The Music Show ABC listen
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- 音樂
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Hear the interview of the week from the Music Show, where composer Andrew Ford entertains and informs a wide audience each week, providing two hours of essential listening from the world of music.
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Folk trio Apolline, and Blossom Dearie at 100
Bringing huge amounts of energy, musicianship and a sense of humour to the Australian folk scene is Apolline. They chat to Ce Benedict about their trio's unusual line up (fiddle, cello, bass), their approach to arranging and layering tunes, and having varied musical influences—from jazz to Scandi folk and Eurovision. They'll also perform two sets of tunes live in The Music Show studio.
American jazz pianist and singer Blossom Dearie would have turned 100 this week. We revisit a delightful interview from 1995 (one of the first Andrew Ford ever recorded), where he gets a strong telling off for suggesting that she played chords like Thelonious Monk.
And we hear new music from Tessa Bird, Cedric Burnside, and Allysha Joy. -
Maanyung on saltwater, sand, and sound & Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth
Norwegian trumpet player Tine Thing Helseth returns to The Music Show as she prepares to play with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She talks to Andy about the peculiarities of trumpet concertos, about composers writing for her versus writing for her instrument, and about expanding her musical life to include playing and writing.
Maanyung is a proud Aboriginal man with strong connections to Gumbaynggir and Yaegl nations. His songwriting comes from Language and Country – he’s a surfer, a youth worker and a songwriter and he’s released a string of singles in the last few years. He’s on The Music Show to talk about saltwater, sand, and sound.
Plus new music from Charlie Grey and Joseph Peach.
The Music Show is produced on Gadigal and Gundungurra Land
Technical production by Roi Huberman and Tim Symonds -
Pits, picket lines and pop music: the 1984-5 UK miners' strike
It's been forty years since the 1984–5 United Kingdom miners' strike and The Music Show has dug into the archives for a special program looking at the role that music played in this political, industrial and personal struggle. From Peggy Seeger to Paul Weller, Billy Bragg to brass bands—there's music supporting the striking miners, songs tormenting strikebreakers and tracks referencing (and sometimes sampling) National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia John Street guides us through the history and music of this divisive time, plus we hear interviews from the ABC archives with folklorist A L Lloyd, singer songwriter Billy Bragg, Grimethorpe Colliery Band, folk singers Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger and composer David Lumsdaine. -
Sir Andrew Davis remembered, and Martha Wainwright returns to Australia
For over fifty years, Sir Andrew Davis (1944–2024) was one of the world's busiest conductors, He conducted in the opera house and the concert hall and his repertoire ranged from Bach to Birtwistle. In the mid 1970s, he became chief conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, then took on Glyndebourne Opera, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago - always for long stretches. From 2012 to 2019 he was chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and thereafter the orchestra's conductor laureate. He died this week at the age of 80, and we remember him in the company of Benjamin Northey, the MSO's principal conductor, and listen to excerpts from some of Sir Andrew's Music Show interviews.
Martha Wainwright returns to Australia, playing old and new songs. She dips into her family’s discography as well as her experiences of rebirth over the last few years in her latest album, Love Will Be Reborn, which was accompanied by a memoir that looks back at a life of joy, grief and family.
Martha Wainwright is on tour around Australia:
Wednesday, May 8 – Princess Theatre, Brisbane, QLD
Thursday, May 9 – Anita’s Theatre, Wollongong, NSW
Friday, May 10 – City Recital Hall, Sydney, NSW
Saturday, May 11 – Civic Theatre, Newcastle, NSW
Sunday, May 12 – Blue Mountains Theatre, Blue Mountains, NSW
Tuesday, May 14 – The Gov, Adelaide, SA
Thursday, May 16 – Odeon Theatre, Hobart, TAS
Friday, May 17 – Recital Centre, Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, May 18 – Capital Theatre, Bendigo, VIC
Music heard in the show:
Title: Symphony No. 9 in E minor
Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams
Artist: Bergen Philharmonic, Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)
Album: Symphony No. 9
Label: Chandos CHSA5180
Title: Your Rockaby
Composer: Mark-Anthony Turnage
Artist: Martin Robertson (saxophone), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)
Album: Turnage: Your Rockaby; Night Dances; Dispelling The Fears
Label: Argo 4525982
Title: Enigma Variations; x. Nimrod
Composer: Edward Elgar
Artist: BBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)
Album: The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
Label: Warner Classics 2564660472
Title: The Mask of Orpheus; 3 Orphic Hymns – Hymn of Catharsis
Composer: Harrison Birtwistle
Artist: BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, Martyn Brabbins (conductor), Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)
Album: The Mask of Orpheus
Label: NMC NMCD050
Title: Brigg Fair (An English Rhapsody)
Composer: Frederic Delius
Artist: Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)
Album: Delius Orchestral Works
Label: Chandos CHAN10742
Title: Love Will Be Reborn
Composer: Martha Wainwright
Artist: Martha Wainwright
Album: Love Will Be Reborn
Label: Pheromone Records
Title: Dinner at Eight
Composer: Rufus Wainwright
Artist: Martha Wainwright
Album: Love Will Be Reborn
Label: Pheromone Records
Title: Tell My Sister
Composer: Kate McGarrigle
Artist: Martha Wainwright
Album: Love Will Be Reborn
Label: Pheromone Records
Title: Being Right
Composer: Martha Wainwright
Artist: Martha Wainwright
Album: Love Will Be Reborn
Label: Pheromone Records
Title: There Is Power In A Union
Composer: Billy Bragg
Artist: Billy Bragg
Album: Talking With the Taxman About Poetry
Label: Cooking Vinyl COOKCD304
The Music Show is produced on Gadigal and Gundungurra Country
Technical production by John Jacobs -
Beethoven and Webern with Timo-Veikko Valve and Aura Go, and Alison Cotton's Engelchen: how opera-loving sisters helped evacuate Jewish refugees
Beethoven's five sonatas for cello and piano span his career - two from the beginning, one from the middle and two from his late period - so they provide a good framework for talking about the composer. Timo-Veikko Valve and Aura Go have recorded them alongside the complete music for cello and piano by Anton Webern (three works, together lasting under ten minutes) and they'll be in the studio to talk about them and play excerpts.
