The Danish National Chamber Orchestra and conductor Adám Fischer perform Beethoven symphonies. Jonathan Swain presents.
Symphony no. 1 in C major Op.21
Symphony no. 7 in A major Op.92
Ronald Brautigam (piano), Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Richard Dufallo (conductor)
Na rozhl'adni (z cyklu 'Letné zápisky') (On the Watchtower (from the cycle 'Summer Pictures'))
8 Danses exotiques vers. for 2 pianos
String Quartet No. 2 in A minor (1849)
Bernt Lysell (violin), Per Sandklef (violin), Thomas Sundkvist (viola), Mats Rondin (cello)
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring - from Two Pieces for Small Orchestra (1911/12)
Elizabeth Wallfisch (Baroque violin), Rosanne Hunt (cello), Linda Kent (harpsichord)
Clemency Burton-Hill presents Radio 3's classical Breakfast show, with the final week of the Best of British music Playlist, compiled from listener requests. Also, including requests for your favourite works and pieces that you would like to hear.
Discover definitive recordings of the greatest classical music with your trusted guide, Rob Cowan. His guest is journalist and presenter of BBC's Top Gear programme, James May.
A selection of music including '5 Reasons to Love... orchestral lollipops'. Throughout the week Rob welcomes in the New Year with a selection of orchestral lollipops recalling the tradition of Thomas Beecham's orchestral bons-bons. The San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas play familiar favourites include Rachmaninov's Vocalise, Delius's On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Schubert's Entracte No.3 from Rosamunde and Litolff's celebrated Scherzo.
, is James May. Best known as co-presenter of the BBC's Top Gear programme, the Renaissance man of motoring takes off his driving gloves and returns to Essential Classics to dig deeper into another of his great passions. A former chorister and occasional flautist, May is a classical music enthusiast with a particular love of the keyboard.
This week Rob's featured artist is the eminent Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, whose performances combine probing intelligence and an intense conviction. Rob will feature benchmark recordings throughout the week from his prestigious career with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic and from his tenure as music director at La Scala, Milan. Not forgetting his memorable New Year's Day Concert of 2000.
Emmanuel Chabrier's 'road to Damascus' encounter with Wagner inspires him to write a grand opera, Gwendoline.
Chabrier must surely be one of the most likeable fellows to have graced this earth. It seems no-one had a bad word to say about him. His wide circle of friends included all the leading musicians, writers, poets and painters of the day. Chabrier owned a remarkable collection of impressionist paintings including several by Manet, who produced the best known portrait of the composer.
Emmanuel Chabrier's life slots into a fascinating point in French musical history. When he was born in 1841, Berlioz was already thirty-eight and famous, Saint-Saëns was six, while the rising stars of the future, Massenet and Fauré, were not yet born. Despite Wagner's dominance, and indeed Chabrier's own reverence for the German composer, Chabrier's music retains a staunchly Gallic individuality, with critics subsequently paying tribute to him as a "direct forerunner of the modern school." The reason for this may well relate, at least in part, to his studies. Chabrier was largely self-taught, and although he was better educated than most musical amateurs, he never followed the accepted route into the Paris Conservatoire or a similar institute. He trained first in law, only taking up full time composition in his thirties.
Today Donald Macleod follows Chabrier to Germany, where hearing Wagner's Tristan und Isolde creates a profound impression. He finally decides to abandon his career as a civil servant in favour of becoming a full-time composer. For the next six years Chabrier toils over creating his own grand opera, Gwendoline.
Pieces pittoresques, Nos 1, 2, 3 & 5 (Paysage; Mélancolie; Tourbillon, Mauresque, Menuet Pompeux)
For the last three years, the Elias Quartet have been devoting their time to a complete concert cycle of the Beethoven quartets, which they have performed at venues up and down the country. The first instalment was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 over the Christmas-New Year period last year; now, in this second part, broadcast throughout this week on Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert, they bring the project to a conclusion.
(Recorded in May at All Saints Church Brighton, as part of the 2014 Brighton Festival).
Afternoon on 3 continues its celebration of the BBC Performing Groups with some of their highlight concerts and recordings from 2014. Today's programme features the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in concert at Cheltenham Town Hall performing Bartok and Barber with cellist Alban Gerhardt. Then it's the turn of the BBC Singers, and music to celebrate their 90th birthday this year. Finally to the BBC Concert Orchestra and part of a concert they gave called Crazy Paris, including Milhaud's Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel with narrators Alistair McGowan and Kevin Eldon.
c.
c.
c.
Sian Phillips and Peter Marinker with words and music about everyday life in Ancient Rome including texts by Pliny, Juvenal, Dickens, Henry James, Mark Twain, W.H Auden & Kipling. And music by Wagner, Carl Orff, Nino Rota, Stephen Sondheim, John Williams, Respighi, Allegri, Berlioz, Britten and Puccini.
Clemency Burton-Hill continues a two week series showcasing the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists.
As part of the BBC's commitment to developing and nurturing young talent, BBC Radio 3 launched its New Generation Artists scheme in the autumn of 1999. Now well into its second decade, the scheme has acquired the reputation of being a world leader for young artists. Every autumn six to seven artists or groups who are beginning to make a mark on the international music scene are invited to join. Opportunities include concerts in London and around the UK, appearances and recordings with the BBC Orchestras, special studio recordings for Radio 3, and, for some, appearances at the Proms.
Olena Tokar studied at the Ukrainian Tchaikovsky National Academy of Musicin Kiev - Rachmaninov was one its founder in 1913. Today, Olena Tokar sings Rachmaninov with Igor Gryshyn. Frédéric Chopin's Sonata no. 3 in B minor, op. 58 was written during the summer of 1844 and it combines both the classical and romantic traditions and allows Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Pavel Kolesnikov to show both poise and virtuosic flair. To end today's programme the Danish Quartet play the String Quartet No. 4 by fellow Dane, Carl Nielsen. Nielsen composed this quartet in 1906 under the title Piacevolezza - which simply means something pleasing. He revised it in 1919 and published it 1923 as Op. 44.
RACHMANINOV: The Dreams Op. 38;
CHOPIN: Sonata no. 3 in B minor
RACHMANINOV: Night is sorrowful Op. 26
NIELSEN String Quartet No. 4 in F major, Op. 44, Piacevolezza
The Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Han-Na Chang made their Proms debut this summer playing music by Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and Behzad Ranjbaran.
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor
Cellist and conductor Han-Na Chang makes her Proms conducting debut as Music Director of the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra - one of this year's global orchestras, also making its debut. Their concert culminates in Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5, haunted by its recurring 'Fate' theme.
Vivid with contrasts and surging climaxes, the symphony is matched for drama by Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, a Proms favourite whose slow movement burns with restrained passion. Behzad Ranjbaran's Seemorgh is inspired by the mythical Persian bird of its title.
Laura Mvula live at the BBC Proms with the premiere of Jules Buckley's new orchestral remix of Mvula's album Sing to the Moon.
Brit Award- and Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter Laura Mvula made her Proms debut last year in the hugely successful Urban Classic Prom. Now the classically trained artist returns for a Late Night Prom that showcases her talents in a new light. This Prom includes the public premiere of Jules Buckley's new orchestral remix of Mvula's album Sing to the Moon, in which the Netherlands-based Metropole Orchestra makes its Proms debut.
One hundred years ago the First World War set the course for the modern world: for the countries that took part nothing would be the same again. In these special editions of The Essay we gain an international perspective on the war as we hear from cultural figures from around the world taking part in an international series of events called The War That Changed The World, made in partnership with the British Council and the BBC World Service.
