« Tuning in and Tuning out » New Paths to Classical Music: Musicking/Listening To Beethoven

In this months show we think about deafness and how it connects with music. What is listening ? Who can be a musician or composer and how do our current concepts of music making limit these roles ? We adopt the term musicking to move beyond these traditional concepts: "To music is to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing or practicing, by providing material for performance, or by dancing." We begin with the final string quartet from Beethoven, his last full composition before he died, and then look at other contemporary deaf musicians.

This show not only thinks about who, how and why we can or should listen to classical music today but also who speaks about it and performs it and how this can be challenged and understood. What perspectives or histories are forgotten from the canon? It looks at the broader context of a composer's work and looks around at what was happening at the time it was written, what has happened since and how we could listen and interpret it today. Where did this music emerge from, what was it doing musically and why could that be interesting ? It eschews traditional ways of talking and educating about classical music and looks for a subversive way round the side door and into the concert hall.