Discovery And Innovation

Episodes

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Bbc Concert Orchestra20210313Perhaps the most versatile of all BBC orchestras, the BBC CO is at home just as much in film scores, musicals and popular classics as in more heavyweight repertoire and new commissions. Today's programme showcases that unique versatility with music that ranges from the contemporary classical composer Dobrinka Tabakova, though Jonny Greenwood, Jerome Kern and Burt Bacharach, to Malcolm Arnold whose music the orchestra has championed for many years at the annual International Malcolm Arnold Festival.

Introduced by Hannah French.

Dobrinka Tabakova: Tectonic

Bramwell Tovey (conductor)

Jonny Greenwood: Popcorn Superhet Receiver

Robert Ziegler (conductor)

Jerome Kern (arr Guy Barker): The Folks who live on the Hill (from High, Wide and Handsome)

Clare Teal (singer)

BBC CO/Stephen Bell

Wayne Shorter (arr Barker) Nefertiti

BBC CO/Bramwell Tovey

Burt Bacharach (arr Barker) Say a little Prayer

Vanessa Haynes (singer)

Kuljit Bhamra: Raga Mela

Kuljit Bhamra (tabla)

Kartik Raghunathan (violin)

Jonathan Mayer (sitar)

Malcolm Arnold: Symphony No. 4, Op. 71

Keith Lockhart (conductor)

A weekend of discovery and innovation from the BBC orchestras and choirs.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales20210314In the final programme of the Discovery and Innovation weekend, the Cardiff-based BBC National Orchestra of Wales take centre stage with music representing different sides of their multi-faceted character, ending with the 2016 first performance since its premiere 45 years before of Grace Williams' Missa Cambrensis. It's an epic work on an epic scale and it was a very special occasion for Welsh music. 2015 marked the 150th anniversary of the Welsh emigration to Patagonia, which the orchestra marked with a tour to South America and a series of special performances, including this one when harpist Catrin Finch was the soloist in Piazzolla's Libertango. Richard Hickox, BBC NOW's much-loved principal conductor is represented by one of the many commercial recordings he made with the orchestra and the programme begins with a short fizzing opener from Simon Holt, BBC NOW's Composer in Association from 2008 to 2014.

Introduced by Andrew McGregor.

Simon Holt: St. Vitus in the Kettle

Thierry Fischer (conductor)

Frank Bridge: There is a willow grows aslant a brook

Richard Hickox (conductor)

Grace Williams: Missa Cambrensis

Fflur Wyn (soprano)

Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo-soprano)

Andrew Rees (tenor), Jason Howard (bass)

Rowan Williams (narrator)

National Youth Choir of Wales, Ysgol Gerdd Ceredigion, BBC National Chorus of Wales

Tecwyn Evans (conductor)

Astor Piazzolla: Libertango

Catrin Finch (harp)

Grant Llewellyn (conductor)

A weekend of discovery and innovation from the BBC orchestras and choirs.

Bbc Philharmonic20210314From its base in its custom-designed studio at MediaCityUK in Salford, the BBC Philharmonic brings orchestral music-making of the highest calibre to large and diverse audiences across Greater Manchester, the North of England, the UK and around the world, whether through education projects, digital innovation like the 2005 Beethoven Symphonies downloads, commissioning new music from leading composers (from 2000-2009 their composer-conductor was James MacMillan), or collaborations with other organisations including the 2015 Asian Network Prom, and with the 'other' local band, the Hall退.

Introduced by Andrew McGregor.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93

Gianandrea Noseda,(conductor)

James MacMillan: Magnificat

BBC Singers

James MacMillan (conductor)

Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, Op. 64

Hall退 Orchestra

Juanjo Mena (conductor)

Asian Network Prom.

Pritam Chakraborty: BadtameetzDil

benny d (vocalist)

Richard Davis (conductor)

A weekend of discovery and innovation from the BBC orchestras and choirs

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra20210313Founded in 1935, the Glasgow-based BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has long-championed new music, forming a reputation for performances of Sibelius's music (acknowledged by the composer himself) as early as the 30s. The Sibelius connection, which continues to this day, was enhanced by an acclaimed series of concerts and recordings made with Finnish conductor Osmo V䀀nsk䀀, Chief Conductor 1996-2002.

The BBC SSO continues to nurture close relationships with living composers and one of its most important relationships was with Jonathan Harvey who was the orchestra's Composer in Association for three years from 2005. The BBC SSO has also been at the heart of Tectonics, Glasgow's annual cutting-edge new music festival, begun by its Chief Conductor from 2003-2009, Ilan Volkov.

