SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2024

SAT 00:30 Through the Night (m00262s3)
Days of Early Music Festival 2023 from Bratislava

Members of the Lotz Trio and Musica Florea, soprano Michaela Riener and their artistic director Róbert Šebesta in music by Telemann and his contemporaries. Penny Gore presents.

12:31 AM
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Overture à 5, for alto and tenor chalumeaux and basso continuo
Robert Sebesta (chalumeau & artistic director), Igor Frantisak (chalumeau), Lotz trio, Musica Florea

12:42 AM
Giovanni Battista Bononcini (1670-1747)
No, non più guerra, aria from the opera ‘L’Abdolomino’
Michaela Riener (soprano), Lotz trio, Musica Florea, Robert Sebesta (artistic director)

12:46 AM
Emperor Joseph I (1678-1711)
Tutto in pianto, aria from the opera ‘Chilodina’
Michaela Riener (soprano), Lotz trio, Musica Florea, Robert Sebesta (artistic director)

12:54 AM
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Sonata à 4 in F major, for alto and tenor chalumeaux, two violins and basso continuo
Robert Sebesta (chalumeau & artistic director), Igor Frantisak (chalumeau), Lotz trio, Musica Florea

01:08 AM
Christoph Graupner (1683-1760)
Overture à 3 in C major, for alto, tenor and bass chalumeaux
Robert Sebesta (chalumeau & artistic director), Igor Frantisak (chalumeau), Lotz trio, Musica Florea

01:17 AM
Antonio Caldara (c.1671-1736)
Nel mio core va morendo la speranza, aria from the opera ‘Caio Marzio Coriolano’
Michaela Riener (soprano), Lotz trio, Musica Florea, Robert Sebesta (artistic director)

01:23 AM
Attilio Ariosti (1666-1729)
Se il primo Amore, aria from ‘E in sen mi resta, cantata’
Michaela Riener (soprano), Lotz trio, Musica Florea, Robert Sebesta (artistic director)

01:29 AM
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Concerto in D, for alto and tenor chalumeaux, strings and basso continuo
Robert Sebesta (chalumeau & artistic director), Igor Frantisak (chalumeau), Lotz trio, Musica Florea

01:41 AM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Chaconne from the Partita no 2 in D minor, BWV.1004
Alena Baeva (violin)

01:57 AM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Overture from Suite no 1 in C major, BWV.1066
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Philippe Herreweghe (conductor)

02:08 AM
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Deus, judicium tuum, TWV 7:7 - grand motet after Psalm 71
Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Vocal Ensemble, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Instrumental Ensemble, Jorg Andreas Botticher (conductor), Jorg Andreas Botticher (harpsichord)

02:31 AM
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Symphony no 2 in C major, Op 61
Croatian Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra, Enrico Dindo (conductor)

03:08 AM
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178
Lukas Geniusas (piano)

03:39 AM
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c.1525-1594)
Tu es Petrus - motet for 6 voices
Silvia Piccollo (soprano), Emmanuela Galli (soprano), Fabian Schofrin (alto), Marco Beasley (tenor), Daniele Carnovich (bass), Emmanuela Galli (soloist), Diego Fasolis (conductor)

03:45 AM
Rudolf Matz (1901-1988)
Ballade for violin, cello & piano
Zagreb Piano Trio

03:53 AM
August Enna (1859-1939)
The Match Girl: overture
Danish Radio Concert Orchestra, Hannu Koivula (conductor)

03:59 AM
Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)
Sonatina for clarinet and piano, Op 29
Fabio di Casola (clarinet), Alexander Boeschoten (piano)

04:07 AM
John Field (1782-1837)
Aria; Nocturne & Chanson
Barry Douglas (piano), Camerata Ireland

04:15 AM
Gautier d'Espinal (c.1215-c.1272)
Puis que en moi a recouvre seignorie
Ensemble Lucidarium

04:21 AM
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (c.1620-1680)
Fechtschule (Fencing School)
Stockholm Antiqua

04:31 AM
Juliusz Zarebski (1854-1885)
Polonaise triomphale in A major, Op 11
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Pawel Przytocki (conductor)

04:40 AM
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Ballade no 1 in G minor, Op 23
Valerie Tryon (piano)

04:49 AM
Joseph Horovitz (1926-2022)
Music Hall Suite
Slovene Brass Quintet, Anton Grcar (trumpet), Stanko Arnold (trumpet), Bostjan Lipovsek (horn), Stanko Vavh (trombone), Darko Rosker (tuba)

05:00 AM
Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927)
Ithaka, Op 21
Peter Mattei (baritone), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Manfred Honeck (conductor)

05:10 AM
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Trio sonata for 2 violins & bass continuo, HWV.388 in B flat major Op 2 no 3
Musica Alta Ripa

05:20 AM
Carl Ludwig Lithander (1773-1843)
Divertimento no 1 for flute and fortepiano
Mikael Helasvuo (flute), Tuija Hakkila (pianoforte)

05:29 AM
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Sea Pictures, Op 37
Margreta Elkins (mezzo soprano), Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Werner Andreas Albert (conductor)

05:52 AM
Santiago de Murcia (1673-1739)
2 pieces from 'Codex de Saldívar'
Xavier Diaz-Latorre (guitar)

06:01 AM
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op 16
Sigurd Slattebrekk (piano), Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Eivind Aadland (conductor)


SAT 06:30 Breakfast (m002687p)
Start your weekend the Radio 3 way, with Saturday Breakfast

Join Emma Clarke to wake up the day with a selection of the finest classical music.

To listen on most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Breakfast."


SAT 09:00 Saturday Morning (m002687r)
Gareth's Festive Classical Playlist

Gareth Malone presents the best classical playlist for the festive season, from his favourite choral music to the best recordings of orchestral and chamber music.

The Royal Opera Youth Opera Company from the Royal Ballet and Opera join Gareth live in the studio to sing choruses from Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and Bizet's Carmen. The Italian-American violinist Francesca Dego talks to Gareth about the highlights of 2024 and recording the Busoni Violin Concerto. She plays unaccompanied music by Bach and Bacewicz live in the studio and looks ahead to her musical highlights for 2025.

Gareth also catches up with his friend, the baritone James Newby, who is currently performing in Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream at Opera de Lausanne. He also talks to Gareth about his highlights for 2025.

To listen using most smart speakers, just say, "Ask BBC Sounds to play Saturday Morning."


SAT 12:00 Earlier... with Jools Holland (m00236c9)
Jools's musical selection for a Saturday lunchtime

In a new show for Saturday lunchtimes, Jools shares his lifelong passion for classical music, and the beautiful connections with jazz and blues. With fascinating guests each week, who bring their own favourite music and occasionally perform live in Jools's studio.

Today, Jools's choices include music by Gabriel Faure, Teresa Carreno, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. His guest is sitarist, composer and producer Anoushka Shankar who talks about her recent trilogy of albums exploring cycles of time and her upcoming role as Guest Director of Brighton Festival. She introduces music she loves by Kavita Seth, Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar.


SAT 13:00 Music Matters (m0026gfq)
Satire and the Stave

Satire and the State

In the first episode of this six part series, writer and satirist Chris Addison (The Thick Of It, Veep) explores how composers have used music to challenge the power of the state throughout the ages - sometimes with playful parodies, sometimes with bold defiance.

Chris has selected tracks to demonstrate that music has often been a voice for resistance. This programme features music by Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Sullivan, Roxanna Panufnik, Charles Ives, and more.

In this series, Chris Addison - himself a classical music devotee, keen amateur choral singer and opera buff - takes listeners on a tour of how composers have used their music to question, parody, and challenge power and ideas over the years. Classical music can amplify the most glorious and spectacular state power. But it can also undermine it - satirising and thumbing the nose of the status quo. Composers have used classical music to critique, undermine and even lampoon - often in cleverly nuanced, surprising ways that reconnect us to the flawed humans - and shared humanity - beneath the pomposity. Each episode in this series takes a big idea, and illustrates it with a playlist of entertaining and diverse music spanning the entire history of Western classical music.

Leonard Bernstein: Slava! - concert overture
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Charles Ives: Variations on 'America', orch. William Schuman
St Louis Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Slatkin, conductor

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No 45 in F sharp minor H.1.45 (Farewell)
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Neville Marriner, conductor

Jean Sibelius: Finlandia Op 26
Philharmonia Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor

Gilbert and Sullivan: When Britain Really Ruled the Waves (Iolanthe)
Donald Adams, bass
New Symphony Orchestra of London
D’Oyly Carte Opera Chorus
Isidore Godfrey, conductor

Claudio Monteverdi: L' Incoronazione di Poppea
Il Pomo d'Oro​
Jakub Józef Orliński, countertenor

Roxanna Panufnik: Letters From Burma – IV: Kintha Dance
Nicholas Daniel (oboe)
Sacconi Quartet

Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No 9 in E flat major, Op 70
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Kirill Petrenko, conductor

Produced by James C Taylor
An Overcoat Media Production for BBC Radio 3


SAT 14:00 Record Review (m002687y)
Copland's Rodeo in Building a Library with Ben Gernon and Sarah Walker

Conductor Ben Gernon's personal recommendation for Copland's Rodeo, and Nigel Simeone picks his favourite 2024 releases.

Presented by Sarah Walker

2.05pm
Nigel Simeone picks four of his favourite releases from 2024

3.00pm
Building a Library
Conductor Ben Gernon picks his personal favourite recording of the Four Dance Episodes from Aaron Copland's vibrant, Western-inspired ballet score Rodeo

Recommended version
San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor)
RCA 82876658402

3.40pm
Record of the Week
Sarah's pick of the best of the best recent new releases

To listen on most smart speakers, just say “ask BBC Sounds to play Record Review”


SAT 16:00 Sound of Cinema (m0026881)
Wallace & Gromit and the music of Aardman Animations

Evil penguins, chickens on the run and the mischievous sheep of Mossy Bottom Farm. Enter the unique musical world of Aardman Animations as Matthew Sweet celebrates the studio's iconic film scores with the release of Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.

Matthew visits the Aardman Animation studios in Bristol to meet archivist Tom Vincent, where he encounters uniquely Aardman props, puppets and scores - even a real-life Were-Rabbit.

Matthew also speaks to those involved in Vengeance Most Fowl at work in Abbey Road studios in London: filmmaker, animator and creator of Wallace & Gromit, Nick Park and the film's composers Julian Nott and Lorne Balfe.

To listen on most smart speakers, just say: "Ask BBC Sounds to play Sound of Cinema.”


SAT 17:00 This Classical Life (m0025my6)
Jess Gillam with... Ray Chen

Jess Gillam and violinist Ray Chen share some the music they love. With music including Khachaturian, Piazzolla, Puccini and Dolly Parton plus two very different takes on Vivaldi's Four Seasons and music played entirely on double bass.

To listen on most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play This Classical Life’


SAT 18:00 Opera on 3 (m0026888)
Michael Tippett's New Year

In space, no one can hear you sing... Unless you are in a rare performance of Michael Tippett's intergalactic opera, New Year.

Two worlds collide as visitors from the future land their space-ship amidst the urban realities of today. A wild and eclectic musical dream, completed when the composer was aged 83. Its vivid music takes influence from rock opera and musicals, with head-nods to reggae, rap, the electronic sound effects of television sci-fi, and probably the most sinister rendition of Auld Lang Syne you'll ever hear.

