Composer of the Week Podcast

Kate Molleson explores the last five years of Franz Schubert’s life.

Music featured: Octet in F, D. 803 Hungarian Melody in B minor, D. 817 Rosamunde, D797 String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804 Ave Maria, D. 839 Piano Sonata in A minor, D. 845 Symphony No. 9 in C, D. 944 Mass in C, D. 452 Der Graf von Gleichen, D. 918 String Quartet in G, D. 887 Piano Sonata in G, D. 894 Winterreise, D. 911 Ständchen, D. 920 Fantasi...

Donald Macleod joins Sally Beamish at her home on the south coast of England to celebrate her 70th birthday. Across a lifetime in music, Beamish has combined careers as performer and composer, drawing inspiration from places, people and collaborations along the way. From a musical childhood in post-war London and her early years as a violist, to a transformative move to Scotland and a growing international reputation as a composer,...

Kate Molleson follows Felix Mendelssohn's journeys across Europe, tracing how travel shaped one of the nineteenth century's most gifted musical minds. From a privileged upbringing in Berlin and early encounters with Goethe, through concert tours in Britain and adventures in Scotland and Italy, Mendelssohn absorbed new landscapes, cultures and ideas wherever he went. Alongside artistic inspiration came professional opportunities, in...

Kate Molleson tells Mozart’s story through five of the relationships that shaped the composer and his music - from his friends and family to a mentor and a supposed rival.

Symphony no. 35, K385 ‘Haffner’ Violin Concerto No. 1 in B flat, K207 Concerto for Flute Harp and orchestra in C, K299 Symphony no. 31 D major, K297 'Paris' Idomeneo Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466 Concerto for Two pianos no. 10 in E flat...

Donald Macleod journeys through the life and work of Alice Mary Smith, with guests Ian Graham-Jones and Leanne Langley.

Music featured: Symphony in C minor Weep no more! Rondo: The Vale of Tempe Lover’s melancholy The First Snowfall Out of the Deep (Psalm 130) Overture ‘Lalla Rookh’ String Quartet ‘Tubal-Cain’ Six Short Pieces Overture ‘Endymion No 2’ Impromptu in D minor Overture ‘V...

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of George Frideric Handel through the patrons, employers and institutions that helped shape his career. From the aristocratic circles of Italy and the court of Hanover to royal favour in Britain and the charitable culture of Dublin, Handel proved adept at navigating the worlds on which composers depended. Yet he remained unusually independent, moving between courts, theatres and concert ha...

Donald Macleod explores the development of Nigerian art music through the lives and work of some of its most influential composers. Joined by Alexander Douglas, he traces the emergence of a musical tradition shaped by European missionary education, church music and indigenous cultural practices, beginning with Fela Sowande’s pioneering synthesis of Yoruba and Western traditions. From Sowande's early years in Lagos and London ...

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Leonard Bernstein – conductor, composer, educator and one of the most recognisable figures in American cultural life. From his student years at Harvard and the influential friendships that helped launch his career, to his breakthrough as a young conductor and his success on Broadway, Bernstein combined a rare range of talents with a gift for public communication. His story encompa...

Donald Macleod explores a rich and varied body of music gathered under a single name: Anonymous. Bringing together works whose creators were never recorded, later forgotten or deliberately obscured, the podcast traces how music can circulate and endure without a clear author. With contributions from Professor Lisa Colton and Professor Fay Hield, there is a focus on how anonymous works have been preserved, collected and sometimes re...

Kate Molleson explores the life and music of Claudio Monteverdi, following his path from early experiments in Cremona to a career that would reshape European music. Trained in the traditions of Renaissance polyphony, Monteverdi gradually pushed against its limits, developing a more direct and expressive musical language. His years at the Mantuan court brought both opportunity and pressure, as he wrote increasingly bold madrigals an...

Donald Macleod and guest Paul Spicer journey into the early life of Sir Arthur Bliss.

Music featured: Checkmate Suite (excerpt) String Quartet in A, Op 4 (Moderato ma tranquillo) Pastoral Piano Quartet in A minor, Op 18 Madam Noy Mêlée fantasque The Ballads of the Four Seasons (No 1, Spring) Rout A Colour Symphony (Red) Oboe Quintet (Assai sostenuto) The Women of Yueh (No 2, Many a girl of the south is white and lucent) Things to Co...

This week Kate Molleson explores the life and work of a cultural icon: trumpeter, composer and bandleader Miles Davis, who was born 100 years ago this week and remains one of the most innovative and influential figures in 20th-century music. Kate is joined throughout the week by the leading American jazz critic Nate Chinen. Together, they'll survey his vast recorded output, which spans five decades, prioritising his own composition...

Kate Molleson explores the life and music of Florence Price, joined by pianist and scholar Samantha Ege. From her childhood in Little Rock, where family, education and the realities of racial segregation shaped her early ambitions, Price’s story unfolds through persistence, reinvention and growing recognition. Moving through her years of study and early career, we hear how she drew on African American musical traditions while...

Béla Bartók was regarded as one of Hungary’s greatest composers. His fellow countryman, the pianist Andras Schiff, called him “one of the giants in the history of music.” But he was also one of the founders of what we now call ethnomusicology, spending much of his time immersed in peasant life, collecting folk songs. As around him Europe was torn apart by conflict, Bartók found relief in rural life and took inspir...

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Camille Saint‑Saëns, a composer whose career was shaped as much by personality and circumstance as by precocious talent. Raised in Paris by strong‑minded women who recognised his gifts early, Saint‑Saëns grew into a formidable pianist and an alert observer of the musical world around him. He moved easily through the city’s salons, where reputations were made, ideas exchanged, and ...

This week, Donald Macleod traces the making of Joseph Haydn – from his long years of service to the Eszterházy princes on a remote Hungarian estate to his emergence as one of the most celebrated composers in Europe. Working in relative isolation, Haydn developed a distinctive musical voice while managing opera houses, orchestras and singers, gradually attracting attention far beyond the court. As new freedoms allowed him to p...

Donald Macleod talks to British composer, pianist and conductor Thomas Adès.

Music featured: Hotel Suite from Powder Her Face Gefriolsae Me, Op 3B Arcadiana Chamber Symphony …but all shall be well Powder Her Face Still Sorrowing Asyla Concerto Conciso The Tempest Lieux retrouvés (Les champs) Violin Concerto Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face In Seven Days The Four Quarters Totentanz Coffee-Spoon Cavatina Alchymia Blanca...

Gaetano Donizetti was one of Italy’s most prolific tunesmiths, with almost 70 operas to his name – about as many as Rossini, Bellini and Verdi all combined - whose arias still cut straight to the heart today. Donald Macleod follows his irresistible rise: from a child brought up in a dark, cramped cellar to become a pioneering master of the style known as bel canto. And like any opera plot, there’s triumph and trag...