Composers Of The Year

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0120091231Rob Cowan introduces music by BBC Radio 3's Composers of the Year: Purcell, Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn.

Including a Haydn Symphony especially for the morning, Mendelssohn's Hear my Prayer including the popular O for the Wings of a Dove, Purcell's Bell Anthem in a Radio 3 recording with Clare College, Cambridge, and the winner of Breakfast's Handelbars, where listeners requested their favourite Handel aria.

Throughout the day there are the thoughts of a huge variety of people who love the music of these four composers - including Sting and Roy Strong on Purcell, Julia Neuberger on Handel, Richard Holmes and Patricia Routledge on Haydn, plus Henry Goodman and Sue McGregor on Mendelssohn.

Rob Cowan introduces music by BBC Radio 3's Composers of the Year.

Focusing on the music of BBC Radio 3's Composers of the Year 2009

0220091231Sarah Walker presents highlights from BBC Radio 3 broadcasts of music by its four Composers of the Year in 2009.

Haydn: Symphony No 95 in C minor

Concentus Musicus Vienna

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor)

10.25am

Purcell: Sonata in 4 Parts, Z807

Concordia

10.35am

Harpsichord player Laurence Cummings performs Handel in the composer's London home, now the Handel House Museum, and talks to Catherine Bott about the dance suites.

10.45am

Handel: Concerto grosso in B flat, Op 3 No 2

English Concert

Alfredo Bernardini (oboe/director)

Recorded at the Foundling Museum in London

11.00am

Haydn: Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo (Kleine Orgelmesse)

Maria Zadori (soprano)

Levente Gyongyosi (organ)

Purcell Choir

Orfeo Orchestra

Gyorgy Vashegyi (conductor)

Recorded at the Concert Hall of the Esterhazy Castle.

11.20am

Purcell: Suite (The Fairy Queen)

Academy of Ancient Music

Richard Egarr (director/harpsichord)

11.30am

Mendelssohn: Octet

Royal Quartet and Psophos String Quartet (former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists)

12.00am

Music Matters: Mendelssohn in Scotland

In the summer of 1829, Felix Mendelssohn visited Scotland on a walking tour with his friend Karl Klingemann. Tom Service follows in his footsteps on a journey that would provide the inspiration for both the Hebrides Overture and the Scottish Symphony. Accompanied by Scottish historian John Purser, he visits the ruins of Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, Oban, Fort William, Mull and sails to Staffa to see Fingal's Cave for himself.

12.45pm

Handel Passions

Author Janice Galloway and actor Dominic West tell Michael Berkeley about their favourite Handelian moments.

1.00pm

Sarah Walker introduces chamber music by the Composers of the Year.

Haydn: String Quartet in D, Op 64 No 5 (Lark)

Ebene Quartet

1.20pm

Handel: Keyboard Suite No 5 in E, HWV430

Laurence Cummings (harpsichord)

Recorded at the Handel House Museum.

1.45pm

Mendelssohn: Violin Sonata in F (1838)

Daniel Hope (violin)

Sebastian Knauer (piano)

Recorded at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Sarah Walker presents Radio 3 broadcasts of music by its Composers of the Year in 2009.

Focusing on the music of BBC Radio 3's Composers of the Year 2009

0320091231Andrew McGregor introduces music by BBC Radio 3's four Composers of the Year in 2009, beginning with one of the great masterpieces of English opera in a highly acclaimed production by the Royal Opera House.

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas

Dido - Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)

Belinda - Lucy Crowe (soprano)

Aeneas - Lucas Meacham (baritone)

Second Woman - Anita Watson (soprano)

Sorceress - Sara Fulgoni (mezzo-soprano)

First Witch - Eri Nakamura

Second Witch - Pumeza Matshikiza (soprano)

Spirit - Iestyn Davies (countertenor)

Sailor - Ji-Min Park (tenor)

Royal Opera Extra Chorus

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Christopher Hogwood (conductor)

3.15pm

Mendelssohn at Buckingham Palace

Sean Rafferty and Jonathan Marsden of the Royal Collection follow the trail of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's favourite composer.

3.40pm

Andrew McGregor introduces one of Handel's charming Italian cantatas, a cautionary tale of the dendrological results of attempted seduction.

Handel: Apollo e Dafne

Nuria Rial (soprano)

Fulvio Bettini (bass)

English Concert

Alfredo Bernardini (director)

Recorded at the Foundling Museum

4.40pm

Farewell Symphony

Richard Briers plays Haydn in a short play about the last days of the composer's life. In May 1809, as French troops take Vienna, Napoleon arranges for one of his officers to visit Joseph Haydn.

Joseph Haydn - Richard Briers

Johann Elssler - Ben Askew

Nannerl - Annabelle Dowler

French Officer - Matt Addis

Written by Stephen Wyatt.

Directed by Jeremy Mortimer.

5.00pm

Last Chance to Hear...

Andrew McGregor introduces some of the best music BBC Radio 3's four Composers of the Year have to offer.

Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks

Le Concert Spirituel

Herve Niquet (director)

5.20pm

Haydn: Cello Concerto No 1 in C

Truls Mork (cello)

Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

Iona Brown (director)

5.45pm

Purcell: Arise, my muse, Z320

Michael Chance, James Bowman (countertenors)

Charles Daniels (high tenor)

King's Consort

Robert King (director)

6.05pm

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream: Overture and selection of incidental music

Orchestra of the 18th Century

Frans Bruggen (conductor).

Andrew McGregor introduces music by BBC Radio 3's four Composers of the Year in 2009.

Focusing on the music of BBC Radio 3's Composers of the Year 2009

0420091231Petroc Trelawny chairs a live studio no-holds-barred debate to find the Composer of the Year.

Each of the four composers is represented by a passionate and partisan advocate who wants to persuade listeners to vote for one particular composer.

The advocates are: Sarah Sands, deputy editor of the London Evening Standard for Handel, poet Jo Shapcott for Purcell, actor and comedian John Sessions for Mendelssohn, and Roger Scruton for Haydn.

Louise Fryer reports on who's up and who's down and what listeners think about it all.

7.30pm

While the votes are counted, Louise Fryer looks back at some of the Radio 3 highlights of the past year: the broadcast of all 104 Haydn symphonies, a complete survey of Handel operas, a fully staged production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with Mendelssohn's incidental music, Purcell from Westminster Abbey and choirs up and down the country joining BBC Radio 3 for the Mendelssohn Weekend's O for the Wings of a Dove and Sing Hallelujah for Handel.

Petroc Trelawny chairs a live no-holds-barred debate to find the Composer of the Year.

Focusing on the music of BBC Radio 3's Composers of the Year 2009

0520091231Petroc Trelawny and Louise Fryer reveal who listeners have voted Composer of the Year.

Focusing on the music of BBC Radio 3's Composers of the Year 2009