Composer of the Week: One Hit Wonders

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: One Hit Wonders: Dukas and Allegri

Dukas and Allegri

One Hit Wonders

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, One Hit Wonders, Dukas and Allegri

Donald Macleod explores two more of the greatest one-hit wonders in classical music.

Composers Paul Dukas and Gregorio Allegri are both remembered for just a single work. Together with guest Sarah Willis, Donald Macleod explores the reasons for this phenomenon.

Donald Macleod explores two more of the greatest “one-hit wonders” in classical music.

Composers Paul Dukas and Gregorio Allegri are both remembered for just a single work. Together with guest Sarah Willis, Donald Macleod explores the reasons for this phenomenon.

Classical music is littered with composers who are famous for just a single piece of music. In a special week of Composer of the Week programmes, Donald Macleod is joined by Berlin Philharmonic horn player Sarah Willis to explore ten of these composers and examine episodes from their lives, alongside their compositions – both their popular hits and some of their less familiar music. They also try to isolate why certain works have captured the popular imagination of audiences around the world.

Paul Dukas and Gregorio Allegri are composers with very little in common, separated by nearly three centuries. However they are both largely remembered for just one of their works. In Tuesday’s programme, Donald and Sarah explore their lives and the stories behind their single hits.

Dukas: La Peri Fanfare
Ulster Orchestra
Jan Pascal Tortelier, Conductor

Dukas: L’apprenti sorcier 
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal
Kent Nagano, Conductor

Dukas: Ariane et Barbe-bleu, Act III: Adieu
Marilyn Schmiege, Mezzo-Soprano (Ariane)
Cynthia Buchan, Mezzo-Soprano  Cynthia Buchan (Selysette)
Mitsuko Shirai, Soprano (Melisande)
Francine Laurent, Soprano (Bellangere)
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
Gary Bertini, Conductor

Allegri: Canzone Scamfortina
Musica Flexanima
Fabrizio Bigotti, Conductor

Allegri: Missa ‘Che fa oggi il mio sole’: Agnus Dei 
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, Conductor

Allegri: Miserere 
Tenebrae
Nigel Short, Conductor

Produced by Sam Phillips, for BBC Wales

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.

Donald Macleod explores the back catalogues of composers famous for one popular favourite.

Donald Macleod and guest Sarah Willis explore the back catalogues of composers whose reputations nowadays rest on one popular favourite.

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