Music Room (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Music Room is an innovative British television
music series that presents classical musicians and the pieces they play in a manner normally associated with popular music programming. Filmed in a bare studio with only a scaffold cube for a set, the programme strips away the glamour that often marks classical music as an elitist art form. The series is scheduled for broadcast in Canada (on Knowledge
) and in South America (on Film&Arts).
.
British television
Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
music series that presents classical musicians and the pieces they play in a manner normally associated with popular music programming. Filmed in a bare studio with only a scaffold cube for a set, the programme strips away the glamour that often marks classical music as an elitist art form. The series is scheduled for broadcast in Canada (on Knowledge
Knowledge Network
Knowledge , formerly Knowledge Network, is a Canadian English language public educational cable television network in the province of British Columbia...
) and in South America (on Film&Arts).
Programme description
The format is a simple alternation of performance and conversation, in which soloists discuss issues and subjects arising from their selected pieces of music. There is also one item in which a particular piece is treated to basic musical analysisMusical analysis
Musical analysis is the attempt to answer the question how does this music work?. The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst, and according to the purpose of the analysis. According to Ian Bent , analysis is "an...
.
Episodes
- 1. Julian Lloyd WebberJulian Lloyd WebberJulian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist who has been described as the "doyen of British cellists".-Early life:Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and his wife Jean Johnstone . He is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber...
(cellist) plays J.S. Bach's Adagio from Cantata no. 156 (arr. Julian Lloyd Webber), William Lloyd WebberWilliam Lloyd WebberWilliam Southcombe Lloyd Webber was an English organist and composer.-Life and career:Lloyd Webber was born in London...
's In the half-light, Frank BridgeFrank BridgeFrank Bridge was an English composer and violist.-Life:Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others...
's Scherzetto for cello and piano, the Scherzo pizzicato & Marcia from Benjamin BrittenBenjamin BrittenEdward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Sonata for cello and piano, Gabriel FauréGabriel FauréGabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
's Élégie and ‘In haven’ from Edward ElgarEdward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's Sea PicturesSea PicturesSea Pictures, Op. 37 is a song cycle by Sir Edward Elgar consisting of five songs written by various poets. It was set for contralto and orchestra, though a distinct version for piano was often performed by Elgar...
(arr. Julian Lloyd Webber) - 2. Lang LangLang LangLang Lang may refer to:* Lang Lang , Chinese pianist* Lang Lang, Victoria, a town in Australia* Lang Lang River, a river in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia* A character from the Japanese manga Steam Detectives-See also:...
(pianistPianistA pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
) plays Frédéric ChopinFrédéric ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
's - Etude (op.10 no.3)Étude Op. 10, No. 3 (Chopin)Étude Op. 10 No. 3, in E major, is a study for solo piano composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1832. It was first published in 1833 in France, Germany, and England as the third piece of his Études Op. 10. This is a slow cantabile study for polyphonic and legato playing. Chopin himself believed the...
, The Moon chased by the colourful clouds (arr. Wang Jian-Zhong ), 'Evocation' from Isaac AlbénizIsaac AlbénizIsaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
's IberiaIberia (Albéniz)Iberia is a suite for piano composed between 1905 and 1909 by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. It comprises four books of three pieces each; a complete performance lasts about an hour and a half....
, Precipitato from Sergei ProkofievSergei ProkofievSergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
's Piano sonata no.7 and the Allegro assai from Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Piano sonata no.23: ‘Appassionata’. - 3. Nicola BenedettiNicola Benedetti- Early life and the Yehudi Menuhin School :Benedetti was born in West Kilbride, North Ayrshire to an Italian father and a Scottish mother. She started to learn the violin at the age of four...
, (violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist), Gabriel FauréGabriel FauréGabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
's Après un rêve (arr. Mischa Elman), Largo molto rubato from James MacMillan's From Ayrshire, Allegro brusco from Sergei ProkofievSergei ProkofievSergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
's Violin sonata no.1, Blues: Moderato from Maurice RavelMaurice RavelJoseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
's Sonata for violin and piano no.2 and the ChaconneChaconneA chaconne ; is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and...
from J. S. Bach's Partita for solo violin no.2. - 4. Alison BalsomAlison BalsomAlison Louise Balsom is an English trumpet soloist.-Early life:Balsom was born in Hertfordshire. She attended the Tannery Drift Primary School, then the Greneway Middle School and the Meridian School, all in Royston, Hertfordshire...
(trumpeter) plays Claude DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
's SyrinxSyrinx (Debussy)Syrinx is a piece of music for solo flute which Claude Debussy wrote in 1913 . It was the first significant piece for solo flute after the Sonata in A min composed by C. P. E. Bach exactly 150 years before , and it is the first such solo composition for the modern Böhm flute, perfected in 1847...
, Jean-Baptiste ArbanJean-Baptiste ArbanJoseph Jean-Baptiste Laurent Arban was a cornetist, conductor, composer, pedagogue and the first famed virtuoso of the cornet à piston or valved cornet...
's Variations on Bellini’s ‘Norma’ (‘Casta diva’), Georges Enesco's Légende, Toru TakemitsuToru Takemitsuwas a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...
