The Music Show

The American pianist Ruth Slenczynska, who died last week at the age of 101, was a childhood prodigy (although she denies the label). That came at a huge price, including a punishing concert schedule from the age of 4, orchestrated in the main by a tyrannical teacher-father. She went on to be one of the great pianists of the 20th century, playing duets with Harry Truman, touring with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops and being taught by Artur Schnabel, Egon Petri and Sergei Rachmaninov - to whom she was possibly the last remaining student link. Andy spoke to her in 2020 at the tender age of 95.

Scottish composer Anna Meredith creates a meeting place between the concert platform and the rave in her music. Her piece for electronics and string quartet, Tuggemo, takes its name from an archaic English word for a swarm of bees, and demands to be heard loud. It's being given its Australian premiere by Omega Ensemble as part of their Howl concert season.
Sophia Brous is an Australian composer based in the US, and she creates semi-improvised song cycles from selections by 20th century writers. Her new collaborator of sorts is the late Dorothy Porter, with her partner Andrea Goldsmith acting as a guide through the poetry Porter wrote in the last years of her life. Andrea and Sophia join Andy to talk about Porter's impact on music and music's impact on her. 
Sophia Brous and Paul Grabowsky are performing Life Lines: A Song Cycle of Dorothy Porter at the Melbourne Writers Festival
Music heard in this program:
Title: BlackfriarsArtist: Anna MeredithComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: VarmintsLabel: Moshi Moshi
Title: TuggemoArtist: Ligeti QuartetComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: NucLabel: Mercury KX
Title: Lil WaltzerArtist: Anna MeredithComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: Bumps Per MinuteLabel: Moshi Moshi
Title: NautilusArtist: Anna MeredithComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: VarmintsLabel: Moshi Moshi
Title: NautilusArtist: Ligeti QuartetComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: NucLabel: Mercury KX
Title: MoonmoonsArtist: Anna MeredithComposer: Anna MeredithAlbum: FIBSLabel: Moshi Moshi
Title: If Snakes Could FlyArtist: Paul Grabowsky and Katie NoonanComposer: Dorothy Porter and Paul GrabowskyAlbum: Before Time Could Change UsLabel: SBS Weatherwatch
Title: Set PIecesArtist: Sophia Brous and Kit DownesComposer: Sophia Brous and Alejandra PizarnikAlbum: Set Pieces live at The Lincoln Center
Title: 10 Preludes, Op. 23; No. 6 AndanteArtist: Ruth SlenczynskaComposer: Sergei RachmaninovAlbum: Complete American Decca RecordingsLabel: Eloquence
The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country
Technical production by Isabella Tropiano

Jeremy Sams is a composer, theatre director and a long-time friend of the show. He's the latest in our series of long conversations with old friends. He joined Andy recently in London to talk about how opera, music theatre and the industries behind the art forms have transformed over the years. 
Music heard in the show:
Title: Balloon MusicArtist: Royal Philharmonic OrchestraComposer: Jeremy SamsAlbum: Enduring LoveLabel: Mellowdrama Records
Title: Act II: Tell me what love is from The Marriage of FigaroArtist: Diana Montague (Cherubino)Composer: Mozart, libretto trans. Jeremy SamsAlbum: The Marriage of FigaroLabel: Chandos
Title: Sunday in the Park, Move On, Sunday (Act II) from Sunday in the Park with GeorgeArtist: Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Broadway Company of Sunday in the Park With GeorgeComposer: Stephen SondheimAlbum: Sunday in the Park With GeorgeLabel: Masterworks Broadway
The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country
Technical production by Antonia Gauci, Timothy Jenkins and Adrian James

ZÖJ, the collaboration between Gelareh Pour and Brian O'Dwyer perform the opening track from their new album, May The Devil’s Ear Be Deaf, live in the music show studios. The album was recorded at an artists retreat in Banff, Canada, and features music “built on fragility and on the fear of its own erasure." They also talk about performing a live score to a remarkable 1925 silent film, Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life.
The Three Seas have been coming together and then flying apart again for years, and they're back together for a live session in the Music Show studio. With band members living in both Australia and West Bengal, the music is an amalgam of Himalayan folk, Baul spiritual music, rock, dub, and jazz. Their latest album is called Antahkarana and it was recorded in Peter Gabriel's Real World studio, a high-tech idyll in the south west of England.
And we remember two giants of the classical world, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, who has died at the age of 81, and Ruth Slenczynska, who has died at the age of 102. 
Tilson Thomas was known for his advocacy of modern American repertoire, and his life-long embrace of Mahler's titanic symphonies. In an archive interview, he tells Andy how he thinks about classical music as a whole, and Mahler in particular. 
We'll hear more from Andy's long conversation with Ruth Slenczynska, a child-prodigy concert pianist who learned with Rachmaninov and duetted with President Truman, next time on The Music Show. 
The Three Seas are currently on tour, dates available here
ZÖJ are performing Grass at The Capitol Theatre on May 1
Music heard in this program:
Title: Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV903 Artist: Ruth Slenczynska Composer: J. S. BachAlbum: Ruth Slenczynska - Complete American Decca RecordingsLabel: Decca
Title: Symphony No. 4; iii. Fugue (Andante moderato) Artist: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Michael Tilson ThomasComposer: Charles IvesAlbum: Ives - Symphony Nos. 3 & 4, Selected American HymnsLabel: SFS Media
Title: Symphony No. 1 in D major, 'Titan'; iv. Stürmisch bewegtArtist: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson ThomasComposer: Gustav MahlerAlbum: Mahler - Symphony No. 1Label: SFS Media
Title: TermitesArtist: ZÖJComposer: Gelareh Pour & Brian O'DwyerAlbum: May The Devil’s Ear Be DeafLabel: Bleeemo Music
Title: Real WorldArtist: The Three SeasComposer: The Three SeasAlbum: AntaḥkaraṇaLabel: Earshift Music
Title: RongmoholeArtist: The Three SeasComposer: The Three SeasAlbum: AntaḥkaraṇaLabel: Earshift Music
The Music Show is made on Gadigal, Gundungurra, and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country Country
Technical production by Antonia Gauci, AJ Bradford, and Tim Jenkins

The Mountain Goats started out as a solo project by then-psych nurse John Darnielle recording directly into a boombox in his room. Their latest album (Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan) is a "full-on musical", complete with french horn and a string section, recorded on what sound like very nice microphones. Darnielle's tastes and influences are esoteric and wide ranging, and so is this conversation with Ce Benedict, in which they discuss religious schisms, instrumental choices, and musical theatre. 
John Darnielle's new book, This Year: 365 Songs Annotated actually contains 366 songs and is published by Scribe.