| Radio
The Best of the Week
SATURDAY JULY 14
The Podcast Hour (RNZ National, 12.11pm). Simon Morton, the voice of This Way Up since 2005, has left the building and his producer, Richard Scott, is taking over the time slot with this new show exploring the best national and international podcasts. There’s another change happening after 6.00pm on Saturdays: Great Encounters is being replaced by recordings from Womad; tonight features Brazilian ensemble Bixiga 70.
SUNDAY JULY 15
The Sunday Feature (RNZ National, 4.06pm). It’s time for the BBC Reith Lectures again and this year’s speaker is Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan, who will explore war and society. MacMillan is on the road for the five-lecture series, starting in London, then York, Beirut, Belfast and Ottawa. Journalist and broadcaster Anita Anand replaces Sue Lawley as presenter.
WEDNESDAY JULY 18
Music Alive (RNZ Concert, 7.30pm). Piano maestro András Schiff features in tonight’s Carnegie Hall Live, playing works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Brahms and Bach. The first three works, Mendelssohn’s Scottish Fantasy, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 24 and Brahms’ Klavierstücke, are linked by F sharp tonality, and Schiff does not leave the stage between the pieces. He has decided he does not like to take breaks, and in another concert at Carnegie Hall, he played three pieces as one long work – nothing short of astounding, said the New York Times, which also said Schiff was “mightily impressive” in tonight’s concert.
FRIDAY JULY 20
Music Alive (RNZ Concert, 7.30pm). Italian soprano
Maria Luigia Borsi returns to Auckland for one of the grandest and most popular operas: Verdi’s Aida, which is this year’s APO Opera in Concert, live from the Auckland Town Hall. She will be joined by tenor Antonello Palombi as Radamès, a role he has performed at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera, and their fellow countryman Lucio Gallo as Amonasro, the King of Ethiopia. Russian mezzo Olesya Petrova is the Egyptian king’s daughter Amneris.