An edited recording of a semi-staged performance from 13 April, 2024, at City Halls, Glasgow.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Presenter ..... Alan Oke (tenor)
Jo Ann ..... Rhian Lois (soprano)
Donny ..... Ross Ramgobin (baritone)
Nan ..... Susan Bickley (mezzo soprano)
Pelegrin ..... Robert Murray (tenor)
Merlin ..... Roland Wood (baritone)
Regan ..... Rachel Nicholls (soprano)
BBC Singers
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins (conductor)
Victoria Newlyn (concert director)

Synopsis

Act 1
The action of New Year is divided between two worlds: ‘Somewhere and Today’ (a city recognisably in our modern world) and ‘Nowhere and Tomorrow’ (in the future, and in another world). The action is framed and introduced by a Master of Ceremonies or ‘Presenter’.
In the world of ‘Somewhere and Today’, Jo Ann is a trainee child psychologist. She has become agoraphobic. She lives with her foster-mother, Nan, and her Afro-Caribbean foster-brother, Donny, who has become lost and delinquent, longing to know more of his true origins.
A contrasting trio is introduced in ‘Nowhere and Tomorrow’: the wizard Merlin, building his time-travel machine; Pelegrin, the young pilot; and Regan, their boss. They travel to the city where Jo Ann and Donny live, arriving at New Year.

Act 2
During age-old celebratory rituals – including a Shamanic Dance – Donny gets chosen as the scapegoat, his ceremonial beating interrupted by the arrival of the time-travelling visitors. While Regan confronts Donny, whose reggae she crudely imitates, Jo Ann and Pelegrin are transfixed by one another. The crowd becomes increasingly violent towards the visitors, who escape, leaving Donny to be beaten up for real as the midnight bell rings in the new year.

Act 3
Jo Ann returns to the solitude and safety of her apartment, where Donny joins her, singing of his secret longings.
Pelegrin arrives to whisk Jo Ann away to Nowhere, a magical dreamscape where she can drink either from a fountain of blissful forgetfulness or from a lake of painful remembrance. In love with the mysterious stranger, she dances with him in what seems to be paradise. But oblivion and paradise are dreams; the earth, with its joys and horrors, must be confronted. Jo Ann returns to her own world and, while Donny’s future is uncertain, she is now able to leave her apartment and confront the city. She carries a rose given to her by Pelegrin: proof that her dream was not entirely imaginary, and that its paradise can, perhaps, be built on earth.


SAT 20:45 The Lebrecht Interview (m002688f)
Itzhak Perlman

In the first of this continuing series of interviews, the writer and broadcaster Norman Lebrecht talks to the legendary Itzhak Perlman about his life and career as a concert violinist and pedagogue.


SAT 21:30 Music Planet (m002688j)
Music for Hibernation

As the year draws to a close and the Northern Hemisphere settles into the quiet embrace of winter, Kathryn Tickell selects music to help you slow down, rest, and recharge. Cozy up by the fire with some Winter Time Blues from pianist Big Maceo Merriweather, ethereal vocal music from New York-born, Tamil Nadu-raised Ganavya, and New Year’s carols from Galicia and Poland. Plus award-winning Finnish musician Maija Kauhanen takes us on a journey into the world of the kantele - the traditional Finnish instrument she plays - with a trio of recommended tracks.

Produced by Gabriel Francis
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3

To listen on most smart speakers, just say: “Ask BBC Sounds to play Music Planet.”


SAT 22:30 New Music Show (m002688n)
London Contemporary Music Festival

Tom Service presents a concert from the London Contemporary Music Festival, recorded earlier this month in Hackney, East London. As ever with this exciting festival, there is a huge variety of new music and sound art. The LCMF Orchestra play three major new commissions by improvisers Maggie Nicols and Sofia Jernberg, and composer Laurence Crane, alongside an extremely rare performance of Yves Klein’s influential – and infamous – Monotone-Silence Symphony (1947/61), all conducted by Jack Sheen. Also in this show: Gag, a new quartet by Edward Henderson; the UK premiere of KIND, by German composer Lisa Streich, for guitar, hairclips and egg slicer; and a new live set by cult electronica artists EVOL. Plus an extraordinary presentation of a 5,000-year-old tradition that nearly went extinct in the 20th century: the Kurdish art of dengbêj-singing. One of the masters of the form, Dengbêj Ali Tekbas, showcases this highly expressive, highly refined story-telling form.

To listen using most smart speakers, just say “Ask BBC Sounds to play New Music Show”

SUNDAY 29 DECEMBER 2024

SUN 00:30 Through the Night (m002688r)
Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn

Antje Weithaas and soloists from the Pau Casals Festival Orchestra play chamber music by Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn. Jonathan Swain presents.

12:31 AM
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Piano Trio in E flat major, D.897 'Notturno'
Antje Weithaas (violin), Erica Wise (cello), Arash Rokni (piano)

12:41 AM
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
String Quartet no 1 in A minor, Op 41 no 1
Antje Weithaas (violin), Raquel Areal (violin), Ayaka Taniguchi (viola), Ema Krečič (cello)

01:08 AM
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Octet in E flat major, Op 20
Jiska Lambrecht (violin), Marcus Backerud (violin), Tsukushi Sasaki (violin), Benjamin Gunst (violin), Raquel de Benito (viola), Darío Francesc Garrido (viola), Davide Carlassara (cello), Erica Wise (cello)

01:41 AM
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
28 Variations on a theme by Paganini for piano, Op 35
Nicholas Angelich (piano)

02:05 AM
Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847)
Two songs: Suleika; Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh
Sophie Klussmann (soprano), Gilles Vonsattel (piano)

02:10 AM
Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
Variations on a theme of Robert Schumann for piano in F sharp minor, Op 20
Angela Cheng (piano)

02:19 AM
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Academic Festival Overture, Op 80
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tamas Vasary (conductor)

02:31 AM
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
Mass in D major, Op 86
Ludmila Vernerova (soprano), Olga Kodesova (alto), Vladimir Okenko (tenor), Ilja Prokop (bass), Miluska Kvechova (organ), Czech Radio Choir, Pilzen Radio Orchestra, Lubomir Matl (conductor)

03:11 AM
Grace Williams (1906-1977)
Sea Sketches
Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Roy Goodman (conductor)

03:30 AM
Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Rejoice in the Lord alway, Z 49 (Bell Anthem)
Alex Potter (counter tenor), Samuel Boden (tenor), Matthew Brook (bass), Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe (director)

03:38 AM
Bela Bartok (1881-1945), arr. Igor Karsko
Circle (after Bartok’s 44 Duos for Violin, Sz 98, and Mikrokosmos, Sz 107)
Camerata Zurich, Helga Varadi (harpsichord), Igor Karsko (conductor)

03:55 AM
Paul Dukas (1865-1935)
Villanelle for horn and orchestra
Esa Tukia (horn), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Michael Adelson (conductor)

04:03 AM
Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611/2-1675)
Suite in D minor for gambas, 'Erster Fleiss'
Hesperion XX, Jordi Savall (director)

04:18 AM
Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)
Oboe Sonata in D major, Op 166
Roger Cole (oboe), Linda Lee Thomas (piano)

04:31 AM
Arvo Part (b. 1935)
Magnificat
Jauna Muzika, Vaclovas Augustinas (conductor)

04:37 AM
Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)
Renaissance Concerto
Hungarian Brass Ensemble

04:42 AM
Marianne Martinez (1744-1812)
Sinfonia in C major
BBC Concert Orchestra, Johannes Wildner (conductor)

04:53 AM
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Recorder Concerto in C major, TWV 51:C1
Giovanni Antonini (recorder/director), Il Giardino Armonico

05:10 AM
Johann Gottfried Muthel (1728-1788)
Jesu, meine Freude, arr. for organ
Ludger Lohmann (organ)

05:17 AM
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
Kammermusik no 2 Op 36 no 1 for piano and 12 instruments
Ronald Brautigam (piano), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly (conductor)

05:37 AM
Gustav Uwe Jenner (1865-1920)
Trio in E flat major
James Campbell (clarinet), Martin Hackleman (horn), Jane Coop (piano)

06:04 AM
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Concert champetre for harpsichord and orchestra
Jory Vinikour (harpsichord), Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Marc Minkowski (conductor)


SUN 06:30 Breakfast (m002686d)
Start your Sunday the Radio 3 way with Tom McKinney

Tom McKinney presents Radio 3’s classical breakfast show with music that captures the mood of Sunday morning. Email 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk

To listen on most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Breakfast."


SUN 09:00 Sunday Morning (m002686g)
Your perfect Sunday soundtrack

Sarah Walker with three hours of classical music to reflect, restore and refresh.

Today Sarah’s selection includes a virtuosic concerto by Telemann, a piano concerto movement by Mozart that’s full of drama and darkness, and a sunny wind quintet by Franz Danzi.

There’s also music for the season with Delius depicting a winter night that’s warm and soft, cool, serene piano music from Elena Kats-Chernin and a cosy fairytale feel to a piece by Robert Schumann.

Plus, we take to the countryside with Beethoven…

A Tandem Production for BBC Radio 3


SUN 12:00 Private Passions (m002686k)
Sister Mary Joy Langdon

In the hot, dry summer of 1976, Mary Joy Langdon made a very bold decision: she joined the fire service. She was the first woman in the UK to work as a professional operational fire-fighter. Then, after eight years, she changed course - and became a nun.

In 1989, as Sister Mary Joy Langdon, she founded the Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre, introducing inner-city children and young people with disabilities to horse riding. Recently it helped children traumatised by the Grenfell Tower fire. The Centre also attracted one of Britain’s most acclaimed painters – Lucian Freud - who came to draw the horses.

Mary Joy's music selections include Mozart, Strauss, Bach and Grieg.

Presenter Michael Berkeley
Producer Clare Walker


SUN 13:30 Music Map (m001yyzb)
A journey to Smetana's Vltava

Sara Mohr-Pietsch maps the musical terrain around Smetana's musical description of the Vltava river, sailing down sonic avenues that link music across time and space. From Wagner's Rheingold to Jennifer Higdon's String Lake via Florence Price and Duke Ellington Sara charts a musical journey towards Smetana's orchestral tone poem.

Producer: David Fay


SUN 15:00 Choral Evensong (m002686t)
Girton College, Cambridge

From Girton College, Cambridge.

Hymn: O little town of Bethlehem (Forest Green)
Responses: Trevor Weston
Office hymn: Jesus, good above all other (Quem Pastores laudavere)
Psalms 142, 143 (Gabriel Kennedy, Gareth Wilson)
First Lesson: Isaiah 61 vv1-11
Canticles: Wood in E flat no.2
Second Lesson: Galatians 3 v27 – 4 v7
Anthem: Ring out, wild bells (Libby Croad)
Prayer Anthem: Suo Gan (Welsh Trad. Arr. Gareth Wilson)
Hymn: See in yonder manger low (Humility)
Voluntary: Toccata in G (Dubois)

Gareth Wilson (Director of Music)
Gabriel Kennedy, Ben Nolan (Organ Scholars)

Recorded 28 November.

To listen on most smart speakers just say “ask BBC Sounds to play Choral Evensong”.


SUN 16:00 Jazz Record Requests (m002686y)
Best of 2024

Alyn Shipton presents jazz records of all styles as requested by you and looks back at some of the jazz releases from 2024. Get in touch: jrr@bbc.co.uk or use #jazzrecordrequests on social.

To listen on most smart speakers just say “ask BBC Sounds to play Jazz Record Requests”


SUN 17:00 The Early Music Show (m0026872)
Ton Koopman at 80

Hannah is joined in the studio by organist and director of Amsterdam Baroque as he celebrates his 80th birthday this year. They'll chat about his incredible 60-year career and choose some of his favourite recordings.

To listen to this programme using most smart speakers, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play [The Early Music Show".


