Pekka Kuusisto is a solo violinist, conductor, composer and folk musician who can change the way people think about music.

In this three-part series he muses on how much creative freedom a musician really has, and the complex relationship between improvisation and ‘sticking to the plan’. How is a performance dictated by time, place, tradition, learned techniques and mindset? And how can we open the door to wider musical freedom in the future, for performers, composers and listeners?

Pekka illustrates his thoughts with a wide selection of music, ranging from Purcell and Paganini to Mahler, Miles Davis and the White Stripes, and he also gets his violin out to create some on the spot improvisations.

In the final episode of his series, Pekka wonders why some elements of music age more elegantly than others. He starts with an improvisation using looping software, before exploring other special effects, including Imogen Heap’s use of a vocoder. From rule breakers and radicals of the past like Gesualdo and Stravinsky, Pekka then looks to the future and admires a symphony by Charles Ives, which he thinks is so modern-sounding that he feels it couldn’t even have been composed yet. Plus, some Finnish heavy metal that Pekka reckons Beethoven would have loved.

A Tandem Production for BBC Radio 3 Show less