Music Matters Folgen

Tom Service talks to director Richard Eyre, whose celebrated production of Verdi's La Traviata for the Royal Opera House has clocked up 25 years. Soprano Angela Gheorghiu was its first Violetta, and Tom catches up with her, and with one of the production's more recent Violetta's, Ermonela Jaho. And starting at the site where La Traviata was first performed, just south of Piccadilly, Professor Susan Rutherford takes Tom on a tour of the streets of London to learn more about the city’s historical soundscapes as they’re reflected in a new book she co-edited with the scholar Roger Parker – London Voices, 1820–1840. Staying in the world of opera, Tom is joined by both Roger and the director Annabel Arden to review a new book on Rossini's operas in their time. Tom also hears from its author, Emanuele Senici. And we pay tribute to the conductor Mariss Jansons who died this week, with an interview he gave in 2017.

This week Tom talks to composer Jonathan Dove as he celebrates six decades of composing. He also speaks to Lilian Hochhauser about her career promoting great Russian artists in the UK, including the composer Shostakovich, pianist Sviatoslav Richter and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. The percussionist Claire Edwardes and scholar Michael Hooper also join Tom from Sydney to review the Australian music scene and modernism in the 1960s and 1970s; and pianist Philip Thomas shows Tom an app for composing your own version of John Cage's Concert for piano and orchestra.

Tom Service visits conductor Jaap van Zweden in his office at the Lincoln Center in New York as he begins his second season as Music Director of New York Philharmonic. They talk about the orchestra's commitment to commissioning new music and the work he is doing on orchestral sound. Yuja Wang has been resident at the Barbican in London this week. Tom calls in on her there and learns about her love for Schubert and a new work written especially for her by John Adams. Meanwhile on the Southbank, Shakespeare's history plays are the focus for folk musician Ellie Wilson. She has composed music for Henry VI and Richard III. Tom finds Ellie at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse where she muses about writing music for Shakespeare and her new album featuring the music of Epping Forest. And, as we approach 12th December, Tom looks ahead to culture and music in the post-election landscape in the company of Ayesha Hazarika, Fraser Nelson and Fergus Linehan.