SUN 18:00 Words and Music (m001w1sj)
For love of Bagpuss

Bagpuss - that much-loved, furry cat - first appeared on TV screens on 12 Feb 1974. There only ever were 13 episodes but it was such a hit with 1970s children that it was re-run many times, entrancing generation after generation. Part of the secret of the Bagpuss attraction were the characters at the heart of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin's series: the yawning, baggy cloth cat of course, but also the wise child Emily, the chattering woodpecker Professor Yaffl (said to be a send-up of the philosopher Bertrand Russell), Gabriel the banjo-playing toad, Madeleine the rag doll and those magic mice. This Words and Music looks to these characters for inspiration.

Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner provided the music for the series and you'll hear some of that alongside compositions by Tchaikovsky, Elgar, Hindemith, Florence Price, Ailbhe McDonagh and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Readings include novels by George Eliot and Roald Dahl, Eleanor Farjeon's poem Cats and Robert Louis Stephenson's To Any Reader, read by the former Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis and the CBeebies actor and presenter Ben Faulks - also known as Mr Bloom.

Producer in Salford: Olive Clancy

You can find a Free Thinking discussion about Bagpuss and the other worlds conjured by Oliver Postgate including The Clangers, and Pogles' Wood. With guests including Sandra Kerr and Daniel Postgate. Available on BBC Sounds


SUN 19:15 Sunday Feature (m0026878)
An Organ for the Sultan

In a swashbuckling tale of perilous pirates, Ottoman eunuchs, and English heroism, Ben Cottam unearths the story of the craftsman behind one of the most famous organs in the world.

As King's College Chapel Cambridge prepare for their Christmas Eve service, Ben hunts for fragments of the organ’s original builder, the young Lancastrian Thomas Dallam.

Dallam found himself with an unexpectedly important mission. Elizabeth I tasked him with building, and delivering, an organ so spectacular it would woo the most powerful man in the world, Sultan Mehmet III. It had to transform the Ottoman Empire’s perception of England and shift the balance of international relations.

Ben retraces Dallam’s journey to the Topkapi Palace through his colourful diary as the crew survive relentless storms, dodge imprisonment and take bribes from brigands.

Dallam finally delivers the water-soaked organ only, unexpectedly, to be asked to play it for the Great Turk himself. Dallam has peeped inside the hareem, the first westerner ever to do so. Does he pull off a diplomatic masterstroke through musical diplomacy, or does Dallam lose both England’s trade routes and his head?

Hunting for fragments of Dallam, Ben ascends the stairs of the King's College Chapel organ with Daniel Hyde and listens to him capture the sounds of the 16th century craftsman; he talks music diplomacy with Britain’s “singing ambassador” and roves through the glorious Cecil family home where he finds William Whitehead playing their 17th century family organ.

Contributors: Daniel Hyde, conductor and organist; Nandini Das, Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture; Matthew Dimmock Professor of Early Modern Studies; Assistant Professor of English, Jennifer Linhart Wood; author and Dallam expert John Mole; Vannis Jones Rahi, Hatfield House Head Archivist, The British Library's medieval manuscripts curator Calum Cockburn and Former British Ambassador Hugh Philpott.

Producer: Sarah Bowen


SUN 20:00 Drama on 3 (m001kgxp)
Kafka's Dick

Kafka’s Dick was first performed in 1986, at the Royal Court. It is unusually successful at offering great entertainment with depth - Bennett’s brilliant, laugh-out-loud comedy also grapples with issues of fame and artistic integrity.

The central premise is simple: Franz Kafka and his friend Max Brod, returned from the dead (Kafka metamorphosing from a pet tortoise), find themselves in the suburban home of Sydney, a Kafka fanatic, and his less literary-minded wife, Linda. Brod spends the entire drama trying to hide the fact that he did not burn Kafka’s papers, as promised, but had them all published, thus making his friend one of the world’s best-known writers. Along the way paternal relationships are examined. Kafka and his father Herman K’s relative penis size become crucial to the plot whilst Sydney’s father, who pops in and out of the action, is increasingly convinced that these strange visitors are assessing him for a place in a care home.

Bennett’s brilliant irreverence cuts through the often torturous academic interpretations of real lives and a talented writer. A laugh-out-loud comedy threaded through with literary references and quips.

The writer
Alan Bennett is a much loved author, playwright and screenwriter. He has won numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, two Tony Awards and an Academy Award nomination for his film The Madness of King George (1994). Bennett is also the only remaining member of the legendary Beyond the Fringe satirical revue.

Cast

Franz Kafka ..... Toby Jones
Max Brod/Recording Angel ..... Mark Heap
Sydney ..... Jason Watkins
Linda ..... Fenella Woolgar
Father ..... Jim Broadbent
Herman K/God ..... Don Warrington

Director, Producer and Adaptor, Polly Thomas
Co-Director, Dermot Daly
Production Manager, Darren Spruce
Recording Engineer, Paul Clark at Sonica Studios
Sound Designer, Alisdair McGregor
Photographer, Simon Bray
Executive Producer, Eloise Whitmore

A Naked Production for BBC Radio 3


SUN 21:35 New Generation Artists (m002687d)
Alim Beisembayev plays Schubert and Chopin

Current Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Alim Beisembayev plays Schubert and Chopin.

Recordings made at the BBC studios by this London-based former winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition.

Schubert: Impromptu No.1 In F minor from 4 Impromptus D.935
Chopin: Fantasy In F minor Op.49

Alim Beisembayev (piano)


SUN 22:00 Ultimate Calm (m0024qy3)
Ólafur Arnalds: Series 3

A musical moment to press pause ft. Anoushka Shankar

There are some pieces of music that can make you feel like time has paused, which force you to stop in your tracks and take you away from your everyday life. Ólafur Arnalds plays a selection of time-related pieces that have that quality, including tracks from Hania Rani, Belle Chen and Hiroshi Yoshimura.

Plus we’re transported to the musical safe haven of the musician Anoushka Shankar. Anoushka is drawn to music that either gives her a gut punch of emotion or a deep peace. She shares a very special track that brings her ultimate calm; a piece by her father, the Indian sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar.

Produced by Kit Callin
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 3 Unwind.


SUN 23:00 The Night Tracks Mix (m001qfw6)
Music for the night

Sara Mohr-Pietsch with a magical sonic journey for late-night listening. Subscribe to receive your weekly mix on BBC Sounds.


SUN 23:30 Unclassified (m0020r92)
A Hymn to the Organ

According to virtuoso James McVinnie, the organ’s beautifully rich, sustained tones and the malleability of its frequencies makes it the world’s first synthesiser. For Mozart, it was simply ‘the king of instruments’. In this special edition of Unclassified, Elizabeth Alker presents work from players and composers exploring the meditative power, versatility and also the experimental possibilities of the organ, including McVinnie, Kali Malone, Sarah Davachi and Mia Windsor.

Produced by Geoff Bird
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3

MONDAY 30 DECEMBER 2024

MON 00:30 Through the Night (m002687l)
MacMillan and Beethoven from Cologne

Violinist Aylen Pritchin joins the WDR Symphony Orchestra and conductor Maxim Emelyanychev in Beethoven's Violin Concerto, followed by Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Jonathan Swain presents.

12:31 AM
James MacMillan (b.1959)
Eleven
WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Maxim Emelyanychev (conductor)

12:38 AM
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op 61
Aylen Pritchin (violin), WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Maxim Emelyanychev (conductor)

01:24 AM
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)
Fugue for Solo Violin
Aylen Pritchin (violin)

01:27 AM
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony no 5 in C minor, Op 67 'Fate Symphony'
WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne, Maxim Emelyanychev (conductor)

02:02 AM
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), arr. D.Shafran
Suite in the olden style
Daniil Shafran (cello), Anton Osetrov (piano)

02:15 AM
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
6 Variations in F major, Op 34
Theo Bruins (piano)

02:31 AM
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Lyric suite for orchestra from Lyric Pieces (Book 5)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Ole Kristian Ruud (conductor)

02:49 AM
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
24 Preludes, Op 28
Krzysztof Jablonski (piano)

03:27 AM
Willem Kersters (1929-1998)
Hulde aan Paul, Op 79
Flemish Radio Choir, Vic Nees (conductor)

03:37 AM
Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Sonata no 7 for 2 violins in E minor, Z.796
Simon Standage (violin), Ensemble Il tempo

03:45 AM
Ludwig Norman (1831-1885), arr. Niklas Willen
Andante Sostenuto
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Niklas Willen (conductor)

03:54 AM
Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)
Three Shanties for wind quintet, Op 4
Ariart Woodwind Quintet

04:02 AM
Giovanni Valentini (1582/3-1649)
Fra bianchi giglie, a 7
La Capella Ducale, Musica Fiata Koln

04:12 AM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), arr. Samuil Feinberg
Largo from Trio Sonata in C (BWV.529) arr. Feinberg for piano
Sergei Terentjev (piano)

04:22 AM
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Sonata da chiesa in D minor, Op 3 no 5
Camerata Tallinn

04:31 AM
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
The Four Seasons - Spring
Davide Monti (violin), Il Tempio Armonico

04:41 AM
Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594)
Magnificat 'Praeter rerum seriem'
King's Singers

04:49 AM
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Rhapsody in B minor, Op 79 no 1
Steven Osborne (piano)

04:59 AM
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Serenade for Strings in E minor, Op 20
Sofia Soloists Chamber Ensemble, Plamen Djurov (conductor)

05:10 AM
Oskar Morawetz (1917-2007)
Clarinet sonata
Joaquin Valdepenas (clarinet), Patricia Parr (piano)

05:20 AM
Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665-1729)
Sonata in D major for 2 violins and continuo
Musica Fiorita, Daniela Dolci (director)

05:28 AM
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
Symphonic variations, Op 78
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Grant Llewellyn (conductor)

05:54 AM
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
L'isle joyeuse (1904)
Balazs Fulei (piano)

06:01 AM
Antoine Reicha (1770-1836)
Oboe Quintet in F major, Op 107
Les Adieux


MON 06:30 Breakfast (m002685c)
Classical music to set you up for the day

Hannah French presents Radio 3's award-winning classical breakfast show with music that captures the mood of the morning. Email your requests to 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk . To listen on most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Breakfast.”


MON 09:30 Essential Classics (m002685h)
The ideal mix of classical music

Ian Skelly plays the best in classical music, with discoveries and surprises rubbing shoulders with familiar favourites.

1000 Playlist starter – listen and send us your ideas for the next step in our musical journey today.

1030 Song of the Day – harnessing the magic of words, music and the human voice.

1115 Playlist reveal – a sequence of music suggested by you in response to our starter today.

1145 Slow Moment – time to take a break for a moment's musical reflection.

1230 Album of the Week

To listen on most smart speakers say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Essential Classics”


MON 13:00 Classical Live (m002685m)
A musical journey from Edinburgh to Italy: Seong-Jin Cho plays Liszt

Linton Stephens showcases excluisve recordings by BBC orchestras, choirs, ensembles and other great performing groups from Europe and around the globe.

The week on Classical Live is all about musical journeys, and we start with a big one: the complete second suite from Liszt’s Years of Pilgrimage, transporting us to Italy through the composer’s responses to the art, music and literature he experienced on his travels there. Our guide on this epic solo piano voyage is South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho, who performed the complete suite in recital at this summer’s Edinburgh International Festival. Also from the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, we hear current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists the Kleio Quartet performing music by Britten; and we’ve another current member of the flagship scheme - mezzo soprano Niamh O’Sullivan - singing Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel in recital in Birmingham.

Our centrepiece today features more musical travelling, with Daniele Gatti conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in orchestral excerpts from Wagner's Götterdämmerung – the climax of his monumental Ring Cycle of operas – including Siegfried’s Journey down the Rhine.

