Paul Kildea's guest appearances

Paul Kildea

The Guardian Books podcast

The Book Club

The Gramophone podcast

Tall Poppies

The ABR Podcast

Chamber of Musical Curiosities

Samantha Harvey

Max Porter

Adam Rutherford

Joan Sutherland

Robert Webb

Laurie Lee

Mohsin Hamid

Robert Plomin

Elif Shafak

Madeline Miller

Jim Al-Khalili

Richard Flanagan

Ben Lerner

Carlo Rovelli

Sara Paretsky

OwlTail

Benjamin Britten

Paul Kildea is a man of many parts – author, musician, new artistic director of Musica Viva – and a regular contributor to ABR. In this week’s podcast, he talks to Peter Rose about the challenges of programming Musica Viva’s season during a pandemic and about Benjamin Britten, whose opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a highlight of the 2021 Adelaide Festival. Paul Kildea – who will conduct the opera – is the author of a biography of Britten.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Paul Kildea is a man of many parts – author, musician, new artistic director of Musica Viva – and a regular contributor to ABR. In this week’s podcast, he talks to Peter Rose about the challenges of programming Musica Viva’s season during a pandemic and about Benjamin Britten, whose opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a highlight of the 2021 Adelaide Festival. Paul Kildea – who will conduct the opera – is the author of a biography of Britten.See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

Paul Kildea on Musica Viva and Benjamin Britten

Jane Caro

Paul and Jane discuss the not so linear path of her career and beginnings in advertising, identifying as an out, loud and proud feminist, miming the flute and dealing with age discrimination. With music creeping its way into her life as a teenager, during the era of rock and roll Jane relives the experience of attending Led Zeppelin’s infamous concert in Sydney and talks about the chemical reactions of music and being a passionate audience member.

Jane Caro and Paul Kildea: A not so linear path

In the second episode, Artistic Director Paul Kildea is in conversation with Musica Viva’s own Artistic Director of Competitions, Wilma Smith. Together they discuss Wilma’s musical journey from New Zealand to the United States, her subsequent studies with the legendary Dorothy DeLay, and the founding of the New Zealand String Quartet. Wilma shares the fascinating and fortunate story of how her 1761 Guadagnini violin came into her life, and reflects upon the importance of chamber playing in a musician’s career, and the extraordinary talent uncovered by Musica Viva’s latest venture, Strike A Chord.

Wilma Smith and Paul Kildea: Musical journeys, founding ensembles & Strike A Chord

Malcolm Gillies

Welcome to the Chamber of Musical Curiosities! In this episode, Musica Viva's Artistic Director, Paul Kildea and Australian linguist and musicologist Malcolm Gillies, reflect upon creativity, their career, and their passion for chamber music.

Malcolm Gillies and Paul Kildea: Creativity, careers and chamber music

Amy Sackville

Paul Kildea explores how Frédéric Chopin wrote his Preludes and what became of them after his death, while Amy Sackville looks at power and PR through the lens of Diego Velázquez

 Paul Kildea on Chopin and Amy Sackville on Velázquez – books podcast 

In this edition, Paul Kildea talks about his latest book, "Chopin's Piano, A Journey Through Romanticism," and rising to the challenge of finding the right words to describe music. He also recalls the time in his life when the adjective – Australian - was not a positive one and shares his insatiable passion for Australia.“I have always tried to work out a way of coming up with a single image or analogy or a metaphor, that makes it really clear to a non-specialist, the phenomenon of hearing that piece of music”The conductor and author, Paul Kildea, hails from Canberra. He studied piano and musicology at the University of Melbourne before completing his doctorate at Oxford. Since his Opera Australia début in 1997, he has conducted many of today’s great artists in opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe and Australia.In 1999 he was appointed Head of Music at the Aldeburgh Festival and, in 2003, was named Artistic Director of one of London’s most prestigious concert venues, Wigmore Hall.Paul has also written extensively on music and culture in the twentieth century. His first three books feature the music and work of the composer, Benjamin Britten. The third, a biography, “Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century”, was published in 2013, the composer’s centenary year. The Financial Times considered it, ‘unquestionably the music book of the year’.Paul’s latest book, “Chopin’s Piano, A Journey through Romanticism,” has just been published. It tells the captivating story of Frédéric Chopin and the fate of his Majorcan pianino, the instrument he used while residing on Majorca, where he wrote a number of his renowned “24 Preludes”. It traces musical Romanticism from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Among its protagonists are Chopin and the French novelist, George Sand, while the unexpected heroine of this book is the great keyboard player, Wanda Landowska, who rescued Chopin’s pianino in 1913.At the heart of this book’s 24 chapters, are Chopin’s 24 Preludes. It traces the instruments on which they were played, the pianists who interpreted them, and the traditions they came to represent.But it all begins and ends with the Majorcan pianino, which became a much-coveted cultural artefact during the Second World War. When the Nazis saw it as a symbol of the man and music, they were determined to appropriate it as their own.

