Kate Molleson explores the life of György Ligeti with guest, Danny Driver Known to millions through the film director Stanley Kubrick's use of his music in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ligeti's music reflects the seismic events taking place in central Europe in the mid-twentieth century - shifting borders, war, totalitarianism and for many, exile. These harrowing experiences all made a deep imprint on him and his music. He was born in 1923 into a Jewish Hungarian family in an area that had become part of Romanian Transylvania. After years of state repression, in 1956 at the onset of the Hungarian revolution, Ligeti made a dramatic escape on foot to the West. Freed from state intervention, he was to remain artistically and personally independent from any particular orthodoxies for the rest of his life. He died in 2006 at the age of 83. Ligeti regarded the whole world as the material for his music. He was fascinated by anything and everything: philosophy, science, the arts, literature - Alice in Wonderland was one of his favourite books. His music can be playful, at times wickedly macabre. He loved patterns, he loved rhythm, he dived into mathematical concepts of immense complexity but was equally curious about history, folklore, the cosmos and the natural world. From the piano, Danny Driver, a huge Ligeti enthusiast, opens up the magical universe Ligeti creates in his piano music, with a special focus on the three sets of piano studies. Music Featured: Musica ricercata (IV. Tempo de Valse (poco vivace - à l'orgue de Barbarie) Lux aeterna Three Wedding Dances for two pianos (Hàrom lakodalmi tánc) Romanian Concerto Piano Concerto (1st, 2nd & 3rd mvts) Musica ricercata (excerpt) Cello Sonata (2nd mvt, Capriccio. Presto con slancio) Apparitions (2n, mvt, Agitato) Musica ricercata (excerpt) Lontano Three Pieces for Two Pianos Études, Book 1 Chamber Concerto for 13 instruments Clocks and Clouds Three Fantasies after Friedrich Hölderlin Capriccio 1; Invention Capriccio 2 Études, Book 2 Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano (1st mvt, Andantino con tenerezza) Sonata for solo viola (1st mvt, Hora lungă) Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano (2nd mvt, Vivacissimo molto rítmico) Piano Concerto (4th mvt, Allegro risoluto - molto rítmico) Études Book 3 Melodien Presented by Kate Molleson Produced by Johannah Smith For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for György Ligeti (1923-2006) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lzcn And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

Donald Macleod explores Tchaikovsky's music with Sir Matthew Bourne and Dame Monica Mason Tchaikovsky is responsible for some of the world’s best loved and best known ballets. His music for Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker has become so popular and ubiquitous that we’re as likely to hear it in the concert hall, or accompanying a TV ad, as in the theatre. But this week, Donald Macleod is on a mission to take Tchaikovsky back to his dancing roots, in the company of two of British ballet’s brightest stars. Dame Monica Mason joined the Royal Ballet as the age of sixteen, becoming the youngest dancer in the company at that time. She went on to dance many principal roles, eventually becoming Director of the Royal Ballet in 2002, before her retirement in 2012. Sir Matthew Bourne has been hailed as the most popular and successful British choreographer and dancer, with a string of awards for his many productions, not least his ground-breaking production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Both guests bring their expertise, sharing with Donald Macleod their views on Tchaikovsky, and their experience of performing and choreographing his works. Music Featured: Swan Lake, Op 20 (Act 2 excerpt) The Seasons, Op 37b No 6 (June: Barcarolle) No reply, no word, no greeting, Op 28 No 5 (Six Romances) String Quartet No 3, Op 30 (Allegretto vivo e scherzando) Swan Lake, Op 20 Valse sentimentale in F minor, Op 51 No 6 (excerpt) Eugene Onegin, Op 24 (Act 2: Waltz) Swan Lake, Op 20 (Act 2 excerpt) Serenade in C, Op 48 The Sleeping Beauty, Op 66 (excerpt) The Golden Cloud has Slept The Fancy Slippers (Danse des cosaques) The Enchantress (excerpt) The Sleeping Beauty, Op 66 Impromptu in A flat Serenade, Op 65 No 3 (Six Melodies) The Sleeping Beauty, Op 66 The Queen of Spades, Op 68 (Act 1: Liza’s Aria) Hamlet, Op 67a (Overture) Souvenir de Florence, Op 70 (Adagio cantabile e com moto) The Endellion Quartet The Nutcracker, Op 71 (Overture) Iolanta Op 69 (Act 1 Scene 5: My only beloved Mathilde I claim) Souvenir de Florence, Op 70 (Allegro vivace) The Nutcracker, Op 71 Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Luke Whitlock For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lnz3 And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