1303
Felix Mendelssohn
The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) – overture (Op.26)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Richard Hickox (conductor)

Franz Liszt
Years of Pilgrimage: Second Year - Italy
Seong-Jin Cho (piano)

1400
Benjamin Britten
3 Divertimenti for String Quartet
Kleio Quartet

Joseph Haydn
Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major
Andreas Brantelid (cello)
Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Andrew Manze (conductor)

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Songs of Travel (selection)
Niamh O’Sullivan (mezzo soprano)
Gary Beecher (piano)

c3.00
Richard Wagner
Götterdämmerung (orchestral excerpts)
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Daniele Gatti (conductor)

To listen to this programme (using most smart speakers) just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Classical Live".


MON 16:00 Composer of the Week (m002685r)
Schubert and Vienna

A divided city

Donald Macleod explores the Vienna Schubert was born into, and the composer’s early years in the city.

Of all Europe’s major cities, perhaps Vienna is the one with the reputation as the most comfortable, the most sophisticated, and the most musical. In fact, has any other city been home to so many great composers as Vienna? Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Salieri all spent their best years working there. Yet none of those starry names was born in the city, none were true Viennese. Over the course of this week, Donald Macleod explores Vienna through the lens of arguably the greatest home grown composer the city has ever produced – Franz Schubert – a man whose short life spanned a crucial period in Austrian history, a time of crisis and much change. In his company we’ll explore Vienna’s churches and theatres, its parks, coffee houses and taverns, and also glimpse the darker side of the city too – the excesses of Europe’s aristocracy and the all seeing eyes of Vienna’s secret police.

In Monday’s episode, Donald explores the city Schubert was born into – a Vienna reeling from war with Napoleon and the bitter consequences of that – a city full of anxiety, poverty, and despair. We follow the young musician as he takes the examination for a place in the Court Chapel Choir among much mockery from the more well to do boys, but even on admission to the choir life was hard, with money scarce, and food often inedible. Schubert found solace in singing and playing music, but even that was disrupted when the French led by Napoleon, began their second occupation of the city in 1809.

“Kupelwieser” Waltz in G flat Major, D Anh I/14
Mariam Batsashvili, piano

Symphony No 9 in C Major “The Great”, D944 (3rd mvt, Scherzo)
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor

String Quintet in C Major, D 956 (2nd mvt, Adagio)
Heinrich Schiff, piano
Alban Berg Quartet

Beitrag zur fünfzigjährigen Jubelfeier des Herrn von Salieri, D407
Christoph Prégardien, tenor
Camerata Musica Limburg
Jan Schumacher, conductor

Marches Militaires, D733 (No 1 in D Major)
Daniel Barenboim, Radu Lupu, piano

Gretchen am Spinnrade, D118
Renée Fleming, soprano
Christoph Eschenbach, piano

Produced by Sam Phillips for BBC Audio Wales and West

To listen on most smart speakers just say “ask BBC Sounds to play Composer of the Week"


MON 17:00 New Generation Artists (m002685w)
Winter Showcase Episode 3

Georgia Mann continues her winter series showcasing Radio 3's New Generation Artists by introducing the pianist Julius Asal, cellist Sterling Elliott and the jazz saxophonist Emma Rawicz.

The German pianist Julius Asal - already signed up by a major record label - chose a piano sonata by Brahms for his debut studio recording at the BBC. Brahms was still only twenty years old when he wrote this third piano sonata but it marks his coming of age; it's the last work he presented to his mentor Robert Schumann for approval before publication. That's followed by Schumann's song cycle Frauenliebe und Leben, one of the miraculous outpourings from his 'Year of Song,' when Robert was finally able to marry his beloved Clara. The Irish mezzo Niamh O'Sullivan - just coming to the end of the first of her two years as a member of Radio 3's prestigious young artist programme - brings a very human quality to these eight songs which chart a journey from a first meeting, through marriage to death. And after that, the American cellist Sterling Elliott can be heard in his first BBC studio sessions.

Brahms: Piano Sonata no. 3 in F minor, Op. 5
Julius Asal (piano)

R. Schumann: Song cycle, Frauenliebe und Leben, Op.42
Niamh O'Sullivan (mezzo soprano), Gary Beecher (piano)

William Grant Still: Mother and Child
Sterling Elliott (cello), Gabriele Strata (piano)

The BBC New Generation Artists scheme, now in its twenty-fifth year, was founded to support some of the world’s finest young instrumentalists, singers and ensembles at the start of their international careers, through performance and broadcast opportunities. The distinguished list of alumni now numbers nearly one hundred and fifty artists, among them many of the most exciting musicians working on the world stage today.


MON 18:15 Words and Music (m001lzfp)
Long Life

Writings by Jan Morris, the world traveller who died in 2020 aged 94, begin and end this programme which explores the idea of longevity in humans and extraordinary lifespans in the natural world, such as whales, ocean quahogs and the redwood trees depicted in Richard Powers’ prize-winning novel 'The Overstory'. There are extracts from writers including Virginia Woolf and Tove Jansson and from George Bernard Shaw’s play 'Back to Methuselah' – whom the Bible claims lived to 969.

Music ranges from Arvo Pärt’s 'Sarah Was Ninety Years Old' based on Abraham’s wife in the Book of Genesis, to an 'Elegy' by Elliott Carter who lived to be 103, and music performed by Danish jazz violinist Svend Asmussen who lived to 100, British harpist Sidonie Goossens who lived until she was 105, and the pianist Menahem Pressler who died at the age of 99.

Our readers are Eileen O'Brien and Timothy West and the programme is repeated in tribute to Timothy West, who died aged 90, in November 2024.

Producers: Jenny Pitt and Lorna Newman

READINGS:
Jan Morris: In My Mind's Eye (A Thought Diary)
John Agard: Twilight Manoeuvring
Ruth Fainlight: Ageing
Joseph Edwards Carpenter: The King of the Southern Sea
Jonas Jonasson: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
Tove Jansson: The Summer Book
Lewis Carroll: You Are Old, Father William
Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon (Musings of a Geriatric Starlet)
Matt Haig: How to Stop Time
Virginia Woolf: Orlando: A Biography
WB Yeats: Sailing to Byzantium
Steven N Austad: Methuselah's Zoo
Roger McGough: The Oldest Tree on Earth: The Curse of Methuselah (poem six)
George Bernard Shaw: Back to Methuselah
Diana Athill: Alive, Alive Oh! (And Other Things That Matter)
Richard Powers: The Overstory
Elaine Feinstein: Long Life
James Hilton: Lost Horizon


MON 19:30 BBC Proms (m0026862)
Proms at Christmas 2024

Prom 62: Rattle conducts Mahler’s Sixth

BBC Proms 2024: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle perform Mahler's Symphony No. 6.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6 in A minor

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

‘None of his works came as directly from his inmost heart as this.’ So said Mahler’s wife Alma of her husband’s Symphony No. 6, a score of such terrifying and ominous power that it came to spook even the composer himself. Across the symphony’s four movements we hear Mahler grappling with his own demise – clinging hopelessly to love, light and the beauty of life. For their second consecutive night at the Proms, Sir Simon Rattle and his Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra take on Mahler’s gargantuan and grippingly intense work.


MON 21:00 New Generation Artists (m0026866)
Winter Showcase Extra

Georgia Mann presents a feast of Fin de siècle French music from some of Radio 3's current and former New Generation Artists.

The baritone and collaborative pianist team up with the Quatuor Van Kuijk for 2024 anniversary composer, Gabriel Faure's La bonne chanson. And they opened their BBC Prom at Ulster Hall in Belfast with a song cycle by Augusta Holmès. Born in Paris to an Irish father and a Scottish mother, she became a popular figure in the Bohemian life of Paris. In between these two Proms performances, the Colombian cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia can be heard at the Ryedale Festival in a sonata by Ravel. Written in 1895 when Ravel was studying with Fauré this Sonate Posthume was not published until many years later.

Holmès: Les heures
James Atkinson (baritone)
Michael Pandya (piano)

Ravel: Sonate Posthume
Santiago Cañón-Valencia (cello), Naoko Sonoda (piano)

Fauré: La bonne chanson
James Atkinson (baritone)
Michael Pandya (piano)
Quatuor Van Kuijk
Jamie Kenny (double bass)


MON 22:00 Night Tracks (m0020305)
Music for the darkling hour

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents an adventurous, immersive soundtrack for late-night listening, from classical to contemporary and everything in between.


MON 23:30 'Round Midnight (m00209qm)
Nubya Garcia sits in for Soweto

Round Midnight has been presented by Soweto Kinch since it began in April. The first person to sit in for him is fellow Saxophonist Nubya Garcia. She's in all week, selecting the best jazz, with a focus on new UK music. The show celebrates the new, whilst shining a light on past innovators and her selections for Monday's show include Yussef Dayes, Cherise, and Shabaka. Her guest this week, on the 4/4 feature, is bassist Daniel Casimir.

TUESDAY 31 DECEMBER 2024

TUE 00:30 Through the Night (m002686b)
Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs & Symphonia domestica

From Romania, a concert given by the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra of Cluj-Napoca. Jonathan Swain presents.

12:31 AM
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Vier letzte Lieder, AV.150
Gabriela Istoc (soprano), Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra of Cluj-Napoca, Theo Wolters (conductor)

12:52 AM
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Symphonia domestica, Op 53
Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra of Cluj-Napoca, Theo Wolters (conductor)

01:39 AM
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Traumerei - from Stimmungsbilder for piano, Op 9 no 4
Richard Strauss (piano)

01:42 AM
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Violin Sonata in E flat major, Op 18
Thomas Zehetmair (violin), Kai Ito (piano)

02:10 AM
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Siegfried Idyll for small orchestra
Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Arvid Engegard (conductor)

02:31 AM
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Music for the Royal Fireworks
Collegium Aureum

02:53 AM
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Chaconne for piano, Op 32
Anders Kilstrom (piano)

03:03 AM
Henriette Bosmans (1895-1952)
Cello Concerto no 2
Gemma Rosefield (cello), BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jonathan Bloxham (conductor)

03:29 AM
Petko Stainov (1896-1977)
A bright sun has risen
Petko Stainov Mixed Choir Kazanlak, Petya Pavlovich (conductor)

03:35 AM
Per Norgard (b.1932)
Pastorale for String Trio
Trio Aristos

03:41 AM
Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787)
Trio for 2 flutes and continuo in G major, Op 16 no 4
La Stagione Frankfurt

03:51 AM
Josef Suk (1874-1935)
Fantastic scherzo for orchestra, Op 25
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Richard Hickox (conductor)

04:06 AM
Alberta Suriani (1920-1977)
Partita for harp
Branka Janjanin-Magdalenic (harp)

04:16 AM
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Herbstlied, Op 84 no 2
Kaia Urb (soprano), Heiki Matlik (guitar)

04:20 AM
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Erster Verlust (First Loss), Op 99 no 1
Kaia Urb (soprano), Heiki Matlik (guitar)

04:23 AM
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Impromptu in G flat major, D.899
Schaghajegh Nosrati (piano)

04:31 AM
Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745)
1st movement (Allegro) from Sinfonia a 8 Concertanti in A minor, ZWV.189
European Union Baroque Orchestra, Roy Goodman (director)

04:39 AM
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c.1525-1594)
Agnus Dei - super ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la (for 6 and 7 voices)
Huelgas Ensemble, Paul van Nevel (director)

04:47 AM
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
12 Variations on 'Ein Madchen oder Weibchen for cello and piano', Op 66
Antonio Meneses (cello), Menahem Pressler (piano)

04:57 AM
Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Carmen - suite no 1
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Robert Stankovsky (conductor)

05:10 AM
Oskar Merikanto (1868-1924)
Improvisation, Op 76 no 3
Eero Heinonen (piano)

05:17 AM
Albertus Groneman (c.1710-1778)
Concerto in G major for flute, 2 violins & basso continuo
Jed Wentz (flute), Manfred Kraemer (violin), Laura Johnson (violin), Musica ad Rhenum

05:32 AM
Fela Sowande (1905-1987)
African suite for harp and strings (1944)
CBC Vancouver Orchestra, Mario Bernardi (conductor)

05:57 AM
Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Etudes-Tableaux, Op 39 (excerpts - I to VI)
Nicholas Angelich (piano)

06:22 AM
Giuseppe Martucci (1856-1909)
Notturno Op 70 no 1
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Nello Santi (conductor)


TUE 06:30 Breakfast (m0026856)
Sunny side up classical to start your New Year's Eve

Hannah French presents a New Year's Eve edition of Radio 3's award-winning classical breakfast show with music that captures the mood of the morning. Email your requests to 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk . To listen on most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Breakfast.”


