces for large orchestra are whole worlds compressed into a few minutes of bleak beauty, terrifying dissonance and even more disturbing silence. It's compelling.
Listening time 22 mins (podcast 9', music 13')
Performances here on Youtube, Spotify, (and links to track 1 of 6 on) Amazon and Apple Music with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Pierre Boulez. If you like it, you can buy it as a high quality download here. It's the Six Pieces for orchestra, op.6
If you like to see your performers then the Berlin Phil played this at the BBC Proms in London a few years back conducted by Simon Rattle and you can watch it here on Youtube. (It's 1:32:00 to 1:44:40) (The whole concert is excellent and takes us on a Wagner-Strauss-Schoenberg-Webern-Berg Journey)
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Mozart's music is brilliant, right? Even people who claim to know nothing about music say that. Well, it's true! In this Divertimento the 16 year-old Mozart really hits the spot with a piece of perfection, delight and joie de vivre. It's one of the pieces where Mozart moves from young prodigy to straight out master.
Listening time: 20 mins (podcast 5', music 14')
Performances here on Youtube, Spotify, (and links to track 1 of 3 on) Amazon and Apple Music with Manchester Camerata conducted by Gábor Takács-Nagy. If you like it, you can buy it as a high quality download here for about £3.
If you like to see your performers having a great time, at the same time as playing with total commitment and verve, check out the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra with Pekka Kuusisto on YouTube video.
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Perhaps the shortest music that will ever feature on Cacophony, Eternal source of light divine is three beautiful and brilliant minutes of Handel, setting us up for the day as effectively as any yoga routine (though you can do that too of course)! It's a quietly awe-filled salute to the sun.
Listening time: 10 mins (podcast 6', music 4')
Performances here on Youtube, Spotify, Amazon and Apple Music sung by Iestyn Davies, with Crispian Steele-Perkins on trumpet and The King's Consort conducted by Robert King. If you like it, you can buy a recording as a high quality download here. The whole album is terrific.
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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 (podcast 7', music 18')
Performances here on Youtube, Spotify and Apple Music (whole album link) played by the wonderful David Watkin. If you like it, you can buy a recording as a high quality download here. The proper title for the piece is: JS Bach: Cello Suite no. 1 in G, BWV1007
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Carrying a fragile flower whilst walking a tightrope. Finding the balance between beauty and chaos. Being pulled along by forces outside of our control. On Cacophony we talk about 'diving into great music': Anna Thorvaldsdottir's Metacosmos might be the biggest dive yet - into a black hole! Universal and yet personal, her music is distinctive, compelling, moving and profound.
Listening time: 23 mins (podcast 9', music 14')
Performances here on Youtube (with video), Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp played by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daníel Bjarnason.
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With the wonders of our imagination and some great music to help, all things are possible - so let's enjoy the views from the top of a mountain: leaving the house (or even getting out of bed) is entirely optional. Richard Strauss takes us over the top (in every sense) in his epic, excessive, exuberant Alpine Symphony, with great views and plenty of thrills but also moments that inspire deeper contemplation on the glories of nature. It's a trip you don't want to miss.
Listening time: 62 mins (Podcast, 11', music 51')
In 1982 Herbert von Karajan conducted An Alpine Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. It was the first thing to be put on cd, and those who know these things maintain that it's still one of the best:
Links here to performances on Youtube, Spotify and Apple Music . If you can, try to listen without adverts, which are particularly interrupting in this piece!
If you like to see huge orchestras in action, there are good films performances on youtube. I like the Oslo Philharmonic with Vasily Petrenko and the WDR Symphony and Semyon Bychkov.
Picture credit: Thanks to Melanie Stefan for providing the picture, it's the Alps in France, as seen from the Charmant Som in the Chartreuse Mountains.
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Brilliant and meaningful, North by Southwest may have been the initial name for Billy Strayhorn's Suite for The Duo, a brilliant, late work for horn and piano: it's a title that suggests confusion and conflicting ideas about the dying composers direction of travel. It's a great piece: virtuosic but raw and written with a total understanding of both horn and piano and what they can do.
It's a longer episode than normal because (amazingly) I was able to speak with Willie Ruff, the horn play for whom it was written. Willie, now in his nineties, joined me from his home in Alabama and he talked about his life and career, the Mitchell-Ruff duo, Strayhorn and how Suite for The Duo came to life.
Listening time 37 mins (podcast 25', music 12')
The Suite for The Duo can be found here on Apple Music, Youtube and Spotify.
Other music clips in the episode: Take the A-Train [Strayhorn], All the things you are [Jerome Kern], Serenade for tenor, horn and strings [Benjamin Britten]
Willieruff.com has further info on Willie as well as links to buy this and other recordings on cd and his biography A Call to Assembly.
Another episode of Cacophony will feature more from Willie in due course!
Are you a horn player or fab pianist? You can buy the sheet music for the Suite too. Get this in your repertoire! (Be sure to buy parts 1-4, the other edition is incomplete.)
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Photo credit: Vincent Oneppo (pic from WillieRuff.com)
Heat, danger, emptiness and space. Plenty of all of this in Peter Sculthorpe's excellent Kakadu - inspired by northern Australia but featuring universal themes of humanity, life, death, and timelessness.
Listening time c22 minutes (podcast 6', music 16')
Music here: on Youtube, on Spotify or Apple Music played by the Queensland Orchestra, conducted by Michael Christie with William Barton on didgeridoo.
You can buy this recording as a download here (though you have to buy a whole album, but this recording is the one that I think does best justice to the piece and gives the didgeridoo proper prominence).
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It's not about that sort of passion, but this symphony La Passione is intense, dark, thrilling, and one of Haydn's best!
Listening time c30 minutes (podcast 5.5', music 23')
Music here: on Youtube, live in concert with video, on Spotify or Apple Music (Apple Music is a link to the first track only, sorry) played by Il Giardino Armonico, conductor, Giovanni Antonini.
You can buy this recording as a download here.
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One of my favourite joyful but heavyweight quick fixes, Robert Schumann's original Symphony no.4 is an intense and inventive stream of consciousness full of light and life. It's a thrill. Shame Schumann didn't see it that way...
Listening time c35 minutes (podcast 10', music 25')
Music here: on Youtube, Spotify or Apple Music (Apple Music is a link to the first track only, sorry) played by the brilliant Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (from London!) conductor, John Eliot Gardiner.
The later version of the symphony is out there too (earlier in the same youtube clip).
You can buy this recording as a download for less than £9 here. Be careful to get the right version!
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Another forgotten gem from a late 18th century woman composer, Marie Emmanuelle Bayon Louis's overture to d'Épine is boisterous and brilliant.
You can listen to the piece here played by the excellent and stylish Academy of Ancient Music.
Listening time 11 minutes (podcast 5', music 6')
What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.
If female French composers are your thing check out others on Cacophony, Lili Boulanger (featuring an interview with champion of female composers, Diana Ambache) or Louise Farrenc.
The picture isn't a Mayflower...but does look a bit like one...
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So much more than just a famous TV theme tune, Prokofiev's music for Romeo and Juliet is full of intensity, drama, passion, wit and the occasional brilliantly pure dance number. Simultaneously draining and energising it's a fabulous demonstration of the sheer power of music. I love it.
Listening time 41 minutes (podcast 11', music 30')
There's a mistake: Tybalt is Juliet's cousin, not her brother. Oops! There goes my GCSE English grade!
