The Joy of Classical Music
Join Andrew Johnstone for a deep exploration of classical music in all its glories and complexities. The show covers everything from the sweetest melodies to the cutting edge of the avant-garde, spanning the deep past to the freshest contemporary works. Each episode aims to reveal the joy and richness of classical music in its many forms.
Episodes
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 177 - New Adventures in Music 12
New Adventures in Music is a series within a series devoted to the thrill of musical discovery and the joy of listening. This week I’m focusing on three works – a brand new album of Liszt works by Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva, the Tallis Scholars legendary 1980 recording of Gregorio Allegri’s Have Mercy, and Ukrainian composer Victoria Poleva’s Simurgh-Quintet, a work that was inspired by a 13
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 176 - The Dove Descending
Released on Nonesuch records in 1966, The Dove Descending is an album of choral works by the Canby Singers. It was greeted with little fanfare and quickly fell into obscurity where it remains to this day. But obscurity does not mean unworthy. The Dove Descending is a masterpiece and well due a rediscovery.
The Canby Singers perform Lennon and McCartney - Chorus: "Last Night I Said" (Please, Plea
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 175 - Glenn Gould's 1955 Recording of The Goldberg Variations
I’ve never been terribly attracted to Bach’s music, but that all changed the first time I heard Gould’s recording. My tastes are modernist and Gould’s contemporary interpretation of Bach’s work hit all the right notes for me and I still clearly remember the excitement that I felt as I listened. But it was more than that......Gould took me out myself, and those kinds of musical experiences are rare
Ep 174 - The Intersection of Pop, Rock and Classical
Over the course of this Podcast series I’ve delved into all kinds of odd corners. Composers inspired by esoteric spirituality and science fiction, music of the paranormal and the strange world of outsider composers to name but a few. Then there’s one of my favourite episodes - the search for the Cloud Atlas Sextet - the fictional work at the heart of one of my favourite novels, David Mitchell’s Cl
Ep 173 - The Life and Times of Germaine Tailleferre
Unlike Loused Ferranc, there was little support from either family or husbands for Germaine Taillefrre. Nevertheless, this supremely talented composer found her way and led the vanguard of the new European music that arose from the wake of the first world war.
The Foundation Philharmonic Orchestra performs Germaine Tailleferre - Petite Suite.
Harpist Claudia Antonelli performs Germaine Taillef
Ep 172 - Louise Farrenc - A Woman Beyond Her Time
Born in an age when women were largely excluded from the world of classical music, Louise Farrenc was an anomaly. Though her talent was considerable, talent alone was not enough to penetrate the male dominated institutions of the 19th century - and here luck was her side. Unusually for the time, her parents supported her in every way they could, as did her husband. Then there was her indomitable s
Ep 171 - New Adventures in Music 10
New Adventures in Music is a series within a series about the thrill of musical discovery and the joy of listening. This week I’m playing selections from new albums by composers Cecelia McDowall, Gao Ping and David Sisco, the Santa Fe Chorale and guitarist Sean Shibe.
The Santa Fe Desert Chorale perform Shawn Kirchner - Sweet Rivers.
The Rudolfus Choir perform Cecilia McDowall - A Tree is A Son
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 170 - Nothing but Nicolai Kapustin
Last week’s episode featured two Jazz influenced classical works by Ukrainian Soviet composer Nicolai Kapustin. Energised by the joy and verve of his style, this week I’ve decided to dig a little deeper into his repertoire and devote a whole episode to his music.
Nikolai Kapustin performs Kapustin – Impromptu No.2.
Ludmil Angelov and Daniel Del Pino perform Nicolai Kapustin – Paraphrase on Dizzy
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 169 - The Intersection of Classical and Jazz
This week I’m broadcasting from the intersection of Classical and Jazz and on the menu is a selection of jazz influenced classical works and and a classically influenced jazz work - that would be the featured work, Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige. And then there’s something else altogether, a modern classical-jazz fusion reimagining of Miles Davis’s 1971 jazz- rock fusion work Sivad courte
Ep 168 - An Hour (or so) with Composer Andrew March
This week I’m talking with English composer Andrew March. Winner of the inaugural Masterprize International Composing Competition in 1998, we’ll be listening a selection of works from his extensive compositional catalogue as well as that Masterprize winning work: Marine – à travers les arbres.
How Long Oh Lord.
Marine – à travers les arbres.
