The Listening Service

Impassioned argument: Elizabeth Maconchy's string quartets


Listen Later

"For me, the best music is an impassioned argument". So said one of Britain's greatest 20th-century composers, Elizabeth Maconchy.

Who?? Despite her many awards and medals - including a damehood in 1987 - and a lifetime spent promoting new music, Elizabeth's work slipped out of fashion and out of view in the latter part of her remarkable career. With concertos and symphonies, vocal music, chamber works, five operas, an operetta and three ballets to her name, Elizabeth's voice is that of economy, elegance and rich expression. And it is in her century-spanning 13 string quartets that her development - and musical outlook - as an artist are most closely expressed.

With a cultural resurgence in all things mid-century, Tom Service chats to Janell Yeo of the Bloomsbury Quartet and considers whether the time is now ripe for a reclamation of Elizabeth's place at our musical top table.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Listening ServiceBy BBC Radio 3

  • 4.1
  • 4.1
  • 4.1
  • 4.1
  • 4.1

4.1

54 ratings


More shows like The Listening Service

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,395 Listeners

Seriously... by BBC Radio 4

Seriously...

261 Listeners

More or Less: Behind the Stats by BBC Radio 4

More or Less: Behind the Stats

868 Listeners

Desert Island Discs by BBC Radio 4

Desert Island Discs

2,049 Listeners

Private Passions by BBC Radio 3

Private Passions

36 Listeners

Philosophize This! by Stephen West

Philosophize This!

14,867 Listeners

The TLS Podcast by The TLS

The TLS Podcast

184 Listeners

Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast by Joshua Weilerstein

Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast

2,044 Listeners

Aria Code by WQXR & The Metropolitan Opera

Aria Code

2,511 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

2,961 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

12,308 Listeners

This Cultural Life by BBC Radio 4

This Cultural Life

96 Listeners

ZOE Science & Nutrition by ZOE

ZOE Science & Nutrition

1,943 Listeners

Empire by Goalhanger

Empire

1,859 Listeners