Radio 3 In Concert

Episodes

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20171101Sunwook Kim is the soloist in Britten's Piano Concerto, a work heavily influenced by music he wrote for radio dramas. The BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Andrew Gourlay also include music by two other composers who wrote during the early decades of radio, Vaughan Williams and Copland. Recorded at Snape Maltings last Saturday, presented by Ian Skelly.

Vaughan Williams: Incidental Music to The Mayor of Casterbridge

Britten: Piano Concerto, Op 13

INTERVAL

Britten: Recitative and Aria for Piano and Orchestra

Copland: Quiet City

Britten, arr Paul Hindmarsh: King Arthur - Suite for Orchestra: 1. Overture; 2. Scherzo (Dance of Death); 3. Variations (Galagad and the Holy Grail); 4. Finale (Battle and Apotheosis)

Sunwook Kim (piano)

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Andrew Gourlay.

The BBC Concert Orchestra play Britten in Snape Maltings with conductor Andrew Gourlay.

20171122In this concert from the London Philharmonic Orchestra's season 'Belief and Beyond Belief: Rituals and Seasons' English summer is paired with Russian winter.

No premonitions of the impending catastrophe of World War I disturb the very English pastoral mood of Frank Bridge's rarely heard 1914 'Summer', an evocative and sophisticated ten-minute tone poem. With his First Symphony 'Winter Daydreams', the 26-year-old Tchaikovsky rejected the model of Beethovenian symphonic form for a highly personal, Russian style, a decision which served him well over the course of five further symphonies. In between the Bridge and Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev's witty, glittering 1921 Third Piano Concerto is played by the young, acclaimed and award-winning Beatrice Rana.

Presented by Martin Handley at the Royal Festival Hall.

Frank Bridge: Summer

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major (Op.26)

8.15pm

Interval

Beethoven: Wind Sextet in E flat major (Op.71) (from CD)

Mozzafiato

Charles Neidich, clarinet and director

8.35pm

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 in G minor (Op.13) 'Winter Daydreams

Beatrice Rana, piano

Michail Jurowski, conductor.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra performs Frank Bridge, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky.

20180311Clemency Burton-Hill presents highlights from a concert the Basel Chamber Orchestra gave at the La Chaux-de-Fonds Music Society Festival last year. Vilde Frang joins the orchestra for Beethoven's Violin Concerto, along with music inspired by Bach by Reger and Matthias Arter. Plus Bruch's String Octet performed by the Doric Quartet and friends at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.

Reger: O Mensch bewein' dein' Sünde gross (after Bach's Chorale Prelude, BWV 622)

Trevor Pinnock (conductor)

Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, Op 61

Vilde Frang (violin)

Matthias Arter: Aquarell on Bach's Ricercar a 6

Bruch: Octet in B flat, Op posth

Doric String Quartet with Martin Funda (violin), Tianwa Yang (violin), Hiyoli Togawa (viola), Gabriel Schwabe (cello).

The Basel Chamber Orchestra's La Chaux-de-Fonds Music Society Festival performance in 2017

20180319Daniil Trifonov plays Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1 with the LPO.

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on 17th March

Presented by Ian Skelly

Tchaikovsky (arr. Stravinsky): Sleeping Beauty (excerpts)

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 1

Interval

Stravinsky: The Fairy's Kiss

Daniil Trifonov (piano)

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski (conductor)

My heartfelt homage to Tchaikovsky's wonderful talent': audiences in the 1920s were astonished when the modernist firebrand Stravinsky started adapting Tchaikovsky (tonight we hear his arrangements of 'Variation d'Aurore' and 'Bluebird pas-de-deux' from Sleeping Beauty). In fact, Stravinsky adored him, and his ballet The Fairy's Kiss transforms Tchaikovsky's music into something that magically fuses the spirit of both composers. And what better homage to the composer that Stravinsky revered so much than a performance of Tchaikovsky's sweeping First Piano Concerto, performed tonight by the incomparable Daniil Trifo.

Daniil Trifonov plays Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

20180401Kate Molleson presents Bruckner's 3rd Mass in a performance recorded at Basel Cathedral last Autumn conducted by Ivor Bolton. Plus organ music performed by Jan Sprta from last year's Easter Festival of Sacred Music from Brno in the Czech Republic.

VLADIMIR WERNER

Victimae paschali laudes (Sequentiae per organo)

Jan Šprta (organ - Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, Brno )

Mass No.3 in F minor, WAB 28

Sandrine Piau (soprano)

Catherine Wyn Rogers (contralto)

Toby Spence (tenor)

Thomas Oliemans (bass)

Balthasar Neumann Chorus

Basel Symphony Orchestra

Ivor Bolton (conductor)

REGER

Fantasy on the Chorale 'Hallelujah! Gott zu loben, bleibe meine Seelenfreud,' Op. 52

Jan Šprta (organ - Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, Brno)

Producer Elizabeth Arno

Presenter Kate Molleson.

Kate Molleson presents Bruckner's 3rd Mass from Basel Cathedral plus organ music by Reger.

20180412You can't always get what you want..

Diaghilev had wanted another ballet from Ravel - instead he composed La Valse, which Diaghilev called a master piece, but not a ballet.

Beethoven wanted a pianist to perform his just finished 4th piano concerto. No one came forward, and Beethoven had to play his most personal and poetic concerto himself. Scottish pianist Steven Osborne plays the music that asks as many questions as it answers.

In the second half, unrequited desire was the muse for this most spectacular of concert works - the sensational, opium-fueled spectacular that is Hector Berlioz's 'Symphonie Fantastique'.

The conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier will bring plenty of French flair to this concert conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra live from City Halls in Glasgow.

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Ravel - La Valse

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No 4

interval

Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique

Producer Douglas Templeton.

The BBC SSO conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier play Ravel, Beethoven and Berlioz.

20180511The BBC Philharmonic is conducted by their Principal Guest Conductor Ben Gernon in Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Stefan Dohr joins the orchestra for Mozart's Third Horn Concerto.

Live from the Victoria Hall, Hanley

Presented by Tom Redmond

Wagner: Rienzi, Overture

Mozart: Horn Concerto No 3 in E flat, K447

Music Interval

8.20

Weber orch. Berlioz: Invitation to the Dance

Beethoven: Symphony No 7 in A

Stefan Dohr (horn)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

Dance drives to the very end of our programme; Berlioz's elegant, cut-glass orchestration of Weber's Invitation to the Dance ushers in Beethoven's 'apotheosis of the dance'. That description of Beethoven's uplifting Seventh Symphony was coined by Wagner whose overture to his early opera Rienzi opens the programme. The orchestra is joined by virtuoso horn player Stefan Dohr for Mozart's sparkling Third Horn Concerto.

The BBC Philharmonic in Beethoven's Seventh Symphony from the Victoria Hall in Hanley.

20180921A concert by the Halle Orchestra at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall featuring the music of two composers bound by a friendship unparalleled in musical history: Brahms and Dvorak. Tonight's concert features one of the cornerstones of the piano repertoire: Brahms's 2nd piano concerto, along with Dvorak's highly dramatic 7th Symphony,

Presented by Mark Forrest.

Brahms - Piano Concerto No.2

Dvorကk - Symphony No.7

Conductor

Karl-Heinz Steffens

Featuring:

Sofya Gulyak, piano

The Halle Orchestra performs Brahms and Dvorak at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

20181019BBC Singers Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin returns to Milton Court with the BBC Singers in a programme of early French music with a twist.

The BBC Singers are joined by dynamic South Asian dance company Akademi for a vibrant and contemporary interpretation of dances by Rameau. Akademi's pioneering work embraces classical and contemporary South Asian dance styles.

Lully: Te Deum

Rameau: In convertendo Dominus

INTERVAL

Rameau - Les Indes Galantes - Overture

Rameau - Les Indes galantes Premiere Entr退e, 'Vaste empire des mers

Rameau - Les Indes galantes Premiere Entr退e, 'Air pour les esclaves

Rameau - Les Indes galantes Premiere Entr退e, Scene 6 'Partez

Rameau - Les Indes galantes Deuxieme Entr退e, Scene 5 'Brilliant soleil

Rameau - Les Indes Galantes Deuxieme Entr退e, Scene 5 'Clair flambeau

Rameau - Les Fetes d'Hebe - Act 1 Premier Deuxieme Tambourins

Rameau - Les Fetes d'Hebe - Act 1 'Dansons tous

Rameau - Les Fetes d'Hebe - Act 1 'Mortels que le Plaisir amene

Rameau - Les Fetes d'Hebe - Act 1 'Ciel! O ciel

Rameau - Castor and Pollux Act 3 Scene 4 'Sortez d'esclavage

Rameau - Castor and Pollux Act 3 Scene 4 'Brisons tous nos fers

The Academy of Ancient Music

Dancers from Akademi

Sofi Jeannin - Conductor

The BBC Singers and their chief conductor, Sofi Jeannin, perform works by Lully and Rameau

12 Ensemble Play John Dowland, Tansy Davies, Britten, John Woolrich And Schubert20181005Recorded at St George's Bristol last week, 12 Ensemble perform their new programme 'Reborn', a contrasting sequence of music that explores the ways in which artists find inspiration in the work of previous generations.

Founded in 2012, 12 Ensemble, who always play without a conductor, are known for their deep commitment to chamber music and for the energy and innovation of their music-making. Linking the past with the present, 'Reborn' begins with an arrangement by one of the group's founders, Max Ruisi, of Renaissance composer John Dowland's 'Lachrimae'. Tansy Davies reaches back in her 2005 piece'Residuum' to a Galliard in Dowland's Lachrimae; she describes the connection she makes as 'an echo of ancient music in a modern time'. This link to our past is captured by Benjamin Britten in 'Lachrymae' in which he references Dowland's songs 'If my complaints could passions move' and 'Flow my tears' in the course of the piece. Written in 1950 for the celebrated viola player William Primrose, the soloist joining 12 Ensemble is one of the 21st century's virtuosos, Maxim Rysanov. A solo viola takes the role of Ulysses in John Woolrich's 1989 work after two arias from Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. Mahler's richly sonorous arrangement for 12 strings of Schubert's 'Death and the Maiden' quartet brings the evening to a fulfilling conclusion.

John Dowland, arr. Max Ruisi: Lachrimae for strings

Tansy Davies: 'Residuum' for two solo violin, a solo cello and strings.

Britten: Lachrymae, Op 48a for solo viola and string orchestra

Maxim Rysanov, viola

John Woolrich: 'Ulysses Awakes' for solo viola and strings

Schubert, arr. Mahler, edited by David Matthews and Donald Mitchell:

Quartet in D minor, D810 (Death and the Maiden) for string orchestra

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Produced by Johannah Smith for BBC Wales

Photo: c/o St George's Bristol (credit Evan Dawson)

1771 , A Retrospective20210709What music might you have heard in 1771? Ian Page, director and founder of period instrument orchestra The Mozartists, together with harpsichordist Steven Devine and mezzo Kitty Whately, imagine a concert of contemporary music from 250 years ago including perhaps the most celebrated and innovative composer of that time. The prolific Hamburger CPE Bach is represented here by the keyboard concerto he himself considered one of his finest.

Antonio Salieri's Crusader opera Armida was his breakthrough hit which wowed Vienna and beyond in 1771 and helped pave the way to his appointment as director of the Italian opera at the Habsburg court. There's another beautiful vocal rarity from Prague-born, Italian-based Josef Myslive?ek whose oratorio Adama ed Eva was premiered in Florence.

1771 was long before Haydn had become Europe's most lauded composer. But tied to the provincial Esterhကzy court and, as he put it, forced to become original, Haydn's quartets and symphonies show him in the vanguard of contemporary music. He apparently wanted the the elegiac slow movement from his magnificent `Trauer' symphony to be performed at his funeral.

And what of a certain Wolfgang Mozart? In 1771 he was a 15-year-old musical prodigy who spent much of his childhood hauled around Europe by his father being shown off to rich people. The Mozartists begin their concert with a lively and elegant 1771-style symphony that has yet to be authenticated as the work of the teen wunderkind.

Recorded yesterday at Cadogan Hall and introduced by Ian Skelly.

WA Mozart[?]: Symphony in F major, K.75

Josef Myslive?ek: Aria, `Non so se il mio peccato` from Adamo ed Eva

CPE Bach: Harpsichord Concerto in C minor, Wq.43/4

Antonio Salieri: Scena, `E non degg'io seguirla - Lungi da te, ben mio` from Armida

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 44 in E minor, ‘Trauer

Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano)

Steven Devine (harpsichord)

Ian Page (conductor)

Ian Page and the Mozartists perform Haydn, Mozart, Myslive\u010dek, Salieri and CPE Bach.

2017 International Opera Awards20170521Petroc Trelawny presents highlights from the 2017 International Opera Awards, which took place at the London Coliseum earlier this month.

Opera's answer to the Oscars, this annual red-carpet ceremony honours outstanding achievement, with awards including Singer of the Year, Opera Company of the Year and the annual Lifetime Achievement Award.

Petroc Trelawny presents highlights from the 2017 International Opera Awards.

2017 Nieders\u00e4chsische Musiktage20180520Kate Molleson presents a programme of highlights from the 2017 Nieders䀀chsische Musiktage, including performances of Mendelssohn and Schumann from the NDR Radio Philharmonic, plus lively folksy arrangements from clarinets and accordion quartet Faltenradio.

Symphony for strings No.4 in C minor

NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Andrew Manze (conductor)

Arrangements of music by Mozart, Brahms, Bernstein and Piazzolla

Jorg Widmann

Paraphrase on Mendelssohn's Wedding March

Carolin Widmann (violin)

Violin Concerto in D minor

Andrew Manze (conductor).

Performances by the NDR Radio Philharmonic from the 2017 Nieders\u00e4chsische Musiktage.

2017 Nieders\u00e4chsische Musiktage20180527Kate Molleson presents a second programme of highlights from the 2017 Nieders䀀chsische Musiktage,, including Paul Hillier conducting ChorWerk Ruhr and the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra in Tallis, Bach and Vasks at Osnabrück Cathedral, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducing the Junge Deutsche Philharmoie in Saariaho at the Grand Studio, NDR in Hanover.

Spem in alium

Paul Hillier (conductor)

Kaija Saariaho

Laterna Magica

Junge Deutsche Philharmonie

Jukka-Pekka Saraste (conductor)

Ricercar a 6

Peteris Vasks

Dona nobis pacem

ChorWerk Ruhr, Paul Hillier (conductor).

Kate Molleson presents Tallis, Saariaho and Bach from the 2017 Nieders\u00e4chsische Musiktage.

2018 Prague Spring Festival, Closing Concert20180610Kate Molleson presents the closing concert from this year's Prague Spring Festival, which took place in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House in Prague earlier this month.

Zdenek Fibich: Comenius, Op.34

Eugen Suchon: Psalm of the Carpathian Land, Op.12

Janacek: Sinfonietta

Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra

James Judd (conductor).

Kate Molleson presents the closing concert from this year's Prague Spring Festival.

2018 Temple Song Series20181008For the final concert in the 2018 Temple Song Series, Julius Drake is joined by one of the great baritones of our day, the Canadian Gerald Finley who featured prominently during the Last Night of the Proms a few weeks ago.

He has long had an award winning recording and performing partnership with the pianist Julius Drake and concerts include regular recital tours of North America and Europe.

For his return to Middle Temple Hall, Gerald Finley has titled his programme Swansongs.

The final songs of Brahms, his Vier Ernste Ges䀀nge are performed alongside Schubert's posthumous cycle, Schwanengesang.

Schubert: Schwanengesang D957 - No.s 1-7

8.05pm

Brahms: Vier Ernste Ges䀀nge

8.25pm Interval Music

Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D759, 'Unfinished

Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

8.45pm

Schubert: Schwanengesang D957 - No.s 8-14

Gerald Finley (bass baritone)

Julius Drake (piano)

Presented by Martin Handley.

Pianist Julius Drake is joined by baritone Gerald Finley.

2019 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards20191201The Royal Philharmonic Society was founded in 1813 'to promote the performance, in the most perfect manner possible, of the best and most approved instrumental music.' This year it hosts its 30th awards ceremony at the Battersea Arts Centre in London. Celebrating the outstanding, the pioneering and the inspirational in classical music, it encompasses superstars of the stage along with unsung heroes of the music world. Awards include the coveted RPS Gold Medal, which has been awarded to outstanding musicians since 1870, and a brand new Gamechanger Award for an individual, group or organisation who has broken new ground in classical music.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Andrew McGregor

Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Andrew McGregor present the 30th RPS Awards ceremony.

21st-century Choral Classics: Path Of Miracles20220520Nearly four years in the making, Joby Talbot's Path of Miracles is fast becoming a 21st-century choral classic. Inspired by the indelible impression left on the composer by the sights of the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, the work is a choral dramatization of the famous pilgrimage route, setting poetry and religious texts in seven languages. Talbot's tightly bound voices journey through physical hardship, mental endurance and spiritual resolve, finally arriving at a point of jubilance as the pilgrims glimpse the end of their path.

The BBC Singers and Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin give the world premiere of a collaboration between composer Joanna Marsh, music producer, engineer and song-writer Glen Scott and lyricist Fiona Lindsay. Scored for choir with live electronic manipulation, SEEN reveals the lost female voices within classical drama and the reinterpretation through time of the stores of these women.

Live from Milton Court, presented by Martin Handley.

19.30

Joanna Marsh: SEEN (BBC Commission, world premiere)

c19.55

Interval

Dobrinka Tabakova: Suite in old style

Maxim Rysanov (viola), Vaiva Eidukaityte-Storastiene (harpsichord), Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra

c20.15

Joby Talbot: Path of Miracles

Glenn Scott - electronic production

Sofi Jeannin - conductor

The BBC Singers give the premiere of Joanna Marsh's SEEN alongside work by Joby Talbot.

21st-century Choral Music: A New England Symphony20211021Recorded in the BBC Singers' home at Maida Vale Studios, Ian Skelly joins the group and their Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin for a concert featuring choral works from the 21st century. Tonight's concert was to have included Concerto-Fantaisie 'O Night, Oh...', the concerto for piano and choir by Betsy Jolas. Pianist Nicolas Hodges was forced to withdraw from the concert at short notice, and in its place the BBC Singers perform movements from Daniel-Lesur's setting of the biblical Song of Songs.

Daniel-Lesur: Movements from Le Cantique des Cantiques

Betsy Jolas: Chant Dormant, Dormant Chant (from Concerto-Fantaisie 'O Night, Oh...')

Interval

Roderick Williams: A New England Symphony

Sofi Jeannin - conductor

Sofi Jeannin conducts the BBC Singers in works by Betsy Jolas and Roderick Williams.

50th Anniversary Of The European Broadcasting Union20171126Ian Skelly presents a programme celebrating the 50th anniversary of the European Broadcasting Union music exchange, with concerts from the north, east, south and west of Europe, and music by Dvorak, Granados, P䀀rt and Schubert.

Dvorak: Serenade for Strings in E major, Op 22

Zurich Chamber Orchestra

Granados: Piano Quintet in G minor, Op 49

Ludmil Angelov (piano), Breton Quartet

Arvo P䀀rt: Tabula rasa

Helena Wood and Elaine Clark (violins)

RTE National Symphony Orchestra

Tonu Kaljuste (conductor)

Schubert: String Quartet No 12, D703, 'Quartettsatz

Vilde Frang (violin), Sayaka Shoji (violin)

Maxim Rysanov (viola), Nicolas Altstaedt (cello).

Ian Skelly celebrates 50 years of the European Broadcasting Union music exchange.

A Baroque Feast20210922Leading countertenor Max Emanuel Cen?i? is joined by Polish period instrument ensemble Orkiestra Historyczna for a programme of operatic showstoppers and sparkling instrumental music by Handel and his contemporaries.

Introduced live from Wigmore Hall by Hannah French.

Handel: All'orror delle procelle (Riccardo Primo, re d'Inghilterra, HWV 23)

Leonardo Vinci: Sta l'alma pietosa (Gismondo, re di Polonia)

Francesco Geminiani (arr. Charles Avison): Violin Sonata in G, Op. 1, No. 1

Francesco Scarlatti: Concerto grosso No. 4 in E minor; Concerto grosso No. 3 in A minor

Nicola Porpora: Core avezzo al furore (Polifemo)

Handel: Deggio morire, o stelle (Siroe, re di Persia, HWV 24)

8.20 pm

Interval music (from CD)

JS Bach: English Suite No. 3 in G minor BWV 808

Murray Perahia (piano)

8.40 pm

Leonardo Vinci: Bella pace (Gismondo, re di Polonia)

Handel Se dolce m'era gi

A Berlioz Legacy20190407Highlights from classical concerts around the world, including Bruch's take on Scotland performed in South Korea, Turina's portraits of Spanish women, and a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of Berlioz from Munich.

Introduced by Fiona Talkington

Max Bruch - Scottish fantasy Op.46 for violin and orchestra

Ji-young Lim, violin

KBS Symphony Orchestra

Alexander Lazarev, conductor

Joaqu퀀n Turina - Mujeres espanolas, op. 73 (series 2, 1932)

Azahar Ensemble

Olivier Messiaen - Po耀mes pour Mi

Hector Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique, op. 14

Jenny Daviet, soprano

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Kent Nagano, conductor

Fiona Talkington introduces classical music concert highlights from around the world.

A Britten Celebration20180703Michael Crawford joins the BBC Singers for the dramatic tale of Noah's Ark, brought to life in the stunning setting of Southwark Cathedral. The legendary entertainer and original cast member Michael Crawford is joined by amateur instrumentalists depicting animals and nature through magical musical effects under conductor Martyn Brabbins, in a performance celebrating the 60th anniversary of Britten's Noye's Fludde in the place where it received its London premiere. Alonside Noye's Fludde is Britten's quirky cantata Rejoice in the lamb and Sacred and Profane, eight medieval lyrics that explore the theme of mortality and dates from towards the end of Britten's life.

Programme

Britten: Sacred and Profane

Britten: Rejoice in the Lamb, Op 30

INTERVAL

Britten: Noye's Fludde, Op 59

Finchley Children's Music Group

Richard Pearce - organ

Jamie W Hall - Mr Noah

Jessica Gillingwater - Mrs Noah

Michael Crawford - The Voice of God

Martyn Brabbins - conductor.

Michael Crawford performs in a 60th anniversary performance of Britten's Noye's Fludde.

A Child Of Our Time20191001`The world turns on its dark side`, so begins Michael Tippett's choral masterpiece ‘A Child of our Time', composed during the early years of the Second World War and giving expression to Tippett's hopes for a better world. The performance of the secular oratorio this evening, with a starry cast, opens the CBSO's new concert season under its Musical Director Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla, and is presented alongside a piece in a similar vein, from the same period, by Tippett's contemporary, Benjamin Britten. The concert is introduced by Tom McKinney.

PART ONE

Benjamin Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem

INTERVAL

Michael Tippett: Piano Sonata No 1 - First Mvt: Allegro

(Peter Donohoe - Piano CD)

Tom McKinney talks with Tippett biographer Oliver Soden about the background to ‘A Child of our Time'.

PART TWO

Michael Tippett: A Child of our Time

Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla - conductor

Talise Trevigne - soprano

Felicity Palmer - mezzo

Joshua Stewart - tenor

Brindley Sherratt - bass

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (Chorus Master: Simon Halsey)

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus perform music by Britten and Tippett.

A Child Of Our Time20221202`The world turns on its dark side`: so begins Michael Tippett's choral masterpiece ‘A Child of our Time', composed during the early years of the Second World War and giving expression to Tippett's hopes for a better world. Tippett's secular oratorio is built around the plangent melodies of African-American spirituals - and for this performance, the LPO forces are joined by the London Adventist Chorale, plus an exceptional team of soloists.

Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music - written just a year earlier, by another musical visionary - offers radiant calm before Tippett's emotional storm.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music

Tippett: A Child of Our Time

Nadine Benjamin, soprano

Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano

Kenneth Tarver, tenor

Roderick Williams, baritone

London Philharmonic Choir

Soloists of the Royal College of Music

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Edward Gardner, conductor

Edward Gardner conducts the London Philharmonic in Tippett's oratorio A Child of Our Time.

A Child Of Our Time20230512The BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and a star cast conducted by Sir Andrew Davis perform Tippett's oratorio, a plea for compassion. Plus his Concerto for Double String Orchestra.

Tippett's A Child of Our Time begins in sorrow: `The world turns on its dark side. It is winter.` Composed at the start of the Second World War but provoked by decades of intolerance, Tippett's `modern oratorio` is built around the soul-shaking melodies of African-American spirituals. But the human spirit is unbreakable, and this great British choral masterpiece is anything but a counsel of despair.

Sir Andrew Davis understands that; and after a lifetime championing British music, there are few artists better equipped than our Conductor Laureate to bring out Tippett's boundless optimism as well as his burning sorrow. The BBC Symphony Chorus is joined by a truly exceptional team of soloists, and it all begins with a great leap of hope and joy: the ever-fresh Concerto for Double String Orchestra.

Live from the Barbican, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Michael Tippett: Concerto for Double String Orchestra

19.55 Interval (off CD)

Michael Tippett: Piano Sonata No.1

Steven Osborne (piano)

20.15

Michael Tippett: A Child of Our Time

Pumeza Matshikiza (soprano)

Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)

Joshua Stewart (tenor)

Ashley Riches (bass)

Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

The BBC SO and Chorus conducted by Sir Andrew Davis in Tippett's great oratorio.

A Christmas Carol20221216`Marley was dead, to begin with`. So begins A Christmas Carol, the iconic Christmas story by Charles Dickens that has done more to mould the idyl of a traditional Christmas than any other story.

The BBC Singers join Principal Guest Conductor Bob Chilcott and narrator Mel Giedroyc for the UK premiere of Benedict Sheehan's A Christmas Carol. Retelling the classic Dickens Christmas story, Sheehan's score features original music alongside traditional carols for all the family - including The First Nowell, The Truth from above, God rest you, merry gentlemen, The Sussex Carol and It Came Upon the Midnight Clear - but not before a first half-filled with some of our best-loved Christmas choral music.

Presented by Ian Skelly, recorded at Milton Court, London.

Programme:

Peter Wishart: Alleluya, a new work is come on hand 2'15

Lucy Walker: There is no rose 3

Caroline Shaw: The Children's Eye 7

Brittney Boykin: Coventry Carol 3

Suzzie Vango: Gaudete 2'40`

David Willcocks: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day

Pierpont arr. Ben Parry: Jingle Bells

c.20:00 Interval (CD)

Nigel Hess: Christmas Overture

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, John Rutter - conductor

Benedict Sheehan: A Christmas Carol (UK Premiere)

Mel Giedroyc - narrator

Bob Chilcott - conductor

With Mel Giedroyc and the BBC Singers.

A Classic Sandwich With A Twist20181211Since their 1996 debut the Jerusalem Quartet have become acknowledged as one of the world's leading string quartets. Their programme tonight puts a generous Gallic filling in between two slices of classic Viennese bread and butter.

Haydn's Op. 76 set of six string quartets are accepted as his greatest achievement in the genre he himself had invented and developed over more than 30 years. He completed them towards the end of the 18th century and No. 1, like all of the set, acted as a spur on his chippy 'I never learned anything from him, anyway' former pupil, Beethoven. The younger composer was determined to take on and best Haydn in all the key areas he'd excelled at, and even before Beethoven completed his Op. 74 quartet in 1809 he had already changed string quartet history forever on his own characteristically uncompromising terms.

At the end of the 19th century, less than 70 years after Beethoven's death, Debussy composed his one and only string quartet, its shimmering textures, exotic scales and unresolved chords a world away from Classical Vienna. Debussy had very deliberately (and with a little bit of exaggeration) nailed his colours to the mast: 'I am more and more convinced that music, by its very nature, is something that cannot be cast into a traditional and fixed form. It is made up of colours and rhythms. The rest is a lot of humbug invented by frigid imbeciles riding on the backs of the Masters - who, for the most part, wrote almost nothing but period music. Bach alone had an idea of the truth.

Recorded on Saturday at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre and presented by Ivan Hewett.

Haydn: String Quartet in G, Op.76 No.1

Debussy: String Quartet in G minor, Op.10

8.25pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Stravinsky: Three Movements from Petrushka

Alexander Melnikov (piano)

8.45pm

Beethoven: String Quartet in E flat, Op.74 (Harp)

Alexander Pavlovsky & Sergei Bresler (violins)

Ori Kam (viola)

Kyril Zlotnikov (cello)

The Jerusalem Quartet put a tasty filling of Debussy between slices of Haydn and Beethoven

A Composer Conducts20190225The charismatic Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra is also a composer with an international reputation and his Cello Concerto is at the centre of this concert featuring music written for and first performed in the USA. The premiere of Sibelius's tone poem Oceanides, which conjures up 'visions of nymphs sporting on the crests of mighty waves', was conducted by Sibelius himself at the Norfolk Music Festival, Connecticut, in 1914. The first outing for fellow Finn Salonen's Cello Concerto, where the soloist 'does battle with a swirling orchestra, a hyperactive set of bongos, and even, through live tape looping, its own shadow', was in Chicago in 2017. And Boston's Symphony Hall, 1944, was where Bart k's Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned to show off the individual and collective virtuosity of the local band, first saw the light of day.

Recorded yesterday at the Royal Festival Hall and presented by Martin Handley.

Sibelius: The Oceanides

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Cello Concerto

Interval

Bart k: Concerto For Orchestra

Truls Mørk (cello)

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the Philharmonia in Sibelius, Bartok and his own Cello Concerto

A Coronation From Hanley20230505Live from the Victoria Hall, Hanley

Presented by Tom McKinney

On the eve of the King's coronation, the BBC Philharmonic travels to the Victoria Hall in Hanley for a special programme. We'll hear music by Elgar, Butterworth and Bax, played at Queen Elizabeth's 1953 coronation, as well as the tuneful suite Tippett composed to celebrate the then Prince Charles's arrival five years earlier. Elgar's Nursery Suite, one of his last pieces, was dedicated to the Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth (who just over 20 years later became Queen) and their mother, among the first to hear this instantly effervescent music. And, in this hall, named after Queen Victoria, we present music by a favourite composer of hers, Felix Mendelssohn, his sparkling E minor Violin Concerto.

Bax: Coronation March

Butterworth: The Banks of Green Willow

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor

8.15 Music Interval (CD)

Mendelssohn: Songs without Words: Op.19 No.1, No.2, No.3 and No.5, Op.30 No.2, Op.38 No.6, Op.67 No.4 'Spinnerlied

Denis Kozhukhin (piano)

Elgar: Nursery Suite

Tippett: Suite in D (A birthday suite for Prince Charles)

Elgar: Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4

Simone Lamsma (violin)

Michael Seal (conductor)

On the eve of the coronation, the BBC Philharmonic celebrates with musical festivities.

A Czech Family Affair20190325Dvorak's second Piano Quintet was a success from the moment of its first performance. The folk tunes that permeate it are also evident in his son-in-law, Josef Suk's Piano Quintet which will precede it - an unjustly neglected work which boasts an outstandingly affecting slow movement. The concert, recorded in Sheffield's Crucible Studio Theatre as part of Music In The Round, opens with Mozart's radiant and engaging Piano Trio in G, K496.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Programme:

PART ONE

Mozart: Piano Trio in G K.496

Suk: Piano Quintet in G minor Op.8

INTERVAL

From CD

Josef Suk 'Asrael Symphony' Op27 - Part 2 - Mvt V

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jiri Belohlavek

PART TWO

Dvorak: Piano Quintet No.2 in A Op.81

Performed by Ensemble 360.

Tim Horton (piano)

Benjamin Nabarro (violin)

Gemma Rosefield (cello)

Claudia Ajmone-Marsan (violin)

Ruth Gibson (viola)

Suk, Dvorak and a little Mozart from Ensemble 360.

A Deeply Personal Farewell20190503Does the faltering opening of Mahler's Symphony No 9 echo the composer's own heartbeat that will give out just a year after he finishes writing it? There can be no doubt that Mahler poured his heart and soul into what would turn out to be his final complete work. He said himself that 'In it something is said that I have had on the tip of my tongue for some time.

The other two works in tonight's concert were written in Theresienstadt concentration camp by men whose own lives were cut short by the Holocaust. Despite the hardships they endured, the music is richly expressive and full of life.

Tom McKinney presents.

Programme:

Krasa: Overture for small orchestra

Klein: Partita for Strings

Mahler: Symphony No 9

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra performs Mahler's extraordinary Symphony No 9.

A Farewell From King's20190705As he approaches the end of his 37-year tenure as director of music of King's College, Cambridge, Stephen Cleobury conducts a concert to mark his retirement featuring the choirs with which he is associated.

Fittingly, the programme includes Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music alongside John Rutter's orchestration of the Magnificat from Herbert Howells's canticles written for the chapel and choir of King's. At the heart of the concert is Benjamin Britten's St. Nicholas, bringing together the BBC Singers, Choir of King's College, Cambridge and King's Voices.

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS - Serenade to Music

HOWELLS (orch. John Rutter) - Magnificat (Collegium Regale)

ELGAR - Give unto the Lord

INTERVAL

BRITTEN - St Nicholas

Britten Sinfonia

Stephen Cleobury - conductor

Stephen Cleobury conducts the BBC Singers and Britten Sinfonia from King's, Cambridge.

A Garland For The Queen20220614The BBC Singers perform a collection of short choral pieces by English composers created to celebrate HM the Queen's coronation in 1953. They also sing Britten's dramatic Sacred and Profane, an anthem by the choir's former Composer in Association, Judith Weir, and world premieres by Hilary Campbell and Britten Pears Young Artist Omri Kochavi. Kochavi sets texts by Iraq-born Israeli poet Amira Hess, and is inspired by the women in both ancient and modern Jewish-Babylonian culture he describes as the 'Ghostbustresses' - warding off evil spirits through poetry and art.

Live from Snape Maltings. Presented by Martin Handley.

Bliss, Bax, Tippett, Vaughan Williams, Berkeley, Ireland, Howells, Finzi, Rawsthorne, Rubbra: A Garland for the Queen

19:50 - Interval

Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks

20:10

Omri Kochavi: Kishtatos (world premiere, Britten Pears Arts commission)

Judith Weir: One day to Sing

Hilary Campbell: The Noblest Crown (world premiere, BBC commission)

Britten: Sacred and Profane op. 91

Owain Park - conductor

The BBC Singers and Owain Park perform at the Aldeburgh Festival.

A Grail, A Gondola And A Sonnet20191202French pianist Bertrand Chamayou performs Beethoven, Rihm and Liszt, opening with one of Liszt's many operatic transcriptions: the March to the Holy Grail from Wagner's Parsifal. In the Fantasia in G minor Beethoven flexes his improvisatory muscles to impressive effect, while Wolfgang Rihm's Tombeau evokes a bleak and sometimes terrifying graveyard scene.

Venice dominates the second half of this recital, with Liszt evoking an ominous journey on a lugubrious gondola, reflecting on the passionate love poetry of Petrarch and showing us the vivid sights and scenes of Venice and Naples.

Live from Wigmore Hall, presented by Martin Handley

Liszt: Feierlicher Marsch zum heiligen Gral from Parsifal S450 (transcription from Richard Wagner)

Beethoven: Fantasia in G minor Op 77

Rihm: Klavierstück No 5 ('Tombeau')

Interval

Liszt: La lugubre gondola S200

Liszt: Ann退es de p耀lerinage, deuxi耀me ann退e, Italie S161 - Sonetto del Petrarca No 123

Liszt: Venezia e Napoli S162

Bertrand Chamayou (piano)

Photo © Marco Borggreve

Live from Wigmore Hall, pianist Bertrand Chamayou performs Liszt, Beethoven and Rihm.

A Heroic Journey20190624Recorded in the Royal Festival Hall at London's Southbank Centre

Presented by Martin Handley

This concert marks the first London appearance of Vasily Petrenko with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra since the orchestra's announcement to appoint him as Music Director (2021-2022). Piano virtuoso Denis Kozhukhin is soloist in Brahms' dramatic Piano Concerto No 1, a piece which encompasses music of brooding power and romantic tenderness, and the composer's first orchestral work to win favour with audiences.

Renowned for his epic tone poems, Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben is one of his signature masterpieces, containing numerous references to his earlier works, including Also sprach Zarathustra, Till Eulenspiegel, and Death and Transfiguration. Written in response to Beethoven's 'heroic' Third Symphony 'Eroica', this musical marathon vividly depicts the story of a hero grappling with life's adversities, before culminating in a thrilling finale.

Brahms: Piano Concerto No 1

8.20

Interval

R Strauss: Ein Heldenleben

Denis Kozhukhin (piano)

Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

Photo of Vasily Petrenko © Mark McNulty

Vasily Petrenko directs the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in works by Brahms and Strauss.

A Hero's Life20220414Sir Mark Elder conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in music by Wagner and Strauss, plus soprano Sophie Bevan joins them for a Mozart concert aria.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Wagner: Prelude and Good Friday Music from Parsifal

Mozart: Ah, lo previdi

8.10 Interval

8.30

Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben

Sophie Bevan (Soprano)

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

Photo: Sir Mark Elder (credit, Benjamin Ealovega)

Sir Mark Elder conducts the BBC SSO in Richard Strauss's tone poem Ein Heldenleben.

A Hundred Years Ago20191002In their spectacular season opener Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in music by three composers who served as Kappelmeisters in Weimar, hub of German humanism in the 18th and 19th centuries and home to Friedrich Schiller: literary giant, political philosopher, champion of German unity and author of the Ode to Joy.

In 1859, Franz Liszt's contributions to Weimar's Schiller centenary celebrations included his collaboration with playwright Friedrich Halm. The resulting melodrama for actors and orchestra Vor hundert Jahren (A Hundred Years Ago), portrays an unhappy personified Germany comforted by Poesie's tour of Schiller's work with its promising hope for the nation's future. Tonight is a rare chance to hear Liszt's intriguing unpublished score, set to a new dramatisation by Gerard McBurney, and with a cast led by Sara Kestelman and Jemma Redgrave. It's prefaced with another Liszt rarity, Kunstlerfestzug, Processions of the Artists, an orchestral march for the Schiller shindig.

Bookending the concert are Johann Nepomuk Hummel's Freudenfest Overture, celebrating Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo (and including a rousing surge of God Save the King), and Richard Strauss's ever-popular suite from his opera Der Rosenkavalier.

Presented by Martin Handley, live from the Lighthouse in Poole.

Hummel: Freudenfest Overture

Liszt: Kunstlerfestzug

Liszt: Vor hundert Jahren

Interval Music (from CD)

August Muller: Grande Sonata in C, Op 38

Francesca Pagnini, flute

Paolo Bidoli, piano

Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite

Kirill Karabits (conductor)

Cast for Vor hundert Jahren

Germania....... Sara Kestelman

Poesie - - Jemma Redgrave

Clotho - - Ruby Russell

Lachesis - - Laura McKay

Atropos - - Jordan Finding

Image c/o Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (credit: Nick Cary)

Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth SO in the UK premiere of a dramatic Liszt rarity.

A Journeywoman's Tale20210120A concert recorded in March 2020 at Liverpool's St. George's Hall.

The mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston and the pianist Joseph Middleton present a journey through song focusing on migration, travel and the concept of ‘home'. This idea is especially relevant in the port of Liverpool, where many thousands have begun journeys to far away shores. Music includes:

Head Sweet chance that led my steps abroad

Gurney In Flanders

Ireland Earth's Call

Britten O Waly Waly

Warlock My Own Country

Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel

Wolf Kennst du Das Land

Wolf Mignon Lieder

Schumann Maria Stuart Lieder

Mahler Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen

Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston sings music by Schumann, Mahler and Vaughan Williams.

A Little Russian Odyssey20201215Daniele Rustioni conducts the Ulster Orchestra in an all-Russian programme- featuring Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 in C minor 'The Little Russian' and Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major performed by pianist Barry Douglas.

Presented by John Toal

Daniele Rustioni took up his position as principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra last year, and in this programme explores some truly exciting and colourful repertoire. Stravinsky's Octet for Wind Instruments opens the concert, the piece was completed by the composer in 1923 and was one of the first times we see neo-classicism in Stravinsky's music.

Pianist Barry Douglas then joins the orchestra for Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, a piece he wrote for his son Maxim's 19th birthday- a work full of inventive writing for the solo instrument as well as orchestral acrobatics and rhythmic intensity.

To finish, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 in C minor, affectionately nicknamed by his peers as 'The Little Russian' because of his inclusion of well-known folk tunes of the time. Composed in 1872, the work was popular with audiences when it was first performed, and although a substantial work it is actually the composer's shortest symphony.

During the interval, John Toal speaks to pianist Barry Douglas about the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 as well as featuring some solo performances by Douglas from his recent album releases.

Daniele Rustioni (conductor)

Barry Douglas (piano)

Stravinsk:- Octet for Wind Instruments

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17 'The Little Russian

Followed by music off disc:

Rimsky-Korsakov: Christmas Eve Suite

Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra

Kees Bakels, conductor

Daniele Rustioni conducts the Ulster Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony.

A Masterpiece Of Mahler20190222Live from the Barbican Hall, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Works by Mozart, Thomas Larcher, and Mahler - his symphonic song cycle Das Lied von der Erde.

Presented by Martin Handley

Mozart: Symphony No.35 in D K385 Haffner

Thomas Larcher: Nocturne - Insomnia

8.05pm

Interval

8.25pm

MAHLER: Das Lied von der Erde*

Elisabeth Kulman (Mezzo-soprano)*

Stuart Skelton (Tenor)*

Sakari Oramo (Conductor)

The vibrant colours and heady, perfumed atmosphere of ancient Chinese poems are captured in all their richness by Mahler's lavishly scored Das Lied von der Erde. Two star singers - tenor Stuart Skelton and mezzo Elisabeth Kulman, both regular BBC Symphony Orchestra collaborators - join as soloists. Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo also conducts a pared-back BBC SO in Mozart's exhilarating Symphony No 35 ‘Haffner', it's bubbling, operatic with a contrast to the restless musical introspection of Thomas Larcher's Nocturne Insomnia - the second of three performances of music by this fascinating Austrian composer in the BBC SO's 2018-19 Barbican season.

A Masterpiece Rediscovered20211126Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a rediscovered classic by a composer who never took the easy path in life. Dora Peja?evi? was born into the comfort of Eastern European aristocracy but travelled miles to be challenged by the greatest minds of her age. During the First World War she volunteered as a nurse, where she experienced horrors that forced her into creative overdrive. In 1916, when her Symphony in F sharp minor started to take shape, Peja?evi? dropped aristocratic mannerisms and started to write with a blazing authenticity that fills this explosive symphony - the first modern symphony in Croatian music.

In the first half of the concert Vilde Frange is the soloist Ludwig van Beethoven's glorious Violin Concerto.

Live from the Barbican Hall

Presented by Ian Skelly

Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major

20.15

Interval

Dora Peja?evi?: Blumenleben op. 19

1 Schneegl怀ckchen (Snowdrops)

2 Veilchen ( Violets)

3 Maigl怀ckchen (Lilies of the Valley)

4 Vergi߀meinnicht Forget-me-nots

5 Rose (Rose)

6 Rote Nelken (Red Carnations)

7 Lilien (Lilies)

8 Chrysanthemen (Chrysanthemums)

Nataša Veljkovi? (Piano)

20.35

Dora Peja?evi?: Symphony in F-sharp minor, op. 41

Vilde Frang (violin)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Photo of Dora Peja?evi? Copyright (c) Croatian Music Information Centre

Dora Peja\u010devi\u0107's Symphony in F sharp minor with the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Sakari Oramo.

A Midsummer Night's Dream With The Bbc Singers20230707The BBC Singers and Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin sign off their 2022/23 season with a concert combining music for a midsummer's evening with settings of Shakespeare, in the 400th anniversary year of the first folio publication. Curated by Sofi Jeannin, this programme promises an evening of music blending styles and sound worlds to reflect the versatility and splendour of the BBC Singers.

Live from St Paul's Knightsbridge, London. Presented by Martin Handley.

Sofi Jeannin - conductor

Jan Sandstr怀m - Biegga Luohte

Anna Karin Klockar - Limu limu Lima

Frank Martin - Five Ariel Songs

Edward Elgar - Two Part Songs Op. 71

Herbert Murrill - O mistress mine

Interval

Frederick Delius - Two Songs to be sung on a summer night on the water

Edvard Grieg - How fair is thy face, from Four Psalms, Op. 74

Amy Beach - Three Shakespeare Choruses

Kristina Arakelyan - Echo from Seascapes

Ildebrando Pizzetti - Cade la sera

Lars Johan Werle - Canzone 126 di Francesco Petrarca

The BBC Singers combine music for a midsummer's evening with Shakespeare settings.

A Mighty Trombone20190117Music director of English National Opera Martyn Brabbins re-joins his long-time collaborators, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, in Glasgow to perform Sir James MacMillan's recent Trombone Concerto with the virtuoso for whom it was written, Jorgen van Rijen.

Alongside the concerto's fireworks the orchestra explore romantic classics: a selection of Dvorak's Slavonic Dances; and Tchaikovsky's tuneful First Symphony, subtitled 'Winter Daydreams.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Dvorak: Slavonic Dances (Selection)

Sir James MacMillan: Trombone Concerto

8.20 Interval

8.40

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 1

Jorgen van Rijen (trombone)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Photo credit: Marco Borggreve

Jorgen van Rijen and Martyn Brabbins perform recent trombone music by James MacMillan

A New Dawn , Oramo Conducts Brahms20211020Recorded at the Barbican on Saturday 2nd October 2021

Presented by Ian Skelly

Betsy Jolas: Letters from Bachville(16 mins)

Ruth Gipps: Horn Concerto (18 mins)

20.05

Interval

JS Bach: Cantata 48: Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlosen, BWV 48

Damien Guillon (countertenor) Thomas Hobbs(tenor)

Collegium Vocale Gent, Philippe Herreweghe (conductor)

20.25

Brahms: Symphony No 2 in D major (41 mins)

Ben Goldscheider (horn)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo leads a season opening like no other. At its heart is Johannes Brahms's symphony of light and shadows - music that tells of the magnificence of creation but with a ribbon of mourning tied around its sleeve; Brahms's Symphony No. 2 resembles the most beautiful of sunsets followed by the most invigorating of new dawns.

In 1968, the composer Ruth Gipps wrote a concerto for a newly qualified young horn player embarking on a career. That horn player happened to be her son. His mother's gift is an ethereal, poetic and virtuosic piece, played here, in the centenary of the composer's birth, by former BBC Young Musician finalist Ben Goldscheider. To open, Oramo conducts the UK premiere of Betsy Jolas's ‘meticulously charming' (The Boston Globe) collage in homage to Bach's hometown, Leipzig.

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Betsy Jolas, Ruth Gipps and Brahms.

A Night At The Ballet20200506Another chance to hear three pieces of ballet music chosen and conducted by the BBC Concert Orchestra's Conductor Laureate Barry Wordsworth, who is also former Music Director of the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden. Malcolm Arnold's Homage to the Queen was commissioned by Sadler's Wells in 1953 for the Queen's coronation. Gavin Gordon is best remembered today for his ballet The Rake's Progress but in 1925 he wrote the one act ballet Les Noces Imaginaires - a marriage between dolls - whilst still a student of Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music. In part 2 we will hear Barry Wordsworth's selection from the perennial favourite Coppelia, which features mechanical dolls from the workshop of Dr Coppelius. Recorded at the Watford Colosseum in March 2017 and presented by Ian Skelly.

Malcolm Arnold ‘Water' from Homage to the Queen

Gavin Gordon Suite: Les Noces Imaginaires

INTERVAL

Delibes Suite: Copp退lia

Conductor Barry Wordsworth

Barry Wordsworth conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in three suites of ballet music.

A Polonaise For Polar Bears20190412Viktoria Mullova performs one of the greatest violin concertos in the repertoire: Sibelius's lyrical, expansive and thoroughly Scandinavian masterpiece. She plays with the Hall退 orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder. From the cold Scandinavian landscape of Sibelius we are then transported into a world of vivid colour with impressions of clouds and light from Debussy's Nocturnes and Ravel's shattering act of musical destrauction and revenge, La Valse.

Berlioz: Overture: Les Francs Juges

Sibelius: Violin Concerto

Debussy: Nocturnes

Ravel: La Valse

Viktoria Mullova (violin)

Hall退 orchesta

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

Viktoria Mullova performs Sibelius's violin concerto with Sir Mark Elder and the Halle.

A Renaissance Christmas With The Tallis Scholars20231221For the past half-century, Peter Philips and the Tallis Scholars have set the standard for performance in Renaissance a cappella repertoire. Tonight, live from St John's, Smith Square, they present an enticing Christmas-themed programme in which the Nativity is seen from the shepherds' perspective as they come to worship Baby Jesus in the stable.

Clemens non Papa: Pastores quidnam vidistis

Clemens non Papa: Missa Pastores quidnam vidistis (Kyrie & Gloria)

Victoria: Quem vidistis, pastores?

Pedro de Cristo: Quaeramus cum pastoribus

Giovanni Croce: Quaeramus cum pastoribus

Clemens non Papa: Missa Pastores quidnam vidistis (Credo)

Obrecht: Salva Regina

Peter Philips: Salve Regina

Clemens non Papa: Missa Pastores quidnam vidistis (Sanctus, Benedictus & Agnus dei)

Peter Philips (director)

Peter Philips conducts his renowned choir in its 50th anniversary year.

Live from London's St John's, Smith Square, Peter Philips directs the Tallis Scholars in a programme of radiant Renaissance music themed around the shepherds' visit to Baby Jesus.

A Roaring Christmas: Festive Favourites From The 1920s20211217In this hip-twisting musical party the BBC Singers explore the irresistible melodies and toe-tapping rhythms of the masters of the dance band - rhythms that brought about new sounds, new dances and a new social order. Among the treasures of the ‘original' roaring 20s and 30s were songs that would become Christmas classics a few decades later.

Debroy Somers: Savoy Christmas Medley

Traditional, arr. George Morton: Good King Wenceslas

Traditional, arr. Nicholas Kok: Greensleeves - The Holly and the Ivy

Traditional, arr. George Morton: O little town of Bethlehem

Traditional, arr. Helen Neeves: King Herod and the cock

Traditional , arr. George Morton: Unto us is born a son

Noel Coward: I went to a marvellous party

Nat D. Ayer, arr. Iain Farrington: If You Were The Only Girl (In The World)

George Gershwin, arr. Iain Farrington: Lady be good

Cab Calloway, arr. Anne Dudley: Minnie the Moocher

Walter Donaldson arr. Anne Dudley: Because my baby don't mean ‘maybe' now

George Gershwin, arr. Iain Farrington: A foggy day in London town

INTERVAL

Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart, arr. Anne Dudley: The Blue Room

Walter Donaldson, arr. Anne Dudley: Changes

Fats Waller, arr. Nicholas Kok: I can't give you anything but love

Irving Berlin, arr. Iain Farrington: Blue Skies - Puttin' on the Ritz

Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn: Let it snow

Irving Berlin, arr. Iain Farrington: White Christmas

J. Fred Coots/Haven Gillespie, arr. Alexander L'Estrange: Santa Claus is comin' to town

Traditional, arr. George Morton: Coventry Carol

Traditional, arr. Nicholas Kok: God rest you merry gentlemen - Good King Wenceslas - Jingle Bells

Hugh Martin/Ralph Blaine, arr. Iain Farrington: Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Traditional, arr. George Morton: Ding Dong merrily on high

Encore - Traditional, arr. Iain Farrington: Auld Lang Syne

Guildhall Jazz Orchestra

Nicholas Kok - conductor

The BBC Singers join Guildhall Jazz Orchestra to celebrate Christmas.

A Salford Schubertiade20201127The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Ben Gernon, presents a Schubertiade from Salford. Continuing their cycle of Schubert's symphonies, his effervescent Fifth Symphony is contrasted with music on a more intimate scale, from the last years of his short life.

From MediaCityUK, Salford

Presented by Tom McKinney

Schubert: Im Abendrot (D 799)

Schubert: Der Hirt auf der Felsen (D 965)

Schubert: Three Pieces (D 946)

Schubert: Heimliches Lieben (D922)

Schubert: Allegretto in C minor (D 915)

Schubert: Auf dem Strom (D 943)

Schubert: Rondo in A for violin and strings (D 438) (Recorded 18 Nov 2020)

Schubert: Symphony No 5 (Recorded 18 Nov 2020)

Elizabeth Watts (soprano)

Martin Roscoe (piano)

John Bradbury (clarinet)

Ben Hulme (horn)

Zoe Beyers (violin)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

Followed by music off disc:

Glinka: Sonata for viola and piano

Maxim Rysanov, viola

Evelyn Chang, piano

A concert of Schubert with the BBC Philharmonic, Elizabeth Watts, Martin Roscoe and guests

A Sea Symphony And Earth Dances20171016Martyn Brabbins conducts Birtwistle's Earth Dances and Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony.

Sir Harrison Birtwistle's large-scale orchestral work from 1986 explores the element of Earth with a primordial power and colossal ambition: it's one of his greatest scores and impresses with its strength and ambition 30 years on. Martyn Brabbins, a master of this music, then turns his attention to the element of Water - Ralph Vaughan Williams's choral A Sea Symphony, one of the most confident first symphonies ever, first heard in 1910, with its two singers lifting the poetry of Walt Whitman into song.

Two superb singers of the younger generation and the BBC Symphony Chorus join the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a programme that exults in the power of nature

Presented by Martin Handley and recorded at the Barbican Hall in London on 13th October.

Harrison Birtwistle: Earth Dances

2010 Interval Music

Herbert Howells: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in E flat major op26

Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony

Elizabeth Llewellyn (soprano)

Marcus Farnsworth (baritone)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor).

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in music by Birtwistle and Vaughan Williams.

A Secret Line From God, Schubert's 'great' Symphony20210315The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra are conducted by the revered 93-year-old Herbert Blomstedt at Stockholm's Berwaldhallen. Herbert Blomstedt, who made his debut in Stockholm in 1954, returned to the city at the end of November last year for a programme of Mozart and Schubert and, as a treat from the orchestra, a fanfare written as a to tribute to their much-loved former music director. For the Mozart, the orchestra was joined by its current artist in residence, the remarkable 20-year-old violinist, Johan Dalene - who is also a Radio 3 New Generation Artist. The programme ends with a masterful account of Schubert's 'Great' Symphony, composed, Blomstedt feels: 'as if he had some secret line to God himself.`

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Daniel B怀rtz: Fanfare for Herbert Blomstedt

Mozart: Violin Concerto No.5 in A, K.219 'Turkish

at approx 8.05pm Interval Music: soprano, Katharina Konradi sings Mozart's Lied der Freiheit and Schubert's Verkl䀀rung. Performances from the current New Generation Artist's new album, recorded last year with the pianist Daniel Heide.

Schubert: Symphony No.9 in C, D.944 'Great

Johan Dalene (violin)

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt (conductor)

Rec. Berwaldhallen, Stockholm 20 Nov 2020.

Herbert Blomstedt conducts Schubert 'Great' Symphony and a Mozart concerto.

A Soul In Love: Carolyn Sampson Sings Handel, Live At Wigmore Hall20230119The Finnish Baroque Orchestra performs instrumental music by Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti and is joined by one of the UK's leading sopranos, Carolyn Sampson, for three of Handel's ravishing Italian Cantatas.

Handel was 21 when he left Germany for a four-year Italian sojourn and the ever-canny composer soon built up an extensive web of connections, gaining employment and commissions from wealthy aristocratic patrons. The prolific output of those years includes dozens of cantatas which Handel produced for his patrons' personal enjoyment at lavish soir退es where dressing up in Classical garb was de rigueur. Usually scored for small instrumental ensemble and solo soprano (women were prohibited from singing in public at the time), the cantatas are mini-dramas, often setting erotic classical texts, including beautiful arias many of which are now familiar to us in recycled versions made by Handel for his later and more famous operas.

Introduced live from Wigmore Hall by Ian Skelly.

Handel: Andante (Trio Sonata in C minor HWV386a)

Alpestre monte HWV81

Alessandro Scarlatti: Sonata in A for 2 flutes, 2 violins and continuo

Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata in A Kk208

Handel: Un'alma innamorata HWV173

Carolyn Sampson (soprano)

8.20 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Mozart: Gigue in G Major, K574

Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano)

Beethoven: 12 Variations on Handel's 'See the Conqu'ring Hero comes

Anssi Karttunen (cello)

Tuija Hakkila (fortepiano)

Handel/Mozart: Merkt auf! Ich Kuendige ein Geheimnis an; Sie schallt, die Posaun' (Der Messias, K572)

Marek Rzepka (bass)

Hannover Chamber Orchestra

Jürgen Budday (conductor)

8.40

Alessandro Scarlatti: Sonata nona in A minor for flute, strings and continuo

Handel: Tra le fiamme HWV170

Soprano Carolyn Sampson and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra perform Handel and Scarlatti.

A Tribute To Oliver Knussen, Britten Oboe Quartet20190703Oboist Nicholas Daniel returns to the Snape Maltings and to this year's Aldeburgh Festival with a programme of chamber works reflecting one of the festival's themes - the music of Oliver Knussen, who died last year. As a former Artistic Director, Knussen was a composer and conductor who made a huge contribution to the development of the Aldeburgh Festival after Britten's death. So in the lead up to tonight's concert, Tom McKinney reflects on Knussen's relationship with Aldeburgh, with contributions from his close friend, the composer Colin Matthews. We also hear Knussen on CD, including:

Knussen: '.... Upon One Note' (after Purcell)

Christopher van Kampen (cello), John Constable (piano), Paul Silverthorne (viola) Michael Collins (clarinet), Clio Gould (violin)

Knussen: Prayer Bell Sketch (first version)

Peter Serkin (piano)

Knussen: Horn Concerto

Barry Tuckwell (horn)

London Sinfonietta conducted by Oliver Knussen

c 20.00

From the 2019 Aldeburgh Festival, introduced by Tom McKinney:

Knussen: Fire

Britten: Phantasy Quartet

Debussy: Syrinx

Knussen: Cantata

Schumann (arr. Colin Matthews): Mondnacht

Knussen: Masks for solo flute

Colin Matthews: Oboe Quartet No.2

Joanna Lee: Among the Unlimitless Etha (world premiere)

Mozart: Oboe Quartet

Britten Oboe Quartet:

Nicholas Daniel (oboe)

Jacqueline Shave (violin)

Clare Finnimore (viola)

Caroline Dearnley (cello)

Adam Walker (flute)

Oboist Nicholas Daniel at Aldeburgh Festival with works by Knussen, Britten and Debussy.

A Tribute To Pierre Boulez20160110A tribute to Pierre Boulez: highlights of the concert he gave with the BBC Symphony Orchestra to mark his 80th birthday.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Debussy: Jeux

Boulez: Le soleil des eaux

Ravel: Daphnis et Chlo退

Elizabeth Atherton, soprano

BBC Singers

BBC Symphony Chorus

Pierre Boulez, conductor

No-one had a more profound and wide-ranging impact on musical life over the past six decades than Pierre Boulez - as composer, conductor, polemicist and prophet. This concert features music by two of the composers he most cherished, along with a work of his own which engages with the imagery and symbolism of nature - a world that so absorbed Debussy, Ravel and others among Boulez's predecessors.

A tribute to Boulez: highlights of the concert with the BBC SO to mark his 80th birthday.

A Winter Journey20171203Ian Skelly presents a winter-themed programme. It begins with an unusual version of Schubert's Winterreise, for voice and wind sextet with accordion. This is followed by Ysaye's Chant d'hiver, performed by violinist Gကbor Barta, and Dance of the Jugglers from Tchaikovsky's the Snow Maiden.

Schubert: Winterreise, D911 (arr Normand Forget)

Christoph Pr退gardien (tenor), Ma'alot Wind Quintet, Tino Plener (bass clarinet), Heidi Luosuj䀀rvi (accordion)

Ysaÿe: Chant d'hiver

Gကbor Barta (violin), Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Kevin Griffiths (conductor)

Tchaikovsky: Dance of the Jugglers, from the Snow Maiden

Russian National Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev (conductor).

Ian Skelly presents a winter-themed programme, with music by Schubert and Ysaye.

Abel's Jazz Takeover20201120Presented by Jumok退 Fashola.

Cellist Abel Selaocoe and his trio Chesaba join the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Clark Rundell in a vibrant fusion of world music and improvised jazz. The centrepiece is Barak Schmool's 20th Meridian, written last year for Chesaba, and the orchestra play Tarik O'Regan's Ra, which takes as its inspiration Arabic dance, folk and pop music.

This concert was recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Tuesday evening as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival.

Toumani Diabat退, arr. Ian Gardiner Manchester; Kaira

Barak Schmool 20th Meridian

Abel Selaocoe Vukani Bo!

Sidiki Demb退l退 Kole

Tarik O'Regan Ra

Trad. arr Sidiki Demb退l退, orch Ian Gardiner Shaka

Trad. arr Abel Selaocoe, orch Peter Riley & Ian Gardiner Ka Bohaleng

Abel Selaocoe cello/voice

Sidiki Demb退l退 kora/percussion/voice

Alan Keary bass guitar/voice

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Clark Rundell

Cellist Abel Selaocoe joins the BBC Concert Orchestra at that EFG London Jazz Festival.

Academy Of Ancient Music And Jordi Savall, Handel, Lully, Rameau, Marais20170314Jordi Savall directs the Academy of Ancient Music in Handel's Water Music, plus dance pieces by Lully, Rameau and Marin Marais. Introduced from the Barbican in London by Martin Handley.

Lully: Suite from Alceste

Marin Marais: Alcione - Suites des air a jouer (1706)

8.20 pm:

INTERVAL: Jordi Savall talks about his latest recording, 'The Routes of Slavery

8.40 pm:

Handel: Water Music Suites No 2 in D major and No. 3 in G major

Rameau: Suite from Les Bor退ades

Directed by Jordi Savall

The Catalan viola da gamba player and conductor Jordi Savall is acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and adventurous musicians, constantly exploring new pieces from medieval and oriental sources, and finding a new take on familiar works. The Academy of Ancient Music have invited him to lead them in French dance music by Lully, Rameau and viola da gamba player Marin Marais, plus Handel's classic Water Music, written for a royal performance on the River Thames in 1717.

Jordi Savall directs the Academy of Ancient Music in Handel, Lully, Rameau and Marais.

Academy Of Ancient Music, Bach Cantatas20160324Bach cantatas for Lent and Passiontide played by the Academy of Ancient Music directed by Pavlo Beznosiuk.

Introduced live from Milton Court Concert Hall in London by Martin Handley.

Bach: Cantata No 127 'Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott'; Cantata No 39 'Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot

8.15 pm Interval: Glenn Gould plays Bach, from the newly remastered recordings

8.35 pm Part 2:

Bach: 'Ich lasse dich nicht' BWV Anh. 159; Cantata No 182 'Himmelsk怀nig, sei willkommen

Choir of the AAM

Cantatas 39 and 127 date from Bach's early years at Leipzig, when he worked feverishly for the city churches of St Thomas and St Nicholas, producing three Cantata cycles for the church year. Cantata No.127 'Lord Jesus Christ, True Man and God' is for the Sunday before Lent, recalling events as Jesus approached Jerusalem for the last time. Cantata No.39 'Break your Bread for the Hungry', first performed in 1726, quotes the prophet Isaiah's exhortation to help the needy. 'Ich lasse dich nicht' ('I will not let you go unless you bless me') is an earlier work, thought to date from Bach's Weimar period, preserved in Bach's hand but possibly not composed by him. Cantata No.182 'King of Heaven, Welcome' was composed by Bach in Weimar for a Palm Sunday performance.

Pavlo Beznosiuk, leader of the Academy of Ancient Music, replaces Canadian conductor Bernard Labadie.

Pavlo Beznosiuk directs the Academy of Ancient Music in Bach cantatas.

Academy Of Ancient Music, Vivaldi, Biber, Manfredini, Vejvanovsky, Leclair20151123Violinist Bojan Cicic directs the Academy of Ancient Music in an astonishing programme of concertos and sonatas inspired by visions of spiritual beings and the promise of the after-life.

Recorded at West Road Concert Hall

Presented by Martin Handley

Vivaldi: Concerto in F major 'per la Solennitက di S Lorenzo

Vejvanovsky: Sonatas 'Sancti Spiritus' and 'Paschalis

Vivaldi: Sonata in E flat major 'Sancto Sepolcro

Leclair: Violin Concerto in D major

Interval - Interval music from disc

Part 2:

Manfredini: Concerti 'Pastorale per il Santissimo Natale

Biber: Passacaglia in G minor for unaccompanied violin 'The Guardian Angel

Vivaldi: Concerto in E major 'Il Riposo per il S Natale

Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in D major 'S Lingua di S Antonio di Padova

As one of the rising stars of the world of period performance, Bojan Cicic currently leads the second violin section of the AAM, and is directing several programmes with them this season. Here he directs Baroque music written for special feast days in the Christian calendar.

Academy of Ancient Music in music by Vivaldi, Biber, Manfredini, Vejvanovsky and Leclair.

Academy Of Ancient Music: Monteverdi And Castello20161214Richard Egarr directs the Academy of Ancient Music and leading sopranos Carolyn Samspson and Rowan Pierce in a delightful programme of seventeenth-century Venetian sacred and secular vocal and instrumental music. The sensuous sacred motets and psalm settings of Claudio Monteverdi are paired with the quirky instrumental sonatas of his colleague and contemporary at St Mark's, Dario Castello.

Recorded last week at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge, and presented by Verity Sharp.

Monteverdi: 'Venite sitientes ad aquas', SV 335

Castello: Sonata duodecima

Monteverdi: 'O bone Jesu o piissimi Jesu', SV 313

Castello: Sonata sesta

Monteverdi: 'Exulta filia Sion', SV 303

Castello: Sonata undecima

Monteverdi: 'O beatae viae', SV 312

Carolyn Sampson & Rowan Pierce (sopranos)

Richard Egarr (director, harpsichord & organ)

8.15pm Interval Music (from CD)

Richard Egarr reveals his penchant for symphonic arrangements of seventeenth- and fifteenth-century music.

Henry Purcell: Concert Suite (arr. Leopold Stokowski)

Johannes Ockeghem: Intemerata Dei mater (arr. Richard Egarr)

Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra

Richard Egarr (conductor)

Monteverdi: 'Sancta Maria succurre miseris', SV 328

Castello: Sonata quarta

Monteverdi: 'Laudate Dominum in sanctis eius', SV 287

Castello: Sonata seconda

Monteverdi: 'Jubilet tota civitas', SV 286

Castello: Sonata Nona

Monteverdi: 'Cantate Domino', SV 292

Richard Egarr (director, harpsichord & organ).

Richard Egarr directs the Academy of Ancient Music in music by Monteverdi and Castello.

Academy Of St Martin In The Fields Chamber Ensemble, Mozart, Rossini, Schubert20150930Live from King's Place, London.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble play a Rossini String Sonata, Mozart's Horn Quintet and Schubert's Octet

Rossini: String Sonata in G

Mozart: Horn Quintet in E flat, K407

8.15: Interval

Schubert Octet in F, D803

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble was created in 1967 to perform the larger chamber works - from quintets to octets - with players who customarily work together, instead of the usual string quartet with additional guests. Drawn from the principal players of the ASMF, the Chamber Ensemble tours as a string octet, string sextet, and in other configurations including winds. Their programme features Schubert's Octet, one of the staples of the chamber repertoire, along with less familiar pieces.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble in Mozart, Rossini and Schubert.

Academy Of St Martin In The Fields, Brahms, Beethoven, Haydn20160106Alan Gilbert conducts the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in Brahms, Beethoven and Haydn.

Recorded at Cadogan Hall, London.

Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn Op. 56a

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor Op. 37

8.15: Interval

Haydn: Symphony No. 90 in C major Hob. 1:90

Inon Barnatan, piano

Alan Gilbert, conductor

A double act from the New York Philharmonic joins the Academy in their concert from Cadogan Hall. Their renowned Music Director, Alan Gilbert, makes his conducting debut with the Academy; and dynamic Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan, for whom the role of Artist in Association was specially created in New York, makes his second London appearance with the Academy following a sold out concert together at the City of London Festival in 2014.

Alan Gilbert directs the Academy of St Martin in the Fields in Brahms, Beethoven and Haydn

Adam Fischer Conducts The Berlin Philharmonic20200706@dကm Fischer conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in a programme of favourites by Mozart and Haydn.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Mozart Symphony No. 36 in C, K. 425 ('Linz')

Haydn Berenice, che fai, Hob. XXIVa:10

8.15: Interval: Boris Blacher: Concertante Musik, Op 10

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra

Johannes Katlitzke, conductor

8.25: Mozart Ch'io mi scordi di te, K .505

Haydn Symphony No. 104 in D, Hob. I:104 ('London')

Julia Lezhneva, soprano

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

@dကm Fischer, conductor

Recorded on 03/10/2019 in the Philharmonie, Berlin

9.10: Weill: Berliner Requiem

Alexandre Laiter, tenor

Peter Kooy , bass

La Chapelle Royale

Ensemble Musique Oblique

Philippe Herreweghe

Concerts from Europe and around the world - the Berlin Philharmonic play Mozart and Haydn.

Adam Fischer Conducts The Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment20180302Adam Fischer conducts mezzo-soprano St退phanie d'Oustrac and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in symphonies and arias by Mozart and Haydn at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Mozart: Symphony No 38 in D, K504 (Prague)

Mozart: 2 Arias from La clemenza di Tito: Ecco il punto ... Non piu di fiori; Parto, parto, ma tu ben mio

Interval

Haydn: Berenice, che fai (Scena di Berenice)

Haydn: Symphony No 103 in E flat (Drumroll)

St退phanie d'Oustrac (mezzo-soprano)

Adam Fischer (conductor)

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 27 February 2018.

Adam Fischer conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Mozart and Haydn.

Al-andalus: Fado De Coimbra20190929As part of Radio 3's day of programmes exploring the music and culture of Al-Andalus - this concert features a style of music which can trace its roots back to medieval Moorish Portugal.

A concert of traditional Portuguese song, known as Fado, recorded earlier this year in Bucharest, featuring the Ricardo Dias Ensemble. Introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Walk along the streets of any Portuguese town and city on a summer night, and you may come across a crowd gathered around the open windows, straining to hear the lyrical voice of a popular 'fado' singer. The legend is that this famous torch song style singing native to Portugal, originated in Coimbra, thanks to the founder of its famous university being a well-known troubadour.

Fado specialists the Riccardo Dias Ensemble perform both traditional and modern reinventions of Portuguese Fado in this concert, recorded in Romania's Mihail Jora Concert Hall, Bucharest, Romania.

Producer: Helen Garrison

Fiona Talkington introduces a concert of Portuguese Fado from Bucharest.

Aldeburgh Festival: Bbc Philharmonic20230620From the Snape Maltings

Presented by Martin Handley

From the 2023 Aldeburgh Festival, music from Britten, Tchaikovsky and featured composer at this year's event, the Icelandic Anna Thorvaldsdottir performed by the BBC Philharmonic and Rumon Gamba from the Snape Maltings. The programme includes Britten's arresting symphonic journey on the theme of death and transfiguration, his Sinfonia da Requiem and Tchaikovsky intensely personal swansong, the Path退tique Symphony. Also on the Philharmonic's programme is a major piece by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir inspired by the `natural order between beauty and chaos`. The presenter is Martin Handley.

Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem

Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Metacosmos

8.10pm

Interval

Martin Handley in conversation with Anna Thorvaldsdottir

Debussy: La Mer 'From dawn to noon on the sea

London Symphony Orchestra

Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 6 'Pathetique

Rumon Gamba (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic perform Britten, Tchaikovsky and Thorvaldsdottir.

Aldeburgh Festival: City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra20230622The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's new Chief Conductor, Kazuki Yamada, directs the orchestra in a programme of English music given as part of this year's Aldeburgh Festival. The tenor Ian Bostridge is joined by the orchestra's principal horn Elspeth Dutch for Benjamin Britten's much loved Serenade and Gustav Holst offers a tribute to Kazuki Yamada's homeland in his rarely heard Japanese Suite. Finally the orchestra pays homage to one of its early guiding spirits, Edward Elgar, with a performance of the composer's First Symphony. The presenter is Martin Handley.

Part One

Gustav Holst: Japanese Suite, Op.33

Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op.31

Interval

Music from CD

Imogen Holst: 'Fall of the Leaf

Steven Isserlis (cello)

Martin Handley talks to tonight's conductor, The CBSO's new Chief Conductor Kazuki Yamada about his new role with the orchestra.

Part Two

Elgar: Symphony No.1 in A flat, Op.55

Kazuki Yamada, conductor

Ian Bostridge, tenor

Elspeth Dutch, horn soloist

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in a concert of English music.

Aldeburgh Festival: Knussen Chamber Orchestra20230621From the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings, the Knussen Chamber Orchestra and Ryan Wigglesworth juxtapose music by Mozart and Elliott Carter as part of this year's Aldeburgh Festival. The Knussen Chamber Orchestra was founded in memory of the composer and for many years a guiding light of the Aldeburgh Festival, Oliver Knussen. It consists of recent graduates of the Royal Academy of Music sitting alongside eminent professional colleagues. It was founded by this evening's conductor/pianist Ryan Wigglesworth. The concert is introduced by Martin Handley.

Part One

Elliott Carter: The American Sublime

Mozart: Quintet in E flat for piano and winds K.452

Interval

Settings of early poems by TS Eliot -

Thomas Ades - Five Eliot Landscapes Op1

Valdine Anderson (soprano)

Thomas Ades (piano)

(From CD)

Part Two

Elliott Carter: Three Explorations (European premiere)

Mozart: Serenade No.12 in C minor, K388/384a

Ryan Wigglesworth, director & piano

Evan Hughes, baritone

The Knussen Chamber Orchestra perform music by Mozart and Elliott Carter.

Alexander Gadjiev And Rob Luft20201027Live from the Royal Festival Hall: a Radio 3 New Generation Artists Showcase.

Alexander Gadjiev brings his brand of thoughtful pianism to the Southbank Centre's Inside Out season with a programme that explores the relationships between Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt. And, after the interval, the jazz guitarist Rob Luft and his Quartet are joined by Swiss-Albanian singer Elina Duni for a late set.

Presented by Andrew McGregor.

Chopin: Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38

Beethoven: Allegretto from Seventh Symphony

Liszt: Fun退railles. from Harmonies po退tiques et religieuses.

Chopin: Polonaise in f sharp minor Op. 44

c. 8.15pm Interval Recent recordings from former New Generation Artists Tai Murray and Fatma Said.

c. 8.35pm

Rob Luft Quartet, featuring the Albanian-Swiss singer-pianist Elina Duni perform tracks including Life Is The Dancer, All Ways Moving and traditional Albanian songs.

Rob Luft (guitar)

Elina Duni (voice and keyboarda)

Joe Wright (tenor saxophone)

Tom McCredie (bass guitar)

Corrie Dick (drums)

A Radio 3 New Generation Artists showcase, live from the Southbank Centre.

Alexander Gadjiev Plays Chopin's Piano20221102Alexander Gadjiev joins the Consone Quartet to play Chopin's Second Piano Concerto on the composer's own piano.

Earlier this year, Alexander Gadjiev joined his fellow Radio 3 New Generation Artists, the period instrument Consone Quartet to realise his dream of playing Chopin on the composer's own 1848 Pleyel piano. Chopin is known to have preferred the soft-voiced Pleyel pianos above all others, describing them as, `the last word in perfection.` It is very likely that this instrument was the one he had kept at his salon at the Square d'Orl退ans, Paris before bringing it to England in 1848. The piano now forms part of the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands Park in Surrey and it was only after it had been there for twenty or so years that its remarkable provenance came to light. Also this evening, the Consone Quartet are joined by viola player John Crockatt to play Mozart in the gorgeous acoustics of the eighteenth century Octagon Chapel, Norwich as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, now in its 250th year.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Chopin: Prelude in c sharp minor Op. 45

Chopin: Mazurkas Op. 56 nos. 2 and 3

Chopin: Polonaise Op. 44

Chopin: Piano Concerto no. 2 in f minor (arr. for Piano and String Quintet)

Alexander Gadjiev (1848 Pleyel piano),

Consone Quartet with Jan Zahourek (double bass)

c. 8.35pm

Mozart: String Quintet no 4 in g minor K 516

Consone Quartet with John Crockatt (viola)

Alexander Gadjiev - a multiple prize winner at the Warsaw International Chopin Competition 2021 - and the Consone Quartet are current Radio 3 New Generation Artists.

Established over two decades ago, Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme is acknowledged internationally as the foremost programme of its kind. It exists to offer a platform for artists at the beginning of their international careers; each year six musicians join the scheme for two years, during which time they appear at the UK's major music festivals and venues, enjoy dates with the BBC orchestras and have the opportunity to record in the BBC studios. The artists are also encouraged to form artistic partnerships with one another.

Alexander Gadjiev joins the Consone Quartet, performing on Chopin's 1848 Pleyel piano.

Alexander Vedernikov Conducts Shostakovich And Tchaikovsky20171130Live from City Halls Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Alexander Vedernikov conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in the 11th Symphony by Shostakovich; and they are joined by Denis Kozhukhin to perform Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1.

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 1

0810 Interval

0830

Shostakovich: Symphony No 11 (The Year 1905)

Denis Kozhukhin (piano)

Alexander Vedernikov (conductor)

Alexander Vedernikov conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in two Russian works from either side of revolutionary events.

Every single beggar in the whole of Little Russia sings exactly the same tune...' wrote Tchaikovsky, and he pinched that Ur-melody for the first movement of his super-lyrical piano concerto of 1847. And Russian street-songs also feature, with greater irony, in Shostakovich's 11th Symphony.

As we mark the centenary of the 1917 Revolution we hear Shostakovich's reflections on the earlier 1905 political unrest in the Russian Empire. Writing amid the tentative de-Stalinization of the mid 1950s, and during a period of intense personal unhappiness, an increasingly garlanded Shostakovich offers a typically ambiguous and kaleidoscopic work: conceived as a popular piece, its alarm bells nevertheless ring out a sharp critique of violence, and abuses of dictatorial power.

Alexander Vedernikov conducts the BBC SSO in music by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.

Alicia De Larrocha Plays Mozart And Granados At The Amsterdam Concertgebouw In 198420231113Mozart and Granados from the legendary pianist Alicia de Larrocha in Amsterdam in 1984 and Francisco Guerrero's Mass for the Dead from Barcelona's medieval Cathedral.

Born in Barcelona a hundred years ago this year, Alicia de Larrocha enjoyed a remarkable seventy five year career during which she was adored for her performances of a huge range of music. But it was for her peerless interpretations of the music of Spain above all that she was most widely admired. As one critic put it: 'She had a way of idiomatically shaping a musical phrase that cannot be taught...It's hard to imagine the piano being played better than it is in her Epic recording of Goyescas.' Tonight's performance of Granados's Goyescas comes from a concert Alicia de Larrocha gave in 1984 at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and certainly brought the house down. And before it come two works by Mozart that reveal her deeply personal affection for the composer.

And after that, in tonight's double-bill, the Cererols Choir from Catalonia sing Guerrero's Missa pro defunctis (Requiem) along with motets by two of his Spanish Golden Age contemporaries at Barcelona's Gothic Basílica de Sant Just i Sant Pastor. Although he spent most of his life as choirmaster of Seville cathedral, Francisco Guerrero became the best known Spanish composer of the second half of the sixteenth century and his influence stretched as far as Portugal and the New World. His fifty minute Requiem of 1582 promises to be particularly moving when heard in the spacious acoustics of Barcelona's Gothic cathedral.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Mozart: Fantasia in C minor K. 475

Mozart Piano Sonata in C minor K. 457

Granados: Goyescas, o Los majos enamorados

Alicia de Larrocha (piano)

at approx. 8.55pm

Cristóbal de Morales: Motet Peccantem me quotidi

Francisco Guerrero: Missa pro defunctis (Requiem)

Alonso Lobo: Motet Versa est in luctum

Marc Díaz (conductor and organ)

Alicia de Larrocha plays Mozart's Fantasy and Sonata in C minor and Granados's Goyescas

The legendary pianist Alicia de Larrocha plays Mozart and Granados in Amsterdam in 1984 and the Cererols Choir sings Guerrero's Mass for the Dead in Barcelona's Gothic Cathedral.

Alim Beisembayev Plays Liszt20230131Alim Beisembayev, winner of the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition returns to the city with a programme of Bach, Liszt and Schubert. During the interval, you can hear a string quartet by the 20th Century Kazakh composer Gaziza Zhubanova.

J S Bach: French Suite No.2, BWV.813

Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata in C minor, D.958

Gaziza Zhubanova: String Quartet No.1

Kazakh State String Quartet

Franz Liszt: Ȁtudes d'ex退cution transcendante, S.139

iii Paysage

iv Mazeppa

v Feux follets

ix Ricordanza

x Allegro agitato molto

xi Harmonies du soir

xii Chasse-neige

Alim Beisembayev (piano)

The concert is presented from The Venue at Leeds Conservatoire by Tom McKinney.

Alim Beisembayev plays Bach, Schubert and Liszt at The Venue in Leeds.

All-night Vigil With The Bbc Singers And Abel Selaocoe20230523Night is universal, and dusk has inspired some of the most beautiful music ever written, including Rachmaninov's Vespers, the quiet and deeply moving profession of the composer's dedicated faith. Tonight its movements are interwoven with serene snapshots of different African twilights by Abel Selaocoe, a remarkable artist whose music aims to 'understand different ways we seek refuge, not always a place of comfort but one of empowerment that allows potential to live a fulfilled life'. This concert might be more reflective than his usual high-octane performances, but you can be in no doubt the outcome will be just as beautiful.

Rachmaninov: Vespers

interwoven with: music of African twilight

BBC Singers

Sofi Jeannin, conductor

Abel Selaocoe, cello and voice

Experience the shadows of evening, as Rachmaninov meets African musical traditions.

American Dreams And Sonic Fireworks20230224Gemma New conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in music by John Adams, Valerie Coleman, Samuel Barber and, with pianist Lise de la Salle, Gershwin's ebullient Piano Concerto in F.

President Nixon goes to China - and diplomacy becomes a foxtrot. George Gershwin scales the pinnacles of jazz-age Manhattan, in the ultimate skyscraper concerto. Valerie Coleman finds that unity has African roots, and Samuel Barber grapples with European tradition, in a symphony written at storm force.

America has many musical voices, and in her debut concert with the BBC SO Gemma New has conceived a concert that's as diverse and as generous as the American dream itself - ranging from the UK premiere of Valerie Coleman's exuberant `Anthem of Unity` to 20th-century classics by Adams and Barber. And to top it all, there's another BBC SO debut, as the `stunning` (Washington Classical Review) Lise de la Salle plays Gershwin's gloriously tuneful concerto: expect fireworks worthy of the Fourth of July.

Live from the Barbican, London.

Presented by Ian Skelly

John Adams: The Chairman Dances

George Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F

20.25 Interval: Music (Off CD) chosen by Gemma New

George Walker Molto Adagio from String Quartet No. 1

Catalyst Quartet

Michael Tilson Thomas: Upon Further Reflection - iii You Come Here Often? (Hello Stranger) (1977)

John Wilson (piano)

Kevin Puts: Evening

Ren退e Fleming (soprano)

Yannick N退zet-S退guin (piano)

20.45

Valerie Coleman: Umoja (Anthem of Unity) (UK Premiere)

Samuel Barber: Symphony No. 1, Op 9

Lise de la Salle (piano)

Gemma New (conductor)

Gemma New conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Adams, Coleman, Barber and Gershwin.

An Aldeburgh Tribute To Oliver Knussen201907022019 marks the 50th anniversary of Oliver Knussen - who died suddenly last year - being invited by Britten to have his music performed at the Aldeburgh Festival and tonight's concert is a tribute to him. The newly formed Knussen Chamber Orchestra perform music by Knussen himself as well as music and composers he admired. Presented by Tom McKinney.

Part 1

Knussen: Gong (from Four Late Poems and an Epigram of Rainer Maria Rilke)

Stravinsky: Septet

Knussen: Scriabin Settings

Takemitsu: How Slow the Wind

Knussen: O Hototogisu!

INTERVAL

During the interval Tom McKinney visits the Britten/Pears Foundation and meets the librarian Nicholas Clark to reflect on the musical relationship between Benjamin Britten and the young Oliver Knussen. Included is an extract from Britten's opera Curlew River in the recording by the English Opera Group conducted by the composer.

Part 2

Britten: Nocturne

Schubert: Symphony No.5

Claire Booth (soprano)

Mark Padmore (tenor)

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

The Knussen Chamber Orchestra marks the life of the great composer who died last year.

An Alpine Symphony From Manchester20230411From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Ian Skelly

The BBC Philharmonic are guided on an epic, day-long mountain journey by Nicholas Collon in Richard Strauss's 'An Alpine Symphony'. We travel with them through meadows and forests and experience weather, danger and exhilaration before arriving safely home. Soprano Francesca Chiejina joins the orchestra for Alban Berg's Seven Early Songs, music he revisited from earlier in his life to colour with deft orchestration. Again themes of the outdoors and nature are celebrated in summer days wandering in the countryside, as well as celebrating the joy of being back at home in front of the fire with a loved one. In 'Three pieces that disappear', a new BBC Radio 3 commission for the orchestra by their Conductor-in- Association, Tom Coult, he speaks of music 'being remembered, forgotten, misremembered, imagined, deteriorating.

Tom Coult: Three pieces that disappear (world premiere)

Berg: Seven Early Songs

8.10pm

Debussy Preludes: Le Vent dans la plaine; Des pas sur la neige; Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest; Brouillards

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

Strauss: An Alpine Symphony

Francesca Chiejina (soprano)

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic play Richard Strauss, Alban Berg and a world premiere by Tom Coult.

An Anonymous Lover20210331From MediaCityUK, Salford

Presented by Tom McKinney

The music in tonight's programme was penned within just sixteen years, on the cosmopolitan and interconnected stage of the 18th century, beginning with the overture to 'The anonymous lover', one of only two surviving operas of six by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George. Equally famed for his prowess as a fencer, soldier, violinist, composer and concert promoter he was a key figure in French musical life at this time. Mozart's mother died while he was in Paris, and following her death, he lived under same roof as Bologne, for a couple of months before returning to Salzburg. Mozart's early E flat Piano Concerto K 271 was written for a French pianist, Victoire Jenamy, daughter of one of Mozart's theatrical friend, possibly after they had dined out together in Vienna. Haydn designed three symphonies as crowd-pleasers for London and when performances failed to materialise, he offered them for performance in France. Tonight, we feature what's perhaps the most effervescent of the trio. Haydn's six Paris Symphonies would later be premiered by Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George. To end the concert, Ben Gernon conducts one of Mozart's most majestic symphonies.

Bologne: The anonymous lover, Overture

Haydn: Symphony No 77

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 9 (K 271); Symphony No 28 (K 200)

BBC Philharmonic

Martin Roscoe (piano)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

(items by Bologne and Haydn recorded yesterday)

Ben Gernon conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Bologne, Haydn and Mozart.

An Elgarian Centenary20190507Tonight's concert celebrates 100 years since the first performances of the three major chamber works by Sir Edward Elgar from a club he founded, Malvern Concert Club. One of these, the Piano Quintet in A minor, he dedicated to the Brodsky Quartet and it is their modern counter-parts who perform tonight. Elizabeth Alker presents.

Programme:

Elgar: String Quartet in E minor, Op 83

Elgar: Violin Sonata in E minor, Op 82

Elgar: Piano Quintet in A minor, Op 84

Martin Roscoe (piano)

Brodsky Quartet and pianist Martin Roscoe at Malvern Concert Club.

An Evening With David Sedaris20161223An evening with David Sedaris and the BBC Symphony Orchestra: Death knows no season

Recorded on 20 Dec 2016 Barbican Hall, London

Giancarlo Guerrero Conductor

David Sedaris is smart, he's biting, and he's one of the world's best storytellers. He skilfully slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness in his droll assessment of the absurdity that teems just below the surface of everyday life. And he is hilarious.

You might have heard his hit series for BBC Radio 4, or maybe you're one of the millions across the world who have read his bestselling books. Now, hear the devastatingly funny man on stage with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This one-off evening of words and music will leave you in stitches, even if - or perhaps because - the programme is entitled 'Death knows no season'!

From the Barbican in London, an evening of music and comedy with humorist David Sedaris.

An Icicle Of Moon20190614Georgia Mann presents a concert from the Royal College of Music, London.

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante for Winds, K297b

Simon Holt: an icicle of moon

Dvorak: Symphony No 8

Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra

Thomas Zehetmair, conductor

Austrian violinist and conductor Thomas Zehetmair directs the RCM Symphony Orchestra in this varied evening concert. Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante opens the programme, treating us to rich textures and dazzling solo writing. RCM Professor of Composition Simon Holt follows with a work dedicated to the 80th birthday of fellow composer Harrison Birtwistle. An icicle of moon is an evocative piece scored for a small orchestra which takes its name from a line in the Garc퀀a Lorca poem, Romance somnကmbulo. Finally, Dvorak's Symphony No 8 closes the programme with its charming Czech melodies and unexpected Slavonic waltz movement.

Photo: © Chris Christodoulou

The Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra plays Mozart, Holt and Dvorak.

An Orchestral Soundfest From Suffolk20190625The BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Karina Canellakis at the 2019 Aldeburgh Festival. Works by Wagner, Thomas Larcher, Stravinsky and Britten's song cycle Our Hunting Fathers.

Recorded at the Aldeburgh Festival in Snape Maltings Concert Hall on Saturday 15th June 2019.

Presented by Natasha Riordan

Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

Britten: Our Hunting Fathers

8.10 Interval:

Thomas Larcher: Red and Green

Stravinsky: Suite, The Firebird (1919 version)

Mark Padmore (tenor)

Karina Canellakis (conductor)

In the first of five concerts broadcast in Radio 3 in Concert from this year's Aldeburgh Festival, Karina Canellakis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in her Aldeburgh Festival debut in a programme that offers ravishing sounds aplenty. From the restless rapture of Wagner's Prelude and Liebestod (from his opera Tristan und Isolde) to a striking work about colour-blindness - Red and Green by Austrian composer and 2019 Festival Artist in Residence, Thomas Larcher. Plus two works written when their composers were on the threshold of fame: the Suite from Stravinsky's 1919 ballet score The Firebird with its startling, novel orchestral effects; and Benjamin Britten's first orchestral song cycle 'Our Hunting Fathers' (1936) an inspirational collaboration with WH Auden, which hauntingly taps into the darkness of the Europe of the 1930s. Mark Padmore is the tenor soloist.

Anarchic, Psychedelic, Ecstatic: Orchestral Music, By Zappa, Anderson And Ives20181025Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

~Radio 3 In Concert: Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra play music by Frank Zappa; a concerto by Julian Anderson with pianist Steven Osborne; and 4 Ives Holidays.

Zappa: The Perfect Stranger

7.45 Interval

8.00 Part 2

Julian Anderson: The Imaginary Museum (Piano Concerto)

8.30 Interval

8.45 Part 3

Ives: 4 New England Holidays

Steven Osborne (piano)

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Anarchic, psychedelic, ecstatic: The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov perform a concert of eccentric musical imaginations.

The concert begins with orchestral music by Frank Zappa: the maverick experimenter. His uncharacterisable work The Perfect Stranger -commissioned by Pierre Boulez-gives us an insight into his unique brain.

This is followed by Julian Anderson's piano concerto 'The Imaginary Museum' - a concerto inspired, in part, by the improvisatory imagination of its dedicatee and tonight's solo performer, Steven Osborne.

And the concert concludes with a sequence of 4 symphonic works by that pioneer of American music, Charles Ives. A composer for whom nothing could stand in the way of his sonic and philosophical imagination.

~Radio 3 In Concert: Ilan Volkov conducts the BBC SSO in a programme of Zappa and Ives.

Anastasia Kobekina Plays Brahms And Schumann At Wigmore Hall20230405The much-garlanded young Russian cellist Anastasia Kobekina, prize-winner at prestigious competitions and recent graduate of Radio 3's New Generation Artist Scheme, is fast becoming a familiar figure on the international concert circuit. Tonight she's joined by Swiss composer-pianist Jean-S退lim Abdelmoula for a programme including some of the best-loved staples of 19th-century cello repertoire: Brahms's two Sonatas and Schumann's Fantasiestücke and Adagio and Allegro.

Recorded last week at Wigmore Hall and introduced by Andrew McGregor.

Schumann: Fantasiestücke Op. 73

Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor Op. 38

8.20 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Schumann: Five Songs from Heinrich Laube's Jagdbrevier Op. 137

Amarcord

German Hornsound

8.35 pm

Schumann: Adagio and Allegro in A flat Op. 70

Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 2 in F Op. 99

Anastasia Kobekina (cello)

Jean-S退lim Abdelmoula (piano)

Anastasia Kobekina and pianist Jean-Selim Abdelmoula play Brahms's two cello sonatas.

Andras Schiff And The Choir And Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment Play Haydn.20180704In the last of their 'Visions, Illusions & Delusions' season the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are joined by distinguished pianist and conductor Andrကs Schiff for an all-Haydn programme including two late, great works. The Mass in B flat is Haydn's last significant work and cost the 70-year-old composer a great deal of effort. It gets its name 'Harmoniemesse' or 'Wind-band mass' for its unusually prominent (for Haydn) use of wind instruments. Spoiler alert: the surprise in Haydn's Symphony No.94 is a loud unexpected chord for full orchestra in the slow movement but it would be a shame to focus on this when the rest of the music is so tirelessly fresh, inventive and full of delightful compositional sleights of hand. But perhaps the real surprise of the concert is the opportunity to hear a Haydn keyboard concerto. This D major concerto is by far Haydn's most popular with its flamboyant Hungarian gypsy rondo finale.

Presented live from the Queen Elizabeth Hall by Martin Handley.

Haydn: Symphony No. 94 in G major ('Surprise')

Haydn: Piano Concerto in D major

7.50pm Interval (music from CD)

Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102, No. 2

Andrကs Schiff (piano)

Mikl s Per退nyi (cello)

8.10pm

Haydn: Mass in B flat major ('Harmoniemesse')

Charlotte Beament (soprano)

Helen Charlston (mezzo-soprano)

Nick Pritchard (tenor)

Dingle Yandell (bass baritone)

Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Andrကs Schiff (conductor/piano).

Andras Schiff and the Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment perform Haydn.

Andras Schiff Plays Schubert At Wigmore Hall20181010Andras Schiff, one of the world's most renowned musicians, plays a sequence of three late, great Schubert piano Sonatas which broke new expressive and emotional ground in their shift away from the Beethovenian drama towards a more expansive and lyrical model.

Sarah Walker presents, live from Wigmore Hall.

Schubert: Piano Sonata in Piano Sonata in A minor D845

Piano Sonata in D D850

Andras Schiff (fortepiano)

Interval Music (from CD)

Schubert: Nachtgesang im Walde, D913

Stefan Jezierski, Georg Schreckenberger, Fergus McWilliam, Klaus Wallendorf (horns)

RIAS Kammerchor

Marcus Creed (conductor)

Schumann: Jagdlieder, Op. 137; No. 4. Frühe

Amarcord

German Hornsound

Brahms: Four Songs, Op. 17; IV. Gesang aus Fingal

Pygmalion

Anneke Scott, Joseph Walters (horns)

Emmanuel Ceysson (harp)

Rapha뀀l Pichon (conductor)

Bruckner: Abendzauber

Marcus Krause (baritone)

Marie-Luise Neunecker Horn Ensemble

South German Vocal Ensemble

Rolf Beck (conductor)

Schubert: Fantasy Sonata in G D894

Andras Schiff plays late Schubert piano music including the Fantasy Sonata in G major D894

Andras Schiff Plays Schubert At Wigmore Hall20200528Andras Schiff, one of the world's most renowned musicians, plays a sequence of three late, great Schubert piano sonatas which broke new expressive and emotional ground in their shift away from the Beethovenian drama towards a more expansive and lyrical model.

Another chance to hear this concert recorded live at Wigmore Hall in October 2018, presented by Sarah Walker.

Schubert: Piano Sonata in A minor D845

Piano Sonata in D D850

Andras Schiff (fortepiano)

8.50pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Schubert: Nachtgesang im Walde, D913

Stefan Jezierski, Georg Schreckenberger, Fergus McWilliam, Klaus Wallendorf (horns)

RIAS Kammerchor

Marcus Creed (conductor)

Schumann: Jagdlieder, Op. 137; No. 4. Frühe

Amarcord

German Hornsound

Brahms: Four Songs, Op. 17; IV. Gesang aus Fingal

Pygmalion

Anneke Scott, Joseph Walters (horns)

Emmanuel Ceysson (harp)

Rapha뀀l Pichon (conductor)

Bruckner: Abendzauber

Marcus Krause (baritone)

Marie-Luise Neunecker Horn Ensemble

South German Vocal Ensemble

Rolf Beck (conductor)

9.15pm

Schubert: Fantasy Sonata in G D894

Andras Schiff plays late Schubert piano music, including the Fantasy Sonata in G, D894.

Andreas Staier Plays Schubert20180919Andreas Staier, renowned for his performances and recordings on the fortepiano and harpsichord, plays on a modern piano for this all-Schubert recital. Schubert's Impromptus are often considered companion pieces to his Six moments musicaux. Here Staier performs both sets alongside one of the composer's final piano sonatas, a tribute to the theme of Beethoven's 32 Variations in C Minor.

Recorded at Wigmore Hall, London

Presented by Mark Forrest

Schubert: Impromptu in C minor D899 No. 1

Schubert: Impromptu in A flat D935 No. 2

Schubert: 6 Moments Musicaux D780

c. 8.20pm

Interval

c. 8.40pm

Schubert: Piano Sonata in C minor D958

Andreas Staier (piano)

Andreas Staier performs an all-Schubert recital at Wigmore Hall

Andris Nelsons Conducts The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra20200107Georgia Mann presents the second of five concerts this week showcasing highlights from the season around Europe. Andris Nelsons' international career has two fixed points: one in Boston, the other in Leipzig where since 2018 he's been making waves as Kapellmeister at the Gewandhaus Orchestra, one of the world's most distinguished and venerable musical institutions.

In his season opener recorded in September, Nelsons chose repertoire with strong links to Leipzig, beginning with a specially commissioned world premiere by veteran French composer Betsy Jolas. Letters from Bachville is Jolas's playful title for a 14-minute work paying homage both to Bach and the city he worked in for so long. 19th-century Leipzig is the city where Robert Schumann moved to live with his piano teacher Friedrich Wieck who got an unwelcome son-in-law, as well as a pupil. Famous throughout Europe, teenage prodigy Clara Wieck wrote her piano concerto as a vehicle for her unrelenting concert schedule. Robert's 'Spring' symphony brings the concert to a triumphant and joyful close.

Betsy Jolas: Letters from Bachville

Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 7

8.15 Interval music (from CD)

J. S. Bach: Cantata 'Allein zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ', BWV 33

Thomanerchor Leipzig

S䀀chsisches Barockorchester

Julia Sophie Wagner, Sopran

Stefan Kahle, Altus

Wolframm Lattke, Tenor

Tobias Berndt, Bass

Thomaskantor Gotthold Schwarz

8.35pm

Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 1 in B flat, op. 38 ('Spring')

Lauma Skride (piano)

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

Andris Nelsons (conductor)

Followed by:

Nathan James Dearden and the Swansea Philharmonic Choir

Making Music's Adopt a Composer scheme, in association with Sound and Music, paired composer and choir to create a piece of music. Follow Nathan James Dearden and the Swansea Philharmonic Choir behind the scenes in this short feature about their journey together, and hear the piece Nathan wrote for the choir, '3 Postcards'.

Music by Clara and Robert Schumann and Betsy Jolas.

Angela Hewitt At Wigmore Hall20220322Angela Hewitt plays Bach, Mozart and Ravel at Wigmore Hall.

The multi-award winning Canadian pianist makes a welcome return to Wigmore Hall in a programme which ranges from her beloved JS Bach to Chabrier, a composer who she has championed in recent years.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Mozart: Piano Sonata in F K332

Bach: Well Tempered Klavier Book II: Prelude and Fugue No. 13 in F sharp BWV882, No. 14 in F sharp minor BWV883, No. 15 in G BWV884, No. 16 in G minor BWV885

Interval music: Bach's motet Motet Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied BWV 225 sung by Collegium Vocale Ghent.

Mozart: Piano Sonata in B flat K333

Ravel: Sonatine

Chabrier: Bourr退e fantasque

Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt plays Bach, Mozart and Ravel at Wigmore Hall.

Angela Hewitt, Bach's French Suites20170120Live from Wigmore Hall in London, pianist Angela Hewitt performs all six of Bach's so-called 'French Suites

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Bach:

French Suite No. 1 in D minor, BWV 812

French Suite No. 2 in C minor, BWV 813

French Suite No. 4 in E flat major, BWV 815

8.15: Interval

8.35

French Suite No. 6 in E major, BWV 817

French Suite No. 3 in B minor, BWV 814

French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV 816

Angela Hewitt (piano)

After tonight's concert there's a chance to hear works performed during a recent concert that surveyed music written and performed in Terezin and the Warsaw Ghetto - Music on the Brink of Destruction.

Live at Wigmore Hall, London, pianist Angela Hewitt plays all six of Bach's French Suites.

Angels And Demons20191007Weimar Berlin: the Philharmonia Orchestra explore music written in the aftermath of the First World War.

In a typically provocative programme, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in music which takes us from the louche world of Berlin cabaret to the Lutheran certainties of Bach's chorales. Schoenberg filters Bach through his own febrile ear. Alban Berg includes a quotation from a Bach chorale in his concerto dedicated to the memory of the 18-year-old daughter of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. After the interval, Hindemith seeks inspiration in the late Medieval world of painter Matthias Grünewald and his apocalyptic altarpieces.

Hindemith: Rag Time (well-tempered)

Bach arr. Schoenberg: Two Chorale Preludes - Schmucke dich, O liebe Seele BWV. 654 and Komm, Gott Schopfer, heiliger Geist BWV.667

Berg: Violin Concerto

8.10pm Interval: Esa-Pekka Salonen reflects on the cultural melting pot that was the Weimar Republic. Plus a quartet movement by Zemlinksy father-figure to many of the composers of the Weimar Republic and an erstwhile friend of Alma Schindler-Mahler. And a motet by Heinrich Isaac, a contemporary of Matthias Grünewald whose Choralis Constantinus was edited by the young Anton Webern.

8.30pm

Hindemith: Symphony (Mathis der Maler)

Christian Tetzlaff (violin)

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

Image credit: Philharmonia Orchestra / Harrison Agency

The Philharmonia Orchestra play music from the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic.

Anoushka Shankar, The Orchestral Qawwali Project And The Scottish Chamber Orchestra20220208From Celtic Connections this January, British Indian composer and sitar player Anoushka Shankar joins the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to perform Ravi Shankar's Sitar Concerto No.3, written for Anoushka by her father. In a departure from traditional western concerto style, the piece blends improvisational playing and Indian classical ragas with western orchestral performance. Before the interval, the Orchestral Qawwali Project joins the SCO to perform a selection of ancient Sufi devotional songs known as Qawwali, orchestrated by composer Rushil and with the UK's first female qawwal, acclaimed singer Abi Sampar.

Traditional Qawwali arr. Rushil: Wohi Khuda Hai

Traditional Qawwali arr. Rushil: Man Kunto Maula

Traditional Qawwali arr. Rushil: Ya Mustafa

Traditional Qawwali arr. Rushil: Rang

Traditional Qawwali arr. Rushil: Dam Mast Qalandar

20.00

INTERVAL: Enescu Violin Sonata No 3 in A minor Op.25, performed by Yehudi Menuhin and his sister Hephzibah Menuhin from the historic album 'West Meets East'.

20.20

Anoushka Shankar arr. Buckley/Trapp: Voice of the Moon

Ravi Shankar: Concerto No 3 for Sitar and Chamber Orchestra

Anoushka Shankar - Sitar

Clark Rundell - Conductor

Presenter: Lopa Kothari

Producer: Laura Metcalfe

Photo credit: Laura Lewis

Anoushka Shankar revisits the 2009 premiere of her father's Third Sitar Concerto.

Antonio Pappano With Louise Alder, Toby Spence And Gerald Finley20200615Gala concert from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

In the first performance on this historic stage since the beginning of lockdown, Louise Alder (soprano), Toby Spence (tenor) and Gerald Finley (bass-baritone) present a programme of English song across the centuries, partnered at the piano by Royal Opera House Director of Music, Antonio Pappano.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Britten: On this Island op.11

Butterworth: Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad

Strauss Morgen! op.27 no.4 Vasko Vassilev (violin

Turnage: Three Songs

Britten: The Crocodile

Finzi: Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun op.18 no.3

Handel: ‘Tornami a vagheggiar' (from the opera Alcina)

Bizet: ‘Au fond du temple saint' (Les Pꀀcheurs de perles)

8.50: Acts 1 and 2 of Verdi's Otello, in the new studio recording by the Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, conducted by Antonio Pappano. Otello is sung by Jonas Kaufmann, his wife Desdemona by Federica Lombardi, his nemesis Iago by Carlos Alvarez, and Iago's wife Emilia by Virginie Verrez.

A gala concert from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Arabian Nights And Scottish Fantasies20221031Scottish Fantasies and Arabian Nights.

The twenty-one-year-old Dutch violinist Noa Wildschut plays Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy, a gloriously romantic celebration of Scottish life. The work was premiered in Liverpool in 1881 and includes, among others, the folksongs, 'Through the Wood Laddie,' 'The Dusty Miller,' and 'Scots Wha Hae.' After that, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic revel in the Oriental warmth of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, his fantastical celebration of the world of The Arabian Nights.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Bruch: Scottish Fantasy Op. 46

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade Suite Op. 35

Noa Wildschut (violin)

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Kazuki Yamada (conductor)

Recorded at The Concertgebouw. 23/08/2022

Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade and Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy from Amsterdam.

Arcangelo, Bach Ensemble Works20160629The Baroque ensemble Arcangelo performs works by Bach with the violinist Isabelle Faust, soprano Anna Lucia Richter and flautist Rachel Brown.

Recorded at Wigmore Hall, London

Presented by Andrew McGregor

JS Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041

Johann Christoph Bach: Aria: Mein Freund ist mein, from Cantata Meine Freundin, du bist sch怀n

JS Bach: Violin Concerto in G minor, BWV 1056R

Interval - Arcangelo's recording of Mozart's Bassoon Concerto with Peter Whelan as soloist.

Part 2:

JS Bach: Orchestral Suite No.2 in B minor

JS Bach: Cantata: Non sa che sia dolore, BWV 209

JS Bach: Violin Concerto in E major, BWV 1042

Isabelle Faust (violin)

Anna Lucia Richter (soprano)

Rachel Brown (flute)

director Jonathan Cohen.

The ensemble Arcangelo performs Bach, with soloists including violinist Isabelle Faust.

Around Schubert20191021Live from the Wigmore Hall, London.

Presented by Andrew McGregor.

The Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall's chamber Ensemble in Residence, places the music of Franz Schubert at the centre of its series ‘Around Schubert', along with works by his contemporaries. This first concert includes two of Schubert's chamber music masterpieces, the single string quartet movement in C minor and the buoyant ‘Trout' Quintet with double bass. The outstanding French mezzo St退phanie d'Oustrac sings some of Weber's arrangements of Scottish folksongs, along with a Spohr ‘romance' which was a favourite in the Victorian era, and a group of Schubert songs which are favourites for all time.

Weber: Folksongs for voice, flute, violin, cello and piano

Schubert: Quartettsatz in C minor D703

Spohr: Zemire und Azor - Rose softly blooming

Schubert: Gretchen am Spinnrade D118

Du bist die Ruh D776

An die Musik D547

Nacht und Tr䀀ume D827

8.15

Interval: Music (from CD)

Weber: Clarinet Concerto No 1 in F minor, Op 73

Andreas Ottensamer, clarinet

Berlin Philharmonic

Mariss Jansons

8.35

Schubert: Piano Quintet in A D667 'The Trout

St退phanie d'Oustrac (mezzo-soprano)

Simon Crawford-Phillip (piano)

The Nash Ensemble perform music by Schubert and his contemporaries.

Ashley Riches Song Recital20180710A programme of songs entitled Songs before sleep, performed by Ashley Riches and Joseph Middleton.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Recorded on Sunday 8 July, at the Old Divinity School, St John's College as part of the Cambridge Summer Music Festival 2018.

Ashley Riches, bass-baritone

Joseph Middleton, piano

Radio 3 New Generation Artist Ashley Riches is joined by pianist Joseph Middleton for a recital of songs on a theme of night and visions, including works by Schubert, Gounod, Duparc, Saint-Saens, Debussy and Barber. The programme also features the world premiere of a work specially composed for Ashley Riches by Kate Whitley, setting poems by Julia Copus, and finishes with Richard Rodney Bennett's Songs before Sleep, using texts taken from the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes.

A programme of music titled 'Songs before sleep' performed by Ashley Riches.

At Free Thinking20180309Adam Tomlinson presents Royal Northern Sinfonia with works by Beethoven, Bruch and Mozart as part of this year's Free Thinking Festival, live from Sage Gateshead.

Oh Vienna. The city is writ large over tonight's concert, opening with Beethoven's tempestuous overture-without-incidental-music to Heinrich von Collin's play Coriolan, a hit in the capital at the time. There's Beethovenian tenderness in Bruch's Romance for viola, and the sun rises over the city in the opening to Mozart's last concerto for violin - a cosmopolitan work of warmth, depth and humour. And to close, Mozart again with his 'Linz' symphony, written in the city in just four days for an impromptu concert: 'there will be an academy [concert] in the theatre here and, as I have not a single symphony with me, I am writing a new one at breakneck speed.

Beethoven: Coriolan Overture

Mozart: Violin Concerto in A, K219, 'Turkish

INTERVAL

Bruch: Romance in F, Op 85

Mozart: Symphony No 36, 'Linz

Julian Rachlin (conductor/violin/viola)

Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Adam Tomlinson presents Royal Northern Sinfonia with works by Beethoven, Bruch and Mozart.

At Uproot Festival20170407The First Family of English Folk: a celebration of the Waterson Family, who come from Hull. Part of Radio 3's Uproot festival for Hull 2017.

Live from Hull Truck Theatre. Introduced by Kathryn Tickell

The Waterson Family:

Norma Waterson, Ann Waterson, Eleanor Waterson, Marry Waterson, Erin Anderson, Davoc Brady, Lauren McCormick, Emily Portman and Jim Causley (singers)

Martin Carthy (singer, guitar)

Eliza Carthy (singer, violin)

8.15 pm: INTERVAL - a profile of refugee musicians in Hull

8.15 pm Part Two

The Gift Band:

Norma Waterson (vocals)

Martin Carthy (guitar, banjo, vocals)

Eliza Carthy (Vocals, Violin)

David Donnelly (double bass, vocals)

David Delarre (guitar, mandolin, vocals)

Phil Alexander (piano, accordion, vocals)

Neil McColl (electric guitar, banjo, vocals)

Kate St John (oboe, piano accordion, vocals)

As part of the BBC's contribution to Hull UK City of Culture 2017, Radio 3 presents 'Uproot', a 3-day festival celebrating the area's folk and roots heritage as well as its international cultural connections. There are four concerts at Hull Truck Theatre from major world and folk artists, including Hull's folk royalty The Waterson Family, Eliza Cathy's innovative Arms Wide Orchestra, special appearances from Yorkshire folk artists Fay Hield and Martin Simpson, plus concerts celebrating Hull's international links from the Warsaw Village Band and Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars. The theme is reflected widely in other programming across the three days. The theme 'Uproot' is essentially a reflection on roots, how people relate to them in fast-changing times, and what happens when people are displaced from their roots.

The Watersons were leading figures in the English folk revival in the 1960s and 70s, celebrated for their unique song repertoire and distinctive vocal harmonies. With Martin Carthy joining the family in the 1970s, and new generations of family musicians coming through, they have been a reference-point for English folk for fifty years. In this special concert for Hull City of Culture 2017, they return to their home town, with a first half that celebrates the traditions of the Watersons' vocal harmonies, and a second half with The Gift Band, fronted by Norma Waterson, the only remaining member of the original 1960s line-up, with her daughter Eliza Carthy.

A celebration of The Waterson Family, as part of Radio 3's Uproot festival for Hull 2017.

Augusta Holmes World Premiere20190308To celebrate International Women's Day, Valentina Peleggi conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with a selection of music by women composers. The concert opens with the World Premiere of Augusta Holm耀s's Roland Furieux, nearly 150 years after it was completed. The work is based on Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem Orlando Furioso, and has been painstakingly reconstructed from the original manuscript for this performance. Mariam Batsashvili joins the orchestra to perform Clara Schumann's celebrated Piano Concerto, a work which the composer completed before she was 16, yet which demonstrates a remarkable poise and maturity. After the interval, in which conductor Valentina Peleggi selects music from female composers who have inspired her, we will hear Joan Tower's Second Fanfare For the Uncommon Women, inspired by Copland's well-known Fanfare for the Common Man. Finally we hear Florence Price's 3rd Symphony, which is deeply rooted in the Chicago renaissance and in which the dance rhythms of the age brilliantly evoke urban life in 1940s America.

Live from Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Augusta Holm耀s: Roland Furieux

Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op 7

8.15 Interval - Valentina Peleggi selects music by her favourite female composers

Joan Tower: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No 2

Florence B. Price: Symphony No 3 in C minor

Mariam Batsashvili (piano)

Valentina Peleggi (conductor)

Valentina Peleggi and BBC NOW perform a concert of music by female composers.

Aurora Orchestra Perform An All-mozart Concert20171212Nicholas Collon conducts Aurora Orchestra in an all-Mozart concert with soloists Sophie Bevan and Tom Poster.

Recorded on Saturday 9 December at Kings Place, London

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 8 in C major, K.246, 'Lutzow

Mozart: Ch'io mi scordi te? K.505

c.8.20: Interval

Mozart: Exsultate, Jubilate, K.165

Mozart: Symphony No. 29 in A major, K.201

Sophie Bevan (soprano)

Tom Poster (piano)

Samuel West (reader)

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

Nicholas Collon conducts Aurora Orchestra for tonight's all-Mozart programme, which features two of Britain's brightest young talents as its soloists - pianist Tom Poster and soprano Sophie Bevan - together with readings from the actor Samuel West. The piano features prominently in the first half: after the so-called 'Lützow' Concerto (written for Countess Antonia Lützow) comes one of Mozart's most celebrated concert arias, Ch'io mi scordi te?, for soprano with piano obbligato and orchestra. The two works in the second half - the popular sacred solo motet, Exsultate Jubilate (originally written for a castrato) and the brilliantly vibrant Symphony No. 29 - were composed when the composer was still a teenager.

Aurora Orchestra perform an all-Mozart concert, with soloists Sophie Bevan and Tom Poster.

Aurora Orchestra Plays Suckling, Mozart And Beethoven20180416Martin Suckling received widespread critical acclaim for his poignant song cycle Candlebird at its premiere in 2011, which sets texts by Don Paterson. Tonight's conductor, Nicholas Collon, conducted that first performance and has championed the work ever since. This work precedes the next instalment in Aurora Orchestra's cycle of the complete Mozart piano concertos: No. 16 in D major, featuring pianist Charles Owen, making his debut with the orchestra. Concluding tonight's concert is Beethoven's Symphony No. 4. Situated rather awkwardly between the ground-breaking Third ('Eroica') and the monumental Fifth symphonies, the Fourth eschews fate and angst in favour of a sunny, cheerful character that often recalls the classical model of Haydn.

Recorded at Kings Place, 7th April

Martin Suckling: Candlebird

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 16 in D major, KV. 451

Interval

Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, Op. 60

Mark Stone (baritone)

Charles Owen (piano)

Nicholas Collon (conductor).

Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon perform Suckling, Mozart and Beethoven.

Aurora Orchestra With Allan Clayton At Kings Place20210713As part of Kings Place's year-long London Unwrapped season, celebrating the capital city as melting pot and cultural nexus, Aurora Orchestra play English string music spanning 100 years with strong London links.

Both Elgar's Introduction and Allegro and Walton's Sonata were commissioned by London ensembles - the London Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields respectively - the Elgar, a classic of the string orchestra repertoire, the Walton getting a rare outing this evening. Kate Whitley is a founder of the innovative London-based Multi-Story Orchestra which began its life in a south-east London car park. Her nostalgic, rapturous Autumn Songs was inspired by the change in the seasons from late summer to early autumn. Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings was premiered in 1943 at Wigmore Hall with the two soloists for whom it was written, Peter Pears and legendary horn player Dennis Brain. Tonight, Allan Clayton and Pip Eastop take those roles in this darkly dazzling 20th-century classic, which at once demonstrates Britten's unerring ear for setting English poetry and his instinctive way with instrumental and vocal virtuosity.

Recorded last month at Kings Place and introduced by Ian Skelly.

Whitley: Autumn Song

Elgar: Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47

8.00 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Schumann: Adagio and Allegro in A flat major, Op. 70

Dennis Brain (horn)

Benjamin Britten (piano)

8.15 pm

Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31

Walton: Sonata for String Orchestra

Allan Clayton (tenor)

Pip Eastop (horn)

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

Allan Clayton sings Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.

Aurora Orchestra, Mozart, Liszt, Mendelssohn20161003The Aurora Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon, play two Mozart piano concertos and Mendelssohn's 'Italian' Symphony, plus works by Paganini and Liszt at Kings Place in London.

Concert recorded 17/09/2016 at Kings Place in London.

Paganini: Caprice No 5

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 6 in B flat, K 238

Liszt: Le mal du pays (Homesickness) from 'Les ann退es de p退l耀rinage

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 5 in D, K 175

8.20: Interval

8.40

Mendelssohn: Symphony No 4 in A major, Op 90 (Italian)

C退dric Tiberghien (piano)

Thomas Gould (violin)

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

In 1762, Leopold Mozart took his 6-year-old son Wolfgang on a journey to the court in Munich to perform to Prince Elector Maximillian III of Bavaria. The visit marked the beginning of several years of touring for the Mozart family, during which the young Wolfgang entertained and astonished audiences and patrons in cities throughout Europe. For the great 'virtuosi' of the next century, travel was to become a way of life, giving rise to countless stories whose echoes still resound today: from Mozart's proposal to Marie Antoinette to Mendelssohn's inspirational travels in Italy, and the fainting sufferers of 'Lisztomania'.

The Aurora Orchestra performs Mozart, Liszt and Mendelssohn at Kings Place, London.

Aurora Orchestra, Part, Adams, Tavener20151130Minimalism Unwrapped: Visions: Tavener, P䀀rt and Adams played by the Aurora Orchestra

Recorded at Kings Place, London

Presented by Ian Skelly

Arvo P䀀rt: Spiegel im Spiegel

John Adams: Shaker Loops

8.15: Interval

8.35

Tavener: The Protecting Veil

Thomas Gould, violin

John Reid, piano

Leonard Elschenbroich, cello

Nicholas Collon, conductor

The Aurora Orchestra presents three great works of the minimalist canon, each inspired by a search for the divine. Cellist Leonard Elschenbroich joins them for The Protecting Veil, a journey of radiant intensity which stands as one of John Tavener's most widely-cherished pieces. John Adams' Shaker Loops echoes with the ecstatic dances of North America's Shaker colonies, whilst Arvo P䀀rt's Spiegel im Spiegel ('Mirror in the Mirror') hints at infinity through the slow rise and fall of a major scale.

Nicholas Collon conducts the Aurora Orchestra in music by Part, Adams and Tavener.

Aurora Orchestra, Richard Ayres And Brahms20170612Adam Tomlinson presents a concert of Richard Ayres and Brahms (his First Symphony, given from memory) by Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon at Symphony Hall in Birmingham on June 6th.

Richard Ayres: No 42 'In the Alps' (an animated concert)

8.20pm INTERVAL

8.40pm

Brahms: Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op.68

Mary Bevan (soprano)

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

Brahms's First Symphony is the starting point for tonight's concert, a work which took Brahms 14 years to complete, so greatly did he feel the weight of Beethoven's legacy. And in fact the big tune in the finale does nod to the one in Beethoven's 9th - 'any ass can see that', Brahms conceded. The famous 'alphorn' theme is itself a springboard for Richard Ayres's NONcerto No 42 'In the Alps', which combines theatrical elements and film with a virtuosic score. Mary Bevan is the soloist in the unnervingly magical story of a girl stranded on a mountain top as a baby, after a plane crash. She's taught to sing by the alpine animals and falls in love with the distant trumpet-playing of a boy in the valley below. What could possibly go wrong?

Following tonight's concert, there'll be a chance to hear recordings by previous winners in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, ahead of the 2017 final this weekend.

Nicholas Collon conducts Aurora Orchestra in music by Richard Ayres and Brahms.

Autumn Leaves20191030The Hall退 Orchestra and Andrew Manze present a programme of late Romantic works at the Town Hall in Leeds. The ever popular First Violin Concerto by Bruch with the soloist, the Canadian violinist James Ehnes; the noble First Symphony by Elgar; and a colourful, seasonal piece by Gerald Finzi.

Finzi: The Fall of the Leaf

Bruch: Violin Concerto No 1

INTERVAL

Elgar: Symphony No 1

Andrew Manze, conductor

James Ehnes, violin

Tom McKinney introduces a concert of late Romantic music by Finzi, Bruch and Elgar.

Awake With The Morning20211201From Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

Carlo Goldstein brings music by Paul Ben-Haim to the BBC Philharmonic in tonight's concert. A musical pioneer in Israel Paul Ben-Haim had moved from Germany, leaving behind a successful career due to persecution of the Jewish community. Completed in October 1945 this full-scale and wide-ranging music contains music from Persia, and is also inspired by folk music from Israel. Words by Israeli poet Shin Shalom appear as an epigraph to the score, 'Awake with the morning, O my soul, on the summit of Carmel over the sea'. The programme opens with Liszt's dazzling 'Les pr退ludes', an early tone poem, and a work that marked an exciting new direction in orchestral music. Stephen Hough joins the BBC Philharmonic for Saint-Sa뀀ns's Fourth Piano Concerto, a engaging mix of memorable melody and innovation.

Liszt: Les pr退ludes

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Piano Concerto No. 4

8.15 Music interval (CD)

Ben-Haim: Symphony No. 2

Stephen Hough (piano)

Carlo Goldstein (conductor)

Carlo Goldstein conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Ben-Haim, Beethoven and Liszt.

Babi Yar In Rotterdam20190630Shostakovich's 13th Symphony, a picture of life in the Soviet Union. With Fiona Talkington.

From Anne Frank to Robert Burns, Shostakovich manages to create in his 13th Symphony a snapshot of Soviet life and interests in the early 1960s. There's the horror of Nazi anti-Semitic atrocities such as the 'Babi Yar' massacre which gives the symphony its epithet, and is the title of a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. In it, the poet shows a deep interest in Robert Burns, who many soviet composers go back to again and again for inspiration. And then he puts that in the context of the everyday living conditions inside the Soviet Union, like the empty shelves and endless shop queues, and the constant fear of the secret police.

For Shostakovich, all these things and more come together in the poetry of Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who returned the compliment, saying about Shostakovich's symphony: 'his music made the poem greater'.

Symphony No 13 in B flat minor, Op 113 'Babi Yar

Mikhail Petrenko (bass)

Men's Choir of Bavarian Radio

Rotterdam Philharmonic

Yannick N退zet-S退guin

Shostakovich's Symphony No 13, 'Babi Yar', a picture of life in the Soviet Union.

Bach And Beethoven From Mecklenburg And Bach From Pyeongchang20170219Ian Skelly presents highlights of concerts from around the world. Tonight, Beethoven from the Mecklenburg-Verpommern Festival, and Bach from Pyeongchang.

Beethoven: Ah! Perfido!, Op. 65

Mendelssohn: Infelice, Op. 94

Christiane Karg, soprano

Bamberg Symphony Orchestra

David Afkham

Recorded at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, 17/07/2016

Bach: Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C minor, BWV 1060

Alexei Ogrintchouk, oboe

Yura Lee, violin

Pyeongchang Festival Ensemble

Britten: Lachrymae, Reflections on a Song of John Dowland, Op. 48

Maxim Rysanov, viola, Tae-Hyung Kim, piano

Beethoven: Piano Trio in D, Op. 70 No. 1, 'Ghost

Boris Brovtsyn, violin

Myung-Wha Chung, cello

Norman Krieger, piano

Recorded at the Alpensia Concert Hall, Pyeongchang, 05/08/2016.

Ian Skelly presents music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Bach and Britten.

Bach And Mozart20191205Recorded at Milton Court, London

Presented by Ian Skelly

Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor directs Britten Sinfonia in Bach and Mozart from the keyboard in this eclectic and illuminating programme of music spanning almost 300 years.

Thomas Gould leads the orchestra in two Schubert-inspired works by the award-winning Bulgarian-born composer Dobrinka Tabakova, and also directs a new composition, supported by the William Alwyn Foundation, by Robin Haigh, who recently won a British Composer Award.

J S Bach: Keyboard Concerto in F minor

Robin Haigh: New work (world premiere)

8.15: Interval

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9 K271, Le Jeunehomme

Dobrinka Tabakova: Fantasy Homage to Schubert

Thomas Gould (violin/director)

Benjamin Grosvenor (piano/director)

Benjamin Grosvenor and Britten Sinfonia play Bach and Mozart.

Bach And Stravinsky20230126Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers in a carefully curated concert of music by Stravinsky and Bach.

Live from City Halls Glasgow.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Bach/Stravinsky: Chorale Variations 'Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her

Bach: Komm, Jesu, komm

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms

8.30 Interval, Kate introduces recent recordings which tease out the themes of this evening's concert.

8.40 Part Two

Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments

Bach: Magnificat, D major, BWV 243

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Singers.

Bach And The Dunedin Consort20230713Ian Skelly is at the Cheltenham Music Festival 2023 for a feast of music by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Dunedin Consort directed by John Butt begin the concert in a lively dance mode, with Bach's Orchestral Suite No 2, which includes the iconic Badinerie. BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artist, countertenor Hugh Cutting then joins the ensemble to perform the cantata Widerstehe doch der Sünde, Stand steadfast against transgression, probably first performed in 1714. The first part of the concert is rounded off with one of Bach's famed Brandenburg Concertos, the fifth of the set that was dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg in Berlin.

Another composer with a link to Brandenburg around the same period is Wilhelmine, Princess of Prussia and Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. She was an accomplished composer writing opera, songs, a keyboard concerto, and chamber music too including a three movement Flute Sonata in A minor.

The second half of the concert from the Pittville Pump Room in Cheltenham returns to the music of Bach, and his first Violin Concerto composed around 1730, and likely first performed in Leipzig. This is followed by a return to the stage of countertenor Hugh Cutting to perform Vergnügte Ruh', beliebte Seelenlust, Contented rest, beloved inner joy. A cantata for the sixth Sunday after Trinity. The concert then concludes with another of Bach's popular Brandenburg Concertos, the fourth in G major.

Bach: Orchestral Suite No 2 in B minor, BWV1067

John Butt, director

Bach: Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV54

Hugh Cutting, countertenor

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 5 in D major, BWV1050

c. 8.33pm - Interval music

Wilhelmine, Princess of Prussia, Margr䀀fin of Bayreuth

Infusion Baroque

c. 8.41pm

Bach: Violin Concerto No 1 in A minor, BWV1041

Huw Daniel, violin

Bach: Vergnügte Ruh', beliebte Seelenlust, BWV170

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 4 in G major, BWV1049

Ian Skelly presents an all-Bach concert from the 2023 Cheltenham Music Festival.

Bach Collegium Japan: Bach's B Minor Mass20160408Live from the Barbican Hall

Presented by Martin Handley

Masaaki Suzuki's Bach Collegium Japan begins its first major UK residency with Bach's B Minor Mass.

Bach Mass in B minor

Rachel Nicholls soprano

Joanne Lunn soprano

Robin Blaze alto

Colin Balzer tenor

Dominik W怀rner bass

Masaaki Suzuki conductor

Under the direction of founder Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan has built a worldwide reputation in Baroque sacred music. Bach's B minor Mass is a suitably inspired opening to the first major UK residency by the Collegium.

Followed by: BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the fifth of the category finalists in this year's keyboard competition.

Pianist Harvey Lin plays music by Mozart, Chopin and Rachmaninov.

Live from the Barbican, Bach Collegium Japan under Masaaki Suzuki in Bach's B Minor Mass.

Bach From Ton Koopman And The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra20220930From Wigmore Hall: Ton Koopman directs the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in an all-Bach programme.

Ton Koopman, one of the leading lights of the Baroque music firmament for nearly half a century, makes a rare visit to the UK with his Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Founded in 1979, they made their reputation with their engaging performances and recordings of the music of JS Bach. And it is to Bach that they return with a programme including some of his most popular works.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Bach: Double Concerto for oboe, violin and strings in C minor BWV1060R

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G BWV1048

Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C BWV1066

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G BWV1049

Ton Koopman (conductor and harpsichord)

Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in an all-Bach programme at Wigmore Hall.

Bach On The Recorder20190226Live from West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge

Presented by Ian Skelly

Bach, with Lucie Horsch and the AAM directed by Richard Egarr.

Vivaldi: Concerto for Flautino in C major, Op. 4 No. 11 (arr. in G major for recorder)

Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord No. 3 in D major BWV1054

Sammartini: Recorder Concerto in F major

Bach: 'Erbame Dich' from St Matthew Passion

8.15: Interval

8.35: Bach: Concerto for Oboe in D minor BWV1059r (arr. for recorder)

Bach: Concerto for Harpsichord No. 7 in G minor BWV1058

Vivaldi: Concerto for Flute in G minor ‘La notte', Op. 10 No. 2

Lucie Horsch, recorder

Academy of Ancient Music

Richard Egarr, director & harpsichord

Young recorder-player Lucie Horsch joins the Academy of Ancient Music in a programme of concertos and transcriptions, taking in the full emotional gamut of baroque music, from the heartbreaking beauty of Bach's ‘Erbarme dich' to the many extrovert moods of Vivaldi's ‘La notte' concerto. Harpsichordist Richard Egarr fiis out the picture with two of Bach's finest keyboard concertos.

Music by JS Bach played on the recorder by Lucie Horsch with the AAM under Richard Egarr.

Bach, St Matthew Passion20150914The Three Choirs Festival celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2015 with a performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion. Artistic Director of the festival Geraint Bowen conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Three Cathedral Choirs, with a line-up of soloists including James Oxley, Matthew Brook, Elizabeth Watts, William Towers, Anthony Gregory and Roderick Williams.

Bach's masterpiece was first performed on Good Friday in 1727, at the church of St Thomas in Leipzig. This was at a time when the Three Choirs Festival had already been in existence for over a decade. Nicola Heywood-Thomas presents this concert from Hereford Cathedral, recorded in July during the 2015 Three Choirs Festival, with interviews from three of the solo artists talking about their roles.

Johann Sebastian Bach: St Matthew Passion BWV 244

James Oxley (Evangelist), tenor

Matthew Brook (Christus), bass-baritone

Elizabeth Watts, soprano

William Towers, countertenor

Anthony Gregory, tenor

Roderick Williams, baritone

Geraint Bowen, conductor

Produced by Luke Whitlock.

A performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion given at the 2015 Three Choirs Festival.

Bach, St Matthew Passion20200410Another chance to hear the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle at the BBC Proms 2014 in an innovative staging of Bach's St Matthew Passion, with soloists including Mark Padmore and Christian Gerhaher.

Presented by Donald Macleod at the Royal Albert Hall.

JS BACH: St Matthew Passion (staging by Peter Sellars; sung in German)

Evangelist ..... Mark Padmore (tenor)

Christus ..... Christian Gerhaher (baritone)

Camilla Tilling (soprano)

Magdalena Koženက (mezzo-soprano)

Topi Lehtipuu (tenor)

Eric Owens (bass-baritone)

Choristers from Wells and Winchester Cathedrals

Berlin Radio Choir

Berliner Philharmoniker

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Sir Simon Rattle conducts his Berlin Philharmonic in Peter Sellars's innovative staging of Bach's St Matthew Passion. St Matthew is contemplative - confronting suffering and torture as well as salvation and redemption in some of Bach's most moving music.

A starry line-up of soloists is led by Mark Padmore's Evangelist and German baritone Christian Gerhaher singing the words of Christ.

Another chance to hear the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle at the 2014 BBC Proms.

Bach: A Transatlantic Alliance20190611Recorded at Wigmore Hall

Presented by Natasha Riordan

Young musicians from London's Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble and Toronto's Glenn Gould School collaborate for this all-Bach concert, conducted by Trevor Pinnock. As well as Bach's popular 3rd Brandenburg Concerto (one of six works he presented to the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt in 1721), the concert features the UK premiere of J zef Koffler's 1938 arrangement of the Goldberg Variations (originally for keyboard). Scored for small orchestra, this instrumental version is largely unknown, which is surprising, given the popularity of Bach's original.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 3 in G BWV 1048

Johann Sebastian Bach arr. J zef Koffler: Goldberg Variations BWV 988 (UK premi耀re)

Students from The Glenn Gould School

Trevor Pinnock (conductor)

Trevor Pinnock conducts brilliant young musicians from London and Toronto in music by Bach

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos At York Early Music Festival20190712Florilegium performs Bach's Brandenburg Concertos at the University of York's Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall as part of the York Early Music Festival. Hannah French presents.

In a strange twist of fate, the Brandenburg Concertos have come to be named after an aristocrat who didn't particularly want them and never actually heard them. The six concertos form a master anthology, a demonstration of all the imaginable possibilities inherent in a given musical form. Each concerto calls for a different combination of soloists, every one innovative and unprecedented in its choice of instruments. Florilegium uniquely performs them in reverse of the numbered order, ending with the triumphant first concerto combining wind, strings and brass.

Programme

Bach - Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 6 to 1

Ashley Solomon (director)

Recorded at Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York and presented by Hannah French.

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos performed by Florilegium at the York Early Music Festival.

Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Parts 1-320190109Recorded in December at St. Luke's Church in Chelsea, the BBC Singers and their Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin are joined by the Academy of Ancient Music in a performance of the first three parts of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. Members of the BBC Singers perform step-out solos. Parts 4-6 are performed live on BBC Radio 3 on 11 January at 7:30 pm.

Sofi Jeannin, conductor

After the concert:

Adopt a Composer

The Adopt a Composer scheme is run by Making Music, in association with Sound and Music. This year seven composers have been paired with seven amateur performing groups around the country. The composer gets to work with the group over the course of a year to create a piece of music that is given its premiere performance by the ensemble, and Radio 3 is broadcasting the results.

Tonight you'll hear:

Ben See's We Want and Fingerprintplurals performed by Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra in London.

BBC Singers and Sofi Jeannin perform parts 1-3 of Bach's Christmas Oratorio.

Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Parts 1-320221219Bach's Christmas Oratorio from Paris.

The Czech baroque music specialist, Vကclav Luks directs an all-star cast in the first three cantatas from Bach's joyful celebration of Christmas in a performance given last week at the Auditorium of Radio France.

The Christmas Oratorio contains some of the most beautiful and uplifting music that Bach wrote. After a jubilant chorus of joy at the Birth of Christ, we trace the Christmas story from the Annunciation to the Adoration of the shepherds, all woven together by the voice of the tenor narrator and a sequence of arias, pastorals and chorales of exquisite tenderness.

Introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Bach: Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248 Parts 1-3

Katharina Ruckgaber (soprano)

Lucile Richardot (contralto)

Julian Pr退gardien (tenor)

Tobias Berndt (baritone)

Radio France Chorus

Orchestre National de France

Vကclav Luks (conductor)

Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Parts 1-3, in a performance given in Paris last week.

Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Parts 4-620190111Following the broadcast of the first half of Bach's Christmas Oratorio on 9th January 2019, the BBC Singers and Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin perform parts 4-6 of Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Academy of Ancient Music. Live from St Luke's Church, Chelsea.

Sofi Jeannin - conductor

After the concert:

Adopt a Composer

The Adopt a Composer scheme is run by Making Music, in association with Sound and Music. This year seven composers have been paired with seven amateur performing groups around the country. The composer gets to work with the group over the course of a year to create a piece of music that is given its premiere performance by the ensemble, and Radio 3 is broadcasting the results.

Tonight you'll hear:

Gaynor Barradell's Step Up, performed by Edinburgh Concert Band

Esmeralda Conde Ruiz's The other ocean, performed by The Fretful Federation Mandolin Orchestra, Brighton

The BBC Singers perform parts 4-6 of Bach's Christmas Oratorio with Sofi Jeannin.

Bach's Goldberg Variations20160124Ian Skelly introduces a performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Bach's dazzling work, an aria and thirty variations for keyboard is played in an arrangement for string trio at the cultural centre in Sion in the Valais, a former fish warehouse by the side of the river in this small town in Switzerland.

Purcell

Evening Hymn

Robert Crowe (male soprano), Michael Eberth (harpsichord)

rec. Convent of Merciful Brothers, Brno

Bach arr Sitkovetsky

Goldberg Variations BWV 988

Janine Jansen (violin), Nimrod Guez (viola), Nicolas Altstaedt (cello)

rec. Ferme-Asile Artistic and Cultural Centre, Valais, Switzerland

William Croft

A Hymn of Divine Music

Photo of Jansen, Guez, Altstaedt at Ferme-Asile (c) Claude Dussez.

Janine Jansen, Nimrod Guez and Nicolas Altstaedt perform Bach's Goldberg Variations.

Bach's Goldberg Variations. Lars Vogt20170922Adam Tomlinson presents JS Bach's Goldberg Variations performed by Sage Gateshead's Music Director, pianist Lars Vogt.

How to listen to the Goldberg Variations? A work with an apocryphal backstory of a hapless count's sleepless nights, a mystical and labyrinthine Rubik's Cube of architectural structure, the most important work ever for harpischord, or a breakthrough recording by Glenn Gould? Perhaps it's best just to listen to it simply as a beautiful keyboard work. At any rate, the first edition was prefaced with the understated 'Clavierübung consisting of an Aria with Diverse Variations for the Harpsichord with Two Manuals Composed for Music Lovers, to Refresh their Spirits, by Johann Sebastian Bach.

To begin, Schubert's set of Four Impromptus, D899, another work whose simple moniker belies the depth within. Although Schubert appears to have approved the title, there's nothing really improvisatory or lightweight about them. Each Impromptu is considerably lengthy and a perfectly thought-out expression of pianism. As well as anticipating the nocturnes of Chopin and John Field, the set is the first group of works by a major composer to break away from the dominance of the sonata form in the piano repertoire.

Schubert: 4 Impromptus D.899

INTERVAL

J S Bach: Goldberg Variations

Lars Vogt - piano.

Adam Tomlinson presents JS Bach's Goldberg Variations performed by pianist Lars Vogt.

Bach's Magnificat20231220Solomon's Knot, Wigmore Hall's Baroque Ensemble in Residence, is a conductorless international collective of leading instrumentalists and singers who perform from memory. Tonight they present three of Bach's colourfully scored vocal and choral works, all written soon after his appointment as Cantor of St Thomas's in Leipzig in 1723.

Two Cantatas begin the concert. The first, 'O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort' (O eternity, you word of thunder), is famous for its unusual closing whole-tone tune which 200 years later, Alban Berg used in the final movement of his Violin Concerto. And 'Wachet! Betet! Betet! Wachet!' (Watch! Pray! Pray! Watch!) begins with a rousing chorus and trumpet fanfares.

