Composer of the Week: Barber

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

Migrated podcast image for: Composer Of The Week

Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

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

Composer of the Week: Samuel Barber (1910-1981): An American Opera

An American Opera

Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Samuel Barber (1910-1981), An American Opera

Donald Macleod explores a time when Barber set out to be a conductor.

Donald Macleod journeys through the 1950s, when Barber composed his opera Vanessa.

Donald Macleod journeys through the 1950s when Barber composed his opera Vanessa.

Composer of the Week explores the life and music of Samuel Barber, who is only considered one of the most expressive representatives of the Romantic trend in 20th-century classical music, as well as one of the most frequently performed American composers. His most famous score is his early Adagio for Strings; some of his other breakthrough include his Piano Sonata, and the opera Vanessa.

Barber began studying piano from the age of six and started to compose from the age of seven. He went on to take composition lessons with Rosario Scalero at the Curtis Institute of Music and, from this point, he never looked back, quickly becoming one of America’s most famous composers. He wrote in many different genres, including chamber, vocal, orchestral and works for the stage, and often composed in response to significant and highly desirable commissions.  He enjoyed close collaboration with the performers he wrote for, shaping his music to their individual styles and capabilities. Only towards the end of his life, when he was struggling with depression, alcoholism and also cancer, did his creative output slow.

The 1950s saw further commissions and collaborations. Barber's Hermit Songs were a commission from the famous American patron of the Arts, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, and he worked closely with the New York Woodwind Quintet while composing his Summer Music.  During this decade, Barber started to have lessons as a conductor. He was invited to London to conduct and record three of his works for Decca. However, back in America, his conducting career stalled.  A significant turning point came in 1956 when the Metropolitan Opera in New York, who had previously been resistant to the idea of producing an American opera, commissioned Barber to compose a work for the stage. The outcome was Vanessa, a melodrama, and another significant feather in Barber’s cap.

Souvenirs, Op 28 (Galop)
Leonard Slatkin, piano
John Browning, piano

At St Patrick’s Purgatory, Op 29 No 1 (Hermit Songs)
Mary Bevan, soprano
Dylan Perez, piano

The Monk and his Cat, Op 29 No 8 (Hermit Songs)
Mary Bevan, soprano
Dylan Perez, piano

Meditation and Dance of Vengeance, Op 23a
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi, conductor

Summer Music, Op 31
Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet

Vanessa, Op 32 (excerpt)
Christine Brewer (Vanessa), soprano
Susan Graham (Erika), mezzo-soprano
Simon Birchell (Nicholas) bass-baritone
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin, conductor

Nocturne, Op 33 (Homage to John Field) 
Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano

Produced by Luke Whitlock

Composer of the Week: Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

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 life and music of American composer Samuel Barber.

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of 20th-century American composer Samuel Barber.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Composer of the Week

Samuel Barber (1910-1981)

An American Opera

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3