Siegfried Idyll

Siegfried Idyll

Author: BBC Radio 4 May 31, 2017 Duration: 27:36

Wagner's peaceful Siegfried Idyll was written to thank his wife after the birth of his son Siegfried.

On her birthday in 1870, she awoke to find an orchestra on her staircase performing the music for the first time.

It's music which celebrates family relationships, and we hear from people whose lives and relationships have been touched and changed by this remarkable piece.

Cellist Nick Trygstad explains how the music conjures up scenes of domestic life and helped him cope with his homesickness when he arrived in the UK.

Karen West recalls a 50th birthday treat - a trip across lake Lucerne with her father, to visit Wagner's villa.

For Tim Reynish, the music has a special connection with his son - when William was born he recreated the first performance on the staircase of his Birmingham home; many years later he conducted the music at his son's memorial concert.

And Roberto Paternostro recalls a historic performance in Germany when he took a group of Israeli musicians to perform Wagner's music for the first time at Bayreuth - the opera house built by Wagner, and later frequented by Adolf Hitler.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2017.


There’s a certain piece of music that, when you hear it, seems to stop time. It might be a melody from your childhood, a song that played at a pivotal moment, or a composition that simply reaches into your chest and grips your heart. Soul Music, from BBC Radio 4, is built around that very phenomenon. This isn’t a program about genres or charts; it’s an intimate exploration of why specific pieces of music carry such profound emotional weight. Each episode focuses on a single, iconic work-from classical adagios to folk ballads, from film scores to pop anthems. The podcast weaves together the voices of people whose lives have been indelibly marked by that music: listeners share personal, often moving stories of grief, joy, love, and remembrance, while composers and performers might shed light on the piece’s creation. You’ll hear the music itself, of course, but framed in a way that reveals its deeper resonance in human experience. It’s a quiet, thoughtful series that reminds us how soundtracks our inner lives. Tuning into this podcast feels like being part of a conversation about the invisible threads that connect us all through notes and rhythms, exploring how a sequence of sounds can become a vessel for collective memory and feeling.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Soul Music
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