's Paths and arrangements of If I were a bellIf I Were a Bell"If I Were a Bell" is a song composed by Frank Loesser for his 1950 musical Guys and Dolls.-Guys and Dolls:In the show Guys and Dolls, it is sung by the character Sister Sarah, originally performed by Isabel Bigley on Broadway, and memorialized on the original cast album. On a bet, Sky Masterson...
and Autumn leavesAutumn Leaves (song)"Autumn Leaves" is a much-recorded popular song. Originally it was a 1945 French song "Les Feuilles mortes" with music by Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert. Yves Montand introduced "Les feuilles mortes" in 1946 in the film Les Portes de la Nuit...
. - 5. Leif Ove AndsnesLeif Ove AndsnesLeif Ove Andsnes is a Norwegian pianist and an ardent champion of the works of Edvard Grieg.-Biography:He studied with Jiří Hlinka at the Bergen Music Conservatory and made his debut in Oslo in 1987, in Britain at the Edinburgh Festival with the Oslo Philharmonic in 1989, and in the United States...
(pianistPianistA pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
) plays ‘Norwegian’ and ‘Folktune’ from Edvard GriegEdvard GriegEdvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
's Lyric piecesLyric PiecesLyric Pieces is a collection of 66 short pieces for solo piano written by Edvard Grieg. They were published in 10 volumes, from 1867 to 1901...
, Andante from Leoš JanáčekLeoš JanácekLeoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
's In the mistsIn the MistsIn the Mists is a piano cycle by Czech composer Leoš Janáček, the last of his more substantial solo works for the instrument. It was composed in 1912, some years after Janáček had suffered the death of his daughter Olga and while his operas were still being rejected by the Prague opera houses...
, ‘Promenade’ and ‘Gnome’ from Modest MussorgskyModest MussorgskyModest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's Pictures at an exhibition, ‘Sirens of the deluge’ and ‘Farewells (after Janacek)' from György KurtágGyörgy KurtágGyörgy Kurtág is a Hungarian composer of contemporary music.- Biography :György Kurtág was born in Lugoj in the Banat region, Romania.In 1946, he began his studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he met his wife, Márta, and also György Ligeti, who became a close friend...
's Játékok, ‘Of foreign lands and peoples’, ‘A curious story’, ‘Blind-man’s bluff’, ‘A child falling asleep’ and ‘The poet speaks’ from Robert SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's KinderszenenKinderszenenKinderszenen , Opus 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838. In this work, Schumann provides us with his adult reminiscences of childhood. Schumann had originally written 30 movements for this work, but chose 13 for the final version...
and Frédéric ChopinFrédéric ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
's Ballade no.1Ballades (Chopin)Frédéric Chopin's four ballades are one-movement pieces for solo piano, composed between 1835 and 1842. They are some of the most challenging pieces in the standard piano repertoire....
. - 6. Emma Johnson (clarinetist) plays Fughetta from Gerald FinziGerald FinziGerald Raphael Finzi was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a song-writer, but also wrote in other genres...
's Five Bagatelles, Zart und mit Ausdruck from Robert SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's FantasiestückeFantasiestückeRobert Schumann's Fantasiestücke, Op. 12, are eight pieces for piano, written in 1837. Schumann titled the work inspired by the 1814 collection of novellas Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier by his favourite author, E. T. A...
, Adagio from Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Clarinet concertoClarinet Concerto (Mozart)Mozart's Clarinet concerto in A major, K. 622 was written in 1791 for the clarinetist Anton Stadler.It consists of the usual three movements, in a fast–slow–fast form:# Allegro# Adagio# Rondo: Allegro...
, her own piece, Georgie, Grazioso from Leonard BernsteinLeonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
's Sonata for clarinet, John DankworthJohn DankworthSir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE , known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist...
's Picture of Jeannie and Alamiro Giampieri's Carnevale di Venezia. - 7. Natalie CleinNatalie CleinNatalie Clein is a British cellist. Her mother is a professional violinist. Her sister is the actress Louisa Clein....
(cellist) plays Song of the birds (arr. Pablo Casals), Prelude and Bourée from J.S.Bach's Cello suite no.3Cello Suites (Bach)The Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach are some of the most performed and recognizable solo compositions ever written for cello...
, Ástor PiazzollaÁstor PiazzollaÁstor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music...
's Grand Tango, 'Jewish Song' from Ernest BlochErnest BlochErnest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer.-Life:Bloch was born in Geneva and began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon afterwards. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe...
's From Jewish life and Zoltan KodalyZoltán KodályZoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
Sonata for cello. - 8. Evelyn GlennieEvelyn GlennieDame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, DBE is a Scottish virtuoso percussionist. She was the first full-time solo percussionist in 20th-century western society.-Early life:Glennie was born and raised in Aberdeenshire...
(percussionist) plays Rich O’Meara's Restless, Steve ReichSteve ReichStephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
's Clapping musicClapping MusicClapping Music is a minimalist piece written by Steve Reich in 1972. It is written for two performers and is performed entirely by clapping....
(arr. Evelyn Glennie), Ástor PiazzollaÁstor PiazzollaÁstor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music...
's Libertango, Nebojša Živkovic's Concert piece no.1, Leigh Howard StevensLeigh Howard StevensLeigh Howard Stevens is a marimba artist best known for developing, codifying, and promoting the Stevens technique or Musser-Stevens grip, a method of independent four-mallet marimba performance based on the Musser grip...
's Rhythmic caprice and an improvisation of her own.
External links
- Music Room at Sky ArtsSky ArtsSky Arts and Sky Arts HD is the brand name for a group of art-oriented television channels offering 18 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music...
- Music Room at Polyphonic Films`