To end, Bach's Magnificat in E flat. The text, taken from the Gospel of Luke, is Mary's joyful thanks to the Lord that, despite being a virgin, He has fixed it so she will bear a child who 'will be called the Son of the Most High.' Bach later added four extra Christmas-themed movements to zhuzh up his setting with a seasonal twist for his Leipzig congregation.

Recorded earlier this month and introduced by Ian Skelly.

JS Bach:

O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort BWV 60

Wachet! Betet! Betet! Wachet! BWV 70

Magnificat in E flat BWV 243a with Christmas interpolations

Solomon's Knot perform an all-Bach concert at Wigmore Hall, including Cantatas 60 and 70.

Solomon's Knot, Wigmore Hall's Baroque ensemble-in-residence, perform three of Bach's colourfully scored vocal and choral works: Cantatas 60 and 70 and the Magnificat in E flat.

Bach's Mass In B Minor20190205John Butt conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Bach's mighty late choral masterpiece, with a stellar cast of soloists.

Recorded on the 2nd February 2019 at the Barbican, London.

Presented by Ian Skelly

JS Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV 232

Joanne Lunn (soprano)

Mary Bevan (soprano)

Alex Potter (countertenor)

Samuel Boden (tenor)

Edward Grint (bass)

BBC Symphony Chorus

John Butt (conductor)

John Butt, one of the most innovative and celebrated Bach interpreters today, conducts the BBC Symphony Chorus in its first performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor for 40 Years. At the heart of the BBC Symphony Chorus's 90th-birthday season, the exciting fusion of Butt's own period approach with modern instruments and large-scale choral forces will make for a fascinating combination in one of the most technically challenging yet rewarding pieces of the choral repertoire.

To composer Benjamin Britten the work was one of the two pillars of Western civilisation; for the revered writer on music Donald Francis Tovey, in the excitement of the Mass's Sanctus ‘Bach is here conducting the angelic hosts. The strings represent the swinging of censers: the various antiphonal sections of the choir sing to each other like two seraphim.

John Butt conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Bach's great late work.

Bach's Motets With The Bbc Singers20230322Conducted by Peter Dijkstra, the Academy of Ancient Music joins the BBC Singers for an evening celebrating some of the choral works by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Bach's Six Motets rank among the highpoint of polyphonic choral repertoire, and followed by his large-scale cantata, La߀, Fürstin, la߀ noch einen Strahl, BWV. 198.

Recorded in Milton Court. Presented by Martin Handley.

JS Bach: Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden, BWV 230

JS Bach: Fürchte dich nicht, ich bin bei dir, BWV 228

JS Bach: Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227

JS Bach: Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226

JS Bach: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV 225

Interval

JS Bach: Lass, Fürstin, lass noch einen Strahl (Trauer-Ode), BWV 198

JS Bach: Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229

Musicians from the Academy of Ancient Music

Peter Dijkstra - conductor

Peter Dijkstra joins the BBC Singers and the Academy of Ancient Music to perform Bach.

Bach's Orchestral Suites: The Spirit Of The Dance20190510Live from Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, Natasha Riordan-Eva introduces a concert of Baroque grandeur and dancing rhythms, performed by one of the world's leading period instrument ensembles, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

J.S. Bach

Orchestral Suite No.3 in D major, BWV 1068

Orchestral Suite No.1 in C major, BWV 1066

Orchestral Suite No.2 in B minor, BWV 1067

Orchestral Suite No.4 in D major, BWV 1069

Margaret Faultless (violin/director)

Baroque grandeur and dancing rhythms from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Baltic Sea Festival 201720171022Ian Skelly presents highlights from the Baltic Sea Festival, which took place in August this year in Stockholm. The programme includes the premiere of Martin Smolka's new choral work The Name Emmanuel, the cellist Jonathan Roozeman performing Esa-Pekka Salonen's cello concerto 'Mania' and Salonen himself conducting Sibelius's portrayal of the Kalevala, his Lemmink䀀inen Suite.

Sibelius: Valse Triste, Op.44

Sibelius Academy and Juilliard School Joint Symphony Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

Martin Smolka: The Name Emmanuel (first performance)

Swedish Radio Chorus

Peter Dijkstra (director)

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Mania, Cello Concerto

Jonathan Roozeman (cello)

Sibelius: Four Legends from Kalevala (Lemmik䀀inen Suite), Op. 22

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor).

Ian Skelly presents highlights from the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm.

Bancroft Conducts Ives20230426The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and their principal conductor, Ryan Bancroft, join forces once more for a programme that is heavily influenced both by Bancroft's native America, and also by rejections of traditional writing. The programme opens with two companion pieces by Charles Ives which he brought together as his contrasting ‘Two Contemplations': Central Park in the Dark, or 'A Contemplation of Nothing Serious', and The Unanswered Question, an exploration of humanity's existence. In these pieces, Ives frequently writes in several keys at once, a style of writing for which he was a pioneer.

Closing the first half, Bomsori Kim joins the orchestra for Szymanowski's effervescent First Violin Concerto. The work is considered by many to be an impressionistic masterpiece, which pushed the boundaries of what a violin concerto could be, and acts as a perfect foil to the Ives pieces. The concert concludes with John Adams's Harmonielehre, a work which he intended as a treatise on harmony, in direct contrast to the atonal propensity of Arnold Schoenberg and his acolytes. Adams actively disliked the sound of 'serial' music, and this incredible symphonic work is both a manifestation of his opposition to that system, and a love letter for post-romanticism, which also includes quotations from great symphonic works.

Recorded in St. David's Hall, Cardiff on the 20th of April, and presented by Verity Sharp.

7.30pm

Ives: Central Park in the Dark, S 34

Ives: The Unanswered Question, S 50

Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No 1, Op 35

8.20pm

Interval Music - Ryan Bancroft contemplates Charles Ives

8.40pm

John Adams: Harmonielehre

Bomsori Kim (violin)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales perform an American programme.

Bang On!20200228Live from the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, presented by Martin Handley.

After an excerpt from John Adams' opera based on President Nixon's visit to China in 1972, Bang on a Can All-Stars join forces with conductor Bramwell Tovey and the BBC Concert Orchestra for the UK premiere of Julia Wolfe's new piece Flower Power, in which she addresses the radical upheaval of society in the 1960s. In the second half, after BOACAS play their own version of Steve Martland, the strings of the BBC CO take centre stage in Philip Glass's 1995 four movement Third Symphony.

John Adams: Chairman Dances 12'30

Julia Wolfe: Flower Power (UK premiere) 30

INTERVAL

Steve Martland: Horses of Instruction 17

Philip Glass: Symphony No 3 25

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Bramwell Tovey

Bang on a Can All-Stars, live from QEH in London with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Barbara Hannigan And The Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra20180304Clemency Burton-Hill presents highlights from a concert Barbara Hannigan gave as singer and conductor with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris last year. Berg's Lulu Suite and Schoenberg's Verkl䀀rte Nacht are contrasted with Gershwin's Suite from Girl Crazy.

Debussy: Syrinx

Thomas Pr退vost (flute)

Schoenberg: Verkl䀀rte Nacht (Transfigured Night), Op 4

Berg: Lulu-Suite

George Gershwin, arr Bill Elliot: Suite from 'Girl Crazy

Barbara Hannigan (soprano/conductor).

Barbara Hannigan performs as singer and conductor with the Radio France Philharmonic.

Barber, Mahler, Shostakovich20200205A concert that explores the ways personal and public tragedy was transformed into the invention of three pieces of 20th-century music.

It's difficult to imagine the energy required to sustain an ovation for 40 minutes, but such a situation, apparently, met the first performance of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. Written in 1937, under the terror of arrest, it manipulates the insane intellectual challenge of survival amidst the brutal cultural control of Stalin's Soviet Union.

It pushes ironic duality to its limits in such a way that whilst audiences respond to the blazing ingenuity of the music they still debate the clues embedded within: such as the secret, voiceless setting of Pushkin's words, ‘With the passing of time, the crude daubings of the barbarian will dry and flake off like old scales. The beauty of the original painting will be visible once more.

Before the interval Claudia Huckle joins the BBC SSO to render a set of songs by Mahler whose words by Friedrich Rückert are lyrical responses to personal grief. These are pieces of deep psychological exploration which seem to reflect Mahler's own experiences of bereavement in uncanny ways, uncovering music of great tenderness and beauty.

And the concert opens with a work of poignant simplicity which in spite of -or perhaps because of- its rather abstract, classical origins has been co-opted to many situation of public mourning: Barber's Adagio, for strings.

Recorded at The Music Hall, Aberdeen

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Barber: Adagio for strings

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder

8.20 Interval

8.40 Part 2

Shostakovich: Symphony no 5

Claudia Huckle (Contralto)

Michael Sanderling (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Contralto Claudia Huckle sings Mahler's Kindertotenlieder with the BBC SSO.

Barcelona Symphony And National Orchestra Of Catalonia20210125Rinaldo Alessandrini conducts the Barcelona Symphony and National Orchestra of Catalonia in Mozart's Symphony No 25 and Rossini's Stabat Mater in a concert given in Barcelona in October 2019.

The orchestra begins with a symphony written by a 17-year-old Mozart - No. 25, his 'Little G minor', famously used as the opening music for Milos Forman's film 'Amadeus'.

During the interval, you can hear rarely performed chamber music by Donizetti - his Quintet for guitar and strings, played by Mario Gangi with members of the Chamber Orchestra of Santa Cecilia.

In the second half of the concert, soloists Marta Math退u, Marianne Beate Kielland, Enea Scala and Riccardo Zanellato join the orchestra and Barcelona's Madrigal Choir to perform Rossini's Stabat Mater - a work that has remained popular ever since its premiere in 1842.

19.30

Mozart: Symphony No.25 in G minor, K.183

Rinaldo Alessandrini (conductor)

19.55

Donizetti: Quintet for guitar and strings in C major

Mario Gangi (guitar)

20:20

Rossini: Stabat Mater

Marta Math退u (soprano)

Marianne Beate Kielland (mezzo soprano)

Enea Scala (tenor)

Riccardo Zanellato (bass)

Barcelona Madrigal Choir

Concert recorded at Pau Casals Hall, L'Auditori, Barcelona, Spain on 26th October 2019.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Rinaldo Alessandrini conducts Mozart and Rossini's Stabat Mater in Barcelona.

Barenboim In Salzburg20220105Fiona Talkington presents a highlight of last year's orchestral season.

Franck's three-movement Symphony in D minor was at one time a popular staple of the repertoire, but it seems to have fallen out of fashion in recent years. Daniel Barenboim and his celebrated West-Eastern Divan Orchestra provide a welcome opportunity to approach the piece anew, in this concert from last year's Salzburg Festival.

Beethoven: Overture: The Creatures of Prometheus, Op.43

Brahms: Double Concerto for violin & cello in A minor, Op.102

Franck: Symphony in D minor, Op.48

Michael Barenboim, violin

Kian Soltani, cello

Daniel Barenboim, conductor

Concert recorded at the Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg, Austria on 11/08/2021

Image: © SF / Marco Borrelli

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, play Brahms and Franck.

Barokksolistene Play The Alehouse Sessions20211124The dynamic Norway-based baroque supergroup caused a sensation with their 2017 album The Alehouse Sessions. Tonight, in the Tudor setting of London's Middle Temple Hall, they recreate the tumultuous atmosphere of London's 17th-century taverns and theatres with their unique interpretations of Purcell overtures, sea shanties and the occasional Scandinavian folk song. 'It must have been an incredible atmosphere in these places,' says Barokksolistene's violinist-director Bjarte Eike, 'overflowing with music, alcohol, sex, gossip, fights, fumes, shouting, singing, laughing, dancing - not unlike our live versions of The Alehouse Sessions!

To begin, the Barokksolistene join forces with long-term collaborator baritone Thomas Guthrie for another unforgettable reimagining: their unique version of Schubert's famous song cycle, Die sch怀ne Müllerin.

Recorded last week and introduced by Martin Handley.

Schubert: Die sch怀ne Müllerin

8.30 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Schubert: Sonata in A minor 'Arpeggione', D. 821 (3rd mvt: Allegretto)

Mstislav Rostropovich (cello)

Benjamin Britten (piano)

8.45 pm

Thomas Guthrie (baritone)

Rhiannon Harper Rafferty and Sean Garrett (narrators)

Bjarte Eike (violin/director)

The lively baroque-ers join baritone Thomas Guthrie for Schubert and a night in the tavern

Baroque Favourites And Fireworks, Barokksolistene Directed, By Bjarte Eike20160711Baroque Favourites and Fireworks performed by Barokksolistene and their director Bjarte Eike.

Recorded 10th July in Cheltenham Town Hall

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Fasch: Concerto for 2 trumpets

Corelli: Concerto Grosso in D Op. 6 No 4

Vivaldi: Mandolin Concerto in D, RV 93

Rebel: Les Caract耀res de la danse

8.15: Interval

8.35: Bach: Concerto in D minor for 2 violins, BWV 1043

Handel: Royal Fireworks Music (with indoor fireworks)

Avi Avital, mandolin

Davina Clarke, violin

Bjarte Eike, director/violin

It's just old pop music! say Norwegian Baroque orchestra Barokksolistene, whose fresh performances fizz with energy and bring new life to these well-known works.

Baroque favourites and fireworks performed by Barokksolistene under Bjarte Eike.

Barry Douglas Live From Waterfront Hall20210310Acclaimed pianist Barry Douglas performs a recital live from the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, introduced by John Toal.

The first half of the programme is distinctly classical with 2 Schubert Impromptus, followed by Beethoven's Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 57 - Appassionata; a work that's emblematic of the composer's explosive temperament and a defiant challenge to the world.

Since August the Waterfront Hall has been home to the Ulster Orchestra and during the interval we'll hear them perform Mozart's Symphony No. 28 in C Major K. 200, conducted by Ben Gernon.

And the recital continues with an all-Russian focus, with movements from Tchaikovsky's The Seasons and Mussorgsky's celebrated Pictures at an Exhibition - concluding with the triumphant Great Gate of Kiev.

Schubert: Impromptu in C minor Op. 90 No. 1

Schubert: Impromptu in G Flat Major Op. 90 No. 3

Beethoven Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 57 (Appassionata)

Interval - 8.15pm

Mozart: Symphony No. 28 in C Major K. 200

Ulster Orchestra/Ben Gernon (conductor)

And at 8.40pm

Tchaikovsky: Seasons Op. 37a Nos 5, 6 & 10

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

Barry Douglas, live from Waterfront Hall.

Bart\u00f3k Plus From Lso St Luke's In London20191018Fiona Talkington presents the final concert of Radio 3's Bartok Plus series, featuring all six of Bartok's string quartets alongside works that both influenced his evolution and chart his journey from Hungary to America. This evening, the Vertavo Quartet play Bartok's final two string quartets, which he wrote in the 1930s after emigrating to the United States. Four decades earlier, Dvorak composed his ever-popular string quartet nicknamed the 'American', which he composed in Iowa, on holiday from the National Conservatory in New York where he was director.

Recorded at LSO St Luke's in London earlier this month and presented by Fiona Talkington.

Bartok: String Quartet No.5 [1934]

Dvorak: String Quartet No.12 in F major, Op.96 ‘American

8.30pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Fiona Talkington introduces Bartok's 8 Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs performed by French pianist, Cedric Tiberghien, and some poignant traditional folksong.

8.50pm

Bartok: String Quartet No.6 [1939]

Vertavo String Quartet

The Vertavo Quartet play Bartok's last String Quartets with Dvorak's 'American' Quartet.

Bart\u00f3k's Concerto For Orchestra20221027Tito Muကoz conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Bart k's Concerto for Orchestra: plus music by Anna Clyne; and pianist Eric Lu joins for some Chopin.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Clyne: This Midnight Hour

Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1

8.30 Interval music (from a recent recording)

Gra?yna Bacewicz: String Quartet No.3

Silesian Quartet

8.50 Part Two

Bart k: Concerto for Orchestra

Tito Muကoz (conductor)

Eric Lu (piano)

Tito Mu\u00f1oz conducts the BBC SSO in a 20th-century masterpiece

Based On Bach20191031As part of the 300th anniversary celebrations of The Queen's College, Oxford, David Goode plays a wide-ranging programme rooted in Bach and specially devised to show off its famous organ. Built by the Danish firm Frobenius and installed in 1965, the uncompromisingly neo-baroque instrument was in the vanguard of the UK's classical organ revival, the perfect vehicle for this music from Germany, England and Scandinavia.

Presented live from The Queen's College, Oxford, by Martin Handley.

Robert Schumann: Fugue on BACH, Op 60, No 4

JS Bach: Sonata No 5 in C, BWV 529

Max Reger: Trio (Op 47, No 1); Introduction and Passacaglia in D minor

8.10

Interval Music (from CD)

Rameau: Les Indes galantes (Prologue)

Orchestra of the 18th Century

Frans Brüggen (director)

8.30

Paul Hindemith: Sonata No. 2

Kenneth Leighton: Chorale Prelude on ‘Rockingham'; Toccata on ‘Hanover' (from 6 Fantasies on Hymn Tunes, Op 72)

JS Bach: Chorale Preludes from the Orgelbüchlein: Gelobet seist du, Jesu Christ; Der Tag, der ist so freudenreich

Sven-David Sandstr怀m: Chorale Prelude, Keinen hat Gott verlassen (from the Orgelbüchlein Project)

Poul Ruders: Chorale Prelude, Wer Gott vertraut (from the Orgelbüchlein Project)

Felix Mendelssohn: Prelude and Fugue in D minor, Op 37, No 3

David Goode puts the celebrated organ at The Queen's College, Oxford, through its paces.

Basel Symphony Orchestra20211115Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla conducts Beethoven's Fourth Symphony and Weinberg's Third Symphony in a concert recorded earlier this year in Switzerland.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Programme:

Beethoven - Symphony No 4 in B flat

ca. 8.05pm - Interval

ca. 8.30pm

Mieczys?aw Weinberg - Symphony No 3 in B flat minor

Performers

Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, conductor

Image © Frans Jansen

Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla conducts symphonies by Beethoven and Weinberg from Switzerland.

Bath Bachfest, Bach's B Minor Mass20180226Period instrument orchestra the English Concert joins forces with early music singers the Erebus Ensemble, under the direction of Harry Bicket, to perform Bach's great Mass in B Minor in the unique surroundings of Bath Abbey as part of Bath Bachfest. Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Bach: B Minor Mass, BWV 232

Lucy Crowe - soprano

Anna Harvey - mezzo

Nick Pritchard - tenor

Ashley Riches - bass-baritone

Harry Bicket - director/organ/harpsichord.

The English Consort and The Erebus Ensemble perform Bach's B Minor Mass at Bath Abbey.

Bath Bachfest, Bach's B Minor Mass20200529Period instrument orchestra the English Concert joins forces with early music singers the Erebus Ensemble, under the direction of Harry Bicket, to perform Bach's great Mass in B Minor in the unique surroundings of Bath Abbey as part of Bath Bachfest. Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Bach: B Minor Mass, BWV 232

Lucy Crowe - soprano

Anna Harvey - mezzo

Nick Pritchard - tenor

Ashley Riches - bass-baritone

Harry Bicket - director/organ/harpsichord.

Another chance to hear this concert that was first broadcast on 26 February 2018.

Produced by Amy Wheel

The English Concert and The Erebus Ensemble perform Bach's B Minor Mass at Bath Abbey.

Bath Mozartfest 201620161122The English Concert perform at Bath Abbey, part of MozartFest 2016. Featuring soprano, Lucy Crowe in a selection of concert arias. Violinist, Nadja Zwiener performs Mozart's Violin Concerto No.5

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Mozart: Divertimento in D major, K136

Mozart: Al destin, che la minaccia (Mitridate, Re di Ponte, K87)

Mozart: Ruhe sanft, mein holdes Leben (Zaide, K344)

INTERVAL

Mozart: Ah se il crudel periglio (Lucio Silla, K135)

Mozart: Et incarnatus est (Mass in C minor, K427)

Mozart: Violin Concerto No 5 in A major, K219

Mozart: Exsultate, jubilate, K165

Lucy Crowe, soprano

Nadja Zwiener, violin

Harry Bicket, director

The complex historical drama of King Mitridate and his dysfunctional family isn't an obvious scenario for a hit opera, but Mozart made it one - and when he was aged just 14. His scintillating music for the star soprano is performed by Lucy Crowe alongside other soprano showpieces by Mozart in this programme from Bath MozartFest, including the magnificent tour-de-force, Exsultate, jubilate. Joining Lucy in Bath Abbey are celebrated Mozart interpreters, The English Concert under the baton of Harry Bicket. Nadja Zwiener is the soloist in Mozart's 5th Violin Concerto, notable for its fashionable imitations of 'Turkish' style in the finale.

Recorded on 19th November at Bath Abbey, Bath

Followed at 9.30pm by a Royal Philharmonic Society commission for BBC New Generation Artists.

Tonight the violinist, Alina Ibragimova plays Huw Watkins' Partita for solo violin written for her in 2006 when she was a BBC New Generation Artist.

The English Concert, Lucy Crowe and Nadja Zwiener perform Mozart at Bath Abbey.

Bath Mozartfest 202120211119An international cast of BBC New Generation Artists play works by Schubert, Schumann and Mozart in the historic setting of the Assembly Rooms in Bath, as part of this year's Bath Mozartfest. As well as Schumann's impassioned Fantasy Pieces, and Schubert's early fragment for String Trio, pianist Elisabeth Brauss performs Mozart's charming Variations on 'Ah vous dirais-je Maman' which many will recognise as the tune for the nursery rhyme, 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star', and the ensemble unite in Mozart's piano quartet in E flat major. Published in 1786, the quartet didn't catch on immediately and the publisher felt it was too difficult to appeal to an amateur market. Despite that cool initial reception, its genial outlook and natural appeal has ensured its rightful place as a cornerstone of the repertoire for piano quartet.

Recorded yesterday, and introduced by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Schubert: String Trio in B flat major D 471

Aleksey Semenenko, violin

Eivind Ringstad, viola

Andrei Ioni??, cello

Mozart: 12 Variations for piano on `Ah vous dirais-je Maman` K 265

Elisabeth Brauss, piano

Mozart: Duo in G major, K 423 for violin and viola

At approx 8.10

Interval music:

Haydn: String Quartet in B minor Op 76, No 4 'Sunrise

Aris Quartet

At approx 8.30

Schumann: Fantasiestu?cke Op 73

Mozart: Piano Quartet in E flat major K493

Producer: Johannah Smith

BBC New Generation Artists play Mozart, Schumann and Schubert at Bath Mozartfest 2021.

Battling Baroque And Buenos Aires Tango20190312Acclaimed violist Lawrence Power is soloist-director of Collegium, an exciting new ensemble formed from Europe's finest young musicians. Together, they perform a colourful programme, ranging from seventeenth-century central Europe to mid-century Argentina.

Biber's La Battalia is a sort of compendium of Baroque-style extended techniques for stringed instruments. Biber asks his players to conjure up vivid martial scenes, from canon fire to drum tattoos, by instructing them to hit the strings with the wood of the bow, pluck strings so hard they slap against the fingerboard and insert paper to make the strings buzz. Astor Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, here interspersed with songs by Brahms and Schubert, harks back to the Baroque by taking Vivaldi's concertos as its inspiration for an exotic, tango-infused journey through a year in the Argentinian capital. The starting point for Thomas Larcher's 2003 'Still' for viola and chamber orchestra is a frozen image from a video film. 'The interesting aspect of video stills', says Larcher 'is usually the details, the patterns which one can observe and which one does not naturally see, or which one perceives differently when it is in motion,' and the work deals with movement and cessation of movement, introspection and activity.

Recorded last week at Southampton's Turner Sims Concert Hall and introduced by Georgia Mann.

Biber: La Battalia

Thomas Larcher: Still (UK premiere)

Interval:

Music from CD by Piazzolla's teacher, Nadia Boulanger: 3 pieces for organ performed by Paul Jacobs.

Piazzolla: Four Seasons of Buenos Aires (arr. Leonid Desyatnikov)

Brahms and Schubert songs arranged for viola and strings

Brahms: Sommerabend

Piazolla: Summer

Brahms: Im Herbst

Piazolla: Autumn

Schubert: Der Leiermann

Piazolla: Winter

Schubert: Frühlingstraum

Piazolla: Spring

Lawrence Power (violin, viola and director)

Lawrence Power directs Collegium in Biber's La Battalia and Piazzolla's Four Seasons.

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra20200406Fiona Talkington presents a a concert given by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the late Mariss Jansons.

This concert was Jansons' final appearance with the orchestra in Munich, and featured three composers said to be particularly close to his heart. The concert began with the rumbustious overture to Weber's 1823 heroic opera 'Euryanthe'; they're then joined by Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder for a spellbinding performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.2, which the young composer used as a vehicle for his own performances as a virtuoso.

During the interval, we'll hear Buchbinder in more Beethoven - this time without the orchestra, in the Piano Sonata No.30.

Following the break, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra returns to the platform for a dazzling performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No.10. Written in the wake of Stalin's death in 1953, Shostakovich felt a surge of relief, freedom and creativity: his musical moniker - DSCH (D, E flat, C, B) - is woven throughout the work, satisfyingly coming to dominate the violent portrait Stalin in the scherzo and ending the whole symphony in a blaze of triumph.

To close this programme, we'll hear more from German performers, with a recording of clarinettist Sabine Meyer playing Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

19.30

Weber - Overture: Euryanthe

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat major, Op.19

Rudolf Buchbinder (piano)

Mariss Jansons (conductor)

20:10

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No.30 in E, Op.109

20:30

Shostakovich - Symphony No.10 in E minor, Op.93

21:20

Nielsen - Clarinet Concerto, Op,57

Sabine Meyer (clarinet)

Sir Simon Rattle, (conductor)

Mariss Jansons in his final concert in Munich with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Play Strauss, Wagner And Berlioz20220613Daniele Gatti conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Strauss's Don Juan, the prelude to act III of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.

During the interval you can hear two of Franz Liszt's interpretations of music by Wagner and Berlioz - one transcription for organ, and one for piano.

Richard Strauss - Don Juan, Op.20

Wagner - Prelude to Act III of 'Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

Daniele Gatti (conductor)

c. 8pm INTERVAL

Wagner transc. Liszt - Pilgrim's Chorus [Tannh䀀user]

Olivier Latry (organ)

Berlioz transc. Liszt - L'id退e fixe, Andante amoroso d'apr耀s une m退lodie de Berlioz, S395

Leslie Howard (piano)

c.8.20pm

Hector Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique, Op.14

Presented by Fiona Talkington

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra play Strauss, Wagner and Berlioz

Bbc Cardiff Singer Of The World 2021, Final20210619Petroc Trelawny and Josie d'Arby present full coverage of tonight's final, on Radio 3 and BBC Four television, from St David's Hall in Cardiff.

Five young singers remain as the prestigious vocal competition reaches its climax. Tonight they return to the concert platform for the final, accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, to give their performances in front of an the international jury. Petroc is joined by celebrated figures from the opera world who give their expert commentary on all the action. It's a career-defining evening for each competitor and only one can be crowned 'BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021'.

Five finalists compete for the title of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021.

Bbc Cardiff Singer Of The World Grand Final20230618Petroc Trelawny and Josie d'Arby present full coverage of tonight's final, on Radio 3 and BBC Four television, from St David's Hall in Cardiff.

Only five young singers remain as the prestigious vocal competition, now in its 40th year, reaches its climax. Tonight they return to the concert platform for the grand final, accompanied by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to give their performances in front of a capacity audience and the international jury. Petroc is joined by celebrated figures from the opera world who give their expert commentary on all the action. It's a career-defining evening for each competitor and only one can be crowned BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2023.

Five finalists compete to win the Main Prize of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2023.

Bbc Co: Easter At King's20160325Stephen Cleobury conducts the BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra live from the Easter at King's Festival in Cambridge. The programme includes music by Palestrina and Schubert, and ends with Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ, which was composed in 1783 for the Good Friday Service at Oratorio de la Santa Cueva in Cadiz, Spain. Presented by Donald Macleod.

Palestrina: Stabat Mater

Schubert: Symphony No 4 in C minor (Tragic)

INTERVAL

Haydn: Seven Last Words of Christ (H.XX.2)

Emma Tring (soprano), Rebecca Lodge (alto),

Andrew Murgatroyd (tenor), Jimmy Holliday (bass)

conductor Stephen Cleobury.

Live from King's College, Cambridge, BBC Singers and CO conducted by Stephen Cleobury.

Bbc Co: The Oliviers In Concert20160125The BBC Concert Orchestra, under the baton of Principal Conductor Keith Lockhart, celebrates the prestigious Olivier Awards' 40th anniversary in a star-studded gala concert broadcast live from the Royal Festival Hall. A glittering array of West End stars including Maria Friedman, Elaine Page, Michael Ball, Katie Brayben, John Dagleish, Daniel Evans and Clive Rowe perform songs from celebrated musicals. The Oliviers In Concert spans the decades and showcases the very best of musical theatre.

Keith Lockhart (conductor)

Maria Friedman (performer/director)

20.25 Interval.

The BBC Concert Orchestra and special guests celebrate 40 years of the Olivier Awards.

Bbc Concert Orchestra20211207Ian Skelly presents a concert given last Friday at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London by the BBC Concert Orchestra and Principal Conductor Bramwell Tovey featuring music by Dobrinka Tabakova. We'll hear her Cello Concerto from 2008 with soloist Laura van der Heijden alongside Tectonic and the first performance of the brand new Pacific, the most recent of her major works for the BBC Concert Orchestra as Composer in Residence.

Jessie Montgomery Starburst

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Dobrinka Tabakova Cello concerto

INTERVAL

de Falla Ritual Fire Dance

Dobrinka Tabakova Suite for Orchestra: 1. Tectonic; 2. Pacific; 3. Timber and Steel

Laura van der Heijden (cello)

Earth and sky - Tabakova, fantasia and fireburst

Bbc Concert Orchestra And Jane Glover: International Women's Day Concert20180308Sarah Walker presents a concert live from LSO St Luke's in which the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Jane Glover perform music by five distinguished but unjustly forgotten women composers.

Florence B Price (1887-1953): Concert Overture No 2

Marianna Martines (1744-1813): Two arias from the oratorio 'Sant' Elena

Augusta Holm耀s (1847-1903): Allegro Feroce

Johanna Müller-Hermann (1868-1941): Three Songs

Leokadiya Kashperova (1872-1940): Symphony

Soprano Ilona Domnich

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Jane Glover.

The BBC Concert Orchestra and Jane Glover perform music by 5 forgotten women composers.

Bbc Concert Orchestra And Thomas Trotter, Widor, Berlioz, Saint-saens20151111Live from King's College, Cambridge, featuring the organ before it undergoes extensive refurbishment. Thomas Trotter plays Widor's Toccata, then joins conductor Stephen Cleobury and the BBC Concert Orchestra in excerpts from Berlioz's Te Deum and Saint-Sa뀀ns's Organ Symphony. Presented by Martin Handley.

Widor arr. Willcocks: Sing! (Toccata from Symphony No.5)

Berlioz: Te Deum, Op 22

8.25 INTERVAL

8.45

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Symphony No.3 in C minor, Op.78 (Organ symphony)

Thomas Trotter (organ)

John Daszak (tenor)

King's College Choir, CUMS Chorus

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Stephen Cleobury.

Live from King's College, Cambridge, music by Widor, Berlioz and Saint-Saens.

Bbc Concert Orchestra At Cecil Sharp House20170331Live from Cecil Sharp House in London, home to the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Spiro and the BBC Concert Orchestra share this concert celebrating folk music new and old, including the world premiere of a BBC Commission from Spiro's Jane Harbour, which includes members of the BBC Singers. Presented by Verity Sharp

Spiro: Solo set

INTERVAL: As He Roved Out

In the interval of this concert celebrating the relationship between the English Folk Dance and Song Society and the BBC Verity Sharp presents 'As He Roved Out', a profile of Peter Kennedy who worked for both organisations. Kennedy travelled far and wide collecting songs and tunes from traditional musicians, amassing hundreds of recordings that are now in the British Library. He was remarkably industrious and enthusiastic, revitalising local traditions, playing for village dances and working on famous radio programmes such as 'As I Roved Out'. His methods and manner, though, meant he became a controversial figure, too. Verity Sharp assesses Kennedy's achievement and probes the nature of the man, with contributions from those who knew him, including David Attenborough, Shirley Collins, Malcolm Taylor (who for three decades ran the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library) and Janet Topp Fargion - Curator of World and Traditional Music at the British Library. We also hear several of the remarkable recordings Peter Kennedy made.

Producer: Julian May

PART 2:

Jane Harbour: Kynde

Arnold Foster: Piano Concerto on Country Dance Tunes

Francis Collinson: Folk Tune Medley - Ramsey Town; The Lincolnshire Poacher; York For My Money

Vaughan Williams: Overture - The Wasps

Spiro: Jane Harbour (violin), Jon Hunt (guitar), Alex Venn (mandolin), Jason Sparkes (accordion)

Victor Sangiorgio (piano)

BBC Singers: Emma Tring, Helen Neeves, Olivia Robinson, Elizabeth Poole (sopranos); Margaret Cameron, Nancy Cole (altos)

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Martin Yates.

Spiro with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Singers celebrate folk music old and new.

Bbc Concert Orchestra At Saffron Hall20220120Martin Handley presents a seasonal concert recorded on 2 January in Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden. Pianist Louis Schwizgebel joins conductor Michael Seal and the BBC Concert Orchestra in Ravel's effervescent concerto; and soprano Soraya Mafi sparkles with virtuosity in Glitter and be Gay from Bernstein's Candide.

Debussy arr Ravel Danse Tarantelle Styrienne

Saint-Saens Danse Macabre

Faure Pavane

Ravel Piano Concerto in G

INTERVAL

Dobrinka Tabakova Orpheus' Comet

Lehar Meine lippen, sie kussen so heiss from Giuditta

Bellini Oh quante volte from I Capuletti e i Montecchi

Tchaikovsky Waltz of the Flowers

Josef Strauss Spharen-Klange

Bernstein Glitter & Be Gay from Candide

Strauss Blue Danube

Strauss Champagne Polka

Louis Schwizgebel (piano)

Soraya Mafi (soprano)

A seasonal concert from conductor Michael Seal and the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Bbc Concert Orchestra, Celebrating Mingus20221026With Martin Handley. Guy Barker conducts his New Jazz Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra in a musical tribute to Charles Mingus in his centenary year, recorded at the end of September from the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. They are joined by New York guests saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin and narrator/singer Allan Harris. Mingus briefly played in Ellington's band and the first half includes music by Duke Ellington and others who influenced him. The whole of the second half features stories from Mingus's life, set to his own music, orchestrated and arranged into a symphonic suite by Guy Barker with narration written by Rob Ryan.

Mingus arr & orch. Barker: Don't Be Afraid, the Clown's Afraid Too / Us Is Two (Medley)

Ellington arr & orch. Barker: Fleurette Africaine

Ellington arr & orch. Barker: Money Jungle

Ellington arr & orch. Barker: I Got It Bad

Scott Joplin arr. Jelly Roll Morton, orch Barker: Maple Leaf Rag

Tizol arr & orch. Barker: Caravan

2015

INTERVAL

2035

Mingus arr & orch. Barker: `Mingus 100` Suite

Narration written by Robert Ryan

Lakecia Benjamin (alto sax)

Allan Harris (singer/narrator)

Guy Barker New Jazz Orchestra

conductor Guy Barker

The BBC Concert and Guy Barker New Jazz orchestras with Lakecia Benjamin and Allan Harris.

Bbc Concert Orchestra, Malcolm Arnold Festival20151020Martin Yates conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra, recorded on Saturday at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, as part of the Malcolm Arnold Festival 2015. They are joined by Peter Donohoe in the Fantasy on a Theme of John Field and the concert ends with his cryptic Seventh Symphony, the three movements of which are said to be musical portraits of his children.

Arnold: Philharmonic Concerto

Arnold: Fantasy on a Theme of John Field

8.15 INTERVAL

8.35

Arnold: The Fair Field Overture

Arnold: Symphony No 7

Peter Donohoe (piano)

conductor Martin Yates.

The BBC Concert Orchestra under Martin Yates and pianist Peter Donohoe in music by Arnold.

Bbc Concert Orchestra: Film Noir20171211Robert Ziegler conducts the BBC CO in classic & modern film noir music, with Mark Kermode.
Bbc Concert Orchestra: Music To Die For20170306Music to Die For

From the Royal Festival Hall in London, presented by Simon Callow. The BBC Concert Orchestra and Principal Conductor Keith Lockhart shine a spotlight on some of the murkier corners of death and mortality, featuring music from stage and screen, and with help of singers Anna-Jane Casey and Adrian Der Gregorian from music theatre.

Rogers: Carousel Waltz

Wagner: Liebestod (Tristan und Isolde)

Patrick Doyle:'The Creation' from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

W.Kilar: 'Love Remembered' from Bram Stoker's Dracula

John Williams: 'Night Journeys' from Dracula: A Love Story

Janacek: Suite from The Cunning Little Vixen

INTERVAL

Alan Silvestri: End Credits from Death Becomes Her

Nick Laird-Clowes: Theme from About Time

Rodney Bennett: 'Love Theme' from Four Weddings and a Funeral

Morley: 'Venturing Forth'; 'Final Struggle & Triumph' from Watership Down

Sondheim: 'A Little Priest' from Sweeney Todd

William Finn: 'Anytime (I Am There)' from Elegies

Rogers & Hammerstein:'You'll Never Walk Alone' from Carousel

Anna-Jane Casey and Adrian Der Gregorian (singers)

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Keith Lockhart

Followed by music by past recipients of the Women Make Music Fund from PRS Foundation - in anticipation of International Women's Day on Wednesday.

The BBC Concert Orchestra performs music with the theme of death and mortality.

Bbc Music Day: Bbc Concert Ochestra Live From Truro20160603Petroc Trelawny continues the BBC Music Day celebrations with the BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Ben Gernon, the Cornwall Family Orchestra & Chorus and Radio 3 New Generation Artist Annelien Van Wauwe, who join forces for a musical spectacular from the Hall for Cornwall in Truro. There's music inspired by dance, and live performances of some of the BBC Ten Pieces; and the Cornwall Family Orchestra & Chorus give the premiere of A Cornish Solstice, based on themes from Stravinsky's Firebird.

Bizet: Carmen, Selection from Suites 1 & 2: Les Tor退adors; Prelude and Aragonaise; Habanera; Chanson du tor退ador; Danse boh耀me

Weber: Clarinet Concertino in E flat, Op.26*

Stravinsky: Firebird Suite (1919)

INTERVAL

arr Patrick Bailey: A Cornish Solstice **

Bernstein: Mambo - from Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

L. Bassi: Fantasia da concerto 'Rigoletto' *

Mascagni: Intermezzo - from Cavalleria rusticana

Ginastera: Estancia - Four Dances, Op.8a

Annelien Van Wauwe (clarinet)*

Cornwall Family Orchestra & Chorus**

Conductor Ben Gernon.

BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Ben Gernon, live in Truro as part of BBC Music Day.

Bbc Music Day: Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales20170615From The Brangwyn Hall, Swansea

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Principal Conductor Thomas Sondergard directs the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Plus Prokofiev's Scythian Suite and Ravel's bitter-sweet Piano Concerto in G with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.

Prokofiev: Scythian Suite

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

8.20 Nicola Heywood Thomas talks with tonight's soloist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and as part of BBC Music Day, she finds out about the BBC Concert Orchestra's recent Ten Pieces Assemblies project in schools.

Stravinsky: Rite of Spring

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

Thomas Sondergard (conductor)

Stravinsky's ballet score for The Rite of Spring provoked a riot when it was first heard in Paris in 1913. Commissioned by Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes, the jarring harmonies and pounding rhythms whipped the audience into a frenzy. For all its modernity, much of The Rite is based on traditional folk melody, but through Stravinsky's boundless energy and inventiveness, it still has the power to shock today. Prokofiev's Scythian suite matches Stravinsky for it's sheer scale. Also commissioned by Diaghilev - in the wake of The Rite - Prokofiev's score was to be another violent and primeval ballet. When the great impresario lost interest, Prokofiev adapted his score into a dazzling concert suite, rarely heard today partly due to its size (9 percussionists and 8 trumpets). Ravel's G major concerto is a crystalline miniature, perfectly crafted with elements of jazz, romanticism and impressionism all cheek by jowl in the outer movements. The classically inspired middle movement opens with an achingly beautiful melody, simple yet heart-rending.

Thomas Sondergard conducts the BBC NOW in music Prokofiev, Ravel and Stravinsky.

Bbc National Chorus And Orchestra Of Wales: Somme20160701Adrian Partington directs the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme with music by composers who fought in the trenches and in memory of those who fell. Plus Delius's Requiem, completed in 1916 and offering a personal view of life, suffering and loss that was controversial at the time, and still is today.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, live from BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff

Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad - Rhapsody for full orchestra

Gordon Jacob: Symphony No. 1 (second movement)

Howells: Elegy for Viola, String Quartet and Orchestra

Roussel: Pour une fꀀte de printemps

8.20pm Interval. Nicola Heywood Thomas explores the collections of the National Museum of Cardiff reflecting the terror of the trenches through art, poetry and writing.

8.45pm

Delius: Requiem

Philip Dukes (viola)

Elizabeth Watts (soprano)

Mark Stone (baritone)

BBC National Chorus of Wales

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Adrian Partington (conductor).

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales commemorates the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.

Bbc National Orchestra And Chorus Of Wales Celebrate St David's Day20160301Live from St David's Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Grace Williams (1906-77) was one of the most important figures in Welsh twentieth century music, and her large-scale Missa Cambrensis is her most significant work, yet it was only heard once, in 1971. The premiere proved problematic, and the composer never sought another performance, despite it being held in high regard amongst classical music fans in Wales. To celebrate St. David's Day, it once again takes centre stage with the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, with a starry cast of soloists conducted by Tecwyn Evans. Over an hour long, it mixes the text of the Latin mass with interludes in Welsh, adding a distinctive flavour to her colourful musical language. Exciting young Welsh trumpeter Huw Morgan is the soloist in her Trumpet Concerto, and her Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes is a joyous medley of traditional melodies.

Grace Williams: Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes

Grace Williams: Trumpet Concerto

8.10pm:

Interval music: Nicola Heywood Thomas explores Grace Williams's association with other composers, including the Hymn to St. Cecilia by Benjamin Britten

8.30pm:

Grace Williams: Missa Cambrensis

Huw Morgan (trumpet)

Fflur Wyn (soprano)

Catherine Wyn Rogers (contralto)

Andrew Rees (tenor)

Jason Howard (bass)

Dr. Rowan Williams (narrator)

Ysgol Gerdd Ceredigion (children's chorus)

BBC National Chorus of Wales

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Tecwyn Evans (conductor).

Live from Cardiff, the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales celebrate St David's Day

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales In Wagner, Beethoven And Schubert20160219Live from Brangwyn Hall, Swansea

Alexandre Bloch conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in music by Wagner, Beethoven and Schubert.

Wagner: The Mastersingers of Nuremberg - overture

Beethoven: Concerto in C major for violin, cello and piano (Triple Concerto)

8.15: Interval

Weber: Der Freischütz - overture

Schubert: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major

Trio Apaches:

Matthew Trusler, violin

Thomas Carroll, cello

Ashley Wass, piano

Alexandre Bloch, conductor

Schubert's Symphony No. 5 is light and full of tunes, with a significantly smaller orchestra than some of his other symphonic works. The Fifth was written while Schubert was particularly absorbed in the works of Mozart, and this influence can clearly be heard in a work that speaks with a distinctly 18th-century voice.

Alexandre Bloch conducts BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Wagner, Beethoven and Schubert

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales Plays Bartok's Concerto For Orchestra20180219Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra. Plus Huw Watkins is the soloist in Britten's piano concerto.

Recorded at Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff. Nicola Heywood Thomas presents

Tippett: Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles

Britten: Piano Concerto No. 1

c. 8.15pm

Interval

c. 8.35pm

Bartok: Concerto for orchestra

Huw Watkins (piano)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Composer-in-Association Huw Watkins curates two concerts of the music that shaped him, as a performer and as a composer. Written in 1948, Tippett's Suite for the Birthday of Prince Charles opens tonight's concert, and Huw Watkins is the soloist for Benjamin Britten's Piano Concerto. We conclude with Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, which features every member of the orchestra.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales plays Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales Plays Beethoven's Ninth Symphony20180119Live from St David's Hall, Cardiff

Huw Watkins: Spring (world premiere)

8.00: Interval

Beethoven: Symphony No 9 in D minor, 'Choral

Elizabeth Atherton, soprano

Clara Mouriz, mezzo

Allan Clayton, tenor

Matthew Rose, bass

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor

Beethoven's symphonic cycle ends with nothing less than a mighty rallying call to all humanity. Its daring and at times outlandish writing has sparked debate ever since its premiere in 1824. Despite that, who can fail to be swept up by his Ode to Joy and vision of arcadia?

Finding the right partner piece for the ninth is always a challenge. Huw Watkins, described as 'one of the most rounded composer-musicians in the UK' (Financial Times) and BBC NOW's composer-in-residence, steps boldly into the breach.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales Plays Sibelius's Fifth Symphony20180209The BBC National Orchestra of Wales perform Sibelius's Fifth Symphony with Principal Conductor Thomas Sondergard.

Live from the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea.

Sibelius: King Kristian II Suite

Nielsen: Flute Concerto

c. 8.20pm

Interval

c. 8.40pm

Sibelius: Finlandia

Sibelius Symphony No 5 in E flat

Matthew Featherstone (flute)

Thomas Sondergard (conductor)

Balancing Finnish fervour with music on a Danish theme, tonight's concert starts with a suite of light incidental pieces for a play about King Christian II and Sibelius's patriotic side comes to the fore with his most anthemic tone poem. The BBC NOW's principal flautist, Matthew Featherstone, continues the playful mood with Carl Nielsen's Flute Concerto, and the Fifth Symphony of Finland's most celebrated composer concludes tonight's concert - Sibelius's paean to nature and the countryside of his homeland.

Thomas Sondergard conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Sibelius's 5th Symphony.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Bach's St John Passion20170412John Butt conducts the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales in Bach's St John Passion, his intimate and dramatic setting of the Gospel story first heard in 1724.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, live from St. David's Hall in Cardiff.

J.S Bach: St. John Passion (part one)

c.8.10 pm. During the interval, Nicola Heywood Thomas talks with John Butt and continuo organist Stephen Farr about the context of the music and the Lutheran liturgy, and hears organ music by J.S. Bach and a recent recording by them both of an organ duet by Kenneth Leighton - Martyrs.

c.8.30 pm

J.S Bach: St. John Passion (part two)

Gwilym Bowen, tenor - Evangelist

David Soar, bass - Christ

Elizabeth Watts, soprano

William Towers, countertenor

Nick Pritchard, tenor

Ashley Riches, bass

BBC National Chorus of Wales

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

John Butt, conductor

The St John Passion is an extravagant and emotionally charged work, often using the chorus chorales to drive the dialogue forward. It is modestly scored but with an expressive immediacy and some of the most exquisite solo flute and oboe writing of the baroque era. John Butt is one of the most respected Bach specialists of today, both as a performer and a scholar. Having recorded the St. John Passion in a liturgical context, he brings his expertise to the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales in this dramatic and intimate setting of the Gospel story.

John Butt directs the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales in Bach's St John Passion

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Bruch And Bruckner20180508Joseph Swensen conducts Bruckner's Seventh Symphony. And Tasmin Little joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales as soloist in Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1.

Recorded at the Bragwyn Hall, Swansea. Nicola Heywood Thomas presents.

Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor

Interval

c. 8.25pm

Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E major WAB 107

Tasmin Little (violin)

Joseph Swensen (conductor)

Violinist Tasmin Little joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for what has been described as one of the world's most popular violin concertos - Bruch's gorgeous Violin Concerto No. 1. Plus Joseph Swensen conducts the orchestra through a gradual journey to glory in Bruckner's seventh symphony. The composer's epic work was inspired by the scope and spirituality of Bach with a simple idea ascending like a prayer as the piece opens before being transfigured in its final bars.

Joseph Swensen conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Bruckner in Swansea.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Debussy, Mozart, Messiaen20180323Pianist Steven Osborne joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Mozart's Piano Concerto No.27. Plus Jac van Steen conducts Debussy's La Mer.

Live from St David's Hall, Cardiff. Nicola Heywood Thomas presents.

Debussy: Nocturnes

Mozart: Piano Concerto No.27 in E flat major K595

c. 8.35pm Interval: The Debussy Meme

Debussy in Paris: A survey of the influence of Debussy on popular culture, from the music box to Tomita's recreation of his music using the analogue synthesiser, via Art of Noise. With contributions from Anne Dudley from Art of Noise, film music composer Craig Armstrong, the painter Emma Visca, and composer and musician Hannah Peel.

c. 8.55pm

Messiaen: Les offrandes oubli退es

Debussy: La Mer

Steven Osborne (piano)

Jac van Steen (conductor)

Debussy's music of water, wind and light surrounds colourful works by composers at different ends of their lives. Mozart's 27th piano concerto was to be his last, yet despite its subdued qualities, the finale is based on a song welcoming the summer. Messiaen's meditation for orchestra dates back to his early years after leaving conservatoire. It's a stunningly beautiful work that foreshadows a lifelong devotion to the mystical connection between music and faith.

Live from Cardiff: Jac van Steen, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, pianist Steven Osborne.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Debussy, Ravel, Ibert, Stravinsky20161018Principal conductor Thomas Sondergard launches the new season with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, opening chapter one of a story-telling year of concerts. The intensely colourful Firebird was the first of Stravinsky's big three ballets for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Debussy's pipe-playing faun was famously brought to life for Diaghilev's company by the dancer Nijinsky, but the original score was a ground-breaking moment for the composer, establishing his suggestive and sensuous world of musical impressionism. Flautist Emily Beynon returns to Wales as the soloist in Ibert's lively concerto, and Sarah Connolly sings of the enchanted flute in Ravel's exquisite setting of poems based on tales from One Thousand and One Nights.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Recorded last Thursday at St. David's Hall, Cardiff

Debussy: Pr退lude

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Elgar, Holst And Vaughan Williams20180706Sheku Kanneh-Mason performs Elgar's Cello Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Daniel Pioro is the soloist in Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending, plus Martyn Brabbins conducts Holst's ballet The Perfect Fool.

Live from Cheltenham Town Hall

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Higgins: Velocity

Howells: Pastoral Rhapsody Op.38

Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85

c. 8.30 Interval

Holst: Beni Mora Suite: Third Dance - In the Street of the Ouled N䀀ils

Vaughan Williams:The Lark Ascending

Holst: The Perfect Fool: Ballet Music

Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello)

Daniel Pioro (violin)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Hailed as the successor to Jacqueline du Pr退, who made Elgar's Cello Concerto her own, and the cellist at the recent Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, 19-year-old Sheku Kanneh-Mason joins BBC National Orchestra of Wales as they begin their three-day residency at Cheltenham Music Festival. The violinist Daniel Pioro is the soloist in Vaughan Williams' gorgeous setting of George Meredith's poem, The Lark Ascending, and conductor Martyn Brabbins takes the baton in the ballet music from Holst's parody on the world of Opera and British sensibility - The Perfect Fool.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason performs Elgar plus Martyn Brabbins conducts Holst and Vaughan Williams

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Janack, Mendelssohn, Smetana, Dvorak20170316BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and music by Janacek, Smetana and Dvorak.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, live from the Aberystwyth Arts Centre

Janacek: Lachian Dances

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor

8.15: Interval

8.35

Smetana: Overture - The Bartered Bride

Dvorak: Symphony No 7 in D minor

Simone Lamsma, violin

Otto Tausk, conductor

As well as being a master musician, Czech composer Antonin Dvo?ak was an enthusiastic train spotter, spending hours at railway stations in Prague most days. Rumour has it that one such visit provided the inspiration for his Seventh Symphony where the sight of troops arriving for a patriotic concert resonated with the composer's strong patriotism - leading to his greatest symphony.

Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is firmly established as one of the most popular and best loved of all concertos, and rightly so - to perform it we welcome superb Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma.

Otto Tausk conducts the BBC NOW in music by Janack, Mendelssohn, Smetana and Dvorak.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, John Adams, Huw Watkins And Graham Fitkin20170529The final concert of the Vale of Glamorgan Festival 2017 features the world premiere of Graham Fitkin's Recorder Concerto, performed by Sophie Westbrooke, alongside Huw Watkins's Cello Concerto. The concert is book-ended with John Adams's The Chairman Dances and his work for string quartet and orchestra, Absolute Jest.

Live from BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

John Adams: The Chairman Dances

Huw Watkins: Cello Concerto

8.10 Interval Music

8.30

Graham Fitkin: Recorder Concerto

John Adams: Absolute Jest

Paul Watkins (cello)

Sophie Westbrooke (recorder)

Apollon Musag耀te (string quartet)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Tecwyn Evans (conductor)

John Adams wrote The Chairman Dances in lieu of writing the third scene of his opera Nixon in China, depicting a foxtrot for Chairman Mao and his bride Chiang Ch'ing, and it swings between sentimentality and bravura. Huw Watkins's deeply expressive cello concerto was written for his brother Paul and BBC National Orchestra of Wales for last year's Proms, and it is paired with a new work from Graham Fitkin which combines an intriguing mix of orchestra with amplified recorder. To round off, John Adams's Absolute Jest, described by Musical America as 'a gripping 25-minute sonic joy ride... You can hear the echoes of Beethoven throughout the piece - chopped, remixed, inside out and upside down ... and you can almost see the composer smiling at the results'.

Tecwyn Evans conducts the BBC NOW in music by John Adams, Huw Watkins and Graham Fitkin.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Mozart, Strauss, Brahms20180420Conductor Otto Tausk joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Brahms Symphony No. 4, plus soprano Aga Mikolaj performs Strauss's Four Last Songs.

Live from St David's Hall, Cardiff. Nicola Heywood Thomas presents.

Mozart - Overture from The Marriage of Figaro

Strauss - 4 Letzte Lieder AV.150

c. 8.05pm Interval

c. 8.25pm

Brahms - Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op.98

Aga Mikolaj (soprano)

Otto Tausk (conductor)

Strauss takes leave of his long and fruitful life, in his Four Last Songs, and commemorates those things dearest to him - his love for nature, the soprano voice of his wife of fifty-four years, and his belief in the transcendence of the soul. Plus we hear what some describe as the summation of Brahms's compositional learning, in his fourth and final symphony.

Live from Cardiff: Otto Tausk, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and Soprano Aga Mikolaj.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Saint-saens, Tchaikovsky20160616The BBC National Orchestra of Wales play Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony and are joined by cellist Natalie Clein in the Cello Concerto No 1 by Saint-Sa뀀ns.

Recorded at St Davids Cathedral on Saturday 28 May

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor

8.15: Interval

8.35 Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor (Path退tique)

Natalie Clein, cello

Jessica Cottis, conductor.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales performs music by Saint-Saens and Tchaikovsky.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Strauss, Mozart And Beethoven20170330Live from Cheltenham Town Hall

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Jun Markl returns to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for a programme of Strauss, Mozart and Beethoven. 'Death and Transfiguration' depicts a great artist's journey from earthly life to everlasting bliss in a powerful and radiant tone poem. Like Jun Markl, Alice Sara Ott is also of joint German and Japanese decent. She's the soloist in Mozart's sublime C-major concerto, No. 21, which has appeared on film alongside James Bond. Beethoven's life-enhancing 6th Symphony, the Pastoral, is just as radical as its more famous sibling No. 5, celebrating nature in its awesome power and beauty.

Strauss: Death and Transfiguration

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 21 in C major, K467

8.25 During the interval, Nicola Heywood Thomas talks to tonight's soloist, Alice Sara Ott, about fame and fashion, and listens to her new recordings of Grieg - beyond the Piano Concerto.

Beethoven: Symphony No 6 In F major (Pastoral)

Alice Sara Ott (piano)

Jun Markl (conductor).

Live from Cheltenham Town Hall, BBC NOW under Jun Markl in Strauss, Mozart and Beethoven.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Tchaikovsky And Shostakovich20180612Baiba Skride is the soloist in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major and Principal Conductor Thomas Sondergard takes the helm of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Shostakovich's Symphony No.5 in D minor.

Recorded at St David's Hall, Cardiff. Nicola Heywood Thomas presents.

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op.35

Interval

c. 8.35pm

Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 in D minor, Op.47

Baiba Skride (violin)

Thomas Sondergard (conductor)

Violinist Baiba Skride joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for one of the most popular violin concertos in the repertoire - Tchaikovsky's powerful Violin Concerto in D Major. Plus Principal Conductor Thomas Sondergard conducts the orchestra in the closing concert of their season with Shostakovich triumphant fifth Symphony - a work written when the composer's career was on a knife-edge but which eventually found grace as the Soviet authorities capitulated to his rehabilitation.

Baiba Skride in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto plus Thomas Sondergard conducts Shostakovich

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Wagner, Mahler, Stravinsky20170210Live from Brangwyn Hall, Swansea. Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Wagner: Tannh䀀user Overture and Venusburg Music

Mahler: Revelge; Lob des hohen Verstands; Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt; Wo die sch怀nen Trompeten blasen; Der Tambourg'sell (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)

8.20 Interval Music

8.40

Stravinsky: Petrushka

Roderick Williams (baritone)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Mark Wigglesworth (conductor).

Mark Wigglesworth conducts the BBC NOW in music by Wagner, Mahler and Stravinsky.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Walton, Elgar, John Pickard20160607Live from BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff, Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Elgar's ever-popular Cello Concerto with soloist Alban Gerhardt, the composer's passionate outpouring of grief and disillusionment in the wake of the First World War. In contrast, Walton's riotous overture celebrates the 70th anniversary of the founding of Johannesburg, complete with African rhythms. John Pickard's new work is, perhaps surprisingly in the 21st century, still a traditional symphony. It features three sets of timpani spatially separated across the stage, not simply used to create a lot of noise, but to explore melodic lines between the three players.

Presented by Nicola Hewyood Thomas

Walton: Johannesburg Festival Overture

Elgar: Cello Concerto

8.15 During the interval, Nicola talks to soloist Alban Gerhardt about his close relationship to BBC NOW since his days as one of the first Radio 3 new Generation Artists, and listens to some of his most recent recordings.

8.35

John Pickard: Symphony No. 5 [world premiere]

Alban Gerhardt (cello)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor).

Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC NOW in music by Walton, Elgar and John Pickard.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Weber, Beethoven And Brahms20151014Jac van Steen conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in an overture by Weber and Brahms's Fourth Symphony. Llyr Williams is the soloist in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto.

Live from Brangwyn Hall, Swansea

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Weber: Overture - Oberon

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major

8.20 Interval Music

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor

Llyr Williams (piano)

Jac van Steen (conductor)

Now firmly established as a leading international pianist, Llyr Williams performs Beethoven, a composer for whom he has established a particular affinity. The Fourth Piano Concerto is remarkable for its combination of outer tenderness and underlying intensity, continually shifting in mood from melancholy to heroic, anguished to whimsical. Beethoven's influence is all too evident in Brahms's last and greatest symphony, a work of tremendous power and passion, not to mention immense beauty.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Jac van Steen perform Weber, Beethoven and Brahms.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales, Zemlinsky, Mendelssohn, Kate Whitley20170309Recorded yesterday at BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Principal Guest Conductor Xian Zhang conducts her orchestra and chorus in a programme for International Women's Day. Radio 3 commissioned Kate Whitley to set the text by Malala Yousafzai, the schoolgirl who hit the headlines when she survived a murder attempt by the Taliban in 2012. Speak Out declaims every girl's right to an education in the struggle against oppression, sung by both adult and children's voices. Latvian sisters Baiba and Lauma Skride join forces harmoniously in Mendelssohn's concerto for piano and violin, and Zemlinsky sets Hans Christian Andersen's tale of The Little Mermaid, whose beauty entrances her handsome prince with tragic consequences. Zemlinsky's music powerfully explores the adult themes of this story, written in the wake of his own betrayal in love by Alma Schindler, who left him for Gustav Mahler.

Kate Whitley: Speak out

Cor y Cwm (children's voices)

BBC National Chorus of Wales

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Xian Zhang (conductor)

Mendelssohn: Concerto for Piano, Violin and Strings

Baiba Skride (violin)

Lauma Skride (piano)

8.20 Nicola Heywood Thomas talks to tonight's soloists, Baiba and Lauma Skride about their musical sisterhood and hears some of their latest chamber recordings of music from Nordic countries.

8.40 Zemlinsky: Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid)

Followed by music by past recipients of the Women Make Music Fund from PRS Foundation.

The BBC NOW and Xian Zhang perform Zemlinsky, Mendelssohn and a new work by Kate Whitley.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales: Pictures At An Exhibition20181004Live from St. David's Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Conductor Laureate Tadaaki Otaka takes to the stage with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for the opening concert of their season, live from St. David's Hall in Cardiff and presented by Nicola Heyward Thomas. Vaughan Williams' deeply personal depictions of English music dominates the first half, from the chants and echoes of an English Renaissance cathedral in his haunting Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, to his setting of Robert Lewis Stevenson's Songs of Travel, for which the orchestra will be joined by Sir Thomas Allen. This is contrasted in the second half by Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, in the famous orchestration by Ravel. A tribute to his departed friend, the artist Victor Hartmann, Pictures at an Exhibition takes the listener around an exhibition of ten of Hartmann's paintings, culminating in The Great Gate of Kiev.

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel

8.15 Interval Music

Mussorgsky, orch. Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition

Sir Thomas Allen (baritone)

Tadaaki Otaka (conductor)

BBC NOW and Tadaaki Otaka peform Vaugham Williams and Mussorgsky.

Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales: Remembering Aberfan20161021To commemorate 50 years since the Aberfan disaster, Sian Edwards conducts the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales in Faur退's Requiem.

From Brangwyn Hall, Swansea as part of Swansea International Festival.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Joseph Davies: The Shortest Day

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op.22

8.20 Interval Music - Reich: WTC 9/11, Kronos Quartet

8.40

Geraint Lewis: Souls of the Righteous

Faur退: Requiem

Louis Lortie (piano)

Fflur Wyn (soprano)

Neal Davies (baritone)

Sian Edwards (conductor).

BBC NOW and Chorus in music by Joseph Davies, Saint-Saens, Geraint Lewis and Faure.

Bbc New Generation Artists At The Bath Mozartfest20171121Tom Redmond presents this concert given last Friday afternoon at the Bath Guildhall by three current and a recent member of BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme.

Annelien Van Wauwe (clarinet)

Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad (viola)

with

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

Bruch: Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Op 83 Nos 5 & 6

Chopin: Impromptu No 1 in A flat major, Op 29

Chopin: Fantaisie-Impromptu in C sharp minor, Op 66

Brahms: Sonata in E flat major for viola and piano, Op 120 No 2

at 8.20pm Interval Music: New Generation Artist, the tenor, Ilker Arcayurek sings Schubert songs.

Mozart: 'Kegelstatt' Trio in E flat major for clarinet, viola and piano, K498

Mozart: Marche funebre del Sigr Maestro Contrapunto for piano, K453a,

Mozart: Two Minuets from 11 Minuets, K176, arranged for piano

Mozart: Fantasia in D minor, K397

Schumann: M䀀rchenerz䀀hlungen for clarinet, viola and piano, Op 132

Radio 3's New Generation Artists is the leading scheme for the world's brightest young singers, instrumentalists and chamber groups at the start of their international careers. Each year six or seven brilliant musicians are offered the opportunity to develop their talents in the concert hall, the recording studio and with the BBC Orchestras as well as appearing at some of the UK's leading music festivals.

BBC New Generation Artists play Mozart, Schumann, Brahms and Chopin at Bath Mozartfest.

Bbc New Generation Artists Harrogate Showcase20160714Harrogate International Festival 2016 BBC New Generation Artists Showcase Concert. Three outstanding young artists join forces at the Royal Hall, Harrogate for a programme inspired by Brahms's and Schumann's love for the music of JS Bach. Narek Hakhnazaryan, a former winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition plays Bach's original solo cello version of his third cello suite before Russian pianist, Pavel Kolesnikov joins him to play movements from Schumann's recently discovered version with piano accompaniment. And Belgian clarinettist, Annelien Van Wauwe plays Schumann's romantically wistful Fantasy Pieces and a Romance by Princess Marie Elisabeth of Saxe-Meiningen, a one-time pupil of Brahms. And the three young musicians combine forces to round off their fascinating programme with Brahms's Clarinet Trio, a work which inspired one contemporary to observe admiringly that: 'It is as though the instruments were in love with each other.

Presented by Tom Redmond

Bach arr. Brahms: Chaconne for piano left hand

Bach: Cello Suite No.3 in C major BWV 1009

Schumann: Fantasiestücke for clarinet, Op.73

Interval Music: Schumann Romanzen und Balladen op 67 sung by the Flemish Radio Choir, Bo Holten (conductor)

Bach arr. Schumann: Cello Suite No.3 in C major

Princess Marie Elisabeth of Saxe-Meiningen: Romanze in F major

Brahms: Trio in A minor for Clarinet, Cello and Piano, Op.114

Annelien Van Wauwe (clarinet)

Narek Hakhnazaryan (cello)

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

rec. 07 July 2016.

Radio 3 New Generation Artists in a showcase concert from Harrogate International Festival

Bbc Now And Chorus, Elgar, Delius, Walton20161201Live from St David's Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales perform Walton's Belshazzar's Feast with guest conductor Martyn Brabbins, the newly-appointed Music Director of English National Opera.

Elgar: In the South (Alassio)

Delius: Concerto for Violin and Cello

8.15: Interval: Pied Piper

During the intervals of the concerts this week, we'll be hearing a selection of programmes from the five year long series. Munrow explored a wide range of music, and these five programmes can only begin to give a taste of the topics he covered. This edition of the Pied Piper programme was first heard at 5.25pm on Monday 1st March 1976. The Radio Times described it like this: 'For two centuries the string quartet has been a favourite form of music making. David Munrow traces its early history from the time when the 'demure' viol was replaced by the 'vulgar' violin.

8.35: Walton: Belshazzar's Feast

Tasmin Little, violin

Paul Watkins, cello

Neal Davies, bass

BBC National Chorus of Wales

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Martyn Brabbins, conductor

With the hauntingly dramatic bass solo telling of Belshazzar's hallucinations and ensuing death, to epic choruses depicting the fall of Babylon, this choral masterpiece is a work of epic proportions. From the striking opening brass fanfare, the delicate and intimate semi-choruses, to massed choral forces, Belshazzar's Feast is a high energy emotional rollercoaster.

Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC NOW and Chorus in music by Elgar, Delius and Walton.

Bbc Now And Rachel Podger, Handel, Bach, Vivaldi20160311Baroque violinist Rachel Podger leads the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in some of her favourite works from the late 1600s and early 1700s in this historically informed performance. Biber's Battalia, dedicated to Bacchus, vividly conjures up images of battle using the sounds of strings alone. BBC NOW leader Lesley Hatfield duets with Rachel Podger in Bach's Double Concerto.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Live from Brangwyn Hall, Swansea

Handel: Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op.6 No.6

Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No.2 in F major, BWV 1047

8.15 During the interval, Nicola Heywood Thomas talks to Rachel Podger and plays music by Podger's Brecon Baroque ensemble.

8.35 Biber: Battalia

Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in A major, Op.9 No.6

Bach: Double Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1043.

Rachel Podger leads the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Handel, Bach and Vivaldi.

Bbc Now At The North Wales International Music Festival20220928The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Andrew Gourlay open this year's North Wales International Music Festival in its 50th year. Since it was founded in 1972 by composer William Mathias, the North Wales International Music Festival has been a cultural highlight for North Wales, and Gourlay brings a programme which pays tribute to its venerable history.

It begins with Weber's overture to Oberon, from his opera on the titular king of the Elves, and the piece which opened the inaugural concert of the festival. Mathias's Celtic Dances follow, written in the same year he founded the Festival, and evoking the mythological past of Celtic Britain. To finish the first half is Gareth Glyn's Amaterasu, his first harp concerto. It was commissioned by the festival in 2015, and Hannah Stone will reprise her role as harp soloist, embodying the Shinto Sun Goddess of the title.

The evening concludes with Vaughan Williams's Pastoral Symphony. Finished 100 years ago in 1922, and part of the celebrations of the composers 150th anniversary, this achingly beautiful symphony evokes the war-torn battlefields of France and the dead of the First World War.

Recorded in St. Asaph Cathedral on the 17th of September and presented by Ian Skelly.

7.30pm

Weber: Oberon (Overture)

Mathias: Celtic Dances

Glyn: Amaterasu

8.20pm

Interval Music

8.40pm

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 3, ‘Pastoral

Hannah Stone (harp)

Ffion Edwards (soprano)

Andrew Gourlay (conductor)

The opening night of the 50th anniversary of the Festival from St Asaph Cathedral

Bbc Now Perform Bruckner's Die Nullte Symphony20230310Ryan Bancroft takes the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from the depths of a Spanish prison, through an American spiritual seen through German eyes, to end in the bustling capital of the newly formed Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Beethoven's opera Fidelio began life called Leonore, just as the main character of that opera did before she donned her disguise to free her wrongfully imprisoned husband. Beethoven struggled with the overture for that work, writing four different versions, but felt that the overture we'll hear tonight worked perfectly as a stand-alone piece. Bernd Alois Zimmermann made a name for himself as a composer in postwar Germany by drawing musical inspiration from a wide range of styles and genres, and he was known for using quotations frequently in his music. His Trumpet Concerto takes its title from the spiritual which is quoted within, which Zimmermann used in protest to the racial hatred that he saw developing in the society around him. After an interval looking at similarly neglected postwar composers, the concert concludes with Bruckner's Symphony No 0 or the Nullte, the title taken from the ? or null symbol which Bruckner despondently wrote over the manuscript. The work was written in Vienna between his first and second symphony, but after the criticism of a single conductor it was withdrawn, and only rightfully included in his main body of symphonies after his death.

Al Ryan presents live from Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff.

7.30pm

Beethoven: Leonore Overture No 3 in C major, Op 72b

Zimmermann: Trumpet Concerto in C (Nobody knows de trouble I see)

8.10pm

Interval Music

8.30pm

Bruckner: Symphony in D minor, WAB 100 (No. 0, Nullte)

Simon H怀fele (trumpet)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

Ryan Bancroft conducts Bruckner's Symphony No 0 and works by Beethoven and Zimmerman.

Bbc Now Perform Grace Williams And Strauss In Cardiff20230601The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and their principal conductor, Ryan Bancroft, perform the last concert of the orchestra's season, with a vivacious programme of Grace Williams, Mozart, and Richard Strauss. Williams's Concert Overture is an early work, which she wrote following her return from studying with Egon Wellesz in Vienna, a product of winning the highly prestigious Octavia Travelling Scholarship from the Royal College of Music. Mozart's 39th symphony is the first of his great last symphonies, and is also the most outlandish, often being favourably compared with Haydn's symphonic writing. It's a fervently energetic work, which perfectly complements the vitality of the other works on the programme. Strauss took inspiration from the epic novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes for his tone poem of the same name, in which a Spanish nobleman convinces himself that he is a knight-errant. Strauss loads the work with all the humour from the novel, and gives the title character to the solo cello, while his squire, Sancho Panza, is taken by the solo viola, performed tonight by principal cello Alice Neary, and principal viola Rebecca Jones.

Presented by Ian Skelly, live from St. David's Hall in Cardiff.

7.30pm

Grace Williams: Concert Overture

Mozart: Symphony No 39 in E flat major, K 543

8.15pm

Interval music

8.35pm

Richard Strauss: Don Quixote, Op 35

Rebecca Jones (viola)

Alice Neary (cello)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

Ryan Bancroft conducts Don Quixote, Williams's Concert Overture and Mozart's 39th Symphony

Bbc Now Perform Maconchy, Britten And Elgar20230404The BBC National Orchestra of Wales welcomes back its conductor laureate, Tadaaki Otaka, to conduct a resplendent programme of British music. The concert opens with Elizabeth Maconchy's Nocturne, a work which depicts a dream-like night scene full of surprise, romance, menace, and beauty. Violinist Simone Lamsma then joins the Orchestra for Britten's Violin Concerto, a work written in the dark days before the outbreak of the Second World War, which Britten filled with emotion and intensity. That intensity continues when the evening culminates in Elgar's Second Symphony, a work of staggering achievement that the composer filled with his soul. It is full of vibrant colour, beguiling tonality, and a palpable sense of struggle toward the serene ending.

Recorded 25th of March in St. David's Hall, Cardiff. Presented by Verity Sharp.

7.30pm

Maconchy: Nocturne for Orchestra

Britten: Violin Concerto No 1, Op 15

8.15pm

Interval Music (from CD)

G Williams: Suite for 9 instruments (3rd mvt)

London Chamber Ensemble

Maconchy: Still Falls the Rain

BBC Singers

Odaline de la Martinez (conductor)

Smyth: String Quartet in E min, Op 1 (2nd mvt)

Villiers Quartet

8.35pm

Elgar: Symphony No 2 in E flat major, Op 63

Simone Lamsma (violin)

Tadaaki Otaka (conductor)

Tadaaki Otaka conducts British masterworks, culminating in Elgar's Second Symphony.

Bbc Now Perform Schumann And Mahler20231114The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and their principal conductor, Ryan Bancroft, perform Schumann's Overture, Scherzo and Finale and Third Symphony, and Christianne Stotijn joins them to sing Mahler's Kindentotenlieder.

Presented by Verity Sharp and recorded in Hoddinott Hall last month.

Schumann: Overture, Scherzo & Finale in E major, Op 52

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder

Schumann: Symphony No 3 in E flat major, Op 97, 'Rhenish

Christianne Stotijn (mezzo-soprano)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

Ryan Bancroft conducts Schumann's Third Symphony and Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and their principal conductor, Ryan Bancroft, perform two works by Schumann. Christianne Stotijn joins them to sing Mahler's Kindentotenlieder.

Bbc Now Perform Tansy Davies, Sibelius And Tchaikovsky20230323The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and their principal conductor Ryan Bancroft travel to Aberystwyth to perform Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and Tansy Davies. The concert opens with Monolith, a work for percussion and strings that Davies wrote for the 2021 Aldeburgh Festival. It takes inspiration from Claude Cahun's photograph titled I extend my arms, which depicts disembodied arms extending from a monolithic stone. Before the interval, violinist Clara-Jumi Kang joins Bancroft and his Orchestra for Sibelius' much loved Violin Concerto - the composer's beautiful love song to the instrument he had so dearly longed to be a virtuoso on. The concert concludes with Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, considered by many to be the composer's statement on fate and destiny, and one of his most popular compositions.

Recorded on the 16th of March, and presented by Verity Sharp.

7.30pm

Tansy Davies: Monolith - I extend my arms

Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op 47

8.25pm

Interval music (from CD)

Tansy Davies: Forgotten Game

James Turnbull (oboe)

Huw Watkins (piano)

Korngold: Suite, Op 23 (2nd mvt)

Spectrum Concerts Berlin

G Conus: 3 pieces, Op 36

Jonathan Powell (piano)

8.45pm

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 5 in E minor, Op 64

Clara-Jumi Kang (violin)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

Ryan Bancroft takes the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

Bbc Now Play Higgins At The Aldeburgh Festival20220617In the second of their Aldeburgh Festival performances, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Martyn Brabbins present a programme of British music, culminating with the world premiere of The Faerie Bride, a cantata by the Orchestra's Composer in Association, Gavin Higgins. In this work, Higgins sets words written by Francesca Simon depicting the Welsh myth 'The Lady of Lyn y Fan Fach' in which the eponymous faerie marries a man on the condition he must not strike her three times or she will immediately return to the lake in which she dwelled. This world premiere is preceded by Grace Williams's Sea Sketches, a fantastically evocative depiction of the South Wales coastline. Fittingly, we also hear Williams' dear friend—and one of the founders of the Aldeburgh Festival—Benjamin Britten. His Suite on English Folk Tunes is a late work which he subtitled 'A time there was...', referring both to older musical traditions, and his own earlier compositions.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas live from Snape Maltings.

7.30pm

G Williams: Sea Sketches

Britten: Suite on English Folk Tunes - 'A Time There Was...', Op 90

8.10pm

Interval Music (from CD)

8.30pm

Gavin Higgins: The Faerie Bride

Marta Fontanals-Simmons (Female Voice)

Roderick Williams (Male Voice)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Martyn Brabbins conducts the world premiere of Gavin Higgins's cantata The Faerie Bride.

Bbc Now Play Kod\u00e1ly, Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, And Brahms20220223The BBC National Orchestra of Wales is joined by Jaime Mart퀀n, who conducts Kodကly's Dances of Galကnta and Brahms's First Serenade. Jonathan Roozeman appears as soloist in Dvo?ကk's Cello Concerto.

Brahms was slow to begin his symphonic career, at least in part due to a desire to match Beethoven's mastery of the form. His First Serenade was, in essence, a practise run at symphonic writing—but without the need for the moniker 'Symphony'. Nonetheless, the finished work has a sense of unity that belies its origins, and shows that Brahms was already a master in the making.

Zoltကn Kodကly's thrilling score for the Dances of Galကnta draws from the gypsy music that was such an influence on him as a child growing up in western Hungary. The influence of Hungarian folk music was important to the three composers on the bill, and in the interval we'll explore this in more depth after hearing Dvo?ကk's masterwork for the cello, his B minor Concerto, a perennial favourite of cellists and audiences alike.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, recorded in January at BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff.

Kodကly: Dances of Galကnta

Dvo?ကk: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op 104

8.35pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Dvo?ကk: Zelenaj se, zelenaj (Moravian Duets, Op 32)

Bartok: Four Old Hungarian Songs

C Schumann: Soirees Musicales, Op 6 (Mazurka; Polonaise)

8.55pm

Brahms: Serenade No 1 in D major, Op 11

Jonathan Roozeman (cello)

Jaime Mart퀀n (conductor)

Jaime Mart\u00edn conducts three works, including Dvo\u0159\u00e1k's masterful Cello Concerto

Bbc Now Play Shostakovich At The Aldeburgh Festival20220616Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in two nights of rousing music with a distinctly British focus, live from the Aldeburgh Festival. The first night opens with Elizabeth Maconchy's brief yet majestic work Proud Thames, depicting the river from its trickling rural source to the bustle of a brimming capital city. Cellist Laura van der Heijden will then join Martyn and the Orchestra for the last of William Walton's three great string concertos, the work with which she won the coveted BBC Young Musician of the Year award in 2012. The evening concludes with Shostakovich's tempestuous 10th Symphony, a work which needs no narrative to describe the power of its violent and vibrant music, although some see it as the composer's musical depiction of Stalin and the tyranny he had inflicted on Russia.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, live from Snape Maltings.

7.30pm

Maconchy: Proud Thames

Walton: Cello Concerto

8.15pm

Interval Music (from CD)

8.35pm

Shostakovich: Symphony No 10 in E minor, Op 93

Laura van der Heijden (cello)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Martyn Brabbins conducts the first of two performances from Snape Maltings Concert Hall.

Bbc Now Play Zemlinsky And Mahler20201208In life, Zemlinsky and Mahler were in competition for the love of Alma Schindler, who spurned Zemlinsky to marry Mahler, but together their musical compositions form an important bridge between 19th-century romanticism and 20th-century modernism. The two pieces presented here were written only 13 years apart and highlight their differing responses to the new century, as well as the similarities present in both composers.

Zemlinsky's 6 Songs to Poems by Maurice Maeterlinck frame the works of the Belgian Symbolist poet, a recent Nobel Laureate at the time they were written, with gorgeous shifting harmonies. We'll hear the work tonight in a brand new chamber arrangement by composer John Pickard, sung by Dame Sarah Connolly. Mahler's Fourth Symphony is based on the song Das himmlische Leben, whose melody Mahler revisited throughout his career, but here it suffuses the whole work. Tonight it will be performed by Rowan Pierce in Erwin Stein's chamber arrangement, where the glory of Mahler's epic writing is never lost, despite employing considerably smaller forces than the original symphony.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, and recorded in Hoddinott Hall on 19th November.

Zemlinksy, arr Pickard: 6 Songs to Poems by Maurice Maeterlinck, Op 13

7.55pm

Interval Music

8.15pm

Mahler, arr Stein: Symphony No 4 in G major

Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)

Rowan Pierce (soprano)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Martyn Brabbins conducts chamber versions of the Maeterlinck Songs and Mahler's Fourth.

Bbc Now With Conductor Tadaaki Otaka And Cellist Steven Isserlis In Elgar. Plus Rachmaninov And Takemitsu.20171207Live from St David's Hall, Cardiff, Steven Isserlis joins the BBC NOW in Elgar's Cello Concerto. Plus Tadaaki Otaka conducts Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony and Takemitsu.

Presented by Nicola Heywood-Thomas

Takemitsu: Twill by twilight

Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85

c. 8.20pm Interval

c. 8.45pm Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op.27

Steven Isserlis (cello)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Tadaaki Otaka (conductor)

Steven Isserlis joins the BBC NOW for Elgar's Cello Concerto - a piece in which the composer laments a nation lost to the ravages of war. And celebrating his 30th year with the orchestra, Conductor Laureate Tadaaki Otaka takes the helm for Rachmaninov's Second Symphony as it evolves from a small winding stream into a tidal surge. To begin with, Takemitsu's luminous poem weaves a small idea into a rich 'twill' of sound that borrows from the ethereal worlds of Debussy and Messiaen.

Steven Isserlis with the BBC NOW in Elgar. Plus Otaka conducts Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony.

Bbc Now, Bizet, Poulenc, Faure, Delibes, Ravel20160330From Aberystwyth Arts Centre

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

BBC NOW and Thomas Sondergard perform Bizet, Poulenc, Faur退, Delibes and Ravel

Bizet: Carmen Suite

Poulenc, arr. Lennox Berkeley: Flute Sonata

8.10 Interval Music

Faur退: Pavane

Delibes: Flower duet from Lakm退

Ravel: Mother Goose (ballet)

Adam Walker (flute)

Matthew Featherstone (flute)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Thomas Sondergard (conductor).

Thomas Sondergard conducts the BBC NOW in Bizet, Poulenc, Faure, Delibes and Ravel.

Bbc Now, Britten, Shostakovich, Rimsky-korsakov20170313Principal Guest Conductor Xian Zhang conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade, a vivid orchestral picture of tales from the Arabian Nights. Britten's Sea Interludes describe the salty atmosphere of a Suffolk fishing village with equal brilliance, and Peter Donohoe joins forces with Philippe Schartz, Principal Trumpet of BBC NOW, for Shostakovich's youthful First Piano Concerto, heroic, spirited and joyful.

Recorded last Saturday at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

Shostakovich: Concerto in C minor, Op.35, for piano, trumpet and string orchestra

8.15 During the interval Nicola Heywood Thomas talks to soloist Peter Donohoe and listens to his recent recording of Scriabin.

8.35

Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade

Peter Donohoe (piano)

Philippe Schartz (trumpet)

Xian Zhang (conductor).

Xian Zhang conducts the BBC NOW in music by Britten, Shostakovich and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Bbc Now, Dvorak, Smetana, Bartok, Kodaly20160510From the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea

Dvorak: Slavonic Dances for orchestra, B 83 - Op 46 No 2 in E minor, Dumka;

Op. 46 No. 8 in G minor; Op 72 No 2 in E minor; Op 72 No 7 in C major.

Bart k: Violin Concerto No. 2

8.15: Interval: Looking ahead to the grand final of BBC Young Musician 2016, which is being held at the Barbican on Sunday May 15th, another chance to hear the winner from 2010.

Saint-Saens Piano Concerto no. 2

BBC NOW

Lara Melda

Vasily Petrenko

8.35

Smetana: Vltava

Kodကly: Hကry Jကnos - suite

Alina Ibragimova, violin

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Otto Tausk, conductor

We journey to Eastern Europe for music firmly placed in its surroundings - Smetana's Vltava follows the path of the mighty river, whereas Kodကly's Hကry Jကnos shares the power of storytelling, as the veteran soldier, spins imaginative yarns of his heroism and adventures - including single-handedly beating Napoleon in battle - to his audience of tavern drinkers.

Otto Tausk conducts the BBC NOW in music by Dvorak, Bartok, Smetana and Kodaly.

Bbc Now, Gershwin, Adams, Harris, Bernstein20160415Live from St. David's Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Harris: Symphony no. 3

Adams: The Dharma at Big Sur

8.20 Interval Music: BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the fifth of the finalists in this year's woodwind category.

Flautist Joanne Lee plays music by:

Telemann: Fantasia no.2 in Am

Schumann: Romance op.94 no.2

Frank Martin: Ballade

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

William Wolfram (piano)

Chloe Hanslip (electric violin)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Eric Stern (conductor)

The Symphonic Dances from West Side Story contain some of the most memorable tunes ever written, as Bernstein's iconic score created a whole new soundscape for the tale of the ill-fated lovers. Under the baton of celebrated American conductor Eric Stern, the Orchestra perform it, alongside Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, known the world over for its opening phrase, and John Adams' The Dharma at Big Sur for electric violin and orchestra, played here by Chlo뀀 Hanslip.

Followed by: Menuhin 100 - classic recordings from Yehudi Menuhin's discography.

Eric Stern conducts the BBC NOW in music by Gershwin, Adams, Harris and Bernstein.

Bbc Now, Grieg, Rachmaninov20151124Much-loved Conductor Laureate Tadaaki Otaka returns to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances. Nelson Goerner is the soloist in Grieg's Piano Concerto.

Recorded last week at St. David's Hall, Cardiff, and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Grieg: Holberg Suite

Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor

8.30 Interval Music

8.50

Rachmaninov: 3 Symphonic Dances

Nelson Goerner (piano)

Tadaaki Otaka (conductor).

BBC NOW in Grieg: Holberg Suite; Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov: Three Symphonic Dances.

Bbc Now, Handel's Messiah20151208Laurence Equilbey conducts the BBC National Chorus and Orchestra of Wales in Messiah by Handel.

Live from St. David's Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Handel: Messiah

Mary Bevan (soprano)

Iestyn Davies (countertenor)

Robert Murray (tenor)

Brindley Sherratt (bass)

Laurence Equilbey (conductor)

Firmly established as a Christmas tradition for audiences across the globe, Handel's Messiah is a true celebration of the nativity; exhilarating yet deeply emotional and resonant. Comprising a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and psalms from the Book of Common Prayer, Messiah brings some of most evocative oratorio writing in the repertoire featuring 'For unto us a child is born', 'The trumpet shall sound' and the famous 'Hallelujah' chorus.

Laurence Equilbey conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Handel's Messiah.

Bbc Now, J Strauss Ii, Elgar, Brahms20161118BBC NOW and Christoph Koenig perform Johann Strauss, Elgar and Brahms.

Live from Prichard Jones Hall, Bangor

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Johann Strauss (son): Overture (Die Fledermaus)

Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor

8.10 Interval

8.30 Brahms: Symphony No 4

Leonard Elschenbroich (cello)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Christoph Koenig (conductor)

It's hard to understand the doubt that settled in Brahms's mind ahead of the first performance of his fourth symphony. Now firmly positioned as a concert hall essential; audiences across the globe remain grateful that it lived beyond its premiere.

Elgar's poetic and passionate Cello Concerto gives no indication of any such worries; soulful and passionate from the opening bars, this is music of deep emotion that has an unfailing ability to connect.

Christoph Koenig conducts the BBC NOW in music by J Strauss II, Elgar and Brahms.

Bbc Now, Live At St Davids Cathedral20220603The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and their Principal Conductor, Ryan Bancroft, celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee at St Davids Cathedral Festival. They begin their performance with the Courtly Dances from Benjamin Britten's Gloriana, an opera based on the relationship between Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex, which Britten wrote in honour of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. Pianist Stewart Goodyear will then join Ryan and the Orchestra for Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, a work that he describes as being 'music of joyous collaboration'. After the interval, the world premiere of a BBC commission by Alex Mills will be performed. Titled Landsker, it takes its inspiration from the imaginary line which divides the English and Welsh-speaking areas of West Wales. The evening will then culminate in Schumann's First Symphony, a work he titled Spring, and which displays the irrepressible joy of the romantic composer not long after his wedding to his beloved Clara.

Ian Skelly presents live from St Davids Cathedral.

7.00pm

Britten: Gloriana - Symphonic Suite, Op 53a (Courtly Dances)

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor, Op 37

7.45pm

Interval Music

8.05pm

Alex Mills: Landsker

Schumann: Symphony No 1 in B flat major, Op 38

Stewart Goodyear (piano)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

Ryan Bancroft and BBC NOW celebrate the Queen's jubilee at St Davids Cathedral Festival.

Bbc Now, Mathias, Mozart, Britten, Watkins, Dvorak20151103From Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Mathias: A Dance overture (Dawns agored)

Mozart: Horn Concerto No 4

Britten: 4 Sea Interludes

8.25 Interval Music

Watkins: 3 Welsh Songs

Dvorak: Symphony No. 7 in D minor

Tim Thorpe (horn)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Grant Llewellyn (conductor).

Grant Llewellyn conducts the BBC NOW in Mathias, Mozart, Britten, Watkins and Dvorak.

Bbc Now, Mozart, Prokofiev And Ravel20161110Live from St. David's Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Tadaaki Otaka conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in an overture by Mozart, Ravel's ballet Daphnis et Chlo退 and Thomas Zehetmair plays Prokofiev's 2nd Violin concerto

Mozart: Overture (Idomeneo)

Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No 2

8.05 Interval music

8.25 Ravel: Daphnis et Chlo退

Thomas Zehetmair (violin)

Tadaaki Otaka (conductor)

Ravel's Daphnis et Chlo退: a piece that embraces lush harmonies. Conductor Tadaaki Otaka paints a picture of a meadow on the outskirts of a sacred wood where sheep graze and nymphs frolic. This ancient Greek-inspired story of romance and adventure is brought to life by the Orchestra and Chorus, alongside the flowing melodies of Prokofiev's second violin concerto performed by Thomas Zehetmair.

Tadaaki Otaka conducts the BBC NOW in music by Mozart, Prokofiev and Ravel.

Bbc Now, Schubert, Huw Watkins, Mozart20160323From Prichard Jones Hall, Bangor

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Thomas Sondergard conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Schubert's 8th and Mozart's 40th Symphonies. Adam Walker is the soloist in Huw Watkins's Flute Concerto.

Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor, 'Unfinished

Huw Watkins: Flute Concerto

8.15: Interval Music

8.35

Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor

Adam Walker (flute)

Thomas Sondergard (conductor).

Thomas Sondergard conducts the BBC NOW in music by Schubert, Huw Watkins and Mozart.

Bbc Now, Sondergard. Mosolov, Beethoven, Shostakovich2017100520171012 (R3)Live from St David's Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood-Thomas

Mosolov: The Iron foundry [Zavod] Op.19

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 5 in E flat major, Op.73 (Emperor)

c. 8.10pm Interval

c. 8.35pm Shostakovich: Symphony No 12 in D minor Op.112 (The Year 1917)

Igor Levit (piano)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Thomas Sønderg倀rd (conductor)

Igor Levit joins the BBC NOW in Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto, plus Thomas Sønderg倀rd conducts Shostakovich's Symphony No 12 as part of the Russian Revolution centenary season in Wales. The fearsome machines and indomitable spirit of the workers in Mosolov's ballet score give a dramatic opening to the programme. Shostakovich's symphony follows suit with an unusually patriotic depiction of Lenin's life, commissioned by the Communist Party to honour the revolution. Beethoven's 'Emperor' concerto also continues the grand theme, with his noblest score since his 'Eroica'.

Igor Levit joins the BBC NOW in Beethoven, plus Thomas Sondergard conducts Shostakovich.

Bbc Now, Tan Dun, Rachmaninov, Berlioz20170505Live from Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, Xian Zhang conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz. Stephen Hough is the pianist in Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Tan Dun: Internet Symphony

Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

8.05 Interval music

8.25

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Stephen Hough (piano)

Xian Zhang (conductor).

Xian Zhang conducts the BBC NOW in music by Tan Dun, Rachmaninov and Berlioz.

Bbc Now: World Premiere Of Stanford Mass20181105From BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Adrian Partington and the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales perform a concert marking the centenary of WWI, concluding with the long awaited premiere of Stanford's Mass Via Victrix.

7.30

Farrar: Rhapsody No 1 - The Open Road, Op 9

Kelly: Elegy for strings, In Memoriam Rupert Brooke

Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin

8.20 Interval

Stanford: Mass Via Victrix (1914-1918)

Kiandra Howarth (soprano)

Jess Dandy (contralto)

Ruairi Bowen (tenor)

Gareth Brynmor John (baritone)

Adrian Partington (conductor)

To commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War, the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales present a concert of music for the fallen souls from the war, concluding with the premiere of Stanford's Mass Via Victrix (1914-1918), 99 years after its composition. The Orchestra begins by commemorating a little-known composer who fell in the war, Ernest Farrar, with his orchestral Rhapsody The Open Road, written in 1909 and loosely based on Walt Whitman's poem Song for the Open Road. Frederick Septimus Kelly's Elegy for strings, in memoriam Rupert Brooke was written while the composer was recuperating from the Battle of Gallipoli and is dedicated to the poet Rupert Brooke, whose midnight burial on the Isle of Skyros is one of the more well-known episodes from the early part of the war. Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin completes the concert's first part, a piece whose movements are each dedicated to a different friend who died fighting in the war.

Stanford's Mass Via Victrix (1914-1918) encapsulates both a sense of relief and celebration for the allied victory, but also a deep sense of mourning for the tragic loss of those who fell. Although it was completed in December 1919 the work has never been performed in full, and the full manuscript score has been painstakingly transcribed into performing parts by Stanford scholar Jeremy Dibble. During the interval Jeremy will talk about the challenges involved in that undertaking.

BBC NOW and NCW perform the world premiere of Stanford's Mass Via Victrix

Bbc Philharmonic20160217The BBC Philharmonic is conducted by its Chief Conductor Juanjo Mena in Shostakovich's powerful Leningrad Symphony. They are joined by soloist Dejan Lazic for Bartok's characterful Third Piano Concerto.

From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Stuart Flinders

Bartok: Piano Concerto No 3

7.55 Interval Music on CD: Shostakovich String Quartet No.8 played by the Fitzwilliam String Quartet

8.15

Shostakovich: Symphony No 7 (Leningrad)

Dejan Lazic (piano)

Juanjo Mena (conductor)

Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, dedicated to the city of Leningrad, was written at a time of unimaginable horror in the city. Under siege from the Nazis, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in inhumane conditions. Most of the work was written while Shostakovich was resident in the city, and the Leningrad Symphony continues to speak, with directness and impact, of the brutality of war as well as the importance and power of the voice of the creative artist.

The programme begins with Bartok's characterful and energetic Third Piano Concerto, performed by Croatian-born Dejan Lazic.

BBC Philharmonic conducted by Juanjo Mena performs music by Bartok and Shostakovich.

Bbc Philharmonic20171201The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Ludovic Morlot give the world premiere of Arlene Sierra's 'Nature Symphony'. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet joins them for Bartok's First Piano Concerto.

Recorded at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Arlene Sierra: Nature Symphony (world premiere; BBC commission)

Bartok: Piano Concerto No 1

8.20: Music Interval

8.40

Dvorak: Symphony No 8

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

Ludovic Morlot (conductor)

The music of American-born, London-based composer Arlene Sierra beautifully evokes the colour, detail and movement of the natural world and tonight's concert features the world premiere of a piece commissioned by the BBC Philharmonic, her 'Nature Symphony'. The nature theme that starts the concert is reflected in the symphony that ends the programme, Dvorak's Eighth; with its folk-inspired melody and moments of birdsong it is a pastoral symphony in all but name.

Flamboyant French pianist, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet joins the orchestra for Bartok's relentlessly virtuosic First Piano Concerto. So complicated to prepare with the orchestra that the premiere was postponed, the piano part, which Bartok wrote as a vehicle for himself as a performer is full of innovative new effects and timbres which create an entirely new sound-world.

The BBC Philharmonic gives the world premiere of Arlene Sierra's 'Nature Symphony'.

Bbc Philharmonic20171214Juanjo Mena conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Shostakovich and presents the UK premiere of music by his compatriot, Rodion Shchedrin.

From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Stuart Flinders

Rodion Shchedrin: Dialogues with Shostakovich (UK premiere)

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No 1

8.30

Music interval

8.50

Shostakovich: Symphony No 15

Renaud Capu瀀on (violin)

Juanjo Mena (conductor)

Juanjo Mena and the BBC Philharmonic present Shostakovich's Fifteenth and final symphony in the second half of the concert, a work which moves from playful abandon to existential dread. Before the interval outstanding French soloist Renaud Capu瀀on joins the orchestra for Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto, a work he hid from view until after the death of Stalin. The concert opens with a UK premiere: an evocative portrait of Shostakovich by compatriot Rodion Shchedrin, 'Dialogues with Shostakovich'.

Juanjo Mena conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Rodion Shchedrin and Shostakovich.

Bbc Philharmonic20180214The BBC Philharmonic and Chief Guest Conductor John Storgards in picture-inspired music from America. They are joined by pianist Peter Donohoe for Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Schuller: Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee

Ives: Central Park in the Dark

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

8.20

Music Interval

8.40

George Walker: Lilacs

Antheil: Symphony No 6 (After Delacroix)

Peter Donohoe (piano)

Joshua Ellicott (tenor)

John Storgards (conductor)

An all-American programme inspired by the visual arts begins with Schuller's Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee, a piece which he intended as a 'retranslation into musical terms of the 'musical' elements' in the pictures. Ives described his Central Park in the Dark as 'a picture in sound' of Central Park, although he was depicting the years before the motor car was invented and the sounds of nature take centrestage. Gershwin's viewing of Whistler's 'Nocturne in Blue and Green', an impression of the Thames in London inspired the title of his iconic 'Rhapsody in Blue' for which pianist Peter Donohoe joins the orchestra. After the interval a UK premiere; tenor Joshua Ellicott sings George Walker's magical song-cycle 'Lilacs', the piece with which he was the first African American composer to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music; a work inspired by another extra-musical source, the words of American poet, Walt Whitman. Self-styled American 'bad-boy of music' George Antheil uses the Battle Cry of Freedom as his theme for the piece that ends our concert, his Sixth Symphony which draws inspiration from French artist Delacroix's moody and powerful painting 'Liberty Leading the People'.

The BBC Philharmonic and Chief Guest Conductor John Storgards in music from America.

Bbc Philharmonic20180223The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Ilan Volkov in Ravel's Mother Goose Suite and Rachmaninov's Second Symphony. They are joined by Guy Johnston for Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations

Live from the Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent

Presented by Stuart Flinders

Ravel: Mother Goose Suite

Tchaikovsky; Rococo Variations

8.10 Music Interval

8.30

Rachmaninov: Symphony No 2 in E minor

Guy Johnston (cello)

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and Ilan Volkov bring a programme of rich melody and entrancing colour from the Victoria Hall to brighten a February evening. Delightful miniatures from Ravel's ballet 'Mother Goose' open the programme; we meet Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and Beast, Tom Thumb, the Empress of the Pagodas and end our visit to Ravel's magical world in a Fairy Garden, each piece conjured up in spectacular orchestral colours. The BBC Philharmonic is joined by cellist Guy Johnston for Tchaikovsky's sparkling Rococo Variations before the orchestra launches into Rachmaninov's passionate Second Symphony, a trail of memorable melodies and rich textures.

The BBC Philharmonic and Ilan Volkov play music by Ravel, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.

Bbc Philharmonic20180502From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Strauss: Tod und Verkl䀀rung

Mark Simpson: Cello Concerto (world premiere)

Music Interval

Shostakovich: Symphony No.1

Leonard Elschenbroich (cello)

Clemens Schuldt (conductor)

Mark Simpson has been Composer in Association of the BBC Philharmonic since 2015 and tonight's concert gives us the opportunity to hear the world premiere of his most recent work, his Cello Concerto, commissioned for the BBC Philharmonic and a virtuoso favourite of the orchestra, Leonard Elschenbroich. Pieces written by other composers in their youth feature in the rest of the programme. Strauss's 'Tod und Verkl䀀rung' is a graphic portrayal of the death of an artist, a work which seems even more remarkable as he was a mere twenty-five when he composed it. He spoke of the tone poem in a letter to a friend, 'The hour of death approaches, the soul leaves the body in order to find gloriously achieved in everlasting space those things which could not be fulfilled here below.' Shostakovich wrote his First Symphony as his graduation piece from the Leningrad Conservatory and the piece quickly gained worldwide recognition. It is amazing that his unique, distinctive musical personality and a great emotional depth ring through this work, written when he was nineteen.

The BBC Philharmonic perform a premiere of Mark Simpson's new Cello Concerto.

Bbc Philharmonic20181012Live from Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall

Presented by Tom Redmond

Bartok: The Miraculous Mandarin (Suite)

Debussy: Rhapsody for alto saxophone and orchestra

Glazunov: Saxophone Concerto

8.15

Music interval

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 5

Jess Gillam (alto saxophone)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

In a live broadcast from the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham the BBC Philharmonic is joined by their Principal Guest Conductor, Ben Gernon, and saxophonist Jess Gillam. The programme opens with 'an awful clamour, chatter, stampeding and blowing of horns' - that's Bartok's own description of the overwhelming city-scape that opens his ballet (or 'pantomime' as he preferred to call it) The Miraculous Mandarin. A tale of sex, violence and murderous cruelty, the ballet was staged in 1926 but taken off after only one performance; this suite was virtually the only way the music could be heard for many years. After the interval we hear Tchaikovsky's satisfying Fifth Symphony. Here, dance of a totally different kind radiates from this Technicolour music, some of which could almost come from one of his ballets. Before that, Jess Gillam joins the orchestra for a performance of Gazunov's rarely-heard warm and lyrical Saxophone Concerto, and also invites us to join her on a journey into the unique and magical sound-world of Debussy's Rhapsody for alto saxophone.

The BBC Philharmonic live from Nottingham in music by Tchaikovsky, Bartok and Debussy.

Bbc Philharmonic20181026Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Martin Handley

Kaija Saariaho: Laterna Magica

Berlioz: La mort de Cl退op tre

8.15

Music Interval

Berlioz: Overture, King Lear

Kaija Saariaho: Earth's Shadows, for organ and orchestra

Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano)

Jan Lehtola (organ)

Ludovic Morlot (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and Ludovic Morlot present two recent pieces by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. 'Laterna magica' takes it's name from the title of film director Ingmar Bergman's autobiography. The magic lantern was the first machine to create the illusion of a moving image; by turning the handle the individual images disappear and the eye sees continuous movement. Saariaho explains that variation of motifs at different speeds play a part in bringing this music to life too, which is also infused with a strong sense of colour and varying shades of light. Finnish organist, Jan Lehtola, joins the orchestra for 'Earth's Shadows', inspired by some lines in Shelley's ode to Keats, 'The One remains, the many change and pass; Heaven's light forever shines, Earth's shadows fly;'. The multi-layered and shimmering textures create a relationship between organ and orchestra that Saariaho describes as a 'fruitful and inspiring companionship'. Another orchestral colourist, Berlioz provides music inspired by characters from further back in history; Karen Cargill joins the orchestra for his overwhelming La mort de Cl退op tre, with its vivid orchestral snakebite. His graphic Overture 'King Lear' opens the second half of the programme.

The BBC Philharmonic with conductor Ludovic Morlot in music by Berlioz and Kaija Saariaho.

Bbc Philharmonic20221116From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Linton Stephens

The BBC Philharmonic are joined by conductor Elena Schwarz to continue its autumn season featuring final works. Stravinsky's Symphony in three movements is the last of four called a 'symphony', even though he lived another 25 years after composing it. First performed in America in 1946 he initially said there was no programme behind it, but later in life he suggested he'd been influenced by filmed footage of the Second World War. Brahms's Double Concerto was his last orchestral piece; inspired partly by his desire to make amends to his friend, violinist Joseph Joachim after siding with Joachim's wife during divorce proceedings. Although not received well at its premiere in 1887 (comments from friends he trusted led Brahms not to write a second he had planned) the conversation between solo instruments gives the piece warmth and energy. Beethoven's Sixth Symphony ends the concert and there is no reticence about a programme here; Beethoven himself named it 'Pastoral' and we join him as he relaxes into life in the countryside.

Stravinsky: Symphony in three movements

Brahms: Concerto for violin and cello

8.25pm

Brahms: Four pieces Op.119 for piano

(Paul Lewis)

8.45

Beethoven: Symphony No 6 (Pastoral)

Daniel Pioro (violin)

Victor Julien-Laferriere (cello)

Elena Schwarz (conductor)

Elena Schwarz conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Stravinsky, Brahms and Beethoven.

Bbc Philharmonic20231003From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

Janacek: SInfonietta

Alma Mahler-Werfel orch. Colin and David Matthews: Die stille Stadt; Laue Sommernacht; Licht in der Nacht, Waldseligkeit; In meines Vaters Garten; Bei dir ist es traut

8.15 Music Interval

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 'Path退tique

The BBC Philharmonic and their chief conductor, John Storgards, open their 2023-2024 season with the iconic and arresting Sinfonietta by Janacek. Originally conceived as brass and percussion fanfares for a gymnastics festival, Janacek melds his own blazing orchestral sound-world with the rhythm and melody of his native Moravia to create a work in which he celebrates a new-found optimism in national and individual freedom.

Whilst Janacek's Sinfonietta celebrates the energy of life, the programme ends with music of more personal expression, Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, the 'Path退tique'. Premiered a few days before he died, Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony explores his own relationship with the nature of life and death.

Dame Sarah Connolly joins the orchestra for six of Alma Mahler-Werfel's songs; written with piano accompaniment, they are heard tonight in orchestrations by David and Colin Matthews.

Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)

John Storgards (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic perform Alma Mahler-Werfel, Janacek and Tchaikovsky in Manchester.

Bbc Philharmonic And John Storgards From Manchester20230330From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

I don't myself quite know why the quotations are there but I could not, could not, not include them', Shostakovich explained to a friend in discussion about his last symphony, the Fifteenth. Premiered in 1972 in Moscow it is music incorporating a lifetime's immersion in music but also reflecting the dichotomy of a creative life navigating extremely dangerous political currents and unimaginable loss. So it's not surprising that this last Symphony is full of questions and contradictions. Why does he include Rossini's William Tell galop and music by Wagner, and how intently should we look at the references to his own music? Do we really hear the whir of a heart monitor at the end of the piece? Where do we cross the line between playful and sardonic? There are clearly messages for today which are vitally important for us; what conclusions should we draw or questions ask?

Opening the programme is Rachmaninov's tone poem The Isle of the Dead; a glance at the painting by Arnold B怀cklin makes it clear where this music takes us; the constant movement of the dark waves and the Dies Irae plain chant, and Rachmaninov's instrumentation blending colour within darkness, lead us inexorably towards death, inevitable and, in this music, compassionate and accepting.

Cellist Nicolas Altstaedt joins the orchestra for Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations, his most classical work, uncomplicated in message, witty and charming, played here in Tchaikovsky's rarely-heard original version.

Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead

Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations

8.15

Music Interval (CD)

Schubert: Allegro in A minor D.947 Lebensstürme

Paul Lewis, Steven Osborne

8.30

Shostakovich: Symphony No.15

Nicolas Altstaedt (cello)

BBC Philharmonic

John Storgards (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic is joined by John Storgards for Shostakovich and Rachmaninov.

Bbc Philharmonic At Snape Maltings20230614Ian Skelly is at the Aldeburgh Festival to introduce music-making from the BBC Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor John Storgards. Sibelius's monumental Fifth Symphony provides the climax to their programme, which also features the Violin Concerto by Britten performed by Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma, a symphonic poem by Cassandra Miller inspired by a group of Genevese male singers and an arrangement of Manuel de Falla by Francisco Coll.

Falla orch Francisco Coll: Fantasia Baetica (world premiere)

Britten: Violin Concerto

8.15

Music Interval (CD)

Dowland: Come, heavy Sleep

Peter Pears (tenor)

Julian Bream (guitar)

Britten: Nocturnal for Guitar

Sean Shibe (guitar)

Cassandra Miller: La Donna

Sibelius: Symphony No.5

Simone Lamsma (violin)

John Storgards (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Bbc Philharmonic Centenary Concert20221028From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

From its earliest 1922 performances as the orchestra of Manchester-based radio station 2ZY, the BBC Philharmonic has constantly reinvented itself to reflect the audiences it serves on air, in the north west of England, across the UK, and beyond. Tonight they celebrate relationships old and new; their relationship with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, their first Composer / Conductor with a new commission from Erland Cooper, a native of Orkney who grew up with 'Max' as a friend. His piece 'Window over Rackwick' is inspired by the landscape and also by Sir Peter's artistic colleague, poet George Mackay Brown. Soprano H退lose Werner joins the orchestra for this premiere. The CBSO Chorus and an international team of soloists join the BBC Philharmonic for Beethoven's Choral Symphony, music which constantly reasserts its relevance for every place and age, and the programme opens with unfairly neglected music by a musician who conducted the orchestra and whose music the orchestra is championing on CD, Ruth Gipps. Her 1944 Chanticleer Overture opens with an arresting wake-up call!

Gipps: Chanticleer Overture

Erland Cooper: Window over Rackwick *

7.55pm Interval

A musician's view of the BBC Philharmonic with violist Rachel Weld.

8.20pm

Beethoven: Symphony No.9 'Choral

H退lose Werner (soprano)*

Tuuli Takala (soprano)

Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano)

Steve Davislim (tenor)

Simon Shibambu (bass-baritone)

Eva Ollikainen (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic celebrates its centenary.

Bbc Philharmonic In Stoke-on-trent20230303Live from the Victoria Hall in Hanley

Presented by Tom McKinney

It looks amusing', Wagner apparently commented as he looked over Svendsen's shoulder at the manuscript of 'Carnival in Paris', and its colourful Berlioz-inspired orchestration drew compliments from Grieg at its premiere. Entertainment is the focus of Offenbach's operetta 'La Belle H退l耀ne' too; an irreverent and witty sideways glance at society inspired by Greek mythology. Juan Perez Floristan joins the orchestra for Ravel's sparkling Piano Concerto in G. 'The music of a concerto should, in my opinion be light-hearted and brilliant and not aim at profundity or dramatic effect' Ravel said; in this jazz-infused concerto we enjoy rich melody and infectious rhythm. We move from Paris to Vienna for the second half of the concert and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, music imbued with personal experience, full of profundity and extending the musical language of its time to create genuine drama.

Offenbach: La Belle H退l耀ne, Overture

Svendsen: Carnival in Paris

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

8.15pm

Music Interval (CD)

Brahms: Sonata for clarinet and piano in E flat, Op.120, no.2

Pablo Barragan (clarinet)

Juan Perez Floristan (piano)

Beethoven Symphony No.5

BBC Philharmonic

Ben Gernon (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic is joined in the Victoria Hall, Hanley, by conductor Ben Gernon.

Bbc Philharmonic, Bach, Handel And Purcell20210416Violinist Rachel Podger directs the BBC Philharmonic in music by Handel, Bach and Purcell. They are joined by soprano Carolyn Sampson and trumpeter Robert Farley for an evening of baroque masterpieces.

Live from MediaCityUK, Salford

Handel: Eternal Source of Light Divine (from 'Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne')

Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041

Purcell: Sonata for trumpet and strings, Z 850

Handel: Silete venti, HWV 242

Bach: Cantata No 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen

Robert Farley (trumpet)

Carolyn Sampson (soprano)

Rachel Podger (director / violin)

Following that off disc

Mozart

Serenade (K.361) in B flat major for 13 wind instruments

Linos EnsembleViolinist Rachel Podger directs the BBC Philharmonic in music by Handel, Bach and Purcell. They are joined by soprano Carolyn Sampson and trumpeter Robert Farley for an evening of Baroque masterpieces.

Following that off-disc

An evening of Baroque masterpieces with Rachel Podger and the BBC Philharmonic

Bbc Philharmonic, Bernstein, Britten, Shostakovich20160506The BBC Philharmonic are conducted by John Storgards in music by Bernstein and Shostakovich. They are joined by Kathryn Stott for Britten's Piano Concerto.

Recorded at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Stuart Flinders

Bernstein: Overture, Candide

Britten: Piano Concerto

8.10

Interval:

BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the fifth of the finalists in this year's strings category

Violinist Stephanie Childress plays music by:

Ysaÿe, Sarasate, Faur退 and Saint-Sa뀀ns

8.35

Shostakovich: Symphony No 5

Kathryn Stott (piano)

John Storgards (conductor)

In 1962 the BBC Philharmonic (then the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra) and Aaron Copland gave the British premiere of the Overture to Bernstein's Candide. This sparky, arresting and brilliant piece, far more popular than the operetta it was was written to precede, opens tonight's concert.

Kathryn Stott joins the BBC Philharmonic for Britten's Piano Concerto. It was written when he was twenty-five, to play himself in what would be his first appearance of many at the Proms. Britten was keen, like Bernstein, for it to have immediate impact and appeal and it grabs the listener from the very first bar with bravura piano writing and colourful instrumentation.

First performed just a few months before Britten's Piano Concerto, Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony also needed to win approval but the stakes were much higher; written during the Great Terror, and after recent denunciation of his music, Shostakovich knew that even his life was in danger should Stalin disapprove of his new symphony. Received with great acclaim by critics and audiences - and meeting Stalin's approval - the Symphony continues to make waves.

The BBC Philharmonic under John Storgards in music by Bernstein, Britten and Shostakovich.

Bbc Philharmonic, Bernstein, Mozart, Schumann20151116Twenty-five years after Bernstein died, the BBC Philharmonic and conductor Yutaka Sado, one of his students, perform music that was important to him; his own First Symphony and music by Mozart and Schumann.

From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Bernstein: Symphony No 1 (Jeremiah)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 17, K453

8.25 Music Interval

8.45

Schumann: Symphony No 2

Rebecca Evans (soprano)

Ronald Brautigam (piano)

Yutaka Sado (conductor)

Twenty-five years after he died, the BBC Philharmonic perform music which was important to Leonard Bernstein in a concert conducted by one of his students, Yutaka Sado. When Bernstein conducted his own 'Jeremiah' Symphony for the first time in 1944 it was an immediate success and is just as powerful today. This piano concerto by Mozart is one he referred to as his favourite and which was a constant companion throughout his career. Bernstein often directed performances from the keyboard. The programme closes with Schumann's lyrical Second Symphony, another cornerstone of Bernstein's repertoire.

Yutaka Sado conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Bernstein, Mozart and Schumann.

Bbc Philharmonic, Bernstein's Final Concert20151009The BBC Philharmonic recreate Bernstein's Final Concert

Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Britten: Four Sea Interludes (from 'Peter Grimes')

Bernstein: Serenade after Plato's Symposium, for strings, harp, percussion and solo violin

20.20: Interval

20.40

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

Tasmin Little, violin

Juanjo Mena, conductor

In the week of the 25th anniversary of his death, the BBC Philharmonic celebrate Leonard Bernstein with a concert drawing on repertoire from his final performance.

Some say that Leonard Bernstein was one of the most important classical composers of the twentieth century. Others think his music's too enjoyable for that! But there's only one man who could have written a violin concerto based on an ancient Greek drinking party and filled it with such melody and wit.

The BBC Philharmonic recreates the final concert Leonard Bernstein conducted.

Bbc Philharmonic, Dvorak, Ades, Britten, Brahms20151204The BBC Philharmonic, with conductor Juanjo Mena in music by Thomas Ad耀s, Dvorak, Brahms and Britten. They are joined by violinist James Ehnes and mezzo-soprano Susan Bickley.

Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Ian Skelly

Dvorak: Overture, Carnival

Thomas Ad耀s: America - a prophecy

Britten: Violin Concerto

8.30 Interval

Sara Mohr-Pietsch discusses the way collaboration works with poet Sean O'Brien and composer Agust퀀n Fernကndez, looking at their new song-cycle, Notes from Underground, which was inspired by WH Auden's love of the lead-mining landscape of the North Pennines.

Recorded in front of a Free Thinking Festival audience at Sage Gateshead last month.

8.50

Brahms: Symphony No 3

Susan Bickley (mezzo-soprano)

James Ehnes (violin)

Dvorak gave the premiere of his arresting Carnival Overture in his farewell concert in Prague in the days before he moved to America. Britten's Violin Concerto, completed and and premiered in New York during the Second World War follows Thomas Ad耀s's apocalyptic 'America - a prophecy', commissoned by the New York Philharmonic for pieces to mark the millennium. To end the concert we return to the peace of Bohemia with Brahms's Third Symphony.

Juanjo Mena conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Dvorak, Ades, Britten and Brahms.

Bbc Philharmonic, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky And Chopin20161209Live from the Victoria Hall, Hanley

Presented by Tom Redmond

The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by their Chief Conductor Juanjo Mena in Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky. They are joined by young virtuoso BBC New Generation Artist, Pavel Kolesnikov for Chopin's F minor Piano Concerto.

Dvorak: Slavonic Dances Op.72 - No.3 in F, No.8 in A flat, No.2 in E minor and No.7 in C

Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor

8.25 Music Interval

8.45

Mussorgsky ed. Rimsky-Korsakov: A Night on Bare Mountain

Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker - March, Divertissement, Waltz of the Flowers

All the energy and vivacity of the dance pervade this programme which opens with four of Dvorak's most popular and tuneful Slavonic Dances and closes with a selection of some of the best known music from Tchaikovsky's colourful and entrancing ballet, The Nutcracker. Virtuosic young BBC New Generation Artist, Pavel Kolesnikov joins the orchestra for the luminous melody and Polish dance rhythms of Chopin's Second Piano Concerto and after the interval Mussorgsky's vivid portrayal of the of the Witches' Sabbath, Night on a Bare Mountain, sees revelling evil spirits dispersed by the ringing of a church bell.

Juanjo Mena conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Chopin.

Bbc Philharmonic, Elgar, Brahms20170502From Westmorland Hall, Kendal

Presented by Tom Redmond

Elgar: Violin Concerto

Music Interval

8.35

Brahms: Symphony No 1

Tasmin Little (violin)

BBC Philharmonic

Michael Seal (conductor)

Brahms declared he would never write a symphony, so strongly did he feel Beethoven looking over his shoulder; however, despite his uncertainty about measuring up, his First Symphony was eventually born when Brahms was in his early forties and the the gripping opening, intermezzo-like middle movements and rays of golden light which spread through the Finale add up to a positive and satisfying whole. Tasmin Little joins the orchestra for Elgar's Violin Concerto which opens the programme. This is a piece that Elgar himself loved and the lyricism and vitality of the music speak as clearly today as when it received its enormously successful premiere.

The BBC Philharmonic performs Elgar's Violin Concerto and Brahms's Symphony No 1.

Bbc Philharmonic, Elgar, Walton, Bizet, Debussy20170420The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Jac van Steen in music by Elgar, Walton, Debussy and orchestral music from Bizet's opera, Carmen.

Live from City Hall, Hull

Presented by Tom Redmond

Elgar: Overture - In the South, 'Alassio

Walton: Violin Concerto

Music Interval

8.40

Bizet: Carmen (Suite)

Debussy: La Mer

Tasmin Little (violin)

Jac van Steen (conductor)

An Italian aroma infuses the English music in the first part of tonight's programme; Elgar's 'Alassio' was written while he was on holiday on the Italian Riviera, inspired by its landscape. Tasmin Little joins the orchestra for Walton's Violin Concerto, a piece he began in Ravello and which breathes Italian warmth through its long melodic lines and whiff of popular song. A return north to the cooler climes of the English Channel ends the programme after we've enjoyed a steamy visit to Spain for orchestral music from Bizet's red-blooded opera, Carmen.

Jac van Steen conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Elgar, Walton, Bizet and Debussy.

Bbc Philharmonic, Gade, Norgard, Nielsen, Maxwell Davies, Sibelius20151216The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Michael Francis in music from the north of Europe.

Live from MediaCityUK, Salford

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Gade: Hamlet Overture

Per Norgard: Between

8.20 Interval

Christopher Cook explores the fascinating world of the Icelandic saga, with guests Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough and Elizabeth Ashman Rowe.

8.40

Nielsen: An Imaginary Journey to the Faroe Isles

Peter Maxwell Davies: Ebb of Winter

Sibelius: The Oceanides

Jakob Kullberg (cello)

Michael Francis (conductor)

Music inspired by the natural elements forms the second half the programme; a sea crossing to the Faroe Islands is painted by Nielsen, the nymphs in Greek mythology who inhabit the Mediterranean Sea appear in Sibelius's Oceanides, and the dynamic weather of Peter Maxwell Davies's Orkney home inspires his chilly Ebb of Winter. In an all Danish first half, Jakob Kullberg joins the orchestra for Between, Per Norgard's cello concerto and the programme opens with Gade's dark Hamlet Overture.

The BBC Philharmonic in music by Gade, Norgard, Nielsen, Maxwell Davies and Sibelius.

Bbc Philharmonic, Ginastera, Bernstein, Stravinsky20160419The BBC Philharmonic with the CBSO Youth Chorus and Hall退 Youth Choir for Stravinsky and Bernstein. Marie-Pierre Langlamet joins the orchestra for Ginastera's Harp Concerto.

Recorded 16 April at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Martin Handley

Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Ginastera: Harp Concerto

8.10 Interval

BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the second of the finalists in this year's percussion category.

Percussionist Joe Parks plays music by:

Kopetzki and Tanaka

8.35

Bernstein Chichester Psalms

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms

Marie-Pierre Langlamet (harp)

William Towers (countertenor)

Juanjo Mena (conductor)

9.10 Post Concert:

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the third of the category finalists in this year's percussion category.

Percussionist Hristiyan Hristov plays music by:

Zivkovic, Kitazume and Sammut

The concert opens with the compulsive energy of music from Bernstein's West Side Story with its eclectic and colourful battery of percussion and which includes one of the BBC Ten Pieces, 'Mambo'. Ginastera's Harp Concerto was commissioned in 1956 by the Philadelphia Orchestra's first female player and it took him nearly a decade to write, not receiving its premiere until 1965. He wanted to write a piece that avoided 'angelic' associations and the piece reflects his ambition to explore innovative sounds from the instrument.

Psalm texts, in Ancient Hebrew and in Latin, form the basis of the second half of the concert, in which the BBC Philharmonic is joined by the CBSO Youth Chorus and Hall退 Youth Choir. Bernstein's Chichester Psalms received its first performances in the same year as Ginastera's Harp Concerto and was commissioned by Dean Hussey of Chichester Cathedral who, writing to Bernstein, said they would be 'very delighted if there was a hint of West Side Story about the music'. William Towers sings the haunting tune in the centre of the work. Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms was commissioned by Serge Koussevitsky for the 50th Season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and this piece inhabits a different sound world, with unusual instrumentation that dispenses with violins and violas, but which includes important parts for two pianos.

The BBC Philharmonic performs music by Ginastera, Bernstein and Stravinsky.

Bbc Philharmonic, Harbison, Barber, Rachmaninov20170406From The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Harbison: Remembering Gatsby (Foxtrot)

Barber: Violin Concerto

8.20

Music Interval

8.40

Rachmaninov: Symphony No.2 in E minor

James Ehnes (violin)

BBC Philharmonic

James Feddeck (conductor)

James Feddeck joins the BBC Philharmonic for Rachmaninov's glowing Second Symphony, a work which moves audiences with its warm tunes, vivacious energy and rich textures. Before the interval James Ehnes is the soloist in Barber's Violin Concerto, a piece which moves from melting melody to utter virtuosity. Inspired by F Scott Fitzgerald, Harbison's 'Remembering Gatsby', a characterful foxtrot, kicks off the programme.

James Feddeck conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Harbison, Barber and Rachmaninov.

Bbc Philharmonic, Hindemith, Ravel, Mahler20160129The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by distinguished Spanish conductor Jesus Lopez-Cobos in music by Mahler and Hindemith. They are joined by charismatic French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet for Ravel's Piano Concerto in G.

Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Hindemith: Concert Music for brass and strings

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

8.15 Interval

8.35

Mahler: Symphony No 4

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

Ruby Hughes (soprano)

Commissioned by Koussevitsky for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Hindemith's exhilarating Concert Music for brass and strings opens the programme. Charismatic French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet joins the orchestra for Ravel's Piano Concerto in G a piece Ravel described as 'classical' but which has at its centre a jazz-scented oasis of calm. Mahler's sunny Fourth Symphony with its concluding 'child's view of heaven' sung by soprano Ruby Hughes, brings the concert to a calm close.

The BBC Philharmonic in music by Mahler, Hindemith and Ravel.

Bbc Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena20180620From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Martin Roscoe (piano)

Nancy Fabiola Herrera (Salud)

Cristina Faus (La abuela)

Raquel Lojendio (Carmela)

Aquiles Machado (Paco)

Josep Miguel Ram n (Manuel)

Jos退 Antonio L pez (Uncle)

Gustavo Peကa (Voz de la Fragua)

Segundo Falc n (Cantaor)

Coro RTVE

BBC Philharmonic

Juanjo Mena (conductor)

Juanjo Mena brings an evening of music from his native Spain to the Bridgewater Hall to celebrate his last Manchester concert as Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic.

Falla's opera 'La vida breve', brings colourful, descriptive music, infused with Spanish dance rhythms to a heart-breaking story of unrequited love and class inequality. The BBC Philharmonic is joined by Spanish soloists and Madrid-based choir, Coro RTVE. Martin Roscoe joins the orchestra for Albeniz's 'Rapsodia espaကola' and the concert opens with more music by Albeniz, the Overture to his opera 'The Magic Opal'. Written when the composer was living in England at the end of the nineteenth century it provides a sparkling opening to the concert.

Juanjo Mena conducts The BBC Philharmonic in music from his native Spain.

Bbc Philharmonic, Leonard Elschenbroich, Saint-saens' Cello Concerto No 120181214Live from the Victoria Hall in Hanley

Presented by Stuart Flinders

Mozart: Symphony No 35 'Haffner

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Cello Concerto No 1

Tchaikovsky: Andante cantabile

8.25 Music Interval

Beethoven: Symphony No 4

In a programme bookended by two evergreen Classical symphonies, the BBC Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor Ben Gernon are also joined by Leonard Elschenbroich for Saint-Sa뀀ns's arresting First Cello Concerto and Tchaikovsky's deeply-felt Andante cantabile, which left Tolstoy in floods of tears when he first heard it.

Leonard Elschenbroich (cello)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic performs Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto No 1 with Leonard Elschenbroich.

Bbc Philharmonic, Mahler Symphony No 320200430Described by Mahler as a 'great hymn to the glory of every aspect of creation', his majestic Third Symphony entrances and humbles us as we are taken on an epic journey through nature; through the meadows, through the animal and human kingdoms to 'the love of God'. However, he doesn't neglect the 'everyday'; we hear a military march, a children's song and fragments of a folk dance too. Mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill joins the orchestra for the awestruck fourth movement, which Mahler titled 'What night tells me (mankind)', setting a poem by Nietzsche who searches desperately to make sense of the grief and joy of the world, and the Boy and Girl Choristers of Gloucester Cathedral and the ladies' voices of the BBC National Chorus of Wales bring us the chiming bells and the song of the angels.

Recorded at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester to open the BBC Philharmonic's 2017-18 season.

Presented by Tom Redmond

Mahler: Symphony No 3

Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano)

Juanjo Mena (conductor)

After the concert, a chance to hear a new release from UK composer Cecilia McDowall:

Cecilia McDowall: The Girl from Aleppo for chorus, violin and piano

National Children's Choir of Great Britain

Harriet Mackenzie (violin)

Claire Dunham (piano)

Dan Ludford-Thomas (conductor)

Label: Convivium Records CR054

The BBC Philharmonic in Mahler's Third Symphony from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Bbc Philharmonic, Mahler's Symphony No 220160518From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Mahler Symphony No.2 'Resurrection

Olena Tokar (soprano)

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano)

CBSO Chorus

BBC Philharmonic

Vassily Sinaisky (conductor)

Huge performing forces assemble for Mahler's epic Second Symphony as he takes us on a journey from darkness to light. Beginning with a funeral march, Mahler draws on song (St Anthony of Padua's preaching to the fishes and their nonchalant response, as well as his heart-felt Urlicht) and off-stage brass call to a life beyond. The full forces join for Klopstock's Resurrection hymn. 'Whenever I plan a large musical structure I always come to the point where I have to resort to 'the word' as a vehicle for my musical idea', Mahler said. Soprano Olena Tokar and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston join the CBSO Chorus, BBC Philharmonic and Vassily Sinaisky for this performance. Mahler said 'a symphony is like the world' and this one embraces that sentiment, inviting us to glimpse a world beyond earthly life.

Vassily Sinaisky conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Mahler's Symphony No 2 (Resurrection).

Bbc Philharmonic, Mark Simpson, Macmillan, Gershwin, Stravinsky20160222The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Nicholas Collon perform music by their Composer-in-Association, Mark Simpson, as well as works by James MacMillan and Stravinsky. They are joined by pianist Jonathan Scott for Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Mark Simpson: Sparks

James MacMillan: Viola Concerto

8.15 Interval

8.35

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Stravinsky: Suite, The Firebird (1945)

Lawrence Power (viola)

Jonathan Scott (piano)

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

The first half of tonight's programme celebrates music by composers with close links with the BBC Philharmonic. Sparks by Mark Simpson (the BBC Philharmonic's recently appointed Composer-in-Association) was written for the opening of the Last Night of the BBC Proms in 2012, and also ignites tonight's concert. The programme continues with a 2014 work by James MacMillan (a former composer/conductor of the orchestra), his Viola Concerto. Pianist Jonathan Scott joins the orchestra for Gershwin's jazzy Rhapsody in Blue and the colour and drama of music from Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird bring the concert to a glowing close.

The BBC Philharmonic plays music by Mark Simpson, James MacMillan, Gershwin and Stravinsky

Bbc Philharmonic, Mccabe, Stravinsky, Turnage, Ives, Antheil20151120The BBC Philharmonic and John Storgards in music from the last hundred years. They are joined by legendary drummer Peter Erskine for the UK premiere Mark-Anthony Turnage's Concerto for Drum set.

Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Martin Handley

McCabe: Joybox

Stravinsky: Ode

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Erskine - Concerto for Drum set and orchestra (UK premiere)

8.20 Music Interval

8.40

Stravinsky: Scherzo

Bbc Philharmonic, Mena: Mahler Symphony No 320171003From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Mahler: Symphony No 3

Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano)

BBC National Chorus of Wales

Boy and Girl Choristers of Gloucester Cathedral

BBC Philharmonic

Juanjo Mena (conductor)

Described by Mahler as 'one great hymn to the glory of every aspect of creation' his majestic Third Symphony entrances and humbles us as we are taken on an epic journey through nature; through the meadows, through the animal and human kingdoms, and then beyond that to the realm of the angels and finally to 'the love of God'. However, he doesn't neglect the 'everyday'; we hear a military march, a children's song and fragments of a folk dance too. Mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill joins the orchestra for the awestruck fourth movement, which Mahler titled 'What night tells me (mankind)', setting a poem by Nietzsche who searches desperately to make sense of the grief and joy of the world, and the Boy and Girl Choristers of Gloucester Cathedral and the ladies' voices of the BBC National Chorus of Wales bring us the shining bells and the song of the angels.

The BBC Philharmonic in Mahler's Symphony No 3 from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Bbc Philharmonic, Moritz Gnann, Lawrence Power20181120From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Stuart Flinders

Stephan: Music for orchestra (1912)

Walton: Viola Concerto

8.20 Music Interval (CD)

Howells: Elegy

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 9

Lawrence Power (viola)

BBC Philharmonic

Moritz Gnann

A programme which includes music to commemorate soldiers killed in the First World War opens with music by a young German shot while serving on the Eastern Front in 1915; before the war Rudi Stephan had been considered one of the leading talents of his generation. Music of commemoration opens the second half of the concert too; Herbert Howells wrote his Elegy in memory of a fellow student at the Royal College of Music, killed in service in 1917. Lawrence Power joins the orchestra for Walton's Viola Concerto with its haunting opening theme, written just over a decade later. The programme ends with Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony. Writing for performance in 1945 Shostakovich had been expected to produce a celebratory work. The Symphony that was premiered however is almost neo-classical, light and playful. Perhaps the dichotomy Shostakovich felt between the expectation on him to produce something celebratory piece, honouring Stalin, and his own inclination to reflect the pain and suffering that had been experienced during the Second World War and which continued to be part of life for millions of people across the globe forced him to move in a more abstract direction. In the event the work caused both anger from Stalin and criticism from the West.

The BBC Philharmonic conducted by Moritz Gnann. They are joined by violist Lawrence Power.

Bbc Philharmonic, Mozart, Saint-saens, Tchaikovsky20161125The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Ben Gernon, play Mozart, Saint-Sa뀀ns and Tchaikovsky.

Live from King George's Hall, Blackburn.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Mozart: Symphony No 25 in G minor

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor

8.15: Interval

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Op 71 - Act II: Complete

Leonard Elschenbroich, cello

Ben Gernon, conductor

Opening a programme packed with passion and melody is Mozart's Symphony No. 25, written by the then 17-year-old in October 1773. This dramatic early symphony is characteristic of the Sturm und Drang style with its wide-leap melodic lines and syncopation.

A former BBC New Generation Artist, Leonard Elschenbroich joins to perform Saint-Sa뀀ns's ever-popular First Cello Concerto, with its dramatic opening and delightful, elegant central minuet.

Closing the programme is Act II of Tchaikovsky's wonderful, tune-laden Nutcracker - one of the best-loved ballets of all time.

Ben Gernon conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Mozart, Saint-Saens and Tchaikovsky.

Bbc Philharmonic, Mozart, Sibelius, Dvorak20161014Live from the Victoria Hall in Hanley.

Presented by Tom Redmond.

Mozart: Symphony No 25 in G minor (K 183)

Sibelius: Violin Concerto

8.20

Music Interval

8.40

Dvorak: Symphony No 8 in G major

Jennifer Pike (violin)

BBC Philharmonic

Ben Gernon (conductor)

The arresting opening of Mozart's early G minor Symphony sets the scene for a work of almost operatic agitation and turbulance. Jennifer Pike joins the BBC Philharmonic for Sibelius's haunting Violin Concerto. Sibelius, a violinist who had dreamed of being a virtuoso himself, wrote the work while suffering particularly badly from the alcoholism which dogged his life and it is said that the second movement was sketched during a three-day hangover. The programme ends with Dvorak's Eighth Symphony with its myriad tunes, moods and dances. In this colourful piece Dvorak takes the symphony on an exploratory adventure.

Ben Gernon conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Mozart, Sibelius and Dvorak.

Bbc Philharmonic, Nielsen, Maxwell Davies, Shostakovich20161025The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by John Storgards, in powerful music by Shostakovich, Nielsen and Maxwell Davies. They are joined by virtuoso trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger.

Recorded at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Nielsen: Maskarade, Overture

Maxwell Davies: Trumpet Concerto

8.10pm

Music Interval

8.30

Shostakovich: Symphony No.10

Hakan Hardenberger (trumpet)

John Storgards (conductor)

The Overture to Nielsen's Maskarade sets the scene for a masked ball, full of vivacious energy and playful wit. Shostakovich's hugely powerful Tenth Symphony received its first performance soon after Stalin died and its opening movement speaks bleakly of suffering while the Scherzo snarls with venom. Pioneering trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger is the soloist in Peter Maxwell Davies's Concerto, with its virtuoso solo demands and rich orchestral palette. A still, calm voice here is the plainsong quoted by the composer celebrating the feast of St Francis. The sounds of birds feature too, familiar from Max's Orkney home, rather than from Assisi.

From the Bridgewater Hall, BBC Philharmonic in Nielsen, Maxwell Davies and Shostakovich.

Bbc Philharmonic, Part, Dutilleux, Berlioz20170526The BBC Philharmonic in Berlioz's 'Symphonie fantastique', Arvo P䀀rt's 'Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten' and Dutilleux's Cello Concerto, 'Tout un monde lointain...'.

Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Arvo P䀀rt: Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten

Dutilleux: 'Tout un monde lointain...' Concerto for cello and orchestra

8.15 Music interval

8.35pm

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Leonard Elschenbroich (cello)

Juanjo Mena (conductor)

With its startling and innovative use of the full palette of orchestra colour, Berlioz's fantasy takes us on an artist's opium-fuelled journey of tortured love and graphic horror. The compulsive melody and rhythms keep the audience entranced from first note to last and we share the protagonist's desperate unrequited love. The programme opens with a heartfelt meditation on loss of another kind, Arvo P䀀rt's 'Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten', reflecting on his deep sorrow at the death of a composer P䀀rt admired but just missed the opportunity of meeting. Dutilleux's 'Tout un monde lointain...' is also a tribute to the work and gifts of another artist. Here, in a piece written for Britten's friend Rostropovich, Dutilleux meditates on poetry by Baudelaire - reflection which inspires expressive music for the solo cello and tantalising textures for the orchestra.

Juanjo Mena conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Part, Dutilleux and Berlioz.

Bbc Philharmonic, Payne, Walton, Roussel, Bizet20160318Yan Pascal Tortelier and the BBC Philharmonic in music by Bizet, Roussel and Anthony Payne. They are joined by Leonard Elschenbroich for Walton's Cello Concerto.

Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Anthony Payne: Visions and Journeys

Walton: Cello Concerto

8.25 Music Interval

8.45

Roussel: Suite in F

Bizet: Carmen Suite

Leonard Elschenbroich (cello)

Yan Pascal Tortelier (conductor)

Yan Pascal Tortelier opens the programme with Anthony Payne's 'Visions and Journeys', a piece inspired by the ocean swell around the Isles of Scilly and also by the fascinating journeys he undertook to get to the islands for holidays. Written on the island of Ischia, Walton's Cello Concerto, for which Leonard Elschenbroich joins the orchestra, is full of warmth and colour. Roussel's quirky and humorous Suite in F commissioned by Serge Koussevitsky, has has an immediate appeal and the concert ends with a suite from Bizet's opera Carmen.

BBC Philharmonic under Yan Pascal Tortelier in Anthony Payne, Walton, Roussel and Bizet.

Bbc Philharmonic, Peter Maxwell Davies, Copland, Korngold20160316From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Peter Maxwell Davies: A reel of seven fishermen

Copland: Clarinet Concerto

8.20 Music Interval

8.40

Korngold: Sinfonietta

Julian Bliss (clarinet)

BBC Philharmonic

John Storgards (conductor)

Inspired by the poetry of fellow Orcadian George Mackay Brown and the land and seascapes of Hoy, Peter Maxwell Davies's Reel of seven fishermen reflects too on loss. Julian Bliss joins the orchestra for Copland's Clarinet Concerto, a piece written for Benny Goodman which blends jazz and classical, lyricism and virtuosity. Korngold started work on his Sinfonietta when he was just fourteen years old; youthful exuberance, dazzling orchestral colour and warm melody combine to create an opulent conclusion to the programme.

John Storgards conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Peter Maxwell Davies, Copland and Korngold

Bbc Philharmonic, Ravel, Shostakovich20170113New Perspectives: the BBC Phiharmonic play Ravel and Shostakovich.

Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Ravel: Noctuelles (arr. Stucky

Oiseaux tristes (arr. C. Matthews

La vall退e des cloches (arr. C. Matthews) World Premiere

Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

8.15: Interval

8.35: Shostakovich: Symphony No 8 in C minor

BBC Philharmonic

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano

Nicholas Collon, conductor

When Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein lost his right arm in the First World War, he asked Ravel to write him a piece he could play with his left hand alone. The remarkable result will be played tonight by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, a BBC Philharmonic favourite and the work's most brilliant living champion. The three recent orchestrations of pieces from Ravel's piano cycle Miroirs include the world-premiere of a BBC Philharmonic commission. Alongside these, Nicholas Collon unleashes Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony, a wartime work of such immense power that the Soviet authorities ultimately banned it.

The BBC Philharmonic and pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet in music by Ravel and Shostakovich.

Bbc Philharmonic, Roussel, Saint-saens20170410The charismatic Conductor Emeritus of the BBC Philharmonic, Yan Pascal Tortelier, returns to the orchestra in a programme of French music by Roussel and Saint-Sa뀀ns.

From Symphony Hall in Birmingham, recorded 7th April

Presented by Tom Redmond

Roussel: Evocations

8.15 Music Interval

Saint-Sa뀀ns: M退lodies persanes Nos 1,4,5 and 6

Fran瀀ois Le Roux (baritone)

Graham Johnson (piano)

8.35

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Symphony No 3 (Organ)

Kathryn Rudge (mezzo-soprano)

Alessandro Fisher (tenor)

Jonathan Scott (organ)

CBSO Chorus

Yan Pascal Tortelier (conductor)

Yan Pascal Tortelier, charismatic French Conductor Emeritus of the orchestra, returns to the BBC Philharmonic for a celebration of music by his compatriots. Inspired by Roussel's travels in the East and an instant success when first performed in Paris in 1912, his luscious 'Evocations' starts with a depiction of a descent into caves at Ellora in India and the gods therein. A kaleidoscopic vision of a Rajah's procession follows, and the banks of the Sacred River provide our vantage point for the triumphant sunrise which ends the journey. Chorus and soloists enhance the ravishing, opulent sound world of Roussel's vision. Organist Jonathan Scott joins the orchestra for Saint-Sa뀀ns's magnificent Organ Symphony; a piece which, melding warm melody and visceral power, never fails to engage.

Yan Pascal Tortelier conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Roussel and Saint-Saens.

Bbc Philharmonic, Schoenberg And Mahler20170307Rafael Payare conducts the BBC Philharmonic in two of the ground-breaking works which heralded the twentieth century: Schoenberg's Verkl䀀rte Nacht and Mahler's Fifth Symphony.

From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Schoenberg: Verkl䀀rte Nacht

8.00pm Music Interval

8.20pm

Mahler: Symphony No.5

Rafael Payare (conductor)

Charismatic Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare makes his debut with the BBC Philharmonic in two iconic works which mark the dawn of the twentieth century. Verkl䀀rte Nacht, Schoenberg's early string sextet which he later arranged for full string orchestra, takes as its inspiration Dehmel's powerful and poignant poem of the same name. It is one of Schoenberg's most accessible works; nevertheless, it caused consternation at its first performance in 1899. Schoenberg's harmonic world, even before his steps into twelve-note composition, baffled and incensed many, and others took offence at the liberal subject matter. Mahler's epic Fifth Symphony with its famous Adagietto was written just afterwards, during the summers of 1901 and 1902, around the time he met and married Alma Schindler. Like Schoenberg's Verkl䀀rte Nacht, this music takes us from sorrow to redemption, mourning to triumph.

Followed by music by past recipients of the Women Make Music Fund from PRS Foundation - in anticipation of International Women's Day tomorrow.

The BBC Philharmonic performs Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht and Mahler's Fifth Symphony.

Bbc Philharmonic, Shakespeare20160427From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Chiu-yu Chou: The Tongue

Daniel Kidane: Sirens

Nina Whiteman: The map of days outworn

Aaron Parker: Serisu

Tom Coult: Sonnet machine

8.15

Interval

BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the third of the category finalists in this year's brass competition.

Horn player Ben Goldscheider plays music by:

Salonen, Saint-Sa뀀ns and York Bowen

8.35

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (excerpts)

BBC Philharmonic

Andrew Gourlay (conductor)

Five pieces by young composers, specially commissioned for the BBC's Shakespeare 400 Festival feature in the first half of tonight's concert. Each takes as its inspiration one of Shakespeare's sonnets. A selection from Prokofiev's graphic and colourful ballet music for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet provides a fitting second half to the concert.

The BBC Philharmonic in music inspired by Shakespeare, with new works and one by Prokofiev

Bbc Philharmonic, Sibelius, Magnus Lindberg20151110As we approach the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth, the BBC Philharmonic celebrates with a concert featuring his music. They are joined by Christian Tetzlaff for Magnus Lindberg's Violin Concerto.

Recorded at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Sibelius: Karelia Suite

Magnus Lindberg: Violin Concerto

8.15 Music Interval

8.35

Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela

Sibelius: Symphony No 5

Christian Tetzlaff (violin)

John Storgards (conductor)

Finnish Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, John Storgards, presents richly varied music by two of his compatriots. As we approach the 150th anniversary of Sibelius's birth, his stirring and tuneful Karelia Suite opens the programme. The orchestra are joined by violinist Christian Tetzlaff for a performance of Magnus Lindberg's Violin Concerto from 2006 which weds classical lyricism and virtuosity. The dark and moody Swan of Tuonela is in rich contrast to the optimism and muscular energy of swans in flight in the Finale of Sibelius's Fifth Symphony which ends the concert.

John Storgards conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Sibelius and Magnus Lindberg.

Bbc Philharmonic, Smetana, Bartok, Dvorak20160226The BBC Philharmonic, Live from Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall play music by Smetana, Bartok and Dvorak. Conducted by Chief Conductor Juanjo Mena, the programme includes Dvorak's New World Symphony.

Live from the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Smetana: Vltava

Bartok: Violin Concerto No. 2

8.20 Music Interval

8.40

Dvorak: Symphony No.9 (From the New World)

Augustin Hadelich (violin)

Juanjo Mena (conductor)

The influence of folk-song shines through this programme full of rich melody. The immediately recognizable tune of Smetana's Vltava, which takes us on a journey from the source of a river to the sea is followed by Bartok's Second Violin Concerto, a work whose lyricism, warmth and richly idiomatic violin writing belie the techniques used in the piece. Dvorak's final Symphony fuses folk-song idioms from old and new worlds, leaving its unforgettable tunes hanging in the air.

Juanjo Mena conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Smetana, Bartok and Dvorak.

Bbc Philharmonic, Smetana, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak20161108From Leeds Town Hall

Presented by Adam Tomlinson

The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Antony Hermus, in music by Smetana and Dvorak. They are joined by BBC New Generation Artist Pavel Kolesnikov for Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto.

Smetana: The Bartered Bride - Overture, Polka, Furiant and Dance of the Comedians

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor

8.30 Music Interval

8.50

Dvorak: Symphony No.7 in D minor

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

Antony Hermus (conductor)

Leeds Town Hall hosts the BBC Philharmonic for a programme rich in Czech melody, national dance and colour. Smetana's enthusiasm for the story of Czech village life that he paints in his opera 'The Bartered Bride' bubbles over in the characterful orchestral music that starts the concert. Dvorak's Seventh Symphony abounds in lyricism and his own nationalist spirit shines through in the restless Scherzo. Written for the Philharmonic Society in London Dvorak said he intended the new piece 'to be capable of stirring the world'. BBC New Generation Artist Pavel Kolesnikov joins the orchestra for Tchaikovsky's iconic First Piano Concerto, a piece which looks forward to his ballet scores and blends the lyricism of popular and folk melody with sheer, startling virtuosity.

Antony Hermus conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Smetana, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak.

Bbc Philharmonic, Vaughan Williams, Sofia Gubaidulina20170428The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky, in music by Vaughan Williams. They are joined by violinst Vadim Gluzman for Sofia Gubaidulina's 'Offertorium'.

From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Sofia Gubaidulina: Offertorium

8.15 Music Interval

8.35

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 3 (A Pastoral Symphony)

Vadim Gluzman (violin)

Robin Tritschler (tenor)

Vassily Sinaisky (conductor)

Vassily Sinaisky, a Russian conductor with a real affinity for English music returns to the BBC Philharmonic in a programme which opens with Vaughan Williams's timeless Tallis Fantasia, his working for three groups of strings of a sixteenth-century psalm tune by Thomas Tallis. Vadim Gluzman joins them for Sofia Gubaidulina's 'Offertorium'; which also takes spiritual inspiration from music from an earlier era, here Bach's 'Musical Offering', providing the basis for spellbinding music of sacred drama and sacrifice. Vaughan Williams described his Pastoral Symphony, a personal response to the First World War, as 'war-time music' rather than 'lambkins frisking', a lonely bugler, horn and a wordless voice help conjure the bleakness of the battle-fields.

Vassily Sinaisky conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Vaughan Williams and Sofia Gubaidulina.

Bbc Philharmonic, Wagner, Grieg And Elgar20170123From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Wagner: Tristan and Isolde: Prelude to Act I

Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor

8.15 Music Interval

8.35

Elgar: Falstaff

BBC Philharmonic

Javier Perianes (piano)

Andrew Davis (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic is joined by Sir Andrew Davis for Elgar's characterful, colourful and poignant portrait of one of the most famous comic characters in literature, Shakespeare's Falstaff. Spanish pianist Javier Perianes joins the orchestra for Grieg's effervescent Piano Concerto and the programme opens with the Prelude to Wagner's Tristan and Isolde; a direct expression of love and of yearning.

After tonight's concert there's a chance to hear the fruits of the latest round of Adopt-a-Composer projects, which pair a composer with an amateur performing group in order to write and perform a new piece of music.

Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Wagner, Grieg and Elgar.

Bbc Philharmonic: Anna Clyne, Mozart And Mahler's First Symphony20200417A second chance to hear the BBC Philharmonic's Principal Guest Conductor Ben Gernon in a UK premiere, 'This Midnight Hour' by Anna Clyne, Mozart's Piano Concerto No 20 and Mahler's First Symphony

From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Anna Clyne: This Midnight Hour (UK premiere)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 20 in D minor (K 466)

Music Interval

Bach: Partita No 5 in G (BWV 829)

Mahler: Symphony No 1

Richard Goode (piano)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

Ben Gernon, Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic opens this evening's concert with the UK premiere of Anna Clyne's 'This Midnight Hour', a piece he describes as having 'bite and relentless energy'. Richard Goode, great American pianist and one of today's leading interpreters of Classical and Romantic piano repertoire joins the orchestra for Mozart's Piano Concerto No 20 (K 466), one of only two of his piano concertos written in a minor key with an interestingly Romantic feel as a result. The story goes that the ink was still wet on the orchestra parts as he launched himself into the solo part at the premiere in 1785, a picture entirely plausible given the huge amount of music he was writing at that time. We are invited into the vast world of Mahler's First Symphony after the interval; a work as immediately engaging as any in his catalogue with its array of moods, tunes and dance rhythms as well as Mahler's sheer joy in the glory of orchestral sound.

Ben Gernon conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Mahler and Mozart with Richard Goode.

Bbc Philharmonic: Mahler And Simon Holt20180221The BBC Philharmonic and Chief Guest Conductor, John Storgards, in Mahler's Seventh Symphony and Simon Holt's percussion concerto 'a table of noises' with soloist Colin Currie.

From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Simon Holt: a table of noises

8.10: Music Interval

8.30

Mahler: Symphony No 7

Colin Currie (percussion)

John Storgards (conductor)

His Great Uncle Ash, Simon Holt says was 'amongst many other things, a taxidermist'; he is also the inspiration for Holt's percussion concerto 'a table of noises' which takes as its starting point the materials and characters of his craft. The music brings to life Fly, Uncle Ash's dog who used to fall asleep standing up by the fire and a drawer full of false eyes yet to find their animal. Great Uncle Ash's taxidermist's table is turned into a table of percussion instruments from which Colin Currie and the BBC Philharmonic will conjure up the work's unique sound world.

The stroke of oars on water provided Mahler with the inspiration he craved to finish his Seventh Symphony and the opening of the work creates a vivid sound-picture. Instrumental colour (Mahler includes mandolin, guitar and cowbells), folk song and dance, marches and distorted waltz rhythms and the sounds of nature make this a symphony that really does embrace the world, as Mahler believed it should.

John Storgards conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Mahler and Simon Holt.

Bbc Philharmonic: Messiaen And Shostakovich20171113Messiaen's 'Quartet for the End of Time' and Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony are presented in a concert of huge emotional power presented by the BBC Philharmonic.

Recorded at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Stuart Flinders

'Time shall be no more'. Messiaen uses these words from the Book of Revelation to introduce his extraordinary 'Quartet for the End of Time', written while he was a prisoner of war in Silesia; music of extraordinary faith, hope and colour, created under the harshest of circumstances, with his eyes firmly fixed on the 'end of time' in a vision of eternity and everlasting peace. For Shostakovich, writing his Fourteenth Symphony in a period of pain and illness the 'end of time' meant something entirely different, for death is the work's subject and he unflinchingly sets almost unbearable poems of brutality, fear and life undervalued - concluding this darkest and sparest of song-symphonies with the works of Rilke, 'Death is all-powerful, she ... waits and thirsts and weeps for us.'

Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

8.20pm Interval:

Janacek String Quartet No 1 (Kreutzer Sonata), played by the Smetana Quartet

8.40pm

Shostakovich: Symphony No 14

John Storgards (violin; conductor)

John Bradbury (clarinet)

Peter Dixon (cello)

Martin Roscoe (piano)

Soile Isokoski (soprano)

Stephen Richardson (bass)

The BBC Philharmonic perform Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time and Shostakovich.

Bbc Philharmonic: Mozart, Mahler, Anna Clyne20180306The BBC Philharmonic's Principal Guest Conductor Ben Gernon in a UK premiere, 'This Midnight Hour' by Anna Clyne, Mozart's Piano Concerto No 20 and Mahler's First Symphony

From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Anna Clyne: This Midnight Hour (UK premiere)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 20 in D minor (K466)

Music Interval

Mahler: Symphony No 1

Richard Goode (piano)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

Ben Gernon, Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic opens this evening's concert with the UK premiere of Anna Clynes's 'This Midnight Hour', a piece he describes as having 'bite and relentless energy'. Richard Goode, great American pianist and one of today's leading interpreters of Classical and Romantic piano repertoire joins the orchestra for Mozart's Piano Concerto No 20 (K466), one of only two of his piano concertos written in a minor key with an interestingly Romantic feel as a result. The story goes that the ink was still wet on the orchestra parts as he launched himself into the solo part at the premiere in 1785, a picture entirely plausible given the huge amount of music he was writing at that time. We are invited into the vast world of Mahler's First Symphony after the interval; a work as immediately engaging as any in his catalogue with its array of moods, tunes and dance rhythms as well as Mahler's sheer joy in the glory of orchestral sound.

Ben Gernon conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Mahler and Mozart with Richard Goode.

Bbc Philharmonic: Rossini, Bruch, Tchaikovsky20171115The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Diego Matheuz perform music by Rossini and Tchaikovsky and are joined by Jennifer Pike for Bruch's First Violin Concerto.

Recorded 10th November at the Victoria Hall, Hanley

Presented by Tom Redmond

Rossini: Semiramide, Overture

Bruch: Violin Concerto No 1

Music Interval

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 5

Jennifer Pike (violin)

Diego Matheuz (conductor)

I am passionately fond of the national element in all its varied forms ... I am Russian in the fullest sense of the word.' Although written after a long stay in Switzerland, by a composer who was sensitive to European trends in music, in Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony he wears his Russian heart on his sleeve, the luscious tunes and opulent waltz of the middle movements of the piece giving way to red-blooded energy and power in the finale. Virtuoso violinist Jennifer Pike joins the orchestra for Bruch's lyrical and dance-infused First Violin Concerto, and the programme opens with one of Rossini's most sparkling overtures.

The BBC Philharmonic conducted by Diego Matheuz perform Rossini, Bruch and Tchaikovsky.

Bbc Philharmonic: Saint-saens And Janacek20180112Live from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Smetana: The Bartered Bride, Overture

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Piano Concerto No 4

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Rhapsodie d'Auvergne

8.20 Music Interval

8.40

Berlioz: The Trojans: Royal Hunt and Storm

Janကcek: Sinfonietta

BBC Philharmonic

Louis Lortie (piano)

Edward Gardner (conductor)

Virtuoso pianist Louis Lortie joins the BBC Philharmonic for two contrasting pieces by Saint-Sa뀀ns, his innovative Fourth Piano Concerto and his atmospheric and engaging Rhapsodie d'Auvergne in which, unusually for this composer, he quotes French folk song. Berlioz's dramatic Royal Hunt and Storm follows the interval and the programme is book-ended by Czech music; Smetana's energetic Overture to his nationalistic opera The Bartered Bride opening the proceedings and the utterly unique sound-world of Janကcek's Sintonietta bringing the concert to a thrilling end.

The BBC Philharmonic in music by Saint-Saens and Janacek.

Bbc Philharmonic: Tchaikovsky, Saint-saens And Debussy20170203The BBC Philharmonic, live from the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham, conducted by Ben Gernon with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor.

Presented by Martin Handley

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 1 in G minor, Op 13 (Winter Daydreams)

8.20 Music Interval

8.40

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor, Op 22

Debussy: La Mer

Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Ben Gernon, is joined in Nottingham by Benjamin Grosvenor for Saint-Sa뀀ns's sparkling Second Piano Concerto. Tchaikovsky's tuneful and atmospheric First Symphony, 'Winter Daydreams', opens the programme which is rounded off with the energy of Debussy's La Mer; a vivid portrait of the sea in all its various moods and colours.

Followed by music for brass band written by British composers. For more brass band music listen to yesterday's Radio 3 in Concert from the Royal Northern College of Music's Brass Band Festival featuring the Cory Band.

Ben Gernon conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens and Debussy.

Bbc Proms Dubai 2019, The First Night20190401The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ben Gernon at Dubai Opera. Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Bushra El-Turk's Tmesis and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with soloist Karen Gomyo.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Recorded at Dubai Opera on Tuesday 19th March 2019.

Bushra El-Turk: Tmesis

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Op.35

8.10

Interval

8.25

Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet Suites 1 & 2 (excerpts)

Karen Gomyo (violin)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

After the artistic and community-building triumphs of the BBC Proms Dubai 2017, the biennial festival returns in 2019 with as ambitious a line-up. The First Night juxtaposes the dramatic and brilliant colours of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet ballet suites with the evergreen lyricism of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. The violin soloist is Karen Gomyo, whose recent performance of the concerto in Houston was described as ' positively luxuriating in Tchaikovsky's melodies. She molded their contours sleekly and lingered over their most expressive turns of phrase.

Tmesis is a work by Bushra El-Turk, the London-based composer with Lebanese roots who enjoys combining Western and Eastern musical idioms in her music. Tmesis, its Greek title, describes a word interrupted by another word, a phrase interrupted by another phrase, and in this orchestral opener El Turk promises to pack her music with inspired disruptions.

Bbc Proms In Japan20191226Recorded in November as part of the BBC Proms Japan, Nick Luscombe hosts and presents a late night set of experimental music with Tokyo based artists, from the venue EDGEof in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Sugai Ken, Masanori Oishi and Emiko Miura each perform a set, and the American legend of electronic music, Carl Stone, who has been based in Tokyo for 20 years, performs with Japanese performance artist Akaihirume.

Sugai Ken: Improvised set

Masanori Oishi (saxophone) and Emiko Miura (toy piano/keyboard):

Hosokawa - Spell Song

Takahashi - Embers

Karen Tanaka - Techno Etude 1

Takemitsu - A Song of Love from Uninterrupted Rests

Improvisation .. leading into:

JacobTV- Sho-myo

Carl Stone with Akaihirume: Improvised Set

Late night Prom - The Experimental session

Bbc Proms Japan 2022 (1-2)20230105The BBC Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, conducted by Dalia Stasevska, playing Anna Clyne's This Midnight Hour, Dvorak's New World Symphony and Elgar's Cello Concerto with Sol Gabetta.

The BBC Proms' admired mix of the old and new was shared with the Japanese audience at this third concert from the BBC Proms Japan 2022. Dvorak's much-loved New World Symphony weaves songs and spirituals into a celebration of shared human experience; before it, cellist Sol Gabetta, pairs up with the orchestra in Elgar's Cello Concerto, a work in which she excels at finding new depths. And for starters, Anna Clyne's This Midnight Hour mixes the waltz with flashes of vivid, intoxicating nocturnal sounds.

Recorded at Orchard Hall, Tokyo on 3rd November 2022.

Presented by Penny Gore

Anna Clyne: This Midnight Hour

Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor

20.20

Interval: Japanese music

Noriko Koide: Paradise Fishes, Brilliant Night

Hideo Kikuchi (clarinet), Yoshu Kamei (violin), Shizuka Kuretani (piano)

Karen Tanaka: Frozen Horizon

The Azure Ensemble

20.35

Dvorak: Symphony No.9 Op.95

Sol Gabetta (cello)

Dalia Stasevska (conductor)

Dalia Stasevska conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in music by Clyne, Elgar and Dvorak.

Bbc Proms Japan 2022 (2-2)20230106The BBC Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, conducted by Dalia Stasevska, premieres music by Noriko Koide, plus Sibelius's Symphony No.1 and Grieg's Piano Concerto with Yu Kosuge.

The BBC SO's third concert from the BBC Proms Japan 2022 contrasts the drama of Grieg's Piano Concerto with the at times unsettling world of Sibelius's Symphony No.1. And there's a chance to sample the music of Noriko Koide in her new piece 'Swaddling Silk and Gossamer Rain', where borders and borderlines are seen as a metaphor for human interactions.

Recorded at Orchard Hall, Tokyo on 5th November 2022

Presented by Penny Gore

Noriko Koide: Swaddling Silk and Gossamer Rain (BBC commission for BBC Proms Japan 2022 -

2nd performance)

Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor Op.16

20.20 Interval: Music from Japan chosen by pianist Yu Kosuge

Takemitsu: Chiisana Sora (Small Sky) for Choir

The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo, Hiroyuki Iwaki (conductor)

Dai Fujikura: Moon for Viola da Gamba and Biwa

Tatsuya Wada (viola da gamba) and Akiko Kubota (biwa)

Rameau: Le Rappel des Oiseaux from Piece de Clavecin avec une methode, Suite in E Minor

Louis-Claude Daquin: Les vents en couroux from Pieces de Clavecin, Suite No 1

Yu Kosuge (Piano)

20.40

Sibelius: Symphony No.1 in E minor Op.39

Dalia Stasevska (Conductor)

Dalia Stasevska conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in music by Koide, Sibelius and Grieg.

Bbc Scottish So: Brahms, Bruch, Strauss20171020Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Christoph K怀nig conducts the BBC SSO in Brahms's Haydn Variations and Strauss's tone-poem Aus Italien. They are joined by Kristof Barati in the Bruch Violin Concerto.

Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn

Bruch: Violin Concerto No 1

8.10 Interval

8.40

Strauss: Aus Italien

Christoph K怀nig (conductor)

Kristof Barati (violin)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Christoph Konig conducts the BBC SSO in music by Brahms, Bruch and Strauss.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra20160114Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Ilan Volkov and the BBC SSO perform The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Unsuk Chin's Clarinet Concerto and a rarely heard work inspired by Hollywood glamour: Koechlin's Seven Stars Symphony.

Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Unsuk Chin: Clarinet Concerto

8.10 Music Interval

8.30

Koechlin: The Seven Stars Symphony

Kari Kriikku (clarinet)

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Evocative musical colours from City Halls, Glasgow. Ilan Volkov conducts Dukas' tone-poem, The Sorcerer's Apprentice; a work of such skilful orchestral imagination its storytelling went on to inspire the eponymous short film, staring Mickey Mouse.

Spellbinding colours are also at the centre of Unsuk Chin's recent Clarinet Concerto, performed this evening by the work's dedicatee: Finnish clarinet virtuoso Kari Kriikku.

And the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conclude by presenting a rarely heard, but very intriguing, 20th century French work, dedicated to the golden age of Hollywood glamour. Koechlin's Seven Stars Symphony (the stars in question including Greta Garbo and Douglas Fairbanks) depicts these heroes and heroines of cinema in swooping and melodic orchestral music, vividly coloured with Harpsichord, Saxophones and Ondes Martenot.

Ilan Volkov conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra20180517To end their season, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra enter into Sibelius's world by inviting a quartet of Finnish folk musicians to Glasgow. Playing with the BBC SSO in a specially arranged piece of music, the Finnish folk musicians explore the themes that Sibelius would have heard, and has incorporated into, his Choral Symphony, Kullervo. Kullervo is one of his finest masterpieces in which Sibelius uses one of Finland's most ancient of poems, the Kalevala. It is a story of the tragedy of a young hero and a love more terrible than war. One of Scandinavia's finest choirs and two outstanding singers join the BBC SSO in the City Halls in Glasgow for this live broadcast conducted by their Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard.

Presented by Jamie MacDougall.

No interval.

End c.21.00

Timo Alakotila - Harmonium

Taito Hoffren - Vocals and Shaman Drum

Ilona Korhonen - Vocals

Vilma Timonen - Kantele

Helena Juntunen - Soprano

Benjamin Appl - Baritone

The BBC SSO, Finnish folk musicians, soloists and conductor Thomas Dausgaard play Sibelius

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra -, By Butterworth, Macmillan, Elgar20170310Richard Farnes and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Elgar's 2nd Symphony and are joined by Lawrence Power for James MacMillan's Viola Concerto.

Live from Perth Concert Hall

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad:

James MacMillan: Viola Concerto

8.05 Interval

8.25

Elgar: Symphony No. 2 in E flat

James MacMillan wrote his viola concerto for tonight's soloist Lawrence Power, and it explores all the expressive range of the instrument - from the tranquil and hymn-like to the passionately melodic and ultimately joyful.

On either side of this 21st-century work sits British music from the early 20th century; Butterworth's AE Housman-inspired rhapsody 'A Shropshire Lad' and the concert culminates with Elgar's 2nd Symphony. First performed in 1911 and dedicated to King Edward VII, the symphony is nevertheless a deeply personal essay and for many a quintessential expression of the Romantic English pastoral.

Followed by music by past recipients of the Women Make Music Fund from PRS Foundation.

Richard Farnes conducts the BBC SSO in music by Butterworth, MacMillan and Elgar.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Britten, Elgar20170427Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

John Wilson and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Elgar's reconstructed Third Symphony and are joined by Ian Bostridge for Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.

Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings

7.55 Interval

8.15

Elgar/Payne: Symphony No 3

Ian Bostridge (tenor)

John Wilson (conductor)

Anthony Payne elaborated Elgar's Third Symphony from the composer's extensive sketches - and the result is an intriguing mixture of pure Elgar, and Payne's thoughtful elaborations. This evening the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and their Associate Guest Conductor John Wilson, perform the work as the climax of their explorations of Elgar's symphonies throughout their current City Halls concert season.

It is preceded by Benjamin Britten's portmanteau song cycle, gathering texts from Tennyson, Keats and Blake. His Serenade was written during the Second World War for soloists Peter Pears and Dennis Brain. This evening those roles are recreated by horn player Christopher Parkes and tenor Ian Bostridge.

John Wilson and tenor Ian Bostridge join the BBC SSO for music by Britten and Elgar.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Busoni, Weill20161024The BBC SSO and Ilan Volkov perform Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins with Measha Brueggergosman, alongside orchestral works by Busoni.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Busoni: Berceuse 退l退giaque, Op 42

Busoni: Sarabande and Cortege, Op. 51, (2 Studies for Doktor Faust)

8.05 Interval

8.25

Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins

Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins was written to a libretto by Bertolt Brecht as a 'sung ballet', and recounts the allegorical adventures of the title character Anna, as she explores life and all its temptations. Written in an evocative and recognizably Berlin-esque style, it evokes the heady turmoil of the interwar years with its jazz inflected banjo and close-harmony vocal group. The concert opens with two orchestral pieces by Italian composer Busoni, written at the turn of the century. Perhaps most famous for his epic piano works, this pair of orchestral scores demonstrates his melodic invention and contrapuntal detail with a wider instrumental palette.

Measha Brueggergosman (soprano)

Synergy Vocals

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Ilan Volkov conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in music by Busoni and Weill.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Dvorak, Elgar20170126Live from City Halls, Glasgow, Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Steven Isserlis and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra play Dvo?ကk and Elgar

Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B minor

8.10: Interval

8.30: Elgar: Symphony No 1 in A flat major

Steven Isserlis, cello

Thomas Dausgaard, conductor

Great charity [love] and a massive hope in the future' was how Elgar described the message of his First Symphony, and when it was premiered in Manchester in 1908, the audience simply rose to its feet and cheered. This season, the BBC SSO plays all three of Elgar's symphonies, beginning with a performance from Thomas Dausgaard of the work that heralded a new dawn for British music and launched one of Elgar's most unforgettable melodies along the way. To match it, Steven Isserlis brings all his peerless insight to a cello concerto that ends with one of the loveliest sunsets in all music; Dvo?ကk's impassioned, nostalgia-drenched hymn to new worlds and absent friends.

After tonight's concert there's a chance to hear the fruits of the latest round of Adopt-a-Composer projects, which pair a composer with an amateur performing group in order to write and perform a new piece of music.

The BBC SSO plays Dvorak's Cello Concerto (with Steven Isserlis) and Elgar's Symphony No 1

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Geddes, Finzi, Macmillan20170404From City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

James MacMillan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in his own 4th Symphony; and they are joined by Annelien Van Wauwe to perform Finzi's Clarinet Concerto.

John Maxwell Geddes: Voyager

Finzi: Clarinet Concerto

8.10 Interval

8.30

James MacMillan: Symphony No 4

Annelien Van Wauwe (clarinet)

Sir James MacMillan (conductor)

Sir James MacMillan's Symphony No 4 is amongst the most ambitious large-scale orchestral works to emerge in the first quarter of the 21st century: a philosophical journey exploring everything of which an orchestra is capable. First performed at the BBC Proms in 2015, and dedicated to the BBC SSO's then chief conductor Donald Runnicles, this concert features the composer himself at the helm.

The concert opens with music by a fellow Scottish composer, John Maxwell Geddes, whose work 'Voyager' is performed to mark the composer's 75th birthday. And between these 2 Scottish works clarinettist and New Generation Artist Annelien Van Wauwe joins the orchestra to perform Finzi's English-Folksong-inspired Clarinet Concerto.

James MacMillan conducts the BBC SSO in his own work, plus John Maxwell Geddes and Finzi.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Haydn, Mahler20170522Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Haydn's Symphony No 88 and Mahler's thrilling 7th Symphony.

Presented by Jamie MacDougall from City Halls, Glasgow.

Haydn: Symphony No 88

7.55 Interval

8.15

Mahler: Symphony No 7

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Thomas Dausgaard conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in music by Haydn and Mahler

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Haydn, Ravel, Tippett20161124Martyn Brabbins and the BBC SSO perform Tippett's Symphony No 1, Haydn's Symphony No 6, and are joined by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet for Ravel's G major Piano Concerto.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Haydn: Symphony No 6 'Le Matin

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

8.20 Interval:

8.40

Tippett: Symphony No 1

Michael Tippett - a unique voice in 20th-century music - wrote four symphonies, and this evening the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra begins a performance cycle of them all, under the baton of Martyn Brabbins, a leading interpreter of British and 20th-century composers. Tippett's First Symphony launches the cycle with what will become trademarks: uncompromising invention, rhythmic momentum and bold, clear colours. And the elegance of this composition is reflected in the earlier music of Josef Haydn, in his svelte 6th Symphony which opens the concert.

These two works sandwich an altogether different palette of ravishing orchestral colours, although with the same precise ear for crafting musical textures. For Ravel's G major Piano Concerto, with its shimmering surfaces and jazz-inflected rhythms, the orchestra is joined by French virtuoso Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow, the BBC SSO performs music by Haydn, Ravel and Tippett.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Haydn, Ravel, Tippett20170214Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Tippett's Second Symphony alongside Haydn's 'Le Soir' Symphony, and Ravel's Concerto for Piano Left Hand.

Recorded 9th February and presented by Andrew McGregor from City Halls, Glasgow.

Haydn: Symphony No 8 'Le Soir

Ravel: Concerto for Piano (Left Hand)

8.10pm Interval

8.30pm

Tippett: Symphony No 2

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

Martyn Brabbins, conductor

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with conductor Martyn Brabbins continue to explore the symphonic output of 20th-century English composer Michael Tippett.

Tippett's Second Symphony - completed in 1957- expands on an increasingly bold and idiosyncratic palette: from its urgent, angular opening full of rhythmic drive, through a glistening slow movement, to an ambiguous, austere fanfare. It is a work which looks forward even as it peers backwards to classical models from the past.

Tonight it is preceded by Ravel's ravishing 1929 Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, music of delicate clockwork, its exquisite colours brought to life by the hand of French virtuoso Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.

And the concert opens with music by Haydn, his 'Le Soir' Symphony, No 8, whose clean lines and structure pre-echo those of Michael Tippett's much later work.

Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC SSO in music by Haydn, Ravel and Tippett.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Mozart, Mahler20161103Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra are joined by Carolyn Sampson to perform Mozart's Exsultate jubilate, and Mahler's Fourth Symphony.

Mozart: Exsultate jubilate

Mozart: Symphony in D major 'La finta giardiniera

Mozart: Voi avete un cor fedele

8.05 Interval

8.25

Mahler: Symphony No. 4

Carolyn Sampson (soprano)

Donald Runnicles (conductor)

Donald Runnicles, Conductor Emeritus of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, presents works by Mozart and Mahler through which symphonic music and song are woven. In the first half, Mozart's enduring vocal works 'Exsultate jubilate' and 'Voi avete un cor fedele' sandwich his Symphony In D Major, music from the opera 'La Finta Giardiniere'.

Mozart was a hero to Mahler -it is reported that he uttered Mozart's name on his deathbed- and after the interval the orchestra perform Mahler's Symphony No. 4, incorporating a childlike vision of heaven, sung, as with the Mozart, by soprano Carolyn Sampson. 'There is just no music on earth that can compare to ours' are words from Des Knaben Wunderhorn which Mahler sets in the final movement of his intimate and emotionally far-reaching orchestral statement.

Donald Runnicles conducts the BBC SSO in music by Mozart and Mahler.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Rachmaninov, Mozart And Tchaikovsky20161202From City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Matthias Pintscher and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra are joined by C退dric Tiberghien for Mozart's Piano Concerto K414 and the orchestra perform Tchaikovsky Symphony No 5

Rachmaninov: The Isle of the Dead

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 12 in A, K414

8.20pm Interval: Pied Piper

During the intervals of the concerts this week, we'll be hearing a selection of programmes from the five year long series. Munrow explored a wide range of music, and these five programmes can only begin to give a taste of the topics he covered. This edition of Pied Piper presented by David Munrow and first broadcast on 2nd April 1976 completed a week of programmes looking at music inspired by the stars. As well as introducing music connected with the figure of Neptune, David Munrow interviews Patrick Moore. A fascinating opportunity to hear Munrow and Moore discussing astronomy and Music in the mid 1970s.

8.40pm

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 5 in E minor

C退dric Tiberghien (piano)

Matthias Pintscher (conductor)

Composer-conductor Matthias Pintscher rejoins the orchestra of which he is Artist-in-Association to explore Russian classics: Rachmaninov's dark-hued symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead; and Tchaikovsky's romantically melodious Symphony No 5. And the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra are joined by French virtuoso C退dric Tiberghien to explore the lighter and more classical melodies of Mozart's youthful Piano Concerto No 12.

Matthias Pintscher conducts the BBC SSO in music by Rachmaninov, Mozart and Tchaikovsky.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Payare, Alisa Weilerstein, Dvorak And Shostakovich20151022Rafael Payare conducts the BBC SSO in Dvorak's Seventh Symphony and they are joined by Alisa Weilerstein for Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No 2.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Gareth Patrick Williams: Fields of Light

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No 2

8.15 Music interval

8.35

Dvorak: Symphony No 7

Rafael Payare (conductor)

Ailsa Weilerstein (cello)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is joined by the energetic young conductor Rafael Payare for a concert of light and shade which concludes with one of Dvorak's most enduring and melodic orchestral works, his Seventh Symphony. The orchestra begins with a premiere performance of a piece commissioned by BBC Radio 3 by the Scottish composer Gareth Patrick Williams. His new work, Fields of Light, journeys from uttermost clarity to music of dance-like intensity, and back to shimmering simplicity.

And the orchestra is joined by the celebrated American cellist Alisa Weilerstein to perform Shostakovich's dark and brooding Second Cello Concerto.

Rafael Payare and Alisa Weilerstein join the BBC SSO for music by Dvorak and Shostakovich.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Shaun Davey, Bela Fleck20160128Concert recorded last week at the City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

The BBC SSO at Celtic Connections 2016 with two instrumental legends: B退la Fleck, banjo, and Liam O'Flynn, uilleann pipes.

Trad. Arr. A. O'Callaghan - Alborada

Liam O'Flynn - The Bridge

Shaun Davey - The Winter's End

Trad Arr. Liam O'Flynn - Port na bPuca퀀 (The Music of the Spirits)

Liam O'Flynn - Knockaulin/The March of the Clans

Phil Cunningham - Farewell to Govan

Shaun Davey - Newfoundland

8.10: Interval

B退la Fleck - The Impostor (Banjo Concerto)

Conductor, Fergus Macleod

Liam O'Flynn, uillean pipes

Arty McGlynn, guitar

Rod McVey, keyboards

Bela Fleck, banjo

As part of the famous Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Fergus Macleod, perform a piece first commissioned by the Nashville Symphony and premiered in 2011. B退la Fleck's Banjo Concerto 'The Impostor' now has its European Premiere in City Halls, played by the 15-time Grammy-winner himself. It is his first solo-composed work.

Before the interval, the BBC SSO strings accompany Ireland's most revered uilleann piper, Liam O'Flynn, and his legendary colleagues Arty McGlynn, guitar, and Rod McVey, keyboard, in a selection of his previously orchestrated repertoire, including excerpts from Shaun Davey's 'The Brendan Voyage'.

An evening not to be missed.

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Bela Fleck (banjo) and Liam O'Flynn (uilleann pipes).

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Sibelius Symphonies20151008Thomas Dausgaard conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius Symphonies.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op 82

8.15: Interval

8.35

Symphony No. 6 in D minor

Symphony No. 7 in C major

Thomas Dausgaard, conductor

Other composers mix brightly coloured cocktails' said Jean Sibelius. 'I offer pure, cool water'. From the radiant sunrise that opens the Fifth to the deep tranquillity of the Sixth and the windswept peaks of the Seventh, Sibelius's last three symphonies are like a force of nature. For BBC SSO Chief Conductor-Designate, Thomas Dausgaard, this is music that can transform the very way you hear the world; 'at once monumental and intimately personal' is how one critic described his approach to Sibelius. Under Dausgaard's direction, this single-evening Sibelius trilogy will be an exhilarating journey through one of the 20th century's greatest - and most inspiring - musical minds.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra performs Sibelius's Symphonies Nos 5, 6 and 7.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Wagner, Strauss, Langgaard20170323Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC SSO perform Rued Langgaard's rarely heard Symphony No 6 and are joined by Erin Wall in Strauss's Four Last Songs.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow. Presented by Ian Skelly

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Prelude und Liebestod)

Strauss: Four Last Songs

8.10 Interval

8.40

Wagner: Parsifal (Prelude to Act 1)

Langgaard: Symphony No 6 'The Heaven-Rending

Erin Wall (soprano)

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

A chance to hear the romantic music of Rued Langgaard performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard: a passionate advocate for this Danish composer's work. Alongside his 6th Symphony, some much more familiar German fare: two operatic openings from Richard Wagner and the emotional lyricism of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, for which the orchestra is joined by Canadian soprano Erin Wall.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow, the BBC SSO performs music by Wagner, Strauss and Langgaard

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Nielsen And Mozart20180322Thomas Dausgaard conducts the BBC SSO in Nielsen's Symphony No 5, and they are joined by Martin Frost to perform Mozart's Clarinet Concerto.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Nielsen: Pan and Syrinx

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto

8.25 Interval

8.45

Nielsen: Symphony No 5

Martin Fr怀st, clarinet

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Thomas Dausgaard, conductor

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their Danish-born chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard explore a composer with whom they both have great affinity: Carl Nielsen. The concert opens with Nielsen's Pan and Syrinx -an atmospheric evocation of the titular instrument- and concludes with his deeply expressive 5th Symphony.

Sandwiched between these comes music by a composer revered by Nielsen: Mozart. His popular Clarinet Concerto is performed tonight by Martin Fr怀st.

Thomas Dausgaard conducts the BBC SSO in music by Nielsen and Mozart.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Smetana, Chopin, Dvorak20180426The BBC SSO and conductor Matthias Pintscher perform music by Smetana and Dvorak and French virtuoso David Kadouch joins them to play Chopin's Second Piano Concerto.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Smetana: 'Vltava' and 'Sarka' from Ma Vlast

Chopin: Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor

c. 8.25pm Interval

8.45

Dvorak: Symphony No 4 in D minor

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Matthias Pintscher, conductor

David Kadouch, piano

The concert begins on a journey down the river Vltava with two movements from Ma Vlast, Smetana's patriotic symphonic poem about his homeland. Young French virtuoso David Kadouch joins the orchestra for Chopin's romantic Second Piano Concerto, written when he was only 20, and the concert ends with Dvorak's stirring Fourth Symphony.

The BBC SSO and conductor Matthias Pintscher play music by Smetana, Chopin, and Dvorak.

Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra: Tippett Symphony Cycle20180201The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins perform Mozart's Horn Concerto No 4, Stravinsky's Petrushka, and an early work by Michael Tippett receives a very rare outing.

Live from City Halls Glasgow

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Tippett: Symphony in B flat

Mozart: Horn Concerto No 4 in E flat, K495

Mozart: Concert-Rondo, K371

8.20 Interval

8.40

Stravinsky: Petrushka: ballet (1947)

Alberto Men退ndez Escribano, horn

Martyn Brabbins, conductor

At the very outset of his career Michael Tippett withdrew his first substantial work, a Symphony in B flat. Tonight we have a rare chance to consider its merits as it is performed for the first time since the 1930s.

Tippett's music was always characterised by the conjunction between the classical and the modern: Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra continue with examples of both. Their principal horn, Alberto Men退ndez Escribano, steps forward to perform the fourth of Mozart's exemplary horn concertos; and Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka, with its riot of dazzling colours, closes the evening.

Tippett, Mozart and Stravinsky performed by the BBC SSO and Martyn Brabbins.

Bbc Singers20160112Recorded in St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Music for the season of Epiphany by German composers of the early Baroque period

Michael Praetorius: Puer natus in Bethlehem; Quem pastores laudavere

Johann Hermann Schein: O Jesulein, mein Jesulein

Dietrich Buxtehude: 2 organ chorale preludes: Puer natus in Bethlehem (BuxWV 217); In dulci jubilo (BuxWV 197)

Samuel Scheidt: Das alte Jahr vergangen ist; Wie sch怀n leuchtet der Morgenstern

Dietrich Buxtehude: organ chorale fantasia: Wie sch怀n leuchtet der Morgenstern (BuxWV 223)

8.25pm:

Interval music: bass-player Peter McCarthy and conductor James O'Donnell talk about the immense, attractive, but seldom-heard repertoire of sacred music from 17th-century Germany; in between, some of the secular dance music of the period dance music composers such as Michael Praetorius and William Brade

8.40pm:

Samuel Scheidt: In dulci jubilo

Johann Christoph Pez: Concerto Pastorale (first movement)

Heinrich Schütz: Historia der Geburt Jesu Christi

Evangelist..... Christopher Bowen (tenor)

Angel..... Emma Tring (soprano)

Herod..... Charles Gibbs (baritone)

St James's Baroque

Stephen Farr (organ)

James O'Donnell (conductor)

Heinrich Schütz's 'The Christmas Story' traces the whole arc of the nativity narrative, from the shepherds and angels on the Bethlehem hillside to the Epiphany - the arrival of the Three Kings. Schütz's score is by turns, charming, dramatic, and beautifully pictorial. Performed here with period instruments - from leading ensemble St James's Baroque - the BBC Singers and James O'Donnell pair Schütz's masterpiece with other choral works from 17th-century Germany for the Feast of the Epiphany (which fell six days ago) by Johann Schein, Samuel Scheidt and Michael Praetorius. Stephen Farr plays solo organ music by the great German-Danish organist and teacher of J S Bach: Dietrich Buxtehude.

Music for the season of Epiphany by German composers of the early Baroque period.

Bbc Singers At Raf Museum20150922Marking the the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the BBC Singers visit the Royal Air Force Museum London for a concert which marks not just that famous aerial combat, but also celebrates man's long fascination with powered flight - from Icarus to the Space Age.

Recorded at the RAF Museum, Hendon, London

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Parry: A Hymn for Aviators

Edward Cowie: Three Spitfire Motets (world premiere)

Walton: Spitfire Prelude and Fugue (pianola solo)

Paul Crabtree: O Icarus (world premiere)

Bob Chilcott: High Flight

c 8.15pm: Interval

Petroc Trelawny hears more from Rex Lawson and his pianola, and looks at some of the extraordinary early and vintage aircraft housed in the RAF Museum.

c 8.35pm:

Kirke Mechem: Island in Space

Antheil: Airplane Sonata (pianola solo)

Eric Whitacre: Leonardo dreams of his flying-machine

Gabriel Jackson: Airplane Cantata

The Spitfires (The Royal Air Force Voluntary Choir)

Rex Lawson (pianola)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

In this concert marking the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the BBC Singers perform in the RAF Museum's Historic Hangars. The programme includes the world premieres of Three Spitfire Motets by Edward Cowie and of Paul Crabtree's new piece celebrating an Ancient Greek foray into the air. Also in the programme, Eric Whitacre's musical depiction of the flying-machine invented by Leonardo da Vinci, and Airplane Cantata - Gabriel Jackson's extraordinary musical history of the aeronautical age, in which the BBC Singers are accompanied by virtuoso pianola-player Rex Lawson.

The BBC Singers at the RAF Museum, marking the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

Bbc Singers At St Bartholomew The Great20160627BBC Singers and their Chief Conductor David Hill explore two choral masterpieces in London's oldest surviving church. Victoria's Requiem, awash with mystical tension and expressive power, is rightly known as one of the greatest examples of renaissance polyphony.

Parry's Songs of Farewell were written 100 years ago, and reflect the mood of a composer towards the end of his own life and devastated by the horrors of The First World War.

That's followed by highlights from the Hesse Lecture given last week at the Aldeburgh Festival by Julian Anderson

The composer, teacher and music programmer reflects on why there is still apparently a widespread prejudice against modern composition and offers some solutions for the future.

The BBC Singers in choral masterpieces: Victoria's Requiem and Parry's Songs of Farewell.

Bbc Singers At The Norfolk And Norwich Festival20230607The BBC Singers collaborate with saxophonist Christian Forshaw in a sequence of contemplative settings, directed by the group's principal guest conductor, Owain Park. The programme takes a journey from the origins of choral singing, with ancient chant by religious polymath Hildegard von Bingen, through to contemporary reworkings of polyphonic gems by Tallis and Mouton. To commemorate his 400th anniversary year, this programme highlights the music of William Byrd, one of the foremost composers of the Renaissance in Europe.

Recorded in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Norwich on 26th May 2023.

Presented by Andrew McGregor.

William Byrd: Ave verum corpus

Thomas Tallis, arr. Christian Forshaw: Te lucis ante terminum

William Byrd: Diliges Dominum

Jean Mouton: Tota pulchra es

Owain Park: Tota pulchra es (after Jean Mouton)

William Byrd: Magnificat from the Great Service

Christian Forshaw: Improvisation I

Judith Bingham: The Spirit of Truth

Thomas Tallis: If ye love me

William Byrd: Nunc Dimittis from the Great Service

Christian Forshaw: Improvisation II

Thomas Tallis, arr. Christian Forshaw: O nata lux

Hildegard von Bingen: Alleluia! O Virga Mediatrix

Alec Roth: Night Prayer

Roderick Williams: Ave verum corpus reimagined

Christian Forshaw - saxophone

Owain Park - conductor

The BBC Singers join saxophonist and composer Christian Forshaw in a concert from Norwich.

Bbc Singers With Abel Selaocoe20221208The BBC Singers are joined by their newly titled Artist in Association, the South African cellist Abel Selaocoe, to perform Sofia Gubaidulina's mystical Canticle of the Sun. Originally dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich who died 25 years ago this year, Canticle of the Sun is a setting of St Francis of Assisi's prayer to the natural world, calling for dazzling virtuosity from cellist and choir alike, and a masterpiece of the late 20th-century repertoire.

Followed by Rachmaninov's magnificent setting of texts from the All Night Vigil ceremony - also known as the ‘Vespers' - which draws on the chant and bells of Russian Orthodox worship to create a masterpiece of choral a cappella music, described as the ‘greatest musical achievement of the Russian Orthodox church'.

Presented by Ian Skelly, recorded at Kings Place in London.

Abel Selaocoe - cello

Alice Angliss - percussion

Beth Higham-Edwards - percussion

Sofi Jeannin - conductor

1930: Sofia Gubaidulina Canticle of the Sun

2015: Interval

2105: Rachmaninov All-Night Vigil

A night of spirituality with music by Rachmaninov and Sofia Gubaidulina.

Bbc Singers, Bach B Minor Mass20161101Fiona Talkington presents a concert recorded at Milton Court, London. Joined by a distinguished quartet of soloists and St James' Baroque, conductor Paul Brough directs the BBC Singers in one of the towering masterpieces of Western Civilisation, Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor. Finally completed in the last year of his life, the composer never heard the work in its entirety, but it stands as perhaps his greatest musical monument.

Concert recorded on 21/10/2016 at Milton Court, London.

Paul Brough conducts the BBC Singers and St James' Baroque in Bach's Mass in B minor.

Bbc Singers, Eric Whitacre, Arvo Part20170713Recorded at St Mary Magdalene Church, Taunton, as part of the town's celebration of The Brewhouse Theatre's 40th anniversary, American composer and conductor Eric Whitacre directs the BBC Singers. The first half of the programme is dedicated to Whitacre's own works for choir, including the UK premiere of 'I Fall', alongside 'Sainte-Chapelle' and 'Lux aurumque'. The second half consists of Estonian composer Arvo P䀀rt's 'Passio'.

Eric Whitacre: Sainte-Chapelle; I Fall (First UK performance); Lux aurumque

INTERVAL

Arvo P䀀rt: Passio

Helena Wood, violin

Morwenna Del Mar, cello

Lauren Sansom, oboe

Chris Rawley, bassoon

Richard Pearce, organ

Eric Whitacre, conductor.

The BBC Singers perform music by Eric Whitacre and Arvo Part.

Bbc Singers, Handel's Saul20160530The BBC Singers and St James's Baroque perform Handel's dramatic oratorio Saul, recorded in April at Milton Court in London.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Handel: Saul HWV 53

David Soar, bass

Robert Murray, tenor

Fflur Wyn, soprano

Iestyn Davies, countertenor

Elizabeth Atherton, soprano

St. James's Baroque

James O'Donnell, conductor

Composed at white-heat in the summer of 1739, and a triumphant comeback for Handel after months of poor health, Saul was the longest, largest, most powerfully theatrical English stage work to date. The story of the Israelites' quest for a king includes the tales of Goliath, the Witch of Endor, and the passionate relationship of David and Jonathan, leavened with murderous jealousy, terrible pathos and tragic greatness - all illuminated by Handel's finest music.

From Milton Court, London, Ian Skelly presents a performance of Handel's oratorio Saul.

Bbc Singers, Haydn's The Creation20161121The BBC Singers join forces with Rambert Dance Company in Haydn's The Creation

Recorded on 10th November at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London

Presented by Christopher Cook

Haydn: The Creation

Sarah Tynan, soprano

James Gilchrist, tenor

Neil Davies, bass

Rambert Orchestra

Paul Hoskins, conductor

This epic production is one of the largest in the history of Rambert: a dance about the creation of Earth.

Joseph Haydn's The Creation is his masterpiece, with its lyrical arias and monumental choruses showing off one of the greatest classical composers at the peak of his powers. Rambert's new staging marries dance with Pablo Bronstein's spectacular set to artfully complement Haydn's score.

This ambitious interpretation sees over 50 dancers join the 70 musicians for a performance on a truly grand scale, with Mark Baldwin's choreography revelling in the ambition, emotional resonance and subtle humour of a work for all the ages.

The soloists are Sarah Tynan (soprano), James Gilchrist (tenor) and Neil Davies (bass), and the Rambert Orchestra and BBC Singers are conducted by Rambert Music Director Paul Hoskins.

The BBC Singers feature in a performance of Haydn's oratorio The Creation.

Bbc Singers, Jam On The Marsh20160713As part of the John Armitage Memorial 'JAM on the Marsh' festival on Kent's Romney Marsh, Nicholas Cleobury conducts the BBC Singers in a concert of literature; from Shakespeare to Tagore and Rossetti to Manley Hopkins. 400 years after Shakespeare's death and with the Bard at its heart, this programme includes music by Vaughan Williams, Holst, Finzi and Leighton, as well as Festival Commissions by Paul Mealor and Thomas LaVoy. Dame Janet Suzman, renowned for her performances of Shakespeare, intersperses readings between the music.

Vaughan Williams: Three Shakespeare Songs

Holst: The Evening Watch (Henry Vaughan)

Finzi: All this Night (William Austin)

Paul Mealor: To Seek Where Shadows Are (Christina Rossetti) (festival commission)

Martin: Songs of Ariel, from Shakespeare's 'The Tempest

Jaako Mantyjarvi: Four Shakespeare Songs

Leighton: God's grandeur (Gerard Manley Hopkins)

Thomas LaVoy: O Great Beyond (Rabindranath Tagore) (world premiere)

Nicholas Cleobury, conductor

Dame Janet Suzman, reader

Image: Susan Pilcher.

BBC Singers perform in a concert of literary music with readings by Janet Suzman.

Bbc Singers, Jam On The Marsh20180709The BBC Singers perform one of the greatest of choral works, Rachmaninov's Vespers, first performed in 1915, as part of the JAM on the Marsh festival's commemoration of World War I. Canada-based, Swiss conductor Michael Zaugg makes his BBC Singers and JAM on the Marsh debut conducting the Rachmaninov and a world premiere, Songs from the Marshes, by Scottish composer Rory Boyle. This Festival Commission has words about the Romney Marsh, Kent and local community by the outstanding poet, Claudia Daventry.

Sergei Rachmaninov: Vespers (All-night vigil) Op.37

Rory Boyle: Songs from the Marshes (WORLD PREMIERE)

Michael Zaugg - conductor.

The BBC Singers perform the world premiere of Rory Boyle's Songs from the Marshes.

Bbc Singers, Monteverdi's Vespers20151019The BBC Singers and I Fagiolini join forces with period-instrument ensemble St James's Baroque for a performance of one of the most important pieces in the choral repertoire.

Recorded at Milton Court, London

Monteverdi: Vespers (1610)

David Hill (conductor)

Monteverdi's ground-breaking Vespers of of the Blessed Virgin Mary, compiled to impress the basilica authorities at St Mark's Venice, is an astonishing display of its composer's musical powers. Immediately acknowledged as a masterwork of the sacred choral repertoire, and including everything from intimate solos to the grandest choral and instrumental writing, the Vespers exploits every musical device known at the time to thrilling effect.

Joining the BBC Singers and St James's Baroque, virtuoso vocal ensemble I Fagiolini bring their acclaimed brand of Monteverdian excitement to a performance directed by David Hill and recorded last week at Milton Court in London.

The BBC Singers, I Fagiolini and St James's Baroque perform Monteverdi's Vespers.

Bbc Singers, Music For Epiphany20170110Swedish-born Sofi Jeannin, Music Director of the choirs of Radio France, makes her debut with the BBC Singers in a programme of music for Epiphany. Recorded in St Paul's Knightsbridge, Jeannin explores choral music predominantly from Scandinavia, including works by Jan Sandstr怀m, Hugo Alfv退n and Oskar Lindberg.

Sofi Jeannin makes her debut with the BBC Singers, conducting music for Epiphany.

Bbc Singers, Nordic Choral Music20151023Live from St Giles' Church, Cripplegate, London

Presented by Martin Handley

The BBC Singers, directed by the Norwegian conductor Grete Pedersen, are joined by organist James McVinnie for a night of Nordic music.

Knut Nystedt: Immortal Bach

Knut Nystedt: O Crux

Knut Nystedt: Variations on 'Med Jesus vil eg fara' (op 4) for organ

Edvard Grieg: Four Psalms

8.15pm: Interval music: Norwegian folk-tunes played on the hardanger fiddle, and Grete Pedersen talks to Martin Handley about the Norwegian choral scene and her work with the Norwegian Soloists' Choir.

8.35pm:

Bo Holten: Rain and Rush and Rosebush

Hilding Rosenberg: Fantasia and Fugue for organ

Alfred Janson: Sonnet 76

Cecilie Ore: Toil and Trouble (London premiere)

James McVinnie (organ)

Grete Pedersen (conductor)

Making her debut with the BBC Singers, Norwegian conductor Grete Pedersen directs a Nordic programme including sacred works by the founding father of Norwegian music, Edvard Grieg, and by a latterday composer - Knut Nystedt -, who died last year aged almost 100. In the second half of the concert, Bo Holten's choral retelling of a fairy story by Hans Christian Anderson, and the London premiere of Cecilie Ore's setting of the Witches' Scene from Shakespeare's Macbeth, alongside another Shakespeare setting by Alfred Janson. Completing the programme, James McVinnie plays two 20th-century Nordic works for organ.

The BBC Singers under Grete Pedersen and organist James McVinnie perform Nordic music.

Bbc Singers. Handel20180504Three of Handel's Coronation Anthems and his Dixit Dominus give the BBC Singers and St James' Baroque the chance to shine in much-loved music.

Handel, newly naturalised a British citizen by George I, was asked to write the coronation anthems for his successor, George II and his queen, Caroline. He gave us four magnificent choral works, three of which we hear in this concert, and one of which, Zadok the Priest, has been heard at every British coronation since 1727. Stephen Farr joins St James' Baroque for Handel's delightful 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale' organ concerto before the concert closes with Handel's thrilling Dixit Dominus, a work from his early years in Italy. Sofi Jeannin returns to London and the BBC Singers for this stirring celebration of Handel.

Presented by Sarah Walker, live from Milton Court in London's Barbican Centre.

Coronation Anthem 'Zadok the priest

Organ Concerto in F major, 'The cuckoo and the nightingale

Coronation Anthem 'My heart is inditing

Coronation Anthem 'The king shall rejoice

Dixit Dominus, HWV 232

Stephen Farr - organ

Sofi Jeannin - conductor.

BBC Singers Chief Conductor Designate Sofi Jeannin conducts choral music by Handel.

Bbc Singers: Durufle's Requiem20171120Stephen Cleobury conducts the BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra in a concert from the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, to mark the 70th anniversary of the completion of Maurice Durufl退's Requiem. The programme also features the world premiere of Thomas Simaku's 'The Scream', for 34 solo strings, alongside Parry's iconic masterpiece, the Songs of Farewell, and beloved sacred works by Durufl退.

Thomas Simaku: The Scream (world premiere)

Parry: Songs of Farewell

Durufl退': Notre P耀re, Op.14

Durufl退: Requiem, Op.9

Stephen Cleobury, conductor.

Stephen Cleobury conducts Durufle's Requiem with the BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra

Bbc Singers: Judith Weir20171024BBC Singers' Composer in Association, Judith Weir, curates a concert at St Paul's Knightsbridge pairing choral music of the 20th and 21st centuries with SS Wesley, Stainer and Mendelssohn. There is also the opportunity to hear Judith Weir's I love all beauteous things, commissioned as part of her role as Master of the Queen's Music to celebrate Her Majesty The Queen's 90th birthday.

Stephen Farr - organ

Nicholas Chalmers - conductor.

A programme of choral music curated by BBC Singers composer in association, Judith Weir.

Bbc Singers: Mozart20170221BBC Singers and their Chief Conductor, David Hill, celebrate one of the greatest of all composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with two choral works from either end of his short life. The Litaniae was composed in Salzburg when he was 20, and the Requiem, a work that seems to look far into the future, was left unfinished. Recorded in Milton Court in London, the BBC Singers are joined by St James' Baroque and soloists Lauren Fagan, Catherine Hopper, Ben Johnson and David Stout.

Mozart: The Magic Flute (Overture); Litaniae de venerabili altaris sacramento, K.243

8.10 pm Interval

8.30 pm

Mozart: Requiem in D minor, K.626

Lauren Fagan (soprano)

Catherine Hopper (mezzo)

Ben Johnson (tenor)

David Stout (baritone)

St James's Baroque

conductor David Hill.

The BBC Singers and St James's Baroque perform Mozart's Litaniae and Requiem.

Bbc Singers: This Love Between Us20221021The BBC Singers and Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin present a programme celebrating the rich heritage of Indian classical music with Soumik Datta, alongside the work of Bach.

Written for the same western orchestration as Bach's triumphant Magnificat with sitar and tabla, Reena Esmail's This Love Between Us is a piece about unity. Its seven movements juxtapose the words of seven major religious traditions of India, and specifically how each of these traditions approaches the topic of unity and kindness.

The texts come either straight from canonical religious writings or from poets who write through the lens of their religion. At the heart of the programme is the world premiere of Soumik Datta's BBC Commission, weaving Indian classical music, Bengali folk, Tagore and Partition songs with his own compositions about migration and identity.

Live from Milton Court. Presented by Ian Skelly.

1930: JS Bach: Magnificat

Soumik Datta: Awaaz (BBC commission, world premiere)

2025: Interval

2045: Reena Esmail: This love between us

Soumik Datta - sarod

Debipriya Das - sitar

Hariket Rayatt Singh - tabla

Prathap Ramachandrarao - percussion

Aref Durvef - percussion

Camilo Tirado - sound effects

Royal College of Music Baroque Orchestra

Sofi Jeannin - conductor

The BBC Singers and Sofi Jeannin perform a concert of music celebrating Indian culture.

Bbc So Sakari Oramo In Clyne, Britten And Beethoven20180321Live from Barbican Hall, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in music by Anna Clyne, Britten's Violin Concerto with soloist Vilde Frang, & Beethoven's 6th Symphony, 'Pastoral'.

Presented by Martin Handley

Anna Clyne: This Midnight Hour (2015)

Britten: Violin Concerto Op.15

8.15pm

Interval

8.35pm

Beethoven: Symphony No.6 'Pastoral' in F Op.68

Vilde Frang (violin)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

British composer Anna Clyne's 2015 orchestral work This Midnight Hour draws inspiration from the waltz and two poems, one by Juan Ram n Jim退nez, where music is described as 'a naked woman running mad through the pure night'; the other by lover of the decadent Charles Baudelaire from his Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) . Expect a magic-lantern show in music, a panorama of vivid, intoxicating nocturnal sounds.

Then Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang plays Britten's Violin Concerto, one of the profoundest of twentieth century concertos for the instrument, a work that has finally emerged from the shadows and one that Frang has made her own.

Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony No.6 concludes tonight's excursions in sound; but here it is a composer's infatuation with nature, sparked on his walks in the countryside around Vienna, that lights the score. A concert certain to display Sakari Oramo's range and superb rapport with his orchestra.

Live from the Barbican Hall, the BBC Symphony Orchestra perform Britten's Violin Concerto.

Bbc So, Janacek, Eotvos, Smetana, Szymanowski20170109From the Barbican, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Edward Gardner perform Janacek, Smetana, and E怀tv怀s. Tasmin Little joins for Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 2.

Recorded Saturday 7 Jan 2017 Barbican, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Janacek: Jealousy

Smetana: Vltava and Sarka

Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major

8.20: Interval

8.40 P退ter E怀tv怀s: The Gliding of the Eagle in the Skies

(UK premiere)

Janacek: Taras Bulba

Tasmin Little, violin

Edward Gardner, Conductor

Tonight's programme evokes the soundworld of Central Europe with works by Janကcek, Smetana, Szymanowski and a UK premiere by Peter E怀tv怀s, all conducted by Edward Gardner.

The centerpiece of the concert is Polish composer Szymanowski's joyous Second Violin Concerto with the charismatic Tasmin Little as the soloist. Janacek's powerful Jealousy and Taras Bulba suite frame two of Smetana's most popular tone-poems and the first UK performance of composer Peter E怀tv怀s's 2012 work, inspired by the stillness of an eagle in flight.

From the Barbican, the BBC SO and Edward Gardner perform Janacek, Smetana and Eotvos.

Bbc So, Martin Fr\u00f6st, Sakari Oramo In Shostakovich, Copland And Prokofiev20181017Live from the Barbican the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo in Shostakovich's Symphony No 9, Prokofiev's Symphony No 6 and, with Martin Fr怀st, Copland's Clarinet Concerto.

Presented by Martin Handley

Shostakovich: Symphony No.9 in E Flat Major, Op.70

Copland: Clarinet Concerto

08.10

INTERVAL

08.30

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 in E Flat Minor, Op. 111

Martin Fr怀st (clarinet)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Maverick clarinet virtuoso Martin Fr怀st makes a rare UK appearance as soloist in Aaron Copland's ravishingly beautiful, jazz-infused Clarinet Concerto. He joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo for a programme of 20th century greats, surrounded by two Russian symphonies. Shostakovich's startlingly buoyant Ninth Symphony couldn't be further from the sombre contemplation and mourning of Prokofiev's Sixth Symphony, a musical portrait of post-war ‘wounds that cannot be healed'.

Live from the Barbican the BBC SO conducted by Sakari Oramo in Shostakovich and Prokofiev.

Bbc So, Micha\u0142 Nesterowicz And Janina Fialkowska, The Centenary Of Polish Independence20181102Live from the Barbican the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Micha? Nesterowicz perform Elgar and Lutos?awski, Paderewski's Piano Concerto with Janina Fialkowska, and a premiere by Szyma?ski.

Presented by Martin Handley

ELGAR: Polonia

PADEREWSKI: Piano Concerto Op.17*

08.20

Interval

08.40

Pawe? SZYMA?SKI: Fourteen Points-Woodrow Wilson Overture,

(World Premiere, Adam Mickiewicz Institute commission)

LUTOS?AWSKI: Symphony No.1, Symphonia

Janina Fialkowska (Piano)*

Micha? Nesterowicz (Conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra marks the centenary of Polish independence with a concert celebrating the nation's rich musical legacy.

Conductor Michal Nesterowicz is joined by Polish-Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska, who will bring her interpretative skills to the Piano Concerto by Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Poland's former Prime Minister and passionate campaigner for Polish Independence.

At the heart of a concert, which also includes Elgar's characterful symphonic prelude Polonia (dedicated to Paderewski) and Lutoslawski's eloquent First Symphony, is a newly commissioned work by Pawel Szyma?ski: inspired by Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points - the American President's famous principles for post-war peace and the foundation of the modern state of Poland.

The BBC SO conducted by Micha Nesterowicz in Elgar and Lutoslawski, live from the Barbican

Bbc So, Paul Watkins, Sir Andrew Davis In Finzi And Shostakovich20180202Live from the Barbican, the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis performs Finzi's Cello Concerto with soloist Paul Watkins and Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Finzi: Cello Concerto, Op 40

8.05: INTERVAL

Kenneth Leighton: Winter Scenes (1953)

Margaret Fingerhut (piano)

8.25

Shostakovich: Symphony No 10 in E minor, Op 93

Paul Watkins (cello)

Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

Two very different works composed within two years of each other. Gerald Finzi's glorious Cello Concerto, written in 1955 at the request of conductor and cellist John Barbirolli, bursts with turbulent rapture, elegiac strains and melody. It was first broadcast the night before Finzi's death and written with death a constant presence, yet the work has a powerful sense of defiance about it. John Barbirolli wrote to Finzi, 'I felt tears in my eyes in the slow movement; there are only a few moments in music that do that to me'. Paul Watkins, former principal cellist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, is the soloist.

Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony (1953), hailed by many as his symphonic masterpiece, is a veiled portrait of Stalin. Its intensity never fails to make an impression.

Sir Andrew Davis, who headed the BBC SO from 1989 to 2000 makes a welcome return to the orchestra.

Live from the Barbican the BBC Symphony Orchestra play Finzi and Shostakovich.

Bbc Sso, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis20160310Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is the supreme spiritual vision of one of the greatest creative artists who ever lived: an intimate self-portrait of a human soul, profoundly beautiful and almost unbearably moving. Beethoven's complex attitude to God is far from straightforward, and for the Missa Solemnis he immersed himself in an intensive study of religious music of the past, from monastic chants to Handel's Messiah and Mozart's Requiem, and the result is some of the most stirring, audacious and touchingly humane religious music ever written. Completed in 1823 after four years' work, he inscribed it 'From the heart - let it go to the heart' perhaps as a personal message to its dedicatee, or perhaps as a message to greater humanity.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their Chief Conductor Donald Runnicles are joined by four international soloists and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus.

Presented by Jamie MacDougall, live from the City Halls in Glasgow.

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

(no interval)

Kim-Lillian Strebel (soprano)

Stephanie Lauricella (mezzo-soprano)

John Daszak (tenor)

Nathan Berg (bass-baritone)

Edinburgh Festival Chorus (chorus master Christopher Bell)

Donald Runnicles (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

BBC SSO, soloists and chief conductor Donald Runnicles perform Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.

Bbc Sso, Blacher, Haydn And Brahms20170417Christoph K怀nig and the BBC SSO perform Brahms's Symphony No 1, and are joined by Johannes Moser in Haydn's Cello Concerto No 1. Plus a rare chance to hear music by Boris Blacher.

Presented by Kate Molleson and recorded at City Halls, Glasgow.

Blacher: Concertante Musik

Haydn: Cello Concerto No 1 in C

8.15 Interval

8.35

Brahms: Symphony No 1 in C minor

Johannes Moser (cello)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Christoph K怀nig (conductor)

German music from Glasgow's City Halls: the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra are conducted by Dresden-born Christoph K怀nig. The glorious spectre of Beethoven energizes Brahms's First Symphony, a work whose triumphant conclusion sweeps away any dark clouds. Haydn's much loved Cello Concerto dwells in sunny C major. Johannes Moser is the soloist in this evening's performance.

And before these familiar German works, music by a 20th-century composer whose work is less well known in the UK, Boris Blacher - an interesting figure from the Chinese borders of Russia who migrated to Berlin and fell foul of the century's political upheavals. But in his Concertante Musik we can hear an unusual and compelling musical imagination at work: encompassing elements of folk music; brisk rhythmic and harmonic invention; and with a haunting, ethereal slow movement at its centre.

Christoph Konig conducts the BBC SSO in music by Blacher, Haydn and Brahms.

Bbc Sso, Brahms, Beethoven20160512Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Live from the Grand Hall, City Halls, Glasgow.

Denis Kozhukhin plays Brahms's Piano Concerto No 1 with the BBC SSO.

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor

8.10: Interval. In anticipation of this weekend's BBC Young Musician Final, a chance to hear a recording by former winner Nicola Benedetti.

8.30

Beethoven: Symphony No 7 in A major

Denis Kozhukhin, piano

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Thomas Dausgaard, conductor

The torrent roars, and the full orchestra hurls down a furious challenge. The opening of Brahms's youthful First Piano Concerto is a long way from the image of the gruff old genius in baggy trousers and beard. But for pianist Denis Kozhukhin - so electrifying in Russian repertoire - it's the starting point of an entirely new musical chapter, and an overwhelming way to launch his Brahms concerto cycle. Thomas Dausgaard conducts: The Scotsman found 'something elemental' in his performance when he conducted the BBC SSO on Orkney last summer. His freshness and energy will make Beethoven's headlong Seventh Symphony both a bracing contrast and a perfect counterpart to Brahms's volcanic concerto.

BBC SSO with Denis Kozhukhin in Brahms: Piano Concerto No 1. Plus Beethoven: Symphony No 7

Bbc Sso, Brahms, Mahler20160523Donald Runnicles and the BBC SSO perform Mahler's First Symphony and are joined by Denis Kozhukin for Brahms's Second Piano Concerto.

Recorded at City Halls Glasgow and presented by Jamie MacDougall

Brahms: Piano Concerto No 2 in B flat

8.20 Interval

8.40

Mahler: Symphony No 1

Denis Kozhukin (piano)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Donald Runnicles (conductor)

There's never been a first symphony to match Mahler's, and from the glistening stillness of its visionary opening to its final, epic ascent from the inferno to paradise. It's a suitably joyous ending to the orchestra's 80th anniversary season - and to a concert that begins with the poetry and warmth of Brahms's expansive Second Piano Concerto: a Romantic master at his big-hearted best, and a glowing conclusion to Denis Kozhukhin's BBC SSO Brahms cycle.

The BBC SSO performs Brahms's Piano Concerto No 2 and Mahler's Symphony No 1.

Bbc Sso, Butterworth, Walton, Coles, Elgar20151119Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Martyn Brabbins and the BBC SSO explore music associated with WW1 including Elgar's Enigma Variations and Walton's Cello Concerto with soloist Nicolas Altstaedt.

Butterworth (completed Russman): Orchestral Fantasia

Walton: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra

8.15 Interval

8.35

Coles (orch Brabbins): Behind the Lines; Sorrowful Dance

Elgar: Enigma Variations

Nicolas Altstaedt (cello)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra welcomes back Martyn Brabbins to its home at City Halls for a concert dedicated to exploring British memories and experiences of World War 1. The concert includes 2 of the most enduring and popular English works: Elgar's Enigma Variations and Walton's Cello Concerto, for which the orchestra is joined by Nicolas Altstaedt.

These are performed alongside several more recent discoveries from composers whose creative endeavours were tragically cut short by the events of The Great War: George Butterworth and Cecil Coles. Butterworth is best known for his song-settings of A E Housman's 'A Shropshire Lad', and his Orchestral Fantasia was left unfinished at the time of his death. This evening's opening work has been reconstructed and expanded, from an initial sketch, by composer Kriss Russman. And Cecil Coles -who died near the Somme in 1918- left behind shrapnel-indented manuscripts which have been orchestrated by Martyn Brabbins, and make a poignant tribute to such lost talent.

Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC SSO in music by Butterworth, Walton, Coles and Elgar.

Bbc Sso, Glazunov, Mahler20150929The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Donald Runnicles, play Glazunov and Mahler's Tenth Symphony.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Glazunov: Violin Concerto in A minor, Op 82

8.00: INTERVAL

8.20

Mahler: Symphony No. 10 in F sharp minor

(performing version by Deryck Cooke)

James Ehnes, violin

Donald Runnicles, conductor

It was the artistic equivalent of the raising of the Titanic. When musicologist Deryck Cooke completed Mahler's unfinished final symphony, he uncovered a lost masterpiece filled with puzzles and allusions; a work where cries of love and cries of pain finally resolve in music of shattering honesty and heart-breaking beauty. This is music that explores the great questions of life; and as Donald Runnicles guides us to the heart of Mahler's final musical testament, there's no more powerful way to open our new season. The songful violin concerto by 'Russian Mendelssohn' Alexander Glazunov forms the brightest of contrasts, and with the glorious tone of James Ehnes, it'll sparkle like new.

Donald Runnicles conducts the BBC SSO. Glazunov: Violin Concerto. Mahler: Symphony No 10.

Bbc Sso, Glinka, Shostakovich, Mussorgsky20160212Vassily Sinaisky and the BBC SSO perform Mussorgsky's Pictures from an Exhibition and are joined by Boris Brovtsyn for Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No 1.

Live from the Music Hall, Aberdeen.

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Glinka: Valse-fantasie

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No 1

8.15 Interval

8.35

Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures from an Exhibition

An all Russian concert live from the historic Music Hall, in Aberdeen. Vassily Sinaisky, one of Russian music's most renowned interpreters, joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a concert which opens with Glinka's balletic Valse-fantasie: his short piano piece which went on, in orchestral form, to inspire choreography by George Balanchine.

The virtuoso Russian violinist Boris Brovtsyn is the soloist in Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No 1, that composer's 1948 work which became a victim of Soviet censorship. A wide-ranging musical narrative: from its mysterious 'Nocturne' opening, to its boisterous finale.

And the concert concludes with a piece by another unorthodox Russian, Modest Mussorgsky. His 'Pictures from an Exhibition' began life as a piano work, and went on to be better known in these seductively colourful orchestrations by Ravel. First written in 1874 the boldly original musical movements - echoing, at times, Russian folk melodies - depict the works of Russian painter Viktor Hartmann, including the 'Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks in their Shells' and the famous 'Great Gate of Kiev.

Followed by a glimpse into Adopt a Composer - Making Music's scheme pairing composers with performing groups from around the country.

Tonight, the Strathaven Choral Society works on Mark Carroll's Shame, Shame, he Dies for his Country.

Vassily Sinaisky conducts the BBC SSO in music by Glinka, Shostakovich and Ravel.

Bbc Sso, Pintscher, Mozart, Mahler20151203In its 80th birthday concert the BBC SSO and Matthias Pintscher perform Pintscher, Mozart and Mahler

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Ian Skelly

Matthias Pintscher: Idyll (UK Premiere)

Mozart: Oboe Concerto

8.20

Music Interval

8.40

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Francois Leleux (oboe)

Anna Larsson (contralto)

Andrew Staples (tenor)

Matthias Pintscher (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra marks its 80th birthday with three different views of, and about, life.

Matthias Pintscher brings a composer's empathy and conducts the UK premiere of his own beautiful Idyll: a musical journey towards the light, written in memory of a friend.

Mozart's Oboe Concerto spreads the joy of youth and life-affirming sunshine and is performed by one of the greats of the oboe.

Often considered Mahler's last symphony, his 'Song of the Earth' was written in 1909 just a little after he was forced to resign from the Vienna Court Opera. His eldest daughter had died and he himself was diagnosed with a heart defect - 'With one stroke I have lost everything'. His vision of earthly beauty and transience was completed just two years before his own death.

The BBC SSO's 80th birthday concert, with music by Pintscher, Mozart and Mahler.

Bbc Sso, Strauss, Unsuk Chin, Schumann20151105Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

The BBC SSO and Markus Stenz perform Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel and Schumann's Symphony No 2, and are joined by Wu Wei for Unsuk Chin's Sheng concerto, Su.

Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op 28

Unsuk Chin: Su

8.20 Music Interval

Jonathan Cross joins Jamie to discuss the music of Unsuk Chin

8.40

Schumann: Symphony No 2, Op 61

Wu Wei (sheng)

Markus Stenz (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

A concert of merry pranks; an uplifting symphony; and a yearning concerto for a 3000 year old Chinese instrument.

Strauss's tone poem Till Eulenspiegel depicts the exploits of the boisterous titular folk hero in music of incredible verve and invention, and Schumann's Symphony No 2 is a melodic and ultimately joyous work which stands as one of the most enduring symphonies of the 19th century.

And the orchestra and Markus Stenz are joined by Sheng virtuoso Wu Wei to perform a boundary breaking concerto by Unsuk Chin. Her piece, Su -an Egyptian symbol representing air- is a haunting work which combines Chin's formal invention with the melodious sound of the 3000 year-old Chinese mouth organ to create a unique sonic experience.

Markus Stenz conducts the BBC SSO in music by Strauss, Unsuk Chin and Schumann.

Bbc Sso, Tom Harrold, Unsuk Chin, Tchaikovsky20160407Live from the City Halls in Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

The BBC SSO and Ilan Volkov play a world premiere by Tom Harrold, Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony.

Tom Harrold: Night Fires (BBC Commission, World Premiere)

Unsuk Chin: Violin Concerto

8.15: Interval: BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the fourth of the category finalists in this year's keyboard competition.

Pianist Julian Trevelyan plays music by Chopin, Ravel, Schumann and Kapustin.

8.35

Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony

Viviane Hagner (violin)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Ilan Volkov, conductor

A journey of Discovery by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's Principal Guest conductor, Ilan Volkov.

A BBC commission and world premiere from young Scottish composer Tom Harrold starts the concert, showing his own interpretation of the dark, brooding, ominous imagery conjured in his mind by Nightfires.

Well known for his interpretations of Unsuk Chin's music, Ilan Volkov takes us on takes an enchanted journey through different periods in musical history with her classically structured violin concerto. The extremely demanding solo part is tonight played by the person it was written for in 2002 - Viviane Hagner.

After the Interval, Tchaikovsky's rarely performed, programmatic Manfred Symphony. Written in 1885 and based on Lord Byron's Poem Manfred. Containing some of the rawest, most personal and most passionate music he ever wrote, it tells us of the outcast Manfred's battle with his demons.

c.9.15 - IT'S ALL ABOUT PIANO!

Just before Easter the French Institute in London held its fourth annual festival entitled It's All About Piano! As well as established pianists from around the world the festival aims to give a platform to the pianists of tomorrow and tonight there's a chance to hear highlights from a concert called Young Hands which brought together four students of the piano from the Paris Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music in London.

This evening we will hear music played by the 26-year-old Julien Blanc from the Paris Conservatoire who played Cesar Franck's Prelude, Choral et Fugue, Faure's Barcarolle No.3 Op.42 and Murail's Cloches d'adieu, et un sourire in the concert.

Ilan Volkov conducts the BBC SSO in music by Tom Harrold, Unsuk Chin and Tchaikovsky.

Bbc Symphony Barbican Season 2015-16: Mozart, Schoenberg, Strauss20151021Live from the Barbican. The BBC Symphony Orchestra with Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo in music from Vienna by Mozart, Schoenberg & Richard Strauss - his Rosenkavalier Suite No 1.

Presented by Martin Handley

Mozart: Serenade in B flat major, K366, 'Gran Partita

8.25 Interval music chosen by Sakari Oramo including Schoenberg's 5 Piano Pieces, Op 23 and Mozart's Masonic Funeral Music.

8.45

Schoenberg: Verkl䀀rte Nacht

Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier - Suite No. 1

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Revel in the virtuosity of the BBC Symphony Orchestra soloists in this sumptuous Viennese programme.

Opening with Mozart's most sublime wind serenade, the Gran Partita, and ending with the wistful sophistication of Strauss's first suite from Der Rosenkavalier, the heart of the evening belongs to the strings for a performance of Schoenberg's Verkl䀀rte Nacht. In his setting of Dehmel's passionate love story, Schoenberg's saturated, chromatic harmonies reached an expressive, even operatic, intensity.

Live from the Barbican, the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo in Viennese music.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra20171103The doyenne of French composers, Betsy Jolas, brings one of her latest works to London, presented alongside music by Lili Boulanger and Gustav Mahler.

Live from the Barbican.

Presenter: Ian Skelly

Boulanger: D'un matin de printemps; D'un soir triste

Betsy Jolas: Histoires vraies (UK premiere)

2015 INTERVAL

2035 Mahler: Symphony No. 4

H倀kan Hardenberger (trumpet)

Roger Muraro (piano)

Susanna Hurrell (soprano)

John Storg倀rds (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is conducted by John Storg倀rds in Mahler's sunny Fourth Symphony and works by French composers Lili Boulanger and Betsy Jolas - her double concerto, featuring trumpeter H倀kan Hardenberger and pianist Roger Muraro.

Betsy Jolas, born in 1926 and therefore a contemporary of Pierre Boulez, is one of French music's greats and this concert features her work for piano, trumpet and orchestra, Histoires vraies from 2015, written for the Festival Printemps des Arts in Monte-Carlo. The piece's 'stories' aim to work with the 'sounds we try not to hear' and also bring together two players whose musical paths rarely cross: H倀kan Hardenberger and Roger Muraro, one of France's finest modernist pianists, who makes a rare UK appearance. Lili Boulanger, who died aged 24, gives us her atmospheric orchestral diptych juxtaposing morning and evening and Gustav Mahler's folk-infused Fourth Symphony literally bursts into song to close the programme.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is conducted by John Storgards in Mahler's sunny 4th Symphony.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra20220211The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Semyon Bychkov performs Bryce Dessner's Mari, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, and Kirill Gerstein is the piano soloist in Strauss's Burleske.

In 1922, the?BBC?made its first broadcast. As we celebrate a?century?of? informing, educating and entertaining,?we look back on what the world was listening to 100 years ago, and to the future as the BBC SO (founded in 1930) continues to shape the sounds of the now.

It was in 1922 that Maurice Ravel turned to Modest Mussorgsky's monumental piano work?Pictures at an Exhibition, reimagining the piece in orchestral clothing and bolstering its shattering climax in the process.?Semyon Bychkov presides over this performance of the resulting?masterpiece, after the UK premiere of a 2021 work by?American composer Bryce Dessner?(who is also a member or rock band The National),?commissioned?by Bychkov himself.? Pianist Kirill Gerstein, a long-time musical partner of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov, takes on the hyper-virtuosic demands of Richard Strauss's Burlesque, a piano concerto homage to Brahms.

During the interval we'll hear recent recordings from the BBC Symphony Chorus - founded by the BBC in 1928 as The National Chorus. Amy Bryce's So All Voices Can Fly was specially commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to celebrate BBC 100. And Cecilia McDowall's Shipping Forecast pays tribute to BBC Radio 4's daily broadcasts of the Met Office's weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles - on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Live from the Barbican Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Bryce Dessner: Mari (UK Premiere)

Richard Strauss: Burleske in D Minor

20.20 Interval

Amy Bryce: So All Voices Can Fly

Cecilia McDowall: Shipping Forecast

Philip Cobb (trumpet)

Richard Pearce (organ and piano)

Neil Ferris (Chorus Director)

20.45

Pictures at an Exhibition (orch Maurice Ravel)

Kirill Gerstein (piano)

Semyon Bychkov (conductor)

Semyon Bychkov conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Dessner, Strauss and Mussorgsky.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Andrew Davis In Elgar, Yiu And Elkington20180413Live from the Barbican, the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Two works by Elgar, & baritone Roderick Williams joins for a song cycle by Raymond Yiu.

Presented by Martin Handley

Elgar: The Starlight Express (selections)*

Raymond Yiu: The World was Once All Miracle (London Premiere)+

20.15 Interval

20.35

Lilian Elkington: Out of the Mist

Elgar: The Spirit of England Op.80

Emma Tring (soprano)*

Roderick Williams (baritone)*

Andrew Staples (tenor) +

BBC Symphony Chorus +

Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

The First World War looms large over tonight's concert with two Elgar works of the time performed by famed Elgarians the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with conductor Sir Andrew Davis.

When Elgar was asked early in the War to write music for a Homefront theatre adaptation of Algernon Blackwood's curious escapist novel A Prisoner in Fairyland he delivered a work of never-never land enchantment - The Starlight Express. Baritone Roderick Williams and soprano Emma Tring join the BBC SO.

Baritone Roderick Williams's second appearance tonight is for The World Was Once All Miracle by the composer Raymond Yiu. Premiered last year to great acclaim, the work sets texts by a hero of Yiu's, the writer and sometime composer Anthony Burgess - who was born in 1917.

Lilian Elkington's Out of the Mist (1921) is a recently discovered war treasure. It paints a picture of Dover on 10th November 1920 as HMS Verdun, with a flotilla of battleships, appears through the Channel fog bringing the body of the Unknown Warrior on its way to final rest in Westminster Abbey.

Elgar's noble choral masterpiece The Spirit of England memorialises the fallen setting texts by Laurence Binyon , including the lines 'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old'. Andrew Staples is the tenor soloist.

Live from the Barbican, the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus with Sir Andrew Davis in Elgar

Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Bbc Singers20180501BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and soloists, conducted by Gergely Madaras, in music that honours those who care for the war-injured. Works by Ravel, John Adams and Ross Harris.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall on Saturday 28 April.

Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin

John Adams: The Wound-Dresser#

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

INTERVAL MUSIC

Ross Harris: Face - Symphonic Songs and Choruses UK Premiere*

Marie Arnet (soprano)*

James Way (tenor)*

Marcus Farnsworth (baritone)*#

BBC Singers*

Gergely Madaras (conductor)

Ralph Vaughan Williams, like Maurice Ravel, was too old to serve in the First World War but he volunteered as a stretcher bearer while the Frenchman drove munitions lorries behind the lines, putting himself in extreme danger. Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin remembers friends killed in the First World War.

John Adams's 'The Wound Dresser', for baritone and orchestra, sets words by Walt Whitman, who tended the battle-wounded in the American Civil War, while Ross Harris's 'Face' celebrates the work of fellow New Zealander, the plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who pioneered facial reconstruction during the First World War in London, and contributed to the rehabilitation of thousands of servicemen. Face, with a libretto by Vincent O'Sullivan, is scored for solo and choral voices with orchestra.

BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers in music by Ravel, John Adams and Ross Harris.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Chorus At The Barbican20160126Sir Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Berlioz's large-scale setting of Shakespeare's tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. Recorded at the Barbican.

Presented by Martin Handley

Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet

Mich耀le Losier (mezzo-soprano)

Samuel Boden (tenor)

David Soar (bass)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

Conductor Laureate Sir Andrew Davis takes on Berlioz's retelling of Shakespeare's indelible tragedy with soloists, chorus and orchestra. Made possible by a gift of 20,000 francs from the violinist Nicol  Paganini, Berlioz's epic Romeo and Juliet turned out to be one of his enduring masterpieces, and he came to view the Love Scene as one of his favourite compositions. He warned, though, that this choral symphony was hugely demanding, and required 'long, patient rehearsal, impeccably directed', just what you can expect from Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Sir Andrew Davis in Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet

Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Chorus, Dvorak's Requiem2017041220170413 (R3)Live from the Barbican. Ji?퀀 B?lohlကvek conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with a stunning line up of vocal soloists, in Dvo?ကk's Requiem Op.89.

Presented by Martin Handley

Anton퀀n Dvo?ကk: Requiem Op.89 - Part 1

8.20pm

Interval

8.50pm

Anton퀀n Dvo?ကk: Requiem Op.89 - Part 2

Kate?ina Kn?ž퀀kovက (soprano)

Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo-soprano)

Richard Samek (tenor)

James Platt (bass)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Ji?퀀 B?lohlကvek (conductor)

Ji?퀀 B?lohlကvek, magnificent interpreter of music from his native Czech Republic, directs Dvo?ကk's epic and rarely-heard Requiem.

Tonight the highly acclaimed BBC Symphony Chorus is placed centre-stage in a work that was first heard in Birmingham in 1891 and is scored for quartet of vocal soloists, large orchestra - including bells - and organ. Feted in England at the time, Dvo?ကk had considered setting Cardinal Newman's Dream of Gerontius text but in the end turned to the words of the Requiem Mass. Though the work was not a response to a personal loss it contains some of Dvo?ကk's most powerful as well as most tender music, and is notable for a striking five-note musical theme that weaves its way throughout.

Live from the Barbican, London, Martin Handley presents a performance of Dvorak's Requiem.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Chorus, Mahler20150924Live from the Barbican Hall, London.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus open their 2015-16 Barbican season with Mahler's vast Symphony No. 3, conducted by Sakari Oramo. Plus Mezzo Karen Cargill and Trinity Boys Choir.

Presented by Martin Handley

Mahler: Symphony No 3

Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano)

BBC Symphony Chorus Women's Voices

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

In Mahler's own words, this epic, unorthodox six-movement masterpiece is a 'gigantic musical poem... It begins at the heart of inanimate nature and progresses to the love of God.' Pagan gods and Christian saints, flower meadows and silent forests, song and symphony are inextricably mixed. Internationally renowned mezzo Karen Cargill performs the magical 'midnight song', and the Trinity Boys Choir sing the angels' celestial chorus with the women of the BBC Symphony Chorus.

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Mahler's Symphony No 3.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Chorus, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky20161028Semyon Bychkov concludes the 'Beloved Friend' Tchaikovsky project with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the great Symphony No. 6 'Path退tique'. In part one of the concert they are joined by the BBC Symphony Chorus and superb soloists in Tchaikovsky disciple Rachmaninov's The Bells, a colourful choral symphony to texts by Edgar Allan Poe.

All my life I have taken pleasure in the differing moods and music of gladly chiming and mournfully tolling bells', declared Rachmaninov. As he wrote The Bells he combined this obsession with his love of church chant, and his admiration for Tchaikovsky - he even booked rooms in Rome in the very same apartment that Tchaikovsky had taken thirty years before him.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Rachmaninov: The Bells, Op.35

8.15 Interval

8.35

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 in B minor, Op. 74, (Path退tique)

Emily Magee (soprano)

Vsevolod Grivnov (tenor)

Anatoli Sivko (bass)

Semyon Bychkov (conductor).

Live from the Barbican, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Oliver Knussen At The Aldeburgh Festival20160617The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen live from Snape Maltings Concert Hall during the Aldeburgh Festival. With world premieres of works by Charlotte Bray and Gary Carpenter, plus works by Bach, Berg, Butterworth and Elliott Carter.

Presented by Christopher Cook

Bach (orch. Elgar): Fantasia and Fugue in C minor (BWV.537)

Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad

Gary Carpenter: Willie Stock (world premiere)

c. 8.20pm

Interval: Suffolk-inspired folksong with works by Moeran, Elizabeth Poston and Thomas Vautor, plus folk music from the singing pubs along Aldeburgh's coastline, and fiddle player Harkie Nesling.

c. 8.40pm

Carter: Sound Fields

Charlotte Bray: Stone Dancer (world premiere)

Berg: Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6

Oliver Knussen (conductor)

It's almost impossible to listen to Butterworth and Berg without our knowledge of things to come. Is the Englishman's dreamily alluring orchestral rhapsody of 1912 an eerie foreboding of his own death in World War I? Is the shrill, titanic tussle of of the march which concludes Berg's Three pieces for Orchestra, written 1913-15, a premonition of the impending cataclysm? There are other influences - the poignancy of A.E. Housman's elegiac poems, the unmistakable imprint of Mahler on Berg's giant canvas. And the imaginative use of the orchestra - as shared by Elgar orchestrating Bach, Charlotte Bray, and Gary Carpenter.

BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen live from 2016 the Aldeburgh Festival.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra At 9020201006The BBC Symphony Orchestra celebrates its 90th anniversary on 22nd October 2020. In anticipation of this, enjoy a sequence of highlights from the orchestra's Barbican Hall concerts of the last two decades. Conductors include Sakari Oramo, Dalia Stasevska, Sir Andrew Davis and John Adams with works from the 20th and 21st centuries, including UK premieres.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Knussen: Flourish with Fireworks

Oliver Knussen (conductor)

John Adams: Tromba Lontana

John Adams (conductor)

Vaughan Williams: Toward the Unknown Region

BBC Symphony Chorus

Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

Ligeti: San Francisco Polyphony

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Sibelius: Luonnotar

Anu Komsi (soprano)

Anna Clyne: The Seamstress (Violin Concerto)

Jennifer Koh (violin)

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms

BBC Singers

Dalia Stasevska (conductor)

Augusta Read Thomas: Radiant Circles

Joana Carneiro (conductor)

Martinu: Fantaisies symphoniques (Symphony No 6)

Ji?퀀 B?lohlကvek (conductor)

Highlights from Barbican Hall concerts of the last two decades.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra At Maida Vale20201110The BBC Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Nicholas Collon in ballet music by Mozart from his opera Idomeneo, and two choreographed works by Stravinsky: the Suite from his one-act ballet Pulcinella, based on early 18th-century commedia dell'arte sources and music, plus the Basle Concerto in D for strings. There's also Hannah Kendall's Kanashibari - the Japanese term for sleep paralysis, 'an incredibly fascinating phenomenon when one temporarily experiences an inability to move when either falling asleep or awaking.' writes the composer. 'This happens when the sleep cycles become out-of-sync with each other and the brain essentially awakes before the body. It is often associated with very real-like visions and hallucinations, such as an intruder in the room or clothes on the floor coming to life, to which one is unable to react due to paralysis.....Sleep paralysis most certainly is not a restful experience, usually occurring during periods of intense stress.

Presented by Georgia Mann.

Recorded in Maida Vale Studio 1 on 7 October 2020.

MOZART: Ballet Music from Idomeneo KV367 - Chaconne & Pas seul

STRAVINSKY: Basle Concerto in D

Interval:

John TAVENER

Butterfly Dreams

Polpyhony

Stephen Layton (conductor)

John TAVENER The Peace that surpasseth understanding

Westminster Abbey Choir

Robert Quinney (organ)

James O'Donnell (conductor)

Part 2

KENDALL Hannah: Kanashibari

STRAVINSKY: Pulcinella Suite

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

Followed by music off disc

Dvorak: Piano Trio No 3 in F minor, Op 65

Christian Tetzlaff - violin

Tanja Tetzlaff - cello

Lars Vogt - piano

Music by Mozart, Stravinsky and Hannah Kendall, conducted by Nicholas Collon.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra At Maida Vale20201124The BBC Symphony Orchestra's recent music-making at its home at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in London may be scaled down in terms of numbers of players in the room, but not in terms of ambition. There are three pieces by living composers to enjoy this evening, starting with Anna Clyne's 'Sound and Fury' in which influences from Haydn's Symphony No. 60 and the final speech of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' appear. Gavin Higgins turns to words by Oscar Wilde in a short elegiac work for brass and percussion 'Sadly now the throstle sings' - adapted from his pioneering ballet score for brass band, 'Dark Arteries'. Finn Magnus Lindberg's brass band showcase 'Ottoni' gets a high octane performance from the BBC SO's brass. And the connections of literature and dance are summed up in the fairy-tale charm and exceptional orchestral colours of Ravel's ballet 'Mother Goose'.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Recorded at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in October 2020

Anna CLYNE Sound and Fury

Gavin HIGGINS: Sadly now the throstle sings

Magnus LINDBERG: Ottoni

INTERVAL

Philippe Hersant: Poemes chinois for Choir and Piano

Corinne Durous (piano), Choeur Les Elements, Jo뀀l Suhubiette (conductor)

RAVEL: Ma mere l'oye (ballet)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

Followed by music off disc:

Johannes Brahms: Sonata for viola and piano in E flat major, Op.120 No.2

Yuri Bashmet, viola

Mikhail Muntian, piano

Music inspired by literature. Ryan Bancroft conducts Anna Clyne, Gavin Higgins and Ravel.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra At The Barbican20201130The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo return to the Barbican Concert Hall - after an eight-month absence - with music of power and passion. Anna Clyne's elegy to her mother, Within her Arms, for string orchestra, is a journey through loss and desolation to solace and peace. Haydn's Symphony No. 49 'The Passion' is dark and theatrical. Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg has the last word in his powerful statement against totalitarianism - Accused, with the extraordinary soprano Anu Komsi joining the orchestra. This dramatic work presents transcripts from three interrogations: that of a victim of the French Revolution; the transcript of a Stasi interrogation in East Germany during the 1960s; and one from the recent Chelsea Manning Wikileaks trial.

Recorded at the Barbican on November 6th 2020

Presented by Martin Handley

Anna Clyne: Within her Arms

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No.49 (La Passione)

Interval

Aaron Copland : Violin Sonata

Gil Shaham (violin)

Andr退 Previn (piano)

Part 2

Magnus Lindberg: Accused

Anu Komsi (soprano)

Sakari Oramo (Conductor)

Followed by music off disc

Mozart

Concerto for piano and orchestra no.20 (K.466) in D minor

Mitsuko Uchida (piano)

Cleveland Orchestra

Sakari Oramo conducts music of power and passion by Anna Clyne, Haydn and Magnus Lindberg.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra In Mahler's Symphony No 120191213Gustav Mahler poured his own life experience into his symphonies beginning with the First. In this work for huge orchestra, we feel both the wonder of nature and the pain of anguish. Still, Mahler uses simple, popular tunes and folksy rhythms to drive his symphony from horror to hope, and eventually to blazing triumph.

Judith Weir's new Oboe Concerto, performed by Nicholas Daniel, has an autobiographical feel to it, for the Master of the Queens music began her musical life playing this expressive double-reed instrument. And to begin, Brett Dean's remarkable orchestral depiction of ancient amphitheatres. The BBC Symphony Orchestra welcomes back the Hungarian conductor Gergely Madaras.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Brett Dean: Amphitheatre

Judith Weir: Oboe Concerto (London premiere)

8pm

Interval:

Mozart Oboe Quartet, K 370 in F: Nicholas Daniel (oboe) with the Britten Quartet

Judith Weir: Drop Down, Ye Heavens, from Above

Ora Singers

Suzi Digby (conductor)

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No 1 in D major

Gergely Madaras (conductor)

Gergely Madaras conducts the BBC SO: Mahler, Brett Dean and Judith Weir's Oboe Concerto.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra Spain Tour 2023, Oviedo20230609The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo in Oviedo perform Britten, Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra and Beethoven's sunny Violin Concerto with soloist Inmo Yang.

There is so much great about Inmo's playing, both musically and violinistically. There is never anything extra involved in changing the spring, which produces singing and ease`, Sakari Oramo's verdict on tonight's soloist in the Beethoven Violin Concerto, Inmo Yang, recent winner of the 2022 Sibelius Violin Competition.

Inmo's performance with the BBC SO precedes the orchestra's interpretation of Bartok's celebrated Concerto for Orchestra, written by an almost unknown exile in America near the end of the composer's life - a masterpiece of orchestral textures, mood twists and instrumental virtuosity. And to begin Britten's Four Sea Interludes will conjure storms. calm waters, and the glitter of waves,

Recorded at the Palacio de Congresos Principe Felipe, Oviedo on 22nd April 2023.

Presented by Penny Gore.

Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D

20.30

Interval

20.50

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

Inmo Yang (violin)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Britten, Beethoven and Bartok.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra Spain Tour 2023: Zaragoza Concert20230706Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Rachmaninov's dazzling Piano Concerto No 3 with soloist Boris Giltburg, Foulds's April and Sibelius's Symphony No 5.

Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, much-praised interpreters of Sibelius's Symphonic works, in the Fifth Symphony, a score which inexorably drags you forward to its final chords. Before this, they team up for Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto with soloist Boris Giltburg, of whose relationship with Rachmaninov Gramophone magazine wrote: `His originality stems from a convergence of heart and mind, served by immaculate technique and motivated by a deep and abiding love for one of the 20th century's greatest composer-pianists.` Plus April - England from that quirky and experimental early 20th-century British composer John Foulds. All this in the exceptional acoustics of Zaragoza's Palacio de Congresos Concert Hall.

Recorded at the Palacio de Congresos de Zaragoza on 19th April 2023

Presented by Penny Gore

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30

20.10 Interval

20.30

Foulds: April - England

Sibelius: Symphony No.5 in E flat, Op.82

Boris Giltburg (piano)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC SO, on tour in Spain, in Rachmaninov, Foulds and Sibelius.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra With Dav\u00f3ne Tines20211007Live from the Barbican Hall, London.

2020 may prove pivotal in our collective journey towards racial justice. But in his ‘devised work' Concerto No.1: SERMON, Dav ne Tines warns against complacency. The American bass-baritone weaves readings of texts by African American writers James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and jessica Care moore around arias by John Adams, Anthony Davis and by Tines and Igee Dieudonn退. A post-2020 wake-up-call about discovering your potential, exhibiting your humanity and indicting your naysayers. The work contains racist language in reflecting its themes of inequality and injustice.

And there's more music that reflects the shared human experience. Started just months after the composer first docked in America, Dvo?ak's much-loved ‘New World' Symphony was composed ‘in the spirit' of the nation's own songs and spirituals. The BBC Symphony Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor opens her concert with Anna Thorvaldsd ttir's hypnotic orchestral canvas Dreaming - an image of the orchestra as a living organism twisting through a kaleidoscope of colour and light.

Presented by Martin Handley

Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Dreaming

Various (devised by Dav ne Tines) Concerto No 1: SERMON - A Devised Concerto for Voice and Orchestra featuring:

John Adams 'Shake the Heavens' from El Niကo

Igee Dieudonn退 and Dav ne Tines Vigil (arr Matthew Aucoin)

Anthony Davis 'Malcolm's Aria' from X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X

8.15pm

Interval

8.35pm

Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor 'From the New World

Dav ne Tines (bass-baritone)

Dalia Stasevska (conductor)

Photo (c) Bowie Verschuuren

Dalia Stasevska conducts Dvorak's New World Symphony & bass-baritone Dav\u00f3ne Tines' Sermon.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Bax, Brett Dean, Elgar20160413Live from the Barbican, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Elgar's 1st Symphony & music by Bax. Artist in Association Brett Dean performs his own Viola Concerto.

Presented by Martin Handley

Bax: The Garden of Fand

Brett Dean: Viola Concerto

8.15: Interval: BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the third of the finalists in this year's woodwind category.

Flautist Marie Sato plays music by CPE Bach and Sancan.

Elgar: Symphony No 1 in A flat major

Brett Dean, viola

Sakari Oramo Conductor

Sakari Oramo continues his exploration of great British orchestral music with Elgar's ground-breaking first symphony and Bax's luminous tone-poem The Garden of Fand. While Bax's work evokes the Irish legend of the siren Fand in her watery world, Elgar wrote of his masterful symphony: 'There is no programme beyond a wide experience of human life with a great charity and a massive hope in the future.' We welcome back Australian composer and violist Brett Dean to play his concerto for his 'curiously beautiful, somewhat enigmatic instrument'.

Followed by: Menuhin 100 - classic recordings from Yehudi Menuhin's discography.

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in music by Bax, Brett Dean and Elgar.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Butterworth, Clyne, Elgar20160115Live from the Barbican, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Elgar's 2nd Symphony & the UK premiere of Anna Clyne's violin concerto The Seamstress with Jennifer Koh.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Butterworth: A Shropshire Lad

Clyne: The Seamstress - Violin Concerto (UK Premiere)

c. 8.10pm - Interval - Butterworth's song-cycle Bredon Hill and Other songs

Elgar: Symphony no. 2 in E flat major Op.63

Jennifer Koh (violin)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

A yearning melancholy binds the music of Elgar and Butterworth that features in tonight's concert, and the sentiment is echoed in a beguiling new violin concerto from London-born composer Anna Clyne, written for dynamic violinist Jennifer Koh. George Butterworth, who died at the Somme in 1916, will forever be defined by his Housman settings, A Shropshire Lad, from which he derived this bittersweet orchestral rhapsody. 'A passionate pilgrimage of the soul' was how Elgar described his mighty, restless Second Symphony. Sakari Oramo, who has a strong affinity for English music, conducts.

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Elgar's Symphony No 2.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Debussy, Anders Hillborg, Ravel20160205Live from the Barbican. Soprano Ren退e Fleming joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sakari Oramo. Works by Debussy, Anders Hillborg and Ravel.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Debussy: Pr退lude

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Diana Burrell, Haydn, Stravinsky20161207Live from the Barbican The BBC SO performs Stravinsky's The Firebird, premieres Diana Burrell's Concerto for Brass and Orchestra, and welcomes back conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

Presented by Martin Handley

Diana Burrell: Concerto for Brass and Orchestra

BBC commission; world premiere

Haydn: Symphony No. 83 in G minor La poule

8.15: Interval

Stravinsky: The Firebird

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor

The BBC SO welcomes back conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste for a concert in which the orchestra's brass section shines as soloists in this world premiere of Diana Burrell's new concerto which is followed by Haydn and his clucking hen. Stravinsky's The Firebird - the work that seized the ears of Paris's elite with its urgent rhythms and evocative Russian folk melodies - offers a splendid ending to a colourful concert.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste: Diana Burrell, Haydn and Stravinsky.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Elgar And Bliss20170512Live from the Barbican. Sir Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and soloists in Sir Arthur Bliss's cantata The Beatitudes. Plus Elgar's Enigma Variations.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme ('Enigma'), Op.36

c. 8.05pm Interval

c. 8.25pm

Bliss: The Beatitudes

Emily Birsan, soprano

Ben Johnson, tenor

BBC Symphony Chorus

Sir Andrew Davis conductor

Sir Arthur Bliss wrote The Beatitudes for the opening of the new Coventry Cathedral in 1961, but at the last minute the premiere was relegated to Coventry Theatre. A powerful work, its dramatic arc reminds us of Bliss's gifts as a film composer. Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, it's unlikely to be in better hands - as indeed are Elgar's 'Enigma' Variations, his glorious, affectionate and often jocular musical portraits of friends and family.

Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in music by Elgar and Bliss.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Franck, Ravel, Berlioz20151118Live from the Barbican, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Pascal Roph退. Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Ravel's Left Hand Piano Concerto with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Franck: Le chasseur maudit

Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

Interval - French music including 'Quels doux concerts' from Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, Ravel's Don Quichotte a Dulcin退e, and a performance, by two viols, of the Concerto No. 12 from Couperin's Les gouts-r退unis.

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

Pascal Roph退 (conductor)

An evening of dazzling Gallic genius, led by Pascal Roph退. The supernatural comes to the fore: in C退sar Franck's symphonic poem a count dares to go hunting on a Sunday morning, in violation of the Sabbath. Cursed, he is condemned to be pursued by demons for eternity. Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique ends with a witches' Sabbath as the febrile imagination of the talented lovesick young artist plumbs the heights and depths - under the influence of opium.

Ravel's transparent Piano Concerto for the Left Hand is performed by the award-winning Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, whose eloquence and artistry have won him fans across the globe.

Pascal Rophe conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Franck, Ravel and Berlioz.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Haydn, Schnittke, Shostakovich20160203The BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Alexander Vedernikov with Russian music: Shostakovich's 6th Symphony and Schnittke's Viola Concerto with Lawrence Power. Recorded at the Barbican.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Haydn: Symphony No. 103 in E flat major H.1.103 (Drum roll)

Schnittke: Viola Concerto

Interval: Featuring Mahler's Piano Quartet in A minor and celebrated bass singer Boris Christoff with Mussorgsky's Cradle Song.

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6 in B minor Op.54

Lawrence Power (viola)

Alexander Vedernikov (conductor)

Alexander Vedernikov promises to ignite this Russian programme, featuring virtuoso Lawrence Power in Schnittke's powerful Viola Concerto. Shostakovich's unusual Sixth Symphony (1939) with its vast, brooding Adagio followed by two ferociously fast movements, shows the twin influences of Mahler and Mussorgsky, while Schnittke's epic concerto, mixing popular song with spiritual profundity, reveals him as heir to the same traditions. Continuing this season's Haydn theme, tonight's concert open with the dramatic 'Drumroll' Symphony, with its dark inflections of the Dies Irae.

BBC Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Vedernikov in Haydn, Schnittke and Shostakovich.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Hovhaness, Andrew Norman, Strauss20151211Live from the Barbican, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Richard Strauss's An Alpine Symphony. Plus Colin Currie in a new percussion concerto by Andrew Norman.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Hovhaness: Symphony No. 2 (Mysterious Mountain)

Andrew Norman: Switch for solo percussion and orchestra UK premiere

c. 8.20pm - Interval - Swedish Choral Music with Jan Sandstrom's Song to the Mountain Wind. Plus Peter Sculthorpe's ode to the mountainous terrain of his native Tasmania, and an evocation of the voice that Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly maintained all mountains have.

Strauss: An Alpine Symphony

Colin Currie (percussion)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo leads the ascent of two great orchestral mountains by Hovhaness and Strauss. Mysterious Mountain is one of Alan Hovhaness's best-loved works, a symphony of spiritual transcendence and the perfect foil to Strauss's grandly ambitious alpine adventure.

Dubbed 'the world's finest and most daring percussionist' Colin Currie is the dedicatee of Switch, a new work from the exciting young American composer Andrew Norman.

Live from the Barbican, the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Hovhaness, Andrew Norman and Strauss

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Joanna Marsh, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Elgar20170327The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Edward Gardner at the BBC Proms Dubai, performs Elgar, Joanna Marsh, and Mozart with pianist Ben Grosvenor, at the Dubai Opera House.

Recorded on 23rd March. Presented by Petroc Trelawny

19.30

Joanna Marsh: Flare (World premiere)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, K466

20.00 Interval

20.20

Felix Mendelssohn: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage

Elgar: Enigma Variations

Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)

Edward Gardner (conductor)

The first-ever BBC Proms Dubai sees the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the in-house band of the summer season at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on its first tour to the United Arab Emirates. In a classic Proms mix of traditional repertoire and the new they pair up with two Proms favourites, conductor Edward Gardner and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. To the desert city's brand-new Opera House they bring Elgar's portrait of his friends in the Enigma Variations, Mendelssohn's concert overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, and Mozart's operatic Piano Concerto in D minor. At the very top of the evening comes the world premiere of Dubai-based British composer Joanna Marsh's Flare.

BBC Symphony Orchestra at Proms Dubai. With Joanna Marsh, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Elgar.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Joseph Phibbs, Bartok, Vaughan Williams20160525Sakari Oramo conducts BBC Symphony Orchestra. Bartok's 2nd Violin Concerto with Alina Abragimova, and the Symphony Chorus join for Vaughan Williams's cantata Dona Nobis Pacem. Plus a new work by Joseph Phibbs, dedicated to the memory of his former teacher - the US composer Steven Stucky.

Recorded at the Barbican on 21st May.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Joseph Phibbs: Partita for Orchestra (BBC co-commission: World Premiere)

B退la Bart k: Violin Concerto No. 2

8.25: Interval: Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin performed by French pianist Robert Casadesus in a 1952 archive recording.

Vaughan Williams: Dona nobis pacem

Alina Ibragimova, violin

Sarah Fox, soprano

Duncan Rock, baritone

BBC Symphony Chorus

Sakari Oramo Conductor

Sakari Oramo conducts two masterpieces from 1936, composed under the looming threat of war: Vaughan Williams's plea for peace features Sarah Fox, Australian baritone Duncan Rock and the BBC Symphony Chorus, while Bart k's fabulous, folk-inflected violin concerto is performed by the eloquent Alina Ibragimova. The concert opens with a premiere from the formidable Joseph Phibbs, dedicated to the memory of his former teacher - the US composer Steven Stucky. 'Phibbs's sheer accomplishment as a composer is unmistakable. Every idea is telling, every phrase beautiful.' Sunday Times.

BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in music by Joseph Phibbs, Bartok and Vaughan Williams.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Kabalevsky, Michael Zev Gordon, Shostakovich20170206Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in an evening of Kabalevsky, Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony and the premiere of Michael Zev Gordon's Violin Concerto, with soloist Carolin Widmann.

Recorded on 3 February 2017.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

19.30

Dmitri Kabalevsky: Colas Breugnon (Overture)

Michael Zev Gordon: Violin Concerto (BBC commission: world premiere)

20.00 Interval

Robert Schumann: Violin Sonata No.1 in a minor Op.105

Carolin Widmann (violin), D退nes Vကrjon (piano)

20.20

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No 10 in E minor

Thrills and high drama are guaranteed with Kabalevsky's rip-roaring overture and Shostakovich's powerful Tenth Symphony, all conducted by the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo. Kabalevsky's piece, full of fizz and pop, is followed by a very different work, Michael Zev Gordon's new violin concerto - a work of rich lyrical power with bold contrasts of colour and expression - and performed here with the acclaimed German violinist Carolin Widmann.

Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony, a heartfelt cry for freedom written under the looming presence of Joseph Stalin, is one of the 20th century's most shattering symphonic experiences.

BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo in Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, MIchael Zev Gordon.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein Total Immersion20180129Total Immersion Leonard Bernstein: to mark the centenary of the composer and conductor the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican with conductor David Charles Abell in Songfest, plus the Serenade with violinist Vadim Gluzman.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall London on Saturday 27th January 2018

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Bernstein: Candide Overture; Serenade*

8.00pm

INTERVAL

8.20pm

Bernstein: Songfest#

Vadim Gluzman (violin)*

Sophia Burgos (soprano)#

Nicky Spence (tenor)#

J'Nai Bridges (mezzo-soprano)#

Fleur Barron (alto)#

Nmon Ford (baritone)#

Brandon Cedel (bass)#

David Charles Abell (conductor)

To mark the composer's centenary year, three very different faces of Leonard Bernstein in one concert. The overture to his opera Candide shows not just his virtuosity with the orchestra but his wit and knowledge of bel canto opera too - it's one of his most sparkling scores.

The Serenade, a philosophical reflection, is his violin concerto in all but name and has become increasingly popular in recent years.

Songfest, which Bernstein himself conducted at the 1988 BBC Proms, is an orchestral song-cycle for six soloists and orchestra. It celebrates many of the things closest to his heart in a 13 beautifully chosen poems, ranging from Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe to Langston Hughes, June Jordan, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Gertrude Stein and EE Cummings. David Charles Abell, who worked with Bernstein during the 1980s, takes up the baton.

Total Immersion Leonard Bernstein. BBC Symphony Orchestra & conductor David Charles Abell.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Messiaen20170524Live from the Barbican Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Messiaen's L'Ascension and Turangalla Symphony with Steven Osborne, piano, and Cynthia Miller, ondes martenot.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Messiaen: L'Ascension

07.55 Interval

08.15

Messiaen: Turangalla Symphony

Steven Osborne (piano)

Cynthia Millar (ondes martenot)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

BBC Symphony Orchestra Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo conducts a double-bill from 20th-century musical genius and visionary, Olivier Messiaen.

The French composer's gargantuan Turangalla Symphony is a vibrant and colourful celebration of all-consuming love, loosely based on the Tristan and Isolde story, and features a prominent part for piano and the electronic ondes martenot. It is preceded here by Messiaen's four sacred meditations for orchestra, L'Ascension.

Live from the Barbican, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo perform Messiaen.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Nielsen, Glanert, Sibelius20170303Live from the Barbican, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius's Lemminkainen Suite. The BBC Singers join for the UK premiere of Detlev Glanert's Megaris.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Carl Nielsen: An Imaginary Journey to the Faroe Islands

Detlev Glanert: Megaris (BBC Co-commission) UK premiere

20.00 Interval

20.20

Jean Sibelius: Lemmink䀀inen Suite, Op.22

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Experience the music of Scandinavian contemporaries Nielsen and Sibelius, whose music is close to the heart of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo.

Nielsen's rhapsody overture portrays a sea-borne journey while Sibelius's thrilling portrait of the fabled Finnish hero Lemmink䀀inen, which includes the poignant The Swan of Tuonela, is rarely encountered complete and contains some of his most atmospheric music. Detlev Glanert's Megaris evokes the siren Parthenope, who drowned herself in sorrow at her rejection by Odysseus.

Followed by music by past recipients of the Women Make Music Fund from PRS Foundation - in anticipation of International Women's Day next Wednesday.

Live from the Barbican, the BBC Symphony Orchestra performs Nielsen, Glanert and Sibelius.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Rihm And Bruckner20170228The BBC Symphony Orchestra with conductor Lothar Koenigs at the Barbican. Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, and pianist Nicolas Hodges is soloist in Wolfgang Rihm's Piano Concerto No.2.

Recorded at the Barbican on 22nd February

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Wolfgang Rihm: Piano Concerto No.2 (UK premiere)

19.55

Interval

20.15

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E

Nicolas Hodges (piano)

Lothar Koenigs (conductor)

The heartrending slow movement of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony became a tribute to the composer's idol, Wagner. Learning of Wagner's death as he was completing the movement, Bruckner dedicated it 'to the memory of the late, deeply beloved and immortal Master'. Wolfgang Rihm's Piano Concerto No 2 (2014), already performed in Salzburg and Washington, creates not only witty interplay between soloist and orchestra, but beautifully detailed scoring of often ravishing delicacy.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra in Rihm's Piano Concerto No 2 and Bruckner's Symphony No 7.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Rouse, Ravel, Dessner, Bernstein20160426The BBC Symphony Orchestra with conductor Joshua Weilerstein in American music by Bernstein, Rouse and Dessner. Francesco Piemontesi joins for Ravel's G major Piano Concerto. Recorded at the Barbican.

Presented by Christopher Cook

Rouse: Rapture

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

Interval:

BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the second of the category finalists in this year's brass competition.

Trumpeter Zak Eastop plays music by:

John Williams, Ewazen and Ibert

Dessner: Quilting (BBC co-commission) [UK Premiere]

Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from 'West Side Story

Francesco Piemontesi (piano)

Joshua Weilerstein (conductor)

An intoxicating blend of Ravel's sensuous G major concerto and Bernstein's roof-raising dances from West Side Story, spliced with high-octane new American works. Gifted young conductor Joshua Weilerstein brings us Christopher Rouse's Rapture, a journey towards 'an ever more blinding ecstasy' in the composer's words, and quilting by Bryce Dessner, founder-member of rock band The National. Relish an opportunity to experience the immaculate artistry of former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Francesco Piemontesi in Ravel's spellbinding Piano Concerto.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra performs music by Rouse, Ravel, Dessner and Bernstein.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Schreker, Nicola Lefanu And Rachmaninov20170217Live from the Barbican. The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conductor Ilan Volkov, in Rachmaninov & Schrecker. Soprano Rachel Nicholls joins to premiere Nicola Lefanu's The Crimson Bird.

Presented by Martin Handley

Franz Schreker: Nachtstück - Interlude from Der ferne Klang (Act III)

Nicola Lefanu: The Crimson Bird (World Premiere)

8.00 pm Interval

8.20 pm

Rachmaninov: Symphony No.3

Rachel Nicholls (soprano)

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Rachmaninov's final symphony concludes a concert that includes Franz Schreker's interlude from his opera Der ferne Klang (The Distant Sound) and a brand new work, The Crimson Bird, by Nicola LeFanu.

Nicola LeFanu unveils her new Royal Philharmonic Society commission, a work for soprano and orchestra, with Ilan Volkov, a passionate champion of the new, on the podium. It is a setting of four specially written poems by John Fuller linked to Euripides' play the Trojan Women.

A child of fin-de-si耀cle Vienna, opera composer Schreker's ravishingly beautiful Nachtstück forms the lush opener. Rachmaninov's last symphony, though written in America, far from the composer's homeland, is deeply entrenched in his Russian heritage. Dark, brooding sonorities give way to a triumphant, celebratory conclusion.

Ilan Volkov conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Schreker, Nicola Lefanu and Rachmaninov

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Schuller, Debussy, Benjamin, Stravinsky.20160321The BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers conducted by Oliver Knussen. Music by Debussy, Stravinsky and George Benjamin - a new work Dream of the Song with countertenor Iestyn Davies. Recorded at the Barbican.

Presented by Martin Handley

Schuller: Dreamscape (UK premiere)

Debussy: Nocturnes

Interval: Manuel de Falla's Homenaje pour le Tombeau de Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen performs his own work Le Banquet Celeste

George Benjamin: Dream of the Song (BBC Co-commission, UK Premiere)

Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements

Iestyn Davies (countertenor)

Oliver Knussen (conductor)

Night music and mysterious voices infuse both Debussy's evocative Nocturnes and George Benjamin's new work for star countertenor Iestyn Davies, Dream of the Song. Gunter Schuller's Dreamscape, apparently dictated to the composer in a dream, opens the concert. Schuller's father was a violinist in the New York Philharmonic at the time Stravinsky wrote his turbulent, chromatic war-time masterpiece for that orchestra: the Symphony in Three Movements. Expect dynamism and detail from Schuller's disciple, conductor Oliver Knussen.

The BBC SO and Singers under Oliver Knussen in Schuller, Debussy, Benjamin and Stravinsky.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Schumann, Glanert, Beethoven20160223The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Markus Stenz: Beethoven's iconic 5th Symphony, Detlev Glanert's energetic Frenesia, and soloist Hong Xu performs Schumann's Piano Concerto. Recorded at the Barbican.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Schumann: Concerto for piano in A minor, Op. 54

Interval: Richard Strauss's Introduction, Theme and Variation for horn and piano.

Detlev Glanert: Frenesia (UK Premiere)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

Hong Xu (piano)

Markus Stenz (conductor)

Conductor Markus Stenz makes a welcome return to the Barbican for this all-German programme, which takes in Beethoven's revolutionary Fifth Symphony and Schumann's graceful Piano Concerto, to be performed by Honens International Piano Competition winner Hong Xu. Frenesia was written by Detlev Glanert as a tribute to Richard Strauss's 150th Anniversary, taking inspiration from the tremendous upsurge of kinetic energy at the start of Ein Heldenleben.

Markus Stenz conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Schumann, Glanert and Beethoven.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky20161019Live from the Barbican, the BBC Symphony Orchestra begin their three-concert Beloved Friend Tchaikovsky Project with Russian conductor Semyon Bychkov in the epic Manfred Symphony, and the curious Piano Concerto No.2 in G, Op.44.

Semyon Bychkov's earliest musical love as a child in St Petersburg was Tchaikovsky, a composer whose scores are for him endlessly rewarding, as pure and transparent as a beautiful lake. Tonight, as the curator of the Beloved Friend series, he and the BBC SO offer a rare chance to hear Manfred, one of Tchaikovsky's most dramatic creations. The Symphony explores the tormented Byronic hero of the title, his forlorn wanderings in the Alps, his death and redemption. 'It seems to me the best of my symphonic compositions' Tchaikovsky explained in a letter to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck.

First, orchestra and conductor share the stage with fellow Russian, distinguished pianist Kirill Gerstein for Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concerto. Less well known than the First Piano Concerto this is music charged with stirring melodies, and passages of great virtuosity for the soloist in the outer movements; but things really turn an unusual corner in the slow middle movement. Here the pianist is joined by solo violin and cello in a sort of triple-concerto, hushed with some of Tchaikovsky's most tender sounds.

Presented by Martin Handley

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 2 in G major, Op.44

8.10pm Interval

8.30pm

Tchaikovsky: 'Manfred' Symphony in B minor, Op.58

Kirill Gerstein (piano)

Semyon Bychkov (conductor).

The BBC Symphony Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 2; Manfred Symphony.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky, Saariaho, Prokofiev20161215Live from the Barbican the BBC Symphony Orchestra with conductor Sakari Oramo in Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev. Baritone Gerald Finley joins for Kaija Saariaho's True Fire.

Presented by Martin Handley

Tchaikovsky: Fantasy Overture 'Romeo and Juliet

Kaija Saariaho: True Fire

BBC co-commission; UK premiere

8.25: Interval

8.45: Prokofiev: Symphony No 5 in B flat major

Gerald Finley, baritone

Sakari Oramo, conductor

Sakari Oramo directs the BBC Symphony Orchestra in two Russian masterworks, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture, and Prokofiev's Symphony No 5. Prokofiev said that his Fifth Symphony depicted 'the greatness of the human spirit'. It's a gripping climax to a concert that begins with Tchaikovsky's star-crossed romance, and features Kaija Saariaho's ravishing True Fire, performed by its dedicatee, Gerald Finley.

Saariaho's music combines intense emotion with a shimmering, visionary sonic beauty, and this setting of poetry by Emerson and Seamus Heaney was created with the intelligence and burnished tone of Finley's singing very much in mind. The results are both surprising, and exquisitely lovely: 'This is a profound, important work', declared the LA Times at last year's world premiere.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra performs music by Tchaikovsky, Saariaho and Prokofiev.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Total Immersion: Dutilleux20160502The BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Pascal Roph退 explore music by the great French composer Henri Dutilleux. With cellist Alban Gerhardt. Recorded at the Barbican.

Presented by Martin Handley with French music expert Dr. Caroline Potter.

Dutilleux: Symphony No. 1

Dutilleux: 'Tout un monde lointain ...

8.30: Interval: BBC Young Musician 2016 - Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the first of the finalists in this year's strings category with violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones performing music by Prokofiev and Waxman.

c. 9pm

Dutilleux: The Shadows of Time

Dutilleux: M退taboles

Alban Gerhardt (cello)

Treble soloists from Trinity Boys Choir

Pascal Roph退 (conductor)

Dutilleux described his taut, cogent and deeply satisfying First Symphony as 'a little like the birth and the unfolding of a dream'. Special guest Pascal Roph退 directs this and the exquisite 'concerto for orchestra' M退taboles, inspired by the luminous timbres of the Cleveland Orchestra. We return to a Baudelairean world of dreams for the cello concerto 'Tout un monde lointain...' performed by virtuoso cellist Alban Gerhardt, while The Shadows of Time is a devastating response to the diaries of Anne Frank, in which three boy soloists intone 'Why us?'. Part of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's 'Total Immersion: The Magical Soundworld of Henri Dutilleux' on Saturday 30th April.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Pascal Rophe perform music by Henri Dutilleux.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Weilerstein, Piemontesi20160424Ian Skelly presents an international edition of In Concert with a Shakespearean theme.

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, op. 61 (incidental music)

Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana

Markus Poschner, conductor

Prokofiev, arr. Babayan:

The Ghost of Hamlet's Father, from 'Hamlet, op. 77

Polka, from 'Eugene Onegin, op. 71

Polonaise, from 'The Queen of Spades, op. 70

Pushkin Waltzes, op. 120

Natasha and Andrei's Waltz, from 'War and Peace, op. 91

Id退e fixe, from 'The Queen of Spades, op. 70

Martha Argerich & Sergei Babayan, pianos

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64

Ilya Gringolts, violin

Markus Poschner, conductor.

Ian Skelly presents music with a Shakespearean theme, by Mendelssohn and Prokofiev.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra: Total Immersion Esa-pekka Salonen20180103Total Immersion Esa-Pekka Salonen. Thrilling music by the Finnish composer performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by fellow Finn and friend Sakari Oramo.

Recorded at the Barbican on Sunday 10th December 2017

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Gambit (1998)

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Wing on Wing (2004)*

8.15pm

INTERVAL including an interview with Esa-Pekka Salonen

8.30pm

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Mimo II (1992) +

Esa-Pekka Salonen Salone: Karawane** (2013-14)

*Anu Komsi & Pia Komsi (sopranos)

+ Nicholas Daniel (oboe)

** BBC Symphony Chorus

BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Chorus

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

The concluding concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Esa-Pekka Salonen Total Immersion day at the Barbican Hall on December 10th 2017 was devoted to Salonen's striking orchestral music. 'Wing on Wing', inspired by the striking architecture of Los Angeles's Disney Hall, weaves soprano voices with electronics, the sounds of fish, and the voice of architect Frank O Gehry. While 'Karawane' sets a Dadaist text by Hugo Ball for which the BBC Symphony Chorus joined the orchestra. Prepare for a sound-world sensuous, beguiling and often unashamedly beautiful.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra: Total Immersion, Henryk Gorecki20151006The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Antoni Wit, celebrate the music of Henryk Gorecki at the Barbican. Including the powerful Symphony No. 2 'Copernican' and 'Kyrie'.

Recorded 3rd October at the Barbican, London

Presented by Petroc Trelawny with guest Adrian Thomas

Gorecki: Old Polish Music Op.24

Gorecki: Kyrie Op. 83 (UK Premiere)

8.15

INTERVAL: Gorecki's String Quartet No 1, 'Already it is Dusk' performed by the Silesian String Quartet during the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion: Henryk Gorecki - Polish Pioneer.

8.35

Gorecki: Harpsichord Concerto

Gorecki: Symphony No. 2 'Copernican

Marie Arnet (soprano)

Marcus Farnsworth (baritone)

Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Antoni Wit (conductor)

The late Henryk Gorecki came to universal fame in the early 1990s with his extraordinary Third Symphony, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. The BBC Symphony Orchestra turned the spotlight on him on Saturday 3rd October in a day of concerts at the Barbican, London, in Total Immersion: Henryk Gorecki - Polish Pioneer.

This concert features the UK premiere of the Kyrie (2005), evocatively scored for strings, piano and percussion with chorus - the BBC Symphony Chorus - and Mahan Esfahani is the soloist in the Harpsichord Concerto. In this unusual work the harpsichord lends ferocious dynamism to its granitic textures in contrast to the monumental stillness of the Symphony No. 2 'Copernican', in which the full BBC Symphony Orchestra is joined by Marie Arnet, Marcus Farnsworth and, again, the BBC Symphony Chorus.

BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Antoni Wit play music by Gorecki at the Barbican.

Bbc Symphony Orchestra's Japan Tour 2018, Ueno Gakuen Hall, Hiroshima20180307The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo on tour in Hiroshima, Japan. Music by Britten, Sibelius's 5th Symphony & Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with Alina Pogostkina.

Recorded at the Ueno Gakuen Hall, Hiroshima on Friday 2nd March 2018

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Britten: Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from Peter Grimes

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Op.35

08.25

Interval: Andrew McGregor finds out more about musical culture in Hiroshima

08.45

Sibelius: Symphony No.5 in E Flat, Op.82

Alina Pogostkina (violin)

Sakari Oramo (conductor).

The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo, on tour in Hiroshima, Japan.

Bbc Young Musician 2022 Final20221009Five brilliant soloists compete to win the most prestigious prize for young classical musicians in Britain. Each finalist performs a concerto with the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester before an expert jury. At the end of the evening, just one will be crowned as the new BBC Young Musician. Presented by Jess Gillam, Alexis Ffrench and Josie d'Arby.

Five brilliant young soloists compete for the prestigious title, BBC Young Musician.

Beamish And Beethoven20190923The Elias Quartet play Beethoven and Sally Beamish. Beamish's 3rd String Quartet 'Reed Stanzas' was inspired partly by the Elias Quartet's Donald Grant who doubles as a Scottish fiddle player, and also by bird calls and the landscapes of Suffolk and Harris. Beethoven is on either side of the Beamish. At the turn of the 18th century, with the first of his earliest set of quartets, Op.18, Beethoven threw down the gauntlet to Haydn, the string quartet's inventor and preeminent composer; less than a decade later, with his three 'Razumovsky' quartets, Beethoven had become the acclaimed and undisputed master of the genre.

Recorded last week at Kings Place, and presented by Ian Skelly.

7.30pm

Ludwig Van Beethoven String Quartet No. 1 in F, Op. 18, No. 1

Sally Beamish String Quartet No. 3 'Reed Stanzas

c.8.30pm

Interval music

Ludwig Van Beethoven Sextet for Wind, Op.71.

London Baroque Soloists

c.8.50pm

Ludwig Van Beethoven String Quartet No. 9 in C, Op. 59, 'Razumovsky' No. 3

The Elias Quartet perform Sally Beamish and Beethoven at Kings Place in London.

Beamish And Beethoven20200424The Elias Quartet play Beethoven and Sally Beamish. Beamish's 3rd String Quartet 'Reed Stanzas' was inspired partly by the Elias Quartet's Donald Grant who doubles as a Scottish fiddle player, and also by bird calls and the landscapes of Suffolk and Harris. Beethoven is on either side of the Beamish. At the turn of the 18th century, with the first of his earliest set of quartets, Op.18, Beethoven threw down the gauntlet to Haydn, the string quartet's inventor and preeminent composer; less than a decade later, with his three 'Razumovsky' quartets, Beethoven had become the acclaimed and undisputed master of the genre.

Another chance to hear this concert recorded last September at Kings Place, and presented by Ian Skelly.

7.30pm

Beethoven; String Quartet No. 1 in F, Op. 18, No. 1

Sally Beamish: String Quartet No. 3 'Reed Stanzas

c.8.30pm

Interval music

Beethoven: Sextet for Wind, Op.71.

London Baroque Soloists

c.8.50pm

Beethoven; String Quartet No. 9 in C, Op. 59, 'Razumovsky' No. 3

The Elias Quartet perform Sally Beamish and Beethoven at Kings Place in London.

Bear Necessities, Richard Strauss And Beethoven20201106The BBC Philharmonic begin their live concert with music from the rich harvest of Richard Strauss's Indian Summer, his Duet-Concertino; a beautiful princess and a bear meet, and finally dance together in a performance featuring soloists John Bradbury (clarinet) and Roberto Giaccaglia (bassoon). The rest of the programme is given over to Beethoven. Benjamin Grosvenor joins them for his effervescent First Piano Concerto, a work penned when Beethoven was about the same age as tonight's soloist. After the interval Nicholas Collon conducts what is perhaps the most extrovert of Beethoven's symphonies, his Eighth.

Live from MediaCity, Salford

Presented by Tom McKinney

Richard Strauss: Duet-Concertino

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 1 in C

8.30

Music interval (CD)

8.50

Beethoven: Symphony No 8 (Recorded on 5 November)

Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

Followed by music off disc:

Joseph Haydn: Symphony no. 83 in G minor, H. 1:83 'The Hen

Tafelmusik

Bruno Weil, conductor

The BBC Philharmonic with conductor Nicholas Collon and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor.

Beatrice Rana Plays Goldberg Variations2017121920170116 (R3)From Wigmore Hall in London, pianist and Radio 3 New Generation Artist Beatrice Rana plays Bach's mighty Goldberg Variations.

Introduced by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Bach: Goldberg Variations

Beatrice Rana (piano)

24-year-old Italian Rana, a silver medallist at the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition, is one of the most talked-about pianists to have appeared on the scene in recent years, and joined the Radio 3 New Generation Artist in 2015. Since then Gramophone magazine has described her as an artist who 'possesses an old soul that belies her years, and more than a touch of genius'.

This concert is a repeat from January 2017.

From Wigmore Hall, London, Beatrice Rana plays Bach's Goldberg Variations.

Beatrice Rana Plays Mozart20210517Mozart and Strauss from Copenhagen. The brilliant young Italian pianist Beatrice Rana joins the Danish National Symphony Orchestra to play Mozart's 'Jeunehomme' Concerto .

Beatrice Rana, a former Radio 3 New Generation Artist, has won admirers across the globe for her glittering technique and insightful performances. Invited at short notice for this lock down concert, she was delighted to play this concerto, which, with its wistful slow movement, she describes as 'music from a different realm, touched by genius.' Strauss's charming music for a version of Moli耀re's play Le bourgeois gentilhomme rounds off this this concert given in March without audience.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Nielsen: Pan and Syrinx, Op.49

Mozart: Piano Concerto No.9 in E flat, K.271 'Jeunehomme

R. Strauss: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme - suite Op.60

Beatrice Rana (piano)

Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Fabio Luisi (conductor)

followed at approx 9.00pm by Ravel's Miroirs in Beatrice Rana's new recording.

Pianist Beatrice Rana plays Mozart's 'Jeunehomme' Concerto.

Beethoven And Beyond20191111C退dric Tiberghien presents a programme of solo piano works by two of Beethoven's musical descendants - Brahms and Schoenberg - framed by two sets of variations by Beethoven himself. Brahms's four Ballades were composed at the start of his lifelong affection for Clara Schumann, who helped establish his career. By contrast, Schoenberg's 3 Piano Pieces, Op 11 came at a time of turbulence: his wife Mathilde had recently eloped with a painter. Beethoven had his own problems - among them his increasing deafness - when he wrote his two sets of variations in 1802, yet despite this affliction, he was inspired to write music of extraordinary innovation that he described as quite unlike any he had ever composed before.

Recorded at Wigmore Hall last Saturday and presented by Martin Handley

Beethoven: 6 Variations on an Original Theme in F Op 34

Brahms: 4 Ballades, Op 10

Interval

Schoenberg: 3 Piano Pieces, Op 11

Beethoven: 15 Variations and a Fugue on an Original Theme in E flat 'Eroica Variations' Op 35

C退dric Tiberghien (piano)

Pianist Cedric Tiberghien performs works by Beethoven, Brahms and Schoenberg.

Beethoven And Scriabin With The London Philharmonic Orchestra202002142001: New century, new sounds. Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic celebrate Beethoven's 250th birthday with 2020 VISION, a conversation between the past, the present and the future of music. Tonight the orchestra's charismatic Principal Conductor leads them in works by Beethoven, Scriabin and P退ter E怀tv怀s premiered in the first years of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

In his First Symphony, Beethoven announced his arrival in Haydn's Vienna with a work that opened the doors to a universe of new musical possibilities. A century later, the young Alexander Scriabin wrote a Second Symphony whose surging melodies and ardent spirit stand on the brink of a new revelation: and in 2001, P退ter E怀tv怀s premiered a short work in which a trumpeter acts like a waiter in a Budapest caf退 picking up snatches of conversation.

