Theme Grouping Episodes

Brian Eno’s 1979 LP ‘Music For Airports’ launched the genre of ‘Ambient Music’… an alternative to the dreadful ‘muzak’ inflicted on humans in most public spaces… music that reduced stress rather than added to it… music for contemplation that rewarded attention but did not require it. This episode takes that idea and rummages around classical music to see if there are works that might do the same… with thanks to Gavin Bryars, Erik Satie, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Phillip Glass, Richard Wagner, John...

Instances where composers have hidden something in their works… sometimes for the sheer ingeniousness of being able to do it… sometimes to send a secret message to someone… sometime to create a puzzle for generations to come… sometimes to create a tortured ambiguity of meaning. The music is from a pretty eclectic mix… Johann Sebastain Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Alban Berg, Dmitri Shostakovich and Edward Elgar. Lots of Secrets. And here is a link to an ...

From fairy tale romances to dark psychological dramas, discover how ballet music evolved while maintaining its essential power to match the poetry of human movement with unforgettable musical expression… what I’m calling grasping towards beauty. This episode explores three centuries of ballet music, from the elegant entertainments of Gluck through the Romantic masterpieces of Adam, Delibes, and Tchaikovsky, to the revolutionary modernism of Stravinsky and Prokofiev, and finally the diverse voice...

There are composers who revel in depictions of the unseen… manifestations of the darker aspects of our imaginations… creatures from realms that four centuries of science just can’t seem to eradicate from our vulnerable psyches. Then there are the composers who just can’t help but enjoy mucking about with an old fairytale or making fun of our collective gullibility. And some do all at the same time. This week it is spooky music from Grieg, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Saint-Saens, Liszt, Shostakovich, M...

There’s no way around the fact that this entire corner of classical music is generally known by the term ‘chamber music’ but please don’t let that stop you from experiencing some incredible music… even if you find the term, as I do, just plain odd. This is music originally intended for smaller performance spaces… sometimes even just a dining room… and by virtue of that the connection between players and audience is more ‘intimate’. The music in the episode is by Phillip Glass, Ludwig van Beethov...

No other filmmaker has used classical music to better effect than the American director Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999). Whilst composers did score some of his films, Kubrick frequently used existing classical pieces… in particular for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barry Lyndon & The Shining. Kubrick’s choices are fascinating and did a lot to get classical music to new audiences. And, besides, how else could I get Schubert, Handel, Ligeti, Penderecki and two Strausses into the one episode of Classical For ...

Sometimes music can just be for pleasure and if that is the composer and the performers’ intention, then good for them… and good for us listeners. If most music is created to make you ‘feel’… then some music can just be to make you feel good. And from time to time happiness can be in short supply… and if that is the case then I hope the music I am going to play you over the next hour can at least give you a smile. In service of that objective… in this episode will be music by Beethoven, Rossini,...

Much music has been inspired by love, passion or obsession… but only in a handful of cases has the person who was the inspiration… the muse… become publicly linked to a work. Here are the stories of six of them… Alma Schindler, Josephine Brunsvik, Kamila Stösslová, Peter Pears, Clara Wieck and Mathilde Wesendonck. And the music they inspired… by Gustav Mahler, Ludwig van Beethoven, Leos Janacek, Benjamin Britten, Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner. And here is a link to an extended playlis...

This episode of Classical For Everyone includes musicians slowly leaving the stage… lovers separated by the call of duty…  music for beginning a journey…  and music for a sad and very final farewell. A section of a symphony by Josef...

This episode of Classical For Everyone is all about Night.. music that evokes the night… that captures the different moods of nighttime, and music written to be performed at night. Night in the Gardens of Spain, Moonlight over the Suffolk Coast,...

Composers have drawn inspiration from the sea for centuries but only with the rise of the larger orchestras of the nineteenth century did they get the palate needed to create fully persuasive depictions of it. So, apart from one piece for solo piano,...

Composers respond to ideas, emotions, literature, people, history… and places. Places they’ve lived, places they’ve been and places they’ve only dreamed of. In this episode Felix Mendelssohn captures the echoes of Fingal's Cave, Peter...