Amoration.
Elegy on Sudden Loss.
Eagle Wood.
Exp
Ep 167 - New Adventures in Music 9
New Adventures in Music is a series within a series about the thrill of musical discovery and the joy of listening. This weeks new and releases include 2 songs from French tenor Cyrille Dubois new album So Poétique !, 3 selections from Doulas Moore’s opera Giants in the Earth, a track from the London Sinfonia’s new album Eden: The Music of Edward Picton-Turbervill and 3 tracks from a recent album
Ep 166 - Indigenous
This week, it’s a hour of music bridging Indigenous and Western musical traditions. There’s music from Brazil, Aotearoa, Australia and the United States and the featured work was inspired by the composers Wisconsin childhood in an Indigenous American community: Gloria Coates Indian Sounds - Symphony Number 5.
São Paulo Symphony Orchestra and Choir perform Heitor Villa-Lobos: Chôros No. 3
Hannah
Ep 165 - New Adventures in Music 8
New Adventures in music is a series within a series about the thrill of musical discovery and the joy of listening and among the new albums featured in episode 8 is Infrastructure: The Songs of David Sisco, 55 from pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque and Milestones from Hugoi Ticiatti and the O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra. The featured work, a 3-movement choral work called Cycle of Peace, is from Te
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 164 - Three Works by Herbert Howells
This week it’s three works by English composer Herbert Howells - Here is the Little Door, String Quartet No. 3 "In Gloucestershire”, and the episodes focus - Hymnus Paradisi. Music journalist Simon Heffer described Hymnus Paradisi as “one of the great works of the whole musical canon, and one that stakes a claim to be the finest piece ever written in the English choral tradition.”
Choir of King'
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 163 - A Taste of India
A Taste of India
This weeks the music bridges the musical traditions of the Indian Sub-Continent and the West. There’s music from a 2023 album called You’ve Stolen My Heart: Songs From R D Burman’s Bollywood, 2 tracks from the pianist composer Michael Harrison’s recent Evening Light: Raga Cycles 1 album, and two works from Indian American composer Reena Esmail. The 100,000 selling TaReKiTa and a
Ep 162 - New Adventures in Music 7
New Adventures in music is mostly about new and recent releases and this weeks selections include two tracks from a 2023 album called Songs & Symphoniques: The Music of Moondog, 3 tracks from superstar pianist Hayato Sumino’s new album Chopin Orbit and a 4 movement work from Homegrown Melodies, the brand new album from reed quintet Burnt Reeds. From 2023 Sylvan Wind album Resonant Worlds, the feat
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 161 - The Outsiders
The Joy of Classical Music - Episode 161:
The Outsiders.
What is an outsider composer? Generally outsider composers occupy the fringes of the classical tradition. Creating music on their own terms, they are unconcerned with accepted rules, prevailing fashions or institutional approval. Some build entirely new physical instruments to reproduce the sounds they hear in their heads and they often cr
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 160 – Nothing but Rachmaninoff
Nothing but Rachmaninoff
The 1954 edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians said Rachmaninoff’s popular appeal was based on "uncomfortable" emotionalism and that his works lacked structural innovation. They predicted that he would soon be forgotten.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performs Rachmaninoff: Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14
Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff: Siren: Lilacs, Op. 21, No. 5
Ju
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 159 - Big In Japan
This weeks it’s an hour of music by Japanese composers. There’s two choral works by Makiko Kinoshita, some Buddhist cosmology from Toshiro Mayuzumi, two avant-garde pieces by Michiko Toyama, one of Japans most beloved pieces of music, a tribute to the Ainu people of Northern Japan, the first Western style work by a Japanese composer and we close with Tōru Takemitsu’s November Steps.
Hokkaido Uni
Ep 158 - New Adventures in Music 6
We open with guitarist Sara Reichert and close with Forward into Light, the title track from composer Sarah Kirkland Snider’s new album, Forward into Light. In between, we traverse a universe of new music by women.
Sara d'Ippolito Reichert performs Ida Presti - Danse Rythmique
Anne Vanschothorst - A Harp Note to Emily Dickinson
Barbara Hannigan performs Hildegard von Bingen - O virga mediatr
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 157 - Strange Dreams Part 2
This week, it’s more from the strange realms of unreality and the featured work is electronic pioneer Delia Derbyshire’s Invention for Radio No. 1: The Dreams, a work that sets recorded interviews of people describing their dreams against an electronic soundscape.