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall last Saturday.

Presented by Martin Handley

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 in C major Op.21

P退ter E怀tv怀s: Snatches of a Conversation for double-belled trumpet, speaker and ensemble

c. 8.10pm

Interval music: The Triumphs of Oriana from 1601 and a grand motet by Delalande from 1701.

c. 8.30pm

Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 in G minor Op. 29

Marco Blaauw (double-bell trumpet)

Omar Ebrahim (narrator)

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski (conductor)

Vladimir Jurowski conducts Beethoven's Symphony No 1 and Scriabin's Symphony No 2.

Beethoven And Tippett From Hannover20230612Concertante and ballet music by Beethoven meets the burgeoning lyricism of Michael Tippett's Second Symphony in this concert from Hannover, in which the Skride sisters and Harriet Krijgh join forces with the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Andrew Manze in Beethoven's Triple Concerto.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Beethoven: Creatures of Prometheus ballet music

Tippett: Symphony no. 2

Beethoven Triple Concerto Op. 56

Baiba Skride, violin

Harriet Krijgh, cello

Lauma Skride, piano

Andrew Manze, conductor

Concert recorded in the Grand Studio, NDR, Hannover on 30/03/2023

Andrew Manze conducts the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Beethoven and Tippett.

Beethoven Diabelli Variations And Haydn Piano Trio20151025Ian Skelly introduces chamber music performances recorded earlier this year at the Mecklenberg Festival in North Germany. And an early Mozart symphony from the period instruments of Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin

Haydn

Piano Trio in C, Hob. XV:27

Erika Geldsetzer (violin), Marie-Elisabeth Hecker (cello), Martin Helmchen (piano)

Beethoven

33 Variations on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli in C major, Op. 120

Porgi amor from 'Le nozze di Figaro

Alex Penda (soprano)

Vaclav Luks (director)

Symphony No. 11 in D, K. 84

Vaclav Luks (director).

A Haydn piano trio and Beethoven's Diabelli Variations with pianist Martin Helmchen.

Beethoven From Spain, Berlioz From Lubeck20180923Kate Molleson introduces highlights from concerts around Europe, including summer festivals in Santander, Spain, and Lübeck, Germany.

Beethoven - Coriolan Overture

RTVE Symphony Orchestra

Miguel Angel G mez Mart퀀nez (conductor)

Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique, Op 14

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

Christoph Eschenbach (conductor)

Kate Molleson introduces highlights from concerts around Europe.

Beethoven In Bournemouth20201111Presented by Martin Handley, live from the Lighthouse, Poole

In his new work, Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg, using inspiration from Beethoven's private Conversation Books, peers into the mind of a genius. The only ballet Beethoven composed, The Creatures of Prometheus, completes the programme. In the ballet, Prometheus finds mankind in a state of ignorance and decides to educate them in art and science.

Lindberg: Absence (UK premiere)

Beethoven: The Creatures of Prometheus (complete)

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Kirill Karabits, conductor

Followed by music off disc

Korngold: Piano Trio in D major op 1

Daishin Kashimoto - violin

Zvi Plesser - cello

Eric le Sage - piano

Beethoven and Magnus Lindberg from Bournemouth.

Beethoven Piano Concerto No 420190122Recorded at Brangwyn Hall Swansea

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 4 in G major

Mahler: Rückert Lieder

8.10 Interval - Nicola Heywood Thomas talks to Stephen Hough

Mahler: Adagio (Symphony No 10)

Stephen Hough (piano)

Catriona Morison (mezzo sporano)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Thomas Sondergard (conductor)

The visionary solo piano opening to Beethoven's 4th concerto begins a work which not only marked a move away from his previous piano concerti, but also marks a change for the composer as the public premiere of the work was the last time that he would perform with an orchestra due to the decline in his hearing. Almost a century later, Mahler chose to set music to the romantic poetry of Friederich Ruckert, a favourite poet of his, in which he brings the evocative texts to life. Although they were originally written as five individual songs for voice and piano, Mahler quickly orchestrated four of these songs and, along with the posthumous orchestration of the 5th by Max Puttmann, they are now often presented as a cycle as they will be tonight. The concert concludes with the Adagio from Mahler's unfinished 10th symphony, which was the only section which he had ostensibly completed and orchestrated. The tragedy in the music bears direct relation to the turmoil of Mahler's life at the time of composition and the poignant music is made even more touching with the knowledge that these were to be some of the last notes that Mahler would write.

Stephen Hough joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea.

Beethoven Symphonies Nos 1 And 520181122Live from Aberystwyth Arts Centre

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Beethoven: Symphony No 1 in C major

Weber: Clarinet Concerto No 1 in F minor

8.25 Interval Music

Beethoven: Symphony No 5 in C minor

Robert Plane (clarinet)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

Continuing the Beethoven cycle with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Ryan Bancroft presents the composer's fledgling first symphony and his iconic fifth, unmistakable from the outset. Between these two extraordinary works is a gem of the woodwind repertoire, Weber's Clarinet Concerto No 1, written three years after Beethoven's fifth symphony, and also considered innovative for its time. The soloist is BBC NOW's own Principal Clarinettist, Robert Plane.

Please Note: We're very sorry to announce that Xian Zhang is unable to conduct these concerts as planned as she is unwell. We are extremely grateful to Ryan Bancroft for stepping in at short notice.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Ryan Bancroft perform Beethoven's Symphonies 1 and 5.

Beethoven Unleashed20200225Mark Wigglesworth joins the BBC Philharmonic for Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, 'the apotheosis of the dance' as Wagner memorably called it. The abundant life and energy of the symphony are contrasted by the two rarely heard works which complete the programme; his Funeral Music 'Leonore Prohaska', a woman who disguised herself as a soldier and died fighting Napoleon, and Beethoven's remarkable early Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II, penned when he was just 19 years old.

From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Beethoven: Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II

8.15 Music Interval

Beethoven: Leonore Prohaska: Funeral Music

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

Iulia Maria Dan (soprano)

Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano)

Anthony Gregory (tenor)

Andrew Foster-Williams (bass)

Manchester Chamber Choir

Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)

BBC Philharmonic and conductor Mark Wigglesworth in Beethoven, familiar and unfamiliar.

Beethoven Unleashed: 250th Anniversary Concert, Live From Bonn20201217On the occasion of Beethoven's 250th birthday, a grand ceremony including Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto and Fifth Symphony will take place in his home town Bonn on December 17, 2020 - which is Beethoven's day of baptism. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra has been a constant in the international music world for more than 20 years. Renowned pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim founded it together with Edward W Said in 1999 to facilitate dialogue between the different cultures of the Middle East through the experience of making music together. The orchestra has performed the Beethoven symphonies in the world's great concert halls.

Beethoven's music is universal,' says Barenboim, 'no matter where in the world - it speaks to all people.`

This is the closing concert in a year-long celebration of Beethoven's music by The Beethoven Anniversary Society BTHVN 2020.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor

Beethoven: Symphony No 5 in C minor

Daniel Barenboim (soloist and conductor)

Beethoven, live from Bonn. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

Beethoven Unleashed: Mass In C And Symphony No 420200311From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, presented by Tom Redmond.

Omer Meir Wellber brings the Dresden Kammerchor to Manchester for a performance of Beethoven's Mass in C. It was written at the same time Beethoven worked on his Fourth Symphony, the work in the first half of our concert, and commissioned by Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy II for his wife, Maria von Lichtenstein's name day. Haydn's last six masses had been penned for the same annual event in Eisenstadt and Beethoven was aware of following in his footsteps. Struggling to meet the deadline he even sent the Prince a sick-note from his doctor when he appeared to be behind in his work. Sadly this remarkable setting of the mass, in which Beethoven proudly said he 'treated the text as seldom treated before', left the Prince cold and he described it in a letter as 'unbearably ridiculous and detestable'. Opening the concert is Beethoven's Fourth Symphony; an unusually searching slow introduction leads us into a work of unstoppable momentum and characteristic contrast.

Beethoven: Symphony No.4

8.05pm

Music Interval (CD)

8.25pm

Beethoven: Mass in C

Emily Dorn (soprano)

Rachel Frenkel (mezzo soprano)

Luis Gomes (tenor)

Evan Hughes (bass)

BBC Philharmonic

Omer Meir Wellber (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic with Chief Conductor Omer Meir Wellber and the Dresden Chamber Choir.

Beethoven Unleashed: Missa Solemnis20200304Of all his own works, Beethoven admired one more than any other: his grand solemn mass - the Missa solemnis. When the composer started to write the piece in 1819, he sensed a new energy flowing through him. Four years later, on specially enlarged sheets of paper, he had succeeded in setting down his musical vision of the divine using every means of sonic imagery available to him. Brought to life, Beethoven's score represents one of his most intense and uplifting live concert experiences.

Donald Runnicles steers stunning soloists and the BBC Symphony Chorus in a cornerstone of BBC Radio 3's 2020 Beethoven Unleashed celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth.

Presented by Martin Handley

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis in D Op.123

Elizabeth Llewellyn (soprano)

Christine Rice (mezzo-soprano)

Thomas Atkins (tenor)

Roderick Williams (bass)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Donald Runnicles (conductor)

Live from the Barbican, Donald Runnicles conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

Beethoven Unleashed: Prometheus And Eroica20200206The BBC Philharmonic with Principal Guest Conductor, Ben Gernon, are joined by mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston and Manchester Chamber Choir to explore some rarely heard music by Beethoven, his beautiful and atmospheric 'Opferlied'. The Overture to his allegorical ballet 'The Creatures of Prometheus' opens the programme and leads into a specially devised selection of other music from the ballet. Beethoven's Third Symphony the 'Eroica' ends the programme.

Live from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Presented by Tom Redmond.

Beethoven: Prometheus - Overture and ballet music (selection)

Beethoven: Opferlied

8.25

Music Interval

8.45

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat, 'Eroica

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Ben Gernon, in an all-Beethoven programme.

Beethoven Unleashed: Symphonies No 1 And No 32020040820200518 (R3)Beethoven Unleashed: As part of a complete cycle over this week of broadcasts, Kate Molleson dips into the archive of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to explore recent performances of Beethoven symphonies. And she talks to its chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard about his conception of 'Composer Roots', and how Beethoven's music emerged amidst the influence of his predecessors and contemporaries. In this evening's programme Symphonies 1 and 3 are discussed in terms of the theme, 'light out of darkness', and the roots of revolution.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Haydn: 'Chaos' and 'Im Anfange schuf Gott' from The Creation

Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

Matthew Rose, bass

James Gilchrist, tenor

Edinburgh Festival Chorus

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, in 2017

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1

Conductor: Donald Runnicles

Recorded at Aberdeen Music Hall in 2009

8.05 INTERVAL

CD Track

Mozart: Overture, Bastien und Bastienne. Colin Davis (conductor), Dresden State Orchestra

BBC SSO Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard discusses his concept of Composer Roots, and we hear some of the music that influenced Beethoven's musical personality.

Eberl: Symphony No. 2, mvt 2. Concerto Koln

8.20 Part 2

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3

Conductor: Ilan Volkov

The BBC SSO explore the roots of Beethoven's symphonies with Thomas Dausgaard.

Beethoven Unleashed: Symphonies No 2 And No 720200519Beethoven Unleashed: As part of a special week of broadcasts, Kate Molleson dips into the archive of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to explore recent performances of Beethoven symphonies. And she talks to its chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard about his conception of 'Composer Roots', and how Beethoven's music emerged amidst the influence of his predecessors and contemporaries. In this evening's programme Symphonies 2 and 7 are discussed in terms of the folk songs and sacred music that surrounded Beethoven in Vienna.

Presented by Kate Molleson

CD Track

Cherubini: Overture, The Water Carrier. Lawrence Foster (conductor), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Beethoven: Symphony No. 2

Conductor: Christoph K怀nig

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, in 2007

8.25 INTERVAL

Trad: Three Horsemen rode out. Dresden Kreuzchor

BBC SSO Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard discusses his concept of Composer Roots, and we hear some of the music that influenced Beethoven's musical personality.

Gossec: Marche Lugubre. John Wallace (conductor), The Wallace Collection

8.40 Part 2

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

Recorded at Usher Hall, Edinburgh, in 2016

The BBC SSO explore the roots of Beethoven's symphonies with Thomas Dausgaard.

Beethoven Unleashed: Symphonies No 4 And No 520200520Beethoven Unleashed: As part of a special week of broadcasts, Kate Molleson dips into the archive of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to explore recent performances of Beethoven symphonies. And she talks to its chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard about his conception of 'Composer Roots', and how Beethoven's music emerged amidst the influence of his predecessors and contemporaries. In this evening's programme Symphonies 4 and 5 are discussed in terms of the Romanticism engendered by Beethoven along with contemporaries such as Eybler and M退hul.

Presented by Kate Molleson

CD Track

Eybler: Symphony No.2, mvt.2. Michael Hofstetter (conductor), Geneva Chamber Orchestra

Beethoven: Symphony No. 4

Conductor: Donald Runnicles

Recorded at Perth Concert Hall in 2013

8.05 INTERVAL

BBC SSO Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard discusses his concept of Composer Roots, and we hear some of the music that influenced Beethoven's musical personality.

Mehul: Symphony No.1 in G minor. Marc Minkowski (conductor), Les Musiciens du Louvre

8.20 Part 2

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, in 2016

The BBC SSO explore the roots of Beethoven's symphonies with Thomas Dausgaard.

Beethoven Unleashed: Symphonies No 6 And No 820200521Beethoven Unleashed: As part of a special week of broadcasts, Kate Molleson dips into the archive of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to explore recent performances of Beethoven symphonies. And she talks to its chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard about his conception of 'Composer Roots', and how Beethoven's music emerged amidst the influence of his predecessors and contemporaries. In this evening's programme Symphonies 6 and 8 are discussed in terms of the influences from the newly invented metronome, to the bird-song and folk dances of the fields and woods around Vienna.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Haydn: Symphony No. 99

Conductor: Thomas Dausgaard

Recorded at Glasgow Cathedral in 2018

Beethoven: Symphony No. 8

Conductor: Ilan Volkov

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, in 2008

8.00 INTERVAL

BBC SSO Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard discusses his concept of Composer Roots, and we hear some of the music that influenced Beethoven's musical personality.

CD Track

Knecht: Le portrait musical de la nature, mvts. 3 & 4. Bernhard Forck (director), Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin

8.30 Part 2

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, in 2016

The BBC SSO explore the roots of Beethoven's symphonies with Thomas Dausgaard.

Beethoven Unleashed: The 1808 Concert20200119On the 22nd of December 1808, Beethoven held a monumental concert in Vienna that lasted four hours and included the public premieres of both his 5th and 6th symphonies. The concert has been described as the most remarkable of Beethoven's career, and now, as part of Radio 3's year-long Beethoven Unleashed season for the 250th anniversary of his birth, this concert is being recreated by the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales and the Welsh National Opera Orchestra. In the first part, Carlo Rizzi and the orchestra of WNO and BBC NCW are joined by soprano Alwyn Mellor and pianist Steven Osborne, and after an extended interval Jaime Mart퀀n and BBC NOW take to the stage and are joined by pianist Ll?r Williams.

Presented by Hannah French, live from St David's Hall, Cardiff.

PART 1

Beethoven: Symphony No 6 in F major, Op 68 (Pastoral)

Beethoven: Ah! perfido, Op 65

Beethoven: Gloria (Mass in C major, Op 86)

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 4 in G major, Op 58

Alwyn Mellor (soprano)

Harriet Eyley (soprano)

Angharad Lyddon (mezzo-soprano)

Alexander Sprague (tenor)

Steffan Lloyd Owen (bass)

Steven Osborne (piano)

BBC National Chorus of Wales

Carlo Rizzi (conductor)

6.00pm INTERVAL - THE LISTENING SERVICE

Getting to Grips with Beethoven

Beethoven: deaf for most of his life, unbearable egotist, flagrant opportunist and musical anarchist whose music reaches the heights of ecstasy. Where do you start with this bundle of contradictions, probably the most admired composer in Western music, whose works have unfailingly filled concert halls for over 200 years? Tom Service goes in search of what makes Beethoven Beethoven and suggests a few key pieces to help unlock the man and his music.

David Papp (producer)

6.30pm INTERVAL - Live from St David's Hall

Hannah French introduces a piano duel in the style of Beethoven between pianists David Rees-Williams and Zoe Rahman, a talk on the relationship between Beethoven and wine by expert Ron Merlino, and insight into the original 1808 concert with Vienna expert David Wyn Jones.

7.30pm THE 1808 CONCERT

PART 2

Beethoven: Symphony No 5 in C minor, Op 67

Beethoven: Sanctus (Mass in C major, Op 86)

Beethoven: Piano Fantasia in G minor, Op 77

Beethoven: Choral Fantasy, Op 80

Jenniefer Walker (soprano)

Peter Harris (tenor)

Ll?r Williams (piano)

Jaime Mart퀀n (conductor)

WNO and BBC NOW recreate the most remarkable concert of Beethoven's career.

Beethoven Unleashed: The Ninth Symphony20200522Beethoven Unleashed: As part of a special week of broadcasts, Kate Molleson dips into the archive of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to explore recent performances of Beethoven symphonies. And she talks to its chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard about his conception of 'Composer Roots', and how Beethoven's music emerged amidst the influence of his predecessors and contemporaries. As the week of programmes reaches its climax, Beethoven's iconic Ninth Symphony is discussed in terms of the far-reaching roots that draw their nutrition from Beethoven's forefathers: from Palestrina and Bach, to his great hero, Mozart.

Presented by Kate Molleson

performance recorded at City Halls, Glasgow in 2017

Palestrina: Sicut cervus

J S Bach: Fugue No 22 in B flat minor from Das Wohltemperierte Klavier, Book 1

Handel: Zadok the Priest

Gluck: Iphigenie en Tauride, Act 1 Ballet music (Dance of the Scythians)

Mozart: Misericordias Domini

8.10 INTERVAL

BBC SSO Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard discusses his concept of Composer Roots.

CD Track

De Lisle: Marseillaise. Les Lunaisiens

8.25 Part 2

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

Louise Alder, (soprano)

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano)

Stuart Jackson (tenor)

Neal Davies (baritone)

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Voices (Timothy Dean: chorus master)

The BBC SSO explore the roots of Beethoven's symphonies with Thomas Dausgaard.

Beethoven Unleashed: Youthful Beethoven20200416In a week when the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain was to have worked with conductor Marin Alsop on Beethoven's mighty Ninth Symphony, another chance to hear the Orchestra's Proms performance of the same work from 2013.

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain is joined by four soloists and three youthful choirs from the UK and Ireland, including from Derry-Londonderry, the UK City of Culture 2013, in music by Vaughan Williams, Turnage and Beethoven.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Vaughan Williams: Toward The Unknown Region

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Frieze (BBC Co-Commission With The Royal Philharmonic Society And The New York Philharmonic: World Premiere)

20.00 Interval - Beethoven 9 and the RPS

Petroc Trelawny discusses the link between Beethoven and the London-based Royal Philharmonic Society with music writer Helen Wallace, while scholar Amanda Glauert provides an introduction to his Symphony No 9, a product of that fruitful relationship.

20.25

Beethoven: Symphony No 9 In D minor, 'Choral

Ailish Tynan (soprano)

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo)

Toby Spence (tenor)

Gerald Finley (bass)

Codetta

Irish Youth Chamber Choir

National Youth Choir of Great Britain

Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and three youth choirs, from the 2013 BBC Proms.

Beethoven, Haydn, Liszt And Schubert20170604Ian Skelly introduces highlights from concerts recorded recently around Europe, exploring Austro Hungarian connections, including performances from Poland, Switzerland and Eisenstadt, home for Haydn for some 30 years or more at Castle Esterhazy.

Beethoven

Egmont Overture in F minor, Op.84

Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra,

Christoph Campestrini (conductor)

String Quartet in E flat, op. 64/6

Cremona Quartet

Liszt

Piano Concerto No.1 in E-flat, S.124

Martha Argerich (piano)

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Daniel Barenboim (conductor)

Schubert

Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D. 417 ('Tragic')

Christoph Campestrini (conductor).

Ian Skelly presents concerts from around Europe: Beethoven, Haydn, Liszt and Schubert.

Beethoven, Ligeti And Mussorgsky20170319Ian Skelly presents his weekly round-up of some of the most interesting concerts which have taken place in Europe recently.

Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 1, Op. 138

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor

Ligeti: Violin Concerto

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92

Recorded at Musiikkitalo, Helsinki

Mussorgsky ed. Rimsky-Korsakov: Night on the Bare Mountain

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Markus Stenz, conductor

Recorded at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

With Beethoven and Ligeti performed in Helsinki and Mussorgsky from Amsterdam.

Beethoven, Turnage, Chin, Stravinsky20231012Bold juxtapositions and musical mirrors characterise this concert from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their chief conductor Ryan Wigglesworth. Stravinsky's Greek-inspired ballet 'Orpheus' is as melodious as it is sardonic, reflecting the classical sound-world of Beethoven. Unsuk Chin's highly-compressed Beethoven-inspired overture 'con subito forza' forms an echo to Beethoven's own Leonore Overture No 2, which opens the concert. And at the centre of the evening sits a passionate, existential roar of a saxophone concerto by Mark-Anthony Turnage. Saxophonist Martin Robertson becomes the protagonist of Samuel Beckett's monologue, 'Rockaby' in one of the most deeply colourful and dynamic concertos for the instrument ever written.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 2

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Your rockaby

Unsuk Chin: subito con forza

Stravinsky: Orpheus

Martin Robertson (saxophone)

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

Bold sounds from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ryan Wigglesworth perform music by Stravinsky. Saxophonist Martin Robertson joins them for a blistering concerto by Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Beethoven's Beautiful 'pastoral' Symphony20230413Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in music from Messiaen's opera St Francis of Assisi, alongside Beethoven's Sixth Symphony.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Beethoven: Symphony No 6 in F (Pastoral)

8.20 Interval, Kate introduces recent recordings of music to tease out the themes in this evening's concert

Toru Takemitsu: Rain Tree Sketch II

Bertrand Chamayou (piano)

Betsy Jolas: Chanson d'Approche

Roderick Chadwick (piano)

Villa-Lobos: Choros No 3 'Picapau

Sao Paulo Symphony Chorus conducted by John Neschling

8.40 Part Two

Messiaen: Saint Francis of Assisi - Act 2, Scene 6, 'The Sermon to the Birds

Nicky Spence (tenor)

Ashley Riches (baritone)

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

Ryan Wigglesworth, chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, brings to life a performance of the pivotal scene from Messiaen's ecstatic opera St Francis of Assisi. The Sermon to the Birds is delivered by tenor Nicky Spence and baritone Ashley Riches nested within one of the most ravishingly colourful orchestras ever assembled: including a chirruping choir of three ondes martenot, Messiaen's most beloved electronic instrument.

A rare chance to hear this score performed live. It is preceded by a more commonly heard but no less rapturous vision of the natural world, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.

Plus music from the ecstatic opera St Francis of Assisi, conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth.

Beethoven's Emperor Concerto2021042720210506 (R3)The London Philharmonic plays Beethoven and Sibelius in their home at London's Southbank Centre. Robin Ticciati conducts two cornerstones of the repertoire in performances recorded at the end of last month. Beethoven's towering 'Emperor' concerto is followed by Sibelius's life-affirming final symphony.

Recorded 23rd March 2021

Presented by Ian Skelly

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 5 in E flat major, Op 73 ('Emperor')

Interval music

Sibelius: Six Songs, Op 36

Katarina Karn退us (mezzo-soprano)

Julius Drake (piano)

Sibelius: Symphony No 7 in C major, Op 105

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Denis Kozhukhin (piano)

Robin Ticciati (conductor)

The London Philharmonic Orchestra play Sibelius and Beethoven at the Royal Festival Hall.

Beethoven's Emperor Concerto From The Glasshouse In Gateshead20230926In Royal Northern Sinfonia's season opening concert at The Glasshouse in Gateshead, we'll hear Elisabeth Leonskaja performing Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto - 'The Emperor', alongside the world premiere of a new work, 'Swim' by Cassandra Miller. Robert Schumann's 'Rhenish' Symphony completes the programme.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 'Emperor

Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano)

Dinis Sousa (conductor)

INTERVAL: Fairy Tales by Schumann

Michel Portal, clarinet

Gerard Causs退, viola

Mikhail Rudy, piano

c. 8.30pm

Cassandra Miller - Swim (World Premiere)

Robert Schumann - Symphony No. 3 'Rhenish

Beethoven, Cassandra Miller and Schumann from Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Beethoven's Emperor From The Ulster Hall20220707John Toal introduces the Ulster Orchestra in concert from the Ulster Hall, Belfast, in a rich programme of Beethoven, Shostakovich and George Walker. The conductor is Jamie Phillips.

The first half is devoted to Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, The Emperor, with Barry Douglas at the keyboard. It's one of the monumental masterpieces of the repertoire, sitting between his Leonore Overture No. 2 and Symphony No. 7. and one which particularly resonates with this evening's soloist.

During the interval John Toal hears from Barry Douglas about this and the 2022 Clandeboye Festival in Co. Down, of which he's Artistic Director.

Two works make up the second half, beginning with George Walker's Lyric for Strings. It started life as the second movement of a string quartet, before he extracted it, named it Lament and dedicated to his grandmother: a remarkable woman who lost her first husband to the slave trade and endured slavery herself. It later took the title Lyric for Strings, but remained an elegy in his grandmother's honour.

Shostakovich wrote his Ninth Symphony in 1945 and it was originally intended to commemorate the Soviet victory over Germany in the Second World War. Large forces including orchestra, soloists and chorus, had been promised with the idea of celebrating the Russian people and the Red Army's liberation of their homeland. However, when it finally appeared, neither soloists or chorus featured, and the work's 'light' style surprised many. Shortly after its premiere, the work was censored and banned from performance by the Soviet authorities.

Barry Douglas performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 5, 'Emperor'.

Beethoven's Four, A Concerto And Symphony20201023Live from the Royal Festival Hall - the London Philharmonic play Beethoven.

As part of Southbank Centre's Inside Out season one of the centre's Resident Orchestras leaps into action with a fascinating rarity by the dashing Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges - violinist, composer and champion swordsman. And in a daring sleight of hand, Beethoven asks the pianist to steal in before the orchestra in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto. The soloist Nicolas Namoradze promises to bring his poetic touch to that and also to the haunting slow movement, likened to Orpheus's journey to the Underworld. Also on the bill, Daniele Rustioni conducts a Beethoven symphony which is unjustly overlooked and soprano Sophie Bevan sings of the pains of betrayal in love.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Bologne: Overture L'amant anonyme

Beethoven: Piano Concerto no. 4 in G major, Op.58

Beethoven: Ah! Perfido, Op. 65

Beethoven: Symphony no. 4 in B flat Op. 60

Nicolas Namoradze (piano)

Sophie Bevan (soprano)

Daniele Rustioni (conductor)

Followed by music chosen by young people involved in the outreach programmes and artist development schemes run by Southbank's Resident and Associate orchestras and Creative Learning Partners.

Beethoven with the London Philharmonic, live from the Royal Festival Hall.

Beethoven's Last Piano Concerto Meets Shostakovich's Final Symphony20220422Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto begins with epic majesty and grandeur and ends with a joyfully rambunctious finale; in between, time seems suspended in serene, hymn-like stillness. Tonight's soloist is internationally renowned Beatrice Rana ‘one of the most insightful and prodigiously gifted artists of the new generation', according to the New York Times.

Gianandrea Noseda's acclaimed Shostakovich symphony cycle with the LSO has arrived at the elusive No. 15. Completed in 1970, Shostakovich's final symphony disconcerts as raspberry-blowing perkiness rubs shoulders with bleak despair, and overt musical quotations are subverted by mysterious musical ciphers. And even the meagre reassurance of Shostakovich's trademark sardonic humour seems to be undermined by the final dehumanised clockwork of the symphony's close.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall in February and introduced by Martin Handley.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 ('Emperor')

8.20 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Bach:

Sinfonia (Cantata No. 29)

Chorus: Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal (Cantata No. 146)

Sinfonia (Cantata No. 174)

Bach Collegium Japan, Masaaki Suzuki

8.35 pm

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op.141

Beatrice Rana (piano)

London Symphony Orchestra

Gianandrea Noseda (conductor)

Gianandrea Noseda conducts the London Symphony Orchestra. Beatrice Rana is the soloist.

Beethoven's Missa Solemnis20220314Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in Munich.
Beethoven's Missa Solemnis With The Lso And Michael Tilson Thomas20180523Recorded earlier this month at the Barbican Centre in London, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, one of the composer's greatest achievements with its imposing orchestration and majestic fugues inspired by traditional liturgical forms from the Renaissance and the Baroque. The soloists are soprano Camilla Tilling; the mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke; the tenor Toby Spence; and the bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, who are joined by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, all conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, who comes back to the piece highlighting the symphonic and even operatic undertones of this matchless creation. Ian Skelly presents.

Camilla Tilling (soprano)

Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano)

Toby Spence (tenor)

Luca Pisaroni (bass-baritone)

London Symphony Chorus

Simon Halsey (chorus master)

Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor).

Beethoven's Missa Solemnis recorded at the Barbican with the LSO and Michael Tilson Thomas

Beethoven's Ode To Joy20200130Live from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester the Hall退 Orchestra launch their celebratory Beethoven cycle, marking the 250th anniversary of his birth.

Beethoven: Leonore Overture No.3

Beethoven: Elegischer Gesang

Beethoven: The Ruins of Athens: Overture

Beethoven: Christ on the Mount of Olives: Angel's Chorus

Beethoven: Symphony No.9, ‘Choral

Elizabeth Atherton (soprano)

Sarah Castle (mezzo-soprano)

David Butt Philip (tenor)

Neal Davies (bass)

Hall退 Choir

Hall退 Youth Choir

RNCM Chorus

Halle Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

The Halle Orchestra with an all-Beethoven concert, live from Manchester.

Beethoven's Second Symphony And Rossini's Stabat Mater20231205Rossini's late Stabat Mater is a choral masterwork which he completed well over a decade after the end of his operatic career. In setting the medieval Latin text recounting the sorrows of the Virgin Mary at the crucifixion, Rossini responded with music that exudes qualities of granite and grandeur. Such was the success of its premiere that within the following year it had been performed all over Europe 29 times!

Beethoven's Second Symphony, full of the wit and high spirits we also associate with Rossini, make it the perfect companion to the Stabat Mater, and a great opener to the concert.

Recorded at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester last month.

Presented by Miriam Skinner.

Beethoven: Symphony No.2 in D major, Op.36

Rossini: Stabat Mater

Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (soprano)

Claudia Huckle (contralto)

Enea Scala (tenor)

William Thomas (bass)

Hallé Choir

Hallé Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Halle at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall.

Sir Mark Elder conducts a quartet of soloists, the Hallé Choir and Orchestra in Beethoven's Second Symphony and Rossini's Stabat Mater at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall.

Beethoven's Seventh Symphony And Thomas Larcher's Alle Tage20190208Karina Canellakis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Thomas Larcher's song-symphony, with baritone Thomas Oliemans, and Beethoven's sunny Seventh.

Live at the Barbican Hall

Presented by Martin Handley

Thomas Larcher: Alle Tage (UK Premiere)

8.15pm

Interval

8.35pm

Beethoven: Symphony No.7 in A, Op.92

Thomas Oliemans (baritone)

Karina Canellakis (conductor)

Karina Canellakis made an exciting debut with the BBCSO at the 2017 BBC Proms and returned last year to equal acclaim. Her direction was praised for 'its muscularity and spirit, with not a shred of needless flamboyance. Clarity is her hallmark' and her Beethoven 'was described as 'explosive and making you sit up'.

Tonight her affinity with Beethoven's music will be on display again in the composer's dance-infused Seventh Symphony, written when, plagued by the onset of deafness, he was convalescing in the spa town of Teplitz. Getting away from it all is also key to the contemporary Austrian composer Thomas Larcher, who grew up in the seclusion of the Alps. First up in the concert is the UK premiere of his Alle Tage, 'All Days', a song-symphony for baritone which sets words by Ingeborg Bachmann, who as a teenager lived under the Nazis. Alle Tage contemplates - through images as far ranging as the Great Bear constellation to perpetual warfare - human displacement and the search for identity. Larcher's original and hypnotic music led The Times recently to describe him as ` - one of this century's wonders`, whose music combines shimmering lyricism with motoric rhythmic thrust.

Karina Canellakis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, live from the Barbican Hall.

Beethoven's Violin Concerto20211210Recorded last month at City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Tobias Feldmann joins conductor David Afkham and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to play Beethoven's famous concerto, followed by music by Unsuk Chin and Schumann.

Beethoven: Violin Concerto

8.15 Interval

As a prelude to Unsuk Chin's 'subito conforza' in Part 2 a chance to hear more of her music as part of a sequence which also includes recordings of music by 2 Korean-born composers from previous generations: Isang Yun, and Sukhi Kang.

8.30 Part Two

Unsuk Chin: Subito con forza

Schumann: Symphony No. 3 (Rhenish)

Tobias Feldmann (violin)

David Afkham (conductor)

Photo: David Afkham (credit, Gisela Schenker)

David Afkham conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with soloist Tobias Feldmann.

Before The Ending Of The Day: Choral Music For Remembrance Sunday20211114Recorded in St Paul's, Knightsbridge, the BBC Singers and their Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin perform a sequence of music based on the Office of Compline, the final church service of the day. The music draws heavily on the themes of Remembrance Sunday, alongside the contemporary British composer Ben Rowarth's settings of texts from Compline.

Hannah Kendall: Regina Caeli

John Tavener: Exhortation

Ben Rowarth: Night Prayer Psalms (Psalms 4, 91 & 134)

John Tavener: Kohima

James Macmillan: A Child's Prayer

Dobrinka Tabakova: Alma Redemptoris Mater

Ben Rowarth: For the Fallen

Josephine Stephenson: Into thy hands

Ben Rowarth: Night Prayer excerpts: Nunc Dimittis, The Lord's Prayer, Marian Antiphon (Regina Caeli)

Sofi Jeannin - conductor

Sofi Jeannin conducts choral music for Compline, drawing on themes of Remembrancetide.

Belcea Quartet With Bertrand Chamayou20230414Shostakovich's Piano Quintet in G minor was first performed in November 1940 by the Beethoven Quartet and Shostakovich himself. For the premiere of C退sar Franck's F minor Quintet, the piano part was taken by none other than Camille Saint-Sa뀀ns. Franck had written it out for him with an appended note: 'To my good friend Camille Saint-Sa뀀ns', whose piano music we hear in the interval this evening.

Recorded at Wigmore Hall, London, presented by Martin Handley.

Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G minor Op. 57

Belcea Quartet

Bertrand Chamayou, piano

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Etudes Op.52 - No.2 'Pour L'independance des doigts' & No.6 Etude en forme de valse

Etudes Op.111 No.1 'Tierces majeures et mineures' & No.4 Les Cloches de Las Palmas

Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor

Music by Shostakovich and Franck, recorded at London's Wigmore Hall.

Belcea Quartet: Schubert And Shostakovich20170215The Belcea Quartet plays Schubert and Shostakovich.

Recorded on Sunday 12 February 2017 at Wigmore Hall, London.

Schubert: String Quartet in G major, D887

8.15: Interval

8.35

Shostakovich: String Quartet No 15

Shostakovich's final and longest string quartet, supremely introspective and fully reconciled to the inevitability of death, offers an intimate portrait of the Soviet composer during his last years.

The Belcea Quartet has programmed it together with another fifteenth and final string quartet, Schubert's profound reflection on impermanence and everchanging reality.

The Belcea Quartet plays music by Schubert and Shostakovich at London's Wigmore Hall.

Bella Italia20230602The Ulster Orchestra's music director, Daniele Rustioni, joins them to conduct their season finale in a programme celebrating Italy, with music by Berlioz, Elgar and Respighi.

Opening the concert, the British violist Timothy Ridout joins the orchestra as soloist in Berlioz's symphonic work 'Harold in Italy' in which the soloist takes on the role of, in the composer's words, a 'melancholy dreamer' who moves through each of the orchestral scenes. Then in Elgar's 'In the South', we see the composer inspired by his surroundings during a holiday to Alassio in Northern Italy around 1903. The overture, which has also been seen by many as a tone poem, was dedicated to his friend Leo F. Schuster and premiered by the Hall退 Orchestra in 1904 conducted by the composer.

To finish the concert, Respighi's 'Pines of Rome' explores some of the city's most famous and evocative landmarks. Premiered in 1924, the suite is the second in a series of works known as the 'Roman Trilogy'- the other two works being 'Fountains and Rome' and 'Roman Festivals'. Of the music, the composer himself wrote that he used, '...nature as a point of departure, to recall memories and visions.

Interval: Backstage Pass

In the first in a new series, celebrated violinist Tasmin Little meets members of BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme for a game of musical ping-pong - exchanging thoughts and stories about the music, the excitements and occasional trials and tribulations of what it means to be a musician today. Tasmin's guest tonight is British viola player Timothy Ridout, recent graduate of the NGA scheme and already a major player on the international stage.

Berlioz- Harold in Italy

Elgar- In the South

Respighi- Pines of Rome

Timothy Ridout, viola

Daniele Rustioni, conductor

Presented by John Toal

The Ulster Orchestra perform works by Berlioz, Elgar and Respighi.

Bells And Balls20190919The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra ring in their new season with their brand new set of full-size church bells. They're put to good use in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique - the love struck young composers thrilling evocation of opium fueled dreams, a glittering ball, and a witches sabbath.

The young Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii who has been blind since birth and who won the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition also joins the orchestra for Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2. Famous for its appearance in Brief Encounter Rachmaninov dedicated it to his therapist who helped him recover after a nervous breakdown.

The evening starts with the world premiere of a new piece by young Hong Kong born British composer Dani Howard.

Live from Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Dani Howard: Coalescence

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2

Nobuyuki Tsujii (piano)

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

Berlioz, Rachmaninov and a world premiere by Dani Howard live from Liverpool.

Belshazzar's Feast20190415John Wilson brings his flair to Walton's extravagant telling of the fall of Babylon. Performed by City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. It's not just British music, also on the programme are Copland's folk-like evocation of American life Appalachian Spring and Barber's lyric and intimate Violin Concerto, played by James Ehnes.

PART ONE

Copland: Appalachian Spring

Barber: Violin Concerto

INTERVAL (from disc)

Walton: Fa瀀ade (selection)

Carole Boyd and Zeb Soames (narrators)

Ensemble 7x3 conducted by John Wilson

PART TWO

Walton: Belshazzar's Feast

James Ehnes - Violin

Božidar Smiljani? (baritone)

CBSO Chorus

University of Birmingham Voices

John Wilson (conductor)

Belshazzar's Feast20200512John Wilson brings his flair to Walton's extravagant telling of the fall of Babylon. Performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. It's not just British music, also on the programme are Copland's folk-like evocation of American life, Appalachian Spring, and Barber's lyric and intimate Violin Concerto, played by James Ehnes. Presented by Tom Redmond.

PART ONE

Copland: Appalachian Spring

Barber: Violin Concerto

INTERVAL (from disc)

Walton: Fa瀀ade (selection)

Carole Boyd and Zeb Soanes (narrators)

Ensemble 7x3 conducted by John Wilson

PART TWO

Walton: Belshazzar's Feast

James Ehnes - Violin

Božidar Smiljani? (baritone)

CBSO Chorus

University of Birmingham Voices

John Wilson (conductor)

Benjamin Grosvenor And Friends Play Brahms And Schubert20180529Live from Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London

Presented by Mark Forrest

7.30pm

Brahms

Piano Quartet No 1 in G minor, Op 25

Bartok

Rhapsody No 1 for violin and piano

c.8.20pm

Interval Music

c.8.40pm

Schubert

Notturno in E flat for piano trio, D 897

Piano Quintet in A major, D 667 'Trout

Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)

Hyeyoon Park (violin)

Timothy Ridout (viola)

Kian Soltani (cello)

Leon Bosch (double bass)

Piano superstar Benjamin Grosvenor is joined by an esteemed group of musicians including Hyeyoon Park, Timothy Ridout and Kian Soltani to perform Brahms' Piano Quartet No 1 in G minor, whose premiere in 1861 featured Clara Schumann as pianist. After the interval, Leon Bosch expands the ensemble for Schubert's Piano Quintet in A major, popularly known as the 'Trout Quintet' due to its fourth movement set of variations, based Schubert's song, The Trout.

Benjamin Grosvenor and Friends play Brahms's Piano Quartet No 1 & Schubert's Trout Quintet

Benjamin Grosvenor In Recital At The Barbican Hall20200129As part of this week's BBC New Generation Artists scheme 20th anniversary celebrations, Martin Handley presents a solo recital given by pianist Benjamin Grosvenor at the Barbican Hall in May.

No one who saw Grosvenor win the keyboard section of the 2004 BBC Young Musician competition will have forgotten the shock of hearing the sound this unassuming 11-year-old could produce from a piano. After his 2010-12 stint on the BBC NGA scheme, when the opportunity for chamber music collaborations broadened his music making further, Grosvenor rapidly established an international, critically acclaimed career.

Grosvenor's engaging lack of affectation and satisfying musicianship combined with a virtuoso technique, is coupled to a fresh and intriguing approach to programming -- all amply demonstrated in this recital recorded when he was still only 26: 'truly exceptional' was how one critic described it.

Schumann: Blumenstück, Op.19

Kreisleriana, Op.16

Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)

8.20pm Interval Music from former BBC New Generation Artists

Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor Op.34 (extract)

Escher String Quartet

(Recorded at the 2012 Cheltenham Festival)

Webern: Langsamer Satz

Signum Quartett

(CD, released 2012)

8.40pm

Leoš Janက?ek : Piano Sonata 1.X.1905

Prokofiev: Visions fugitives, Op.22 (selection)

Liszt: R退miniscences de Norma de Bellini

The young virtuoso pianist plays Schumann, Jan\u00e1\u010dek, Prokofiev and Liszt.

Beowulf And Job20230418The BBC SO and Chorus conducted by Martyn Brabbins premiere Iain Bell's Beowulf with narrator Ruth Wilson and tenor Charles Styles, plus Vaughan Williams's take on stoical Job.

`Now with Grendel, that monstrous beast / With my grip I shall grapple, foe against foe!` In the mists of the dark ages, the warrior Beowulf prepares to battle a bloodthirsty monster. And in a tale from the Old Testament, Job faces the torments of hell, armed only with an unshakable faith. Humanity can defy all odds, and these two ancient tales have inspired music of elemental power.

Indeed, Vaughan Williams's ballet Job is one of the most original masterpieces of 20th century British music - bold, strange and charged with the elemental power of the William Blake drawings that inspired it. But first, experience the epic drama of Beowulf, in a thrilling new choral retelling from one of the 21st century's most compelling musical dramatists, narrated by award-winning actor Ruth Wilson and with soloist Charles Styles.

Recorded at the Barbican London on 17 March

Presented by Martin Handley

Iain Bell: Beowulf (World Premiere & BBC Commission)

20:10 Interval Music off CD

Doreen Carwithen String Quartet No.1, 1st Movt.

Sorrel Quartet

Plus music chosen by Iain Bell:

Kaija Saariaho: Prelude for Piano

Ieva Jokubaviciute (piano)

20:30

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Job: A Masque for Dancing

Ruth Wilson (narrator)

Charles Styles (tenor)

BBC Symphony Chorus

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

The BBC SO conducted by Martyn Brabbins in Iain Bell's Beowulf with narrator Ruth Wilson.

Berg And Beethoven20200213Simon Rattle has made the not very difficult prediction that Beethoven will be absolutely inescapable this year, the 250th anniversary of his birth. He's made sure of it in this concert which pairs Berg's Violin Concerto with Beethoven's rarely heard oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives. Rarely heard perhaps because when it's judged by the yardstick Beethoven himself set (it comes from the same year, 1803, as the mould-breaking Eroica Symphony), it falls short. But there's much to enjoy here and it's hard to know why it's been so thoroughly neglected. It focuses on Jesus's humanity as it tells the story of His last hours, Calvary looming but not depicted. Be prepared for some striking music, including an atmospheric orchestral introduction, stirring choruses and coloratura arias. And a performance of anything with the LSO and the Simon Halsey-prepared LSO Chorus conducted by Rattle is going to be special.

Berg's 1935 Violin Concerto has long been considered a 20th-century classic. Dedicated by Berg 'To the memory of an angel' (the 18-year-old daughter of Berg's close friends), it manages to walk the tightrope of 12-tone technique and recognisable tonality, movingly including a Bach chorale at the beginning of its final movement. It's played tonight by world-renowned Georgian-born German violinist Lisa Batiashvili.

Presented live from the Barbican Hall by Martin Handley.

Berg: Violin Concerto

8.10pm

Interval music (from CD)

Haydn: String Quartet No. 5 in G Major, Op.33 'How do you do?

Quatuor Hanson

8.30pm

Beethoven: Christ on the Mount of Olives

Lisa Batiashvili (violin)

Elsa Dreisig (soprano)

Pavol Breslik (tenor)

David Soar (bass)

London Symphony Chorus

Simon Halsey (chorus director)

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Photo - Mark Allen

Simon Rattle conducts Berg's Violin Concerto and Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Grieg, Sibelius, Bartok20170118Live from The Anvil, Basingstoke

Presented by Martin Handley

The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra with its Chief Conductor Edward Gardner

Grieg: Peer Gynt (selection)

Sibelius: Violin Concerto

8.35: Interval

8.55

Bart k: Concerto for Orchestra

Baiba Skride, violin

Edward Gardner, conductor

After tonight's concert there's a chance to hear works performed during a recent concert that surveyed music written and performed in Terezin and the Warsaw Ghetto - Music on the Brink of Destruction.

Edward Gardner conducts the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Grieg, Sibelius and Bartok.

Bergen Philharmonic Plays Mahler's Second Symphony20210107Fiona Talkington presents one of the highlights of last year's concert season.

Soprano Miah Persson and mezzo-soprano Lise Davidsen join the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Gustav Mahler's hugely emotive Symphony No.2 - The Resurrection.

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.2 in C minor, 'Resurrection

Miah Persson, soprano

Lisa Davidsen, mezzo-soprano

Edvard Grieg Kor

Collegium Musicum Bergen

Edward Gardner, conductor

Concert given Grieg Hall in Bergen, Norway in September 2019.

Image: Benjamin Ealovega

Edward Gardner conducts the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Mahler's Second Symphony.

Berlin Philharmonic20200622Fiona Talkington presents a concert by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Kirill Petrenko, including Zimmermann's rarely performed but astoundingly inventive Alagoana, based on Brasilian rhythms, alongside two of the most spectacular orchestral scores of the 20th century.

Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements

Zimmermann: Alagoana - Caprichos Brasileiros, ballet suite

Interval: CPE Bach: Sinfonia in F major, Wq 181

Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin

Part 2

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, op. 45

Kirill Petrenko, conductor

Recorded in the Philharmonie, Berlin, in February.

Afterwards: Post-concert chamber music from the wind section of the Berlin Philharmonic:

Mozart: Serenade in B flat K 361

Berlin Philharmonic Wind Ensemble

Image Credit: Stephan Rabold

Concerts from Europe and around the world. The Berlin Philharmonic with Kirill Petrenko.

Berlin Philharmonic20210607Performed on 11 March, this concert marked a melancholy anniversary: the exact date a year ago when all German opera houses and concert halls were closed in a bid to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But there can be few more life-affirming pieces than Beethoven's 'Emperor' concerto with its positive and assertive outer movements flanking a hushed, spiritual Adagio. And there can be few pianists today with a reputation for Beethoven-playing as universally admired as Igor Levit.

The concerto perfectly complements Prokofiev's emotionally complex Sixth Symphony. Begun in the shadow of the World War II and completed after a fall that left him in a much reduced state, it's an unsettling combination of child-like jollity, nightmarish aggression and lament.

Recorded at the Berlin Philharmonie and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat, op. 73 ('Emperor')

Igor Levit (piano)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Paavo J䀀rvi (conductor)

8.15 pm

Interval music (from CD):

Ravel: Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet (1905)

Emmanuel Pahud (flute)

Wenzel Fuchs (clarinet)

Marie-Pierre Langlamet (harp)

Christophe Horကk and Simon Roturier (violins)

Ignacy Miecznikowski (viola)

Bruno Delepelaire (cello)

8.30 pm

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 in E flat minor, op. 111

Paavo J\u00e4rvi conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in Beethoven and Prokofiev.

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra20220221Michael Francis conducts the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, Szymanowski's 6 Songs of the Fairytale Princess and Elgar's Enigma Variations. This concert was recorded at Berlin's Konzerthaus in October 2021.

Ravel - Ma mere l'oye Suite

Szymanowski - 6 Songs of the Fairytale Princess

Iwona Sobotka (soprano)

Michael Francis (conductor)

INTERVAL:

Szymanowski - String Quartet No.2, Op.56

Szymanowski Quartet

Elgar - Enigma Variations, Op.36

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Image: © Felix Broede

Michael Francis conducts the Berlin RSO in Ravel, Szymanowski and Elgar.

Berlin's Best20190718Georgia Mann introduces the final concert in a short series of highlights from Europe's 2018/19 season.

Kirill Petrenko, the Berlin Philharmonic's Chief Conductor Designate, doesn't officially take the orchestra's reins until this summer. But already this musical partnership, with its combination of technical brilliance and edge-of-the-seat spontaneity, is the most talked-about in Europe, routinely receiving five-star reviews, critical superlatives and standing ovations. In this concert recorded in March at the Berlin Philharmonie, Petrenko and the orchestra are joined by another musician noted for daring spontaneity, Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Schoenberg's Violin Concerto, written in 1936 during the early years of his US exile from Germany, has the Viennese tradition, and especially Brahms, at its core. The other work is by Tchaikovsky, his Fifth Symphony, a composer particularly close to Petrenko's heart.

Schoenberg: Violin Concerto, Op. 36

8.40pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Stravinsky: Three Movements from Petrushka

Alexander Melnikov (piano)

8.55pm

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Kirill Petrenko (conductor)

Kirill Petrenko conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in Schoenberg and Tchaikovsky.

Berlioz And Dohnanyi20200216Highlights of concerts in New York and Prague, featuring the music of Berlioz and Dohnanyi, introduced by Fiona Talkington.

The 2019 Prague Spring International Music Festival paid tribute to the French composer Hector Berlioz, 150 years after his death, with a concert featuring two of his major works. And the young players of The Now Orchestra tackle a lesser known symphony by Ern怀 Dohnကnyi in New York.

Berlioz: Harold in Italy

Karel Untermüller (viola)

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

John Nelson (conductor)

Berlioz: Te Deum

Nicholas Phan (tenor)

Pavel Cerny (organ)

Slovak Philharmonic Chorus

Kühn Chorus, Prague

Prague Philharmonic Children´s Choir

Recorded at the 2019 Prague Spring International Music Festival 

Dohnကnyi: Symphony No 2

The Orchestra Now

Leon Botstein (conductor)

Recorded in 2017 at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

Highlights from classical concerts in New York and Prague

Berlioz, Grande Messe Des Morts20161114Berlioz's spectacular Grande messe de morts (Requiem) performed at the Royal Albert Hall by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and massed choral forces conducted by Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Berlioz: Requiem - Grande messe des morts

Toby Spence (tenor)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Crouch End Festival Chorus

London Philharmonic Choir

Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth (conductor)

Of all the Requiems, Berlioz's epic Grande messe des morts is among the largest. It involves a gargantuan ensemble, including huge choir, 10 timpanists and 4 offstage brass bands, and unleashes an incredible range of expression with masterful theatricality.

This breathtaking, roof-raising masterwork was written to commemorate the fallen of the 1830 French Revolution and was a great success at its 1837 premiere. It was performed in the similarly epic Royal Albert Hall with the massed choral forces of the BBC Symphony and Crouch End Festival Choruses, the London Philharmonic Choir, tenor Toby Spence and conductor Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth on Remembrance Sunday.

Recorded on 13th November at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Berlioz's Grande messe des morts with the BBC SO and choirs at the Royal Albert Hall.

Berlioz's The Childhood Of Christ20181224Berlioz's Christmas oratorio L'enfance du Christ. Edward Gardner conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, BBC Singers and star soloists.

Recorded at the Barbican on 17th December 2018

Presented by Martin Handley

BERLIOZ: L'Enfance du Christ

Karen Cargill (Mezzo-soprano)

Robert Murray (Tenor)

Etienne Dupuis (Baritone)

Matthew Rose (Bass)

BBC Singers (offstage Angels)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Edward Gardner (Conductor)

Berlioz's oratorio L'enfance du Christ (The Childhood of Christ) , home to the much-loved ‘Shepherds' Farewell' chorus, is a ravishing retelling of the Christmas story with echoes of Bach's Passions. Premiered in 1854 the French composer's inimitable stylistic fingerprints combine in the work to produce music of tender ‘celestial' beauty, operatic flair, and dramatic instinct. Edward Gardner conducts a superb cast and continues the 90th birthday celebrations of the BBC Symphony Chorus.

Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ with the BBC SO, Singers, Chorus and soloists.

Bernard Haitink 90th Birthday Concert20190311Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

The London Symphony Orchestra celebrates a milestone birthday of one of the greats of the conducting world, Bernard Haitink.

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 22

Interval

Bruckner: Symphony No 4

Till Fellner, piano

Bernard Haitink, conductor

Bernard Haitink is revered alike by the musicians of the orchestras he conducts and the music-lovers in the audience. In a career spanning over 60 years, he has worked with the great ensembles and opera houses - the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera, the Staatskapelle Dresden and many others.

A week after his 90th birthday, the London Symphony Orchestra - with which he has a particularly special partnership - celebrates this milestone with the conductor himself. In the first half, soloist Till Fellner plays Mozart, before Haitink turns to Bruckner, a composer whose music has been at the centre of his career over the decades.

The London Symphony Orchestra celebrates the 90th birthday of conductor Bernard Haitink.

Bernard Haitink Conducts Bruckner's Symphony No 620190526Bruckner's Symphony No 6 in A, from Amsterdam, conducted by Bernard Haitink.
Bernstein's Songfest: Thomas Dausgaard And The Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra20180920Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Bernstein's Songfest, and they're joined by Marc-Andr退 Hamelin in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man

Augusta Read Thomas: Brio

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

20:00 Interval

20:20

Bernstein: Songfest

Marc-Andr退 Hamelin (piano)

Tracy Cantin (soprano)

Michele Losier (mezzo)

Kelley O'Connor (alto)

Paul Appleby (tenor)

Nmon Ford (baritone)

Musa Ngqungwana (bass)

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

To open its 2018/2019 Glasgow Concert Season the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard explore the American roots and resonances of Leonard Bernstein in this his centenary year.

Before his richly-scored, multi-voiced and genre-defying Songfest, Dausgaard and the orchestra play Copland's stately Fanfare for the Common Man; the European premiere of a vivid work by one of America's leading contemporary composers, Augusta Read Thomas; and a pioneering musical experiment whose vernacular virtuosity would have a major impact on Bernstein - Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC SSO open their new season with Leonard Bernstein's Songfest

Better Than Brahms20191108When Brahms heard Dvo?ကk's Cello Concerto he famously said that if he'd known it was possible to write such a work, he would have had a go himself. But neither he nor anyone else has ever come up with a cello concerto more fresh-sounding, tuneful and expressive. Dvo?ကk's sudden death in 1904, less than a decade after he had finished the concerto, was the original motivation behind a moving musical tribute by his son-in-law. Josef Suk named his 'Asrael' Symphony after the Hebrew Angel of Death who tragically struck again the following year, as Suk was composing. This time Suk's wife - Dvo?ကk's daughter Otilie - was his victim and Suk now reshaped the symphony as a tribute to father and daughter. For 20 years this extraordinary dual requiem has been on John Eliot Gardiner's to-do list and he conducts it for the first time tonight.

Recorded last month at the Barbican Hall and presented by Georgia Mann.

Dvo?ကk: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op 104

8.25

Interval Music (from CD)

Janက?ek: Mlကd퀀

London Winds

8.45

Josef Suk: Symphony No 2, ‘Asrael

Truls Mørk (cello)

London Symphony Orchestra

John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)

Photograph credit - Johs Boe

Truls M\u00f8rk joins the LSO for Dvo\u0159\u00e1k's Cello Concerto, music Brahms wished he'd written

Beverley And East Riding Early Music Festival20210623Two glorious concerts this evening from the sumptuous surroundings of Beverley Minster, nestled in the east Yorkshire countryside between York and Hull.

As part of the 2021 Beverley & East Riding Early Music Festival, vocal ensemble Stile Antico take us 'Toward the Dawn'. Their programme charts a course from twilight to sunrise, seductive and unsettling in equal measure. Taverner's mighty Ave Dei patris filia stands at the end of a delicious sequence of sacred music, chansons and madrigals by English and Continental composers including Byrd, Lassus and Tallis. Thrill to the spine-tingling sounds of Allegri's beloved Miserere and enter into the glorious sound world of Nico Muhly's Gentle Sleep, a haunting setting of words by Shakespeare, written especially for the twelve voices of Stile Antico.

Then, the acclaimed instrumental ensemble La Serenissima brings the life-affirming music of 18th-century Venice and Northern Italy in the form of music by Vivaldi, Samartini and Brescianello. Sharing the stage with recorder virtuoso Tabea Debus, La Serenissima's concert is guaranteed to lift the spirits and truly bring the heady sounds of the Venetian summer to the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Presented by Hannah French

Stile Antico and La Serenissima perform at Beverley Minster in East Yorkshire.

Bezuidenhout, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Mozart20181107A passionate advocate of Mozart, Kristian Bezuidenhout directs the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in a concert from the City Halls in Glasgow in homage to Mozart. The uplifting and joyous Symphony No 29 is paired with the later, more complex Piano Concerto No 24, one of the few works that Mozart wrote in the minor key. South African pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout directs from the podium and the piano.

CPE BACH Symphony No 2 in E-flat, Wq 183

MOZART Symphony No 29 in A, K201

Interval at around 8.10pm. Kate Molleson introduces one of only two surviving works Mozart wrote for the bassoon: the Sonata for bassoon and cello K292 (realised here on the fortepiano by Kristian Bezuidenhout) and Beethoven's Adelaide performed by Bezuidenhout in collaboration with Mark Padmore.

MOZART Piano Concerto No 24 in C minor, K491

MOZART Rondo in A major, K386

Kristian Bezuidenhout, conductor

Presented by Kate Molleson

Produced by Lindsay Pell

Pianist and director Kristian Bezuidenhout and the SCO pay homage to Mozart.

Big Rns Birthday Gala20180925The Royal Northern Sinfonia, celebrates its sixtieth anniversary with a monumental concert from the Sage Gateshead - including music of, and inspired by, the 'First Viennese School', archive recordings, and a new commission by Errollyn Wallen.

Beethoven: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage

Faur退: Pavane

Mozart: Laudate Dominum

Mozart: Exsultate, Jubilate

FIRST INTERVAL

Poulenc: Concert champꀀtre

Prokofiev: Symphony No 1 in D Major, 'Classical

Wallen: RNS Birthday Commission

SECOND INTERVAL

Haydn: Symphony No 6, ‘Le matin

Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn

Lars Vogt: Conductor

Mahan Esfahani: Harpsichord

Sarah Tynan: Soprano

Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia

The Royal Northern Sinfonia celebrates its sixtieth birthday.

Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra And Chorus, Verdi, Verlaak20160628Barry Wordsworth conducts the Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Verdi's Verdi Messa di Requiem and Maya Verlaak's Carrier.

After 30 years, the Adrian Boult Hall in Birmingham closes its doors for the last time as the Birmingham Conservatoire begins its gradual move to a new site on the city's East Side. This month the hall, affectionately known by locals as the ABH, is demolished - all part of Birmingham's new massive central development. Tom Redmond introduces the final gala concert from the hall, a performance by the Conservatoire's students and alumni of Verdi's great Requiem, prefaced with a specially composed piece for the occasion.

Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham

Presented by Tom Redmond

Maya Verlaak: Carrier (world premiere)

Members of Birmingham Conservatoire conducted by Christopher Holding

Verdi: Messa di Requiem

Caroline Modiba, soprano

Victoria Simmonds, mezzo-soprano

David Butt Philip, tenor

Barnaby Rea, bass

Barry Wordsworth, conductor.

The Adrian Boult Hall's last concert, featuring Verdi's Requiem and Maya Verlaak's Carrier

Birtwistle's Gawain20140715Sir Harrison Birtwistle's epic Gawain. Sir John Tomlinson is the Green Knight and Leigh Melrose, Gawain. The BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers are conducted by Martyn Brabbins. Presented by Tom Service with Birtwistle expert Professor Jonathan Cross.

Gawain ..... Leigh Melrose (baritone)

The Green Knight ..... John Tomlinson (bass)

Morgan Le Fay ..... Laura Aikin (soprano)

Lady de Hautdesert ..... Jennifer Johnston (mezzo)

King Arthur ..... Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts (tenor)

A Fool ..... John Graham-Hall (tenor)

Guinevere ..... Rachel Nicholls (soprano)

Bishop Baldwin ..... William Towers (countertenor)

Agravain ..... Ivan Ludlow (baritone)

Ywain ..... Robert Anthony Gardiner (tenor)

Martyn Brabbins conductor

Andrew Griffiths conductor

Birtwistle's iconic opera of the 1990s dramatizes the mysterious Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with sombre, often shattering, power. He and librettist David Harsent cast the story in two cyclical acts, emphasising the ritual aspects of the epic saga, and lending it hieratic force. The part of the Green Knight was modelled on the range of Wotan, and is pitted against the baritone Gawain. But is it Morgan Le Fay who is really controlling events? A rare opportunity to hear this striking modern classic, from an orchestra, chorus and conductor steeped in Birtwistle's music. And Sir John Tomlinson reprises the role he created, and he alone has sung.

From the Barbican in London, a concert staging of Harrison Birtwistle's opera Gawain.

Black Dyke Band At Rncm Brass Band Festival 202320230201Nicholas Childs conducts the legendary Black Dyke Band in a wide-ranging programme that introduces three world premieres, including Venice by Judith Bingham, recorded at the Royal Northern College of Music's annual Brass Brand Festival in Manchester. Tom Redmond presents.

Recorded at the Royal Northern College of Music on Saturday 28 January.

William Byrd and John Bull arr. Howarth: Music from the Elizabethan Court

i. The Earle of Oxford's Marche (William Byrd)

ii. Pavane (John Bull)

iii. The King's Hunting Jigg (Bull)

Judith Bingham: Venice (world premi耀re)

Edward Gregson: The World Rejoicing, Symphonic Variations on a Lutheran Chorale

c 20:15 Interval:

Music (from CD)

King Henry VIII arr Howarth, Suite: Rose Without a Thorn

Philip Jones Brass Ensemble

And the outgoing Artistic Director of the RNCM Brass Band Festival, Paul Hindmarsh in conversation with Tom Redmond.

Fredrick Schjelderup: Out of Reach (world premi耀re)

Peter Graham: Turbulence, Torque and Tide

Peter Graham: Hymn for Bram (world premi耀re)

Philip Wilby: Beethoven

Nicholas Childs (conductor)

Tom Redmond (presenter)

Nicholas Childs conducts Black Dyke Band in a programme including three world premieres.

Bless'd Isle: Richard Egarr Directs The Academy Of Ancient Music20171102Live from Milton Court Concert Hall

Presented by Ian Skelly

Richard Egarr directs the Academy of Ancient Music and soprano Carolyn Sampson in music by English masters including Dowland, Purcell, Handel and Arne

Dowland: Lachrimae Pavan; In darkness let me dwell

Lawes: Fantasy in 6 parts in C major

Blow: Lovely Selina; Philander, do not think of arms; Clarona, lay aside your lute; Boasting fops

Purcell: Chacony in G minor, Z.730

When first Amintas

Man is for the woman made

From silent shades

INTERVAL

Purcell: Suite of Instrumental Music from The Fairy Queen, Z.629

Handel: Semele: 'O sleep, why dost thou leave me?; 'No, no, I'll take no less

Handel: Concerto for Organ, No. 13 in F major ' The Cuckoo and the Nightingale', HWV 295

Arne: 'Young I am' from Love in a Village; When daisies pied; Rule Britannia

Carolyn Sampson, soprano

Richard Egarr director, organ & harpsichord.

Richard Egarr directs the AAM and Carolyn Sampson in music by Purcell and Handel.

Bless'd Isle: Richard Egarr Directs The Academy Of Ancient Music20200331From Milton Court Concert Hall, London.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Richard Egarr directs the Academy of Ancient Music and soprano Carolyn Sampson in music by English masters including Dowland, Purcell, Handel and Arne

Dowland: Lachrimae Pavan; In darkness let me dwell

Lawes: Fantasy in 6 parts in C major

Blow: Lovely Selina; Philander, do not think of arms; Clarona, lay aside your lute; Boasting fops

Purcell: Chacony in G minor, Z730

When first Amintas

Man is for the woman made

From silent shades

INTERVAL

Purcell: Suite of Instrumental Music from The Fairy Queen, Z629

Handel: Semele: 'O sleep, why dost thou leave me?; 'No, no, I'll take no less

Handel: Organ Concerto, No 13 in F major ' The Cuckoo and the Nightingale', HWV295

Arne: 'Young I am' from Love in a Village; When daisies pied; Rule Britannia

Carolyn Sampson (soprano)

Richard Egarr (director, organ & harpsichord)

First broadcast on 2 November 2017

Richard Egarr directs the AAM and Carolyn Sampson in music by Purcell and Handel.

Blessed Cecilia!20190626Benjamin Britten chose to celebrate the opening of Snape Maltings Concert Hall and its glowing acoustic at the 1967 Aldeburgh Festival with Handel's Ode for St Cecilia's Day, a setting of Dryden's dedication to music's patron saint. Five decades later at a concert from this year's Festival recorded in the same venue, one of Europe's finest choirs echoes that programme and adds more Handel - and another tribute to St Cecilia, a setting of Auden from Britten himself.

Presented by Martin Handley.

PART ONE

Britten: Hymn to St Cecilia

Handel: Dixit Dominus

INTERVAL

During the interval Martin Handley looks back to the opening of the Snape Maltings in 1967 through archive recordings from the time, and features a recording of a piece that Benjamin Britten wrote for the opening, his Overture ‘The Building Of The House'.

PART TWO

Handel: Ode for St Cecilia's Day

Vox Luminis

Lionel Meunier (director)

Vox Luminis celebrates music's patron saint at this year's Aldeburgh Festival.

Bliss's Morning Heroes20181030Ian Skelly presents a concert recorded on Saturday evening at the Watford Colosseum. Ben Johnson is the soloist in Britten's Ballad of Heroes, a heartfelt objection to the sacrifice and horror of war, and first performed just five months before the decalaration of yet another great war in September 1939. Gurney must have longed for the peace of rural Gloucestershire when he was serving at the front in WW1; as was Bliss, who dedicated his Morning Heroes to his brother 'and all other Comrades killed in battle.

Britten Ballad of Heroes

Gurney A Gloucestershire Rhapsody

INTERVAL

Bliss Morning Heroes

Ben Johnson (tenor)

Samuel West (narrator)

Hertfordshire Chorus

BBC Concert Orchestra

conductor David Temple

With Ian Skelly. David Temple conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra and Hertfordshire Chorus.

Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra20190428Some of the best recent concerts in Europe come to Radio 3 on a Sunday evening. This week Fiona Talkington presents a concert from Holesov, a town in the centre of the Czech Republic, not far from the birthplace of Bohuslav Martin?. And it is the Bohuslav Martin? Philharmonic that are performing tonight's programme, together with young conductor Nikol Kraft, who is rapidly gaining a reputation for her interpretations of Czech Symphonic music, and Tchaikovsky Prize-winning cellist Michaela Fuka?ovက.

Smetana: Sarka (Ma Vlast)

Suk: A Fairytale Suite

Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op 104

Michaela Fuka?ovက (cello)

Bohuslav Martin? Philharmonic Orchestra

Fiona Talkington presents some of the best concerts from around Europe.

Boris Giltburg And Tasmin Little In Liverpool20210415The great Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in lockdown performances conducted by Joshua Weilerstein. Music includes Rossini, Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Ravel and Bartok.

Rossini, Overture La Scala di Seta

Beethoven PIano Concerto No.4

(Boris Giltburg, Piano)

Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending

(Tasmin Little, Violin)

Ravel Tzigane 10.29

Bartok Divertimento

Joshua Weilerstein, conductor

The great Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Joshua Weilerstein.

Boris Giltburg Plays Rachmaninov20211125Rachmaninov's Fourth Piano Concerto and Janacek's Sinfonietta, performed by the Hall退 Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder, live from Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. Presented by Linton Stephens.

Programme -

Suk: Fantastic Scherzo

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.4

Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Janကcek: Sinfonietta

Boris Giltburg, piano

Sir Mark Elder, conductor

Rachmaninov's Fourth Piano Concerto, live from Manchester's Bridgewater Hall.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra20171117Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, with pianist David Fray, in Brahms, Beethoven and Rachmaninov's The Bells

Recorded at the Lighthouse, Poole

Presented by Martin Handley

Brahms: Tragic Overture

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3

INTERVAL

Rachmaninov: The Bells

David Fray, piano

Olga Mykytenko, soprano

Artjom Korotkov, tenor

Nikolay Didenko, bass

Bournemouth Symphony Chorus

Kirill Karabits, conductor

Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in an evening of richly powerful music. The concert opens with Brahms's Tragic overture, and David Fray joins them for a performance of Beethoven's dramatic and intense Third Piano Concerto. Rachaminov's Choral Symphony 'The Bells' is a hugely dramatic and emotionally charged work, setting words by Edgar Allen Poe; the imitation of the sound of bells throughout are both joyful and poignant, setting the scene for the side range of expression in this work.

Kirill Karabits conducts the BSO in Brahms, Beethoven and Rachmaninov's The Bells.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra20231020Brand new Artist in Residence with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev joins the orchestra & Chief Conductor Kirill Karabits to perform Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini. The concert opens with Thomas de Hartmann's suite from his ballet The Scarlet flower & finishes with Brahms' mighty 4th Symphony.

Recorded at Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts, presented by Martin Handley.

Thomas de Hartmann: The Scarlet flower - suite from the ballet

Sergey Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini Op.43 for piano and orchestra

Johannes Brahms: Symphony no. 4 in E minor Op.98

Alexander Malofeev, piano

Kirill Karabits, conductor

Alexander Malofeev joins Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth SO to play Rachmaninov.

Pianist Alexander Malofeev, artist in residence with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, joins conductor Kirill Karabits to perform Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Premieres Anna Korsun20230207Martin Handley presents a concert showcasing Ukrainian singer, pianist, organist, conductor and composer Anna Korsun who has been appointed the Bournemouth SO's Composer-in-Residence for 2023. Her works explore the human voice and experiment with orchestral colours & unusual techniques to create music that is inventive and fresh. Chief Conductor Kirill Karabits also conducts the orchestra in Scriabin's Symphony No.2 and Felix Klieser is the soloist in Gli耀re's Horn Concerto.

Recorded at Lighthouse, Poole.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Anna Korsun: Terricone (world premiere)

Reyngold Moritsevich Gli耀re: Horn Concerto

Alexander Scriabin: Symphony No.2

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Felix Klieser, horn

Kirill Karabits, conductor

The world premiere of Ukrainian composer Anna Korsun's Terricone, plus Gli\u00e8re and Scriabin

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Bach, Britten, Mozart20160406Live from the Lighthouse, Poole

Presented by Martin Handley

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Kirill Karabits play Bach, Britten and Mozart.

J.S.Bach: Suite No.3

Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings

8.15: Interval: BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the third of the category finalists in this year's keyboard competition.

Pianist Jackie Campbell plays music Ligeti, Debussy, Scriabin and Rachmaninov.

8.35

Mozart: Symphony No.39

Robert Murray, tenor

Nicolas Fleury, horn

Kirill Karabits, conductor

Britten's hauntingly beautiful Serenade sets poems spanning five centuries of English verse, united under a loosely connecting theme of evening, the night-time and sleep. The music is immediately gripping, the tenor's penetrating vocal lines matched in spades by the wonderful horn calls.

Mozart's Symphony No.39 opens with a darkly dramatic introduction in which orchestral texture and harmonic dissonance increase to near breaking point. This gives way to superlatively crafted work of contrasting melodic invention and rhythmic and contrapuntal exploration. Bach's orchestral suite in the French style opens with a majestic overture, a curtain raiser to a series of exquisite dances which include the famous 'Air on the G string' as well as a jubilant gavotte and final festive gigue.

Tenor Robert Murray replaces John Mark Ainsley, who is not well.

c.9.15 - IT'S ALL ABOUT PIANO!

Just before Easter the French Institute in London held its fourth annual festival entitled It's All About Piano! As well as established pianists from around the world the festival aims to give a platform to the pianists of tomorrow and over the next two evenings at around this time there's a chance to hear highlights from a concert called Young Hands which brought together four students of the piano from the Paris Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music in London.

This evening we will hear music played by the twenty three year old Jiarui Li from the Royal Academy of Music who played Chopin's Three Mazurka's Op.59 and El Puerto & Fete-Dieu a Seville from Albeniz's Iberia Book 1 in the concert.

Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Bach, Britten and Mozart.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven, Elgar20151125Vassily Sinaisky conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Elgar's Second Symphony. Kirill Gerstein joins them in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto.

Live from the Lighthouse, Poole

Presented by Ian Skelly

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 4 in G

8.15: Interval

8.35

Elgar: Symphony No 2 in E flat

Kirill Gerstein, piano

Vassily Sinaisky, conductor

With references to the brilliant warmth and light of Italy and the rugged grandeur of the Cornish coast, Elgar's Second Symphony is far more complex and deeply personal than his First. Riddled with doubts, questioning and conflict it reflects not only the true spirit of the age but also the personality of the composer as it meanders from extrovert exuberance to melancholy introversion. Elgar himself stated that 'I have written out my soul'.

Beethoven imbues his Fourth Piano Concerto with a genuinely romantic voice. It is ardent and melancholy, heroic and ethereal, anguished and whimsical.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 4 and Elgar: Symphony No 2.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Brahms, Mahler20160504Guy Braunstein plays Brahms's Violin Concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kirill Karabits. After the interval: Mahler's First Symphony.

Live from the Lighthouse in Poole

Presented by Martin Handley

Guy Braunstein (violin)

8.15: Interval:

BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the third of the finalists in this year's strings category.

Violinist Louisa Staples plays music by:

Enescu and Saint-Sa뀀ns

8.35

Symphony No.1 'Titan

Kirill Karabits (conductor)

A new symphonic universe was born in Mahler's First Symphony. This youthful outpouring teems with life - from the hushed opening, like an awakening from sleep, to the exuberant horn fanfares. And not far away is the lyrical ardour of the songs of the wayfaring man.

Brahms's concerto is a song for the violin on a symphonic scale - a lyrical outpouring of joyous energy from its confident yet wistful opening to fiery finish. It's played tonight by Guy Braunstein, the former concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Brahms's Violin Concerto and Mahler's Symphony No 1.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Chausson, Falla, Debussy And Stravinsky20160302Live from the Lighthouse, Poole

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra play Chausson, de Falla, Debussy and Stravinsky.

Presented by Martin Handley. A programme which moves from thwe twilight world of Debussy's Pelleas and Falla's evocations in sound of the perfumed nights in his native Andalusia to the fevered world of Stravinsky's Firebird, the magical, glowing bird of Russian fairy talewho can be both a blessing and a curse.

Chausson: Soir de fꀀte

De Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain

Debussy: Pell退as et M退lisande Suite

8.15: Interval Music

Frank Braley, tonight's piano soloist and the cellist, Gautier Capucon, himself no stranger to the Poole Lighthouse audiences, play an aria from Saint-Saens' Samson et Dalila and join up with a group of musical friends for his joyful Septet.

Stravinsky: The Firebird

Frank Braley, piano

Fabien Gabel, conductor

Stravinsky's Firebird mixes the orchestral mastery of his Russian mentors with the rhythmic vitality of the revolutionary about to burst out of his shell. The musical language shifts between exotic, chromatic gestures to illustrate the supernatural dimension and the sing-song simplicity of folk song for the mortals creating a dazzling, evocative atmosphere.

A Moorish exoticism is also present in de Falla's set of symphonic impressions of the great gardens of Granada and Cordoba, incorporating dance rhythms of Andalusia, whilst Chausson's more personal orchestral picture postcard of nocturnal revelries is altogether more dreamlike and ethereal.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra play music by Chausson, Falla, Debussy and Stravinsky.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Debussy, Lalo, Rimsky-korsakov20170503Live from the Lighthouse in Poole, James Gaffigan conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Debussy's Pr退lude
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Prokofiev, Shostakovich20170125Live from the Lighthouse, Poole

Presented by Martin Handley

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kirill Karabits, play Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No.2

8.00: Interval

8.20: Shostakovich: Symphony No.8

Valeriy Sokolov, violin

Kirill Karabits, conductor

Prokofiev worked on his Second Violin Concerto at the same time as Romeo and Juliet and the two works have much in common, particularly an ardent and voluptuous lyricism.

The second of Shostakovich's wartime symphonies, the Eighth was criticized as being too pessimistic at a time when Stalin was insisting that Soviet victory was in sight. It does contain possibly the most terrifying music Shostakovich ever wrote, yet he tried to persuade listeners otherwise, describing it as 'an optimistic, life-asserting work... all that is dark and evil will rot away, and beauty will triumph.' Perhaps the final flute solo does at least suggest that the lone hero has survived.

After tonight's concert there's a chance to hear the fruits of the latest round of Adopt-a-Composer projects, which pair a composer with an amateur performing group in order to write and perform a new piece of music.

Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Schubert, Mozart, Beethoven20161102Live from the Lighthouse, Poole

Presented by Martin Handley

Nicholas McGegan conducts the BSO in music by Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven.

Schubert: Symphony No.5

Mozart: Horn Concerto No.3

8.15: Interval

8.35: Beethoven: Mass in C

Nicolas Fleury, horn

Kate Royal, soprano

Jennifer Johnston, mezzo-soprano

Toby Spence, tenor

Alastair Miles, bass

Bournemouth Symphony Chorus

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Schubert's Fifth Symphony provides a delightful opening to tonight's concert: everything about it suggests a contented spirit of its youthful creator. Mozart's Horn Concerto No.3 inhabits the same Viennese world, while Beethoven's Mass in C has echoes of the Renaissance in its use of the choir.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Nicholas McGegan in Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn20170405Live from the Lighthouse, Poole: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Schubert, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Schubert: Symphony No.8 'Unfinished

Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme

INTERVAL

Mendelssohn: Symphony No.5 'Reformation

Johannes Moser, cello

Kirill Karabits, conductor

Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Romantic symphonies by Schubert and Mendelssohn and are joined by cellist Johannes Moser in Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme.

Live from Poole, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Schubert, Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Walton, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky20161012The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Kirill Karabits play music by Tchaikovsky and Walton, and are joined by pianist Simon Trpceski in Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Martin Handley presents, live from the Lighthouse, Poole.

Walton: Symphony No.2

8.05 Interval

8.25

Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Tchaikovsky: Capriccio Italien

Simon Trpceski, piano

Kirill Karabits, conductor

The concert begins with Walton's Second Symphony - a work full of elegance, rhythmic drive and orchestral brilliance. After the interval, pianist Simon Trpceski joins for Rachmaninov's ever-popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and the concert comes to a colourful conclusion with Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien, full of songs and dances that Tchaikovsky heard while in Italy. Presented live from the Lighthouse, Poole by Martin Handley.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra plays Walton, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Weber, Brahms, Saint-saens20151007Yan Pascal Tortelier conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Saint-Sa뀀ns' Organ Symphony.

Live from the Lighthouse, Poole

Weber: Euryanthe Overture

Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor

8.20: Interval

8.40

Saint-Sa뀀ns : Symphony No.3 in C minor, 'Organ

Louis Lortie, piano

Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor

Recognised at once as a landmark, Saint-Sa뀀ns's Third Symphony had a powerful impact on later symphonists with its unconventional form and extended thematic development from a few simple opening ideas. It reveals a genuine flair for sumptuous orchestral colour, suave and unforgettable melody and brilliant craftsmanship - the zenith of his symphonic output.

Brahms spent the greater part of the 1850s building his first orchestral masterpiece, the D minor Piano Concerto, out of material meant for other works.It is a bold and daring work, stormy and dramatic, tender and lyrical, and filled with youthful passion and surging power written at a time of intense personal experiences for Brahms, most of which revolved around his complicated relationship with Robert and Clara Schumann.

Schumann himself appraised Weber's operatic gem as 'a chain of sparkling jewels from beginning to end - all brilliant and flawless.'.

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Yan Pascal Tortelier in Weber, Brahms and Saint-Saens

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra: Haydn's Creation20180228Haydn's Creation is his most famous and enduring masterpiece; full of lyrical arias and monumental choruses it shows off one of the greatest classical composers at the peak of his creative powers. The opening of the work, the Representation of Chaos, is one of Haydn's most gripping strokes of genius.

David Hill conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Haydn's Creation, with a star line-up of soloists, live from the Lighthouse in Poole.

Lucy Crowe, soprano

Benjamin Hulett, tenor

Christopher Purves, bass

Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Orchestra

David Hill, conductor.

Haydn's Creation, live from the Lighthouse, Poole, conducted by David Hill.

Brabbins Conducts Britten20210205Live from BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff, Nicola Heywood Thomas presents a concert of British music by three eminent composers: Benjamin Britten, Colin Matthews and Richard Blackford. Blackford's sweeping oboe concerto, The Better Angels of Our Nature, opens the programme, written in 2014 and inspired by Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address, from which it gets it's title. The concert then heads back in time to Britten's Opus 1, his Sinfonietta, which he wrote while still a student at the Royal College of Music. Despite being only 18, the engaging and original piece belies his early years and certainly marked him out for the great things to come in his career. The Sinfonietta was dedicated to Britten's most inspiring teacher, Frank Bridge, and so it is apt that the final two works should be from someone who Britten influenced greatly, his assistant, Colin Matthews. The first piece, Matthews' arrangement of Britten's Temporal Variations, was made in 1994 for oboe and string orchestra, and is heard tonight in a version for alto saxophone and strings. The concert concludes with a work of the same year titled ...through the glass, a thought provoking work for chamber ensemble loosely based on Edmund Blunden's poem The Midnight Skaters.

Blackford: The Better Angels Of Our Nature

Britten: Sinfonietta, Op 1

8.10pm

Interval Music

8.30pm

Britten arr. Matthews: Temporal Variations

Matthews: - through the glass

Steven Hudson (oboe)

Jess Gillam (saxophone)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales perform works by modern British composers.

Brabbins's Britten20201112Tenor Mark Padmore joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Martyn Brabbins for an evening devoted to music by Benjamin Britten.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Britten: Russian Funeral

Britten: Nocturne

Britten: Lachrymae

Britten: Death in Venice (Suite)

In a concert broadcast live from the orchestra's home in Glasgow the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra team up with long-time friend and collaborator Martyn Brabbins for an evening dedicated to exploring the deep colours and soulful mysteries of Benjamin Britten's music. The orchestra's principal viola player becomes soloist in the Dowland inspired Lachrymae; tenor Mark Padmore joins to enact the tender night-tones of the song-cycle, Nocturne; and the orchestra close with a suite drawn from the music of Britten's opera-score, Death in Venice.

BBC Scottish Symphony Orcheststra

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Mark Padmore (tenor)

Scott Dickinson (viola)

Photo: Martyn Brabbins (Credit: Benjamin Ealovega)

Followed by music off disc

Beethoven: Piano Trio in D major op 70'1 'Ghost

Daniel Sepec - violin

Jean-Guihen Queyras - cello

Andreas Staier - piano

Mark Padmore joins the BBC SSO for an evening devoted to the music of Benjamin Britten.

Brahms' 2nd Symphony20181018The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra live from Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool with a programme of Hindemith's Cupid and Psyche, Brahms's joyous Second Symphony and Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto.

Hindemith: Overture, Cupid and Psyche

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2

Brahms: Symphony No.2

Vasily Petrenko, conductor

George Li, piano

Brahms and Rachmaninov with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra live from Liverpool

Brahms And Haydn20180121Clemency Burton-Hill presents music by Brahms: his First Piano Concerto performed by Francesco Piemontesi with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Variations on a Theme by Haydn. Then music by Haydn himself - his Symphony No 26, 'Lamentatione'.

Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op 56a

Lionel Bringuier (conductor)

Haydn: Symphony No 26 in D minor, 'Lamentatione

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Leonardo Garcia Alarcon (conductor)

Brahms: Piano Concerto No 1 in D minor, Op 15

Francesco Piemontesi (piano)

Lionel Bringuier (conductor).

Clemency Burton-Hill presents music by Brahms and Haydn.

Brahms And His Heroes20181204Lars Vogt is both conductor and piano soloist in tonight's concert with Royal Northern Sinfonia. He has paired the emotional outpouring of the heartbroken Brahms with works by the young composer's mentor, Schumann and his hero, Beethoven.

Beethoven: Coriolan Overture

Schumann: Symphony No.4

Brahms: Piano Concerto No.1

Lars Vogt (conductor/piano)

Mark Forrest presents.

Lars Vogt conducts the Royal Northern Sinfonia performing Brahms's First Piano Concerto.

Brahms And Messiaen For Two Pianos20170124As part of Southbank Centre's International Piano Series, Pierre Laurent-Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich play music for two pianos by Brahms and Messiaen, live from St John's Smith Square. Introduced by Martin Handley.

Brahms: Sonata in F minor for 2 pianos, Op 34b

8.15 Interval

8.35

Messiaen: Visions de l'amen

The brilliant pairing of pianists Pierre Laurent-Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich tonight present two masterworks written for two pianos. They begin with Brahms's sumptuous Sonata in F minor, which he re-wrote on the advice of Clara Schumann, and is better known now as the Piano Quintet.

After the interval, they play Messiaen's mystical Visions de l'amen. Written soon after his release from a German prison camp, the work is richly spiritual, incorporating bells and Messiaen's characteristic birdsong.

After tonight's concert there's a chance to hear the fruits of the latest round of Adopt-a-Composer projects, which pair a composer with an amateur performing group in order to write and perform a new piece of music.

Pianists Pierre Laurent-Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich play music by Brahms and Messiaen.

Brahms And Schumann From Copenhagen20211004Presented by Fiona Talkington

Beatrice Rana, previously one of BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists, joins the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Lorenzo Viotti to play Brahms's mighty First Piano Concerto. After the interval the orchestra play Schumann's Second Symphony.

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1.

Schumann: Symphony No. 2.

Beatrice Rana, piano

Lorenzo Viotti, conductor

Concert recorded at the Danish Radio Concert House, Copenhagen, Denmark, on 6 May 2021.

Brahms with Beatrice Rana and Schumann's Second Symphony from Copenhagen.

Brahms From Copenhagen20220117Fiona Talkington presents a concert from Copenhagen, conducted by Fabio Luisi, featuring Nielsen's Violin Concerto, played by the young Korean violinist Bomsori Kim, who says that it is ‘very exotic and special, with its unusual combination of the intellectual and the virtuosic'. A spacious account of Brahms' First Symphony completes the programme.

Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Fabio Luisi, conductor

Bomsori Kim, violin

Nielsen: Violin Concerto

8.00: Interval music: Ars Nova Copenhagen sing four short choruses by Nielsen.

8.20pm

Brahms: Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op.68

Recorded in the DR Concert House, Copenhagen, Denmark on 28/10/2021.

Image: © Morten Abrahamsen

Fabio Luisi conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Nielsen and Brahms.

Brahms In Bournemouth20210210A chance to hear the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra recorded in concert at The Lighthouse, Poole, in November 2020, on the eve of the second lockdown. An emotional occasion for all concerned, the audience rose to its feet at the end of the concert to show its appreciation.

Mendelssohn Overture: Die Schone Melusine

Mozart Symphony No 34 in C, K338

Brahms Symphony No 3 in F

Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth.

ENDS

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra perform Brahms, Mozart and Mendelssohn.

Brahms Piano Concerto No 1 And Tchaikovsky20220406Stephen Hough is the soloist in Brahms's Romantic Piano Concerto No 1 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and in the second half there's Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 6, 'Pathetique' - the orchestral giant that Tchaikovsky felt was 'the best thing I have composed'. Domingo Hindoyan conducts in a recording made at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall last November.

Brahms: Piano Concerto No 1 in D minor Op 15

Domingo Hindoyan (conductor)

Soloist: Stephen Hough

20.15

Interval:

Giuseppe Martucci: La canzone dei ricordi Op. 68b - Al folto bosco, placida ombria

Mirella Freni / Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala / Riccardo Muti

20.45

Tchaikovsky: Symphony no. 6 in B minor Op.74 (Pathetique)

Image courtesy of Jiyang Chen.

Stephen Hough plays Brahms's Piano Concerto No 1 with the RLPO. Domingo Hindoyan conducts.

Brahms, Prokofiev And Glass From Japan, Usa And South Korea20200329Fiona Talkington introduces recordings from around the world, care of the European Broadcasting Union, including from Tokyo, Minnesota, Massachusetts and South Korea.

Serge Prokofiev - Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, op. 63

Ray Chen (violin)

KBS Symphony Orchestra

Yoel Levi (conductor)

Recorded in March 2019 in Seoul, South Korea

Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring Suite

Minnesota Orchestra

Osmo V䀀nsk䀀 (conductor)

Recorded in September 2018 in Minnesota, USA

Philip Glass - Symphony No. 3

A Far Cry

Recorded July 2018 in, Rockport, Massachusetts, USA

Guillaume Lekeu - Adagio, op. 3

Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 1 in C minor, op. 68

Li耀ge Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Christian Arming (conductor)

Recorded July 2019 in Tokyo, Japan

Producer Helen Garrison

Highlights from classical concerts around the world

Brahms, Wagner, Schumann And Schutz20160313Ian Skelly introduces performances from Vienna, Prague, Berlin and Madrid. Tonight the leading Finnish soprano, Karita Mattila sings the Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Leonid Kavakos continues his Sunday evening traversal of Brahms's Violin Sonatas.

Heinrich Schütz

An den Wassern zu Babel, SWV 37

Berlin Radio Chorus, Gijs Leenaars (director)

rec. Passionskirche, Berlin

Violin Sonata No.2 in A, op.100

Leonidas Kavakos (violin), Yuja Wang (piano)

rec. Musikverein, Vienna

Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

Karita Mattila (soprano),

Czech Philharmonic, Jir퀀 Belohlကvek (conductor)

rec. Dvorကk Hall, Rudolfinum, Prague

Robert Schumann

Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, op. 63

Ex Aequo Trio

rec. Fundaci n Juan March, Madrid

Schutz

German Magnificat, SWV 494

Photo of Fundaci n Juan March (c) Luis Garc퀀a.

Ian Skelly presents performances of works by Brahms, Wagner, Schumann and Schutz.

Brahms, Wagner, Schutz, Fanny Mendelssohn20160306Ian Skelly introduces performances recorded in concert halls on the Continent. Katarina Karn退us sings Wagner in Prague and Leonidas Kavakos tonight begins his traversal of all three of Brahms's violin sonatas. And, looking ahead to International Women's Day on Tuesday, there's a performance from Madrid of Fanny Mendelssohn's Piano Trio, a beautiful, mid-Romantic work completed in the last years of her short life.

Violin Sonata No. 1 in G, Op. 78

Leonidas Kavakos (violin), Yuja Wang (piano)

rec. Musikverein, Vienna

Wesendonck Lieder

Katarina Karn退us (mezzo-soprano),

Czech Philharmonic, Jir퀀 Belohlကvek (conductor)

rec. Dvorကk Hall, Rudolfinum, Prague

Heinrich Schütz

Ist nicht Ephraim mein teurer Sohn, SWV 40

Berlin Radio Chorus, Gijs Leenaars (director)

rec. Passionskirche, Berlin

Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 11

Ex Aequo Trio

rec. Fundaci n Juan March, Madrid.

Ian Skelly presents music by Brahms, Wagner, Schutz and Fanny Mendelssohn.

Brahms: A German Requiem2018111320181112 (R3)Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London on Sunday 11th November.

To mark Armistice Day, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs Brahms' German Requiem.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis

Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem

Elizabeth Watts, soprano

Samuel Hasselhorn, baritone

Choir of the Enlightenment

Marin Alsop, conductor

Music written for the Requiem Mass was usually performed in Latin. But Brahms broke the mould with this colossal, German-language masterpiece, which treats death from a humanistic perspective.

To mark Armistice Day, Marin Alsop conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Brahms's A German Requiem, Rapha\u00ebl Pichon Conducts Ensemble Pygmalion20221107Brahms's A German Requiem from the Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

Rapha뀀l Pichon conducts his period instrument group, Ensemble Pygmalion, in their first ever performance of Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem, a work he describes as: 'One of the most moving, the most touching and the most human pieces ever written.' They preface that with a short funeral anthem for choir, wind instruments and timpani by the young composer.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Brahms: Begr䀀bnisgesang, op. 13

Brahms: A German Requiem, op. 45

Mari Eriksmoen (soprano),

Andr耀 Schuen (baritone)

Pygmalion Ensemble

Rapha뀀l Pichon, conductor

Rapha\u00ebl Pichon conducts Ensemble Pygmalion in Brahms's A German Requiem.

Brahms's German Requiem20151108Ian Skelly introduces a performance of Brahms German Requiem given at the end of June in the Hercules Hall situated in the Royal Palace complex in the centre of Munich.

Der Gang zum Liebchen, op. 48/1

Versunken, op. 86/5

Therese, op. 86/1

Von ewiger Liebe, op. 43/1

Angelika Kirschlager (mezzo soprano), Julius Drake (piano)

(Recorded at the 2015 Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch)

Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45

Christiane Karg (soprano),

Matthias Goerne (baritone),

Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Yannick N退zet-S退guin (conductor).

Ian Skelly introduces a performance of Brahms's German Requiem given in Munich.

Brahms's Symphony No 2 From Paris20230116From Paris, Pablo Heras-Casado conducts the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus in Brahms's Symphony No 2 and Karl Goldmark's Violin Concerto No 1 with soloist Renaud Capu瀀on.

Franz Schubert - Gesang der Geister über den Wassern, D.714

Radio France Chorus

Pablo Heras-Casado (conductor)

Karl Goldmark - Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op.28

Renaud Capu瀀on (violin)

Johannes Brahms - Symphony No. 2 in D, Op.73

Performers for whole concert

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Pablo Heras-Casado conducts the Radio France Philharmonic in Schubert and Brahms.

Brass Band Festival At The Royal Northern College Of Music20170202Tom Redmond presents a concert from the Brass Band Festival at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Leonard Bernstein (arr Snell): Candide Overture

Martin Ellerby: Cabaret Concerto

Hubert Bath: Freedom (Brass Band Symphony No 1)

INTERVAL

Gustav Holst (arr Hindmarsh): Capriccio (world premi耀re of new arrangement) Philip Harper: Cantabile (UK premi耀re)

Philip Sparke: Raveling, Unraveling

Followed by music for brass band written by British composers as a postlude to tonight's concert.

Music from the Brass Band Festival at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Breaking Free, Martin Luther's Revolution: The Clare Reformation 500 Project20170501For Radio 3's 'Breaking Free - Martin Luther's Revolution', a concert from St John's Smith Square celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, given by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, and Clare Baroque, conducted by Graham Ross.

Presented by Martin Handley

Crüger: Nun danket alle Gott

Bach: Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild, BWV79

Luther: Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin

Brahms: Warum ist das Licht gegeben den Mühseligen? Op. 74 No. 1

Croft: O God, our help in ages past

Vaughan Williams: Lord, thou hast been our refuge

Interval

Neumark: Wer nur den lieben Gott la߀t walten

Mendelssohn: Wer nur den lieben Gott la߀t walten

Luther: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott

Bach: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV80

Mary Bevan, soprano

Robin Blaze, countertenor

Nicholas Mulroy, tenor

Neal Davies, bass

Graham Ross, conductor

After the concert, as part of Radio 3's season Breaking Free: Martin Luther's Revolution -

Reformation Bytes

5/5: The English Reformation as a Brexit Moment

Protestantism was the first great Eurosceptic thing, the setting up of local power bases against a shared wisdom.' AN Wilson sees in the English Reformation a Brexit moment, with no one able to foresee where it would end.

From St John's Smith Square, a concert marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Breathing New Life Into The Symphony20190502Live from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Andrew McGregor

For a decade James MacMillan worked with the BBC Philharmonic as their Composer/Conductor and tonight the orchestra celebrates his 60th year with a performance of his Fourth Symphony. Music as ritual - ritual of movement, exhortation, petition and joy provides the building blocks of the work which is also layered with allusions to the choral music of Scottish Renaissance composer Robert Carver. Closing the programme is Tippett's one movement Fourth Symphony; Tippett described the trajectory of this Symphony as 'birth to death' and breathing forms part of the tapestry of sound in this work. This is a re-imagining of the Beethovenian symphony, driven by an inescapable and forceful energy. Soprano Sophie Bevan joins the orchestra for Britten's Les Illuminations; Britten's vocal writing in response to Rimbaud's poems, and his deft and extraordinarily powerful string writing create a unique world.

James MacMillan: Symphony No.4

8.15

Music Interval

Britten: Les Illuminations

Tippett: Symphony No.4

Sophie Bevan (soprano)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and Martyn Brabbins in music by James MacMillan, Britten and Tippett.

Brecon Baroque Festival20171031Rachel Podger leads Brecon Baroque in 'Harmony and Invention', a programme of Italian music, including Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Recorded at Theatr Brecheiniog on 28th October

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Giovanni Gabrieli: Sonata XXI 'con tre violini

Giovanni Legrenzi: Sonata a quattro in A minor, Op. 10 No. 13 'La Cetra

Giovanni Legrenzi: Sonata a quattro in C major, Op. 8 No. 13 'La Cremona

Vivaldi: Lute Concerto in D major, RV 93

Vivaldi: Concerto in D major, RV 230, Op. 3 No. 9, 'L'estro armonico' (with solo harpsichord part after JS Bach's transcription, BWV 972)

Interval

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons, Op. 8 Nos 1-4 (Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione)

Violin Concerto in E major, RV 269, 'La primavera

Violin Concerto in G minor, RV 315, 'L'estate

Violin Concerto in F major, RV 293, 'L'autunno

Violin Concerto in F minor, RV 297, 'L'inverno

Daniele Caminiti (lute)

Marcin Swiatkiewicz (harpsichord)

Rachel Podger (director, solo violin)

It's not certain if the four sonnets that accompany Vivaldi's celebrated concertos 'The Four Seasons' were inspired by his music, or served as the inspiration for it. In part one, we hear his Concerto Op. 3 No.9, originally composed to feature solo violin, in a version that hands the starring role to a harpsichord, based on an adaptation by one of Vivaldi's great admirer's, J.S. Bach. The programme also features music from two of Vivaldi's Venetian compatriots - his elder, Giovanni Gabrieli, and a composer of the next generation: Giovanni Legrenzi.

Producer: Dominic Jewel for BBC Wales.

Rachel Podger leads Brecon Baroque in music from Venice, including Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Bridging The Atlantic20190315Live from Brangwyn Hall, Swansea

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Elim Chan and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales explore both sides of the Atlantic in a programme of dramatic contrasts. British-born, American-based composer Anna Clyne launches the concert with her 2015 work This Midnight Hour, which is based on two night-time poems; Baudelaire's 'Harmonie du soir' and Jimenez's 'Music'. Joanna MacGregor joins the Orchestra to perform Gershwin's inimitable Piano Concerto, which conjures up his native New York. Commissioned immediately following the success of his Rhapsody in Blue, it sizzles with Gershwin's typical flash, and is steeped in the jazz of the era. To conclude, Elim Chan leads the Orchestra through Elgar's quintessentially English portrait of the 'friends pictured within', his Variations on an Original Theme, nicknamed the Enigma Variations for the puzzle which the main theme poses—is that theme a countermelody to a popular tune as Elgar suggested? If so, what is that tune?

Anna Clyne: This Midnight Hour

Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F major

8.20 Interval Music

Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma)

Joanna MacGregor (piano)

Elim Chan (conductor)

Elim Chan and BBC NOW perform quintessential 20th-century English and American music.

Brighton Early Music Festival: The English Style In Medieval France20181101This year's Brighton Early Music Festival opens with a fascinating example of an English cultural export in the 15th century: the so-called 'contenance angloise' (English style). This new musical fashion took Europe by storm, revolutionising compositional techniques and taste with its rich harmonies. Initiated by John Dunstaple and Walter Frye, the English style was adopted by Franco-Flemish composers such as Dufay and Binchois and introduced to the Burgundian Court, the epicentre of musical innovation at that time.

The music is performed by the Sollazzo Ensemble, winners of the 2015 York Early Music Competition.

Recorded at St George's Church, Brighton

Presented by Ian Skelly

Anonymous (from the Leuven Chansonnier): Helas l'avoy je desservi Tousdis vous voit

John Dunstaple: Speciosa facta es

Johannes Tinctoris (after Walter Frye ?): Tout a par moy (instrumental)

Walter Frye: Ave Regina (instrumental); Sospitati dedit

Gilles Binchois: Triste Plaisir

Anonymous (from the Bayeux Chansonnier): Souvent je m'esbat

Gilles Mureau: Je ne fays plus, je ne dys ne escrips

Pierre Fontaine: Sans faire de vous departie

INTERVAL

Guillaume Dufay: Lamentatio Sanctae Matris Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae

Anonymous (from the Cyprus Codex): Mon cuer s'en rit de fortune Parle qui veut

Johannes Ockeghem: Dung aultre amer

Tinctoris: Dung aultre amer (instrumental)

Marbrianus de Orto: Dung aultre amer (instrumental)

Anonymous (from the Cyprus Codex): La bonne et belle

Anonymous (from the Leuven Chansonnier): Escu dennui Henri phlippet

Loyset Comp耀re: Le grant d退sir me tient

Sollazzo Ensemble:

Perrine Devillers (soprano)

Vivien Simon (tenor)

Vincent Kibildis (harp)

Sophia Danilevskaia (fiddle)

Anna Danilevskaia (director, fiddle)

The English style in medieval France, performed by the Sollazzo Ensemble

British Composer Awards 201820181209Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Andrew McGregor report from the awards ceremony held last Tuesday at the British Museum in London. Celebrating the art of composition and showcasing the creative talent of contemporary composers and sound artists, the British Composer Awards are presented by BASCA and sponsored by PRS for Music, in association with BBC Radio 3. Thirty seven composers are nominated for the 2018 British Composer Awards across 12 categories including orchestral, jazz, sonic art, chamber ensemble, stage works and wind or brass band.

BCA NOMINATIONS 2018

AMATEUR OR YOUNG PERFORMERS

Fiery Tales by Richard Bullen

Microscopic Dances by Oliver Searle

The Caretaker's Guide to the Orchestra by Jeremy Holland-Smith

Libro di fiammelle e ombre by James Weeks

O Hototogisu! by Oliver Knussen

Tanz/haus : triptych 2017 by James Dillon

CHORAL

In the Land of Uz by Judith Weir

Mielo by Raymond Yiu

Unending Love by Roxanna Panufnik

COMMUNITY OR EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

Solace by Conall Gleeson

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner- a retelling for our times by Dee Isaacs

The Umbrella by Liam Taylor-West

JAZZ COMPOSITION FOR LARGE ENSEMBLE

Afronaut by Cassie Kinoshi

Time by Finlay Panter

Rituals by Matt London

JAZZ COMPOSITION FOR SMALL ENSEMBLE

Close to Ecstasy by Simon Lasky

Vegetarians by Ivo Neame

You've Got to Play the Game by Johnny Richards

Deep Time by Harrison Birtwistle

Recorder Concerto by Graham Fitkin

The Imaginary Museum by Julian Anderson

SMALL CHAMBER

Chant by Charlotte Bray

Lines Between by Robert Laidlow

Unbreathed by Rebecca Saunders

SOLO OR DUO

A Damned Mob of Scribbling Women by Laura Bowler

Belmont Chill by William Marsey

The Harmonic Canon by Dominic Murcott

Halfway to Heaven by Emily Peasgood

The Otheroom by Rolf Wallin

Two Machines by Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian & Hugh Jones

Shorelines by Oliver Coates

The Exterminating Angel by Thomas Ad耀s?

The World's Wife by Tom Green

WIND BAND OR BRASS BAND

Dark Arteries Suite by Gavin Higgins

Mindscape by Lucy Pankhurst

The Turing Test by Simon Dobson

Highlights from the 2018 awards hosted by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Andrew McGregor

Britten And Russia20191025In 1960, Benjamin Britten attended a concert at the Royal Festival Hall in which Shostakovich's Cello Concerto was being given its London premiere, alongside Britten's own Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. The cellist at the concert was Rostropovich, and Shostakovich was in attendance during one of his few visits to the UK. Britten met both of these Russian musical giants there for the first time, and it was to create two long-lasting relationships, both personal and professional. In this concert the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Jac van Steen recreate that seminal concert, with BBC Young Musician 2012 Laura van der Heijden taking the part of Rostropovich in Shostokovich's concerto. As in 1960, the performance culminates with another Russian great, Rachmaninov's Third Symphony.

Recorded at Snape Maltings last Sunday and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No 1 in E flat major, Op 107

Interval

Rachmaninov: Symphony No 3 in A minor, Op 44

Laura van der Heijden (cello)

Jac van Steen (conductor)

BBC NOW and Jac van Steen recreate a famous concert from 1960 that changed Britten's life.

Britten Sinfonia And Sir Mark Elder20171114Sir Mark Elder conducts the Britten Sinfonia in Finzi's The Fall of the Leaf, Mahler's Rückert-Lieder and Brahms's First Symphony, in a concert at Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden.

Introduced by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Finzi: The Fall of the Leaf

Mahler arr. Britten: What the Wild Flowers Tell Me

Mahler: Rückert-Lieder

c.8.15pm Interval

Brahms: Symphony No 1 in C minor

Elisabeth Kulman (mezzo-soprano)

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

Brahms's First Symphony, one of the greatest of all Romantic symphonies, was first performed with considerably smaller musical forces than we are used to hearing today. Sir Mark Elder conducts Britten Sinfonia in a performance that returns to the spirit of those early concerts and allows the details of Brahms's extraordinary lyrical masterpiece to shine through. Mahler's sublime Rückert-Lieder (with mezzo Elisabeth Kulman), Finzi's soaring elegy for orchestra, and Britten's arrangement of the second movement of Mahler's Third Symphony completes the eloquent programme.

Concert recorded on 10 November 2017.

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Britten Sinfonia in Finzi, Mahler and Brahms.

Britten Sinfonia, Bach, Corelli, Tippett, Watkins, Britten20160624Ian Bostridge directs Britten Sinfonia in a programme of Bach, Corelli, Tippett and Britten.

Presented by Martin Handley, live from West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge.

Bach arr. Hogwood: Fugue in B minor on a Theme of Corelli BWV579

Corelli: Concerto Grosso in F major Op. 6 No. 2

Tippett: Fantasia Concertante on a Theme by Corelli

Huw Watkins: Three Welsh Songs

Britten: Serenade for tenor, horn and strings

8.10 Interval

8.30

Martin Owen, horn

Jacqueline Shave, violin/director

Ian Bostridge, tenor/director

Britten Sinfonia once again joins forces with acclaimed tenor Ian Bostridge in a performance which includes one of Benjamin Britten's seminal works, the Serenade for tenor, horn and strings.

Ian Bostridge directs Britten Sinfonia in Bach, Corelli, Tippett, Watkins and Britten.

Britten Sinfonia, Barry, Beethoven20170602Live from the Barbican in London, Thomas Ad耀s conducts the Britten Sinfonia in Beethoven's First and Second symphonies, as well as Gerald Barry's typically eccentric setting of Beethoven's enigmatic and disturbing love letter to his 'immortal beloved'.

Introduced by Martin Handley.

Gerald Barry: Beethoven

Beethoven: Symphony No 1 in C, Op 21

8.15pm Interval

Beethoven: Symphony No 2 in D, Op 36

Mark Stone (baritone)

Thomas Ad耀s (conductor)

Ad耀s makes you hear things with which you thought you were familiar as if they were completely new' wrote the Guardian's and Radio 3's Tom Service and in this Beethoven symphony cycle, the enthralling composer and conductor Thomas Ad耀s is sure to shed new light on these monuments of the orchestral repertoire. Over the course of three years Britten Sinfonia and Thomas Ad耀s will perform all nine Beethoven symphonies, partnering these masterworks with the deft, audacious and sometimes explosive music of the wonderfully idiosyncratic Irish composer, Gerald Barry.

In the opening concert of this three-year project, we hear Beethoven's witty First Symphony paired with the virtuosic Second. These are complemented by Gerald Barry's powerful setting of Beethoven's love letter to his 'immortal beloved'.

Thomas Ades conducts the Britten Sinfonia in works by Beethoven and Gerald Barry.

Britten Sinfonia, Bartok, Langer, Mozart, Strauss20160509From Milton Court Concert Hall, London

Benjamin Grosvenor and Britten Sinfonia perform Mozart's last piano concerto; Jacqueline Shave directs Strauss and Bart k.

Bart k: String Quartet No 2 (2nd movement)

Elena Langer: Story of an Impossible Love (London premiere)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 27 in B flat, K 595

8.15: Interval: Looking ahead to the grand final of BBC Young Musician 2016, which is being held at the Barbican on Sunday May 15th, Niholas Daniel, winner of the competition in 1980 plays Alwyn's Oboe Concerto, with the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Richard Hickox.

8.35

Strauss: Metamorphosen

Benjamin Grosvenor piano/director

Jacqueline Shave violin/director

Benjamin Grosvenor joins Britten Sinfonia for a performance of Mozart's last piano concerto, K595, whilst Jacqueline Shave, now in her tenth year as the orchestra's leader, directs the rest of the programme including Strauss's deeply personal Metamorphosen and the raw and ferocious second movement of Bart k's String Quartet No.2.

Benjamin Grosvenor and the Britten Sinfonia in music by Bartok, Langer, Mozart and Strauss

Britten Sinfonia, Martland, Reich, Andriessen20160209Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Clark Rundell, performs works by Steve Martland, Steve Reich and Louis Andriessen at the Barbican Hall in London, as part of the Barbican Centre's 'Andriessen: M is for Man, Music & Mystery' series celebrating the work of the influential Dutch composer. Presented by Martin Handley.

Colourful textures, vivid sonorities and propulsive energy ignite in a concert that focuses Andriessen and two further 'minimalist' composers: Steve Reich and Andriessen's former pupil Steve Martland.

Expect pulsating, playful rhythms and melodic sequences, grand sensuous sound and impassioned expressiveness in a programme that includes Andriessen's song cycle, La Passione, written in 2002 for featured soloists and close collaborators mezzo-soprano Cristina Zavalloni and violinist Frederieke Saeijs.

Martland: Tiger Dancing

Steve Reich: The Desert Music

8.35 Interval

Louis Andriessen: La Passione

Cristina Zavalloni (mezzo-soprano)

Frederieke Saeijs (violin)

Britten Sinfonia Voices

Clark Rundell (conductor)

Followed by a glimpse into Adopt a Composer - Making Music's scheme pairing composers with performing groups from around the country.

Tonight, the Arden Recorder Orchestra works on Kirsty Devaney's As if on a Pivot.

Britten Sinfonia performs works by Steve Martland, Steve Reich and Louis Andriessen.

Britten Sinfonia, Mozart, Knussen, Berg20151026Recorded at Milton Court Concert Hall, London, yesterday.

The Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Oliver Knussen, play Mozart, Knussen and Berg.

Mozart: Serenade in C minor, K388

Knussen: Songs for Sue

8.15 Interval

8.35

Berg: Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin

Claire Booth, soprano

Alexandra Wood, violin

Huw Watkins, piano

Oliver Knussen, conductor

Composer and conductor Oliver Knussen makes his debut conducting Britten Sinfonia in this concert from Milton Court, in the City of London. The acclaimed wind section of the orchestra feature in works by Mozart, Berg, and Knussen's poignant song setting: Songs for Sue, written in memory of his wife and based on poetry by Emily Dickinson, Antonio Machado and W H Auden.

Oliver Knussen conducts the Britten Sinfonia in music by Mozart, Knussen and Berg.

Britten Sinfonia, Soler, Scarlatti, Coll And Falla20170209Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani plays Scarlatti sonatas and concertos by De Falla and Francisco Coll with the Britten Sinfonia.

Recorded 3 February at Milton Court, London

Presented by Ian Skelly

Soler: Overture from Villancico al Santissimo 'Alentad armonias

Domenico Scarlatti, arr. John Woolrich: 3 Harpsichord Sonatas

Francisco Coll: Harpsichord Concerto (world premiere)

8.10: interval

De Falla: Harpsichord Concerto

Scarlatti: 4 Harpsichord Sonatas

De Falla: El amor brujo

Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)

Claudia Huckle (contralto)

Thomas Gould (violin/director)

No one has done more to enhance the image of the harpsichord in recent years than virtuoso Mahan Esfahani, who has captivated audiences with his fiery and engaging performances. Tonight he joins the Britten Sinfonia in works by Italian and Spanish composers, including a world premiere by Francisco Coll.

The Britten Sinfonia performs Soler, Scarlatti, Coll and Falla at Milton Court in London.

Britten, Rachmaninov And Smyth From Manchester20230623From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Miriam Skinner

Conductor Ben Glassberg joins the BBC Philharmonic for Sergei Rachmaninov's orchestral swansong, his Symphonic Dances. Written in America in 1940, confident melody and his trademark rich orchestral colours combine in this exhilarating music. With immediate appeal to his American audiences, the music also has touching references to his Russian homeland, a country he was exiled from after the 1917 Revolution. and to which he never returned. The programme opens with music by Ethyl Smyth, the Prelude to the second act of her opera 'The Wreckers', a seascape set against the backdrop of Cornish cliffs. Inspired by walks there on the coast, the music echoes the sounds of the sea, as well as hinting at the emotional turmoil of the lovers in her opera. Benjamin Britten (who was also in New York as Rachmaninov was writing his Symphonic Dances) penned his Piano Concerto to play himself at the 1938 Henry Wood Proms: pianist Steven Osborne brings to life for us this quirky, virtuosic and utterly unique work.

Smyth: On the Cliffs of Cornwall ('The Wreckers', Prelude to Act II)

Britten: Piano Concerto

8.15pm

Britten: Four Cabaret Songs

Della Jones (mezzo-soprano)

Steuart Bedford (piano)

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances

Steven Osborne (piano)

Ben Glassberg (conductor)

Ben Glassberg conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances.

Britten, Schulhoff And Mendelssohn20161106Ian Skelly introduces highlights from concerts around Europe including the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in North Germany, and the International Chamber Music Festival, Utrecht.

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 15

Vilde Frang, violin

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

Sakari Oramo, conductor

Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)

Sextet

Boris Brovtsyn, violin

Julia-Maria Kretz, violin

Amihai Grosz, viola

Lawrence Power, viola

Jens Peter Maintz, cello

Torleif Thed退en, cello

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49

Janine Jansen, violin

Steven Isserlis, cello

Eldar Nebolsin, piano.

Highlights from concerts given around Europe. With Britten, Schulhoff and Mendelssohn.

Britten: The Shostakovich Connection20191022As part of a weekend at Snape Maltings celebrating Britten's relationship with Russia, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Jac van Steen give a concert inspired by the long friendship between Britten and his Russian counterpart, Shostakovich. Britten wrote his Russian Funeral Music around a revolutionary tune, which commemorates lives lost in the Russian revolutionary cause; Shostakovich would also go on to use this theme in his 11th Symphony. Cellist Alban Gerhardt takes up Britten's masterful Cello Symphony, the second piece that Britten wrote for Rostropovich, who was a long-term collaborator, first introduced to Britten by none other than Shostakovich. And the evening culminates in Shostakovich's deeply personal 10th Symphony, a work which takes the listener on a journey through the depths of the soul.

Britten: Russian Funeral

Britten: Cello Symphony, Op 68

Interval

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op 93

Alban Gerhardt (cello)

Jac van Steen (conductor)

BBC NOW and Jac van Steen celebrate the friendship between two 20th-century titans.

Britten's Gloriana From English National Opera20230113As a tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II, English National Opera presents a concert staging of Britten's Gloriana, starring Christine Rice in the title role.

‘Dedicated by gracious permission to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II' and premiered in 1953 as part of the Coronation celebrations, Britten based Gloriana on Lytton Strachey's 'Elizabeth and Essex' which focuses on the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereaux, towards the end of her reign. With its portrayal of an ageing, capricious and vain monarch, Gloriana perplexed the first night audience which included not only the Queen and the Royal Family but also a host of the world's monarchs, aristocrats and Society figures. There are impressive set-pieces of ceremonial and pageantry, but at the heart of the opera is a moving portrait of the conflicted old Queen, torn between her private feelings and her sense of duty.

Recorded in December at the ENO Coliseum and presented by Martin Handley in conversation with Kate Kennedy.

Britten: Gloriana (Part 1)

8.05 pm

Interval

8.25 pm

Britten: Gloriana (Part 2)

Queen Elizabeth ..... Christine Rice (soprano)

Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex ..... Robert Murray (tenor)

Frances, Countess of Essex ..... Paula Murrihy (mezzo-soprano)

Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy ..... Duncan Rock (baritone)

Penelope (Lady Rich) ..... Eleanor Dennis (soprano)

Sir Robert Cecil ..... Charles Rice (baritone)

Sir Walter Raleigh ..... David Soar (bass)

Henry Cuffe ..... Alex Otterburn (baritone)

A Lady-in-Waiting ..... Alexandra Oomens (soprano)

A Housewife ..... Claire Barnett Jones (mezzo-soprano)

The Spirit of the Masque ..... Innocent Masuku (tenor)

A Blind Ballad Singer / The Recorder of Norwich ..... Willard White (bass)

Chorus and Orchestra of English National Opera

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Christine Rice stars as Queen Elizabeth I in ENO's concert staging of Britten's Gloriana.

Britten's War Requiem20181111A live performance for Remembrance Day of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem by the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas from St. David's Hall, Cardiff.

Written for the rededication of Coventry Cathedral in 1960, after the original building was tragically destroyed by bombs during the Second World War, Britten's War Requiem interspersed the words of the Mass for the Dead with the poetry of Wilfred Owen. This combination creates a powerful narrative that speaks of the mourning of the souls lost in the war, but also of the futility of war itself. The words are set to incredibly powerful music which moves between a large orchestra and chorus, a chamber orchestra and soloists, and an off-stage boys' chorus.

Britten: War Requiem, Op 66

Emma Bell (soprano)

Allan Clayton (tenor)

Roman Trekel (baritone)

Gloucester Cathedral Boy Choristers

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Choir

Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)

Nia Llewelyn (assistant conductor)

Followed by another Sonic Memorial for Armistice Day recorded on location and introduced by Allan Little.

7: Volgograd - Mamayev Kurgan. Battle of Stalingrad, August 1942-January 1943

A live performance for Remembrance Day of Britten's War Requiem by BBC NOW

Bruch And Bruckner20200609Another chance to hear Joseph Swensen conducting Bruckner's epic Seventh Symphony with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as well as Tasmin Little's fantastic performance of Bruch's First Violin Concerto. The two works complement each other perfectly; Bruch's vivacious Violin Concerto has melody at the heart, juxtaposing Bruckner's sense of scale and gravitas in the gradual journey to glory of his Seventh Symphony.

Recorded at the Bragwyn Hall, Swansea, in May 2018 and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

7.30pm

Bruch: Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor, Op 26

c.8pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Brahms: Sonata No 3 in D minor, Op 108 (Un poco presto e con sentimento)

Schubert: Rondo brillant in B minor, D 895

c. 8.20pm

Bruckner: Symphony No 7 in E major, WAB 107

Tasmin Little (violin)

Joseph Swensen (conductor)

Joseph Swensen and BBC NOW perform two pieces from these romantic bastions.

Bruckner From Bavaria And Shostakovich From Dresden20180930Kate Mollesen presents concert performances from this summer, at venues across Europe.

Tonight we visit Munich and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra's Summer Concert Series, and the opening concert of the 9th annual Shostakovich Days Festival in Dresden.

Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings in C minor, Op 35

Denis Matsuev (piano)

Helmut Fuchs (trumpet)

Dresden Staatskapelle,

Yuri Temirkanov

Bruckner

Mass No 2 in E minor

Bavarian Radio Chorus

Kent Nagano

Concerts from across Europe with Kate Mollesen, including Bruckner and Shostakovich.

Bruckner Symphony No 920180128Clemency Burton-Hill presents a performance of Bruckner's mighty 9th Symphony - Daniele Gatti conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at the Philharmonie in Berlin. Plus music by Scheidt and Bach performed by Cappella Mariana.

Scheidt: Veni redemptor gentium

Sebastian Knebel (organ)

Vojt?ch Semerကd (director)

Bruckner: Symphony No 9 in D minor

Daniele Gatti (conductor)

Bach: Singet dem Herr ein neues Lied, BWV 225

Vojt?ch Semerကd (director).

Clemency Burton-Hill presents music by Bruckner, Scheidt and Bach.

Bruckner Symphony No 920180603Kate Molleson presents an innovative performance of Bruckner's 9th Symphony, without the finale, but followed immediately by LIgeti's Lontano. This performance was recorded by SWR Symphony Orchestra and conductor Teodor Currentzis in January this year. Plus Voces8 at the Ludwigsburg Castle Festival from July 2017.

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, WAB 109

Teodor Currentzis (conductor)

Lontano (1967) Sostenuto espressivo

Teodor Currentzis (conductor).

Teodor Currentzis conducts the SWR Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner's Symphony No 9.

Bruckner, Gubaidulina And The Power Of Three20191218From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

The BBC Philharmonic with Chief Conductor Omer Meir Wellber in Sofia Gubaidulina's Triple Concerto and Bruckner's Seventh Symphony.

Sofia Gubaidulina: Triple Concerto

8.10

Music Interval

8.30

Bruckner: Symphony No.7

Vadim Gluzman (violin)

Elsbeth Moser (bayan)

Johannes Moser (cello)

Omer Meir Wellber (conductor)

Chief Conductor Omer Meir Wellber shares his vision of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony with the BBC Philharmonic for the first time. It was written while Bruckner was at his most energetic and confident and was started soon after he'd completed his Sixth. Wagner died while he was writing the slow movement which became an elegy for his friend. Vadim Gluzman, Elsbeth Moser and Johannes Moser join the BBC Philharmonic for Sofia Gubaidulina's Triple Concerto, another work which explores the spiritual side of life. In her programme note she says 'When the title of a work reflects the work's essence, the title becomes a symbol' and she says how this work reflects 'three-ness' - three soloists, three parts to the work and the use of simple triads in the texture of the piece.

Bruckner's Eighth Symphony20220328Andrew Manze conducts the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner's Eighth Symphony.
Bruckner's Symphony No 4, 'romantic'20230202Domingo Hindoyan conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in Anton Bruckner's Symphony No 4 - the only symphony he gave a title to, 'Romantic' - in a concert given last month. But this is no programmatic pastiche of love and longing. Instead, Bruckner evokes images and moods from his beloved Austria's medieval countryside, replete with knights, nature, hunting and magic. In the first half, the Canadian/American violinist Timothy Chooi conjures up an intensely romantic nostalgia for the Caledonian Highlands by way of Max Bruch's equally Romantic Scottish Fantasy. Miriam Skinner presents.

Recorded at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 19 January 2023.

7.30pm

Bruch: Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra

Timothy Chooi (violin)

Domingo Hindoyan (conductor)

Interval music (from CD)

Bruckner: Mass No. 2 in E minor, WAB 27 - Kyrie

Polyphony

Britten Sinfonia

Stephen Layton (conductor)

Palestrina: Missa Brevis - Kyrie and Sanctus

Tallis Scholars

Peter Phillips (director)

Bruckner: Mass No. 2 in E minor, WAB 27 - Sanctus

c. 8.25pm

Bruckner: Symphony No.4, 'Romantic

Miriam Skinner (presenter)

Domingo Hindoyan conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in Bruckner's Fourth Symphony.

Bruckner's Symphony No 8 From The Lucerne Festival20231120The Lucerne Festival Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, play Boulanger and Bruckner.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Lili Boulanger: D'un soir triste

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 in C minor (Robert Haas edition)

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a great advocate of the work of Lili Boulanger, who died in 1918 at the age of only 24. D'un soir triste is a delicate tone painting that marks her farewell to the world: for all its beauty, it harbors a deep sadness. Anton Bruckner described his Eighth Symphony as a “mystery ? — without, however, revealing its secret. “In all Bruckner symphonies there is a religious aspect: a mystical, spiritual moment, ? Nézet-Séguin remarks. He also sees nature as a second source of inspiration: “The trees, the streams, the flowers, the birds, the sky, the storms — all of this mixes in a very Romantic way with Bruckner's human doubts and his passions. ?

Concert given in the Concert Hall, KKL, Lucerne, on 19/08/2023.

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Yannick Nezet-Seguin play Boulanger and Bruckner.

Bruckner's Symphony No 8 from this year's Lucerne Festival, played by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Brussels Philharmonic20201116Thierry Fischer conducts Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and his 'Emperor' Concerto with pianist Boris Giltburg.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Music Director of both the Utah Symphony and Brazil's S o Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Thierry Fischer here leads the Brussels Philharmonic in an all-Beethoven concert. The Seventh Symphony opens the programme and its rhythmic lilt and internal energy led to its being dubbed 'the apotheosis of the dance

Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg is something of a Beethoven specialist, indeed having just recorded all thirty-two of the composer's piano sonatas, and it's his vision and virtuosity that are brought to the colossal 'Emperor' Concerto

7.30pm

Symphony no.7 in A, Op.92

8.10pm

Interval

Liszt

Transcendental Studies:

no.10 in F minor

no.11 in D flat major 'Harmonies du soir

no.12 in B flat minor 'Chasse-neige

Boris Giltburg, piano

8.30

Concerto in E flat, Op.73 'Emperor

Thierry Fischer, conductor

Thierry Fischer conducts Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto with pianist Boris Giltburg.

Burlesque At Bbc Now20231019Fiona Monbet joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for a much-anticipated second collaboration. Monbet, an Irish-French musician, combines her skills as conductor, composer, and violinist in the world Premiere of her work Faubourg 23, for which she and the orchestra are joined by her quartet. Fusing classical, folk, and jazz, the piece incorporates Musette, Django Reinhardt and Josephine Baker.

The build up to that piece takes us to post-WWI Paris; Jacques Ibert's suite of music which he compiled from his surreal incidental music to the theatrical farce ‘The Italian Straw Hat', Erik Satie's beautifully eccentric ballet and dance-hall parody which he wrote for Jean Cocteau, and Darius Milhaud's Le Bœuf sur le toit, which gave its name to the Parisian nightclub which became the favourite haunt of the cutting-edge artists of the Paris scene. Also on the bill are Tailleferre's delightful Petite Suite, and Bernstein's evocation of 1940s New York in the three dance episodes which he extracted from the first musical he wrote for Broadway – On The Town.

Presented by Linton Stephens. Live from BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff.

Ibert: Divertissement

Satie: La belle excentrique

Tailleferre: Petite Suite

Milhaud: Le Bœuf sur le toit, Op 58

Bernstein: Three Dance Episodes from On the Town

Fiona Monbet: Faubourg 23

Fiona Monbet (conductor/violin)

Auxane Cartigny (Piano)

Zacharie Abraham (Double Bass)

Philippe Maniez (Drum Kit)

BBC NOW and conductor Fiona Monbet transport us to 1920s and modern-day Paris.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor/composer Fiona Monbet perform Ibert, Satie, Tailleferre, Milhaud and Bernstein before the World Premiere of her piece Faubourg 23.

The build up to that piece takes us to post-WWI Paris; Jacques Ibert's suite of music which he compiled from his surreal incidental music to the theatrical farce ‘The Italian Straw Hat', Erik Satie's beautifully eccentric ballet and dance-hall parody which he wrote for Jean Cocteau, and Darius Milhaud's Le Bœuf sur le toit, which gave its name to the Parisian nightclub which became the favourite haunt of the cutting-edge artists of the Paris scene. Also on the bill are Tailleferre's delightful Petite Suite, and Bernstein's evocation of 1940s New York in the three dance episodes which he extracted from the first musical he wrote for Broadway - On The Town.

Milhaud: Le Bœuf sur le toit, Op 58

Butterflies And Feathered Beasts20191117Fiona Talkington introduces highlights from Reykjav퀀k Midsummer Music and the Ruhr Piano Festival 2019, including Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals, and Bruckner's 3rd Symphony.

Maurice Ravel - Ma m耀re l'oye (Mother Goose) for piano duet

Camille Saint-Sa뀀ns - Carnival of the Animals

Mark Simpson, clarinet

Emilia Sigfusd ttir, flute

Katia and Marielle Lab耀que, piano duet

Ilya Gringolts, violin

Anahit Kurtikyan, violin

Yura Lee, viola

Leonard Elschenbroich, cello

Jacek Karwan, double bass

Recorded in June at the 2019 Reykjav퀀k Midsummer Music Festival

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 3 in D minor

WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne

James Gaffigan, conductor

Recorded in July at the 2019 Ruhr Piano Festival

Highlights from Reykjav\u00edk Midsummer Music and the Ruhr Piano Festival 2019.

Buxton International Festival20190711Live from the Pavilion Gardens, Buxton

Presented by Andrew McGregor

The BBC Philharmonic and Joshua Weilerstein celebrate 40 years of the Buxton International Festival.

Hadley: Kinder Scout

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

Grieg: Holberg Suite

8.15 Music Interval (CD)

8.40

Ryan Wigglesworth: A First Book of Inventions

Mozart: Symphony No. 40

The BBC Philharmonic takes a day-trip from Salford to the Peak District to celebrate Buxton Festival's 40th anniversary. The brooding moorland surrounding the town is portrayed in Patrick Hadley's 'sketch for orchestra', Kinder Scout. Hadley knew the area well, taking holidays there. Jennifer Pike joins the orchestra to provide a lark for the landscape. A work penned by a British composer born in the same year the Festival was founded follows the interval, Ryan Wigglesworth's sparky 'First Book of Inventions'. Grieg's Op. 40 and Mozart's Symphony No. 40 complete the programme.

Jennifer pike (violin)

Joshua Weilerstein (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic celebrates 40 years of the Buxton International Festival.

Byrd Watching: Exploring English Renaissance Polyphony20200122The founder and director of The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips returns to conduct the BBC Singers in a programme celebrating late Tudor and Renaissance English Polyphony. Centring around three composers, the BBC Singers perform the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from William Byrd's aptly-named ‘Great Service', alongside his motet in homage of Queen Elizabeth I, O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth. Also featured are works by Thomas Weelkes and Orlando Gibbons, including one of his most famous madrigals, The Silver Swan.

Thomas Weelkes: Alleluia, I heard a voice

William Byrd: The Great Service: Magnificat

Orlando Gibbons: Hosanna to the Son of David

Thomas Weelkes: Hark, all ye lovely saints above

William Byrd: Tristitia et anxietas; Sed tu, Domine

Orlando Gibbons: O clap your hands

William Byrd: Prevent us, O Lord

Thomas Weelkes: O how amiable are thy dwellings

Orlando Gibbons: The silver swan

William Byrd: The Great Service: Nunc Dimittis

Thomas Weelkes: O Lord, arise

William Byrd: O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth

Peter Phillips - conductor

Peter Phillips directs the BBC Singers in a programme of English renaissance polyphony.

Byrd Watching: Exploring English Renaissance Polyphony20200617The founder and director of The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips returns to conduct the BBC Singers in a programme celebrating late Tudor and Renaissance English Polyphony. Centring around three composers, the BBC Singers perform the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from William Byrd's aptly named ‘Great Service', alongside his motet in homage of Queen Elizabeth I, O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth. Also featured are works by Thomas Weelkes and Orlando Gibbons, including one of his most famous madrigals, The Silver Swan.

Thomas Weelkes: Alleluia, I heard a voice

William Byrd: The Great Service: Magnificat

Orlando Gibbons: Hosanna to the Son of David

Thomas Weelkes: Hark, all ye lovely saints above

William Byrd: Tristitia et anxietas; Sed tu, Domine

Orlando Gibbons: O clap your hands

William Byrd: Prevent us, O Lord

Thomas Weelkes: O how amiable are thy dwellings

Orlando Gibbons: The silver swan

William Byrd: The Great Service: Nunc Dimittis

Thomas Weelkes: O Lord, arise

William Byrd: O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth

Peter Phillips - conductor

Peter Phillips directs the BBC Singers in a programme of English Renaissance polyphony.

Caldara: Maddalena Ai Piedi Di Cristo2022042520220502 (R3)Ren退 Jacobs conducts Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in Antonio Caldara's sumptuous 1700 oratorio Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo, with soloists including Joshua Ellicott, Giulia Semenzato and Marianne Beate Kielland.

This oratorio is an allegory that presents the central character of Mary Magdalene with a moral dilemma - namely the choice between earthly pleasures (Amor Terreno), and heavenly redemption (Amor Celeste). Throughout the oratorio, these two characters battle for Mary Magdalene's soul; she, as a repentant sinner is filled with mental conflict.

This performance was recorded earlier this month at the Konzerthaus in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.

Antonio Caldara - Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo

Joshua Ellicott (tenor)...Cristo

Giulia Semenzato (soprano)...Maddalena

Marianne Beate Kielland (mezzo-soprano)...Marta

Alberto Migu退lez Rouco (counter-tenor)...Amor Celeste

Helena Rasker (contralto)...Amor Terreno

Andrea Mastroni (bass)...Fariseo

Ren退 Jacobs (conductor)

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Rene Jacobs conducts Caldara's 1700 oratorio, Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo, in Freiburg.

Camerata Salzburg20210412Francois Leleux conducts Salzburg Camerata in an all-Mozart concert recorded in January 2020 in the Great Hall of the city's Mozarteum. The programme, includes his two flute concertos with soloist Emmanuel Pahud as well as the Sinfonia Concertante in B flat and the Symphony No.36 in G, named for the city situated northwest of Mozart's birthplace - Linz.

During the interval you can hear a Mozart piano concerto, but not as you might expect it. Pianist Max Barros plays the Concerto No.2 by Brazilian composer Mozart Camargo Guarnieri.

Mozart - Sinfonia Concertante in B flat, K.297b

Mozart - Flute Concerto No.2 in D, K.314

Mozart - Flute Concerto No.1 in G, K.313

Emmanuel Pahud (flute)

Francois Leleux (oboe)

Paul Meyer (clarinet)

Radovan Vlatkovic (horn)

Gilbert Audin (bassoon)

Mozart Camargo Guarnieri - Piano Concerto No.2

Max Barros (piano)

Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra

Thomas Conlin (conductor)

2045

Mozart - Symphony No.36 in G, K.425 'Linz

Francois Leleux (conductor)

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Francois Leleux conducts Salzburg Camerata in an all-Mozart concert from January 2020.

Cardiff Week (1-4)20210316Nicola Heywood Thomas presents the second performance in a week of lunchtime and evening concerts from Cardiff. This evening we have the Welsh National Opera Orchestra performing live from BBC Hoddinott Hall. They will be treating us to Beethoven's first two symphonies—the beginning of his journey to explode the format forever. In these two works from the turn of the 19th century, Beethoven is starting to shake off the yoke of Haydn and explore the possibilities of the symphonic form. Nonetheless, the drama and excitement is unmistakably Beethovian.

Beethoven: Symphony No 1 in C major, Op 21

8.00pm Interval music

8.20pm

Beethoven: Symphony No 2 in D major, Op 36

Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)

WNO Orchestra and Mark Wigglesworth perform Beethoven's first two Symphonies

Cardiff Week (2-4)2018070520210317 (R3)Nicola Heywood Thomas presents another chance to hear this concert given by Wales's exciting and innovative chamber orchestra, Sinfonia Cymru. Recorded in Cardiff at the Dora Stoutzker Hall at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and led by Hungarian conductor, Gကbor Takကcs-Nagy.

Mozart was an excellent violinist and played professionally at the court orchestra in Salzburg but, at home, his first love was the gentler tones of the viola. Both instruments shine, side by side, in his Sinfonia Concertante. The climax to their lively programme is Mozart's passionate 40th Symphony and the concert opens with music inspired by Welsh folk tunes, described by the composer as his ‘guilty pleasure'.

Watkins: Three Welsh Songs for Strings

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E flat for violin & viola K. 364

8.20pm

Interval

8.40pm

Bartok: Romanian Folk Dances (arranged by Willner for strings)

Mozart: Symphony No.40 in G minor K. 550

Sinfonia Cymru, Gကbor Takကcs-Nagy, conductor

Benjamin Baker, violin, Timothy Ridout, viola

Chamber orchestra Sinfonia Cymru perform works by Mozart and Bartok in Cardiff.

Cardiff Week (3-4)20210318Nicola Heywood Thomas continues this week's series of lunchtime and evening concerts from Wales with this solo recital from St. David's Hall from welsh pianist, Ll?r Williams.

Ll?r opens with a selection of Etudes from the intriguing world of Alexander Scriabin, from the unabashed romantic stylings of his teenage years to the heady complexity of his later works. In the second half, Ll?r begins what will be, for him, a year of special focus on the music of Chopin. Between, he presents the symphonically proportioned first piano sonata by Schumann, conceived as an impassioned love letter to the composer's beloved future wife, Clara.

Scriabin: ɀtude in E, Op 8 No 5

Scriabin: ɀtude in C# minor, Op 2 No 1

Scriabin: ɀtude in B, Op 8 No 4

Scriabin: ɀtude in F minor, Op 42 No 7

Scriabin: ɀtude in Eb, Op 42 No 8

Schumann: Sonata No 1 in F# minor, Op 11

8.20pm

Interval

8.40pm

Chopin: Nocturne in Bb minor, Op 9 No 1

Chopin: Nocturne in Eb, Op 9 No 2

Chopin: Mazurka in B minor, Op 30 No 2

Chopin: Mazurka in Eb, Op 30 No 3

Chopin: Mazurka in F minor, Op 7 No 3

Chopin: Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17 No 4

Chopin: Waltz in E minor, Op posth

Chopin: Ballade No 1 in G minor, Op 23

Chopin: Scherzo No 1 in B minor, Op 20

Ll?r Williams, piano

Welsh pianist Ll\u0177r Williams performs Scriabin, Schumann and Chopin.

Cardiff Week (4-4)20210319To conclude the special week of performances from Cardiff, Nicola Heywood Thomas presents a live concert from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with their principal conductor Ryan Bancroft, from their home in BBC Hoddinott Hall.

Charles Ives beautifully evokes very personal locations in his Three Places in New England, weaving in customary nods to American folk music within his very distinctive sound world. Just as Ives has a voice inseparable from America, so Benjamin Britten's is inseparable from England, and his six settings of poems on the theme of night in Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings are just as evocative of his homeland. For this performance, Ryan and the Orchestra are joined by tenor Joshua Owen Mills and the Orchestra's principal horn player, Tim Thorpe. Kurt Weill's much overlooked Second Symphony brings the concert to its conclusion, a work full of wit and drama, which was largely written while Weill was fleeing Nazi Germany.

