Private Passions - William Orbit

Michael Berkeley's guest is the extraordinarily versatile musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer William Orbit, whose celebrated remixes carry his signature electronic sounds and techniques, making him much sought after by major artists. He produced Madonna's album Ray of Light, and numbers Blur, All Saints, Sugababes, Katie Melua and Finley Quaye among other clients. In the past few years he has also released several albums of his own, and in 2007 he composed his first suite for symphony orchestra. He works as part of the art collective Luxor, with the ballet dancer Anna-Mi Fredriksson and the artist Pauline Amos. His eclectic personal musical choices include an early 16th-century motet by the French composer Jean Mouton, an aria from the 1735 opera 'Polifemo' by the Italian composer Nicolo Porpora, and another from Bellini's opera 'La sonnambula', sung by Maria Callas; part of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, played by David Shifrin and the Emerson Quartet; the opening movement of Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements, and the last part of the music Benjamin Britten wrote in the 1930s for the GPO film 'Night Mail'. There's also an example of William Orbit's own work: his arrangement of the 'Aquarium' movement from Saint-Saens' 'Carnival of the Animals'.