Ontelly

Composer of the Week

Logo for Composer of the Week

Exploring the life and works of composers. Get in touch... [email protected] Call: 03700 100 300

logo for Composer of the Week - Aaron Copland
Composer of the Week - Aaron Copland

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Aaron Copland through the prism of five key relationships, without which his musical career might have gone very differently

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Addinsell and Coward
Composer of the Week - Addinsell and Coward

Donald Macleod explores the music of Richard Addinsell and his close contemporary Noel Coward, who both composed songs and music for stage and screen from the 1920s to the 1960s

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Albert Roussel (1869-1937)
Composer of the Week - Albert Roussel (1869-1937)

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Albert Roussel, who created a highly individual style and was regarded in his time as one of the most important French composers of his generation

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Composer of the Week - Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Alessandro Scarlatti, who is seen as the founder of Neapolitan opera. He appraises the composer's legacy, asking if we should re-evaluate his importance

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)
Composer of the Week - Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Alexander Borodin, a polymath, who was one of Russia's great research chemists as well one of the 19th century's most enchanting composers

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)
Composer of the Week - Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)

Donald Macleod and Russian music expert Alexander Ivashkin explore the work of Alfred Schnittke, the USSR's last great composer. He was an enigmatic man and had a very individual musical style

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Amy Beach (1867-1944)
Composer of the Week - Amy Beach (1867-1944)

Donald Macleod explores the music of Amy Beach - the first truly 'American' composer, and one of the most original, distinctive and gifted US musicians of the early 20th century

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Andre Campra (1660-1744)
Composer of the Week - Andre Campra (1660-1744)

Donald Macleod and musicologist, harpsichordist and conductor William Christie explore the life and work of Andre Campra, to mark the 350th anniversary of the French composer's birth

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Anton Bruckner
Composer of the Week - Anton Bruckner

The life of the 19th century Austrian composer, famous for his grand symphonies. Donald Macleod focuses on Bruckner's time in Vienna, contrasting self-doubt with epic orchestral works

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Anton Webern
Composer of the Week - Anton Webern

Donald Macleod explores the life and works of Anton Webern, who studied under Arnold Schoenberg and became one of the best-known serialist composers

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Antonin Dvorak
Composer of the Week - Antonin Dvorak

Donald Macleod gives a comprehensive account of Dvorak's famous stay in America from 1892 to 1895, where he was director of the National Conservatory

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
Composer of the Week - Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

Donald Macleod explores Dvorak's long and frustrating career in opera and discovers a wealth of great music rarely heard outside the composer's Bohemian homeland

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Antonio Salieri (1750-1825)
Composer of the Week - Antonio Salieri (1750-1825)

Donald Macleod surveys the life and music of Antonio Salieri, a celebrated and highly influential composer of his day, but who is remembered for supposedly poisoning Mozart

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Composer of the Week - Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Donald Macleod explores Vivaldi's large and little-heard musical catalogue, revealing an energetic and diverse composer

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Composer of the Week - Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)

Donald Macleod follows the glittering career of Arcangelo Corelli, whose meteoric rise to stardom in Rome was followed by fame and honour across all of Europe

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Arnold Schoenberg
Composer of the Week - Arnold Schoenberg

Donald Macleod explores Schoenberg's position as an outsider and musical innovator

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Composer of the Week - Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)

Donald Macloed explores the life and music of Argentinian composer and bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla. Although he is best-known for his tango music, he also worked with classical and jazz styles

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Bach in Cothen
Composer of the Week - Bach in Cothen

Donald Macleod explores Bach's six years in service at the court of Cothen. It gave him the opportunity to explore fresh musical ground and open himself up to new styles of music making

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Bach in Weimar
Composer of the Week - Bach in Weimar

Donald Macleod charts the period from 1708 to 1717, which Bach spent working at the ducal court in Weimar

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Bebop
Composer of the Week - Bebop

