Music Matters

3 November 2007

Saturday 3 November 2007 12:15-13:00 (Radio 3)

Petroc Trelawny explores the border territory between literature and music, and how music can transform Shakespeare plays.

Plus pianist Richard Goode talks about the many guises of piano playing, and the programme investigates the uncompromising music of Alexander Goehr as he reaches 75.

Duration:

45 minutes

In this programme

Richard Goode
American pianist Richard Goode's career spans 45 years, yet his solo recordings barely stretch into double figures. This week he starts a six month long Artistic Residency at The Southbank Centre which will include masterclasses, lectures and recitals. Petroc discusses with this most private of men, his reluctance to record, the joy he experiences when he finds a really compatible collaborator (Dawn Upshaw at present, with whom he performs next week), his current passion Chopin, and Debussy - whose music he plans to record next.

Richard Goode performs with Dawn Upshaw on Wednesday 7th November at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach on Saturday 28^th of November.


Shakespeare and Opera
How operatic is Shakespeare? Everyone from Purcell to Verdi, from Gounod to Ades have attempted Bard-inspired operas - with varying degrees of success. We discuss how Shakespeare has added to the operatic repertoire with the author of a new book on the subject, Daniel Albright, Adrian Noble the former head of the RSC who has just directed Macbeth at the Met, Claire Van Kampen the Director of Music at the Globe for nearly a decade, and Verdi expert Roger Parker.

Daniel Albright's: Musicking Shakespeare. Pub. Rochester Uni Press, h/b £45


Alexander Goehr at 75
Composer Alexander Goehr turned 75 this year.

His birthday is to be marked with a concert at the Wigmore Hall on Sunday evening. Goehr came to prominence in the fifties alongside Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, and the late John Ogden, he later studied with Oliver Messiaen in Paris. Although Goehr's music has always been about the new, he speaks to Petroc about what he sees as the surfeit of new music at present, and the need to commission less and to perform more.

Alexander Goehr's 75^th Birthday Concert is at The Wigmore Hall on Sunday November 4^th at 7.30.


The French Cello School
Next weekend The Wigmore Hall stages 'Princes and Poets' a concert which pays tribute to the French cello school, a group which boasts legendary alumni including Paul Tortelier, Pierre Fournier, Andre Navarra and Maurice Gendron. Petroc spoke to one of the new generation of French cellists, Xavier Phillips and veteran British cellist Keith Harvey about what defined the 'French School', and how its most famous protagonists revolutionised both the sound of the instrument and the way it was played.

Princes & Poets: 100 Years of the French Cello Tradition at The Wigmore Hall on Sunday 11^th of November at 7.30.

Music Matters

Episode and Playlist Information

• 10 November 2007
• 3 Nov 07
• 20 Oct 07 John Eliot Gardiner
• 13 Oct 07 Luigi Nono
• 6 Oct 07 Anniversary Special
• 22 Sep 07 Portugal Special
• 15 Sep 07 James MacMillan

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