Here are complete performances of Prokofiev's 2nd suite from Romeo and Juliet on Youtube and Spotify and (maybe only a link to the first track?) on Apple Music, played by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi. You can buy the recordings as a download here.
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Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (Cacophony ep.117) features the driving funky rhythms at the expense of the wit, poetry and driving funky rhythms of the song numbers... so this episode features four of my favourites.
Listening time 22 minutes (podcast 7', music 15')
Here are complete performances of my choices on Youtube and Spotify from the soundtrack album of Steven Spielberg's 2021 movie.
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Thanks to NY resident, Emma Cotter for the photo - actually taken from Queensboro bridge, so it's an East Side Manhattan photo, but in the right uptown/ downtown area!
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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? Let me know!
Listening time 34 minutes (podcast 10', music 24')
Complete performances of the music on Youtube (filmed concert performance with The Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, conducted by Mikko Franck), Spotify and Apple Music (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Christian Lindberg, conductor). The Apple link only plays the first track - you'll have to work out the rest, sorry.
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Thanks to NY resident, Emma Cotter for the photo - actually taken from Queensboro bridge, so it's an East Side Manhattan photo, but in the right uptown/ downtown area!
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I'm no fan of horror films - too scary for me - but, in any case, nothing really scares us more than the thoughts in our heads! I do love scary music though and Béla Bartók wrote the best. Music for strings, percussion and celesta is unusual, gripping, terrifying and thrilling. It's also brilliant at clearing my mind of any 'unneccessary' thinking.
Listening time 40 mins (podcast 11', music 29').
Listen to the complete music, played by the awesome Budapest Festival Orchestra, conducted by Iván Fischer on Spotify or Youtube, or Susanna Mälkki conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic on Apple Music (where you have to find the tracks after track 1, sorry)
Sometimes, especially with unfamiliar, complex, music I find it's good to have something to watch - it can help guide our ears a bit, and make concentration easier. There's are two exellent filmed performances on youtube: this one shot during the pandemic with no audience, with the Oslo Philharmonic and conductor Vasily Petrenko, and
this one from The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Alan Gilbert. It's got a noisy audience, but the France Musique cameracrews are allowed to move around the stage, which makes for much more interesting video than you often get with orchestras on tv. Which means they catch things like this fantastic smile of musical- and colleague- enjoyment from the harpist too: Watch these few seconds anyway!
You can buy the recordings as downloads, here (Fischer) (& here (Mälkki))
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When Haydn came to London he was treated like a superstar: wined and dined by the great and good, and his concerts were the hottest ticket in town. The 'Miracle' Symphony, no.96, was Haydn's first written for Londoners and is designed to win us over with its charms. Music to put a smile on our faces and a spring in our step! Listening time c32 mins (podcast 10', music 22')
Click here for complete performances of the Symphony on Youtube, Spotify or here.
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A mix of grit, swagger and persistence help us to make it through in the big city. Shirley Thompson's Urban Livinggives us all this plus, perhaps, a tinge of fear and some pheonmenal piano sounds in 7 minutes of [mainly] self-assured city beats.
The only performance of the music I can find is here, on Soundcloud, played by the Shirley Thompson Ensemble.
Listening time 12 mins (podcast 5', music 7')
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I've come over all nostalgic at the prospect of returning to London in a few days, so here's a swaggering piece of escapism back to the heady optimistic days of the 1930s in Eric Coates London Suite.
Listening time 21 mins (podcast 7’, music, 14’)
Music here on youtube, Apple Music or Spotify, conducted by John Wilson, who's unbeatable at this sort of thing, with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.
You can buy a recording as a download here.
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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
Complete music is here on Spotify or Apple Music played by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. (Start at Track 16 on Apple Music.)
Music here on Youtube with pictures but (no choir) played by the London Symphony Orchestra with conductor Simon Rattle.
There is a video of a great performance conducted by Mr Chung, but the sound is a bit dodgy. It's on Youtube here
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Comfortably crossing cultural boundaries, composer Reena Esmail draws on both western and Indian traditions to write distinctive music that is at home in both. Darshan is a terrific solo violin piece which transports us to a timeless state and may even offer a glimpse of the divine! Listening time 21 mins (Podcast 9', Music 12')
Music on Youtube (video performance), Spotify or Apple Music (Bihag and Charukeshi)
What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.
You can buy a recording as a download of Vijay Gupta's performance on Bandcamp.
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Extract from The Americans for the Arts 33rd Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy given by Vijay Gupta provided by AmericansForTheArts.org.
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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 (podcast 9’, music, 24’)
Music here youtube with pictures and then here, brilliantly played by the Orchestra of St Luke's with conductor Pablo Heras-Casado on Spotify or Apple Music.
What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.
You can buy a recording as a download here, but you have to buy a whole album to get the brilliant Spotify/Apple recording. A cheaper alternative is the equally assuredly brilliant Berlin Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado
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How is it that when an artist shares their pain we can all feel it? And how does listening to music full of suffering make us feel better? I don't know how or why, but I know that it does. Dmitri Shostakovich knew all about war, loss, and suffering. His 8th string quartet is desperate but defiant and deeply moving, bleak but often beautiful and whilst it doesn't provide any answers it somehow gives consolation to us all. Listening time 28 mins (podcast 8', music 20')
Music here youtube, and then here on Spotify or Apple Music. If you use Spotify with adverts I'd avoid it for this piece, because this is really a piece you don't want interrupted!
What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.
You can buy a recording as a download here.
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We've all got pieces of music that instantly remind us of special times and places in our lives. What are yours I wonder? (Tell me!) We're in Sri Lanka at the moment and, bizarrely, the piece of music we've heard more than any other in the last few months has been Beethoven's perfect little piano piece, Für Elise, but perhaps not as we're used to hearing it... Here's the story of why, and how it's in the ears of everyone Sri Lanka. (Listening time 8 mins: podcast 5', music 3')
Apologies for the gratuitous idyllic beach photo.
Listen to the piece played by Rudolf Buchbinder on Spotify or Apple Music or on Youtube (Georgii Cherkin).
What do you think? What are the pieces of music from the soundtrack to your life? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.
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Individual, passionate, soulful music rooted in the southern states, Florence Price's Symphony No.1 was the first by a black woman composer to be played by a major US orchestra back in the 1930s. A Moment of History, but those 'twin handicaps' [her words] meant that her music has hardly been played since and we've been missing out on really great music from a distinctive voice - it's time to put that right! (Listening time 47 mins: podcast 8', music 39')
Music here on Spotify or Apple Music in a brand new recording with another of the 'great' US Orchestras, the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin or on Youtube with the New Black Repertory Ensemble & Leslie B. Dunner, conductor.
What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.
You can buy the Philadelphia recording as a download here.
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Thrilling, chilling, but still somehow delighting in its brilliance, Dvořák's Noon Witch packs a punch and leaves you stunned. Also in this episode, free parenting advice and some musings on Dr Suess!
Listen to the complete piece here on Apple Music, Youtube, or Spotify, in fab live-in-concert recordings from the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Sir Charles Mackerras.
Unfortunately you can't get these as a download. So if you want to buy it, try this recording from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Rafael Kubelik for only 55p.
If you enjoyed this, check out previous episodes for more excellent Dvorak and if you like Witches head for Musorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain.