Donald Macleod is joined by writer and broadcaster Geoffrey Smith to explore the jazz mode of bebop. It emerged in the 1940s, out of different combinations of musicians, styles and places

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Bela Bartok (1881-1945)
Composer of the Week - Bela Bartok (1881-1945)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Bela Bartok, pianist, collector as well as - along with Liszt - Hungary's greatest composer

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Composer of the Week - Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Donald Macleod explores Benjamin Britten's music in the light of two enduring influences - his life partner, the tenor Peter Pears and his beloved native county of Suffolk

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975)
Composer of the Week - Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975)

Donald Macleod charts the fascinating life of Bernard Herrmann, the composer of music for Hitchcock's Psycho and many other groundbreaking film scores

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959)
Composer of the Week - Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959)

Donald Macleod on the life and works of the 20th century Czech composer. He was educated in the Romantic style but embraced the avant-garde as a composer, taking influence from jazz and neo-classicism

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Carl Maria von Weber
Composer of the Week - Carl Maria von Weber

Donald Macleod explores Weber's instrumental works

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Composer of the Week - Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Carl Nielsen. Through his work as conductor, teacher, writer and composer, he became the most influential Danish musician of his time

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Carl Orff (1895-1982)
Composer of the Week - Carl Orff (1895-1982)

Donald Macleod is joined by Professor Michael Kater, author of the book Composers in the Nazi Era, to unravel the complex life and work of Carl Orff

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Cecile Chaminade and Augusta Holmes
Composer of the Week - Cecile Chaminade and Augusta Holmes

Donald Macleod, with the help of experts Marcia Citron of Rice University and Karen Henson of Columbia University, explores the life and work of Cecile Chaminade and Augusta Holmes

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Charles Ives
Composer of the Week - Charles Ives

Donald Macleod explores the work of the 20th century modernist American composer, whose work gained in significance after his death in 1954. Son of an army bandleader, he experimented with bitonality

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Charles Mingus
Composer of the Week - Charles Mingus

Donald Macleod and biographer Brian Priestley explore the life and music of the great jazz double bass player Charles Mingus

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Christoph Willibald Gluck
Composer of the Week - Christoph Willibald Gluck

Donald Macleod explores the life of the 18th century German composer, who was Marie Antionette's music teacher. Famous for reforms in the field of opera, Orfeo ed Euridice is his most famous work

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Claude Debussy
Composer of the Week - Claude Debussy

Donald Macleod examines the life and work of Claude Debussy

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Composer of the Week - Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

Donald Macleod visits Venice for this special series

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Couperin
Composer of the Week - Couperin

Angela Hewitt plays a selection from Francois Couperin's Pieces de clavecin.

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Court of King James I/VI
Composer of the Week - Court of King James I/VI

Donald Macleod explores the music and musicians of James' time through five key moments in his reign

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)
Composer of the Week - Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of French composer Darius Milhaud. Once a member of the influential group Les Six, he was prolific, but known for a handful of works

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Drottningholm
Composer of the Week - Drottningholm

Donald Macleod explores the history and music connected with the Drottningholm Opera House in Stockholm. It flourished in the 18th century, especially during the reign of King Gustavus III

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Composer of the Week - Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

Donald Macleod explores the life of the Norwegian composer who was much-loved in Britain

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Composer of the Week - Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

Stephen Johnson joins Donald Macleod to explore the landscapes of Herefordshire and Worcestershire that inspired much of the music of anniversary composer Edward Elgar

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Einojuhani Rautavaara (b.1928)
Composer of the Week - Einojuhani Rautavaara (b.1928)

Donald Macleod presents a survey of the life and music of Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, with excerpts specially recorded for the programme by Rautavaara himself

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Eric Coates
Composer of the Week - Eric Coates

Donald Mcleod explores the life and works of the British composer Eric Coates, who is perhaps best known today for composing the theme to the film The Dam Busters