Tatyana Tolstaya is an internationally acclaimed Russian novelist and broadcaster, and well known in Russia as a scion of the country's most famous literary family. In this essay 'White Flowers', she tells a moving story from her own family, the story of her grandmother's chance encounter with British journalist William Stead. This is a poetic story about revolution, ideology and the individual, through which we glimpse a different future for Russia and for Europe. It is recorded with an audience at the Hermitage in St Petersburg, which was known as the Winter Palace when it was 'stormed' in 1917.
Max Reinhardt brings a brilliant fiery glow to the dying embers of 2014 with a Late Junction radio exclusive: a short visit from Sam Lee who brings along his new album The Fade In Time for the world to hear on radio for the first time ever. Plus some vintage Congolese funk from Verckys and Orchestre Veve, Ruth Wall's version of the Sans Day Carol, a new song from Susannah Austin, a fresh reworking of a Blues classic by Rhiannon Giddens, a Chopin Nocturne, Anna Meredith's remix of Tanya Auclair's Kimchi Landslide and some festive Cakes and Ale, courtesy of Howard Skempton.
WEDNESDAY 31 DECEMBER 2014
WED 00:30 Through the Night (b04vdvtv)
Attilio Ariosti's La fede ne' tradimenti
Opera rara - Attilio Ariosti's La fede ne' tradimenti. Presented by Jonathan Swain.
12:32 AM
Ariosti, Attilio [1666-1729]; Libretto by Girolamo Gigli [1660-1722]
La fede ne' tradimenti (Faithfulness amid Betrayal)
Havard Stensvold (bass) (Garzia, King of Navarre); Roberta Invernizzi (soprano) Anagilda (Sister of the King of Navarre); Marianne Beate Kielland (mezzo soprano) (Fernando, Prince of Castille); Lucia Cirillo (soprano) (Elvira, sister of Fernando); Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi (director)
3:05 AM
Brahms, Johannes [1833-1897]
Sonata for violin and piano no. 1 (Op. 78) in G major
Vilde Frang Bjaerke (violin), Jens Elvekjaer (piano)
3:31 AM
Buus, Jacques [c.1500-1565]
Ricercare
Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet - Daniël Brüggen, Bertho Driever, Paul Leenhouts and Karel van Steenhoven (recorders)
3:38 AM
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791)
Overture - from Der Schauspieldirektor, singspiel in 1 act (K.486)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Ivor Bolton (conductor)
3:44 AM
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750)
Concerto in D minor for 2 violins, strings and basso continuo (BWV.1043)
Nicolas Mazzoleni and Lidewij van der Voort (violins), European Union Baroque Orchestra, Roy Goodman (director)
4:00 AM
Wolf, Hugo [1860-1903]
Italian serenade for string quartet
Bartok Quartet
4:07 AM
Schubert, Franz (1797-1828)
Gesang der Geistern über den Wassern, Op.167 ('Spirits' song above the waters', words by Goethe)
Estonian National Male Choir, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Juri Alperten (director)
4:17 AM
Baltzar, Thomas (1630-1663)
Divisions on 'John Come Kiss Me Now'
Elizabeth Wallfisch (baroque violin), Rosanne Hunt (cello), Linda Kent (harpsichord)
4:23 AM
Grieg, Edvard (1843-1907)
Symphonic dance no.2 (Allegro grazioso) (Op.64 No.2)
Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Ingar Bergby (conductor)
4:31 AM
Corelli, Arcangelo (1653-1713)
Concerto Grosso in D (Op.6 No.4)
Europa Galante, Fabio Biondi (violin/director)
4:40 AM
Byrd, William (c.1543-1623)
O Lord, how vain - for voice and 4 viols
Emma Kirkby (soprano), The Rose Consort of Viols
4:47 AM
Kuula, Toivo (1883-1918)
Prelude and Fugue for orchestra (Op.10) (1909)
The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Pertti Pekkanen (conductor)
4:57 AM
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus [1756-1791]
Fantasia for piano in C minor (K.475)
Juho Pohjonen (piano)
5:09 AM
Beethoven, Ludwig van [1770 -1827]
Symphony no. 4 (Op.60) in B flat major;
BBC Philharmonic, Gianandrea Noseda (conductor)
5:43 AM
Debussy, Claude [1862-1918]
L'isle joyeuse (1904)
Balázs Fülei (piano)
5:49 AM
Chopin, Fryderyk [1810-1849], arranged Lyadov
Nocturne in G minor (Op.15, No.3) arranged for 2 pianos
Dina Yoffe & Daniel Vaiman (pianos)
5:55 AM
Paderewski, Ignacy Jan (1860-1941) arranged by Stanislaw Wiechowicz
From 6 Lieder (Op.18) arranged for choir (Polaly sie lzy; Nad woda wielka; Tylem wytrawal; Piosnka dudarza) (Tears were shed; Over the big water; I have persevered so long; The piper's song)
Polish Radio Chorus, Wlodzimierz Siedlik (conductor)
6:07 AM
Pokorny, Frantisek Xaver [(1729-1794)]
Concerto for Horn, Timpani and Strings in D major
Radek Baborák (french horn) Prague Chamber Orchestra, Antonin Hradil (conductor)
6:23 AM
Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da [c.1525-1594]
Stabat Mater for 8 voices
Silvia Piccollo (soprano), Teresa Nesci (soprano), Marco Beasley (tenor), Furio Zanasi (bass), Paolo Crivellaro (organ), Alberto Rasi (viola da gamba), Theatrum Instrumentorum, Chorus of Swiss Radio, Lugano, Diego Fasolis (conductor).
WED 06:30 Breakfast (b04vxcbb)
Wednesday - Clemency Burton-Hill
Breakfast with Clemency Burton-Hill. An all-British programme to celebrate our year-long Best of British Playlist
From New Years Day 2014 onwards, Breakfast listeners have been contributing to The Best of British Playlist - 365 pieces celebrating British music throughout the centuries. The list includes many well-known favourites, but also spans the almost forgotten, the neglected and one or two delightful surprises.
WED 09:00 Essential Classics (b04vdt08)
Wednesday - Rob Cowan with James May
Discover definitive recordings of the greatest classical music with your trusted guide, Rob Cowan. His guest is journalist and presenter of BBC's Top Gear programme, James May.
9am
A selection of music including '5 Reasons to Love... orchestral lollipops'. Throughout the week Rob welcomes in the New Year with a selection of orchestral lollipops recalling the tradition of Thomas Beecham's orchestral bons-bons. The San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas play familiar favourites include Rachmaninov's Vocalise, Delius's On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Schubert's Entracte No.3 from Rosamunde and Litolff's celebrated Scherzo.
9.30am
Musical challenge: Mystery Composer
10am
Rob's guest this week, sharing his favourite classical music every day at
10am, is James May. Best known as co-presenter of the BBC's Top Gear programme, the Renaissance man of motoring takes off his driving gloves and returns to Essential Classics to dig deeper into another of his great passions. A former chorister and occasional flautist, May is a classical music enthusiast with a particular love of the keyboard.
10.30am
This week Rob's featured artist is the eminent Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, whose performances combine probing intelligence and an intense conviction. Rob will feature benchmark recordings throughout the week from his prestigious career with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic and from his tenure as music director at La Scala, Milan. Not forgetting his memorable New Year's Day Concert of 2000.
11am
Essential Choice
Chausson
String Quartet in C minor, op.35
Via Nova Quartet.
WED 12:00 Composer of the Week (b04vdswj)
Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)
The Apprentice
The Chabriers take a trip to Spain where the dances and rhythms fascinate Emmanuel, inspiring him to write his biggest ever hit, Espana.