Let me know what you think! Ways to get in touch bellow:
Comment at cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter or now you can leave me a voice message
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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 15-45mins (Podcast is 10.5', total music length is 35')
Listen to the music here on Spotify, Apple Music, or Youtube (this is harder to dip in and out of, because it's all one track on Youtube. You get another 8 dances too that he wrote later. Just as good, some say... better!)
They're thrilling performances from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor, Rafael Kubelik, which you can buy as high quality download here.
What do you think? Which dance is your favourite? We'd love to hear from you at cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.
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A few years back my Mum got me to buy her this for Christmas and I've finally got around to 'discovering' it for myself. It's powerful, intense and profound: Schubert's Fantasy for piano duet. I think you'll love it. [Listening time 25 mins - podcast 6', music 18')
Listen to the complete piece on Youtube, Apple Music or Spotify performed by the wonderful Maria João Pires and Ricardo Castro, which you can also buy as a download here, for a couple of quid. The official title is Fantasy in F minor for piano four hands, D.940
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One of my favourite things on TV in recent years has been Wolf Hall. Debbie Wiseman's haunting and memorable music captures all the tension, mood and atmosphere.
Music here on Youtube or Spotify both taken from the official soundtrack which you can buy at lots of places.
What do you think? I really want to know, so please tell me with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com.
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Everyone knows and loves Silent Night, right? But you probably haven't heard it sound quite like this. It probably won't actually give you nightmares, but it will certainly stay with you (Listening time 7mins: podcast 3', music 7').
And despite the bleak music, I do wish you a happy Christmas!
Music here with pictures, played by Starikov Stepan and Nail Mavliudov:
or on Spotify or Apple Music, played by Daniel Hope and Alexei Botvinov, which you can also buy here as a download for less than £1.
Tell me what you think - is this a cacophony, a joke or a thought provoking masterpiece? Comment at cacophonyonline.com
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Please share our love of great music by sharing this episode and/or the trailer: www.cacophonyonline.com/trailer
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If you want a change from Christmas pop, Christmas baroque is the way to go - here's a sparkling little gem from Arcangelo Corelli - a great 15 minute way to reset, reflect and energise - it manages all these things! (17 mins: podcast 3', music 14')
Music here on Spotify or Youtube with pictures.
Officially it's Concerto Grosso in G minor op.6 no.8 "Fatto per la notte di Natale"
Happy Christmas!
What do you think? I really want to know, so please tell me with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com.
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A bold statement from composer Carl Nielsen, that music IS life, who demonstrates it with a breathtaking symphony of awesome power and overwhelming optimism. The perfect piece for Cacophony's 100th episode. (50 mins: podcast 15', music 35')
Music here with pictures from the terrific Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk - and check out the lovey smile and wink from the oboe player at 5'50"!
or here on Spotify with the equally terrific Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Michael Schønwandt. You can buy this as a download here.
I think Carl Nielsen looks like John Bercow, what do you think?
Please let me know what you think of Cacophony, this music, and lookalikes with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com
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For Cacophony episode 99, I wanted to explore something deeply personal. Mahler's Symphony No.4 is one of the first pieces I discovered for myself and it moves me like very little else. Sometimes pained, sometimes playful, but most often sublime, the third movement takes you all the way to heaven, just by opening your heart. Listening time 33 mins (podcast 11', music 22')
Music here, on Youtube or Spotify with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen (who conducted the performance I recorded off the radio back in the day) and the LA Philharmonic Orchestra. The solo singer in the last movement if you listen to that is Barbara Hendricks. You can buy a high quality download of the whole piece for the shockingly low price of £1.11 here!
What do you think of this brilliant piece? What do you think of Cacophony? Tell us with a comment at the website, Facebook or Twitter.
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It's inexplicable to me, but Anton Bruckner's music has been dividing opinion since he started writing around 140 years ago. He goes in search of the meaning of life and comes back with... Marmite! Personally, I love it. There are few better noises than the transcendental climax of a Bruckner symphony. In this episode, it's the thrilling end of his 3rd. (Podcast 8', Music 13')
Music here with video or sound only on youtube or Spotify.
What do you think? I really want to know, so please tell me with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com.
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One of the closest [classical] things to electronic dance music, John Adams's Shaker Loops is one of my favourite things. Dreamy and reflective music mixed with thrilling dance music that leaves us ecstatic, maybe even transcendent!
Music here on Spotify or Youtube with the London Chamber Orchestra conducted by Christopher Warren Green in the classic recording I was given by my best school mate, Mark. You can buy it here in hi-quality download.
If you like pictures, there's a video option too that's pretty good with nice lighting (for classical music videos anyway!)
What do you think? I really want to know, so please tell me with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com.
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Freethinking, inventive - quiet and mysterious one moment, giddy and playful the next, Debussy's préludes - short pieces for piano - are great escapes for your imagination!
Listening time 26 mins (podcast 9', music 17')
Music here on Spotify or Youtube with the excellent Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.
The pieces on the play list are:
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Danseuses de Delphes (Dancers of Delphi)
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Les collines d'Anacapri (The hills of Anacapri)
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La fille aux cheveux de lin (The girl with the flaxon hair)
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La sérénade interrompue (Interrupted serenade)
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La cathédrale engloutie (The submerged cathedral)
You can buy a download of the pieces - in top quality sound here
What do you think? Please tell me with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com.
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Powerful and moving, Lili Boulanger's cry From the Bottom of the Abyss (Psalm No.130) shows her deep commitment to her faith, and to her music-writing, in the face of major illness.
Diana Ambache, long-time champion of women composers, joins me to talk about Boulanger's short life, major talent and this subtle masterpiece for huge choir and orchestra. Listening time: 42 mins (18' podcast, 24' music)
Music here on Youtube or Spotify
The recording I've chosen features Manchester's BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus and soloists Ann Murray and Neil MacKenzie, conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier.
What do you think? Tell me at Cacophonyonline.com.
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The intensity, joy, heartbreak and thrills of great sporting moments are almost unmatchable... except by those in great music. The magic of the Olympics is transformed by the alchemist John Williams into four minutes of musical, life-affirming perfection. Olympic Fanfare and Theme is one of my favourite Williams pieces, and that's really saying something!
Music here, on Spotify or Youtube in a terrific performance that brings out every tiny detail from the LA Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.
You can buy a download of the piece in top quality sound for a mere 17 British pence!
What do you think? Best Williams piece ever? Tell me at Cacophonyonline.com.
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Celebratory music from Haydn that's pretty perfect and sure to leave you in a good mood and feeling happy!
Music here on youtube or spotify
Listening time 34 mins (podcast 7', music 27')
What do you think? Let us know with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com
If you like it, why not buy a download? You can get that here for less than a pound, or elsewhere. Cacophony doesn't make and money from it, but the musicians will make much more than through streaming. You can support Cacophony here.
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Even more irresistible than the Italian football team and their ace national anthem is Verdi's overture to Nabucco. It's rousing and joyous and one of my favourite things.
Music here, on Youtube or Spotify, super-stylishly played by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Listening time: 13 mins (Intro podcast, 6'; music 7')
What do you think? Let us know with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com
If you like it, why not buy a download? You can get that here in top quality lossless sound for THIRTEEN English pence! or elsewhere...
You can support Cacophony here.
I get floored every time by these six songs of lost youth, love and life written on the cusp of World War 1 by a young composer who didn't make it through. Raw, simple and unforgettable.
Music here, with the terrific partnership of Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside, on Youtube
or Spotify. Listening time: 21 mins (Intro podcast, 8'; music 13')
Here you'll find all the words to the songs.
