One Hit Wonders

Donald Macleod and guest Sarah Willis explore the lives and music of Johann Pachelbel and Engelbert Humperdinck, both composers who are primarily famous for a single work.

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.

In Monday's programme, Donald and Sarah reveal their first two composers. Johann Pachelbel is famed primarily for a short canon. Engelbert Humperdinck composed one of the most popular operas in the world today, but is remembered for very little else!

Pachelbel: Canon & Gigue for 3 violins and continuo in D major

Il Giardiano Armonico

Giovanni Antonini (conductor)

Pachelbel: Christ lag in Todesbanden

Beate Spaltner, soprano

Nils Giebelhausen, tenor

Wolf Matthias Friedrich, bass

Jurgen Banholzer, alto

Hermann Oswald, tenor

Balthasar-Neumann-Chor

Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble

Thomas Hengelbrock

Humperdinck: Erinnerung

Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel (excerpts)

Rebecca Evans, soprano (Gretel)

Jennifer Larmore, mezzo-soprano (Hansel)

Diana Montague, mezzo-soprano (Sandman)

New London Children's Choir

Philharmonia Orchestra

Sir Charles Mackerras (conductor)

Humperdinck: K怀nigskinder, 'Verdorben! Gestorben!..Ihr Kindlein, sie sind gefunden

Matthias Goerne, baritone (Fiddler)

Children's Choir From Adolf Fredrik's Music School

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Manfred Honeck (conductor)

Produced by Sam Phillips, for BBC Wales

Donald Macleod explores some 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 Montr退al

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 K怀ln

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

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

Donald Macleod explores two more of classical music's `one-hit wonders`, including the strange story behind the work for which Tomaso Albinoni is famous today!

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.

In today's programme, Donald and Sarah explore the life of the composer of one of the best-selling pieces of contemporary music ever - Henryk G　recki and his Third Symphony. They also piece together the strange story behind the work for which Tomaso Albinoni is famous today!

G　recki: Symphony No 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs),1st Mvt.

Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra

Krzysztof Penderecki, Conductor

G　recki: Little Requiem for a Certain Polka, Op 66, 3rd Mvt.

Anna Gorecka, Piano

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra

Antoni Wit, Conductor

G　recki: Symphony No 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs), 2nd Mvt.

Dawn Upshaw, soprano

London Sinfonietta

David Zinman, Conductor)

G　recki: Miserere

Los Angeles Master Chorale

Grant Gershon, Conductor

Albinoni: Overture to Zenobia

Charivari Agr退able

Simon Desbruslais, Trumpet

Stephen Pedder, violin

Kah-Ming Ng, conductor

Albinoni (compl. Giazotto): Adagio in G minor

Herbert von Karajan, Conductor

Albinoni: Concerto in B flat major for oboe and strings

Albinoni: Concerto in F major for oboe and strings

Paul Dombrecht, Oboe

Il Fondamento Ensemble

Produced by Sam Phillips, for BBC Wales

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

Donald Macleod and Sarah Willis explore the life and music of Giovanni Pergolesi and Pietro Mascagni - two more of classical music's greatest `one-hit wonders`.

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.

In Thursday's programme, Donald and Sarah explore the life and music of Giovanni Pergolesi, whose huge posthumous fame has now been reduced to just a sole work, and a composer at the other end of the scale, who even in his own lifetime, despite his best efforts, was primarily famous for just a single piece - Pietro Mascagni.

Pergolesi: Stabat Mater (excerpt)

Barbara Bonney, soprano

Andreas Scholl, countertenor

Les Talens Lyriques

Christophe Rousset, director

Pergolesi: Conversione di San Guglielmo (Sinfonia)

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Antonio Pappano, conductor

Pergolesi, Dixit Dominus, Opening chorus

Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera di Lugano

Orchestra Mozart

Claudio Abbado, conductor

Giulia Semenzato, soprano

Lucile Richardot, mezzo-soprano

Ensemble Resonanz

Riccardo Minasi, conductor

Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana (Easter Hymn, Inneggiamo & Intermezzo)

Melody Moore, soprano (Santuzza)

Brian Jagde, tenor (Turiddu)

Elisabetta Fiorillo, mezzo-soprano (Lucia)

Lester Lynch, baritone (Alfio)

Roxana Constantinescu, mezzo-soprano (Lola)

Dresden Philharmonic

Leipzig Radio Choir

Marek Janowski, conductor

Mascagni: Rapsodia Satanica, Prologue

Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz

Frank Strobel, conductor

Produced by Sam Phillips, for BBC Wales

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

Exploring the lives and music of classical music's `one-hit wonders` - today Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, and Julius Fu?퀀k's Entry of the Gladiators come under the microscope.

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.

O Fortuna from Carmina Burana has become one of the most recognisable pieces of music in the world, used in TV and film, and still massively popular in the concert hall. In the final programme of the week, Donald and Sarah explore the life and music of its composer Carl Orff, alongside the life and music of Julius Fu?퀀k, who is famous today primarily for just one of his 400-odd marches.

Orff: Camina Burana, 'O Fortuna

San Francisco Chorus

San Franciso Symphony

Herbert Blomstedt, conductor

Orff/Keetman: Schulwerk (excerpts)

T怀lzer Knabenchor

K怀lner Kinderchor

Instrumental ensemble

Carl Orff, director

Orff: De temporum fine comoedia

Peter Schreier, tenor

Rolf Boysen, speaker

Christa Ludwig, alto

K怀lner Rundfunkchor

RIAS Kammerchor

WDR Sinfonieorchester K怀ln

Herbert von Karajan, conductor

Orff: Carmina Burana (excerpt)

London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus

Richard Hickox, conductor

Fu?퀀k: Entry of the Gladiators

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Vaclav Neumann, conductor

Fu?퀀k: Miramare

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Neeme J䀀rvi, conductor

Fu?퀀k: Triglav

Vကclav Neumann, conductor

Produced by Sam Phillips, for BBC Wales

Donald Macleod explores more of the great one-hit wonders of classical music.