Ives: Three Places in New England

Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings

8.20pm

Interval music

8.40pm

Weill: Symphony No 2

Joshua Owen Mills (tenor)

Tim Thorpe (horn)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

BBC NOW and Ryan Bancroft perform Ives, Britten and Weill.

Carmen In Russian Costume20201202Martin Handley presents the London Symphony Orchestra, playing two major 20th-century Russian classics.

Weinberg: 2nd Symphony op. 30

Bizet/Shchedrin: Carmen Suite

Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla, conductor

Concert recorded at St Luke's, Old Street on 25th November.

Followed by music off disc

Mozart

Piano Concerto No 18 in B flat major, K 456

Daniel Barenboim (piano)

English Chamber Orchestra

Bizet's Carmen, in the arrangement by Shchedrin, played by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Carolin Widmann And The Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra20190221Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

CPE Bach: Symphony in Eb major

Stravinsky: Violin Concerto

8.05 Interval

8.25 Part 2

Bruckner: Symphony No 7

Carolin Widmann (violin)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

The theme of Bruckner's 7th Symphony came to him in a dream; the theme of Stravinsky's Violin Concerto came to him at dinner. We don't know where CPE Bach thought up his Symphony in Eb, but his music, which opens this concert, was pivotal in the development of the classical forms that Stravinsky would later draw on in his so-called 'Neoclassical' works. Nevertheless it is the music of his father JS Bach which is most resonant in Stravinsky's 1931 Violin Concerto: a work almost entirely derived from a single chord, scribbled on a napkin. The BBC SSO, and conductor Ilan Volkov, are joined by the sparky virtuoso Carolin Widmann to play it.

In contrast to the concision of these two composers' music stands Bruckner's 7th Symphony. It is massively more expansive in length but still owes a great deal to CPE Bach's 18th century formal innovations. Written in the 1880s it won international recognition for its composer. The symphony pays tribute to Wagner in its central death-hymn: and went on to be much admired by Hitler.

Photo credit: Lennard Rühle

Ilan Volkov conducts Stravinsky's Violin Concerto in D and Bruckner's Symphony No 7 in E.

Casulana And Strozzi: The Excellence Of Women20220308Fieri Consort and Professor Laurie Stras, in partnership with BBC Radio 3 and Kings Place, present newly rediscovered madrigals by Maddalena Casulana for International Women's Day 2022.

In one of the most important musicological discoveries of recent years, the lost Alto partbook of Maddalena Casulana's 1583 First Book of five-voice madrigals has been found. Living at a time in which women's creativity was often stifled, Casulana (1544-1590) and her compatriot Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677) were only too aware their music would be judged inferior to men's. This concert presents Casulana's madrigals as a fresh perspective on Strozzi's works, celebrating both composers' skill with words and music.

Casulana (from the dedication in her first book of 1566):

`these first fruits of mine, flawed as they are - show the world the futile error of men who believe themselves patrons of the high gifts of intellect, which according to them cannot also be held in the same way by women - `

This concert is presented by Hannah French, live from Kings Place, London.

Maddalena Casulana, Il primo libro di madrigali a cinque voci (1583)

Come fiammeggia e splende

Aura, che mormorando al bosco

Cos쀀 non senti mai novo furore (2a)

Io d'odorate frondi e di bei fiori (3a)

Se vedrem poi destarsi lieta e bella (4a)

Barbara Strozzi, Il primo libro di madrigali, Op. 1 (1644),

Godere in gioventù

Casulana (1583) Caro dolce mio, Amore

Casulana (1583) Tu mi dicesti, Amore

Strozzi (1644), Il contrasto di cinque sensi

Casulana (1583) Datemi pace, o duri i miei pensieri!

Casulana Il secondo libro di madrigali a quattro voci (1570)

O notte, o cielo, o mare, o piaggie, o monti

Strozzi Cantate, ariete a una, due e tre voci, Op. 3 (1654)

Moralit

Cathedral Of Sound20190329Bruckner's expansive and, in his own words, cheeky, Sixth Symphony live from Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival, performed by Royal Northern Sinfonia under Thomas Zehetmair.

Programme:

Mozart Violin Concerto No.3

Bruckner Symphony No.6

Thomas Zehetmair (conductor/violin)

Presented by Elizabeth Alker.

Bruckner Symphony No 6 live from Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival.

Cavalli's La Calisto20161128Live from Wigmore Hall, London: La Nuova Musica perform Cavalli's La Calisto.

Cavalli: La Calisto (part 1)

Francesco Cavalli's La Calisto, first performed in Venice in 1651, blends comedy and tragedy with music of sensuous beauty and irresistible charm. The opera's libretto is based on the ancient Greek myth of the nymph Callisto, who incurs the wrath of the Roman goddess Juno and is transformed into a bear. Finally she is set amongst the stars of the Great Bear constellation.

Its modern revival at the 1970 Glyndebourne Festival created a wave of interest in Baroque opera that continues to grow today, driven by the energy and artistic vision of groups such as La Nuova Musica and its director David Bates, who made his critically acclaimed US debut in 2014 conducting La Calisto with Cincinnati Opera.

8.30pm Interval: Pied Piper

A radio programme that's aimed at children and teenagers, but draws in an audience of all ages. That's exactly what Pied Piper was - a twenty-minute programme that ran on BBC Radio 3 from 1971 until the untimely death of its presenter, early music specialist David Munrow in May 1976. It was broadcast at tea time and was initially billed as 'tales and music for younger listeners', yet many now cite it as the programme that gave them a way into classical music. As part of the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the Third Programme, BBC Radio 3 has dug out some of the programmes from the archive to give us a chance to listen again to how Munrow enthused his audiences with his passion for music of all types.

During the intervals of the concerts this week, we'll be hearing a selection of programmes from the five-year-long series. Munrow explored a wide range of music, and these five programmes can only begin to give a taste of the topics he covered.

In this edition of Pied Piper from 13th September 1971, David Munrow discusses the music of Handel, sings 'jolly good, jolly good' along to a Bach Brandenburg concerto and gives a brief history of electronic and pipe organs.

8.50pm Cavalli: La Calisto (part 2)

Calisto ..... Lucy Crowe, soprano

Giove ..... George Humphreys, bass

Diana ..... Jurgita Adamonyt退, mezzo-soprano

Endimione ..... Tim Mead, countertenor

Giunone ..... Rachel Kelly, mezzo-soprano

Mercurio ..... James Newby, baritone

Pane ..... Andrew Tortise, tenor

Linfea ..... Sam Furness, tenor

Satirino ..... Jake Arditti, countertenor

Silvano ..... Edward Grint, bass-baritone

David Bates director.

Live from Wigmore Hall, London, La Nuova Musica perform Cavalli's opera La Calisto.

Cbso At Aldeburgh20220621Tom McKinney introduces a concert from the Snape Maltings given as part of this year's Aldeburgh Festival featuring the CBSO performing music by Benjamin Britten and Shostakovich - his First Violin Concerto, performed by Patricia Kopatchinskaja. David Oistrakh, its dedicatee, likened the violin part to 'a pithy Shakespearian role'. The concert also features a new work by the Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir.

THORVALDSDOTTIR Catamorphosis;

BRITTEN: Suite: Gloriana

Interval:

(From disc)

Britten: Cello Sonata in C

Mstislav Rostropovich, cello

Benjamin Britten, piano

SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No 1

BRITTEN Four Sea Interludes (Peter Grimes);

MORLOT, Ludovic (conductor)

KOPATCHINSKAJA, Patricia (violin)

Recorded at Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Britten, Shostakovich and a new work by Anna Thorvaldsdottir from Snape Maltings.

Cbso Under Edward Gardner In Music Inspired, By Shakespeare20160111Recorded at Symphony Hall, Birmingham

The CBSO conducted by Edward Gardner play music inspired by Shakespeare

Strauss: Macbeth

Vaughan Williams: Three Shakespeare Songs

Verdi: Macbeth - ballet music

8.15: Interval

Walton: Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario (arr. Christopher Palmer)

Narrated by Samuel West

CBSO Chorus

Samuel West, narrator

Edward Gardner, conductor

O for a Muse of fire...' Shakespeare's Henry V crammed the Battle of Agincourt into a tiny wooden theatre. Four centuries later, William Walton matched that vision with music that redefined British cinema, and this lavish concert version weaves all the play's greatest speeches and Walton's score into a compelling musical drama. Edward Gardner launches the CBSO's year of Shakespeare celebrations with passionate Shakespearean masterpieces by Verdi and Richard Strauss.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra play music inspired by Shakespeare.

Cbso With Sibelius, Dove And Dvorak20211209The Hungarian conductor Gergely Madaras conducts the CBSO live from Symphony Hall in Birmingham in a programme of Sibelius and Dvorak, which also features a newly commissioned work from the orchestra by Jonathan Dove, written especially for baritone Sir Simon Keenlyside and the cellist Raphael Wallfisch. The programme ends with one of Dvorak's best known and best loved symphonies, making this a concert of 'New Worlds'. Presented by Linton Stephens.

Sibelius: Finlandia

Dove: In Exile (UK premiere)

Simon Keenlyside (baritone)

Raphael Wallfisch (cello)

INTERVAL

Dvorak: Symphony No 9 (New World)

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Gergely Madaras (conductor)

Gergely Madaras conducts the CBSO live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Cbso, Bax And Vaughan Williams20170510Tom Redmond presents a concert of Bax and Vaughan Williams given by the CBSO and conductor John Wilson, live from Birmingham's Symphony Hall. An evening of contrasting moods, it's bookended by two works by Ralph Vaughan Williams - his transcendent Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and the uproarious choral showpiece Five Tudor Portraits. Following the antics of a bunch of Elizabethan roustabouts, it was written for the 1936 Norwich Festival, to their apparent surprise: 'I think they thought they'd get 'O Praise the Lord', but I sent them the Five Tudor Portraits.' Sandwiched in between is Arnold Bax's tone poem November Woods, a depiction of doomed wintry romance if ever there was one.

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Bax: November Woods

8.10 INTERVAL

During the interval Tom Redmond introduces a selection of commercial recordings of chamber music by Bax.

8.30 Vaughan Williams: Five Tudor Portraits

Rachel Kelly (mezzo)

Neal Davies (bass)

CBSO Chorus

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

John Wilson (conductor).

Tom Redmond presents a concert given by the CBSO, featuring Bax and Vaughan Williams.

Cbso, Brahms, Shostakovich And The Uk Premiere Of Simon Holt's Surcos20180613Schoenberg's imaginative and colourful orchestration of Brahms' First Piano Quartet is conducted by Ilan Volkov in this concert broadcast live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham. Schoenberg had a great love for the music of Brahms and took on the challenge of transcribing the G Minor Piano Quartet for orchestra to revive what was, he thought, an under-performed chamber work in the early 20th Century.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is joined by American cellist Alisa Weilerstein for Shostakovich's haunting Second Cello Concerto, full of the anguish and existential despair which characterise the composer's later works.

Multi-award winning British composer Simon Holt's new work, Surcos, is a CBSO co-commission and this concert marks its UK premiere. The title translates as 'furrows' and it was inspired by the poem Noviembre 1913 Antonio Machado (1875-1939), describing seeds cast into the soil before winter asserts its grip.

Tom Redmond presents this live broadcast.

Simon Holt: Surcos (CBSO co-commission, UK premiere)

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 2

(Alisa Weilerstein - Cello)

INTERVAL

Brahms (orch. Schoenberg): Piano Quartet in G minor

Ilan Volkov - Conductor.

Live from Symphony Hall, Ilan Volkov conducts the CBSO with cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

Cbso, Debussy, Hans Abrahamsen, Mahler20160428Live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Presented by Tom Redmond

Ilan Volkov - Conductor

Alexandre Tharaud - Piano

Sarah Tynan - Soprano

Debussy (orch. Abrahamsen): Children's Corner

Hans Abrahamsen: Concerto for the Left Hand (CBSO co-commission, UK premiere)

Interval:

BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the fourth of the category finalists in this year's brass competition.

Trumpeter Zoe Perkins plays music by:

Barat, Enescu and Hovhaness

Mahler: Symphony No. 4

Gustav Mahler never wrote anything happier than his Fourth Symphony. Jangling sleighbells, Mozart-like melodies, and a child's vision of heaven... if it almost sounds too sweet, trust Ilan Volkov to find the black comedy beneath the playful surface. First, though, we've a charming new version of Debussy's Children's Corner - and the first UK performance of a new piano concerto, specially written for tonight's soloist by the Danish sonic magician Hans Abrahamsen.

Ilan Volkov conducts the CBSO in music by Debussy, Hans Abrahamsen and Mahler.

Cbso, Raminta Serksnyte, Haydn, Mahler20161116Live from Symphony Hall Birmingham, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, under Music Director Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, perform Haydn's Symphony No 6 ('Le Matin') and Mahler's Symphony No 1, plus the UK premiere of Fires, a new work by Lithuanian composer Raminta Šerkšnyte.

Presented by Tom Redmond

Raminta Šerkšnyte: Fires (UK premiere)

Haydn: Symphony No 6 in D (Le Matin)

c8.05pm - Interval

c.8.25pm

Mahler: Symphony No 1 in D

Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla (conductor)

Three masterpieces from three centuries in one gloriously colourful concert, as CBSO Music Director Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla sweeps from Haydn's cheerful salute to the dawn to Gustav Mahler's heaven-storming evocation of a whole universe awakening into life. The concert opens with the UK premiere of the atmospheric, explosive Fires, by Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla's fellow Lithuanian, Raminta Šerkšnyte.

The CBSO performs symphonies by Haydn and Mahler, and a new work by Raminta Serksnyte.

Cbso, Ravel, Britten And Shostakovich20180430Stuart Flinders introduces music by Ravel, Britten and Shostakovich, performed by the CBSO conducted by Nicholas Collon at Symphony Hall in Birmingham.

Colour is a striking feature of the CBSO's concert which features arrangements of two of Maurice Ravel's piano masterpieces from his collection 'Miroirs'. Benjamin Britten's youthful song cycle 'Les Illuminations', inspired by the Symbolist poetry of Arthur Rimbaud completes the first half, sung by soprano Sophie Bevan; whilst the concert culminates with one of Dmitri Shostakovich's most powerful and personal statements, his Tenth Symphony, written for a large orchestra in written during the telling period immediately following the death of Stalin. This large scale piece is described by the CBSO as 'one of the Twentieth century's ultimate musical epics'.

Part 1

Ravel (orch. Colin Matthews): Oiseaux Tristes

Ravel: Alborado del gracioso

Britten: Les Illuminations

INTERVAL:

(From CD)

Britten: Cello Sonata

Mstislav Rostropovich (cello)

Benjamin Britten (piano)

Part 2

Shostakovich: Symphony No 10

Sophie Bevan (soprano)

CBSO conducted by Nicholas Collon.

Nicholas Collon conducts the CBSO in music by Ravel, Britten and Shostakovich.

Cbso, Rimsky-korsakov, Scriabin, Beethoven20151202Live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Presented by Martin Handley

Michael Seal conducts Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, and Yevgeny Sudbin performs Scriabin's Piano Concerto.

Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio espagnol

Scriabin: Piano Concerto

8.15

Interval

8.35

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)

Yevgeny Sudbin, piano

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Michael Seal, conductor

CBSO associate conductor Michael Seal conducts Beethoven's revolutionary Eroica symphony; an explosive contrast to Scriabin's Piano Concerto, an romantic early masterpiece performed tonight by Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin. The concert concludes with Rimsky Korsakov's lively Capriccio espagnol.

Michael Seal conducts the CBSO in music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin and Beethoven.

Cbso, Sibelius, Mozart, Mendelssohn20151001Live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham, the CBSO plays Sibelius's Fifth Symphony and music by Mozart and Mendelssohn. Presented by Adam Tomlinson.

Mendelssohn: Overture, The Hebrides

Mozart: Piano Concerto No.9 in E flat, K271

8.15: Interval

Adam Tomlinson in discussion with Principal Guest Conductor of the CBSO, Edward Gardner, and with their newly appointed Assistant Conductor Alpesh Chauhan.

8.35

Sibelius: Symphony No.5

Lars Vogt, piano

Edward Gardner, conductor

Sibelius's Fifth Symphony begins with a glowing sunrise and ends with a vision of a flight of swans - and one of the simplest but noblest melodies ever written. A real CBSO speciality, there's no finer way to salute Sibelius in his anniversary year. First, though, Edward Gardner takes us to sea with Felix Mendelssohn, and joins the masterly Lars Vogt in Mozart's little jewel of a piano concerto.

Edward Gardner conducts the CBSO in Sibelius's Symphony No 5, plus Mozart and Mendelssohn.

Cbso, Strauss, Copland, Rachmaninov20170418Tom Redmond introduces a concert from Symphony Hall, Birmingham, given by the CBSO, conducted by Andrew Gourlay. The programme includes Richard Strauss's blazingly romantic and virtuosic tone-poem Don Juan, Aaron Copland's jazz-infused Clarinet Concerto with the orchestra's principal clarinettist Oliver Janes as soloist, and Rachmaninov's sumptuous, bitter-sweet Third Symphony.

PART ONE

Strauss: Don Juan

Copland: Clarinet Concerto

8.15 INTERVAL

Copland worked on his Clarinet Concerto whilst in Rio de Janeiro, and its last movement shows the influence of some of the music he heard there. During the interval, a selection of items from disc by two Brazilian composers Copland heard and commented on during his visit: by Camargo Guarnieri and Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Villa Lobos: Chorus No 5 'Alma Brasileira

Valsa da Dor

Saudades das Selvas Brasileiras No 2

Guarnieri: Danca Negra

Ponteio No 24

Toccata

Nelson Freire (piano)

8.35

PART TWO

Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 3

Oliver Janes, clarinet

Andrew Gourlay, conductor.

Andrew Gourlay conducts the CBSO in music by Strauss, Copland and Rachmaninov.

Cbso, Stravinsky, Tippett, Beethoven20170614Tom Redmond presents a concert of Stravinsky, Tippett and Beethoven, given by the CBSO, conductor Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla and pianist Steven Osborne live at Symphony Hall in Birmingham.

Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947)

8.05: Interval

8.25

Tippett: Piano Concerto

Beethoven: Leonore overture no.3

Steven Osborne (piano)

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla (conductor)

Shrovetide in old Russia, and passions surge as the crowds throng the spring Fair, and with them the instantly recognisable sound-world of Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka. But passions aren't for puppets... are they? Even the smaller orchestra of Stravinsky's 1947 revision leaves no room for magical doubt in this 'creed of colour, movement, and illusion'. Then, Steven Osborne with the confidently symphonic piano concerto that a young maverick Tippett wrote specially for the CBSO, with its visionary middle movement. And for a rousing end, Beethoven's heroic Leonore Overture No.3.

Following tonight's concert, there'll be a chance to hear recordings by previous winners in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, ahead of the 2017 final this weekend.

Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla conducts the CBSO in music by Stravinsky, Tippett and Beethoven.

Cbso, Webern, Brahms, Mahler20160331Live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Presented by Tom Redmond

Nicholas Collon - Conductor

CBSO Youth Chorus

Webern: Six Pieces Op. 6 (chamber version)

Brahms: Four Songs for Women's Voices, Op. 17

8.00 Interval

8.20

Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (completed by Deryck Cooke)

Mahler never quite finished his Tenth Symphony, but when musicologist Deryck Cooke finally pieced together the sketches, he revealed a lost masterpiece - in which cries of love and cries of pain finally resolve in music of shattering honesty and piercing beauty. Nicholas Collon uncovers its secrets tonight, and sets it alongside miniatures from Brahms and Webern - each one a tiny, concentrated world of poetry and emotion.

Nicholas Collon conducts the CBSO and Youth Chorus in music by Webern, Brahms and Mahler.

Cedric Tiberghien At Wigmore Hall20171108C退dric Tiberghien plays piano music by Prokofiev, Philippe Hersant and Mussorgsky at the Wigmore Hall.

Recorded at Wigmore Hall on November 5th, 2017.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Prokofiev: Visions fugitives, Op 22

Philippe Hersant: In Black

8.15: Interval

8.35: Mussorgsky: Pictures from an Exhibition

C退dric Tiberghien, piano

In high demand worldwide for the poetic eloquence and artistic refinement of his playing, C退dric Tiberghien returns to Wigmore Hall with a typically rich and colourful programme, as cornerstones of the repertoire by Mussorgsky and Prokofiev bookend his exploration of Philippe Hersant's In Black.

Cedric Tiberghien plays piano music by Prokofiev, Philippe Hersant and Mussorgsky.

Cedric Tiberghien At Wigmore Hall20230705Pianist C退dric Tiberghien plays a programme of variations, part of his mammoth project at the Wigmore Hall, in which all of Beethoven's variation cycles will be juxtaposed with works illustrating the evolution of the genre, from the Renaissance to the present day.

Presented by Al Ryan.

Sweelinck: 6 Variations on 'Mein junges Leben hat ein End

Bach: Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin BWV1004, transcribed by Brahms

George Benjamin: Shadowlines

Beethoven: 32 Variations on an Original Theme in C minor WoO. 80

Beethoven: 24 variations on Righini's arietta 'Venni amore' in D, WoO. 65

Mozart: Piano Sonata in A K331

Beethoven: 6 Variations on an Original Theme in D Op. 76

C退dric Tiberghien piano

Concert recorded on Thursday 1 June 2023.

Pianist Cedric Tiberghien in recital at London's Wigmore Hall.

Cedric Tiberghien Plays Pictures At An Exhibition20200708Another chance to hear the poetic eloquence of C退dric Tiberghien, performing piano works by Prokofiev, Philippe Hersant and Mussorgsky's celebrated Pictures at an Exhibition, which concludes with the triumphant Great Gate of Kiev. Presented by Ian Skelly at London's Wigmore Hall and first broadcast on 8th November 2017.

Prokofiev: Visions fugitives, Op 22

Philippe Hersant: In Black

8.15: Interval Music (from CD)

Lyadov: Kikimora

Kirov Orchestra

Valery Gergiev (conductor)

PHILIPS

8.25: Mussorgsky: Pictures from an Exhibition

C退dric Tiberghien (piano)

Pianist Cedric Tiberghien performs music by Prokofiev, Philippe Hersant and Mussorgsky.

Celebrating 100 Years Since Czech Independence20181024As part of the celebrations marking 100 years since Czech and Slovak independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Czech Philharmonic and their newly-appointed Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov bring and all-Czech programme to the Duke's Hall at the Royal Academy of Music. Semyon Bychkov also holds the RAM's Otto Klemperer Chair of Conducting and RAM students will be sharing the stage with the Czech Philharmonic for the first piece, Smetana's The Bartered Bride Overture to get the celebrations off to a suitably jolly start.

Martin Handley presents.

Smetana: The Bartered Bride Overture

Dvo?ကk: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op 104

Dvo?ကk: Symphony No 7 in D minor, Op 70

Semyon Bychkov conductor

Alisa Weilerstein (cello)

Academy string, woodwind and brass students

Semyon Bychkov (conductor)

Semyon Bychkov conducts the Czech Philharmonic in Smetana and Dvorak

Celebrating Bernard Haitink: Berlin Philharmonic2021041920220111 (R3)Continuing the series celebrating the great conductor, Bernard Haitink conducts the Berlin Philharmonic live in concert at the orchestra's Berlin home, the Philhamonie, in September1992. The programme includes Martin?'s Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano and Timpani, repertoire Bernard Haitink never recorded commercially.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Martin?: Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano and Timpani

Bart k: Viola Concerto, Sz. 120

8.15pm

Dvo?ကk: Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70

Philipp Moll (piano)

Heinrich Vogler (timpani)

Tabea Zimmermann (viola)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Bernard Haitink (conductor)

Bernard Haitink conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in Martin\u016f, Bart\u00f3k and Dvo\u0159\u00e1k.

Celebrating Bernard Haitink: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra20220113Tonight, recorded live in concert in 1997 at the Philharmonie, Berlin, the great Dutch conductor leads the Berlin Philharmonic in symphonies by two composers close to his heart. Like Mahler, the symphonies of Shostakovich were a mainstay of Haitink's repertoire and his performance of the epic Fourth was an unforgettable experience. The concert begins with the symphonic polar opposite of the Shostakovich, the charming and elegant Third Symphony of Schubert.

Presented by Tom Service

Schubert: Symphony No. 3 in D, D. 200

7.55pm

Interval - another chance to hear part of a Music Matters interview from 2013 with Tom Service and Bernard Haitink.

8.05pm

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Bernard Haitink (conductor)

The great conductor leads the BPO in symphonies by Schubert and Shostakovich.

Celebrating Bernard Haitink: Chamber Orchestra Of Europe And Isabelle Faust20220110In the second of six live archive concert recordings celebrating the great conductor who died last year, Bernard Haitink leads the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and violinist Isabelle Faust at the 2017 BBC Proms. Haitink first conducted the COE in 2008 and he described them as 'the greatest gift in the later stages of my career.` 'With the COE,' he said 'I feel I am not a conductor anymore. I feel like a musician who can make music with them.`

Mozart: Symphony No. 38 in D major 'Prague', K. 504

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216

8.30 pm

Interval: Ian Skelly talks to John Chimes, who played tympani in tonight's concert, about his memories of Bernard Haitink.

8.40: Schumann: Symphony No. 2 in C major

Isabelle Faust (violin)

conductor Bernard Haitink

Bernard Haitink conducts the COE and Isabelle Faust in Mozart's Third Violin Concerto.

Celebrating Bernard Haitink: London Symphony Orchestra20220112Bernard Haitink's guest appearances with the LSO were hotly anticipated events and his 2017 benchmark performance of Mahler's great Ninth Symphony certainly lived up to expectations. As The Guardian critic put it, this was 'an exceptional performance, unblinkingly direct and faultlessly played by the LSO... objective and utterly coherent... few usher the final Adagio towards its faltering close with more care and gentle humanity than Haitink did here.' After the concert, violinist Lennox Mackenzie shares his memories of playing in the concert, and of Haitink.

Mahler: Symphony No. 9

London Symphony Orchestra

Bernard Haitink (conductor)

Bernard Haitink conducts the LSO in Mahler's Ninth Symphony, recorded live in 2017.

Celebrating Bernard Haitink: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra20220107In the first of six live concert archive recordings celebrating the great conductor who died in October, Bernard Haitink leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in an all-Strauss programme.

Bernard Haitink returned on Christmas Day in 2011 to the orchestra of which he was Chief Conductor for 27 years to give magisterial performances of two works dear to his heart.

At his death, the orchestra wrote: 'Bernard Haitink's relationship with the Concertgebouworkest spanned 65 years... Haitink embodied the most distinctive qualities of his three predecessors: Willem Kes's discipline, Willem Mengelberg's natural talent and Eduard van Beinum's sense of ensemble playing and orchestral sound....We remember Bernard Haitink as a modest man and as a great musician.

Introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Richard Strauss: 4 Last Songs

8.00 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Richard Strauss: Traumerei (Reverie); Heidebild (On the Heath) (from Stimmungsbilder Op. 9)

Stefan Veselka (piano)

8.10 pm

Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony

Anja Harteros (soprano)

Bernard Haitink (conductor)

Image: © Todd Rosenberg

Bernard Haitink conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Strauss's Alpine Symphony.

Celebrating Bernard Haitink: Vienna Philharmonic20220114To end the series celebrating Bernard Haitink, the great conductor's last performance, when the 90-year-old bade farewell to the international concert stage with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded at the Concert Hall, KKL, Lucerne, as part of the 2019 Lucerne Festival. To open the concert, he's joined by Emanuel Ax for Beethoven's by turns elusive and playful Piano Concerto No. 4. But to end, one of those 'Haitink' composers with which he made his name: Bruckner and his Seventh Symphony, which in this performance unfolds with Haitink's trademark inexorable inevitability, a fitting end to a seven-decades-long career.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Op. 58

8.10 pm

Interval

Bruckner Symphony No. 7 in E

Emanuel Ax (piano)

Bernard Haitink (conductor)

Haitink's last concert features Beethoven Piano Concerto No 4 and Bruckner Symphony No 7.

Celebrating The Aldeburgh Festival20200626The BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Oliver Knussen at the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival. Works by Americans Aaron Copland and Morton Feldman, and the world premiere of British composer Philip Cashian's piano concerto, The Book of Ingenious Devices, with soloist Huw Watkins.

Oliver Knussen: conductor, composer, teacher, inspirer - a figure loved by musicians and audiences everywhere. Sadly this was Olly's last concert with the BBC SO: he died just three weeks later, a huge loss to the musical world. In this concert we hear him talking about the works by Feldman and Copland, including his choice of interval music.

Aaron Copland's ballet music for Appalachian Spring is probably his most popular creation. Suffused with tender melodies, Shaker tunes and rhythmic energy, this work by an immigrant originally from Lithuanian captures the radiant pastoral side of the American dream like no other. In contrast, Copland's Music for a Great City, first performed in London, displays Copland's more muscular modernist sounds which fitted the 1961 film - Jack Garfine's Something Wild - for which is was first written: a dark, psychological drama about a young woman experiencing extreme violence in New York.

Philip Cashian's piano concerto shows off the virtuosity of its soloist, composer-pianist Huw Watkins. Also in the mix, American Morton Feldman's Structures, an intriguing, beautiful essay in sound from 1962.

Recorded at Snape Maltings Concert Hall on Saturday 16th June 2018

Presented by Martin Handley

Copland: Music for a Great City

Philip Cashian: Piano Concerto No.2: The Book of Ingenious Devices (world premiere)

C. 8.15

Copland: Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson (a selection chosen by Oliver Knussen)

1: Nature, the gentlest mother

2: There came a wind like a bugle

5: Heart, we will forget him

6: Dear March, come in!

7: Sleep is supposed to be

11: Going to Heaven!

12: The Chariot

Adele Addison (soprano), Aaron Copland (piano)

Morton Feldman: Structures

Copland: Appalachian Spring Suite

Huw Watkins (piano)

Oliver Knussen (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Oliver Knussen, at the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival.

Celebrating The Centenary Of Poland Regaining Independence20181121Roxanna Panufnik's new oratario, Faithful Journey - A Mass for Poland, is framed around the traditional Latin mass and based on 11 poems representing a decade of Polish history. Presented by Tom Redmond.

Panufnik: Faithful Journey - A Mass for Poland (UK premiere)

INTERVAL

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker: Highlights

Mary Bevan (soprano)

CBSO Chorus

CBSO Children's Chorus

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla (conductor)

The UK premiere of Roxanna Panufnik's oratorio, Faithful Journey - A Mass for Poland.

Celestial Navigation: Pavel Kolesnikov At Aldeburgh20230613Ian Skelly introduces a concert from Snape Maltings, as part of this year's Aldeburgh Festival, in which pianist Pavel Kolesnikov plays a collection of pieces as a paean to the American visual artist Joseph Cornell.

Entitled 'Celestial Navigation', this is Kolesnikov's elegy to Cornell, a great magician among artists. Ever since he discovered his work he has been engrossed by it - tender, mysterious and joyful, always ropewalking between fanciful vagueness and precision. Cornell has been a profound inspiration for Kolesnikov's own attempts to make soundscapes and sound worlds from found musical objects. In his art work Celestial Navigation, Cornell invokes the myths, images, and theories once used to explain the predictable yet baffling patterns of the night sky. The boxed objects present an ordered, though perhaps not entirely knowable, universe.

In this concert, Kolesnikov plays a constellation of pieces by Messiaen, Chopin, Ravel and Couperin, as well as Thomas Ad耀s' Darknesse Visible and Schubert's Four Impromptus, illuminated in the concert hall by interplanetary projections and lighting.

Francois Couperin - Pavane in F sharp minor

Olivier Messiaen - Regard de l'退toile

Fryderyk Chopin - Nocturne in D flat, Op.27'6

Olivier Messiaen - La colombe

Fryderyk Chopin - Nocturne in E minor, Op.72'1

Olivier Messiaen - Pr退lude (1964)

Fryderyk Chopin - Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op.posth

Maurice Ravel - Une barque sur l'ocean [Miroirs]

Thomas Ad耀s - Darknesse Visible

During the interval, Ian Skelly chats to Pavel Kolesnikov about his love of Joseph Cornell's art, and we hear excerpts from Cornell's own extensive record collection, plus Mary Chapin Carpenter's tribute in song to the reclusive artist.

Franz Schubert - Four Impromptus

Presented by Ian Skelly

Pianist Pavel Kolesnikov plays a collection of pieces as a paean to artist Joseph Cornell.

Cello Concertos From Geneva20210920The Geneva Chamber Orchestra begin their concert with a work by Henryk Pachulski (1859-1921). Though born in Poland, he spent most of his life in Russia, working as a pianist, composer and teacher. His Suite dedicated to the memory of Tchaikovsky was written in 1897. After this rarity, Gautier Capu瀀on joins the orchestra in two celebrated cello concertos, and the programme is completed with Haydn's ‘Hen' symphony, so called because a clucking second subject in the first movement, reminded listeners of the jerky back-and-forth head motion of a walking hen.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Gautier Capu瀀on, cello

Marzena Diakun, conductor

Henryk Pachulski: Suite Op 13, 'In memoriam P Tchaikovsky

Haydn: Cello Concerto No 1 in C major

Haydn: Symphony No 83 in G minor, 'The Hen

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Cello Concerto No 1 in A minor Op 33

Recorded at the Victoria Hall, Geneva, on 21 November 2020.

Gautier Capu\u00e7on and the Geneva Chamber Orchestra perform Pachulski, Haydn and Saint-Sa\u00ebns.

Centenary Simpson20210610Live from MediaCityUK, Salford

Presented by Linton Stephens

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 4

Simpson: Symphony No 2

Complementing last week's 'Composer of the Week' the BBC Philharmonic and Martyn Brabbins present a live performance of Robert Simpson's Second Symphony. With a Beethoven-sized orchestra, Simpson packs a sonic punch. The central movement is an intriguing theme and variations; again, like Beethoven, seeming to delight in the exploration of structure and shape in music. Steven Osborne joins the orchestra for another piece with an innovative middle movement, Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, in which the soloist was famously compared to Orpheus taming the wild beasts.

Steven Osborne (piano)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and Martyn Brabbins perform Robert Simpson's Second Symphony.

Chamber Music From East Neuk20210216Kate Molleson introduces a concert recorded at the 2019 East Neuk Festival, held in venues up and down the beautiful coastline of the Kingdom of Fife. The Bowhouse, just outside the picturesque harbour town of St Monans, was the venue for a concert featuring an all-star line-up of musicians and culminating in one of Brahms's greatest works of chamber music.

Dvorak String Quintet in E flat, Op 97

Pavel Haas Quartet, Krzysztof Chorzelski (viola)

Schubert Impromptu in G flat, D899 No 3

Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano)

Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor, Op 34

Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano), Belcea Quartet

Chamber music from the 2019 East Neuk Festival

Chamber Orchestra Of Europe20200420Fiona Talkington presents a concert given by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and conductor Antonio Pappano in Friedrichshafen last June.

The concert begins with Wagner's love-song for his second wife, Cosima - Siegfried Idyll. Wagner composed the piece as a birthday present for her after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was first performed on Christmas morning the next year by a small ensemble of musicians on the stairs of their Swiss villa. It's said that Cosima awoke to its opening melody. Awwwww....

The orchestra is then joined by Dutch violinist Janine Jansen for a performance of Karol Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No.1 - considered one of the very first modern violin concertos. It rejects traditional tonality and romantic aesthetics. Composed in 1916, the likely inspiration for the piece was 'Noc Majowa', a poem by the Polish poet Tadeusz Mici?ski. Although the concerto doesn't follow or duplicate the poem, Szymanowski's ecstatic, sumptuous music is an ideal companion to Mici?ski's language:

All the birds pay tribute to me

for today I wed a goddess.

And now we stand by the lake in crimson blossom

in flowing tears of joy, with rapture and fear,

burning in amorous conflagration.

During the interval we'll hear Nadia Boulanger's 1909 song-cycle 'Les Heures claires' sung by mezzo-soprano Melinda Paulson with pianist Angela Gassenhuber.

In the second half of the concert, the orchestra plays Dvorak's second set of Slavonic Dances, Op.72. These lively pieces, are full of national character and really helped put Dvorak's name on the musical map. Contrary to what the title, the dances are not so much inspired by Slavic folk music as such, but rather by styles and forms from Bohemia.

To end the programme, we'll hear Swedish trombone virtuoso Christian Lindberg in a recording of Gordon Jacob's Trombone Concerto, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Grant Llewellyn.

19:30

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No.1

Janine Jansen (violin)

Antonio Pappano (conductor)

20:20

Nadia Boulanger: Les Heures claires

Melinda Paulson (mezzo-soprano)

Angela Gassenhuber (piano)

20:45

Dvorak: Slavonic Dances, Op.72

21:35

Gordon Jacob: Trombone Concerto

Christian Lindberg (trombone)

Grant Llewellyn (conductor)

Antonio Pappano conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in Wagner, Szymanowski & Dvorak.

Chamber Orchestra Of Europe20200921Fiona Talkington introduces a highlight from last year's Festival season. From the Ascona Music Weeks, in the Swiss town of Locarno on the northern shore of Lake Maggiore, Francesco Piemontesi plays concertos by Haydn and Liszt with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Joshua Weilerstein.

Haydn: Piano Concerto No.6 in D

Liszt: Piano Concerto No.2 in A

Schubert: Impromptu in F minor, D.935

Brahms: Hungarian Dance No.18 in D

Bartok: Romanian Folk Dances

Golijov: Night of the flying horses

Brahms: Hungarian Dance No.1 in G minor

Bartok: Prelude & Canon (44 Duos)

Brahms: Hungarian Dance No.21 in E minor;

Hungarian Dance No.4 in F sharp minor

Kodaly: Dances of Galanta

Francesco Piemontesi, piano

Joshua Weilerstein, conductor

Recorded in St Francis Church, Locarno, Switzerland on 18th September 2019, during the Ascona Music Weeks.

Image Credit: Julia Wesely

Haydn, Liszt and Brahms from Locarno, Switzerland.

Changing Times: Vivaldi, Schubert, Larcher And Reger20201021As part of Southbank Centre's Inside Out season, Thierry Fischer conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme of music from Europe spanning three centuries. They begin in the splendour of Vivaldi's Venice, before moving to Austria in 1814, when Europe enjoyed a fragile peace, and the teenage Schubert set to work on his joyful Second Symphony. A century later in 1914, Europe stood on the brink again, and the German composer Max Reger looked back to Mozart for inspiration. Most recently, a century on from Reger, the contemporary Austrian composer Thomas Larcher turned to a myth of renewal in his 2014 cello concerto Ourobouros - the ancient image of a snake eating its own tail as symbol of infinity.

Presented by Martin Handley, live from the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre.

Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in B flat, RV383a

Schubert: Symphony No 2

Larcher: Ourobouros for cello and chamber ensemble

Reger: Variations & Fugue on a theme by Mozart, Op 132

Pieter Schoeman (violin)

Kristina Blaumane (cello)

Thierry Fischer (conductor)

Thierry Fischer conducts the LPO in a programme of music spanning three centuries.

Chetham's 50th Anniversary Concert20190710Pupils, alumni and special guests fill the stage of the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester to perform Mahler's Symphony No 8 - his Symphony of a Thousand in celebration of Chetham's School of Music's 50th anniversary year. Introduced by Tom Redmond.

Programme

Mahler: Symphony No 8 'Symphony of a Thousand

Ailish Tynan (soprano)

Gweneth Ann Rand (soprano)

Margaret McDonald (soprano)

Caroline Taylor (soprano)

Kitty Whately (mezzo soprano)

Mark le Brocq (tenor)

Gareth John (baritone)

Paul Carey Jones (Bass)

Chetham's Chorus, Leeds Festival Chorus, St George's Singers, Greater Manchester Hub Youth Choir, Manchester Cathedral Choristers, Hereford Cathedral School Children's Choir

Chetham's Symphony Orchestra

Stephen Threlfall (conductor)

Pupils, alumni and special guests fill the Bridgewater Hall for Mahler's Symphony No 8.

Chiaroscuro Quartet And Cedric Tiberghien20180619Dive into a new (should that be old?) soundworld with the period strings of the Chiaroscuro Quartet and piano of C退dric Tiberghien playing chamber music by German Romantic greats, Schumann and Mendelssohn. Presented live from Aldeburgh Festival by Ian Skelly.

Schumann: Fantasy Op.17?

Mendelssohn: String Quartet Op.12

Schumann: Piano Quintet

Producer Les Pratt

Presenter Ian Skelly.

Chamber music by Schumann and Mendelssohn, live from the Aldeburgh Festival.

Chiaroscuro Quartet And Cedric Tiberghien20200624Dive into a new (should that be old?) sound world with the period strings of the Chiaroscuro Quartet and piano of C退dric Tiberghien playing chamber music by German Romantic greats, Schumann and Mendelssohn. Presented live from Aldeburgh Festival by Ian Skelly.

Schumann: Fantasy Op.17?

Mendelssohn: String Quartet Op.12

Schumann: Piano Quintet

Producer Les Pratt

Presenter Ian Skelly

Chamber music by Schumann and Mendelssohn, live from the Aldeburgh Festival.

Chineke! At Bristol20171204Their 2017 Proms debut was a massive popular hit. Now Chineke! Orchestra, Europe's first majority BME orchestra continues its residency at St George's Bristol with two classics for string orchestra: an exuberant violin concerto by Joseph Bologne (aka Chevalier de Saint-Georges) and Errollyn Wallen's sparkling Concerto Grosso. Introduced by Georgia Mann.

Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Bologne: Violin Concerto in G, Op 8 No 9

INTERVAL

Errollyn Wallen: Concerto Grosso

Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings, Op 48

Shaun Matthew (conductor)

Tai Murray (violin)

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)

Chi-chi Nwanoku (double bass).

Chineke! follows up a sensational 2017 Proms debut with a concert from St George's Bristol

Chineke! At The Queen Elizabeth Hall20231128Chineke! Orchestra, plays Tchaikovsky and Joan Armatrading.

Presented by Sarah Walker.

Tchaikovsky: arr. Duke Ellington: Overture from The Nutcracker Suite

Joan Armatrading: Symphony No.1 (World premiere)

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.5

Andrew Grams, conductor

Founded with the aim of championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music, the Chineke! Orchestra is Europe's first majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra. Tonight they give the world premiere of Joan Armatrading's Symphony No.1, along with music by Tchaikovsky.

Chineke! Orchestra in music by Ellington, Armatrading and Tchaikovsky.

Chineke! Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Grams, give the world premiere of Joan Armatrading's Symphony No.1, along with music by and Tchaikovsky and Ellington.

Chineke! At The Royal Festival Hall20201019Black Legacies: Chineke! Orchestra with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason at Royal Festival Hall

Presented by Georgia Mann

Chineke! Orchestra performs contemporary and classical works, conducted by Kevin John Edusei.

London-born Samuel Coleridge-Taylor often made reference to his Sierra Leonean ancestry in his music. His African Suite imagines the energy and vitality of the continent he dreamed of visiting, using the vocabulary of his European classical training.

As the first African-American woman to have her work performed by a major American orchestra, Florence B. Price enjoyed widespread acclaim during her heyday in the 1930s and 1940s. The Piano Concerto in One Movement is a new edition of the composer's original 1934 orchestration, and we're delighted that Jeneba Kanneh-Mason will make her debut solo performance with Chineke!.

Chineke! Also presents the world premiere of James B.Wilson's latest commission, a collaboration with poet Yomi Sode. The work is inspired by a seminal moment in the recent Black Lives Matter protests in the UK.

Beethoven's celebrated Symphony No. 5 opens with the ominous notes of ‘fate knocking at the door', marking Chineke!'s final nod to the composer in his 250th anniversary year.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: African Suite

James B Wilson/Yomi Sode: New Work (World Premiere)

Florence B. Price: Piano Concerto in One Movement

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason piano

Kevin John Edusei conductor

Followed by music chosen by young people involved in the outreach and artist development schemes run by Southbank's Resident and Associate orchestras and Creative Learning Partners

Black Legacies: Chineke! Orchestra with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason at Royal Festival Hall.

Chineke! Orchestra Play Britten, Beethoven, Daniel Kidane20180409Chineke! Orchestra's inaugural concert caused a sensation at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London's Southbank Centre. That was in 2015, just before the Hall closed for refurbishment and now Europe's first majority black and minority ethnic orchestra is back for the Queen Elizabeth Hall's re-opening. Their programme includes Beethoven's joyful Symphony No. 4, Coleridge-Taylor's Ballade for orchestra in A minor and Britten's The Building of the House Overture, the work he chose to conduct at the QEH's opening in 1967.

Chineke! Orchestra have commissioned new music for this evening by Daniel Kidane. Dream Song sets words from Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream...' speech and tonight's premiere is 50 years to the day since King's funeral in 1967.

Presented by Sarah Walker.

Coleridge-Taylor: Ballade for orchestra in A minor, Op.33

Daniel Kidane: Dream Song (World premiere)

Britten: Overture, The Building of the House, Op.79

Interval

Sarah Walker talks to the Director of Music at the Southbank Centre, Gillian Moore, about the legacy of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, including music by Steve Reich (Different Trains) and a recording of Purcell's Celebrate this Festival from the hall's opening concert in 1967, conducted by Britten.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B flat major Op.60

Roderick Williams (baritone)

Chineke! Chorus

Anthony Parnther (conductor)

Photo: (c) Mark Allan.

Chineke! Orchestra play Coleridge-Taylor, Britten, Beethoven and Daniel Kidane.

Chloe Hanslip And Danny Driver Play Beethoven20170509Chlo뀀 Hanslip and Danny Driver play Beethoven, recorded at the Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No 2 in A, Op 12 No 2

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No 7 in C minor, Op 30 No 2

Interval

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No 4 in A minor, Op 23

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No 5 in F, Op 24 Spring

Violinist Chlo뀀 Hanslip and pianist Danny Driver give an all-Beethoven programme as part of their survey of the violin and piano sonatas. This concert includes the popular and joyous 'Spring' sonata in F major. Recorded last week at the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton.

Photo: (c) Amy T Zielinski.

Chloe Hanslip (violin), Danny Driver (piano) in Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos 2, 7, 4, 5.

Chloe Van Soeterst\u00e8de Conducts Bbc Now20210514Live from BBC Hoddinott Hall, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Chlo退 van Soeterst耀de present a concert steeped in classicism. We open with Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, in which the musical lexicon of Mozart and Haydn is transfigured in his own inimitable neoclassical style. Next harpist Catrin Finch joins the Orchestra's principal flautist Matthew Featherstone in Mozart's ebullient Flute and Harp Concerto, his only work for the harp. After the interval we hear Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, a work that he orchestrated from five piano duets for children, based on 18th-century fairy tales. We close the concert with one of the most popular works by arguably the greatest classical symphonist: Haydn's 88th Symphony.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Prokofiev: Symphony No 1, Op 25

Mozart: Flute & Harp Concerto in C major, K 299

8.20pm Interval Music

Ravel: Mother Goose - Suite

Haydn: Symphony No 88 in G major, Hob 1:88

Matthew Featherstone (flute)

Catrin Finch (harp)

Chlo退 van Soeterst耀de (conductor)

A classically inspired programme of Prokofiev, Mozart, Ravel, and Haydn

Choir Of The Year 201620161206After months of competition, just six of the UK's best amateur choirs remain as Choir of the Year 2016 reaches its thrilling finale. The stakes are high, the tension is building as they take to the stage at Cardiff's Wales Millennium Centre, each determined to win over a judging panel that includes The Sixteen's Harry Christophers and Only Men Aloud's Tim Rhys Evans. Sara Mohr-Pietsch is joined by the conductor, composer and singer Ben Parry for expert commentary on all the action; at the end of the evening only one choir can scoop up the title 'Choir of the Year'.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Choirs taking part:

Musical Originals Training Choir

Imogen Nicholls, director

The Rainbow Connection Singers

Paul Mellors, director

C䀀r y Cwm

Elin Llywellyn-Williams, director

Voices of Hope

Simon Fidler, director

The White Rosettes

Sally McLean, director

John's Boys

Aled Phillips, director

Further coverage of the Choir of the Year Grand Final on BBC FOUR, Friday 9th December at 19.30.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces the Grand Final of the Choir of the Year 2016 competition.

Chopin, Boccherini And Rachmaninov20151129Ian Skelly presents chamber music recordings from around Europe. Tonight's selection ranges from Boccherini in Madrid to Rachmaninov recorded at the Kreuth Festival in Bavaria. Also tonight, arrangements of Chopin piano music by his friend, the singer-composer, Pauline Viardot.

Chopin arr Pauline Viardot

La jeune fille (Mazurka in C, op. 24/2)

Olga Pasiecznik (soprano), Natalia Pasiecznik (piano)

Erwin Schulhoff

Five Pieces, for string quartet

Variace Chamber Ensemble

rec. Old Synagogue, Pilsen

Seize ans (Mazurka in A flat, p. 50/2)

Plainte d'amour (Mazurka in F sharp minor, op. 6/1)

Berceuse (Mazurka in C, op. 33/2)

Coquette (Mazurka in B flat, op. 7/1)

rec. Chopin Manor, Duszniki Zdr j International Chopin Piano Festival, Duszniki

String Quintet in G minor, op. 46/4

Fundaci n Mutua Madrileကa Ensemble

rec. Sony Auditorium, Madrid

Cello Sonata in G minor, op.19

Johannes Moser (cello), Denis Kozhukhin (piano)

rec. Festsaal, Wildbad Kreuth, Kreuth International Music Festival.

Ian Skelly presents Chopin, Boccherini and Rachmaninov recordings from around Europe.

Choral Classics20190612As part of Radio 3's focus on young artists, John Rutter conducts the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir in choral music written for Holy Week by Monteverdi, Tallis, Lassus, Purcell, Lotti, Bruckner and Casals alongside Rutter's own Requiem, composed in 1985 in memory of his father.

Presented from the stage in Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's Bradshaw Hall by Hannah French.

Monteverdi: Christe adoramus te

Lassus: Timor et tremor

Purcell: Remember not, Lord, our offences

Tallis: In ieiunio et fletu

Bruckner: Christus factus est

Casals: O vos omnes

Lotti: Crucifixus

8.10pm

Interval - Six members of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir and Orchestra take us through the kind of music they're enjoying listening to on their current playlists.

8.30pm

John Rutter: Requiem

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Orchestra

John Rutter (conductor)

John Rutter conducts the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir and Orchestra.

Choral Lamentations With The Bbc Singers20220216Peter Phillips, the founder and director of The Tallis Scholars, returns to collaborate with the BBC Singers in a programme of settings of the biblical Lamentations of Jeremiah. Traditionally sung during the solemnity of Holy Week within the Catholic Church, these old testament texts have been the subject to many music settings over many centuries. Alongside iconic settings by the likes of Tallis, Brumel and Whyte are works from the 21st century by Matthew Martin and Nico Muhly.

Presented by Martin Handley, recorded at BBC Maida Vale Studios on 13th January 2022.

Thomas Tallis: Lamentations I

Dominique Phinot: Lamentations

Nico Muhly: Recordare, domine

Antoine Brumel: Lamentations

8.10 p.m.

Interval music (from CD)

Vaughan Williams arr. Maurice Jacobson: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Mark Bebbington and Rebeca Omodia (pianos)

8.25 p.m.

Robert Whyte: Lamentations for five voices

Matthew Martin: Lamentations

Thomas Tallis: Lamentations II

Peter Phillips (conductor)

Peter Phillips conducts a concert exploring settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

Chorales From King's20201014Live from the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, Daniel Hyde performs an unmissable, wide-ranging organ recital in a programme spanning four centuries with a pair Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale preludes at its heart.

Paying hommage to Bach from the 19th Century are Brahms, Schumann and Mendelssohn; Matthew Martin responds from the 21st. Past and present rub shoulders again when Handel is followed by the minimalist Dutch composer Ad Wammes, and writing in 1930, Belgian organist and composer Joseph Jongen takes inspiration from Liszt in his Sonata Eroca: a thrilling tour-de-force that reaches a truly heroic conclusion.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Wagner (arr. Lemare): Overture to ‘Die Meistersinger

Bach: Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, BWV 654

Brahms: Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, Op 122 No 5

Schumann: Innig (Studien für den Pedalflügel) Op 56 No 4

Bach: Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, BWV 731

Matthew Martin: Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier (UK premiere)

Mendelssohn: Sonata No 5 in D

INTERVAL

Guilmant: March on a theme of Handel, Op 15

Ad Wammes: Miroir

Elgar (arr. A. Herbert Brewer): Prelude and Angel's Farewell (from the Dream of Gerontius)

Joseph Jongen: Sonata Eroca

Daniel Hyde (organ)

Followed by music off disc:

Franz Schubert: Fantasia in F minor for piano four hands, D940

David Fray and Jacques Rouvier, piano

Daniel Hyde plays a wide-ranging programme at the organ of King's College, Cambridge.

Christian Gerhaher And Friends, Live At Wigmore Hall20210928Christian Gerhaher, one of the most admired singers performing today, is joined by a string ensemble led by internationally renowned violinist Isabelle Faust in a concert exploring the night as a time for introspection, anxiety and love...

The programme pivots on Schoenberg's 1899 masterpiece for string sextet, Verkl䀀rte Nacht (Transfigured Night), a tense single-movement tone poem based on a Richard Dehmel poem where a man and a woman walk through a moonlit forest. Othmar Schoeck is a composer long-championed by Christian Gerhaher and Schoeck's 1930s Notturno for baritone and string quartet inhabits an expressive world close to Verkl䀀rte Nacht. The introspective and intense setting of nine poems by Nikolaus Lenau, including a final text by Gottfried Keller, is regarded as one of the Swiss composer's greatest song cycles. In Les nuits d'退t退 Berlioz sets five poems by his friend Th退ophile Gautier. The sequence, whose texts are from the male point of view, is more usually heard sung by a woman's voice but it will be a treat indeed to hear them performed by one of the great singers of our time in David Matthews's remarkable arrangement, commissioned by Gerhaher himself.

Othmar Schoeck: Notturno Op. 47

8.20pm

Interval music: Brahms's autumnal Intermezzos Op.117 and Schoenberg's Ein Stelldichein (A Rendezvous), written a decade before Verkl䀀rte Nacht and also inspired by a poem of Richard Dehmel.

c. 8.40pm

Arnold Schoenberg: Verkl䀀rte Nacht Op. 4

Hector Berlioz (arr. David Matthews for string sextet): Les nuits d'退t退 Op. 7

Christian Gerhaher (baritone)

Isabelle Faust & Anne Katharina Schreiber (violins)

Timothy Ridout & Danusha Waskiewicz (violas)

Jean-Guihen Queyras & Christian Polt退ra (cellos)

Photo credit: Gregor Hohenberg/Sony Classical

The celebrated German baritone is joined by a string ensemble led by Isabelle Faust.

Christian Gerhaher And Gerold Huber Song Recital20151109Baritone Christian Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber perform Beethoven, Haydn, Berg and Schoenberg. Recorded at Wigmore Hall in London.

Presented by Christopher Cook

Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte Op. 98

Schoenberg: Das Buch der h䀀ngenden G䀀rten Op. 15

8.10: Interval - Glyndebourne Serenade:

Jonathan Dove:

Figures in the Garden

An octet formed of members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Jonathan Dove (director)

EMI CDC 7544242 trs 1 -7

8.25

Haydn:

The Spirit's Song HXXVIa:41

Content HXXVIa:36

The Wanderer HXXVIa:32

Sailor's Song HXXVIa:31

She never told her love HXXVIa:34

Berg: Altenberg Lieder Op. 4

Beethoven: Adelaide Op. 46

Christian Gerhaher, baritone

Gerold Huber, piano

Christian Gerhaher is regarded as one of the world's finest Lieder singers. The German baritone presents the inspired coupling of Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte, among the first ever song-cycles, and Das Buch der h䀀ngenden G䀀rten, Schoenberg's ground-breaking setting of Stefan George's expressionist poems about a doomed adolescent love affair.

Christian Gerhaher (baritone) and Gerold Huber (piano) perform Beethoven, Haydn and Berg.

Christian Lindberg And Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra In Nielsen's Fifth Symphony20160304From the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

Lindberg conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Nielsen

Bernstein: 'On the Waterfront', Suite

Christian Lindberg: Robot Gardens (World Premiere Liverpool Philharmonic 175th Anniversary Commission)

8.15: Interval

Nielsen: Symphony No.5

Christian Lindberg conductor

Those twentieth century blues. . . For Carl Nielsen, music was life. So, confronted with the aftermath of the Great War, he met the challenge head on. His Fifth Symphony is nothing less than a struggle for existence itself, told in music of volcanic power - one of those pieces that everyone should hear before they die. It's a gripping finish to a concert that begins with Leonard Bernstein's musical portrayal of one man's battle for justice on the mean streets of 50s New York - and which features a brand new work, written specially for the wind, brass and percussion of the Orchestra by tonight's conductor, Christian Lindberg.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Bernstein, Nielsen and Christian Lindberg.

Christian Tetzlaff Plays Sibelius20190129CBSO, conducted by Karl-Heinz Steffens, play Sibelius' The Swan of Tuonela and Brahms' Fourth Symphony from Symphony Hall, Birmingham. Christian Tetzlaff joins them for Sibelius' Violin Concerto.

SIBELIUS - The Swan of Tuonela

SIBELIUS - Violin Concerto

INTERVAL

Christian Tezlaff performs the Chaconne from Bach's Partita in D minor for solo violin BWV 1004

(from disc)

BRAHMS - Symphony No. 4

Rachael Pankhurst - Cor Anglais)

Christian Tetzlaff - Violin

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Karl-Heinz Steffens - Conductor

Presented by Tom Redmond.

The CBSO and Karl-Heinz Steffens play Sibelius and Brahms from Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Christian Thielemann Conducts The Staatskapelle, Dresden20221003Christian Thielemann conducts the Staatskapelle, Dresden, in Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony and the Lyric Symphony by Alexander von Zemlinsky.

Christian Thielemann brings his symphonic mastery and operatic flair to Zemlinsky's symphony in seven movements, the composer's heady answer to Mahler's better-known Song of the Earth, in this concert from the Dresden Semperoper. And, in an age when some feel that orchestral sound is in danger of becoming homogenised, the world's oldest orchestra brings its old world sound to Mendelssohn's Scottish.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Mendesslohn Scottish Symphony Op. 56,

c. 8.05pm

Interval music: Radu Lupu plays Schubert's Piano Sonata in A major D.664 in a classic recording made at the Salle De Chatonneyre, Corseaux in 1991.

c. 8.25pm

Zemlinsky: Lyric symphony Op.18 for soprano, baritone and orchestra

Julia Kleiter (soprano)

Adrian Er怀d (baritone)

Staatskapelle Dresden

Christian Thielemann (conductor)

Concert given in the Semperoper, Dresden on 21/05/2022

The Staatskapelle, Dresden in Mendelssohn's Scottish and Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony

Christmas In Munich20191216Patrick Hahn conducts the Bavarian Radio Chorus and Munich Radio Orchestra in a programme of festive choral music from Munich, including the austere beauty of Poulenc's Four Christmas motets, an exquisite miniature by the teenage Britten, and Jan Sandstr怀m's atmospheric adaptation of Praetorius's Det 䀀r en ros utsprungen.

The final work, Saint-Sa뀀ns' Christmas Oratorio, was composed in just two weeks when the 23-year-old composer had recently started work as organist of the famous church of La Madeleine in Paris.

Recorded on Saturday at the Prinzregententheater, Munich. Presented by Danielle Jalowiecka.

Jan Sandstr怀m (after Michael Praetorius): Det 䀀r en ros utsprungen

Poulenc: Quatre motets pour le temps de No뀀l

Janက?ek: Ot?en 

Britten: A Hymn to the Virgin

Mendelssohn: Verleih uns Frieden gn䀀diglich

Patrick Hahn: Ballade of Christmas Ghosts

Interval

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Oratorio de No뀀l

Encore - Rameau arr. Patrick Hahn: Hymne

Christmas Tales20211203Before the red-cloaked, bushy-bearded St Nicholas squeezes himself down your chimney, discover the legends behind the 3rd-century bishop who would go on to inspire the Santa Claus myth. The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus reunite at the Barbican for Benjamin Britten's captivating cantata, which recounts Nicholas's life from birth to death.

As a child one Christmas Eve, Gerald Finzi climbed a local hill and heard the church bells ring out over his beloved Gloucestershire. This inspired his ‘Christmas Scene', imagining Christ's nativity in an idyllically frozen, picture-postcard English countryside setting. It is performed here in its 1956 chamber orchestra arrangement. From frozen Finland, Jean Sibelius's Rakastava (The Lover) opens this wintry concert, based on folk stories from Karelia - borderlands between modern Russia and Finland.

Live from the Barbican Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Jean Sibelius: Rakastava, Op.14

Gerald Finzi: In Terra Pax, Op.39

19.55

Interval

Elizabeth Maconchy

Viola Sonata: i) Allegro ii) Lento Moderato iii) Presto

Louise Williams (viola)

David Owen Norris (piano)

Two Insect Pieces -The Grasshopper; The Wasp

Heinz Holliger (oboe), Andrကs Schiff (piano)

20.15

Benjamin Britten: Saint Nicolas, Op.42

Ailish Tynan (soprano)

Robin Tritschler (tenor)

Benson Wilson (baritone)

Finchley Children's Music Group (trebles)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Neil Ferris (assistant conductor)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Britten, Finzi and Sibelius.

Christmas With The Bbc Singers20161213Live from Milton Court, London

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Britten: A Boy was Born

A Ceremony of Carols, Op 28

A Hymn to the Virgin

Rutter: Angels' Carol

Chilcott: My Perfect Stranger

Howard: Romance Of The Epiphany

Britten: A New Year Carol

Chilcott: On Christmas Night

James Lord Pierpont: Jingle Bells arr. Chilcott

Tanya Houghton, harp

Richard Pearce, piano

Finchley Childrens Music Group

Bob Chilcott, conductor

A celebration of Christmas by three masters of writing for the voice from three different generations: Benjamin Britten, John Rutter and Bob Chilcott, who also conducts the BBC Singers.

Chilcott unveils a new work, as well as providing a catchy new arrangement of Jingle Bells. Joined by a small ensemble of instrumentalists and the Finchley Children's Music Group, here's a perfect way to get into the Christmas spirit.

Live from Milton Court, London, a Christmas concert featuring the BBC Singers.

Christmas With The Tallis Scholars20181213Live from Temple Church in London, Peter Phillips conducts the Tallis Scholars in a concert of choral Renaissance and contemporary Christmas Music, as part of the 2018 Temple Winter Festival.

Palestrina: Hodie Christus natus est

Palestrina: Missa Hodie Christus natus est (Kyrie and Gloria)

Muhly: Premiere

Nesbett: Magnificat

Palestrina: Missa Hodie Christus natus est (Credo, Sanctus and Agnus dei)

Byrd: Lullaby

H. Praetorius: Magnificat V (with In dulci jubilo)

Peter Phillips (conductor)

Photograph: ©Nick Rutter

The Tallis Scholars perform Christmas music at Temple Winter Festival

Christmas: And All That Jazz...20191220Legendary performer Clare Teal and the BBC Singers join forces for an evening celebrating the very best of the golden age of festive jazz. In a concert showcasing the dazzling versatility of the BBC Singers, the group is joined by the young and hugely-talented musicians from The National Youth Jazz Orchestra and conductor Ben Palmer. The programme, curated by jazz musician and composer Alexander L'Estrange, promises all of your favourite Christmas songs, including songs from yesteryear such as ‘Sleigh Ride', ‘O holy night', ‘ I wonder as I wander', ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas' and ‘Walking in a Winter Wonderland'.

Programme:

Leroy Anderson: Sleigh Ride (3'40')

Traditional: God Rest Ye, Jazzy Gentlemen (3')

Albert Hague: You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch (2'20')

Mel Torm退: The Christmas Song (3'10')

Adolphe Adam: O Holy Night (2')

Felix Bernard: Winter Wonderland (3')

John Jacob Niles: I Wonder As I Wander (6')

Lewis Redner: O Little Town Of Bethlehem (5')

Traditional: We Wish You A Merry Christmas (4'30')

Thad Jones: A Child Is Born (4')

Floyd Huddleston: December (3'20')

Mark Armstrong: Joy To The World / I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm / Jingle Bells (5')

Bob Russell: Warm In December (2')

Claude Thornhill: Snowfall (2'50')

Hugh Martin: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (2'40')

Traditional: A Take 6 Christmas (5'30')

Michael Carr: The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot (3')

John Frederick Coots: Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (3'20')

Sammy Cahn: Let It Snow! / Snow (3'20')

Anders Edenroth: The World For Christmas (4'30')

George Frideric Handel: Hallelujah (From 'Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration') (4'30')

Traditional: The Twelve Days Of Christmas (4'30')

Clare Teal - soloist and presenter

Ben Palmer - conductor

Jazz singer Clare Teal joins the BBC Singers and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Debussy, Messiaen, Bach20180326City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla and assistant conductor Jonathan Bloxham, the CBSO Chorus conducted by Simon Halsey, and the organist Thomas Trotter give a concert of music by Debussy, Messiaen and Bach from Symphony Hall, as part of the Birmingham Debussy Festival. Tom Redmond presents.

Le Martyre de Saint S退bastien is a masterpiece that has not yet been understood. Debussy wrote his Parsifal that day.' So wrote Emile Vuillermoz in 1920, 9 years after Le Martyre de Saint S退bastien received its heavy censuring. But the scandal it caused wasn't really surprising, given its quasi-religious ecstasy and complex sexual implications - not least the cross-dressing of dancer and choreographer Ida Rubinstein. Debussy retorted 'I have made mysterious Nature my religion'. And what an influence this mysticism had upon disciple Messiaen, as we can hear in Messiaen's choral piece O Sacrum Convivium. This concert, given as part of the Birmingham Debussy Festival, explore the composer's links with the sacred.

Part 1

Debussy: (orch. Matthews) La cath退drale engloutie

Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla (conductor)

Bach: Toccata and Fugue in d BWV 538 ('Dorian')

Thomas Trotter (organ)

Messiaen O Sacrum Convivium

Simon Halsey (conductor)

Messiaen: La Nativit退 du Seigneur IX. 'Dieu parmi nous

Debussy Danse sacr退e et danse profane

Suzy Willison-Kawalec (harp)

Jonathan Bloxham (conductor)

INTERVAL (from CD)

Respighi: Quattro Liriche dal poema paradisiaco Di Gabrielle d'Annunzio

Marta Moretto (mezzo soprano)

Aldo Orvieto (piano)

Part 2

Debussy Le Martyre de Saint S退bastien

Katja Stuber (soprano)

Ilse Eerens (soprano)

Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla (conductor).

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra give a concert of Debussy, Messiaen and Bach.

City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Franck, Saint-saens, Rachmaninov20170517Live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Introduced by Tom Redmond

Franck: Le Chasseur maudit

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Piano Concerto No.5 in F major, Op.103 (Egyptian)

8.20pm Interval

8.45pm

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, Op.45

C退dric Tiberghien (piano)

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Karina Canellakis (conductor)

Tom Redmond presents conductor Karina Canellakis's CBSO debut with a programme of Franck, Saint-Sa뀀ns and Rachmaninov at Birmingham's Symphony Hall. Conjuring Lisztian dark magic, Franck's symphonic poem Le Chasseur maudit portrays the horrible fate of a defiant count cursed for eternity for hunting on the Sabbath. French pianist then joins the orchestra for a journey to Thebes - via Spain and Java - in a work composed on one of Saint-Sa뀀ns's frequent winter holidays to Luxor and described by him as a sea voyage. It's all wrapped up with Rachmaninov's sumptuous melodies in his by turns symphonic, balletic, and possibly autobiographical Symphonic Dances.

Karina Canellakis conducts the CBSO in music by Franck, Saint-Saens and Rachmaninov.

City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Grainger, Vaughan Williams And Weir20160121Live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham, the CBSO, with their Children's and Youth Choruses in Judith Weir's Storm and Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music, plus music by Percy Grainger.

Presented by Tom Redmond

Grainger: In a Nutshell

Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music

8.15: Interval

Edgard Varese: Ionisation

Judith Weir: Storm

Grainger: The Warriors

CBSO Youth Chorus

CBSO Children's Chorus

16 Soloists from UK Conservatoires

Michael Seal - Conductor

Simon Halsey - Conductor

Warriors of all times and all lands, gathering in one place to drink and dance, along with jazz breaks, three pianos, and a super-sized orchestra... such are the sounds of Percy Grainger's jaw-dropping The Warriors. The concert also includes Vaughan Williams' ravishing, Shakespeare-inspired Serenade with 16 brilliant young soloists, a spirited showcase for the CBSO's world-beating young choruses.

CBSO and its children's and youth choruses in Grainger, Vaughan Williams, Varese and Weir.

City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Brahms And Prokofiev20171208A festive celebration of love, given by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conductor Alexander Vedernikov and pianist Martin Helmchen, presented by Adam Tomlinson from Birmingham's Symphony Hall.

Two magical tales tonight, beginning with Brahms's Second Piano Concerto. Hardly the 'tiny, tiny piano concerto with a tiny, tiny wisp of a scherzo' Brahms described, it travels from tenderness to ebulliance, via a heartfelt slow movement whose theme would later inform the poignant Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer of his Op 105 songs. Then a fairytale happy ending: Alexander Vedernikov's arrangement of Prokofiev's enchanting Cinderella. Pumpkins, dwarves and ugly sisters abound, but what Prokofiev 'wished to express above all... was the poetic love of Cinderella and the Prince, the birth and flowering of that love, the obstacles in its path, and finally the dream fulfilled.' All together now - aaaah!

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2

INTERVAL

Prokofiev: Cinderella - highlights (arr. Vedernikov)

Martin Helmchen (piano)

Alexander Vedernikov (conductor).

A festive celebration of love, given by the CBSO, Alexander Vedernikov and Martin Helmchen

City Of London Festival, The Fateful Voyage20140624Recorded at Drapers' Hall, London, for Radio 3's WWI season Music in the Great War.

Presented by Martin Handley

The Fateful Voyage pays homage to composers who enlisted and were killed in the First World War. This concert focuses on the friendship between composers FS Kelly and William Denis Browne and the poet Rupert Brooke, who sailed together to the Dardanelles and died soon after. Their friendship generated poems and music which endure as a poignant reminder of their extraordinary lives.

Programme devised by Dr Kate Kenndy and Mark Seow

Part 1

F S Kelly: When the lamp is shattered (P B Shelley); Eton and Winchester song (R T Warner)

James Gilchrist (tenor); Iain Burnside (piano)

F S Kelly: Idyll

Poem: The Old Vicarage, Grantchester by Rupert Brooke

F S Kelly: The Isle (P B Shelley)

W D Browne: Intermezzo

Poem: The Dead by Rupert Brooke

F S Kelly: Choler

W D Browne: Diaphenia (H Constable)

Poem: Peace by Rupert Brooke

F S Kelly: Harvest Eve

W D Browne: To Gratiana dancing and singing (R Lovelace)

Wagner: Tannhauser - prelude to act I arr. for piano

Poem: Wagner by Rupert Brooke

F S Kelly: Jig from Serenade Op.7

Mark Seow (violin); Iain Burnside (piano)

F S Kelly: Waltz Pageant for piano duet Op.2a no.1

Iain Burnside & Frederick Brown (piano)

L Broadwood & J A Fuller Maitland: The Golden Vanity

James Gilchrist & Matthew Cammelle (tenors); Mark Seow (violin); Frederick Brown (piano)

--INTERVAL--

F S Kelly: Serenade for flute with accompaniment of harp, horn and string orchestra Op.7 in E minor

Rebecca Hall (flute); Jose Garcia Gutierrez (horn); Malta Philharmonic Orchestra; Michael Laus (conductor)

Cameo Classics CC9032CD

Part 2

F S Kelly: Weep you no more sad fountains (Anon.)

W D Browne: Arabia (W de la Mare)

Poem: Safety by Rupert Brooke

W D Browne: Dream-Tryst (F Thompson)

Poem: I strayed about the deck by Rupert Brooke

F S Kelly: Mirrors (L Pearsall Smith); Away! The moor is dark beneath the moon (P B Shelley)

Poem: The Funeral of Youth by Rupert Brooke

F S Kelly: A Dirge (P B Shelley)

F S Kelly: Lament

Poem: William Denis Browne by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

W D Browne: The Isle of Lost Dreams

James Gilchrist (tenor); Iain Burnside (piano).

Music and poetry from World War I with tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Iain Burnside.

Clara Schumann And Rebecca Clarke From St Jude's20190628Jack Liebeck violin and Katya Apekisheva piano mark anniversaries of two female composers - the 200th of the birth of Clara Schumann and the 40th of the death of English composer Rebecca Clarke at St Jude's Church in Hampstead.

Presented by Georgia Mann

7.30pm

Clara Schumann Three Romances

Faure Sonata no.1

Interval

Rebecca Clarke Midsummer Moon

Debussy Clair de Lune

Franck Violin Sonata

Jack Liebeck (violin)

Katya Apekisheva (piano)

Photo: © Michael Eleftheriades

Jack Liebeck and Katya Apekisheva mark anniversaries of Clara Schumann and Rebecca Clarke.

Classical Highlights From Schwetzingen And Holst's Planets From Minnesota20200223Fiona Talkington introduces highlights from classical concerts around Europe, including the SWR Symphony Orchestra at the 2019 Schwetzingen Festival and Holst's Planets from Minnesota.

Handel: Concerto grosso in G, Op 6 No 1

Concerto K怀ln

Albrechtsberger: Sinfonia Concertino in D

Hoffmeister: Viola Concerto in D

Antoine Tamestit (viola)

SWR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart

Alessandro De Marchi (conductor)

Haydn: Overture 'L'isola disabitata

Stravinsky: 3 Movements from Petrushka

Alexei Zuev (piano)

Holst: The Planets

Minnesota Orchestra

Osmo V䀀nska (conductor)

Handel, Holst and Hoffmeister

Classics From The Schwetzingen Festival20220131The Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, play symphonies by Mozart and Haydn. Soprano Christina Landshamer joins them in arias by Haydn and Beethoven.

Fiona Talkington presents one of the highlights of the European music season.

Haydn: Overture in D, Hob.Ia.4

Berenice, che fai?

Mozart: Symphony No.29 in A, K.201

8.05: Interval: Wilhelm Kaiser-Lindemann: Bossa Nova

The 12 cellos of the Berlin Philharmonic

8.10: Haydn: Solo e pensoso i piu deserti campi

Symphony No.49 in F minor

Beethoven: Ah perfido!

Christina Landshamer, soprano

Bernhard Forck, director

(Concert recorded in the Rococo Theatre, Schwetzingen on 23/10/2021.)

The Akademie f\u00fcr Alte Musik, Berlin, perform Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Colaboratory: Fiona Monbet20220429The BBC National Orchestra of Wales's CoLaboratory concerts fuse different genres of music, fostering unexpected collaborations. In this latest edition, the orchestra is joined by conductor, violinist and composer Fiona Monbet, who is already blazing a trail in her work which seamlessly combines classical, jazz, and folk music. Her eclectic suite, Trois Reflets, features musicians from her own quartet as soloists alongside the orchestra, and weaves disparate musical sounds and textures into a compelling whole. With Monbet playing and directing the orchestra through her own composition, this promises to be a truly unique performance.

Monbet will also conduct two other jazz-infused works, Milhaud's La cr退ation du monde and Luke Styles's Saxophone Concerto, Tracks in the Orbit. Milhaud's ballet was composed to a supposed African creation myth, but, with the sounds of 1920s Harlem ringing in his ears, it was the first of his works that fully embraced his unique brand of classical jazz. After that, multi-genre saxophonist Iain Ballamy joins Monbet and the orchestra as soloist in the world premiere of Luke Styles' Tracks in the Orbit. Incorporating improvised sections, the concerto features Ballamy as both dedicatee and subject - using his sound world to unearth Ballamy's musical personality.

Linton Stephens presents live from Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff.

7.30pm

Milhaud: La cr退ation du monde, Op 81

Luke Styles: Tracks in the Orbit - Saxophone Concerto

c.8.15pm Interval music (from CD) - Fiona Monbet discusses her influences with Linton Stephens

c.8.35pm

Fiona Monbet: Trois Reflets

Iain Ballamy (saxophone)

Auxane Cartigny (piano)

Arthur Hennebique (double bass)

Philippe Maniez (drum kit)

Fiona Monbet (conductor, violin)

BBC NOW presents an eclectic fusion of classical, jazz and folk music.

Colin Currie20210526Two classics and a much-awaited Percussion Concerto are performed in Glasgow. Chlo退 van Soeterst耀de conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with soloist Colin Currie.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Joey Roukens: Percussion Concerto

8.10 Interval

8.30 Part Two

Mozart: Don Giovanni, Overture

Beethoven: Symphony no 2

Colin Currie (percussion)

Chlo退 van Soeterst耀de (conductor)

Scottish percussion virtuoso Colin Currie is the soloist in a much-anticipated UK premiere of a recent concerto by the dynamic Dutch composer, Joey Roukens. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Chlo退 van Soeterst耀de complement this contemporary work with two established classical masterpieces that also abound with equal energy and drama.

Photo: Colin Currie (credit, Linda Nylind)

Percussionist Colin Currie joins the BBC SSO and Chloe van Soeterst\u00e8de in Glasgow.

Completing The Orgelb\u00fcchlein20190212The BBC Singers and conductor Robert Quinney are joined by organist William Whitehead for a concert as part of The Orgelbüchlein Project - a major composition project to complete J S Bach's Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book).

The manuscript of Orgelbüchlein has 118 missing pieces, ghostly gaps with only the title penned by Bach. Each of these gaps is being filled by a new composition based on Bach's intended melody. The new pieces, written by the most interesting composers at work today, survey a range of modern styles.

William Whitehead plays the organ of St Peter's Church, on Eaton Square in London, in settings from The Orgelbüchlein Project by Simon Johnson, David Coonan, Franz Tunder, Ullrich Boehme, Daniel Deilschmidt and Ruth Byrchmore

The BBC Singers will sing the chorales below, interspersed between the organ chorale preludes:

Gelobet sei der Herr, der Gott Israel

In dulci jubilo

Jesus Christus, unser Heiland

Allein Gott

William Whitehead joins the BBC Singers in a concert as part of The Orgelbuchlein Project.

Concert Highlights From Prague, Geneva, Oslo And Verbier20181125Kate Molleson dips into concerts from around Europe, including performances from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with Daniele Gatti, Oslo Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko, piano legend Elisabeth Leonskaja and chamber music by Brahms.

Schumann - Overture to 'Genoveva', op. 81

Daniele Gatti (conductor)

Recorded in Geneva

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat, op. 110

Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano)

Recorded at Verbier Festival 2018

Herman Vogt - Canticle of the Sun (Premiere)

Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

Recorded in Oslo

Johannes Brahms - Clarinet Quintet in B minor, op. 115

Sharon Kam (clarinet)

Isabelle van Keulen and Ulrike-Anima Math退 (violin)

Volker Jacobsen (viola)

Gustav Rivinius (cello)

Kate Molleson introduces highlights from concerts around Europe.

Concertgebouw Sunday Morning Concert Series20170312Ian Skelly introduces highlights from the Sunday Morning Concert Series, which take place at the Royal Concertgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam.

The concerts were recorded last autumn and earlier this year, and include music by Mozart and Brahms.

Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat, K482

Serenade for Orchestra No. 9 in D, K320 ('Posthorn')

Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano)

Die K怀lner Akademie (The Cologne Academy)

Michael A. Willens (director)

String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51 No. 2

Signum Quartet.

Music by Mozart and Brahms from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Sunday Morning Concert series.

Concertgebouw, Elgar, Grieg And Szymanowski20170326Ian Skelly introduces music recorded in concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam by Elgar, Grieg and Szymanowksi

Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85

Truls Mørk, cello

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

Edward Gardner, conductor

Grieg: Excerpts from 'Peer Gynt

Ann-Helen Moen, soprano

Szymanowski: Stabat Mater, Op. 53

Chen Reiss, soprano

Gerhild Romberger, mezzo-soprano

Mark Stone, baritone

Netherlands Radio Chorus

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Markus Stenz, conductor.

From Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, music by Elgar, Grieg and Szymanowski.

Concerto Copenhagen20210104Chamber music by Gade, Nielsen and Mendelssohn played by members of Danish early music ensemble Concerto Copenhagen in a concert recorded last July at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Northern Germany

Presented by Fiona Talkington

7.30pm

Gade: String Octet in F, Op.17

Nielsen: Little Suite in A minor, Op.1

members of Concerto Copenhagen

8.20pm

Interval

Bach: Mass in B minor, BWV.232 (excerpt)

Maria Keohane (soprano)

Joanne Lunn (soprano)

Alex Potter (countertenor)

Jan Kobow (tenor)

Peter Harvey (bass)

Lars Ulrik Mortensen (conductor)

8.40pm

Mendelssohn: Octet in E flat, Op.20

Image: Daniel Porcelli

Chamber music by Nielsen and Mendelssohn played by members of Concerto Copenhagen

Concerts Across Europe, Paganini, Liszt And Mendelssohn20200112Fiona Talkington presents music from 2 concerts, one from the 2019 Kissinger Summer Festival, the other from the 2019 KlaraFestival in Brussels. Both share a devilish theme.

Paganini was reputed to have sold his soul to the devil in return for an unholy ability to play the violin - terrific marketing ruse and it certainly did not put audiences off. People flocked to hear Paganini and marvel at his violin playing - which was all good for Paganini himself who made a very good living from playing all over Europe. Of course he needed vehicles for his imagination and technique, and he wrote several concertos for himself to play, of which number 5 is the most popular. And who better than virtuoso Sergei Krylov to give us an account of such a bravura work.

In the second of the two pictures from Lenau's Faust, the devil, while seducing Faust, seizes a violin and proceeds to whip up a frenzy outside the village inn. Liszt was inspired by the Faust legend throughout his life and this orchestral scene of the devil playing the violin is perhaps better known in his version for solo piano - the instrument with which he competed with Paganini in therms of virtuosity on the stages of Europe.

Mendelssohn's contribution to tonight's programme is his cantata on St, Walpurga's night, when all sorts of unholy spirits manifest themselves and party until dawn until the saint appears and scatters the spirits.

Violin Concerto No. 5 in A minor

Sergej Krylov, violin

Ural Philharmonic Orchestra

Dmitry Liss

Two Episodes from Lenau's ‘Faust', S110

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

David Afkham

Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Op 60

Sophie Harmsen, mezzo-soprano

Werner Güra, tenor

Johannes Weisser, baritone

Tareq Nazmi, bass

Collegium Vocale Ghent

David Afkham, conductor

~Radio 3 In Concert from Bad Kissinger and Brussels. Fiona Talkington presents.

Concerts From Switzerland20180408Kate Molleson presents music from two concerts given in Biel and Basel last September. The two major works around which this programme is centred are Brahms' Violin Concerto performed by Vadim Gluzman with the Basel Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ivor Bolton, and Saint-Saens' mighty 3rd Symphony, the so-called 'Organ' symphony, performed by the Biel-Solothurn Symphony Orchestra with organist Katerina Chrobakova.

BACH, arr. ELGAR

Fantasy and Fugue in C minor, BWV.537

Stefan Blunler (conductor)

Vadim Gluzman (violin)

Ivor Bolton (conductor)

Sarabande, from 'Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004' (encore)

Fratres

Symphony No.3 in C, Op.78 'Organ

Katerina (Katta) Chrobakova (organ)

Stefan Blunler (conductor).

Kate Molleson presents concerts from Switzerland, including Brahms, Part and Saint-Saens.

Concierto De Aranjuez20190328Live from Aberystwyth Arts Centre

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Coming live from the first stop of their bi-annual tour of Wales, Kensho Watanabe conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a program of two Russian classics, book-ending an ever-popular Spanish landmark of the guitar repertoire, Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, featuring New Generation Artist Thibaut Garcia as the soloist. The overture to Borodin's Prince Igor opens the concert, a work which was almost certainly composed not by Borodin, but by Glazunov after Borodin's untimely death, but based on Borodin's themes and sketches. It manages to show both composers in a favourable light—Borodin for his dazzling themes, and Glazunov for his iridescent orchestration. To close the concert, Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, a work which the composer struggled with and which many believe to be a work coming to terms with the secret homosexuality which he took to the grave.

Borodin: Prince Igor (Overture)

Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez

8.10 Interval music

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 5 in E minor, Op 64

Thibaut Garcia (guitar)

Kensho Watanabe (conductor)

Thibaut Garcia joins Kensho Watanabe and BBC NOW for a performance of Rodrigo's masterwork

Conductor Eric Stern Celebrates Bernstein's Centenary With The Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales20180615Conductor Eric Stern celebrates Bernstein's centenary with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the soprano Emily Birsan. Plus Annelien Van Wauwe is the soloist in an orchestrated version of Bernstein's Sonata for Clarinet.

Live from the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea.

Nicola Heywood Thomas presents.

Bernstein: Three Dance Episodes from 'On the Town

Bernstein: What a movie from Trouble in Tahiti

Bernstein: Take Care of this House from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Bernstein (orch. Ramin): Sonata for Clarinet

Copland: El Sal n M退xico

Interval

c. 8.55pm

Bernstein: Overture from Candide

Sondheim: Night Waltz from A Little Night Music

Bernstein: Glitter and Be Gay from Candide

Bernstein: Fancy Free

Emily Birsan (soprano)

Annelien van Wauwe (clarinet)

Eric Stern (conductor)

Conductor Eric Stern explores Bernstein's glittering music for the stage, as we join the celebrations for the composer's centenary. Taking his lead from the light music of mentor and friend, Aaron Copland, Bernstein channelled his enthusiasm for musicals and dance into a string of successful Broadway shows and we hear highlights of his unique musical blend or jazz, classical and pure entertainment.

Conductor Eric Stern celebrates Bernstein's centenary with the BBC NOW.

Contemporary Choral Delights With The Bbc Singers20231031Sofi Jeannin conducts the BBC Singers, the National Youth Chamber Choir and the United Strings of Europe in an exhilarating evening of new American and European music for voices and strings.

Featuring Dobrinka Tabakova's celebratory 'Centuries of Meditations', inspired by four stained glass windows in Hereford Cathedral, Caroline Shaw's colourful work for strings 'Entr'acte' and Judith Weir's reflective suite for chorus and string orchestra 'O Sweet Spontaneous Earth'.

At the heart of the concert is the UK premiere of Morten Lauridsen's moving piece for choir and string 'Ave Verum Corpus', and the world premiere of Kim André Arnesen's new work: 'Our Living Future'.

Recorded earlier this month at Milton Court, London, and presented by Sarah Walker.

Dobrinka Tabakova Centuries of Meditations

Kim Andre Arnesen Our Living Future (world premiere)

Caroline Shaw Entr'acte

Morten Lauridsen Ave Verum Corpus (UK premiere)

Judith Weir O Sweet Spontaneous Earth

Elizabeth Bass (harp)

Michael Higgins (piano)

Sofi Jeannin (conductor)

Sofi Jeannin conducts the BBC Singers at Milton Court in music by Tabakova and Shaw.

Sofi Jeannin conducts the BBC Singers, the United Strings of Europe and the National Youth Chamber Choir of Great Britain in a programme of exciting new music.

At the heart of the concert is the UK premiere of Morten Lauridsen's moving piece for choir and string 'Ave Verum Corpus', and the world premiere of Kim Andr退 Arnesen's new work: 'Our Living Future'.

Contemporary Resonance20191017Britten Sinfonia conducted by Andrew Gourlay is joined by tenor Allan Clayton in a programme devised by Mark-Antony Turnage as a foil to one of his latest works. His song-cycle 'Refugee' is Turnage's moving response to one of the great crises of our times, setting texts by authors from Emily Dickinson to Benjamin Zephaniah. The other music in the programme all has a personal resonance for Turnage, pieces by Tippett, Britten and Oliver Knussen, Turnage's own teacher who died last year.

Recorded last month at Milton Court, London, and presented by Martin Handley.

Tippett: Divertimento on Sellinger's Round

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Refugee (UK premiere)

Interval Music: Sviatolsav Richter and Benjamin Britten play Schubert in Aldeburgh.

Knussen: Songs without Voices

Britten: Nocturne

Allan Clayton (tenor)

Andrew Gourlay (conductor)

The premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's 'Refugee' song cycle, sung by Allan Clayton.

Correspondances20220121From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

Presented by Tom McKinney

The BBC Philharmonic and Ludovic Morlot explore travel and the art of letter writing. Betsy Jolas's 'Letters from Bachville' is her response to an invitation to compose music to be performed in Leipzig. She imagined herself walking in the city's streets, treading in Bach's footsteps and she incorporates fragments of his music throughout the piece. Having moved from Paris to America as a child during the Second World War, Betsy Jolas returned to study in Paris when she was 20 years old. Dvorak made a journey from Europe to America and his 'New World' symphony which closes the programme reflects his feelings of homesickness as well as fascination with the new tunes and landscapes he found in America. Soprano Carolyn Sampson joins the orchestra for Dutilleux's song-cycle 'Correspondances'. He chooses letters by Vincent van Gogh to his brother, and from Mstislav Rostropovich to his wife, soprano Galina Vishnevskaya as well as poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke and Prithwindra Mukherjee weaving a unique sound world of expressive orchestral colour.

The programme opens with 'Letter from Home' by Copland, another composer who had spent time away from his American home studying in Paris. This piece was written for a war-time radio programme 'Out of the Blue' and this tender and nostalgic music portrays a soldier reading a letter with news from home.

Copland: Letter from Home

Betsy Jolas: Letters from Bachville

Dutilleux: Correspondances

8.15

Music Interval (CD)

Janacek: String Quartet No.2 'Intimate Letters

Emerson Quartet

Dvorak: Symphony No.9 'From the New World

Carolyn Sampson (soprano)

Ludovic Morlot (conductor)

BBC Philharmonic and soprano Carolyn Sampson in Dutilleux, Dvorak, Copland and Betsy Jolas

Cosmic Vision20190916With its vast orchestral forces, Olivier Messiaen's epic ɀclairs sur l'au-del
Cpe Bach Magnificat, Mozart, Haydn, Liadov20160925Ian Skelly introduces chamber music by Mozart and Haydn from West Cork and and Brussels along with a performance of CPE Bach's Magnificat, recorded in the Gothic church of St Nicholas in Jüterbog during the Brandenburg Summer Concerts.

Mozart: Violin Sonata No. 18 in G, K301

Tobias Feldmann (violin), Anne Qu退ffelec (piano)

rec. Wallonie Festival, Brussels

CPE Bach: Magnificat, Wq. 215

Christina Landshamer (soprano)

Anke Vondung (contralto)

Sebastian Kohlhepp (tenor)

Arttu Katja (bass)

G䀀chinger Kantorei, Bach Collegium Stuttgart, Hans-Christoph Rademann

rec. St Nicholas' Church, Jüterbog during the Brandenburg Summer Concerts

Haydn: String Quartet in C, Hob. III:32

Chiaroscuro Quartet

rec. St Brendan's Church, Bantry during the West Cork Chamber Music Festival

Liadov: The Enchanted Lake, Op. 62

Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev (conductor)

rec. Martti Talvela Hall, Mikaeli at the Mikkeli Music Festival, Finland.

Ian Skelly presents a performance of CPE Bach's Magnificat, plus Mozart, Haydn and Liadov.

Cpe Bach Oratorio The Israelites In The Desert20221024Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's oratorio The Israelites in the Desert in a performance given at last month's Utrecht Early Music Festival.

Fiona Talkington introduces this rare performance C.P.E. Bach's oratorio which traces in extended arias, recitatives and short choruses the Old Testament story of the pain and suffering of the Israelites in the desert. Written for the consecration of Hamburg's Lazarettkirche in 1769, Bach wrote the piece with the intention that it be performed 'not only on a solemn occasion, but at any time, inside or outside the Church.' The work went on to achieve popularity in concert halls across Europe.

Die Israeliten in der Wüste, Wq. 238 oratorio

Daniel Schiebeler (1741-1771), librettist

Marie Lys (soprano),

Zo뀀 Brookshaw (soprano)

Valerio Contaldo (tenor)

Stephan MacLeod (bass and conductor)

Gli Angeli Gen耀ve

CPE Bach's oratorio, The Israelites in the Desert, from the Utrecht Early Music Festival.

Creative Sparks20190924From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Presented by Tom Redmond

Kabalevsky: Colas Breugnon: Overture

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3

8.10

Interval (CD)

Poulenc: Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone

The Nash Ensemble

8.20

Walton: Symphony No.1

Alexander Gavrylyuk (piano)

BBC Philharmonic

John Wilson (conductor)

Conductor John Wilson opens the BBC Philharmonic's season with Kabalevsky's coruscating overture to his opera Colas Breugnon. Alexander Gavrylyuk joins the orchestra for Prokofiev's sparkling Third Piano Concerto. Walton's First Symphony, captures the spirit of the roaring thirties as well as his own response to a failed love affair.

BBC Philharmonic with John Wilson in Kabalevsky, Prokofiev and Walton

Creative Sparks20200324Another chance to hear the BBC Philharmonic and conductor John Wilson in a concert from September last year. Kabalevsky's coruscating overture to his opera Colas Breugnon opens the programme and Alexander Gavrylyuk joins the orchestra for a stunning performance of Prokofiev's sparkling Third Piano Concerto. Walton's First Symphony, captures the spirit of the roaring thirties as well as his own response to a failed love affair.

From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Kabalevsky: Colas Breugnon: Overture

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3

8.10

Interval

Poulenc: Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone

The Nash Ensemble

8.20

Walton: Symphony No.1

Alexander Gavrylyuk (piano)

John Wilson (conductor)

BBC Philharmonic with John Wilson in Kabalevsky, Prokofiev and Walton

Cristina Ortiz Plays Piano Music, By Chopin And Bowen20181022Cristina Ortiz plays piano music by Chopin and Bowen at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 18th October.

Presented by Sarah Walker.

Fantaisie in F minor, Op.49

Sonata No.2 in B flat minor, Op.35 (Marche fun耀bre)

8.10: Interval

York Bowen

Prelude in C, Op.102 No.1 (Moderato appassionato)

Prelude in D minor, Op.102 No.6 (Andane con moto)

Prelude in E flat, Op.102 No.7 (Andantino amabile)

Prelude in E minor, Op.102 No.10 (Moderato, a capriccio)

Prelude in F, Op.102 No.11 (Andante con moto e grazioso)

Prelude in F minor, Op.102 No.12 (Allegro con fuoco)

Chopin:

Etude in A flat, Op.25 No.1

Etude in E minor, Op.25 No.5

Etude in C sharp minor, Op.25 No.7

Etude in C minor, Op.25 No.12

Barcarolle in F sharp, Op.60

Polonaise in A flat, Op.53

Cristina Ortiz, piano

The great Brazilian pianist Cristina Ortiz is renowned for her interpretations of Chopin, and here performs a programme including the dramatic Fantaisie in F minor, along with some Preludes by York Bowen, an English contemporary of Rachmaninov, who is now being rediscovered, after decades of neglect.

Cuarteto Casals, Mozart's Haydn Quartets20170112In the first of two concerts at London's Wigmore Hall featuring the six String Quartets Mozart dedicated to his friend Haydn, the Cuarteto Casals play the Quartets in G K387, D minor K421 and E flat K428.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Mozart: String Quartet in G, K387

Mozart: String Quartet in D minor, K421

8.15: Interval.

8.35: Mozart: String Quartet in E flat, K428

Recorded at Wigmore Hall on 7 January 2016

The six string quartets that Mozart composed in the first half of the 1780s and dedicated to his friend Haydn were his reaction to the new and sophisticated musical environment he had encountered after moving from Salzburg to Vienna in 1781, and to his growing acquaintance with, and admiration for, the quartet masterpieces of Haydn himself. The Cuarteto Casals, from Spain, perform all six works over two concerts at Wigmore Hall starting tonight with the G major (K387) with its brilliant contrapuntal finale, the tragically brooding D minor (K421), and the confident E flat, K428.

The second concert, featuring the quartets K458, K464 and K466, will be broadcast on Tuesday 17 January.

Cuarteto Casals play Mozart's Haydn quartets at Wigmore Hall in London.

Cuarteto Casals, Mozart's Haydn Quartets20170116In the second of two concerts at London's Wigmore Hall featuring the six String Quartets Mozart dedicated to his friend Haydn, the Cuarteto Casals play the Quartets in B flat major K458, A major K464 and C major K465.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Mozart: String Quartet in B flat, K458 (Hunt)

Mozart: String Quartet in A, K464

8.15: Interval.

8.35: Mozart: String Quartet in C, K465 (Dissonance)

Recorded at Wigmore Hall on 8 January 2016

The six string quartets that Mozart composed in the first half of the 1780s and dedicated to his friend Haydn were his reaction to the new and sophisticated musical environment he had encountered after moving from Salzburg to Vienna in 1781, and to his growing acquaintance with, and admiration for, the quartet masterpieces of Haydn himself. The Cuarteto Casals, from Spain, have been performing all six works over two concerts at Wigmore Hall and end tonight with the sunny B flat major K458 (sometimes known as the Hunt), the A major K464 (later to be a model for Beethoven's own A major Quartet), and the C major K465 (whose strange, harmonically searching introduction has brought it the nickname 'Dissonance').

After tonight's concert there's a chance to hear works performed during a recent concert that surveyed music written and performed in Terezin and the Warsaw Ghetto - Music on the Brink of Destruction.

Cuarteto Casals performs Mozart: String Quartets: in B flat, K458; in A, K464; in C, K465.

Czech Philharmonic20201109Keith Lockhart conducts the Czech Philharmonic in music by Dvo?ကk & Janက?ek, alongside world premieres of three new Czech pieces by Adriကn Demo?, Jana Vorosova and Matouš Hejl.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

This concert showcases Czech music old and new. Beginning with Dvo?ကk's 1891 overture `In Nature's Realm` and ending with the suite from Janက?ek's opera `The Cunning Little Vixen`, Keith Lockhart also conducts the Czech Philharmonic in three brand new pieces by Czech composers.

Dvo?ကk: In Nature's Realm, Op.91

Adriကn Demo?: Tenderness (Adagio for orchestra)

Jana Vorosova: Orpingalik's Songs

Interval:

Martin?: String Quartet No.2

Martin? Quartet

Matouš Hejl: Crossings

Janက?ek: Suite from `The Cunning Little Vixen`

Concert given at The Rudolfinum, Prague, Czechia 07/11/2019

Followed by music off disc

Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor

Joshua Bell - violin

Steven Isserlis - cello

Jean-Yves Thibaudet - piano

Image credit: Petr Kadlec

Keith Lockhart conducts music by Dvorak & Janacek alongside premieres of new Czech pieces.

Czech Philharmonic20211206Fiona Talkington presents a highlight of the European musical season, featuring the Czech Philharmonic, conducted by Tom  Netopil.

`I need not give an account of myself to anyone. Only to my own conscience and to our noble lady music,` the composer Josef Suk once said. His Fantasy in G minor for violin and orchestra shows Suk as a dramatic composer of music full of surprising turns and inner turmoil.

A very rarely played work by Suk's and Dvo?ကk's contemporary Zden?k Fibich - the Overture to his opera The Tempest - adds another glimpse into the rich world of Czech music of the fin-de-siecle. The Symphony No. 2 in E minor by Suk's contemporary Sergei Rachmaninov completes the concert.

Zden?k Fibich: The Tempest - Overture, Op. 46

Josef Suk: Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra in G Minor, Op. 24

Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27

Christian Tetzlaff violin

Tom  Netopil conductor

Concert recorded as part of the Dvo?ကk Prague Festival on Friday, September 10 at the Rudolfinum, Dvo?ကk Hall, Prague.

Image: Marco Borggreve

Tom\u00e1\u0161 Netopil conducts the Czech Philharmonic in Rachmaninov's Second Symphony.

Dame Sarah Connolly And Royal Northern Sinfonia20230504From Sage, Gateshead, Schubert's famously unfinished symphony, Mahler's heart-rending setting of five poems by Friedrich Rückert - sung by Dame Sarah Connolly - and Brahms's passionate Third symphony that looks back to younger days, making use of the musical theme F-A-F for Frei aber Froh (Free but happy).

Presented by Linton Stephens

Schubert: Symphony No.8 in B minor 'Unfinished

Mahler: Rückert-Lieder

20:15 Interval music:

Nicola Benedetti, Tom Dunn, Leonard Elschenbroich and Alexei Grynyuk play Mahler's Piano Quartet in A minor.

Brahms: Symphony No.3 in F major

Dame Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano

Royal Northern Sinfonia

Dinis Sousa, conductor

Recorded at Sage Gateshead on 28th April.

Unfinished Schubert, heart-rending Mahler songs and Brahms's passionate Third Symphony.

Dance To Ravel And Strauss20200511Recorded in early January of this year in the Kuppelsaal in Hanover, Andrew Manze and the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra celebrated the New Year with a programme of dance music - starting with Ravel's La Valse and Strauss's Suite from Rosenkavalier in the second half.

The pianists Martha Argerich and Shin Heae Kang join for a performance of Poulenc's sparkling Concerto for 2 Pianos.

Ravel: La Valse

Andrew Manze, conductor

Poulenc: Concerto for 2 Pianos in D minor

Martha Argerich, piano

Shin Heae Kang, piano

c.8.15: Interval:

JS Bach: Concerto for 2 violins and string orch (BWV.1043) in D min

Andrew Manze, violin

Rachel Podger, violin

Academy of Ancient Music

c.8.30:

Richard Strauss: Suite from 'Der Rosenkavalier' op. 59

Ravel: Bolero

Followed at 9.30pm with music by by Poulenc and Strauss performed by the French oboist, Francois Leleux:

Poulenc: Sonata for Oboe and piano Op.185

Francois Leleux, oboe

Emmanuel Strosser, piano

Richard Strauss: Serenade in E flat major Op.7 for 13 wind instruments

Ensemble Paris-Bastille

Francois Leleux, director

Image Credit: Chris Christodoulou

Andrew Manze conducts the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra.

Dance Transformed20230221From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Ian Skelly

Music somehow not of this world, but from somewhere else above' - Diaghilev's words on hearing Stravinsky's music for the 1928 ballet Apollo, hinting at the unearthly nature of his first collaboration with choreographer George Balanchine in which the god Apollo shares the stage with three muses. Classical clarity, shape and form characterise this music's spirit. By way of contrast, Angela Hewitt joins the BBC Philharmonic and Sir Andrew Davis as soloist in Mozart's A major Piano Concerto (K 488), true classicism but enjoying an exploration of colour, harmony and melody. We hear music by Stravinsky of a different, more vivacious style in his orchestrations of piano duets composed for children, his First Suite, first performed only three years before Apollo. Three of its numbers are inspired by national folk dances, a Napolitana, an Espanola and a Balalaika. The dance-infused keyboard music of eighteenth century France, provided the inspiration for Ravel's 'Le tombeau de Couperin' though while writing it, Ravel turned the work into a homage for friends killed in the First World War. Clarity of texture and expression shine through his tributes to friends lost and to music of an earlier age. The 'apotheosis of the Viennese Waltz' ends the evening - that was Ravel's own description of 'La Valse' - music during which the accepted cultured vision of this highly civilized dance is exploded in an obscene orgy reflecting the fall of the Hapsburg Empire.

Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 23 in A (K488)

8.15pm

Music Interval (CD)

Ravel: Miroirs: Alborada del gracioso, La vall退e des cloches

Angela Hewitt (piano)

Stravinsky: Suite No 1

Stravinsky: Apollo

Ravel: La valse

The BBC Philharmonic and Sir Andrew Davis perform music by Stravinsky, Mozart and Ravel.

Daniel Barenboim Conducts The West-eastern Divan Orchestra20171030Daniel Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote and Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony.

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on 28th October.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Strauss - Don Quixote

8.20: Interval

8.40

Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5

Kian Soltani, cello

Daniel Barenboim, conductor

An epic tone poem rather than a concerto, Richard Strauss's Don Quixote calls upon a solo cello to represent the titular character of Miguel de Cervantes's novel. Each variation depicts one of the Don's exciting adventures, which include his decision to become a knight-errant, mistaking a herd of sheep for an approaching army and battles with magicians and knights. Composed less than a decade earlier in 1888, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 brings tonight's concert to a rousing conclusion.

Daniel Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Strauss' Don Quixote.

Danish National Symphony Orchestra2022050220220425 (R3)Fabio Luisi, distinguished Principal Conductor of the Danish National SO leads the orchestra in one of the great 20th-century symphonies. Nielsen said his 'Inextinguishable' Symphony 'will express what we understand by the spirit of life or manifestations of life, that is: everything that moves, that wants to live...' and, with the majestic sweep of its broad themes and the battling sets of timpani of its finale, an elemental life-force seems to be shot-through the music.

To begin, Augustin Hadelich is the much-garlanded soloist in Beethoven's epic Violin Concerto, one of the summits of the repertoire.

Recorded in January in the renowned acoustic of the DR Concert House, Copenhagen, and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61

8.25 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Nielsen: Serenata in Vano

David Shifrin (clarinet)

Ryan Reynolds (bassoon)

William Purvis (horn)

Mihai Marica (cello)

Curtis Daily (double bass)

8.35

Nielsen: Symphony No. 4, Op. 29 ('Inextinguishable')

Augustin Hadelich (violin)

Fabio Luisi (conductor)

Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Augustin Hadelich and Nielsen's Symphony No 4.

Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Ravel, Abrahamsen, Franck20170122Ian Skelly with his regular showcase of concerts from around Europe. Tonight, a concert recorded in Copenhagen from the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard of music by Ravel, Abrahamsen and Franck.

Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

Abrahamsen: Piano Concerto for Left Hand ('Left, alone')

Alexandre Tharaud (piano)

Franck: Symphony in D minor

Recorded at the DR Concert House, Copenhagen.

Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard in Ravel, Abrahamsen and Franck.

Danish String Quartet At The Edinburgh International Festival20160921Recorded at Queen's Hall, Edinburgh on 27th August. Kate Molleson presents the Danish String Quartet and horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill in a programme of chamber music at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Per Nørg倀rd: Quarteto breve

Mozart: Horn Quintet K407

20.15: Interval

Thomas Ades: Arcadiana Op 12 - from The Danish String Quartet's latest CD release.

20.35

Rolf Wallin: New work (World premiere)

Beethoven: String Quartet Op 59 No 2 'Rasumovsky

Alec Frank-Gemmill: horn

The hugely characterful Danish String Quartet have played music together since childhood; comprising of three Danes and one Norwegian cellist. The group joke that they are modern Vikings, noting that 'playing string quartets is our job, and yes it is hard work, but we mostly do it for pleasure, like we always did'. They bring their trademark energy to a performance of Beethoven's second 'Rasumovsky' Quartet, one of his most heroic chamber works, and a World premiere written by acclaimed Norwegian composer Rolf Wallin, commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and the Royal Philharmonic Society. Before that a lyrical, Sibelius-inspired miniature by their compatriot Per Nørg倀rd. They are joined by the outstanding horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill, principal at the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, for Mozart's good-natured but highly virtuosic Horn Quintet.

The Danish Quartet performs music by Norgard, Mozart, Rolf Wallin and Beethoven.

Daphnis And Chloe20200707Another chance to hear the BBC National Orchestra of Wales' performance of Ravel's Daphnis et Chlo退, a piece that fully embraces lush harmonies. Conductor Tadaaki Otaka paints a picture of a meadow on the outskirts of a sacred wood where sheep graze and nymphs frolic. This ancient Greek-inspired story of romance and adventure is brought to life by the Orchestra and Chorus, alongside the flowing melodies of Prokofiev's second violin concerto performed by Thomas Zehetmair.

Recorded in St. David's Hall, Cardiff in November 2016 and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Mozart: Overture (Idomeneo)

Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No 2

8.05 Interval music

8.25 Ravel: Daphnis et Chlo退

Thomas Zehetmair (violin)

Tadaaki Otaka (conductor)

BBC NOW and Tadaaki Otaka perform Ravel's sumptuous ballet.

Daphnis And Chloe20220922Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers in Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. And they are joined by Jane Archibald for Messiaen's Po耀mes pour Mi.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Jonathan Woolgar: Symphonic message in memory of L. R. (world premiere)

Messiaen: O sacrum convivium!

Messiaen: Po耀mes pour Mi

8.20 Interval

8.40 Part Two

Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

Jane Archibald (soprano)

Ryan Wigglesworth becomes the new chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, in a concert from Glasgow. They are joined by the BBC Singers and soprano Jane Archibald to bring to life magical French music by Ravel, mystical music by Olivier Messiaen, and brand new music by the young English composer, Jonathan Woolgar.

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts music by Ravel and Messiaen plus a new work by Jonathan Woolgar

Darcey Bussell20210301The first of this week's special Radio 3 in Concert programmes, in which Sean Rafferty meets much-loved figures from the worlds of dance, drama and the media.

This evening, former ballerina and Strictly judge Darcey Bussell shares some of her classical music favourites with Sean, and reveals some of the stories behind her choices, including the turning point in her teenage years when she was selected to dance to the slow movement of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Other music includes works by Mozart, Mendelssohn and Prokofiev.

Mozart: Overture (Marriage of Figaro)

BBC Concert Orchestra

Keith Lockhart (conductor)

Mahler: Adagietto (from Symphony No 5)

BBC Philharmonic

Gianandrea Noseda (conductor)

Mendelssohn: Overture, Scherzo, Nocturne and Wedding March (from A Midsummer Night's Dream)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Jiri Belohlavek (conductor)

JS Bach: Cello Suite No 3, BWV 1009

Andrei Ionita (cello)

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet Suite No 1, Op 64a (extracts)

Yan Pascal Tortelier (conductor)

Villa-Lobos: Study No 1 in E minor

Maxwell Davies: Farewell to Stromness

Sean Shibe (guitar)

Stravinsky: The Firebird (suite, 1945 version)

Darcey Bussell chooses Mahler, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Prokofiev.

Dave Brubeck At The Royal Festival Hall20201204To celebrate Dave Brubeck's centenary on 6 December, another chance to hear this concert featuring the legendary jazz pianist and composer, recorded by Radio 3 at the Royal Festival Hall in October 1992.

Introduced by Geoffrey Smith, who also talks to Brubeck in the interval.

Howard Brubeck: Theme for June

Dave Brubeck: Once when I was very young; Peace of Jerusalem; Softly

William softly; Out of the way of the people; Three to get ready; Sermon on the Mount; In your own sweet way; Brandenburg Gate

Paul Desmond: Take Five

WC Handy: St Louis Blues

Dave Brubeck (piano)

Bill Smith (clarinet)

Jack Six (bass)

Randy Jones (drums)

Matthew Brubeck (cello)

Featuring music off disc

Mozart

Piano Concerto No 27 in B flat major, K 595

Wilhelm Kempff (piano)

Berlin Philharmonic

Ferdinand Leitner (conductor)

The legendary Dave Brubeck, recorded live in concert at the Royal Festival Hall in 1992.

David Briggs, Organ Recital At Coventry Cathedral20211130Organist David Briggs gives a recital on the organ of Coventry Cathedral, including Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor and a transcription of Vaughan Williams's Fifth Symphony.

JS Bach - Toccata & Fugue in D minor, BWV.565, with improvised cadenzas

Maurice Ravel trans. David Briggs - Pavane pour une infante d退funte

David Briggs - Improvisation (Scherzo Symphonique)

Charles-Marie Widor - Symphonie No.6 Op.42 No.2 (Adagio; Finale)

INTERVAL:

c.8.25pm

Charles-Marie Widor - Piano Quintet in D minor, Op.7

Ilona Prunyi (piano)

New Budapest Quartet

c. 8.55pm

Alan Ridout - Scherzo for organ

Vaughan Williams trans. David Briggs - Symphony No 5

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Organist David Briggs gives a recital on the organ of Coventry Cathedral.

David Goode, Bach At Trinity College, Cambridge20170608David Goode plays Bach on the organ of the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, including the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor BWV546, the Trio Sonata in C minor BWV526 and a selection of chorale preludes. The concert forms the conclusion of 'Bach at Trinity', a year-long celebration of the complete organ works of J S Bach, and of the 40th anniversary of the Trinity College organ.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Fantasia in G minor, BWV542/i

Trio Sonata in C minor, BWV526

Chorale Prelude 'Allein Gott in der H怀h' sei Ehr', BWV662

Chorale Prelude 'Allein Gott in der H怀h' sei Ehr', BWV663

Chorale Prelude 'Allein Gott in der H怀h' sei Ehr', BWV664

Concerto in G major, BWV592

Fugue in B minor on a Theme by Corelli, BWV579

Chorale Prelude 'Christ, der du bist der helle Tag', BWV766

Fugue in G minor, BWV542/ii

David Goode (organ of Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge)

Bach at Trinity' has been a year-long celebration of the 40th anniversary of the inauguration of the Metzler organ in the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge, in which 22 different players have performed the complete organ works of J S Bach. Tonight's programme features the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor BWV546, the Trio Sonata in C minor BWV526 and a selection of chorale preludes.

Recorded on 3 June 2017.

David Goode plays music by Bach on the organ of Trinity College, Cambridge.

David Willcocks Memorial Concert20151201The Memorial Concert for Sir David Willcocks CBE MC, given on Saint Cecilia's Day in King's College Chapel, Cambridge, with the King's College Choir, directed by Stephen Cleobury.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Parry: Blest pair of Sirens

Byrd: Sing joyfully

Purcell: Jehovah, quam multi sunt

Toby Ward (tenor) and Benedict Kearns (baritone)

JS Bach: Fugue in Eb ('St Anne') BWV 552

Richard Gowers (organ)

Britten: A Hymn to the Virgin

Vaughan Williams: Valiant-for-Truth

Faure: Requiem

Tom Hopkins (treble)

Gerald Finley, (baritone)

King's College Choir and Orchestra (made up of former choristers of King's, and College Members)

Tom Etheridge (organ)

Stephen Cleobury (conductor)

The Choir of King's College pays tribute to one of its great choral directors, Sir David Willcocks, who died in September this year at the age of 95.

From King's College Chapel, Cambridge, a memorial concert for the late David Willcocks.

Dawn To Dusk With The Northern Sinfonia20210429Music by Berlioz, Lili Boulanger, Haydn and Prokofiev performed by the Royal Northern Sinfonia under its principal conductor designate, Dinis Sousa, exploring the idea of the start and the end of the day. The concert is given as part of the orchestra's ‘New Beginnings' season and features mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly performing Berlioz's evocative song cycle, Les nuits d'ete. Presented by Martin Handley.

PART ONE

Haydn: Symphony No.6 'Le matin

Berlioz: Les nuits d'ete

INTERVAL

The theme of tonight's concert continues with a pianistic picture taking us from dusk back to dawn as conjured in the mind of Robert Schumann. Sviatoslav Richter performs Papillons in a classic recording made in Italy in the early 1960s.

PART TWO

Boulanger: D'un matin de printemps

Prokofiev: Symphony No 1 'Classical

Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano

Dinis Sousa, conductor

(photography credit: TyneSight Photographic)

Music by Berlioz, Haydn and Prokofiev performed by the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Debussy And Ravel From The Philharmonia Orchestra20180205The Philharmonia Orchestra plays French music. Pablo Heras-Casado conducts a programme of Impressionist works which begins in the langorous afternoon of Debussy's faun and ends in the salt spray of the sea. In between, we visit the fairytale world of Ravel's Mother Goose and his jazz-infused Piano Concerto.

Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall on 21 January.

Presented by Martin Handley

Debussy: Pr退lude

Debussy, Richard Strauss And Chausson20231204Debussy's famous and famously erotic 1894 Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune begins this concert from Denmark.

Very little in Richard Strauss's early Violin Concerto anticipates his better-known music and the piece needs the help of a persuasive advocate, which it gets here with Renaud Capuçon as the soloist.

To end, music by a friend of Debussy. Ernest Chausson, like so many French composers of the late 19th century, became obsessed with Wagner but later tried to find a new, more French path. But with its irresistible swagger and full-blooded romantic melodies underpinned by lush harmony, Chausson's Symphony in B flat still has a whiff of the Teutonic. It's the only symphony he wrote before his life came to an abrupt end in 1899 at the age of 44 when he and his bicycle hit a wall.

Recorded in September at the DR Concert House, Copenhagen, and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

Richard Strauss: Violin Concerto in D minor, op. 8

Ernest Chausson: Symphony in B flat, op. 20

Renaud Capuçon (violin)

Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Tugan Sokhiev (conductor)

Tugan Sokhiev conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

The Danish National Symphony Orchestra plays Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Chausson's Symphony in B flat and, with Renaud Capuçon, Richard Strauss's Violin Concerto.

Debussy, Schubert And Wagner Performed In Germany20170430Ian Skelly presents Schubert's mighty String Quintet in C, his final chamber work, performed by the Armida String Quartet and cellist Julian Steckel at the Kreuth International Music Festival in August last year. Plus highlights from last Summer's Verbier Festival, including Gကbor Takကcs-Nagy conducing the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Mozart's very first symphony, composed at the tender age of eight, violinists Daniel Hope and Daniel Loakovich in Glass's Echorus, and Ivan Fischer conducting the Verbier Festival Symphony Orchestra in the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.

Ian Skelly (presenter)

Symphony No.1 in E flat major, K.16

Gကbor Takကcs-Nagy (conductor)

Philip Glass

Daniel Hope (violin)

Daniel Lozakovich (violin)

Members of the Verbier Festival Academy

Prelude and Isoldes Liebestod, from 'Tristan und Isolde

Nina Stemme (soprano)

Ivan Fischer (conductor)

String Quintet in C, D. 956

Armida String Quartet & Julian Steckel (cello).

Music by Mozart, Glass and Wagner from the Verbier Festival. Plus Schubert from Kreuth.

Debussy's Faun And Stravinsky's Firebird20231103The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Roderick Cox with works by Debussy, Stravinsky and Lyatoshinsky. Violinist Ilya Gringolts joins them to premiere Wennäkoski's Prosoidia.

A sultry flute, a shower of sparks, a flash of light and a sensuous, sumptuous wave of pure emotion. In the years before World War One, Debussy and Stravinsky transformed the way we listen: inventing musical colours that dazzled, startled and seduced. Debussy's ravishing Prélude and Stravinsky's Firebird open and close a concert filled with fantastic stories and sounds. Take Lotta Wennäkoski's new violin concerto Prosoidia, for example. The composer imagines music as a wordless conversation – and if any violinist can make it talk, it's the phenomenal Ilya Gringolts. Roderick Cox conducts, and shares another work that speaks more potently than any words: Grazhyna, a musical tale of courage and struggle from Ukraine's greatest 20th century composer, Boris Lyatoshinsky.

Live from the Barbican Hall, presented by Martin Handley

Claude Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

Lotta Wennäkoski: Prosoidia (BBC Co-Commission and World Premiere)*

Boris Lyatoshinsky: Grazhyna, Op.58

Igor Stravinsky: Firebird Suite (1919)

Ilya Gringolts (violin)*

Roderick Cox (conductor)

Roderick Cox conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Debussy, Stravinsky and Wenn\u00e4koski.

Desire, Grief And Hope20221207Live from Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

Leslie Suganandarajah joins the BBC Philharmonic for a programme that explores desire, grief and hope. We witness a pact with the devil in Emilie Mayer's Faust Overture before mezzo-soprano Christa Mayer joins the orchestra for a performance of Gustav Mahler's grief-stricken Kindertotenlieder. Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony, his last, (Path退tique) ends the programme, the fullest expression of a profoundly emotional man's turbulence is shared with us through his music.

Mayer: Faust Overture

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder

8.15

Music Interval CD

Tchaikovsky: Six pieces composed on one theme, Op.21

Peter Donohoe (piano)

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6 (Path退tique)

Christa Mayer (mezzo-soprano)

Leslie Suganandarajah conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony.

Deutsches Symphonie-orchester Berlin20210705The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin began life in 1946 as the RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) Symphony Orchestra but has played under its current name since 1993, co-owned by Deutschlandradio and the Federal Republic of Germany. Recently dubbed an 'orchestral think tank', the orchestra's Chief Conductor for the last three seasons has been the young Brit Robin Ticciati who has won plaudits for his imaginative programming and re-thinking of concerts. Here they perform two repertoire staples which nonetheless demonstrate their flexibility and ear for style. Haydn's Symphony No. 96, one of a series written for his London audience, is one of the high points of the late Classical era. The Enigma Variations, Elgar's musical portraits of his friends (and a dog), at once witty, affectionate and profound, is the work which sealed his international reputation at the end of the 19th century.

Recorded at the Philharmonie, Berlin, in March and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Haydn: Symphony No. 96 in D major ('The Miracle')

Robin Ticciati (conductor)

7.55 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Schumann

Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26

Alasdair Beatson (piano)

8.25 pm

Elgar: Variations on an original theme ('Enigma'), Op. 36

Robin Ticciati conducts the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in Haydn and Elgar.

Dmitri Shostakovich, Surviving Soviet Russia20190410Live from the Barbican Hall, Semyon Bychkov conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Shostakovich's searing Symphony No.11. Plus the Piano Concerto No.2 with Alexei Volodin.

Presented by Martin Handley

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No 2 in F major (1956-7)

Shostakovich: Variations on a Theme by Glinka (1957) (for piano)

07.55 Interval - Russian a cappella music

Bortnyansky Sacred Concerto No.4 - Make a Joyful noise up to God

Russian State Symphonic Cappella

Valeri Polyansky (conductor)

Nikolay Golovanov: Slava Ottsu; Pavel Chesnokov: Heruvimskaya pesn; Viktor Kalinnikov: Svete tihiy

Tenebrae , Nigel Short (conductor)

08.15

Shostakovich: Symphony No 11 in G minor 'The Year 1905' (1956-7)

Alexei Volodin (piano)

Semyon Bychkov (conductor)

Conductor Semyon Bychkov presents three Shostakovich works all completed in the unsettling year of 1957. The Piano Concerto No.2 , a gift to the composer's pianist son, Maxim, is tonight in the hands of Alexei Volodin, one of the standout Russian pianists of our time. It begins playfully before a tender, romantic, cinematic, slow movement. After the concerto come the variations for piano solo Shostakovich wrote in 1957 to mark the centenary of the death of the Russian composer Glinka.

In the Eleventh Symphony, subtitled 'The Year 1905', Shostakovich turns to the uprising in St Petersburg, witnessed by his own father, in which protesters were brutally gunned down outside the Winter Palace by Tsarists forces. It's a sombre, intensely dramatic work - 'a symphony written in blood' - in which songs of the failed Revolution are remembered. Political unrest of a different stripe affected Shostakovich in 1956-7 at the time he wrote the symphony, with the Hungarian Uprising abruptly halted by Russian Communist forces. Russian poet Anna Akhmatovar was moved to write of the piece: 'Those songs were like white birds flying against a terrible black sky.

Shostakovich's Symphony No 11 live from the Barbican. Semyon Bychkov conducts the BBC SO.

Dmitri Shostakovich, Surviving Soviet Russia20200327Another chance to hear a concert in which Semyon Bychkov conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Shostakovich's searing Symphony No.11. Plus the Piano Concerto No.2 with Alexei Volodin.

Recorded at the Barbican on 10th April 2019

Presented by Martin Handley

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No 2 in F major (1956-7)

Shostakovich: Variations on a Theme by Glinka (1957) (for piano)

07.55 Interval - Russian a cappella music

Bortnyansky Sacred Concerto No.4 - Make a Joyful noise up to God

Russian State Symphonic Cappella

Valeri Polyansky (conductor)

Nikolay Golovanov: Slava Ottsu; Pavel Chesnokov: Heruvimskaya pesn; Viktor Kalinnikov: Svete tihiy

Tenebrae , Nigel Short (conductor)

08.15

Shostakovich: Symphony No 11 in G minor 'The Year 1905' (1956-7)

Alexei Volodin (piano)

Semyon Bychkov (conductor)

Conductor Semyon Bychkov presents three Shostakovich works all completed in the unsettling year of 1957. The Piano Concerto No.2, a gift to the composer's pianist son, Maxim, is tonight in the hands of Alexei Volodin, one of the standout Russian pianists of our time. It begins playfully before a tender, romantic, cinematic, slow movement. After the concerto come the variations for piano solo Shostakovich wrote in 1957 to mark the centenary of the death of the Russian composer Glinka.

In the Eleventh Symphony, subtitled 'The Year 1905', Shostakovich turns to the uprising in St Petersburg, witnessed by his own father, in which protesters were brutally gunned down outside the Winter Palace by Tsarists forces. It's a sombre, intensely dramatic work - 'a symphony written in blood' - in which songs of the failed Revolution are remembered. Political unrest of a different stripe affected Shostakovich in 1956-7 at the time he wrote the symphony, with the Hungarian Uprising abruptly halted by Russian Communist forces. Russian poet Anna Akhmatovar was moved to write of the piece: 'Those songs were like white birds flying against a terrible black sky.

Semyon Bychkov conducts the BBC SO in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11 at the Barbican.

Domestic Harmony20190116The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra live from the Lighthouse in Poole with a programme of Beethoven and Richard Strauss. Augustin Hadelich joins the orchestra for Beethoven's much loved violin concerto. This is followed by Strauss's Symphonia Domestica, which describes a lively day in the Strauss household, complete with a baby's trantrum, a row, and a love scene.

Presented by Martin Handley

7.30pm

Beethoven Violin Concerto

c.8.10pm

Interval music:

Beethoven Sextet for 2 horns and string quartet Op.81b in E flat major

Melos Ensemble of London

c.8.30pm

Strauss Symphonia Domestica

Augustin Hadelich (violin)

Bournemouth Symphony Orchetra

Kirill Karabits (conductor)

After the concert:

Adopt a Composer

The Adopt a Composer scheme is run by Making Music, in association with Sound and Music. This year seven composers have been paired with seven amateur performing groups around the country. The composer gets to work with the group over the course of a year to create a piece of music that is given its premiere performance by the ensemble, and Radio 3 is broadcasting the results.

Tonight you'll hear:

Anna Appleby's piece, performed by Merchant Sinfonia from Glasgow.

Don Quixote20191114One of Richard Strauss' most theatrical orchestral pieces, a ‘mad set of variations', illustrates in its music the character of Don Quixote as inhabited by a solo cellist, tonight performed by former BBC New Generation Artist Narek Hakhnazaryan, alongside conductor Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The deftness and invention of the composition makes this an unmissable orchestral showpiece.

And it is prefaced with two less well-known discoveries that nevertheless demonstrate an orchestra's capacity to render capricious stories through sound. Prokofiev's music for a Diaghilev ballet ‘Chout', in which sparky tunefulness and glitter-rich instrumental textures tell `The Tale of the Buffoon who Outwits Seven Other Buffoons`.

And there's a chance to explore the music of a sadly neglected composer Myriam Marbe. A Romanian polymathic genius, a political dissident in times of turmoil, and a witty and elegant inventor of music which beguiles as it unsettles. Her 1974 piece for strings and percussion `Serenata - Eine kleine Sonnenmusik` fractures and distorts memories of Mozart's music through effervescent layers of bird-calls and crackling lines of orchestra fizz.

Live from City Halls Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Marbe: Serenata - Eine kleine Sonnenmusik

Prokofiev: Chout, Symphonic Suite

8.15 Interval

8.35 Part 2

Strauss: Don Quixote

Narek Hakhnazaryan (cellist)

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Ilan Volkov and the BBC SSO perform Strauss's dramatic music based on Cervantes' novel

Donald Runnicles And The Bbc Sso In Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony20160303Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Runnicles conducts the BBC SSO in Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony.

Debussy: Pr退lude

Donald Runnicles Conducts Bruckner20200227Bruckner's majestic, long, death-haunted 8th Symphony is performed tonight with the particular drama an opera conductor, like Donald Runnicles, can bring to its epic span. And the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra open the concert with a colourful, sensuous work by 20th-Century French composer Henri Dutilleux. His cycle of songs and interludes, Correspondances, sets mystical epistolary texts from writers ranging from Rilke to Van Gough. They will be brought into glimmeringly lyric life this evening by soprano Carolyn Sampson.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Dutilleux: Correspondances

7.50 Interval

8.10 Part 2

Bruckner: Symphony no 8 (1890 version)

Carolyn Sampson (soprano)

Donald Runnicles (conductor)

Donald Runnicles conducts the BBC SSO in Bruckner's Symphony No 8.

Doric String Quartet, Alasdair Beatson, Ades, Britten And Elgar20170703The Doric String Quartet perform Britten's Third String Quartet, and are joined by pianist Alasdair Beatson in quintets by Thomas Ad耀s and Elgar.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Thomas Ad耀s: Piano Quintet

Britten: String Quartet No 3

8.20: Interval

8.40: Elgar: Piano Quintet in A minor

Alasdair Beatson (piano)

Alasdair Beatson joins the Doric String Quartet in Thomas Ad耀s's single-movement Piano Quintet, a virtuosic modern take on classical sonata form, and Elgar's dramatically intense Piano Quintet in A minor. Peter Pears described Britten's late Third String Quartet as being 'of a profound beauty more touching than anything else, radiant, wise, new, mysterious - overwhelming'.

After tonight's concert Mark Padmore and Roger Vignoles perform Schumann's Liederkreis in a recording made at this year's Aldeburgh Festival.

The Doric String Quartet and Alasdair Beatson (piano) in music by Ades, Britten and Elgar.

Double Trouble20190715Leading up to Friday's First Night of the Proms, Georgia Mann presents some of Europe's top orchestras in highlights from this season.

When players from the European Union Youth Orchestra set up the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in 1981 it quickly became established as one of the world's finest chamber orchestras and has consistently performed with top-rank soloists and conductors. This concert, recorded in March in the Bruges Concertgebouw as part of the International Brussels Music Festival, features Vilde Frang and Lawrence Power in Mozart's great double concerto for violin and viola and ends with his final symphony and summing-up of his composing genius, the 'Jupiter'. It begins with diabolical Liszt: a rare chance to hear Two Episodes from Lenau's Faust performed together, as Liszt intended. The solemn 'Procession by Night', by turns bleak and comforting, is followed by one of Liszt's greatest successes, Mephisto's wild 'Dance in the Village Inn'.

Liszt: Two Episodes from Lenau's Faust S.110

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major K.364

8.35pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Hummel: Octet-Partita in E flat

Wind Soloists of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe

8.50pm

Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major K.551 (Jupiter)

Vilde Frang (violin) & Lawrence Power (viola)

David Afkham (conductor)

Vilde Frang and Lawrence Power play Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola.

Dresden Staatskapelle20200608Fiona Talkington presents a concert given by Staatskapelle Dresden and conductor Christian Thielemann, recorded in Dresden in 2017.

The concert begins with the Prelude from Faure's incidental music to Maurice Maeterlinck's play `Pelleas et Melisande`. It was commissioned by Mrs Patrick Campbell for a London production in 1898, and reused material from earlier works to meet the tight deadline, also enlisting help from his pupil Charles Koechlin to complete the orchestration.

The orchestra is then joined by Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov for a performance of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, completed in 1931. Steeped in jazz, it's considered one of the most impressive and influential concertos of the 20th Century.

During the interval we'll hear two chamber works by composers from the Second Viennese School - Alban Berg and Anton Webern.

In the second half of the concert, the orchestra continues the Maeterlinck theme, with a performance of Schoenberg's symphonic poem `Pelleas und Melisande`, written in 1903. This is one of Schoenberg's early tonal works, and has connections to scenes from the play.

To end the programme, we'll hear Dutch bassoon virtuoso Bram van Sambeek in recordings of Vivaldi, Astor Piazzolla and Chick Corea.

19:30

Faure: Prelude from `Pelleas et Melisande`, Op.5

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

Daniil Trifonov (piano)

Christian Thielemann (conductor)

20:20

Alban Berg: 4 Pieces for clarinet & piano, Op.5

Sabine Meyer (clarinet)

Oleg Maisenberg (piano)

Anton Webern: Quintet for strings & piano

Stefan Litwin (piano)

LaSalle Quartet

20:40

Schoenberg - Pelleas & Melisande, Op.80

21:30

Vivaldi: Concerto for bassoon & strings in E minor, RV.484

Bram van Sambeek (bassoon)

Sinfonia Rotterdam

Conrad van Alphen (conductor)

Piazzolla - Caf退 1930 [L'Histoire du Tango]

Izhar Elias (guitar)

Chick Corea - Trio for flute, bassoon & piano

Marieke Schneemann (flute)

Ellen Corver (piano

Christian Thielemann conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden in Faure, Ravel and Schoenberg.

Dunedin Consort, Handel's Messiah20160517The Dunedin Consort perform Handel's Messiah at the London Festival of Baroque Music

Joanne Lunn, soprano

Meg Bragle, alto 1

Esther Brazil, alto 2

Joshua Ellicott, tenor

Robert Davies, bass 1

Edward Grint, bass 2

John Butt, harpsichord & director

Handel - Messiah (original version, Dublin 1742)

Handel was greatly inspired by the Scriptural text of his famous oratorio exploring the nature of divinity: 'I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself.' John Butt and the Dunedin Consort, admired for their fresh and revealing approaches to Baroque masterworks, present this most uplifting and familiar of choral works in the rarely performed version heard at its premiere.

Recorded at St John's Smith Square, London

Presented by Martin Handley.

The Dunedin Consort performs Handel's Messiah at the London Festival of Baroque Music 2016

Durufle Requiem At Truro Cathedral20180712Petroc Trelawny presents, live from Truro Cathedral. The Cathedral Choir, with organist Joseph Wicks and directed by Christopher Gray, perform contemporary works from around the world. This includes music written for the cathedral choir by the Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova as well as a setting of the Lord's Prayer in Cornish by local composer Russell Pascoe. The single work in the second half of the concert is the iconic Requiem by the 20th-century composer Maurice Durufl退, which incorporates themes from Gregorian Chant.

James MacMillan: Identity (Cantos sagrados)

Kim Andre Arnesen: Even When He Is Silent

Eriks Esenvalds: Only in Sleep

Judith Bingham: St Bride, Assisted by Angels

Russell Pascoe: Pader an arleth

Dobrinka Tabakova: Nunc Dimittis (Truro Canticles)

Interval

Maurice Durufl退: Requiem

Helena Paish, soprano

Jacob Dennison, bass-baritone

Truro Cathedral Choir

Joseph Wicks, organ

Christopher Gray, director.

Live from Truro Cathedral, contemporary choral music from around the world.

Dutilleux 100: Bbc Now, Dutilleux, Debussy, Mozart20160122Dutilleux 100

On the centenary of the composer's birth, Principal Conductor Thomas Sondergard joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in two contrasting pieces by Dutilleux. Metaboles, a tightly organised exploration of musical metamorphosis, and his lyrical poem for violin and orchestra. Akiko Suwanai is also the soloist in a new completion of Debussy's sketches for a Nocturne for violin and orchestra. Finally another another musical completion - Mozart's Requiem.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Dutilleux: Metaboles

Dutilleux: Sur le meme accord, for violin and orchestra

Debussy real. Orledge: Nocturne, for violin and orchestra

8.10 Interval Music

8.30

Mozart compl. Sussmayr: Requiem

Akiko Suwanai (violin)

Rebecca Evans (soprano)

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo)

Timothy Robinson (tenor)

Alastair Miles (bass)

BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales

Thomas Sondergard (conductor)

Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013) struck a bold path in the music of twentieth century France. When those around him were ripping up the rule book to make a break with the past, he found a way to develop music, in particular form, colour and harmony, whilst remaining connected to the sound world of Debussy and Ravel. Thomas Sondergard and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales commemorate his centenary with Metaboles, an explosive exploration of musical structure, and Sur le mꀀme accord, a lyrical nocturne for violin and orchestra. Dutilleux's love of Debussy is reflected in a new completion by Robert Orledge of the sketches for a Nocturne written for the great violin virtuoso Ysaye. Another musical completion closes the programme, Mozart's much-loved Requiem, left unfinished when the composer died in 1791.

BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Thomas Sondergard in Dutilleux, Debussy and Mozart.

Dutilleux 100: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra20160120Dutilleux 100

Live form the Lighthouse, Poole

Presented by Ian Skelly

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kirill Karabits, play Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony and are joined by Jean-Guihen Queyras in Dutilleux's cello concerto.

Dutilleux: Tout un monde lointain ...

8.10: Interval

Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony

Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello

Kirill Karabits, conductor

Tchaikovsky saw himself as the victim of a cold, cruel fate. So he identified closely with Manfred, the lonely, heartbroken wanderer at the centre of Byron's epic poem. His Manfred Symphony is technically challenging, yet full of bountiful drama, colour and a memorable series of melodies.

Dutilleux's concerto for cello and orchestra is an intense meditation on the poet Charles Baudelaire; each of the five movements begins with a fragment of verse. Introspective, luminous timbres and delicate textures collide with mighty climaxes in the orchestra whilst the demanding cello writing involves heart-rending melodies at the top of the instrument's range.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits in Dutilleux and Tchaikovsky.

Dvo\u0159\u00e1k And Sibelius20200220Estonian conductor Anu Tali joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to perform two works written just seven years apart, Dvo?ကk's Cello Concerto and Sibelius's Second Symphony.

Alban Gerhardt, soloist for Dvo?ကk's Cello Concerto, believes it to be the greatest concerto ever written. Suffused throughout with Dvo?ကk's longing for the home he left behind, he takes us along on a powerful and personal emotional journey, ending with the loss of his beloved sister-in-law in the final movement. After the interval we will hear Sibelius's 'confession of the soul': the 2nd Symphony. Many at the time of its composition saw the work as national outcry for independence from the Russian Empire; we may never know if this was the case, but regardless this masterwork has found favour with critics and audiences alike for well over a century.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, live from Cardiff's Hoddinott Hall.

7.30pm

Dvo?ကk: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op 104

8.15pm Interval music

8.35pm

Sibelius: Symphony No 2 in D major, Op 43

Alban Gerhardt (cello)

Anu Tali (conductor)

BBC NOW and Anu Tali perform Dvo\u0159\u00e1k's Cello Concerto and Sibelius's Second Symphony.

Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Kabel\u00e1c And Shostakovich20181126Recorded at the Royal festival Hall, London on 22 November.

Presented by Martin Handley

Jakub Hr?ša conducts the Philharmonia in music by Dvo?ကk, Kabelက? and Shostakovich.

Kabelက?: The Mystery of Time

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2

8.15: Interval

Dvo?ကk: Slavonic Dances, Op.46

Simon Trp?eski piano

Jakub Hr?ša conductor

Jakub Hr?ša conducts music by two of his Czech fellow-countrymen, alongside Shostakovich's ever-popular Second Piano Concerto.

Before Dvo?

Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Tippett And Beethoven20200925Simon Rattle and the LSO begin their programme with Dvo?ကk's delightful, folk-inflected Slavonic Dances and end it with Beethoven's iconic Symphony No. 5 whose dramatic darkness-to-light, triumph-over-fate journey set a template for generations of composers to come. In between, Rattle is joined by old friend and long-time collaborator Peter Donohoe for a rare performance of Tippett's shimmering and magical Piano Concerto.

Recorded earlier this week at LSO St Luke's and introduced by Martin Handley

Dvo?ကk: Slavonic Dances Op. 46

Tippett: Piano Concerto

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

Peter Donohoe (piano)

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Tippett and Beethoven.

