CACOPHONY: GREAT CLASSICAL MUSIC

Why is Beethoven - perhaps - the greatest composer of them all? One thing he does is expand everything - the volume goes up to 11 and down to almost nothing. Also he cared deeply, about music and humanity. In his Coriolan Overture he makes us care about an obscure Roman general intent on [self-]destruction... and it's electrifying.

Listening time 14 mins (Podcast 6', Music 8')

Music here with pictures on youtube, or here on Spotify

If you want to buy a recording you can get the Spotify recording here as a download in highest quality FLAC for a mere 13p! This is not an affiliate link, I just want to point you to a really good recording and even at 13p, the artists make more money than if we keep streaming.

Please help Cacophony by telling us what you think! Leave a comment here, at Cacophony's website.

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If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!

Come back for more and thanks for listening!

After three years 'vegetating' in New York, Béla Bartók produced a handful of late great pieces. A dying man's birthday gift to his wife, his life-affirming, often easygoing and playful last piano concerto is, perhaps, my favourite concerto of all time...

Listening time 35 mins (Podcast 11', Music 24')

Music here with pictures on youtube, or here on Spotify

If you want to buy a recording you can get the Spotify recording here as a download . This is not an affiliate link, I just want to point you to a really good recording. It's played by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. FLAC gives the highest sound quality.

Please help Cacophony grow, and develop in the way you'd like, by doing some of these things:

Tell us what you think with a comment at Cacophony's website.

Subscribe to the podcast, rate it and share it widely!

If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!

Thanks for listening!

When Tristan & Isolde take a magic love potion it's not exactly happy ever after. Love wins in the end, it's just they're both dead. Passionate, overwhelming, transformative music from Richard Wagner sends them on their way and leaves us all in a state of transcendent bliss. 

Listening time 30 mins (Podcast 11', Music 19')

Music here on Youtube and Spotify.

The Youtube video from the Orchestra National de Lille starts and end with music by Sibelius: the melancholy Valse Triste to start and then, after the Wagner, the beyond fab Symphony No.3, which gets the Cacophony treatment in episode 54.

Please help Cacophony grow, and develop in the way you'd like, by doing some of these things:

Tell us what you think with a comment at Cacophony's website.

Subscribe to the podcast, rate it and share it widely!

If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!

Thanks for listening!

Democracy and our rights, that earlier generations fought and went to prison, to obtain are fragile and always need to be looked after closely. Ethel Smyth's life and music serve as a good reminder to us all that we need to be ready to stand up and make our voices heard in order to make change happen. 

Listening time 19 mins (Podcast 11', Music 8')

Music here on Youtube

The lower banner in the picture reads "It appears that your demands are just". Shakespeare innit? (it's from Henry IV part 2)

The words to the very from the March of the Women are: 

Shout, shout, up with your song!

Please help Cacophony grow and develop in the way you'd like by doing some of these things:

Leave a comment to tell us what you think at Cacophony's website.

Subscribe to the podcast, rate it and share it widely.

If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!

Thanks for listening!

Battered, bruised but not broken, Tchaikovsky's emotional rollercoaster ride continues... Does this ride finish with squeals of terror or delight? 

You may want to listen to episode 79 before this (but it's not essential)

Listening time: 34 mins (Podcast 10', music 24')

Episode 2 music here on Youtube  or Spotify (but start at track 2).

Whole piece here on Youtube or Spotify

Did you enjoy this? Please help Cacophony grow and develop in the way you'd like by doing some of these things:

Leave a comment to tell us what you think at Cacophony's website.

Subscribe to the podcast, rate it and share it widely.

If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might  loose some impact). This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording, by the always brilliant Budapest Festival Orchestra and conductor, Iván Fischer. The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...

If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!

Thanks for listening!

The song goes that life is a rollercoaster, baby, and few can give us all the emotional ups and downs as well as Tchaikovsky. The first part of this ride is stormy, turbulent, passionate and full of loss and yearning, as Tchaikovsky is battered by what fate and life throws at him. As the other song [almost] goes: He gets knocked down, but he gets up again!

Listening time: 31 mins (Podcast 12', music 19')

Music here on Youtube (first 19 mins only) or Spotify.

Did you enjoy this? Please help Cacophony grow and develop in the way you'd like by doing some of these things:

Leave a comment to tell us what you think at Cacophony's website.

Subscribe to the podcast, rate it and share it widely.

If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might  loose some impact). This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording, by the always brilliant Budapest Festival Orchestra and conductor, Iván Fischer. The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...

If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!

Thanks for listening!

Punchy, gut-churning and wow-inducing: Miserere by Scottish composer James MacMillan reflects deep religious faith and 1000 years of church music tradition, with music to move all of us, regardless of belief.

Music here on Youtube or Spotify. (Listening time 16 mins: podcast 4', music 12')

Please help Cacophony grow and develop by doing some of these things:

Leave a comment to tell us what you think at Cacophony's website.

Subscribe to the podcast, rate it and share it widely.

If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download for a couple of quid (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might  loose some impact). This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording, it's by The Sixteen. The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...

If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!

Thanks for listening!

Sometimes the best things happen by accident! Allegri's 'Miserere' is famously beautiful, ethereal and transports us out of ourselves - or maybe deeper within. But the 'best bit', when one of the singers soars high above the others, wasn't actually composed at all - could it be music's greatest mistake? And how did it happen? Let's find out...

Music here on Youtube or Spotify. (Listening time 20 mins: podcast 8', music 12')

Please help Cacophony grow and develop by doing some of these things:

Leave a comment to tell us what you think at Cacophony's website.

Subscribe to the podcast, rate it and share it widely.

If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might  loose some impact). This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording, it's by The Sixteen. The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...

If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!

Thanks for listening!

I'm always a bit surprised to find myself humming bits of Ma Vlast - My Country by one of the Czech's favourite sons. I guess I must really love it!

Feared by the Nazis, loved by the Czechs, this is the acceptable face of nationalism, and its full of great tunes and causes deep satisfaction.

Music here on Youtube or Spotify. (Listening time 32 mins: podcast 10', music 23')

Please help Cacophony grow and develop by doing some of these things:

Leave a comment to tell us what you think at Cacophony's website.

Subscribe to the podcast, rate it and share it widely.

If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might  loose some impact). This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording: it's the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jakob Hruša. Please buy recordings! The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...

If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!

Thanks for listening!

American composer Amy Beach was so popular that her followers held ‘Beach Clubs’* to play and listen to her music!

Her Quartet for strings is lean and powerful, as well as being a great jump-off into the world of string quartets: a place fraught with danger for the players, where composers go to bare their souls. 

Take a listen and join the Beach Club!

Music here on Youtube or Spotify. (Listening time 21 mins: podcast 7', music 13')

Please leave a comment to tell us what you think at Cacophony's website.

Please subscribe to the podcast and share widely.

If you like this piece, you can buy it here or elsewhere in top quality download (FLAC is ‘lossless quality’, MP3 is compressed, so might  loose some impact) for a couple of quid! This isn't an affiliate link, I just want to make sure you get a great recording. It's the Ambache Chamber Ensemble. Please buy recordings! The artists get almost nothing via youtube/Spotify...

If you're enjoying Cacophony and want to help, you can support us, by 'buying me a ko-fi'!

Thanks for listening!

*This means I can milk the terrible Beach pun, cos it was used in her lifetime in the 1930s and 40s!