Stephen Drury performs John Cage - Dream
The Eric Whitacre Singers perform Eric Whitacre - Sleep
Delia Derbyshire - Invention fo
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 156 - Strange Dreams Part 1
Strange Dreams Part 1
Dreams have long provided fertile inspiration for composers and over the next two episode I’ll be playing music inspired by those strange dimensions of unreality where the fortunate might find a truer sense of themselves.
Ann Crumb performs George Crumb - The Sleeper.
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales performs Toru Takemitsu - Dreamtime.
Chen Yao - The Moon over the We
Ep 155 - Ukraine's Glory Has Not Perished
This episode of the Joy of Classical Music speaks to the resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of 250 years of Russian aggression and oppression. The featured composition is Valentyn Bibik’s Cry and Prayer, a work of memory dedicated to the victims of the Holodomor.
The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra perform Mykhailo Verbytsky - Ukraine’s glory has not perished.
The Odessa Philharmon
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 154 - New Adventures in Music 5
New Adventures in Music is a series within a series devoted to the thrill of musical discovery and the joy of listening. This week, there’s two new releases from Harmonia Mundi - Zachary Wilder’s Brooklyn Suite and The Toronto Symphony Orchestra: Béla Bartók and from that album, we’re featuring The Miraculous Mandarin, a controversial work that banned for decades across much of Europe. There’s als
Ep 153 - Henryk Gorecki Symphony No.3
This week I am doing something I have only ever done once before, devoting a whole episode to one piece of music - Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No.3. I’ll be playing the 1992 Nonesuch recording, which Robin Hilton, host of NPR’s All Songs Considered, described as revealing the "soul of the universe" in a "wondrous way”.
Nonesuch Selects: Flea talking about Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No.3.
Robert Gre
Ep 152 - New Adventures in Music 4
New Adventures in Music is a series within a series devoted to the thrill of musical discovery and the joy of listening. This week we have three new and recent releases as well as a tribute to French electronic music pioneer, the composer Éliane Radigue, who died on the 23rd of February this year. The episodes featured work episodes is her 1983 magnetic tape composition Elimination of Desires but
Ep 151 - Cloud Illusions - Part 3
This week, it’s cloud music from The Land of the Long White White Cloud.
Jian Liu performs David Hamilton - Clouds Over Aoraki.
The NZ Trio perform Jenny McLeod - Clouds
Nick Nock - Land Of The Long White Cloud
Gillian Whitehead: Clouds Over Mata-au
Ross Harris - Dark Clouds
Gillian Rivers, Ciaran Wright, Hunter Craig, and Josh Meads perform John Rimmer - Clouds over Pirongia
The Florida
Ep 150 - Cloud Illusions - Part 2
This weeks exploration of Clouds is all about the ephemeral, allegorical and esoteric.
Chanticleer perform Majel Connery - I am a Cloud
Jennifer Koh, Jaime Laredo and the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble perform Anna Clyne - Prince of Clouds
Hua Wang, Ge Zhao, Yang Di, Xuemeng Wu and Chen Yao perform Chen Yao - Cloud Herding
Apollo Chamber Orchestra perform John Luther Adams - Clouds of Forgetting, Clo
Ep 149 - Cloud Illusions - One
I was recently watching Jaques Tati’s 1967 film Playtime, which features some artful shots of modernist buildings silhouetted against azure blue skies dotted with white cumulus clouds.
It’s an evocative sight and I got to thinking about clouds and the way they interact with our psyche. The result is 3 episodes of music that examine clouds from a variety of perspectives and contexts. Based on Kāli
Ep 148 - New Adventures in Music 3
A series within a series, New Adventures in Music is devoted to the thrill of music discovery and the joy of listening. Each episode features a varied selection of music that culminates with a featured work. This weeks episode features selections from pianist Tiffany Poon’s new album Nature and quite a bit from a new album called Igor Stravinsky: Late Works. This weeks featured work is a cantata f
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 147 - New Adventures in Music 2
A series within a series, New Adventures in Music is devoted to the thrill of music discovery and the joy of listening. Each episode features a varied selection of music that culminates with a featured work. This weeks episode features three tracks from coloratura soprano Julie Roset’s wonderful new album M'a dit Amour (Love Said To Me) and from Symbiosis: A Tribute to Bill Evans, a new album by D
Ep 146 - New Adventures in Music 1
A series within a series, New Adventures in Music is devoted to the thrill of music discovery and the joy of listening. Each episode features a varied selection of music that culminates with a featured work. This weeks featured work is On the Transmigration of Souls by composer John Adams.
