• A Celebration of Schumann and Heine
  BBC Radio 3, 7/8 June 2006,  19.30 – 21.30
  A collaboration between Classic Arts and BBC Radio 3, celebrating the poetry of Heinrich Heine through the songs of Robert Schumann, to mark the 150th anniversary of the deaths of both men in 1856.
  Presented by Iain Burnside
  
  

• Tippett Night
  BBC Radio 3, 1st December 2005
  Presented by Sarah Walker
  
  
• Peak Performance
  BBC Radio 3, July 2005
  Presented by Edward Smith
  
  
• Georges Brassens: The Man with the Famous Moustache
  BBC Radio 4, Thursday 14 October 2004
  Repeated May 2005
  Presented by Quentin Blake
  
  
• Spring Journey
  BBC Radio 3, first broadcast March-April 2004
  Repeated March-April 2005
  Presented by the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright
  

A Celebration of Schumann and Heine
BBC Radio 3, 7/8 June 2006,  19.30 – 21.30
Presented by Iain Burnside

A Rheinland Journey
During the first evening, June 7, Iain Burnside travels down the Rhine, visiting some key locations associated with Heine and Schumann, including Dusseldorf, where Heine was born and where Schumann died, Cologne and the famous Lorelei rock near St Goarshausen, which inspired Heine’s celebrated poem `Die Loreley’.

On the way he talks to Bernd Kortlaender of the Heine Institute and to Volker Kalisch of the Dusseldorf Schumann Musikhochschule, and visits an exhibition in Dusseldorf devoted to relics of Schumann and Heine, including the infamous finger-stretching machine which wrecked Schumann’s hopes of a career as a concert pianist, and the original manuscripts of  Heine poems, Schumann’s Piano Concerto and some of their best-known songs.

Evening I also includes a feature on Heine’s complex relationship with his native Germany, presented by one of the world’s foremost authorities on German literature, Professor Jim Reed of Queen’s College, Oxford.

The Heine/Schumann Song-Settings
Throughout both evenings, six leading exponents of Schumann songs – including Ian Bostridge, Brigitte Fassbaender, Thomas Allen, and Olaf Bar – give their personal view of a  favourite Schumann/Heine setting, read the poems in German and English, and introduce their own recording of the songs. Each evening climaxes with one of the great Schumann/Heine song-cycles, Evening I with Liederkreis, Op.24, performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Christoph Eschenbach; and Evening II with Dichterliebe, Op.49, sung by Fritz Wunderlich.

Drama
Each evening also contains newly-commissioned mini-dramas by playwright Hattie Naylor, directed by Marc Beeby. From the one and only meeting between Heine and Schumann in Munich in 1828, Naylor explores audience reactions to the first performance of Liederkreis, the relationship between Schumann and his wife Clara, and the deaths of both Schumann and Heine from syphilis.

Discussion
On Thursday evening, Iain Burnside is joined in the studio by Judith Chernaik and John Deathridge, who continue to explore the relationship between composer and poet and reflect on some of the issues arising from Wednesday’s programme.

The leading Heine scholar and authority on 19th-century German song, Susan Youens, introduces some of her favourite settings of Heine’s poetry by composers other than Schumann.

Tippett Night
BBC Radio 3, tx 1st December 2005, 19.30 – 00.00
Presented by Sarah Walker
Produced by Chris Marshall & Martin Cotton

2005 is the centenary of the birth of Michael Tippett.  Hailed during his lifetime as one of the great composers of the 20th century, his reputation has declined somewhat since his death in 1998. 

During the course of this evening, presenter Sarah Walker and her studio guests, composer Anthony Payne and Professor of English at Oxford Valentine Cunningham, will reassess the man, his work and his musical legacy.

With contributions from many people who knew and worked with Tippett, including his biographer Ian Kemp, John Amis, Dennis Marks, Amelia Freedman, conductors Sir Colin Davis, David Atherton and Mark Elder, fellow-composers Michael Berkeley, Alexander Goehr and Steve Martland, performers Paul Crossley, Peter Cropper, Faye Robinson and David Wilson-Johnson, and critics Bayan Northcott, Andrew Clements and David Cairns.