Chabrier must surely be one of the most likeable fellows to have graced this earth. It seems no-one had a bad word to say about him. His wide circle of friends included all the leading musicians, writers, poets and painters of the day. Chabrier owned a remarkable collection of impressionist paintings including several by Manet, who produced the best known portrait of the composer.
Emmanuel Chabrier's life slots into a fascinating point in French musical history. When he was born in 1841, Berlioz was already thirty-eight and famous, Saint-Saëns was six, while the rising stars of the future, Massenet and Fauré, were not yet born. Despite Wagner's dominance, and indeed Chabrier's own reverence for the German composer, Chabrier's music retains a staunchly Gallic individuality, with critics subsequently paying tribute to him as a "direct forerunner of the modern school." The reason for this may well relate, at least in part, to his studies. Chabrier was largely self-taught, and although he was better educated than most musical amateurs, he never followed the accepted route into the Paris Conservatoire or a similar institute. He trained first in law, only taking up full time composition in his thirties.
The Chabriers' holiday in Spain is vividly documented in Emmanuel Chabrier's delighted correspondence with all his friends back home in Paris. Today Donald Macleod dips into those letters for an insight into the sights and experiences that inspired Chabrier to produce a uniquely Gallic take on Spanish rhythms, much loved everywhere except Spain!
España
Ulster Orchestra
Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor
Rondes Champêtre
Allan Schiller, piano
Finale to Fisch-Ton-Kan (orchestration by Roger Delage)
Mireille Delunsch, soprano, Goulgouly
Christian Mehn, tenor, Fisch-Ton-Kan
Ensemble Vocal
Collegium Musicum de Strasbourg
Roger Delage, director
Trois valses romantiques (arr. Cortot)
Kathryn Stott, piano
Elizabeth Burley, piano
La Sulamite
Susan Mentzer, mezzo soprano
Toulouse-Midi-Pyrénées Womens' Chorus
Toulouse Capitole Orchestra
Michel Plasson, conductor.
WED 13:00 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert (b04vdsx8)
Elias Quartet Beethoven Cycle
Episode 3
For the last three years, the Elias Quartet have been devoting their time to a complete concert cycle of the Beethoven quartets, which they have performed at venues up and down the country. The first instalment was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 over the Christmas-New Year period last year; now, in this second part, broadcast throughout this week on Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert, they bring the project to a conclusion.
Beethoven: String Quartet in C minor, Op 18 No 4
Elias Quartet
(Recorded in February at The Concert Hall, Reading)
Beethoven String Quartet in E minor, Op 59 No 2
Elias Quartet
(Recorded in May at the Turner Sims Concert Hall, University of Southampton).
WED 14:05 Afternoon Concert (b04vdvzl)
BBC Performing Groups Best of 2014
Episode 3
Afternoon on 3 continues its celebration of the BBC Performing Groups with some highlight concerts and recordings from over the last year. Today's programme features the BBC Philharmonic on tour in Valencia performing Walton, Bartok and Turina. Then the BBC Singers, and music they performed as part of Radio 3's Strauss 150 celebrations - his Deutsche Motette.
Presented by Penny Gore
c.
2.05pm
Walton Scapino - overture
c.
02.15pm
Bartok Concerto Sz.116 for orchestra
Turina Danzas fantasticas Op.22 for orchestra : Orgia
BBC Philharmonic
Juanjo Mena (conductor)
c.
3pm
Strauss Deutsche Motette
Olivia Robinson (soprano), Rebecca Lodge (mezzo-soprano),
Edward Goater (tenor), Edward Price (bass)
BBC Singers
David Hill (conductor).
WED 15:30 Choral Evensong (b04vdyn0)
With the Rodolfus Choir at St Gabriel's, Pimlico
With the Rodolfus Choir at St Gabriel's, Pimlico
Responses: Smith
Psalms 149 and 150 (Hanford, Goodenough)
Lessons: Jeremiah 23 vv1-6, Colossians 2 vv8-15
Magnificat: Praetorius with Joseph, lieber Joseph mein
Nunc dimittis: Arvo Pärt
Anthem: Jesu, meine Freude (J.S. Bach)
Hymn: God rest ye merry, gentlemen (English traditional)
Organ voluntary: Sinfonia from Cantata 29 BWV 29 (J.S. Bach arr. Dupré)
Tom Winpenny, Organist
Ralph Allwood, Director of Music.
WED 16:30 Words and Music (b01806nq)
Tendrilled Avenues
"Tendrilled Avenues": poetry and prose from Pliny to Proulx celebrating and cautioning, lamenting and laughing, about humanity's complex relationship with alcohol, read by Sally Dexter and Jon Strickland.
Pliny the Elder gives a sober judgement of wine's effects. Dickens and Lowry describe in poetic detail, the interior of two drinking establishments; Colette's heroine Claudine becomes light-headed on sparkling wine and new love. Shakespeare's Falstaff is unequivocal in his praise for "good sherris sack", while Martin Amis's John Self discovers the embarrassment of over-indulgence at a dinner party. Whalers on shore-leave caper wildly in Moby Dick; Proulx's fishing community party takes a violent turn. And DH Lawrence meditates on humanity's ancient and mysterious relationship with the "tendrilled avenues of wine and the otherworld".
With drinking songs from Verdi, Warlock and Tom Waits, and orchestral interludes ranging from reflective to euphoric, by Ravel, Copland and Milhaud.
WED 17:45 New Generation Artists (b04vdxd8)
Clemency Burton-Hill continues her two week series showcasing the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists.
As part of the BBC's commitment to developing and nurturing young talent, BBC Radio 3 launched its New Generation Artists scheme in the autumn of 1999. Now well into its second decade, the scheme has acquired the reputation of being a world leader for young artists. Every autumn six to seven artists or groups who are beginning to make a mark on the international music scene are invited to join. Opportunities include concerts in London and around the UK, appearances and recordings with the BBC Orchestras, special studio recordings for Radio 3, and, for some, appearances at the Proms.
Elena Urioste begins today's programme with a short arrangement of a song by Debussy by the virtuoso violinst Jascha Heifetz. Ben Appl performs Shumann's settings of Heine's texts of frustrated or lost love, Liederkreis Op. 24. And, the programme ends with a performance the Str--ing Quartet in No. 2 in A minor Op. 13, composed when Mendelssohn was still a teenager and in awe of his hero, Beethoven.
DEBUSSY arr. Heifetz: Beau soir
Elena Urioste (violin); Tom Poster (piano)
SCHUMANN: Liederkreis Op. 24
Benjamin Appl (baritone); Joesph Middleton (piano)
DVOARK: Four Romantic pieces Op.75
Elena Urioste (violin); Zhang Zuo (piano)
MENDELSSOHN: String Quartet in No. 2 in A minor
Apollon Musagete Quartet.
WED 19:00 BBC Proms 2014 (b04vdyn2)
Prom 69: Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst and Cleveland Orchestra at this year's BBC Proms with music by Brahms and the UK premiere of a new work by Jörg Widmann.
Presented by Donald Macleod at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Brahms: Tragic Overture
Jörg Widmann: Teufel Amor (UK premiere)
Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73
Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst (conductor)
The Cleveland Orchestra begins its second concert at the BBC Proms featuring music by Brahms and Jörg Widmann with Brahms's Tragic Overture, a work which lives up to its name with turbulent intensity. This year's cycle of Brahms symphonies wass brought to a conclusion with a performance of the sunny Second. The composer was in unusually high spirits while composing it, joking with his publisher, 'I have never written anything so sad'. The result, in fact, sets aside Brahms's habitual seriousness and dramatic tensions in an open-hearted score of great warmth and appeal. In between these two works is young German Jörg Widmann's Teufel Amor - a musical account of the contradictions, tensions and resolutions of love, inspired by Schiller's lost poem.
