Benjamin Britten's War Requiem

During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese VietCong guerrillas built a vast network of tunnels in the south of the country as part of the insurgency against the South Vietnamese government and their American allies. The tunnel network was a key base and shelter for the North Vietna ...  Show more

For more than 25 years, Rata de dos patas has been one of Mexico’s most recognisable - and unusual - songs. A relentless string of insults, it was made famous by the singer Paquita la del Barrio. Composer Manuel Eduardo Toscano recalls the moment in 2000 that convinced him the so ...  Show more

SynopsisBack in Bach’s day, there were churchmen aghast at the thought that composers were trying to sneak flashy opera music into Sunday services. Church music was meant to be simple, austere, and, well, not “operatic.”So what would they have made of the three “church parables” ...  Show more

Matthew Sweet looks at music for films set against the background of WW1, including Joseph Kosma's music for Jean Renoir's masterpiece La Grande Illusion. The First World War prompted a cinematic response even before the War was over and has continued to exercise the film maker's ...  Show more

This is another episode where I highly recommend listening to Part 1 from last week before listening to this episode! It was a great honor to speak with the critic and cultural historian Jeremy Eichler about his remarkable new book "Time's Echo." In today's episode, we speak abou ...  Show more

I had the great pleasure and honor this week(and next week) to speak with the author of the new book Time's Echo Jeremy Eichler. The book chronicles four composers and their varied reactions to World War II and the Holocaust, including Schoenberg, Strauss, Shostakovich, and Britt ...  Show more