19.30 Tippett’s Origins
Tippett grew out of a powerful movement in this country with an emphasis on amateurism, artistic democracy and the revival of an idealised historical past.  It gave rise both to the early music movement and to the flourishing of music for amateurs and workers.  

19.45 Tippett: Concerto for Double String Orchestra
Moscow and Bath Festival Chamber Orchestras, conducted by Rudolf Barshai

20.00 Tippett and Politics
Tippett was closely involved with left-wing politics in the 1930s, and was imprisoned as a conscientious objector during the Second World War. His striving for social inclusion led to some of his most accessible music. John Amis recalls this period of Tippett’s life.

20.30 Purcell: St Cecilia’s Day Ode: ‘Hail, Bright Cecilia’ (excerpt)
April Cantelo (soprano), Alfred Deller and Peter Salmon (counter tenors)
Wilfred Brown (tenor), Maurice Bevan (baritone), John Frost (bass)
Ambrosian Singers, Kalmar Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Michael Tippett

20.40 Tippett’s strong pacifist convictions and his horror at what was happening in Central Europe in the 1940s led to the creation of his most famous work.
Tippett: A Child Of Our Time (excerpt)
Faye Robinson (soprano), Sarah Walker (mezzo soprano), Jon Garrison (tenor), John Cheek (bass), City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Michael Tippett

21.00 Performing Tippett
Tippett often wrote with specific performers in mind, especially pianist Paul Crossley and the Lindsay String Quartet. The Lindsay’s leader, Peter Cropper, and Paul Crossley discuss the complexities of performing Tippett’s music.

21.35 Tippett and Psychology
Tippett underwent Jungian analysis in 1939, which led him to an acceptance of his homosexual orientation, his emotional needs and his artistic creativity. Ivan Hewett and Professor Simon Goldhill examine how the evolution of an almost mystical aesthetic of art led to the creation of .his first opera, ‘The Midsummer Marriage’.

22.05 The Composer as Writer
Tippett was a prolific writer of essays, books and radio talks. More controversially, he wrote many of his own librettos. Writers Pbilip Hensher and Alice Goodman and critics Bayan Northcott and David Cairns discuss whether Tippett succeeded both as composer and librettist.

22.30 King Priam (Act II)
Thomas Allen (Hector), Philip Langridge (Paris), Norman Bailey (Priam), David Wilson-Johnson (Old Man), Robert Tear (Achilles), Kenneth Bowen (Hermes), Stephen Roberts (Patroclus), London Sinfonietta Chorus and London Sinfonietta, conducted by David Atherton

22.55 Tippett the Radical
Tippett remained a radical all his life.  His left-wing views, his homosexuality, his pacifism, his interest in psychology and  his longing for natural justice led him to embrace new ideas as they appeared – including the sexual revolution, feminism, and New Age spirituality.  His own later work, especially the Third Symphony, sets out to embrace cultural diversity, especially the music of Black America .

23.15 Tippett: Symphony No.3 (excerpt)
Faye Robinson (soprano), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Hickox

23.30   Tippett’s Legacy
Dennis Marks defends Tippett’s achievements against critic Andrew Clements, who has reservations.
Tippett: The Rose Lake (excerpt)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Richard Hickox

Four programmes in which England and Middlesex batsman Edward Smith talks to a leading musician about the similarities of approach to performance between the two disciplines of music and sport. The interviews will be illustrated by musical examples played by the interviewee.

The Presenter
Cricketer and writer Ed Smith was educated at Cambridge where he scored a hundred on first class debut and took a double first in history. He has played county cricket for Kent and now Middlesex, and three Test matches for England in 2003.

He reviews books for The Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator and writes regularly for The Times. His first book, Playing Hard Ball, a comparison of cricket and baseball, was published to acclaim in 2002 and shortlisted for the WHSmith sports book of the year. On and Off the Field, his second book, a diary of the 2003 season, was shortlisted for the William Hill prize and won Wisden Book of the Year 2005.