Recorded in inescapable heavy rain, so apologies for the sound quality on this episode!
What do you think? Let us know with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com
If you like it, why not buy a download? You can get that here in top quality lossless sound for an English fiver or elsewhere. Cacophony doesn't make any money from it, but the musicians will make much more than through streaming. You can support Cacophony here.
How Scottish do you have to be to be worthy of the name? If you're going to write a Scottish Symphony should it contain Scottish music? Does Mendelssohn pass the test? Regardless, his Symphony No.3 is brilliant, moving and surprising...
Music here on Youtube or Spotify (full piece. Part 2 on the Youtube vid starts at 21:15)
Listening time: 29 mins (Podcast 9', music 20') or 49' if you listen to the whole piece.
I'd love to hear from you! If you liked this (or didn't) please tell me with a comment at cacophonyonline.com
If you really like the piece, please consider buying a recording. The artists get very little from streams, so the best way to support them is to buy the album. You can buy it as a download here, and elsewhere.
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Every time I hear it, I'm amazed by the power and emotion in Mendelssohn's music. Inspired by a trip to Scotland, his Symphony No.3 delights and surprises, without resorting to bagpipes!
Music here on Youtube or Spotify
Listening time: 32 mins (Podcast 12', music 20')
I'd love to hear from you! If you liked this (or didn't) please tell me with a comment at cacophonyonline.com
If you really like the piece, please consider buying a recording. The artists get very little from streams, so the best way to support them is to buy the album. You can buy it as a download here, and elsewhere.
If you like Cacophony and want to support it please click here to 'buy me a coffee'!
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Asked to write funeral music for his friend and patron during the middle of a war, with millions dying all around plus a shortage of musicians, Heinrich Schütz finds hope, beauty and joy among the devastation. His Musikalische Exequien [Funeral Music] is a 400-year old masterpiece that still works its magic.
Music here on Youtube or Spotify, sung with urgent intensity by The Sixteen.
Listening time: 39 mins (Podcast 11', music 28')
If you want to know exactly what's being sung, you can download the cd booklet, which contains (among much else) the words in German with a rather old-churchy-English translation.
Your feelings are important! If you liked this (or didn't) please tell me with a comment at cacophonyonline.com
If you really like the piece, please consider buying a recording. The artists get very little from streams, so the best way to support them is to buy the album. You can buy it as a download here, and elsewhere.
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Come on the fantastic - and fantastical - musical adventure that is Anna Clyne's This Midnight Hour. You'll be thrilled, excited, maybe a bit scared, ultimately consoled... or maybe not... What does this great music do to you?
Music here on youtube with video, or listen here on Spotify.
Listening time 19 mins (podcast 5', music 12-14').
Please let me know what you think of This Midnight Hour and of this episode of Cacophony by leaving a comment.
The Baudelaire poem which inspired Clyne can be found on this fab page.
If you want to buy a recording you can get a high quality download for £1.98 here, or elsewhere!
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Exhilarating and fun, Beethoven's fourth symphony is like one of the best days out. This is Beethoven in the best of moods and relishing what's possible. It's a joyful ride!
Music here on Youtube or Spotify.
Listening time 43 mins (podcast 11', music 32')
What do you think? Let us know with a comment at Cacophonyonline.com
If you like it, why not buy a download? You can get that here for less than a pound, or elsewhere. Cacophony doesn't make and money from it, but the musicians will make much more than through streaming. You can support Cacophony here.
This is a new discovery for me - and it's deeply wonderful. Beethoven's late string quartet song of thanks: written as he recovered from severe illness, it's music that heals and restores our mind and soul.
Music here on Youtube, beautifully filmed and played by the Danish String Quartet.
Or on Spotify with the fab Takacs Quartet.
Listening time: 31 mins (Podcast 12', music 17/19')
If you liked this (or didn't) please tell me with a comment at cacophonyonline.com
If you want to buy a recording of this piece you can get a high quality FLAC download here for only 13p which is still more than the quartet get through Spotify! [Details: Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132, Track 3: Heiliger Dankgesang e. Genesenden an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart!]
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Why is Beethoven - perhaps - the greatest composer of them all? One thing he does is expand everything - the volume goes up to 11 and down to almost nothing. Also he cared deeply, about music and humanity. In his Coriolan Overture he makes us care about an obscure Roman general intent on [self-]destruction... and it's electrifying.
Listening time 14 mins (Podcast 6', Music 8')
Music here with pictures on youtube, or here on Spotify
If you want to buy a recording you can get the Spotify recording here as a download in highest quality FLAC for a mere 13p! This is not an affiliate link, I just want to point you to a really good recording and even at 13p, the artists make more money than if we keep streaming.
Please help Cacophony by telling us what you think! Leave a comment here, at Cacophony's website.
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Come back for more and thanks for listening!
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 life-affirming, often easygoing and playful last piano concerto is, perhaps, my favourite concerto of all time...
Listening time 35 mins (Podcast 11', Music 24')
Music here with pictures on youtube, or here on Spotify
If you want to buy a recording you can get the Spotify recording here as a download . This is not an affiliate link, I just want to point you to a really good recording. It's played by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. FLAC gives the highest sound quality.
Please help Cacophony grow, and develop in the way you'd like, by doing some of these things:
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Thanks for listening!
When Tristan & Isolde take a magic love potion it's not exactly happy ever after. Love wins in the end, it's just they're both dead. Passionate, overwhelming, transformative music from Richard Wagner sends them on their way and leaves us all in a state of transcendent bliss.
Listening time 30 mins (Podcast 11', Music 19')
Music here on Youtube and Spotify.
The Youtube video from the Orchestra National de Lille starts and end with music by Sibelius: the melancholy Valse Triste to start and then, after the Wagner, the beyond fab Symphony No.3, which gets the Cacophony treatment in episode 54.
Please help Cacophony grow, and develop in the way you'd like, by doing some of these things:
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Democracy and our rights, that earlier generations fought and went to prison, to obtain are fragile and always need to be looked after closely. Ethel Smyth's life and music serve as a good reminder to us all that we need to be ready to stand up and make our voices heard in order to make change happen.
Listening time 19 mins (Podcast 11', Music 8')
Music here on Youtube
The lower banner in the picture reads "It appears that your demands are just". Shakespeare innit? (it's from Henry IV part 2)
The words to the very from the March of the Women are:
Shout, shout, up with your song! Cry with the wind, for the dawn is breaking; March, march, swing you along, Wide blows our banner, and hope is waking. Song with its story, dreams with their glory Lo! they call, and glad is their word! Loud and louder it swells, Thunder of freedom, the voice of the Lord!
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Battered, bruised but not broken, Tchaikovsky's emotional rollercoaster ride continues... Does this ride finish with squeals of terror or delight?
You may want to listen to episode 79 before this (but it's not essential)
Listening time: 34 mins (Podcast 10', music 24')
Episode 2 music here on Youtube or Spotify (but start at track 2).
Whole piece here on Youtube or Spotify
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If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might loose some impact). This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording, by the always brilliant Budapest Festival Orchestra and conductor, Iván Fischer. The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...
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Thanks for listening!
The song goes that life is a rollercoaster, baby, and few can give us all the emotional ups and downs as well as Tchaikovsky. The first part of this ride is stormy, turbulent, passionate and full of loss and yearning, as Tchaikovsky is battered by what fate and life throws at him. As the other song [almost] goes: He gets knocked down, but he gets up again!