Alison Cotton is a London-based experimental artist whose viola/drone/voice/soundscape-rich music is very hard to pigeonhole. Her new album Engelchen (meaning 'little angels') follows the incredible story of British opera-loving sisters Ida and Louise Cook who helped save 29 Jewish people before the start of World War II. The sisters used their love of attending operas as a guise for travelling to Germany, where they actually met refugees and helped smuggle their valuables out of the country. Items like jewellery, furs and watches were sold in the UK to help fund their owner's safe passage. The sisters would do things like restitch British labels to the German coats to avoid suspicion from the Nazi border guards... who thought they were just spinsters dressed in finery returning from a weekend trip to the opera.
Timo-Veikko Valve and Aura Go are performing at ACO Up Close: Beethoven Arranged on 20 April in Sydney and 22 April in Melbourne.
Alison Cotton’s Engelchen is out now.
Music in the show:
Title: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69; ii. Scherzo
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Artist: Timo-Veikko Valve (cello) and Aura Go (piano)
Performed Live in The Music Show studio
Title: Three Little Pieces, Op. 11
Composer: Anton Webern
Artist: Timo-Veikko Valve (cello) and Aura Go (piano)
Performed Live in The Music Show studio
Title: Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102 No. 1; ii. Adagio – Tempo d'andante – Allegro vivace
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Artist: Timo-Veikko Valve (cello) and Aura Go (piano)
Album: Beethoven Cello Sonatas, Webern Works for Cello & Piano
Label: ABC Classic
Title: The Letter Burning; We Were Smuggling People’s Lives; Crepuscle; Engelchen Now
Artist: Alison Cotton
Album: Engelchen
Label: Feeding Tube Records LAUNCH339R
Title: Crepuscle
Composer: Jules Massenet
Artist: Amelita Galli-Curci
Album: Amelita Galli-Curci Volume One
Label: The Rubini Collection GV.578
Title: As The Trees Have Always Known
Artist: Melanie Horsnell
Album: As The Trees Have Always Known (Single)
Label: Independent release
Technical Production by Russell Stapleton and John Jacobs
The Music Show is produced on Gadigal and Gundungurra Land -
Ann Savoy: a life in Cajun music and Wilbur Whitta's Wildfire
In Southern Louisiana, a few hours from New Orleans, Ann Savoy has spent a lifetime studying, playing and collecting Cajun music. She's best known for her trio Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, her duet album with Linda Ronstadt Adieu False Heart, and touring and playing festivals with the Savoy Family Band. Ann has just released her first ever solo album, Another Heart, which pays tribute to her early musical loves, the English and American singer songwriters of the 1960s and 70s, but with a Cajun twist.
Pianist and composer Wilbur Whitta has released Wildfire, his debut album as bandleader. During the midst of a NSW tour, Wilbur joins Andrew on The Music Show to explain the blend of improvisation and composition on the album, writing for a quartet with two horns and no bass, and about the importance of having mentors in jazz.
Music in the show:
Title: Two Step D'Amédé
Artist: Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band
Composer: Marc Savoy
Album: Two-Step D'Amédé
Label: Arhoolie Records CD-316
Title: Cajun Love Song
Artist: Ann Savoy
Composer: Ann Savoy
Album: Another Heart
Label: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFW40256
Title: Waterloo Sunset
Artist: Ann Savoy
Composer: Ray Davies
Album: Another Heart
Label: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFW40256
Title: Walk Away Renee
Artist: Linda Ronstadt, Ann Savoy
Composer: Bob Calilli, Mike Brown, Tony Sansome
Album: Adieu False Heart
Label: Vanguard 79808-2
Title: Stolen Car
Artist: Ann Savoy
Composer: Bruce Springsteen
Album: Another Heart
Label: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFW40256
Titles: Leave To Enter; Pizza; Not Interested; RED; Sea Legs
Artist: Wilbur Whitta piano and keyboards, Tom Avgenicos trumpet, Jack Stoneham saxophone, Alex Inman-Hislop drums
Composer: Wilbur Whitta
Album: Wildfire
Label: ABC Jazz ABCJ0026D