Happy 80th Birthday, Michael! Thank you for composing music for so long. We celebrate you today!

Happy 80th Birthday, Michael! Thank you for composing music for so long. We celebrate you today!

When countries are shaking under political turbulences, music can reflect our situation in an intimate way. In the middle of Brexit and the Windrush Scandal, the pianist Natalie Burch commissioned a work to the composer William Marsey - and he took the House of Commons Bill 110 (2013-14) as a text for an art song.

The poet Bryan Heiser suffered with polio from a young age, never descending into self-pity in his writing. In collaboration with James Gilchrist, composer and pianist Nathan Williamson has created a stunning collection of Heiser settings, bursting with physicality, intimacy and irony. 

Rainer Maria Rilke is celebrating his 150th Birthday on the 4th of December and, without thinking about Birthday parties, I recorded an interview with the German-British composer Tom Lane. Enjoy listening to this amazing poem about music itself, set into music.

Working together can become a blessing for a composer as well as a singer. If creating is a form of being, it becomes a present to ourselves. Sabine Bergk talks with Michael Finnissy and Lotte Betts-Dean about the creative process, of truly becoming the composition and about the blessing of existing together through music.

Discovering British Art Song is like taking turns and twists in undulating landscapes. Sabine Bergk talks with James Gilchrist and Nathan Williamson about the variety of the songs of Thomas Pitfield, an exceptional composer, poet, painter and peace activist (1903-1999). In Pitfield's songs, the beauty of the moment shines through delicate lines of shadows and light. In many songs, the poem and the composition originate from the same feather - Pitfield worked as his own singer songwriter, ahead of the times.

It remains a mystery how music appears and comes alive. In his song cycle "Blessed be", Michael Finnissy explores sensitively twisting and turning lines, shifting between Music's ancient roots and the 'moment of Now'. Magic seems to arise everywhere, if we open up our senses. The performers in ‘Blessed be 1’ are Lotte Betts-Dean, Valerie Wellbanks ('cello) and Olga Stezhko (piano).

We celebrate the 2nd Birthday of "Lied can Fly" / "Lieder können fliegen"! More than 50 episodes were produced and we totally reached more than 44.000 downloads and streams. To support the podcast, you can become a premium member at the steady community: https://steadyhq.com/de/lieder-konnen-fliegen/about

The Birthday Premium Edition with selected songs of two years of "Lied can Fly" / "Lieder können fliegen" will be available exclusively for premium members. Join this special community and become a member now.

Music can be part of the most challenging moments in our lives. Light and darkness, birth and death - with her CD "Enigma", Sarah Aristidou created a panorama of sounds and musical landscapes of our soul. Sabine Bergk talks with Sarah Aristidou about the "Lamento Turco" by Andreas Tsiartas.