Exaudi Chamber Choir From Cuba - Son de la loma
Trio Matamoros - Son de la Loma
Bournemouth Sinfonietta pe
Ep 145 - The Americans
The other day I was reading an article about Duke Ellington who described his style of music as American. What is American Music? That’s a question to big to answer here but this weeks selections offer a taste of the Americanness in contemporary American art music.
Stacey Tappan performs Ricky Ian Gordon - Just an Ordinary Guy
Stacey Tappan performs Ian Ricky Gordon - What the Living Do
Missy
Ep 144 - Part 2 - New Discoveries and Recent Favourites
Over the next hour I’ll be taking a closer look at some of my favourite new discoveries from recent episodes and for this episode that means George Gershwin and Igor Stravinsky.
Michael Tilson Thomas performs George Gershwin - 3 Preludes for Piano
Daniil Trifonov and The Philadelphia Orchestra perform George Gershwin - Piano Concerto in F
Sinfonietta de Montréal perform Igor Stravinsky - Con
Ep 143 - Part 1 - New Discoveries and Recent Favourites
For the next two episodes I’m going to be taking a closer look at some new favourites and this week it’s music from pianists Julia Hamos and Jeremy Denk, songwriter and composer Marc Blitzstein, soprano Isabel Schicketanz and Sweden’s Gavle Symphony Orchestra.
Julia Hamos performs Charles Mingus - Myself When I Am Real
William Sharp and Steven Blier perform Marc Blitzstein - The New Suit
Isab
Ep 142 - Marc Blitzstein's Airborne Symphony
Last week's episode opened with Theory of Flight, the first part of the the first movement of Marc Blitzstein’s Airborne Symphony, a work I enjoyed so much that this week I’m doing something I have never done before, devoting an entire episode to one piece of music.
Leonard Bernstein, The New York Philharmonic, The Choral Arts Society and Orson Welles perform Marc Blitzstein: The Airborne Symphon
Ep 141 - Part 2 From the Concert hall to the Musical Stage
Beginning around the 1920s, composers in American and elsewhere began imagining a new kind of musical theatre, a fusion of styles that borrowed from established operatic traditions, Broadway and popular music and culture, but whatever it was going to be, it wasn’t going to happen overnight, it would be something that evolved over time. Over the next few weeks I’ll be exploring the new musical the
Ep 140 - Part 1 From the Concert Hall to the Musical Stage
Beginning around the 1920s, composers in American and elsewhere began imagining a new kind of musical theatre, a fusion of styles that borrowed from established operatic traditions, Broadway and popular music and culture, but whatever it was going to be, it wasn’t going to happen overnight, it would be something that evolved over time. Over the next few weeks I’ll be exploring the new musical the
Ep 139 - Part 4 The Best Classical Albums of 2025
The final episode of the Best Classical Albums of 2025 includes recommendations from Gramophone, Classical Radio Boston 99.5FM, The New York Times and NPR. Among the selections is composer Arthur Bliss’s joyous and lyrical Cello Concerto and Seelentrost, an album from soprano Isabel Schicketanz that explores early Baroque music about the soul.
Avi Avital with Between Worlds perform Manuel de Fal
Ep 138 - Part 3 The Best Classical Albums of 2025
Part 3 of the Best Classical Albums of 2025 includes recommendations from The New York Times, The Times and classical music streaming site Presto Music. Among this weeks selections is the Collected Works of Steve Reich, a 27 CD set that spans 6 decades and Songs of Passion, a collection of vocal and instrumental music by John Dowland and Henry Purcell.
Lutist Thomas Dunford performs John Dowland
Ep 137 - Part 2 The Best Classical Albums of 2025
In Part 2 of the Best Classical Albums of 2025 we will be hearing music from albums recommended by Gramophone, Substack writer Leah Broad, The Boston Globe, Apple Classical, and I Care If YouListen. Among the selections is an evocative album by pianist Julia Hamos called Ellis Island and the wondrous Yanga from YANGA: an album of Orchestral Works by Gabriela Ortiz.
