Main content

Stephanie Flanders

Michael Berkeley's guest is economist Stephanie Flanders. Her musical choices include favourite songs of her father - Michael Flanders - plus Glenn Gould in a Haydn piano sonata.

Stephanie Flanders is familiar to most of us from the years she spent as the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's Economics Editor, untangling graphs and statistics and treasury policies with great clarity and cheerful common sense. She left the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ in 2013 and is now chief market strategist for Britain and Europe at JP Morgan Asset Management. But she's also the daughter of the late Michael Flanders, of Flanders and Swann, the writer of so many memorable comic songs - like "Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud".

Michael Flanders died when Stephanie was only six, but she remembers the pleasure of pushing him around in the wheelchair he used after catching polio as a student. And because she didn't know him for long, she has spent time researching his life, combing through boxes in the garage, and re-discovering her father through his music.

Music choices include some of her father's favourite songs, including a little-known song about gluttony which is a protest against the cruelty of foie gras. She includes too Glenn Gould's recording of a Haydn Piano Sonata which kept her going through long nights in Washington when she was writing speeches for Bill Clinton. The speeches were about impending financial crisis and, as an economist, Stephanie has weathered many financial crises, able to unpick the deepest workings of both the Treasury and the City and explain them to a mass audience. She is not afraid to shake up the status quo: an unmarried mother, she challenged David Cameron on tax breaks for married women, and her blog speaks out about "the over-mathematization of economics at the expense of common sense".

The programme ends with a preview of a new recording of Donald Swann's "Bilbo's Last Song", setting words by Tolkien.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus production for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3.

Available now

35 minutes

Last on

Sun 29 Jan 2017 12:00

Music Played

  • Donald Swann

    Ill Wind/Friendly Duet

    Performer: Michael Flanders and Donald Swann.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Trio in E flat major (Kegelstatt) (1st mvt: Andante)

    Performer: Julian Milkis. Performer: Alexander Kniazev. Performer: Valery Afanassiev.
  • Joseph Haydn

    Piano Sonata in C major (H.16:50) (1st mvt)

    Performer: Glenn Gould.
  • Joseph Horovitz

    Foie Gras

    Singer: Richard Jackson. Performer: Graham Johnson.
  • Aaron Copland

    Appalachian Spring (opening)

    Orchestra: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Richard Spano.
  • Ariel RamΓ­rez

    Misa Criolla (Gloria)

    Singer: JosΓ© Carreras. Choir: Coral SalvΓ© de Laredo.
  • Donald Swann

    Bilbo's Last Song

    Performer: Christopher Glynn. Singer: Felicity Lott. Singer: Roderick Williams.

Broadcast

  • Sun 29 Jan 2017 12:00

What makes Boogie-woogie piano legend Jools Holland tick?

What makes Boogie-woogie piano legend Jools Holland tick?

For Private Passions, Jools Holland revealed his piano history to Michael Berkeley.

11 things we learned from Harry Enfield’s Private Passions

11 things we learned from Harry Enfield’s Private Passions

Harry doesn't usually give interviews – but he couldn't say no to Michael Berkeley.

Archive Unlocked: Two Decades of Private Passions

Michael Berkeley introduces memorable interviews from Private Passions' archives.

Podcast