Listening time: 31 mins (Podcast 12', music 19')
Music here on Youtube (first 19 mins only) or Spotify.
Did you enjoy this? Please help Cacophony grow and develop in the way you'd like by doing some of these things:
Leave a comment to tell us what you think at Cacophony's website.
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If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might loose some impact). This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording, by the always brilliant Budapest Festival Orchestra and conductor, Iván Fischer. The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...
If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!
Thanks for listening!
Punchy, gut-churning and wow-inducing: Miserere by Scottish composer James MacMillan reflects deep religious faith and 1000 years of church music tradition, with music to move all of us, regardless of belief.
Music here on Youtube or Spotify. (Listening time 16 mins: podcast 4', music 12')
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If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download for a couple of quid (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might loose some impact). This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording, it's by The Sixteen. The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...
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Thanks for listening!
Sometimes the best things happen by accident! Allegri's 'Miserere' is famously beautiful, ethereal and transports us out of ourselves - or maybe deeper within. But the 'best bit', when one of the singers soars high above the others, wasn't actually composed at all - could it be music's greatest mistake? And how did it happen? Let's find out...
Music here on Youtube or Spotify. (Listening time 20 mins: podcast 8', music 12')
Please help Cacophony grow and develop by doing some of these things:
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If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might loose some impact). This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording, it's by The Sixteen. The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...
If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!
Thanks for listening!
I'm always a bit surprised to find myself humming bits of Ma Vlast - My Country by one of the Czech's favourite sons. I guess I must really love it!
Feared by the Nazis, loved by the Czechs, this is the acceptable face of nationalism, and its full of great tunes and causes deep satisfaction.
Music here on Youtube or Spotify. (Listening time 32 mins: podcast 10', music 23')
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If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might loose some impact). This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording: it's the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jakob Hruša. Please buy recordings! The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...
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Thanks for listening!
American composer Amy Beach was so popular that her followers held ‘Beach Clubs’* to play and listen to her music!
Her Quartet for strings is lean and powerful, as well as being a great jump-off into the world of string quartets: a place fraught with danger for the players, where composers go to bare their souls.
Take a listen and join the Beach Club!
Music here on Youtube or Spotify. (Listening time 21 mins: podcast 7', music 13')
Please leave a comment to tell us what you think at Cacophony's website.
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If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might loose some impact) for a couple of quid! This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording. It's the Ambache Chamber Ensemble. Please buy recordings! The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...
If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!
Thanks for listening!
*This means I can milk the terrible Beach pun, cos it was used in her lifetime in the 1930s and 40s!
Poignant, peaceful, maybe even transcendental music for choir with cello: Svyati by John Tavener is the result of a lifetime of spiritual enquiry and of perfecting a simple and profound musical style. Beautiful.
Listening time 19 mins (Intro 5', music 14')
Music on youtube or Spotify
Please leave a comment to tell us what you think at Cacophony's website.
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If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download for pennies! This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording. It's Tavener: Svyati 'O Holy One', played by cellist, Steven Isserlis with the Kiev Chamber Choir. It may only be a few p, but it's more than the artists would get via youtube/Spotify!
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Thanks for listening!
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.
Listening time 21 mins (Intro 6', music 15')
Music on youtube or Spotify
Please leave a comment to tell us what you think at cacophony's website.
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If you really like these pieces, why not buy them? Only 51p in the UK! This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording. It's Brahms Intermezzi op.117 played by Maria João Pires.
Thanks for listening!
Delicate, sparkling and perhaps surprisingly touching, here are three short diversions from the various trials of modern life - written 300 years ago by Couperin and brilliantly rewritten in 2006 by Thomas Adès who takes obvious delight in the sound of music.
Listening time 20' [podcast intro 7', music 13']
Francois Couperin liked nice titles - we're listening to The amusements, Sleight of hand and The soul in torment from his Pieces for Harpsichord.
Music here on Youtube or Spotify.
Please let me know what you think at cacophonyonline.com or Facebook.
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Thanks for listening!
Great music to mark the US Presidential hand-over!
Raucous fun alongside the deep and meaningful, Three Places in New England is challenging, confusing, complex, silly and surprising music that leaves me baffled but smiling and moved too! A hundred years old but way ahead of its time from one of America's first great composers, Charles Ives.
Listening time 28mins (10' intro, 18' music)
Listen to the music on Spotify or Youtube
Let me know what you think at cacophonyonline.com or Facebook.
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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 to the the music here on youtube or spotify
and also here with pictures, played by the same Italians (the fabulous and fabulously titled Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Roma and their conductor Antonio Pappano) or this awesome band of 18s and under, the National Youth Orchestra of GB(&NI)
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Three musical geniuses really make the magic come alive in Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's adaptation of Tchaikovsky's classic, Nutcracker.
Essential Christmas listening to bring joy to the word!
For the original Tchaikovsky Nutcracker check out Episode 50 of Cacophony
Music on Youtube or Spotify
Listening time 38 mins [8' podcast, 30' music]
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Thanks for listening!
There's so much unknown great music out there!
You almost certainly won't have heard this great piece or have heard of its writer. I certainly hadn't. Henriëtte Bosman's wrote her Concert Piece for violin and orchestra for her fiancé. He died before he could play it, and in her grief she couldn't compose any more. Then the war and Nazi occupation of Amsterdam cut short her career as a performer too.
I'm joined by my friend, violinist Marina Solarek, who tells us the story of an amazing woman, her intense and passionate concerto, and why it's still so hard to hear great music by women composers. ...And the great music shows us that we're missing out.
Music on Youtube or Spotify
Listening time 36 mins [18' each, podcast and music]
Marina's group, the Solarek Piano Trio, dedicates itself to the lives of extraordinary composers who happen to be women. Check them out!
Please like, rate and share the podcast. Please visit Cacophonyonline.com to leave a comment and see some cool pictures of Bosmans, Koene and Belinfante.
Thanks for listening!
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 and I love it.
Listening time: 21 mins (into 6'; music 15')
Music for part 3 on youtube with pictures (18 mins), or Spotify.
or the whole Fantastic Symphony: youtube or Spotify.
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Composer Hector Berlioz's love-struck young artist - in his drug induced dreams - escapes to the country. In the peaceful atmosphere he dreams of love and happiness - but can it last?
Listening time: 22 mins (into 4'; music 18')
Music on youtube with pictures (18 mins), or Spotify.
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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')
Music on youtube with pictures (first 22mins), or Spotify.
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This is a rarity on two counts - it's a really good French symphony from the 1800s, and it's written by a woman! The brilliant, Symphony No.3 by Louise Farrenc.
Listen [and watch] on youtube
or Spotify
Listening time 43mins (7 'intro, 36' music)
I don't really like using old pictures of composers, but when we're playing music by women, who are entirely new to us and aren't just another dead white guy (with or without a wig) it seems appropriate!
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Some music conjures up a sense of place perfectly and no one has done it better then 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.
Music here on youtube or Spotify
Listening time: 23 mins [Intro podcast 7', Music 16']
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It's great to be able to escape from modern life's concerns. Dvorak's sixth symphony is full of good tunes, and a spirit of generosity and optimism. Also a bit of Nationalism... but in a good way. So forget about everything else for a bit and bask in Dvorak's warmth and positivity.