TUE 09:30 Essential Classics (m0026858)
Refresh your morning with classical music

Ian Skelly plays the best in classical music, with discoveries and surprises rubbing shoulders with familiar favourites.

1000 Playlist starter – listen and send us your ideas for the next step in our musical journey today.

1030 Song of the Day – harnessing the magic of words, music and the human voice.

1115 Playlist reveal – a sequence of music suggested by you in response to our starter today.

1145 Slow Moment – time to take a break for a moment's musical reflection.

1230 Album of the Week

To listen on most smart speakers say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Essential Classics”


TUE 13:00 Classical Live (m002685d)
A musical journey from Edinburgh to New Orleans: the Kleio Quartet plays Marsalis

Linton Stephens introduces a selection of exclusive recordings of performances given by the BBC orchestras, choirs, ensembles and other great performing groups from Europe and around the globe.

Continuing this week’s theme of journeys, our music today takes us from Venice to New Orleans via the second circle of Hell - as represented in Tchaikovsky’s tone poem Francesca da Rimini, which is based on a passage from Dante’s Inferno. Current BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists the Kleio Quartet perform our centrepiece today: Wynton Marsalis’s String Quartet No 1 ‘At the Octoroon Balls’, a piece which reflects the cultural richness and contradictions of the city of New Orleans, recorded at this year's Edinburgh International Festival; and New Generation alumnus, soprano Ailish Tynan, transports us to La Serenissima in a performance of Reynaldo Hahn’s Venice: Songs in Venetian Dialect, recorded earlier this year in Belfast. And we mark Hogmanay with more music recorded in Scotland, including a wonderfully rowdy version of Peter Maxwell Davies’ An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise.

Peter Maxwell Davies
An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Chris Gibbs (bagpipes)
Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Maurice Ravel
Menuet Antique
Seong-Jin Cho (piano)

Reynaldo Hahn
Venezia (Chansons en dialecte Venetien)
Ailish Tynan (soprano)
James Baillieu (piano)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Francesca da Rimini - symphonic fantasia after Dante
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ludovic Morlot (conductor)

Joanna Forbes L’Estrange
Auld Lang Syne
London Voices
Ben Parry (conductor)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Serenade in G major, K.525 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik'
Telemann Chamber Orchestra
Takeharu Nobuhara (conductor)

c3.00
Wynton Marsalis
String Quartet No 1 ‘At the Octoroon Balls’
Kleio Quartet

Marianna Martines
Sinfonia in C major
BBC Concert Orchestra
Johannes Wildner (conductor)

To listen to this programme (using most smart speakers) just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Classical Live".


TUE 16:00 Composer of the Week (m002685j)
Schubert and Vienna

Centre of the Universe

Donald Macleod explores the incredible impact of the Congress of Vienna on the city’s fortunes. Meanwhile, Schubert is falling in love.

Of all Europe’s major cities, perhaps Vienna is the one with the reputation as the most comfortable, the most sophisticated, and the most musical. In fact, has any other city been home to so many great composers as Vienna? Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Salieri all spent their best years working there. Yet none of those starry names was born in the city, none were true Viennese. Over the course of this week, Donald Macleod explores Vienna through the lens of arguably the greatest home grown composer the city has ever produced – Franz Schubert – a man whose short life spanned a crucial period in Austrian history, a time of crisis and much change. In his company we’ll explore Vienna’s churches and theatres, its parks, coffee houses and taverns, and also glimpse the darker side of the city too – the excesses of Europe’s aristocracy and the all seeing eyes of Vienna’s secret police.

In Tuesday’s programme, as Austria started to recover from the impact of Napoleonic wars, Donald explores the incredible Congress of Vienna which reignited the city’s fortunes. Hundreds of dignitaries and aristocracy from across the continent descended upon Vienna. For Schubert it must have felt like he was in the centre of the Universe, even if he wasn’t involved in the accompanying music making. However, there were other important matters for the budding composer at this point – he was falling in love.

6 Moment Musicaux, Op 94, D780 (No 3 in F min)
David Fray, piano

Mass No 1 in F Major, D105 (Gloria)
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Wiener Sängerknaben,
Chorus Viennensis
Bruno Weil, conductor

Grande Marche Funebre, D859
Christoph Eschenbach, Justus Frantz, piano

Symphony No 2 in B flat Major, D125 (4th mvt,Presto)
B’Rock Orchestra
René Jacobs, conductor

Rosamunde, D797 (No 5 ,Entracte No 3 in B flat Major: Andantino)
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Licht und Liebe, D352
Janet Baker, Mezzo Soprano
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
Gerald Moore, piano

Produced by Sam Phillips ford BBC Audio Wales and West

To listen on most smart speakers just say “ask BBC Sounds to play Composer of the Week"


TUE 17:00 New Generation Artists (m002685n)
Winter Showcase Episode 4

Georgia Mann presents the last programme in her winter series celebrating the prodigious musical talents of the current members of Radio 3's young artist scheme.

Today, there are performances from the seven artists who come to an end of their eventful two years with the scheme today. In that time these young musicians have performed at festivals throughout the UK, at the BBC Proms, the London Jazz and Edinburgh Festivals as well as internationally at some of the world's leading venues including La Scala, Milan and the Berlin Philharmonie and at the Salzburg and Verbier Festivals. Looking to the future, Georgia introduces the flutist Elizaveta Ivanova, winner of the 2023 Concours de Genève. At her first session at the BBC earlier this month, she brought with her a delicious rarity: La flûte de Pan by Jules Mouquet, a pupil of Debussy.

Trad: Steal Away
Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (soprano),
Anna Blackmur (violin)
Simon Lepper (piano)

Waxman: Carmen Fantasy
Geneva Lewis (violin)
Ryan Corbett (accordion)

Vaughan Williams: The Water Mill
Hugh Cutting (counter tenor)
Christopher Glynn (piano)

R. Schumann: String Quartet in A, Op. 41 No 3
Leonkoro Quartet

Jules Mouquet: La flûte de Pan, sonate pour flûte et piano, Op. 15
Elizaveta Ivanova (flute)
Sanja Bizjak (piano)

Loch Katrine's Lady
Ryan Corbett (accordion)

Carlos Vieco: Bambuquisimo
Santiago Cañón-Valencia (cello)
Fergus McCreadie (piano)

The BBC New Generation Artists scheme, now in its twenty-fifth year, was founded to support some of the world’s finest young instrumentalists, singers and ensembles at the start of their international careers, through performance and broadcast opportunities. The distinguished list of alumni now numbers nearly one hundred and fifty artists, among them many of the most exciting musicians working on the world stage today.


TUE 18:15 Words and Music (m002685s)
Rings

From Wagner and Valentines to ring roads, and the smoke rings made by the pipe of Sherlock Holmes: our readers are Susan Twist and Chris Jack and we’ll hear music from Mozart’s composition for a glass harmonica and a Beethoven Rondo, Booker T and the MG’s Glass onion and the sound of a telephone conjured by the Penguin Café Orchestra. Howard Shore’s music for the Lord of the Rings films gives us Gollum, who liked describing the powerful one ring as “my precious”.

Produced in Salford by Ewa Norman

Readings:

John Donne: Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions - Meditation XVII
Doris Lessing: The Golden Notebook
William Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
Carol Ann Duffy: Valentine
Tolkien: The Lord of The Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring
Cathy Galvin: Walking the Coventry Ring Road with Lady Godiva
Sam Hickford: Poems Sketched upon the M60 – First Journey: Moston
Virginia Woolf: The Waves
Graham Moore: The Last Days of Night
Joseph Silk: The Infinite Cosmos: Questions from the frontiers of cosmology
Simon Parkin: Elden Ring review – an unrivalled masterpiece of design and inventiveness
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley: Frankenstein
Ameen Rihani: A Sufi Song
Hermann Hesse: Wandering - Notes and Sketches
J. Walker McSpadden: Stories from Wagner
Robert Frost: Ring Around


TUE 19:00 BBC Proms (m002685x)
Proms at Christmas 2024

Prom 73: Last Night of the Proms 2024

BBC Proms 2024: the season closes with Angel Blue and Sir Stephen Hough joining the BBC BBC Singers, Symphony Chorus and Symphony Orchestra with conductor Sakari Oramo.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny and Georgia Mann, from the Royal Albert Hall, London.

William Walton: Overture ‘Portsmouth Point’
Giacomo Puccini: Gianni Schicchi – ‘O mio babbino caro’; Madam Butterfly – Humming Chorus; Tosca – ‘Vissi d’arte’
Carlos Simon: Hellfighters’ Blues (BBC co-commission: world premiere)
Gabriel Fauré: Pavane
Charles Ives: The Yale–Princeton Football Game
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Summer Is Gone
Grace Williams: Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes
Camille Saint‐Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, ‘Egyptian’, 2nd movement Andante

Iain Farrington: Extra Time (BBC commission: world premiere)
Henry Mancini arr Gavin Sutherland: The Pink Panther
Sir Stephen Hough: In His Hands: Two Spirituals
Ruperto Chapí: Las hijas del Zebedeo – ‘Al pensar en el dueño de mis amores’ (Carceleras)
Trad. arr. Wood: Fantasia on British Sea Songs
Thomas Arne arr. Sargent: Rule, Britannia!
Edward Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major, ‘Land of Hope and Glory’
Hubert Parry orch. Elgar: Jerusalem
Anon arr. Britten: The National Anthem
Trad. arr. P. Campbell: Auld Lang Syne

Angel Blue (soprano)
Sir Stephen Hough (piano)
BBC Singers
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (conductor)

The stars gather for an end-of-season party like no other. Joining the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Singers are Grammy Award-winning American soprano Angel Blue and one of Britain’s best-loved pianists, Sir Stephen Hough. Sakari Oramo returns to the podium for the world’s biggest classical music party.


TUE 22:00 Night Tracks (m0020hw5)
Immersive music for late night listening

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents an adventurous, immersive soundtrack for late-night listening, from classical to contemporary and everything in between.


TUE 23:30 'Round Midnight (m0026861)
New Year's Eve

‘Round Midnight is presented by award-winning saxophonist Soweto Kinch. This weekday late-night show celebrates the thriving UK jazz scene and spotlights the best new music alongside incredible acts from past decades.

Soweto sees in 2025 with messages from friends of the show - Alice Zawadzki, Neil Cowley, corto.alto, Jacqui Dankworth and Zara McFarlane help select a mix of music for celebration and reflection.

Expect tracks from Donald Byrd, Pharoah Sanders, KOKOROKO and Erroll Garner.

To listen on most smart speakers, just say: 'Ask BBC Sounds to play Round Midnight.'

