1antimuzak
Sunday 19th February 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Mystery, Rumour and Deception: Mozart: Requiem.
Tom Service examines Mozart's Requiem, the composer's final masterpiece and a work shrouded in mystery, rumour and deception, not only thanks to Peter Schaffer's play Amadeus, but also because of stories deliberately spread by Mozart's wife Constanze.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Mystery, Rumour and Deception: Mozart: Requiem.
Tom Service examines Mozart's Requiem, the composer's final masterpiece and a work shrouded in mystery, rumour and deception, not only thanks to Peter Schaffer's play Amadeus, but also because of stories deliberately spread by Mozart's wife Constanze.
2antimuzak
Sunday 12th March 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle: Enter at Your Peril.
Tom Service explores Bluebeard's Castle, a one-act symbolist opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók that was first performed in 1918 and features just two characters - Duke Bluebeard and his latest wife Judith. Newly married, he brings her home to his murky castle for the very first time, where she finds a torture chamber, armoury, treasury, garden, and lake of tears. And unfortunately for Judith, it's not long before she discovers just what happened to those first three wives.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Bartok: Bluebeard's Castle: Enter at Your Peril.
Tom Service explores Bluebeard's Castle, a one-act symbolist opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók that was first performed in 1918 and features just two characters - Duke Bluebeard and his latest wife Judith. Newly married, he brings her home to his murky castle for the very first time, where she finds a torture chamber, armoury, treasury, garden, and lake of tears. And unfortunately for Judith, it's not long before she discovers just what happened to those first three wives.
3antimuzak
Sunday 26th March 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Stravinsky, the Puppet Master: Petrushka.
Tom Service explores Stravinsky's 1911 ballet Petrushka.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Stravinsky, the Puppet Master: Petrushka.
Tom Service explores Stravinsky's 1911 ballet Petrushka.
4antimuzak
Sunday 23rd April 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Once Upon a Time.- The Fairytale Operas of Judith Weir.
Tom Service delves into the deep (and often dark) worlds of Judith Weir's fairy-tale and folk-inspired operas, including Blond Eckbert and The Vanishing Bridegroom.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Once Upon a Time.- The Fairytale Operas of Judith Weir.
Tom Service delves into the deep (and often dark) worlds of Judith Weir's fairy-tale and folk-inspired operas, including Blond Eckbert and The Vanishing Bridegroom.
5antimuzak
Sunday 18th June 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Surround Sound: Tallis's Spem in alium.
Tom Service explores Tallis's Spem in alium, a colossal Renaissance masterpiece for 40 individual voice parts, arranged in eight groups of five voices, each situated all around the listeners. This was the original surround sound experience - one that came about not in 20th-century cinemas but in 16th-century churches.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Surround Sound: Tallis's Spem in alium.
Tom Service explores Tallis's Spem in alium, a colossal Renaissance masterpiece for 40 individual voice parts, arranged in eight groups of five voices, each situated all around the listeners. This was the original surround sound experience - one that came about not in 20th-century cinemas but in 16th-century churches.
6antimuzak
Sunday 25th June 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
All-American Ives?
Tom Service explores the music of maverick US composer and and church organist Charles Ives, who created a unique style on his own terms away from the contemporary music world while running insurance company Ives & Myrick.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
All-American Ives?
Tom Service explores the music of maverick US composer and and church organist Charles Ives, who created a unique style on his own terms away from the contemporary music world while running insurance company Ives & Myrick.
7antimuzak
Sunday 2nd July 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Secret Music: Byrd's Masses.
Tom Service explores William Byrd's three settings of the Catholic mass in Latin, which were composed during dangerous times for Roman Catholics during the reign of Elizabeth I.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Secret Music: Byrd's Masses.
Tom Service explores William Byrd's three settings of the Catholic mass in Latin, which were composed during dangerous times for Roman Catholics during the reign of Elizabeth I.
8antimuzak
Sunday 16th July 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Orchestral Manoeuvres.
As the world's greatest celebration of orchestras and orchestral music that is the BBC Proms gets underway, Tom Service has some questions... When did orchestras begin and why? Who decided they should have standardised sections of strings, woodwind, brass and percussion? Why did they seem to get bigger and bigger as the 19th century turned into the 20th? Why have so many of the great composers spent so much of their time writing for them? Are they still relevant to today's composers and what's their future? And to find out what it's actually like to play in an orchestra, an individual working together with sometimes 100 others, Tom talks to Beverly Jones, double bassist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Orchestral Manoeuvres.
As the world's greatest celebration of orchestras and orchestral music that is the BBC Proms gets underway, Tom Service has some questions... When did orchestras begin and why? Who decided they should have standardised sections of strings, woodwind, brass and percussion? Why did they seem to get bigger and bigger as the 19th century turned into the 20th? Why have so many of the great composers spent so much of their time writing for them? Are they still relevant to today's composers and what's their future? And to find out what it's actually like to play in an orchestra, an individual working together with sometimes 100 others, Tom talks to Beverly Jones, double bassist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
9antimuzak
Sunday 23rd July 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
What Makes the Organ So Mighty?
Tom Service takes on the largest instrument created by human hands: the organ. With the help of organist Anna Lapwood, Tom asks: what makes the organ so mighty? Why has it fascinated musicians from Bach to Procol Harum? Along the way, Tom will delve into the Delphian roots of the organ and we'll hear what its ancestor the Hydraulis sounded like, created in ancient Egypt. And we'll drop in on Madison Square Garden where Gladys Gooding entertained huge audiences at sports events for over 30 years, starting in the 1930s. Finally, we'll hear what makes the organ timeless and immortal in music by John Cage and Olivier Messiaen. All hail: the organ!
