The Music Show ABC listen

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'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

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

Duo Windborne are two of Australia’s finest recorder players: Rodney Waterman and Ryan Williams. Their debut album, Venus Bay Fireside Sessions, is a record of their improvisational partnership. Originally intended to be recorded outside as a direct response to the natural world of Venus Bay, the weather drove them indoors and beside the fire – hence the title. They join Andy in studio with a fraction of their huge instrument collection to talk about their relationship with nature, their collaboration, and mount a defence of their much maligned instrument.

Coral Reid is a fiddle player, a clog dancer, and a sword dancer (!) too. She’s an English folk music specialist and she’s brought her violin, her clogs, but sadly no swords into studio to demonstrate some of the traditions that spilled out from the mills, the mines and the pubs of northern England around the Industrial Revolution.

Plus new music from Tonya Lemoh and Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion.




Duo Windborne launch their album Venus Bay Fireside Sessions on 19 April at Victorian Artists Society in Melbourne.

Coral Reid is on tour with the Sofa of Fools across Victoria and NSW until 21 April.

Tonya Lemoh’s album I Dream A World is out now via ABC Classic.

Music heard in the show:

Title: Browns
Artist: Duo Windborne
Composer: improvised by Rodney Waterman and Ryan Williams
Album: Venus Bay Fireside Sessions
Label: Independent release

Title: Dances in the Canebrakes No. 1; Nimble Feet
Artist: Tonya Lemoh
Composer: Florence Price
Album: I Dream A World
Label: ABC Classic

Title: Mangrove Inlet
Artist: Duo Windborne
Composer: improvised by Rodney Waterman and Ryan Williams
Album: Venus Bay Fireside Sessions
Label: Independent release

Three improvised pieces performed live in The Music Show studio by Duo Windborne – Rodney Waterman and Ryan Williams

Title: The Bonny Miller (trad)
Performed live by Coral Reid in The Music Show studio

Clog dances “Sam Sherry’s Beginner Hornpipe”, and “Mrs. Willis’s Rag” demonstrated by Coral Reid in The Music Show studio

Title: Road to Poynton
Composer: Rob Harbron
Performed live by Coral Reid in The Music Show studio

Title: Rectangles and Circumstance
Artist: Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion
Composer: Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion
Album: Rectangles and Circumstance
Label: Nonesuch (releasing 14 June)

Technical production by Tim Jenkins, Tim Symonds, and Hamish “Tim” Camilleri

This episode of The Music Show was produced on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, Gadigal and Gundungurra Land

Benjamin Northey picked up the baton as Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra only a few years after the devastating 2011 earthquake. In a wide-ranging conversation he talks to Andrew Ford about the rebuilding of the musical life of the city (there was a period where the CSO performed at an Air Force museum after many performance venues were damaged). He also looks back on his years learning under the great Finnish conductor Jorma Panula, and why starting his career as a saxophone player put him in perfect stead to be on the podium. 

And we hear an interview with New Orleans singer and pianist Clarence 'Frogman' Henry. "I sing like a girl and I sing like a frog....." Clarence Henry croaked on his 1956 debut hit Ain't Got No Home, which earned him the nickname of 'Frogman'. In 2000 Andrew Ford crossed the Mississippi to Clarence's home in Algiers, New Orleans and sat down in his garden amongst the decorative frogs for a chat. Clarence Henry died on 7 April 2024 at the age of 87.

Music heard in this program

Title: (I Don't Know Why) But I Do
Artist: Clarence 'Frogman' Henry
Composer:  Paul Gayten and Bobby Charles
Album: You Always Hurt The One You Love
Label: Viking AUSLP 1009

Title: Ain't Got No Home
Artist: Clarence 'Frogman' Henry
Composer: Clarence Henry
Album: Ain't Got No Home
Label: Chess CHD 9346

Title: McPancake
Artist: Apolline
Composer: Stuart Morison, John Morris Rankin, Jonathan Berkahn
Album: Home Home EP
Label: Blythe Records

Title: Finlandia, Op. 26 
Artist: Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, Jorma Panula conductor
Composer: Jean Sibelius
Album: The Very Best of Sibelius
Label: Naxos 8.552135-36

Title: Symphony in F sharp, Op. 40, ii. Scherzo: Allegro molto
Artist: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Daniel de Borah piano, Benjamin Northey conductor
Composer: Erich Korngold
Live recording: Courtesy ABC Classic, 2022

Title: Waratah Bay
Artist: Duo Windborne
Composer: improvised by Ryan Williams and Rodney Waterman
Album: Venus Bay Fireside Sessions 
Label: Independent

Four pieces of music written in the years after World War II – Strauss’s Metamorphosen, Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw, Britten’s War Requiem, and Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony, ‘Babi Yar’  – paint a complicated picture of how European composers memorialised war in Jeremy Eichler’s new book Time’s Echo. Jeremy joins Andy on the show to trace the connections and conflicts in the ways that a German, a Jewish Austrian in exile, an Englishman, and a Russian looked back at the war(s) and the Holocaust.

Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance by Jeremy Eichler is published by Faber.

Music heard in the show:

Title: War Requiem, Op. 66
Composer: Benjamin Britten, text by Wilfred Owen
Artists: Peter Pears (tenor), Heather Harper (soprano), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Coventry Festival Choir, Boys of Holy Trinity Leamington and Stratford, John Cooper (organ), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Melos Ensemble, Meredith Davies and Benjamin Britten (conductors)
Album: Britten War Requiem (recorded live at Conventry Cathedral, May 1962)
Label: Testament SBT 1490

Title: Metamorphosen
Composer: Richard Strauss
Artists: Berlin Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler (conductor)
Album: Wilhelm Furtwängler: An Anniversary Tribute
Label: Deutsche Grammophon 477 006-2

Title: A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46
Composer: Arnold Schoenberg
Artists: Günter Reich (narrator), BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Boulez (conductor)
Album: Boulez - Schoenberg
Label: Masterworks G010003768085J

Title: Symphony No. 13 in B flat minor, Op. 113, ‘Babi Yar’; i. Babi Yar
Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich
Artists: Arthur Eisen (bass), Male Group of Republican Russian Academic Choir Capella, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin (conductor)
Album: Shostakovich Complete Symphonies
Label: Melodiya RCID18056928

Technical production by Bethany Stewart on Gadigal Land

The Music Show is produced on Gadigal and Gundungurra Land