WEDNESDAY 01 JANUARY 2025

WED 00:30 Through the Night (m0026865)
Orlando di Lasso: The song of the Sibyls

Ensemble Irini explore the mystical through Lasso's astonishingly chromatic Prophecies of the Sibyllines and Byzantine pieces dedicated to the Virgin Mary. They performed in the Church of Santes Creus, Catalunya, on the Feast of the Assumption. Jonathan Swain presents.

12:31 AM
Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594)
Audi benigne conditor

12:36 AM
John Koukouzeles
Chaire Nimphi

12:40 AM
Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594)
Excerpts from Prophetiae Sibyllarum

12:47 AM
Anonymous, arr. Lila Hajosi
Cheruvikon, himne dels querubins

12:53 AM
Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594)
Excerpts from Prophetiae Sibyllarum

01:01 AM
Nectarios of Aegina (1846-1920), arr. Lila Hajosi
Agni Parthene - O Virgin Pure

01:06 AM
Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594)
Excerpts from Prophetiae Sibyllarum

01:12 AM
Anonymous, arr. Lila Hajosi
Gnosin agnoston gnonai from the Akathist

01:16 AM
Anonymous, arr. Lila Hajosi
Polyeleos - Psalms 134 & 135

01:21 AM
Anonymous, arr. Lila Hajosi
Fragment of the Polyeleos

Ensemble Irini, Lila Hajosi (conductor)

01:23 AM
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Overture - Nabucco
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Alun Francis (conductor)

01:32 AM
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Va Pensiero chorus from Nabucco
Canadian Opera Company Chorus, Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Richard Bradshaw (conductor)

01:37 AM
Johann Kuhnau (1660-1722)
Biblical sonata for keyboard no 2 in G minor "Saul cured by David through music"
Luc Beausejour (harpsichord)

01:52 AM
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (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)

01:58 AM
Mel Bonis (1858-1937)
Salome Op 100
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Rumon Gamba (conductor)

02:03 AM
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome, Op 54
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Stuart Challender (conductor)

02:13 AM
Mathurin Forestier (fl.1500-1535)
Agnus Dei (Missa 'Baises moy')
Huelgas Ensemble, Paul van Nevel (conductor)

02:18 AM
Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016)
A Requiem in our Time, Op 3
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Osmo Vanska (conductor)

02:31 AM
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Double Concerto in A minor for Violin and Cello, Op 102
Solve Sigerland (violin), Ellen Margrete Flesjo (cello), Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Per Kristian Skalstad (conductor)

03:06 AM
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
Noches en los jardines de Espana
Philip Pavlov (piano), Sofia Symphony Orchestra, Ivan Marinov (conductor)

03:29 AM
John Wilbye (1574-1638)
Draw on, sweet night (the second set of madrigals)
Ensemble Daedalus, Roberto Festa (director)

03:34 AM
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Trio sonata for flute, violin and continuo in B minor, Wq.143
Les Coucous Benevoles

03:44 AM
Gabriel Faure (1845 - 1924)
Nocturne in E minor, Op 107
Stefan Lindgren (piano)

03:51 AM
Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Two Pieces for String Octet, Op 11
Helena Winkelman (violin), Camerata Variabile Basel

04:01 AM
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
El Salón México
San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor)

04:13 AM
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Silence and Music - madrigal for chorus
BBC Singers, Bo Holten (conductor)

04:19 AM
Frederick Jacobi (1891-1952)
Fantasy for viola and piano
Cathy Basrak (viola), William Koehler (piano)

04:31 AM
Otto Nicolai (1810-1849)
Overture, The Merry Wives of Windsor
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lukasz Borowicz (conductor)

04:40 AM
Clara Schumann (1819-1896)
Scherzo in D minor, Op 10 no 1
Angela Cheng (piano)

04:45 AM
Ester Magi (1922-2021)
Duo rahvatoonis
Jaan Õun (flute), Ulrika Kristian (violin)

04:48 AM
Ester Magi (1922-2021)
Bucolic
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Arvo Volmer (conductor)

04:57 AM
Lou Harrison (1917-2003)
Harp Suite
David Tannenbaum (guitar), William Winant (percussion), Scott Evans (percussion), Joel Davel (drums)

05:13 AM
Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602-c.1678)
O quam bonus es: motet for 2 voices
Cappella Artemisia

05:23 AM
Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)
Cello Concerto no 1 in A minor, Op 33
Luka Šulić (cello), Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Shuntaro Sato (conductor)

05:44 AM
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Sonata for flute, viola and harp
Felix Renggli (flute), Jurg Dahler (viola), Sarah O'Brien (harp)

06:02 AM
Francois Couperin (1668-1733)
Treizieme concert à deux violes
Violes Esgales (duo)

06:12 AM
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op 34
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Dalia Stasevska (conductor)


WED 06:30 Breakfast (m00267zq)
Ease into New Year's Day with classical music

Hannah French presents a New Year's Day edition of Radio 3's award-winning classical breakfast show with music that captures the mood of the morning. Email your requests to 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk . To listen on most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Breakfast.”


WED 09:30 New Year's Day Concert (m00267zs)
New Year's Day 2025

The annual New Year’s Day concert given by the Vienna Philharmonic in the glittering Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein to kick off Radio 3's European Roadtrip. Enjoy the swirling waltzes, rousing marches uplifting polkas as Petroc Trelawny introduces the concert live for Radio 3. Led from the podium by conductor Riccardo Muti for the seventh time. 2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Johann Strauss so it’s no surprise his works are even more in evidence this year. The programme mixes old favourites with new discoveries which celebrate, amongst other things: Jolly Brothers, Demolition Men and Village Swallows as well as the famous Blue Danube. The orchestra say the concert is a New Year’s Day greeting to people all over the world in the spirit of hope, friendship and peace at the start of 2025.

Vienna Philharmonic
Riccardo Muti (conductor)
Broadcast live from the Musikverein, Vienna

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Part 1
Johann Strauss Sr: Freedom March op. 226
Josef Strauss: Village Swallows of Austria, Waltz, op. 164
Johann Strauss: Demolition Men’s Polka, op. 269
Johann Strauss: Lagoon Waltz op. 411
Eduard Strauss: Airy and Fragrant, Polka, op. 206

Interval

Part 2
Johann Strauss: Overture to The Gypsy Baron
Johann Strauss: Accelerations Waltz, op. 234
Joseph Hellmesberger: Jolly Brothers March from The Violet Girl
Constanze Geiger: Ferdinandus Waltz (Arrangement: Wolfgang Dörner)
Johann Strauss: Either Or! Polka, op. 403
Josef Strauss: Transactions Waltz, op. 184
Johann Strauss: Annen-Polka. op. 117
Johann Strauss: Tritsch-Tratsch Polka op. 214
Johann Strauss: Wine, Women and Song, Waltz, op. 333

Encores
Johann Strauss: The Bayadère, Polka, op. 351
Johann Strauss: The Blue Danube, Waltz, op. 314
Johann Strauss Sr: Radetzky-March. op. 228


WED 13:00 Classical Live (m00267zv)
Radio 3's European Roadtrip: the Vienna Symphony Orchestra plays Tchaikovsky

Linton Stephens showcases unique recordings of performances by BBC orchestras, choirs, ensembles and other great performing groups from Europe and around the globe.

As part of Radio 3’s European Roadtrip this week, today we focus on Vienna, one of the great centres of classical music making. We’ll hear music by Viennese composers Alexander Zemlinsky and Johanna Müller-Hermann, plus Ravel’s hommage to Schubert - another of the city’s musical sons - performed by Seong-Jin Cho. And our 2pm centrepiece comes from the city’s Konzerthaus, where the Vienna Symphony Orchestra opened its 125th season with pianist Anna Vinnitskaya performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

Fanny Mendelssohn
Overture in C
ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna
Joana Carneiro (conductor)

Maurice Ravel
Valses Nobles et Sentimentales
Seong-Jin Cho (piano)

Alexander von Zemlinsky
Clarinet Trio in D minor, Op. 3
Wigmore Soloists: Michael Collins (clarinet), Torleif Thedéen (cello), Michael McHale (piano)

c2.00
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23
Anna Vinnitskaya (piano)
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Petr Popelka (conductor)

Johanna Müller-Hermann
Alle die Wachsende Schatten
BBC Singers
Benjamin Nicholas (conductor)

To listen to this programme (using most smart speakers) just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Classical Live".


WED 15:00 Choral Evensong (m00267zx)
St James’s Church, Sussex Gardens, London

From St James’s Church, Sussex Gardens, London, with the Rodolfus Choir.

Introit: Our life is hid (Roderick Williams) (world premiere)
Responses: Joanna Forbes L’Estrange
Psalm 115 (Knight)
First Lesson: Deuteronomy 30 vv11-20
Magnificat in C (Schubert)
Second Lesson: Acts 3 vv1-16
Nunc dimittis a 8 (Palestrina)
Anthem: The heavens are telling the glory of God (Haydn)
Hymn: O Christ the same, through all our story's pages (Londonderry Air)
Voluntary: Sortie on ‘In dulci jubilo’ (David Briggs)

Ralph Allwood (Conductor)
George de Voil (Organist)

Recorded 29 December.

To listen on most smart speakers just say “ask BBC Sounds to play Choral Evensong”.


WED 16:00 Composer of the Week (m00267zz)
Schubert and Vienna

Secret Police

Donald Macleod explores the role of police surveillance in Schubert’s Vienna, and the impact of this on the composer and his circle.

Of all Europe’s major cities, perhaps Vienna is the one with the reputation as the most comfortable, the most sophisticated, and the most musical. In fact, has any other city been home to so many great composers as Vienna? Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Salieri all spent their best years working there. Yet none of those starry names was born in the city, none were true Viennese. Over the course of this week, Donald Macleod explores Vienna through the lens of arguably the greatest home grown composer the city has ever produced – Franz Schubert – a man whose short life spanned a crucial period in Austrian history, a time of crisis and much change. In his company we’ll explore Vienna’s churches and theatres, its parks, coffee houses and taverns, and also glimpse the darker side of the city too – the excesses of Europe’s aristocracy and the all seeing eyes of Vienna’s secret police.

In Wednesday’s episode, Donald explores the role of police surveillance in Schubert’s Vienna, and the impact of this on the composer and his circle, including an incident that left Schubert with a black eye, and led to one of his closest allies being imprisoned and then deported from the city.

Quartettsatz
Jerusalem Quartet

Lazarus, Act 2 (unfinished)
Horst Gebhardt, tenor (Nathanael)
Bernd Riedel, baritone (Simon)
Berlin Singakademie
Staatskapelle Berlin
Dietrich Knothe, conductor

Schwanengesang, D744
Julian Prégardien, tenor
Martin Helmchen, piano

4 Impromptus, D899, Op90 (No 3 in G Flat Major)
Andras Schiff, fortepiano

Symphony No 8 in B minor, D759 “Unfinished” (1st mvt, Allegro moderato)
Cleveland Orchestra
George Szell, conductor

Produced by Sam Phillips for BBC Audio Wales & West

To listen on most smart speakers just say “ask BBC Sounds to play Composer of the Week”


WED 17:00 Radio 3's European Roadtrip (m0026ghq)
From Vienna to Reykjavik - via Paris, Budapest and Cologne

Georgia Mann looks ahead to the next stops on Radio 3's European Roadtrip, showcasing performances by some of the performers who will appear in our programmes from Paris, Budapest, Cologne and Reykjavik over the next four days.


WED 19:00 Classical Mixtape (m0026802)
Take time out with a 30-minute soundscape of classical favourites.


WED 19:30 Radio 3 in Concert (m0026804)
Beethoven 9 from Vienna

Ian Skelly continues Radio 3's European Roadtrip with a very special concert recorded in Vienna. On 7th May 1824, the premiere of Beethoven's 9th Symphony took place in Vienna. Riccardo Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic recreate this great moment in music history with a performance the orchestra gave exactly 200 years later.