Concert originally broadcast 08/09/2014.
WED 20:45 The Essay (b04mbljb)
World War One Round the World
London - Shell Shock and the Shock of Shells
One hundred years ago the First World War set the course for the modern world: for the countries that took part nothing would be the same again. In these special editions of The Essay we gain an international perspective on the war as we hear from cultural figures from around the world taking part in an international series of events called The War That Changed The World, made in partnership with the British Council and the BBC World Service.
Joanna Bourke stunned academics and the reading public alike with her extraordinary study 'An Intimate History of Killing', since which she has written studies of Fear, Rape, Pain and Humanity. Shell Shock and the Shock of Shells draws on the letters and diaries of soldiers and their families. In this essay she returns to the First World War to reflect not only on shell shock, but also on the actual shells themselves, presenting her latest research into their physical impact and the language which evolved to describe them. Her essay was recorded with an audience at the Imperial War Museum in London.
WED 21:00 BBC Proms 2014 (b04vdyn4)
Prom 76: Last Night of the Proms
The Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Sakari Oramo, star violinist Janine Jansen and baritone Roderick Williams.
Presented by Sean Rafferty and Suzy Klein
Sakari Oramo directs his first Last Night, joined by star Dutch violinist Janine Jansen.
We pay tribute to the late John Tavener with his touching Song for Athene, and mark the 50th anniversary of the film Mary Poppins with a singalong medley.
Arnold's Peterloo overture receives its first performance in a new choral version with lyrics by Sir Tim Rice, while our Richard Strauss anniversary celebrations conclude with the Proms premiere of the composer's massive cantata Taillefer.
The nautical flavour of Ansell's Plymouth Hoe (and its brief quotation of Rule, Britannia!) forms an upbeat to the traditional Last Night favourites, led by baritone Roderick Williams.
Gavin Higgins: Velocity (BBC commission: world premiere)
Arnold: Overture 'Peterloo' (new choral version with lyrics by Sir Tim Rice: world premiere)
Walton: Facade - Popular Song
Chausson: Poème
Tavener: Song for Athene
R Strauss: Taillefer, Op. 52
Khachaturian: Gayane - Sabre Dance
Ravel: Tzigane
Kern arr. Roderick Williams: Show Boat - 'Ol' Man River'
Trad. arr. Roderick Williams: Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
Richard M Sherman & Robert B Sherman: Mary Poppins - medley
Ansell: Plymouth Hoe
Arne arr. Sargent: Rule, Britannia!
Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major ('Land of Hope and Glory')
Parry orch. Elgar: Jerusalem
arr. Britten: The National Anthem
Janine Jansen (violin)
Roderick Williams (baritone)
Elizabeth Watts (soprano)
John Daszak (tenor)
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (conductor)
Concert originally broadcast 13/09/2014.
THURSDAY 01 JANUARY 2015
THU 00:00 Late Junction (b04vxxy8)
It's About Time
Max Reinhardt kicks off the New Year with Its About Time - Late Junction's First Mix for 2015.
THU 00:30 Through the Night (b04vdvty)
New Year's Day
Jonathan Swain presents a New year's Day programme of Gade, Arutiunian, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, Jarre, Halvorsen, Strauss & Leroy Anderson with WDR Radio Orchestra conducted by Helmuth Groschauer and Keith Lockhart
12:31 AM
Gade, Jacob [1879-1963]
Jalousie - tango
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Keith Lockhart (conductor)
12:36 AM
Arutiunian, Aleksandr Grigori [1920-2012]
Concerto for trumpet and orchestra
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Reinhard Ehritt (trumpet), WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Helmuth Froschauer (conductor)
12:53 AM
Borodin, Alexander [1833-1887]
Polovtsian dances for orchestra
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Helmuth Froschauer (conductor)
1:12 AM
Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich [1840-1893]
Eugene Onegin - Polonaise
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Helmuth Froschauer (conductor)
1:18 AM
Shostakovich, Dmitri [1906-1975]
Jazz Suite no 1 (excerpts)
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Helmuth Froschauer (conductor)
1:28 AM
Kabalevsky, Dmitri [1904-1987]
Komedianti - suite Op.26 for small orchestra (excerpts)
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Helmuth Froschauer (conductor)
1:37 AM
Jarre, Maurice [1924-2009]
Dr Zhivago - Lara's Theme
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Helmuth Froschauer (conductor)
1:45 AM
Halvorsen, Johan [1864-1935]
Entry March of the Boyars
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Keith Lockhart (conductor)
1:51 AM
Kabalevsky, Dmitri [1904-1987]
Colas Breugnon - Overture
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Keith Lockhart (conductor)
1:57 AM
Strauss, Johann, II [1825-1899]
An der schönen, blauen Donau - waltz Op.314 for orchestra
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Keith Lockhart (conductor)
2:06 AM
Anderson, Leroy [1908-1975]
Concerto for piano and orchestra in C
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Keith Lockhart (conductor)
2:26 AM
Anderson, Leroy [1908-1975]
Fiddle faddle for orchestra
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Keith Lockhart (conductor)
2:31 AM
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix (1809-1847)
Double concerto in D minor for violin, piano and string orchestra
Jaroslaw Zolnierczyk (violin), Andrzej Tatarski (piano), The "Amadeus" Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra in Poznan, Agnieszka Duczmal (conductor)
3:06 AM
Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da (c.1525-1594)
Missa in duplicibus minoribus II for 5 voices
Maîtrise de Garçons de Colmar, Ensemble Giles Binchois, Ensemble Cantus Figuratus der Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Dominique Vellard (director)
3:40 AM
Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770-1827)
10 Variations on 'La stessa, la stessissima' for piano, from Salieri's 'Falstaff' (WoO.73)
Theo Bruins (piano)
3:51 AM
Purcell, Henry (1659-1695)
The Duke of Gloucester's trumpet suite
Crispian Steele-Perkins (trumpet), The King's Consort, Robert King (director)
4:03 AM
Sanz, Gaspar (17th century)
Suite espanola for guitar
Tomaz Rajteric (guitar)
4:13 AM
Sibelius, Jean (1865-1957)
Petite Suite - for brass septet
Royal Academy of Music Brass Soloists
4:21 AM
Diepenbrock, Alphons (1862-1921) [text: Baudelaire, Charles (1821-1867)]
L'Invitation au voyage
Christa Pfeiler (mezzo-soprano), Rudolf Jansen (piano)
4:28 AM
Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilyich [1840-1893]
The Nutcracker - suite Op.71a - Trepak
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Helmuth Froschauer (conductor)
4:31 AM
Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich [1804-1857]
Ruslan i Lyudmila - overture
WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Helmuth Froschauer (conductor)
4:37 AM
Schubert, Franz [1797-1828]
Klavierstück No. 2 in E flat, D. 946
Cyprien Katsaris (piano)
4:49 AM
Sheppard, John [c.1515-1558], Dove, Jonathan [b.1959]
In manus tuas (Sheppard)& Into Thy Hands (Dove)
Gabrieli Consort, Paul McCreesh (director)
5:00 AM
Kuula, Toivo (1883-1918)
South Ostrobothnian Dances 1-5 (Op.17) (1909)
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kari Tikka (conductor)
5:09 AM
Desprez, Josquin [1440-1521]; Anon (c.1500)
3 pieces (Josquin) In te Domine speravi (in 4 parts) ; (Anon) Zorzi, Giorgio - Salterello ; (Anon) Forte cosa e la speranza (in 5 parts) ]
Clare Wilkinson (mezzo-soprano), Musica Antiqua of London, Philip Thorby (director)
5:18 AM
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791)
12 Variations on 'Ah! Vous dirai-je, maman' (K.265) (arranged from piano solo for wind quintet)
Yur-Eum Woodwind Quintet
5:31 AM
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il'yich (1840-1893)
Suite No.4 in G major for orchestra (Op.61), 'Mozartiana'
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Kazuhiro Koizumi (conductor)
5:55 AM
Chopin, Frédéric (1810-1849)
Scherzo No.2 in B flat minor (Op.31)
Alex Slobodyanik (piano)
6:05 AM
Barber, Samuel [1910-1981]
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (Op.14)
James Ehnes (violin), Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey (conductor).
