Sound artist Kaffe Matthews on Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room and how it’s provided an inspiration for her own work in the field of site specific music; David Toop explains how the piece explores both the acoustic properties of enclosed spaces and the complexities of the human voice; and we hear from the composer himself about his approach to live performance. Published on September 23, 2012.

R3MC: Alvin Lucier's I am sitting in a room

Critic and Hear and Now presenter Tom Service nominates American composer John Zorn’s Carny, a work for solo piano from 1989.  The piece assembles a wide range of musical quotations and genres, juxtaposing Stockhausen and Bartok with cartoon music and boogie woogie.  Author and journalist Rob Young provides some background to the work and to Zorn himself, a highly regarded improviser and producer as well as composer. Published on October 7, 2012.

R3MC: John Zorn's Carny

Composer John Woolrich nominates Stravinsky's last completed work with orchestra, Requiem Canticles. Commentator Paul Griffiths explains how this sparsely scored "pocket requiem", written in 1966 in a modern serial style, contains many of the hallmarks of his very earliest pieces. Published on October 21, 2012.

R3MC: Igor Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles

Hear and Now presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch celebrates the music of German composer Heiner Goebbels, focusing on the Suite for Sampler and Orchestra from his 1994 cycle Surrogate Cities.  Commentary comes from Graham McKenzie of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and we also hear the voice of the composer himself. Published on November 4, 2012.

R3MC: Heiner Goebbels's Surrogate Cities

Conductor Richard Bernas recalls his momentous first encounter with Berio's Sinfonia, a work which reflected and commented on the events of its time, from the Paris riots to the assassination of Martin Luther King, and whose third movement is an extraordinary assemblage of musical and literary quotations.  Commentator Gillian Moore explains the significance of the texts which include Levi-Strauss's Le Cru et le cuit and Samuel Beckett's The Unnamable; and we hear from the composer himself, speaking about the work in 1991. Published on January 8, 2012.

R3MC: Luciano Berio's Sinfonia

Composer and writer Gerard McBurney nominates the austere and uncompromising Octet by Galina Ustvolskaya, which changed his ideas of modern Russian music; and Gillian Moore highlights the intensity of this work, completed in 1950, in the shadow of the Soviet Zhdanov decree. Published on June 10, 2012.

R3MC: Galina Ustvolskaya's Octet

Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard champions the music of maverick German composer Helmut Lachenmann and his 1980s work for ensemble Mouvement (- vor der Erstarrung); conductor Richard Bernas explains how the use of unconventional playing techniques created a rich and highly crafted soundworld the composer has described as "musique concrete instrumentale". Published on July 15, 2012.

R3MC: Helmut Lachenmann's Mouvement

Author and journalist Rob Young nominates French composer Eliane Radigue's Songs of Milarepa, which combines drone-like electronics with the voices of Lama Kunga Rinpoche and Robert Ashley singing and reading the words of the 11th-century Tibetan Buddhist poet Jetsun Milarepa. With commentary from Richard Whitelaw, Head of Programmes at Sound and Music. Published on November 11, 2012.

R3MC: Eliane Radigue's Songs of Milarepa

Composer Matthew Shlomowitz makes the case for Austrian composer Bernhard Lang’s Differenz/Wiederholung 2, a setting of texts by Gilles Deleuze, William Burroughs and Christian Loidl. Commentator Graham McKenzie highlights the jagged soundworld of this music, and the composer’s use of repetition. Published on November 18, 2012.

R3MC: Bernhard Lang's Differenz/Wiederholung 2

Conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen celebrates the music of Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski and his  landmark work from the early 1960s, Jeux Venitiens.  Writer Paul Griffiths explains how the composer used chance within the score to create rhythmic complexity; and we hear from Lutoslawski himself, in conversation with Thea Musgrave in 1973. Published on November 25, 2012.

R3MC: Witold Lutoslawski's Jeux Venitiens

Artists, musicians and composers introduce fifty key pieces of classical music composed between 1950 and 2000.

R3MC: Heiner Goebbels's Surrogate Cities

Fifty Modern Classics

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