7.30pm

Beethoven: Symphony no.9 in D minor, Op.125 ‘Choral’
Julia Kleiter (soprano)
Marianne Crebassa (alto)
Michael Spyres (tenor)
Günther Groissböck (bass)
Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Riccardo Muti (conductor)

To listen on most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Radio 3 in Concert".


WED 21:45 The Essay (m0026806)
Three hundred metres in Montparnasse

The Rue Boissonade

The neighbourhood of Montparnasse in central Paris has been home to some of the most influential artists, writers and composers of the last two centuries, perhaps nowhere more so than the area around Joanna Robertson’s street, rue Boissonade.

In the first of her new series of The Essay, Three Hundred Metres in Montparnasse, she takes us there, and reveals some surprising sides to the street, above and below ground. She also introduces us to some former residents, including two intriguing painters.

Presenter: Joanna Robertson
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Sara Wadeson
Production Coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar


WED 22:00 Night Tracks (m0020hyk)
Dissolve into a nocturnal soundworld

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents an adventurous, immersive soundtrack for late-night listening, from classical to contemporary and everything in between.


WED 23:30 'Round Midnight (m00209v3)
Celebrating Alice Coltrane

At the half-way point of the week, guest presenter Nubya Garcia spotlights greats from the past, including Lou Donaldson alongside influential UK artists including Nikki Yeoh. New music from Oreglo and Ezra Collective sits alongside Alice Coltrane's Wisdom Eye. 'Round Midnight is BBC Radio 3's new daily late night jazz show, celebrating the vibrant UK jazz scene.

THURSDAY 02 JANUARY 2025

THU 00:30 Through the Night (m002680c)
Rachmaninov young and old

Alexandre Kantorow joins the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra for Rachmaninov's Opus 1, his Piano Concerto no 1, written when he was 17 years old. Then the orchestra takes centre stage in Rachmaninov's final work, his exuberant Symphonic Dances. Presented by Jonathan Swain.

12:31 AM
Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Piano Concerto no 1 in F sharp minor, Op 1
Alexandre Kantorow (piano), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Elim Chan (conductor)

12:59 AM
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Sonetto 104 del Petrarca, 'Années de pèlerinage, deuxième année: Italie, S.161'
Alexandre Kantorow (piano)

01:06 AM
Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Symphonic Dances, Op 45
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Elim Chan (conductor)

01:42 AM
Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
The Bells (Kolokola) for soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op 35
Roumiana Bareva (soprano), Pavel Kourchoumov (tenor), Stoyan Popov (baritone), Sons de la mer Mixed Choir, Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vassil Stefanov (conductor)

02:20 AM
Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915)
Sonata no 9 in F major "Black Mass", Op 68
Tanel Joamets (piano)

02:31 AM
Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959)
Symphony no 1
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek (conductor)

03:08 AM
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin ou Seconde livre (1728)
Annamari Polho (harpsichord)

03:30 AM
Vaino Raitio (1891-1945)
Maidens on the Headlands - symphonic poem
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste (conductor)

03:37 AM
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
Ave Generosa
Orpheus Women's Choir, Albert Wissink (director)

03:43 AM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), orch. Arnold Schoenberg
Prelude and fugue in E flat major BWV.552 (St Anne)
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Edo de Waart (conductor)

04:00 AM
Gaspar Sanz (1640-1710)
Suite española
Tomaz Rajteric (guitar)

04:11 AM
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
In Autumn - overture, Op 11
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Josep Caballe-Domenech (conductor)

04:23 AM
Antonio Bertali (1605-1669)
Sonata Prima a 3 for two recorders, bass viol and bass continuo
Le Nouveau Concert

04:31 AM
Arthur Benjamin (1893-1960)
Overture to an Italian Comedy
Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Joseph Post (conductor)

04:37 AM
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968)
Concert transcription of 'Largo al factotum' from Rossini's Barber of Seville
Sol Gabetta (cello), Bertrand Chamayou (piano)

04:44 AM
Jorgen Jersild (1913-2004)
3 Danish Romances
Jutland Chamber Choir, Mogens Dahl (conductor)

04:55 AM
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Trumpet Concerto in D major, TWV.51:D7
Friedemann Immer (trumpet), Musica Antiqua Koln, Reinhard Goebel (director)

05:03 AM
Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)
Bassoon Sonata in G major, Op 168
Siu-tung Toby Chan (bassoon), Rachel Cheung Wai-Ching (piano)

05:16 AM
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Symphony no 26 in E flat major, K184
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Franz-Paul Decker (conductor)

05:26 AM
Zoltan Jeney (1943-2019)
Bird Tempting
Gyor Girls' Choir, Miklos Szabo (conductor)

05:33 AM
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
The Firebird suite (vers. 1945)
Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra, Marcello Viotti (conductor)

06:04 AM
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Trio for piano and strings in A minor
Altenberg Trio Vienna


THU 06:30 Breakfast (m002686l)
Daybreak classics

Hannah French presents Radio 3's award-winning classical breakfast show with music that captures the mood of the morning. Email your requests to 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk.


THU 09:30 Radio 3's European Roadtrip (m002686q)
Live from Paris

Georgia Mann is the guest of Radio France in the city nicknamed the ‘City of Lights’ because it was a centre for education and learning during the Enlightenment. It is also a city of music, home to many composers and musicians over the last 500 years and more. Georgia explores the Palais Garnier, Paris's renowned opera house as it enters its 150th year, talks to journalist Agnès Poirier about the newly reopened Notre Dame Cathedral after its shocking fire in 2019, visits the home of singer-songwriter, actor and director Serge Gainsbourg and talks to his daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg about his legacy, and accordionist Laurent Derache explains the importance of the accordion in Parisian culture. Plus live in the studio French pianist Pascal Rogé performs Satie alongside fellow pianist Elena Font and soprano Anne-Sophie Duprels, and we have Hot Club de France inspired jazz live from the Adrien Tarraga Quartet.


THU 13:00 Classical Live (m002686v)
Radio 3’s European Roadtrip: from Paris to the Alps

Linton Stephens showcases the best performances by BBC orchestras, choirs, ensembles and other great performing groups from Europe and around the globe.

As part of Radio 3’s European Roadtrip this week, today we focus on Paris, with music recorded in La Maison Ronde - Radio France’s headquarters situated on the banks of the Seine between the Eiffel Tower and the Bois de Bologne. To open the programme, mezzo soprano Léa Desandre joins the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra for Berlioz’s luminous song cycle Nuits d’Été. And then at 3pm, the same orchestra and conductor Mikko Franck take us out of the city and over the snow-capped mountains in Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony. Plus we’ve music by Parisian composers Poulenc, Rameau and Ravel, whose Sonatine is performed by South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho in recital at this year’s Edinburgh International Music Festival.

Hector Berlioz
Les Nuits d’Été, Op. 7
Lea Desandre (mezzo soprano)
Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra
Mikko Franck (conductor)

Maurice Ravel
Sonatine
Seong-Jin Cho (piano)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Divertimento in F major K138
Arod Quartet

Jean-Philippe Rameau
L’Entretien des Muses (Suite in D major)
Ryan Corbett (accordion)

Françis Poulenc
Violin Sonata
Johan Dalene (violin)
Charles Owen (piano)

Mel Bonis
Salome, Op. 100
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Rumon Gamba (conductor)

c3.00
Richard Strauss
An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64
Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra
Mikko Franck (conductor)

To listen to this programme (using most smart speakers) just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Classical Live".


THU 16:00 Composer of the Week (m002686z)
Schubert and Vienna

Garden, Home and Taverns

Donald Macleod explores some of the spaces where music was played in Schubert’s Vienna.

Of all Europe’s major cities, perhaps Vienna is the one with the reputation as the most comfortable, the most sophisticated, and the most musical. In fact, has any other city been home to so many great composers as Vienna? Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Salieri all spent their best years working there. Yet none of those starry names was born in the city, none were true Viennese. Over the course of this week, Donald Macleod explores Vienna through the lens of arguably the greatest home grown composer the city has ever produced – Franz Schubert – a man whose short life spanned a crucial period in Austrian history, a time of crisis and much change. In his company we’ll explore Vienna’s churches and theatres, its parks, coffee houses and taverns, and also glimpse the darker side of the city too – the excesses of Europe’s aristocracy and the all seeing eyes of Vienna’s secret police.

In Thursday’s programme, Donald explores some of the spaces where music was played in Schubert’s Vienna. From the parks and gardens where harpists and barrel organists played their trade, to the fashionably decorated homes of Schubert’s friends and the taverns – some of which held series of public concerts.

Symphony No 5 in B flat Major, D485 (1st mvt, Allegro)
Berlin Philharmonic
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor

Winterreise, D911 (No 24, Der Leiermann)
Andrè Schuen, baritone
Daniel Heide, piano

Der Wanderer, D489
Florian Boesch, baritone
Roger Vignoles, piano

Piano Quintet in A Major, D667 “The Trout” (3rd mvt, Scherzo)
Andreas Haefliger, piano
Joseph Carver, double bass
Takacs Quartet

38 Waltzes, D145, Op 18 (Nos 6, 8 & 9 )
Pierre Laurent Aimard, piano

An Sylvia, D891, Op 6 (No 4)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone
Gerald Moore, piano

Fantasy in F minor, D940, Op 103
Maria Joao Pires, Ricardo Castro, piano

Produced by Sam Phillips for BBC Audio Wales & West

To listen on most smart speakers just say "ask BBC Sounds to play Composer of the Week"


THU 17:00 In Tune (m0026873)
Classical music live in the studio

Pianist Ashley Fripp joins Katie Derham live in the In Tune studio, plus an interview with Leif Ove Andsnes.

To listen using most smart speakers, just say “Ask BBC Sounds to play In Tune".


THU 19:00 Classical Mixtape (m0026877)
Take 30 minutes out with a relaxing classical mix

Following Essential Classics European Road Trip in Paris, take time out with a 30-minute soundscape of Parisian classical favourites from Maurice Ravel, Mel Bonis, Camille Saint-Saens, Gabriel Faure, Jean Cras and Claude Debussy.


THU 19:30 Radio 3 in Concert (m0026bz6)
Brahms violin concerto from Paris

Ian Skelly continues Radio 3's European Road Trip of broadcasting from Paris with a very special concert, recorded in September last year at L'Auditorium de Radio France in Paris, in which violinist Julia Fischer joined the French National Orchestra and conductor Cristian Măcelaru to perform Brahms' violin concerto - a work originally deemed unplayable before the composer revised the work for its original recipient: Joseph Joachim. There's music, too, by Debussy and Elsa Barraine.

7.30pm

Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, Op.77

Interval

c. 8:30pm
Elsa Barraine: Symphony no.2
Debussy: Images for Orchestra, L.122

Julia Fischer (violin)
French National Orchestra
Cristian Măcelaru (conductor)

To listen on most smart speakers just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Radio 3 in Concert".


THU 21:45 The Essay (m002687c)
Three hundred metres in Montparnasse

Gardens shaping creative imaginations

The neighbourhood of Montparnasse in central Paris has been home to some of the most influential artists, writers and composers of the last two centuries, perhaps nowhere more so than the area around Joanna Robertson’s street, rue Boissonade.

In the second of her series, Joanna explores the relationship between the road’s natural environment and some of its most famous residents, such as the nineteenth century writer Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand who bought land here and cultivated a substantial park. To this day, some of the residents enjoy surprisingly lush gardens behind the street's walls.

Presenter: Joanna Robertson
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Sara Wadeson
Production coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar


THU 22:00 Night Tracks (m0020hxx)
Meditative music for night owls

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents an adventurous, immersive soundtrack for late-night listening, from classical to contemporary and everything in between.


