Soul Music

Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto - famously featured in David Lean's film "Brief Encounter" - is one of the world's most popular pieces of classical music. Some of its fans describe the way in which it has touched and shaped their lives. Featuring a pianist from Taiwan whose memories of a repressive childhood were dispelled by the emotions contained within this music. Plus a story from an acclaimed pianist from Argentina who was told she would never play the piano again after a serious car accident, but who has recently performed this piece in New York. And finally an account of the place that this piece of passionate and heartfelt music played in the life of John Peel and his family, told by his wife Sheila Ravenscroft. The concerto is also given historical and musical context by pianists Peter Donohoe and Howard Shelley.Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Rosie Boulton.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2012.

An exploration of the haunting melancholy of Gresford, the Miners' Hymn. Written by a former miner, Robert Saint, to commemorate the Gresford pit disaster in 1934, it has been played at mining events ever since. George Leslie Lister wrote the words in 1970.With the thoughts of Albert Rowlands who was working in the lamp-room of Gresford colliery when there was a devastating underground explosion. His father was among the men lost.Plus the composer's grandson, David Saint, organist at St. Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham. And Cecil Peacock, a former miner who recalls playing Gresford at the funerals of 83 miners who died following the Easington Colliery disaster in 1951. With thanks to Trevor Sutherland and the Llay Welfare band.Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appealProducer: Karen GregorFirst broadcast on Radio 4 in February 2012.

Baker Street is Gerry Rafferty's glorious and instantly recognisable hit. It’s arguably the most popular track from his widely respected musical legacy. (Gerry sadly died aged just 63 in 2011) His daughter Martha Rafferty recalls hearing him develop the melody in the attic of their Glasgow home. His inspiration for the lyrics came from a book by Colin Wilson about the sense of disconnection from the world that artists often feel. Featuring: * Musician and founder member of Stealer's Wheel, Rab Noakes. * Singer-songwriter, Betsy Cook * Poet, Ian McMillan * Busker, Gavin Randle * Guitarist, Hugh BurnsMusic featured: An acoustic version of Baker Street is played especially for Soul Music by the Hugh Burns.The original demo of Baker Street, on which Gerry Rafferty plays the famous sax solo on guitar. Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Karen Gregor (whose first decision when starting work on this programme was to NOT mention the urban myth about Bob Holness and the saxophone riff!)First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2012

Irving Berlin’s enduring classic, Let's Face the Music and Dance is celebrated by those for whom it has a special significance. It was written in 1932 as a dance number for the film ‘Follow the Fleet’ starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.Since then it has taken on a life of its own, being recorded by hundreds of artists including Diane Krall, Shirley Bassey, Frank Sinatra, Vera Lynn, Ella Fitzgerald and Matt Munroe.For Sir John Mortimer's widow, Penny, it conjures up the very essence of her husband, who loved life, romance and dancing - even though he was no Fred Astaire, a fact he always deeply regretted.Lawrence Bergreen, Berlin's biographer and academic Morris Dickstein explain why this song has such a unique place in popular culture. Cabaret singer and composer, Kit Hesketh Harvey explains why the melody continues to haunt us.We hear from the bride and groom who decided to dance down the aisle to it after their wedding and the redundant welder for whom the song will be forever associated with the demise of our ship building industry. An insurance executive recalls how the song became central to their advertising campaign, bringing success to the firm and also placing Nat King Cole's version back in the charts nearly 60 years after it was written.Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Lucy LuntFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2011.

The words of one of our most loved hymns, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, were taken from the last six verses of John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, The Brewing of Soma, an attack on ostentatious and overt religious practise. But it wasn't until over 50 years later, that a school teacher at Repton in Derbyshire had the inspiration to pair it with a tune by Sir Hubert Parry, thus confirming it as a favourite for assemblies, funerals and weddings. Repton’s former music director, John Bowley, explains how this happened, while composer and conductor Bob Chilcott explains why this was a musical marriage made in heaven.We hear from those for whom the hymn has special significance, including Gloucester MP, Richard Graham; when briefly imprisoned in a Libyan gaol in 1978 he found enormous comfort in the words and tune. Pipe Major Ross Munro remembers recording the piece in the sweltering heat of Basra with members of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and film director Joe Wright recalls how the inclusion of this hymn was central to the power of his famous scene depicting the evacuation of Dunkirk in his film, Atonement.Contributors:John Bowley Richard Graham Ian Bradley Bob Chilcott Joan Lambley Ross Munro Richard Hoyes Joe WrightSeries exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Lucy LuntFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2011.