Listening time =24 mins (Intro 5' plus second half of symphony 18')
Music here (2nd half of symphony only) on Youtube (sound only) or Spotify
or the whole piece of music here on Youtube or Spotify
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It's great to be able to escape from life's concerns. Dvorak's sixth symphony is full of good tunes, and a spirit of generosity and optimism. So forget about everything else for a bit and bask in Dvorak's warmth and positivity!
Listening time =35 mins (Intro 7' plus first half of symphony 28')
Music here on Youtube (sound only) or Spotify
Please comment on Facebook or at Cacophonyonline.com
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Thanks for listening!
They say you never forget your first loves and one of mine was Carmina Burana, by Carl Orff - it's immediate and high impact. Even before I was properly into music I was into this... and you will be too! There's really nothing like the sound of a huge choir and orchestra: it's awesome stuff!
Music here on youtube - we're listening to the first 27 minutes - but the whole thing is here if you get swept along. Please do!
And on Spotify
Listening time: 35mins [Intro podcast 8', Music 27']
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This is a journey of discovery for me, exploring some musical detective work and blatant speculation with Songs from the 12/13th Century Carmina Burana - drinking, love and wickedness and all hugely entertaining! New music to me and lots to enjoy.
Music on Youtube
or Spotify
Listening time: 26mins [Intro podcast 5', Music 21']
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Visionary, mystic, theologian, scientist, naturalist, medic, nun and more: Hildegard of Bingen, born in 1098, is also one of the very first known composers - and savvy enough to preserve her legacy!
Her life was extraordinary in any era and her music is timeless, moving and special.
Listening time = 17mins (intro 7', music 10')
This episode's music here on Youtube
or here on Spotify
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300 years ago JS Bach was writing music at the cutting edge - with the newest instruments and freshest ideas. My friend, conductor and TV presenter, Jason Lai says Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.5 is an 'unbelievable box of delights' and he's got much more to say too in our conversation about this conversational music, that's both moving and full of life.
Listening time = 34mins (intro conversation 14', music 20')
Music here, in the live performance we speak about:
https://youtu.be/LHjbRMIIhuM
or on Spotify
Find out more about the guest, my friend, conductor, presenter and coach, Jason Lai.
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I love the final September burst of summer and this piece - Samuel Barber's Summer Music - is the perfect accompaniment. Languid, hazy and slightly wistful.
Music here on Youtube or Spotify.
Listening time c16 mins (Intro podcast 4', music 12')
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My daughter's bed time reading inspires a brief trip to the opera, for some great singing - high drama and high silliness from Mozart's Magic Flute.
Listening time = 14 mins (5' podcast, 9' music)
Music here, with pictures, from a recent production from London's Royal Opera House.
Or here with just music on Spotify
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One of my very favourite things, Sibelius takes us on an all-encompassing journey from the musical spring to the wide open ocean: it's organic, generous, inevitable and uplifting.
Total listen: 35 mins (Intro podcast 7', great music 28')
Music here on Youtube, or Spotify
Please rate, comment at cacophonyonline.com or the Cacophony Facebook page.
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Fully of exuberance and swagger, Roman Carnival is great music from Berlioz, the man who wrote the book on how to write for orchestra in glorious technicolour.
Total listen time: c14mins (5 mins intro plus 8/9' music)
The music:
Live concert performance with video here on Youtube
Or music only on Spotify
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George Gershwin spent two hectic weeks on holiday in Cuba and returned with a case full of percussion instruments, latin spirit and musical inspiration.
The resulting Cuban Overture became an instant hit.
Total listening time c14 mins (3'30" podcast, 10' music)
The music:
There’s a fab concert performance on Youtube, with the Teresa Carreño Symphony Orchestra - one of Venezuela's top youth orchestras, playing with great style - check out the easy enjoyment of the percussionists. Youth Orchestras and classical music are a big deal in Venezuela, using music as a vehicle for social change in disadvantaged communities, thanks to a system (actually called The System - El Sistema) which has now been copied across the world.
My Spotify recommendation is the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by AndrewLitton
The 1930s Cuban hit, Echale salsita by Septeto Naconal De Ignacio Pineiro is on youtube too.
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https://youtu.be/kYr17m7mnM8
Erich Korngold was one of the composers who invented the sound of Hollywood - and his music for The Sea Hawk (a 1940 Erol Flynn swashbuckler) is passionate, exhilarating and hugely influences our very ideas of what film music should sound like.
Total listen time 36mins [podcast plus music]
I talk about all this with my pal, Lev Parikian.
Music here:
Though the "overture" gets played in concerts, it doesn't really exist as a thing that gets recorded! Mostly people record a suite - giving you more of Korngold's great music...
So here are my recommendations:
I've selected my favourite bits (all the stuff Lev and I talked about) on Spotify:
Top conductor Vladimir Jurowski has made a suite of his favourite bits and it's here on Youtube:
complete with clips from the film and the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia.
Please comment at www.cacophonyonline.com or the Cacophony Facebook page.
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Hear more. Feel more. Be... more! Cacophony brings you great music you may or may not know, but we think you'll love.
If you've not heard any Cacophony, start with The Trailer!
...and then pick an episode and dive right in!
Visit: www.cacophonyonline.com and let me know what you think, or use the Facebook page or Twitter @steve_cacophony
Please share the trailer and your favourite episodes!
Trailer music from:
Richard Strauss's opera: Elektra, Felix Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture, Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances
Vanessa's been humming a bit of Nutcracker, so I thought we should hear how it's meant to go - and there's so much great music to delight and enjoy. And it turns out she knows the storyline better than I did!
Music here with pictures
or here on Spotify
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www.cacophonyonline.com
Fans of Rachmaninov describe his music as lush, passionate, romantic. They're right!
His Cello Sonata is a terrific piece, and I love it much more than his famous piano concertos.
Music here.
or here on Spotify
Please rate the podcast at apple podcasts or your provider
Please leave a comment at cacophonyonline.com, on Facebook or Twitter [@steve_cacophony]
Visit cacophonyonline.com
Maurice Ravel wanted his Piano Concerto to be lighthearted and brilliant, and not aim at profundity or at dramatic effects... and then wrote one of the most beautiful slow movements there is!
Listen here
or on Spotify
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One of the great pieces of music for children, Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev. Vanessa [7] loved this and is demanding repeat hearings, and I'm embarrassed at having resisted it so long...
Music here: https://youtu.be/6Kpytem6nX4
or on spotify: https://spoti.fi/2ZrjlPu
Listening time 31' total - but won't feel long at all!
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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 piano pieces Pagodas and Gardens in the rain are fabulous pieces of aural picture painting.
No separate music on this episode - it's in the podcast, played by François-Joël Thiollier, piano. The gamelan music is Ladrang Wilujeng, slendro manyura specially recorded for Cacophony by Southbank Gamelan Players, with thanks to Southbank Centre.
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If there's such a thing as an underrated Beethoven Symphony, it's this - his 8th.
Short, punchy, joy-filled, playful, brilliant!
This is the intro to the 2nd half of the piece.
Total listen time - 15 mins
Music here:
https://youtu.be/9-f3iKeUJm4?t=777
or on Spotify:
https://spoti.fi/31exMZA [tracks 3 & 4]
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If there's such a thing as an underrated Beethoven Symphony, it's this - his 8th.
Short, punchy, joy-filled, playful, brilliant!
Music here: https://youtu.be/9-f3iKeUJm4
or here on Spotify:
https://spoti.fi/31exMZA
Please comment, like, share, subscribe to the podcast.