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Erik Satie (1866-1925)
Composer of the Week - Erik Satie (1866-1925)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Erik Satie, arguably one of the most peculiar, enigmatic and misunderstood figures in musical history

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Ernest John Moeran (1894-1950)
Composer of the Week - Ernest John Moeran (1894-1950)

Donald Macleod explores the work of Moeran, who was a pioneer in the collecting of British folk music. Greatly influenced by Delius and Vaughan Williams, much of Moeran's output is inspired by nature

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn (1809-1847 and 1805-1847)
Composer of the Week - Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn (1809-1847 and 1805-1847)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, two sibling prodigies who were composers, pianists and conductors, and whose music had much in common

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Composer of the Week - Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of German pianist, composer, organist and conductor Felix Mendelssohn

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Francesco Cavalli
Composer of the Week - Francesco Cavalli

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of unsung baroque hero Francesco Cavalli, best known for composing more than 40 operas

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Francois Couperin
Composer of the Week - Francois Couperin

Donald Macleod explores the life and works of Couperin le Grand

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Franz Liszt
Composer of the Week - Franz Liszt

Donald Macleod explores the five different aspects of Liszt as a musical personality

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Composer of the Week - Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Donald Macleod is joined by writer and broadcaster Stephen Johnson to explore the highly productive 'Indian summer' of Schubert's final years

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Composer of the Week - Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Donald Macleod explores the important role the colourful individuals in Schubert's social circle had on him and his music, and how his decadent lifestyle contributed to his untimely death

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Franz Waxman
Composer of the Week - Franz Waxman

Donald Macleod explores the early life of Hollywood composer Franz Waxman

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Frederick Delius
Composer of the Week - Frederick Delius

Donald Macleod charts the life and music of Frederick Delius whose uncompromising artistic vision was matched only by the tragedy of his final years of illness

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Fryderyk Chopin
Composer of the Week - Fryderyk Chopin

Donald Macleod introduces music and stories from the life of Fryderyk Chopin

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Composer of the Week - Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)

Donald Macleod explores Chopin's highly creative final years, spent at his lover's retreat in Nohant

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Gabriel Faure
Composer of the Week - Gabriel Faure

Donald Macleod explores Faure's songs and chamber music, discovering some forgotten gems. The French composer is regarded as the master of the French art song, majoring in harmony

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)
Composer of the Week - Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)

Donald Macleod charts the life and work of Gabriel Faure. He's joined by the composer's biographer Jessica Duchen, pianist Billy Eidi, and the leading authority on Faure's music, Jean-Michel Nectoux

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
Composer of the Week - Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Italian opera dynamo Donizetti, a prolific composer who quickly achieved fame around the world

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Composer of the Week - Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)

Donald Macleod reviews the life and work of Telemann, most prolific composer of the baroque era, whose reputation, in his time, was even greater than that of his compatriot, Bach

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Composer of the Week - George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Handel in London: 5 Musical Walks. Donald Macleod explores the London Handel lived in

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Composer of the Week - George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Donald Macleod introduces one of Radio 3's 2008 Composers of the Year, making a complete survey of Handel's career, as documented by Handel's first biographer in 1760

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Composer of the Week - George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Donald Macleod explores Handel's oratorios, introducing many of the famous ones, as well as other lesser-known examples

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Composer of the Week - George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Donald Macleod and Suzanne Aspden of Oxford University focus on Handel the borrower of his own and others' music

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Composer of the Week - Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

Adored by some, hated by others, regardless of any opinion, these days Puccini's operas are repertory mainstays. Donald Macleod explores the composer's life and work

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Gioachino Rossini
Composer of the Week - Gioachino Rossini

Donald Macleod introduces the life and music of the Italian composer who wrote 39 operas, as well as sacred and chamber music. His best known works include Il barbiere di Siviglia and Guillaume Tell

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)
Composer of the Week - Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)

