Radio 3's Fifty Modern Classics

By BBC Radio 3

What's Radio 3's Fifty Modern Classics about?

Artists, musicians and composers introduce fifty key pieces of classical music composed between 1950 and 2000. As featured in the BBC Radio 3 programme, Hear & Now.

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Radio 3's Fifty Modern Classics episodes:

11.04.2012
Heiner Goebbels's Surrogate Cities
Hear and Now presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch celebrates the music of German composer Heiner Goebbels, focusing on the Suite for Sampler and Orchestra from his 1994 cycle Surrogate Cities. Commentary comes from Graham McKenzie of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival,...
10.27.2012
Gerard Grisey's Partiels
Composer Julian Anderson singles out Partiels for orchestra, from French spectralist Gerard Grisey’s cycle of works Les Espaces Acoustiques. With commentary from writer Paul Griffiths.
10.20.2012
Igor Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles
Composer John Woolrich nominates Stravinsky's last completed work with orchestra, Requiem Canticles. Commentator Paul Griffiths explains how this sparsely scored "pocket requiem", written in 1966 in a modern serial style, contains many of the hallmarks of his very earliest pieces.
10.13.2012
Per Norgard's Symphony No.2
Novelist and critic Philip Hensher makes the case for Per Norgard's Symphony No.2, one of the first works in which the Danish composer used his own 'infinity series' to determine melody and form. With commentary from Paul Griffiths.
10.06.2012
John Zorn's Carny
Critic and Hear and Now presenter Tom Service nominates American composer John Zorn’s Carny, a work for solo piano from 1989. The piece assembles a wide range of musical quotations and genres, juxtaposing Stockhausen and Bartok with cartoon music...
09.29.2012
Jean Barraque's Chant apres chant
Pianist Nicolas Hodges nominates Jean Barraque's Chant apres chant, one of just a handful of surviving works by this contemporary of Boulez and Stockhausen whose death in 1973 at the age of 45 robbed the contemporary music world of one...
09.22.2012
Alvin Lucier's I am sitting in a room
Sound artist Kaffe Matthews on Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room and how it’s provided an inspiration for her own work in the field of site specific music; David Toop explains how the piece explores both the acoustic...
09.15.2012
Gyorgy Kurtag's Officium Breve
Critic and Hear and Now presenter Ivan Hewett nominates Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag's Officium Breve in memoriam Andreae Szervanszky for string quartet. With commentary from writer Paul Griffiths.
09.08.2012
Terry Riley's In C
Singer and conductor Paul Hillier celebrates Terry Riley’s icon of musical minimalism and monument to the experimental atmosphere of 60s West Coast America, In C. With commentary from Richard Bernas.
09.01.2012
Pauline Oliveros's V of IV
Composer and Hear and Now presenter Robert Worby singles out V of IV, an early electronic work by American pioneer Pauline Oliveros; author and journalist Rob Young provides the background to this period of her work, and we also hear...
08.25.2012
Gavin Bryars's Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet
Gavin Bryars's mould-breaking 1971 score Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet is a work which came about almost accidentally, when Bryars found a recording of an elderly homeless man singing lines from a Victorian hymn. Cultural historian Robert Hewison makes...
08.11.2012
Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples of the Moon
Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden explains why Silver Apples of the Moon by the American composer Morton Subotnick stands out for him as a classic of early electronic music. Author and journalist Rob Young provides some background to the work,...
08.04.2012
Giacinto Scelsi's Ygghur
Cellist Frances-Marie Uitti celebrates the music of Giacinto Scelsi, the Italian composer from an aristocratic background whose work looks to the East for inspiration. Ygghur is Sanskrit for catharsis and is the final part of Scelsi's autobiographical La Trilogia....
07.14.2012
Helmut Lachenmann's Mouvement
Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard champions the music of maverick German composer Helmut Lachenmann and his 1980s work for ensemble Mouvement (- vor der Erstarrung); conductor Richard Bernas explains how the use of unconventional playing techniques created a rich and highly crafted...
07.07.2012
Michael Nyman's The Draughtsman's Contract
Violinist Alexander Balanescu recounts his part in Michael Nyman's groundbreaking score for Peter Greenaway's 1982 feature film The Draughtsman's Contract; while commentator Gillian Moore links Nyman's work to the British experimental music tradition.
06.30.2012
Hans Abrahamsen's Winternacht
Author Paul Griffiths singles out this early work for ensemble by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen, a sonic evocation of nature which takes its name from a poem by Georg Trakl; Gillian Moore highlights some of the other influences at work,...
06.23.2012
Claude Vivier's Lonely Child
The soprano Barbara Hannigan celebrates Claude Vivier’s profoundly moving work for soprano and orchestra, Lonely Child. Vivier conceived the piece as one single melody, with the entire orchestra "transformed into a timbre", to create "great beams of colour". Writer...
06.09.2012
Galina Ustvolskaya's Octet
Composer and writer Gerard McBurney nominates the austere and uncompromising Octet by Galina Ustvolskaya, which changed his ideas of modern Russian music; and Gillian Moore highlights the intensity of this work, completed in 1950, in the shadow of the Soviet...
06.02.2012
Harrison Birtwistle's The Triumph of Time
Pianist Joanna MacGregor celebrates Harrison Birtwistle’s The Triumph of Time, an orchestral work she describes as “sculpted, dream-like and mesmeric”; Paul Griffiths remembers the London premiere and how it marked a new departure for the composer, and Birtwistle himself reflects...
05.26.2012
Kevin Volans's White Man Sleeps
Choreographer Siobhan Davies nominates White Man Sleeps by the South African-born composer Kevin Volans, and describes the experience of her collaboration with the composer; writer Paul Griffiths puts the work in the context of Cologne in the late 1970s; and...
05.05.2012
Olivier Messiaen's Chronochromie
Composer George Benjamin advocates the "exuberant, thrilling and virtuosic" orchestral piece Chronochromie by his former teacher, Olivier Messiaen; while Paul Griffiths describes the significance of this work in the European avant-garde scene of the 1960s.