Dvo\u0159\u00e1k's Eighth Symphony20231215Ryan Bancroft, principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, takes his orchestra back to Bangor once more as part of their biannual trip to north Wales. He brings with him his fellow countryman, the young and talented violinist Benjamin Beilman, to play Glazunov's gorgeous violin concerto. This charming piece combines romantic lyricism with technical wizardry to create a work that has been described as 'an almost perfect concerto'. Sharing the first half is Hannah Kendall's The Spark Catchers. This work is inspired by Lemn Sissay's poem of the same name, which depicts a London match factory where women would have to leap to catch any sparks in order to stop the surrounding phosphorous igniting. The concert concludes with the sheer joy of Dvořák's Eighth Symphony, a work which delights in its connection with nature, and is infused with the Bohemian folk music that Dvořák loved.

Linton Stephens presents in Prichard Jones Hall, Bangor, in a concert recorded on the 1st of December.

Hannah Kendall: The Spark Catchers

Glazunov: Violin Concerto in A minor, Op 82

Dvořák: Symphony No 8 in G major, B 163

Benjamin Beilman (Violin)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

Ryan Bancroft conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Bangor.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and their principal conductor Ryan Bancroft perform Dvořák and Hannah Kendall. Benjamin Beilman is soloist in Glazunov's Violin Concerto.

Dvo\u0159\u00e1k's Seventh Symphony20220428Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC SSO in music by James MacMillan and Antonin Dvo?ကk, plus flautist Adam Walker joins them for an American concerto.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow on 21st April 2022

Presented by Andrew McGregor

James MacMillan: The Confession of Isobel Gowdie

Rouse: Flute Concerto

8.30 Interval

8.50 Part 2

Dvo?ကk: Symphony No. 7

Adam Walker (flute)

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the orchestral classic, with newer works from USA and Scotland.

Dvorak And Enescu Chamber Music20151101Ian Skelly introduces a performance of Dvorak's lyrical Piano Quartet recorded in the atmospheric setting of the Cloister Church, Olsberg to the south of Germany's Black Forest. That's followed by Enescu from this year's Salzburg Festival.

Piano Quartet No. 2 in E flat, op.87

Vilde Frang (violin), Veronika Hagen (viola), Sol Gabetta (cello), Nicholas Angelich (piano)

Octet in C major Op.7 for strings

Vilde Frang, Christoph Koncz, Sarah Nemtanu and Deborah Nemtanu (violins), Lawrence Power and James Boyd (violas), Nicolas Altstaedt and Jan-Erik Gustafsson (cellos).

Dvorak's Second Piano Quartet and Enescu's Octet from the Salzburg and Solsberg Festivals.

Early 20th-century Masterpieces20230313Fiona Talkington presents one of the highlights of the European concert season.

Vasily Petrenko conducts the SWR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart in early 20th-century masterpieces, including Stravinsky's Petrushka and Berg's Seven Early Songs, with soprano Chen Reiss.

The first years of the 20th century were an era of change. Musical revolutionaries like Arnold Sch怀nberg or Igor Stravinsky appeared on the scene. Others stayed closer to tradition, like the fascinating sound magician Franz Schreker or the young Alban Berg. But they were all looking for new ways of expression. In the important musical centres of Europe - Vienna, Berlin and Paris - there was rumbling. There was a spirit of optimism in the air. Nobody knew where the journey was going, and this enormous range of music around 1910 still impresses today.

Schrecker: Prelude to a Drama

Berg: Seven Early Songs (version for soprano and orchestra):

Night (Carl Hauptmann)

Schilflied (Nikolaus Lenau)

Die Nachtigall (Theodor Storm)

Traumgekr怀nt (Rainer Maria Rilke)

In the room (Johannes Schlaf)

Liebesode (Otto Erich Hartleben)

Summer days (Paul Hohenberg)

Stravinsky: Petrushka

Chen Reiss, soprano

Vasily Petrenko, conductor

Concert given in the Liederhalle, Stuttgart, on 18/11/2022.

Vasily Petrenko conducts the SWR Symphony Orchestra in 20th-century masterpieces.

Earth, Sea, Air20230525The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Till Eulenspiegel by Strauss, Elgar's Second Symphony, and a brand-new concerto with cellist Laura van der Heijden as the soloist.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow on 18 May, 2023

Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel

Cheryl Frances-Hoad: Cello Concerto (Earth, Sea, Air)

8.19 Interval: Kate Molleson plays music from recent recordings:

Judith Weir: Ascending into heaven

Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge

Matthew Fletcher, organ

Geoffrey Webber, conductor

Peter Maxwell Davies: Farewell to Stromness, arr. Timothy Walker

Sean Shibe, guitar

Judith Weir: Nunc Dimittis

BBC Singers

David Hill, conductor

8.34 Part Two

Elgar: Symphony No 2

Laura van der Heijden (cello)

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts a new nature-inspired cello concerto by Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

Easter At King's20170414Donald Macleod presents a concert live from the Easter at King's Festival in Cambridge, conducted by Director of Music Stephen Cleobury. Brahms's German Requiem is the main work in the programme, which the composer described as a 'human' requiem, written not for the dead, but for the living who seek to transcend the human condition.

Mozart: Ave Verum Corpus

Bruckner: Christus factus est

Mendelssohn: H怀r mein Bitten (Hear My Prayer)

Brahms: Warum ist das Licht gegeben

8.05 INTERVAL

8.25

Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op 45

King's College Choir

Philharmonia Chorus

Sarah-Jane Brandon (soprano)

Simon Keenlyside (baritone)

Richard Gowers (King's Organ Scholar)

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Stephen Cleobury.

Live from King's College Cambridge. Music by Mozart, Bruckner, Mendelssohn and Brahms.

Easter At King's20190419Donald Macleod presents a concert live from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. In his final season as Music Director, conductor Stephen Cleobury has chosen Verdi's dramatic and thrilling Requiem, first performed in May 1874 in commemoration of the writer Alessandro Manzoni, with Verdi himself conducting. George Bernard Shaw was a particular admirer of the piece, and Brahms's verdict: Only a genius could have written such a work.

Verdi Requiem

Gweneth Ann Rand (soprano)

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo)

Brenden Gunnell (tenor)

James Platt (bass)

Philharmonia Chorus

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Stephen Cleobury

Stephen Cleobury conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in Verdi's Requiem live from Cambridge

Easter At King's20220415Ian Skelly presents a live Good Friday concert from King's College, Cambridge. Director of Music Daniel Hyde conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in Haydn's Symphony No 26, known as Lamentatione and written for Easter week 1768, one of his earliest minor key symphonies. In January 1783 Mozart wrote to his father saying he had promised to complete a setting of the Mass. It was performed later that year in Salzburg with his new wife Constanze as one of the soprano soloists, but in fact remains unfinished, suggesting that Mozart perhaps borrowed bits from existing works for that performance.

Haydn Symphony No 26 in D minor (Lamentatione)

Mozart Mass in C minor (K427)

Carolyn Sampson (soprano)

Ruby Hughes (soprano)

Daniel Norman (tenor)

David Shipley (bass)

Philharmonia Chorus (Chorus Master Gavin Carr)

Conductor Daniel Hyde

Live from Cambridge, the BBC Concert Orchestra perform Easter music by Haydn and Mozart.

Easter At King's20230407Live from King's College Cambridge, as part of the Easter at King's Festival. Director of Music Daniel Hyde conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra, Philharmonia Chorus and soloists in Dvorak's Stabat Mater, his first major sacred work and a piece that helped secure his reputation on the international stage.

Presented by Donald Macleod.

Dvorak Stabat Mater

Ailish Tynan (soprano)

Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo)

Daniel Norman (tenor)

William Thomas (bass)

Chorus Master: Gavin Carr

Paul Greally (King's organ scholar)

Conductor Daniel Hyde

Live from King's College, Cambridge, Daniel Hyde conducts BBC CO in Dvorak's Stabat Mater.

Easter At King's Festival: The Dream Of Gerontius20180330Live from King's College, Cambridge, Christopher Robinson conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra, Philharmonia Chorus and soloists in Elgar's masterpiece, The Dream of Gerontius, as part of the Easter at King's Festival. First performed in Birmingham in 1900 it has remained one of his most popular and enduring works. Presented by Donald Macleod.

Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius

Kathryn Rudge (mezzo)

Brenden Gunnell (tenor)

David Stout (baritone)

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Christopher Robinson.

Live from King's College, Cambridge, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius with BBC Concert Orchestra

Easter At King's: Bach's St John Passion20150407Bach's St John Passion from King's College, Cambridge. Recorded on Saturday

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Ben Johnson, Evangelist

Christopher Purves, Christus

Mary Bevan, soprano

Robin Blaze, countertenor

Ed Lyon, tenor

Ashley Riches, bass

King's College Choir

Academy of Ancient Music

Stephen Cleobury, conductor

While the St Matthew Passion is widely admired for what might be called its epic proportions, the John, in contrast, presents the dramatic narrative with a more concentrated sense of urgency. Many of the arias are, nevertheless, deeply reflective and expressive, none more so than Es ist vollbracht!, in which the countertenor and the viola da gamba weave their melodies together in the most beguiling way.

From King's College, Cambridge, a performance of Bach's St John Passion.

Easter At King's: Handel's Brockes Passion20160328Easter at King's: in a concert from King's College Chapel Cambridge, Stephen Cleobury conducts the King's College Choir and the Hanover Band in Handel's rarely-performed Brockes Passion.

Recorded at King's College on Holy Saturday, introduced by Donald Macleod.

Handel: Brockes Passion

Ailish Tynan (soprano)

Helen Jane Howells (soprano)

Benjamin Williamson (countertenor)

Ben Johnson (tenor)

Roderick Williams (baritone)

Morgan Pearse (baritone)

Ed Lyon (tenor - Evangelist)

Choir of King's College Cambridge

The Hanover Band (leader Theresa Caudle)

Stephen Cleobury conductor

In contrast with the traditional Passion oratorios, the text by the German poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes weaves together all four gospel narratives, and adds his own reflective and emotional poetry. Handel's composition of the Brockes Passion is shrouded in mystery: it's not known where, when or why he composed the work - the first known performance was in Hamburg in 1719, by which time Handel had been living in London for seven years. Handel's oratorio was hugely popular throughout contemporary Germany, and one particular fan was J.S. Bach, who copied it out by hand, conducted it twice and used it as a model for his own Passion settings. This performance is part of 'Easter at King's', a festival of services and concerts across the Easter weekend.

The Choir of King's College, Cambridge under Stephen Cleobury in Handel's Brockes Passion.

Ebu, Bruch, Brahms, Elgar20161113Ian Skelly introduces highlights from the International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in North Germany.

Max Bruch (1838-1920)

Excerpts from Eight Pieces, Op. 83:

No. 2 in B minor. Allegro con moto

No. 6 in G minor. Nachtgesang

No. 7 in B. Allegro vivace, ma non troppo

Lawrence Power, viola

Itamar Golan, piano

Martin Fr怀st, clarinet

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Excerpts from Six Lieder, Op. 85' and 'Four Lieder, Op. 96:

Sommerabend, Op. 85/1

Mondschein, Op. 85/2

Meerfahrt, Op. 96/4

Der Tod das ist die kühle Nacht, Op. 96/1

Ian Bostridge, tenor

Saskia Giorgini, piano

Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

Symphony No. 1 in A flat, Op. 55

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

Sakari Oramo, conductor.

Ian Skelly presents music by Bruch, Brahms and Elgar.

Ebu, Haydn, Tchaikovsky And Mozart20161204Ian Skelly presents highlights from concerts in Esterhကzy and Bad Kissingen with performances of string quartets by Haydn and Mozart and Tchaikovsky's mighty B flat minor Piano Concerto

Haydn: String Quartet in G, Op 17 No 5

Kodကly String Quartet

recorded in the Haydn Hall, Castle Esterhကzy

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op 23

Daniil Trifonov (piano)

Bamberg Symphony

David Afkham (conductor)

recorded in the Regentenbau, Bad Kissingen

Mozart: String Quartet No. 19 in C, K. 465 ('Dissonance')

recorded in the Haydn Hall, Castle Esterhကzy.

Music by Mozart, Haydn and Kodaly performed in Austria, plus Tchaikovsky from Germany.

Ebu, Mozart, Mahler, Schumann And Haydn20161211Ian Skelly presents his regular Sunday evening programme exploring the international concert scene. Tonight there's Mozart and Haydn from Minnesota and Schumann and Mahler from Augsburg.

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K.218

Veronika Eberle (violin),

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Mahler: Piano Quartet movement

Wu Han (piano), Daniel Hope (violin), Paul Neubauer (viola), David Finckel (cello)

Schumann: Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op.47

rec. Small Golden Hall, Town Hall, Augsburg 15.09.2016

Haydn: Symphony No. 85 in B flat major, H.1.85 (La Reine)

rec. Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, St. Paul, Minnesota 23.01.2016.

Ian Skelly with Mozart and Haydn from Minnesota, plus Schumann and Mahler from Augsburg.

Ebu, Rossini, Mozart And Brahms20161120Ian Skelly presents a concert by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra of Rossini, Mozart & Brahms under the baton of the young Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, with a concerto performance by Piotr Anderszewski.

Rossini: Overture to 'Il barbiere di Siviglia

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G, K. 453

Piotr Anderszewski, piano

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, op. 98

Rafael Payare (conductor)

Recorded at the Herkulessaal der Residenz, Munich.

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra performs music by Rossini, Mozart and Brahms.

Eddie Parker's Debussy Mirrored Ensemble20181123As part of the EFG London Jazz Festival, former Loose Tubes flautist and composer Eddie Parker presents a new show that takes Debussy's music as a starting point and leads us on a fascinating musical journey. Parker has a life-long passion for Debussy's music, and to celebrate the composer in his centenary year, he has handpicked a 12-piece ensemble, comprising musicians from classical, jazz and improvisation disciplines. Together, they will give a dozen of Debussy's works a contemporary twist.

Recorded at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre

Presented by Georgia Mann

Eddie Parker (flute, composer)

James Gilchrist (vocals)

Brigitte Beraha (vocals)

Jan Hendrickse (vocals, ney)

Rowland Sutherland (flute)

Gareth Lockrane (flute)

James Allsopp (clarinet, bass clarinet)

Alcyona Mick (piano)

Imogen Ridge (harp)

Simon Limbrick (percussion, vibraphone)

Steve Watts (bass)

Martin France (drums)

A creative response to Debussy's legacy.

Edinburgh 70: Festival Firsts With James Macmillan20170918James MacMillan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in music that was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival. Works by Walton, Tippett and, with soloist Ole Edvard Antonsen, James MacMillan himself.

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Recorded 19 August at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Tippett: Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli

James MacMillan: Epiclesis (Trumpet Concerto)

8.15pm

Interval - a chance to hear a recording of Sofia Gubaidulina's String Quartet No 3, which received its first performance at the Edinburgh Festival in 1987.

8.25pm

Walton: Symphony No 2

Ole Edvard Antonses (trumpet)

James MacMillan (conductor).

James MacMillan conducts the BBC SSO in music first performed at the Edinburgh Festival.

Edinburgh 70: Mariinsky Orchestra, Rsno, Gergiev20170913Two of the world's finest orchestras combine in this evening's concert from the Usher Hall, recorded last month during the Edinburgh International Festival. Russian conductor Valery Gergiev leads each in turn. His own Mariinsky Orchestra begins with Prokofiev's first symphony, the 'Classical', and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra performs Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Britten's tribute to his former teacher. After the interval the orchestras join forces for Shostakovich's mighty Fourth Symphony, a work of gargantuan force and proportion.

Prokofiev: Symphony No 1 in D 'Classical', Op 25

Britten: Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge

20.15

Daniil Trifonov performs Rachmaninov: Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op.42

20.35

Shostakovich: Symphony No 4 in C minor, Op.43

Valery Gergiev Conductor

Presenter - Jamie MacDougall

Producer - Laura Metcalfe.

Valery Gergiev conducts the joint forces of the Mariinsky Orchestra & RSNO from Edinburgh.

Edinburgh 70: Orchestra Of La Scala, Milan20170915Conductor Riccardo Chaillly brings the Filarmonica della Scala from Milan's great opera house to performing a concert programme featuring Shostakovich's remarkable 12th Symphony on the revolutionary events of 1917. The symphony received its Western premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in 1962. They are joined by the Lithuanian violinist and violist Julian Rachlin for Bartok's Viola Concerto, which was commissioned by Glasgow-born viola player William Primrose and the first movement makes fleeting reference to the Scottish melody 'Coming thro' the rye'.

Enescu: Romanian Rhapsody in D, Op 11 No 2

Bart k: Viola Concerto

Interval at 8.10pm

Jamie MacDougall presents introduces selections from Bach's Goldberg Variations arranged for string trio and performed by Julian Rachlin, Nobuko Imai and Mischa Maisky

8.30

Shostakovich: Symphony No 12, 'The Year 1917

Julian Rachlin, viola

Riccardo Chailly, conductor.

The Filarmonica della Scala perform Shostakovich, Enescu and Bartok at the EIF.

Edinburgh 70: Thomas Dausgaard And The Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra20170912The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard perform Schubert and Strauss and are joined by pianist Sergei Babayan for Schumann's Piano Concerto.

Recorded 8th August at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Presented by Kate Molleson

Schubert: Symphony No 8 (Unfinished)

Schumann: Piano Concerto

8.25 Interval

In a nod to the BBC SSO's first appearance at the Edinburgh Festival in 1947 we hear Purcell's Chacony in G, plus a selection of Strauss Lieder as recorded by Jonas Kaufmann.

8.45

Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra

Sergei Babayan (piano)

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

The opening 'sunrise' of Strauss' tone-poem Also sprach Zarathustra was immortalised by Stanley Kubrick in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey. In this concert, from the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard perform the work in full, exploring the mysteries of human existence, in all its technicolour orchestral riches.

Before that, Armenian-American virtuoso Sergei Babayan dazzles in Schumann's tender Piano Concerto; and Thomas Dausgaard opens the Usher Hall performance with Schubert's perennial mystery, his 8th Symphony, 'Unfinished'.

The BBC SSO perform Strauss and Schubert at the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival.

Edinburgh 70: Usher Hall Opening Concert20170911Celebrating the 70th year of the Edinburgh International Festival, the opening concert features the Scottish Chamber Orchestra performing Haydn's Surprise Symphony, which opened the first ever festival. The orchestra are joined by the Edinburgh Festival Chorus and soloists for Mendelssohn's expansive Lobgesang Symphony. The concert is directed by the exciting young Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado.

Haydn: Symphony No 94 'Surprise

8.00pm Interval

A chance to hear some of the music associated with the first Edinburgh Festival in 1947 but recorded by tonight's soloists on disc. Dorothea R怀schmann with Mozart's Porgi amor from The Marriage of Figaro; Werner Güra with Gute Nacht from Schubert's Die Winterreise; and Emma Bell with songs by an important participant of the original Festival, Bruno Walter.

8.20pm

Mendelssohn: Symphony No 2 'Lobgesang

Dorothea R怀schmann, soprano

Emma Bell, soprano

Werner Güra, tenor

Pablo Heras-Casado, conductor

Recorded 5th August at The Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Presented by Jamie MacDougall.

EIF 70th Opening Concert featuring SCO in Haydn's 'Surprise' and Mendelssohn's 'Lobgesang

Edinburgh International Festival 201820180913Recorded at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Presented by Donald Macleod

Edinburgh International Festival 2018: BBC SSO and Martyn Brabbins perform Thea Musgrave's Turbulent Landscapes and Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony with Edinburgh Festival Chorus.

Thea Musgrave: Turbulent Landscapes

Interval

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 1 ( A Sea Symphony )

Elizabeth Watts (soprano)

Christopher Maltman (baritone)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform music of land and sea, from the stage of Edinburgh's Usher Hall. Thea Musgrave's Turbulent Landscapes - receiving its Scottish Premiere - takes inspiration from the paintings of J. M. W. Turner, its movements turning those images into rich sonic pictures as diverse as his 'Sunrise with Sea Monsters', and 'Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps.

Behold the Sea', so begins Vaughan Williams' epic A Sea Symphony, a vast sea-picture drawing on the words of Walt Whitman's metaphysical magnum-opus, Leaves of Grass. Tonight their humanist message comes to life in the voices of soloists Christopher Maltman and Elizabeth Watts, along with the massed ranks of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus.

Edinburgh International Festival 2018: BBC SSO and Martyn Brabbins play Vaughan Williams

Edinburgh International Festival 2021 (1-4)20210913Marin Alsop conducts Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in a concert recorded at the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival

Recorded August 2021

Presented by Kate Molleson

Jessie Montgomery: Strum

Peter Maxwell Davies: A Spell for Green Corn

Beethoven: Symphony No 5

Marin Alsop (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Photo: Marin Alsop (credit, Adriane White)

Marin Alsop conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Edinburgh International Festival 2021 (2-4)20210914One of Britain's most treasured musicians, pianist Steven Osborne joins the RSNO for Shostakovich's first piano concerto, with celebrated conductor Valery Gergiev at the helm. According to Shostakovich's pupil Evgeny Makarov, this playful and lyrical work from the 1930s started out as trumpet concerto, which explains the stand out role for the instrument alongside the piano. After the interval Stravinsky's ballet score for strings alone follows Apollo and the three Muses at the height of his neoclassical style. The concert opens with Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings from 1880. He wrote to his friend the music publisher Pyotr Jurgenson `I love this Serenade terribly, and fervently hope that it might soon see the light of day`.

Tchaikovsky: Serenade for String Orchestra in C major Op. 48

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No1 Op35

20:25

INTERVAL: Schubert's Winterreise D911 (selected songs), Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano), Yannick N退zet-S退guin (piano)

20:45

Stravinsky: Apollon Musagete

Steven Osborne - piano

Christopher Hart - trumpet

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Valery Gergiev - conductor

Kate Molleson - presenter

Laura Metcalfe - producer

Valery Gergiev, Steven Osborne and the RSNO in a concert of iconic Russian repertoire.

Edinburgh International Festival 2021 (3-4)20210915American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato brings a sumptuous feast of baroque arias to the Festival this year in a concert entitled 'My Favourite Things'. Joining this vocal superstar is the stylish Italian period-instrument ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro directed by the Bulgarian violinist Zefira Valova and together they present an evening of operatic grand passion, joy and sorrow.,

Rossi: Sinfonia grave a cinque voci

Monteverdi: Illustratevi o cieli

Cesti: Intorno all'idol mio

Monteverdi: Sinfonia

Monteverdi: Addio Roma

Handel: Ariodante Overture

Hasse: Morte col fiero aspetto

Handel: Pianger  la mia sorte

Rameau: Sarabande, Air en Rondeau, Air Tres vif

Dowland: Come again sweet love

Rameau: Les indes Galantes - Orage

Handel: Dopo Notte

Zefira Valova, director/violin

Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano

Joyce DiDonato sings favourite Baroque arias with the stylish Il Pomo d'Oro ensemble.

Edinburgh International Festival 2021 (4-4)20210916Nicola Benedetti directs her ensemble of period instrument players in a vivid rediscovery of works by Vivaldi, Geminiani and Tartini.

Geminiani: Concerto Grosso in D minor H.143 ‘La Folia

Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in D major RV211

Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in Eb major RV257

Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in B minor RV386

Vivaldi: ‘Summer' from The Four Seasons

Tartini: Largo-Andante from Violin Concerto in A major D96

The Benedetti Baroque Orchestra

Nicola Benedetti (director/violin)

Presented by Kate Molleson

Produced by Lindsay Pell

Nicola Benedetti rediscovers masterworks by Vivaldi, Geminiani and Tartini.

Edinburgh International Festival 2022 (1-4)20220913Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Pines of Rome, by Ottorino Respighi, and Carl Orff's almighty cantata, Carmina Burana.

Recorded at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, in August 2022

Presented by Kate Molleson

Respighi: Pines of Rome

7.55 Interval

8.15 Part Two

Orff: Carmina Burana

Meechot Marrero (soprano)

Sunnyboy Dladla (tenor)

Thomas Lehman (baritone)

Edinburgh Festival Chorus

National Youth Choir of Scotland Girls Choir

Sir Donald Runnicles (conductor)

Donald Runnicles and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Orff's Carmina Burana.

Edinburgh International Festival 2022 (2-4)20220914The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Chief Conductor Edward Gardner conjure the spirit of the dance in works by Ravel and Rachmaninov and reveal the passionate emotions of Schumann with Icelandic pianist, V퀀kingur Ӏlafsson.

Ravel's La Valse conveys a very clear image. In his score Ravel described an immense hall hung with chandeliers, waltzing couples and whirling crowds. V퀀kingur Ӏlafsson makes his Edinburgh International Festival debut in Schumann's long awaited, and only, piano concerto which he composed for his wife Clara, who premiered it in Dresden in 1845. Edward Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conclude their performance with Rachmaninov's Hollywood-style Symphonic Dances. The original inspiration was a 1915 ballet called ‘The Scythians' but it took another 30 years before those early sketches became his Symphonic Dances and ultimately his final full orchestral work.

Ravel: La valse

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

20:25

INTERVAL

Ӏlafsson: Reflection (Improvisation on Debussy's Bruy耀res)

Debussy: Pour le Piano

V퀀kingur Ӏlafsson, piano

20:45

Rachmaninov: Symphonic dances

Bergen Philharmonic, orchestra

Edward Gardner, conductor

Jamie MacDougall, presenter

Gavin McCollum, producer

The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner in Ravel, Schumann and Rachmaninov.

Edinburgh International Festival 2022 (3-4)20220915The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, pianist Andreas Haefliger and Susanna Malkki perform at the Usher Hall.

Inspired by the view whilst driving between Los Angeles and San Diego, Finnish composer Saariaho's work Vista explores abstract textures with moments of high energy and drama. Sibelius' tone poem Tapiola was his last work for orchestra and his original score bore the words, 'In Pohjola there are thick, dark forests - half-glimpsed spirits, and the voices of twilight.' After the interval pianist Andreas Haefliger plays the piano concerto written for him by Swiss composer Dieter Ammann, who describes this piece as ‘bright music, dedicated to people with an alert mind'.

Kaija Saariaho: Vista

Sibelius: Tapiola

20:25

INTERVAL: A selection of Schubert Lieder in a recording by baritone Matthias Goerne and pianist Andreas Haefliger.

20.45

Dieter Ammann: The Piano Concerto (Gran Toccata)

Andreas Haefliger - piano

Susanna M䀀lkki - conductor

Presenter: Kate Molleson

Producer: Laura Metcalfe

Pianist Andreas Haefliger, the Helsinki Philharmonic & conductor Susanna Malkki in concert

Edinburgh International Festival 2022 (4-4)202209161913 is the significant year for the two musical works in tonight's performance by Les Si耀cles and Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth. 1913 was the year that Stravinsky's Rite of Spring was heard in its original scoring at the riot-inducing premiere in Paris. Stravinsky's inspiration for the work came from a vision he'd had of a young girl dancing herself to death for a Pagan ritual. 1913 was also the year that Lili Boulanger became the first woman to win the prestigious Prix de Rome, for her Cantata Faust et Helene. At just 19 years old, Boulanger won the coveted prize with this work showcasing her incredible composing talent and imagination, her mastery of orchestration and richly coloured harmonies whilst still a teenager.

Recorded at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh and presented by Kate Molleson.

Lili Boulanger: Faust et H退l耀ne

20:00

Interval: Selection from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier Book 1 - Preludes and Fugues, performed in a recording by Daniel Barenboim.

20:20

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring - original 1913 score

Veronique Gens - soprano

Julien Behr - tenor

Jean-Sebastien Bou - baritone

Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth - conductor

Presenter: Kate Molleson

Producer: Laura Metcalfe

Les Si\u00e8cles and Fran\u00e7ois-Xavier Roth perform Stravinsky and Boulanger at the Usher Hall.

Edinburgh International Festival 202320230912The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth in a concert of music by Helen Grime, Hans Abrahamsen, and Mark-Anthony Turnage from Edinburgh's Usher Hall.

Recorded at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, on 6 August as part of the 2023 Edinburgh International Festival.

Presented by Tom Service and Nicola Benedetti.

Helen Grime: Virga

Hans Abrahamsen: Let me tell you

Elizabeth Ogonek: as though birds

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Three Screaming Popes

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

Jennifer France (soprano)

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ryan Wigglesworth explore orchestral works by some of today's composers. The works are discussed and dissected on stage by Tom Service, and Edinburgh International Festival's director, Nicola Benedetti. They'll explore the festival's theme of 'Where Do We Go From Here?'. On the bill: Helen Grime's 'Virga', a piece which creates a musical picture of half-evaporated rain-drops; Elizabeth Ogonek's youthful score, 'as though birds'; and Mark-Anthony Turnage's excoriating imagining of the visual world of Francis Bacon, 'Three Screaming Popes'. And at the concert's core, an award-winning, poll-beating work by Hans Abrahamsen, 'Let me tell you', in which the orchestra is joined by soprano Jennifer France.

Nicola Benedetti and Tom Service present a concert exploring music of our time.

Edinburgh International Festival 202320230915Karina Canellakis conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Edinburgh Festival Chorus and soloists in music by Wagner, Scriabin and Rachmaninov.

Recorded at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, on 27 August as part of the 2023 Edinburgh International Festival.

Presented by Jamie MacDougall.

Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde

Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy

8.20 Interval

8.40 Part Two

Rachmaninov: The Bells

Karina Canellakis (conductor)

Olga Kulchynska (soprano)

David Butt Philip (tenor)

Alexander Vinogradov (bass)

Karina Canellakis conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Edinburgh International Festival: Cleveland Orchestra-welser-m\u00f6st20200917The Cleveland Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010. Once viewed as iconoclastic, Ives is now seen as the father of American music. From the Steeples and Mountains paints a picture of a quiet Sunday morning and ends having ascended the highest of craggy peaks. The magnificence of the Usher Hall's organ can be heard in Joela Jones's performance of two of Ives's works for organ; his Variations on America and Postlude in F.

Bruckner's Eighth Symphony is one of his grandest. Hugo Wolf, who attended the Vienna premiere, wrote that it was 'the work of a giant'. Here it receives what one critic described as 'an epic account, with an impressive combination of power and delicacy'.

First presented by Petroc Trelawny on 20th September 2010.

Ives: Variations on America (original version for organ)

From the Steeples and Mountains (for four sets of bells, trumpet and trombone)

Postlude in F for organ

Bruckner: Symphony No 8 (original 1887 version)

Joela Jones Organ

Franz Welser-M怀st Conductor

The Cleveland Orchestra play Ives and Bruckner at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival.

Edinburgh International Festival: Mozart And Messiaen20200916Two memorably grand concerts from the BBC's Edinburgh International Festival archive.

From 2002, Charles Mackerras conducts the winds of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Mozart's Serenade in B flat, better known as the Gran Partita. Mackerras was a Festival regular, and one of the finest and most popular interpreters of Mozart's music. The score is amongst Mozart's most technically ambitious, brought to life by 13 players from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

By contrast, 128 players contributed to a performance of Messiaen's ɀclairs sur l'Au-Del

Edinburgh International Festival: Orchestra Dell'accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia20200915Sir Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia performed the opening Usher Hall concert of the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival. It was their second concert in town that year, as the Festival Theatre hosted a performance where they were joined by notable Italian cast members Cecilia Bartolli and I Barocchisti to perform Bellini's Norma. The Usher Hall opening concert presents a programme of two very different love stories. Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture reflects the Shakespearean theme running through the Festival that year, while Schoenberg's rich score of the symbolist play Pelleas and Melisande tells a more ambiguous and troubling tale. Pianist Boris Berezovsky joins the orchestra to perform the most popular set of variations ever to be inspired by Paganini's 24th Caprice - the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Rachmaninov.

Presented by Kate Molleson at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, on 7th August 2016.

Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture

Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Interval at 8.20pm

Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit performed by Boris Berezovsky

8.40

Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande

Boris Berezovsky (piano)

Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor)

Produced by Lindsay Pell

Photo credit: Riccardo Musacchio and Flavio Ianniello

Sir Antonio Pappano conducts the Santa Cecilia Orchestra from Rome at the 2016 EIF.

Edinburgh International Festival: Orchestra Of The Americas20180911Orchestra of the Americas, an outstanding youth orchestra drawn from countries across both North and South American makes its debut at the Edinburgh International Festival with works from both continents. Mexican composer Carlos Chကvez devoted his life to promoting the music of Mexico and also founded Mexico's first permanent professional orchestra. His Sinfonia India is a synthesis of folk material of native tunes, rhythms and instruments into a western symphonic form and his work was praised by Aaron Copland who held him in high regard and became lifelong friends with him. Aaron Copland's Third Symphony has been described as 'the greatest American Symphony' by Serge Koussevitsky who commissioned it. It includes his famous 'Fanfare for the Common Man which opens the last movement and somehow evokes the wide open plains of America without any overt use of folk or popular material.

A strong supporter and promoter of the YOA, Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero joins the orchestra to perform Tchaikovsky's Concerto no. 1, one of the most beloved of all romantic piano concertos.

Chကvez - Symphony No 2 ‘Sinfonia india

Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto No 1

8.30pm Interval featuring tonight's soloist Gabriela Montero performing her own improvisations on Vivaldi's Four Seasons plus music from her beloved homeland of Venezuela.

Copland Symphony No 3

Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor

Gabriela Montero, piano

Orchestra of the Americas debuts at the EIF with Chavez, Tchaikovsky and Copland

Edinburgh International Festival: The Opening Concert20180910In his sixties, having been inspired by Handel's own works and sourcing a libretto from the Bible and John Milton's Paradise Lost, Haydn produced his oratorio The Creation. The result was a work that depicted in wide-eyed wonder the creation of the world and Haydn's belief in God. Its first public performance prompted one audience member to write ‘In my whole life I will not hear another piece of music as beautiful; and even if it had lasted three hours longer, and even if the stink and sweat-bath had been much worse, I would not have minded - In short I never left a theatre more contented, and all night I dreamed of the creation of the world.

19.30

Haydn: The Creation Part 1

20.20

INTERVAL - Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K457, Maxim Emelyanychev (piano)

20.40

Haydn: The Creation Part 2

Sarah Tynan - soprano

Robert Murray - tenor

Neal Davies - bass

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Edward Gardner - conductor

National Youth Choir of Scotland

Christopher Bell - chorus Director

Presenter - Kate Molleson

Producer - Laura Metcalfe

The SCO performs Haydn's The Creation at the 2018 Edinburgh Interational Festival

Edinburgh International Festival: Verdi Requiem20200918Another chance to hear the BBC SSO, Donald Runnicles and four international soloists perform Verdi's powerful Requiem at the conclusion of the 2013 Edinburgh International Festival.

Presented by Jamie MacDougall.

Verdi - Requiem

Erin Wall (soprano)

Karen Cargill (mezzo)

Bryan Hymel (tenor)

Eric Owens (bass)

Edinburgh Festival Chorus

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Donald Runnicles (conductor)

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Donald Runnicles, with four stellar soloists and chorus, bring the Edinburgh Festival's 2013 Usher Hall series to an end with Verdi's powerful Requiem.

Starting with the failed performance of the 1868 composite 'Requiem in Honour of Rossini' - written by the most distinguished Italian composers - Verdi, strengthened by the death in May 1873 of Alessandro Manzoni, decided to write an entire Requiem which is very much at home on the dramatic extremes of the opera stage.

An archive performance from the BBC SSO and conductor, Donald Runnicles.

Edward Gardner Conducts Elgar, Tippett And Coleridge-taylor20230125Live from the Royal Festival Hall, Edward Gardner leads the London Philharmonic in a concert of English music.

By the end of the 19th Century, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast had gained him an international reputation. In 1899 Coleridge-Taylor was commissioned to write for the Three Choirs Festival and he produced the well-received Solemn Prelude. Well-received but lost until the current Three Choirs chief executive rediscovered it in the British Library after some musical sleuthing, just in time for last year's Festival, when once again it was heard in Worcester Cathedral. Tonight, the LPO present the London (and broadcast) premiere of Coleridge-Taylor's music. And, just as it did in 1899, this evening the Solemn Prelude shares the bill with the music of Edward Elgar.

Elgar, forever beset by crippling self-doubt, scored a resounding success with his 1908 Symphony No. 1, which was swiftly taken up and lauded throughout Europe. Its potent combination of surging nobilmente themes and dazzling orchestration, offset by introspection and intimacy, still strike a resonant chord today.

Michael Tippett's magical, shimmering Piano Concerto is a wonderful example of his unique, mid-century take on the English pastoral tradition. It's played by Steven Osborne, a pianist widely acknowledged to be the composer's foremost interpreter.

Introduced by Martin Handley.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Solemn Prelude (London premiere)

Tippett Piano: Concerto

8.30 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Debussy: Children's Corner

Steven Osborne (piano)

8.50 pm

Elgar: Symphony No. 1 A flat major Op.55

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Edward Gardner (conductor)

Edward Gardner conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Elgar's First Symphony.

Efg London Jazz Festival 201920191129Jazz Generation, presented by Andrew McGregor. The BBC Concert Orchestra joins with the Nu Civilisation Orchestra and String Ting in Duke Ellington's watery orchestral-jazz fusion The River, a ballet score he wrote in 1970. Cellist Matthew Barley is the soloist in the world premiere of Evolving Spring, a BBC Radio 3 commission from New Generation Artist Misha Mullov-Abbado, who has been described by critics as 'unfailingly inventive' and 'hot news'. And Peter Edwards gives Billy Strayhorn's Chelsea Bridge the orchestral treatment, with featured guest soloist Cuban violinist Omar Puente.

Bramwell Tovey: Urban Runway

Misha Mullov-Abbado: Evolving Spring (world premiere)

20.10 INTERVAL

Ellington, orch Collier: Suite: The River

Strayhorn, arr Edwards: Chelsea Bridge*

Ellington, arr Peress: New World A-Comin

Matthew Barley (cello)

Peter Edwards (piano, and conductor*)

Omar Puente (violin)

Conductor Michael Seal

Jazz Generation: BBC Concert Orchestra with music by Ellington and Misha Mullov-Abbado.

Efg London Jazz Festival: Jazz Voice20201113EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala, live from Cadogan Hall. The Jazz Voice is an annual celebration of singers and songwriting and the featured artists tonight include David McAlmont, Cleveland Watkiss, China Moses, Luca Manning, Zara McFarlane and Vanessa Haynes. Guy Barker directs the specially created EFG London Jazz Festival Ensemble and the event is hosted on stage by Jumok退 Fashola.

Followed by music off disc

Faure: Piano Trio in D minor, Op.120

Florestan Trio

Jumoke Fashola presents EFG London Jazz Festival's annual celebration of song.

Efg London Jazz Festival: Jazz Voice20211112EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala, live from the Royal Festival Hall. The Jazz Voice is an annual celebration of singers and songwriting and the featured artists tonight include Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Aynur, Ego Ella May, Adeline, Georgia C退cile, Sachal Vasandani, Lakecia Benjamin and Michael Mayo. Guy Barker directs the specially-created EFG London Jazz Festival Ensemble and the event is hosted on stage by Jumok退 Fashola.

Jumoke Fashola presents EFG London Jazz Festival's annual celebration of song.

Efg London Jazz Festival: Jazz Voice20221111EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala, live from the Royal Festival Hall. The Jazz Voice is an annual celebration of singers and song-writing and the featured artists tonight include Kurt Elling, Carroll Thompson, Amythyst Kiah, Dana Masters, Ian Shaw, Shingai, Mica Millar and Marisha Wallace. Guy Barker directs the specially-created EFG London Jazz Festival Orchestra and the event is hosted on stage by Jumok退 Fashola.

During the interval, a Count Basie mixtape celebrating the many artists born 100 years ago this year who helped create the Basie sound, including trumpeters Joe Newman and Joe Wilder, saxophonists Frank Wess, Illinois Jacquet and Eddie `Lockjaw` Davies, and composer-arrangers Ernie Wilkins and Neal Hefti.

Jumoke Fashola presents the EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala.

Efg London Jazz Festival: Jazz Voice20231110EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala, live from the Royal Festival Hall. The Jazz Voice is an annual celebration of singers and song-writing and the featured artists tonight include Emeli Sandé, Clarke Peters, China Moses, Omar, Brendan Reilly, Naomi Banks, Judi Jackson, and Vanessa Haynes. Guy Barker directs the specially-created EFG London Jazz Festival Orchestra and the event is hosted on stage by Jumoké Fashola.

During the interval, a mixtape celebrating some of the artists who would have turned 100 this year, innovators such as guitarist Wes Montgomery, trumpeter Fats Navarro, tenorist Dexter Gordon, drummer Philly Joe Jones and, in keeping with tonight's event, vocalist Johnny Hartman from his 1963 collaboration with John Coltrane.

Jumoke Fashola presents the EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala

Guy Barker and the EFG London Jazz Festival Ensemble with their annual celebration of song featuring an array of star vocalists.

EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala, live from the Royal Festival Hall. The Jazz Voice is an annual celebration of singers and songwriting and the featured artists tonight include Emeli Sand退, Clarke Peters, China Moses, Omar, Brendan Reilly, Naomi Banks, Judi Jackson, and Vanessa Haynes. Guy Barker directs the specially created EFG London Jazz Festival Orchestra and the event is hosted on stage by Jumok退 Fashola.

During the interval, a mixtape celebrating some of this year's jazz centenarians with classic recordings from innovators such as guitarist Wes Montgomery, trumpeter Fats Navarro, tenorist Dexter Gordon, drummer Philly Joe Jones and, in keeping with tonight's event, vocalist Johnny Hartman from his 1963 collaboration with John Coltrane.

Jumoke Fashola presents the EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala.

Efg London Jazz Festival: The Jazz Voice20171110Andrew McGregor introduces the EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala, live from the Royal Festival Hall in London. The Jazz Voice is an annual celebration of singers and songwriting and the featured artists tonight include Seal, Liane Carroll, Mads Mathias, Mica Paris, Ang退lique Kidjo, Miles Mosley, Tony Momrelle and Vanessa Haynes. Guy Barker conducts the 42-piece London Jazz Festival Orchestra and the event is hosted on stage by Jumok退 Fashola.

PLAYLIST

All music arranged by Guy Barker.

I'm Gonna Live Till I Die (by Manny Curtis, Al Hoffman and Walter Kent)

Vanessa Haynes (performer)

A Song For You (Leon Russell)

Tony Momrelle (performer)

Imagine My Frustration (by Billy Strayhorn, Gerald Stanley Wilson)

Mica Paris (performer)

Cross-Eyed and Painless (by Talking Heads)

Angelique Kidjo (performer)

A Fool for Love (by Mads Mathias)

Mads Mathias (performer)

Ain't No Sunshine (by Bill Withers)

Miles Mosley (performer)

Stormy Weather (by Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler)

Lianne Carroll (performer)

Luck be a Lady (by Frank Loesser)

Seal (performer)

Dizzy Gillespie & Thelonious Monk Medley:

Round Midnight (by Monk)

Epistrophy (by Monk)

Night in Tunisia (by Gillespie)

Pannonica (by Monk)

Things to Come (by Gillespie)

Manteca (by Gillespie)

If You Could See Me Now (by Tadd Dameron)

Happy Talk (by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein)

Ain't No Way (by Carolyn Franklin)

Heartbreak Hotel (by Mae Boren Axton, Thomas Durden)

You're My Thrill (by Jay Gorney (music), Sidney Clare (lyrics))

Kiss from a Rose (by Seal)

Shadow of Doubt (by Miles Mosley)

A Change is Gonna Come (by Sam Cooke)

Atlantic Records Medley:

Moanin' (Charles Mingus)

I Don't Know (Ruth Brown)

Green Onions (Booker T & The MGs)

Knock on Wood (Eddie Floyd)

Respect (Otis Redding)

Andrew McGregor presents the EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala.

Efg London Jazz Festival: The Jazz Voice20181116Andrew McGregor presents the EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala, live from the Royal Festival Hall in London. The Jazz Voice is an annual celebration of singers and songwriting and the featured artists tonight include Lisa Stansfield, Laila Biali, Allan Harris, Deva Mahal, Anthony Strong and Zara McFarlane. Guy Barker conducts the 42-piece London Jazz Festival Orchestra and the event is hosted on stage by Jumok退 Fashola.

Deva Mahal at Jazz Voice for EFG London Jazz Festival. Photo © Emile Holba

The opening night gala of this year's EFG London Jazz Festival

Ein Deutsches Requiem20201108The BBC Singers meet one of London's most vibrant, cutting-edge dance companies. In a programme of choral music that is angry and consoling, powerful and peaceful - much of it amplified by choreography, performed in Milton Court by East London Dance, and streamed online.

Curse upon Iron is the most-often performed work by the Estonian composer Veljo Tormis, a shamanistic allegory on the evils of war that simmers with raw power. After Leonard Bernstein's spirited little Mass and a new work by Amy Bryce, Ben Palmer conducts Brahms's glowing message of brotherhood and consolation Ein Deutsches Requiem, in its intimate version for choir and two pianos.

Leonard Bernstein: Missa Brevis

Amy Bryce: From First Breath

Veljo Tormis: Curse upon Iron

Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem (version with two-piano accompaniment)

Dance performance choreographed by Duwane Taylor, performed by Duwane Taylor, Jonadette Carpio and Viviana Rocha. Produced by East London Dance.

Anna Tilbrook and Libby Burgess - pianos

Ben Palmer - conductor

George Englsih - percussion

Ben Palmer conducts the BBC Singers in a performance of Ein Deutsches Requiem by Brahms.

Elena Urioste Plays Barber20201008Richard Farnes joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow. A rare chance to hear Berwald's Third Symphony alongside Barber's Violin Concerto performed by Elena Urioste.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Sibelius: Pell退as et M退lisande

Barber: Violin Concerto

Berwald: Symphony No 3

Elena Urioste (violin)

Richard Farnes (conductor)

Richard Farnes conducts Berwald's Third Symphony, plus music by Sibelius.

Elena Urioste Plays The Lark Ascending20210309Principal Players of Aurora Orchestra and violinist Elena Urioste give the first concert of Kings Place's year-long London Unwrapped series celebrating London as musical melting pot.

In 1909, Maurice Ravel's first visit to London came at the invitation of his former pupil Ralph Vaughan Williams. Ravel's Introduction and Allegro for harp, string quartet, flute and clarinet had received its first London performance at the 1907 Proms. Vaughan William's idyllic pastoral The Lark Ascending, written in London and premiered at London's Queen's Hall a century ago, is performed here in an ingenious new arrangement for chamber ensemble made specially for tonight's concert by Iain Farrington.

Felix Mendelssohn's and the British public's mutual love affair began in 1829 with his first visit to London where the prodigiously gifted 20-year-old became an important and influential part of the city's concert life. He chose to introduce himself to London with the Scherzo from his peerless Octet, miraculous product of his mid-teens.

Also on the bill, two miniatures by living British composers: Anna Meredith's angular string quartet Music for Ravens and Thea Musgrave's optimistically-titled Light at the End of the Tunnel for solo viola, written at the height of the 2020 pandemic.

Recorded last month and introduced by Tom Service.

Thea Musgrave: Light at the End of the Tunnel

Ravel: Introduction and Allegro

Anna Meredith: Music for Ravens

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

Mendelssohn:Octet in E-flat, Op. 20

Elena Urioste (violin)

Violinist Elena Urioste joins Principal Players of Aurora Orchestra at Kings Place.

Elgar In Bavaria20211129Edward Gardner conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at Munich's Gasteig cultural complex.

Conductor, Edward Gardner and pianist, Igor Levit, the orchestra's Artist-in-Residence - join forces in one of the last concerts at the venue before its closure for extensive re-modelling.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.4 in G, Op.58

c. 8.10pm

The Choir of Bavarian Radio sings Elgar's From the Bavarian Highlands, Op.27.

c. 8.30pm

Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op.36

Igor Levit (piano)

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Edward Gardner (conductor)

followed by encores including Frederic Rzewski's Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues and Busoni's Berceuse 退l退giaque, played by Igor Levit

recorded Gasteig, Munich, Germany 02 July 2021.

Image: © Benjamin Ealovega

Edward Gardner leads the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Elgar's Enigma Variations.

Elgar, Tchaikovsky And Walton20200513Another chance to hear Kirill Karabits conduct the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Elgar and Walton and Simon Trp?eski joins them for the most famous of all Russian piano concertos.

When he arrived as Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony the Ukrainian, Kirill Karabits, was enthusiastic to conduct music by British composers. And so, after his successes with the music of Benjamin Britten last year, he turns now to William Walton and his sensational symphony of the early 1930s, a work which immediately put him on the international music map. The Macedonian, Simon Trp?eski, one of the most exciting pianists of our time, delights the audience in Poole with Tchaikovsky's barn storming concerto, and he'll discover plenty of poetry along the way.

Presented by Martin Handley from the Lighthouse, Poole.

Elgar: In the south (Alassio) - overture Op.50

Tchaikovsky: Concerto no. 1 in B flat minor Op.23

Interval (music from CD)

Debussy: Arabesque no. 1 in E major from 2 Arabesques for piano

Simon Trpceski (piano)

Parry: No.5; At the round earth's imagined corners from Songs of farewell

Tenebrae, Nigel Short (cond)

Part 2:

Walton: Symphony no. 1 in B flat minor

Simon Trp?eski (piano)

Kirill Karabits (conductor)

First broadcast on 29 May 2018.

Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Elgar's Dream20190515Live from the Lighthouse in Poole, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus perform Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. A highly personal work, Elgar's oratorio tells the story of the journey of a pious man's soul from deathbed to judgment and Purgatory. At the end of the score he included a quote from John Ruskin: `This is the best of me. For the rest, I ate and drank, and slept, loved and hated, like another; my life was as the vapour and is not; but this I saw and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory.` Kirill Karabits conducts a top line-up of soloists, Paul Appleby, Alice Coote and James Rutherford.

Presented by Martin Handley

7.30pm

Elgar The Dream of Gerontius

Paul Appleby, tenor (Gerontius)

Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano (Angel)

James Rutherford, bass-baritone (Priest/Angel of Agony)

Bournemouth Symphony Chorus

Kirill Karabits (conductor)

The Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and Orchestra perform Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius.

Elgar's Enigma Variations20220607Conductor Angus Webster travels to his native Cornwall with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for a celebration of music in England in the beautifully refurbished Hall for Cornwall in Truro. Continuing celebrations of his 150th birthday, Ralph Vaughan Williams's gloriously ethereal Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis begins the concert, before we move to a piece premiered in London only 14 years earlier, Dvo?ကk's tone poem, The Water Goblin. For the piece, Dvo?ကk sets music to a poem which describes the malevolent Goblin of the title abducting a maiden at his lake. The sound of striking scaffolding poles announces the second half, when Webster and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales give us music from another Cornishman?, Graham Fitkin and his piece Metal. The evening then finishes with possibly the most-loved work of English music, Elgar's Enigma Variations—a piece he wrote about, and dedicated to, his 'friends pictured within'.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny and recorded on the 26th of May in Truro's Hall for Cornwall.

7.30pm

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis

Dvo?ကk: The Water Goblin, Op 107

c. 8.15pm Interval music (from CD)

Maconchy: Variations on a theme from Vaughan Williams' 'Job

Graham Fitkin: Sciosophy

Arnold: The Padstow Lifeboat

c. 8.35

Graham Fitkin: Metal

Elgar: Variations on an original theme, Op 36 ('Enigma')

Angus Webster conducts the BBC NOW in a programme celebrating English music.

Elgar's The Apostles20230628Sir Mark Elder conducts The Hall退 at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall in a performance of Elgar's oratorio 'The Apostles', presented as part of a venture to perform all three of Elgar's great oratorios in Manchester over a two-week period. The Apostles is the middle work, conceived as the opening part of a great trilogy of large scale choral works that tell of Jesus's Apostles and their reflections and meditations on his life and work. The libretto is Elgar's own, derived from the composer's own studies of scripture. Tonight's concert is presented by Tom McKinney.

Sophie Bevan, soprano (The Angel Gabriel/The Blessed Virgin Mary)

Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano (Mary Magdalene)

Ed Lyon, tenor (John)

Roderick Williams, baritone (Jesus)

David Stout, bass-baritone (Peter)

Clive Bayley, bass (Judas)

9 Apostles from the Royal Northern College of Music

Hall退 Choir

Matthew Hamilton, choral director

London Philharmonic Choir

Neville Creed, artistic director

Hall退 Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder, conductor

Sir Mark Elder conducts The Halle in Elgar at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall.

Elias Quartet, Haydn, Britten And Beethoven20161129Recorded on 25th November at the Royal pump Rooms, Leamington Spa.

The Elias Quartet play Haydn, Britten and Beethoven.

Haydn: String Quartet in E flat major, Op 64 No 6

Britten: String Quartet No 3 in G major, Op 94

8.15: Interval: Pied Piper

During the intervals of the concerts this week, we'll be hearing a selection of programmes from the five year long series. Munrow explored a wide range of music, and these five programmes can only begin to give a taste of the topics he covered. In this edition of Pied Piper from 10th March 1975, David Munrow looks at the early days of the life of Sir Thomas Beecham, the impression the success of his grandfather's laxative business had on the family and how the young Thomas learned the repertoire from his father's huge collection of music boxes.

8.35

Beethoven: String Quartet in B flat major, Op 130, and Grosse Fuge, Op 133

Elias Quartet:

Sara Bitlloch and Donald Grant, violins

Martin Saving, viola

Marie Bitlloch, cello

The Elias Quartet visit Leamington Spa, having toured

extensively throughout Europe and the USA and completed

their ground-breaking Beethoven Project: performing

and recording the composer's complete string quartets. Tonight they couple one of the greatest of those with works by Haydn and Britten.

The Elias Quartet play Haydn, Britten and Beethoven at the Royal Pump Rooms, Leamington.

Eliasson And Rachmaninov20160626Ian Skelly presents concerto recordings from recent European concerts

Anders Eliasson: Einsame Fahrt, violin concerto

Janine Jansen, violin

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Daniel Blendulf, conductor

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

Nikolai Lugansky, piano

NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Andrew Manze, conductor.

Ian Skelly presents concertos by Eliasson and Rachmaninov from European concerts.

Elizabeth Kenny's Theatre Of The Ayre20180405Recorded at Wigmore Hall, London on Tuesday 3 April 2018

Presented by Martin Handley.

Theatre of the Ayre, directed by Elizabeth Kenny, perform works by Monteverdi and his contemporaries.

Claudio Monteverdi: Chiome d'oro from Settimo libro de madrigali

Tarquinio Merula: Ciaconna

Giulio Caccini: O che felice giorno; Amarilli, mia bella

Giovanni Fontana: Trio Sonata No 8 in D minor

Sigismondo D'India: Cruda Amarilli; Ancidetemi pur (Lamento di Giasone)

Marco Uccellini: Sonata decima detta La Rinalda

Claudio Monteverdi: Chi vole aver felice e lieto il core

INTERVAL

Antonio Vivaldi: Trio Sonata in D minor Op 1 No 12 RV63 'La follia

Sigismondo D'India: La mia Filli crudel; Voi bacciatrici; Langue al vostro languir

Francesca Caccini: Lasciatemi qui solo

Marco Uccellini: Sonata ottava detta La Torella

Sigismondo D'India: Se tu, Silvio crudel, mi saettasti

Theatre of the Ayre:

Elizabeth Kenny director, lute

Rodolfo Richter, violin

Jane Gordon, violin

Robert Howarth, harpsichord

Joanne Lunn, soprano

Anna Starushkevych, mezzo-soprano

Nicholas Mulroy, tenor

Nick Pritchard, tenor

Giles Underwood, bass-baritone

Monteverdi and his followers unleashed a musical revolution, ditching old rules to create compositions filled with spine-tingling expression and powerful human emotions.

Theatre of the Ayre perform works by Monteverdi and his contemporaries.

Ellington's Nutcracker Suite20200203The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor David Danzmayr explore the borderland between classical music and jazz through works by Duke Ellington, Maurice Ravel and Sergei Prokofiev. We begin with the brilliant re-imagining of Tchaikovsky's ballet in which Ellington revamps the suite for the jazz age - including an upgrade of the sugar plum fairy to a sugar rum cherry. Where Ellington was having fun with a classic, Ravel's Piano Concerto in G reverses the roles, a classical composer having fun with the popular music of the day, especially jazz. After the interval, we finish with a selection of movements from Prokofiev's ballet Cinderella. In this treatment of the classic fairy tale, Prokofiev's mastery of orchestral colour brings the inherent romance to the fore.

Recorded 23rd January in Hoddinott Hall and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

7.30pm Ellington: The Nutcracker Suite

7.55pm Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

8.20pm Interval music

8.40pm Prokofiev: Cinderella (Selection of movements)

Huw Watkins (piano)

David Danzmayr (conductor)

David Danzmayr and BBC NOW present an evening of jazz-inspired music.

Enchanting Tales20190408Stories from around the world are at the heart of tonight's concert - a neoclassical ballet based on the Commedia del'Arte character of Pulcinella, the tale of letters found in an abandoned watchtower after 1600 years, Ravel's orchestration of the collection of fairy tales he wrote as a children's piano duet and Stravinsky's response to his impressions of World War II.

Stravinsky: Pulcinella, Suite

Elena Kats-Chernin: Ancient Letters, concerto for amplified harpsichord and orchestra

Ravel: Mother Goose, Suite

Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Mihhail Gerts (conductor)

Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)

Lost letters, a collection of fairy tales and a high-voltage Symphony in Three movements.

English Chamber Orchestra, Haydn, Sandor Veress20170519It's destination Hungary as Nicolas Altstaedt, one of the most exciting cellists of the younger generation, travels as soloist and conductor to the 18th and 20th centuries via Haydn and Sကndor Veress with the English Chamber Orchestra in this latest concert from Kings Place's year-long Cello Unwrapped series.

Haydn's bravura First Cello Concerto and Symphony No. 49 were written in the 1760s at and for the Eszterhကzy court, and Hungarian-Swiss Veress represents the 20th century with his testing Solo Sonata and Four Transylvanian Dances, both inspired by the folk music of his homeland.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C, Hob.VIIb:1

Sကndor Veress: Four Transylvanian Dances

8.20pm Interval Music (from CD)

Krommer: Octet-Partita in F major Op.57, Op.73

Budapest Wind Ensemble

Kကlmကn Berkes (director)

8.40pm

Sကndor Veress: Sonata for Solo Cello

Haydn: Symphony No. 49 in F minor, Hob.I:49, 'La Passione

Nicolas Altstaedt (cello and director).

English Chamber Orchestra with cellist/director Nicolas Altstaedt in Haydn and Veress.

English Chamber Orchestra, Mozart, Tchaikovsky20151117Live from the 2015 Bath Mozartfest, renowned clarinettist Paul Meyer joins the English Chamber Orchestra to perform Mozart and Tchaikovsky

From the Assembly Rooms, Bath

Presented by Martin Handley

Mozart: Symphony No.21 K134

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A K622

8.25pm

Music Interval

8.45pm

Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings

Paul Meyer, clarinet

Stephanie Gonley, director, violin

The MozartFest is Bath's annual celebration of the the music of W. A. Mozart, those who influenced him, and those who were inspired by his work.

In this live broadcast from this year's 25th anniversary season, we hear one of Mozart's last completed works, his heavenly Clarinet Concerto, alongside the spirited symphony he composed, aged just 15, between tours of Italy. The programme is rounded off by Tchaikovsky's ever-popular tribute to Mozart's musical world, a work he composed purely for his own pleasure.

Live from Bath Assembly Rooms, the English Chamber Orchestra in Mozart and Tchaikovsky.

English Concert At Christ Church, Spitalfields20151209Live from Christ Church, Spitalfields, London. The English Concert performs Christmas music by Dandrieu, Charpentier and Stradella as part of the Spitalfields Music Winter Festival.

Presented by Martin Handley

Dandrieu: Trio Sonata No 2 in D, Op.1

Charpentier: Magnificat, H73

Charpentier: In nativitatem Domini nostri Jesu Christi canticum, H 414

7.45: Interval

Stradella: Cantata per il Santissimo Natale, 'Ah! troppo 耀 ver

Choir of The English Concert

Harry Bicket (organ/director)

Internationally acclaimed baroque ensemble The English Concert explore present vivid retellings of the Christmas story from 17th-century France and Italy. At the heart of the programme are two stunning cantatas: Charpentier's In nativitatem Domini, a delicate retelling of the Christmas story, full of his characteristic delicacy and restrained passion, and Stradella's Ah! troppo 耀 ver - a sublime and melodious lyrical outpouring.

The English Concert plays Christmas music at Christ Church, Spitalfields, London.

Ensemble Marsyas20210615Martin Handley introduces a concert by Ensemble Marsyas, directed from the harpsichord by Peter Whelan, recorded last month at the Wigmore Hall in London in an all-Handel programme featuring soprano Louise Alder and countertenor Christopher Lowrey. The repertoire features a sinfonia and two sonatas, including one for bassoon performed by Peter Whelan as soloist, as well as two charming duets, culminating with the 1708 cantata Amarilli Vezzosa, the fateful story of shepherds Daliso and Amaryllis.

George Frideric Handel:

Sinfonia in B flat, HWV339

Tanti strali al sen mi scocchi, HWV197

Trio Sonata in G minor, HWV393

Conservate, raddoppiate, HWV185

Bassoon Sonata in F Op. 1 No. 11, HWV369 for bassoon and continuo

Cantata: Amarilli Vezzosa (Il Duello Amoroso), HWV82

Louise Alder, soprano

Christopher Lowrey, countertenor

Peter Whelan, bassoon and harpsichord

Sarah Sexton & Michael Gurevich, violins

Sarah McMahon, cello

Sergio Bucheli, lute

Martin Handley introduces an all-Handel programme recorded at the Wigmore Hall in London.

Eric Lu Plays Chopin's Funeral Sonata20221011Eric Lu plays Schumann, Brahms and Chopin's 'Funeral Sonata' at Wigmore Hall.

The young Chinese-American pianist, a current Radio 3 New Generation Artist and winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition, gave this memorable recital at a packed Wigmore Hall at the end of July.

Presented by Martin Handley.

R. Schumann: Arabeske in C Op. 18

R. Schumann: Waldszenen Op. 82

Brahms: Theme and Variations in D minor Op. 18b

Interval Music: The Consone Quartet plays Fanny Mendelssohn's Quartet in E flat major

Bach: Toccata in C minor BWV911

Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor Op. 35 'Funeral March

Eric Lu plays Schumann, Brahms and Chopin's 'Funeral' Sonata at Wigmore Hall.

Esa -pekka Salonen Says Goodbye To The Philharmonia Orchestra20210604Live from the Royal Festival Hall - The Philharmonia Orchestra is conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Esa-Pekka Salonen marks his departure as the orchestra's principal conductor with a series of concerts at London's South Bank Centre containing some of the works closest to his heart. In a typically ingenious programme, Salonen contrasts Beethoven's classically oriented First Symphony with the Romanticism of Liszt - in the hands of the great virtuoso pianist, Yefim Bronfman. And Salonen brings his brilliant sense of form and texture to the final symphony of his Finnish compatriot, Jean Sibelius. Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, with its haunting, chorale-like closing bars has long been one of the conductor's party pieces and it makes a fascinating addition to a programme containing no fewer than three symphonies.

Beethoven: Symphony no. 1 in C major Op.21

Liszt: Concerto no. 2 in A major S.125 for piano and orchestra

Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments

Sibelius: Symphony no. 7 in C major Op.10

Yefim Bronfman (piano)

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

Presented live by Ian Skelly.

Photo credit: Benjamin Suomela

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts favourites by Beethoven, Liszt, Stravinsky and Sibelius.

Esa-pekka Salonen Conducts Britten And Ravel20201029Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the first concert of his final season as the Philharmonia's Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser. In a typically enticing programme, Salonen contrasts Ravel's refined depiction of innocent childhood and fairy tale with the darker, dreamlike world of Britten's Les illuminations. Britten's brilliant settings of Arthur Rimbaud's cryptic and sometimes obscure poetry are sung by American soprano Julia Bullock, who tonight makes her Royal Festival Hall debut, having already performed Les illuminations with Salonen in the US to great acclaim.

Introduced live from the Royal Festival Hall by Ian Skelly as part of Southbank Centre's Inside Out season.

Ravel: Pavane pour une infante d退funte

Britten: Les illuminations

Ravel: Mother Goose (complete ballet)

Julia Bullock (soprano)

Philharmonia Ochestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

8.45: The National Youth Orchestra presents a Mighty River of music at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Over lockdown, the young musicians of the NYO immersed themselves in the context and history of music by Black composers, and researched music by a wider range of compositional voices to share with others. Last week, a small group came together at the Festival Hall to play Mighty River by Errollyn Wallen, and a selection of music they have learnt and loved over lockdown. The programme includes:

Amazing Grace, sung by Jermaine Jackman (arranged for 8 string players)

Deep River (arranged for 8 string players)

Jessie Montgomery: Starburst for string ensemble

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Intermezzo (arranged for brass quartet)

Mason Bynes: Hades (for double bass and piano)

Adolphus Hailstork: Flute Set - first movement (solo flute)

Florence Price: String Quartet in G major - second movement

Errollyn Wallen: Mighty River, conducted by Kwam退 Ryan.

Concert recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on 24th October.

Salonen and the Philharmonia perform Britten's Les illuminations and Ravel's Mother Goose

Esa-pekka Salonen Conducts Hindemith And Berg20200611Weimar Berlin: the Philharmonia Orchestra explore music written in the aftermath of the First World War.

In a typically stimulating programme, 'Angels and Demons', Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra take us on a journey from the louche world of Berlin cabaret to the Lutheran certainties of Bach's chorales. Schoenberg filters Bach through his own febrile ear. Alban Berg includes a quotation from a Bach chorale in his concerto dedicated to the memory of the 18-year-old daughter of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. After the interval, Hindemith seeks inspiration in the late medieval world of painter Matthias Grünewald and his apocalyptic altarpieces.

Hindemith: Rag Time (well-tempered)

Bach arr. Schoenberg: Two Chorale Preludes - Schmucke dich, O liebe Seele BWV. 654 and Komm, Gott Schopfer, heiliger Geist BWV.667

Berg: Violin Concerto

8.10pm Interval

Esa-Pekka Salonen reflects on the cultural melting pot that was the Weimar Republic. Plus a quartet movement by Zemlinksy father-figure to many of the composers of the Weimar Republic and an erstwhile friend of Alma Schindler-Mahler. And a motet by Heinrich Isaac, a contemporary of Matthias Grünewald whose Choralis Constantinus was edited by the young Anton Webern.

8.30pm

Hindemith: Symphony (Mathis der Maler)

Christian Tetzlaff (violin)

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

Image credit: Philharmonia Orchestra / Harrison Agency

Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia explore the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic.

Esa-pekka Salonen Conducts Schoenberg's Gurrelieder20180628If size matters there can be few pieces more impressive than Arnold Schoenberg's Gurrelieder. Begun as a song cycle in 1900, by the time it had reached its final form in 1911 Gurrelieder had become a gargantuan post-Romantic epic. The vocal forces alone - five soloists, a speaker, three male choruses, mixed choir - call for over 250 performers. Add to that an orchestra including eight flutes, seven clarinets, ten horns, six trumpets, seven trombones, four harps, an extraordinary battery of percussion (how often do you see large iron chains on the concert platform?) and it all tots up to an awesome 400 musicians on stage.

In retelling the Danish myth of King Waldemar and his beloved Tove, Schoenberg's varied soundscape travels from rapturous love songs and nightmarish visions to end with an overwhelming final number as the sun rises in blazing C major.

Esa-Pekka Salonen has long been an ardent advocate of Schoenberg's early masterpiece, so this is promises to be an unmissable event.

Presented by Martin Handley, live from the Royal Festival Hall.

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder

Camilla Tilling (soprano)

Michelle DeYoung (mezzo-soprano)

Robert Dean Smith (tenor)

Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke (tenor)

David Soar (bass)

Barbara Sukowa (speaker)

Philharmonia Voices

Choirs of the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance

Philharmonia Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor).

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Schoenberg's Gurrelieder with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Esa-pekka Salonen Conducts The Philharmonia20190228Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in a typically stimulating and adventurous concert. The sultry and exotic suffuses both the Spain of Debussy's Ib退ria and the Asia of Ravel's set of three songs, Sh退h退razade. Respighi's Pines of Rome weaves an evocative scenic spell ending in ancient Rome, and two later 20th century Italians complete the evening. Berio's Folk Songs traverse the globe, from the US to Azerbaijan but most personal to Salonen is Donatoni's final work ESA, named after and dedicated to him by the composer.

Presented by Martin Handley, live from the Royal Festival Hall.

Debussy: Ib退ria

Berio: Folk Songs

Marianne Crebassa (mezzo soprano)

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

8.25pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Stravinsky: Octet

London Sinfonietta

Esa?Pekka Salonen (conductor)

Ravel: Vocalise-退tude en forme de Habanera

Marianne Crebassa (mezzo soprano), Fazil Say (piano)

8.45pm

Franco Donatoni: ESA (In cauda V)

Ravel: Sh退h退razade

Respighi: Pines of Rome

Orchestral music and songs by Debussy, Ravel, Respighi, Berio and Donatoni.

Escher String Quartet, Mendelssohn, Janacek, Brahms20151013The Escher String Quartet perform music by Mendelssohn, Janacek and Brahms from the Town Hall in Skipton.

Live from Skipton Town Hall

Presented by Tom Redmond

Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 4 in E minor, Op. 44 No. 2

Janacek: String Quartet No. 1, 'Kreutzer Sonata

8.20 Interval

8.40

Brahms: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51 No. 2

Escher Quartet.

Live from Skipton. The Escher String Quartet in music by Mendelssohn, Janacek and Brahms.

Essence Of Romanticism20191016Lars Vogt directs Royal Northern Sinfonia and is the concerto soloist in a programme of impassioned Nineteenth Century music - the very essence of Romanticism. In this concert from Sage Gateshead, the orchestra is joined by the Polish prodigy Anna Resniak for a performance of Beethoven's First Romance for violin and orchestra.

Brahms: Tragic Overture

Beethoven: Romance No.1 in G

(Anna Reszniak - violin)

Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No.1

(Lars Vogt - piano/conductor)

INTERVAL

A selection of Dvo?ကk‘s `Cypresses` from CD

Dvo?ကk:

Cypresses for string quartet B. 152; VII andante con moto

Lindsay String Quartet

Cyprise for voice and piano B.11 (Original version 1865); No. I Vy vrouc퀀 p퀀sn? sp?jte (Sing fervent songs at nightfall)

Philip Langridge tenor

Radoslav Kvapil piano

Twelve Cypresses for String Quartet; No XI. Allegro scherzando

Emerson Quartet

Cypres for voice and piano B.11; No. V Ӏ byl to krကsný zlatý sen (Oh what a perfect golden dream)

Bernada Fink, mezzo

Roger Vignoles, piano

Cyprise for string quartet (B.152); no. IX Moderato

Hagen Quartet

PART TWO

Dvo?ကk: Symphony No.7

Lars Vogt conductor

From Sage Gateshead, a concert of music by Brahms, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Dvorak.

European Festivals, Dvorak, Telemann, Weber, Falconiero20160417Ian Skelly presents highlights from European music festivals, including Dvorak's New World Symphony played by the Czech Philharmonic.

Dvorak: Othello, op. 93, concert overture

Czech Philharmonic, Jir퀀 Belohlကvek

Dvorကk Hall, Rudolfinum, Prague

Telemann: Concerto in E minor, TWV 52:e4

Daniel Hope (violin), Berlin Barock Soloists

Weber: Overture to 'Der Freischütz, op. 77

Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Markus Poschner

Falconiero: Ciaconna

Falconiero: Passacalle

Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, op. 95 ('From the New World')

Czech Philharmonic, Jir퀀 Belohlကvek.

Music from European festivals, by Dvorak, Telemann, Weber and Falconiero.

European Union Baroque Orchestra, Bach And Handel20170321In a concert celebrating the 2017 European Day of Early Music, Lars Ulrik Mortensen directs the European Union Baroque Orchestra live from the National Centre for Early Music in York. The orchestra, now in its 32nd year, supports young baroque performers as they transition from study to professional careers, and is midway though a European tour with dates in Valletta, Antwerp and Darmstadt.

The programme tonight explores the theme of Betrayal and Betrothal with works including Bach's Wedding Cantata and 'Ah! Ruggiero crudel' from Handel's Alcina.

Presented by Tom Redmond.

Handel: Concerto Grosso in D minor, Op 6 No 10 (HWV328)

Handel: Cantata 'Tu fedel? Tu costante?' HWV171a

Handel: Passacaglia from Trio Sonata in G, HWV399

Handel: Recitative and Aria 'Ah! Ruggiero ... Ombre pallide' from Alcina

JS Bach: Harpsichord Concerto in A, BWV1055

JS Bach: Wedding Cantata 'Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten', BWV202

Maria Keohane (soprano)

Neven Lesage (oboe)

Lars Ulrik Mortensen (director/harpsichord).

Live from York, the European Union Baroque Orchestra plays music by Bach and Handel.

Euroradio 50th Anniversary Concert20171127Johannes Wildner conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the European Broadcasting Union music exchange programme, live from LSO St Luke's in London. The inaugural concert, conducted by Benjamin Britten, included Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with members of the Amadeus Quartet as soloists. This evening's concert features current and former Radio 3 New Generation Artists, a brand new celebratory work from the BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Residence, and a piano concerto selected by popular vote from EBU listeners.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny.

Dobrinka Tabakova: Orpheus' Comet (EBU commission, first performance)

Britten: Suite on English Folk Tunes (A Time There Was ...), Op 90

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante, K364

INTERVAL

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 5 (Emperor)

Esther Yoo (violin)

Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad (viola)

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Johannes Wildner.

A special concert to celebrate 50 years of European Broadcasting Union music exchange.

Ex Cathedra And Jeffrey Skidmore20170426In a strange land: Ex Cathedra conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore, perform 16th and 17th century music from the Old and New Worlds, live from Cadogan Hall

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Orch退sographie de Thoinot Arbeau: Belle qui tiens ma vie

Genevan Psalter: Estans assis aux rives aquatiques

Sweelinck: Estans assis aux rives aquatiques

Byrd: Mass for Four Voices - Kyrie, Gloria

Weelkes: Thule, the Period of Cosmography; The Andalusian Merchant

Byrd: Mass for Four Voices - Credo

Tomkins: When David Heard

Tallis: Why fum'th in fight; If ye love me

Byrd: Mass for Four Voices - Sanctus; Ave verum corpus; Mass for Four Voices - Agnus Dei

Gibbons: O clap your hands together

INTERVAL

Ritual, Lima (1631): Hanac pachap cussicuinin

Victoria: Super flumina Babylonis a 8

Padilla: Missa Ego flos campi - Kyrie, Gloria

14th-century Spanish: Polorum regina

Fernandes: Xicochi conetzintle

Symbolico Catholico Indiano (1598): Capac eterno Dios

Padilla: Missa Ego flos campi - Credo

Pascual: ¡Oy es d퀀a de placer y de cantar!

Padilla: Missa Ego flos campi - Sanctus

Lobo: Versa est in luctum

Padilla: Missa Ego flos campi: Agnus Dei

Hernကndez: Sancta Maria, e!

Z退spedes: Convidando esta la noche

Anon: Dulce, Jesús m퀀o

In a strange land: Ex Cathedra conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore, perform 16th and 17th century music from the Old and New Worlds, live from Cadogan Hall. Repertoire includes Byrd's stunning Mass for Four Voices, alongside evocative Latin American music.

Jeffrey Skidmore conducts Ex Cathedra in 16th- and 17th-century music.

Ex Cathedra: Music For Holy Week20180329Recorded on Monday 26th March at St John's, Smith Square

Jeffrey Skidmore and his acclaimed ensemble Ex Cathedra present a sequence of Lenten music entitled 'Harmonic Spiritual Theatre: Sacrifice, betrayal, passion'. The programme is arranged around two of the earliest examples of oratorio: Charpentier's The Denial of St Peter, and Carissimi's emotionally-charged Jepthe. Surrounding these miniature dramatic masterpieces are motets from Italian and French Renaissance composers including Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Anerio and Bouzignac. Presented by Martin Handley

Anerio: 'Rispondi, Abramo' from Teatro armonico spirituale di madrigal

Monteverdi/Coppini: O infelix recessus; O Jesu mea vita; Stabat Virgo Maria; Ure me, Domine

Gesualdo: Sparge la morte

Bouzignac: O Mors, ero mors tua

Charpentier: Le reniement de St Pierre

INTERVAL

Anerio: 'Sedea lasso Gesù' from Teatro armonico spirituale di madrigal

Monteverdi/Coppini: Maria, quid ploras?; Gloria tua; Plagas tuas

Carissimi: Jepthe

Jeffrey Skidmore, conductor.

Jeffrey Skidmore conducts Ex Cathedra in a sequence of music for Holy Week.

Experiment And Drama20210430Live from MediaCityUK, Salford

Presented by Tom McKinney

Dinis Sousa conducts the BBC Philharmonic in two contrasting symphonies by Haydn: his dark and dramatic Symphony No 80 ends the programme and, from his most experimental time, the unpredictable Symphony No 57. BBC New Generation Artist Eric Lu joins them for Mozart's final Piano Concerto (K 595).

Haydn: Symphony No 57

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 27 (K 595)

Music Interval

Haydn: Symphony No 80 (recorded at MediaCityUK 29 April)

Eric Lu (piano)

Dinis Sousa (conductor)

Dinis Sousa conducts the BBC Philharmonic with pianist Eric Lu as soloist.

Extraordinary Experience20190717Herbert Blomstedt made his conducting debut in 1954 and last week celebrated his ninety-second birthday (he's older by 20 months than even Bernard Haitink). The Swedish-American conductor still enjoys a busy international career, with a long list of honorary posts to his name and guesting with the world's finest orchestras. He's become famous for his benchmark interpretations of the Austro-German classics and championing of Scandinavian repertoire, as here in this concert recorded in Munich in May, with Blomstedt leading one of Germany's premiere orchestras. Georgia Mann presents.

Sibelius: Symphony No. 4 in A minor Op.63

8.10pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Berwald: Piano Quartet in E flat major: First mvt Adagio: Allegro ma non troppo

Lorenzo Coppola (clarinet), Donna Agrell (bassoon), Teunis van der Zwart (horn)

Ronald Brautigam (piano)

8.20pm

Wilhelm Stenhammar: Intermezzo (from S倀ngen, Op. 44)

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor Op.56 (Scottish)

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Herbert Blomstedt (conductor)

Nonagenarian Herbert Blomstedt conducts Sibelius, Stenhammar and Mendelssohn.

Fairy Tale And Folklore20231005Live from the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham

Presented by Tom McKinney

The BBC Philharmonic are joined by conductor Ben Gernon and Jess Gillam for a UK premiere of their newly announced Composer in Association, Anna Clyne; her saxophone concerto, Glasslands; the banshee of Irish folklore making her presence felt in this music written for tonight's soloist. 'London Town' is the back-drop for Elgar's Cockaigne Overture, a brilliant portrait of life and all its vigour in the bustling streets of the English capital at the end of the Victorian era. After the interval the orchestra bring Ravel's magical pictures of an imaginary fairy-tale world to life with music from his ballet 'Mother Goose', and Beethoven's powerful Fifth Symphony ends the programme.

Elgar: Cockaigne Overture

Anna Clyne: Glasslands

8.10 Music Interval (CD)

Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit

Benjamin Grosvenor (piano)

8.35

Ravel: Mother Goose - five pieces

Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

Jess Gillam (soprano saxophone)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic are joined in Nottingham by saxophonist Jess Gillam.

Fairy Tales And Daydreams20191105The BBC Philharmonic is conducted by Ben Gernon in Stravinsky's Song of the Nightingale and Tchaikovsky's Winter Daydreams. Philip Grange's Violin concerto receives its premiere.

From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Stravinsky: Song of the Nightingale

Philip Grange: Violin Concerto (world premiere)

8.15

Music Interval

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.1 'Winter Daydreams

Carolin Widmann (violin)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

Distilled from his opera The Nightingale, Stravinsky's symphonic poem tells Hans Christian Anderson's breathtakingly poignant and beautiful story; only the freely given song of the real nightingale - not the gold and jewel encrusted man-made fake bird with its mechanical waltzes and adoring courtiers - has the power to bring back an Emperor from the clutches of Death. Carolin Widmann is the soloist in the world premiere of Philip Grange's Violin Concerto, a BBC commission which alludes to the natural world in its exploration of relationships between individuals and groups. Tchaikovsky's First Symphony, which ends the programme, is infused with haunting Russian melody. He gives evocative titles to the first two movements 'Daydreams on a winter journey' for the first and 'Land of gloom, land of mists' for the second. Mendelssohnian charm characterises the third while the Finale gives us hints of the majesty and grandeur of the symphonies that were to follow.

The BBC Philharmonic in Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and a world premiere by Philip Grange.

Fanfare For The Makers20211111John Toal introduces a special concert of music and readings to celebrate the BBC's 40-year partnership with the Ulster Orchestra. The programme includes a range of new commissions from Northern Irish composers, as well as music and readings that evoke a sense of landscape and place. The concert takes its theme from the poet Louis MacNeice's words - ‘Fanfare for the Makers ... Let us make. And set the weather fair.' The Ulster Orchestra is joined by conductor Stephen Bell and a host of special guests at the Ulster Hall, Belfast.

Chlo뀀 Hanslip (violin)

Andrew Douglas (flute)

Neil Martin (uilleann pipes)

Richard Gowers (organ)

Stephen Bell (conductor)

Part 1 -

Edward Gregson: Flourish For An Occasion

Sheridan Tongue: Fanfare For The Makers (BBC NI Commission)

Holst (arr. Townend): Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity, from The Planets, op32

Joan Trimble: Finale from Suite for Strings

Neil Martin: Altú - Cantus in memoriam Hugh Heaney (BBC NI Commission)

Vaughan Williams: Serenade To Music *

Bill Whelan: Belfast from Linen and Lace **

Paul Campbell: Fantasia on Ulster Airs (BBC NI Commission)

Benjamin Britten (arr. Anna Lapwood): Sunday Morning from the Four Sea Interludes for Organ ***

Arthur Benjamin (arr. M. Caratelli and C. Schurmann): Top of the World and Final Bars from Conquest of Everest Suite

*Soloist Chloe Hanslip (violin)

** Soloist Andrew Douglas (flute)

*** Soloist Richard Gowers (organ)

Part 2 -

Joseph Curiale: Joy, from Awakening

Robert Farnon: A La Claire Fontaine

Copland: Appalachian Spring - Doppio movimento

Score Draw Music: Undertow (BBC NI Commission)

Neil Martin: Resetting* (BBC NI Commission)

Ravel: Prelude to Le Tombeau De Couperin

Sheridan Tongue: An Ulster Reverie (BBC NI Commission)

Irving Berlin (arr. Graeme Stewart): There's No Business Like Show Business (BBC NI Commission)

Neil Martin uilleann pipes (solo)*

A special concert to celebrate the BBC's 40-year partnership with the Ulster Orchestra.

Fantastic Fairytales And Symphonic Dances20211029From the Ulster Hall in Belfast, the Ulster Orchestra's Chief Conductor Daniele Rustioni takes to the stage in a programme full of symphonic colour and excitement. To open, Anatoly Liadov's beautiful 'The Enchanted Lake'- an intricate portrait of Lake Llmen, south of St. Petersburg, which the composer described as, 'nature-cold, malevolent, but fantastic as a fairy tale.

We then welcome violinist Alena Baeva to the stage for a performance of Korngold's Violin Concerto, one the first concert works the composer wrote in the wake of the end of World War 2, and one of his most loved and enduring works. Utilizing melodies and themes from several of his film scores, the concerto was first performed in St. Louis on February 14, 1947 by the violinist Jascha Heifetz.

To round off the programme, Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances which the composer completed in 1940, and was his final major composition. A three movement suite- the work was originally intended as ballet music- with the composer once remarking that he felt it was his 'last spark'.

Presented by John Toal

Daniele Rustioni (conductor)

Alena Baeva (violin)

Liadov- The Enchanted Lake, Op. 62

Korngold- Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35

Rachmaninoff- Symphonic Dances, Op. 45

Daniele Rustioni conducts the Ulster Orchestra in Liadov, Rachmaninoff and Korngold.

Fantastic Fairytales From The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra20221213The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra present 'Fantastic Fairytales,' with music by Ravel, Mahler and Humperdinck.

The orchestra's programme opens with Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, fairy-tale miniatures evoking a delicate, magical world. Then the Great British mezzo Dame Sarah Connolly joins them for five of Mahler's settings of poems from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth's Magic Horn) - tales of love, mystery, horror, magic and humour, captivated Mahler. Grace-Evangeline Mason then takes us on a journey deep into the woods. And this fantastical programme ends in the Romantic world of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.

Presented by Martin Handley

Ravel: Ma Mere l'Oye - Mother Goose Suite

Mahler: Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn - Rheinlegend, Das irdische Leben, Verlorne Muh, Wo die schonen Trompeten blasen and Urlicht

at c. 8.05pm Interval

Grace-Evangeline Mason: The Imagined Forest

Humperdinck arr Rudolf Kempe: Hansel and Gretel Suite.

Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)

Recorded at the Lighthouse, Poole.

The Bournemouth Symphony in 'Fantastic Fairytales,' from Ravel, Mahler and Humperdinck.

Fantasy, Forests And Folklore20200306From the Ulster Hall in Belfast the Ulster Orchestra are joined by their Principal Guest Conductor Jac van Steen in a programme linked together by love, fantasy and folklore, beginning with Wagner's Overture to Tannh䀀user, the story of the German minstrel who is banished from the underground realm of Venus and forced to find redemption through love.

The pianist Hannes Minnaar joins the orchestra in a performance of Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor- originally based on a Phantasie the composer wrote for his then fianc退, Clara Wieck, he developed it into a symphonic concerto. The work is often seen as a reflection of the love story between the composer and Clara. To finish the programme, Dvo?ကk's folk-inspired Symphony No. 6 with its Bohemian origins, dedicated to the Austrian-Hungarian conductor Hans Richter.

The work has a pastoral feel to it but also incorporates a nationalistic Czech style- with the third movement employing a 'furiant'- a popular dance. During the interval, presenter John Toal will be speaking with this evening's soloist, Hannes Minnaar Wagner- Overture to Tannh䀀user Schumann- Piano Concerto in A minor Dvo?ကk- Symphony No. 6 in D Major Jac van Steen, conductor Hannes Minnaar, pianist Ulster Orchestra.

Presented by John Toal

Jac van Steen (conductor)

Hannes Minnaar (piano)

Wagner - Overture: Tannh䀀user

Schumann - Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

Dvo?ကk - Symphony No. 6 in D major, Op. 60

Jac van Steen conducts the Ulster Orchestra in Wagner, Schumann and Dvo\u0159\u00e1k.

Fantasy, Funeral Laments And Fate20230510An evening of high emotions, Sibelius's inventive incidental music for Shakespeare's stormy drama opens the SCO concert from Glasgow City Halls. The centrepiece of the concert is the long-awaited new viola concerto by the exciting Canadian composer Cassandra Miller, co-commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and written for tonight's soloist, the viola player Lawrence Power. Don't miss this miraculously beautiful sound world full of trembling and longing for home, inspired by a Greek landscape.

Finnish conductor, John Storg倀rds, concludes the concert with an intimate chamber orchestra arrangement of Tchaikovsky's most thrilling and emotional symphony. On the slow movement of his Fifth Symphony, Tchaikovsky wrote ‘With desire and passion,' this is Romantic music at its most sincere.

SIBELIUS: The Tempest Suite No 2

MILLER: I cannot love without trembling (Viola Concerto)

TCHAIKOVSKY (ARR G. MORTON): Symphony No 5

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

John Storg倀rds, conductor

Lawrence Power, viola

Presenter: Andrew McGregor

Producer: Lindsay Pell

Lawrence Power performs Miller's Viola Concerto with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Fate Now Conquers20210701Recorded at Maida Vale Studios

Presented by Martin Handley

Carlos Simon: Fate Now Conquers

Joseph Boulogne Chevalier De Saint-Georges: Violin Concerto in A, Op. 5, No. 2*

07.55 Interval:

Stewart Goodyear

Piano Sonata

Stewart Goodyear (piano)

Part 2 8.15

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 98 in B Flat

Francesca Dego (Violin)*

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Jonathon Heyward (Conductor)

The supernatural power of fate knocks on the doors of all three pieces fielded tonight by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with talented young conductor Jonathan Heyward, the Chief Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. They join Italian violinist Francesca Dego, winner of the Paganini Competition in Genoa, for a performance of Joseph Boulogne Chevalier De Saint-George's Violin Concerto in A, Op. 5, No. 2. Baroque brilliance glints through this work by the son of a Senagalese slave, who led an adventurous life including as a swordsman and exceptional violinist and composer.

Haydn's Symphony No.98, written in London, is a tribute to a man he had just heard had died, one Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. And be stirred by contemporary American Carlos Simon's opener to the concert, which pays homage to the daily challenges of Beethoven's life, Fate Now Conquers.

Photo of Jonathon Heyward (c) Laura Thiesbrummel

Jonathan Heyward conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Haydn, Simon and Boulogne.

Faure, Duparc, Debussy And Ravel20160228Ian Skelly introduces an all-French programme, including piano, chamber music and song by Faur退, Duparc, Debussy and Ravel recorded last year in Vienna and Berlin.

Gabriel Faur退: Cinq m退lodies de Venise, Op.58

Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto)

Roger Vignoles (piano)

Debussy: Preludes, Book 2

Alexander Melnikov, piano

Henri Duparc: L'invitation au voyage; La vie ant退rieure; S退r退nade florentine ('Etoile dont la beaut退 luit'); Phidyl退

Ravel (arr Tamestit after Salzedo): Sonatine

Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra: Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Antoine Tamestit (viola), Marie-Pierre Langlamet (harp).

Piano, chamber music and song by Faure, Duparc, Debussy and Ravel from Vienna and Berlin.

Faure, Fate And Fountains20191126Nelson Goerner performs a programme that explores the spirit of romanticism in works by Faur退, Brahms and Liszt. The rarely heard Theme and Variations is Faur退's most substantial piece for piano, which breaks with convention by placing its most flamboyant variation not last but penultimate, followed by a beautifully solemn conclusion. Written when Brahms was barely out of his teens, his Piano Sonata No 3 is an expressive and expansive work in which he pays homage to his hero, Beethoven, by referencing the famous fate motive of the 5th Symphony.

The second half of this recital is dedicated to Liszt, whose Fun退railles commemorates three friends who died in the failed Hungarian uprising against Habsburg rule in 1848. Les jeux d'eaux

Faure's Requiem20230215French conductor Ludovic Morlot joins the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales to perform a programme full of hedonistic delights. The first half is entirely dedicated to Brahms's gorgeous Violin Concerto, composed for friend and virtuoso Joseph Joachim, for which the Orchestra will be joined by soloist James Ehnes. After the interval, the BBC National Chorus of Wales take centre stage, opening the second half with the only work written by Messiaen specifically for the church, his achingly beautiful motet O sacrum convivium! The evening concludes with the orchestra and chorus joining forces for Faure's Requiem, an evocative and inimitable mass in which the beautifully serene music leaves the listener in no doubt of Faure's untroubled paradise, and his faith in an eternal rest free from suffering and doubt.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, and recorded on the 12th of February in St. David's Hall, Cardiff.

7.30pm

Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, Op 77

8.15pm

Interval music

8.35pm

Messiaen: O sacrum convivium!

Faur退 Requiem, op.48

James Ehnes (violin)

Rhian Lois (soprano)

Neal Davies (bass)

Ludovic Morlot (conductor)

Ludovic Morlot conducts the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales in Faure's Requiem.

Faure's Requiem , Solace And Sustenance20211015Parisian organist Gabriel Faur退 wrote his Mass for the Dead in the late 1880s, promising to deliver ‘something different'. His supremely beautiful and enduringly popular Requiem appears to float in its own time and space, with music that radiates reassurance, its clear lines and gentle accompaniments the work of a master craftsman who never wasted a note.

Reena Esmail's 2020 piece When The Violin uses Thomကs Luis de Victoria's 16th-century motet O Vos Omnes as the focal point. The result is a work that ‘moves through darkness and begins to let those very first slivers of light in'. Sacred music by JS Bach and his pioneering Italian contemporary Isabella Leonarda complete a concert from the BBC Singers and their Chief Conductor offering solace, inspiration and perfection.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied

Isabella Leonarda: Magnificat

Johann Sebastian Bach: Komm, Jesu, komm

Reena Esmail When the Violin

Gabriel Faur退: Requiem

Stephen Farr - organ

Sofi Jeannin - conductor

The BBC Singers and Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin perform Faure's Requiem.

Fazil Say Plays Mozart And Chopin20151115The Turkish-born pianist Fazil Say performs at the Montepellier International Piano Festival and the Bavarian RSO plays a sombre symphony by Haydn in the Hercules Hall, Munich.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Mozart

Piano Sonata No. 12 in F, K332

Fazil Say (piano)

Chopin

Nocturne No. 11 in G minor, op. 37/1

Nocturne in C sharp minor KK Iva, No. 16 (20a)

Nocturne No. 14 in F sharp minor, op. 48/2

Symphony No. 44 in E minor 'Trauersinfonie

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Yannick N退zet-S退guin (conductor)

Janacek

Piano Sonata in E flat minor ('1.X.1905')

Ses - a ballade for piano

Photograph of Fazil Say (c) Matyas Szollosi 2015.

Fazil Say plays Mozart, Chopin and Janacek at the Montepellier Piano Festival.

Festival Time In Germany20191103Fiona Talkington introduces highlights from concerts around the world. This week, the focus is on Germany with music from the Ruhr Valley Piano Festival and the Würzburg Mozart Festival in Bavaria.

Haydn: Overture 'L'Isola disabitata' (Sinfonia in G minor, HobIa:13)

Munich Chamber Orchestra

Clemens Schuldt (conductor)

Recorded earlier this year at the Mozart Festival, Würzburg 

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 24 in C minor, K491

Rafal Blechacz (piano)

WDR Symphony Orchestra

James Gaffigan (conductor)

Recorded earlier this year at the Ruhr Piano Festival

Mozart: Symphony No 40 in G minor, K550

Karajan Academy

Pablo Heras-Casado (conductor)

Image credit: (c) Oliver Lang

Highlights from classical music festivals in Germany.

Festivals In Lugano And Bucharest20180708Kate Molleson introduces highlights from festivals in Lugano and Bucharest.
Figaro Gets A Divorce20200224Conductor Gergely Madaras is a passionate advocate for the music of fellow Hungarian Ernst von Dohnကnyi. Tonight with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra he performs Dohnကnyi's youthfully romantic First Symphony. Before that they are joined by violinist Karen Gomyo to perform Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto. Written in a post-war era of serious censorship the work is a virtuosic achievement of brooding dark and terrifying drama.

And the concert opens with recent music by Russian-born composer Elena Langer. She has refashioned music from her opera Figaro Gets a Divorce as a characterful orchestral suite to open tonight's concert.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, on Thursday 13th February 2020.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Langer: Figaro Gets a Divorce Suite

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto no 1

8.30 Interval

8.50 Part 2

Dohnကnyi: Symphony no 1

Gergely Madaras (conductor)

Karen Gomyo (violin)

Music from Elena Langer's opera alongside a romantic symphony by Dohn\u00e1nyi

Final Flourishes20220601From Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Ben Gernon and the BBC Philharmonic host a concert showcasing three works by composers who brought the experience and skills honed by a lifetime's experience to create breathtaking works that continue to inspire and amaze. The orchestra is joined by Manchester musicians at the start of their musical adventures.

The programme begins that Manchester collaboration: the BBC Philharmonic is joined by soloists from Manchester's Royal Northern College of Music and from Chetham's School of Music for Haydn's final stunning Mass, his 'Harmoniemesse'. Named after the German term 'Harmonie', meaning a wind ensemble, the woodwind and horns weave their way through the piece, adding another dimension of character and colour to a genre which he already knew well. Written for Esterhazy, he was at home here in a community in which he was loved, respected and had been encouraged to experiment. Haydn looks back to the Baroque but also forward to larger-scale works of the nineteenth century. Instrumental colour and inspiration from the Baroque are also important in Webern's delicate orchestration of Bach's six-part Ricercar from his Musical Offering. Using a tune given to him by Frederick the Great, Bach created a weave of the material but didn't specify an instrument to play his composition. Twentieth century genius orchestrator Anton Webern colours Bach's work, bringing the notes off the page to create an extra dimension of line and texture. The concert began with a final Mass and ends with a final Symphony, Mozart's. Echoes of Bach's counterpoint resound in the astonishing last movement of the breathtaking 'Jupiter' Symphony.

Haydn: Mass in B flat (Harmoniemesse) (H XXII 14)

8.15 (CD) Marcello arr. Bach: Oboe Concerto in D minor (BWV 974)

Alexander Tharaud

Bach arr Webern: Musical Offering: Ricercar a 6

Mozart: Symphony No. 41 'Jupiter

Georgie Malcolm (soprano)

Clara Mouriz (mezzo-soprano)

Joshua Ellicott (tenor)

Thomas Ashdown (baritone)

Chetham's Chamber Choir

Ben Gernon (conductor)

Ben Gernon conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Haydn and Mozart.

Fin-de-siecle Vienna, In Paris20211025Fiona Talkington presents one of the highlights of this year's orchestral season.

Klaus M䀀kel䀀 conducts the Orchestre de Paris in Mahler's 5th Symphony, in which a death march is ultimately wrenched into a majestic affirmation, via the tender Adagietto which has become famous in its own right. Something similar happens in Berg's Violin Concerto, dedicated `to the memory of an angel`, in which the tragedy of bereavement is ultimately transfigured into a glimpse of the spiritual realm.

Berg: Violin Concerto

Mahler: Symphony No.5

Renaud Capucon, violin

Recorded at the Philharmonie, Paris, on 16/06/2021.

Image Credit: Jerome Bonnet

Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 conducts the Orchestre de Paris in Mahler and Berg.

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra And Gil Shaham20180909Sibelius's Symphony No.5 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, plus Gil Shaham performs Mozart with the SWR Symphony Orchestra.

Kate Molleson returns with the Sunday evening series of concerts from around Europe. For the first edition after the summer break, a joyous visit by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra to Berlin's iconic Philharmonie concert hall with contrasted symphonies by Stravinsky and Sibelius. Plus, star violinist Gil Shaham plays Mozart's Violin Concerto No.5 with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements

Hannu Lintu (conductor)

Mozart: Violin Concerto No.5 in A, K219

Gil Shaham (violin)

Nicholas McGegan (conductor)

Sibelius: Symphony No.5 in E flat

Sibelius Symphony No 5 with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Gil Shaham plays Mozart.

Florilegium: Telemann20170628Telemann 250. The leading Baroque chamber music ensemble Florilegium present a Telemann Anniversary Concert to mark the exact date of the Hamburg master's death 250 years ago. And to mark the occasion, Florilegium's founder, Ashley Solomon, delighted the audience with the first performance in modern times on a flute once owned by King George III. Made at the Meissen works, this precious object of Dresden porcelain and gold was given to King George III in 1760 and last played by him when he retired to Kew Palace in 1789 during one of his bouts of illness. Baroque flutes are normally made of either wood or ivory so it'll be fascinating to hear how this beautiful looking instrument sounds in a Telemann solo fantasy heard in the second half of this anniversary concert.

Image via Royal Collection Trust/(c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017 (www.royalcollection.org.uk)

Introduced by Ian Skelly and recorded at Wigmore Hall, London, on Sunday evening

Telemann:

Ouverture (Tafelmusik Suite in E minor, TWV55:e1)

Sonata in A major, TWV41:A6

Cantata: Ihr V怀lker h怀rt, TWV1:921

8.25pm: During the interval, Ashley Solomon talks about the 1760 Meissen porcelain flute brought from the Royal Collection and heard in public for the first time tonight. After that, the pianist and former BBC New Generation Artists, Pavel Kolesnikov plays a keyboard sonata in A major by Telemann's godson CPE Bach, a composer who worked for many years at the court of George III's contemporary, the music loving-Frederick the Great.

8.35

Paris' Quartet in E minor, TWV43:e4

Trio Sonata in A major, TWV42:a5

Fantasie for flute No. 9 in E major, TWV40:10

Conclusion in E minor, TWV50:5 (Tafelmusik)

Helen Charlston, mezzo-soprano

Ashley Solomon, director

Florilegium showcases the exceptional variety of Telemann's compositions, from an intimate solo fantasie to the extraordinary collections of chamber music from his Tafelmusik, Essercizii Musici and Paris Quartets. Mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston joins Florilegium in one of the virtuosic cantatas from his Harmonischer Gottesdienst cycle of 1725-6.

From Wigmore Hall in London, Florilegium give a Telemann 250th anniversary concert.

Folk Connections: Transatlantic Sessions20160131Transatlantic Sessions, the Celtic Connections Festival's iconic annual concert, ends Radio 3's Folk Connections weekend. Verity Sharp introduces the event from Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall, which brings together Celtic styles with American old-time and bluegrass. The concert is again led by American dobro virtuoso Jerry Douglas and Shetland fiddle icon Aly Bain, and features a line-up of star musicians from both sides of the Atlantic, including Cara Dillon, Rhiannon Giddens and Karen Matheson.

Verity Sharp presents Transatlantic Sessions, a concert for Celtic Connections 2016.

Folk Roots, Urban Roots20200612Sometimes,' says Simon Rattle, describing the thinking behind his Roots and Origins series, 'it's a good thing to have a connecting line and it can be a wonderful opportunity to explore all kinds of things that you might not usually explore and put things together than you might not necessarily think they might be happy bed mates.' So, hold on tight for an exhilarating journey from Hungary to the US, via Poland and Argentina.

The first half features what Rattle calls 'hearty folk music': Bartok's Hungarian Peasant Songs and a rare chance to hear Szymanowski's Polish folktale-inspired Harnasie, for tenor and chorus. The second half begins and ends with LSO principal clarinet, Chris Richards, making his way to the front of the stage for two of the great jazz-inspired clarinet concertos of the twentieth century. And in between, expect Latin rhythms and percussion from Argentine Osvaldo Golijov's 2009 Nazareno, based on music from his St Mark's Passion and written for tonight's performers Katia and Marielle Lab耀que.

Rattle sums it all up like this: 'Somehow these pieces together added to this wild middle east European first half should make a fantastic evening.

Recorded last June at the Barbican Hall and presented by Martin Handley.

B退la Bart k: Hungarian Peasant Songs

Karol Szymanowski: Harnasie

Interval

Stravinsky: Ebony Concerto

Osvaldo Golijov (arr Gonzalo Grau): Nazareno for two pianos and orchestra

Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue and Riffs

Edgaras Montvidas (tenor)

Chris Richards (clarinet)

Katia and Marielle Lab耀que (pianos)

London Symphony Chorus

London Symphony Orchestra

Simon Rattle (conductor)

Simon Rattle conducts the LSO in Bartok, Szymanowski, Stravinsky, Bernstein and Golijov.

For The Present Time20231101From Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

In a programme which explores time, space and legend, the BBC Philharmonic's Finnish Chief Conductor, John Storgards, opens with a visceral portrayal of heroic deeds in Sibelius's tone poem 'Pohjola's Daughter'; music of dark gloom, warm light and an unobtainable heroine seated on a rainbow, weaving golden cloth. Unapproachable too are the angels in Rautavaara's Seventh Symphony, one of a series of pieces taking poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke as inspiration; 'Every angel is terrifying... its stronger presence would kill you if it held you tight.' This is expansive, free-flowing and expressive music which invites us into a world all of its own, and the first piece to bring Rautavaara fame.

Violinist Tobias Feldmann joins the BBC Philharmonic for Sofia Gubaidulina's Concerto 'In tempus praesens' - for the present time. The Concerto explores her philosophical and religious beliefs; 'Only in sleep, in the religious experience and in art, are we able to experience lasting present time' she says.

Sibelius: Pohjola's Daughter

Sofia Gubaidulina: In tempus praesens, for violin and orchestra

8.20pm

Music interval (CD)

Rautavaara: Symphony No.7 (Angel of Light)

Tobias Feldmann (violin)

John Storgards (conductor)

John Storgards and the BBC Philharmonic play Rautavaara and Sibelius at Bridgewater Hall.

Force Of Nature2014050220210122 (R3)Another chance to hear Juanjo Mena conduct the BBC Philharmonic in Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave overture and Mahler's First Symphony. Stephen Hough joins them as soloist in Schumann's Piano Concerto.

From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Christopher Cook

Mendelssohn: Overture, The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave)

Schumann: Piano Concerto

8.10

Schumann: Fantasy Piece Op 12 No 1, 'In der Nacht

Bowen: Romances Nos 1 and 2

8.30

Mahler: Symphony No 1

Nature in all its gentleness and wildness colours this programme of romantic music, from the gentle first notes of Mahler's Symphony, with its blossoming of Spring and bird calls, to a depiction of turbulent seas off the west coast of Scotland as experienced by the twenty year old Mendelssohn. Schumann's great outpouring of his love for Clara is epitomised in his glowing Piano Concerto.

Programme first broadcast live on 2 May 2014

Followed by a selection of trio sonatas on disc.

The BBC Philharmonic in Mahler's First Symphony and Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave Overture.

Four Last Songs20221124The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins perform music by Sibelius and Vaughan Williams; and they are joined by Elizabeth Llewellyn in Strauss' Four Last Songs.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Sibelius: Tapiola

Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs

8.20 Interval

Recent recorded music that complements this evening's concert

8.40 Part Two

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 5

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Elizabeth Llewellyn (soprano)

Elizabeth Llewellyn sings Strauss with the BBC SSO and conductor Martyn Brabbins.

Framed, By Brahms20190115As part of the Southbank Centre's International Piano Series, Pavel Kolesnikov plays a typically imaginative programme where late Brahms frames early Beethoven, music from 17th-century France and Tchaikovsky miniatures.

Presented by Ian Skelly live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

Brahms: Intermezzo in E flat, Op.117 No.1 (Schlummer lied)

Beethoven: Sonata in E flat, Op.7

Interval

Brahms: Intermezzo in B flat minor, Op.117 No.2

Louis Couperin: Suite in A; Pavanne in F sharp minor, G.120

Tchaikovsky: Rꀀverie interrompue, Op.40 No.12; Echo rustique, Op.72 No.13; Polka peu dansante, Op.51 No.2; Dumka (Russian rustic scene), Op.59; Pass退 lointain, Op.72 No.17;

Brahms: Intermezzo in C sharp minor, Op.117 No.3

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

After the concert:

Adopt a Composer

The Adopt a Composer scheme is run by Making Music, in association with Sound and Music. This year seven composers have been paired with seven amateur performing groups around the country. The composer gets to work with the group over the course of a year to create a piece of music that is given its premiere performance by the ensemble, and Radio 3 is broadcasting the results.

Tonight you'll hear:

Max Charles Davies's piece, Y Gor Fawr, performed by C䀀r Crymych a'r Cylch from Cardigan, Wales.

Pianist Pavel Kolesnikov frames Beethoven, Couperin and Tchaikovsky with Brahms.

France, Finland And Fiesta20201030The BBC Concert Orchestra is one of Southbank Centre's Associate Orchestras and they end Radio 3's residency at the Royal Festival Hall in London with their newly appointed Principal Guest conductor Anna-Maria Helsing. Soprano Anu Komsi joins them in Finnish and French songs, alongside Poulenc's Sinfonietta and a piece for strings, timpani and percussion by Sebastian Fagerlund; and the programme ends with a celebration of live music making in Peruvian composer Jimmy Lopez's Fiesta.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Poulenc: Sinfonietta

Debussy arr Sakari Oramo: Pantomime; Romance; Apparition

Nadia Boulanger arr Turkka Inkil䀀: Un grand sommeil noir

Sebastian Fagerlund: Partita

Sibelius arr Sakari Oramo: H怀stkv䀀ll Op 38 No 1

Heta Aho: Revanche (3rd song of the S怀dergran songs) (world premiere)

Jimmy Lopez: Fiesta

Anu Komsi (soprano)

The BBC Concert Orchestra and Principal Guest conductor Anna-Maria Helsing in concert.

Francisco Guerrero's Mass For The Dead From Barcelona20231113Mozart and Granados from the legendary pianist Alicia de Larrocha in Amsterdam in 1984 and Francisco Guerrero's Mass for the Dead from Barcelona's medieval Cathedral.

Born in Barcelona a hundred years ago this year, Alicia de Larrocha enjoyed a remarkable seventy five year career during which she adored for her performances of a huge range of music. But it was for her peerless interpretations of the music of Spain above all that she was most widely admired. As one critic put it: 'She had a way of idiomatically shaping a musical phrase that cannot be taught...It's hard to imagine the piano being played better than it is in her Epic recording of Goyescas.' Tonight's performance of Granados's Goyescas comes from a concert Alicia de Larrocha gave in 1984 at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and certainly brought the house down. And before it come two works by Mozart that reveal her deeply personal affection for the composer.

And after that, in tonight's double-bill, the Cererols Choir from Catalonia sing Guerrero's Missa pro defunctis (Requiem) along with motets by two of his Spanish Golden Age contemporaries at Barcelona's Gothic Bas퀀lica de Sant Just i Sant Pastor. Although he spent most of his life as choirmaster of Seville cathedral, Francisco Guerrero became the best known Spanish composer of the second half of the 16th century and his influence stretched as far as Portugal and the New World. His 50-minute Requiem of 1582 promises to be particularly moving when heard in the spacious acoustics of Barcelona's Gothic Cathedral.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Mozart: Fantasy in C minor K. 457

Mozart Piano Sonata in c minor K. 457

Granados: Goyescas, o Los majos enamorados

Alicia de Larrocha (piano)

at approx. 8.55pm

Crist bal de Morales: Motet Peccantem me quotidi

Francisco Guerrero: Missa pro defunctis (Requiem)

Alonso Lobo: Motet Versa est in luctum

Marc D퀀az (conductor and organ)

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra Play Wagner, Poulenc And Tchaikovsky20220530Alain Altinoglu conducts the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in Wagner, Poulenc and Tchaikovsky.

Alain Altinoglu brought this delectable programme to Frankfurt in his first season as music director of one of Germany's oldest and finest radio orchestras. As well as two favourites for chamber orchestra by Wagner and Tchaikovsky, he brings music from his native France in the form of Poulenc's light-hearted Sinfonietta, commissioned by the BBC in 1947 to mark the first anniversary of the Third Programme.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

Poulenc: Sinfonietta

c. 8.20pm Interval Music:

Poulenc: 4 Petites pri耀res de Saint-Fran瀀ois d'Assise

Tenebrae conducted by Nigel Short (conductor)

c. 8.30pm

Tchaikovsky: Serenade in C, Op.48

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Alain Altinoglu (conductor)

The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra perform works by Wagner, Poulenc and Tchaikovsky.

Freddy Kempf Piano Recital20151104Georgia Mann presents a recital by pianist Freddy Kempf, recorded yesterday at Cadogan Hall in London.

Beethoven: Piano Sonata in D, Op 28 (Pastoral)

Chopin: Polonaise in C minor, Op 40 No 2

Chopin: Polonaise in F sharp minor, Op 44

Interval

Tchaikovsky: Grand Sonata in G, Op 37

Freddy Kempf (piano).

Freddy Kempf (piano) plays music Beethoven, Chopin and Tchaikovsky at Cadogan Hall, London

Free Thinking: Royal Northern Sinfonia At Sage Gateshead20170317Live from the Free Thinking festival at Sage Gateshead: Royal Northern Sinfonia plays Prokofiev, Haydn and Beethoven with pianist Lars Vogt, who also conducts.

Presented by Tom Redmond

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat, Op.19

Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 in D, Op.25 'Classical

8.20: Interval

8.40

Haydn: Symphony No.11 in E flat

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37

Lars Vogt: conductor/piano

The extraordinary German pianist Lars Vogt acts as both conductor and soloist for tonight's concert. In a major feat for any musician: he performs two of the great landmark concertos of the piano repertoire: Beethoven's Second and Third concertos.

The two concertos illustrate Beethoven's musical and life journeys, from youthful inventiveness much influenced by Mozart and Haydn, to the more dramatic 'universal' voice of his maturity. This development took place in the musical ferment of classical Vienna, which still provided inspiration for Prokofiev's symphony over one hundred years later. Since 2015 Lars Vogt has been Music Director of Royal Northern Sinfonia at Sage Gateshead.

Royal Northern Sinfonia and pianist Lars Vogt perform Beethoven, Prokofiev and Haydn.

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra20210510Proud Women' was the title of this concert given by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and soprano Anna Lucia Richter. The proud women here are as the 18th century liked them best: legendary, jealous, betrayed, vengeful and about to die. And as well as music from opera, oratorio and cantata, two instrumentalists from the FBO have their chance to shine in a double concerto.

Recorded in February at the Konzerthaus, Freiburg im Breisgau, and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Hasse: Sinfonia from 'Zenobia

JCF Bach: Die Amerkianerin

Hasse: Sinfonia (from Artemisia)

Torn' in quell'onda (from La Scusa)

Interval music (from CD)

JS Bach: French Suite No 5 in G major BWV 816

Murray Perahia (piano)

Hasse: Concerto in E minor for flute & bassoon

Ah, non lasciarmi (from Didone abbandonata)

Handel: Sinfonia; Aria: Where shall I fly? (from Hrcules)

Anna Lucia Richter (soprano)

Daniele Lieb (flute)

Eyal Streett (bassoon)

Gottfried von der Goltz (director)

Germany's leading period instrument group perform Hasse, JCF Bach and Handel.

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra Play Schubert And Berlioz20220106Pablo Heras-Casado conducts Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in two symphonies by Schubert and Berlioz's song cycle Les nuits d'退t耀 with mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Schubert - Symphony No.8 in B minor, D.789 'Unfinished

Berlioz - Les nuits d'退t耀

Marianne Crebassa (mezzo-soprano)

Pablo Heras-Casado (conductor)

c. 8.25pm INTERVAL

Fazil Say - Geza Park 3

Fazil Say (piano)

Fazil Say - Paganini Jazz

Niklas Liepe (violin)

Nils Liepe (piano)

Thomas Schreiber (double bass)

Jochen Ille (drums)

c.8.55pm

Schubert - Symphony No.5 in B flat, D.485

Image: © Fernando Sancho

Pablo Heras-Casado conducts the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in Schubert and Berlioz.

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Haydn, Cpe And Jc Bach, Mozart20160922Live from Wigmore Hall the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, one of the world's leading period instrument groups, is joined by one of the finest fortepiano players of our times, Kristian Bezuidenhout in an attractive programme of classical and pre-classical symphonies and concertos from Haydn, Mozart and two Bach brothers, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian.

Ian Skelly presents.

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No.47 in G major HI:47

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Keyboard Concerto in D minor Wq.17

Interval music (from CD):

Mozart Sonata in B flat major K.281

Johann Christian Bach: Symphony in G minor Op.6 No.6

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat major K.449

Kristian Bezuidenhout, fortepiano & director.

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Kristian Bezuidenhout in Haydn, CPE and JC Bach, and Mozart

French And English Music For Choir And Organ20210608The BBC Singers and their former chief conductor, David Hill, are joined by organist Thomas Trotter for a concert of English and French Choral music. Book ending the concert are two of the great works for choir and organ; Louis Vierne's Messe Solennelle and Gerald Finzi's Lo, the full final sacrifice.

Louis Vierne: Messe Solennelle

Maurice Durufl退: Pr退lude et Fugue sur le nom d'Alain, Op 7

Interval

John Gardner: Five Dances

Ghislaine Reece-Trapp: The great life eternal

Errolyn Wallen: Pace

Judith Bingham/Samuel Wesley: The darkness is no darkness/Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace

Gerald Finzi: Lo, the full final sacrifice

Thomas Trotter - organ

David Hill - conductor

Recorded in St Peter's Church, Eaton Square, London, on Friday, 4th June 2021. Presented by Petroc Trelawny.

Organist Thomas Trotter joins David Hill and the BBC Singers in Vierne's Messe Solennelle.

French Connections: Danny Driver At Wigmore Hall20210330Presented by Martin Handley.

In a programme which arcs across continents and centuries, Danny Driver explores the links between some of the composers who redefined piano music.

Pictures at an Exhibition, Mussorgsky's dazzling sequence of miniatures, seems to sum up a lot of what appealed to Claude Debussy about Russian composers: their lack of concern for musical ‘rules', a penchant for oriental and ancient-sounding modes and vivid colours.

All of these elements found their way into Debussy's revolutionary Images which go so much further in exploring the piano's sonic possibilities, music which in turn finds echoes in Gy怀rgy Ligeti's ground-breaking Etudes whose inspiration is drawn from as far afield as Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Danny Driver begins his concert with a composer he says he has only recently come to appreciate. There's an element of inward-looking intimacy in Faur退's often modal harmonies which prefigure Debussy and lend another dimension to the programme.

Recorded earlier this month at Wigmore Hall.

Faur退: Th耀me et Variations in C sharp minor Op. 73

Debussy: Cloches

French National Orchestra20180422This week we are in the Concert Hall of French Radio in Paris, for a concert given last November. Emmanuel Krivine conducts the French National Orchestra in Strauss's tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra, and the first half of the concert is all Liszt. Jean-Yves Thibaudet is the soloist in Liszt's second piano concerto, and the concert begins with two pieces of late Liszt piano music arranged for orchestra by Heinz Holliger.

Liszt/Holliger: Nuages gris

Liszt: Piano Concerto No 2 in A

Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra

Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano)

Emmanuel Krivine.

Emmanuel Krivine conducts the French National Orchestra in Strauss and Liszt.

French Orchestral Masterpieces20181128Recorded at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Presented by Kate Molleson

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard perform Debussy's orchestral music, and they are joined by legendary pianist Joaqu퀀n Achúcarro for Ravel.

Debussy: Nocturnes

Ravel: Concerto for Piano (Left Hand)

8.20 Interval

8.40 Part 2

Debussy: Pr退lude

French Organ Music From King's Cambridge20221019C退sar Franck at 200

Presented by Martin Handley

Daniel Hyde give a recital on the organ of King's College, Cambridge, in which he celebrates the rich musical heritage of the church of St Clothilde, Paris, with its famous Cavaill退-Coll organ. Cesar Franck was the first organist titulaire of the great neo-gothic basilica, and he was followed by a steady succession of names such as Durufle, Langlais, Alain and Bonnal, all of whom worked there in some capacity, making St. Clothilde one of the powerhouses of Parisian music making.

Jean Langlais: Hymne d'Actions de gr ces ‘Te Deum

C退sar Franck: Pr退lude, Fugue et Variation

Choral no. 1 in E major

Durufl退: Sicilienne (from Suite op.5)

Franck: Pi耀ce h退roque (from Trois Pi耀ces)

Interval

Joseph Ermend Bonnal: Cloches dans le ciel (from Paysages Euskariens)

Jos退phine Boulay: Trois Pi耀ces

No.1 Pr退lude

No.2 Andante

No.3 Fugue

Jehan Alain: Variations sur un theme de Cl退ment Jannequin

Franck: Cantabile (from Trois Pi耀ces)

Choral no. 3 in A minor

Recital given on Friday 14 October 2022

Organist Daniel Hyde celebrates the bicentenary of Cesar Franck at King's Cambridge.

From Heaven To Hell At The Movies20170324Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on 19 March

The BBC Concert Orchestra and their Principal Conductor Keith Lockhart are joined by the Crouch End Festival Chorus for a celebration of great choral moments from the silver screen. Presented by Matthew Sweet.

Orff: O Fortuna (from Carmina Burana)

Barry: The Lion in Winter Suite

Barry (arr. Raine): Theme from Somewhere in Time

Vangelis: 1492: Conquest of Paradise

Prokofiev: Song about Alexander Nevsky; The Battle on the Ice; Alexander's Entry into Pskov (from Alexander Nevsky)

INTERVAL

Patrick Doyle: Finale - Cry No More (from Much Ado About Nothing)

Jerry Goldsmith: Music from The Omen

Ennio Morricone: Gabriel's Oboe (from The Mission)

John Williams: Hymn to the Fallen (from Saving Private Ryan)

John Williams: Main Theme from Schindler's List

John Williams: Duel of the Fates (from Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace); Princess Leia's Theme (from Star Wars IV: A New Hope)

Walton: Epilogue from Henry V

Matthew Sweet, presenter

Keith Lockhart, conductor

You know the moment in a film when it finally gets to the point? Redemption and joy, or perhaps damnation and pain?

There of course is the acting, the sweeping camera shots and a big orchestral score up on the big screen. But when the future ahead could be heavenly or hellish, there has to be the power of massed human voices to complete the emotional detail. Those moments - this is our concert.

Let the 'Sound of Cinema' fill your ears as Radio 3's Matthew Sweet presents a concert of classic movie moments. Join the Crouch End Festival Chorus, conductor Keith Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra - and a host of famous cinema composers - on a voyage that takes you all the way to Omaha beach with John Williams's Hymn to the Fallen (Saving Private Ryan), before transporting you to another universe with the epic score Duel of the Fates (Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace). It isn't all plain sailing though: expect some turbulence with Prokofiev's The Battle on the Ice and the ultimate O, Fortuna from Carmina Burana.

From the Royal Festival Hall, Matthew Sweet presents a concert of classic movie scores.

From The New World20190403From the Victoria Hall, Hanley

Presented by Stuart Flinders

Debussy: Pr退lude

From The New World20191206Clemens Schuldt makes his debut conducting the BBC National Orchestra of Wales during their biannual tour of mid and north Wales. Two immensely popular works share the bill in this concert from Bangor. Brahms's Violin Concerto was the latest attempt by the composer to shake off the spectre of Beethoven, which had dogged him his whole compositional life. Former BBC New Generation Artist Aleksey Semenenko explores its joyous themes and hearty dances, which hark back to Brahms's younger days, enjoying life with his friend, and the works dedicatee, Joseph Joachim. Dvo?ကk's final symphony is dedicated not to a person, but to his new home, America. Infused with the sounds of this new world which he had embraced, and renowned for that celebrated cor anglais solo, a theme made famous by a boy delivering bread on a bike (other bakers are available), it certainly is one not to be missed.

Recorded in Prichard Jones Hall, Bangor last month, and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, Op 77

8.20 Interval music

8.40 Dvorak: Symphony No 9 in E minor, Op 95 'From the New World

Aleksey Semenenko (violin)

Clemens Schuldt (conductor)

BBC NOW and Clemens Schuldt perform Dvo\u0159\u00e1k's Symphony No 9 on their tour of Wales

From The New World20221125The Ulster Orchestra are joined by their Chief Conductor in a concert which celebrates the music of composers who wrote music while in exile or amidst the spectre of war, beginning with Polish composer Gra?yna Bacewicz's Overture for Orchestra which was written during the German occupation of Poland in 1943. The following year would see her eventually fleeing Warsaw, and the overture was played for the first time at the end of the war in Krakow at a festival of contemporary Polish music.

The various sections of the orchestra all have a chance to shine in Bart k's wonderfully colourful Concerto for Orchestra, written the same year as the Bacewicz Overture, but composed in the United States after he left his native Hungary due to the outbreak of World War II. Known for its inventive and lively orchestration, the work received its premiere in 1944 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under conductor Serge Koussevitzky.

Finally, the work from which this evening's concert gets its name - Dvo?ကk's Symphony No. 9 in E minor, more commonly known as the 'New World' Symphony, was composed in 1893 while Dvorak was living in America at the invitation of the music patron, Jeannette Thurber who offered him the opportunity to become director of the National Conservatory of Music of America. Before the work had its premiere, the composer gave it the subtitle `Z nov退ho sv?ta` (From the New World).

During the interval, presenter John Toal will be speaking with conductor Daniele Rustioni.

Ulster Hall, Belfast

Daniele Rustioni, conductor

Bacewicz - Overture for Orchestra

Bart k - Concerto for Orchestra

Dvo?ကk - Symphony No.9 From the New World

The Ulster Orchestra perform works by Bacewicz, Bart\u00f3k and Dvo\u0159\u00e1k.

Fusing Forces , Yazz Ahmed And The Bbc Concert Orchestra20211123British-Bahraini trumpeter Yazz Ahmed and her quintet join the BBC Concert Orchestra and Principal Conductor Bramwell Tovey at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London as part of the 2021 EFG London Jazz Festival. Presented by Jumok退 Fashola.

Jessie Montgomery Banner

Yazz Ahmed La Saboteuse

Yazz Ahmed A Paradise in the Hold

Judith Weir Still, Glowing

Yazz Ahmed The Earth's Reflection

Yazz Ahmed A Shoal of Souls

INTERVAL

Yazz Ahmed Barbara

Yazz Ahmed 2857

Arvo P䀀rt Silouan's Song

Yazz Ahmed Al Emadi

Yazz Ahmed Dawn Patrol

Yazz Ahmed - trumpet

Dave Manington - bass guitar

Corrina Silverster - percussion

Martin France - drums

Ralph Wyld - vibraphone

Bramwell Tovey - conductor

Yazz Ahmed and her quintet join the BBC Concert Orchestra at the EFG London Jazz Festival.

G\u00f3recki's Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs20181111London Sinfonietta marks Armistice Day with G recki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, a powerfully emotional work that dwells on family separations engendered by warfare.

Penderecki: Fanfare for orchestra (UK Premiere)

G recki: Symphony No.3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs), Op.36

Elizabeth Atherton, soprano

David Atherton, conductor

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London

Presented by Ian Skelly

Genre-benders: Baroque At The Edge 202120210513A double bill from this year's Baroque at the Edge Festival, which took place online in January when leading musicians from different genres were invited to take the music of the Baroque and see where it led them - with some surprising results.

In Cubaroque, tenor Nicholas Mulroy was joined by the plucked strings of Elizabeth Kenny and Toby Carr to explore the connections between Henry Purcell, Claudio Monteverdi and Barbara Strozzi, and modern Latin-American standards by the likes of Caetano Veloso and Victor Jara.

FolkBaroque celebrated the central role folk and dance has played in European art music by bringing together folk fiddler Tom Moore and leading Baroque performers soprano Lucy Crowe and the ensemble La Nuova Musica.

Presented by Hannah French, in conversation with the Festival's artistic director, Lindsay Kemp.

Nicholas Mulroy (tenor)

Elizabeth Kenny (theorbo & guitar)

Toby Carr (guitar);

Lucy Crowe (soprano)

Tom Moore (fiddle)

David Bates (director)

Folk music and modern Latin-American standards rub shoulders with Monteverdi and Purcell.

George Enescu International Festival 201520160207Ian Skelly introduces recordings made at the George Enescu International Festival held each year in Bucharest and which attracts leading musicians from around the world.

Brahms: Rhapsody in B flat minor, Op. 79 No. 1, and in G minor, Op. 79 No. 2

Christian Zacharias (piano)

Enescu: Suite No. 3 in D, Op. 27 'Villageoise

Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Cristian Mandeal (conductor)

Schumann: Kreisleriana, Op. 16

Bartok: Hungarian Sketches, Sz. 97

Rec Romanian Atheneum, Bucharest.

From the 2015 George Enescu International Festival, music by Brahms, Enescu and Schumann.

George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra20210524Horia Andreescu conducts the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra in music by Beethoven and Bartok, as well as music by Romanian composers Doru Popovici, Dan Dediu and Enescu himself. Recorded at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest on Romanian National Culture Day in January 2021.

During the interval you can hear more music by Enescu, in the shape of chamber pieces for piano, viola and flute.

Beethoven - Overture Egmont, Op.84

Popovici - Excerpts from 'Codex Caioni' Suite

Enescu - Pastorale, Menuet Triste, Aria and Scherzino for violin & orchestra

Rafael Butaru (violin)

Horia Andreescu (conductor)

8.15pm

Enescu - Pavane from Piano Suite No.2 in D, Op.10

Andrei Licaret (piano)

Enescu - Konzertstück for viola & piano

Lawrence Power (viola)

Simon Crawford-Phillips (piano)

Enescu - Cantabile & Presto for flute & piano

Sharon Bezaly (flute)

Roland P怀ntinen (piano)

8.35pm

Dan Dediu - Codex Brassoviensis

Bartok - Six Romanian Folk Dances

Presented by Fiona Talkington

The George Enescu Philharmonic play Beethoven, Bartok and music by Romanian composers.

German Symphony Orchestra20220404From Berlin, Robin Ticciati conducts the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlioz's overture Les francs-juges, Schumann's Piano Concerto with soloist Leif Ove Andsnes and Beethoven's ‘Eroica' Symphony.

During the interval, you can hear more from Leif Ove Andsnes as he plays piano alongside soprano Lise Davidsen in Grieg's song cycle Haugtussa.

Berlioz - Les Francs-Juges, Op.3

Schumann - Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54

Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)

Robin Ticciati (conductor)

c. 8.20pm - INTERVAL

Grieg - Haugtussa, Op.67

Lise Davidsen (soprano)

c. 8.45pm

Beethoven - Symphony No.3 in E flat, Op.55 'Eroica

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Image: © Giorgia Bertazzi

Robin Ticciati conducts the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlioz, Schumann and Beethoven.

Germany Symphony Orchestra Play Mussorgsky, Mendelssohn And Hindemith20220711The German Symphony Orchestra are joined by the young Armenian violinist Diana Adamyan in Mendelssohn's evergreen concerto. Also on the bill at this concert recorded at the Philharmonie, Berlin are a virtuosic work for trumpet by the self-styled 'romantic,' Alfred Desenclos and Hindemith's uplifting Konzertmusik.

Mussorgsky: Overture to Khovanshchina

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64

c.8.05pm Interval music:

The Choir of King's College, London conducted by David Trendell sing two motets by Alfred Desclos: Salve Regina and Nos autem.

c. 8.15pm

Desenclos: Incantation, Thr耀ne et Danse

Hindemith: Konzertmusik, Op.50

Selina Ott (trumpet)

Diana Adamyan (violin)

German Symphony Orchestra, Ruth Reinhardt (conductor)

Diana Adamyan joins the German Symphony Orchestra for Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.

Gershwin In Hollywood And Tchaikovsky In New York20190203Let me entertain you' is the motto of this concert, featured this week and next, by the WDR Radio Orchestra. The focus is on two of the most important American composers of the twentieth century - George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. This week's highlights feature the music of Gershwin, under the musical direction of Wayne Marshall.

The US remains a theme with a performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 3 by one of New York's newest orchestras.

Introduced by Kate Molleson

George Gershwin - Rhapsody No. 2, for piano and orchestra

George Gershwin arr. Robert Russell Bennett - Gershwin in Hollywood {Medley}

WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne

Wayne Marshall, conductor/piano

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 3 in D Major, op. 29 (Polish)

The Orchestra Now

Leon Botstein, conductor

Let me entertain you! The WDR Radio Orchestra in Concert, with Tchaikovsky, from New York.

Gil Shaham, Swr Symphony Orchestra, Rtve Symphony Orchestra20180916Gil Shaham plays Mozart's Violin Concerto No.1, and Oliver Diaz conducts Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.5.

Kate Molleson presents concerts from around Europe. Tonight, Gil Shaham is the star soloist in Mozart's youthful Violin Concerto No.1 with the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra. Plus, Tchaikovsky's romantic Symphony No.5 from Spanish radio's RTVE Symphony Orchestra.

Mozart: Symphony No.29 in A, K201

Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra

Nicholas McGegan (conductor)

Mozart: Violin Concerto No.1 in B flat, K207

Gil Shaham (violin)

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.5 in E minor

Oliver Diaz (conductor)

Mozart from Stuttgart with violinist Gil Shaham, plus Tchaikovsky from Madrid

Girl Crazy20190701Barbara Hannigan re-unites with the Ludwig Orchestra at this year's Aldeburgh Festival. In tonight's concert Barbara Hannigan has the role of both conductor and soprano as she presents a programme spanning three centuries with music from Haydn to Gershwin. Martin Handley presents.

Part 1

Stravinsky: Pulcinella (complete ballet)

INTERVAL

Martin Handley in conversation with Barbara Hannigan

Part 2

Haydn: Symphony No.49 ‘La Passione

Gershwin: Suite from Girl Crazy

Kate Howden (mezzo-soprano)

James Way (tenor)

Antoin Herrera-Lopez Kessel (bass)

Barbara Hannigan (soprano/conductor)

Photo credit: Elmer de Haas

Barbara Hannigan as conductor and soloist for tonight's concert from Aldeburgh Festival.

Glagolitic Mass20181011Janက?ek's choral masterpiece Glagolitic Mass and Strauss's Nietzsche-inspired Also Sprach Zarathustra performed by the Hall退, Hall退 Choir and a stellar cast of soloists. Presented by Mark Forrest.

Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra

Interval

Leos Janက?ek: Glagolitic Mass

Sara Jakubaik (soprano)

Felicity Palmer (mezzo-soprano)

Stuart Skelton (tenor)

James Platt (bass)

Darius Battiwalla (organ)

Edward Gardner (conductor)

Jan\u00e1cek's choral masterpiece and Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra.

Glazunov's The Seasons And Schnittke's Choir Concerto.20171112Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture

Ian Skelly introduces a performance of Glazunov's ballet score to The Seasons, first performed in February 1900 at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage in the presenceof the glittering Imperial court. Also tonight, a performance of a masterpiece by Alfred Schnittke setting words of an Armenian version of The Book of Lamentations. It was written in the mid-1980s when Schnittke and other Russians felt able to explore their interest in the Orthodox church. Its language is rooted in the great Orthodox choral tradition.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Glazunov: Prelude to the suite 'From the Middle Ages, Op.79

Verbier Festival Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev (conductor)

Schnittke: Concerto for Choir

Swedish Radio Chorus, Peter Dijkstra (director)

Glazunov: The Seasons, Op.67

Russian National Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev (conductor).

Ian Skelly introduces Glazunov's The Seasons of 1900 and Schnittke's Choir Concerto.

Glorious Percussion20190917In a concert from the 2019 Edinburgh International Festival the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and their chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard, are joined by the Colin Currie Group to perform Sofia Gubaidulina's technicolour concerto, Glorious Percussion. It's a rare chance to hear this ritualistic, spiritually ambitious work for 5 solo percussionists and orchestra.

It's paired with selections from Grieg's fairytale-folk music written for Ibsen's Peer Gynt in 1876. These extracts contain some of classical music's most oft-hummed tunes, and a chance for the orchestra to welcome soprano Malin Christensson to voice the lyrical utterances of Peer Gynt's loyal squeeze, Solveig.

Recorded at The Usher Hall, Edinburgh in August.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Sofia Gubaidulina: Glorious Percussion

8.10 Interval

Part 2 8.30

Grieg: Peer Gynt (Excerpts)

Malin Christensson (soprano)

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

Sofia Gubaidulina's concerto performed by the Colin Currie Group and the BBC SSO.

Goldner Quartet And Piers Lane20190204The acclaimed Australian string quartet are joined by their compatriot Piers Lane for a 20th century programme. Webern's Langsamer Satz from 1905 is a lush, Romantic-sounding work, closer to Brahms than his subsequent austere and pared-down 12-tone music. Korngold's 1921 Piano Quintet, too, is very much of a part of the same late-Romantic Viennese idiom - a style Korngold would shortly to take to Hollywood. From 1964, and dedicated to his third wife, Shostakovich's ninth quartet, in contrast to much of his quartet output, shows the composer in a relatively positive mood.

Recorded yesterday at Wigmore Hall and introduced by Martin Handley.

Webern: Langsamer Satz

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 9 in E flat, Op. 117

Interval

Korngold: Piano Quintet in E, Op. 15

Goldner String Quartet

Piers Lane (piano)

Webern Langsamer Satz, Shostakovich Quartet No. 9 in E flat, Korngold Piano Quintet

Gospel Messiah With Marin Alsop20231212Handel's popular Messiah is given the gospel treatment in a concept by conductor Marin Alsop. Recorded at the Royal Albert Hall, London, last Thursday.

Presented by Linton Stephens.

Handel Messiah

Arrangements by Bob Christianson and Gary Anderson.

Soloists Vanessa Haynes and Zwekele Tshabalala

BBC Symphony Chorus

London Adventist Chorale

BBC Concert Orchestra

BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus & London Adventist Chorale in a gospel Messiah.

Handel's Messiah given the gospel treatment by conductor Marin Alsop, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, London Adventist Chorale, Zwekele Tshabalala and Vanessa Haynes.

Grace Williams, Benjamin Britten And Vaughan Williams20211109Jamie Phillips and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales present three giants of British music side-by-side; Benjamin Britten, Grace Williams and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The three were all united by the Royal College of Music, with the elder Vaughan Williams teaching his younger counterparts. Britten and Williams became good friends, keeping in contact throughout their lives, however their opinions of their teacher were starkly different - Grace saw him as one of her biggest influences, referring to him as 'Uncle Ralph', whereas Britten was publicly contemptuous toward him. Nonetheless, all three composed some of the most remarkable music to come out of Britain in the 20th Century.

Britten's Prelude and Fugue is an intense work for string orchestra, in which all 18 players have individual lines, giving the fugue phenomenal drive and energy. Grace Williams' Violin Concerto is an exceptionally lyrical piece, whose central movement is built around the Welsh hymn tune Hen Ddarbi (Old Proverb), and Vaughan Williams' celebrated 5th Symphony is also highly melodic, but with the evocative spaciousness so remarkable in his music.

Recorded in Hoddinott Hall on 3rd November and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Britten: Prelude and Fugue

Williams: Violin Concerto

Interval Music

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 5

Madeleine Mitchell (violin)

Jamie Phillips (conductor)

Jamie Phillips conducts the BBC NOW in a musical snapshot of 40s Britain.

Green20190522Artist Lachlan Goudie presents a concert from the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, given by the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Bramwell Tovey on the subject of 'green', with musical images of nature, Michael Torke's synaesthetic representation, and Othello's 'green with envy' jealousy from Rossini's overture. The concert also features saxophonist Jess Gillam in a brand new piece by John Harle called Briggflatts, inspired by the epic autobiographical poem by Basil Bunting, named after the Brigflatts Quaker meeting house near Sedbergh in Cumbria, which Bunting attended regularly.

Wagner Der Venusberg from Tannhauser

Judith Weir Forest

John Harle Briggflatts - Concerto for Soprano Saxophone (World Premiere)*

INTERVAL

Rossini Otello Overture

Sibelius Spring Song

Michael Torke Green

Korngold The Adventures of Robin Hood- Symphonic Suite

Artist Lachlan Goudie presents a concert by BBC Concert Orchestra on the subject of green.

Green20200325Another chance to hear artist Lachlan Goudie present a concert from the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, given by the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Bramwell Tovey last summer on the subject of 'green', with musical images of nature, Michael Torke's synaesthetic representation, and Othello's 'green with envy' jealousy from Rossini's overture. The concert also features saxophonist Jess Gillam in a brand new piece by John Harle called Briggflatts, inspired by the epic autobiographical poem by Basil Bunting, named after the Brigflatts Quaker meeting house near Sedbergh in Cumbria, which Bunting attended regularly.

Wagner Der Venusberg from Tannhauser

Judith Weir Forest

John Harle Briggflatts - Concerto for Soprano Saxophone (World Premiere)*

INTERVAL

Rossini Otello Overture

Sibelius Spring Song

Michael Torke Green

Korngold The Adventures of Robin Hood- Symphonic Suite

Jess Gillam (saxophone)

Another chance to hear Lachlan Goudie present a 'green' concert by the BBC CO.

