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Barbara Stocking

Michael Berkeley's guest is Barbara Stocking, CEO of Oxfam. Her choices include Bach's B minor Mass, two works by Mozart, a Borodin string quartet, plus music by Lara and Guerra.

Michael Berkeley's guest today is Dame Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam. Born into a working-class Methodist family in Rugby, she grew up with a strong sense of the values of community and of helping other people, and after studying at Cambridge and Wisconsin Universities she decided to make a career in international development. She worked first on the Science and Heath programme in the USA, then for the NHS and the World Health Organization, before becoming in 2001 the first woman to take the helm at Oxfam, one of the UK's best-known international development charities.

Music has always been a passion. She learnt the piano at school, where she first sang in Bach's B minor Mass (her first choice), and then discovered opera while studying at Cambridge. Today her love of opera is represented by an aria from Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro', while Mozart features again with his last piano concerto, No.27 in B flat, played by Daniel Barenboim, who Barbara Stocking greatly admires for his work in the Middle East. The beautiful Notturno from Borodin's Second String Quartet reminds her of early dates with her husband, when they often went to chamber music concerts, while the importance of countries such as Africa and Latin America in her life is represented by the South African national anthem sung by women of the Calabash; Agustin Lara's 'Granada', sung by Jose Carreras at the famous Three Tenors concert at the 1990 World Cup, and finally music by Juan Luis Guerra, an artist she discovered recently in the Dominican Republic after visiting post-earthquake Haiti.

1 hour

Last on

Sun 4 Jul 2010 12:00

Music Played

  • Michael Berkeley

    The Wakeful Poet (Music from Chaucer)

    Performers: Beaux-Arts Brass Quintet

    • BBQ BBQ 003.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Gratias Agimus Tibi (from the Mass in B Minor)

    Performers: Bavarian Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra/Carlo Maria Giulini

    • Mass in B Minor.
    • SONY S2K 66354.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Voi che sapete (from The Marriage of Figaro, Act II)

    Performers: Angelika Kirschlager (Cherubino), Concerto Köln/René Jacobs

    • The Marriage of Figaro.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI 901818/20.
  • Women Of The Calabash

    Nkosi sikeli iAfrika

    • Kwanzaa Album.
    • ORCHARD 793415182323.
  • Agustín Lara

    Granada (from the 3 Tenors Concert at the 1990 World Cup)

    Performers: José Carreras (tenor), Orchestras of the Maggio musicale, Florence and the Rome Opera/Zubin Mehta

    • 3 Tenors Concert.
    • DECCA 430 433-2.
  • Alexander Borodin

    String Quartet No 2 in D (3rd movement, Notturno)

    Performers: The Lindsays

    • Borodin String Quartets.
    • ASV CDDCA 1143.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Piano Concerto No 27 in B flat (2nd movement, Larghetto)

    Performers: Daniel Barenboim (piano and director), Berlin PO

    • Mozart Piano Concertos.
    • TELDEC 75716.
  • Juan Luis Guerra

    A pedir su mano

    Performers: Juan Luis Guerra and 440

    • Bachata Rosa.
    • KAREN RECORDS 261927.

Broadcast

  • Sun 4 Jul 2010 12:00

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