04.28.2012
Schaeffer & Henry's Symphonie pour un homme seul
Hollywood sound designer and film editor Walter Murch nominates Symphonie pour un homme seul by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, music he first heard on the radio as a schoolboy and which influenced his subsequent work in the field of...
04.07.2012
Philip Glass's Music in Twelve Parts
Composer Nico Muhly nominates Philip Glass's Music in Twelve Parts, a large-scale set of pieces for electric organs, voice, flutes and saxophones which is considered to be an early masterpiece of the New York minimalist. Gillian Moore puts the...
03.11.2012
George Crumb's Black Angels
Violinist David Harrington celebrates George Crumb's groundbreaking 1970 work for electric string quartet, Black Angels - the work which inspired him to form the Kronos Quartet. Gillian Moore puts the piece in context, as a work full of dark...
02.26.2012
Toru Takemitsu's Kwaidan
Writer and musician David Toop celebrates Toru Takemitsu's soundtrack for Masaki Kobayashi's 1964 chiller Kwaidan, based on Lefcadio Hearn's retelling of Japanese ghost stories; film scholar Peter Grilli describes how the composer worked closely with the director and recording technicians...
02.19.2012
Luigi Nono's Al gran sole carico d'amore
Theatre director Katie Mitchell describes her first encounter with the music of Italian composer Luigi Nono and her subsequent staging of Al gran sole carico d'amore, an operatic work which interweaves stories from the 1871 Paris Commune and the Russian...
02.12.2012
Milton Babbitt's Philomel
Jazz pianist Ethan Iverson nominates Milton Babbitt's Philomel for soprano and tape, "a classic record that should be owned by all fans of the avant-garde"; Paul Griffiths explains how Babbitt used the timbral and rhythmic resources of the Mark II...
01.22.2012
Jonathan Harvey's Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco
Film director Barrie Gavin selects Jonathan Harvey's Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco, an electroacoustic piece made from the sound of the largest bell at Winchester Cathedral and the voice of the composer's chorister son. Commentator Gillian Moore describes how Harvey...
01.15.2012
Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen
Finnish conductor and music director of Ensemble InterContemporain Susanna Malkki pays tribute to Stockhausen's 1950s masterpiece Gruppen for 3 orchestras, and highlights some of the challenges to conductors in performing it; commentator Paul Griffiths places the work in the context...
01.08.2012
Luciano Berio's Sinfonia
Conductor Richard Bernas recalls his momentous first encounter with Berio's Sinfonia, a work which reflected and commented on the events of its time, from the Paris riots to the assassination of Martin Luther King, and whose third movement is an...
12.25.2011
Arvo Part's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Roxanna Panufnik nominates Arvo Part's Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten, "beautifully simple and spiritual" music that she feels a strong connection to; while Paul Griffiths tells of Part's early struggle to find his own voice in Soviet Estonia and subsequent...
12.18.2011
Morton Feldman's Extensions 3
Howard Skempton singles out Extensions 3 by the American composer Morton Feldman, a piece he found "liberating, inspiring, and radically different". Paul Griffiths places the work in Feldman's early output and highlights the challenges to performers of music which...
12.11.2011
Conlon Nancarrow's Study No.21
Stephen Fry describes his delight and bewilderment at first hearing Conlon Nancarrow's Study No. 21 - also known as Canon X - for player piano. Nancarrow devoted his composing life to creating futuristic canonic studies for his custom-altered 1920s...
12.04.2011
Brian Ferneyhough's Bone Alphabet
Percussionist Steven Schick recalls how a chance meeting with Brian Ferneyhough led to the commission of Bone Alphabet, the composer's only piece for non-pitched instruments; and writer Paul Griffiths describes the work's physicality and rhythmic complexity.
11.27.2011
Howard Skempton's Lento
Artist Tom Phillips on Howard Skempton's Lento for orchestra, a completely tonal piece that he admires for achieving "content with simplicity"; Gillian Moore puts it in the context of the English experimentalist tradition; and the composer himself explains in detail...
11.13.2011
Edgard Varese's Poeme electronique
Composer and former Battles frontman Tyondai Braxton nominates Poeme electronique by Edgard Varese, whose soundworld has been a continuing influence on his own work; while Gillian Moore tells the story of Varese's long struggle to create a futuristic music that...
11.06.2011
John Cage's 4'33"
Artist Tacita Dean on John Cage's legendary 4'33" and how it provided an inspiration for Stillness, her 2007 project with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Conductor and Cage collaborator Richard Bernas underlines some important but often neglected aspects of the score...
10.29.2011
Cornelius Cardew's The Great Learning
Pianist and Scratch Orchestra member John Tilbury speaks up for The Great Learning by the radical British composer and political activist Cornelius Cardew. Paul Griffiths explains its place in Cardew's musical and political thinking, and the composer suggests musicians abandon...
10.22.2011
Iannis Xenakis's Nomos Alpha
Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explains how Iannis Xenakis uses the symmetry of a cube to determine musical parameters in Nomos Alpha for solo cello; Paul Griffiths highlights the composer's innovations in the fields of sound and instrumental writing; and we...
10.15.2011
Louis Andriessen's De Staat
Dutch composer Michel van der Aa salutes compatriot Louis Andriessen's 1976 work for amplified voices and large ensemble, De Staat. Gillian Moore highlights the modern scoring of the work, informed as much by rock music as Stravinsky, while the...
10.08.2011
Pierre Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maitre
Sir Harrison Birtwistle singles out Pierre Boulez's 1950s cycle for voice and mixed ensemble, and describes encountering the score for the first time, while Paul Griffiths explains how the composer employed total serialism and a radical new approach to instrumentation...
09.17.2011
Steve Reich's Different Trains
Matthew Herbert, songwriter and electronic music producer, reflects on the continuing relevance of Steve Reich's seminal 1988 piece for string quartet and tape, where recorded speech leads the melodic lines to create a remarkable and evocative atmosphere. The feature includes...