Visit cacophonyonline.com
Fabulous and fun singing from Rossini's Barber of Seville in honour of my first haircut in the hands of a 7 year old (and in tribute to my friends growing magnificent lockdown beards)!
Music here, with pictures: https://youtu.be/-ipb9xbXSAY
or here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2zKSnJH
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There are some pieces of music that everyone knows - Wagner's Wedding March is one - and then it turns out to be quite different in its original setting.
Music here: https://youtu.be/_7Su2qPT_P0
or here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2YF3agY
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visit cacophonyonline.com
I love this movement from Mozart's 5th - and last - violin concerto, written to play himself, at the age of 19. It's elegant and sophisticated and then wild and free.
It's a great piece for a dance around your living room!
Music here:
https://youtu.be/KtkkD9maPSw?t=5960
Please listen, like, comment and share! Subscribe to the podcast and visit cacophonyonline.com
I'm inspired to play this by the video game TrollFace Quest! ...where a little snippet of fanfare reminds me of Mahler's brilliant first symphony. Intro here,
Music here: https://youtu.be/gexnIbK-pJA
or here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2B5H3Ij
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In music that was ground breaking and influential - especially to modern film composers - Gustav Holst takes us on a spectacular, mischievous and mysterious journey to Uranus and Neptune and asks the question what else is out there...
Music here: https://bit.ly/2XPaIi7
or here on Spotify:https://spoti.fi/3cJF35O
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Modern yet timeless,
Dynamic yet static,
Hypnotic yet energising
The brilliant combination of tuned percussion instruments and the genius of Steve Reich in his Mallet Quartet
Music here: https://youtu.be/uH9ku-52PUA
or here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3eZJ4o4
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Simple pleasures in this episode: One of the most famous pieces of 'early' classical music is Pachelbel's Canon, here in two great versions including one for rubber chicken... Enjoy!
Music here: https://youtu.be/CsXLv__jLok
and here - a must watch: https://youtu.be/khOfSVULtsU, Courtesy of Twosetviolin
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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 the floor trembles and don't get so scared you have to hide behind the sofa.
Music here:
https://youtu.be/Nnuq9PXbywA
or here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3ePncvI
Listen, like, comment, share and subscribe!
cacophonyonline.com
The film may not have aged well but William Walton's music for Shakespeare's Henry V is a fresh as ever and some of it was written in the 1400s!
Music here :https://youtu.be/RI6ChQJSCJI
Or here on Spotify: to follow
Total listening time 20 mins
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Cacophonyonline.com
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a black mixed race Victorian/Edwardian Londoner.
I've not heard his great music for Othello for 30 years, but have now found a brand new concert performance by the fab orchestra, Chineke! Music here: https://youtu.be/84HZ_fEwD9s
[First 17mins of the video. Music plus intro podcast is 23 mins]
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...Not for Vivaldi His summer is all oppressive heat, flies and sudden storms; brilliantly realised in music that's short, intense and too hot to handle.
Music here: https://youtu.be/ZFDrumsjJMk?t=2128 (ending at 46'20" - it's a performance of the complete Four Seasons)
or here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2zGclFH
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This is perhaps great classical music at its purest - intense, dramatic, invigorating, uplifting - Brahms 'Tragic Overture'
Music here: https://bit.ly/2TRBq74
or here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3gCT0pq
[17 mins intro and music]
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There's a big party at the palace for the prince and you're invited. So is Cinderella, but she's got a curfew...
...with terrific music from Prokofiev.
Music here: https://youtu.be/Xs2Ffdt7e_c
Music and intro = 31mins
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Mussorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain is an entirely different piece without the tidying up of his friends - raw, savage, gripping.
Make sure you've listened to Episode 28 before this one (https://bit.ly/cil28)
Music here: https://youtu.be/tu1no7hOlSs
and here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2ZlUiPv
Comment to let me know which version you prefer, like, share and please subscribe!
cacophonyonline.com
Get swept away on magical adventures, and let Rimsky-Korsakov fire up your imagination with this music from Sheherezade - thrilling and uplifting!
Music here: https://youtu.be/sATNiVGgwts and here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2ycsu4K
Please listen, like, share!
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Give yourself a fright with a witches party on Bald Mountain! Scary stuff:
Music here: https://youtu.be/52iOdAVU4C8
or here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2Tenwfk
Please listen, like, share subscribe on iTunes or your favourite podcast provider!
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Hard to play, a lot of fun, a huge noise! John Adams sums up his own music nicely and this is a modern great to leave you uplifted and exhausted.
Music here: https://youtu.be/5LoUm_r7It8
and here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2Z04UmY
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This is punchy music that still swings and sings and sends an energising message of optimism and generosity of spirit... though the composers claims would have been more modest.
Music here: https://youtu.be/LXgeRS4i4ME
And here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2T1WWWy
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I love the fun and exuberance of this movement from Beethoven's 'first' Piano Concerto. For Beethoven, playing the piano at the first performance would have been the least of his worries.
Music here: https://youtu.be/BF7pmimzjBs?t=1580. 3rd Movement starts at 26'20" but the whole thing is fab if you have the time.
and here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3dInLXN
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This is a personal discovery for me. The slow movement of this piano sonata by Schubert is so simple, beautiful and moving, I want to share it with everyone.
The music's included in the podcast for this one, so don't turn off before it plays! The pianist is Jeno Jando.
Please listen, comment, like, share, subscribe.
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This great piece is slightly schizophrenic - is it a serious piece of music over-run by people having fun, or a fun piece that's occasionally trying to be serious? Ligeti was showing his love for Romania, but the Soviet Hungarians weren't impressed....
Music here: https://youtu.be/Y3Q1t9wMgms
and on Spotify here: https://spoti.fi/2La29Hr
Please listen, like, comment, share and subscribe to the podcast!
visit www.cacophonyonline.com
The Soviet authorities banned the last of Ligeti's excellent and entertaining Six Bagatelles for wind quintet - too dangerous and subversive. Were they right?
Music here on film - highly recommended: https://youtu.be/txMWXvD8kL4
and here: https://spoti.fi/2WxMx5R
Total listen time 17'
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The composer Handel knew what the people wanted - and it was normally more Handel. Here’s a piece written to go in the interval of a Handel show! Emotional, passionate, invigorating.
Music here: https://youtu.be/htDf0bpFIys
And here: https://spoti.fi/3fwQkt1
Total listen time 20'
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I was going to play something quiet... and then came across this Handel's Fireworks Music. It's brilliant - these performances are raw, raucous and exuberant and it's more fun than this great piece has ever been.
Music here with pictures (recommended!): https://youtu.be/fNqJ8mED1VE
or (noise only) here: https://spoti.fi/2YmPokG
Total listen time 20'
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This actually might be the best thing ever: the end of Beethoven's 7th Symphony.
Intro in the pod, music here: https://youtu.be/ikb-2XRcQdk here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/35tS4OP or here, with pictures: https://youtu.be/-4788Tmz9Zo, 4th movement starting at 34'00
It's a piece so full of relentless energy it almost belongs in a nightclub. You'll either be bouncing around or feel pinned to the spot!
13' total time for intro and music.
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My daughter declares this the best music ever! It's the William Tell Overture by Rossini. Do you agree?
Podcast is the intro with music here: https://youtu.be/IkUlPLNzoBs or here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2zRTdEf
Into & music = 15 mins
Please comment, like, share, subscribe to the podcast.
