Music For Busy Brains: August 2025

Music To Work By: August 2025

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been rewatching Cosmos by Professor Carl Sagan. If you enjoy Professor Brian Cox’s programmes, I highly recommend Cosmos, first aired in 1980–81. It was a direct inspiration for Cox’s Wonders series. While Sagan’s travel budget was more modest, the core message is similar: understanding life on Earth helps us understand the cosmos, and vice versa. Cox has even said that Sagan was one of the reasons he got into astronomy.

Plenty about Cosmos feels dated now – the graphics, the presentation style, and some of the science – but the storytelling remains utterly compelling. Sagan was a gifted communicator, and completely compelling, so it’s worth watching again and again.

One of the most striking elements is the soundtrack. It blends old and new, with a heavy helping of Vangelis, and is surprisingly close to my own musical tastes. I’ll admit, I often get so caught up in the music that I stop listening to the words. But that’s hardly a problem when at least three of my all-time favourites are on repeat. And so, this month’s selections are drawn straight from the soundtrack to Cosmos.

Richard Strauss – An Alpine Symphony (1915)

If you’re thinking of waltzes, think again – this is the other Strauss. Richard Strauss was a child prodigy who began composing at six and became a master of the tone poem – single-movement orchestral works that depict a scene or story.

An Alpine Symphony follows a day’s climb up and down a mountain. It begins in the half-light of dawn, and if you stick with it, the sun finally breaks through just before the four-minute mark.

The piece is vast in every sense. The orchestra is enormous, featuring cowbells, nine timpani, four are Wagner tubas, a bass oboe... It is whopping. Around 37:20 the wind machine gets going as the storm begins, with thunder sheets shaking things up at 41:00W. With the organ rattling as well, it’s especially thrilling live – the sound rattles right through you.

At 31:40, the first violins reach a high note that involves scaffolding. I’ve played this a couple of times - very fortunate - and it’s one of the most exhausting pieces in the repertoire for 1st violins. Strauss beasts us start to finish.

It’s rarely performed, mainly because most concert venues simply can’t accommodate the forces required. Alongside the full orchestra on stage, this version includes 12 offstage horns, two trumpets and two trombones. These unseen people have to get dressed up too, just so they can come on at the end for some applause!

I’ve chosen this recording by the Vienna Philharmonic because it’s musically strong and clearly marks each of the “mini-movements” – but I must confess I’m not a fan of that orchestra otherwise. Their inclusion of women has been grudging at best. This 2012 performance features just a smattering of women, and although that’s improved, they’re still often seated at the back. My friend Claire Parfitt (the daughter of my fabulous violin teacher) earned her place in the LSO in 1988. She was part of a real turning point. Vienna, on the other hand, had to be dragged into the 21st century. Strength is no advantage in orchestral playing – in fact, fine motor control is far more important. So why the resistance? Maybe they just think women make their outdated and untidy monkey suits look even shabbier.

Igor Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring (1913)

Composed for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris, The Rite of Spring was designed to shock. Diaghilev wanted something radical from both music and dance. Dancers performed barefoot with flat feet, a complete break from classical tradition, and the music pushed every boundary.

The premiere allegedly caused a riot – whether that’s myth or fact is unclear, but it certainly made an impression. Even now, audiences and amateur players can find it startling. When I played it recently, the orchestra didn’t know what had hit them.

Like An Alpine Symphony, it demands a huge orchestra. There’s no organ or wind machine, but it does include the alto flute – nicknamed “the plumbing” by my friend plus the Wagner tubas, two contrabassoons (which I can't hear, but merely experience as a rattle). It is a huge orchestra yet again.

I’ve chosen this performance because I was there. It was part of a thrilling all-Stravinsky concert. Claire Parfitt, again, is in the first violins - near the front! The female alto flautist plays the straight (longer, weightier) version of the instrument, which sounds far better than the shortened one. The female cor anglais player is genuinely always outstanding, and Sharon Williams on piccolo may well be the best in the business. The infamous opening bassoon solo, almost unplayable, is handled effortlessly by Rachel Gough.

And your excuses are, Vienna Phil?

By pure coincidence, I checked Claire’s profile on the LSO website after choosing and writing this to see if I could check the dates. When asked which piece she’d recommend to first-time listeners, she chose The Rite of Spring – and this exact recording. I had no idea. But she’s spot on. Don't make life difficult by starting with a bland bit of Haydn or Schubert - just get stuck in here!

Andrzej Panufnik – Sinfonia Sacra (1963)

I first encountered this piece in youth orchestra. Christopher Adey, our conductor, wasn’t one for spoon-feeding students the usual fare, and introduced us to Panufnik’s bold, stirring Sinfonia Sacra. It’s not widely known. Years later, I saw the LSO perform it, and it was new to Claire - she hadn't play it before during 30 years with the LSO.

In that concert, Philip Cobb (now principal trumpet of the BBC Symphony Orchestra) played the first trumpet part. It felt like liquid gold pouring from his trumpet.

The work is a true symphony, structured in two parts: “Three Visions” and “Hymn”. It’s based on plainchant, and its power is deeply felt. Four trumpets stand at the corners of the orchestra, surrounding the audience in sound.

Panufnik defected from communist Poland to the UK in 1954, having rebuilt the Warsaw Philharmonic after the war. When pressured to join the Party – and later asked to spy – he escaped via Switzerland. I consider him a British composer and he has his plaque in Twickenham

Another remarkable work of his is Kołysanka, which I think of as a lullaby to a nightmare. He achieves this unsettling effect by having the back desks of each string section play in different keys from the rest of the orchestra. I want to be an awkward one at the back!

Gustav Holst – The Planets (1918)

It’s no surprise that The Planets features in Cosmos. Still, it deserves its own mention. I’ve found two recordings to recommend – one is complete, and another is broken up with fascinating introductions from Brian Cox.

Again, the orchestration is huge: two sets of timpani, alto flute, and an offstage women’s chorus in Neptune. Composers of the time weren’t just chasing volume – they were exploring tone colour. Holst uses the orchestra like a painter uses a palette. Three different flutes create distinct voices. Celeste, glockenspiel and xylophone each add their own texture. When instruments are layered – a violin and flute, for example, versus a violin and clarinet – you get entirely different sonic effects. The sound waves genuinely combine to make a different pattern, and therefore a different sound when they hit our ears.

In 1920, Vaughan Williams said of The Planets, “Holst uses a very large orchestra not to make his score look more impressive, but because he needs the extra tone colour and knows how to use it.” I get the impression that RVW would not have written that if he didn't mean it.

We all have a favourite planet because they are so different from each other. Mine is Neptune, right at the end. My favourite non-fiction books as a child were on space and the solar system and the music perfectly chimed with my simple sense of Neptune being very far away and very, very cold.

Holst essentially created the auditory landscape of science fiction. I believe next month will lead from here towards soundtracks that function as classical compositions, so anticipate hearing some Lalo Shiffrin, John Barry, Bernard Herrman, and probably no John Williams - we've listened to plenty of his music this month already!!!!