Free the music with Pekka Kuusisto

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Free the Music with Pekka Kuusisto

Music

Musician Pekka Kuusisto searches for new freedoms in performance.

Violinist and composer Pekka Kuusisto explores performing boundaries and beyond in three diverse and fascinating playlists.

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.

Free the Music with Pekka Kuusisto: The Wood or the Trees?

The Wood or the Trees?

BBC Radio 3 - Free the Music with Pekka Kuusisto, The Wood or the Trees?

Pekka explores musical repetition aided by Paganini, Schubert and Björk.

Violinist and composer Pekka Kuusisto explores and questions the significance of musical repetition, aided by Paganini, Schubert and Björk.

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 this second episode Pekka explores and questions the significance of repetition in music. He applauds the violinist Thomas Zehetmair, who turns Paganini’s 24 Caprices from exercises into mini Italian operas. He also admires Björk’s ability to mask and magnify repetition by making it sophisticated enough to withstand hundreds of listens. And Pekka invites us to join him in a musical tasting party, sampling multiple recordings of Schubert’s Winterreise made by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

A Tandem Production for BBC Radio 3

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Free the Music with Pekka Kuusisto

The Wood or the Trees?

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3