THU 06:30 Breakfast (b04vxcfc)
Thursday - Clemency Burton-Hill
Clemency Burton-Hill presents a New Year's Day edition of Radio 3's Breakfast. Also, including requests for your favourite works and pieces that you would like to hear.
Email 3Breakfast@bbc.co.uk or text 83111 with your music requests.
THU 09:00 Essential Classics (b04vdt0b)
Thursday - Rob Cowan with James May
Discover definitive recordings of the greatest classical music with your trusted guide, Rob Cowan. His guest is journalist and presenter of BBC's Top Gear programme, James May.
9am
A selection of music including '5 Reasons to Love... orchestral lollipops'. Throughout the week Rob welcomes in the New Year with a selection of orchestral lollipops recalling the tradition of Thomas Beecham's orchestral bons-bons. The San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas play familiar favourites include Rachmaninov's Vocalise, Delius's On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Schubert's Entracte No.3 from Rosamunde and Litolff's celebrated Scherzo.
9.30am
Musical challenge: Classical Consequences
10am
Rob's guest this week, sharing his favourite classical music every day at
10am, is James May. Best known as co-presenter of the BBC's Top Gear programme, the Renaissance man of motoring takes off his driving gloves and returns to Essential Classics to dig deeper into another of his great passions. A former chorister and occasional flautist, May is a classical music enthusiast with a particular love of the keyboard.
THU 10:15 New Year's Day Concert (b04vrkjc)
Live from the Musikverein, Vienna
Presented by Petroc Trelawny
The annual New Year's Day concert with the Vienna Philharmonic. Zubin Mehta returns to conducts this year's selection of waltzes and polkas mainly from the Strauss family - his fifth occasion to lead this special event in his long standing relationship with the orchestra.
Suppé: Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna
Johann Strauss: Tales from the Orient
Josef Strauss: Viennese Life
Eduard Strauss: Where one Laughs and Lives
Josef Strauss: Village Swallows from Austria
Johann Strauss: By the shores of the Danube
10.55am - Interval
11.15am - Part 2
Johann Strauss: Perpetuum mobile
Johann Strauss: Acceleration waltz
Johann strauss: Electro-magnetic polka
Eduard Strauss: At full steam
Johann Strauss: On the Elbe
Johann Strauss: Beloved Anna Polka
Lumbye: Champagne Galop
Johann Strauss: My Life is Love and Laughter
Johann Strauss Snr: Freedom march
Johann Strauss: Wine, women and song
Eduard Strauss: With Style polka
Vienna Philharmonic
conductor Zubin Mehta.
THU 13:00 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert (b04vdsxb)
Elias Quartet Beethoven Cycle
Episode 4
For the last three years, the Elias Quartet have been devoting their time to a complete concert cycle of the Beethoven quartets, which they have performed at venues up and down the country. The first instalment was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 over the Christmas-New Year period last year; now, in this second part, broadcast throughout this week on Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert, they bring the project to a conclusion.
Beethoven String Quartet in B flat, Op 130 (with Grosse Fuge finale, Op 133)
Elias Quartet
(Recorded in February at The Concert Hall, Reading).
THU 14:00 Afternoon Concert (b04vdvzr)
BBC Performing Groups Best of 2014
A Christmas Carol
Afternoon on 3 continues its BBC Performing Groups Best of 2014 with a chance to hear the BBC Singers and Symphony Orchestra in Neil Brand's new adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. In this dark and atmospheric version of the story, follow Ebenezer Scrooge as his past, present and future conspire to teach him the real spirit of Christmas, and his own humanity, to an exciting orchestral underscore. Plus more from the BBC Singers' 90th birthday concert, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performing Part, and the Ulster Orchestra in Strauss as part of Radio 3's Strauss 150 celebrations.
Presented by Penny Gore.
c.
2pm
Neil Brand A Christmas Carol
Ebenezer Scrooge (Robert Powell)
Ghost of Christmas Past/Laundress/ Maid/Woman (Sophie Thompson)
Ghost of Christmas Present/Jacob Marley (Ron Cook)
Dora/Mrs Fezziwig/Betty (Tracy-Ann Oberman)
Alfred/Phil 1/Fezziwig/Fat man 1/Man (Patrick Brennan)
Benjamin/Fred/Phil 2/Fat man 2/Undertaker (Shaun Mason)
Charles - (young)/Cratchit/Joe (Paul Heath)
Emily/Belle/Mrs Cratchit/ Charwoman (Hannah Genesius)
Fanny/Fan/Tiny Tim/Boy (Bettrys Jones)
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Martin Andre (conductor)
David Hunter and Neil Brand (directors)
Ann McKay and David Hunter (producers)
c.
3.15pm
Bob Chilcott Weather Report
Lennox Berkeley There was neither grass nor corn
Britten Shepherd's Carol
Helen Neeve (sop), Margaret Cameron (mezzo-soprano),
Stephen Jeffes (tenor), Andrew Rupp (bass)
BBC Singers
Bob Chilcott ( conductor)
c.
3.30pm
Part Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Donald Runnicles (conductor)
c.
3.40pm
Strauss Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Op.60
Ulster Orchestra
Michael Seal (conductor).
THU 16:30 Words and Music (b041vfzy)
After Shakespeare
Poetry, prose and music inspired by Shakespeare including words by T.S. Eliot, Michael Longley, Anna Akmatova, Sylvia Plath, James Joyce and Carol Ann Duffy and music by Sibelius, Frank Martin, Duke Ellington, Tchaikovsky, Michael Tippett and Loudon Wainwright III. The readers are Rory Kinnear and Adjoa Andoh.
Producer: Fiona McLean.
THU 17:45 New Generation Artists (b04vdxdb)
Clemency Burton-Hill continues a two week series showcasing the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists.
As part of the BBC's commitment to developing and nurturing young talent, BBC Radio 3 launched its New Generation Artists scheme in the autumn of 1999. Now well into its second decade, the scheme has acquired the reputation of being a world leader for young artists. Every autumn six to seven artists or groups who are beginning to make a mark on the international music scene are invited to join. Opportunities include concerts in London and around the UK, appearances and recordings with the BBC Orchestras, special studio recordings for Radio 3, and, for some, appearances at the Proms.
Music for New Year's Day includes Walton's nod towards Elizabethan lute songs, performed by Robin Tritschler and Sean Shibe; Leonard Elschenbroich playing Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No. 1, written when French musicians were falling under the spell of Franz Liszt; and to end music by jazz saxophonist, Trish Clowes; as well as songs from the shows when mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately joins the BBC Concert Orchestra and Barry Wordsworth for music by Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter.
SCHUMANN: Romances op. 94
Alec Frank-Gemmill (horn); Alisdair Beatson (piano)
WALTON: Anon in Love
Robin Tritschler (tenor); Sean Shibe (guitar)
SAINT-SAENS Cello Concerto No 1 (
19:14)
BBC Philharmonic
Leonard Elschenbroich (cello)
TRISH CLOWES: Dance with me
Trish Clowes (saxophone)
James Maddren (drums)
Louise McMonagle (cello)
SONGS FROM THE SHOWS by Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter.
Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano)
BBC Concert Orchestra
Barry Wordsworth (conductor).
THU 19:00 BBC Proms 2014 (b04vdyt0)
Prom 21: The John Wilson Orchestra - Kiss Me, Kate
Cole Porter's award-winning 1948 musical Kiss Me, Kate with the John Wilson Orchestra and a cast of leading singers, recorded at the 2014 BBC Proms.
Presented by Suzy Klein at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Cole Porter: Kiss Me Kate
Fred Graham / Petruchio ..... Ben Davis
Lilli Vanessi / Katherine Minola ..... Alexandra Silber
Bill Calhoun / Lucentio ..... Tony Yazbeck
Lois Lane / Bianca ..... Louise Dearman
John Wilson Orchestra
John Wilson (conductor)
The appearances of John Wilson and his orchestra have become one of the annual highlights of the Proms. Following the enormous success of the staged performance of My Fair Lady in 2012, John Wilson returns to perform Cole Porter's Tony Award-winning musical Kiss Me, Kate in its original 1948 arrangements. He is joined by a cast of leading singers in this irreverent reworking of The Taming of the Shrew - a play within a play.
Concert originally broadcast 02/08/2014.
THU 21:45 BBC Proms 2014 (b04w0hd0)
Proms Saturday Matinee 3: A Portrait of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
Sian Edwards conducts the London Sinfonietta and soprano Rebecca Bottone in music from a concert celebrating Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's 80th birthday, recorded during the 2014 BBC Proms.
Presented by Clemency Burton-Hill at Cadogan Hall, London.
Peter Maxwell Davies: Revelation and Fall
Peter Maxwell Davies: A Mirror of Whitening Light
Rebecca Bottone (soprano)
London Sinfonietta
Sian Edwards (conductor)
Celebrating his 80th birthday year and the subject of one of the 2014 season's Proms Plus Composer Portraits, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is one of the greats of contemporary British music.
The programme, chosen by the composer himself, explores his wide-ranging sound-worlds, from the sleek and glittering chamber textures of A Mirror of Whitening Light (completed in 1977, shortly after his move to Orkney) to the confrontational music drama of Revelation and Fall.
Concert originally broadcast 30/08/2014.
THU 22:45 The Essay (b04mbljl)
World War One Round the World
Sarajevo - Divine Uncertainty
One hundred years ago the First World War set the course for the modern world: for the countries that took part nothing would be the same again. In these special editions of The Essay we gain an international perspective on the war as we hear from cultural figures from around the world taking part in an international series of events called The War That Changed The World, made in partnership with the British Council and the BBC World Service.
Haris Pasovic lived through the Siege of Sarajevo and was the producer of Susan Sontag's legendary 1993 'Waiting for Godot', produced in the city during the war. Since then he has developed theatrical spectaculars with a special focus on the impact of war including The Red Line (11,500 chairs representing those killed in the siege) and 'The Conquest of Happiness' (a massive open-air theatre event for Derry Year of Culture based on the works on Bertrand Russell). His essay 'Divine Uncertainty' is a personal take the war in Bosnia and the First World War. In this essay, recorded at the Sarajevo Theatre of War, Haris explains how he sees politics as a force woefully out of step with science and playfully suggests that a theory of 'political relativity' is needed in which cultural identity is cushioned by tolerance.
THU 23:00 Late Junction (b04vdyt4)
Richard Dawson, Bela Fleck, Keith Jarrett, Nancy Kerr
A visit to Late Junction by Richard Dawson plus Banjo duo Fleck/Washburn asking What'cha Gonna Do?, The Dawn of a New Day by Classica Orchestra Afrobeat, an extract from Lubomyr Melnik's The Voice of Trees and a field recording of the Dasaswamedh Ghat Ganga Aarti ceremony made next to the Ganges. Presented by Max Reinhardt.
FRIDAY 02 JANUARY 2015
FRI 00:30 Through the Night (b04vdvv0)
Bruckner: Symphony No 8
From the Archives of Netherlands Radio - the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra perform Bruckner 8 under Zubin Mehta and Haydn's Symphony No.97 under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Jonathan Swain presents.
12:31 AM
Haydn, Joseph [1732-1809]
Symphony no. 97 in C major Hob.I:97 (1792)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor)
12:57 AM
Bruckner, Anton [1824-1896]
Symphony no. 8 in C minor
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Zubin Mehta (conductor)
2:20 AM
Grandjany, Marcel (1891-1975)
Rhapsodie pour la harpe (Op.10) (1921)
Rita Costanzi (harp)
2:31 AM
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791)
Oboe Concerto in C major (K.285d/314a)
Heinz Holliger (oboe), Symphony Orchestra of Austrian Radio, Leif Segerstam (conductor)
2:52 AM
Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770-1827)
Serenade for string trio (Op.8) in D major
Leopold String Trio ? Marianne Thorsen (violin), Lawrence Power (viola), Kate Gould (cello)
3:22 AM
Eybler, Joseph Leopold von [1765-1846]
Symphony in C major
Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Andrew Manze (conductor)
3:46 AM
Vivaldi, Antonio [1678-1741]
Concerto in C major, RV.444 for recorder, strings & continuo
Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini (recorder)
3:55 AM
Fauré, Gabriel (1845-1924)
Dolly ? Suite for piano duet (Op.56)
Erzsébet Tusa, Istvan Lantos (pianos)
4:09 AM
Villa-Lobos, Heitor (1887-1959)
Bachianas Brasileiras No.9 for string orchestra
The "Amadeus" Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra in Poznan, Agnieszka Duczmal (conductor)
4:19 AM
Kreisler, Fritz (1875-1962)
Berceuse romantique (Op.9) ? for violin and piano
Tobias Ringborg (violin), Anders Kilström (piano)
4:24 AM
Nielsen, Carl [1865-1931]
Overture to Maskerade (FS.39)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Leif Segerstam (conductor)
4:31 AM
Delius, Frederick (1862-1934)
Irmelin: prelude
Symphony Nova Scotia, Georg Tintner (conductor)
4:36 AM
Bree, Johannes Bernardus van (1801-1857)
Allegro for 4 string quartets in D minor (1845)
Viotta Ensemble, Viktor Liberman (conductor)
4:48 AM
Faggioli, Michelangelo (1666-1733)
Marte, ammore, guerra e pace ? from the opera 'La cilla'
Pino de Vittorio (tenor), Cappella della Pietà dé Turchini, Antonio Florio (director)
4:57 AM
Sweelinck, Jan Pieterszoon (1562-1621)
Psalm 23 ? from the Genevan Psalter
Leo van Doeselaar (Van Hagerbeer organ (1643) at the Pieterskerk in Leiden)
5:06 AM
Halvorsen, Johan (1864-1935)
Norwegian Rhapsody No.1 in A
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Christopher Warren-Green (conductor)
5:18 AM
Diamond, David (1915-2005)
Rounds for string orchestra
CBC Vancouver Orchestra, Mario Bernardi (conductor)
5:33 AM
Brahms, Johannes (1833-1897)
Viola Sonata in F minor (Op.120 No.1)
Ilari Angervo (viola), Konstantin Bogino (piano)
5:56 AM
Sibelius, Jean (1865-1957)
Symphony No.5 in E flat major, Op.82
Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Ari Rasilainen (conductor).
FRI 06:30 Breakfast (b04vxcj2)
Friday - Clemency Burton-Hill
Clemency Burton-Hill presents Radio 3's Classical Breakfast show, including requests for your favourite works and pieces that you would like to hear.