Though he has appeared regularly on BBC radio, Peak Performance is the first time he has presented a radio series of his own. In four interviews with leading classical musicians, Ed Smith analyses the similarities between playing sport and playing music at the highest level. In doing so, he explores the nature of what it is like to live life as a performer – the subject of his next book.

Ed Smith is 27 years old and lives in London.

The Interviewees:

Cellist Natalie Clein (tx 10 July)
Natalie Clein, one of the most talented young cellists of her generation, first came to international attention when she won the 1994 BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition at the age of 16 and then went on to become the first ever British winner of the Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians in Warsaw.

She spent four years studying with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna before launching an international career. She has played concertos with many of the major British orchestras, most recently performing the Lutoslawski concerto with the Halle.

A committed chamber musician, she appears regularly at international festivals in collaboration with a wide range of musicians including Martha Argerich, Melvyn Tan, Imogen Cooper, Stephen Kovacevich, Steven Isserlis, clarinettists Michael Collins and Emma Johnson, and the Takacs Quartet.

Conductor Mark Wigglesworth (tx 17 July)
Mark Wigglesworth, one of Britain’s finest young conductors, studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London before winning the Kondrashin Conducting Competition in the Netherlands in 1989. He has subsequently conducted many of the world’s most famous orchestras, from the Cleveland, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony and the Philadelphia to the Royal Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic, LSO and the LPO.

He has conducted operas at Glyndebourne, Welsh National Opera, ENO and Covent Garden, and this year is conducting Mozart’s `Le nozze di Figaro’ at the New York Met.

He is currently recording the complete Shostakovich symphonies with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Holland.

Singer Sarah Connolly (tx 24 July)
Sarah Connolly received rave reviews for her recent performance as Sesto in the ENO production of Mozart’s `La clemenza di Tito’. She is developing an international reputation as one of the finest singers of Baroque repertoire: other roles at ENO have included Handel’s Xerxes, Ariodante and Ruggiero (Alcina), Ottavia in Monteverdi’s `L’incornazione di Poppea’, Dido in both `Dido and Aeneas’ and `The Trojans’ and the title-role in Britten’s `The Rape of Lucretia’, which was televised for the BBC.

Abroad she has appeared at the New York City Opera and the Met, at the Paris Opera, the Florence Maggio Musicale and the Salzburg Festival. This season she is singing the title-role in `Giulio Cesare’ at Glyndebourne, and will shortly undertake Oktavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Gluck’s Alceste and Handel’s Dejanira (Hercules).

On the concert platform she has worked with the world’s finest conductors and orchestras, and has given many world premieres of contemporary pieces, including works by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Jonathan Harvey. Her recordings range from Handel arias, Bach cantatas and works by Rameau and Vivaldi to a recital disc of Schoenberg songs.

Guitarist Craig Ogden (tx 31 July)
Described as `a worthy successor to Julian Bream’, Australian-born Craig Ogden is one of the most exciting young artists of his generation.

He has made many recordings, and has performed concertos with many famous orchestras including the LSO, LPO, RPO, Halle, CBSO, and the Melbourne Symphony. He performs as soloist and chamber musician all over the world, and is currently planning tours of the USA, Australia and South Africa, as well as a busy schedule of recitals throughout the UK.

He is Principal Lecturer in Guitar at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he is a Fellow.

Georges Brassens: The Man with the Famous Moustache

A Classic Arts Production for BBC Radio 4
Produced by Chris Marshall

Tx: BBC Radio 4, Thursday 14 October 2004, 11.30
(repeated: Tuesday 10 May and Saturday 14 May 2005)

The moustache is famous, the songs are famous, even the name is famous – but who was Georges Brassens? Artist, illustrator and Francophile Quentin Blake – loved by millions for his enchanting picture books such as `Mr Magnolia’, and for his illustrations of Roahl Dahl’s stories – explores the legacy of the legendary French chanteur.

