Artists, musicians and composers introduce fifty key pieces of classical music composed between 1950 and 2000. As featured in the BBC Radio 3 programme, Hear & Now.
Latest episodes
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11 min ↗
Witold Lutoslawski's Jeux Venitiens
Conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen celebrates the music of Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski and his landmark work from the early 1960s, Jeux Venitiens. Writer Paul Griffith…
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12 min ↗
Bernhard Lang's Differenz/Wiederholung 2
Composer Matthew Shlomowitz makes the case for Austrian composer Bernhard Lang’s Differenz/Wiederholung 2, a setting of texts by Gilles Deleuze, William Burroughs and Christian Loi…
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11 min ↗
Eliane Radigue's Songs of Milarepa
Author and journalist Rob Young nominates French composer Eliane Radigue's Songs of Milarepa, which combines drone-like electronics with the voices of Lama Kunga Rinpoche and Rober…
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12 min ↗
Heiner Goebbels's Surrogate Cities
Hear and Now presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch celebrates the music of German composer Heiner Goebbels, focusing on the Suite for Sampler and Orchestra from his 1994 cycle Surrogate Citi…
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12 min ↗
Gerard Grisey's Partiels
Composer Julian Anderson singles out Partiels for orchestra, from French spectralist Gerard Grisey’s cycle of works Les Espaces Acoustiques. With commentary from writer Paul Griffi…
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10 min ↗
Igor Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles
Composer John Woolrich nominates Stravinsky's last completed work with orchestra, Requiem Canticles. Commentator Paul Griffiths explains how this sparsely scored "pocket requiem",…
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13 min ↗
Per Norgard's Symphony No.2
Novelist and critic Philip Hensher makes the case for Per Norgard's Symphony No.2, one of the first works in which the Danish composer used his own 'infinity series' to determine m…
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13 min ↗
John Zorn's Carny
Critic and Hear and Now presenter Tom Service nominates American composer John Zorn’s Carny, a work for solo piano from 1989. The piece assembles a wide range of musical quotations…
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13 min ↗
Jean Barraque's Chant apres chant
Pianist Nicolas Hodges nominates Jean Barraque's Chant apres chant, one of just a handful of surviving works by this contemporary of Boulez and Stockhausen whose death in 1973 at t…
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11 min ↗
Alvin Lucier's I am sitting in a room
Sound artist Kaffe Matthews on Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room and how it’s provided an inspiration for her own work in the field of site specific music; David Toop explains…
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11 min ↗
Gyorgy Kurtag's Officium Breve
Critic and Hear and Now presenter Ivan Hewett nominates Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag's Officium Breve in memoriam Andreae Szervanszky for string quartet. With commentary from w…
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11 min ↗
Terry Riley's In C
Singer and conductor Paul Hillier celebrates Terry Riley’s icon of musical minimalism and monument to the experimental atmosphere of 60s West Coast America, In C. With commentary f…
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13 min ↗
Pauline Oliveros's V of IV
Composer and Hear and Now presenter Robert Worby singles out V of IV, an early electronic work by American pioneer Pauline Oliveros; author and journalist Rob Young provides the ba…
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10 min ↗
Gavin Bryars's Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet
Gavin Bryars's mould-breaking 1971 score Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet is a work which came about almost accidentally, when Bryars found a recording of an elderly homeless man s…
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14 min ↗
Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples of the Moon
Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden explains why Silver Apples of the Moon by the American composer Morton Subotnick stands out for him as a classic of early electronic music. Author and jour…
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13 min ↗
Giacinto Scelsi's Ygghur
Cellist Frances-Marie Uitti celebrates the music of Giacinto Scelsi, the Italian composer from an aristocratic background whose work looks to the East for inspiration. Ygghur is Sa…
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11 min ↗
Helmut Lachenmann's Mouvement
Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard champions the music of maverick German composer Helmut Lachenmann and his 1980s work for ensemble Mouvement (- vor der Erstarrung); conductor Richard…
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14 min ↗
Michael Nyman's The Draughtsman's Contract
Violinist Alexander Balanescu recounts his part in Michael Nyman's groundbreaking score for Peter Greenaway's 1982 feature film The Draughtsman's Contract; while commentator Gillia…
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11 min ↗
Hans Abrahamsen's Winternacht
Author Paul Griffiths singles out this early work for ensemble by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen, a sonic evocation of nature which takes its name from a poem by Georg Trakl; Gill…
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15 min ↗
Claude Vivier's Lonely Child
The soprano Barbara Hannigan celebrates Claude Vivier’s profoundly moving work for soprano and orchestra, Lonely Child. Vivier conceived the piece as one single melody, with the en…