Music Matters Folgen

Kate Molleson is joined by musicians in Kabul to discuss the new restrictions on women singing - the ban, from the Afghan Ministry of Education, has caused concern that the Taliban is increasing its influence in the Afghan government as western forces prepare to pull out of the country. With contributions from Ahmad Sarmast, Director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, and pianist Maram Abdullah.Following the death earlier this month of the conductor James Levine, Kate hears from the American music critic Anne Midgette and conductor Kenneth Woods as they discuss the moral questions surrounding Levine’s recorded legacy in the light of the controversy over his personal life.Ahead of World Autism Awareness Week, Kate talks to Adam Ockleford, who has worked extensively in the field of autism and music, and to Joe Stollery, a composer who regards his own autism as both a help and a hindrance in his musical life. And, the broadcaster Jennifer Lucy Allan speaks about her new book 'The Foghorn's Lament', which documents the role this coastal 'music' has played in our life and culture.

Photo credit: Dario AcostaAs the Countdown to Spring reaches zero, Tom Service hears from the South African soprano Golda Schultz as she looks back on a year where the few musical performances that have taken place have assumed a special importance, including her memorable appearance at the 2020 Last Night of the Proms, as well as last month's live stream of Weber's Der Freischutz from Munich. And she optimistically predicts a new flourishing of arts and music after the pandemic.The sound artist Jez riley French introduces us to a range of alternative spring sounds as heard by species much tinier than ourselves: the creaks and groans of a tree as it bends in the wind and fills anew with sap; the sound of an apricot begin eaten from the perspective of an ant; and the remarkable noise made by pond weed photosynthesising.And, one of the most charismatic of violinists around today, Gil Shaham joins the programme from New York to talk about his new recording of the Beethoven and Brahms Concertos with The Knights – a chamber orchestra collective who bring a fresh approach to these two familiar works. Gil describes the links and the contrasts between the two works with live demonstrations on his fiddle.

Tom Service presents the latest news from across the classical music industry. He speaks with the French soprano Sandrine Piau about her new CDs of music by Handel, Haydn and Strauss, and to cellist Steven Isserlis about his latest projects, including CDs of music by John Tavener and the music of Proust's salons. Tom also profiles Scottish composer Geraldine Mucha, who lived most of her life in Prague, with contributions from Mucha's son John, Chris Vinz of the Geraldine Mucha Archive, and Prague-based American pianist Patricia Goodson, who has played many of Mucha's works. Plus, a preview of the 2021 conference of the Association of British Orchestras this week with its Director Mark Pemberton, Vanessa Reed of New Music USA on programming new and underrepresented voices, and Sarah Derbyshire, Chief Executive of Orchestras Live, on a new UK report Orchestras in Healthcare.