Episodes
| Episode | First Broadcast | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | 20130617 | Penny Gore continues Radio 3's celebration of British music throughout the month of June, and in particular Afternoon on 3's series of British Symphonies. Featured ensembles this week are two BBC orchestras, the BBC Philharmonic and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and two brass bands - the Black Dyke and Foden's, performing at the 2013 Royal Northern College of Music Festival of Brass. Today's programme starts with a concert by the BBC Philharmonic under the baton of Andrew Davis with music by three giants of British music from the first half of the 20th century: Elgar, Delius and Vaughan Williams. And later in the programme you can hear the BBC Philharmonic in Arnold Bax's Third Symphony, under the baton of a great Bax enthusiast, the late Vernon Handley. Foden's Band play a virtuoso arrangement of Ravel's Suite No. 2 from the ballet Daphnis and Chloe, and the afternoon ends with more brass music: the world premiere of a piece by Edward Gregson called 'Of Distant Memories', performed by the Black Dyke Band. Tomorrow you can hear the first-ever broadcast of a Symphony written by the famous conductor Leopold Stokowski - a single-movement work probably composed around 100 years ago. Despite his name and his carefully cultivated eastern European accent, Stokowski was as British as they come - he was born in Marylebone, London, of an Irish mother and an English father of Polish extraction. Other British Symphonies this week are by York Bowen, Alan Rawsthorne, Kenneth Leighton and Peter Maxwell Davies. And our Thursday Opera Matinee, as part of Verdi 200, is a performance of one of Verdi's least often heard works, Aroldo. Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 5 in C Delius: Legende Tasmin Little (violin), BBC Philharmonic, Andrew Davis (conductor). 2.15pm Vaughan Williams: Symphony no. 2 (A London Symphony) 3.00pm Ravel (arr. Howard Snell): Daphnis and Chloe, Suite No. 2 Foden's Band, Mike Fowles (conductor). 3.15pm Bax: Symphony No. 3 Vernon Handley (conductor). 4pm Edward Gregson: Of Distant Memories (Music in an Olden Style) - World Premiere Black Dyke Band, Nicholas Childs (conductor). Penny Gore with music by Elgar, Delius, Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Bax and Edward Gregson. |
| 02 | 20130618 | Penny Gore continues Afternoon on 3's celebration of the British Symphony with performances by the BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and BBC Symphony Orchestra. Plus brass band music from the 2013 Royal Northern College of Music Festival of Brass. This afternoon there are no fewer than three British Symphonies, including an exciting rarity - the first-ever recording, made specially for Afternoon on 3 by the BBC NOW, of a single movement Symphony by Leopold Stokowski, far more famous as a conductor than a composer. Despite his name and his carefully cultivated eastern European accent, Stokowski was as British as they come - he was born in Marylebone, London, of an Irish mother and an English father of Polish extraction. Nobody knows exactly when he wrote his single movement Symphony, but it was probably about 100 years ago, when he was aged about 30. Today's other British Symphonies are by York Bowen and Alan Rawsthorne. The programme opens with the first ever 'test piece' written for brass band - 100 years ago in 1913: Percy Fletcher's Labour and Love. It's performed by the Black Dyke Band at the 2013 RNCM Festival of Brass in January. And the Black Dyke return later in the afternoon with a world premiere: Peter Graham's 'Radio City' for trombone, narrator and brass band. All that plus virtuoso accordion player Ksenija Sidorova (who wasn't born in Marylebone). Percy Fletcher: Labour and Love Black Dyke Band, Robert Childs (conductor). 2.10pm York Bowen: Symphony no. 2 Andrew Davis (conductor). 2.55pm Patrick Hadley: Lines from 'The Cenci Lisa Milne (soprano), John Wilson (conductor). 3pm John Ireland: The Forgotten Rite 3.05pm Stokowski: Symphony BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Roberto Minczuk (conductor). 3.20pm Trojan: Pohadka (Fairytale) - suite for accordion and orchestra Ksenija Sidorova (accordion), Clark Rundell (conductor). 3.30pm Rawsthorne: Symphony no. 3 BBC Symphony Orchestra, Norman Del Mar (conductor). 4.05pm Peter Graham: Radio City for Trombone, Narrator and Band (World Premiere) Brett Baker (trombone), Dale Gerrard (narrator), Penny Gore with music by Percy Fletcher, York Bowen, Patrick Hadley, Ireland and Stokowski |
| 03 | 20130619 | Penny Gore continues Afternoon on 3's celebration of the British Symphony throughout June with Kenneth Leighton's Symphony No. 2 (Sinfonia mistica) performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under the baton of Richard Hickox. It's followed by music for brass band recorded at the RNCM Festival of Brass earlier this year: a James MacMillan world premiere performed by the Black Dyke Band, and to finish the afternoon, the Foden's Band in Flowers of the Forest by Richard Rodney Bennett, who died late last year. Kenneth Leighton: Symphony No. 2 (Sinfonia mistica) BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Richard Hickox (conductor). 2.45pm MacMillan: Canite Tuba (World premiere of revised version) Nicholas Childs (conductor). 3.05pm Richard Rodney Bennett: Flowers of the Forest Foden's Band, Russell Gray (conductor). Penny Gore presents music by Kenneth Leighton, James MacMillan and Richard Rodney Bennett. |