Countertenor Hugh Cutting perfo
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 136 - Part 1 The Best Classical Albums of 2025
Over the next 4 weeks, I’ll be playing a wide selection of music drawn from numerous Best Classical Music of 2025 lists. In this episode we’ll be hearing music from albums recommended by NPR, The Guardian, Gramophone, The New York Times and Bandcamp. Among the selections is a personal favourite - Hallelujah Junction, an album by pianists Lukas Geniušas and Anna Geniushene
ROSALÍA - Mio Cristo Pi
Ep 135 - Part 4 Music Inspired By Science Fiction
Episode 135 of The Joy of Classical concludes our four part journey through the little known classical music genre of Music Inspired by Science Fiction. Following on from episodes 118, 119 and 122, this episode features music by composer Michael Daugherty and a little nostalgia as I examine my own love of science-fiction and the qualities it has brought to my life.
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra perf
Ep 134 - Paramusicology
This episode of the Joy of Classical Music is all about Paramusicology, an obscure and niche discipline of musicology that examines the spiritual, non-rational, intuitive and metaphysical aspects of music. In this episode we will be listening to music by dead composers channeled via a spiritualist medium, music from the transcendental realm, music from the otherworld and music inspired by arcane b
Ep 133 - Part 2 Nothing but Douglas Lilburn
This brief 2 Part series about Aotearoa’s greatest composer is not in anyway meant to be a comprehensive account of his life and work, just a sketch that shows something of his evolution as a composer. In Part 2, Lilburn reinvents himself twice, first introducing something of the contemporary and avant-garde into his work before giving himself over to the new medium of electronica. Lilburn: “Music
Ep 132 - Part 1 Nothing but Douglas Lilburn
Following in the footsteps of Episode 126 - The Cambridge Summer School of Music, Episode 132 is all about that episodes central figure, Douglas Lilburn. In this episode we explore something of Lilburn’s legacy but mostly we’ll be listening to a selection his of music from the 1930s, 40s and 50, works that demonstrate something of his evolution as a composer and his commitment to creating “a musi
Ep 131 - Contemplative Japan
This week it’s a selection of contemplative Japanese and Japanese inspired Music.
Mezzo-Soprano Mika Kaneko performs Yoshinao Nakada - Cherry Blossoms Lane.
Manchester Camerata performs Takashi Yoshimatsu - And Birds Are Still
Tampa Bay Symphony performs Alan Hovhaness - Fantasy on Japanese Wood Prints for Xylophone & Orchestra
Pacific Symphony Orchestra performs Toru Takemitsu - From Me Flo
Ep 130 - All Sorts
This week it’s an episode of All-Sorts, a concept and theme free selection of music from all over the world and from all across the timeline.
Soprano Elīna Garanča performs My Voice opens Your Heart, an aria from Act 11 of opera Samson and Delilah by Camille Saint-Saëns
Alice Sara Ott performs John Field - Nocturne No. 16 in C Major
Tenor Gérard Souzay Performs Claude Debussy - Beautiful Evenin
Ep 129 - Down Argentina Way
Down Argentina Way, the title of a 1940 Hollywood Musical starring Betty Grable, Don Ameche, and Carmen Miranda or as it is in this case, a selection of music from four Argentinian composers: Ariel Ramirez, Alicia Terzián, Astor Piazzolla, and Alberto Ginastera.
Ariel Ramírez - Misa Criolla - First Movement - Kyrie
Grupo Encuentros perform Alicia Terzián -Tres Retratos
Mercedes Sosa performs
Ep 128 - The Liturgical and Spiritual
This episode of The Joy off Classical Music explores Liturgical and Spiritual music and finds a place where these two disparate styles meet.
Dorothy Melton - I Want Jesus to Walk With Me.
Julia Lezhneva and Philippe Jaroussky perform
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - Stabat Mater: I. Stabat mater dolorosa.
The Latvian Radio Choir performs Arvo Part - Salve Regina
Choir of the Sretensky Monaste
Ep 127 - All-Sorts
It takes a lot of work to put together the themed episodes that make up so much of this series so sometimes it’s nice to to take a break and just a wander through the sunlit forests of musical imagination with no particular destination in mind. So with that out of the way, here’s an episode of theme free All-Sorts.