William Walton composed music for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and King George VI, pieces of pomp and circumstance. But Walton grew up far from Buckingham Palace and the world of the Windsors, in the northern working-class town of Oldham, seemingly destined to work at the cotton mill. Even when he escaped to Oxford and then London, making high-society friends such as the Sitwells, his early music was intense and avant-garde - not at all suitable for a royal affair. So how did Walton become the royal composer of choice? This week, we’ll find out. Music Featured: Coronation Te Deum Litany Façade: 2. En famille Portsmouth Point Sinfonia Concertante Façade (extracts) Viola Concerto As You Like It: A Poem for Orchestra after Shakespeare Symphony No 1 Crown Imperial Violin Concerto Henry V Hamlet Troilus and Cressida (excerpts) Orb and Sceptre Cello Concerto Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Alice McKee For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for William Walton (1902-1983) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lbzn And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

The streets must have seemed like they were paved with gold when Haydn visited London in 1791. He was feted and applauded everywhere he went as one of Europe’s leading composers. He hobnobbed with royalty, the Prince of Wales commissioned a portrait of him from leading society portraitist John Hoppner. It’s still regarded as one of the best images we have today. Haydn could hardly have imagined all this as a boy. His really is a rags to riches story. Born in 1732 in humble circumstances, Haydn's musical talent won him a position as a choir boy in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral. However, he was forced to leave after his voice broke and, by the age of 17, he was on the streets, with only “three miserable shirts and a worn-out coat” to his name. Happily his life did then take an upward turn. Haydn was employed by the Esterhàzys, one of the most powerful and influential families in the Hapsburg monarchy for an astonishing 48 years. But this week, Donald Macleod puts the public face of this celebrated figure to one side. He’s going to be looking at Haydn through a narrower lens, drawing a picture of the composer through the relationships he enjoyed with some of his closest family and friends. Music Featured: Piano Trio No 4 in F major, Hob.XV:39 Signor voi sapete, Hob.XXIVb:7 Symphony No 1 in D major, Hob 1/1 (1st mvt) Salve Regina in E major, Hob. XXIIIb:1 (I. Salve Regina) Horn Concerto No 1 in D, Hob.VIId:3 Vada adagio, signorina, Hob.XXIVb:12 L'isola disabilitata, Act 2, sc 12 Sonata No 46 in A flat major Hob XVI/46 II (3rd mvt) L’infedeltà delusa, Act I. Scene 1: Introduction: Bella sera The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross (Sonata No 2) Armida, Act 1: Parti Rinaldo - Se pietade avete Mass in D minor, H.XXII:11 “Nelson Mass” (Gloria) Motetto "O ceolitum beati", Hob. XXIIIa:G9 Keyboard Concerto No 2 in D major, Hob.XVIII:2 String Quartet in E flat major, Op 33, No 2 'The Joke' (2nd mvt) Michael Haydn: Requiem in C minor (excerpts) String Quartet in G major, Op 33, No 5 (2nd & 4th mvts) Symphony No 82 in C major, 'The Bear' (1st mvt) Missa Cellensis in honorem Beatissimæ Virginis Mariæ, Hob. XXII:5 (excerpts) String Quartet in D major, Op 64, No 5, 'The Lark' (1st mvt) Piano Trio No 39 in G major, Hob.XV:25 'Gypsy' (3rd mvt) Symphony No 91 in E flat major (2nd mvt) Piano Sonata No 59 in E flat major, HobXVI:49 (1st mvt) Piano Trio No 40 in F sharp minor, Hob: XV:26 (2nd mvt) Die Schöpfung, Part 3, (No 30) Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Johannah Smith For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001l4cf And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

Donal Macleod explores how, from childhood, Poulenc was exposed to two versions of Paris: one that was working class and religious, another that was high society, secular... and avant-garde. Francis Poulenc was the epitome of Parisian high society: suave, convivial and connected. Or was that how he wanted us to see him? The critic Claude Rostand famously commented that Poulenc was a combination of “moine et voyou” - monk and rogue. This week, we follow the composer from Paris’s artisanal upper class heartland, to the city’s dark underbelly, discovering the moments when the monk and the rogue met face-to-face. Music Featured: Piano Concerto in C-Sharp Minor, FP 146 (1st mvt) Sonata for Piano 4 Hands Gnossiennes Rapsodie Nègre L’Album des Six (5th mvt, ‘Valse’) Les Biches Concert Champêtre Les Soirées de Nazelles Les Litanies à la Vierge Noire Bleuet Les Animaux Modèles L’Histoire de Babar Les Mamelles de Tirésias La Fraîcheur et le Feu Les Dialogues des Carmelites La Voix Humaine Presented by Donald Macleod Produced by Alice McKee For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Francis Poulenc (1899 – 1963) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001lkym And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z