Episode 1
Donald Macleod explores Koechlin's early vocal works, and also discusses the huge influence on his music of Kipling's The Jungle Book.
The music of Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) is elegant, witty and immediately engaging and appealing - the 'missing link', musically, between Debussy, Satie and Poulenc (whom he all knew). And yet...it's fallen curiously out of favour. This week, Donald Macleod lifts the lid on an extraordinary musician (with an extraordinary beard): a free-thinking pioneer whose array of interests included mountaineering, photography and Kipling's "The Jungle Book", who spent many of his later years obsessively composing works in tribute to a bevy of Hollywood starlets...A composer who began his musical life in the age of Gounod and Bizet...and ended in the age of Boulez and Stockhausen.
In the first episode of the week, Donald Macleod explores Koechlin's early vocal works, including two ravishing songs for soprano and orchestra...He also discusses the huge influence on Koechlin's music of "The Jungle Book", by Rudyard Kipling. Koechlin was fascinated by Kipling's stories, and composed five major works on themes from the book, that spanned his entire musical life. We'll be hearing them throughout the week, beginning today with Koechlin's "Three Poems", Opus 18.
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Music Played
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Federico Mondelci & Kathryn Stott
Etude Op188 no.1 Allegro molto animato
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Beverley Sills, Columbia Symphony Orchestra & Andr茅 Kostelanetz
Si Tu Le Veux, Op.5
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Juliane Banse, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra & Heinz Holliger
Quatre Poemes d Edmond Haraucourt, op.7
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Jacques Vandeville & Jean-Michel Louchart
Au loin (Afar) Op.20
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Charles Koechlin
The Law of The Jungle, op.175 [after Kipling's The Jungle Book]
Conductor: David Zinman. Orchestra: Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.- RCA 09026619552.
- RCA.
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Iris Vermillion, John Botha, Ralf Lukas, RIAS Chamber Choir, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra & David Zinman
Three Poems, Op.18 (after The Jungle Book)
- RCA.
- 09026619552.
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Philippe Racine & Daniel Cholette
Flute Sonata, Op.53
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Dawn Upshaw & Jer么me Ducros
Amphise Et Melitta, Op.31 no.4
Broadcasts
- Mon 29 Oct 2012 12:00大象传媒 Radio 3
- Mon 29 Oct 2012 18:30大象传媒 Radio 3
- Mon 27 Nov 2017 12:00大象传媒 Radio 3
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