Donald Macleod is joined by Christopher Stembridge to explore Frescobaldi's life and work, setting the composer's music in the context of his times

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Giuseppe Verdi
Composer of the Week - Giuseppe Verdi

Donald Macleod looks at some of the personalities who were instrumental in helping Verdi achieve success

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Giuseppe Verdi
Composer of the Week - Giuseppe Verdi

Donald Macleod explores the operas of Verdi

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Gustav Mahler
Composer of the Week - Gustav Mahler

Donald Macleod surveys Mahler's last, eventful years, which were marked by both misfortune and personal success. With excerpts from all ten of Mahler's symphonies as well as historic audio excerpts

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Composer of the Week - Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Donald Macleod explores Mahler's early years - from his humble birth in the Bohemian backwater of Kaliste to his triumphant installation as director of the Vienna Opera at the age of 37

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006)
Composer of the Week - Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006)

Donald Macleod and composer George Benjamin explore the music of Ligeti, who came to prominence after his music was included in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Composer of the Week - Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

Donald Macleod discusses the music of Hector Berlioz with celebrated conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Heinrich Schutz
Composer of the Week - Heinrich Schutz

Donald Macleod explores the work of German composer Heinrich Schutz

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Composer of the Week - Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)

Donald Macleod explores Villa-Lobos's life by looking at five of the places which were important to him

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Composer of the Week - Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

To mark the 350th anniversary of Henry Purcell's birth, Donald Macleod and leading Purcell scholar Bruce Wood explore the composer's life and work

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Herbert Howells
Composer of the Week - Herbert Howells

Donald Macleod maps Howells's compositional roots, from an unprivileged Gloucestershire upbringing right back to the music of the Tudors

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Composer of the Week - Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Donald Macleod explores the final part of Stravinsky's life, considering the impact his experience of America had on the man and his music

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909)
Composer of the Week - Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909)

Donald Macleod explores Isaac Albeniz's piano music, presenting it in its original form and in a variety of other guises

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745)
Composer of the Week - Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745)

Donald Macleod traces Jan Zelenka's career at the opulent court of Dresden, which was famed for its art collections, lavish festivals, and extravagant religious ceremonies

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Jean-Philippe Rameau
Composer of the Week - Jean-Philippe Rameau

Donald Macleod explores the life and works of French Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, whose revolutionary Treatise on Harmony still forms the basis of much music theory teaching today

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Jean Sibelius
Composer of the Week - Jean Sibelius

Donald Macleod commemorates the 50th anniversary of Finnish composer Sibelius's death

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782)
Composer of the Week - Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782)

Donald Macleod introduces music and stories from the life of Johann Christian Bach, today best-known as the youngest son of Johann Sebastian, but in his day, the most famous Bach of all

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Johann Pachelbel
Composer of the Week - Johann Pachelbel

Donald Macleod looks at the life and music of this little-known German composer, whose life and music, aside from his world-famous Canon, remain obscure

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Johann Sebastian Bach
Composer of the Week - Johann Sebastian Bach

Donald Macleod looks at five decades of Bach's music, revealing a picture of the composer's evolving style

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Johannes Brahms
Composer of the Week - Johannes Brahms

Donald Macleod explores Brahms's body of chamber and instrumental works, capturing the composer in five distinct, eclectic and turbulent periods of his life

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - John Ireland (1879-1962)
Composer of the Week - John Ireland (1879-1962)

Donald Macleod explores the music and life of the British composer John Ireland

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - John McCabe (1939- )
Composer of the Week - John McCabe (1939- )

Donald Macleod introduces a series featuring discussion and specially-recorded performances by British composer and pianist John McCabe

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - John Rutter (b.1945)
Composer of the Week - John Rutter (b.1945)

Donald Macleod talks to Britain's most famous producer of carols, John Rutter, and explores with him a career that goes far beyond those small-scale choral works for which he is best known

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - John Tavener (1944-)
Composer of the Week - John Tavener (1944-)

