Episodes
Feb. 9, 2026
Beethoven's 9th Symphony
It’s Classical For Everyone’s 1 st Birthday, so here’s a personal favourite. This was the first time a choir and soloists had been added to a ‘symphony’. Choral and orchestral music had been combined before but at the time th...
Feb. 5, 2026
Very Old (Incredible) Music
If from time to time you happen to listen to a podcast with the subtitle ‘Five Hundred Years Of incredible Music’ then it would be a reasonable expectation to hear some five hundred year old music. I’ve played a few pieces fr...
Jan. 31, 2026
The Music of Philip Glass
On the day this episode is released, the American composer Philip Glass celebrates his 89 th birthday. In a career now lasting well over five decades he has somehow achieved two extraordinarily rare things for a contemporary ...
Jan. 25, 2026
Recent Discoveries
Only be taken in the very personal sense of… recent discoveries by me. Not that I actually discovered anything. In my ongoing mission to keep the production of CDs alive, I came across music I didn’t know and thought that you...
Jan. 19, 2026
Stormy Weather
Representing the weather with music is probably an ancient practice. In our earliest superstitions the percussive blasts of thunder would probably have been mimicked to either flatter or placate the spirit world. And perhaps ...
Jan. 10, 2026
Sunday Night Special 6… Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D minor
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 ...
Jan. 8, 2026
Antonio Salieri – An Injustice Redressed
Antonio Salieri was born near Verona in 1750 but lived most of his life in Vienna. And in the 1780s he was possibly the most successful composer in Europe… writing the music for over forty operas. Later in life he taught Schu...
Dec. 31, 2025
Sunrise (Music for The New Year)
Classical Music for New Years Eve seems to be dominated by nineteenth century Viennese waltzes and eighteenth century music for fireworks. All nice stuff but I wasn’t after something for New Years Eve. I wanted music for New ...
Dec. 28, 2025
Music For Young People (and their grown-ups)
Sorcerers, Toys, Wolves, Volcanoes and Fossils. Music for young people… but why them… and why now? In some parts of the world people are having a bit of a holiday as this episode goes out… and you may have your children… or n...
Dec. 19, 2025
Holiday Music (You Can Actually Listen To)
I n this episode there will be an amount of Christmas music from the western tradition… which I think you might have to expect from a podcast with the word ‘classical’ in the title but this is not really a celebration of mang...
Dec. 12, 2025
Lullabies and Reveries
Music from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Maurice Ravel, Morten Lauridsen, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Philip Glass and Benjamin Britten… chosen pretty deliberately for its calming qualities. I’m guessing that quite a few of you are ba...
Dec. 6, 2025
Forgotten Vivaldi… and the Rescue of his Music
The title of this episode is perhaps a little misleading and it certainly contains a contradiction… namely, if I have a recording, and I can play it to you, then really, is ‘forgotten’ the right adjective? But it is, I hope y...
Nov. 29, 2025
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 ...
Nov. 28, 2025
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 Requ...
Nov. 21, 2025
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 greate...
Nov. 14, 2025
The Clarinet... Masters and Masterworks.
An episode back in late May 2025 featured music written for the clarinet from the 20 th 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 g...
Nov. 10, 2025
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 grow...
Nov. 7, 2025
Handel… A very German Italian Englishman. Part One.
I hope you’re in the mood for some truly beautiful music… much of it involving singing. I don’t know if I can convert anyone to the delights of early 18 th century opera but the songs I’m going to play you in this episode are...
Oct. 30, 2025
A Different Halloween.
Probably adopted from early pagan traditions, 'All Hallows Eve', which became Halloween; was, and perhaps in some places still is, a night of rituals to call on the spirits of saints and martyrs for our protection in the year...
Oct. 26, 2025
Sunday Night Special 4… Aaron Copland’s Third Symphony
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 ...
Oct. 24, 2025
Music for Small Spaces… Number Two
This corner of classical music is more generally known by the odd term ‘chamber music’ but please don’t let that stop you from experiencing some incredible music. This is music originally intended for smaller performance spac...
Oct. 18, 2025
Music from the Upper West Side
I am looking out at the New York skyline as I record this episode and in the distance in particular I can glimpse the Ansonia Building. Completed in 1904 as an apartment hotel, it was for the early decades of the 20 th centur...
Oct. 11, 2025
Mozart’s 1786… Music from a year of Success
On January 27 th 1786 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart turned 30. He had already written an astonishing amount of music of an incredible standard. He had been happily married to Constanze Weber for three years and their son Karl Thoma...
Oct. 3, 2025
Benjamin Britten… An Introduction to a 20th Century Great.
Benjamin Britten is today perhaps best known for his operas which included ‘Peter Grimes’, ‘The Turn of The Screw’, ‘Billy Budd’ and ‘Death In Venice’. But I am actually going to feature more of his orchestral work in this ep...