Introduced by Hannah French.

Sibelius: Wood Nymph, Op. 15

Osmo V䀀nsk䀀 (conductor)

Helen Grime: Snow (Two Eardley Pictures)

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

Hanna Tuulikki: Voice of the Bird (excerpt)

Hanna Tuulikki - Singer

Anna Sheard - Singer

Judith Williams - Singer

Julia Taudevin - Singer

Lucy Duncombe - Singer

Mischa Macpherson - Singer

Nerea Bello - Singer

Nichola Scrutton - Singer

Mairi Morrison - Singer

Geoff Sample - Main Artist (field recordings)

Jonathan Harvey:...towards a Pure Land (BBC commission)

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major

A weekend of discovery and innovation from the BBC orchestras and choirs.

Bbc Singers20210314The oldest of all the BBC's performing groups, the BBC Singers started life as the Wireless Chorus in 1924. Since then, the BBC's professional chamber choir has a gained a unique reputation built on their ability to tackle over five centuries of choral music, especially the most demanding, cutting-edge contemporary repertoire.

The Singers have premiered many works, including Poulenc's wartime cantata Figure humaine. In this afternoon's programme, an opportunity to hear the Poulenc with improvised-in-the-moment interpolations from the Mullov-Abbado jazz trio, and a 21st-century premiere by Judith Weir, a composer championed by the Singers' conductor Sofie Jeannin. Weir's oratorio follows the seasons in settings of 55 brief poems by the Scottish poet Alan Spence. In between comes the 17th-century festive anthem O clap your hands by Orlando Gibbons.

Introduced by Andrew McGregor.

Orlando Gibbons: O clap your hands

Peter Philips (conductor)

Judith Weir: blue hills beyond blue hills

Ligeti Quartet

Sofie Jeannin (conductor)

Francis Poulenc/Misha Mullov-Abbado: Figure humaine (with jazz trio)

Mullov-Abbado Trio

A weekend of discovery and innovation from the BBC Orchestras and Choirs

Bbc Symphony Orchestra20210313The first of the weekend's programmes features the oldest of the BBC orchestras in its 90th anniversary season, reflecting both its wide-ranging and diverse repertoire and pivotal role at the BBC Proms.

Two big choral works featuring large orchestra and extra brass bookend the programme. Anna Meredith's spectacular opener to the 2018 BBC Proms, which movingly sets soldiers' messages from the WWI front line and Walton's biblical epic, very much a BBC SO calling card, paints the fall of Babylon in irresistible, lurid Technicolor. In between, two composers with a long BBC SO associations, Harrison Birtwistle and Elizabeth Maconchy.

Introduced by Hannah French.

Anna Meredith: Five Telegrams

National Youth Choir of Great Britain

BBC Proms Youth Ensemble

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Harrison Birtwistle: Violin Concerto

Christian Tetzlaff (violin)

David Robertson (conductor)

Elizabeth Maconchy: Proud Thames

Walton: Belshazzar's Feast

Bryn Terfel (bass-baritone)

BBC Singers

BBC Symphony Chorus

Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

A weekend of discovery and innovation from the BBC orchestras and choirs.

Ulster Orchestra20210314The Ulster Orchestra, the region's only full-time symphony orchestra was formed in 1966. This, the penultimate programme of the Discovery and Innovation weekend, explores the music of the island of Ireland, beginning with Belfast-born Brian Irvine's Secret Cinema, an instant hit with Radio 3 listeners at its 2006 premiere. The lushly Romantic violin concerto of prolific Irish composer Ina Boyle, pupil of Vaughan Williams, was only rediscovered in 2010. Deirdre Gribbin's Empire States, a thrilling orchestral tour de force asks what has happened to today's America, whereas Stanford's Irish Rhapsody No. 4 is a poetic, folk song-infused evocation of misty Lough Neagh.

Introduced by Andrew McGregor.

Deirdre Gribbin: Empire States

Celso Antunes (conductor)

Ina Boyle: Violin Concerto

Catherine Leonard (violin)

Kenneth Montgomery (conductor)

Brian Irvine: Secret Cinema

Jean-Luc Tingaud (conductor)

Stanford: Irish Rhapsody No. 4 in A minor Op.141 (The Fisherman of Loch Neagh and What He Saw)

Vernon Handley (conductor)

A weekend of discovery and innovation from the BBC orchestras and choirs.