Explore The Symphony

English
71 Episodes

About the podcast

Join the National Arts Centre Orchestra's Marjolaine Fournier and one of Canada's foremost music journalists, Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer, as they explore the symphonic form from Haydn to Shostakovich.

About the host

  • host, music journalist Jean-Jacques Van Vlasselaer
  • Double Bass Marjolaine Fournier
  • Robert and Clara: The whirlwind love affair of Robert Alexander Schumann and Clara Josephine Wieck

    English Mar 01, 2017 46:34

    Robert Schumann[1] (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic...

  • Richard Strauss - Also sprach Zarathustra

    English Jan 24, 2017 1:08:07

    Richard Georg Strauss (11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which...

  • Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky: Pulcinella

    English Nov 29, 2016 1:00:12

    Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. Pulcinella is a ballet by...

  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphonies no. 5 & 6

    English Nov 18, 2016 47:50

    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian...

  • Wilhelm Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde

    English Jun 06, 2016 1:02:49

    Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the...

  • Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Man Who Changed Movie Scores Forever

    English Apr 22, 2016 48:33

    "Treating each film as an 'opera without singing' (each character has his or her own leitmotif) Korngold created intensely romantic, richly melodic and contrapuntally intricate scores, the best of which...

  • The Music of George Gershwin

    English Nov 20, 2015 53:40

    By far the bulk of Gershwin’s output is devoted to songs – more than five hundred of them, most of which come from his more than four dozen works for...

  • Episode 43: Mahler Symphony No. 4

    English Sep 29, 2015 59:22

    In the first of the 2015-16 season's "Explore the Symphony" podcasts, the NAC Orchestra's assistant principal double bass Marjolaine Fournier and one of Canada's foremost music journalists Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer...

  • Episode 42: Anton Bruckner and his Ninth Symphony

    English Jun 15, 2015 47:04

    Words like “epic” and “timeless” are regularly applied to Bruckner symphonies. They have a pace of their own. But let yourself get in synch with their pulse, and you’ll be...

  • Episode 41: Maurice Ravel and his two Piano Concertos

    English Mar 23, 2015 41:30

    Join Marjolaine Fournier and Jean-Jacques Van Vlasselaer for an intriguing look into Maurice Ravel's life and his two piano concertos.

  • Episode 40: Jean-Marie Beaudet, founding father of the NAC Orchestra

    English Mar 13, 2015 23:49

    A conversation with Josée Beaudet, the author of Jean-Marie Beaudet, l'homme orchestre. Beaudet was the very first music director at the NAC - he founded the orchestra, secured its...

  • Episode 39: Schumann and the Rhine

    English Jan 19, 2015 51:02

    Marjolaine and Jean-Jacques reveal Schumann's relationship with the Rhine.

  • Episode 38: Brahms’ Symphonies

    English Dec 09, 2014 49:49

    In this week’s Explore the Symphony, Marjolaine and Jean-Jacques dig into not one, but all four of Brahms’ symphonies! Musical Excerpt: NAC Orchestra Brahms, Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 Performance...

  • Episode 37: Hindemith

    English Oct 08, 2014 46:56

    In this episode of Explore the Symphony, Marjolaine and Jean-Jacques discuss Symphonic Metamorphoses of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber by Paul Hindemith. Musical excerpts: Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria...

  • Episode 36: Shakespeare

    English Sep 22, 2014 42:24

    In this Explore the Symphony, Marjolaine Fournier and Jean-Jacques van Vlasselaer talk about Shakespeare, Nicolai, Korngold and Mendelssohn.