Sunday Night Special 5… 'Low' Symphony by Philip Glass
The name comes from the night of the week when for some of us, the demon of insomnia hits the hardest… and because my preferred antidote is getting lost in some music. Of course this series is for everyone… but it is perhaps intended a little more for those of you whose sleep has been troubled. The idea of the special is to play just one piece, uninterrupted and in its entirety… with a few minutes of background explained at the end of the episode. This week… Philip Glass' 'Low' Symphony from 1992. Performed by the Brooklyn Philharmonic conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.
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Young Brahms… before the Symphonies.
From playing piano in the waterfront bars of Hamburg in his teens, through the failed premiere of his first Piano Concerto, his fortuitous friendship with Clara & Robert Schumann, reviving the String Sextet… to writing a Requiem more about the living than the dead; Johannes Brahms created incredible music well before he became a grand old man of the nineteenth century symphony. Performances by Serkin, Szell, Cleveland, Amadeus Quartet, Ugorsky, Ashkenazy, Perlman, Tuckwell, Eschenbach, Klemperer and the Philharmonia.
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1:25:26
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1:25:26
Brilliant Women… No. 1
In recent years music written by women has at long last begun to be commissioned, programmed, performed, recorded, discussed, reviewed, studied, and celebrated. And of course, most importantly, composed… in greater and greater quantities. Last time I checked women account for half the planet's human population and if this podcast is called 'Classical For Everyone' then perhaps the music should be from 'everyone'. And even though I've scattered some wonderful music written by women through earlier episodes of the podcast, there is now so much great music available in great recorded performances, it feels like it could be time for the men to make just a little more room on the turntables. Music from 1690 to 2015 by Jennifer Higdon, Isabella Leonarda, Maddalena Sirmen, Fanny Mendelssohn, Mel Bonis, Ida Presti, Anna Clyne and Elena Kats-Chernin.
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1:22:55
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The Clarinet... Masters and Masterworks.
An episode back in late May 2025 featured music written for the clarinet from the 20th century. This is a companion show goes back to close to the invention of the clarinet with a work from 1755 and then finishes up with a gem from 1894. Music from Johann Stamitz, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber and Johannes Brahms. My AI friend Claude came up with the title of the episode and I hope you find 'The Clarinet... Masters and Masterworks' a pretty accurate description.
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1:05:20
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1:05:20
Handel… A very German Italian Englishman. Part Two.
At the end of the last episode Georg Friedrich Handel had just composed the anthem 'Zadok The Priest' for the coronation of King George II of Great Britain. The year was 1727 and it was the same year that Handel; who had grown up and begun his career in what is now Germany, and who had spent an intensely formative four years in the city states of the Italian peninsula, was granted British citizenship. In the next three decades he would write another dozen operas, over twenty oratorios, a slew of concertos, and books and books of keyboard music. More than enough for a second hour of music by this incredible composer.
Five hundred years of incredible music. No expertise is necessary. All you need are ears. If you've ever been even slightly curious about classical music then this is the podcast for you.
Österreich