Antonín Dvorák · Boston Symphony Orchestra Rusalka, Op. 114, B. 203, Act I: Song t
Ep 126 - The Cambridge Summer School of Music
From 1946 to 1986 the Cambridge Summer School of Music was one of the nations most important arts events. Composers, students, musicians, music teachers and interested amateurs gathered at St Peters College just outside of Cambridge for a week of musical immersion. On a hot and humid Waipa day in January 1947 photographer Kathleen Reardon snapped a group of young composers sitting on the steps to
Ep 125 - Thoughtful and Reflective
This week, kick back, shut your eyes and let the music carry you away.
Xuefei Yang performs Ryuichi Sakamoto - Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence.
Caroline Shaw - The Mona Lisa, from the Ken Burns film Leonardo da Vinci (Original Score)
Arnold Bax ~ Elegiac Trio
The Chamber Choir of Europe performs Brahms - Es ist das Heil uns kommen her, Op. 29
Seong-Jin Cho performs Ravel: Pavane pour une infante
Ep 124 - Guitar All Around the World
This week its all about the classical guitar and we’ll be visiting with virtuoso guitarists from Croatia, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Aotearoa NZ, New York, Ukraine, Australia, Russia and China.
rina Kulikova performs Konstantin Vassiliev - 3 Lyric Pieces:
No.1: Elegie in memoriam Sergey Rachmaninov
From his album Van Gough Fire - Marko Topchii performs Antonio Ruiz-Pipó -Canción y Danza No. 1
P
Ep 123 - Music All Around the World
No big themes this week, just a selection of the interesting and unusual from all around the world with a focus on Chickasaw composer Jerod Tate’s Fire and Light, a work that explores Chickasaw identity and culture (The Chickasaw are indigenous to the South Western regions of the USA).
Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate - Lowak Shoppala', Act I: I. Fire and Light.
Phillip Martin performs Edward MacDo
Ep 122 - Music Inspired by Science Fiction Pt 3
My exploration of Music Inspired by Science Fiction is almost over with one more episode to come. Lost in space, strange alien phenomenon and nuclear armageddon, this episode is mostly about the existential crisis. Then there’s Ursula Le Guin and Elinor Armer’s ‘Season of Oling’ from their 2 CD set ‘Uses of Music in Uttermost Parts’ and Essa Pekka Salonen’s Floof, joyous works which are the exact
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 121 - The Year 1962 - 18-09-2025
Episode 121 visits the year 1962. Usually in these sorts of episodes I stick to works published in the given year - for this episode I’ve widened the parameters to include album releases and music events.
Sergio Franchi performs Ungrateful Heart on The Ed Sullivan Show
Igor Stravinsky - Movements For Piano And Orchestra
Ravi Shanker - Improvisation on the Theme Music from Pather Panchali
T
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 120 - Leftovers - 15-09-2025
This weeks it’s leftovers, music I’d selected for previous episodes and ran out of time to play. It’s an eclectic mix that takes us from the contemporary through to the medieval.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performs Vissi d’arte from Act 2 of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca.
Mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo performs Missy Mazzoli – A Thousand Tongues.
Jeremy Denk plays Doulz amis by Guillaume de Machaut.
The NZ S
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 119 - Music Inspired by Science Fiction Part 2 - 08-09-25
Part 2 - Music Inspired by Science Fiction
The centrepiece of Part 2 of Music Inspired by Science Fiction is David Bedford’s City and the Stars Cantata, a work inspired by Arthur C Clarke’s 1956 novel of the same name. There’s more from sci-fi icon Ursula Le Guin and an aria from Voyagers, a sci-fi themed opera by Philip Glass. And yes, there’s more Sci-Fi Classical to come.
1. Ursula Le Guin
The Joy of Classical Music EP 118 - Music Inspired by Science Fiction Part 1 - 01-09-2025
Classical Music inspired by science fiction is one of classical musics most obscure sub-genres and over the last few weeks I’ve been compiling a list works that I hope will offer new light on this hidden corner of art music.
Ursula Le Guin and David Bedford - Funeral Procession from the “Space Opera” Rigel 9
Tod Machover - Valis, Pt. 1: We Appear to be Memory Coils
Tod Machover - Valis, Pt.
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 117 - The Seldom Heard Sounds of South America Part 2 - 25-08-25
Episode 117 picks up where we left off in episode 116, in search of the seldom heard music of South America. Much of the music in the episode dates from the mid-20th century and follows a pattern we find in North America, Australia, and Aotearoa NZ, composers seeking to blend the physical and cultural landscapes of their homelands with inherited European musical traditions.
