Radio 3’s Composers’ Rooms

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to Liza Lim in her composing room at her home in Manchester. Liza explains the physicality of her music, how ideas come from the subconscious, and the inspiration she draws from aboriginal paintings on the walls.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits Larry Goves in his flat in South Manchester, drawing analogies between cooking and composing, talking to him about the custom made green desk in his composing room, and asking him about his fantasy studio.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to George Benjamin in the kitchen at his home in West London. He explains why he chooses to keep his composing room at the top of the house private, how he spends time in silence on a futon in his workspace when starting on a composition, and why he uses coloured pens in his sketches.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits Emily Hall's shared workspace, part of a new build development of flats and commercial units in South East London which has provided a temporary home for around 100 artists and musicians.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch explores the Cambridge home and workspace of Robin Holloway, from the opulent living room where he holds informal concerts using his two grand pianos, through the Art Deco styled hallway in his college lodgings, to the garden summer house where he does his composing.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to Howard Skempton in his workspace, a spare bedroom in his 70s semi in Leamington Spa. Howard talks to Sara about the creative process in what is a cluttered but ordered room, filled with storage boxes and neatly arranged collections of small objects.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits Alexander Goehr's cottage in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Sandy, as he's known, guides Sara around his composing room, from an old writing desk fashioned out of a square piano, to Chinese bells and pictures of Schoenberg among the objects filling the walls.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch explores the Brighton flat and workspace of composer-artist Claudia Molitor. Claudia tells Sara about playing with sound, the continual flow between her life and work, and her obsession with desks.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch visits the home of recently appointed Master of the Queen's Music, Judith Weir, who talks to Sara about the effects of her environment on the creative process, from windchimes in the garden, to the pictures on the walls and Grieg's frog.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch follows Laurence Crane on a cycle tour around London, from the rehearsal room with grand piano in Bloomsbury, where he explains how he explores material when starting to write a new piece, to his north London flat, and the table which has seen almost every piece of Laurence's over the last 20 years.