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In the final episode of this six-part series, writer and satirist Chris Addison (The Thick Of It, Veep) explores how music has long been used as a tool for satire and parody.

Chris has chosen tracks spanning centuries, which have parody and pastiche at their very heart. This programme features music by PDQ Bach, Gustav Mahler, Camille Saint-Saëns, Teresa Carreño, Joseph Haydn and more.

In this series, Chris Addison - himself a classical music devotee, keen amateur choral singer and opera buff - takes listeners on a tour of how composers have used their music to question, parody, and challenge power and ideas over the years. Classical music can amplify power, but it can also undermine it - satirising and thumbing the nose at the status quo. Composers have used classical music to critique, undermine and even lampoon - often in cleverly nuanced, surprising ways that reconnect us to the flawed humans - and shared humanity - beneath the pomposity. Each episode in this series takes a big idea, and illustrates it with a playlist of entertaining and diverse music spanning the entire history of Western classical music.

Josquin des Prez: Missa L’Homme Armé - Kyrie
Oxford Camerata
Jeremy Summerly (director)

Joseph Haydn: String Quartet in E flat, Op. 33 No. 2 (The Joke) - 4. Presto
Lindsay String Quartet

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1 – 3: Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen
New York Philharmonic
Leonard Bernstein (conductor)

PDQ Bach (Schickele): The Short-Tempered Clavier - I. C major
Christopher O’Reily (piano)

Bela Bartók: Concerto For Orchestra – 4: Intermezzo interrotto
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Boulez (conductor)

Teresa Carreño: Gottschalk Waltz, Op. 1
Alexandra Oehler (piano)

Ernst von Dohnányi: Variations on a Nursery Tune, Op 25 (extract)
Sofja Gülbadamova (piano)
Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
Modestas PitrÄ—nas (conductor)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Ein musikalischer Spass – 4: Presto
The English Concert
Andrew Manze (conductor)

Camille Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals - 14. Finale. Molto allegro
Claude Frank, Lilian Kallir (pianos)
Philadelphia Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy (conductor)

Produced by James C Taylor
An Overcoat Media Production for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3

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