9/13/2013

Robert Winston's Musical Analysis - Series 2 (BBC Radio 4 2010)

Professor Robert Winston brings together his expertise and experience in science and medicine with his overriding passion for music, to explore the relationship between the music and the medical conditions of composers who suffered mental and physical illness. 
 100 MB MP3/128Kbps
DL links are available upon email request only
FAQ
http://pianolibrary.blogspot.com/p/faq.html

 Series 1 wanted !!!

 Series 2

Episode 1 of 4 Sergei Rachmaninoff
  • Duration:30 minutes
  • First broadcast: Tuesday 27 July 2010
  • Rachmaninoff's second Piano Concerto has become one of classical music's most enduring hits, but it was almost never composed at all. The composer suffered an extreme creative block following the catastrophic premiere of his first symphony. After three years of silence, a hypnotherapist, Dr. Dahl, effected a cure and rescued his career. Prof. Winston also investigates evidence that a medical condition was responsible for Rachmaninoff's famously large hand-span, with pianist Peter Donohoe demonstrating the difficulty this presents for would-be performers of his music.

    Episode 2 of 4 Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Duration: 30 minutes
  • First broadcast: Tuesday 03 August 2010

  • Beethoven famously lost his hearing while still a young man, becoming profoundly deaf by the time he composed his late masterpieces. However, he was also plagued by a catalogue of other chronic illnesses. Stomach problems, asthma and pancreatitis made his life a misery. Prof. Winston investigates with John Suchet, Stephen Johnson and Dr Francois Mai how these daily torments may have been key to the transcendent spirit of Beethoven's music.

    Episode 3 of 4 Franz Schubert
  • Duration: 30 minutes
  • First broadcast: Tuesday 10 August 2010
  • Franz Schubert was often uncomfortable in the polite circles of middle-class Viennese society. Was he hiding a secret? Prof. Winston looks at the evidence that Schubert was lured into an unsavoury clandestine lifestyle and contracted syphilis, which many writers have assumed cast a shadow over both his remaining life and his music.

    Episode 4 of 4 Peter Warlock

  • Duration 30 minutes
  • First broadcast: Tuesday 17 August 2010

  • Peter Warlock was the pseudonym of Philip Heseltine, a troubled British composer who died of apparent suicide in 1930. Prof. Winston wades through the many colourful and outrageous episodes in his life to investigate if the apparent 'Jekyll and Hyde' quality in his character and in his music was the result of a serious psychological condition.

     Series 3

    Episode 1 of 4 Tchaikovsky
  • Duration 30 minutes 
  • First broadcast: Tuesday 20 March 2012
  • Professor Robert Winston brings a scientist's ear to his passion for music, exploring the medical histories of great composers and how illness affected the music they wrote.
    The romantic sweep of Tchaikovsky's music has made him a favourite with audiences for over a century. But is it possible that the extremes of emotion expressed in his best loved symphonies, ballets and operas were the product of a man tormented? Professor Winston examines Tchaikovsky's experience of living as a gay man in 19th century Russia, where homosexuality was illegal, and puts under the microscope the theory that Tchaikovsky's music reveals a man who was psychologically damaged by the conflict between his nature and society's expectations.

    Episode 2 of 4 Chopin

  • Duration: 30 minutes
  • First broadcast Tuesday 27 March 2012
  • Professor Robert Winston brings a scientist's ear to his passion for music, exploring the medical histories of great composers and how illness affected the music they wrote.
    Tuberculosis remains one of the world's most devastating diseases but in the 19th century, TB or consumption as it was known, gained a curious reputation for stimulating creativity in great artists. Professor Robert Winston looks at the story of Chopin, whose struggle with chronic lung disease has become the archetypal version of that myth, and looks for evidence to reveal the true connection between Chopin's health and his music.

    Episode 3 of 4 Shostakovich

  • Duration: 30 minutes
  • First broadcast: Tuesday 03 April 2012
  • Professor Robert Winston brings a scientist's ear to his passion for music, exploring the medical histories of great composers and how illness affected the music they wrote.
    Shostakovich was the most celebrated musical icon of the Russian Soviet state. But he had an uneasy relationship with the political authorities. He was officially denounced several times, once by Stalin himself, friends and colleagues were arrested, and it's claimed that his works often betray a hidden, subversive political message. Professor Robert Winston examines the psychological damage that could have been caused by a composer trying to serve both Stalin's brutal, totalitarian regime and his own creative muse.

    Episode 4 of 4 Mozart

  • Duration: 30 minutes
  • First broadcast: Tuesday 10 April 2012
  • Professor Robert Winston brings a scientist's ear to his passion for music, exploring the medical histories of great composers and how illness affected the music they wrote.
    Mozart's health has fascinated observers for over two hundred years. The documents have examined to reveal every available medical detail. Any mention of a cough or an ache has been minutely analysed for evidence about the diseases he suffered and the mystery illness that killed him at the tender age of 35. But is this intense scrutiny is obscuring our picture of Mozart? Over 160 different causes of death, alone, have now been suggested. Professor Winston sifts through the morass of information and speculation to discover what Mozart's health can really tell us about the man and his music.



    No comments:

    Post a Comment