Exploring the impact that Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel has had on people's lives.Written in 1978, just prior to his departure from Estonia, Arvo’s piece for piano and violin is musically minimal, yet produces a serene tranquillity.It's in F major in 6/4 time, with the piano playing rising crotchet triads and the violin playing slow scales, alternately rising and falling, of increasing length, which all end on the note A. The score of the piece looks deceptively simple, but as violinist, Tasmin Little explains, it's one of the most difficult pieces to perform because the playing has to simply be perfect, or the mood is lost."Spiegel im Spiegel" in German literally can mean both "mirror in the mirror" as well as "mirrors in the mirror", referring to the infinity of images produced by parallel plane mirrors.The music inspired visual artist Mary Husted to produce a set of collages called "Spiegel im Spiegel" which in a roundabout way, led to her being traced by her long lost son.Contributors:Doreen Macfarlane Rhona Smith Mary Husted Tasmin Little Vicky SmithSeries exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Rosie BoultonFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2011.

Witchita Lineman is the ultimate country/pop crossover track - written by Jimmy Webb for the Country star Glen Campbell. Released in 1968, it tells the story of a lonely lineman in the American Midwest, travelling vast distances to mend power and telephone lines. The song has been covered many times, but Glen’s version remains the best-loved and most played.Johnny Cash also recorded an extraordinary and very raw version. Peter Lewry, a lifelong Cash fan, describes how it came about.David Crary is a lineman from Oklahoma, who recalls his reaction to the first time he heard the song. Meggean Ward's father was a lineman in Rhode Island. As a child she always felt it was written for her him.Glen Campbell is also interviewed. Shortly after it was recorded, he went public about his diagnosis of Alzheimer's. His contribution is brief, but it includes an acoustic performance of the song. It was a privilege to record ‘down the line’. Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Karen Gregor.First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2011.

An exploration of the impact that Mendelssohn's Octet has had on different people's lives, demonstrating the healing power of music in a variety of situations around the world.Felix Mendelssohn wrote his Octet for double string quartet in 1825 aged just 16. Despite his youth, this is a mature and brilliant piece of music described by our interviewees as "carnivalesque", "a romp", "a party".Choreographer Bill T Jones describes the way in which the Octet showed his company how to keep living during the onslaught of AIDS in the 1980's. Cellist Raphael and violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch talk about falling in love whilst learning this music in the 1970's. South Korean Lisa Kim tells a story about going on tour with the New York Philharmonic to North Korea and her intense fear and mistrust being replaced by wonder when they played the Octet with a North Korean Quartet. And Matthew Trusler describes the importance of playing this work after the death of his son.The featured recording of the Mendelssohn Octet by the Emerson String Quartet on Deutsche Gramophon.Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Rosie BoultonFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2011.

Gustav Mahler wrote his 5th Symphony during the summers of 1901 and 1902. The Adagietto is the 4th movement which is thought to have been inspired by falling in love with Alma who he married around this time. This single movement is the composer’s most well-known piece of music. It was famously used in the 1971 Luchino Visconti film Death in Venice. It was also conducted by Leonard Bernstein at the mass at St Patrick's Cathedral, New York on the day of the burial of Robert Kennedy. Composer David Matthews explains the significance of this piece in Mahler's output. Psychoanalyst Anthony Cantle describes listening to it with his mother during her last days of dementia.Malcolm Reid tells how this piece signified a change in himself as a young man in the British police force with narrow, racist views, to hearing it in Australia and shifting to becoming a liberal.And Helen Epstein explains why it was played at her mother's funeral.Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Rosie BoultonFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.

Winterreise was written the year before Franz Schubert's death aged just 31, these 24 songs based on poems by Wilhelm Müller describe a journey that takes us ever deeper into the frozen landscape of the soul. Singers Thomas Hampson, Mark Padmore, Alice Coote and David Pisaro describe the experience of immersing themselves in this music. And Bernard Keefe tells of the time he sang these songs in Hiroshima to survivors of the bomb.Series exploring famous pieces of music and their emotional appeal.Producer: Rosie BoultonFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011.