Anna Moffo performs
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 116 - The Seldom Heard Sounds of South America Part 1 - 18-08-25
Episode 116 of the The Joy of Classical Music finds us strolling through rarely explored territories of South American music in search of the interesting and unusual.
Gilberto Mendes - Motet in D minor Drink Coca-Cola
Gilberto Mendes – Santos Football Music
Cláudio Santoro - Ponteio
Silvestre Revueltas - Sensemayá
Alberto Ginastera: Five Popular Argentine Songs
Tania Leon - In Motion: 5th
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 115 - The Art of the Voice - 11-08-25
I finished last week's episode by saying that next week's episode would have no grand themes, just a collection of bits and bobs, music for music's sake. As it turns out, it’s another themed episode, The Art of the Voice. There’s bass singers, tenors, countertenors, sopranos, contralto’s baritones and a choir. And there’s a very special guest, Terry Huggins, a basso profundo from Geraldine.
Cleo
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 114 - The Wish to Understand and the Difficulty to Comprehend - 04-08-25
Episode 114 examines something of the profundity many of us feel when we look up at the night sky and lock gaze with the blazing eyes of a billion stars.
Eric Whitacre - Deep Field: 4 - Earth Choir
Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony: II. On the Beach at Night, Alone
Henry Dutilleux - Timbres, Espace, Mouvement (Starry Night): 1. Nebula
David Bedford - Some Stars beyond Magnitude 2,9
Joaquin R
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 113 - Nothing but Alfred Schnittke - 28-07-25
Musicologist Anna Andrushkevich: “Schnittke’s world puts the person who wishes to enter it to the test and does not admit everyone. But once one has understood this music, once one has submitted to its aim, it is impossible to return to one’s previous point of equilibrium.”
Alfred Schnittke - The Glass Harmonica Suite: I. The Musician and the Carillon
Alfred Schnittke - Faust Cantata: VI. False
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 112 - The Music of Ideology, Imperialism, Politics, Protest and Agitation - 21-07-2025
Episode 112 of the Joy of Classical Music revisits Episode 77, The Music of Ideology, Imperialism, Politics, Protest and Agitation and in part 2 we continue exploring a style of music designed to inflame our senses and arouse our passions.
Hayley Westenra - God Defend New Zealand
Risen from the Ruins - The National Anthem of East Germany
Hans Eisler and Bertolt Brecht - The Solidarity Song
Dmi
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 111 - Popular Songs and Themes From Film and TV - 14-07-25
Film scores have been a regular feature on this podcast since day one and with todays episode I’ve decided to explore the film music I usually leave out because well, very little of it is classical, though much of it was written by classically trained composers.
Gene Wilder performs - Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse - Pure Imagination
Anthony Newley Leslie Bricusse - Oompa-Loompa Doompa-Dee-
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 110 - Leftovers - 07-07-2025
The previous episode started out as Four Australian Women but ended up as three because I ran out of space for number four, composer, pianist, teacher and poet Miriam Hyde. In Episode 110 we catch up with Miriam along with a number of other composers whose music I’d selected for previous episodes but had to leave out because of time.
Miriam Hyde - Five Solos for Flute and Piano: Beside the Stream
The Joy of Classical Music Ep 109 - Three Australian Women - 30-06-2025
Episode 109 of The Joy of Classical Music explores the music of three Australian Women: Dulcie Holland, Peggy Glanville Hicks and Anne Boyd.
Jeanell Carrigan performs Dulcie Holland - Nocturne
The Chamber Choir Kammerchor Stuttgart performs Anne Boyd - As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams
The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra performs Peggy Glanville-Hicks - Sinfonia da Pacifica
Anne Boyd - Goldfish
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 108 - David Farquhar, From Cambridge With Love - 23-06-2025
Episode 108 of The Joy of Classical Music is a special extra long edition dedicated to Cambridge born composer David Farquhar, and by Cambridge, I mean Cambridge NZ, the cultural and sporting epicentre of the bucolic Waipa District. In this episode we explore David’s life and work with a special emphasis on 1964’s Cambridge Ode, a work commissioned to celebrate the towns centenary.
David Farquh
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 107 - We Don't Know How Lucky We Are - 16-06-2025
Episode 107 of The Joy of Classical Music is a celebration of all things Aotearoa NZ and besides some joyous and uplifting music, there’s a bit of nostalgia as well.
