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Joyce DiDonato, Scottish Music, Mark Elder, Dutilleux Tribute

Tom Service talks to mezzo Joyce DiDonato. Plus defining what makes a pieces of music Scottish, the OAE and Mark Elder on staging Falstaff and a tribute to Henri Dutilleux.

Tom Service meets the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who's in London singing Rossini's La Donna Del Lago at the Royal Opera House. She tells Tom how it felt when the production received boos from the audience early in the run; and how damning criticism early in her career gave her the impetus to become one of the world's top Bel Canto singers.

Music Matters marks the start of Radio 3's British Music Month by taking a look at what makes a piece of music Scottish: how have the musical symbols that express Scottishness changed, and what might the movement towards Scottish independence mean for how the nation's music sounds? Composers Sally Beamish and John Purser discuss.

Sir Mark Elder and musicians from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment explain how playing for the Glyndebourne production of Verdi's Falstaff, performed on instruments of Verdi's time, brings new life and meaning to the much-loved piece.

Plus, conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier pays tribute to the man he believed to be France's greatest living musician, the composer Henri Dutilleux who died last week at the age of 97.

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45 minutes

Last on

Sat 1 Jun 2013 12:15

Joyce DiDonato

Joyce DiDonato

Tom Service meets the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, who's in London singing Rossini's La Donna Del Lago at the Royal Opera House. She tells Tom how it felt when the production received boos from the audience early in the run; and how damning criticism early in her career gave her the impetus to succeed in becoming one of the world's top Bel Canto singers.Ìý

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Falstaff performed on period instruments

Falstaff performed on period instruments

Sir Mark Elder and musicians from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment explain how their new Glyndebourne production of Verdi's Falstaff, performed on period instruments brings new life and meaning to the much-loved piece.Ìý As well as hearing from the players (including Jim Anderson who plays the cimbasso – a brass instrument designed by Verdi himself), baritone Laurent Nouri who plays Falstaff explains how singing with a period orchestra subtly enhances vocal performance.

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Ìý

Henri Dutilleux (1916 - 2013)

Henri Dutilleux (1916 - 2013)

Conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier pays tribute to the man he believed to be France's greatest living musician, the composer Henri Dutilleux who died last week at the age of 97. His music followed in the tradition of Ravel, Debussy and Albert Roussel, but Dutilleux had an idiosyncratic style, creating magical, translucent sound-worlds. In the 1990’s Yan Pascal Totelier recorded Dutillieux’s orchestral music with the 91Èȱ¬ Philharmonic but the family tie goes way back beyond that as Yan Pascal’s father, the cellist Paul Tortellier, was one of Dutilleux’s closest friends from their days as students together at the Paris Conservatoire.

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British Music Month: Scotland

British Music Month: Scotland

Music Matters marks the start of Radio 3's month long celebration of British musicÌýby taking a look at what makes a piece of music Scottish: how have the musical symbols that express Scottishness changed, and what might the movement towards Scottish independence mean for how the nation's music sounds? Composers Sally Beamish and John Purser discuss.Ìý

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  • Sat 1 Jun 2013 12:15

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