Minimalist composer, Terry Riley influenced people such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass and John Adams as well as rock groups such as Soft Machine, The Who and Tangerine Dream with his seminal work In C. He celebrates his 70th birthday this year and talks to Tom Service. There's also an investigation into the journey of jazz along the Mississippi River on the steamboats of the 1920s, and a look into the mysterious world of the piano tuner.
In this programme
Carlo Maria Giulini
Legendary Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini died last week at the age of 91. He made his name in 1950 when Arturo Toscanini heard him working on a rarely performed Haydn opera. From there, Giulini went on to conduct all the great orchestras in the world's major opera houses. His love for the music he conducted, including Mozart, Brahms, Verdi and Debussy, was a great source of inspiration for the performers he worked with. Tom talks to the English singer Rosalind Plowright who sang the role of Leonora in Giulini's recording of Verdi's Il Trovatore, and to the conductor Myung-Whun Chung, who was Giulini's assistant in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.
Piano Tuners
For a concert pianist, the piano technician has a crucial role to play in ensuring a top quality performance. To prepare a piano for a concert is the equivalent of fine-tuning a formula one racing car for a grand prix and requires the same kind of care and attention to detail. Ulrich Gerhartz, the chief piano technician at Steinway and Sons in London, works closely with today's leading concert pianists and fully appreciates the dedication, patience and perfectionism vital to succeed at this level. Two of the pianists who have worked with Gerhartz, Melvyn Tan and Artur Pizarro, along with Angela Hewitt, explain the qualities of a great piano-tuner and the very special relationship between technician and musician..
Terry Riley
Composer Terry Riley is one of the great American musical mavericks. His seminal work, In C , established him as one of the forefathers of minimilasm. However, his work encompasses everything from hypnotic trance to high-octane energy, thanks to his tireless experimentation with Indian music, electronics, improvisation and mind-altering drugs. In Riley's 70th Birthday year, Tom talks with him about his pioneering approach to composition and his vision for the future of music.
Jazz On The River
In the 1920s, the hot sounds of New Orleans jazz took many steamboat journeys northward along the Mississippi river. A whole generation of musicians performed on the steamboats, including Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke, but the experience was far more than a matter of entertainment. William Howland Kenney's new book: Jazz on the River, explains how at that time, segregation was in full force, and the social implications of the largely black musicians performing for the white holiday-makers formed part of a complex American history.
Jazz on the River by William Howland Kenney, pub. Chicago University Press, hb £19.50.