Email 3Breakfast@bbc.co.uk with your music requests.
FRI 09:00 Essential Classics (b04vdt0d)
Friday - Rob Cowan with James May
Discover definitive recordings of the greatest classical music with your trusted guide, Rob Cowan. His guest is journalist and presenter of BBC's Top Gear programme, James May.
9am
A selection of music including '5 Reasons to Love... orchestral lollipops'. Throughout the week Rob welcomes in the New Year with a selection of orchestral lollipops recalling the tradition of Thomas Beecham's orchestral bons-bons. The San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas play familiar favourites include Rachmaninov's Vocalise, Delius's On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Schubert's Entracte No.3 from Rosamunde and Litolff's celebrated Scherzo.
9.30am
Musical challenge: Recording Rewind
10am
Rob's guest this week, sharing his favourite classical music every day at
10am, is James May. Best known as co-presenter of the BBC's Top Gear programme, the Renaissance man of motoring takes off his driving gloves and returns to Essential Classics to dig deeper into another of his great passions. A former chorister and occasional flautist, May is a classical music enthusiast with a particular love of the keyboard.
10.30am
This week Rob's featured artist is the eminent Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, whose performances combine probing intelligence and an intense conviction. Rob will feature benchmark recordings throughout the week from his prestigious career with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic and from his tenure as music director at La Scala, Milan. Not forgetting his memorable New Year's Day Concert of 2000.
11am
Essential Choice
Tchaikovsky (completed by Semyon Bogatyrev)
Symphony no.7 in E flat
Philadelphia Orchestra
Eugene Ormandy (conductor).
FRI 12:00 Composer of the Week (b04vdswn)
Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)
A Bouillabaisse
The demise of Chabrier's brilliant comic opera, Le roi malgré lui, on the Paris stage sees the composer's reputation spread in Germany.
Chabrier must surely be one of the most likeable fellows to have graced this earth. It seems no-one had a bad word to say about him. His wide circle of friends included all the leading musicians, writers, poets and painters of the day. Chabrier owned a remarkable collection of impressionist paintings including several by Manet, who produced the best known portrait of the composer.
Emmanuel Chabrier's life slots into a fascinating point in French musical history. When he was born in 1841, Berlioz was already thirty-eight and famous, Saint-Saëns was six, while the rising stars of the future, Massenet and Fauré, were not yet born. Despite Wagner's dominance, and indeed Chabrier's own reverence for the German composer, Chabrier's music retains a staunchly Gallic individuality, with critics subsequently paying tribute to him as a "direct forerunner of the modern school." The reason for this may well relate, at least in part, to his studies. Chabrier was largely self-taught, and although he was better educated than most musical amateurs, he never followed the accepted route into the Paris Conservatoire or a similar institute. He trained first in law, only taking up full time composition in his thirties.
Today Donald Macleod looks at Chabrier's final comic opera, a work in which the riches and innovation of the music managed to overcome the deficiencies of a confusing plot and weak libretto. Fellow composer, Ravel, declared that its premiere had "changed the direction of French harmony."
Danse slave. Allegro con brio
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Neeme Järvi, conductor
Ode à la musique
Barbara Hendricks, soprano
Toulouse-Midi-Pyrénées Womens' Chorus
Capitole Toulouse Orchestra
Michel Plasson, conductor
Suite pastorale
Orchestra de la Suisse Romande
Neeme Järvi, conductor
Introduction & choeur dansé (Act 2, Le roi malgré lui)
Ah! Hurrah!
Chris de Moor, bass, Laski
Chorus of Radio France
New Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France
Charles Dutoit, conductor
O rêve éteint! Réveils funèbres (Act 3, Le roi malgré lui)
Barbara Hendricks, soprano, Minka
Isabel Garcisanz, soprano, Alexina
New Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France
Charles Dutoit, conductor.
FRI 13:00 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert (b04vdvwx)
Elias Quartet Beethoven Cycle
Episode 5
For the last three years, the Elias Quartet have been devoting their time to a complete concert cycle of the Beethoven quartets, which they have performed at venues up and down the country. The first instalment was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 over the Christmas-New Year period last year; now, in this second part, broadcast throughout this week on Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert, they bring the project to a conclusion.
Beethoven String Quartet in E flat, Op 74 (Harp)
Elias Quartet
(Recorded in February at The Concert Hall, Reading)
Beethoven: String Quartet in F, Op 135
Elias Quartet
(Recorded in May at the Turner Sims Concert Hall, University of Southampton).
FRI 14:10 Afternoon Concert (b04vdw01)
BBC Performing Groups Best of 2014
Episode 5
The final programme celebrating the BBC Performing Groups' Best of 2014 features the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with soloist Chloe Hanslip for Bruch's ever-popular Violin Concerto no.1. Then the BBC Symphony Orchestra with a highlight from this year's Proms season - Vaughan Williams' Job, conducted by Sakari Oramo. There's the final section from the BBC Singers 90th Birthday concert before we return to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for a performance of Mahler's 4th Symphony given at St David's Cathedral.
Presented by Penny Gore.
c.
2.10pm
Bruch Concerto no. 1 in G minor Op.26 for violin and orchestra
Chloe Hanslip (violin)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Nicholas Collon (conductor)
c.
2.35pm
Vaughan Williams Job - a masque for dancing
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (conductor)
c.
3.35pm
Mahler Symphony no. 4 in G major
Ailish Tynan (soprano)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Jac van Steen (conductor).
FRI 16:30 Words and Music (b03hj56r)
Hard Times
Money and its lack provides the theme for this edition. Sarah Smart and Nathaniel Parker read poems and prose about the Bohemian life, the dream of getting rich and life at the bottom of the pile by Thomas Hardy, George Orwell and U A Fanthorpe. There's music by Handel, Ligeti and Prokofiev.
FRI 17:45 New Generation Artists (b04vdxdd)
Clemency Burton-Hill brings a two week series showcasing the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists to a close.
As part of the BBC's commitment to developing and nurturing young talent, BBC Radio 3 launched its New Generation Artists scheme in the autumn of 1999. Now well into its second decade, the scheme has acquired the reputation of being a world leader for young artists. Every autumn six to seven artists or groups who are beginning to make a mark on the international music scene are invited to join. Opportunities include concerts in London and around the UK, appearances and recordings with the BBC Orchestras, special studio recordings for Radio 3, and, for some, appearances at the Proms.
Esther Roo plays the virtuoso show-piece which was written for Sarasate by Saint-Saens. Irish tenor joins Lise Berthaud, viola, and pianist Joseph Middleton to perform settings of four poems by Jeremy Taylor, Isaac Watts, Richard Crashaw, and Robert Bridges set to music by Vaughan Williams. And the Danish Quartet bring this series of BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists to a close with a performance of Beethoven's Op.131, often regarded as the pinnacle of Beethoven's writing for string quartet.
SAINT-SAENS Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
Esther Yoo (violin); Robert Koenig (piano)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Four Hymns
Robin Tritschler (tenor), Lise Berthaud (viola); Joseph Middleton (piano)
BEETHOVEN String Quartet in C sharp minor Op.131
Danish Quartet.
FRI 19:00 BBC Proms 2014 (b04vdyww)
Prom 73: Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra recorded at the 2014 BBC Proms: Alan Gilbert conducts Mahler's Third Symphony.
Presented by Martin Handley at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D minor
Gerhild Romberger (mezzo-soprano)
Leipzig Opera and Gewandhaus Choir (women's voices)
Leipzig Gewandhaus Childrens Choir
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Alan Gilbert (conductor)
'The world will never have heard the likes of my symphony!' A bold claim by any composer, but one more than justified by Mahler's Third Symphony.
