Arnold Schoenberg: The Man who Changed Music

This week Joanna and Stephen are joined by a very special guest, Stephen's personal piano tuner, David Widdicombe. From concert grands, upright 'domestics' and honkytonks, David has tuned them all. Having worked with the world's most prestigious piano maker, Steinway, for 3 decad ...  Show more

This week we’re diving into two bohemian heroes of classical music, Bohuslav Martinů and Leoš Janáček. Stephen remembers encountering the music of Martinů at Cambridge, and being confronted by the "pure simple joy" of it. From the lyricism of Martinů, we work back towards Janáček ...  Show more

Leonard Bernstein (1918-90) was perhaps the most 'complete' classical musician of the last century, as composer (covering everything from Broadway musicals to serial orchestral works), conductor (one of the 20^th century's most admired), teacher or p ...

Synopsis On this date in 1948, the ballet Fall River Legend was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House by the Ballet Theatre of New York. The choreography was by Agnes de Mille, and the music by Morton Gould. The previous year, de Mille and Gould had met at the Russian Tea Roo ...  Show more

Synopsis On today’s date in 1910, Gustav Mahler conducted the New York Philharmonic in a concert billed as “the first of a series arranged in chronological sequence, comprising the most famous composers from the period of Bach to the present day.” Mahler’s program included works ...  Show more

In 2007, Yevgeny Sudbin released an album of music by Alexander Scriabin. Reviewing it in Gramophone, Bryce Morrison described it as a 'disc in a million'. Now, Sudbin has returned to the composer for his 25th recording for BIS, and offers a wide-ranging survey of music that incl ...  Show more