Kate is a composer herself. How important you think it is to look at the possible narratives behind music like this? Great question. M, partmy thinks that it's ie not to at all, and not to worry about what some one maybe meant or thought when they wrote something. I quite like the idea of me making something and then letting it go into the world, and whatever any one thinks that might mean is up to them. And benjamin upple, who's listening to us from hamburg, benjamin bach has become, for many people, the essential christmas composer. But er, just tell us a little bit about how bach is is heard and seen
The internationally renowned cellist Steven Isserlis talks to Andrew Marr about his companion guide to The Bach Cello Suites. Isserlis explores why Bach’s Six Suites have become some of the most cherished music, and how Bach takes the audience on a spiritual journey, from joy, through tragedy, to jubilation.
Schubert’s heart-breaking song-cycle Winterreise tells of a young man’s desperate wanderings: the music and the poems creating images of fire and snow, of scalding and frozen tears. The baritone Benjamin Appl, accompanied by James Baillieu, stars in a new BBC film, Winter Journey, filmed in a tower on the snow-covered summit of the Julierpass in south-east Switzerland. An album of the music will be released in February.
The composer and pianist Kate Whitley is also interested in the importance of place in music. But she has taken a different tack, eschewing the often rarefied atmosphere of concert halls, for the concrete heart of city centres. She runs The Multi-Storey Orchestra which performs in car parks around the UK.
Producer: Katy Hickman
Photo copyright: Satoshi Aoyagi