This epic, unorthodox work unfolds over six movements, painting a musical portrait of nature's very essence. Pagan gods and Christian saints, flower meadows and silent forests, instruments and voices all come together in a work that moves beyond the confines of programme music.
American conductor Alan Gilbert returns to conduct this masterpiece in the first of two Proms with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Concert originally broadcast 11/09/2014.
FRI 21:00 BBC Proms 2014 (b04vdywy)
Prom 65: Late Night with Paloma Faith
Paloma Faith with the Guy Barker Orchestra & Urban Voices Collective live at the BBC Proms.
Presented by Andrew McGregor at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
Music includes
Paloma Faith, orch. Guy Barker:
Picking up the pieces
Can't rely on you
Only love can hurt like this
Guy Barker: Upside down
Paloma Faith
Ty Taylor (guest vocalist)
Urban Voices Collective
Guy Barker Orchestra
Guy Barker (Conductor)
Brit Award-nominated Paloma Faith brings her sleek vocals and retro style to a Late Night Prom. The British singer-songwriter is joined by a 42-piece jazz orchestra and the Urban Voices Collective. This is cabaret, Royal Albert Hall-style.
Concert originally broadcast 05/09/2014.
FRI 22:45 The Essay (b04mbljx)
World War One Round the World
Dresden - Targets
One hundred years ago the First World War set the course for the modern world: for the countries that took part nothing would be the same again. In these special editions of The Essay we gain an international perspective on the war as we hear from cultural figures from around the world taking part in an international series of events called The War That Changed The World, made in partnership with the British Council and the BBC World Service.
Herlinde Koebl, is an artist and photographer known for her in-depth, political and thematic work. In this essay she draws on the experience of her latest project 'Targets' which was a series of documentary photographs of the targets used for training by soldiers in 30 countries. Contrasting accounts of First World War training, and quoting from contemporary soldiers, Herlinde Koebl asks what makes a soldier able to kill? The essay is performed in front of an audience at the Bundeswehr Military Museum in Dresden.
FRI 23:00 World on 3 (b04vdyx8)
WOMAD Unheard - Highlights from WOMAD 2014
Mary Ann Kennedy introduces previously-unbroadcast highlights from last summer's WOMAD Festival, from performances recorded on the BBC Radio 3 Charlie Gillett Stage.
Features the closing set of the BBC Radio 3 Charlie Gillett Stage, from Zimbabwean legend Oliver Mtukudzi with his band The Black Spirits, his set spanning his 40-year career with classic songs and new material. The classic rembetika songs of early twentieth century Greece and Turkey are brought to life once more by Turkish singer Cigdem Aslan at Womad 2014.
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
Afternoon Concert
14:10 MON (b04vdvzg)
Afternoon Concert
14:20 TUE (b04vdvzj)
Afternoon Concert
14:05 WED (b04vdvzl)
Afternoon Concert
14:00 THU (b04vdvzr)
Afternoon Concert
14:10 FRI (b04vdw01)
BBC Proms 2014
19:30 SAT (b04vdfq0)
BBC Proms 2014
21:10 SAT (b04w15nm)
BBC Proms 2014
19:30 SUN (b04vdgqb)
BBC Proms 2014
23:25 SUN (b04vdgrm)
BBC Proms 2014
19:00 TUE (b04vdxvb)
BBC Proms 2014
21:00 TUE (b04vdyf6)
BBC Proms 2014
19:00 WED (b04vdyn2)
BBC Proms 2014
21:00 WED (b04vdyn4)
BBC Proms 2014
19:00 THU (b04vdyt0)
BBC Proms 2014
21:45 THU (b04w0hd0)
BBC Proms 2014
19:00 FRI (b04vdyww)
BBC Proms 2014
21:00 FRI (b04vdywy)
Breakfast
07:00 SAT (b04vxbpw)
Breakfast
07:00 SUN (b04vxbrr)
Breakfast
06:30 MON (b04vxc1h)
Breakfast
06:30 TUE (b04vxc2c)
Breakfast
06:30 WED (b04vxcbb)
Breakfast
06:30 THU (b04vxcfc)
Breakfast
06:30 FRI (b04vxcj2)
CD Review
09:00 SAT (b04vdfbg)
Choir and Organ
16:00 SUN (b0414fq0)
Choral Evensong
15:00 SUN (b04vd79s)
Choral Evensong
15:30 WED (b04vdyn0)
Composer of the Week
12:00 MON (b04vdkr2)
Composer of the Week
12:00 TUE (b04vdswg)
Composer of the Week
12:00 WED (b04vdswj)
Composer of the Week
12:00 FRI (b04vdswn)
Drama on 3
21:00 SUN (b0414fq4)
Essential Classics
09:00 MON (b04vdkr0)
Essential Classics
09:00 TUE (b04vdt06)
Essential Classics
09:00 WED (b04vdt08)
Essential Classics
09:00 THU (b04vdt0b)
Essential Classics
09:00 FRI (b04vdt0d)
Geoffrey Smith's Jazz
00:00 SUN (b01nznws)
Hear and Now
22:00 SAT (b04vdfs4)
Jazz Line-Up
18:00 SAT (b04vdfpy)
Jazz Record Requests
17:00 SAT (b04vdfpw)
Jazz on 3
23:00 MON (b045xk19)
Late Junction
23:00 TUE (b04vdykm)
Late Junction
00:00 THU (b04vxxy8)
Late Junction
23:00 THU (b04vdyt4)
New Generation Artists
16:30 MON (b04vdkr8)
New Generation Artists
17:45 TUE (b04vdxd6)
New Generation Artists
17:45 WED (b04vdxd8)
New Generation Artists
17:45 THU (b04vdxdb)
New Generation Artists
17:45 FRI (b04vdxdd)
New Year's Day Concert
10:15 THU (b04vrkjc)
Opera on 3
17:45 MON (b04vdkrb)
Private Passions
12:00 SUN (b04vdgbq)
Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
13:00 SAT (b04vdfpl)
Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
13:00 SUN (b04v1rbv)
Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
13:00 MON (b04vdsx4)
Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
13:00 TUE (b04vdsx6)
Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
13:00 WED (b04vdsx8)
Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
13:00 THU (b04vdsxb)
Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert
13:00 FRI (b04vdvwx)
Saturday Classics
14:00 SAT (b04vdfpn)
Sound of Cinema
16:00 SAT (b04vdfpq)
Sunday Feature
12:15 SAT (b041vg00)
Sunday Feature
18:45 SUN (b04vdgq8)
Sunday Morning
09:00 SUN (b04vdgbn)
The Early Music Show
14:00 SUN (b04vdgq4)
The Essay
22:45 MON (b04vdkrd)
The Essay
22:45 TUE (b04vdw17)
The Essay
20:45 WED (b04mbljb)
The Essay
22:45 THU (b04mbljl)
The Essay
22:45 FRI (b04mbljx)
Through the Night
01:00 SAT (b04vd9dn)
Through the Night
01:00 SUN (b04vdgbj)
Through the Night
00:30 MON (b04vdkqw)
Through the Night
00:30 TUE (b04vdvts)
Through the Night
00:30 WED (b04vdvtv)
Through the Night
00:30 THU (b04vdvty)
Through the Night
00:30 FRI (b04vdvv0)
Words and Music
17:30 SUN (b04vrjb8)
Words and Music
16:30 TUE (b013ls91)
Words and Music
16:30 WED (b01806nq)
Words and Music
16:30 THU (b041vfzy)
Words and Music
16:30 FRI (b03hj56r)
World on 3
23:00 FRI (b04vdyx8)