Composer of the Week - Gavin Bryars

Kate Molleson meets Gavin Bryars, the celebrated and much-loved composer whose kaleidoscopic career defies categorisation. As an inveterate collaborator, Bryars has worked alongside figures as diverse as Brian Eno, Tom Waites, the Hilliard Ensemble, Mainz Opera and Faroese singer-songwriter, Eivør Pálsdottír. He has collected a lifetime’s-worth of amazing stories along the way, and Kate invites Gavin to share some of the many surprising twists and turns in his journey from experimental outsider to concert hall favourite.

Music Featured:

Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet
The Stopping Train
Crookesmoor
The Sinking of the Titanic
My First Homage
White’s SS
Medea: Prelude to Act 5
Les Fiançailles
On Photography
String Quartet No 2
Glorious Hill
Cadman Requiem
Epilogue from Wonderlawn
Adnan Songbook: Song IV
Epilogue from ‘G’
Biped
Morte à spento quel sol ch' abagliar suolmi (Second Book of Madrigals)
Double Bass Concerto "Farewell to St. Petersburg"
A Man in a Room, Gambling (2, ‘3 Card Trick’)
The Fifth Century, (VI, His Omnipresence Is Our Field Of Joys)
Ciascun ke fede sente (Lauda 37)
Tróndur í Gøtu (V, Shall I Abandon)
A Native Hill

Presented by Kate Molleson
Produced by Chris Taylor for BBC Audio Wales & West

For full track listings, including artist and recording details, and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after broadcast) head to the series page for Gavin Bryars https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002djt7

And you can delve into the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the Week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z

Published on Saturday, 28th June 2025.

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