CACOPHONY: GREAT CLASSICAL MUSIC

A mix of grit, swagger and persistence help us to make it through in the big city. Shirley Thompson's Urban Livinggives us all this plus, perhaps, a tinge of fear and some pheonmenal piano sounds in 7 minutes of [mainly] self-assured city beats.

The only performance of the music I can find is here, on Soundcloud, played by the Shirley Thompson Ensemble.

Listening time 12 mins (podcast 5', music 7')

What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.

If you'd like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

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I've come over all nostalgic at the prospect of returning to London in a few days, so here's a swaggering piece of escapism back to the heady optimistic days of the 1930s in Eric Coates London Suite.

Listening time 21 mins (podcast 7’, music, 14’)

Music here on youtube, Apple Music or Spotify, conducted by John Wilson, who's unbeatable at this sort of thing, with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.

You can buy a recording as a download here.

If you'd like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

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Bursting full of life, Ravel’s music for this everyday love story of shepherd meets goatherd meets Greek god of nature is dreamy, sensual, and downright thrilling, all delivered in glorious orchestral technicolor. Meet Daphnis & Chloé! Listening time: 25 mins (podcast 9', music 16

Complete music is here on Spotify or Apple Music played by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. (Start at Track 16 on Apple Music.)

Music here on Youtube with pictures but (no choir) played by the London Symphony Orchestra with conductor Simon Rattle.

There is a video of a great performance conducted by Mr Chung, but the sound is a bit dodgy. It's on Youtube here

What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.

If you'd like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

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Comfortably crossing cultural boundaries, composer Reena Esmail draws on both western and Indian traditions to write distinctive music that is at home in both. Darshan is a terrific solo violin piece which transports us to a timeless state and may even offer a glimpse of the divine! Listening time 21 mins (Podcast 9', Music 12')

Music on Youtube (video performance), Spotify or Apple Music (Bihag and Charukeshi) 

What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.

You can buy a recording as a download of Vijay Gupta's performance on Bandcamp.  

If you'd like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

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Extract from The Americans for the Arts 33rd Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy given by Vijay Gupta provided by AmericansForTheArts.org.

Thanks for listening!

Shakespeare reaches people across the world with his insights into our shared humanity and his plays have inspired countless composers to write music - providing their own way for us to connect to Shakespeare, each other and ourselves. Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest overture gives us a torrential storm, a big love theme that beats Romeo & Juliet, and one of the most atmospheric, goose-bump-inducing beginning and end to any piece of music. And almost no one knows it at all!

Listening time 33 mins (podcast 9’, music, 24’)

Music here youtube with pictures and then here, brilliantly played by the Orchestra of St Luke's with conductor Pablo Heras-Casado on Spotify or Apple Music. 

What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.

You can buy a recording as a download here, but you have to buy a whole album to get the brilliant Spotify/Apple recording. A cheaper alternative is the equally assuredly brilliant Berlin Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado

If you'd like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

- share this episode

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- buy us a cuppa at ko-fi.com

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How is it that when an artist shares their pain we can all feel it? And how does listening to music full of suffering make us feel better? I don't know how or why, but I know that it does. Dmitri Shostakovich knew all about war, loss, and suffering. His 8th string quartet is desperate but defiant and deeply moving, bleak but often beautiful and whilst it doesn't provide any answers it somehow gives consolation to us all. Listening time 28 mins (podcast 8', music 20')

Music here youtube, and then here on Spotify or Apple Music. If you use Spotify with adverts I'd avoid it for this piece, because this is really a piece you don't want interrupted! 

What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.

You can buy a recording as a download here.

If you'd like to support Cacophony there are easy, great, ways:

- share this episode

- share the 100 second trailer

- buy us a cuppa at ko-fi.com

- subscribe/ review and keep listening!

Thanks for listening!

We've all got pieces of music that instantly remind us of special times and places in our lives. What are yours I wonder? (Tell me!) We're in Sri Lanka at the moment and, bizarrely, the piece of music we've heard more than any other in the last few months has been Beethoven's perfect little piano piece, Für Elise, but perhaps not as we're used to hearing it... Here's the story of why, and how it's in the ears of everyone Sri Lanka. (Listening time 8 mins: podcast 5', music 3')

Apologies for the gratuitous idyllic beach photo.

Listen to the piece played by Rudolf Buchbinder on Spotify or Apple Music or on Youtube (Georgii Cherkin).

What do you think? What are the pieces of music from the soundtrack to your life? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.

If you'd like to support Cacophony there are four easy great ways

- share this episode with everyone you know.

- share the 100 second trailer

- buy us a cuppa at ko-fi.com

- subscribe and keep listening!

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Individual, passionate, soulful music rooted in the southern states, Florence Price's Symphony No.1 was the first by a black woman composer to be played by a major US orchestra back in the 1930s. A Moment of History, but those 'twin handicaps' [her words] meant that her music has hardly been played since and we've been missing out on really great music from a distinctive voice - it's time to put that right! (Listening time 47 mins: podcast 8', music 39')

Music here on Spotify or Apple Music in a brand new recording with another of the 'great' US Orchestras, the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin or on Youtube with the New Black Repertory Ensemble & Leslie B. Dunner, conductor.

What do you think? Let me know with an easy voicemail or comment at Cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.

You can buy the Philadelphia recording as a download here.

If you'd like to support Cacophony there are four easy great ways

- share this episode

- share the 100 second trailer

- buy us a cuppa at  ko-fi.com

- subscribe and keep listening!

Thanks for listening!

Thrilling, chilling, but still somehow delighting in its brilliance, Dvořák's Noon Witch packs a punch and leaves you stunned. Also in this episode, free parenting advice and some musings on Dr Suess!

Listen to the complete piece here on Apple Music, Youtube, or Spotify, in fab live-in-concert recordings from the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Sir Charles Mackerras.

Unfortunately you can't get these as a download. So if you want to buy it, try this recording from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Rafael Kubelik for only 55p.

If you enjoyed this, check out previous episodes for more excellent Dvorak and if you like Witches head for Musorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain.

Let me know what you think! Ways to get in touch bellow:

Comment at cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter or now you can leave me a voice message 

If you'd like to support Cacophony there are four great ways:

- share this episode

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- buy us a cuppa at  ko-fi.com

- subscribe and keep listening!

Thanks for listening!

One of music's ultimate mood improvers, Dvořák's "Slavonic Dances" put a smile on everyone's face. Not merely shallow dance tunes, this is music that shows us the warmest, most generous view of humanity. It's no wonder everyone loves them! Listening time 15-45mins (Podcast is 10.5', total music length is 35')

Listen to the music here on Spotify, Apple Music, or Youtube (this is harder to dip in and out of, because it's all one track on Youtube. You get another 8 dances too that he wrote later. Just as good, some say... better!)

They're thrilling performances from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor, Rafael Kubelik, which you can buy as high quality download here.

What do you think? Which dance is your favourite? We'd love to hear from you at cacophonyonline.com, Facebook or Twitter.

If you'd like to support Cacophony there are four great ways:

- share this episode

- share the 100 second trailer

- buy us a cuppa at  ko-fi.com

- subscribe and keep listening!

Thanks for listening!