Thoroughly Good Classical Music Podcast

Composer Joseph Phibbs returns to the podcast to introduce two new pieces premiered at Hatfield Chamber Music Festival and Wigmore Hall on 29th October and 7th October.

Ahead of the world premiere of Matthew Taylor's second horn concerto, Jon Jacob speaks to the composer about his work, his inspiration and the life force of Beethoven.

Nicola Benedetti announces the new Benedetti Baroque Sessions, a competition to participate in her Baroque orchestra, plus she pops up on Radio 4's Today to talk about what music education needs now.

Dr Leah Broad's book Quartet tells the story of four women composers who have received little or no attention by the classical music world. The lives of Ethyl Smyth, Dorothy Howell, Rebecca Clarke and Doreen Carwithen span the 20th century and yet their music was, until a few years ago, relatively unheard of. Quartet - a substantial history of four women's compositional lives - explains why.

Following publication, Leah Broad and violinist Fenella Humphreys have joined forces with pianist Nicola Eimer, mounting a series of concerts across the country where curious audience members can hear not only the music but selected stories about the women who wrote it.

There were two things apparent from the event I attended - the first in the trio's UK tour in Harrogate earlier in the summer. The carefully selected music works in performance (so much so that the programmed movements played made me want to hear the works in their entirety) AND the briefest of introductions works wonders at focussing the listener, enhancing the experience as a result.

Leah, Fenella and I met up to discuss the book, the concerts and the impact good storytelling has on the concert experience. Lost Voices is at Snape on 9th August, and Milton Court Concert Hall, Barbican on 5 November.

Works included in the Lost Voices programme:

Ethel Smyth Sonata

Doreen Carwithen Sonata

Rebecca Clarke Midsummer Moon 

Rebecca Clarke Sonata Movement 

Dorothy Howell Andante

Dorothy Howell The Moorings

Fenella Humphrey's next album Prism including works by Caroline Shaw, Sarah Lianne Lewis and Cheryl Frances-Hoad is released by Rubicon Classics early 2024.

Klieser plays the horn with his feet. This seemingly monumental achievement is of comparatively little consequence to Felix who sees himself not as a differently abled artist but as a musician who wants to make the audience happy. 

At a point in time when identity, representation and opportunity are words that rightly weigh heavily in our present-day discourse and thinking, it’s Klieser’s motivation – from the age of 4 – which is counter-intuitively the more powerful message he shares. He is not someone who tells the story of achieving against the odds, but an individual who is content. 

The Endz is a production mounted by school children in South London, supported by the Multi Story Orchestra, a radical performance group well-known in the industry for mounting live performances in a former multi story car park (now known as Bold Tendencies) in Peckham.

Since its Proms appearances in 2016 and 2017, the team behind the orchestra led by Kate Whitely has sought out new ways to enhance cultural experiences for the community its made its home in.

But Multi Story’s vision and method feel slightly different from convention when you hear from two of their teenage collaborators Flame and Prince talk about The Endz – a musical setting of a play a group of teenagers created themselves in response to violent crime in their neighbourhood.

The word is collaboration rather than education and outreach. Co-creation too might be a good word. And the other thing that’s important to stress is how Multi Story are helping young creative talent make the music they want to make rather than what the orchestra thinks they ought to be making.

RPS award-winning composer and vocalist Laura Bowler talks about her newest opera 'The Blue Woman', and her climate-change inspired collaboration with Cordelia Lynn, 'Houses Slide'.

TICKETS: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/the-blue-woman-by-katie-mitchell-details

Laura's new work Distance is premiered by Juliet Fraser and the Talea Ensemble at Cheltenham Festival on 10 July.

This year Aldeburgh Festival celebrates 50 years of the artist development programme - a music-making experience rooted in the Suffolk countryside that has supported many of the world's leading musicians. In this episode, previous participants reflect on their experience attending the Britten-Pears Orchestra and courses at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies now known as the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. 

Contributors in order of appearance:

Josie Dixon the great great great great grandaughter of Polish Lithuanian violinist and composer Felix Yaniewicz explains how a chance discovery unearthed a series of discoveries about the man in her family she knew only from a portrait. https://www.yaniewicz.org/piano.html

Helen Charlston and Toby Carr release 'Battle Cry' in May 2022 - available from 27th on Delphian records featuring songs by Barbara Strozzi, Henry Purcell, John Eccles, Claudio Monteverdi & Owain Park. To coincide with the release, both performers appear at the London Festival of Baroque at St John's Smith Square and the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. TICKETS: https://www.lfbm.org.uk/whats-on/helen-charlston-and-toby-carr