For many Brits now in their 50s, Georges Brassens embodies France, the French, and everything that was exotic and foreign to them during their formative years - the essence of their first holidays abroad, their school exchanges, their au pair experiences. The wit of his lyrics, the insouciant melodies, the simplicity of his guitar playing all evoke that world of Gauloises, vin de table, check tablecloths – the spirit of 1960s Paris. But this was a man who supported anarchism, was banned by French radio for his subversive lyrics – and yet was awarded a Poetry prize by the Academie Francaise.

Quentin Blake has produced a book illustrating some of Brassens’ song lyrics, including his best-known poem `Le parapluie’. In this programme, he talks to several well-known Brassens fans, including the writer Julian Barnes, poet Michael Rosen, actor Tim Pigott-Smith and cartoonist Posy Simmonds.

We also hear from Brassens’ biographer, Jacques Vassal, who fills in the story of Brassens’ life, ending at his grave in the Sete cemetery; and Jean-Daniel Beauvallet, the editor of the French rock magazine `Le inrockuptibles’, who discusses Brassens’ enduring influence on a younger generation of French singer/songwriters. We also hear excerpts from some of Brassens’ most famous songs, including `Le gorille’, `Marquise’, `Chanson pour l’Auvergnat’ and `Le parapluie’.

Brassens: A brief life
Born in 1921 in the southern French seaside port of Sete, Brassens was drawn to Paris in the early years of the war, part of which he spent in a German POW camp. He was determined to be a poet, and published his first poetry collections in 1942. Most of his chansons use his own lyrics, but he also set words by some of the greatest French poets, from Francois Villon to Victor Hugo and Paul Fort. After the war he began to write for an anarchist review, `Le libertaire’, and some of his early chansons were banned for many years (including `Le gorille’, which opposed the death penalty). In 1947 he met the love of his life, the Estonian Joha Heiman, although the couple never married or lived together. One of his songs is called `La non-demande en mariage’ (The Un-Proposal of Marriage). He began to play the Parisian cabarets and music halls in the 1950s, and teamed up with the bassist Pierre Nicolas. Soon he was recording and touring extensively – in 1954 his album `Le parapluie’ won a Grand Prix du Disque. From 1959 he began to suffer serious health problems, but continued to play the music halls including Bobino and Olympia in Paris. He made his final international tour in 1973, and issued his last album three years later. He died of cancer near Sete just short of his 60 th birthday. His poems are now studied in French schools, and his chansons covered by international artists. Jake Thackray – who was much influenced by Brassens’ witty lyrics - issued a famous version of `The Gorilla’.

Music playlist:
Brassens Le gorille
PHILIPS 586 344-2 T3 01:37
(Warner Chappell Music France)

Brassens/Thackray Brother Gorilla
EMI 796271-2 T8 01:23
(NWR Music Publishers Co Ltd)

Brassens Supplique pour être enterré à la plage de Sète
PHILIPS 586 352-2 T1 03:11
(Universal Music Publishing France)

Brassens Marquise
PHILIPS 586 350-2 T10 01:57
(Universal Music Publishing France)

Brassens Chanson pour l’Auvergnat
PHILIPS 586 346-2 T1 02:07
(Warner Chappell Music France)

Brassens Une jolie fleur
PHILIPS 586 346-2 T4 04:07
(Warner Chappell Music France)

Brassens Le parapluie
PHILIPS 586 344-2 T8 01:51
(Warner Chappell Music France)

Spring Journey
presented by the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright
Produced by Chris Marshall

A four-part series on Radio 3, presented by the Bishop of Durham on the four Sundays leading up to Easter Day.

Taking as a backdrop Schubert's bleak song-cycle `Winterreise' (Winter Journey), Tom Wright took us on a spiritual journey in the opposite direction, from winter into spring. The four programmes have as their themes 'Forgiveness', `Welcome', `Healing' and `Hope', and each is a reflection in words and music on the problems and challenges which confront society today, and the ways in which composers have addressed such issues.

(First broadcast in 2004)

For further details please click here.