Donald Macleod explore the life and work of maverick British composer John Tavener. His work is notable for its pared-down beauty and intense spiritual nature

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - John Woolrich
Composer of the Week - John Woolrich

John Woolrich talks to Donald Macleod about what drew him towards composing, the way in which his works form a dialogue with the music of the past, and his love of the shadowy world of the viola

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Jonathan Harvey (1939-)
Composer of the Week - Jonathan Harvey (1939-)

Donald Macleod explores the music of Jonathan Harvey, in the company of the composer himself

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Composer of the Week - Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

The life and work of Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, with a focus on his often neglected operas. Presented by Donald Macleod

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Composer of the Week - Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Joseph Haydn, the bicentenary of whose death is marked in 2009

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Composer of the Week - Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Donald Macleod investigates many aspects of Haydn's turbulent personality, including commercial opportunism, double dealing, penny pinching and matrimonial misery

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Composer of the Week - Kurt Weill (1900-1950)

Donald Macleod explores the life of Kurt Weill. A composer who divides opinion, for some Weill is a writer of show tunes, while for others he represents the European theatrical innovators of the 1920s

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Leonard Bernstein
Composer of the Week - Leonard Bernstein

Donald Macleod explores Bernstein's life and work - as an inexhaustible conductor, educator, performer and personality

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Leos Janacek (1854-1928)
Composer of the Week - Leos Janacek (1854-1928)

Donald Macleod explores the brilliant, tempestuous last five years of the life of Leos Janacek, a composer who has been described as classical music's 'anti-prodigy'

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Lord Berners
Composer of the Week - Lord Berners

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of the colourful and eccentric British composer Lord Berners. While he behaved as a very English gentleman, his compositions had a distinctive European slant

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Louis Spohr (1784-1859)
Composer of the Week - Louis Spohr (1784-1859)

Donald Macleod reassesses Louis Spohr's reputation, arguing that we should give him more credit than he often receives

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Composer of the Week - Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

An exploration of the last 12 years of Beethoven's career

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Composer of the Week - Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Donald Macleod considers how Beethoven was affected by the various crises in his life. He focuses on the music and events in and around five significant years, beginning in 1803

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Manuel de Falla
Composer of the Week - Manuel de Falla

Donald Macleod explores the life of Manuel de Falla, from his Andalusian beginnings, to his final days in Argentina

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Composer of the Week - Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Donald Macleod explores the music Ravel wrote in connection with the people around him

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Michael Haydn
Composer of the Week - Michael Haydn

Donald Macleod explores the works of Michael Haydn

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Miklos Rozsa (1907-1995) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)
Composer of the Week - Miklos Rozsa (1907-1995) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)

With film music historian Jon Burlingame and conductor John Mauceri, Donald Macleod explores the lives and music of two composers best known for providing the soundtrack to Hollywood's Golden Age

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
Composer of the Week - Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Modest Mussorgsky, a troubled, radical musical genius whose life was cruelly cut short at the age of 42

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Monteverdi to Rossini - Italian Opera
Composer of the Week - Monteverdi to Rossini - Italian Opera

As part of the BBC's focus on opera in 2010, Donald Macleod explores two centuries and more of Italian opera, from Monteverdi to Rossini

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925)
Composer of the Week - Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of the now largely forgotten Moritz Moszkowski. He became one of the most successful composers of his day of lighter salon music

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Music at Versailles
Composer of the Week - Music at Versailles

Donald Macleod explores the music that was performed at the Palace of Versailles before the French Revolution in 1789

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Nicolay Yakovlevich Myaskovksy (1881-1950)
Composer of the Week - Nicolay Yakovlevich Myaskovksy (1881-1950)

Donald Macleod explores the life and works of Russian composer and music critic Nicolay Myaskovsky

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov
Composer of the Week - Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Ole Bull (1810-1880)
Composer of the Week - Ole Bull (1810-1880)