Grieg's Piano Concerto20211118Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Garrick Ohlsson performs Grieg's Piano Concerto with the BBC SSO in Glasgow. Hannu Lintu also conducts the orchestra in evocative music by Rautavaara and Brahms's Fourth Symphony.

Rautavaara: Lintukoto (Isle of Bliss)

Grieg: Piano Concerto

8.15 Interval

8.35 Part 2

Brahms: Symphony No 4

Garrick Ohlsson (piano)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Hannu Lintu (conductor)

Photo: Garrick Ohlsson (credit, Dario Acosta)

Garrick Ohlsson joins the BBC SSO as the virtuoso soloist in the ever famous showstopper.

Gustavo Dudamel Conducts The Berlin Philharmonic20230626Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in a concert recorded at the Philharmonie in May. There's a new work by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, Alberto Ginastera's Piano Concerto No.1 with soloist Sergio Tiempo, and in the second half, Charles Ives' Symphony No.2.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Gabriele Ortiz: Teenek - invenciones de territorio for orchestra

Alberto Ginastera: Piano Concerto No.1, Op. 28

Charles Ives: Symphony No.2

Sergio Tiempo (piano)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Gustavo Dudamel (conductor)

Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in music by Ginastera, Ives and Ortiz.

Gustavo Dudamel In Paris20230605Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Paris Opera Orchestra in music by Ravel and Strauss.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

In this mix of pieces from the French and Austrian repertoires, Gustavo Dudamel masterfully draws out the myriad colours of the Orchestre de l'Op退ra National de Paris.

Messiaen: Un sourire

Haydn: Symphony no 82 in C major, 'The Bear

Ravel: Ma m耀re l'oye,

Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite

Concert recorded on 08/04/2023 at the Philharmonie, Paris.

Halle20160215Roderick Williams performs Mahler's Kindertotenlieder with the Hall退 Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall

Rachmaninov: Isle of the Dead

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder

Shostakovich: Symphony No.15

This concert opens with Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead, his great, mystical tone poem depicting Charon, the ferryman of Greek mythology.

The composition of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder coincided with that of his Sixth Symphony, a work Sir Mark conducted here in October. Featuring tonight, the renowned Roderick Williams, these gentle and intimate songs express sorrow, tenderness, wistfulness and finally, resignation to fate.

Shostakovich likened the first movement of his fifteenth and last symphony to a 'toy shop'. Laden with quotations from his own works, it also includes most famously a bizarre reference to the galop from Rossini's William Tell Overture. As with other works from the last years of his life the music treads a fine line between vitality and disillusion.

Followed by a glimpse into Adopt a Composer - Making Music's scheme pairing composers with performing groups from around the country.

Tonight the Jubilate Ladies Choir works on Ailie Robertson's song-cycle on the theme of womanhood.

Roderick Williams performs Mahler's Kindertotenlieder with the Halle Orchestra.

Halle Orchestra20210322Part of Manchester Week. The Hall退 Orchestra play Richard Strauss, Glazunov and Sibelius. Featuring saxophonist Jess Gillam and Hall退 Music Director Sir Mark Elder.

Richard Strauss: Serenade in E flat, Op 7

Sir Mark Elder, conductor

Glazunov: Saxophone Concerto

Jess Gillam, saxophone

Jonathan Bloxham, conductor

Hannah Kendall: Where is the chariot of fire?

Symphony No 3

Part of Manchester Week. The Halle Orchestra play Richard Strauss, Glazunov and Sibelius.

Halle Orchestra At Bridgewater Hall2020111020210121 (R3)Sir Mark Elder conducts The Halle Orchestra in a concert recorded in November 2020 at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall.

The music includes the world premiere of Huw Watkins's 'Fanfare for The Halle', a suite of pieces from Wagner's opera 'Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg' and Brahms's Symphony No.1. There's also a chance to hear baritone Roderick Williams' singing in his own orchestration of George Butterworth's 6 songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'.

During the interval you can hear Huw Watkins in his role as a pianist, performing EJ Moeran's Cello Sonata with his brother, the cellist Paul Watkins.

Huw Watkins - Fanfare for The Halle (world premiere)

Wagner - Suite from 'Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

20.10

EJ Moeran - Cello Sonata in A minor

Paul Watkins (cello)

Huw Watkins (piano)

20.30

Brahms - Symphony No.1 in C minor, Op.68

George Butterworth orch. Roderick Williams - 6 Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad

Roderick Williams (baritone)

Presented by Ian Skelly

Followed by a selection of trio sonatas on disc.

Sir Mark Elder conducts The Halle Orchestra in music by Huw Watkins, Wagner and Brahms.

Halle, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky20151027The Hall退 and Ryan Wigglesworth perform Berlioz's Byron inspired 'Harold In Italy' with viola soloist Lawrence Power, alongside music by Tchaikovsky, live from Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall.

Berlioz: Harold in Italy

8.15 INTERVAL

8.35

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 4 in F minor

Lawrence Power - viola

Hall退 Orchestra

conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth.

The Halle perform Berlioz and Tchaikovsky from Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall.

Halle, Elder: Wagner, Strauss, Verdi20171116Stuart Flinders presents a concert of Wagner, Strauss and Verdi given by The Hall退 orchestra and choir, conducted by Sir Mark Elder, depicting the conflict between spiritual and sensual love. In the first half, erotic charge and the musical orgy of Venusberg in a work admired by both Queen Victoria and Oscar Wilde: Wagner's Tannhauser, where goddesses, knights, sirens, nymphs and chanting pilgrims express the dichotomous urges of spirit and flesh.

Then Richard Strauss's vivid tone poem Don Juan. Though the emphasis is on the erotic hedonism of that ultimate libertine and womaniser, the score was prefaced by an extract from the titular poem by Nikolaus Lenau - actually more of a philosophical treatise on love than a Don Giovannian list of notches on bedposts.

The second half belongs to the contemplation of divine love with Quattro pezzi sacri by Verdi. Four sacred texts reference Dante and Palestrina, and conclude with the glorious Te Deum - which Verdi wished to have buried with him.

Wagner: Overture and Venusberg music (Tannh䀀user)

R. Strauss: Don Juan

INTERVAL

Verdi: Four Sacred Pieces

Hall退 Choir and Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder (conductor).

The Halle Orchestra and choir depict the conflicts of love in Wagner, Strauss and Verdi.

Halle, Elgar's The Dream Of Gerontius20170320Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hall退 Orchestra, Choir and Youth Choir with soloists Sasha Cooke, David Butt Philip and Iain Paterson in a British choral masterpiece from the turn of the last century. Composed in 1900 to text from the poem by John Henry Newman, 'The Dream of Gerontius' relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory.

Recorded on 12th March at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, and presented by Stuart Flinders.

Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius, Op.38

Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano)

David Butt Philip (tenor)

Iain Paterson (bass-baritone)

Hall退 Choir

Hall退 Youth Choir

Sir Mark Elder (conductor).

Mark Elder conducts the Halle in Elgar's oratorio The Dream of Gerontius.

Halle, Henze, Ravel, Liszt, Beethoven20160317Markus Stenz and the Hall退 perform Beethoven's Symphony No.5, and are joined by Kirill Gerstein to perform Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.

Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

Presented by Stuart Flinders.

Markus Stenz conductor

Kirill Gerstein piano

Henze: The Enchanted Forest

Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

Liszt: Totentanz

8.20 Interval

8.40

Beethoven: Symphony No.5 in C minor

Markus Stenz and the Hall退 begin with Henze's The Enchanted Forest, an atmospheric orchestral medley adapted from the composer's opera K怀nig Hirsch (The Stag King).

Kirill Gerstein, hailed by the New York Times as 'one of the most respected pianists of his generation', is then the soloist in Ravel's pulsating Concerto for the Left Hand, a work influenced by Spanish music and jazz. Remarkably, throughout the piece Ravel makes one hand sound like two! Liszt's Totentanz is another extraordinary work for piano and orchestra. Years ahead of its time when first performed, it is a set of virtuosic variations that paraphrases the ancient plainchant, the ominous Dies Irae.

In the second half the fate theme reaches its glorious apotheosis in Beethoven's legendary Fifth Symphony, with its iconic four-note 'fate' motif.

Markus Stenz conducts the Halle in music by Henze, Ravel, Liszt and Beethoven.

Halle, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms20151207The Hall退 play Mendelssohn and Brahms. Lars Vogt joins them in Schumann's Piano Concerto.

Recorded at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Mendelssohn: Overture: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave)

Schumann: Piano Concerto

8.15: Interval

Brahms: Symphony No.2

Lars Vogt, piano

Louis Langr退e, conductor

Inspired by a trip to Fingal's Cave on the island of Staffa, Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture is one of the great musical seascapes.

Lars Vogt then joins Louis Langr退e and the Hall退 for Schumann's poetic Piano Concerto. Written for Schumann's beloved wife Clara, it is a work of both glorious lyricism and virtuoso display.

Melodies flow so freely', wrote Brahms as he composed what is one of his most sunlit and serene creations - his Second Symphony.

The Halle performs music by Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms.

Halle, Stravinsky, Bach, Schumann20160425From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Adam Tomlinson

The Hall退 with a programme of Bach, Stravinsky and Schumann.

Stravinsky: Chorale Variations on Vom Himmel Hoch

Bach: Magnificat in D, BWV243

8.15: Interval

BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the first of the finalists in this year's brass category.

Trombonist Gemma Riley plays music by:

Cesare and Cast退r耀de

Schumann: Symphony No.3, 'Rhenish

Sophie Bevan, soprano

Christopher Ainslie, countertenor

Andrew Staples, tenor

Christopher Purves, bass-baritone

Hall退 Choir and Orchestra

Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor

In 1956 Stravinsky adapted and orchestrated a set of variations Bach made on his Christmas hymn 'Vom Himmel Hoch'. The result is an ingenious and delightful work, at once both Bach and Stravinsky. The Hall退 Choir then joins the orchestra for Bach's Magnificat, one of the composer's greatest choral works. After the interval comes the 'Rhenish' Symphony, Schumann's great musical evocation of the beauties of Germany's Rhineland. Each of its five richly contrasted movements portrays various elements of local scenery, history and folklore. Appropriately for this concert, the fourth of these - an evocation of Cologne's magnificent cathedral - pays tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach.

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the Halle in music by Stravinsky, Bach and Schumann.

Halle, Verdi, Beethoven20161010The Hall退 and Sir Mark Elder in music from Verdi's Macbeth and Beethoven's Symphony No 9, 'Choral'.

Presented by Adam Tomlinson and recorded at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

Verdi: Macbeth Scenes (1865 revised version):

Act I: Prelude

Act I Scene 2: Macbeth's soliloquy and duet with Lady Macbeth

Act IV: Scene 3: Macbeth's last cantabile

Act IV: Scene 2: Sleepwalking scene

B退atrice Uria-Monzon, Mezzo-Soprano

Scott Hendricks, Baritone

Interval

Beethoven: Symphony No.9, 'Choral

Natalya Romaniw, Soprano

Madeleine Shaw, Mezzo-Soprano

Allan Clayton, Tenor

Hall退 Choir

The Hall退 and Sir Mark Elder begin their autumn season with a dramatic concert: the first half features music from Verdi's Macbeth, a graphic portrayal of Shakespeare's play, including Lady Macbeth's descent into madness sung by mezzo-soprano B退atrice Uria-Monzon, and baritone Scott Hendricks in the title role. The concert concludes with Beethoven's Ninth symphony, the Choral, full of drama itself and culminating in the final 'Ode to Joy'.

In a concert given in Manchester, Mark Elder conducts the Halle in Verdi and Beethoven.

Halle, Wagner, Beethoven, Sibelius20161117Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

The Hall退 is conducted by Andrew Manze in a programme which begins on the storm-tossed oceans of Wagner's Flying Dutchman and ends in a work which became an emblem for the Finnish people.

Presented by Stuart Flinders

Wagner: Overture - The Flying Dutchman

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat major, Op.73 (Emperor)

8.10pm

Interval music - Bach's Actus Tragicus BWV 106

8.30pm

Sibelius: Symphony No.2 in D major, Op.43

Martin Helmchen (piano)

The Hall退, Andrew Manze (conductor).

Andrew Manze conducts the Halle in music by Wagner, Beethoven and Sibelius.

Halle, Wigglesworth: Mozart, Mahler20171124Sublime visions of love and paradise by Mozart and Mahler, given by the Hall退 orchestra, soprano Joanne Lunn and conductor Ryan Wigglesworth in Manchester, presented by Stuart Flinders.

London-born operatic soprano Anna Selina ('Nancy') Storace's farewell concert in Vienna was the inspiration for Mozart's aria Ch'io mi scordi di te' ('Should I forget you'). One of music's greatest paeans to love, Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein noted that he 'poured into it his whole soul... We have the impression that Mozart wanted to preserve the memory of [Nancy's] voice... and... the depth of his feeling for her...' The stage also influenced the forward-looking Symphony No 34, with its glimpses of opera buffa and tender lyricism.

Mahler was also a man of the theatre, spending much of his 30-year career conducting in the opera house. His symphonies often burst into song, and it is one small verse, 'Das himmlische Leben' (Heavenly life), which was the starting point for his Fourth. Mozart, creepy folklore and eternal sleep inspire the journey towards a child's vision of heaven, replete with bread baked by angels and plentiful sweets.

Mozart: Ch'io mi scordi di te - concert aria for soprano, piano and orchestra, K505

Mozart: Symphony No 34 in C major

INTERVAL

Mahler: Symphony No 4

Joanne Lunn (soprano)

conductor, Ryan Wigglesworth (piano).

Mozart and Mahler given by the Halle, soprano Joanne Lunn and conductor Ryan Wigglesworth.

Halle: Bach, Mendelssohn, Shostakovich20180315Stuart Flinders presents a concert of Bach, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich given by the Halle, pianist Charles Owen and Sir Mark Elder live from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

A war symphony without triumph - how could this go down well with the Soviet authorities? But the humanist in Shostakovich couldn't write anything other, and he described his Eighth with three simple words: 'life is beautiful'. And there is beauty, and despair, and anger, and that cryptic, equivocal finale. Shostakovich was a great admirer of JS Bach; fittingly the first two movements in tonight's opening concerto also appear in Cantata 146, 'Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal in das Reich Gottes eingehen' (We must pass through much tribulation to enter God's kingdom). Mendelssohn, too, absorbed the influence of the Baroque master, particularly in his great psalm settings. The manuscript of this 114th Psalm is notated with the acronym H.D.m - German shorthand for 'Hilf Du mir', or 'Help Thou me'.

Bach: Keyboard Concerto No 1 in D minor, BWV 1052

Mendelssohn: Psalm 114, Op 51

INTERVAL

Shostakovich: Symphony No 8 in C minor, Op 65

Charles Owen (piano)

Hall退 Choir, Youth Choir and Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder (conductor).

Stuart Flinders presents a concert of Bach and Shostakovich given live by the Halle.

Handel In Germany2019100820191010 (R3)A rare chance to hear Handel's Brockes-Passion given by one of the UK's leading period performance ensembles and an outstanding trio of soloists at London's Wigmore Hall.

By 1719, when he set Barthold Heinrich Brockes's version of Christ's final days, from the Last Supper to the Crucifixion, Handel was already established as one of Europe's foremost composers, especially in opera. So it's not surprising that Handel's Passion setting is at once deftly paced, emotionally engaging and compellingly dramatic. Canny as ever, Handel recycled numbers from some of his older Italian and English music for his Hamburg audience (and in turn recycled parts of the Brockes-Passion for subsequent English works). Years later, a certain Johann Sebastian Bach was so impressed he used some of Handel's ideas for his own Passion settings and even performed the work himself.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Handel: Brockes-Passion

Sandrine Piau (soprano)

Stuart Jackson (tenor)

Konstantin Krimmel (baritone)

Arcangelo

Jonathan Cohen (director & harpsichord)

Brockes-Passion, Handel's unfamiliar masterpiece, performed by Arcangelo at Wigmore Hall.

Handel, Israel In Egypt20160520Handel's monumental Israel in Egypt is a gripping account of the Jews's slavery-to-triumph journey from Egypt to Israel. The drama of the Old Testament narrative, with its avenging God, plagues, betrayal, setbacks and celebration inspired Handel to reach a peak of choral writing and ambitious orchestration which even he himself rarely equalled and never surpassed.

Martin Handley presents this period instrument performance from Westminster Abbey led by Organist and Master of the Choristers of Westminster Abbey, James O'Donnell.

Handel: Overture to the Occasional Oratorio; Israel in Egypt

The Choir of Westminster Abbey

St James's Baroque

James O'Donnell (conductor).

From Westminster Abbey, a period instrument performance of Handel's Israel in Egypt.

Handel, Jc Bach, Prokofiev, Haydn20160911Ian Skelly launches the new season showcasing the very best performances from concerts around Europe and the pick of the summer festivals. This week we've JC Bach and Haydn from Camerata Salzburg and Prokofiev from the stellar lineup of Denis Matsuev, the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev.

Handel orch Mozart: Excerpts from 'Acis and Galatea

Andrew Manze

Recorded at the Mozart Festival, Würzburg

JC Bach: Symphony in G minor, Op. 6 No. 6

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16

Denis Matsuev, piano

Recorded at the Mikkeli Music Festival

Haydn: Symphony No. 98 in B flat, Hob. I:98 ('London')

Recorded at the Mozart Festival, Würzburg.

Ian Skelly presents music by Handel, JC Bach, Prokofiev and Haydn.

Handel, Mozart: Messiah20231219Enjoy a rare chance to hear Handel's seasonal masterpiece in Mozart's compelling re-imagining for late 18th-century orchestra.

With Mozart's addition of trombones, horns, flutes and clarinets to Handel's oboes, bassoon and trumpets, there is an abundance of rich and surprising textures – but every inspired note of Handel's original remains the same.

The BBC Singers, conducted by Sofi Jeannin, join the Britten Sinfonia and a quartet of outstanding soloists to perform this work.

Recorded earlier this month at the Barbican and presented by Martin Handley.

Hilary Cronin (soprano)

Helen Charlston (alto)

Laurence Kilsby (tenor)

Morgan Pearse (bass)

Sofi Jeannin (conductor)

The BBC Singers perform Mozart's arrangement of Handel's oratorio Messiah.

The BBC Singers, conducted by Sofi Jeannin, join the Britten Sinfonia and four outstanding soloists to perform Mozart's compelling re-imagination of Handel's masterpiece, Messiah.

Handel, Vivaldi And Bach From Arcangelo20220524From Italy to Germany: Arcangelo and their director, Jonathan Cohen are joined by the soprano Carolyn Sampson and the counter tenor Tim Mead as they explore the fruitful links between the musical cultures of Baroque Italy and Germany.

Wigmore Hall's ensemble in residence begin their programme with a luscious and virtuosic sacred motet for soprano and orchestra by Handel, who spent four years in Italy as a young man. Tim Mead sings a theatrical aria by Vivaldi who was a major inspiration on the young Handel and the programme ends with an adaptation by Johan Sebastian Bach of one of the most famous works in all Baroque Europe, Pergolesi's Stabat mater.

Presented by Ian Skelly and recorded at Wigmore Hall.

Handel: Silete venti - motet HWV.242

Handel: Concerto grosso in F major Op.3 No.4

Vivaldi: Cessate omai cessate - cantata RV.684 for alto

Vivaldi: Concerto in A minor RV.522, Op.3 No.8 for 2 violins from 'L'estro armonico

at c. 8.25pm Interval Music: Imogen Cooper plays . Sposalizio, Il Penseroso, Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa and Sonetto 104 del Petrarca from Liszt's 'Ann退es de P耀lerinage, Italie.

c. 8.45pm

Bach: Tilge, H怀chster, meine Sünden (Psalm 51) BWV.1083 [based on Pergolesi's Stabat Mater]

Carolyn Sampson - Soprano

Tim Mead - Counter-tenor

Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen (director)

Arcangelo, Carolyn Sampson and Tim Mead in Handel, Vivaldi and Bach at Wigmore Hall

Handel's Chandos Anthems From Cannons20170424As part of the 2017 London Handel Festival, Adrian Butterfield conducts three of Handel's Chandos Anthems at the church on the Cannons Estate, once home to the financially incontinent James Brydges, Duke of Chandos.

Handel spent about a year in 1717-18 in residence at Cannons where the Duke spared no expense in commissioning some of the best Italian painters of the day to redecorate the church and Grinling Gibbons to carve the case on the organ. Alas, like many of his peers, the Duke was undone by the South Sea Bubble.

Presented by Verity Sharp

Handel: Chandos Anthem No.6, 'As pants the hart,' HWV.251

Handel: Chandos Anthem No.3, 'Have mercy upon me,' HWV.248

Interval music: Paolo Zanzu plays Handel's Keyboard Suite in E major, HWV 430.

Handel: Chandos Anthem No.5, 'I will magnify thee,' HWV.250a

Grace Davidson (soprano)

Charles Daniels (tenor)

Edward Grint (bass-baritone)

London Handel Orchestra

Adrian Butterfield (conductor)

[concert recorded 19.04.2017].

Adrian Butterfield conducts the London Handel Orchestra in Handel's Chandos Anthems.

Handel's Coronation Anthems Performed For The King20230608French baroque music specialists Le Concert Spirituel celebrate Handel's music for royalty in a concert recorded live in the presence of His Majesty King Charles III at St James's Spanish Place, London.

A fanfare and a performance of the national anthem by baritone Roderick Williams precedes a range of Handelian royal repertoire - from the Coronation Anthems, composed for the coronation of George II in 1726, to the Te Deum celebrating George's victory over the French at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743.

Handel's great festal music is now so indelibly associated with great state occasions that it's easy to forget that the German composer only became a citizen of these isles quite late in life. A great favourite of George I, one of the king's last acts before his death in 1727 was to sign an 'Act of naturalisation of George Frideric H䀀ndel and others.' So H䀀ndel became Handel and responded with his first commission as a newly naturalised British subject by writing - at breakneck speed - the music for the coronation of George II of Great Britain and Queen Caroline.

This performance comes from the church of St James's Spanish Place, whose majestic neo-Gothic interior and soaring ceilings make it ideally suited for large-scale early music performances presented by its near neighbour, Wigmore Hall.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Handel: Dettingen Te Deum HWV283

Handel: The king shall rejoice HWV260

Handel: Let thy hand be strengthened HWV259

Handel: My heart is inditing HWV261

Handel: Zadok the priest HWV258

Herv退 Niquet, conductor

Recorded live in the presence of His Majesty King Charles III.

Handel's Messiah20161219BBC National Chorus of Wales with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra in Handel's Messiah. Recorded last week at St David's Hall in Cardiff and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Handel: Messiah, HWV 56

Soraya Mafi, soprano

Patricia Bardon, mezzo

Ben Johnson, tenor

James Platt, bass

Adrian Partington, conductor

BBC National Chorus of Wales and WNO Orchestra come together for the first time to collaborate on a work firmly established as a Christmas tradition for audiences across the globe, Handel's Messiah. One of the best-known and most-loved choral works in Western music; it is a true celebration of the nativity; exhilarating, yet deeply emotional and resonant.

Comprising a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and psalms from the Book of Common Prayer, Messiah brings some of the most evocative oratorio writing in the repertoire, featuring 'For unto us a child is born', 'The trumpet shall sound' and the famous 'Hallelujah' chorus.

Handel's Messiah20181206Handel composed Messiah at breakneck speed in London in the summer of 1741, before travelling to Dublin to produce a series of concerts there. One of these concerts became the premiere of Messiah, and it was an unbridled success, which led in only a handful of years to it being firmly established in the repertoire and being repeated annually. It was just what Handel needed at this time; the flop of what would be his final opera, Deidamia, in 1740 had seriously knocked him, but Handel's Messiah restored his fame, and today is his most performed work. Stephen Layton is no stranger to the work, having performed it with incredible regularity and also recorded it with his choir Polyphony, and brings a very high level of experience to this majestic work.

Live from St. David's Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Handel: Messiah, HWV. 56 (Part One)

8.20 Interval music

Handel: Messiah, HWV 56 (Parts Two and Three)

Katherine Watson (soprano)

Jess Dandy (contralto)

Gwilym Bowen (tenor)

Neal Davies (bass)

BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales

Stephen Layton (conductor)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Stephen Layton perform Handel's Messiah

Haydn And Mozart20210512Live from MediaCityUK, Salford

Presented by Tom McKinney

The BBC Philharmonic with their Chief Conductor, Omer Meir Wellber, present a programme bookended by two symphonies by Joseph Haydn, Nos 34 and 46.

They are joined by pianist Daniel Ciobanu for Mozart's sparkling Piano Concerto No 23 (K488).

Haydn: Symphony No 34

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 23 (K 488)

Haydn: Symphony No 46

Daniel Ciobanu (piano)

Omer Meir Wellber (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and their Chief Conductor Omer Meir Wellber perform Haydn and Mozart.

Haydn And Mozart At Bath Mozartfest20200127As part of the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the BBC New Generation Artists scheme, a chance to hear a concert given at the 2019 Bath Mozartfest. Current NGAs the Aris Quartet play Haydn's 'Sunrise' Quartet, so-called because of its evocative opening to the first movement. Reflecting the wealth of collaborative opportunities the scheme affords, the brilliant young horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill, and equally talented violist Eivind Ringstad, both highly successful graduates of the scheme, then join forces with three members of the Aris Quartet for a tour de force performance of Mozart's Horn Quintet in E flat major. Following the interval, during which you can hear another stellar NGA, the pianist Francesco Piemontesi playing Liszt, the Aris Quartet are joined once again by Eivind Ringstad in a performance of one of Mozart's most profound and moving works for strings, the Quintet in G minor, K516.

Founded in 1999 with the aim of supporting and nurturing some of the world's most exciting young musicians at the start of their international careers, the NGA scheme now boasts well over a hundred distinguished alumni. Membership of the NGA scheme is for a period of just over two years, during which time artists can expect to appear at some of the UK's most prestigious venues and festivals, perform with the BBC orchestras, make studio recordings, and commission new work.

Introduced from the Guildhall, Bath by Sarah Walker.

Haydn: String Quartet in B flat major, Op 76 no 4

Anna Katharina Wildermuth, violin

No뀀mi Zipperling, violin

Caspar Vinzens, viola

Lukas Sieber, cello

Mozart: Quintet for horn, violin, two violas and cello in E flat major, K407

Alec Frank-Gemmill, horn

Eivind Ringstad, viola

8.20

Liszt: Ann退es de p耀lerinage II, S.161 No. 4, Sonetto 47 del Petrarca

Liszt: Ann退es de p耀lerinage II, S.161 No. 5, Sonetto 104 del Petrarca

Liszt: Ann退es de p耀lerinage II, S.161 No. 6, Sonetto 123 del Petrarca

Francesco Piemontesi, piano

8.42

Mozart: Quintet for two violins, 2 violas and cello in G minor, K516

BBC New Generation Artists at the 2019 Bath Mozartfest.

Haydn And Schubert Symphonies In Poole20200219Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in a programme that traces a line from Haydn to Schubert. Joining the orchestra, tonight's soloist, the American pianist Jeremy Denk, performs Mendelssohn's dazzling first piano concerto, written when he was just 21. It's a work that reflects Mendelssohn's own considerable pianistic abilities (he gave the premiere in 1831), with ample room for the soloist to shine in its breathtaking runs.

Two major symphonists bookend the concert. To open, part of a London series of commissions, when the composer was in his sixties, Haydn's Symphony No 102 is a shining example of his mastery of the form. And what better way to conclude than with Schubert's joyous Fifth Symphony, redolent with youthful optimism.

Presented by Martin Handley, live from the Lighthouse in Poole.

Haydn: Symphony No 102 in B flat major, H.1.102

Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No 1 in G minor, Op 25

Interval music from CD

Niels Gade: String Quartet in F minor

Kontra Quartet

Schubert: Symphony no 5

Jeremy Denk, piano

Kirill Karabits (conductor)

Produced by Johannah Smith

Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth SO in Haydn, Mendelssohn and Schubert.

Haydn, Mozart And Beethoven20160508Ian Skelly presents Anne Sofie von Otter singing a Haydn cantata, Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting a Haydn symphony and Cuarteto Casals playing Beethoven in recent European concerts:

Ariadne auf Naxos, Hob. XXVIb:2, cantata

Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano)

Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano)

recorded in Girona cathedral

Mozart

Rondo in A minor, K511

Kristian Bezuidenhout, fortepiano

Symphony No. 97 in C, Hob. I:97

Concentus Musicus, Vienna

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor)

recorded in Stainz at the Styriarte Festival

String Quartet in A, Op. 18 No. 5

recorded in Helleruplund Church, Gentofte.

Ian Skelly presents Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven performed in concerts around Europe.

Haydn, Telemann And Brahms20170226Ian Skelly presents highlights of concerts from around Europe. Tonight, Haydn and Telemann from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Brahms from the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.

Haydn: String Quartet in C, Op. 20 No. 2 ('Sun')

Signum Quartet

Recorded at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on 11/09/2016

Telemann: Oboe Concerto in F minor, TWV 51:f1

Bach: Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043

Combattimento Consort, Amsterdam

Recorded at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on 25/12/2016

Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D, Op. 73

Bamberg Symphony Orchestra

David Afkham, conductor

Recorded at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, 17/07/2016.

Ian Skelly introduces music by Haydn, Telemann and Brahms.

Haydn, The Seasons20160620The Seasons was Haydn's last major work, a response to the phenomenal success of his previous choral hit, The Creation. The sixty-nine-year-old composer threw everything he had at it, combining choral forces and soloists with the biggest orchestra he had ever used. A bit like an early nineteenth-century Austrian The Archers, The Seasons is concerned with rural daily life including vivid musical depictions of jolly peasants going about their country activities from sowing seed and ploughing to hunting and drinking, with noises off from rustic fauna including cattle, swarming bees, quail, a cricket and a frog.

Paul McCreesh conducts this period instrument performance with a combined choir and orchestra of over 170 performers and a line-up of leading British soloists.

Recorded at St John's Smith Square and presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Sung in Paul McCreesh's new English translation.

Carolyn Sampson (soprano)

Jeremy Ovenden (tenor)

Andrew Foster-Williams (bass-baritone)

Gabrieli Consort and Players

Paul McCreesh (conductor).

Paul McCreesh conducts the Gabrieli Consort and Players in Haydn's The Seasons.

Haydn's Creation At The Concertgebouw20220926Haydn's Creation in a performance from The Royal Concertgebouw conducted by Phillipe Herreweghe.

The Flemish period instrument specialist brings his crack vocal ensemble and an all-star line up of soloists to Amsterdam for a performance of Haydn's joyful choral work.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Haydn: The Creation [Die Schopfung]

Robin Johannsen, soprano, Gabriel/Eve

Werner Güra, tenor, Uriel

Florian Boesch, bass, Raphael/Adam

Collegium Vocale Ghent

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Philippe Herreweghe, conductor

Interval music: Fortepianist Ronald Brautigam plays Haydn's Piano Sonata in D major H. 16.51 - written around the time of The Creation.

Phillipe Herreweghe conducts Haydn's Creation at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Haydn's Final Masterpiece20190304Joseph Haydn was born in an era when nature touched every part of life, and he died in an age of revolution. It's all there in his final masterpiece The Seasons: an irresistibly tuneful panorama of 18th-century life and love in all its bustling, earthy exuberance.

With its winter storms and whistling ploughmen, hymns of praise and booze-fuelled revels, this sequel to The Creation was inspired by Haydn's time in London, and written specially to appeal to British audiences.

In this concert, recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank, soloists Sophie Bevan, Mark Padmore and Andrew Foster-Williams are joined by the London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra and conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

Performed in English

Introduced by Ian Skelly

Part One: Haydn - The Seasons: Spring and Summer

8.40pm INTERVAL

Frank Bridge

Summer (tone poem)

Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Neville Marriner, conductor

Part Two: Haydn - The Seasons: Autumn and Winter

Sophie Bevan, soprano

Mark Padmore, tenor

Andrew Foster-Williams, bass-baritone

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

Episode image:

Haymakers'; George Stubbs; Tate Britain; Art UK

The Seasons: a panorama of 18th-century life and love, bustling with earthy exuberance.

Haydn's Nelson Mass From Freiburg20230619Haydn's 'Nelson Mass,' and Symphony no. 44, 'Mourning,' from the crack forces of the Zurich Sing-Akademie and Freiburg Baroque.

Gottfried von der Goltz conducts the period instruments of Freiburg Baroque in one of Haydn's 'Storm and Stress,' symphonies. Written in 1772, there is an apocryphal story that Haydn asked for the symphony's slow movement, with its muted strings, to be played at his funeral. That's followed by Haydn's 'Mass for troubled times,' written over a quarter of a century later. There are all sorts of suggestions for the title,' Missa in angustiis.' In 1798, Haydn's reputation may have been at its peak, but he was exhausted after supervising the Vienna performances of the Creation, and Europe was in turmoil as Napoleon's armies waged war on Austria and threatened Vienna itself. But what Haydn did not know when he gave the mass its original title, was that on 1 August, Napoleon would be dealt a stunning defeat in the Battle of the Nile by British forces led by Admiral Horatio Nelson. News of Nelson's victory probably reached the court at Esterhကzy on the very day of the mass's first performance and the association with Nelson was given a further boost when, in 1800, Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton visited Esterhကzy and probably heard the mass performed by Haydn himself. Whatever the story, Haydn's greatest biographer describes it as 'arguably Haydn's greatest single composition.

Presented by Fiona Talkington in this performance from the Konzerthaus, Freiburg im Breisgau

Haydn: Symphony No. 44 in E minor, Hob. I:44 ('Mourning')

at 8pm

Interval Music: fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout plays Haydn: Variations on 'Gott erhalte Franz, den Kaiser' in G major (after Hob.III / 77ii)

Haydn: Missa in angustiis (Mass for troubled times), in D minor, Hob. XXII:11 ('Lord Nelson')

Magdalene Harer (soprano)

Henriette G怀dde (contralto)

Nikolaus Pfannkuch (tenor)

Torben Jürgens (bass-baritone)

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

Gottfried von der Goltz (conductor)

Freiburg Baroque perform Haydn's 'Nelson' Mass and 'Mourning' Symphony.

Haydn's The Creation20170213Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents the London Philharmonic's performance of Haydn's Creation, conducted by Sir Roger Norrington.

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Haydn: The Creation

Lucy Crowe (soprano)

Thomas Hobbs (tenor)

Christopher Maltman (baritone)

London Philharmonic Choir

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Roger Norrington (conductor)

As part of the 'Belief and Beyond Belief' season at London's Southbank, Sir Roger Norrington brings all his experience and energy to Joseph Haydn's choral masterpiece. Haydn once said that when he thought of God he could write only cheerful music. So imagine the exuberance, the freshness and the pure joy that he brings to the story of the Creation. With its roof-raising choruses, bubbling melodies and glowing colours, The Creation is one of the most life-affirming and generous two hours of music ever written.

Roger Norrington conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Haydn's The Creation.

Haydn's The Creation20220323Haydn's The Creation conducted by Harry Christophers with the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra and an all-star team of soloists.

In a performance sung in English to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Barbican Centre.

Out of chaos comes wonder; from darkness, light. Haydn's oratorio The Creation is more than just a gloriously tuneful retelling of the Book of Genesis. Inspired by Haydn's visits to London and the optimism of the Enlightenment, it's a celebration of the act of creativity itself, overflowing with majesty, humour and the joy of life.

With its famous depictions of Chaos through the dawning of light to a tawny lion, a flexible tiger and a nimble stag and the great chorus, ‘The Heavens are telling', the work has been a favourite since its first performance some 224 years ago.

Presented by Martin Handley

Haydn: The Creation

Lucy Crowe (soprano)

Andrew Staples (tenor)

Roderick Williams (baritone)

London Symphony Chorus, Simon Halsey (chorus director)

London Symphony Orchestra

Harry Christophers (conductor)

Harry Christophers conducts the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra.

Hellensmusic Festival 201620160601Two favourite quintets, recorded at the Hellensmusic festival, which takes place every spring at Hellens Manor in Herefordshire. Festival director and pianist, Christian Blackshaw is joined by an international line-up of musicians for music by Shostakovich and Schubert.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G minor, Op 57

Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major, 'The Trout

Christian Blackshaw, piano

Maya Iwabuchi, violin

Markus D䀀unert, violin

Mကt退 Szücs, viola

Bruno Delepelaire, cello

Waldemar Schwiertz, double bass

Hellens manor is one of the oldest residences in the the UK; it has stood in the village of Much Marcle in Herefordshire since at least the 12th century. Today, Hellens welcomes Radio 3 to the intimate surroundings of its Great Barn for a concert from its annual spring music festival. Festival director and pianist Christian Blackshaw leads a starry line-up of performers including: Markus D䀀unert, Concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; Maya Iwabuchi, Leader of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Mကt退 Szücs, Principal Viola of the Berlin Philharmonic; Bruno Delepelaire, first solo cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic and Waldemar Schwiertz, Co-principal double bass of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Both quintets in today's programme became instantly popular with audiences and performers. Here, the emotional power of Shostakovich's music is balanced with the irresistible good humour of Schubert's most famous chamber work.

Quintets by Shostakovich and Schubert from 2016's Hellensmusic festival in Herefordshire.

Helsinki Philharmonic And Rte National Symphony20190224Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara's second cello concerto, entitled Towards the Horizon, was his last concerto before his death in 2016. It's a lush, lyrical work, with dreamlike flights for the soloist - Marko Yl怀nen in this Helsinki performance. Then we head to Dublin for a work that showcases other string soloists - the violin and viola. Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat is arguably the composer's first mature masterpiece, with its intensely impassioned slow movement and effervescent finale.

Presented by Kate Molleson.

Rautavaara: Towards the Horizon

Marko Yl怀nen (cello)

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

Klaus M䀀kel䀀 (conductor)

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E flat K364

Veronika Eberle (violin)

Amihai Grosz (viola)

RTɀ National Symphony Orchestra

Nathalie Stutzmann (conductor)

Rautavaara's Cello Concerto No 2 and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola

Herbert Blomstedt Conducts Symphonies, By Schubert And Berwald20230206The legendary nonagenarian conductor Herbert Blomstedt, whose history with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra goes back to the 1950s, leads the orchestra in symphonies by Schubert and the Swedish Romantic Franz Berwald.

Recorded last November in the renowned acoustic of DR Koncerthuset, one of Europe's finest concert halls, and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Schubert: Symphony No. 6 in C, D. 589

8.05 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Franz Berwald: Duo for Piano and Cello, Op. 7

Mats Lidstr怀m (cello)

Bengt Forsberg (piano)

8.25 pm

Franz Berwald: Symphony No. 2 in D ('Capricieuse')

Herbert Blomstedt (conductor)

Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Schubert and Berwald.

Herbert Blomstedt Conducts The Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra20200110In the final episode in the series of season highlights from around Europe, Georgian Mann presents a concert where youth and experience meet as the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, whose players must be from 16 - 26 years old, is conducted by Herbert Blomstedt who celebrated his 92nd birthday in July. Founded in 1986 by Claudio Abbado, the GMYO's mission was to include players from non-EU European countries to create a truly pan-European youth orchestra. From its inception the orchestra has had a formidable reputation, collaborating with the world's foremost musicians, as here in this concert recorded at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in August.

Strauss: Tod und Verkl䀀rung (Death and Transfiguration), op. 24

Mahler: Rückert-Lieder, op. 44

8.15pm Interval music (from CD)

Schubert: Piano Sonata in A major D.664

Radu Lupu, piano

8.35pm

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat, op. 55 ('Eroica')

Christian Gerhaher (baritone)

Herbert Blomstedt (conductor)

Following the concert is our final feature looking at this year's Adopt-a-composer scheme from Making Music. Tonight we go behind the scenes with members of Ex Urbe choir and composer Chloe Knibbs to explore and hear extended highlights of her piece 'Clara' for choir and harp.

Photo © J.M. Pietsch

Strauss's Death and Transfiguration, Mahler's R\u00fcckert songs, Beethoven's 'Eroica' Symphony

Herbert Blomstedt In Copenhagen20210712Herbert Blomstedt conducts Berwald and Schubert.

The legendary conductor, who turned 94 yesterday conducts music by two composers whose music is close to his heart.

Franz Berwald's hugely original symphony, given its disastrous premiere in 1842, is a work he has long championed whilst his performances of Schubert's 'Great' symphony go to the very heart of Schubert's creative genius. As Blomstedt says: 'He composed as if he had some secret line to God himself.`

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Berwald: Symphony No. 1 in G minor 'Sinfonie s退rieuse

At c 8.00pm Interval music: Berwald's Piano Trio no. 4 in C major in a recording by Marieke Blankestijn (violin), Christopher Marks (cello) and Susan Tomes (piano).

at. c. 8.20pm Schubert: Symphony no. 9 in C major, D.944 'Great

Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Herbert Blomstedt(conductor)

[recorded at DR Concert House, Copenhagen, Denmark 15/04/2021]

Herbert Blomstedt conducts Berwald's first and Schubert's last symphonies.

Heroes And Heartache20191118Conductor Joseph Swensen draws on his Norwegian roots to perform two stunning works by Edward Grieg with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. First on the bill is his cherished Peer Gynt, the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play heard here in the first suite of music that Grieg compiled from the original production. Following that, the Orchestra are joined by Yevgeny Sudbin for a performance of Grieg's celebrated Piano Concerto; full of Norwegian folk-music influences, it was the piece that helped launch Grieg's compositional career. The evening concludes with Tchaikovsky's emotionally charged Sixth Symphony, the Pathetique. It was the last symphony that he would write, and he famously died only nine days after conducting the premiere.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, recorded in St. David's Hall, Cardiff last week.

Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No 1, Op 46

Grieg: Piano Concerto, Op 16

8.25 Interval Music

8.45 Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 6 in B minor, Op 74

Yevgeny Sudbin (piano)

Joseph Swensen (conductor)

BBC NOW present Grieg's wayfaring Peer Gynt and Tchaikovsky's grief-laden final symphony

Heroic Strokes Of The Bow20200308Two UK premieres on show tonight: sparky Firelights by Elisabetta Brusa, and Victoria Borisova-Ollas's dream-like sound world in The Kingdom of Silence which explores `that mysterious country where we all should go to after our lifetime`. Alexandra Dariescu is the soloist in the inventive Ballade for piano and orchestra by Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983), the only woman member of Les Six, the group of composers in 1920s Paris which included Poulenc, Honegger and Milhaud.

The concert finishes with Heroic Strokes of the bow by Judith Weir, Master of the Queen's Music. This is the composer's response to Paul Klee's painting of the same name - `a blue and black painting on pink newspaper - .which seems to show a simple pattern of violin bows and pegs against a hypnotic blue background.`

The conductor is Stefan Solyom, Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the Helsingborg Symfoniorkester, Sweden.

Recorded at Maida Vale Studios on 31st January 2020

Presented by Penny Gore

Elisabetta Brusa: Firelights (UK premiere)

Germaine Tailleferre: Ballade for piano and orchestra

8.10 pm

Interval

Pauline Viardot: Choeur Bohemien;

Mel Bonis: L'Oiseau Bleu

BBC Singers

Grace Rossiter (conductor)

Clara Schumann: Notturno No 2 of Soire退s musicales Op.6

Alexandra Dariescu (piano)

8.20pm Part 2

Victoria Borisova-Ollas: The Kingdom of Silence (UK premiere)

Judith Weir: Heroic Strokes of the Bow

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Stefan Solyom (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra performs Weir, Brusa, Tailleferre and Borisova-Olas.

Highlights From Minneapolis And Prague20181202Kate Molleson introduces highlights of concerts from around the world, including the Minnesota Orchestra in Minneapolis, and Mozart's ever popular clarinet quintet performed at the Dvo?ကk Prague International Music Festival.

Kalevi Aho - Minea: Concertante Music for Orchestra

Jaakko Kuusisto - Violin Concerto, op. 28

Elina V䀀h䀀l䀀 , violin

Osmo V䀀nsk䀀 , conductor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Clarinet Quintet in A, K. 581

Sharon Kam , clarinet

Isabelle van Keulen , violin

Ulrike-Anima Math退 , violin

Volker Jacobsen , viola

Gustav Rivinius , cello

Orchestral music from the Minnesota orchestra and chamber music by Mozart from Prague.

Highlights From The 'chopin And His Europe International Music Festival'20171001Ian Skelly presents highlights from a concert recorded at this year's Chopin and his Europe International Music Festival in Warsaw. Yulianna Avdeeva is the soloist in piano and string orchestra arrangements of Chopin's Piano Concerto no.2 and Weinberg's Piano Quintet in F minor. Plus choral music by Mendelssohn, recorded by the Arnold Schoenberg Chorus at the Palau de la Musica, Barcelona.

Chopin arr Yevgeny Sharlato Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21

Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)

Kremerata Baltica

Gidon Kremer (director)

Mieczyslaw Weinberg arr Pushkarev and Kremer Piano Quintet in F minor, Op.18

Mendelssohn Psalm 2, 'Warum toben die Heiden, Op.78 No.1

Arnold Schoenberg Chorus.

Highlights from 2017's 'Chopin and his Europe International Music Festival'.

Highlights Of Concerts From The Usa And France20200202Fiona Talkington presents two American orchestras from the same city - or rather the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The Minnesota Orchestra is based in Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis an area of Steel and Glass skyscrapers, while on the opposite bank of the Mississippi, the Ordway hall in St. Paul is home to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Tonight's programme brings them together in a mix of music from the mid nineteenth and the late twentieth centuries.

And between then the extraordinary Russian pianist Alexei Zuev takes on a complete orchestra by himself in Stravinsky's own transcription of 'The Firebird

Mendelssohn

Symphony for Strings No 10 in B minor

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Tito Muကoz, conductor

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) -

Alexei Zuev, piano

Joan Tower

Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1

Osmo Vanska

Kareem Roustom

Ramal

John Adams

Gnarly Buttons

Michael Collins (clarinet)

Haydn

Symphony No 96 in D major, Hob I/96, 'Miracle

Fiona Talkington presents two American orchestras from the same city.

Holst's The Planets With Prof Brian Cox20180929Live from the Barbican, BBC Symphony Orchestra celebrates the exact centenary of The Planets premiere.

Presented by Penny Gore

Holst: The Planets Suite Op.32

2020 Interval: a mix-tape dream sequence of planetary and astrologically inspired music, interwoven with works influenced by Holst's the Planets.

[In the mix: Holst, Rebel, Crumb, John Williams, Frank Zappa and Saariaho]

2040 Holst: The Planets Suite Op.32 continued

Women's Voices of the BBC Symphony Chorus

Ben Gernon (conductor)

Inspired by the mythological character of each planet, Holst created what has become one of the 20th century's best-loved and most revered works for orchestra. On the centenary of its premiere, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ben Gernon join forces with Professor Brian Cox to take a fresh scientific and musical view of The Planets, and to cast new light on Holst's vividly atmospheric masterpiece.

Live from the Barbican, Holst's The Planets with Professor Brian Cox and the BBC SO.

Honegger's Joan Of Arc From The Salzburg Festival20230515Fiona Talkington introduces a concert recorded at last summer's Salzburg Festival. Maxime Pascal conducts the SWR Symphony Orchestra in Arthur Honegger's oratorio'Joan of Arc at the Stake'. With a text by Paul Claudel, it was first performed in Basel in 1938 and received unanimous critical praise. The drama takes place during Joan of Arc's last minutes on the stake, with flashbacks to her trial and her younger days. it includes speaking roles and actors alongside the singers, and also has an important part for the ondes Martenot - an early electronic instrument.

Arthur Honegger - Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake)

Ir耀ne Jacob (spoken role) [Jeanne d'Arc]

J退r䀀me Kircher (spoken role) [Fr耀re Dominique]

Elena Tsallagova (soprano) [La Vierge]

M退lissa Petit (soprano) [Marguerite]

Martina Belli (mezzo-soprano) [Catherine]

Damien Bigourdan (tenor) [Porcus]

Marc Mauillon (tenor) [Le Clerc]

Damien Pass (bass-baritone) [Une Voix / H退raut / Un Paysan]

Salzburg Festival and Theatre Children's Choir

Bavarian Radio Chorus

SWR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart

Maxime Pascal (conductor)

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Maxime Pascal conducts Honegger's oratorio Joan of Arc at the Stake.

Horn Calls20200116In the first concert of its 75th anniversary year, the Philharmonia Orchestra celebrates the horn. At once noble and heroic, elemental and atavistic, the instrument Schumann called 'the soul of the orchestra' takes centre stage in music from three centuries.

Former Philharmonia principal horn Richard Watkins is the soloist in the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's Towards Alba which, says Turnage, 'grows out of the idea of the horn-call before dawn'. Watkins is joined by tenor-of-the-moment Allan Clayton for a work originally written for another Philharmonia principal player. Dennis Brain and Peter Pears premiered Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings in 1943 and Britten's evocative and dazzling settings of English poetry have made it a 20th-century classic.

Bookending the concert, the Philharmonia's horns are in the limelight. They take us to the heart of the forest in Weber's Overture to Der Freischütz. And to end, a horn kicks off Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel, that exhilarating tour de force of orchestral writing and musical form by the composer who knew the horn better than anyone.

Who better to lead tonight's concert than the Philharmonia's Principal Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, himself a former horn player?

Presented live from the Royal Festival Hall by Martin Handley.

Weber: Overture, Der Freischütz

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Towards Alba for horn and orchestra (world premiere)

8.15pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Tonight's soloist Richard Watkins introduces two recordings featuring the legendary Dennis Brain, the Philharmonia's first principal horn:

Mendelssohn: Nocturne (from A Midsummer Night's Dream, incidental music Op. 61)

Paul Kletzki (conductor)

(recorded 1954, Kingsway Hall, London)

Schumann: Adagio and allegro in A flat major Op. 70

Dennis Brain (horn)

Benjamin Britten (piano)

(recorded June 1956, Aldeburgh Parish Church)

8.40pm

Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings

Richard Strauss: Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28

Allan Clayton (tenor)

Richard Watkins (horn)

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

The horn takes centre stage with Richard Watkins and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Hymns To Love20200413Recorded last December in the Philharmonie, Berlin, this concert was dedicated to the memory of the great conductor Mariss Jansons, who was greatly loved by the Berlin Philharmonic.

The programme centres around Strauss's Drei Hymnen, three hymns to freedom and to the power of love which can overcome all obstacles. They are framed by operatic extracts on the same themes, and by the delightful Sonatina No 1 for winds, which Strauss wrote in 1943, at a time when freedom seemed a distant illusion.

Wagner: Prelude to Act I of 'Lohengrin

Strauss: Sonatina for 16 Winds No. 1 in F, AV 135 ('From the Workshop of an Invalid')

8.15: Interval: C.P.E. Bach: Symphony in D major Wq.183 no.1

Berlin Academy for Early Music

Hans-Christoph Rademann, director

8.35: Strauss: Drei Hymnen, op. 71,

Suite from 'Der Rosenkavalier', op. 59

Anja Kampe, soprano

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Christian Thielemann, conductor

Followed at 9.20 by Schubert: Sonata in C minor D.958

Louis Schwizgebel, piano

Photo Credit: Stephan Rabold

Christian Thielemann conducts the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ian Skelly Presents A Weekly Round-up Of Highlights From Concerts Around Europe20170924Ian Skelly presents a weekly round-up of highlights from concerts and festivals around Europe, with a particular focus tonight on events from Holland.

Haydn:Symphony No.82 in C major, 'L'ours (The Bear)

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Daniele Gatti, conductor

Ravel: String Quartet in F

Alma Quartet

Ives: The Unanswered Question

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Lhav Shani, conductor

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Lhav Shani, conductor / piano.

Ian Skelly Presents Highlights From Recent Events Around Europe20170910Ian Skelly presents highlights from recent events around Europe, featuring performances from the summer festivals in Orkney,Tallinn and Stockholm.

Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 in D major, Op.25 'Classical

Norwegian Radio Orchestra

Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor

Mozart: Piano Concerto No.23 in A major, K.488

Kall Randalu, piano

Estonian National Symphony Orchestra

Neeme Jarvi, conductor

Biber: Battalia

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Malin Broman, conductor

Berwaldhallen, Stockholm

Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite

Avanti! Chamber Orchestra

Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor

Tveitt: A Hundred Hardanger Tunes, Op.151 (from Suite No.1)

Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor.

Ian Skelly presents highlights from recent summer festivals around Europe.

Iconic Minimalism20190213London Sinfonietta brings an all-Reich programme to Birmingham's Symphony Hall. Tom Redmond presents.

Programme:

Steve Reich:

Clapping Music

Runner

Interval

A selection of traditional and contemporary recordings from disc exploring ideas about rhythm and pulse

Trad: Gamalan Tabuh Gari.

Colin McPhee: Taboeh Telo

(Performers: Nico Muhly and Thomas Bartlett)

Trad: Bobangi

(Aka Mbengi Pygmies)

Gyorgy Ligeti: Piano Etudes Bk 1 No 4 `Fanfares`

(Pierre Laurent-Aimard: piano)

Part two

Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians

Synergy Vocals

Conductor for Runner: Andrew Gourlay

David Hockings and Tim Palmer (Clapping Music)

Iestyn Davies And Friends20220921Together with his fellow-countertenor Hugh Cutting, the Wigmore Hall Artist in Residence Iestyn Davies explores the riches of duo writing in the Baroque period, featuring composers from Italy and England.

Live from Wigmore Hall in London.

Presented by Linton Stephens.

Claudio Monteverdi: Interrotte speranze SV132; Vorrei baciarti SV123

Antonio Lotti: Crudelt

Igor Levit, Beethoven Piano Sonatas20161107Live from Wigmore Hall, Igor Levit plays Beethoven piano sonatas.

The widely acclaimed pianist, still in his late 20s continues his Beethoven Piano Sonatas in this sold-out series at London's Wigmore Hall. A former BBC New Generation Artist, and more recently winner of the Gramophone Recording of the Year prize, Igor Levit is one of today's leading interpreters of Beethoven's music.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Igor Levit (piano)

Piano Sonata No.5 in C minor, Op.10 No.1

Piano Sonata No.19 in G minor, Op. 49 No.1

Piano sonata No.20 in G major, Op.49 No.2

8.05pm

INTERVAL

8.25pm

Piano Sonata No.22 in F major, Op.54

Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57 (Appassionata).

Igor Levit plays Beethoven at Wigmore Hall, London: Piano Sonatas Nos 5, 19, 20, 22 and 23

Igor Levit, Beethoven Piano Sonatas20170613Live from Wigmore Hall, London, Igor Levit concludes his season-long cycle of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas with the composer's last three sonatas.

Introduced by Martin Handley.

Beethoven: Piano Sonata in E, Op 109

Beethoven: Piano Sonata in A flat, Op 110

Beethoven: Piano Sonata in C minor, Op 111

Igor Levit (piano)

Former Radio 3 New Generation Artist Igor Levit and still in his late twenties, has been hailed as 'one of the most probing, intelligent and accomplished artists of the new generation' (New York Times), and 'set to be one of this century's big names' (Daily Telegraph). His concert cycle of the complete Beethoven piano sonatas at Wigmore Hall began last September, and concludes tonight with three of the greatest (also the three last) - the intimate and serene E major Op 109, the brooding but ultimately triumphant A flat major Op 110, and the transcendental, almost mystical C minor, Op 111.

One imagines Beethoven playing it like this - in his dreams anyway'. (The Times)

Following tonight's concert, there's an opportunity to hear Igor Levit and the Signum Quartet perform Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat major, in a recording made specially for BBC Radio 3.

Live from Wigmore Hall in London, Igor Levit plays Beethoven's last three piano sonatas.

Images Of The Past, Shapes Of The Future20190425Live from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Sibelius: Symphony No. 6

Tippett: Piano Concerto

Music interval (CD)

Stravinsky: Symphony in C

Steven Osborne (piano)

BBC Philharmonic

Andrew Davis (conductor)

Stravinsky penned his Symphony in C over 3 years, a period of seismic shift in his life. Starting the work in 1938 in Paris with his family around him, 1939 saw him admitted to a sanitarium to treat the tuberculosis that had recently claimed the lives of both his his wife and his daughter; there he completed the second movement. Moving to the USA at the end of the Second World War he wrote the third movement in Boston where he was teaching, finally completing the fourth and final movement in Los Angeles in 1940. His study of Haydn, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky's symphonies while he was writing his own bring shapes of the past to this work, one which, moreover gives no clue to the events that had been part of his own life while he was writing it, and reveal no reference to the events that were changing the world. Steven Osborne joins the BBC Philharmonic for Tippett's Piano Concerto, music of lyrical beauty influenced by his opera The Midsummer Marriage. It shuns the hard-nosed serialism pervading Europe in the 1950s in favour of an attempt to exploit the piano's lyrical rather than percussive characteristics and is unashamedly influenced by Beethoven's piano concertos. The modal harmonies of Sibelius's Sixth Symphony belie the innovative way he shapes time and structure in his later symphonies; but innovation wasn't his priority: 'People write and theorise many things about the Sixth Symphony, but they fail to see that it is, above all, a poem', he said.

Andrew Davis and the BBC Philharmonic in music by Tippett, Stravinsky and Sibelius.

Imogen Cooper Plays Mozart With The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra20220309The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra plays Mozart, Schubert and Jonathan Dove's Sunshine.

Renowned pianist, Dame Imogen Cooper joins the orchestra at its home at the Lighthouse in Poole for a favourite Mozart concerto and Mark Wigglesworth, their newly-appointed Principal Guest Conductor, pilots the orchestra through Schubert's 'Great' Ninth Symphony. And the programme opens with Jonathan Dove's dazzling Sunshine for Orchestra.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Jonathan Dove: Sunshine

Mozart: Piano Concerto No.22 in E flat, K.482

c. 8.10pm Interval

Imogen Cooper plays Schubert's unfinished Piano Sonata (D.840) in C major 'Reliquie' in a performance she recorded live in 2008.

c. 8.35pm

Schubert: Symphony in C Major, No.9 ‘The Great

Imogen Cooper (piano)

Mark Wiggleworth (conductor)

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra perform Schubert, Mozart and Jonathan Dove.

Imogen Cooper's 70th Birthday Concert20191024Well-loved and internationally acclaimed, pianist Imogen Cooper celebrates her 70th birthday with just three works by one composer: Schubert's final three sonatas, product of an intense three months towards the end of his short life. By turns comforting and serene, nightmarish and unsettling, these hugely challenging works have become cornerstones of Cooper's repertoire and this promises to be a very special occasion.

Recorded on Tuesday at Wigmore Hall and presented by Sarah Walker, including comments on the music from Imogen Cooper.

Schubert:

Piano Sonata in C minor D 958

8.10pm

Piano Sonata in A D 959

9.00pm

Piano Sonata in B flat D 960

Imogen Cooper (piano)

The internationally acclaimed pianist celebrates with Schubert's final three sonatas.

Imogen Cooper's 70th Birthday Concert20200409Another chance to hear the great pianist playing music by a composer dear to her heart.

This concert, first broadcast in October last year, took place at London's Wigmore Hall.

Well-loved and internationally acclaimed, pianist Imogen Cooper celebrates her 70th birthday with just three works by one composer: Schubert's final three sonatas, product of an intense three months towards the end of his short life. By turns comforting and serene, nightmarish and unsettling, these hugely challenging works have become cornerstones of Cooper's repertoire.

Recorded on 22nd October 2019 at Wigmore Hall and presented by Sarah Walker, including comments on the music from Imogen Cooper.

Schubert:

Piano Sonata in C minor D 958

8.10pm

Piano Sonata in A D 959

9.00pm

Piano Sonata in B flat D 960

Imogen Cooper (piano)

Photo credit: Sim Cannetty-Clarke

Another chance to hear the internationally acclaimed pianist playing Schubert.

In Awe Of Nature20191112The BBC Singers travel from the foothills of Peru to the open skies of Estonia and the unspecified blue hills of a significant world premiere in this concert under Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin, which pivots on Messiaen's songs of love Cinq Rechants. The French composer was inspired by the vocalisations of the Peruvian Harawi in writing his piece, which alternates urgent calls with sensuous contemplation realized in a harmonic wash of sound.

It is surrounded here by the natural world: Estonian Erkki-Sven Tüür's humbling song in awe of nature and Judith Weir's major new work for mixed choir and string quartet, blue hills beyond blue hills.

Tüür: The Wanderer's Evening Song

Messiaen: Cinq Rechants

Interval

Judith Weir: Blue hills beyond blue hills (BBC commission, world premiere)

Ligeti String Quartet

Sofi Jeannin (conductor)

The BBC Singers perform a new work by their composer in association, Judith Weir.

In Memory20221115Gergely Madaras and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales appear from Prichard Jones Hall, the main concert hall of Bangor University, for a concert celebrating 100 years of its music department. They begin with a piece by Andrew Lewis, specially commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and Ty Cerdd to mark the anniversary, titled In Memory. It is the latest of his 'Lebenslieder', or life-songs series, and incorporates recordings of the voices of people caring for those with dementia. This reflective piece is followed by Elgar's Elegiac Cello Concerto, performed here by Santiago Caက n-Valencia, and Mendelssohn's Scottish symphony, which the composer conceived during a visit to Holyrood Abbey.

Presented by Al Ryan and recorded in Prichard Jones Hall, Bangor on the 11th of November.

7.30pm

Andrew Lewis: In Memory

Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op 85

8.15pm

Interval music

8.35pm

Mendelssohn: Symphony No 3 in A minor, Op 56, ‘Scottish

Santiago Caက n-Valencia (cello)

Gergely Madaras (conductor)

BBC NOW and Gergely Madaras perform a world premiere alongside Mendelssohn's 3rd Symphony.

In Paradisum20190617Classical riches and 20th century tranquility abound in tonight's concert from the RLPO recorded at Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool. Durufl退's Requiem, written just after World War II, has a quiet depth that stays with you. No wonder it is a favourite of choirs everywhere. It is paired with one of Mozart's few sacred works, his Kyrie in D minor, and his substantial Symphony No 39.

Programme

Mozart: Kyrie K 341

Mozart: Symphony No 39

Durufl退: Requiem

Catriona Morison (mezzo-soprano)

Roderick Williams (baritone)

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Andrew Davis (conductor)

Classical riches from Mozart and deep tranquility from Durufle in tonight's RLPO concert.

Indian Classical Music From Leicester20161115As part of Radio 3's 70th season, Leicester's Asian community celebrates the pioneering work by the Third Programme in promoting Indian classical music in the 1950s and 60s, long before The Beatles and Ravi Shankar made it fashionable. At that time, the performers had to come from India: this concert celebrates the UK's home-grown talent, with musicians born or based in this country.

Live from Leicester's Peepul Centre in Leicester, Lopa Kothari introduces a recital by sarod virtuoso Soumik Datta, with Roopa Panesar playing sitar and Shahbaz Hussain on tabla. In the interval, Viram Jasani, director of the Asian Music Circuit, recalls those early broadcasts on the Third Programme. Radio 3's 70th season celebrates seven decades of pioneering music and culture since the founding of the Third Programme.

Soumik Datta was born in Bombay, and brought up in the UK, attending Harrow School - but he learned the sarod during extended stays with his guru, Calcutta-based Pandit Buddhadev Das Gupta. Soumik describes the sarod as 'a 19-stringed fretless instrument with a nomadic history spanning ancient Afghanistan, colonial India and modern day global downloads' - and his performing life frequently takes him beyond Indian classical styles, with collaborations with Jay-Z, Beyonc退 and others.

Leicester-based Roopa Panesar is one of Europe's finest young sitar players. She started learning the instrument at the age of seven, and has performed throughout Europe and America, appeared with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and recorded music for the film 'West is West'.

Shahbaz Hussain was born in Rochdale, into a musical family with strong roots in Pakistan. He travelled to the Indian subcontinent to study and was a pupil of the legendary Alla Rakha Khan, Ravi Shankar's regular accompanist. His talent has been acclaimed worldwide, and in 2008 Pakistan gave him the 'Son of Lahore' award.

Live from Leicester, Lopa Kothari presents a concert celebrating Indian classical music.

Innocence And Experience20221020Live from the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham

Presented by Tom McKinney

We join the BBC Philharmonic live in Nottingham for a programme that explores the sorrow and uncertainty of two of England's best loved composers between the First and Second World Wars. Walton was living with confusion and bitterness at the end of a close relationship as he started work on his First Symphony, but had found new love as he embarked on the last movement; the bitterness and anger of the first three movements is as heart-on-sleeve as the breathless wild energy of the fourth. The loss felt in Elgar's Cello Concerto makes the personal public and also reflects his sense of a changing world at the end of the First World War. Rising star Zlatomir Fung joins the orchestra as soloist in this performance. Unruly magic opens the programme; Goethe's poem inspiring Dukas's graphic portrayal of The Sorcerer's Apprentice getting into ever deeper water with plenty of ambition but too little knowledge.

Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Elgar: Cello Concerto

8.15pm

Music Interval (CD)

Walton: Symphony No.1

Zlatomir Fung (cello)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

Conductor Ben Gernon conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Walton, Elgar and Dukas.

Inon Barnatan: Variations On A Suite20170627Live from Wigmore Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Inon Barnatan, piano, plays Variations on a Suite

Inon Barnatan (piano)

Handel: Chaconne in G major, HWV.435

JS Bach: Partita No.4 in D major, BWV.828 - Allemande

Rameau: Premier livre de pi耀ces de clavecin - Courante

Couperin: Second livre de pi耀ces de clavecin - 'L'Atalante

Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin - Rigaudon

Thomas Ad耀s: Blanca Variations (UK premiere)

Ligeti: Musica Ricercata - Nos 10 & 11

Barber: Piano Sonata in E flat minor, Op.26 - Fuga

INTERVAL

Brahms: Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op.24

Inon Barnatan ignores the conventional boundaries between works from different periods and explores multiple approaches to the idea of variations in music, opening with Handel's Chaconne, built around an eight-bar theme, and including the UK premi耀re of Thomas Ad耀s's graceful Blanca Variations, written for the 2015 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition.

Followed by

Canada 150

After this week's concerts, as part of a season marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of Canada, a chance to hear music from across the nation.

Live from Wigmore Hall, pianist Inon Barnatan gives a concert exploring musical variations

International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove, 50th Anniversary20221129IMS Prussia Cove brings emerging artists and acclaimed performers from across the world to make music together in a remote part of Cornwall. This evening's celebratory anniversary concert will feature the world premi耀res of works by Thomas Ad耀s and Gy怀rgy Kurtကg, specially commissioned for the occasion. Artistic Director Steven Isserlis will perform, alongside young musicians from the seminars.

Recorded at Wigmore Hall in London, presented by Petroc Trelawny.

Dohnကnyi: Piano Quintet No. 1 in C minor Op. 1

Anthony Marwood (violin)

Susanne Sch䀀ffer (violin)

H退l耀ne Clement (viola)

Christoph Richter (cello)

D退nes Vကrjon (piano)

Thomas Ad耀s: N怀v退nyek for mezzo-soprano and piano sextet (world premi耀re)*

Katalin Kကrolyi (mezzo-soprano)

Ruisi Quartet

Graham Mitchell (double bass)

Joseph Havlat (piano)

* a perusal score with texts and translations can be found here https://www.yumpu.com/xx/document/view/67396476/ades-novenyek

c.8.20pm Interval Music

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K503 - 1st mvt Allegro maestoso

Andrကs Schiff, piano

Camerata Salzburg

Sandor V退gh, conductor

Recorded in December 1988 in the Mozarteum, Grosser Saal, Salzburg

c.8.40pm

Gy怀rgy Kurtကg: Circumdederunt - in memoriam Rita Wagner (world premi耀re)

Steven Isserlis (cello)

Schubert: String Quintet in C D956

Jonian Ilias Kadesha (violin)

Ir耀ne Duval (violin)

Timothy Ridout (viola)

Vashti Hunter (cello)

Dohn\u00e1nyi, Ad\u00e8s and Schubert performed by world-famous artists alongside rising stars.

International Opera Awards20190506A celebration of the world's best operatic talents.
International Women's Day: Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Bbc Singers20160308Live from the BBC's Maida Vale Studios. Music by contemporary women composers: Jessica Cottis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Grace Rossiter conducts the BBC Singers.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Helen Grime: Virga

Libby Larsen: Deep Summer Music

Thea Musgrave: Helios - Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra

2015 INTERVAL: Amy Beach's From Grandmother's Garden played by the pianist Kirsten Johnson. And Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to conductor Jessica Cottis.

Sally Beamish: Gaudent in Coelis +#

Alissa Firsova: Paradisi Gloria, Op. 28 +#

Sally Beamish: Bird Year +#

Joanna Marsh: Fading +#

Roxanna Panufnik: Two Poems by Wendy +#

Victoria Borisova-Ollas: Open Ground

Judith Weir: Moon and Star #

Jessica Cottis (conductor)

Grace Rossiter (conductor) +

Emily Pailthorpe (oboe)

BBC Singers #

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers celebrate International Women's Day 2016 with several works inspired by natural phenomena. Oboist Emily Pailthorpe is the soloist in Thea Musgrave's virtuosic Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra, Helios, depicting the circular movements around the world of the ancient Greek sun god. And the BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Orchestra join forces in Judith Weir's delicate piece for orchestra and chorus Moon and Star - a portrayal of the vastness of space, with words by nineteenth century poet Emily Dickinson. Plus works by another Scot, Helen Grime, American Libby Larsen and Russian-born Swedish resident Victoria Borisova-Ollas. Jessica Cottis conducts.

Grace Rossiter conducts the BBC Singers in a cappella works both religious and nature-inspired.

Live from Maida Vale Studios, the BBC Symphony Orchestra in music by female composers.

International Women's Day: Open Ear20170308Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents Open Ear, a concert of new music by women for International Women's Day, recorded in the round at St John-at-Hackney in London.

Part 1

Nicola LeFanu: A Birthday Card (UK premiere)

Arlene Sierra: Painted Bunting from Birds and Insects, Book 2

Xenia Pestova (piano)

Carola Bauckholt: Ger䀀uscht怀ne

Plus-Minus Ensemble

Aisha Orazbayeva (violin) with Tim Etchells (spoken word): Seeping Through

Kaffe Matthews: In Locking

Kaffe Matthews (live electronics)

8.30 pm: Interval: Innocent Ear - a selection of new music chosen by tonight's concert artists

8.50 pm Part 2

Carola Bauckholt: Hirn & Ei

Ail퀀s N퀀 R퀀ain: Soberado (premiere)

Egidija Medeksaite: Chaandanee (premiere)

Xenia Pestova (toy piano)

Joanna Bailie: Artificial Environments

Plus-Minus Ensemble.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents Open Ear: new music by women for International Women's Day.

Intimate Fortepiano Works, By Mozart And Beethoven20200316From the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra strings join the outstanding fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout for a programme of chamber music. The concert begins with a work from Mozart's early years in Vienna, his keyboard sonata in C major KV 309. Then follows Beethoven's trailblazing Piano Trio in C minor, a work written to challenge Vienna's musical elite, with its explosive contrasts and yearning lyricism. Mozart's enterprising Piano Concerto in A K414, an intimate work for keyboard and either orchestra or string quartet accompaniment closes the recital.

Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 7 in C major KV 309

Beethoven: Trio in C minor, Op 1 No 3

20.20

INTERVAL: Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 5 in D major BWV 1050, Daniel Hope (violin), Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Kristian Bezuidenhout (harpsichord)

20.40

Mozart: Piano Concerto in A K414 (String Quintet version)

Kristian Bezuidenhout - Fortepiano

SCO String Ensemble

Presenter - Kate Molleson

Producer - Laura Metcalfe

Chamber music from fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout and the SCO strings.

Into The Infinite: Messiaen And Mahler20230324The LSO's artistic associate, Barbara Hannigan, conducts blissed-out visions of heaven from Mahler and Messiaen recorded at Barbican Hall, London.

Olivier Messiaen: L'Ascension

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No 4

Aphrodite Patoulidou, soprano

London Symphony Orchestra

Barbara Hannigan, conductor

‘Spring won't let me stay indoors any longer. I must get out, and breathe deeply again!' - Gustav Mahler

The LSO's artistic associate, Barbara Hannigan, conducts musical visions of heaven.

Irish Culture In Britain: A Centenary Celebration20160421Live from Wigmore Hall in London, Sean Rafferty introduces a concert celebrating 100 years of Irish culture, marking the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.

Part One is all-Schubert, Part Two is an Irish cultural gala, featuring celebrated Irish mezzo Ann Murray, with soprano Ailish Tynan, mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, tenor Robin Tritschler, and baritone Gavan Ring, and Lucy Wakeford (harp), Jonathan Ware and Finghin Collins (piano), Michael Collins (clarinet), the RTɀ Contempo String Quartet, plus choirs from the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin.

God Save the Queen - British National Anthem (arranged Benjamin Britten)

Amhrကn na bhFiann - Irish National Anthem (composed by Peadar Kearney and Patrick Heeney)

Schubert: Impromptu in C minor D899 No. 1

An die Musik D547; Nacht und Tr䀀ume D827; Die Forelle D550; Die Sterne D939;

Licht und Liebe D352; Erlk怀nig D328; Ellens Gesang III (Ave Maria) D839;

Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepherd on the Rock) D965; St䀀ndchen D920

8.40 Interval: Sean Rafferty talks to Ann Murray, who is being presented with The Wigmore Medal

9.00 Part 2

Gerald Barry: String Quartet No. 1 (revised)

John Field: Andante in退dit

Michael William Balfe: I dreamt that I dwelt in Marble Halls

Trad Irish: Galway Bay; She moved thro' the fair

Britten: The Salley Gardens

James Lynam Molloy: The Kerry Dance

Michael Head: The ships of Arcady; A Blackbird Singing

Trad Irish: Phil the Fluter's Ball; I have a bonnet trimmed with blue

Presentation of The Wigmore Medal to Ann Murray

Trad Irish: Danny Boy

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, seen as the start of the movement that led to the creation of the Irish Republic. This gala event, complementing the centenary events in Dublin, marks the anniversary in a celebration of Irish culture, including a special tribute to Ann Murray, one of the great Irish musicians of our time. The event also acknowledges the strong bond of friendship between Ireland and the UK, achieved through a continuing process of reconciliation. It also honours those who died at Easter 1918, Irish and British, as well as all the soldiers who lost their lives in the Great War.

Live from Wigmore Hall, London, Sean Rafferty presents a concert celebrating Irish culture

Irrepressible Energy20190521Composer-conductor Thomas Ad耀s and the Britten Sinfonia continue their acclaimed Beethoven Symphony Cycle with Nos. 7 and 8 and the London premiere of Gerald Barry's new Viola Concerto.

Irrepressible energy and humour frequently characterise the music of Beethoven and Gerald Barry, a combination which has often flummoxed audiences at the premieres of their works. Beethoven's Eighth Symphony is a case in point. A favourite of many composers (including its own) for its compact form, so tightly controlled yet bursting with ideas and fun, the Eighth Symphony bombed at its premiere beside the grandeur and near-relentless power of the seemingly greater Seventh. The premieres of Barry's works can perplex one moment and generate belly laughs the next, so listeners to the London premiere of Barry's Viola Concerto, beware!

Presented by Martin Handley, live at Barbican Hall.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92

Gerald Barry: Viola Concerto

8.30pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Beethoven: String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 'Serioso

Hagen Quartet

8.50pm

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

Lawrence Power (viola)

Thomas Ad耀s (conductor)

Lawrence Power joins Britten Sinfonia in Gerald Barry's Viola Concerto, plus Beethoven.

Isabelle Demers Celebrates Max Reger20160412From the Royal Festival Hall

Isabelle Demers celebrates the organ music music of Max Reger.

Bach: Chromatic fantasia and fugue in D minor, BWV.903 transc. Reger

2-Part Invention No.1 in C, BWV.772 transc. Reger

2-Part Invention No.5 in E flat, BWV.776 transc. Reger

2-Part Invention No.6 in E, BWV.777 transc. Reger

2-Part Invention No.8 in F, BWV.779 transc. Reger

Reger: Chorale fantasia, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, Op.52 No.2

8.10: Interval: BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the second of the finalists in this year's woodwind category.

Saxophonist Jess Gillam plays music by Itturalde. Andy Scott and Phil Woods.

Reger: Introduction, passacaglia & fugue in E minor, Op.127

Isabelle Demers, organ

2016 is the centenary of the death of Max Reger, who contributed some of the most impressive and monumental works to the organ repertoire. Isabelle Demers, who took the organ world by storm at the Royal Festival Hall organ's gala concert in 2014, returns to champion Reger's music in a selection of works by this giant of the organ repertoire.

Followed by: Menuhin 100 - classic recordings from Yehudi Menuhin's discography.

Organist Isabelle Demers celebrates Max Reger, with his transcriptions of Bach.

Isata Kanneh-mason Plays Beethoven20201126The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason play Beethoven's 3rd Concerto, and also journey through fascinating corners of America's musical landscape.

We hear the serene studied dissonance of Carl Ruggles, via an intense miniature from firebrand Ruth Crawford Seeger, to the wit and energy of little known Julia Perry and ending with a work written by Alvin Singleton in 1993 in memory of his sister. The spirit of Mozart graces Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto - but its drama and passion are all Ludwig's own. Here the outstanding Isata Kanneh-Mason guides us through its world of light and shade in the second part of the evening.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Carl Sprague Ruggles - Angels for muted brass

Ruth Crawford Seeger - Andante for String Orchestra

Julia Perry - A Short Piece for Small Orchestra

Alvin Singleton - Cara Mia Gwen

Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concerto No 3 in C minor

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)

Andrew Gourlay (conductor)

Followed by music off disc:

Dmitri Shostakovich: Sonata for viola and piano, Op.147

Lawrence Power, viola

Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano

Photo: Isata Kanneh-Mason (credit, Robin Clewley)

The BBC SSO, American gems and Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with Isata Kanneh-Mason.

Isata Kanneh-mason Plays Clara Schumann20220224Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason joins the Hall退 and conductor Tianyi Lu for a live concert from Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. There's music by Anna Clyne, Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto and Arnold Schoenberg's orchestration of Brahms' Piano Quartet in G minor.

Anna Clyne - This Midnight Hour

Clara Schumann - Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.7

c. 8.10pm - INTERVAL

Music by C退cile Chaminade, Barbara Strozzi, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Ethel Smyth and Caroline Shaw

c. 8.30pm

Brahms arr. Schoenberg - Piano Quartet in G minor, Op.25

Isata Kanneh-Mason (piano)

Hall退 Orchestra

Tianyi Lu (conductor)

Presented by Linton Stephens

Tianyi Lu conducts the Halle in music by Anna Clyne, Clara Schumann and Brahms.

Isle Of Noises20190121Marin Alsop and the LPO present five new pieces as part of the South Bank Centre's SoundState Season: 'Defining what it means to make new music in the 21st century.

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London

Presented by Ian Skelly

Arne Gieshoff: Burr (world premiere)

Anders Hillborg: Sound Atlas (world premiere)

Erkki-Sven Tüür: Solastalgia for piccolo and orchestra (UK premiere)

Interval music from Gavin Bryars

Louis Andriessen Agamemnon: (European premiere)

Helen Grime: Percussion Concerto (world premiere)

Marin Alsop conductor

Stewart McIlwham piccolo

Colin Currie percussion

London Philharmonic Orchestra

When Alex Ross, author of The Rest Is Noise, said that Britain was one of the best places in the world to make new music, tonight's concert was the kind of thing he had in mind.

Arne Gieshoff is a young German composer who's found his voice in London. Helen Grime, one of the most powerful young British talents, provides a new showpiece for percussion phenomenon Colin Currie. Leading Dutch composer Louis Andriessen's Agamemnon receives its European premiere, and the LPO's own Principal Piccolo introduces a new concerto from Estonia, before the whole Orchestra gives the world premiere of the Concerto for Orchestra by the cult Swedish composer Anders Hillborg.

Marin Alsop and the LPO present five new pieces.

Israel In Egypt2019051620210115 (R3)In a change to the advertised concert, another chance to hear the BBC Singers perform Handel's dramatic oratorio Israel in Egypt. Gergely Madaras makes a welcome return with the BBC Singers, who join forces with the Academy of Ancient Music for a thrilling evening of Old Testament retribution and triumph, with soloists from the BBC Singers.

Recorded in May 2019 at Milton Court, Barbican, and introduced by Martin Handley.

Handel: Israel in Egypt

BBC Singers 

Gergely Madaras (conductor)

The BBC Singers perform Handel's epic oratorio, conducted by Gergely Madaras.

Israel Philharmonic20200928Zubin Mehta conducts the Israel Philharmonic in works by Beethoven, Haydn and Tchaikovsky in a concert recorded in Vienna's gorgeous Musikverein concert hall in October 2018

Beethoven's dramatic overture and Tchaikovsky's most searing symphonic work frame a delightful oddity by Joseph Haydn. Written in London in 1792, his quirkily tuneful Sinfonia Concertante features a unique line-up of soloists including both strings and woodwinds

7.30pm

Coriolan Overture

Sinfonia Concertante in B flat

8.00pm

Interval:

Poulenc

Sextet for piano and winds

Nash Ensemble

8.20pm

Symphony No.6 in B minor

David Radzynski, violin

Emanuele Silvestri, cello

Dudu Carmel, oboe

Daniel Mazaki, bassoon

Zubin Mehta, conductor

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Followed by a selection of music off disc, including:

9.10pm

Max Bruch

8 Pieces for clarinet, cello and piano, Op 83

Ensemble Incanto

Image: Wilfried H怀sl

Zubin Mehta conducts the Israel Philharmonic in Beethoven, Haydn and Tchaikovsky.

It Has Become That Time Of Evening...20210708Live from MediaCityUK, Salford. Presented by Tom McKinney

Korngold: Dance in old style

Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915

Copland: Music for theater: suite

8.15

Music interval

Barber: Horizon

Kay: The Quiet One, suite

We open the programme with a miniature by a teenage Erich Korngold, written more than a decade before he moved to America in the 1930s and which includes a lyrical section which looks ahead to his time scoring movies for Hollywood. While Korngold was finding what we might now consider an 'American sound' by accident, a young Aaron Copland was exploring jazz as a way of reflecting his native America, which informs his 'Music for Theater' from 1925. The remaining works in this concert all date from the mid-1940s. Like Korngold, Ulysses Kay's catalogue contains much music for the silver screen, and we hear a suite which he drew from 'The Quiet One', a documentary in which a deprived and excluded child in Harlem is celebrated and championed; now over seventy years old, it's a movie with a theme that's bang up to date. Francesca Chiejina joins the orchestra for Barber's haunting 'Knoxville: Summer of 1915' and a rarely heard Barber miniature commissioned for radio broadcast completes the programme.

Francesca Chiejina (soprano)

BBC Philharmonic

Mark Heron (conductor)

Mark Heron conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Barber, Korngold, Copland and Kay.

Italian Inspiration20190920Recorded at the Queen's Hall during their Edinburgh International Festival debut, members of the acclaimed Italian period instrument group Europa Galante along with their founder/ violinist Fabio Biondi perform early String Quartets by Mozart and lesser known works by Italian composer Carlo Monza.

Mozart: String Quartet in C major K.157

Monza: String Quartet in F major `La fucina di volcano`

Mozart: String Quartet in G major K.80

Monza: String Quartet in B-flat major `Il giocatore`

20:30

INTERVAL: The full ensemble of Europa Galante with director Fabio Biondi perform two of Vivaldi's concertos from the set titled 'Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione' - No. 8 in G minor Op. 8 RV 332 and No. 12 in C major Op. 8 RV 178

20:50

Monza: String Quartet in D major `Opera in Musica`

Mozart: String Quartet in G major K.156

Monza: String Quartet in C major `Gli amanti rivali`

Fabio Biondi: director/violin

Presenter: Donald MacLeod

Producer: Laura Metcalfe

Photograph credit: Ana de Labra

Mozart and Monza on Europa Galante's period instruments.

Italian Moments20180928Alpesh Chauhan conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, from Symphony Hall, Birmingham - featuring the pianist Pavel Kolesnikov. Their programme, recorded for BBC Music Day, is entitled 'Italian Moments' and evokes the beautiful atmosphere of the 'bel paese', ending with Respighi's grandiose and festive paean to pageantry, his symphonic poem Feste Romane.

PART ONE

Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet

Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

(Pavel Kolesnikov - piano)

INTERVAL

Performances from disc from four of the music makers included on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour Power List 2018, announced today. The list has been created to recognise 40 of the most successful women working across the full range of today's music industry.

PART TWO

Puccini: Intermezzi from Madam Butterfly and Manon Lescaut

Respighi: Feste Romane

CBSO

Alpesh Chauhun (conductor)

Alpesh Chauhan conducts the CBSO - featuring the pianist Pavel Kolesnikov.

Jacqueline Wilson's Wonderful World With The Bbc Symphony Orchestra20211231Dame Jacqueline Wilson's books have inspired generations of children for 30 years. The renowned author joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a family concert that will carry you into the worlds of some of her favourite characters - the fearless Tracy Beaker, the determined Hetty Feather and many more.

Joining Wilson as special guests are Dani Harmer (Tracy Beaker), Emma Maggie Davies (Jess Beaker), Isabel Clifton (Hetty Feather) and Chloe Lea (Katy Carr). And the BBC Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Mei-Ann Chen in music by composers past and present, not forgetting the iconic Tracy Beaker theme - newly arranged for orchestra!

Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London on 23 October 2021.

Alan Langford: Galop' from A Little French Suite

Igor Stravinsky: Circus Polka

Keisha White: Someday - Theme from The Story of Tracy Beaker (arr Gavin Sutherland)

Mason Bates: ‘Nymphs' from Anthology of Fantastic Zoology

Julius Fucik: Entrance of the Gladiators

Anna Clyne: Masquerade

Einojuhani Rautavaara:‘Melankolia' from Cantus Arcticus

Hans Christian Lumbye: Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop

Mei-Ann Chen conductor

The renowned children's author and guests read from her books - with musical interludes.

Jaime Mart\u00edn Conducts Rachmaninov And Brahms20220228Fiona Talkington presents a highlight of the Spanish orchestral season: a concert recorded in the Teatro Monumental, Madrid, in which Jaime Mart퀀n conducts the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in two of the mainstays of the repertoire: Brahms's Second Symphony and Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, with Behzod Abduraimov. The concert opens with a lyrical work by Lili Boulanger, who died tragically young.

Lili Boulanger: Psalm 129

Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini

Brahms: Symphony No.2

Jaime Mart퀀n, conductor

Behzod Abduraimov, piano

RTVE Symphony Orchestra and Choir

Concert recorded in the Teatro Monumental, Madrid, Spain, on 21/01/2022.

Jaime Mart\u00edn conducts the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in Rachmaninov and Brahms.

Jakub J\u00f3zef Orli\u0144ski And Il Pomo D'oro20220505Countertenor Jakub J zef Orli?ski, ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro and director/harpsichordist Francesco Corti perform at London's Wigmore Hall, recorded last February. Composers featured range from Vivaldi and Handel through to lesser-known works by the likes of de Almeida and Nocci.

Janez Krstnik Tolar (c.1620-1673):

Balletto a4 No. 1

Intrada: Adagio. Allegro

Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741):

Il fonte della salute aperto dalla grazia nel Calvario

Non t'amo per il ciel

Antonio Lotti (1666-1740):

Proh quantae sunt in orbe strages

Nicola Conti (1733-54)

Salve sis, o Mater pia

Francisco Ant nio de Almeida (b.fl. 1722-52):

La Giuditta

Giusto Dio

Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785):

Concerto a4 No. 4 in C minor

Grave - Allegro

Gaetano Maria Schiassi (1698-1754):

Maria Vergine al Calvario

A che si serbano

20.10 INTERVAL (CD)

Igor Stravinsky

Suite Italien for Cello and Piano

Truls Mørk (cello)

Lars Vogt (piano)

20.30

Bartolomeo Nucci (1695-1779):

Il David trionfante

Dal beato eccelso volo

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741):

Beatus vir RV795

Peccator videbit

Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello (c.1690-1758):

Chaconne in A

Georg Reutter (1708-1772):

La Betulia liberata

D'ogni colpa la colpa maggiore

Davide Perez (1711-1778):

Mass a5

Gratias agimus tibi

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759):

Amen, Alleluia in D minor HWV269

Nicola Fago (1677-1745):

Il Faraone sommerso: 'Alla gente a Dio diletta

Countertenor Jakub J\u00f3zef Orli\u0144ski and Il Pomo d'Oro perform at London's Wigmore Hall.

James Gilchrist Sings The Curlew20200929The BBC National Orchestra of Wales presents music which evokes and explores the modern fascination with renaissance song. Beginning with John Woolrich's reimagining of a Monteverdi aria, featuring viola soloist Becky Jones, we pass on to Judith Bingham's setting of poetry by Blake and dictionary entries by Samuel Johnson in her Strange Words with tenor James Gilchrist and cellist Alice Neary. James Gilchrist will then sing his own arrangements of three Dowland songs, before we revisit some of the same musical material, as presented by Britten in his Lachrymae. Also in the programme are two of Peter Warlock's best-known works: the Capriol Suite, based on melodies from a renaissance dance manual, and The Curlew, his celebrated setting of W B Yeats poems.

7.30pm

Woolrich: Ulysses Awakes

Warlock: The Curlew

Judith Bingham: Strange Words

8.20pm

Interval music

8.40pm

Warlock: Capriol Suite

Dowland, arr Gilchrist: In darkness let me dwell; Flow my tears; If my complaints could passions move

Britten: Lachrymae, Op 48a

Becky Jones (viola)

James Gilchrist (tenor)

Alice Neary (cello)

Lesley Hatfield (director)

Followed by a selection of music off disc, including:

9:15pm

Max Bruch

Violin Concerto No 1 in G minor Op 26

Performed by:

Daniel Hope (violin)

Stockholm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Tenor James Gilchrist in concert with members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

James Gilchrist, Anna Tilbrook, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Beamish20160622Tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Tilbrook perform music by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt and the world premiere of a new work by Sally Beamish.

Presented by Ian Skelly, live from Wigmore Hall, London

Felix Mendelssohn:

Auf Flügeln des Gesanges Op. 34 No. 2

Schlafloser Augen Leuchte WoO. 4 No. 2

Keine von der Erde Sch怀nen WoO. 4 No. 1

Nachtlied Op. 71 No. 6

Neue Liebe Op. 19a No. 4

Sally Beamish: West Wind (world premi耀re)

8.15: Interval

8.35: Franz Liszt:

Im Rhein, im sch怀nen Strome S272/2

Du bist wie eine Blume S287

Die Loreley S273/2

Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam S309

Es war ein K怀nig in Thule S278/2

Robert Schumann: Liederkreis Op. 39.

Tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Tilbrook in Mendelssohn, Beamish, Liszt, Schumann.

James Macmillan Celebration20170328Harry Christophers and The Sixteen join the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as part of a month-long celebration of recent works by Sir James MacMillan in Scotland, featuring his Stabat Mater - originally commissioned for them by the Genesis Foundation. Sir James MacMillan and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra open the programme with a performance of one of his most popular concert pieces, Tryst, one of the first works he wrote for the SCO, inspired by his folksong Tryst.

James MacMillan: Tryst

Interval at 8.05pm

Kate Molleson introduces a performance of Weber's Horn Concertino played by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and their star French horn player, Alec Frank-Gemmill who was a Radio 3 New Generation Artists from 2014 -2016

James MacMillan: Stabat Mater

Harry Christophers, conductor

Sir James MacMillan, conductor.

The Sixteen and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in James MacMillan's Stabat Mater and Tryst

Jan Lisiecki, Mozart, Liszt, Mendelssohn And Chopin20151030Live from Wigmore Hall, London

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Jan Lisiecki plays piano music by Mozart, Liszt, Mendelssohn and Chopin.

Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major K331

Liszt: Trois 退tudes de concert S144

Mendelssohn: Variations s退rieuses in D minor Op. 54

8.15: INTERVAL - interval music from disc

8.35

Chopin: 12 Etudes Op. 25

Jan Lisiecki, piano

Born in Canada in 1995 to Polish parents, Jan Lisiecki has been described by The New York Times as 'a pianist who makes every note count'. He was Gramophone Magazine's Young Artist of the Year in 2013, the same year in which he made his BBC Proms debut. He returns to Wigmore Hall now aged 20 to perform Mozart's famous Piano Sonata in A K331, best known for its concluding Rondo 'Alla Turca'. He crowns his programme with Chopin's ɀtudes Op. 25 - repertoire that draws on his Polish roots.

Janacek's Jenufa20160418Jir퀀 Belohlကvek conducts the Czech Philharmonic and a fine cast including Karita Mattila, one of the leading dramatic sopranos of her generation, in this tragedy about village life, with heartbreak, jealousy and child murder at its heart.

Live from the Royal Festival Hall

Presented by Sara Mohr Pietsch

Leos Janကcek: Jenufa - opera in 3 acts

(concert performance in Czech with English surtitles)

Adriana Kohútkovက, soprano: Jenufa

Karita Mattila, soprano: Kostelnicka Buryjovka

Jaroslav Brezina, tenor: Steva Buryja

Ales Briscein, tenor: Laca Klemen

Svatopluk Sem, baritone: Stကrek (foreman)

Yvona Skvကrovက, mezzo-soprano: Starenka Buryjovka (grandmother)

Lucie Silkenovက, mezzo-soprano: Karolka

Ludek Vele, bass: Rychtကr (mayor)

Jana Hrochovက, mezzo-soprano: Rychtကrka (mayor's wife)

Marta Reichelovက: soprano, Jano

Katerina Jalovcovက, mezzo-soprano: Pastuchyna (herdswoman)

Katerina Knezikovက, soprano: Barena (servant girl)

Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno

Jir퀀 B退lohlကvek, conductor

INTERVAL BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the first of the finalists in this year's percussion category.

Percussionist Tom Pritchard plays music by:

Psathas, Arlen and Bradley.

Jiri Belohlavek conducts the Czech Philharmonic in Janacek's opera Jenufa.

Janet Street-porter20210305A special week of Radio 3 in Concert in which much-loved figures from the worlds of dance, drama and the media share some of their classical music favourites with Sean Rafferty.

In the final programme of the series, Sean meets the multi-talented Janet Street-Porter. The one-time national newspaper editor, pioneering broadcaster and author reveals her penchant for Baroque and 21st-century music and Scandi noir, represented here by Handel, Tartini, Anne Dudley, Sibelius and Kaija Saariaho.

Handel: Zadok the Priest (Coronation Anthem No 1 HWV 258)

BBC National Chorus and Orchestra of Wales

Xian Zhang (conductor)

Giuseppe Tartini: Sonata in G minor (Devil's Trill)

Alexandra Soumm (violin)

Aimo Pagin (piano)

Handel/Johan Halvorsen: Passacaglia in G minor

Victor Julien-Laferri耀re (cello)

Sibelius: Tapiola

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Kaija Saariaho: Terra Memoria

Meta4

Anne Dudley: Music and Silence

BBC Concert Orchestra

Barry Wordsworth (conductor)

Janet Street-Porter's eclectic musical choices range from Handel to Kaija Saariaho.

Janine Jansen And The London Symphony Orchestra20230214Janine Jansen joins the London Symphony Orchestra for Sibelius's Violin Concerto.

The eloquent Dutch violinist joins one of her favourite orchestras at the Barbican in a programme entitled, 'Powerful stories from cold countries.' Also on the programme, Prokofiev's Sixth Symphony, well-received at its Leningrad premiere in October 1947 but cold-shouldered in Moscow only a month later. Prokofiev let slip on one occasion that the symphony had been conceived as a reflection on the destruction of the recently concluded Great Patriotic War: `Now we are rejoicing in our great victory, but each of us has wounds that cannot be healed. One has lost those dear to him, another has lost his health. These must not be forgotten.' Prokofiev had thought of dedicating the symphony to the memory of Ludwig van Beethoven. So it's appropriate that Gianandrea Noseda, the LSO's Principal Guest Conductor, opens the concert with Beethoven's turbulent but lofty Coriolanus Overture.

Presented from the Barbican by Martin Handley

Beethoven: Coriolan - overture, Op.62

Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47

c. 8.15pm Interval Music:

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 in a recording made in 2006 by Mitsuko Uchida

c. 8.45pm

Prokofiev: Symphony no. 6 in E flat minor, Op.111

Janine Jansen (violin)

Gianandrea Noseda (conductor)

Gianandrea Noseda conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius and Prokofiev.

Jazz Voice20161111Andrew McGregor introduces the EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala, live from the Royal Festival Hall in London. Guy Barker conducts the London Jazz Festival Orchestra in Jazz Voice 2016 - a celebration of some of the great songs of the past ten decades, sung by some of the finest voices of today.

Among this year's line-up are Brooklyn-born, Harlem-based baritone Allan Harris; Londoner Jacob Collier, one of the jazz world's newest voices who was 'discovered' by Quincy Jones in 2014; Nashville-based singer Kandace Springs; American singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli; Polly Gibbons, British singer-songwriter now signed to a major USA jazz label; and American jazz and R&B artist with roots in folk and gospel, Lizz Wright.

The event is hosted by Jay Rayner, and the programme of songs, all specially arranged by Guy Barker, draws on major anniversaries, birthdays and milestones that link the decades stretching back from 2016.

Guy Barker conducts Jazz Voice, the 2016 EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala.

Jazz Voice 201920191115Live from the Royal Festival Hall, London: Jazz Voice - EFG London Jazz Festival Opening Gala

Presented by Andrew McGregor

EFG London Jazz Festival's opening-night gala features C退cile McLorin Salvant, Cherise Adams-Burnett, Corinne Bailey Rae, Judi Jackson, Matthew Whitaker, Raul Mid n and Urban Flames along with Guy Barker and the EFG London Jazz Festival Orchestra.

Multiple Grammy Award-winning C退cile McLorin Salvant brings her incredible vocal artistry, praised by Wynton Marsalis claiming ‘you get a singer like this once in a generation or two.

Cherise Adams-Burnett has a passion for soul and neo-soul and a great appreciation for the tradition of jazz vocalists, with her unique delivery winning plaudits and high profile collaborations.

Corinne Bailey Rae has a deep love for jazz and has received a Grammy for her work on Herbie Hancock's album The River. After selling out her own show at Southbank Centre, Bailey Rae is delighted to join Guy Barker and take part in Jazz Voice.

Judi Jackson was introduced to the world of music through the Jefferson Centre's Music Lab in her hometown of Roanoke, Virginia. It was here she met Wynton Marsalis, and opened for Mavis Staples, which sparked her development as a jazz vocalist and performer.

Matthew Whitaker bring his magic on the keys, after winning the 2019 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award and receiving high acclaim from The LA Times, noting his performance ‘inspired spontaneous dancing and a standing ovation.

Live from the Royal Festival Hall, London: Jazz Voice - London Jazz Festival Opening Gala

Jazz Voice, London Jazz Festival Opening Night20151113Sara Mohr Pietsch introduces the EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala, live from the Barbican in London. Guy Barker conducts the London Jazz Festival Orchestra in Jazz Voice 2015 - a celebration of some of the great songs of the past ten decades, sung by some of the great voices of today.

Among this year's line-up are Illinois-born R&B singer Liv Warfield; emerging Californian singer-songwriter Jarrod Lawson; New York-based singer and guitarist Becca Stevens; UK veteran Elaine Delmar, who made her broadcast debut in 1952; and younger Brits Joe Stilgoe, Rebecca Ferguson and Nicki Wells with British Indian composer Nitin Sawhney.

The programme of songs, all specially arranged by Guy Barker, draws on major anniversaries, birthdays and milestones that link the decades stretching back from 2015.

In the interval, Ian McMillan presents 'A Jazzy Verb' - reflections on discovering jazz as a young man, and an exploration of the connections between jazz, voice and language (produced by Sharon Sephton).

Live from the Barbican, Guy Barker conducts the EFG London Jazz Festival's opening concert

Jealousy And Revenge2018041920210226 (R3)The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Juanjo Mena in music by Tchaikovsky and Ginastera. They are joined by Alban Gerhardt for Shostakovich's Second Cello Concerto.

Presented by Stuart Flinders

Tchaikovsky: The Voyevoda, Op 78

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No 2

8:15

CD

Ginastera: Three Danzas Argentinas for piano

Barbara Nissman (piano)

8:35

Ginastera: Panambi (complete ballet)

Tchaikovsky's tale of a jealous husband seeking revenge but who ultimately meets a bloody end is rarely heard in concert, but the music is amongst his most thrilling, dramatic and spine-chilling. Ginastera's Op 1, his ballet Panambi, was begun while he was an 18-year-old student. Its scenario includes water sprites, a viper, an evil sorcerer and a beautiful heroine and takes place during a single night. The opulent sunrise which closes the piece demonstrates his confident and colourful handling of a large orchestra. The orchestra and Juanjo Mena are joined by Alban Gerhardt as soloist in Shostakovich's dark and intense Second Cello Concerto.

Juanjo Mena (conductor)

Alban Gerhardt (cello)

Manchester Chamber Choir (ladies' voices).

Recorded at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall and first broadcast in April 2018.

The BBC Philharmonic performs music by Tchaikovsky, Ginastera and Shostakovich.

Jeremy Denk And Britten Sinfonia: Gershwin And Stravinsky20180227Pianist Jeremy Denk and the Britten Sinfonia play dance-inspired music by Gershwin and Stravinsky.

Live from Milton Court

Presented by Martin Handley

Byrd/Gesualdo/Monterverdi arr. Denk: Motets

Stravinsky: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments

Nancarrow: Selection of piano solos

8.15: Interval

8.35 Milhaud: La Cr退ation du Monde

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (original jazz band version)

Jeremy Denk, piano

From its opening clarinet glissando Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue has become synonymous with 1920s America and is performed here in the original jazz band arrangement, along with Stravinsky's rhythmically complex Concerto for piano and wind. Both works explore rhythm from the syncopated cadenzas in Stravinsky to the abundant use of dance and ragtime rhythms in Gershwin.

Pianist Jeremy Denk and the Britten Sinfonia play Gershwin and Stravinsky.

Jerusalem Quartet, Beethoven, Bartok, Brahms20160623The Jerusalem Quartet begins its 20th anniversary series at Wigmore Hall with quartets by Beethoven and Bart k before being joined after the interval by Sharon Kam for Brahms's autumnal Clarinet Quintet.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Beethoven: String Quartet in B flat, Op 18 No 6

Bart k: String Quartet No 3

Interval at approx 8.15

Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op 115

Jerusalem String Quartet

with Sharon Kam (clarinet)

Concert recorded at Wigmore Hall, London, on 17 June 2016

Having been taken up at the beginning of their career as BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, the Jerusalem Quartet now ranks as one of the world's leading chamber music ensembles. In this sold-out concert they play music which has been at the heart of their repertoire now for twenty years.

The Jerusalem Quartet perform Beethoven, Bartok and Brahms at Wigmore Hall, London.

Jess Gillam And Bbc Now20201103Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft directs the string section of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a programme which takes us gradually back in time; starting with a performance of a piece written by Peet Morrison this year in response to the pandemic we are living through, and ending 140 years ago with Tchaikovsky's supremely elegant Serenade for Strings. Along the way we sample Jessie Montgomery's Source Code, her 2013 work heavily influenced by spirituals and the American civil rights movement, and visit two of Glazunov's most loved works, his 1934 Saxophone Concerto and turn of the century Chant du Menestrel, reworked here for saxophone rather than cello. Joining the orchestra as soloist is the award-winning young saxophonist Jess Gillam.

Recorded last month in BBC Hoddinott Hall and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

7.30pm

Peet Morrison: Sweet Final Breath, Dare Thou Linger Eternal

Jessie Montgomery: Source Code

Glazunov: Saxophone Concerto, Op 109

Glazunov: Chant du Menestrel, Op 71

8.10pm Interval music

8.30pm

Tchaikovsky: Serenade in C major, Op 48

Jess Gillam (saxophone)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

Followed by music off disc:

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No.82 in C major, ‘The Bear

Concentus Musicus Wien

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor

The renowned saxophonist joins the string section of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Jessye Norman20191110Fiona Talkington introduces highlights of concerts recorded from the past and present featuring the great soprano Jessye Norman, who died in September.

The world lost one of its greatest opera singers on September 30th this year, and the tributes flooded in from radio stations around the world, with recordings of concerts stored in their archives going back to the 1960s. This evening's In Concert features highglights from some of these recordings, culminating in a performance of Verdi's Requiem.

Mascagni: Voi lo sapete, o mamma (from 'Cavalleria Rusticana')

Jessye Norman (soprano)

Munich Radio Orchestra

Kurt Eichhorn (conductor)

Closing Concert of the ARD Music competition, Jessye Norman as Prizewinner

Recorded at Hercules Hall, Residenz, Munich, 1968

Berlioz: Les nuits d'退t退 (excerpts): Villanelle; Absence: L'Ile inconnue

New Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra

Charles Dutoit (conductor)

Brahms: 2 Songs, Op 91

Enrique Santiago (viola)

Mark Markham (piano)

Recorded at the 1997 Ludwigsburg Castle Festival, Germany

Giuseppe Verdi

Messa da Requiem

Agnes Baltsa (mezzo-soprano)

Jos退 Carreras (tenor)

Evgeny Nesterenko (bass)

Bavarian Radio Chorus

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Riccardo Muti (conductor)

Recorded at Hercules Hall, Residenz, Munich, 1981

Highlights from concerts around Europe featuring the late Jessye Norman

Joana Carneiro Conducts Sibelius20210923Joana Carneiro conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in music by Sibelius, Beethoven and Lindberg, and Pekka Kuusisto joins to play Lindberg's First Violin Concerto.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Bach: Es ist genug

Lindberg: Chorale

Lindberg: Violin Concerto No.1

c. 8.05pm Interval

c. 8.20pm Part Two

Beethoven: Leonore Overture No.3, op. 72b

Sibelius: Symphony No.7

Photo: Joana Carneiro (credit, Rodrigo Souza)

The opening concert of the BBC SSO's new season, conducted by Joana Carneiro.

Joanna Lumley20210303Sean Rafferty meets actress and campaigner Joanna Lumley as part of a special week of Radio 3 in Concert in which much-loved figures from the worlds of dance, drama and the media share some of their classical music favourites. Joanna's choices include a Mozart piano concerto and Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture Romeo and Juliet.

Rossini: Overture to William Tell

BBC Philharmonic, Paul Watkins (conductor)

Borodin: Polovtsian dances from 'Prince Igor

BBC Philharmonic, Giandrea Noseda (conductor)

Mozart: Piano Concerto no. 21 in C major K.467

Alice Sara Ott (piano),

BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jun M䀀rkl (conductor)

Beethoven: Prisoners' Chorus from Fidelio

Orfeon Donostiarra (Chorus)

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Juanjo Mena (conductor)

Pauline Viardot-Garcia: Bolero - Madrid and Upon the hills of Georgia)

Catriona Morison (mezzo soprano), Simon Lepper (piano),

Olena Tokar (soprano), Igor Gryshyn (piano)

Liszt: Fantasia on themes from Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni

Mariam Batsashvili (piano)

Tchaikovsky: Fantasy Overture Romeo and Juliet

BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Grant Llewellyn (conductor)

Joanna Lumley chooses Mozart and more from the BBC Experience Classical Archive.

Johannes Moser Performs Elgar20200610Another chance to hear the opening concert of the Ulster Orchestra's 2019/2020 season recorded on 29th September last year, conducted by the orchestra's new chief conductor, Daniele Rustioni. Beginning the concert is the Overture from Verdi's 1855 opera, 'I vespri siciliani.' Joining the orchestra will be cellist Johannes Moser in a performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto, and completing the programme the Ulster Hall's Grand Mullholland Organ will be on full display in Saint-Sa뀀ns' 'Organ' Symphony No. 3 in C minor.

The concert will be presented by John Toal who will be talking to conductor Daniele Rustioni during the interval.

Pic credit - Manfred Esser-Haenssler.

Music by Verdi, Elgar and Saint-Sa\u00ebns.

John Adams At 7020170227Andrew McGregor introduces a concert given by the Britten Sinfonia from the Barbican, as part of the John Adams at 70 celebrations.

John Adams: Chamber Symphony

Timo Andres: Steady Hand for two pianos and orchestra (world premiere)

Philip Glass: Music in Similar Motion*

John Adams: Grand Pianola Music

Timo Andres and David Kaplan pianos

*Britten Sinfonia Academy

Synergy Vocals

Benjamin Shwartz conductor.

The Britten Sinfonia in a John Adams 70th birthday concert at the Barbican in London.

John Eliot Gardiner At 80: Js Bach Mass In B Minor20230424Sir John Eliot Gardiner has spent a large part of his musical life immersed in Bach's liturgical music and is acknowledged as one of its foremost interpreters. So as part of his 80th birthday celebrations, it's no surprise that he has chosen to conduct his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in a performance of the Mass in B minor, widely regarded as the summit of Bach's religious music.

No one knows for sure why Bach, a lifelong Lutheran, chose to make a full Latin setting of the Catholic Mass. But written towards the end of his life, it seems to have been a way of summing up all he was musically and spiritually capable of - of leaving something for posterity - after a lifetime of professional underappreciation and what must have felt like ephemeral drudgery. For this major project, which he probably never heard performed, Bach reworked a lot of his older music, both sacred and profane. But the result, far from being an incoherent patchwork, has a compelling musical unity coupled to a profound spirituality: a European work of art at least the equal of anything from humankind anywhere at any time.

Broadcast live from St Martin-in-the-Fields and introduced by Martin Handley.

JS Bach: Mass in B minor

Hilary Cronin (soprano)

Sarah Denbee (mezzo-soprano)

Bethany Horak-Hallett (mezzo-soprano)

Reginald Mobley (countertenor)

Jonathan Hanley (tenor)

Nick Pritchard (tenor)

Alex Ashworth (bass-baritone)

Dingle Yandell (bass-baritone)

John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)

John Eliot Gardiner conducts JS Bach's Mass in B minor, live at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

John Eliot Gardiner At The Bavarian Rso20230417Sir John Eliot Gardiner, who marks his 80th birthday this week, directs the great Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a typically imaginative programme at their home in Munich. Beginning with a symphony which hints at the world of opera and ending with the 16-year-old Schubert's seldom-heard First Symphony, we enter the enchanted world of early Romantic opera with a selection of arias by Carl Maria von Weber.

Haydn - Symphony No.49 in F minor, Hob.I:49 'La Passione

Weber - 'Trauere, mein Herz' [Oberon]

Weber - 'Ozean, Du Ungeheuer' [Oberon]

Weber - 'Leise, leise, fromme Weise' [Der Freischütz ]

Schubert - Symphony No.1 in D, D.82

Lucy Crowe (soprano)

Sir John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)

Concert given on 24th March 2023 at Hercules Hall, Munich

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Haydn, Weber & Schubert from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra & John Eliot Gardiner.

John Eliot Gardiner Conducts Brahms At The Royal Concertgebouw20230421Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts Brahms at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The great British conductor completed his two year Amsterdam cycle of all of Brahms's symphonies and concertos with this concert at the end of January. Stephen Hough joins the legendary Dutch orchestra for Brahms's magisterial Second Piano Concerto.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat, op. 83

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, op. 98

Sir Stephen Hough (piano)

Sir John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)

Recorded 29/01/2023

John Eliot Gardiner conducts Brahms with pianist Stephen Hough at the Concertgebouw.

John Eliot Gardiner Conducts Mendelssohn, Elgar And Dvo\u0159\u00e1k20230228John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Philharmonia in Mendelssohn, Elgar and Dvo?ကk, recorded earlier this month at London's Royal Festival Hall.

The sea provides the theme for the first half of the concert. Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, the thrilling evocation of his journey through the crashing waves to the awesome Fingal's Cave, provides a dramatic upbeat to Elgar's Sea Pictures. Celebrated mezzo-soprano Alice Coote is the soloist in this lushly orchestrated song-cycle which sets five poems by different authors (including Elgar's wife, Alice) dealing with contrasting aspects of the sea: its dangers, beauty, temptations and symbolism.

After the interval, we're transported to the Czech countryside. In Dvo?ကk's Symphony No. 5, the composer at last fused his symphonic writing with his fresh and original personal style, so intrinsically rooted in the dance rhythms and modal inflections of his native Bohemian folk music.

Introduced by Martin Handley.

Mendelssohn: Overture: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26

Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op. 37

8.10 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Jan Dismas Zelenka: Sonata No. 5 in F for 2 oboes, bassoon and continuo

Ensemble Zefiro

8.30 pm

Dvo?ကk: Symphony No. 5 in F major, Op. 76

Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)

Philharmonia Orchestra

John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)

John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Philharmonia in Mendelssohn, Elgar and Dvo\u0159\u00e1k.

John Eliot Gardiner Conducts Schumann At The Royal Concertgebouw20230420Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts 'Scenes from Goethe's Faust,' Robert Schumann's dramatic masterpiece at the Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

Schumann started work on this two hour epic in 1842 and was still working on it a year before his death in 1856. For, although he was a prodigiously fast worker, on this occasion he was daunted by the task in hand, as he explained in a letter to Felix Mendelssohn: 'Any composer would not only be judged by his treatment of one of the seminal and most-widely acclaimed works in German literature, but would also be setting himself up to be compared to Mozart.' Another reason was Schumann's avowed intent to raise the scope of dramatic music in Germany to the exalted levels of Romantic German literature, indeed to the peak of Faust, Goethe's own magnum opus. In the end, Schumann acknowledged that, `there was only one way of doing justice to Faust, and that meant to select only a few intense and symbolic moments to be set to music.' Unlike Berlioz and Gounod in their treatments of the subject, Schumann found most of his inspiration in the mystical second book. So, rather than ending with Gretchen's death and ascension to heaven, his version follows Faust to his death at the hands of Mephistopheles's minions and into an ethereal plane. It concludes with a moving chorale, the 'Chorus Mysticus,' using the eight lines with which Goethe ended his work.

In this performance given in Amsterdam in 2019, Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts a top line-up of soloists including Christian Gerhaher as Faust and Christiane Karg as Gretchen.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Robert Schumann: Scenes from Goethe's Faust

Faust - Christian Gerhaher (baritone)

Gretchen - Christiane Karg (soprano)

Louise Alder (soprano)

Ann Hallenberg (contralto)

Claire Barnett-Jones (mezzo-soprano)

Ariel - Werner Güra (tenor)

Tareq Nazmi (bass)

Mephistopheles - Kurt Rydl (bass)

Netherlands Chamber Choir

National Children's Choir

Laurens Collegium Rotterdam

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Sir John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts Schumann's Scenes from Goethe's Faust in Amsterdam.

John Shea Presents Music, By Tchaikovsky20180601Due to technical problems we are unable to broadcast tonight's live concert from Sage Gateshead.

Instead, John Shea presents recordings of the music that Julian Rachlin and Jian Wang would have performed with Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Programme:

TCHAIKOVSKY Rococo Variations

Steven Isserlis (cello)

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)

TCHAIKOVSKY Andante Cantabile (arr. from String Quartet no.1)

Mstislav Rostropovich (cello)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Symphony no.4 in F minor

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Pierre Monteux (conductor)

Presented by John Shea.

John Shea presents recordings of music by Tchaikovsky.

John Storgards Conducts20220324The BBC Symphony Orchestra performs Dmitry Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, plus Modest Mussorgsky's seminal?Songs and Dances of Death, sung by the Lithuanian baritone Kostas Smorginas. This visionary and dramatic song cycle charts a journey from youth to death, itself given a whole new dimension by Shostakovich's evocative orchestration. To start, we hear a fantastical work from a visionary composer, Sofia Gubaidulina.

Live from the Barbican, London

Presented by Hannah French

Sofia Gubaidulina: Fairytale Poem

Modest Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death (orch. Dmitry Shostakovich)

20:05

Interval

20.25

Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No 5 in D minor

Kostas Smoriginas (baritone)

John Storgards (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra play Shostakovich's Symphony No 5, Mussorgsky and Gubaidulina.

John Wilson20210520John Wilson conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a concert from Glasgow featuring music by Enescu, Berkeley, Vaughan Williams, and Ravel's complete ballet Ma mere l'Oye.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Enescu: Suite no 1 in C major (1st movement)

Berkeley: Serenade for string orchestra

Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge

Ravel: Ma mere l'Oye (Mother Goose)

John Wilson (conductor)

Benjamin Hulett (tenor)

Initially written as a piano duet, Ravel's 'Mother Goose', is a musical depiction of fairy tales, which shimmers with orchestral magic. Two of Ravel's pupils bring some of that enchantment to their own works: Vaughan Williams's setting of poems by A.E. Housman, sung in this concert by Benjamin Hulett; while Lennox Berkeley's 'Serenade' has grace and lightness of touch. And the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor John Wilson begin their concert with a dramatic suite by Romanian-born composer George Enescu.

Photo: John Wilson (credit, Astrid Ackermann)

John Wilson conducts music by Enescu, Berkeley, Vaughan Williams and Ravel

John Wilson And The Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra20180215John Wilson and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Walton's First Symphony and are joined by Leonard Elschenbroich for the Elgar Cello Concerto.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Tom Redmond

Elgar: Cockaigne (In London Town)

Elgar: Cello Concerto

8.20 Interval

8.40

Walton: Symphony No 1

John Wilson and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra play three of the most popular works from the British Music canon: Elgar's up-and-at-'em Overture 'Cockaigne'; his super-tuneful Cello Concerto - with soloist Leonard Elschenbroich; and the concert reaches an end with Walton's enduringly popular First Symphony.

John Wilson conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in music by Elgar and Walton.

John Wilson And The Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra At The Aldeburgh Festival20180608Live from Snape Maltings

Presented by Kate Molleson

John Wilson conducts the BBC SSO in music by Britten, Copland and Bernstein from the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival with soloists Cedric Tiberghien and Robert Murray.

Britten: Sinfonia da requiem

Britten (arr. Matthews): Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo

8.10 Interval

8.30

Copland: Quiet City

Bernstein: Symphony No 2 'The Age of Anxiety

The Glasgow-based BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra take a trip to the English seaside, with their Associate Guest Conductor John Wilson, to perform music of love and angst by festival founder Benjamin Britten and two 20th century Americans: Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein.

The 2018 Aldeburgh Festival is reflecting Britten's wartime experiences in America, and in this concert alongside his often-heard Sinfonia da Requiem the orchestra are joined by tenor Robert Murray to perform a new orchestration of Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michaelangelo: love songs written during his self-imposed exile in America in the 1940s.

In the second half of the concert Copland's Quiet City preludes the complicatedly structured Second Symphony by Leonard Bernstein: one of many opportunities to hear his music in this, his anniversary year. Taking inspiration from the poems of W.H. Auden Bernstein creates a serious-minded symphony with the piano at its centre: a role originated by the composer himself, and taken this evening by Cedric Tiberghien.

John Wilson conducts the BBC SSO in Britten and Bernstein at the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival.

John Wilson And The Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra At The Aldeburgh Festival20180611Recorded at Snape Maltings

Presented by Kate Molleson

John Wilson conducts the BBC SSO in music by Britten, Bernstein and Copland from the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival with flautist Claire Chase and pianist Pavel Kolesnikov.

Britten: 4 Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from Peter Grimes

Britten: Diversions

8.20 Interval

8.40

Bernstein: Halil (Nocturne for solo flute and orchestra)

Copland: Billy the Kid (Suite)

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

Claire Chase (flute)

John Wilson (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

As part of the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival from Snape Maltings the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Associate Guest Conductor John Wilson continue their exploration of Benjamin Britten's American experiences, and the work of Leonard Bernstein.

After opening with the Suffolk-suffused 4 Sea Interludes the orchestra is joined by Pavel Kolesnikov for a performance of Britten's Diversions for Piano Left Hand: a vigorous set of variations written for Paul Wittgenstein after a meeting in New York.

In the second half of the concert Claire Chase is the flute soloist in Halil: a sombre and modernist-tinged memorial work by Leonard Bernstein. And the evening concludes with music designed to evoke the open prairie: the popular suite of music from Aaron Copland's 1938 cowboy fantasy, Billy The Kid.

John Wilson conducts the BBC SSO in Britten and Copland at the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival.

John Wilson At Aldeburgh20200619Recorded at Snape Maltings, June 2018

Presented by Kate Molleson

John Wilson conducts the BBC SSO in music by Britten, Copland and Bernstein from the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival with soloists Cedric Tiberghien and Robert Murray.

Britten: Sinfonia da requiem

Britten (arr. Matthews): Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo

8.10 Interval

8.30

Copland: Quiet City

Bernstein: Symphony No 2 'The Age of Anxiety

Another chance to hear a concert originally broadcast live in June 2018. The Glasgow-based BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with their Associate Guest Conductor John Wilson, perform music of love and angst by festival founder Benjamin Britten and two 20th century Americans: Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein.

The 2018 Aldeburgh Festival reflected Britten's wartime experiences in America, and in this concert alongside his often-heard Sinfonia da Requiem the orchestra are joined by tenor Robert Murray to perform a new orchestration of Britten's Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo: love songs written during his self-imposed exile in America in the 1940s.

In the second half of the concert Copland's Quiet City preludes the complicatedly structured Second Symphony by Leonard Bernstein: one of many opportunities to hear his music in his anniversary year. Taking inspiration from the poems of W.H. Auden Bernstein creates a serious-minded symphony with the piano at its centre: a role originated by the composer himself, and taken this evening by Cedric Tiberghien.

Photo: John Wilson (credit, Astrid Ackermann)

Another chance to hear the BBC SSO play Copland, Bernstein and Britten.

John Wilson Conducts The Philharmonia20220210Two renowned musicians, conductor John Wilson and violinist James Ehnes, join forces with the Philharmonia Orchestra for a 20th-century, all-English programme.

James Ehnes is the soloist in William Walton's 1939 Violin Concerto, following in the footsteps of its original dedicatee, the legendary Jascha Heifetz, whose trademark combination of romantic expressiveness and supreme virtuosity permeates the music. At its 1908 premiere, Elgar's Symphony No. 1 was instantly hailed as a masterpiece, the greatest of English symphonies, admired on the Continent by the likes of Richard Strauss, no less. With its mixture of wistful nostalgia, melancholy and surging passion, wrapped up in those wide-leaping nobilmente melodies so typical of Elgar, the Symphony still makes an unforgettable impression.

Introduced live from the Royal Festival Hall by Martin Handley.

Walton: Violin Concerto in B minor

8.05pm

Interval music (from CD)

Ravel: Ma m耀re l'Oye

Katia & Marielle Labeque (piano)

8.25 pm

Elgar: Symphony No. 1 in A flat major Op. 55

James Ehnes (violin)

John Wilson (conductor)

James Ehnes performs Walton's Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia.

Joined Forces20220209Kevin John Edusei conducts the joined forces of the BBC SSO and RSNO in music by John Adams and Samy Moussa; plus Shostakovich's First Violin concerto, with Mar퀀a Dueကas as soloist.

Live from Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Presented by Elizabeth Alker

Samy Moussa: Elysium

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1

8.25 Interval

8.45 Part 2

John Adams: Harmonielehre

Mar퀀a Dueကas (violin)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Kevin John Edusei (conductor)

Photo: Kevin John Edusei (credit, Marco Borggreve)

Kevin John Edusei conducts the BBC SSO and RSNO in John Adams's Harmonielehre.

Jordi Savall And Hesperion Xxi Take Us On A Musical Journey Across Europe20190605Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI take us on a journey across musical Europe from the Renaissance to the Baroque, passing through Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France and including composers such as Diego Ortiz, Tobias Hume, Johann Sebastian Bach and Marin Marais.

Presented from St John's Smith Square by Hannah French.

7.30pm

Diego Ortiz: Recercades sobre Tenores

Gaspar Sanz: Jကcaras & Canarios

Tobias Hume: Musicall Humors (bass viol)

Diego Ortiz: Recercada V (Romanesca)

Anonymous (England): Greensleeves to a Ground

Anonymous (Tixtla - Mexico): Improvisations on the Guaracha

Emilio de' Cavalieri: Sinfonia (harp & guitar)

Emilio de' Cavalieri: Ballo del Gran Duca (harp & guitar)

Carl Friedrich Abel: Prelude

Johann Sebastian Bach: Allemande (Cello Suite no.5)

Johannes Schenck: Aria burlesca (bass viol)

Marin Marais: Les Voix Humaines

Couplets des Folies d'Espagne

Francisco Correa de Arauxo: Glosas sobre `Todo el mundo en general`

Anonymous: Improvisations on the Canarios

Antonio Valente & Anonymous: Improvisations on the Gallarda Napolitana

Jordi Savall (treble viol, bass viol)

Xavier D퀀az-Latorre (vihuela, guitar & theorbo)

Andrew Lawrence-King (baroque harp)

Musical Europe from the Renaissance to the Baroque.

Joshua Bell And Sam Haywood20170329Joshua Bell and Sam Haywood play music by Beethoven, Brahms and Sarasate. One of the world's leading violinists returns to the Barbican Hall for this recital of some of the greatest music written for the violin.

Recorded Tuesday 28 March at Barbican Hall, London

Introduced by Martin Handley

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No.1 in D major, Op.12 No.1

Brahms: Scherzo in C minor from F-A-E Sonata

Brahms: Violin Sonata No.3 in D minor, Op.108

8:20

Interval Music: Joshua Bell plays Bach with The Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

8:40

Ysaÿe: Sonata in D minor, Op.27 No.3, (Ballade), for solo violin

Rachmaninov: Vocalise

Sarasate: Concert Fantasy on Carmen, Op.25

plus encores by Chopin and Wienawski.

Joshua Bell and Sam Haywood - Beethoven, Brahms, Ysaye, Rachmaninov, Sarasate.

Joshua Bell And Sam Haywood At Wigmore Hall20160615The American violinist Joshua Bell makes a welcome return to Wigmore Hall. He is joined by the British pianist Sam Haywood for a recital which opens with a pastiche Chaconne once attributed to the Baroque composer Vitali and which was in the repertoire of most of the leading violin virtuosi of the twentieth century. That's followed by Beethoven's masterful Kreutzer Sonata before the main part of Joshua Bell's recital ends with the ground-breaking sonata by Gabriel Faur退, a work which Joshua Bell describes as one of his Desert Island Discs.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Tomaso Vitali: Chaconne in G minor

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major Op. 47 'Kreutzer

at approx 8.30pm

Interval: vocal and choral music by Haydn and Faur退

Faur退: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major Op. 13

Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor

Fritz Kreisler: Liebesleid from Old Viennese Dances

Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen Op. 20

Joshua Bell (violin) Sam Haywood (piano)

rec. Wigmore Hall 10.05.2016.

Joshua Bell (violin) and Sam Haywood (piano) in Vitali, Beethoven, Faure, Brahms, Sarasate

Journey's End20220202After visiting his wounded nephew Karl in Gneixendorf in December 1826, Beethoven became ill as he travelled home to Vienna. Weeks later, the composer was dead - Karl his sole heir. One of his last completed works, the Gro߀e Fugue, moves through themes in an unfolding musical journey.

Brett Dean's brand-new work is one of a series instigated by the pianist Jonathan Biss, each reflecting a piano concerto by Beethoven. Gneixendorf Music responds to the composer's Emperor Concerto and takes the composer's fateful winter journey of 1826 as its theme. Journeys of other sorts complete the concert: Kaija Saariaho's work inspired by a drive across California and Jean Sibelius's musical depiction of a sleigh ride from Helsinki to Kerava.

Recorded at the Barbican, London on 28th January 2022

Presented by Martin Handley

Jean Sibelius: Night Ride and Sunrise, Op 55

Brett Dean: Piano Concerto: Gneixendorf Music - A Winter's Journey

8.05pm

Interval - choral music from Denmark and Norway

Per Nørg倀rd: Drømmesange (1981) (Dreamsongs) (Text by Finn Methling}

The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

A Percussionist from the Oslo Sinfonietta

Grete Pedersen (conductor)

Gjermund Larsen: Solistvals (Soloist's Waltz)

Gjermund Larsen (fiddle)

Trad: arr. Gjermund Larsen Gropen (Traditional Dancing Song)

Gjermund Larsen (Hardanger fiddle)

Concert Part 2

8.25pm

Kaija Saariaho: Vista

Ludwig van Beethoven Gro߀e Fugue, op. 133 (arr. Weingartner)

Jonathan Biss (piano)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Hannu Lintu (conductor)

Hannu Lintu conducts the BBC SO in works by Beethoven, Brett Dean, Saariaho and Sibelius.

Julia Fischer Plays Elgar's Violin Concerto20220427Vladimir Jurowski and the LPO are joined by internationally acclaimed violinist Julia Fischer for an intriguing pairing of early 20th-century works.

By 1909, when the Philharmonic Society commissioned a violin concerto from Elgar, he was at the height of his fame: the composer of Enigma Variations, The Dream of Gerontius, Pomp and Circumstance Marches and a First Symphony which had impressed even the Germans. Although sometimes heroic and on a grand scale, the Violin Concerto is nevertheless shot through with the spirit of its ambiguous and allusive Spanish inscription. 'Aqu퀀 estက encerrada el alma de....' ('Herein is enshrined the soul of....'), now widely accepted to be a reference to Elgar's close friend, Alice Stuart-Wortley.

Almost contemporary with the Elgar, Enescu's Second Symphony inhabits a world which encompasses Straussian swagger and lush late-Romantic harmonies, its profusion of musical ideas creating what a fellow Romanian composer described as a 'magic jungle'. It's meat and drink to tonight's conductor who has long championed this too-often neglected composer.

Recorded earlier this month at the Royal Festival Hall and introduced by Ian Skelly.

Elgar: Violin Concerto in B minor Op.61

8.25 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Stravinsky: Three Movements from Petrushka

Alexander Ullman (piano)

8.40 pm

Enescu: Symphony No. 2 in A major, Op. 17

Julia Fischer (violin)

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski (conductor)

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Elgar and Enescu.

Julia Fischer Plays Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto20221128Cristian M?celaru conducts the Orchestre National de France in Bizet's Symphony in C, Respighi's Pines of Rome and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, with soloist Julia Fischer.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Felix Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64

Georges Bizet: Symphony in C major

Ottorino Respighi: The Pines of Rome

Julia Fischer (violin)

Cristian M?celaru (conductor)

Recorded at Radio France, Paris in October 2022

The Orchestre National de France play Mendelssohn, Bizet and Respighi.

Julia Fischer, Igor Levit, Beethoven Violin Sonatas20160704Live from Wigmore Hall, Martin Handley introduces a recital of Beethoven violin sonatas played by Julia Fischer with pianist Igor Levit.

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No.1 in D major Op.12 No.1; Violin Sonata No 2 in A major, Op.12 No.2

8.10 pm Interval: music by Antonio Salieri, the dedicatee of Beethoven's Opus 12 violin sonatas

8.30 pm part two:

Beethoven: Violin Sonata No.3 in E flat major Op.12 No.3; Violin Sonata No.4 in A minor Op.23

Julia Fischer (violin)

Igor Levit (piano)

Julia Fischer is one of Germany's most gifted young violinists, and she combines her playing and recording with running her own Festival, performing with her own string quartet, and also playing the odd piano concerto. She hasn't mastered the art of playing both at the same time however, so Russian-German pianist Igor Levit - recently acclaimed as 'the leaner, meaner piano machine' - joins her in these violin sonatas which date from soon after Beethoven arrived in Vienna, determined to make his name as a composer to be reckoned with.

Julia Fischer (violin) and Igor Levit (piano) in Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos 1-4.

Julian Joseph's Tristan And Isolde20181009East and West, romance and tragedy collide in Julian Joseph's contemporary, multi-cultural reworking of the Tristan and Isolde story, as retold by librettist Mike Phillips.

Tristan, recast as a Romanian mafia enforcer of African descent, meets Isolde of African-Transylvanian heritage when she visits her family in Romania. But have they met before in London? Julian Joseph draws on jazz and classical music to illustrate the changing nature of European identity in the modern world.

Singers Carleen Anderson, Ken Papenfus, Christine Tobin and Cleveland Watkiss join the Julian Joseph Trio and members of his All Star Big Band, with the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Clark Rundell.

Presented by Sarah Walker.

Julian Joseph: Tristan and Isolde

Member of the Julian Joseph All Star Big Band

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Clark Rundell

Julian Joseph's contemporary reworking of Tristan and Isolde, by librettist Mike Phillips.

Jupiter, Pandora And The Emperor20210618From MediaCityUK, Salford

Presented by Tom McKinney

About many things in this world there is simply nothing to be said - Mozart's C major Symphony with the fugue, much of Shakespeare and some of Beethoven' - these words of Robert Schumann show how, even half a century after it was written, Mozart's final symphony continued to challenge and impress audiences. Ben Gernon and the BBC Philharmonic open their concert tonight with the 'Jupiter' Symphony and end their concert with a work bearing another famous nickname, Beethoven's last concerto, the 'Emperor'. Framed by these two late works is a work inspired by Longfellow's epic poem, The Masque of Pandora. According to Greek legend, Pandora was the first women in the world and given a gift by each of the gods, including a jar or a box which she was forbidden to open. She succumbed to temptation releasing all the evils into the world, managing to slam on the lid again before hope escaped. Just one of many large-scale choral and orchestral works by Alice-Mary Smith, her setting of Longfellow's poetry also showcased two purely instrumental and delicate Intermezzos which we hear this evening.

Mozart: Symphony No 41 (K 551) 'Jupiter

Alice Mary Smith: The Masque of Pandora - two intermezzos

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 5 'Emperor

Stephen Hough (piano)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and Ben Gernon perform Mozart, Alice Mary Smith and Beethoven.

Jurowski's Tchaikovsky20190927In the first concert of its 2019/20 season, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and its principal conductor Vladimir Jurowski present a programme of Russian and English music, beginning with an English-Russian hybrid: music by the late Oliver Knussen, inspired by Scriabin. Julia Fischer joins the orchestra for one of Britten's most powerful orchestral works, his Violin Concerto, written in 1938-9 shortly after the composer had been deeply affected by both the premiere of Berg's Violin Concerto and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The second half comprises Tchaikovsky's blazing, autobiographical final symphony, which represents the epitome of Russian romantic music with its sense of raw drama and heart-on-sleeve passion. Premiered by the composer just nine days before his death, it remains one of the most uncompromising emotional experiences in the entire symphonic canon.

Presented live from the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre by Martin Handley

Knussen: Scriabin settings for chamber orchestra

Britten: Violin Concerto

Interval

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 6 'Path退tique

Julia Fischer (violin)

Vladimir Jurowski (conductor)

Photo: ©Vera Zhuravleva

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the LPO in Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 6 'Pathetique'.

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective20200930Live from Wigmore Hall: Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, the hall's new Associate Artists, presents a programme that surveys differing aspects of love from the dark hues of Borodin to Barber's young lovers at the start of Dover Beach.

Schubert: Adagio and Rondo concertante in F major D487

Glinka: Doubt

Borodin: The Pretty Girl no longer Loves me

Kate Whitley: This is My Love Poem for You

George Walker: Lyric for Strings

Barber: Dover Beach

Korngold: Piano Quintet in E Op. 15

Matthew Rose (bass)

Elena Urioste (violin)

Savitri Grier (violin)

Rosalind Ventris (viola)

Laura van der Heijden (cello)

Tom Poster (piano)

Followed by a selection of music off disc, including:

Max Bruch

Symphony No 1 in E flat major Op 28

Performed by:

Bamberger Symphoniker

Robert Trevino (conductor)

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective perform music by Barber, Korngold and Glinka.

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective20201211Last month, as the pandemic played havoc with venues' plans up and down the country, the BBC's Maida Vale Studio 1 played host to the Halifax Philharmonic Club and one of today's most exciting chamber ensembles. The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective was founded in 2017 but the international group has quickly gained a reputation for its fresh approach to programming and memorable performances: a `sparky, shape-shifting ensemble of starry young musicians` as one critic put it.

Their programme begins with Schubert's Notturno, by turns rapt and dramatic, and ends with Amy Beach's big-boned piano quintet. In between come a serene Handel aria and a selection of exquisite Reynaldo Hahn songs in ear-opening new arrangements for chamber group by Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective co-founder Tom Poster.

Recorded in November and introduced by Linton Stephens.

Schubert: Notturno in E flat, D897

Handel: Sü߀e Stille, sanfte Quelle

Reynaldo Hahn (arr. Tom Poster):

Katharina Konradi, Songs Of Childhood20201104Katharina Konradi sings Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn at Wigmore Hall.

The Kyrgyzstan-born German soprano and current BBC New Generation Artist is rapidly making a name for herself as one the most distinctive talents in the vocal firmament. Tonight she is joined by the pianist Joseph Middleton for a programme that promises Russian soulfulness and exquisite beauty in songs meditating on childhood. As well as songs by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, the programme includes a world premiere of a work written for Katharina Konradi by the American Lori Laitman.

Fanny Mendelssohn: 6 Lieder Op. 7

Tchaikovsky: At the ball Op. 38 No. 3, Do not believe, my friend Op. 6 No. 1, It was in the early spring Op. 38 No. 2

Lori Laitman (b.1955): Scenes from childhood (world premi耀re)

Tchaikovsky: Spring (The Snow is Already Melting) Op. 54 No. 9, Cradle song Op. 16 No. 1, Serenade (O child, beneath thy window) Op. 63 No. 6

Felix Mendelssohn: Die Liebende schreibt Op. 86 No. 3, Frage Op. 9 No. 1, Nachtlied Op. 71 No. 6, Frühlingslied Op. 47 No. 3

Tchaikovsky: 6 m退lodies Op. 65

Followed by a recent recording of one of Brahms's last works, a swan song to his oeuvre, perhaps even to Romanticism itself from current New Generation Artists, the Aris Quartet.

Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115

Thorsten Johanns (clarinet), Aris Quartett

Followed by music off disc:

Joseph Haydn: Symphony No.81 in G major H. 1:81

Accademia Bizantina

Ottavio Dantone, conductor

Soprano Katharina Konradi sings Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn at Wigmore Hall.

King's College Organ Gala20161109Ian Skelly presents a concert at King's College, Cambridge, featuring the Chapel's famous organ in the first concert since its recent restoration. Thomas Trotter puts the newly restored instrument through its paces in music by Bach, Karg-Elert, Durufl退 and Poulenc, with the Choir of King's College and Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Stephen Cleobury, Director of Music at King's.

Live from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge.

Bach: Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV542

Durufl退: Requiem, Op 9

Interval - Including music and an interview about the organ restoration.

Karg-Elert: Fuge, Kanzone und Epilog, Op.85 No.3

Poulenc: Organ Concerto

Thomas Trotter (organ)

Thomas Gould (violin)

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano)

Choir of King's College, Cambridge

Stephen Cleobury (conductor).

Ian Skelly presents a concert at King's College, Cambridge, featuring the restored organ.

Kings Place, The English Concert With Iestyn Davies20210629Martin Handley introduces a recital recorded last week at Kings Place, London, featuring countertenor Iestyn Davies, accompanied by The English Concert under Peter Whelan, in a cornucopia of pieces composed for Handel's London altos, both castrati and female singers. The repertoire is a journey through the composer's different London venues: opera theatres, churches and private houses, where he enjoyed enormous success. Davies includes arias from operas such as Giulio Cesare and Alcina, as well as music from oratorios like Theodora, anthems, pastorals and cantatas, all mixed with Handel's orchestral dances and sinfonias.

