On the Radio - Apr 2026
When I was younger, I used to love following music developments. I went to a lot of gigs and festivals, mostly indie music, but also a lot of house/techno.
Then, at some point toward the end of my twenties/early thirties, I stopped caring. Now, when I do listen to music it’s mostly music from during that time.
However, ever since I was very young, I’ve loved listening to the radio. That is one habit I still do keep up. Mostly classical music radio stations such as BBC Radio 3 and WHRB these days. It order to encourage myself to listen a bit more ‘actively’, I’m going to try keep a record of any songs/pieces that stand out to me.
CATAMORPHOSIS by Anna Thorvaldsdottir
I heard this being performed by the London Philharmonic as part of a live BBC Radio 3 programme that focused on: “musical reflections on the natural world, from Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s CATAMORPHOSIS, which is inspired by the fragile relationship with have to our planet, to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. Plus Bruch’s ever-popular violin concerto, played by the star Danish violinist, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider.”
The name of the piece is a play on “Catastrophe” and “metamorphosis”. I’d never heard of this composer before, but the piece was incredible. Reminded me of Xenakis a bit.
Pictures at an Exhibition
A piece by Mussorgsky, performed by Ivo Pogorelich.
Another piece that blew me away. Reminded me in some ways of Glenn Gould playing Bach. I also came across an interesting ‘discussion’ on Pogorelich on the NPR website where the reviewers try to figure out what exactly is the meaning of his approach to performance (one reviewer tries to give him the benefit of the doubt, the other hates the approach).