Donald Macleod is joined by biographer Harald Herresthal to explore the life and work of Norwegian composer, violinist and musical revolutionary Ole Bull

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Olivier Messiaen
Composer of the Week - Olivier Messiaen

Donald Macleod and biographer Nigel Simeone explore the live and work of French composer and organist Olivier Messiaen

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Opera-Comique
Composer of the Week - Opera-Comique

Donald Macleod and Karen Henson explore the world of the Opera-Comique - a type of opera, an institution and also a building - unravelling the intricacies of 19th-century Parisian operatic life

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Osvaldo Golijov
Composer of the Week - Osvaldo Golijov

Donald Macleod meets a composer anointed by American critics as 'the saviour of classical music', and whose diverse background has given him a distinct musical voice

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Paul Hindemith
Composer of the Week - Paul Hindemith

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Paul Hindemith, charting his rise and fall

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Purcell's Contemporaries
Composer of the Week - Purcell's Contemporaries

Donald Macleod introduces the composers of Restoration England who, from today's perspective, stand in Henry Purcell's shadow

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Composer of the Week - Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Donald Macleod takes a series of snapshots of a period that lay at the centre of Tchaikovsky's creative life, from 1876 to 1890

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Composer of the Week - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Donald Macleod investigates a little-known 'lost decade' in Tchaikovsky's life - a period the composer spent aimlessly wandering around Europe writing songs, chamber works and religious choral music

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Composer of the Week - Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Donald Macleod surveys Vaughan Williams's operas, a neglected area of his work

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Reinhold Gliere (1875-1956)
Composer of the Week - Reinhold Gliere (1875-1956)

Donald Macleod and Gerard McBurney chart Reinhold Gliere's life and career, from his beginnings in Kiev to his later prominent position in Moscow as both compser and teacher

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Composer of the Week - Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Richard Strauss, once hailed as 'the outstanding living composer'. His eclectic style blurred the boundaries between Romanticism and 20th century music

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Composer of the Week - Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Donald Macleod explores the music and stories from five distinct years of Strauss's life, from the 19-year-old composer's first forays as a professional composer, to the final works of an old man

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Richard Wagner
Composer of the Week - Richard Wagner

Donald Macleod explores the life and controversial work of Richard Wagner. His life was every bit as much of a titanic saga as the epic music dramas which he created

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Composer of the Week - Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

Donald Macleod explores the dark sides of the controversial and ground-breaking composer Richard Wagner

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Robert Schumann
Composer of the Week - Robert Schumann

Donald Macleod charts the unique relationship between Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Composer of the Week - Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Robert Schumann. He uses the fascinating first-hand account of a man who knew the Romantic composer well - his first biographer Wilhelm von Wasielewski

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Russian Opera
Composer of the Week - Russian Opera

As part of the BBC's focus on opera in 2010, Donald Macleod explores the rich tradition of Russian opera, from Glinka in the early 19th century to Schnittke in the late 20th

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Composer of the Week - Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

Donald Macleod uncovers the real Samuel Barber, from his childhood experiences playing at his grandfather's factory to the failure of what was supposed to be his crowning achievement in music

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876)
Composer of the Week - Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876)

Donald Macleod presents a portrait of irascible and eccentric organist and composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley. A musician largely forgotten today, Wesley was highly rated by Gounod, Parry and Elgar

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Scott Joplin (1867-1917)
Composer of the Week - Scott Joplin (1867-1917)

Donald Macleod looks at the African-American composer, a pioneer of the ragtime style

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Composer of the Week - Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Donald Macleod explores Prokofiev's music for stage and screen, with excerpts from the majority of his opera and ballet scores, and a good selection of his film and theatre music

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Composer of the Week - Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)

Donald Macleod on the life of the Russian composer, a late champion of the Romantic style

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Composer of the Week - Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of the Russian composer, pianist and conductor Sergei Rachmaninov

