The Lebrecht Interview

BBC Radio 3

Norman Lebrecht interviews a major cultural figure

  1. 20/09/2024

    Wasfi Kani, founder of Pimlico Opera and Grange Park Opera

    Please note: This programme includes very strong, racist language describing the racial challenges Wasfi Kani faced when growing up in London. In this insightful interview, Norman Lebrecht sits down with Wasfi Kani, the visionary opera director and founder of Grange Park Opera. Kani, known for her innovative approach to opera and her commitment to making the art form accessible, shares her journey from tech entrepreneur to leading figure in the world of classical music. The conversation delves into her unique initiatives, including her work with the Pimlico Opera, which takes opera into prisons, and her mission to democratize opera for wider audiences.

    43 min

  2. 20/09/2024

    Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen

    Norman Lebrecht talks to the Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen, about her meteoric rise to fame as one of the greatest operatic voices alive today. In this episode, Norman Lebrecht interviews Lise Davidsen, the rising star of the opera world renowned for her powerful voice and commanding stage presence. Davidsen discusses her meteoric rise to fame, her experiences performing on some of the world’s greatest stages, and the challenges and joys of interpreting some of the most demanding roles in the operatic repertoire. This conversation offers a glimpse into the life of a modern opera singer at the top of her game.

    44 min

  3. 20/09/2024

    American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas

    Norman Lebrecht interviews the American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas about life, death, music and his memories of Gershwin, Bernstein and Stravinsky.

    43 min

  4. 03/09/2012

    John Adams

    Norman Lebrecht talks to the American composer and conductor John Adams in the week that he conducts his opera Nixon in China at the BBC Proms. Adams who was born in Massachusetts is one of the most celebrated composers alive. Many of his pieces are in the repertory, including his operas Nixon in China, the Death of Klinghoffer and his opera about Robert Oppenheimer, Doctor Atomic all of which receive stagings around the world and all of which he talks about in this interview. Adams also talks about his early years learning the clarinet, imagining music in his head as he did his paper round and starting to conduct and compose. Adams turned down the chance to go to Tanglewood to learn conducting and instead drove to the West Coast to broaden his experiences. Here he encountered some of the early minimalist composers and was involved in performing concerts of music by John Cage. As he developed his artistic personality Adams rejected both Cage's ethos and that of the modernists. Adams has always been concerned with music as expressing feeling and was as open to influences from rock and pop music as he was to music of classical composers. In this sense he believes his openness to a variety of influences makes him closer to a fellow New Englander, Charles Ives. John Adams also tells Norman about his experiences with the US Homeland security, and how he was blacklisted and about his political views in this honest conversation. Producer Tony Cheevers.

    44 min

  5. 27/08/2012

    Riccardo Muti

    Norman Lebrecht talks to the great Italian conductor, Riccardo Muti, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Muti's career has spanned key orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the orchestra of La Scala in Milan and the Vienna Philharmonic. Elegant and erudite, this is the first extended interview Riccardo Muti has given the BBC. He reveals his thoughts and feelings about Verdi and Rossini, about his professional relationship with his mentor, Herbert von Karajan, and about his sense of being an 'outsider' in the world of music, a normal man with an extraordinary job.

    46 min

  6. 20/08/2012

    Andris Nelsons

    Norman Lebrecht talks to the young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons currently music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Born in Riga to musical parents Nelsons cites one of his earliest formative musical experiences as a performance of Wagner's Tannhauser which his parents took him to when he was just 5. He later took up the trumpet and eventually became a professional player in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra. He had conducting lessons with Neeme Jarvi and then came to the attention of Mariss Jansons whilst playing on tour with the Oslo Philharmonic and subsequently had lessons with him. He eventually rose to become chief conductor of the Latvian National Opera at the age of 25 and it was there he met his future wife the soprano Kristine Opolais. Nelsons has conducted at the Met, the Royal Opera House and at Bayreuth where he made his debut in 2010 with a new production of Lohengrin and where he returned this year. In 2007 he became Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra having previously only conducted them in a private concert and a recording session, never at any public concerts. His present contract with them runs to 2014 and he appears with them at the BBC Proms this week.

    43 min

  7. 14/08/2012

    Graham Vick

    Norman Lebrecht talks to the British opera director Graham Vick whilst in rehearsals in Birmingham for Stockhausen's massive opera Mittwoch. Vick is one of the leading British directors. He works in all of the worlds' major opera houses directing the standard operatic repertoire and was for a number of years Director of Prodductions at Glyndebourne. But he is also director of the Birmingham Opera Company which he founded in 1987. It specialises in innovative and unusual productions of operas often in unusual venues such as factories or disused warehouses and this interview was recorded in Birmingham where Vick is currently in rehearsal for the British premiere of the complete version of Mittwoch part of Stockhausen's massive cycle, Licht. He talks to Norman about Stockhausen, about his approach to directing, his views on opera and about his background. Producer Paul Frankl.

    44 min

  8. 06/08/2012

    Lilian Hochhauser

    Norman Lebrecht meets celebrated impresario Lilian Hochhauser, who along with her husband Victor, introduced British audiences to some of the greatest Russian musicians of all time, during the fraught period of soviet rule. Now in her eighties, Lilian - from a Jewish Ukrainian background - recalls the Cold War period which saw her and Victor pushing cultural and political boundaries to bring some of the most feted names in Russian music to Britain for the first time. Everyone from Rostropovich, Richter and Oistrakh through to The Borodin Quartet and the Kirov Ballet recieved their London debuts thanks to the Hochhausers.

    45 min
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Ratings & Reviews

4.7
out of 5
7 Ratings

About

Norman Lebrecht interviews a major cultural figure

Information

  • Creator
    BBC Radio 3
  • Years Active
    2007 - 2024
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2024
  • Show Website
    The Lebrecht Interview

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