classical

The London Ear – Alex Ross

December 8th, 2008 by Russell Davies

Here's a further bid for timeliness from Speechification. It's another of Ben Thompson's interviews for Resonance - this time with Alex Ross, who's just won the Guardian First Book prize with The Rest Is Noise, which is magnificent. You see? Topical! You can hear Mr Thompson straying outside his comfort zone with all this classical stuff, and you can hear Mr Ross glancing around the Resonance studio feeling that he's a long way from NPR and The New Yorker, but it all works rather splendidly. Encore. MP3 here.

Presenter: Ben Thompson
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Listen: [MP3]

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Key Matters

May 24th, 2008 by Russell Davies

The Speechification crew were at the BBC this week, showing them what we were up to, hoping they wouldn't hate it. They were thoroughly charming and helpful, especially with news on new features coming soon which mean it won't be such a struggle to uncover who actually made the programmes we all love. There does seem to be lots of good stuff around the corner. But this Key Matters programme is an illustration of what still makes Listen Again so frustrating. It's a lovely programme, fifteen minutes about what makes the key of E flat major so distinctive, and as soon as you stumble across it you want to listen to the four programmes that preceded it. And you can't. They've gone. Curses. Oh well, at least we captured this one. MP3 here.

Update: Speechification listeners are marvels. If you look in the comments you'll see that 'Riffle' has the remaining programmes. I've grabbed them from him and here they are: C major, D minor, B flat, F sharp.

Presenter: Ivan Hewett
Producer: Rosy Bolton
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Listen: [MP3]

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Building a Library

March 6th, 2008 by Steve Bowbrick

What do I learn from Radio Three's Building a Library? I learn that, though I've been building (randomly accumulating, really) my own library for twenty-odd years, I know practically nothing about classical music. I learn that the potential for variation in the delivery of a piece of music is essentially limitless and yet quite often undetectable to my ears.

I learn that there are people in the world (well, Piers Burton-Page Andrew McGregor, really) who know too much about classical music. I learn that I don't own any of the really good classical recordings (that's what you get for choosing albums from the bargain bin by the door) and I learn that one person's passion for and understanding of a subject can be really awe-inspiring.

This edition is about Bartok's Violin Concerto No. 2. Here's the MP3. Building a Library now has a podcast and, amazingly, it really works - even though the copyright rules limit the length of clips in the MP3 so the podcast version is a fraction of the length of the broadcast version. Another real joy from your national broadcaster.

Presenter: Piers Burton-Page
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Listen: [MP3]

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The Page Turners

January 4th, 2008 by Russell Davies

Fifteen splendid minutes about the people who turn pages for musicians during live concerts - the ultimate job where the greatest achievement is not to be noticed. Googling the programme reveals this page from the production company, but yields no more information than the BBC programme page. Googling the producer, Simon Hollis, reveals that he's also made a previous speechification favourite - A Nasty Case Of The Vapours. Before doing this it would never have occurred to me to follow the work of a particular producer, but I wish there was a way I could. The MP3 is here. (Steve - we should add Mr Hollis to the tags for the 'vapours' programme)

Producer: Simon Hollis
Production Company: Brook Lapping
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Listen: [MP3]

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