What's Radio 3's Fifty Modern Classics about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Radio 3's Fifty Modern Classics episodes:

Heiner Goebbels's Surrogate Cities

Gerard Grisey's Partiels

Igor Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles

Per Norgard's Symphony No.2

John Zorn's Carny

Jean Barraque's Chant apres chant

Alvin Lucier's I am sitting in a room

Gyorgy Kurtag's Officium Breve

Terry Riley's In C

Pauline Oliveros's V of IV

Gavin Bryars's Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet

Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples of the Moon

Giacinto Scelsi's Ygghur

Helmut Lachenmann's Mouvement

Michael Nyman's The Draughtsman's Contract

Hans Abrahamsen's Winternacht

Claude Vivier's Lonely Child

Galina Ustvolskaya's Octet

Harrison Birtwistle's The Triumph of Time

Kevin Volans's White Man Sleeps

Olivier Messiaen's Chronochromie

Schaeffer & Henry's Symphonie pour un homme seul

Philip Glass's Music in Twelve Parts

George Crumb's Black Angels

Toru Takemitsu's Kwaidan

Luigi Nono's Al gran sole carico d'amore

Milton Babbitt's Philomel

Jonathan Harvey's Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco

Karlheinz Stockhausen's Gruppen

Luciano Berio's Sinfonia

Arvo Part's Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten

Morton Feldman's Extensions 3

Conlon Nancarrow's Study No.21

Brian Ferneyhough's Bone Alphabet

Howard Skempton's Lento

Edgard Varese's Poeme electronique

John Cage's 4'33"

Cornelius Cardew's The Great Learning

Iannis Xenakis's Nomos Alpha

Louis Andriessen's De Staat

Pierre Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maitre

Steve Reich's Different Trains