John Clark - We Don’t Know Lucky We Are
Jenny McCloud - A & P Show, the 3rd Movement from 1986 orchestral suite Celebrations
The Tower Voices NZ performs David Hamiltons - Lux Aeterna.
Ron Goodwin conducts the NZ Symphony Orc
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 106 - In Search of the Cloud Atlas Sextet - 09-06-25
At the heart of David Mitchell’s 2004 novel Cloud Atlas is a composition called The Cloud Atlas Sextet. What would it actually sound like? We listen to The Cloud Atlas Sextet as imagined by the creators of the 2012 film adaptation then compare it to the composition as described by the book.
From the Cloud Atlas Film Soundtrack - The Cloud Atlas Sextet for Orchestra.
Alexander Scriabin - White M
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 105 - A Bit of This and a Bit of That - 02-06-25
There are no overarching themes for Episode 105 of The Joy of Classical Music, just a bit of this and a bit of that, an eclectic mix of some of the music I’ve been enjoying and wanting to share with you.
Ivor Cutler - Beautiful Cosmos
Emily D’Angelo performs Freezing - Music Philip Glass, Words Suzanne Vega
Allan Starrett - Berceuse
Michael Habberman performs Kaikhosru Sorabji - Fantaisie Espa
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 104 - 1950 Formal Art Music in Transition - 26-05-25
It is often said that the 1950s was an era of bland conformity as a war ravaged world sought healing through normality and in many ways the 1950s were just that but the undercurrents of unease were strong and everywhere creatives were looking for new ways to examine the shifting tides of a rapidly changing world and in this episode we’ll be exploring some of the musical trends and experiments that
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 103 - May the Sun Rise up to Meet You - 19-05-25
Episode 103 of The Joy of Classical Music - May the Sun Rise Up to Meet You is an ode to the brightness, warmth, wonder of the sun and the wild, enduring joy of living in its light.
Mary Oliver’s poem The Sun
Jospeh Haydn - Sunrise, the first movement from his String Quartet No.4
Westminster Williamson Voices perform The Spheres, the first movement from Ola Gjeilo's Sunrise Mass.
Víkingur Óla
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 102 - The World Of Charles Ives - 12-05-25
In this episode of The Joy of Classical Music we visit with composer Charles Ives, his contemporaries, friends and those who were influenced by his work and uplifted by his encouragement and largesse.
Leonard Bernstein talks about Charles Ives 1908 composition The Unanswered Question.
Charles Ives - The Unanswered Question performed by the New York Philharmonia, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 101 - On the Theme of Transformation - Curated by ChatGPT - 05-05-25
Episode 101 of The Joy of Classical Music takes his cue from episode 100 where I used an algorithm to select the music, in that case YouTube’s algorithm, but in this episode were taking a step up with the much more sophisticated ChatGPT whose brief was the topic of Transformation.
Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67: I. Allegro con brio
Daniil Trifonov performs Bach: The Art Of Fugue,
The Joy of Classical Music – Ep 100 - Wherever The Wind May Take Me - 28-04-2025
An endless repository of treasure, YouTube has been an invaluable music discovery tool through the course of this series, so for episode 100 of The Joy of Classical Music, I decided to throw my fate to the winds and let YouTube's algorithm choose the music for me. The results are both surprising and pleasing.
Michael Habermann plays Kaikhosru Sorabji’s piano transcription of Prelude to the Night
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 99 - It's All About Aotearoa - 21-04-25
I try and do an episode on the composers and musical artists Aotearoa at least once every ten or so episodes and here we are again and as usual, it’s a diverse and interesting cross-section that speaks to the deep talent that inhabits these far away lands.
Briar Prastiti - White Red Black
Briar Prastiti - Pegasus for Symphony Orchestra (available on Soundcloud)
Oscar Natzka performs Tchaikovsk
The Joy of Classical Music - Ep 98 - Preludes, Overtures and Aria from Italian Opera - 14-04-25
In this episode of The Joy of Classical Music we are listening to preludes, overtures and arias from Italian Opera with a couple choruses and an intermezzo thrown in for good luck!
Giacomo Puccini - Un bel dì vedremo from Madame Butterfly
Giacomo Puccini - The Humming Chorus from Madame Butterfly
Giuseppe Verdi - La Traviata - The Opening Prelude
Giuseppe Verdi - La Traviata - Sempre libera
