Forum des auditeurs passionnés et critiques de France Culture

Sometimes a musical work of art is so perfect, so magnificent, that it’s almost impossible to remember the work that’s gone on, behind the scenes, from the early drafts to the anxiety and relief of the first performance. That’s certainly true of a masterpiece such as Bach’s St Matthew Passion. But writer James Runcie wants us to think about what went on in Bach’s mind while he was creating that magnificent Passion, and he’s written both a play and a novel about it. The novel, his twelfth, is called The Great Passion and it was published earlier this year; it was also broadcast on Radio 4 just before Easter.

James is an award-wining film-maker, playwright and artistic director who has worked at the BBC, the Bath Literary Festival and Southbank Centre. He’s also the author of the Grantchester detective novels, now filming their eighth series for television. The hero’s a young priest, who solves crimes while wrestling with problems of religious faith - and religion is something James Runcie knows all about, as his father was Archbishop of Canterbury.

In conversation with Michael Berkeley, James Runcie talks about the influence of his father, and of his unconventional mother, who was a pianist and piano teacher; in their household, he says, religion was optional, but music was compulsory. He shares his passion for the works of Bach in three of his choices, including the Matthew Passion. And he talks movingly about the death of his wife, the drama director Marilyn Imrie, from Motor Neurone Disease. When she was no longer able to speak, he played her music.

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3 - Produced by Elizabeth Burke

La violoniste Nicola Benedetti révèle ses influences culturelles les plus importantes et les expériences qui l'ont conduite à devenir une des plus grandes musiciennes classiques du monde. Ayant commencé à jouer du violon à l'âge de quatre ans, Nicola a remporté le concours du jeune musicien de l'année de la BBC à 16 ans. Elle est renommée pour la fougue dont elle fait preuve lors de ses concerts, pour ses enregistrements des grands concertos pour violon et pour son travail avec des compositeurs contemporains, notamment sa collaboration avec le compositeur Wynton Marsalis, qui a remporté un Grammy. Elle est également très impliquée dans des programmes éducatifs qui utilisent la musique classique pour améliorer la vie des jeunes.

Pour This Cultural Life, Nicola Benedetti évoque son éducation dans le North Ayrshire et la façon dont ses parents italiens ont encouragé sa sensibilité musicale dès son plus jeune âge. Elle se souvient d'avoir écouté pour la première fois le Concerto pour violon de Brahms sur le chemin de l'école, un morceau qui l'a incitée à poursuivre sérieusement ses ambitions, devenant le chef du National Children's Orchestra à l'âge de huit ans seulement. Elle évoque l'influence du grand violoniste Yehudi Menuhin, dont elle a fréquenté l'école jusqu'à l'âge de 15 ans et aux funérailles duquel elle s'est produite en 1999. Nicola parle également de son travail avec le projet Sistema Scotland et de sa propre fondation Benedetti, qui promeut l'éducation musicale. Déterminée à promouvoir la musique classique contemporaine ainsi que le répertoire traditionnel, elle évoque son travail avec Wynton Marsalis et le jeune compositeur britannique Mark Simpson, qui ont tous deux écrit des concertos pour violon à son intention.

Productrice : Edwina Pitman

Traduit avec www.DeepL.com/Translator (version gratuite)

A man believes he has seen a murderous attack on a young woman reflected in a mirror. He then meets and falls in love with her.  With war calling him away, he tries to warn her of what he has seen. Stars Neil Dudgeon. Agatha Christie's whodunit dramatised by Mike Walker.

Fresh storytelling from first time writers and producers as part of BBC Introducing Arts supported by BBC Arts and Arts Council England.
Writer, broadcaster and musician Paul Dodgson presents two thought provoking short dramas from the next generation of dramatists.

Bud is written and performed by Darcey Ball. A moving drama about a young woman’s struggle to care for her mum. Also starring Elaine Claxton with sound design by Matthew Collington, script mentoring by Mike Akers and produced by Kyla Goodey and Laura Giles. Executive producer Jeremy Routledge. A Calling The Shots production.

Just like Riding a Bike is written, performed and composed by Will Ford. A failed 80’s indie singer appears as a sort of cosmic mentor to two twenty-somethings, and tries to get them to talk about their feelings. Also starring Beth Lilly and Max Cadman. Sound design by Jamie and Andre Jacquemin. The director was Alison Vernon Smith and it was a Pier Production for Screen South.

Presented and produced by Paul Dodgson for BBC Radio 4 Extra

JS Bach wrote his cantata Ich Habe Genug for the Feast of the Purification of Mary to be performed in Leipzig on 2nd February 1727.

The work is a retelling of the story of the old man Simeon who, waiting in the temple, was presented with the baby Jesus. As he held the baby in his arms, in Bach's version he says:
It is enough.
I have held the Saviour, the hope of all peoples,
In the warm embrace of my arms.
It is enough.

• Oboist George Caird recalls playing Ich Habe Genug at his father's funeral.
  
• Theologian Paula Gooder recalls the effect of putting her new born baby into the arms of an elderly relative.
  
• Danish music therapist Lars Ole Bonde tells how this music provided vital solace for him as a teenager growing up with a father suffering from depression.
  
• American Susan Dray remembers how the Cantata helped her when she was grieving for her baby.
  
• Ian Bostridge wonders why we never feel that we have "enough".
  

Producer: Rosie Boulton
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2018.

Patrick Maloney comes home one night with shocking news for his wife.
But it's not as big as the shock she's going to give him!
Jenny Lynch reads Roald Dahl's short story. Producer: Rosemary Watts

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1992.