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
What Makes the Organ So Mighty?
Tom Service takes on the largest instrument created by human hands: the organ. With the help of organist Anna Lapwood, Tom asks: what makes the organ so mighty? Why has it fascinated musicians from Bach to Procol Harum? Along the way, Tom will delve into the Delphian roots of the organ and we'll hear what its ancestor the Hydraulis sounded like, created in ancient Egypt. And we'll drop in on Madison Square Garden where Gladys Gooding entertained huge audiences at sports events for over 30 years, starting in the 1930s. Finally, we'll hear what makes the organ timeless and immortal in music by John Cage and Olivier Messiaen. All hail: the organ!
10antimuzak
Sunday 1st October 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Strange Tuning.
Mozart's famous Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola makes its effect not least through the unusual tuning of the strings of one of the solo instruments. Mozart asks the viola player to retune the strings half a tone higher than is usual. A process known by musicians as scordatura. But what is the reason and what is the story behind this method of tuning instruments? Tom Service explains why scordatura is so significant and so effective.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Strange Tuning.
Mozart's famous Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola makes its effect not least through the unusual tuning of the strings of one of the solo instruments. Mozart asks the viola player to retune the strings half a tone higher than is usual. A process known by musicians as scordatura. But what is the reason and what is the story behind this method of tuning instruments? Tom Service explains why scordatura is so significant and so effective.
11antimuzak
Sunday 22nd October 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Unripe Cherries: Brahms' Symphony No 4.
Tom Service explores Johannes Brahms: Symphony No 4 in E minor, one of the most popular, played and performed works of all time.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Unripe Cherries: Brahms' Symphony No 4.
Tom Service explores Johannes Brahms: Symphony No 4 in E minor, one of the most popular, played and performed works of all time.
12antimuzak
Sunday 19th November 2023 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
The Old Testament of Music.
Tom Service explores Bach's extraordinary The Well Tempered Clavier, a series of 48 preludes and fugues for keyboard in all 24 major and minor keys. It's widely regarded as a towering achievement and a cornerstone of western art music, and which 19th-century German conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow famously described as 'the Old Testament of music' and generations of musicians and scholars have spoken of its monumental stature in the history and development of music. With help from American pianist Jeremy Denk, Tom lifts the lid on The Well-Tempered Clavier to discover its secrets.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
The Old Testament of Music.
Tom Service explores Bach's extraordinary The Well Tempered Clavier, a series of 48 preludes and fugues for keyboard in all 24 major and minor keys. It's widely regarded as a towering achievement and a cornerstone of western art music, and which 19th-century German conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow famously described as 'the Old Testament of music' and generations of musicians and scholars have spoken of its monumental stature in the history and development of music. With help from American pianist Jeremy Denk, Tom lifts the lid on The Well-Tempered Clavier to discover its secrets.
13antimuzak
Sunday 21st January 2024 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Turangalila.
Olivier Messiaen's epic Turangalila Symphony made Pierre Boulez want to vomit, Francis Poulenc thought it was atrocious and Igor Stravinsky said all that was needed to write it was enough manuscript paper, but its composer wrote all 80 minutes of it as a love song, and a hymn to joy. Tom Service explores the symphony, premiered in 1949 by Leonard Bernstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, looking at why it divided opinion so much, and what it means today.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Turangalila.
Olivier Messiaen's epic Turangalila Symphony made Pierre Boulez want to vomit, Francis Poulenc thought it was atrocious and Igor Stravinsky said all that was needed to write it was enough manuscript paper, but its composer wrote all 80 minutes of it as a love song, and a hymn to joy. Tom Service explores the symphony, premiered in 1949 by Leonard Bernstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, looking at why it divided opinion so much, and what it means today.
14antimuzak
Sunday 28th January 2024 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
The Musical Universe of Maurice Ravel.
Tom Service investigates the musical world of Maurice Ravel, one of his favourite composers.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
The Musical Universe of Maurice Ravel.
Tom Service investigates the musical world of Maurice Ravel, one of his favourite composers.
15antimuzak
Sunday 18th February 2024 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune: Half Man, Half Myth, All Debussy.
Tom Service explores the heady soundworld of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, a 10-minute piece of music that apparently broke all the existing rules of harmony and yet is as minutely detailed as any miniature. He also finds out what flautists make of the famous opening solo from Gareth Davies, principal flute player with the London Symphony Orchestra, who demonstrates Debussy's strange magic on a flute of the time.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune: Half Man, Half Myth, All Debussy.
Tom Service explores the heady soundworld of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, a 10-minute piece of music that apparently broke all the existing rules of harmony and yet is as minutely detailed as any miniature. He also finds out what flautists make of the famous opening solo from Gareth Davies, principal flute player with the London Symphony Orchestra, who demonstrates Debussy's strange magic on a flute of the time.
16antimuzak
Sunday 3rd March 2024 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Impassioned arguments: Elizabeth Maconchy's string quartets.
Tom Service surveys the 13 string quartets of Elizabeth Maconchy, whose work slipped out of fashion and out of view in the latter part of her remarkable career With a cultural resurgence in all things mid-century, Tom chats to Janell Yeo of the Bloomsbury Quartet and considers whether the time is now ripe for a reclamation of Elizabeth's place at our musical top table.
Time: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes long)
Impassioned arguments: Elizabeth Maconchy's string quartets.
Tom Service surveys the 13 string quartets of Elizabeth Maconchy, whose work slipped out of fashion and out of view in the latter part of her remarkable career With a cultural resurgence in all things mid-century, Tom chats to Janell Yeo of the Bloomsbury Quartet and considers whether the time is now ripe for a reclamation of Elizabeth's place at our musical top table.
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