Patrick Mackie Interviewed by Gwenan Edwards

Poet Patrick Mackie takes a fresh look at the genius of Mozart through new perspectives on his music and illustrates his points with excerpts from the composer’s work.

Mackie looks at Mozart’s life through the prism of the time that he lived and says this gives us a new understanding of why the music still speaks to us today. He explains how the priorities and emphases of Mozart’s music show he was composing at exactly the time the modern world was forming.
‘This book is like a set of virtuoso cadenzas on themes from Mozart’s life and works: improvisatory, thought-provoking, quirky and constantly inventive.’ Stephen Hough

Mackie is a published poet. His collections include Excerpts from the Memoirs of a Fool and The Further Adventures of the Lives of the Saints. Here he talks to journalist and former BBC News presenter, Gwenan Edwards, whose credits include the BBC Proms, BBC World, BBC News Channel and Watchdog on BBC1.