Beethoven and Webern with Timo-Veikko Valve and Aura Go, and Alison Cotton's Engelchen: how opera-loving sisters helped evacuate Jewish refugees
Listen now
Description
Beethoven's five sonatas for cello and piano span his career - two from the beginning, one from the middle and two from his late period - so they provide a good framework for talking about the composer. Timo-Veikko Valve and Aura Go have recorded them alongside the complete music for cello and piano by Anton Webern (three works, together lasting under ten minutes) and they'll be in the studio to talk about them and play excerpts.  Alison Cotton is a London-based experimental artist whose viola/drone/voice/soundscape-rich music is very hard to pigeonhole. Her new album Engelchen (meaning 'little angels') follows the incredible story of British opera-loving sisters Ida and Louise Cook who helped save 29 Jewish people before the start of World War II. The sisters used their love of attending operas as a guise for travelling to Germany, where they actually met refugees and helped smuggle their valuables out of the country. Items like jewellery, furs and watches were sold in the UK to help fund their owner's safe passage. The sisters would do things like restitch British labels to the German coats to avoid suspicion from the Nazi border guards... who thought they were just spinsters dressed in finery returning from a weekend trip to the opera.  Timo-Veikko Valve and Aura Go are performing at ACO Up Close: Beethoven Arranged on 20 April in Sydney and 22 April in Melbourne. Alison Cotton’s Engelchen is out now. Music in the show: Title: Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Major, Op. 69; ii. Scherzo Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven Artist: Timo-Veikko Valve (cello) and Aura Go (piano) Performed Live in The Music Show studio Title: Three Little Pieces, Op. 11 Composer: Anton Webern Artist: Timo-Veikko Valve (cello) and Aura Go (piano) Performed Live in The Music Show studio Title: Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102 No. 1; ii. Adagio – Tempo d'andante – Allegro vivace Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven Artist: Timo-Veikko Valve (cello) and Aura Go (piano) Album: Beethoven Cello Sonatas, Webern Works for Cello & Piano Label: ABC Classic Title: The Letter Burning; We Were Smuggling People’s Lives; Crepuscle; Engelchen Now Artist: Alison Cotton Album: Engelchen Label: Feeding Tube Records LAUNCH339R Title: Crepuscle Composer: Jules Massenet Artist: Amelita Galli-Curci Album: Amelita Galli-Curci Volume One Label: The Rubini Collection GV.578 Title: As The Trees Have Always Known Artist: Melanie Horsnell Album: As The Trees Have Always Known (Single) Label: Independent release Technical Production by Russell Stapleton and John Jacobs The Music Show is produced on Gadigal and Gundungurra Land
More Episodes
It's been forty years since the 1984–5 United Kingdom miners' strike and The Music Show has dug into the archives for a special program looking at the role that music played in this political, industrial and personal struggle. From Peggy Seeger to Paul Weller, Billy Bragg to brass bands—there's...
Published 04/28/24
For over fifty years, Sir Andrew Davis (1944–2024) was one of the world's busiest conductors, He conducted in the opera house and the concert hall and his repertoire ranged from Bach to Birtwistle. In the mid 1970s, he became chief conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, then took on...
Published 04/27/24
Published 04/27/24