Weekend Life with Mairi Nicolson

12.05pm - 5.00pm Saturday and Sunday

"Music has always been a vital part of my weekend. Either listening to radio, (ABC of course), or 'live' music, as a member of the audience or as a working broadcaster! Weekend Life, with it's breadth of programming, gives me the opportunity to indulge my ecclectic tastes and share the thrill of listening to the best performances from Australia and overseas with ABC Classic FM's discerning audience. What a dream job!" says Mairi.

The best music variety for your weekend afternoons. The weekend is an important time for us all to relax, or perhaps to spend some quality time with family and friends, or maybe get some exercise or indulge a hobby. Then there's the shopping or driving the kids somewhere. Weekend Life's music blend is just as rich and diverse.

You'll hear edge-of-the-seat performances from the finest Australian and international Orchestras...news from the performing arts world in The Scene, the top classical CDs, free Sunday Live concerts, a brass band program, and the ultimate weekend wind-down Song and Dance.

The Sunday Feature

Sunday 28 September

TOP BRASS: Musician to Musician, 2.00pm

Philip Smith - the veteran legendary principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic - is in the spotlight on this week's Sunday Feature. He grew up in a Salvation Army family, playing cornet on street corners and in church bands. His father, a Salvation Army band soloist, was his only teacher, but Smith was a player gifted enough to make it into Juilliard with no formal training -- then to the Chicago Symphony on his first audition; and then, while still in his 20s, to the New York Philharmonic as principal trumpet.

In conversation with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's Managing Director and former orchestral trumpet Trevor Green, Philip Smith talks about his musical roots, the challenges of changing from cornet to orchestra trumpet and what it's like playing in one of the great brass sections in the world.

Listen to selected Weekend Life special features.

Latin Jazz! - A radio documentary by Roger González

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The music of Latin Jazz is a heightened fusion of styles. The combination of hard hitting rhythmic grooves, coupled with complex jazz harmonies and mixed with a dash of Spanish passion create a style that is unique, exciting and innovative.
Latin Jazz! follows Roger González' journey to Spain where he interviews Latin Jazz artists Alain Pérez, Bobby Martínez, Pepe Rivero and Chano Domínguez. Through music, and personal accounts he looks at the history of Latin Jazz, it's movement from Cuba, the United States and Spain, and tries to uncover the question. What is Latin Jazz?
Produced and presented by Roger Gonzalez for ABC Classic FM

Letters To Sibelius by Marshall Walker

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When a schoolboy in Glasgow, Marshall Walker became addicted to the music of Sibelius.
In 1996 he made a pilgrimage to Finland, visiting places of special significance to the composer, his birthplace in Hameenlinna, the villa 'Ainola' where he lived for over 50 years, the forests and lakes near Koli in Karelia.
Back home in New Zealand, Walker began to write Sibelius a thank-you letter for a lifetime's companionship which became a series of Radio programs and a recently published book - 'Dear Sibelius. Letter from a Junky'. (Pub. Kennedy and Boyd, Glasgow)

Each Sunday afternoon in June we're re-broadcasting at your request, Marshall Walker's popular series of four 'Letters to Sibelius', which he and long-time colleague producer Tim Dodd, created for Radio New Zealand Concert.
In addition on June 29th you can hear Marshall's new 'letter', his fifth, titled 'North and South' in which he talks of his relationship with the Scottish conductor Ian Whyte and of bringing Sibelius with him when he emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand.

Our broadcast of the first 'Letter to Sibelius' on June 1st, is prefaced by an interview Mairi Nicolson conducted with Marshall Walker in New Zealand this week.

Picture: Statue of Big Man at Hameenlinna with Scottish pilgrim - Marshall Walker

The Rimini Antiphonal

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The Rimini Antiphonal, a fourteenth-century Gregorian chant manuscript, is dated around 1328 and is held by the State Library of New South Wales. Neri da Rimini, who beautifully hand-painted the historiated letters of many of the important chants in this book, was one of the most famous miniaturists of the period working in northern Italy.Throughout the Middle Ages, handwritten manuscripts were often elaborately decorated with initials that brought attention to the most important part of a text, testifiying to the authority of God through the written word, and bringing the vibrancy of speech and song to the manuscript page. These medieval initials were often intricately designed and painted using gold and expensive pigments. Recently, after several months work transcribing sections of the Rimini Antiphonal and as part of an exhibition at the State Library featuring the manuscript, Neil McEwan, a specialist in Gregorian chant from the University of Sydney Conservatorium of Music, directed the St Laurence Gregorian Schola and Singers in a series of concerts of some of the most important chants from the Antiphonal. In this feature John Carmody speaks with Dr McEwan about his work on the transcriptions and also speaks with others about this important medieval manuscript and how it became one of the State Library of New South Wales greatest treasures.

Written and presented by Dr John Carmody
Technical Production: Wayne Chapman
Producer: Owen Chambers

Music Details

Music played on Weekend Life on October 12 | 11 | 5 | 4 | For earlier dates, start at the index of Archived Music Details.