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Sibelius - The Rest is Silence? (The Years 1925-1957)
Composer of the Week - Sibelius - The Rest is Silence? (The Years 1925-1957)

Donald Macleod explores the myths and mysteries behind Sibelius's last, so-called 'silent' decades. With extracts from the composer's diary as well as a variety of rare pieces

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1945)
Composer of the Week - Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1945)

Donald Macleod and musicologist Lewis Foreman on the early 20th century British composer

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Spanish Baroque (1600-1750)
Composer of the Week - Spanish Baroque (1600-1750)

Donald Macleod shines a spotlight on the brilliant, but little-known musicians of 17th and 18th-century Spain and uncovers a hidden treasure-trove of masterpieces

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Stamitz
Composer of the Week - Stamitz

Donald Macleod tells the eventful story of Johann Stamitz and his two sons, Carl and Anton. During the 18th century, Stamitz was one of the most famous and celebrated names in music

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Stephen Sondheim (1930-)
Composer of the Week - Stephen Sondheim (1930-)

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim joins Donald Macleod to discuss his life and work

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Steve Reich (b.1936)
Composer of the Week - Steve Reich (b.1936)

Donald Macleod talks exclusively to one of the world's most celebrated living composers, Steve Reich, and presents music spanning his remarkable musical career

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - The MacDowell Colony (1907-)
Composer of the Week - The MacDowell Colony (1907-)

Donald Macleod explores the musical history of the MacDowell Colony, an artistic residency programme founded in 1907 by American composer Edward MacDowell

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - The Neapolitan Golden Age
Composer of the Week - The Neapolitan Golden Age

Donald Macleod explores the remarkable music of the Neapolitan school of composers of the 17th and 18th centuries

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Thomas Arne (1710-1778)
Composer of the Week - Thomas Arne (1710-1778)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Thomas Arne, one of British music's most lively characters. He is remembered mainly for Rule Britannia and his setting of Shakespeare's Where the Bee Sucks

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)
Composer of the Week - Thomas Tallis (1505-1585)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Tudor composer and organist Thomas Tallis. He served at the Chapel Royal under four monarchs and grappled with political and religious upheaval

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Tomas Luis de Victoria
Composer of the Week - Tomas Luis de Victoria

Donald Macleod is joined by Jeremy Summerly to explore the life and works of Victoria

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (1671-1750/51)
Composer of the Week - Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (1671-1750/51)

Donald Macleod explores Albinoni's life and work, discovering a composer whose music deserves to be far better know than it largely it is

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Verismo
Composer of the Week - Verismo

Donald Macleod is joined by Italian opera expert Roger Parker to explore the influence of verismo - a mode of realism - in opera, from Verdi to the present day

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Vincent d'Indy
Composer of the Week - Vincent d'Indy

Donald Macleod explores the music and life of a man who is not a household name nowadays, but in his own time was celebrated for his composing and was a hugely influential musical educator

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - William Alwyn
Composer of the Week - William Alwyn

Donald Macleod explores the range of music Alwyn created during his long and prolific career, which embraced film scores as well concert hall works

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - William Byrd (1543-1623)
Composer of the Week - William Byrd (1543-1623)

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of William Byrd. He composed beautiful church music and inventive keyboard and vocal music, but was also a complex man who pushed religious mores to the limit

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - William Walton (1902-1983)
Composer of the Week - William Walton (1902-1983)

Donald Macleod follows William Walton through the distinct eras of his life and explores the many sides to the man and his music

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Composer of the Week - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Donald Macleod explores the life and works of Mozart, arguably the most influential and enduringly popular composer of the Classical era

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Composer of the Week - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Donald Macleod explores Mozart's years spent in Vienna, which featured both creative triumph and personal tragedy

Details
logo for Composer of the Week - Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967)
Composer of the Week - Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967)

Donald Macleod explores the music of Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly, who lived and worked against a backdrop of unprecedented social and political turbulence

Details