Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston with joyful birds and heartfelt words

Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston reveals familiar and unfamiliar works in a new light, from six-note ingenuity to symphonic energy at its highest.

Today on Inside Music, mezzo-soprano and ´óÏó´«Ã½ New Generation Artist Helen Charlston finds music that surprises her - from a charmingly simple piece that's based on just six notes of the scale (but is far from boring), to a transcription of a Wagner opera that she thinks is just as powerful on the piano as it is with full orchestra.

Helen also plays a recording by the ensemble The Hermes Experiment which breaks the musical ‘fourth wall’ and she urges you to close your eyes and follow the melodic baton that Bach passes round the musicians in his third Brandenburg Concerto.

Plus, two singers who inspire Helen’s own approach to music making…

A series in which each week a musician explores a selection of music - from the inside.

A Tandem Production for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3

1 hour, 56 minutes

Music Played

  • George Frideric Handel

    Dopo Notte (Ariodante)

    Singer: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Orchestra: Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Conductor: Nicholas McGegan.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • Clara Schumann

    Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7 (III. Finale)

    Performer: Veronica Jochum. Orchestra: Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Joseph Silverstein.
    • TUDOR.
  • Caroline Shaw

    To the Hands (II. In medio)

    Choir: The Crossing. Ensemble: International Contemporary Ensemble. Conductor: Donald Nally.
    • INNOVA.
  • John Dowland

    In Darkness Let Me Dwell

    Performer: Jakob Lindberg. Singer: Emma Kirkby.
    • BIS.
  • Leonard Bernstein

    Candide (Overture)

    Orchestra: New York Philharmonic. Conductor: Leonard Bernstein.
    • SONY CLASSICAL.
  • Johann Balthasar Erben

    Sonata Sopra ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la

    Ensemble: Concerto Copenhagen. Director: Lars Ulrik Mortensen.
    • DA CAPO.
  • Owain Park

    18th April

    Performer: Alexander Soares. Singer: Helen Charlston. Singer: Michael Craddock.
    • DELPHIAN.
  • Dmitry Shostakovich

    Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93 (II. Allegro)

    Orchestra: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Vasily Petrenko.
    • NAXOS.
  • Sarah Rimkus

    My Heart is Like a Singing Bird

    Ensemble: Gesualdo Six. Conductor: Owain Park.
    • HYPERION.
  • Franz Schubert

    String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, 'Death and the Maiden' (III. Scherzo)

    Ensemble: Lindsay String Quartet.
    • ASV.
  • Barbara Strozzi

    L'Eraclito amoroso Op.2 no.14

    Singer: Helen Charlston. Performer: Toby Carr.
    • DELPHIAN.
  • Richard Wagner

    Isoldes Liebestod (Tristan und Isolde, S. 447)

    Performer: Jeremy Denk.
    • NONESUCH.
  • Philip Venables

    A Photograph

    Ensemble: Hermes Experiment.
    • DELPHIAN.
  • Edward Elgar

    The Dream of Gerontius (Overture)

    Orchestra: Hallé. Conductor: John Barbirolli.
    • WARNER.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Brandenburg Concerto No. 3

    Ensemble: Bach Collegium Japan. Director: Masaaki Suzuki.
    • BIS.

Broadcast

  • Sat 25 Feb 2023 13:00

How to compose music for video games

Eimear Noone, composer of The Legend of Zelda allows us into her world

How to become – and succeed as – a conductor

How to become – and succeed as – a conductor

Gabriella Teychenné allows us to get inside a conductor's head...