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This is a big favourite in our house. No one matches Schumann when it comes to joyful music!
Music here: https://youtu.be/wEUn3Axq6jg or on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2xgHSMW
Please comment, like, share, subscribe!
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Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream sprinkles fairy dust everywhere and the result is simply magic!
Music here: https://youtu.be/WAaF52bP9Tw or on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/35ezRoo
And here too, if you want pictures: https://youtu.be/nfhaD7nZ3-0
Music + intro = 17 mins
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Mahler gives us the ridiculous and sublime, heaven and earth and a bit of silliness in these three songs.
Music here https://bit.ly/2W2IDl1 and here https://spoti.fi/3eYCEGX
Intro + music = 17 minutes
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The Pines of Rome by Respighi brings us noisy children playing, moments of quiet solitude and Roman legions rolling in to leave you awestruck and maybe a bit deafened.
Music here: https://spoti.fi/359cfBD or here: https://youtu.be/TdUVA0odZ6Y
Intro and music = 24 mins
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The sight of swans inspired Sibelius in his 5th symphony but this is music that ends up about so much more...
Music here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2S6bMKX
and on youtube (no pics): https://youtu.be/BDUhu-c0f3U
Please like, share, comment, subscribe on iTunes or similar podcast platform!
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Drama, heartbreak and transcendental music from the end of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
Music here: https://bit.ly/2yJk0ln
and on spotify: https://spoti.fi/3bA0vdD
The ballet on video: https://bit.ly/3atb7K3 if you want to watch dance. Act 4 begins at 1:43:15, but they've snuck an extra dance into the middle of the final number! It's nice and all, but not what Tchaikovsky wrote!
This episode brings you romance, swans and big tunes, from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
Music here:https://bit.ly/2KpSkEP
on Spotify here: https://spoti.fi/2VtGpMD
and with video here: https://bit.ly/3atb7K3, where Act 2 starts at 36'20"
The first truly great full length ballet has so much good music it needs three episodes! Here's the first!
Music here: https://bit.ly/ytswanlake1
or here on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2KrTnUU
Ten minutes of over-the-top operatic show stopper. Pure enjoyment!
Music here:https://youtu.be/FsTVF0Fu5_c
and here:https://bit.ly/CiL8Igor
Forgive me - this is the first introduction where I forget to mention the name of the piece! It's the Mother Goose Suite, by Ravel and I love it.
The music's here:
https://youtu.be/o3rir1bWTyI
or here on Spotify: https://bit.ly/CiLRavelMG
Time to get all deep and meaningful? Maybe not too much. Here's my intro to Haydn's wonderfully entertaining 22nd Symphony.
And the music is here:
On Spotify: https://bit.ly/CiLHaydn22
and here with video: https://youtu.be/D8h3nT3F_V0
An exhilarating and punchy fusion from the brilliant Leonard Bernstein.
Music here on Spotify: https://bit.ly/BernsteinPFR
and also here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-__U4tP7SeA
A simply stunning, jazzy Clarinet Concerto
Music here on Spotify: https://bit.ly/CoplandClar
or here, with video: https://youtu.be/9GnJBLwOjFo
Both performances with the wonderful Martin Fröst on Clarinet
If this moves you, please say so with a comment
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Evocative, moving and reflective.
Listen here: https://bit.ly/CiL3Quietcity
or here: https://youtu.be/QhEuqY00d-s
No video today - this feels like an eyes closed kinda piece!
Four much loved pieces giving us bright mornings, quiet mourning, exotic love interest and mountain trolls! What's not to love?
Here are the links to the music:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2v0oad
and on Spotify:
https://bit.ly/lockdownmusic2Grieg
Enjoy and please comment, rate, share, so I can see whether you like it!
Each month Cacophony brings you a major work to make you happy – there aren’t many symphonies more cheery and life-affirming than the 8thsymphony by Dvorak, a man who great tunes poured out from. [4 parts]
Each month Cacophony brings you a major work to make you happy – there aren’t many symphonies more cheery and life-affirming than the 8thsymphony by Dvorak, a man who great tunes poured out from. [4 parts]
Each month Cacophony brings you a major work to make you happy – there aren’t many symphonies more cheery and life-affirming than the 8thsymphony by Dvorak, a man who great tunes poured out from. [4 parts]
Each month Cacophony brings you a major work to make you happy – there aren’t many symphonies more cheery and life-affirming than the 8thsymphony by Dvorak, a man who great tunes poured out from. [4 parts]
Five pieces (six actually) inspired and influenced by nature and the East.
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.
Amazing grown-up music for children. Ravel’s Mother Goose brings us gongs and pagodas and the view of the Fairy Garden blows your heart wide open.
Five pieces (six actually) inspired and influenced by nature and the East.
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.
Messiaen's Jardín du sommeil d'amour, (Garden of love's sleep) is otherworldly, dreamy and intoxicating as a whole new world emerges from a pair of entwined sleeping lovers.
Five pieces (six actually) inspired and influenced by nature and the East.
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.
Japanese composer Toro Takemitsu was inspired by the French composers who were inspired by Eastern culture. Spirit Garden is a meditation on the sacred spaces that are Japanese gardens.
Five pieces (six actually) inspired and influenced by nature and the East.
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.
Languorous, sensual, dreamy, Debussy’s Prelude a l’apres midi d’un faun bends and stretches the 19thcentury western sound world.
Five pieces (six actually) inspired and influenced by nature and the East.
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 piano pieces Pagodas and Gardens in the rain are fabulous pieces of aural picture painting.
Dmitri Shostakovich tries to speak the truth about the grim reality of life in 1930s Russia, whilst at the same time giving the authorities the upbeat, cheery music they wanted. An impossible task? [3 parts]
Dmitri Shostakovich tries to speak the truth about the grim reality of life in 1930s Russia, whilst at the same time giving the authorities the upbeat, cheery music they wanted. An impossible task? [3 parts]
Dmitri Shostakovich tries to speak the truth about the grim reality of life in 1930s Russia, whilst at the same time giving the authorities the upbeat, cheery music they wanted. An impossible task? [3 parts]
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]
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]
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]
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]
Part 1 of 3
Sibelius's Violin Concerto is probably my favourite concerto - a magnificent, organic, unfolding where the solo violinist long unfolding song sounds like a stream of consciousness.
Part 2 of 3
Sibelius's Violin Concerto is probably my favourite concerto - a magnificent, organic, unfolding where the solo violinist long unfolding song sounds like a stream of consciousness.
Part 3 of 3
Sibelius's Violin Concerto is probably my favourite concerto - a magnificent, organic, unfolding where the solo violinist long unfolding song sounds like a stream of consciousness.
Haydn's depiction of the universe before the moment of creation is every bit as startling today as it was 200 years ago.
Verdi's Nabucco is an opera with a heady mix of religion, royalty, romance and politics and an irresistibly catchy overture that always puts a smile on my face and also introduces one of Verdi's' greatest hit tunes.
Want to hear the one about the broken duck eggs becoming the moon and stars? Thought so.
Part 2 of 3
An elegant and sophisticated not-too-slow movement and a grumpy Mozart letter.
Welcome to Cacophony - a new podcast bringing you great music you may not know but I think you'll love: music about life, music that enhances our lives...
...with a little helpful introduction and context.
This month's intro and a little burst of Richard Strauss.