THU 23:30 'Round Midnight (m00209vt)
Daniel Casimir's 4/4

Nubya Garcia heads towards the end of the week with her guest Daniel Casimir. He's a composer, producer and bass player whose albums These Days and Boxed In helped shape the UK sound. 'Round Midnight, usually presented by Soweto Kinch, aims to spotlight the best music from the thriving UK jazz scene. Nubya's selections include new UK artists Balimaya Project, Chelsea Carmichael and Moses Boyd alongside music from legends including Gary Bartz and Yusef Lateef.

FRIDAY 03 JANUARY 2025

FRI 00:30 Through the Night (m002687m)
Respighi and Mahler from Turin

Daniel Harding conducts the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's 'Titan' Symphony. They are joined by violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann to play Respighi's Concerto Gregoriano. Jonathan Swain presents.

12:31 AM
Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Concerto gregoriano
Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin), RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding (conductor)

12:59 AM
Franz Schubert (1797-1828), arr. Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst
Erlkönig, D. 328 arr. for violin
Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin)

01:03 AM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Sarabande from Partita no 1 in B minor BWV.1002
Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin)

01:06 AM
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Symphony no 1 in D major, 'Titan'
RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding (conductor)

02:01 AM
Alma Mahler (1879-1964)
Bei dir ist es traut
Franziska Heinzen (soprano), Benjamin Mead (piano)

02:04 AM
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Kindertotenlieder
Zandra McMaster (mezzo soprano), Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Ari Rasilainen (conductor)

02:31 AM
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Bassoon Concerto in B flat major, K.191
Dag Jensen (bassoon), Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Paavo Berglund (conductor)

02:49 AM
Florence Price (1887-1953)
Concert Overture no 2
BBC Concert Orchestra, Jane Glover (conductor)

03:05 AM
Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832)
Grand Quartet for 4 flutes in E minor, Op 103
Valentinas Kazlauskas (flute), Albertas Stupakas (flute), Lina Baublyte (flute), Giedrius Gelgotas (flute)

03:27 AM
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Images - set 1 for piano
Daniil Trifonov (piano)

03:42 AM
Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819-1872)
Ballet Music from Hrabina 'The Countess'
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lukasz Borowicz (conductor)

03:57 AM
Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006)
Three Nonsense Madrigals
King's Singers

04:05 AM
Johann Strauss II (1825-1899), arr. Arnold Schoenberg
Rosen aus dem Suden: waltz arr. for harmonium, piano & string quartet
Canadian Chamber Ensemble, Raffi Armenian (director)

04:14 AM
Wilhelmine von Bayreuth (1709-1758)
Harpsichord Concerto in G minor
Lars Ulrik Mortensen (harpsichord), Concerto Copenhagen, Lars Ulrik Mortensen (conductor)

04:31 AM
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Courtly Dances from Gloriana, Op 53
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lukasz Borowicz (conductor)

04:41 AM
Johann Michael Bach (1648-1694)
Halt was du hast
Vox Luminis, Lionel Meunier (director)

04:47 AM
Signe Lykke (b.1984)
A world seen from above
Concerto Copenhagen, Lars Ulrik Mortensen (conductor)

05:04 AM
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Scherzo no 2 in B flat minor, Op 31
Valerie Tryon (piano)

05:14 AM
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)
Trumpet Concerto in E flat major
Odin Hagen (trumpet), Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Per Kristian Skalstad (conductor)

05:33 AM
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Ma Mère l'Oye
National Orchestra of France, Hans Graf (conductor)

06:01 AM
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Gloria in D major, RV.589
Ann Monoyios (soprano), Matthew White (counter tenor), Colin Ainsworth (tenor), Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Ivars Taurins (conductor)


FRI 06:30 Breakfast (m002687x)
Start the day right with classical music

Hannah French presents Radio 3's award-winning classical breakfast show with the Friday poem and music that captures the mood of the morning.

Email your requests to 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk


FRI 09:30 Radio 3's European Roadtrip (m0026882)
Live from Budapest

Petroc Trelawny has caught the train from Vienna to the other capital of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire: Budapest. He’s based in the Dohnányi Music Centre of Hungarian Radio. In a music packed programme we’ll have performances from the Strings of Hungarian Radio, folk music by celebrated cimbalom player Kálmán Balogh and folk vocalist Márta Sebestyén, as well as traditional musicians and the rising stars of Hungarian classical music. He’ll explore the rich music history of a city that is proud to have composers such as Bartok, Kodaly, and Kurtag amongst its musical sons.


FRI 13:00 Classical Live (m0026886)
Radio 3’s European Roadtrip: Schumann’s Violin Concerto in Budapest

Linton Stephens showcases the best performances by BBC orchestras, choirs, ensembles and other great performing groups from Europe and around the globe.

As part of Radio 3’s European Roadtrip this week, today we focus on Budapest, with recordings made there by the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In our 3pm centrepiece, the orchestra is joined by violinist Renaud Capuçon for Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto; before that they perform a Sinfonia by the Baroque composer Christoph Graupner. And for the last time this week, there’s music recorded at this year’s Edinburgh International Music Festival, with more Ravel from pianist Seong-Jin Cho and the Kleio Quartet playing Haydn.

Franz Liszt
Chasse-Neige (Transcendental Studies, No. 12)
Alexandre Kantorow (piano)

Joseph Haydn
String Quartet in D major, Op. 20 No. 4
Kleio Quartet

Maurice Ravel
Ondine (Gaspard de la nuit)
Seong-Jin Cho (piano)

Erno Dohnanyi
Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1
IMS Prussia Cove

Christoph Graupner
Sinfonia in F major, GWV571
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Budapest
Erik Bosgraaf (conductor)

c3.00
Robert Schumann
Violin Concerto in D minor
Renaud Capuçon (violin, director)
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Budapest

Bela Bartok arr. Göran Fröst
Romanian Folk Dances (selection)
Martin Fröst (clarinet)
Göran Fröst (viola)
Johan Fröst (piano)

To listen to this programme (using most smart speakers) just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Classical Live".


FRI 16:00 Composer of the Week (m002688b)
Schubert and Vienna

Theatres and Churches

Donald Macleod takes a tour of Vienna’s Churches and Theatres in the company of Franz Schubert.

Of all Europe’s major cities, perhaps Vienna is the one with the reputation as the most comfortable, the most sophisticated, and the most musical. In fact, has any other city been home to so many great composers as Vienna? Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Salieri all spent their best years working there. Yet none of those starry names was born in the city, none were true Viennese. Over the course of this week, Donald Macleod explores Vienna through the lens of arguably the greatest home grown composer the city has ever produced – Franz Schubert – a man whose short life spanned a crucial period in Austrian history, a time of crisis and much change. In his company we’ll explore Vienna’s churches and theatres, its parks, coffee houses and taverns, and also glimpse the darker side of the city too – the excesses of Europe’s aristocracy and the all seeing eyes of Vienna’s secret police.

In Friday’s programme, Donald takes a tour of Vienna’s Churches in the company of Franz Schubert. We’ll discover the spires and domes which would have characterised the city skyline in Schubert’s time, and explore the music making which happened within their walls. Donald also delves into another side to the city’s music making, examining Schubert’s attempts throughout his life to break into the world of the Viennese theatre, and explores what the music he wrote for the stage might tell us about the composer’s own opinion of the city of Vienna.

Ave Maria, D839, Op 52, No 6
Barbara Bonney, soprano
Geoffrey Parsons, piano

Mass No 6 in E Flat Major, D950 (Credo)
Vienna Staatsopernchor
Vienna Philharmonic
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Rosemunde incidental music, D797 (Nos 7-9)
Ileana Cotrubas, soprano
MDR Leipzig Radio Chorus
Staatskapelle Dresden
Willi Boskovsky, conductor

Alfonso and Estrella, D732 (Act I, Aria “Sei mir gegrusst, o Sonne!”)
Christian Gerhaher, baritone (King Froila)
Berlin Philharmonic
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor

An die Musik
Elly Ameling, soprano
Dalton Baldwin, piano

Produced by Sam Phillips for BBC Audio Wales & West

To listen on most smart speakers just say "ask BBC Sounds to play Composer of the Week"


FRI 17:00 In Tune (m002688h)
Live music at drivetime

The Consone Quartet join Katie Derham live in the In Tune studio.

To listen using most smart speakers, just say “Ask BBC Sounds to play In Tune".


FRI 19:00 Classical Mixtape (m002688m)
Classical music for focus or relaxation

Take time out with a 30-minute soundscape of classical favourites.


FRI 19:30 Radio 3 in Concert (m0026c6p)
Wagner from Budapest

Ádám Fischer conducts the Hungarian National Philharmonic in Wagner orchestral highlights - the great orchestral numbers from his operas - at the 2024 Budapest Wagner Days festival.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Wagner:
The Flying Dutchman - Overture
Parsifal - Good Friday music
Tannhäuser - Overture
Tristan and Isolde - Prelude and Liebestod
The Mastersingers of Nuremberg - Overture
Götterdämmerung - Siegfried's Funeral March
Die Walküre - Ride of the Valkyries

Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor Ádám Fischer


FRI 21:45 The Essay (m002688s)
Three hundred metres in Montparnasse

Composers, singers - and Chopin's piano

The neighbourhood of Montparnasse in central Paris has been home to some of the most influential artists, writers and composers of the last two centuries, perhaps nowhere more so than the area around Joanna Robertson’s street, rue Boissonade.

In the third of her series, Joanna delves into the musical stories of her road - those of its composers, musicians like world-famous trumpet player Maurice Andre, and singers, including her not-so-famous neighbours downstairs, who indulge in a lot of karaoke.... She also shares a tale about a piano found in a building on her street, said to have been that of composer Frederic Chopin. Or was it?

Presenter: Joanna Robertson
Producer: Arlene Gregorius
Editor: Sara Wadeson
Production coordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound engineer: Rod Farquhar
Excerpt of Chopin piece played on a Pleyel piano once owned by Chopin: The Cobbe Collection


FRI 22:00 Late Junction (m001xw10)
Susie Ibarra and Adrian Zalten in session

Verity Sharp presents the fruits of our latest session between Filipinx percussionist Susie Ibarra and Polish organist Adrian Zalten. Driven by their shared interest in the power of resonance across various locations, the two musicians came together to record their first ever session inside the Neo-Baroque church of St. Jakobus in Mannheim, Germany.

Ibarra’s lines of musical enquiry concern themselves with cultural and environmental preservation. Her recent book Rhythm in Nature: An Ecology of Rhythm revolves around acoustic ecology focused on climate and eco-friendly and sustainable global music practices. She is also a champion of the indigenous and traditional music cultures of the North and South Philippine islands. Zalten started playing the electric organ as a child, following his family’s migration from Poland to Germany. A move to the USA allowed him to deepen his musical training in gospel and jazz, which are now embedded in his practice as a pianist and organist.

Elsewhere in the show: Rbia Harsha Cinta’s dark hymns for endangered seaweed species; Norwegian spiritual free jazz that speaks out against war courtesy of Amalie Dahl’s Dafnie band; and a soulful ballad about a tree by New Orleans-based singer-songwriter Leyla McCalla.

Produced by Silvia Malnati
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3


FRI 23:30 'Round Midnight (m00209wj)
Moses Boyd's Mixtape

Fridays on 'Round Midnight take a different route through the music. The usual show is replaced by a live recording, a conversation or a studio session. Tonight it's a mixtape, created by Moses Boyd. The drummer is a heavyweight figure in UK jazz and his special 'Round Midnight Mixtape celebrates the relationship between jazz and the dance floor.