In this edition, Paul Kildea talks about his latest book, "Chopin's Piano, A Journey Through Romanticism," and rising to the challenge of finding the right words to describe music. He also recalls the time in his life when the adjective – Australian - was not a positive one and shares his insatiable passion for Australia. “I have always tried to work out a way of coming up with a single image or analogy or a metaphor, that makes it really clear to a non-specialist, the phenomenon of hearing that piece of music” The conductor and author, Paul Kildea, hails from Canberra. He studied piano and musicology at the University of Melbourne before completing his doctorate at Oxford. Since his Opera Australia début in 1997, he has conducted many of today’s great artists in opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe and <a href="http://Australia.In" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Australia.In</a> 1999 he was appointed Head of Music at the Aldeburgh Festival and, in 2003, was named Artistic Director of one of London’s most prestigious concert venues, Wigmore Hall.Paul has also written extensively on music and culture in the twentieth century. His first three books feature the music and work of the composer, Benjamin Britten. The third, a biography, “Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century”, was published in 2013, the composer’s centenary year. The Financial Times considered it, ‘unquestionably the music book of the year’.Paul’s latest book, “Chopin’s Piano, A Journey through Romanticism,” has just been published. It tells the captivating story of Frédéric Chopin and the fate of his Majorcan pianino, the instrument he used while residing on Majorca, where he wrote a number of his renowned “24 Preludes”. It traces musical Romanticism from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Among its protagonists are Chopin and the French novelist, George Sand, while the unexpected heroine of this book is the great keyboard player, Wanda Landowska, who rescued Chopin’s pianino in <a href="http://1913.At" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">1913.At</a> the heart of this book’s 24 chapters, are Chopin’s 24 Preludes. It traces the instruments on which they were played, the pianists who interpreted them, and the traditions they came to represent.But it all begins and ends with the Majorcan pianino, which became a much-coveted cultural artefact during the Second World War. When the Nazis saw it as a symbol of the man and music, they were determined to appropriate it as their own.

Paul Kildea, Author & Musician

It’s a first for the Spectator Books podcast this week: music! We’ve temporarily dispensed with our usual intro jingle to allow this week’s guest, Paul Kildea, to play us in. Paul’s new book Chopin’s Piano: A Journey Into Romanticism is a fascinating and unusual piece of non-fiction that sheds light on Chopin’s life and music, and on their afterlife, as its author pursues an Ahab-like pursuit of the piano on which he composed his Preludes in Majorca. Sam Leith speaks to Paul at the Royal Overseas League in London, so that with the help of their instrument, he could punctuate our conversation with some musical illustrations of his points. Bitter musical disputes, doomed love, George Sand and Nazis: this one has it all.

It’s a first for the Spectator Books podcast this week: music! We’ve temporarily dispensed with our usual intro jingle to allow this week’s guest, Paul Kildea, to play us in. Paul’s new book Chopin’s Piano: A Journey Into Romanticism is a fascinating and unusual piece of non-fiction that sheds light on Chopin’s life and music, and on their afterlife, as its author pursues an Ahab-like pursuit of the piano on which he composed his Preludes in Majorca. Sam Leith speaks to Paul at the Royal Overseas League in London, so that with the help of their instrument, he could punctuate our conversation with some musical illustrations of his points. Bitter musical disputes, doomed love, George Sand and Nazis: this one has it all.

Paul Kildea: Chopin's Piano

James Jolly

James Jolly and Paul Kildea discuss Benjamin Britten. A Gramophone Milestones Podcast, in association with EFG International

Paul Kildea

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