George Fox, born in 1624 in Leicestershire, is best known as the founder of the Quakers. In early life he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and for a while he worked as a shepherd as well. But it was as a preacher travelling widely across the land that he made his name, and also received the most abuse. As he writes: "... the people fell upon me in great rage, struck me down and almost stifled and smothered me. And I was cruelly beaten and bruised by them with their hands, Bibles and sticks."

Nominating the dissenting George Fox is Ann Limb, chair of the Scout Association. Also in studio, Jonathan Fryer, editor of George Fox and the Children of the Light.

Matthew Parris presents, and the producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.

03:01 AM
Anonymous
Dominican hymn 'Hymnum novæ lætitiæ'

03:03 AM
Guillaume de Machaut (c.1300-1377)
Kyrie, from 'La Messe de Nostre Dame'

03:05 AM
Arvo Part (1935-)
Kyrie, from 'Missa syllabica'

03:13 AM
Arvo Part (1935-)
Gloria, from 'Missa syllabica'

03:16 AM
Anonymous
Gregorian gradual 'Audi filia'

03:22 AM
Helena Tulve (b.1972)
Hail Mary

03:23 AM
Tonis Kaumann (b.1971)
Ave Maria

03:30 AM
Anonymous
Gregorian chant 'Præfatio'

03:33 AM
Arvo Part (1935-)
Sanctus, from 'Missa syllabica'

03:34 AM
Anonymous
Pater noster

03:37 AM
Guillaume de Machaut (c.1300-1377)
Agnus Dei, from 'Messe de Nostre Dame'

03:40 AM
Arvo Part (1935-)
Agnus Dei, from 'Missa syllabica'

03:42 AM
Anonymous
Gregorian gradual 'Audi filia'

03:46 AM
Anonymous
Litany of all saints

03:52 AM
Part Uusberg (b.1986)
Mon âme a soif
Soo-Young Lee (clarinet), Taavi Orro (clarinet), Marten Altrov (clarinet), Vambola Krigul (percussion), Eda Peaske (harp), Johanna Vahermagi (viola), Indrek Leivategija (cello), Kadri Kukk (double bass), Vox Clamantis

04:09 AM
Anonymous
Dominican antifon 'Salve Regina'

04:13 AM
Traditional Estonian
Jewish tune

04:19 AM

Depuis sa création en 1996, Vox Clamantis, dirigé par Jaan-Eik Tulve, se consacre principalement à la musique européenne ancienne, avec un grand succès. Parallèlement, l'interprétation de compositions baltes contemporaines constitue un point fort important de son travail : des compositeurs de renom tels qu'Arvo Pärt et Erkki-Sven Tüür ont composé des œuvres pour le célèbre ensemble estonien. Son programme à l'église Laurentius reflète également cette dualité stylistique, lorsque les compositions contemporaines de Pärt s'opposent aux chants grégoriens du passé dans un contraste fascinant.

Traduit avec www.DeepL.com/Translator (version gratuite)

Seit seiner Gründung 1996 widmet sich Vox Clamantis um den Dirigenten Jaan-Eik Tulve mit großem Erfolg hauptsächlich der frühen europäischen Musik. Zugleich bildet die Aufführung zeitgenössischer baltischer Kompositionen einen wichtigen Schwerpunkt seiner Arbeit: Führende Komponisten wie Arvo Pärt und Erkki-Sven Tüür haben für das renommierte estnische Ensemble Werke komponiert. Und so spiegelt auch sein Programm in der Laurentius-Kirche diese stilistische Dualität wider, wenn Pärts Kompositionen der Gegenwart den gregorianischen Gesängen der Vergangenheit in faszinierendem Kontrast gegenüberstehen.
(Konzert vom 17. August, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, St. Laurentius)

Kammermusikwochenende: «Freiheit über alles»
Das 20. und 21. Jahrhundert im Dialog mit Beethovens Streichquartetten
25. und 26. September 2021, Vortragssaal Kunsthaus Zürich

On that night, Classical MPR broadcast a live performance of the orchestra, as it usually does on Friday nights. One thing was missing, however — the audience.

Amid concerns surrounding the coronavirus, the orchestra decided to perform without anyone in attendance, except for a few personnel. The historic concert was the result of the musicians of the orchestra still wanting to bring their regular Friday night live broadcasts to listeners at a time when they might need it most.

Ousley said it was hard to pick a favorite part of the broadcast because the entire evening was so unprecedented.

"It was such an emotional evening for all parties involved that it sounded like they were playing as though their lives depended on it," she said.

Because there wasn't an audience, the orchestra musicians applauded when the conductor, Juanjo Mena, and soloist, Kirill Gerstein, walked on stage. They also dressed in their concert black, treating it like any other performance. Mena also gave soloists individual bows, especially at the end of Dmitri Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony, in which many sections and principal players from the orchestra are featured. Although there wasn't an audience to cheer on the musicians, they gave one another boisterous applause.

When asked if there was a difference in how the musicians performed without an audience, Ousley emphasized their constant passion and musicality.

"I think they always plays their best, and all of the conductors and soloists we've interviewed this season have said what a joy it is to work with the Minnesota Orchestra," she said. "It's one of the things I love about hosting the live broadcasts."

Lucie is joined by Dr Amanda Babington of the Royal Northern College of Music to find out more about the history of the type of bagpipe we know as the musette.

Online talk on the Musette, its history and repertoire, with our special guest Amanda Babington. She played the instrument live, showed us how it works and demonstrated the allure of its unique sonority. Drawing on her own research, she explained how a French instrument ended up in the West Highland Museum in Fort William (Scotland!).