Curtain Raiser
Illustrated introductions to major pieces from the classical repertoire.
Collection items
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Curtain Raiser: Bach - Magnificat
25 Aug 2016Indra Hughes provides an introduction to the wonderful 'Magnificat', written by J S Bach to celebrate the Christmas of 1723, at the end of his first year as Director of Music at St Thomas's Church in… Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Beethoven - Archduke Trio
9 May 2013Beethoven had been living with deafness for over a decade when he played piano for the première of this Trio. Introduced by Peter Watts. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Beethoven - Missa Solemnis
6 Jun 2013Composed between 1819 and 1823, the Missa Solemnis is one of Beethoven's supreme achievements. Introduced by Brian Kay. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Beethoven - Piano Concerto No 4
7 May 2013Beethoven's elegant and genial 4th piano concerto, composed at the same time as his more famous 5th symphony, is introduced by Peter Watts. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Beethoven - Symphony No 3, Eroica
16 Apr 2016Beethoven’s Third Symphony was criticised for being too long, but he’d already declared his intentions after finishing his second symphony, in 1802. The 'Eroica' is introduced by Peter Watts. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Beethoven - Symphony No 5
13 Jun 2014Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony has so indelibly entered our cultural consciousness that it is as much a part of our collective identity as chocolate fish and jandals. Introduced by Rachel Hyde. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Beethoven - Symphony No 7 in A
6 May 2015Beethoven himself considered this symphony one of his best works.
Introduced by Indra Hughes. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Berg - Violin Concerto
26 Mar 2014This work is subtitled 'To the Memory of an Angel'. Matthew Crawford explains the story behind the dedication. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique
26 Mar 2014Berlioz's opium-fuelled vision of an artist's life is introduced by Erica Challis. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Brahms, Beethoven & Monumentalising Music
6 Oct 2012Brahms’s first symphony reflects the traditions of monumentalisation that formed around Beethoven. Presented by Inge van Rij. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Brahms, Joseph Joachim and the Paradox of the Concerto
13 Oct 2012Brahms’s Violin Concerto represents a high point in the relationship between composer and violinist. Presented by Inge van Rij. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Brahms & Women
20 Oct 2012Mysterious relationships, presented by Inge van Rij. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Brahms the Academic
27 Oct 2012A batch of polkas & waltzes presented by Inge van Rij. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Britten - War Requiem
26 Mar 2014The War Requiem premiered in 1962 at the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral built alongside the ruins of the bombed out medieval one. Britten's chosen texts and searing music make a powerful… Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Canteloube - Songs of the Auvergne
6 Jun 2013These much-loved folk-song arrangements are introduced by Matthew Crawford. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Debussy - La Mer
2 Jul 2015All too often a great work of art is completely misunderstood when it’s first unveiled. This was true of Claude Debussy’s 'La Mer' when it was premiered in Paris in 1905. Introduction by Indra Hughes.
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Curtain Raiser: Debussy - Nocturnes
4 Apr 2016Inspired by the paintings of Whistler, Debussy creates three moody impressions. Presented by Kenneth Young. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Dvořák - Cello Concerto
6 Jun 2013Even critics, who don’t put Antonín Dvořák in the top echelon of composers, make an exception with this piece. Introduced by Murray Khouri. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Elgar - Enigma Variations
18 Jun 2015Elgar's set of 14 variations are sketches of his friends ... well, actually 12 other people, the composer himself, and a dog. Indra Hughes presents an introduction. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Fauré - Requiem
12 Jun 2013Some of the most beautiful music in the choral repertoire is to be found in the pages of Fauré's score.
Introduced by Brian Kay. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Ross Harris - Symphony No 6, Last Letter
21 Jul 2016Amber Read talks to Ross Harris about his music and the four poems by Vincent O'Sullivan which serve as the text and subject matter of his sixth symphony. Video, Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Haydn - The Creation
