The Joy of Classical Music

This week it’s three works by English composer Herbert Howells - Here is the Little Door, String Quartet No. 3 "In Gloucestershire”, and the episodes focus - Hymnus Paradisi. Music journalist Simon Heffer described Hymnus Paradisi as “one of the great works of the whole musical canon, and one that stakes a claim to be the finest piece ever written in the English choral tradition.”

Choir of King's College, Cambridge perform Herbert Howell - Here Is The Little Door

Divertimenti perform Herbert Howells - String Quartet No. 3 "In Gloucestershire”.

Heather Harper (soprano), Robert Tear (tenor), the Bach Choir with the King's College Chapel Choir and the New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Sir David Willcocks perform Herbert Howells - Hymnus Paradisi.

A Taste of India

This weeks the music bridges the musical traditions of the Indian Sub-Continent and the West. There’s music from a 2023 album called You’ve Stolen My Heart: Songs From R D Burman’s Bollywood, 2 tracks from the pianist composer Michael Harrison’s recent Evening Light: Raga Cycles 1 album, and two works from Indian American composer Reena Esmail. The 100,000 selling TaReKiTa and an epic 2023 choral work called This Love Between Us “Prayers for Unity”.

Asha Bhosle and the Kronos Quartet perform R D Burman - Dum Maro Dum (Take Another Toke)

The Oxford Choir perform Reena Esmail - TaReKiTa

Michael Harrison and Ina Filip perform Water Jhala (Raga Yaman)

Michael Harrison and Ina Filip perform Mahadev (Raga Bhupali)

Asha Bhosle and the Kronos Quartet perform R D Burman - Nodir Paare Uttchhe Dhnoa (Smoke Rises Across The River)

Juilliard415 and the Yale Schola Cantorum perform Rena Esmail - This Love Between Us "Prayers for Unity"

New Adventures in music is mostly about new and recent releases and this weeks selections include two tracks from a 2023 album called Songs & Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog, 3 tracks from superstar pianist Hayato Sumino’s new album Chopin Orbit and a 4 movement work from Homegrown Melodies, the brand new album from reed quintet Burnt Reeds. From 2023 Sylvan Wind album Resonant Worlds, the featured work is a modern reimagining of the Cinderella story called Xenia and the Bishop by Serbian-American composer Aleksandra Vrebalov.

Ghost Train Orchestra and the Kronos Quartet perform Moondog - All Is Loneliness

Burnt Reeds perform Madison D. Bush - The Drive There and Back

Hayato Sumino - Larghetto

Hayato Sumino - Lydian Harp

Hayato Sumino - Raindrop Postlude

Ghost Train Orchestra and the Kronos Quartet perform Moondog - Coffee Beans

Mary Beth Peil and the Sylvan Winds perform Aleksandra Vrebalov - Xenia and the Bishop.

Exploring classical music in all its glories and complexities. From the sweetest melodic to the cutting edge of the avant-garde... from the deep past to the freshest contemporary. All of it. The joy of classical music.

The Joy of Classical Music - Episode 161:
The Outsiders.


What is an outsider composer? Generally outsider composers occupy the fringes of the classical tradition. Creating music on their own terms, they are unconcerned with accepted rules, prevailing fashions or institutional approval. Some build entirely new physical instruments to reproduce the sounds they hear in their heads and they often create their own notation systems, scales, or tuning structures.

That’s Moondog and Harry Partch, but Julius Eastman was a different kind of outsider, one made by conviction, circumstance and temperament.

Moondog - All Is Loneliness

The Partch Ensemble perform Harry Partch - The Letter

Wild Up performs Julius Eastman - Stay On It

London Brass and London Saxophonic and Moondog perform Moondog - Invocation

The Partch Ensemble performs Harry Partch - U.S. Highball

Nothing but Rachmaninoff

The 1954 edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians said Rachmaninoff’s popular appeal was based on "uncomfortable" emotionalism and that his works lacked structural innovation. They predicted that he would soon be forgotten.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performs Rachmaninoff: Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14

Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff: Siren: Lilacs, Op. 21, No. 5

Jussi Björling and the Stockholm Concert Society Orchestra perform Rachmaninoff - 12 Romances, Op. 21: No. 5, Lilacs

Huberman Piano Trio perform Rachmaninoff - 5 Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3: No. 1, Elégie (Arr. for Piano Trio)

Soprano Elisabeth Söderström and Pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy perform Rachmaninoff - Do Not Sing, My Fair Maiden

The New Philharmonia Orchestra, Baritone John Shaw and The Cathedral Choir of St. Ambrose perform Rachmaninoff - Three Russian Folk Songs

Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy and pianist Kevin Murphy perform Sergei Rachmaninoff - Au! (A-oo (The Quest) , Op. 38, No. 6

Vladimir Ashkenazy with André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra perform Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor,


Exploring classical music in all its glories and complexities. From the sweetest melodic to the cutting edge of the avant-garde... from the deep past to the freshest contemporary. All of it. The joy of classical music.