Classical Destinations Arts Special with Simon Callow (Series 2)

The episode kicks off with the TV Theme, Classical Destinations written by Paul Terracini and performed by Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

In this episode, we focus on the music of France starting with Maurice Ravel, one of the most extraordinary composers who ever lived. A person of exceptional refinement and imagination who created worlds of sound that had no precedent and which really never have been imitated.

This episode takes us to Russia. Rachmaninov is of course one of the great names of Russian 20th century music, a supreme pianist, a great conductor, and a sublime composer whose work only becomes more and more popular with every passing year.

Music by Rachmaninov is so remarkable, especially in the 20th century that we’re devoting another whole other episode to Russia.

In this episode, we are looking at the great question of nationalism in music which became the dominant event of music in the 19th century and continued into the 20th. We look at nationalist Hungarian composers, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály.

Sir Edward Elgar, as English as a composer could possibly be, he was born in the west country of England and he relished the landscape in which he grew up.

When Handel arrived in England he was shortly followed, as it were, by George the First who came to the English throne, a Hanoverian king, and Handel did everything he could to ingratiate himself with the new monarch.

In this episode, we’re looking at cities rather than composers, and the first city, the fabled city of light is Paris. Maurice Ravel was not from Paris at all, he never really felt himself to be a Parisian, but he did of course live and work there.