12 Jun 2013Haydn's colourful oratorio uses texts from the book of Genesis and from Milton's Paradise Lost.
Introduced by Allan Badley. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Holst - The Planets
17 May 2013Gustav Holst's seven movement work was composed during WW1 and needs a large orchestra plus chorus of women's voices. The composer's own favourite movement was Saturn - the Bringer of Old Age… Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Jenkins - The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace
13 Jun 2013The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace was composed in the year 2000 by Welshman Karl Jenkins. Our introduction to this popular modern work is by Brian Kay. Video, Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Mahler - Symphony No 3
2 Apr 2016Mahler creates a whole world in a symphony with grand concepts reflecting nature and humanity. He said, "My work forms a musical poem covering all stages of evolution, ascending stepwise. It begins… Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Mendelssohn - Elijah
28 Jun 2013Mendelssohn's oratorio tells the story of the Old Testament prophet and was first performed at the Birmingham Festival. Introduced by Brian Kay. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Messiaen - Éclairs sur l'au-delà
8 Jul 2016Illuminations of the Beyond expresses Messiaen's dazzlement and ecstatic spirituality in his last composition. Presented by Elizabeth Kerr. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time
19 Jul 2013Messiaen's work was written while he was a prisoner of the Nazis in 1941. Introduced by Roger Smith. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Mozart - Clarinet Concerto
9 Apr 2014The sublime concerto for clarinet and orchestra is one of Mozart's most-loved works. Introduced by Murray Khouri. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Mozart - Requiem
7 Nov 2014In 1791 Mozart was commissioned to write a Requiem and it turned out to be his final work as he died before he could finish it. Introduced by Peter Walls. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Mozart - Symphony No 40
28 Aug 2013This symphony was one of many projects Mozart undertook to raise money in the year 1788 when his financial situation was becoming desperate. Introduced by Erica Challis. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition
One of the most loved and frequently performed of orchestral masterpieces wasn’t composed for orchestra at all, but originally for piano. Introduced by Rachel Hyde. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Nielsen - Symphony No 5
3 Jul 2013Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony is probably his masterpiece: a powerful, mysterious work whose themes are tightly woven into a stream of music that evolves organically from start to finish. Introduced by… Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Prokofiev - Symphony No 5
10 May 2013Prokofiev conducted the premiere of his Fifth Symphony in 1944 and within months it was also being performed in America and the composer was on the cover of TIME magazine. Introduced by Matthew… Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Prokofiev - Symphony No 7
13 May 2013In his last symphony, Prokofiev aims for simplicity and nostalgia, but is persuaded to provide an alternative ending to impress the Soviet authorities. Introduced by Matthew Crawford. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Ravel - Piano Concerto in G
20 Aug 2015A French composer introduces the blues to his classical music. Introduced by Margaret Ogilvie. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Ravel - String Quartet
18 May 2016The shimmering beauty of Paris is reflected in Ravel's strongly structured masterpiece of 1903. Presented by Charlotte Wilson. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade
5 Nov 2015Night by night, Scheherazade weaves a tapestry of stories, a shield against the crimson dawn.
Presented by Amber Read. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Shostakovich - Symphony No 7, Leningrad
25 Mar 2014This Symphony was famously given its Leningrad première in August 1942 by starving, yet defiant players, assembled under the banner of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra, during the Siege of Leningrad… Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Shostakovich - Symphony No 10
24 May 2013Life for an artist working in Soviet Russia was not easy. The continual fear of the censors and of the secret police coming to carry you off was very much a part of Shostakovich’s life. Introduced by… Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Shostakovich - Symphony No 12, The Year 1917
18 Nov 2014Progress on this symphony was halted when Shostakovich broke his left leg at his son Maxim’s wedding. He spent the rest of 1960 in hospital, returning to work intensively on the symphony in 1961. It's… Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Shostakovich - Symphony No 15
By 1971, when Shostakovich composed his 15th and last symphony, the political tension had eased. The great Russian composer had been showered with honours and medals, and no longer needed to insert… Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Strauss - An Alpine Symphony
19 Nov 2015A dawn-to-dusk climbing trip in the Bavarian mountains is depicted in An Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss.
Indra Hughes discovers there are also other levels of meaning here. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Strauss - Ein Heldenleben
21 Apr 2016In the summer of 1889 Strauss wrote that: "Beethoven's Eroica is so little beloved of our conductors, and is on this this account now only rarely performed, that to fulfil a pressing need I am… Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Stravinsky - The Soldier's Tale
14 Oct 2016This music-theatre work, based on Russian folk tales, tells of a violin-playing soldier tricked by the Devil. Presented by Elizabeth Kerr (RNZ) Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis
25 Apr 2015When fellow composer Herbert Howells first heard this music he was so overwhelmed that he couldn't sleep and paced the streets of Gloucester all night, reeling from the work's profound impact. … Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Vaughan Williams - A Sea Symphony
6 May 2016In this 1909 symphony for orchestra, choir and soloists, the vast spaces between haze-shrouded vistas and unfathomable depths of the sea become a metaphor for eternity. Presented by Peter Mechen. Audio
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Curtain Raiser: Verdi - Requiem
19 Jun 2013Like a great story-teller Verdi draws the listener in with every colourful phrase of his dramatic Requiem.
Introduced by Erica Challis. Audio
Don't know your Sibelius from your Shostakovich?
Curtain Raiser explains the background and what to listen for in one of the major pieces of the classical repertoire, and provides an illustrated introduction to a work coming up in Music Alive.