In this episode, BBC Music Magazine’s editor Oliver Condy talks to the former Guardian editor and now principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Alan Rusbridger.
While the editor of a national paper during the Arab Spring, Wikileaks controversies, the newspaper hacking scandal, riots in the UK and more, Alan Rusbridger found time to learn and perform Chopin’s Ballade No. 1, a feat he describes in his book Play It Again: An Amateur Against the Impossible.
Recordings featured:
Chopin: Ballade No. 1 Murray Perahia (piano) Sony Classical
Britten: Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra New York Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein Sony Classical
Bach arr. Busoni: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland Alfred Brendel (piano) Decca
Beethoven: String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 Takacs Quartet Decca
Schubert: Variations on an Original Theme Andreas Staier & Alexander Melnikov (piano) Harmonia Mundi
Buy Play It Again from the following outlets:
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