G.F. Handel:

Concerto from Act 1, Ottone

‘Presti Omai', from Giulio Cesare

‘Pompe vane di morte' - 'Dove Sei?', from Rodelinda

Entr退e des songes agr退ables, from Alcina

Entr退e des songes funestes, from Alcina

Entr退e des songes agr退ables effray退s, from Alcina

Le combat des songes funestes et agr退ables, from Alcina

Sorge nel petto', from Rinaldo

Partenope, Act 3 Sinfonia

‘Splenda l'alba in oriente' - Italian cantanta No. 5

Sonata Op.5 No 4 in G Major, HWV399

Ariodante, Act 2, opening Sinfonia

Se in fiorito', from Giulio Cesare

Serse, Act 3 sinfonia, No.34

I Will Magnify Thee', HWV 250b

Iestyn Davies, countertenor

Peter Whelan, conductor

Photo by Ben Ealovega

Recorded last week, a feast of Handel's London altos with countertenor Iestyn Davies.

Kings Place: Mark Simpson With The Diotima Quartet20211006Ian Skelly introduces a concert recorded last week at Kings Place in London featuring the Diotima Quartet playing Schubert's String Quartet No. 6; then Mark Simpson joins in for the world premiere of Thomas Ad耀s's Alchymia for clarinet and string quartet, followed by Brahms's Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115.

Schubert: String Quartet No. 6, D74

Thomas Ad耀s: Alchymia, for clarinet and string quartet (world premiere)

Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115

Mark Simpson, clarinet

The Diotima Quartet play music by Schubert, Brahms and an Ad\u00e8s world premiere.

Kirill Gerstein Plays Beethoven's Emperor Concerto20201016Stravinsky's Scherzo a la russe makes playful start to this concert before renowned Russian-born, Berlin-based Kirill Gerstein performs one of the greatest of all piano concertos - Beethoven's 'Emperor'. The concert ends with Stravinsky's exotic and lushly-scored fairy tale ballet The Firebird, the music that launched Stravinsky's international career.

Recorded in 2018 at the Royal Festival Hall, London and presented by Ian Skelly

Stravinsky: Scherzo

Kirill Gerstein Plays Debussy And Liszt20201002Internationally renowned Kirill Gerstein plays an exciting programme requiring a transcendent technique. From 1915, Debussy's 12 ɀtudes are widely considered his late masterpiece. At once playful and unrelenting in their technical demands the Studies are musically richly rewarding, too, each a mini tone-poem with endlessly varied textures. Debussy wrote, impishly gnomic, to his publisher ‘These ɀtudes conceal a rigorous technique beneath flowers of harmony. To put it another way, `you don't catch flies with vinegar!`

Although Liszt's groundbreaking B minor Sonata was declared musically incomprehensible and technically impossible at its premiere, it has long been accepted as his greatest solo piano work, a conerstone of the repertoire and a satisfying emotional and musical journey which unfolds in one vast, irresistible and inevitable movement.

Introduced by Martin Handley, live from Wigmore Hall.

Debussy: ɀtudes

Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor S178

Kirill Gerstein (piano)

Followed by music off disc, including, at 9:05pm:

Max Bruch

Symphony No 3 in E major, Op 51

Bamberg Symphony Orchestra

Robert Trevino

Pianist Kirill Gerstein plays Debussy's \u00c9tudes and the Liszt Sonata, live at Wigmore Hall

Kirill Karabits Conducts The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra In Elgar, Tchaikovsky And Walton20180509Live from the Lighthouse Poole. Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Elgar and Walton and Simon Trpceski joins them for the most famous of all Russian piano concertos.

When he arrived as Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony the Ukrainian, Kirill Karabits, was enthusiastic to conduct music by British composers. And so, after his successes with the music of Benjamin Britten last year, he turns now to William Walton and his sensational symphony of the early 1930s, a work which immediately put him on the international music map. The Macedonian, Simon Trp?eski, one of the most exciting pianists of our time, is bound to bring the audience in Poole to its feet at the end of Tchaikovsky's barn storming concerto but he'll discover plenty of poetry along the way.

Presented by Martin Handley

Elgar: In the south (Alassio) - overture Op.50

Tchaikovsky: Concerto no. 1 in B flat minor Op.23

Interval Music

Walton: Symphony no. 1 in B flat minor

Simon Trpceski (piano)

Kirill Karabits (conductor).

Live at the Lighthouse Poole, Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Kirill Petrenko And The Berlin Philharmonic20200106The first of five concerts this week showcasing highlights from the season around Europe. On August 23rd 2019 one of the most hotly anticipated musical partnerships officially got underway as Kirill Petrenko stood before the Berlin Philharmonic as its new Chief Conductor. Each of their previous concerts had left a deep impression on audiences, critics and the orchestra itself, and for this inaugural concert, Petrenko chose to pair the sumptuous suite from Berg's late-Romantic, 12-tone operatic masterpiece with Beethoven's final symphony, its visionary choral finale, a hymn to joy, freighted with so many associations both in Germany and internationally.

Recorded last August in the Philharmonie, Berlin and presented by Georgia Mann.

Berg: Lulu Suite

8.00pm

Interval music (from CD)

Brahms: Horn Trio Op.40

Sarah Willis, horn

Kotowa Machida, Violin

Cordelia Hoefer, piano

8.25pm

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, op. 125 ('Choral')

Marlis Petersen (soprano)

Elisabeth Kulman (mezzo-soprano)

Benjamin Bruns (tenor)

Kwangchul Youn (bass)

Rundfunkchor Berlin

Kirill Petrenko (conductor)

Followed by:

Laura Snowden and Chandos Chamber Choir

Making Music's Adopt a Composer scheme, in association with Sound and Music, paired composer and choir to create a piece of music. Follow Laura Snowden and the Chandos Chamber Choir behind the scenes in this short feature about their journey together, and hear the piece Laura wrote for the choir, 'Evensong' conducted by James Davey.

Kirill Petrenko's inaugural concert with the Berlin Philharmonic as its chief conductor.

Kirill Petrenko Conducts The Berlin Philharmonic's Season Opening Concert20230925To open their new season the dream team of Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic perform two late-Romantic works by Max Reger and Richard Strauss.

Reger's music has long-been a concert hall rarity but for the occasional outing for his Variations on a Theme by Mozart, an attractive Brahmsian pastiche from 1914. Reger imagined his music as a bulwark against what he called the 'unnatural quirkiness and eccentricity' of some of his contemporaries. It was the sort of criticism so often levelled at Richard Strauss, whose symphonic poem Ein Heldenleben - A Hero's Life - offended with its vain and overweening autobiographical narrative. But now it's Strauss's music which fills concert halls and we can enjoy Ein Heldenleben on its own terms, from the irresistible swagger and momentum of its opening, through to its poignant closing bars, all in delivered in Strauss's trademark dazzling orchestration.

Recorded last month at the Philharmonie, Berlin, and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Max Reger: Variations on a Theme by Mozart

8.05 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Mozart: Theme with Variations (Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331)

Mitsuko Uchida (piano)

8.20pm

Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Kirill Petrenko (conductor)

Kirill Petrenko conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in Max Reger and Richard Strauss.

Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 And The Oslo Philharmonic At The Edinburgh International Festival20230913Since becoming the youngest ever appointed conductor to the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra aged 22, Klaus M䀀kel䀀 has taken the classical music world by storm. Not yet 30 and now Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic, he conducts Sibelius' Seventh symphony, described by musicologist Donald Tovey as achieving ‘The power of moving like aircraft'. The concert opens with prize-winning music by Rolf Gupta reflecting ‘The wonder, longing and joy of creation', the Epilogue from his oratorio Earth's Song. After the interval Swedish soprano Johanna Wallroth (a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist) sings poetry depicting a child's vision of heaven in Mahler's fourth symphony.

Rolf Gupta: Epilogue from Earth's Song

Sibelius: Symphony No 7

20:15 Interval - a selection of songs by Mahler inspired by Des Knaben Wunderhorn, in a recording by Austrian bass Gunther Groissbock and pianist Malcolm Martineau.

20:35

Mahler: Symphony No 4

Klaus Makela - Conductor

Johanna Wallroth - Soprano

Donald Macleod - presenter

Laura Metcalfe - producer

Contrasting symphonies by Sibelius and Mahler and 'a prayer for our world' by Rolf Gupta.

Knussen Conducts Birtwistle20180618Aldeburgh Festival Ensemble and Oliver Knussen give a concert with two UK premieres and a world premiere, live from Snape Maltings. Presented by Ian Skelly.

Feldman: Mary Anne's Theme

Debussy arr. Boulez: Chansons de Bilitis

Harrison Birtwistle: Three Songs from The Holy Forest

1. The Literalist

2. dear dusty moth

3. The Borrower

(UK premiere of complete work)

Vassos Nicolaou: Frames for piano duet (UK premiere)

Bart k, Dukas, Goossens, Malipiero and Stravinsky works from Le Tombeau de Debussy

Birtwistle: Keyboard Engine, Construction for Two Pianos (world premiere).

Aldeburgh Festival Ensemble live from Snape Maltings. Presented by Ian Skelly.

Kraggerud's Bruch20190926The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Alpesh Chauhan launch their new orchestral season from Glasgow's City Halls with a performance of music from the very dead centre of the classical music canon.

Mahler's comprehensively emotional Symphony No 5 is preceded by one of the most oft-heard concertos from the classical music charts: Bruch's Violin Concerto. And before that the UK premiere of a piece by Chaya Czernowin: a composer, and aural scrutiniser, who questions the nature of sound and listening in her orchestral miniature, 'Once I blinked nothing was the same.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow.

Presented by Kate Molleson.

Chaya Czernowin: Once I blinked nothing was the same

Bruch: Violin Concerto No 1

8.00 Interval

8.20 Part 2

Mahler: Symphony No 5

Henning Kraggerud (violin)

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

Photo credit: Kaupo Kikkas

Henning Kraggerud joins the BBC SSO to launch its new Glasgow season.

Kristian Bezuidenhout Directs The English Concert In Purcell And Handel20211022The English Concert directed by Kristian Bezuidenhout perform choral, instrumental and theatre music by Handel and Purcell.

Reading the chauvinistic tub-thumping of 'Why, why are all the muses mute?' is a dispiriting experience. But in combination with Purcell's ravishing music, the undistinguished, sycophantic text designed to flatter King James II is elevated to a level far beyond anything its anonymous author had a right to expect, including one of Purcell's finest ground bass arias, ‘Britain, thou now art great'.

James Bridges' prodigal extravagance left little of any lasting consequence but for the music he commissioned from Handel. It includes the masque Acis and Galatea and the oratorio Esther, written to be performed at his opulent mansion at Cannons, near Edgeware. And for the church on his estate, the Duke of Chandos also commissioned the 11 Chandos Anthems. In these Psalm settings for voices, wind, and strings, Handel often ingeniously recycles some of his older works to make new-minted music with all his customary brilliance for word-setting, including here, texts from Psalm 89.

Presented live from Wigmore Hall by Hannah French.

Handel: Concerto Grosso in D minor (Op 6, Nr 10)

Purcell: Why, why are all the muses mute? (Welcome song for King James II) (Z 343)

8.20 pm

Interval

8.40 pm

Purcell: Overture from The Gordion Knot Untied (Z 597)

Hornpipe from King Arthur (Z 628)

Slow Air from The Old Bachelor (Z. 607)

First Act Tune from The Virtuous Wife (Z 611)

`How Blessed are Shepherds` from King Arthur, Z. 628

Curtain Tune from Timon of Athens (Z 632)

Handel: Chandos Anthem No. 7 ‘My song shall be alway' (HWV 252)

Anna Dennis & Miriam Allan (soprano)

James Hall (countertenor)

David de Winter (tenor)

Matthew Brook & Ashley Riches (bass)

Kristian Bezuidenhout (harpsichord/director)

The English Concert perform Why, why are all the muses mute? and Chandos Anthem No 7.

Kristian Bezuidenhout Directs The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra20221122On St Cecilia's day, live from Wigmore Hall, the internationally acclaimed keyboard-player Kristian Bezuidenhout directs the leading period instrumentalists of Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and a starry line-up of vocal soloists in a concert celebrating the patron saint of music. The programme features works by two of England's greatest composers, beginning with the 24-year-old Purcell's Ode for St Cecilia's Day 'Welcome to all the pleasures'. The concert includes Handel's Chandos Anthem 'As pants the hart'. The sixth of a set of 11 mini-cantatas commissioned by the prodigally extravagant James Bridges, Duke of Chandos, it's one of the countless examples of the ever-canny Handel's capacity for ingeniously re-working his older music into something fresh and new.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Henry Purcell:

Welcome to all the pleasures (Ode for St Cecilia's Day), Z. 339

Overture (The Gordion Knot Unty'd, Z. 597)

Third Act Tune: Hornpipe (King Arthur, or The British worthy Z. 628)

Third Act Tune: Rondeau (The Indian Queen, Z. 630)

Slow Air (The Virtuous Wife, or Good Luck at Last, Z. 611)

Hosanna to the highest, Z. 187

Chacony in G minor, Z. 730

Handel: Chandos Anthem No. 6 'As pants the hart' HWV. 251b

8.40 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Haydn: Partita (Divertimento) in G major Hob. XVI:6

Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano)

9.00 pm

Handel (arr. Kristian Bezuidenhout): Trio Sonata in G, Op. 5 No. 4, HWV. 399

Purcell: Who can from joy refrain? (Birthday Ode for the Duke of Gloucester), Z. 342

Grace Davidson & Rachel Redmond (sopranos)

Alexander Chance (alto)

Samuel Boden & Hugo Hymas (tenors)

David Shipley (bass)

Kristian Bezuidenhout (harpsichord/director)

Kristian Bezuidenhout directs the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in Purcell and Handel.

Kuss Quartet And Piotr Anderszewski20160529Ian Skelly presents recent concert performances from around Europe, with a performance of Schubert's Death and the Maiden Quartet from the Kuss Quartet and Piotr Anderszewski playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor K.491.

Ravel

Le Tombeau de Couperin

SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra, St退phane Den耀ve (conductor)

rec. 15.01.16 Beethovensaal Stuttgart

String Quartet No.14 in D minor D.810 'Death and the Maiden

rec. 18.03.16 Royal Conservatory, Brussels during the KlaraFestival

Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor, K.491

Piotr Anderszewski (piano),

rec. 15.01.16 Beethovensaal Stuttgart.

With the Kuss Quartet in Schubert and Piotr Anderszewski in Mozart's Piano Concerto No 24.

Kwame Kwei-armah20210302The second of this week's special editions of Radio 3 in Concert where Sean Rafferty meets much-loved figures from the worlds of dance, drama and the media.

Kwame Kwei-Armah, actor, playwright, director, broadcaster and, since 2018, Artistic Director of the Young Vic, talks to Sean about the classical music that means most to him, including Mozart, a composer he has loved ever since one of his earliest roles in Peter Schaffer's play Amadeus.

Bernstein: Candide (Overture)

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Rumon Gamba (conductor)

Leoš Janက?ek: String Quartet No. 1, 'The Kreutzer Sonata

Apollon Musagete Quartet

Dvo?ကk: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op 88

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Richard Hickox (conductor)

Arvo P䀀rt: Cantus in memorium Benjamin Britten

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Robert Spano (conductor)

Liza Lim: Flying Banner

Garry Walker (conductor)

Mozart: Serenade No. 10 in B-Flat Major, K. 361 'Gran Partita

Wind Players from BBC Symphony Orchestra

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Kwame Kwei-Armah's choices include Mozart, Leonard Bernstein Lisa Lim and Janacek.

Landscapes In Sound20221206Sir Simon Rattle conducts music in which vast landscapes merge with the human soul: Sibelius tone poems and Bruckner's radiant Seventh Symphony.

Bruckner said that the beginning of his Seventh Symphony came to him in a dream, played by an angel. This huge, glowing mountain range of sound is basically soul music by any other name. Far away in Finland, meanwhile, Sibelius was thinking big too. Whether it's the sun dancing on the Mediterranean Sea, or the forests of the far north, you can practically feel the freshness in the air.

Sir Simon Rattle has been conducting Sibelius since he was a teenager, making him an unrivalled guide through this untamed musical landscape. And conducting Bruckner, says Rattle, is a lifelong quest for some ‘extraordinary vista, some wonderful moment which leads you out of this world'.

‘It moved me to tears. For a long time afterwards I was completely transported - what a strangely profound spirit.' - Sibelius on the music of Bruckner

Recorded at Barbican Hall in London and presented by Martin Handley.

Sibelius: The Oceanides

Sibelius: Tapiola

8.05pm Interval Music

8.25pm

Bruckner: Symphony No 7

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle conductor

Sir Simon Rattle conducts Sibelius tone poems and Bruckner's radiant Seventh Symphony.

Larks, Bards And Symphonies In Minnesota And Seoul20190331Highlights from classical concerts recorded in the US and South Korea. Gallic charm meets English pastoral whimsy in the music of Gounod and Vaughan Williams, recorded at a concert given last Spring in St Paul, Minnesota, whilst in the South Korean capital, the KBS Orchestra provides some Russian passion in music by Tchaikovsky and Glazunov, recorded in Seoul early last year.

Introduced by Fiona Talkington

Charles Gounod - Petite Symphonie in B flat major for 9 wind instruments

Ralph Vaughan Williams -The Lark ascending for violin and orchestra

Maureen Nelson, violin

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Hamlet - fantasy overture Op.67

Alexander Glazunov - Symphony no. 4 in E flat major Op.48

KBS Symphony Orchestra

Alexander Lazarev, conductor

Fiona Talkington introduces highlights of classical concerts from the US and South Korea.

Lars Vogt Completes His Brahms Concerto Cycle20190220Royal Northern Sinfonia plays Brahms's piano concerto No 2, as well as Brahms's homage to one of his heroes, the Handel Variations. Mark Forrest presents.

Lars Vogt conductor/piano

Handel Concerto Grosso Op.6 No.7

Brahms (arr. Rubbra for orchestra) Handel Variations

Brahms Piano Concerto No.2

Lars Vogt and the Royal Northern Sinfonia perform Brahms's Piano Concerto No 2 in B flat.

Late Romantic Masterpieces20220104Fiona Talkington presents a highlight from last year's European concert calendar.

The St Gallen Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1877, is Eastern Switzerland's principal orchestra. Its main venue is the Tonhalle St. Gallen, built in 1909 and one of the finest examples of Jugendstil architecture in the Lake Constance region. In this concert, directed by chief conductor Modestas Pitrenas, they play works by Enescu, Schoenberg and Bruckner. Baritone Shea Owens joins them in a song cycle by Mahler.

Enescu: Dectet for winds in D, Op.14

Mahler: Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen

Bruckner: 2 Aequali in C minor, WAB 114 & 119

Schoenberg: Verkl䀀rte Nacht, Op.4

Shea Owens, baritone

Modestas Pitrenas, conductor

Concert recorded in the Tonhalle, St Gallen, Switzerland on 21/02/2021

Modestas Pitrenas conducts the St Gallen Symphony Orchestra in works by Enescu and Mahler.

Late Works, By Bach, Beethoven And Max Reger20190529The Aris Quartet and clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe play late works by Bach, Beethoven and Max Reger at Turner Sims, Southampton.

These current and recent Radio 3 New Generation Artists join forces at the University of Southampton's intimate concert hall for a programme which explores works which seem to sum up the composers' life-work. In the Art of Fugue, Bach explores the fugal possibilities of a single musical phrase whilst Beethoven develops a musical world which touches the spiritual. As Schumann remarked: 'It seems to stand...on the extreme boundary of all that has hitherto been attained by human art and imagination.' And the programme ends with Max Reger's masterful but seldom heard Clarinet Quintet, completed just a few days before his death.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Bach Contrapuncti 1 and 2 from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080

Beethoven Quartet No 14 in C sharp minor, Op 131

at 8.10pm

Interval Music: the Agnus Dei from Beethoven's Missa solemnis which seems to presage some of the musical and spiritual ideas behind his Opus 131 Quartet

c 8.25pm

Reger Clarinet Quintet in A major, Op 146

Aris Quartet with Annelien Van Wauwe (clarinet)

Recorded at Turner Sims, Southampton on 14 May 2019.

The Aris Quartet and clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe play Bach, Beethoven and Reger.

Latvian Musicians Celebrate The 100th Anniversary Of The Republic.20181114Trio Palladio, Baiba Skride, Lauma Skride, and Antonina Suhanova celebrate the 100th anniversary of the republic of Latvia with a concert live from Wigmore Hall. The concert includes music by P?teris Vasks, one of the country's leading contemporary composer inspired by his country's landscapes. and ending, as he describes, ‘with a vision of nature awakening'. Plus Preludes by Rachmaninov, a violin sonata by Mendelssohn, and Beethoven's 'Ghost' Piano Trio.

Presented by Martin Handley.

7.30pm

Jazeps Vitols (1863-1948)

10 Chants populaires Lettons Op. 29:

Aija žužu laca berni

Avu, avu baltas kajas

Put, vejini

Antonina Suhanova (piano)

Sergey Rachmaninov (1873-1943)

Prelude in C Op. 32 No. 1

Prelude in G Op. 32 No. 5

Prelude in A minor Op. 32 No. 8

Prelude in G sharp minor Op. 32 No. 12

Prelude in D flat Op. 32 No. 13

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Violin Sonata in F (1838)

Baiba Skride (violin)

Lauma Skride (piano)

c.8.20pm

INTERVAL music from CD

Janis Ivanovs (1906-1983)

Symphony no.20 in E flat major

Moscow Symphony Orchestra

Dmitry Yablonsky (conductor)

c.8.40pm

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Piano Trio in D Op. 70 No. 1 'Ghost

P?teris Vasks (b.1946)

Plainscapes (arr. for piano trio)

Latvian musicians perform Vasks, Rachmaninov, Mendelssohn & Beethoven live at Wigmore Hall

Lauren Zhang's Rachmaninov20200305Lauren Zhang brings youthful verve to a performance of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto. Described as the 'Everest of piano concertos' because of the scale of the technical demands it makes on its pianist, it also covers a huge emotional terrain in its adventurous musical design. Zhang is reunited with the conductor Mark Wigglesworth: with whom she won the BBC Young Musician competition in 2018 performing Prokofiev.

And Prokofiev's Symphony no 7 precedes the concerto performance. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra will perform this melancholic work, from 1957.

Prokofiev is a Russian composer, and another Russian-born composer is Alissa Firsova. The orchestra begins its concert with a performance of her ecstatically romantic music 'Die Windsbraut', inspired by the tragic love affair between Alma Mahler and Oskar Kokoschka as depicted in his titular painting, 'The Bride of the Wind'.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Firsova: Die Windsbraut

Prokofiev: Symphony no 7

8.10 Interval

8.30 Part 2

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto no 3

Lauren Zhang (piano)

Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)

The 'Everest of piano concertos' performed alongside music by Prokofiev and Alissa Firsova

Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit20191128The BBC Philharmonic, conducted by their associate artist Ludovic Morlot in a programme of surrealism, jazz and a 'hymn to free and happy man'.

Live from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Milhaud: Le boeuf sur le toit

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

Music interval

Prokofiev: Symphony No.5

Steven Osborne (piano)

Ludovic Morlot (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic is joined by Associate Artist Ludovic Morlot for a French first half. Jean Cocteau's Surrealist theatrical spectacle from early 1920s Paris, choreographed to Milhaud's colourful score introduced the Parisian audience to vivid characters. It was so popular a bar was named after it. The music fizzes with South American dances and catchy tunes. The end of the same decade saw Ravel inspired by jazz; the BBC Philharmonic is joined by Steven Osborne for Ravel's luscious and characterful G major Piano Concerto. Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony sees a move to the East for a 'symphony of the grandeur of the human spirit' - Prokofiev's own phrase used in a broadcast on Radio Moscow around the time of its premiere. Gripping from first note right through to the breathtaking Finale, Prokofiev was at his happiest when he penned it.

The BBC Philharmonic with Milhaud, Ravel and Prokofiev

Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit20200703From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, originally broadcast in November 2019.

Presented by Tom Redmond

Milhaud: Le boeuf sur le toit

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

Music Interval

Ravel: Une barque sur l'oc退an, Alborada del gracioso, La vall退e des cloches (from 'Miroirs')

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5

Steven Osborne (piano)

BBC Philharmonic

Ludovic Morlot (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic is joined by Associate Artist Ludovic Morlot for a French first half. Jean Cocteau's Surrealist theatrical spectacle from early 1920s, choreographed to Milhaud's colourful score introduced the Parisian audience to vivid characters. It proved so popular a bar was named after it. The music fizzes with South American dances and catchy tunes. The end of the same decade saw Ravel inspired by jazz; the BBC Philharmonic is joined by Steven Osborne for Ravel's luscious and characterful G major Piano Concerto. Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony sees a move east for a symphony 'of the grandeur of the human spirit' - Prokofiev's own description - used in a broadcast on Radio Moscow soon after it was premiered. Gripping from first note right through to the breathtaking Finale, Prokofiev was at his happiest when he penned it.

The BBC Philharmonic perform music by Milhaud, Ravel and Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony.

Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme20181207Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra, Rafael Payare, conducts them in a performance of Richard Strauss' Baroque-inspired 'Le bourgeois gentilhomme' based on the 17th century comedy by Moli耀re, featuring the orchestra's leader, Tamကs Kocsis, as soloist.

The concert finishes with Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8 in C minor, written in 1943 and dedicated to Yevgeny Mravinsky who conducted the work's premiere with the USSR Symphony Orchestra. The Symphony is described by the composer as a 'poem of suffering' and although it was received well by audiences, the authorities did not share the same sentiment. Although the work is indeed brooding and dark, and doesn't share the same 'dark to light' journey as other C minor symphonies such as those by Beethoven and his 5th or Mahler and his 2nd, Shostakovich did say this of it, that it's philosophical conception could be summed up in three words, '...life is beautiful.

The Ulster Orchestra performs music by Shostakovich and Richard Strauss.

Leeds International Piano Competition 2018, Finals 1-220180914Andrew McGregor and Lucy Parham introduce the first round of the concerto finals live from Leeds Town Hall featuring the first three of the five competing pianists. The Hall退 are conducted by Edward Gardner.

PART 1

Mozart: Piano Concerto in C minor K

Alijosa Jurinic (piano)

Halle Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No 3

Anna Geniushene (piano)

INTERVAL

A chance to hear from the judges and Artistic Directors, Paul Lewis an Adam Gatehouse about the 2018 competition

PART 2

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 1 in C

Mario Haring (piano)

Leeds International Piano Competition 2018, Finals 2-220180915Andrew McGregor and Lucy Parham introduce the second round and the results of the concerto finals live from Leeds Town Hall with the Hall退 and Edward Gardner.

The fourth and fifth competitors in the Finals present their concertos on this the concluding night of the Leeds International Competition 2018. Xinyuan Wang from China and Eric Lu from America.

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor

Xinyuan Wang - piano

Halle Orchestra/Edward Gardner

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 4 in G

Eric Lu - piano

INTERVAL

During the interval Andrew McGregor and Lucy Parham feature some of the ways in which this year's competition has branched out into the city of Leeds to make it a truly inclusive event.

PART 2

Pianist Paul Lewis, joint Artistic Director and Chair of the judging jury announces the winners of this year's competition.

The second round of the concerto finals, live from Leeds Town Hall.

Leeds International Piano Competition 202120210917Pianists from across the world have made their way to Yorkshire to claim the coveted first prize of 'The Leeds' and Andrew McGregor and Katya Apekisheva are live at the Leeds Town Hall for the first of two nights of concerto finals. We hear performances of some of the best-loved piano concertos from the first three of the chosen five 2021 finalists, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrew Manze.

As well as introductions, interviews and comment, Andrew and Katya also look back on some of the highlights from the competition so far and at some of the ways in which the competition has reached out to the people of Leeds.

See also Radio 3 in Concert tomorrow at 6.30

Andrew McGregor and Katya Apekisheva introduce the first of the two concerto finals.

Leeds International Piano Competition 202120210918Andrew McGregor and former Leeds prizewinner, Katya Apekisheva introduce the last two pianists in the concerto finals of 'The Leeds', live from the Leeds Town Hall. The featured orchestra this year is the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Andrew Manze.

As well as the two concertos, Andrew and Katya meet the finalists, look back on some of the music making from the qualifying rounds, feature some of their highlights from the chamber music section of the competition, and all importantly, bring you the announcement of the winner of 'The Leeds' 2021.

c. 18.30 A chance to hear part of recorded recital by the 2018 winner of 'The Leeds' - former BBC New Generation Artist, Eric Lu.

c 19.00 Live concerto performances from the fourth and fifth finalists.

c. 2115 The announcement of the prizes, including the First Prize and The Waterman Gold Medal.

Andrew McGregor and Katya Apekisheva introduce the last of the two concerto finals.

Leeds Piano Competition Prizewinners20200114Leeds Piano Competition 2018 Prizewinners' Recital

Recorded at the Wigmore Hall

Presented by Sarah Walker.

As part of their prizes, the 2018 Leeds Piano Competition winners were offered the opportunity to play at London's Wigmore Hall. Tonight, Mario H䀀ring, second prizewinner, plays Debussy, Lachenmann and Schubert, and Xinyuan Wang, third prizewinner, plays Schubert and Bart k .

Debussy: Estampes

Rꀀverie

Lachenmann: 5 Variations on a Theme of Schubert

Schubert: Piano Sonata in A minor D784

Debussy: Suite bergamasque - Clair de lune

Mario H䀀ring piano

Schubert: Piano Sonata in D D850

Bart k: 3 Hungarian Folksongs from Cs퀀k BB45b

Allegro Barbaro BB63

Piano Sonata BB88

Xinyuan Wang, piano

The programme of the German pianist Mario H䀀ring includes the set of variations on Schubert's German Dance D643 (1819) which was the experimentalist Helmut Lachenmann's first published piece (1956).

Still in his early twenties, the Chinese pianist Xinyuan Wang brings together two composers, Schubert in expansive mode in his 1825 sonata and Bart k at his most percussive in his example from 1926.

Leeds Piano Competition 2018 Prizewinners' Recital, from the Wigmore Hall.

Legends Of The North20190409London Philharmonic Orchestra performs Arnold Bax's Tintagel. High above the Atlantic breakers, the clifftop castle of Tintagel is the stuff of legend, and when Arnold Bax saw it he let his imagination soar. Tonight's concert begins with some of the most passionately romantic music ever written by a British composer and ends with Jean Sibelius gazing at a flight of swans in the sunset: the inspiration for his Fifth Symphony, and one of the simplest - but greatest - melodies ever written for orchestra. Finnish conductor Osmo V䀀nsk䀀 is simply unequalled in Sibelius - and the young Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki has something marvellously fresh to say about Grieg's much-loved Concerto, too.

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, presented by Georgia Mann.

Bax Tintagel

Grieg Piano Concerto

Interval

Sibelius Suite, Belshazzar's Feast

Sibelius Symphony No. 5

Osmo V䀀nsk䀀 conductor

Jan Lisiecki piano

London Philharmonic Orchestra performs Arnold Bax's Tintagel, conducted by Osmo Vanska.

Leicester In London20201105Leicester International Music Festival live from the BBC's Maida Vale studios.

With Leicester as the only city in the UK to have been in continuous lock down since March, festival artistic director, Nicholas Daniel bravely decided to take his festival online. After presenting a series of hugely successful concerts - which reached audiences around the world - Nicholas Daniel and some of his regular collaborators bring their adventurous brand of music making into the BBC's studios and talk about the challenges and opportunities that this new way of working present .

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Schubert: Nocturne op posth D 897 for piano trio

Britten: Lachrymae

Eleanor Alberga: Tiger dream in forest green for flute, oboe, cello and piano

David Matthews: Two movements for oboe and piano

Schumann Piano Quartet

Daniel Shao (flute)

Nicholas Daniel (oboe)

Jack Liebeck (violin)

H退l耀ne Cl退ment (viola)

Laura van der Heijden (cello)

Katya Apekisheva (piano)

Anna Tilbrook (piano)

Followed by music off disc:

Joseph Haydn: Symphony no. 92 in G major, H. 1:92 'Oxford

Frieburg Baroque Orchestra

Rene Jacobs, conductor

Leicester International Music Festival, live from the BBC's Maida Vale studios.

Leipzig Gewandhaus20201012Concerts from Europe and around the world: the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Ad耀s.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

The concert incudes Ad耀s' own Piano Concerto, played by Kirill Gerstein, for whom it was written, and also the rarely performed Hunnenschlacht, in which Liszt portrays the battle fought on the 20 June 451 AD, when the Hun armies led by Attila fought a savage battle against a Roman coalition led by Roman General Flavius A뀀tius and the Visigothic king Theodoric. According to legend, the battle was so ferocious that the souls of the dead warriors continued their fighting in the sky as they rose to Heaven.

Beethoven: Zur Namensfeier, Op 115

Thomas Ad耀s: Piano Concerto

Interval: J S Bach: Concerto for oboe d'amore, BWV 1055

Caf退 Zimmermann

Liszt: Hunnenschlacht, S105

Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements

Concert given in the Gewandhaus, Leipzig, Germany 25/04/2019

Followed by music off disc, including:

Schubert: Piano Sonata in B flat major, D 960

Imogen Cooper, piano

Image Credit: Marco Borggreve

Concerts from Europe and around the world: the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra2020061520200713 (R3)Fiona Talkington presents recent highlights from Europe and around the world.

Tonight, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra plays Janacek, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev.

Janacek: Symphonic Suite, from 'From the House of the Dead

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, op. 18

Interval: Rimsky Korsakov: Chorale & Variations; Fugue

Leipzig Quartet

Prokofiev: Symphonic Suite from 'War and Peace, op. 91

Behzod Abduraimov, piano

Jakub Hrusa, conductor

(Concert recorded at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig, on 22 March 2019)

Afterwards: post-concert chamber music from BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Lise Berthaud:

Felix Mendelssohn: Sonata in C minor for viola and piano

Lise Berthaud, viola

Xenia Maliarevich, piano

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra performs Rachmaninov with pianist Behzod Abduraimov.

Lemmink\u00e4inen In Manchester20230427From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

The BBC Philharmonic and their Chief Conductor John Storgards take us on a journey through the graphic ancient Finnish myths of the Kalevala. We travel with Lemmink䀀inen as he navigates the mystery and magic of these ancient stories; murder and redemption, seduction and escape, as well as the heart-breaking attempted slaughter of the dignified and beautiful Swan of Tuonela are portrayed in music which marries the portrayal of events with Sibelius's own sense of musical shaping. Here ancient tales share their searing relevance with audiences of today. Garrick Ohlsson joins the orchestra for Rachmaninov's luscious Third Piano Concerto; sweeping melody and startling virtuosity in the hands of one of the world's greatest pianists.

Sibelius: Lemmink䀀inen and the Maidens of Saari

Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela

Sibelius: Lemmink䀀inen in Tuonela

Sibelius: Lemmink䀀inen's return

8.25 Music Interval (CD)

Brahms: 16 Variations on a theme by Robert Schumann Op.9

8.45

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3

Garrick Ohlsson (piano)

John Storgards (conductor)

John Storgards and the BBC Philharmonic explore the legend of Lemmink\u00e4inen with Sibelius.

Lennox Berkeley's Stabat Mater At The Spitalfields Festival2016061020160614 (R3)The Marian Consort and the Berkeley Ensemble combine to perform 20th- and 21st-century works inspired by the Virgin Mary in Shoreditch Church, as part of the 2016 Spitalfields Festival. The concert culminates with a rare performance of Lennox Berkeley's Stabat Mater of 1947.

Introduced by Petroc Trelawny

Judith Weir: Ave Regina Caelorum

Matthew Martin: Ave Virgo Sanctissima

Michael Berkeley: Catch Me If You Can

Hilary Campbell: Ave Maria

8.00pm Interval

Michael Berkeley: Touch Light

Lennox Berkeley: Stabat Mater

David Wordsworth (conductor).

The Marian Consort and the Berkeley Ensemble perform music inspired by the Virgin Mary.

Leonskaja's Brahms20190517Live from City Halls Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Legendary pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja joins the BBC SSO and Thomas Dausgaard to perform Brahms' Piano Concerto No 1; alongside Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra

Brahms: Piano Concerto No 1

8.20 Interval

8.40 Part 2

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

The BBC SSO and their chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard perform a mighty diptych: two works from the classical music canon from the stage of the orchestra's home in Glasgow's City Halls. They are joined by that most masterful interpreter of Brahms, Elisabeth Leonskaja, to perform what is possibly the composer's most heartfelt music: his First Piano Concerto. And the orchestra itself is showcased in Bartok's glossiest and most virtuosic orchestral work: his Concerto for Orchestra.

Photo credit: Marco Borggreve

Elisabeth Leonskaja joins the BBC SSO and Thomas Dausgaard in Brahms's Piano Concerto No 1

Leonskaja's Brahms20200330Recorded at City Halls Glasgow in May, 2019.

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Legendary pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja joins the BBC SSO and Thomas Dausgaard to perform Brahms' Piano Concerto No 1; alongside Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra

Brahms: Piano Concerto No 1

8.20 Interval

8.40 Part 2

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

Elisabeth Leonskaja (piano)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

Another chance to hear a concert originally broadcast live in May 2019. The BBC SSO and their chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard performing a mighty diptych: two works from the classical music canon from the stage of the orchestra's home in Glasgow's City Halls. They were joined by that most masterful interpreter of Brahms, Elisabeth Leonskaja, to perform what is possibly the composer's most heartfelt music: his First Piano Concerto. And the orchestra itself is showcased in Bartok's glossiest and most virtuosic orchestral work: his Concerto for Orchestra.

Photo credit: Marco Borggreve

The legendary pianist joins the BBC SSO and Thomas Dausgaard in Brahms Piano Concerto No 1

Les Arts Florissants, Music From The French Baroque20160404Live from Wigmore Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Les Arts Florissants directed by William Christie director with music from the French Baroque.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Petite pastorale H479 (Overture; T退m退raire Alcidon/Audacieux Lysandre)

Etienne Moulini退: Amis enivrons nous du vin d'Espagne en France

Michel Lambert: Amour, je me suis plaint cent fois

Charpentier: Amor vince ogni cosa H492 (Prelude; All'armi, all'armi)

Lambert: Vos yeux adorables

Moulini退: Enfin la beaut退 que j'adore

S退bastien Le Camus: Ah! Que vous ꀀtes heureux

Charpentier: Charmantes fleurs naissez H449b; Amor vince ogni cosa H492 (Godero mi dice amore)

8.15: Interval: BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the first in a series of programmes spanning five weeks, featuring the complete performances of all 25 category finalists in this year's BBC Young Musician. This week the keyboard takes centre stage, and to kick things off pianist Yuanfan Yang plays music by Liszt, Beethoven and Prokofiev.

Charpentier: Tristes d退serts, sombre retraite H469

Lambert: J'aimerais mieux souffrir la mort

Charpentier: Amor vince ogni cosa H492 (Andante; cercate la vostra ventura)

Lambert: Sans murmurer

Le Camus; Laissez durer la nuit, impatiente Aurore

Lambert: Laissez-moi soupirer importune raison; Vous avez trop d'appas

Moulini退: Guillot est mon ami

Lambert: Vos mespris chaque jour me causent milles alarmes

Charpentier: Amor vince ogni cosa H492 (Soccorso, o dei, soccorso; Finale: Viva Linco, Silvio viva)

Emmanuelle de Negri, soprano

Anna Reinhold, mezzo-soprano

Reinoud Van Mechelen, high-tenor

Cyril Auvity, tenor

Lisandro Abadie, bass

William Christie director, harpsichord

Founded in Paris in 1979 by William Christie, Les Arts Florissants revived interest in music of the French Baroque, some of them overshadowed by centuries of neglect.

This programme features a selection of Michel Lambert's sublime airs for the court of Louis XIV together with dramatic and pastoral scenes, including Marc-Antoine Charpentier's cantata-like 'Pastorelette', an innovative blend of Italian and French musical influences.

c.9.15 IT'S ALL ABOUT PIANO!

Just before Easter the French Institute in London held its fourth annual festival entitled It's All About Piano! As well as established pianists from around the world the festival aims to give a platform to the pianists of tomorrow and over the next four evenings at around this time there's a chance to hear highlights from a concert called Young Hands which brought together four students of the piano from the Paris Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music in London.

This evening we will hear music played by the eighteen year old Marie-Ange Nguci from the Paris Conservatoire who played Cesar Franck's Prelude, Aria et Final, Thierry Escaich's Les Litanies de l'ombre and Saint-Saen's Tocatta op.111 in the concert.

William Christie directs Les Arts Florissants in music from the French Baroque.

Les Si\u00e8cles In Prague20230109As part of the C退sar Franck bicentennial celebrations, Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth and Les Si耀cles were in Prague in May 2022 to perform Franck's 'Le Chasseur Maudit', Symphony in D minor and Symphonic Variations with pianist Bertrand Chamayou. Debussy's 'La Mer' is also on the menu.

C退sar Franck - Le Chasseur maudit (The Accursed Huntsman)

C退sar Franck - Symphonic Variations, Op.46

Claude Debussy - La Mer

C退sar Franck - Symphony in D minor, Op.48

Bertrand Chamayou (piano)

Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth (conductor)

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Les Si\u00e8cles perform music by Franck and Debussy in Prague.

Les Siecles At The Aldeburgh Festival20160613Les Si耀cles perform Rameau and Ravel at the Aldeburgh Festival.

This leading French orchestra performs the music of two French master colourists on the sorts of instruments that the composers themselves would have known. Rameau's Daphne is celebrated in a vibrant score with twenty or so dance movements whilst Ravel's 'choreographed symphony' contrasts languid eroticism with a startling brutality. The famous sunrise promises to be a truly magical experience.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Recorded 11 June 2016 at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall.

Rameau: Daphnis et Egl退 (extracts)

c 8.00 pm Interval Music

Paolo Giacometti plays Ravel's le Tombeau de Couperin on a straight-strung Erard 'Extra Grand de Concert' piano made in 1888.

8.20 pm

Ravel: Daphnis et Chlo退

Les Si耀cles, Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth (conductor).

Les Siecles perform Rameau and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe at the 2016 Aldeburgh Festival.

Letter From America20210211The BBC Philharmonic and their Associate Artist Ludovic Morlot in music by pioneering American composers. The programme culminates in Ives's Third Symphony, composed in the early years of the twentieth century, which lay unperformed for over forty years, and proved something of a turning point in his career when it was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1947. Carter's Instances, one of his final pieces, written in the last year of his long life, is dedicated to tonight's conductor and full of energy and a sense of exploration. Henry Cowell penned nearly a thousand works and this performance of his Seventh Symphony is a rare chance to hear music by this incredibly prolific composer. The programme opens with one of Copland's best-loved pieces, the Suite from his ballet for Martha Graham's company, Appalachian Spring.

Copland: Appalachian Spring, Suite

Cowell: Symphony No 7

Carter: Instances

Ives: Symphony No 3 (The Camp Meeting)

Ludovic Morlot (conductor)

Recorded at MediaCityUK, Salford on 16 and 17 December 2020.

The BBC Philharmonic and conductor Ludovic Morlot in Copland, Cowell, Carter and Ives.

Lianne La Havas With The Bbc Symphony Orchestra20200428The soulful music of UK vocal sensation Lianne La Havas is given the symphonic treatment at the Barbican Hall by the BBC SO and its new Creative Artist in Association Jules Buckley.

With influences from Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald to Lauryn Hill, Grammy-nominated Lianne La Havas is known for her pure voice, filled with personality. In this concert, recorded on 28 February this year, Lianne and the BBC SO showcased the virtuosity of the full symphony orchestra alongside Lianne's groove, performing arrangements by Jules Buckley and others from her acclaimed debut album ‘Is Your Love Big Enough?' and her last album ‘Blood'. Plus her latest single Bittersweet.

Presented by Jules Buckley.

Hudson Mohawk arr. Jules Buckley: CBAT

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Jules Buckley (conductor)

Lianne La Havas arr. Jules Buckley: No Room For Doubt

Lianne La Havas arr. Jules Buckley: Grow

Lianne La Havas (vocals & guitar)

Lianne Le Havas arr. Jules Buckley: Wonderful

Lianne La Havas, Willy Mason arr. Tim Davies: Green & Gold*

Lianne La Havas arr. Jeremy Levy: Paper Thin*

Lianne La Havas (vocals/ vocals & guitar*)

Lianne La Havas arr. Jules Buckley: Gone

Lianne La Havas (vocals)

Son Lux arr. Jules Buckley: Breathe Out

Lianne La Havas: Au Cinema

Nick Drake arr. Robert Kirby, Harry Robertson & Jules Buckley: River Man

Justin Quinn (guitar)

Lianne La Havas arr. Harry Kirby, Harry Robertson and Jules Buckley: Good Goodbye

Patrick Watson arr. Jules Buckley: Hommage

Lianne La Havas arr. Tim Davies: Unstoppable

Lianne La Havas arr. Jeremy Levy: Midnight*

Lianne La Havas (vocals/vocals & guitar*)

Lianne La Havas/Matt Hales/Willy Mason arr. Damiano Pascarelli: Is your Love Big Enough?

Lianne La Havas arr. John Metcalfe: Courage

Lianne La Havas arr. Simon Hale: They could be Wrong

Lianne La Havas: Age

Lianne La Havas arr. Jules Buckley: Bittersweet

Post Concert Music

Janacek: Mladi (Youth)

Daniel Pailthorpe (flute)

Emily Pailthorpe (oboe)

Richard Hosford (clarinet)

James Burke (bass clarinet)

Julie Price (bassoon)

Nicholas Korth (horn)

Raymond Yiu

Berceuse (with feathers)

Martin Owen (horn)

Szymanowski: Symphony No.3, Op. 27 'The Song of the Night

Ben Johnson (tenor)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Edward Gardner (conductor)

The British singer songwriter gets the symphonic treatment with conductor Jules Buckley.

Life Imitates Art20190514Thomas Sondergard conducts the RSNO in Mahler's 6th Symphony, the tragic masterpiece which is said to pre-echo the composer's own fate. In contrast, Mozart's ever-sunny Piano Concerto No 23 performed by the award winning Argentinian pianist Ingrid Fliter provides the balance to the overwhelming power of Mahler's sonic landscape. Presented by Kate Molleson and produced by Lindsay Pell

Mozart - Piano Concerto No 23 K.488

8.00pm approx. Kate Molleson explores some of Ingrid Fliter's recordings which have built her reputation as one of the finest interpreters of Chopin's music.

Chopin: Nocturne Op 27 No 2 in D flat major

Chopin: Mazurka in A minor Op 59 No 2

Chopin: Waltz No 2 Op 34 No 1 in A flat major

Mahler - Symphony No 6

Thomas Sondergard, conductor

Ingrid Fliter, piano

Thomas Sondergard conducts the tragic masterpiece which pre-echoes Mahler's own fate.

Light And Shadow: Vox Luminis At Kings Place20230503The internationally renowned Belgian vocal ensemble Vox Luminis and their director Lionel Meunier explore spiritual darkness and light with music by some of the great names in Elizabethan English polyphony. Via Tallis, Byrd, Sheppard, Morley and Weelkes, the programme 'follows the course of a man who entrusts, gets lost, sees himself destroyed' but who at last finds salvation just before his ultimate encounter with death.

Adding another dimension to the music, the singers of Vox Luminis will be spaced around the auditorium and, recorded in binaural stereo, the immersive, spatial experience of the live audience in Kings Place's Hall One can be enjoyed by Radio 3 listeners on headphones or earbuds.

Recorded last week at Kings Place, London, and introduced by Martin Handley.

Thomas Tallis: O nata lux; Videte miraculum

Robert White: Christe qui lux es et dies

John Sheppard: In manus tuas I

William Byrd: Ave verum corpus

Thomas Tomkins: When David heard

Robert Ramsey: How are the mighty fall'n

Thomas Weelkes: O Jonathan, woe is me; Death hath deprived me

Thomas Morley: Nolo mortem peccatoris

Thomas Tallis: Hear the voice and prayer

John Sheppard: In pace

Thomas Morley: Funeral sentences

Lionel Meunier (director)

Vox Luminis explore spiritual light and shade via Tallis, Byrd, Sheppard, Morley & Weelkes

Lindberg, Prokofiev, Mendelssohn20200924Alpesh Chauhan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in music by Magnus Lindberg, Prokofiev, Tippett and Mendelssohn from the orchestra's home in Glasgow.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Alpesh Chauhan, newly appointed Associate Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, leads the orchestra in a personal selection of eclectic music from the stage of City Halls, Glasgow. The concert spans from the intricately blended colours of Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg, through the sharp-toned neoclassicism of Prokofiev; to the bright and glimmering brass of Michael Tippett, and the expressive sophistication of Mendelssohn's symphonic world.

Magnus Lindberg: Aventures

Prokofiev: Symphony No 1 (Classical)

Tippett: Fanfare No 1 for Brass

Mendelssohn: Symphony No 5 (Reformation)

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

Photo: Alpesh Chauhan (credit operaomnia.co.uk)

Alpesh Chauhan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in an eclectic mix of music.

Lintu Conducts Rachmaninov And Stravinsky20230217The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Hannu Lintu in Magnus Lindberg, Ustvolskaya, Stravinsky's Petrushka and Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with pianist Denis Kozhukhin.

Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka tells the story of the loves and jealousies of three puppets, but they're not all they seem - just as the Serenades of Magnus Lindberg's brilliant new orchestral work sing of darkness, as well as joy. Together, they make a kaleidoscopic setting for this rare performance of Galina Ustvolskaya's searing First Symphony. We are also treated to Rachmaninov's much-loved Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

`I live in the twentieth century, in which there were thousands of influences` wrote Ustvolskaya, but her First Symphony is an uncompromising cry against injustice and intolerance, told in music that could be by no other composer. Vivid stories and powerful creative personalities, placed in dialogue by guest conductor Hannu Lintu. You might be surprised by what they have to say.

Live from the Barbican, London, presented by Martin Handley

Magnus Lindberg: Serenades

Sergey Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

20.10

Interval music chosen by Hannu Lintu:

Stravinsky: Ave Maria (Bogoroditse D'vo) & Pater Noster (Otche nash).

Netherlands Chamber Choir

Reinbert de Leeuw (conductor)

Rautavaara: Icons

Laura Mikkola (piano)

20.30

Galina Ustvolskaya: Symphony No. 1

Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947 version)

Denis Kozhukhin (piano)

Hannu Lintu (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Hannu Lintu with pianist Denis Kozhukhin play Rachmaninov.

Lionel Bringuier Conducts Debussy, Dutilleux And Ravel20230317The BBC Symphony Orchestra performs 20th-century French masterworks with Lionel Bringuier and pair up with violinist Akiko Suwanai in Dutilleux's mesmeric violin concerto.

Imagine music that sings without words; multiplying and unfurling like some endlessly blossoming tree. That's the image that inspired Henri Dutilleux to write his beautiful Violin Concerto, and tonight it's the heart of a concert filled with fantasy and sonic wonder, whether Debussy's shimmering dream world, or Ravel's delirious vision of a world waltzing on the brink.

It's music that could have been written for French-born guest conductor Lionel Bringuier - an artist who's been praised for the `subtlety of his musical imagery and the absolute mastery of his craft`. But dark emotions flow beneath the gorgeous surface of these French masterpieces, and with Akiko Suwanai as violin soloist in L'arbre des songes, expect this performance to tug at the heart as well as ravish the ears.

Recorded at the Barbican on Friday 10th March 2023

Presented by Martin Handley

Claude Debussy: Pr退lude

Live From London's Southbank Centre: Philharmonia And Violinist Pekka Kuusisto20211003Live from the Royal Festival Hall, London, as part of BBC Radio 3's Southbank Centre Residency 2021, and of the Southbank's Human/Nature season, the Philharmonia Orchestra is conducted by Santtu-Matias Rouvali in works by Stravinsky, Revueltas and a new violin concerto by Bryce Desser, written for Pekka Kuusisto.

Presented by Martin Handley

Revueltas: La Noche de los Mayas Part IV: Noche de Encantamiento

Bryce Dessner: Violin Concerto (UK premiere)

Interval

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Pekka Kuusisto, violin

Santtu-Matias Rouvali, conductor

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts the Philharmonia in Stravinsky, Revueltas and Dessner.

Live From London's Southbank Centre: The London Philharmonic Orchestra20211001Live from the Royal Festival: the London Philharmonic raises the curtain on its first season with it's new Principal Conductor.

Edward Gardner conducts his first orchestral concert as the LPO's Principal Conductor with the opium-induced horrors of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and the glitteringly imaginative Cello Concerto by Witold Lutoslawski.

Presented by Martin Handley.

L Boulanger: D'un matin de printemps

Lutos?awski: Cello Concerto

c. 8pm: Interval

c. 8.25pm

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Nicolas Altstaedt (cello)

Edward Gardner (conductor)

Photo: © Benjamin Ealovega

Edward Gardner conducts Berlioz in the LPO's season opener.

Live From London's Southbank Centre: The Philharmonia Plays Richard Strauss20210930For his first concert as the Philharmonia Orchestra's Principal Conductor, the young Finn Santtu-Matias Rouvali has chosen two of the most demanding works in the repertoire.

Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra and An Alpine Symphony each thrillingly test an orchestra, at once collectively, its individual sections and its principal players.

You don't have to have read or understood Friedrich Nietzsche's obscure philosophical fiction to revel in Strauss's 'Thus spoke Zarathustra' which begins with a spectacular sunrise made famous by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. And you don't have to have been walking and scrambling in the Alps to feel the thrills and spills of Strauss's day in the mountains, including a spectacular view from the summit, a sudden thunderstorm and, at the end, the deep and emotional satisfaction of having completed an arduous and exhausting journey. 'At last I have learnt to orchestrate,' said Strauss of An Alpine Symphony — which is just as well since the score calls for over 100 musicians including 34 brass players (with 12 offstage horns) and a percussion section stocked with, among other things, wind machine, thunder machine and cowbells.

Live from the Royal Festival Hall, Andrew McGregor presents the second concert in Radio 3's Southbank Centre residency.

Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra

8.15 pm

Interval

Andrew McGregor walks around the Southbank Centre's Art by Post exhibition with curator Persilia Caton, and interviews Santtu-Mathias Rouvali about his new role as the Philharmonia's Principal Conductor.

8.35 pm

Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra and An Alpine Symphony.

Live From London's Southbank Centre: V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson Plays Mozart20211002Live from the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, renowned Icelandic pianist V퀀kingur Ӏlafsson plays music by Mozart and his contemporaries.

Presented by Sarah Walker, as part of BBC Radio 3's Southbank Residency 2021.

Galuppi: Andante spiritoso (1st movement) from Sonata in F minor (Illy No.9)

Mozart: Rondo in F, K.494

CPE Bach: Rondo in D minor, Wq.61/4

Cimarosa: Sonata No.42 in D minor arr. Olafsson

Mozart: Fantasia in D minor, K.397; Rondo in D, K.485

Cimarosa: Sonata No.55 in A minor arr. Olafsson

Haydn: Piano Sonata in B minor, Hob.XVI/32

Mozart: Eine kleine Gigue in G, K.574; Sonata in C, K.545

Interval

Mozart: Adagio (3rd movement) from String Quintet in G minor, K.516 arr. Olafsson for piano

Galuppi: Larghetto (1st movement) from Sonata in C minor (Illy No.34)

Mozart: Sonata in C minor, K.457; Adagio in B minor, K.540

Liszt: Ave verum corpus, S.461a (transc. for piano after Mozart's K.618 )

V퀀kingur Ӏlafsson, piano

Pianist V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson plays music by Mozart and his contemporaries.

Live From Maida Vale Studios, London, The Northern Chords Ensemble20210413The Northern Chords Festival taking place on the banks of the River Tyne, in Newcastle and Gateshead - founded in 2009 by Artistic Director and cellist Jonathan Bloxham - brings together some of the most exciting young musicians from across Europe.

In this special session live from London's Maida Vale studio, the Northern Chords Ensemble - joined by baritone Jonathan McGovern, violinist Benjamin Baker and pianist Daniel Lebhardt - present music by, among others, Copland, Nico Muhly, Florence Price, Vaughan Williams, Barber, Britten, and a world premiere by Matthew Kaner. Jonathan Bloxham conducts.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Aaron Copland: Hoe-Down, from Rodeo

Nico Muhly: The Last Letter (broadcast premiere)

Florence Price: Adoration

Matthew Kaner: ‘A light dusting', from Five Highland Scenes (world premiere)

Nico Muhly: A long Line

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Dives & Lazarus

Interval - c.20 minutes, including;

Gershwin: Porgy and Bess Suite

Aaron Copland: Old American Songs, `Long Time Ago`

Nico Muhly: Traditional Songs, `A Brisk Young Lad`

Benjamin Britten: `I wonder as I wander`

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Deep River (solo piano version)

Tonia Ko: The Return (world premiere)

Ralph Vaughan Williams: 3 Songs by Walk Whitman `Nocturne

Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings

Benjamin Britten: Young Apollo

Jonathan McGovern, baritone

Benjamin Baker, violin

Daniel Lebhardt, piano

Northern Chords Festival Ensemble

Jonathan Bloxham, conductor

Producer: Juan Carlos Jaramillo

The Northern Chords Ensemble with music by Copland, Price, Vaughan Williams and Britten.

Live From Snape Maltings, Suffolk20210521The Snape Maltings Concert Hall reopens its marsh-facing doors for an audience with the BBC Symphony Orchestra strings and harp in works by Mozart, Britten and Julian Anderson. Ryan Wigglesworth conducts and is the soloist, directing from the keyboard, in Mozart's predominantly sunny Piano Concerto No 12. Ever an all-rounder on the concert platform, Ryan is also featured as a composer in his Notturno, inspired by a Polish folk song. This concert is dedicated to the late, much-missed Steuart Bedford, conductor, close collaborator with Benjamin Britten, and for many years major musical force at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Presented live from Snape Maltings by Martin Handley

Mozart: Adagio & Fugue K546

Ryan Wigglesworth: Notturno

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A K414

Julian Anderson: Past Hymns

Britten: Prelude & Fugue for 18 Strings

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor and piano)

Plus a Post-Concert Tribute to Steuart Bedford with contributions from singer Charmian Bedford, Steuart's daughter, and composer Colin Matthews who worked with him and Benjamin Britten on several of the composer's late works.

Liza Lehmann: The Lily of a day for voice and piano (word by Ben Jonson)

Janice Watson (soprano)

Steuart Bedford (piano)

Britten: Death in Venice Suite (arr. Bedford)

English Chamber Orchestra

Steuart Bedford (conductor)

Britten: Phaedra

Janet Baker (mezzo)

Gustav Holst : The Heart worships H.95 for voice and piano

Christopher Maltman (baritone)

Gustav Holst: 4 Songs Op.4 for voice and piano nN.2; Margrete's cradle-song [Ibsen trans.Archer]

Susan Gritton (soprano)

Liza Lehmann: Nonsense songs for 4 voices and piano No.6 Mock turtle soup [from 'Alice in Wonderland']

Toby Spence (tenor)

Liza Lehmann: Nonsense songs for 4 voices and piano No.5; Will you walk a little faster [from 'Alice in Wonderland']

Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo-soprano)

Neal Davies (bass baritone)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra strings in music by Mozart, Britten, Anderson and Wigglesworth

Live In Concert: Swr Symphony Orchestra And Norrington20180316Live from the Cadogan Hall, Sir Roger Norrington conducts the SWR Symphony Orchestra in an all-Beethoven programme. Francesco Piemontesi joins to perform the Third Piano Concerto.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Beethoven: The Creatures of Prometheus Overture

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3

INTERVAL

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)

SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart

Francesco Piemontesi, piano

Sir Roger Norrington, conductor

Sir Roger Norrington was the Chief Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra for 13 years and joins tonight as Conductor Emeritus. Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi is widely acclaimed for his assertive and playful music-making, so combined with Norrington's feted historically informed performances this all-Beethoven concert promises to be an exciting highlight.

Live from the Cadogan Hall, Sir Roger Norrington conducts SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart

Llyr Williams, Beethoven At Wigmore Hall20161011Llyr Williams plays piano music by Beethoven at Wigmore Hall.

Beethoven:

Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10 No. 1

Piano Sonata No. 6 in F major, Op. 10 No. 2

Piano Sonata No. 7 in D major, Op. 10 No. 3

8.30: Interval music

Schoenberg - Chamber Symphony no 2, op 38

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

8.50: 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120

Llyr Williams piano

Two seasons ago, Llyr Williams embarked on a monumental survey of Beethoven's complete piano works at Wigmore Hall.

His latest recital encompasses the vivid stylistic contrasts and fruitful thematic ideas of the three Op. 10 piano sonatas and the elemental Diabelli Variations, remarkable even by Beethoven's standards for their invention and blend of disciplined craft and individual spontaneity.

London Handel Orchestra, Handel And His Contemporaries20160405Live from Wigmore Hall, London

Presented by Ian Skelly

The London Handel Orchestra plays music by Handel and his contemporaries.

Corelli: Concerto Grosso in F major, Op. 6 No. 9

Purcell; The Married Beau - Suite

Quantz: Flute Concerto No. 5 in B minor

8.15: Interval: BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the second of the category finalists in this year's keyboard competition.

Pianist Tomoka Kan plays music by Chopin, Liszt and Michael Zev Gordon.

8.35

Wassenaer: Concerto Armonico No. 5 in F minor

Leclair: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 7 No. 1

Handel: Concerto Grosso in A major, Op. 6 No. 11

Rachel Brown, flute

Adrian Butterfield, director

To celebrate 35 years devoted to the performance of Handel's music, the London Handel Orchestra - led by its director Adrian Butterfield - crowns its programme with the composer's glorious Concerto Grosso in A Op. 6 No. 11.

The programme also features a selection of pieces by several illustrious European composers with whom Handel was closely associated.

c.9.15 IT'S ALL ABOUT PIANO!

Just before Easter the French Institute in London held its fourth annual festival entitled It's All About Piano! As well as established pianists from around the world the festival aims to give a platform to the pianists of tomorrow and over the next three evenings at around this time there's a chance to hear highlights from a concert called Young Hands which brought together four students of the piano from the Paris Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music in London.

This evening we will hear music played by the 21-year-old Joseph Havlat from the Royal Academy of Music who played Poulenc's Promenades, Stravinsky's Tango and Piano Rag and Ligeti's Etudes nos. 4,5 and 8 in the concert.

From Wigmore Hall, the London Handel Orchestra in music by Handel and his contemporaries.

London Sinfonietta 50th Anniversary Concert2018012450 years to the day since the orchestra played its first concert, the London Sinfonietta celebrates its birthday with the music that has shaped its identity - past, present and future.

Live from the Royal Festival Hall, London

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Harrison Birtwistle: The Message

Stravinsky: Octet

Ligeti: Chamber Concerto

8.25-8.55: Interval

Deborah Pritchard: River Above for solo saxophone (World premiere)

Samantha Fernando: Formations (World premiere)

Hans Abrahamsen: Left, alone - for piano (left hand) and orchestra (London premiere)

Various: Encore! (14 Variations on a Hornpipe by Purcell) (World premiere)

David Atherton, conductor

George Benjamin, conductor

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

Tamara Stefanovich, piano

Simon Haram, saxophone

London Sinfonietta Academy Alumni

Co-founder David Atherton joins George Benjamin and Vladimir Jurowski in conducting a journey that begins with the music of Stravinsky, Ligeti and Birtwistle, courses through to the London premiere of Hans Abrahamsen's piano concerto 'Left, alone' and peers into the future with a new commission by RPS Music Award-winning composer Samantha Fernando.

The London Sinfonietta 50th Anniversary Concert, live from the Royal Festival Hall.

London Symphony Orchestra And Leonidas Kavakos In French Music20160113Dutilleux 100

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra and Leonidas Kavakos in a programme of French music.

Live from the Barbican Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin

Dutilleux: L'arbre des songes

Delage: Four Hindu Poems

8.20: Interval

Dutilleux: M退taboles

Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe - Suite No 2

Julia Bullock, soprano

Leonidas Kavakos, violin

Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

Sir Simon Rattle conducts an evocative programme featuring masterful works by three pre-eminent French composers of the 20th century.

Delage's rarely heard Four Hindu Poems is a set of sparse, jewel-like miniatures for small ensemble and soprano. It is set alongside masterpieces by Ravel and Dutilleux, including Dutilleux's violin concerto L'arbre des songes (Tree of Dreams), performed by Leonidas Kavakos, and Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe Suite No 2, which the composer described as a 'symphonie choreographique'.

The London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle in a programme of French music.

London Symphony Orchestra, Bartok And Stravinsky20151015Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Recorded earlier this week at the Barbican Hall, London

In one of his final concerts as Principal Conductor, Valery Gergiev leads the LSO in Bartok and Stravinsky, including his Rite of Spring. Yefim Bronfman joins them for Bartok's Third Piano Concerto.

Stravinsky: Symphony in C Major

Bart k: Piano Concerto No 3

Interval - An interview with Valery Gergiev, plus more from Yefim Bronfman on CD.

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Yefim Bronfman (piano)

London Symphony Orchestra

conductor Valery Gergiev

In one of a series of concerts this October marking the end of his tenure as Principal Conductor of the LSO, Valery Gergiev draws on his theatrical roots, placing the spotlight on Stravinsky's iconic ballet The Rite of Spring.

In exploring Bart k and Stravinsky side-by-side in this concert, Gergiev brings together some of the repertoire he excels in. These three works have diverse inspirations: folk music and chirruping birds in Bart k's Third Piano Concerto, the Classical period in Stravinsky's Symphony in C, and a depiction of a pagan rite in The Rite of Spring.

Valery Gergiev conducts the LSO in Bartok and Stravinsky, including The Rite of Spring.

London Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven, Strauss20151112Live from the Barbican Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

The London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Nikolaj Znaider perform Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and works by Richard Strauss, including the closing scene from Capriccio, with soprano Anne Schwanewilms.

Beethoven: Symphony No.5 in C minor

8.00 Interval

8.20

Strauss: Tod und Verkl䀀rung

Strauss: Closing scene from Capriccio

Anne Schwanewilms (soprano)

The violinist and conductor Nikolaj Znaider returns to the LSO to continue his exploration of Strauss from last season. The second half opens with Strauss's tone poem Death and Transfiguration, where a dying man sees his life pass before him, ending in his death and redemption. Strauss described Capriccio, his last opera, as his 'testament'. Anne Schwanewilms sings the closing scene where the Countess Madeleine, unable to choose between two lovers, sings of the inseparability of words and music.

Znaider describes studying the Beethoven symphonies as one of the key moments in his decision to take up conducting, and so he has chosen to begin the concert with one of Beethoven's most frequently performed works, the Fifth Symphony.

Live from the Barbican, LSO and Nikolaj Znaider in Beethoven's Symphony No 5 and Strauss.

London Symphony Orchestra, Brahms, Strauss20170315Susanna M䀀lkki conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in two epics of late nineteenth-century repertoire. Christian Tetzlaff is the soloist in the Brahms Violin Concerto, a work which embraces drama, lyricism and gypsy fire within its symphonic-scale span. Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra, with its opening sunrise beloved of film fans (2001: A Space Odyssey) and audio equipment demonstrators alike, has long had a life beyond the concert hall. But the spectacular symphonic poem, which calls for demanding solos in all departments and a conductor with an acute ear for both chamber music delicacy and massive orchestral sonority, remains a formidable challenge, even for the world's great orchestras.

Recorded on Sunday at the Barbican Hall, London, and presented by Martin Handley.

Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77

8.20 pm Interval Music (from CD)

Mozart: Horn Quintet, K. 407

Andrew Clark (natural horn)

Ensemble Galant

8.40 pm

Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30

Christian Tetzlaff (violin)

Susanna M䀀lkki (conductor)

Followed at approx 9.15pm by:

Dvorak Piano Trio in f minor, op 65 in a recently released recording by Trio Wanderer.

LSO, Susanna M\u00e4lkki: Brahms's Violin Concerto and Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra.

London Symphony Orchestra, Bruckner, Messiaen20160414Live from the Barbican Hall, London.

Presented by Martin Handley

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner's Symphony No 8 and Messiaen's Couleurs de la cit退 c退leste.

Messiaen: Couleurs de la cit退 c退leste

8.05pm: Interval: BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the fourth of the finalists in this year's woodwind category.

Recorder player Polly Bartlett plays music by Frescobaldi, Barsanti, Ziegenmeyer and Le Thi耀re.

8.25pm: Part 2

Bruckner: Symphony No 8

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Sir Simon Rattle conducts Messiaen and Bruckner, two composers as united in their devotion to the Catholic faith as they are divergent in their approaches to writing music. Messiaen's Couleurs de la cit退 c退leste is a microcosm of his numerous preoccupations - from birdsong to the book of Revelations - set in a sequence of lively episodes performed by a reduced orchestra centred on the piano. This short piece sets the stage for Bruckner's monumental Eighth Symphony, a complete contrast with its grand scale and dramatic writing. It is performed here in the 1939 edition prepared by Austrian musicologist Robert Haas.

Followed by: Menuhin 100 - classic recordings from Yehudi Menuhin's discography.

Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in music by Bruckner and Messiaen.

London Symphony Orchestra, Debussy, Bartok, Bruckner20170425Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth conducts the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Hall in London in Debussy's Pr退lude
London Symphony Orchestra, For The Fallen20181108The London Symphony Orchestra marks the First World War Centenary with a commission from James MacMillan. Setting words by Charles Sorley, a poet killed in action in 1915, it addresses rows of soldiers on their way to the front. This is paired with Shostakovich's epic Symphony no.4, banned by Stalin and not performed until the 1960s. For this concert as part of the 'For the Fallen' season, the Orchestra is joined by the London Symphony Chorus, the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, and tenor Ian Bostridge.

Presented from the Barbican in London by Martin Handley.

7.30pm

James MacMillan All the Hills and Vales Along

c.8.00pm

Interval music:

Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin

Yvonne Lefebure (piano)

c.8.20pm

Shostakovich Symphony No 4

Ian Bostridge (tenor)

Gianandrea Noseda (conductor)

The LSO performs a new work by James MacMillan and Shostakovich's Symphony No 4 in C minor

London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler, Turnage20170119Live from the Barbican Hall, the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle perform Mahler's Sixth Symphony and a world premiere by Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Since his '60s Liverpool childhood when the Mahler revival was getting under way, Simon Rattle has been obsessed with his music and has become one of the world's leading Mahler conductors.

Rattle has paired this darkest of Mahler's symphonies with another of his passions, new music. Ever since Mark-Anthony Turnage was the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's Composer in Association in the early 1990s, Rattle has championed his music and premiered many of his most important works.

Tonight's world premiere is 'Remembering', a memorial for Evan Scofield, the 25-year-old son of Turnage's long-time musical collaborator and close friend, John Scofield. It's a substantial and deeply-felt work in which, says Turnage, he has at once tried to reflect Evan as an original and positive person and to 'reconcile something very personal and private with a statement experienced in a public space'.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Remembering

Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

7.55pm Interval

Interval music (from CD), chosen by Mark-Anthony Turnage

Stravinsky: Do not go gentle into that good night (from In memoriam Dylan Thomas)

Alexander Young (tenor)

Columbia Chamber Ensemble

Igor Stravinsky, conductor

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Eulogy (2003)

Lawrence Power (viola)

Nash Ensemble

8.15

Mahler: Symphony No 6 in A minor

After tonight's concert there's a chance to hear works performed during a recent concert that surveyed music written and performed in Terezin and the Warsaw Ghetto - Music on the Brink of Destruction.

Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Mahler and Mark-Anthony Turnage.

London Symphony Orchestra, Purcell, Beethoven, Brahms20150923Live from the Barbican Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

The renowned conductor Bernard Haitink returns to the London Symphony Orchestra to perform Brahms's First Symphony. The pianist Imogen Cooper, also a regular collaborator with the LSO, joins them for Beethoven's First Piano Concerto.

Purcell arr Stucky: Funeral Music for Queen Mary

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 1 in C major, Op 15

8.15pm: Interval - interval music from disc including Imogen Cooper performing Brahms.

8.35pm: Part 2

Brahms: Symphony No 1 in C minor, Op 68

Imogen Cooper (piano)

This programme opens with the moving funeral music by Purcell, recreated for a modern orchestra by the American composer Steven Stucky,and it concludes with Brahms's milestone First Symphony, 20 years in the making, in the hands of one of the foremost interpreters of Brahms today.

Now in his seventh decade of conducting, Bernard Haitink has been a great friend of the LSO for many years, with collaborations encompassing regular residencies at the Barbican, international tours, and numerous award-winning recordings.

The central work is Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 1, featuring the pianist Imogen Cooper, also a long-standing collaborator of the LSO.

Bernard Haitink conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Purcell, Beethoven and Brahms.

London Symphony Orchestra, Wagner, Bartok, Haydn20170712Live from the Barbican Hall, London. Sir Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Wagner and Haydn and the pianist Denis Kozhukhin joins them in Bartok.

The LSO's Music Director Designate closes the 2016/17 season with a programme of music which, he says, has always been close to his heart. In the first half of this Barbican Hall concert, Bartok's fiendishly difficult Second Piano Concerto is prefaced by the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan, the work which famously liberated classical music from the shackles of tonality. And in the second half, Simon Rattle brings to London what he calls 'An eccentric journey through Haydn ...The idea is to make a musical journey through all that is quirky and extraordinary, humorous and profound in Haydn. Hopefully this pasticcio will give a picture of the composer who most summed up all the ideals of the Enlightenment, of intelligence, respect, humour, wit and profound thought.' Radio 3 brings this programme live from the Barbican Hall in a concert which sold out within minutes.

Presented by Martin Handley

Denis Kozhukin (piano)

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from 'Tristan and Isolde

Bart k: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G major, Sz. 95, BB 101

8.20pm: Interval Music: The London Haydn Quartet play Haydn's String Quartet in E flat, Op 3 no.2, 'The Joke

Sir Simon Rattle introduces:

Haydn: An imaginary orchestral journey - featuring excerpts from Symphonies Nos 6, 45, 46, 60, 64, 90 and 101, 'The Creation', 'The Seasons', 'The Desert Island' and 'The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross'.

Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in music by Wagner, Bartok and Haydn.

Louis Lortie And Hel\u00e8ne Mercier Play Rachmaninov And Stravinsky20210706The French-Canadian piano duo of Louis Lortie and H退l耀ne Mercier have forged a formidable reputation since they established their partnership in the 1980s. Their concert, recorded on Sunday at Wigmore Hall, features a dazzling, all-Russian programme which combines an extraordinary range of sonorities and textures with the profound nostalgia and affection Rachmaninov and Stravinsky felt for their homeland.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Rachmaninov: Suite No. 1, Op. 5

Stravinsky: Petrushka

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, Op. 45

Louis Lortie & H退l耀ne Mercier (pianos)

Photo: ©Elias Photography

The acclaimed piano duo perform Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances and Stravinsky's Petrushka.

Love And Betrayal20191127Running the gamut of emotions from all-enveloping, unfettered love through to the fury and despair of betrayal, two of Canada's most exciting musical exports, Baroque ensemble Tafelmusik and soprano Karina Gauvin, perform some of Handel's and Vivaldi's most brilliant and impassioned arias, plus a handful of virtuoso instrumental works.

Recorded on Sunday and presented by Martin Handley

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

V'adoro, pupille' from Giulio Cesare

Vivaldi: Sinfonia to Ottone in villa

Quell'usignolo che innamorato' from Farnace

Amato ben' from Ercole su'l Termodonte

Concerto for 2 oboes & 2 violins in D major, RB 564a

Interval music (from CD)

JS Bach: French Suite No 5 in G major, BWV 816

Murray Perahia (piano)

Locatelli: Concerto in E-flat major, Op 7 No 6 'Il Pianto d'Arianna

Handel: Overture to Agrippina

Non ho cor che per amarti' from Agrippina

Ah, mio cor' from Alcina

Overture to Rinaldo

Scherza in mar' from Lotario

Furie terribili' from Rinaldo

Karina Gauvin (soprano)

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra

Elisa Citterio (violin & director)

Photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann

Tafelmusik and soprano Karina Gauvin with affairs of the heart by Handel and Vivaldi.

Love Came Down At Christmas20181223Recorded at St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, the BBC Singers and conductor Peter Foggitt perform their annual selection of contemporary Christmas carols, with organist Stephen Farr.

Alec REDSHAW: I sing of a maiden

Richard LLOYD: Love came down at Christmas

Cecilia MCDOWALL: Of a Rose

Thomas HYDE: Sweet was the song

Anthony PICCOLO: I look from afar

Philip MOORE: Lo, that is a marvellous change

Judith BINGHAM: Annunciation IV - Meine Seel' Erhebt den Herren

Giles SWAYNE: O magnum mysterium

Kenneth LEIGHTON: The Christ-child lay

Raymond YIU: We saw thee

Judith BINGHAM: The Three Angels: III. Gabriel

Peter LEECH: Adam lay Ybounden

Richard Rodney BENNETT: Puer nobis

Peter FOGGITT: Ignis amoris

Stephen Farr - organ

Peter Foggitt - conductor

BBC Singers perform contemporary Christmas carols, conducted by Peter Foggitt.

Love, Song And Travel20191023Live from the BBC's Maida Vale Studios, Ben Gernon conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Tonight we hear two famous song cycles featuring British singers, the UK premiere of British composer Anna Clyne's Abstractions (in which five contemporary artworks are re-imagined in music) and Tchaikovsky's symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini - she was the tragic beauty immortalized in Dante's Divine Comedy.

And in a week of Radio 3 in Concert that highlights some of Britten's works with orchestra, tonight we hear Les Illuminations for which the young composer set surreal and evocative texts by Arthur Rimbaud - soprano Sally Matthews is the soloist. BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist James Newby sings Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer, which sprang into life in the wake of an unhappy love affair. Mahler wrote the four poems himself: they and the music reflect his emotional journey.

Presented by Martin Handley

Anna Clyne: Abstractions, UK Premiere

Gustav Mahler: Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen

8.05pm

Interval. Ravel from former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Aleksey Semenenko

Ravel: Violin Sonata No.2 in G

Aleksey Semenenko (violin)

Inna Firsova (piano)

Part 2 8.20pm

Benjamin Britten: Les Illuminations

Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini

Sally Matthews (Soprano)

James Newby (Baritone) - BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist

Ben Gernon (Conductor)

Live from BBC's Maida Vale Studios, Ben Gernon conducts the BBC SO in Britten and Mahler.

Lpo And Jurowski Perform Bach, Brett Dean And Stravinsky20210126Tonight's concert was recorded in December at the Royal Festival Hall with the LPO and Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski, in a programme of music ranging from JS Bach to a UK Premiere by Brett Dean, marking the beginning of his Composer-in-Residence with the LPO.

After Bach's sunny Fifth Brandenburg, star accordion player Bartosz Glowacki is the soloist in ‘The Players', the compelling new accordion concerto by Brett Dean.

The concert ends with a complete performance of Stravinsky's theatrical mock-Baroque extravaganza Pulcinella.

Presented by Martin Handley

JS Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 BWV 1050

Pieter Schoeman, violin

Juliette Bausor, flute

Catherine Edwards, harpsichord

Brett Dean: The Players (UK Premiere)

Bartosz Glowacki, accordion

Stravinsky: Pulcinella

Angharad Lyddon, mezzo-soprano

Sam Furness, tenor

Matthew Rose, bass

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Photo credit: Bettina Stoess

The LPO, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, perform JS Bach, Brett Dean and Stravinsky.

Lso And John Eliot Gardiner In Mendelssohn20160216Live from the Barbican Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn, including the complete incidental music to Midsummer Night's Dream, marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, with actors from the Guildhall School.

Mendelssohn: Symphony No 1 (London version)

8pm: Interval music from disc: Incidental music from Purcell's A Fairy Queen

8.20pm: Part 2

Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Oberon/Theseus....Frankie Wakefield (actor)

Puck....Alexander Knox (actor)

Titania/Hermia/Fairy....Ceri-Lyn Cissone (actor)

First fairy: Jessica Cale (soprano)

Second fairy: Sarah Denbee (mezzo-soprano)

Third fairy: Charlotte Ashley (soprano)

Fourth fairy: Rebecca Hardwick (soprano)

Monteverdi Choir

John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)

The evening begins with the youthful exuberance of Mendelssohn's Symphony No 1, composed in 1824 when Mendelssohn was just 15 years old. Two years later, Mendelssohn, who adored Shakespeare's writings, composed his concert overture based on A Midsummer Night's Dream. The overture was immediately acclaimed as a masterpiece and, many years later, he was made an offer he couldn't refuse by the King of Prussia to provide a score for an entire production of the Shakespeare play in 1843.

Followed by a glimpse into Adopt a Composer - Making Music's scheme pairing composers with performing groups from around the country.

Tonight, the Cobweb Orchestra works on Michael Betteridge's Against the Clock.

John Eliot Gardiner conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn.

Lso And John Eliot Gardiner, Mendelssohn20161020Posterity has delivered two contrasting verdicts on Mendelssohn's last orchestral work, the Violin Concerto, and the last of his five symphonies (confusingly, No.2). The concerto, staple of the repertoire, is widely regarded as being on a par with the fresh and miraculous music of Mendelssohn's teenage years. But from the very beginning, opinion was divided on the Lobgesang (or Hymn of Praise). For Schumann its choral finale provided 'a glimpse of heaven'; for Wagner it was an unconscionable attempt to ape Beethoven's final symphony, and the Lobgesang's reputation as a mediocre slab of religiose, tub-thumping Victoriana was sealed.

Tonight, live from the Barbican Hall, John Eliot Gardiner gives us a rare chance to hear the two works together and to reassess the Lobgesang as the inspired masterpiece Gardiner believes it to be, a fitting end to his and the London Symphony Orchestra's acclaimed Mendelssohn Symphony series. They're joined by Alina Ibragimova for the concerto and, in the Hymn of Praise, by Gardiner's Monteverdi Choir.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto

8.05: Interval Music (from CD)

Fanny Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E flat major

Quatuor Eb耀ne

8.25: Mendelssohn: Symphony No 2 ('Lobgesang')

Alina Ibragimova, violin

Lucy Crowe, soprano

Jurgita Adamonty退, soprano

Michael Spyres, tenor

Sir John Eliot Gardiner, conductor.

Live at the Barbican, John Eliot Gardiner conducts the LSO in music by Mendelssohn.

Lso With Rattle And Hannigan20210420Recorded in March at LSO St Luke's, the LSO perform an eclectic programme of music from Ravel to Lou Harrison, Varese and Samuel Barber.

The soprano Barbara Hannigan appears as both soloist and conductor in Samuel Barber's Knoxville Summer of 1915, his setting of a text by American writer, James Agee capturing his childhood memories of life in Knoxville.

Much of Lou Harrison's music is inspired by visual artefacts; his Song of Quetzalcoatl captures the startling colours of an Aztec Feathered Serpent, the Quetzalcoatl.

Soprano Barbara Hannigan joins the orchestra for Varese's extraordinary Offrandes, and the evening ends with Ravel's lushly magical score to his ballet Mother Goose.

Presented by Martin Handley

Samuel Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915*

Lou Harrison: Song of Quetzalcoatl

(percussionists: Neil Percy, David Jackson, Sam Walton and Tom Edwards)

Interval Music:

A recording of Ravel's Introduction and Allegro by the Ensemble Wien-Berlin.

Then Martin Handley chats live to Barbara Hannigan about combining the two roles of conducting and singing.

Edgard Var耀se: Offrandes

Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose - Ballet

Barbara Hannigan (soprano / *soprano & conductor)

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

The LSO, Simon Rattle and Barbara Hannigan in music by Ravel, Lou Harrison and Varese.

Lso, Ligeti, Ogonek, Berio20160315Recorded at the Barbican Hall last Sunday.

The LSO perform's Berio's Sinfonia with Synergy Vocals, conducted by Francois-Xavier Roth. Plus another 20th century masterpiece by Ligeti, and a new commission.

Ligeti: Atmosph耀res

Elizabeth Ogonek: Sleep and Unremembrance (world premiere, Panufnik commission)

Berio: Sinfonia

London Symphony Orchestra

Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth (conductor)

LSO Futures, the LSO's biennial festival of contemporary music, returns with two 20th-century masterpieces and a world premiere for the 21st.

Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth opens with Ligeti's Atmosph耀res, a swirling sound mass that rebelled as much against traditional forms as it did against the prevailing dogma of serialism. And Berio's Sinfonia, a monumental work from the Italian master, famous for its haunting ode to the late Martin Luther King and a middle movement that weaves three centuries of musical fragments into a rich tapestry of familiar quotations. 50 years on from their premieres, these two works provide a fitting frame for a new work by former LSO Panufnik composer Elizabeth Ogonek.

Followed by a performance of Mahler's Fourth Symphony recorded at last year's Lucerne Festival.

Mahler: Symphony No.4

Anna Lucia Richter (soprano)

Lucerne Festival Orchestra

Bernard Haitink (conductor).

LSO at the Barbican. Ligeti: Atmospheres. Ogonek: Sleep and Unremembrance. Berio: Sinfonia

Lso, Shostakovich, Mahler20160519Sir Antonio Pappano conducts Mahler's 6th Symphony with the LSO.

Live from the Barbican, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No 1

8.15: Interval

8.35

Mahler: Symphony No 6

Viktoria Mullova, violin

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Antonio Pappano, conductor

Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No 1, composed during a time of personal and political unrest, it is widely considered to be one of the most significant contributions to the violin repertoire of the twentieth century. Mahler's Symphony No 6 is popularly known as the composer's 'Tragic' symphony, its final movement is punctuated by three devastating 'hammer-blows' that represent the inescapable force of fate.

LSO under Antonio Pappano in Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No 1 and Mahler: Symphony No 6.

Lucerne, Lugano And Lausanne 201620170507Ian Skelly presents highlights of concerts from Lucerne, Lugano and Lausanne. There's Prokofiev's 'Classical' Symphony performed by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and violinist Vilde Frang pairs up with viola-player Nathan Braude as the soloists in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana. Plus members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra play Mel Bonis's 'Suite dans le style ancien', and Bertrand de Billy conducts Gounod's Second Symphony.

Symphony No. 1 in D, Op. 25 ('Classical')

Anu Tali (conductor)

Sinfonia Concertante in E flat, K364

Vilde Frang (violin)

Nathan Braude (viola)

Diego Fasolis (conductor)

M退lanie (Mel) Bonis

Suite dans le style ancien, Op. 127/1

Symphony No.2 in E flat

Lausanne Chamber Orchestra

Bertrand de Billy (conductor).

Highlights of concerts from Lucerne, Lugano and Lausanne, featuring music by Mozart.

Lucienne Renaudin Vary And Sinfonia Cymru20230110Lucienne Renaudin Vary and Sinfonia Cymru in South Wales perform works by Ravel, Weill and Gershwin, presented by Linton Stephens. The concert begins with Sinfonia Cymru performing Wagner's birthday present to his wife Cosima, Siegfried Idyll. Lucienne Renaudin Vary then joins the orchestra for one of Hummel's most popular works today, his lively Trumpet Concerto. During the interval we hear a Sonata by the harpsichordist, singer and composer Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, whose musical abilities were once described as supernatural.

Jacquet de La Guerre was a contemporary of Fran瀀ois Couperin, and after the interval, Sinfonia Cymru return to perform Ravel's nod to this French Baroque composer, in Le tombeau de Couperin. Ravel orchestrated four parts of a six movement work for piano he'd composed, each movement dedicated to his friends who had died during the First World War. Lucienne Renaudin Vary then joins the orchestra again, with a selection of music with links to New York and Paris, including music by Ravel, Milhaud, Lowry, Weill and Bechet. The concert finishes with an encore, Gershwin's lilting I Love you Porgy, from his opera Porgy and Bess.

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

Hummel: Trumpet Concerto

Lucienne Renaudin Vary, trumpet

c. 8.13pm - Interval music

Jacquet de La Guerre: Sonata No 1 in D minor, for violin and continuo

Camerata moderna

c. 8.29pm

Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin

Ravel: Pavanne pour une infante d退funte, Arr. Bill Elliott

Milhaud: Le boeuf sur le toit, Arr. Bill Elliott

Lowry: Shall We Gather at the River? , Arr. Bill Elliott

Weill: Je ne t'aime pas, Arr. Bill Elliott

Bechet: Si tu vois ma m耀re, Arr. Bill Elliott

Gershwin: I Loves you Porgy (Porgy and Bess), Arr. Bill Elliott

Produced by Luke Whitlock

Linton Stephens presents music from Newport, including Wagner, Hummel and Ravel.

Lugano Musica Series20180701Highlights from a concert performed last Easter by Orchestra Mozart with the pianist Paul Lewis and conductor Bernard Haitink, during an Easter Residency at the Lugano Musica Series earlier this year in Switzerland.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Concerto no. 25 in C major K.503 for piano and orchestra

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)

Symphony no. 9 in C major D.944 (Great)

Paul Lewis - Piano

Orchestra Mozart, Bologna

Bernard Haitink - Conductor.

Mozart and Schubert from Orchestra Mozart with pianist Paul Lewis under Bernard Haitink.

Lugansky Plays Rachmaninov20230331Nikolai Lugansky plays piano music by Rachmaninov at the Wigmore Hall.

Presented by Martin Handley.

An all-Rachmaninov programme from a leading exponent of this repertoire, celebrated for the expressivity of his playing and the emotional variety of his interpretations.

Lugansky begins with the 10 Preludes Op. 23, written in 1900-1903, when Rachmaninov was short of money after his marriage. Though the motivation for their composition was predominantly financial, they transcend their background and are some of Rachmaninov's most heartfelt and expressive works.

After the enormous set of variations based on a traditional theme also used by Corelli, La Folia, the concert ends with the second set of ɀtudes-Tableaux Op. 39, a set of 9 `study pictures` exploring different facets of piano technique and expressive effect.

Rachmaninov: 10 Preludes Op. 23

Variations on a Theme of Corelli Op. 42

Etudes-tableaux Op. 39

Recorded at the Wigmore Hall, London, on 20th March 2023.

Lully From Merseburg Festival 201820190120The best concerts from Europe. Kate Molleson presents a performance by Collegium Vocale Leipzig and the Merserburger Hofmusik with their director Michael Sch怀nheit as part of the 2018 Merseburg Organ Festival.

Lully

Plaude laetare Gallia, LWV 37

Te Deum, LWV 55

Kate Molleson presents music by Collegium Vocale Leipzig.

Madonna Of Silence20190306The world premiere of John Casken's Trombone concerto, performed by Katy Jones and the Halle conducted by Jamie Phillips. Mark Forrest presents.

Programme:

Mozart: Symphony No.31, ‘Paris

John Casken: Madonna of Silence (trombone concerto)

Prokofiev: Symphony No.5

Katy Jones (trombone)

Jamie Phillips (conductor)

The world premiere of John Casken's Trombone concerto, played by Katy Jones and the Halle.

Mahan Esfahani Plays Bach20210505A prelude and fugue in every major and minor key intended to demonstrate a method of tuning a keyboard instrument and to help improve keyboard playing might have ended up as a very dull collection, indeed. But Johann Sebastian Bach produced one of the most enduring works of western music, a two-hour compendium of his musical genius. These 24 mini-masterpieces, performed by acclaimed, multi-award-wining harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, encompass a vast emotional range and give a compelling insight into Bach's ideas about individual keys' characteristics and moods.

Recorded last month at Wigmore Hall.

Presented by Martin Handley

JS Bach

The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I

Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)

Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani plays Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier at Wigmore Hall.

Mahler 6th Symphony20171029Daniel Harding conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's 6th Symphony at the Baltic Sea Festival.

The Sixth has earned itself the epithet 'Tragic' with good reason: its doom-laden finale and gargantuan L䀀ndler were perhaps premonitions of the Tragic turn that Mahler's life would soon take. But actually, the work was begun in an atmosphere of calm, high in the Austrian mountains in the summer of 1903 during what Alma Mahler called Mahler's 'composing holidays.

Ian Skelly presents this performance recorded at the Berwaldhallen in Stockholm.

Mahler Symphony No.6 in A minor,'Tragic.

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Harding (conductor).

Daniel Harding conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's 6th Symphony.

Mahler And The Forever20200301Fiona Talkington introduces a concert recorded last year at the Rudolfinum in Prague, in which Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Czech Philharmonic in Dvo?ကk's The Golden Spinning Wheel and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

Dvo?ကk: The Golden Spinning Wheel

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Magdalena Kožena (mezzo-soprano)

Simon O'Neill (tenor)

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Czech Philharmonic in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Daniele Gatti20181028The best concerts from across the UK and Europe.
Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Schumann Symphony No 3 'rhenish'20181104Concerts from across Europe. Kate Molleson introduces performances from the national broadcasters of France, Romania and Switzerland.

Bizet arr. David Walter: Carmen Suite

Ouranos Ensemble

Dvorak: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op 104

Valentin Radutiu (cello)

Romanian National Symphony Orchestra

Cristian Macelaru

Schumann: Symphony No.3 in E flat, Op 97 'Rhenish

Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Daniele Gatti (conductor)

Kate Molleson presents performances of Bizet, Dvorak and Schumann.

Mahler From The London Philhamonic20230516Brett Dean's new song cycle `In spe contra spem` for two sopranos and orchestra is a pivotal scene from a planned opera featuring a confrontation between Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England. According to the composer, the melding of the two soprano voices with orchestra reveals not only points of vehement disagreement and disavowal but also aspects of sympathy and consolation.

Similar themes animate Mahler's Symphony No. 5 - a great struggle from tragedy to triumph, by way of the most tender love-letter - the rapturous Adagietto.

Presented by Martin Handley

Brett Dean: In spe contra spem (world premiere)*

Mahler: Symphony No. 5

Emma Bell, soprano

Elsa Dreisig, soprano

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Edward Gardner, conductor

[Concert recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 26th April.]

Edward Gardner conducts the LPO in Mahler's Fifth Symphony and a new work by Brett Dean.

Mahler Symphony No 520230120The BBC Symphony Orchestra, with composer conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, in Mahler's famed Fifth Symphony. Plus music by Ryan Wigglesworth himself, inspired by poet George Herbert.

Mahler's Fifth Symphony begins with a funeral march - but that's only the start of this particular story, with its tragedies, triumphs and distant horn-calls - plus, of course, the famous Adagietto, possibly the sweetest love-letter ever written in sound. Ryan Wigglesworth brings a composer's insight to Mahler's huge vision - and conducts his own song-cycle Till Dawning.

`Can there be any day but this / Though many suns to shine endeavour?` Like Mahler's symphony, Till Dawning tells a story of suffering, struggle and triumphant reawakening, and this new orchestral version only heightens its emotional intensity. Elizabeth Watts is the soprano soloist.

Presented by Hannah French

Live at the Barbican London

Ryan Wigglesworth: Till Dawning (UK premiere)

19.50 Interval (off CD)

Joanna Müller-Hermann (1878 - 1941)

String Quartet in Eb Major Op.6

The Artis Quartett of Vienna

Mvts: 1-3 [ i) Moderato; ii) Allegro Vivace; iii) Adagio con spirito

20.10

Mahler: Symphony No 5 in C sharp minor

Elizabeth Watts (soprano)

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra with composer conductor Ryan Wigglesworth.

Mahler Symphony No 920170108Ian Skelly introduces Mahler's Symphony No 9 performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mariss Jansons, in a concert recorded in Munich in October. Mahler's last symphony was written at a challenging time in the composer's life when his daughter had recently died and his own health was beginning to fail. The act of writing it, according to Mahler, gave him a new thirst for life.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911): Symphony No. 9

Bavrarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Mariss Jansons (conductor).

Ian Skelly introduces Mahler's Symphony No 9 performed by the Bavarian Radio SO.

Mahler Symphony No. 1 'titan'20231213The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and young British conductor Kerem Hasan are joined by violinist Alina Ibragimova and Jesper Svedberg, the orchestra's principal cello, for Brahms's Double Concerto. With his customary irony Brahms described the music to Clara Schumann as 'an amusing idea', and a 'prank' but in fact the concerto is symphonic in scale and ambition and its three movements excitingly exploit the varied sonorities of the two solo instruments.

Mahler's First Symphony premiered in 1889, only two years after the Brahms Double Concerto. But using a massive orchestra to realise its expressive evocations of nature, earthy peasant dances, ironic quotation and dramatic, barnstorming finale, it sounds as if it's from a different musical planet.

Recorded last week at the Lighthouse, Poole, and Presented by Martin Handley.

Brahms: Double Concerto in A minor Op.102

Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major 'Titan

Alina Ibragimova (violin)

Jesper Svedberg (cello)

Kerem Hasan (conductor)

Kerem Hasan conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at the Lighthouse, Poole.

Kerem Hasan conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's First Symphony, and Alina Ibragimova and Jesper Svedberg play the Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello.

Mahler's Fifth Symphony20220317For this evening's concert, Christoph Koenig joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to conduct two outstanding works: Grace Williams's Sea Sketches and Mahler's Fifth Symphony. The Sea Sketches depict the sea in five distinct moods, from its most placid and beautiful, to its most violent and tempestuous. The piece was written in London at a time when Williams was longing to return to her home by the South Wales coast. Mahler's Fifth Symphony is not descriptive in the same way as the Sea Sketches, although some have attributed to it an autobiographical narrative; it nonetheless takes the listener through a barrage of vivid emotions, from utter darkness to blazing triumph. Mahler was convalescing from a near death experience when he began writing the symphony, and the monumental work which he created forged a new, complex style of writing which would leave an indelible legacy.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas and recorded in Brangwyn Hall on the 12th of March.

7.30pm

G Williams: Sea Sketches for string orchestra

c.7.50

Interval music exploring the influence of Mahler on Ethel Smyth

c.8.10

Mahler: Symphony No 5

Christoph Koenig (conductor)

BBC NOW perform Mahler's epic Fifth Symphony alongside Grace Williams's Sea Sketches.

Mahler's First Symphony20190606Shostakovich's Piano Concerto has been a favourite of audiences from the first performance, but many, including the composer himself, said that it was a vapid work with little artistic merit. Conversely, Mahler was fully aware of the brilliance and sparkle of his first Symphony, but the public, critics, and even his future wife took a very long time to see past the juxtaposition of seemingly incompatible influences and were all incredibly damning about the work. Today the energy and verve of both works are loved by critics and audiences alike, and will together undoubtedly make for a thrilling concert.

Mark Wigglesworth conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with former BBC Young Musician winner James Bartlett as soloist in the Shostakovich, live from St. David's Hall in Cardiff, and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No 2 in F major

c.8pm

Interval Music

c.8.20pm

Mahler: Symphony No 1 in D major

Martin James Bartlett (piano)

Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)

Mark Wigglesworth and BBC NOW perform this 'titanic' masterpiece.

Mahler's Fourth Symphony20231026In a concert from City Halls, Glasgow, Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's 4th Symphony, for which they are joined by glimmering soprano, Sally Matthews. Before that Steven Osborne joins for Wigglesworth's own Piano Concerto. And the concert opens with a rare chance to hear the Heroic Overture by Johanna Müller-Hermann: neglected for many years, it is gaining a reputation as a forgotten masterpiece.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow on 21 September, 2023

Müller-Hermann: Heroic Overture

Ryan Wigglesworth: Piano Concerto

Mahler: Symphony No 4

Steven Osborne (piano)

Sally Matthews (soprano)

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's Fourth Symphony, and Steven Osborne joins for Wigglesworth's own PIano Concerto.

Mahler's Ninth Symphony20221123The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Markus Stenz perform Mahler's transcendental Ninth Symphony. It was the last symphony he would finish before his impending death, and many believe it to be an evocation of the end of life.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas and recorded in St. David's Hall, Cardiff on the 17th of November.

Mahler: Symphony No 9

Markus Stenz (conductor)

BBC NOW and Markus Stenz perform Mahler's final complete symphony.

Mahler's Ninth Symphony20230209Sir Donald Runnicles conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Mahler's Ninth Symphony: Lso And Bernard Haitink20170523Live from the Barbican, Bernard Haitink conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's Ninth Symphony

Presented by Martin Handley

Mahler: Symphony No 9

Bernard Haitink, conductor

The Ninth symphony was written at a very traumatic time in Mahler's life - his own health was failing and his daughter had just died, but according to Mahler this gave him a new energy for life and composing, planning his next symphonic work. Tonight's performance of this emotionally powerful work promises to be a highly intense experience with the commanding presence of Bernard Haitink conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

Bernard Haitink conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's Ninth Symphony.

Mahler's Resurrection Symphony20200309Charismatic Czech conductor Jakub Hr?ša leads the Philharmonia Chorus and Orchestra, soprano Camilla Tilling and mezzo Jennifer Johnston in Mahler's epic symphony, which begins with a monumental funeral march and ends in an overwhelming affirmation of resurrection.

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in February and presented by Ian Skelly.

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor ('Resurrection')

Camilla Tilling (soprano)

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo soprano)

Jakub Hr?ša (conductor)

Jakub Hr\u016f\u0161a conducts the Philharmonia in Mahler's epic journey from darkness to light.

Mahler's 'resurrection' Symphony From Rotterdam20230529The Rotterdam Philharmonic plays Mahler's Resurrection Symphony.

Eighty-three years after the historic heart of Rotterdam was destroyed by bombs, the orchestra commemorates the city's rise from its own ashes with Mahler's 'Resurrection' Symphony. In overwhelming fashion, the symphony paints a vision of apocalypse and resurrection. Fear makes way for rapture: ‘There is no punishment and no reward,' wrote Mahler. ‘An overwhelming love illuminates our being.' The orchestra's chief conductor leads the annual memorial concert in the Grand Hall, Rotterdam.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor ('Resurrection')

Chen Reiss (soprano)

Anna Larsson (mezzo),

Laurens Collegium, Rotterdam

Lahav Shani (conductor)

Memorial Concert for Bombardment of Rotterdam 14/05/2023

Mahler's 'Resurrection' Symphony at the Bombardment of Rotterdam Memorial Concert.

Mahler's Resurrection Symphony From The Philharmonia20220608Live from the Royal Festival Hall: Mahler's Symphony No. 2, ‘Resurrection.

The whole thing sounds as though it came to us from some other world,' Mahler wrote to a friend, ' I think there is no one who can resist it. One is battered to the ground and then raised on angel's wings to the highest heights.` The Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus are conducted by their Principal Conductor, Santtu-Matias Rouvali in Mahler's all-embracing choral symphony.

Mahler Symphony No. 2 in C minor, ‘Resurrection

Mari Eriksmoen (soprano)

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano)

Philharmonia Chorus

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

In his own programme notes for the symphony's premiere, Mahler describes the work's rollercoaster of an emotional journey: the first movement represents a funeral. Then come movements depicting happy memories, followed by the fear that life may have no meaning at all. But reassurance comes from the soprano who sings `I come from God, and to God I shall return.` In the monumental finale soloists and chorus affirm `O believe, you were not born for nothing!`

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts the Philharmonia in Mahler's Symphony No 2, 'Resurrection'.

Mahler's Roots And Resonances20190207Live from City Halls Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC SSO explore Klezmer connections around Mahler's 1st Symphony

Bernstein: Overture 'Candide

Bloch: Schelomo, Rhapsodie Hebraique

8.00 Interval

8.20 Part 2

Trad: Jewish Folk Music

Mahler: Symphony No 1

Thomas Dausgaard is a conductor who delights in exploring the complex roots that feed into composers' music. In this concert he brings together 3 composers with an influence of Jewish music alongside the renowned Klezmer band, She'Koyokh.

The first half begins with Bernstein's Candide Overture and a rare chance to hear the cello work Schelomo by Bloch: cellist Jian Wang joins the orchestra.

And in the second half a performance of Mahler's First Symphony is introduced by a prelude performance of Jewish folk music by the band along with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - to hear what resonances emerge.

Jian Wang (cello)

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

Photo credit: Thomas Grøndahl

Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC SSO explore Klezmer connections around Mahler's Symphony No 1

Mahler's Sixth Symphony2017012720210114 (R3)Another chance to hear the BBC National Orchestra of Wales perform Mahler's Sixth Symphony, in a concert recorded on the 20th of January 2017 in St David's Hall, Cardiff.

In the calm before the Mahlerian storm, the BBC National Chorus of Wales, conducted by Adrian Partington, perform Bruckner's serene yet intense motets - allow yourself to be swept away by the beautiful harmonies and uplifting clarity of combined voices. In contrast Mahler's sixth symphony swings from tragedy to elation - a truly epic work full of angst and drama that strikes the soul like a hammer (quite literally).

Bruckner: Ave Maria (1861 setting); Christus factus est (1884 setting); Os justi; Locus iste

7:50pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Mahler: Quartet movement in A minor

Bruckner: Prelude and fugue in C minor

8.10pm

Mahler: Symphony No 6 in A minor

Adrian Partington, Conductor

Thomas Sønderg倀rd, Conductor

Thomas S\u00f8nderg\u00e5rd conducts an epic symphony with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Mahler's Song Of Lamentation And Songs On The Death Of Children20230123The Vienna State Opera's Von der Liebe Tod - a moving, sad, and transcendental celebration of Gustav Mahler's gift for song combining his early Das Klagende Lied, or ‘The Song of Lamentation,' with his later Kindertotenlieder, or ‘Songs on the Death of Children.

The Vienna State Opera fielded its own orchestra and chorus along with members of its training orchestra and children's chorus for this epic staged production which plays for an hour and a half without a pause.

Das Klagende Lied', with words by Mahler himself, is based on the fairy-tale texts of Ludwig Bechstein and the Brothers Grimm about a treacherous knight who slays his brother to win a contest for a queen's hand in marriage, but his crime catches up to him in a most unlikely way. Kindertotenlieder', is based on the poems of Friedrich Rückert. The verses describe the writer's personal tragedy of losing two of his offspring, something with which Mahler could identify. As the opera house said: 'Fantastic verses and expressive music act as a common thread, uniting the two works into one transporting performance.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Mahler: Das Klagende Lied

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder

Vera-Lotte Boecker (soprano)

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner (contralto)

Daniel Jenz (tenor)

Florian Boesch (baritone)

Vienna State Opera Chorus and Orchestra

Vienna State Opera Training Orchestra and Children's Choir

Lorenzo Viotti (conductor)

The Vienna State Opera's Von der Liebe Tod: a celebration of Gustav Mahler's gift for song

Mahler's Symphony No 8, 2016 Lucerne Festival20161023Ian Skelly introduces a performance of one of Mahler's largest scale symphonies, in a concert recorded earlier this year at the Lucerne Festival.

Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 8 in E flat ('Symphony of a Thousand')

Ricarda Merbeth, soprano

Juliane Banse, soprano

Anna Lucia Richter, soprano

Sara Mingardo, contralto

Mihoko Fujimura, mezzo-soprano

Andreas Schager, tenor

Peter Mattei, baritone

Samuel Youn, bass-baritone

Bavarian Radio Chorus

Latvian Radio Chorus

Orfe n Donostiarra

T怀lz Boys' Chorus

Lucerne Festival Orchestra

Riccardo Chailly (conductor).

Riccardo Chailly conducts Mahler's Symphony No 8 at the 2016 Lucerne Festival.

Mahler's Symphony Of A Thousand From Hanover20230703It is the best thing I have ever done,' said Mahler of his Eighth Symphony - for which tonight the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Ingo Metzmacher join forces with no fewer than eight choirs. One of the grandest symphonic statements of the repertoire, concluding with a dramatic setting of the mystical closing scene from Goethe's Faust, it's a work on a mammoth scale.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) - Symphony No. 8 in E flat ('Symphony of a Thousand')

Brit-Tone Müllertz, soprano

Manuela Uhl, soprano

Tuuli Takala, soprano

Anke Vongdung, contralto

Christina Bock, contralto

Michael Schade, tenor

Christoph Pohl, baritone

David Steffens, bass

Bachchor Hannover

Capella St. Crucis Hannover

Collegium Vocale Hannover

Johannes-Brahms-Chor Hannover

Norddeutscher Figuralchor Hannover

Junges Vokalensemble Hannover

M䀀dchenchor Hannover

Knabenchor Hannover

Ingo Metzmacher, conductor

Concert recorded on 21.05.23 at the Kuppelsaal des Congress Centrums, Hannover.

Ingo Metzmacher conducts the NDR Radio Philharmonic in Mahler's Symphony No. 8.

Mahler's Third Symphony From The Lucerne Festival Orchestra20230918The Lucerne Festival Orchestra plays Mahler's Third Symphony.

Paavo J䀀rvi conducts this legendary orchestra - with members brought together from the world's top ensembles - at the opening concert of this year's Lucerne Festival.

Mahler's six movement symphony recounts nothing less than the story of the Creation through to a final ode to divine love and calls for a contralto soloist, a children's choir, a women's choir, and a huge orchestra including an off-stage post horn.

Presented by Fiona talkington.

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D minor

Wiebke Lehmkuhl (alto)

Women of the Bavarian Radio Chorus

Luzerner Kantorei

Paavo J䀀rvi (conductor)

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra has been thrilling the music world for the last 20 years. From the start, the ensemble's magnificent performances of Mahler have been a sensation, with the Third Symphony in particular playing a key role. In 2007, under the direction of its founder Claudio Abbado, the orchestra gave two legendary performances of this mighty work, and the Third's moving finale was also performed in 2014 during a memorial concert for the late maestro, bringing tears to the eyes of many who attended. Mahler's Third is thus the ideal symphony to ring in the orchestra's anniversary — and to launch the 2023 Summer of Paradise. For Mahler here presents a creation story of the world itself coming into being. In the beginning, we encounter inorganic nature, rocks, and mountains. Plants, animals, and, ultimately, humanity, are successively added to the picture. Yet our species is not the pinnacle. For Mahler, the highest form of existence is love, which he translates into music with a stirring, hymn-like theme. `What God tells me` was Mahler's initial title for this final movement: music as a promise of blessing.

Paavo J\u00e4rvi conducts the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Mahler's Third Symphony.

Malcolm Arnold Festival 201920191101Martin Handley presents a concert by the BBC Concert Orchestra and their Conductor Laureate Barry Wordsworth, with music by Arnold and a composer he greatly admired, Shostakovich. They had a number of secret meetings in Russia - ‘We're kindred spirits in a rough and barbaric world' Shostakovich told Arnold. It was recorded on 13th October at the Royal and Derngate, Northampton, as part of the 14th annual festival. They are joined by rising young star Rose McLachlan in Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, which he wrote in 1957 for his son Maxim's 19th birthday.

Arnold: Homage to the Queen Suite

Shostakovich: The Age of Gold Suite

8.10 Interval Music (from CD

Arnold: English Dances Op.27 (arr. Ray Farr); Fantasy for Brass Band Op.114

Grimethorpe Colliery UK Coal Band, conductor Elgar Howarth

8.40

Shostokovich: Piano Concerto No 2

Arnold: Symphony No 2

Rose McLachlan (piano)

Barry Wordsworth (conductor)

The BBC Concert Orchestra and Barry Wordsworth perform music by Arnold and Shostakovich.

Malcolm Arnold Festival 201920200421Martin Handley presents a concert by the BBC Concert Orchestra and their Conductor Laureate Barry Wordsworth, with music by Arnold and a composer he greatly admired, Shostakovich. They had a number of secret meetings in Russia - ‘We're kindred spirits in a rough and barbaric world' Shostakovich told Arnold. It was recorded on 13th October 2019 at the Derngate Theatre, Northampton, as part of the 14th annual festival. They are joined by rising young star Rose McLachlan in Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, which he wrote in 1957 for his son Maxim's 19th birthday.

Arnold: Homage to the Queen Suite

Shostakovich: The Age of Gold Suite

8.10 Interval Music (from CD

Arnold: English Dances Op.27 (arr. Ray Farr); Fantasy for Brass Band Op.114

Grimethorpe Colliery UK Coal Band, conductor Elgar Howarth

8.40

Shostokovich: Piano Concerto No 2

Arnold: Symphony No 2

Rose McLachlan (piano)

Barry Wordsworth (conductor)

Another chance to hear the BBC Concert Orchestra at the 2019 Malcolm Arnold Festival.

Manchester Camerata20210323Linton Stephens introduces a concert given by Manchester Camerata, directed by Caroline Pether as part of 'Manchester Week', from the Stoller Hall, mixing the old with the new, the familiar and otherwise, chamber and orchestral, with music by Shiva Feshareki, Janacek, Schoenberg and Mozart.

Leos Janက?ek: Mlကd퀀

Arnold Schoenberg: Verkl䀀rte Nacht, Op. 4

Shiva Feshareki: VENUS/ZOHREH

Wolfgang Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550

~Radio 3 In Concert for Manchester Week.

Manchester Camerata From Stoller Hall20210119The Manchester Camerata is the city's foremost chamber orchestra and in this concert recorded in Manchester's Stoller Hall, part of Chetham's School of Music, the ensemble is joined by saxophonist Jess Gillam, and conducted by Pekka Kuusisto for a concert that features a Daniel Kidane premiere alongside works by Dobrinka Tabakova, Michael Nyman and Aaron Copland's original version of his ever popular `Ballet for Martha`, scored for 13 players. Presented by Linton Stephens.

Dobrinka Tabakova: Dawn

(Caroline Pether, violin/Hannah Roberts, cello)

Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring (original 13 player version)

Daniel Kidane: Be Still (first performance)

Michael Nyman: Where The Bee Dances

Jess Gillam (Saxophone)

Manchester Camerata conducted by Pekka Kuusisto.

Followed by Bach's Musical Offering performed by Le Concert des Nations and Jordi Savall, off disc.

The Manchester Camerata with music by Tabakova, Copland, Kidane and Nyman.

Manchester Classical, Bbc Philharmonic20230625From Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney and Joshua Weilerstein

Join the BBC Philharmonic for a live concert as part of 'Mcr:Classical' - a unique collaboration between Manchester's ensembles, orchestras and artists, hosted by the Bridgewater Hall. In the first of two concerts broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 today, the BBC Philharmonic is joined by Joshua Weilerstein to explore themes of place, freedom and identity.

Beethoven: Overture - Egmont

Elgar: Chanson de matin

Ravel: Alborada del Gracioso

Takemitsu: Toward the Sea II

Bartok: Romanian Folk Dances

Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony (The bond of Africa)

Joshua Weilerstein (conductor)

Joshua Weilerstein and the BBC Philharmonic in music on the theme of identity and freedom.

Manchester Classical, The Halle20230625From Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

In the second live broadcast concert of the day from Manchester's Classical Weekender, we join The Hall退 orchestra and conductor Delyana Lazarova for Stravinsky's cataclysmic ballet, The Rite of Spring. The work was, Stravinsky said, 'unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of the creative power of spring'.

Thomas Ad耀s: Dawn

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Delyana Lazarova (conductor)

Delyana Lazarova conducts the Halle in a performance of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.

Manchester Collective20210325Elizabeth Alker presents a live concert by the ground breaking Manchester Collective. Music includes Mahler, John Adams, John Tavener and a new work by Freya Waley-Cohen.

JOHN DOWLAND Pavane: Lachrimae Antiquae

FREYA WALEY-COHEN Talisman (World Premiere)

GUSTAV MAHLER Symphony No. 5, Adagietto

WOJCIECH KILAR Orawa

JOHN TAVENER Song for Athene

CHRIST BRYAN An elegy for England (poems)

JOHN ADAMS Shaker Loops

Rakhi Singh (director)

Photo: Vic Frankowski.

A live concert by the groundbreaking Manchester Collective

Manchester Week: Bbc Philharmonic From Salford Quays20220127Live from MediaCityUK, Salford

Presented by Tom McKinney

The last of Greater Manchester-born William Walton's three concertos, forms the centre-piece of the BBC Philharmonic's live concert and they are joined by cellist Guy Johnston, who trained at Manchester's Chetham's School of Music. Beethoven's Fourth Symphony opens our programme with a question before diving headlong into energetic and positive resolution. Dance rhythms and opulent melody shine through Dvorak's Eighth Symphony, which closes the evening with some of the best-known melodies in the orchestral repertoire.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 4

Walton: Cello Concerto

8.30 pm Music Interval (CD)

Schubert: Der Einsam (D800), St䀀ndchen (D889), In Walde (D708), Du bist die Ruh (D776)

Simon Keenlyside (baritone)

Malcolm Martineau (piano)

Dvorak: Symphony No. 8

Guy Johnston (cello)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

After the concert, Northern Voices: Miriam Skinner, cellist with the BBC Philharmonic, shares some of her favourite pieces of music.

Live from MediaCityUK, the BBC Philharmonic perform Beethoven, Walton and Dvorak.

Manchester Week: Chloe Hanslip And The Northern Chamber Orchestra20220126Manchester week continues as violinist Chloe Hanslip and the Northern Chamber Orchestra perform a concert of music for string orchestra and percussion at the Stoller Hall in Manchester.

Grieg: Holberg Suite op. 40

Finzi: Romance for String Orchestra op. 11

Elgar: Serenade for Strings op. 20

Shostakovich: Sonata for violin, percussion and string orchestra op. 134

Presented by Ian Skelly.

After the concert, Northern Voices: Tonight mezzo-soprano, Jennifer Johnston introduces a selection of music that has played an important role in her life as a professional musician.

Violinist Chloe Hanslip and the Northern Chamber Orchestra at Manchester's Stoller Hall.

Manchester Week: Manchester Camerata20220124Alexander Sitkovetsky and Manchester Camerata perform a sparkling, all-Mozart concert to launch a special week of concerts from Manchester. Recorded in October last year it was one of the Camerata's online only concerts.

Presented by Tom McKinney.

Programme:

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major K. 364

Manchester Camerata, Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin/director), Timothy Ridout (viola)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major K. 271 `Jeunehomme`

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano/director), Manchester Camerata

Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major K 550 ‘Jupiter

After the concert this week, a series featuring Northern Voices. Tonight Manchester-based composer Lavender Rodriguez introduces the music that inspires her, including works by Jessie Montgomery, Juice Vocal Ensemble and Sons of Kemet's In Remembrance of Those Fallen.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Manchester Camerata play Mozart Piano Concerto No. 9.

Manchester Week: Manchester Collective20220125Big percussion, live electronics and amplified strings from Manchester Collective's Heavy Metal concert recorded at The White Hotel in Salford in December last year. Presented by Elizabeth Alker.

Programme:

Bryce Dessner: Aheym

Dobrinka Tabakova: Insight

Ben Nobuto: SERENITY 2.0

Michael Gordon: Industry

Sebastian Gainsborough: Squint

Manchester Collective:

Beibei Wang (Percussion)

Rakhi Singh (Violin)

Julian Azkoul (Violin)

Ruth Gibson (Viola)

Stephanie Tress (Cello)

Joe Reiser (Live sound / electronics)

After the concerts this week, a series featuring Northern Voices. Tonight, Manchester-based composer, producer and musician Cally Statham chooses music by some of her favourite musical influences. Cally's choices include music by Oliver Leith, Gy怀rgy Ligeti and the Venezuelan musician, Arca.

@Plus44KALIGULA

Big percussion and live electronics from Manchester Collective's Heavy Metal concert.

Manchester Week: The Halle20220128The whole of nature finds a voice' - Mahler's Symphony No.3, a particular favourite of Sir Mark Elder's, and conductor by him recently with the Hall退 and mezzo-soprano Alice Coote at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. Presented by Tom McKinney.

Programme:

Mahler: Symphony No. 3

Performers:

Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)

Sopranos and altos of the Hall退 Choir

Hall退 Children's Choir

Hall退 Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

(Photo: Alice Coote.Credit: Riley Bramley-Dymond & The Hall退)

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Halle and mezzo-soprano Alice Coote in Mahler's Symphony No 3.

Mari Samuelsen Performs Glass20220513Presented by Ian Skelly.

Anna-Maria Helsing conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, in contemporary music from Britain and America, including the world premiere of Making Space by Liam Taylor-West. Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen joins them as soloist in Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No 1, a modern classic from 1987 written with the composer's late father in mind; and the orchestra shows its virtuosity in their own Concerto for Orchestra by Jennifer Higdon.

Liam Taylor-West Making Space (BBC commission - world premiere)

Electra Perivolaris A Forest Reawakens (BBC commission - first public performance)

Philip Glass Violin Concerto No 1

INTERVAL

Jennifer Higdon Concerto for Orchestra

Mari Samuelsen (violin)

Conductor Anna-Maria Helsing

New music from Britain and the USA. Anna-Maria Helsing conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Maria, Dolce Maria20190307As part of Kings Place's year-long exploration of the work of women composers, and broadcast ahead of tomorrow's International Women's Day, Rachel Podger and her ensemble Brecon Baroque perform works by female composers from the 17th century. Both Francesca Caccini and Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre enjoyed long careers as professional composers, in the Florentine Medici court and Versailles respectively, while Isabella Leonarda (at the age of sixteen) entered the convent of Collegio di Sant'Orsola, where she spent the rest of her life and composed over a period of sixty years.

Recorded at Kings Place, London

Presented by Natasha Riordan

Francesca Caccini: Selections from Il primo libro delle musiche: ‘Romanesca' (arr. Luigi Cozzolino); No 4 Madrigal ‘Maria, dolce Maria'; No 34 Canzonatta ‘Fresche aurette'; No 28 Canzonatta ‘Non s  se quel sorriso

Isabella Leonarda: Sonata duodecima, Op 16

Handel: ‘Flammende Rose, Zierde der Erden' and 'Künft'ger Zeiten eitler Kummer' (from Neun Deutsche Arien)

Francesca Caccini: Ciaccona from Il primo libro delle musiche (arr. Luigi Cozzolino)

Interval music

ɀlisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre: Violin Sonata No 2 in D

JS Bach: Cello Suite No 2 in D minor BWV 1008 (transposed into A minor for violin)

ɀlisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre: Les Sommeil d'Ulisse from Cantates fran瀀oises, No. 3

Francesca Caccini: 'O chiome belle' from Il primo libro delle musiche

Brecon Baroque:

Rachel Podger (violin)

Ciara Hendrick (mezzo soprano)

Reiko Ichise (gamba)

Marcin ?wi?tkiewicz (harpsichord)

Daniele Caminiti (theorbo/guitar)

Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque perform works by female composers from the 17th century.

Mariam Batsashvili At Wigmore Hall20201013Live from Wigmore Hall, Mariam Batsashvili brings her captivating pianism to a programme which combines fireworks with poetry. Since winning the 2014 Franz Liszt Competition, the young Georgian pianist has won the hearts of music lovers across the world with her refined, deeply expressive music making. A former Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Mariam Batsashvili has not played most of these works in the UK before.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Franck: Pr退lude, fugue et variation Op. 18

Ravel: Sonatine

Thalberg: Grand caprice on Bellini's La Sonnambula Op. 46

Schumann: Fantasiestücke Op. 12

Liszt: Paraphrase on a Waltz from Gounod's Faust S407

Followed by music off disc including:

Franz Schubert: Sonata for Piano Duet in C major, 'Grand Duo', D812 arranged by Joseph Joachim

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Claudio Abbado, conductor

Mariam Batsahvili - the brilliant young Georgian pianist - live at Wigmore Hall

Mariam Batsashvili In Liverpool20191122Mariam Batsashvili in recital in Liverpool. The captivating young Georgian pianist plays music by Bach, Mozart and Ravel together with the towering sonata by Franz Liszt. Audiences at St George's Hall will have the chance to hear one of the most individual and charismatic pianists of the younger generation in a programme which ends with one of the most challenging works in the repertoire. As a former winner of the Franz Liszt and Michelangeli competitions and now as a Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Mariam Batsashvili has mesmerised audiences worldwide with her poetic touch and dazzling technique.

Recorded earlier this week at St George's Hall Concert Room, Liverpool.

Presented by Tom Redmond.

Bach: Chromatic fantasia and fugue in D minor, BWV.903

Mozart: Piano Sonata in D major, K311 (K284c)

Ravel: Sonatine in F sharp major

Interval

Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, S 178

Mariam Batsashvili plays Bach, Mozart, Ravel and Liszt's Piano Sonata in Liverpool.

Mariss Jansons Conducts Mahler's 2nd Symphony20180429As part of Radio 3 In Concert tonight's travels begin in Copenhagen, before crossing the ؀resund Bridge to Sweden and music by Swedish woman composer Valborg Aulin.

As the 2018 winner of the L退onie Sonning Music Prize, conductor Mariss Janssons leads a performance of Mahler's 'Resurrection' Symphony'from a concert at the Royal Danish Academy of Music held in March this year. Genia Kühmeier and Bernarda Fink are the vocal soloists.

and then its a short but spectacular crossing to Sweden to hear the Violin Sonata by Valborg Aulin. Per Sporrong is the violinist and Johan Ull退n the pianist. Valborg was born into a musical family, her brother Tor was also a composer, and supported by a grant from the Swedish Nightingale - Jenny Lind, she studied for a while with Niels Gade.

Symphony No.2 in C minor 'Resurrection

Genia Kühmeier (soprano), Bernarda Fink (mezzo-soprano),

Malm怀 Opera Chorus, Danish Royal Opera Chorus,

Royal Danish Orchestra,

Mariss Jansons (conductor)

Per Sporrong (violin)

Johan Ull退n (piano).

In Concert round Europe, Mariss Jansons conducts Mahler 2 from Denmark.

Mariss Jansons Conducts The Bavarian Rso20200108In the third of five concerts showcasing highlights from the European season, Mariss Jansons conducts one of his last concerts before his sudden death in November. Both he and his Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, which he had led since 2003 bringing it into the front rank of the world's orchestras, are on top form here. An all-Strauss first half begins with a rarity, a spectacular sequence of orchestral bleeding chunks from his mid-1920s opera Intermezzo and ends with a sequence of some of his best-loved songs with British-German soprano Sarah Wegener. Brahms's dark final symphony, with its tragic and implacable final movement, makes up the second half.

Recorded last October in the Hercules Hall, Munich, and presented by Georgia Mann.

Strauss: Four Symphonic Interludes from Intermezzo

Das Rosenband, op. 36, no. 1

St䀀ndchen, op. 17, no. 2

Freundliche Vision, op. 48, no.1

Wiegenlied, op. 41, no. 1

Allerseelen, op. 10, no. 8

Morgen! op. 27, no. 4

8.15pm

Interval music (from CD)

Reger, arr. Schoenberg: Notturno from the Romantic Suite.

Les Solistes De L'Op退ra National De Lyon

8.30pm

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, op. 98

Sarah Wegener (soprano)

Mariss Jansons (conductor)

Richard Strauss's Symphonic Interludes from Intermezzo, songs and Brahms's Symphony No 4.

Mark Elder Conducts Britten Sinfonia20190118Mark Elder and Britten Sinfonia continue their acclaimed Brahms symphonies series with his sunniest symphony, No. 2, which he teasingly described as 'solemn and mournful'. Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) is one of his earliest works which nonetheless already runs the gamut of Mahler's familiar preoccupations, as death and despondency jostle with the manic and joyful, the banal, folk-like and transcendent. The concert begins with Britten's last orchestral work, based one of his life-long preoccupations: folk song.

Presented by Martin Handley, live at Saffron Hall in Essex.

Britten: Suite on English Folk Tunes 'A Time There Was

Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

8.20pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Brahms: Klavierstücke, Op. 76 (Nos. 1 - 6)

Charles Owen (piano)

8.45

Brahms Symphony No.2 in D major

Paula Murrihy (mezzo-soprano)

Mark Elder (conductor)

Britten Suite on English Folk Tunes, Mahler Songs of a Wayfarer and Brahms Symphony No 2

Mark Simpson, Mozart And Mahler20190619From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Mozart: Idomeneo: Overture; Quando avran fine omai... Padre, germani, addio; March in D; Se il padre perdei; Solitudini amiche... Zeffiretti lusinghieri

Mark Simpson: Clarinet Concerto (BBC Commission, world premiere)

8.20 CD Strauss: Das Bachlein: Blick vom oberen Belveder (Op.88 Nos 1 and 2): Malven

Elizabeth Watts (soprano)

Roger Vignoles (piano)

8.40

Mahler: Symphony No. 4

Mark Simpson (clarinet)

BBC Philharmonic

Ben Gernon (conductor)

In their last Manchester concert of the current season, clarinettist and Composer in Association with the BBC Philharmonic, Mark Simpson, joins the orchestra for the world premiere of his keenly awaited Clarinet Concerto. Mahler's transcendent Fourth Symphony closes the concert with Elizabeth Watts joining the orchestra for the ravishing 'child's view of heaven'. Music from Mozart's Idomeneo opens the evening; the Overture is followed here by Ilia's three arias, their depth of drama and expressive woodwind writing make each of these miniatures masterpieces in their own right.

BBC Philharmonic conducted by Ben Gernon with soloists Mark Simpson and Elizabeth Watts

Mark-anthony Turnage's Up For Grabs20211105The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ryan Bancroft in music by Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and a world premiere celebrating a famous Arsenal football victory.

On the last day of the 1989 football season, Arsenal and Liverpool, the two teams vying to win the league, played each other. Going into the game the margins couldn't have been tighter - Arsenal needed to win by two goals to clinch the title. In the final seconds of the match, they did. ‘It's up for grabs now!' proclaimed the dumbfounded commentator Brian Moore as Michael Thomas charged through the midfield at Anfield to seal the most dramatic league win of all time.

Leading composer and life-long Arsenal fan Mark-Anthony Turnage supplies the musical alternative to Brian Moore's iconic commentary, capturing the intense rollercoaster of highs, lows, desperation and elation every sports fan lives and breathes.

Peter Erskine (Weather Report), John Parricelli (Loose Tubes) and Laurence Cottle form a star-studded rhythm section to join the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Turnage's composition, which combine his personal experiences and memories as an ardent supporter, with musical nods to the likes of goal-scoring hero Michael Thomas and the late David ‘Rocky' Rocastle, who started in this iconic match, and to whom the piece is dedicated.

Live from the Barbican, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Dmitri Shostakovich: Festive Overture

Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird - suite (revised version, 1919)

20.05 Interval:

Erik Satie: Sports et divertissements

Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano)

20.25

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Up For Grabs (world premiere)

Peter Erskine (drums)

John Parricelli (guitar)

Laurence Cottle (bass guitar)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

After the concert new music from the International Rostrum of Composers 2019

Dinis Kurbanov (Russia): Khomonia

Members of Choir Capella `Yaroslavia` Dinis Kurbanov (conductor)

Anna ?irse (Latvia): Radices

Latvian Radio choir, Kaspars Putni?š (conductor), Anna ?irse (electronics).

Larisa Vrhunc (Slovenia): - glass sky, silk -

Nina Preši?ek (piano) Larisa Vrhunc (electronics)

Ryan Bancroft conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in a football premiere!

Martha Argerich And Maria Jo\u00e3o Pires20221205Fiona Talkington introduces a concert in Victoria Hall, Geneva, in which Martha Argerich and Maria Jo o Pires play the youthful Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos and Daniel Harding conducts the Suisse Romande Orchestra in Mahler's First Symphony.

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 10 in E flat for Two Pianos, K. 365

Interval:

Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D (‘Titan')

Martha Argerich, piano

Maria Jo o Pires, piano

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Daniel Harding, conductor

Concert recorded December 16, 2021.

Two of the greatest pianists of our time, Martha Argerich and Maria Jo o Pires, collaborate in the delightful double concerto which Mozart wrote in 1779, probably to play with his sister Nannerl. After the interval, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande plays Mahler's First Symphony, another product of youth, but nevertheless - like the Mozart - stylistically fully-formed.

Martha Argerich and Maria Jo\u00e3o Pires perform Mozart's Piano Concerto No 10 in E flat.

Martha Argerich Plays Ravel's Piano Concerto20180225Clemency Burton-Hill introduces concert performances by the Orchestre National de France given recently at the Auditorium of the Maison de la Radio, Paris.

Music by Rimsky-Korsakov and the seldom heard Boris Blacher frame a performance of Ravel's G major Piano Concerto played by the legendary Martha Argerich.

Boris Blacher: Variations on a Theme by Paganini

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

Scarlatti: Sonata in D minor, K141

Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade, Op 35 - symphonic suite

Martha Argerich (piano),

Sarah Nemtanu (violin), Orchestre National de France,

Emmanuel Krivine (conductor).

Martha Argerich plays Ravel's Piano Concerto with the French National Orchestra.

Martha Argerich, Schumann Piano Concerto20160410Ian Skelly presents a performance of Schumann's Piano Concerto given in Warsaw by the legendary Martha Argerich. Also tonight, music making by the cellist Truls Mørk from the Verbier Festival.

Beethoven

Cello Sonata in C major Op.102'1

Truls Mørk (cello), Jan Lisiecki (piano)

Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 54

Martha Argerich (piano),

Warsaw Philharmonic Orcyestra, Jacek Kaspszyk (conductor)

Chopin

Cello Sonata in G minor Op.65

Truls Mørk (cello), Jan Lisiecki (piano).

Martha Argerich performs Schumann's Piano Concerto and cellist Truls Mork plays Chopin.

Martland Memorial20190603Recorded at City Halls Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Percussionist Colin Currie joins Martyn Brabbins and the BBC SSO to perform Mark-Anthony Turnage's tribute to Steve Martland, alongside music by Stravinsky and Shostakovich.

Stravinsky: Symphonies of wind instruments

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Martland Memorial

8.05 Interval

Kate Molleson talks to Mark-Anthony Turnage about his memories of Steve Martland.

8.25 Part 2

Shostakovich: Symphony No 10

Quirky and volatile' are the characteristics picked up by Mark-Anthony Turnage in his vibrant tribute to friend and fellow composer Steve Martland - an energetic and percussive memorial written for the virtuoso percussionist Colin Currie. In this concert from Glasgow's City Halls Martyn Brabbins also conducts the BBC SSO in Shostakovich's Stalin-haunted 10th Symphony, and Stravinsky's Debussy-haunted Symphonies of Wind Instruments.

Photo credit: Linda Nylind

Colin Currie performs Mark-Anthony Turnage's percussive memorial to Steve Martland.

Martyn Brabbins Conducts Grace Williams's Second Symphony20231102The BBC National Orchestra of Wales launches a new series exploring the works of Grace Williams. Despite being one of Wales's greatest composers, Williams has never reached the fame that she deserves and many of her works have been left sadly neglected. This concert concludes with her ambitious Second Symphony, a work which shows the full breadth of Williams's orchestral writing prowess. The first half showcases the Orchestra's Composer Affiliate, Sarah Lianne Lewis, with the world premiere of her piece 'The sky didn't fall', which takes inspiration from the opening lines of a Kerry Hardie poem, and following that the Orchestra pays tribute to the late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho with the suite which she created from her opera about the pioneering mathematician and scientist, Émilie du Châtelet.

Presented by Linton Stephens, live from Hoddinott Hall.

Sarah Lianne Lewis: The sky didn't fall

Saariaho: Émilie (Suite)

G Williams: Symphony No 2

Emma Tring (soprano)

Emilie Godden (conductor)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

BBC NOW start a new series exploring her music, alongside Saariaho and Sarah Lianne Lewis.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with conductors Martyn Brabbins and Emilie Godden, present Grace Williams's Second Symphony alongside Saariaho and Sarah Lianne Lewis.

Martyn Brabbins Conducts The Bbc Singers In Varese, Machaut, Byrd And Birtwistle20170929Recorded on 23rd September at Milton Court, London

This is Rattle: Birtwistle

Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC Singers in Var耀se, Machaut, Byrd and Birtwistle.

Var耀se: Octandre

Machaut: Messe de Nostre Dame (with Plainsong Tropes arranged for instruments by Harrison Birtwistle)

8.15: Interval

Byrd: Lamentations

Birtwistle: Pulse Sampler; The Moth Requiem

Nash Ensemble

Martyn Brabbins, conductor

Ancient and modern meet in an intriguing programme that folds time back across the centuries, juxtaposing Var耀se, Machaut, Byrd and Birtwistle.

Simon Rattle has long championed Sir Harrison Birtwistle's music. Now Birtwistle returns the compliment with a personally-curated musical greeting.

In his first concerts with the LSO, Rattle reaffirms his commitment to the powerful, unmistakably personal music of Harrison Birtwistle. Birtwistle's own vocal music - and that of his forebears - forms the heart of this musical tribute from composer to conductor.

Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC Singers in the intimate but atmospheric space of Milton Court, in a work that they co-commissioned: the poignant and profoundly beautiful Moth Requiem of 2012. But Birtwistle layers the concert with memories and echoing voices from across eight centuries - from Machaut to Byrd and Var耀se.

Martyn Brabbins Conducts The Bbc Sso In Elgar And Tippett20170928Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Martyn Brabbins conducts Elgar and Tippett.

Elgar: Sospiri, Op 70

Sea Pictures, Op 37

8.15: Interval

Tippett: Symphony No. 3

Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano

Rachel Nicholls, soprano

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Martyn Brabbins, conductor

In a restless and angry world, music battles to make itself heard. And then, from amidst the turmoil and strife, a woman's voice breaks through - singing not a hymn to joy, but a heartfelt and sorrowful blues. Michael Tippett had the idea for his Third Symphony while at the Edinburgh International Festival; written during the 'Summer of Love', it's a masterpiece with an urgent message for the 21st century. And it's a wonderfully appropriate counterpart to Elgar's Sea Pictures. Songs of beauty, longing and despair from a composer who was anything but a stiff old Edwardian gent, sung here by the great Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow, Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC SSO in Elgar and Tippett.

Marzena Diakun Conducts Bbc Now20230127Conductor Marzena Diakun joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to perform three works drawing inspiration from very different places. Debussy evokes a fanciful realm in his Pr退lude
Maurizio Pollini And Leonidas Kavakos, Schumann, Brahms, Chopin20160327Ian Skelly tonight introduces performances from two of the world's leading soloists. The legendary pianist, Maurizio Pollini plays a Chopin piano concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Leonidas Kavakos concludes his Sunday evening traversal of the Brahms violin sonatas in Vienna. Also on the bill, a performance of Bach's magisterial 'Dorian' Toccata and Fugue on a renowned Romantic organ in Mersenburg, Saxony-Anhalt.

Schumann

Overture to Genoveva, Op. 81

Berlin Philharmonic, Christian Thielemann (conductor)

rec. Berlin Philharmonie

Violin Sonata No.3 in D minor, Op. 108

Leonidas Kavakos (violin), Yuja Wang (piano)

rec. Musikverein, Vienna

Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11

Maurizio Pollini (piano), Berlin Philharmonic, Christian Thielemann (conductor)

rec. Berlin Philharmonie.

Maurizio Pollini in Chopin's Piano Concerto No 1. Plus Leonidas Kavakos in music by Brahms

Max Richter's Voices20201210BBC Radio 3 marks Human Rights Day 2020 with the first broadcast performance of Max Richter's new work, VOICES.

VOICES incorporates words from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including its powerful opening statement: 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.' These words, spoken in languages by contributors from across the globe, are woven into a moving musical reflection on the state of the world today.

Elizabeth Alker presents this special arrangement, which was conceived during the Covid-19 lockdown and recorded with social distancing measures in the BBC's Maida Vale studios. We'll hear the Max Richter Ensemble joined by narrator Sheila Atim, soprano Grace Davidson, violinist Viktoria Mullova plus members of Tenebrae and conductor Robert Ziegler. The broadcast opens with a performance of Infra, the composer's musical response to the London 7/7 terror attacks.

This broadcast, made in partnership with the European Broadcasting Union, will be heard on 40 radio stations from across Europe and by global audiences in Australia, Canada and the United States.

Max Richter: Infra (2010)

Elizabeth Alker interviews Max Richter and his creative partner Yulia Mahr.

Max Richter: VOICES (2020)

Max Richter piano, synthesizer

Grace Davidson soprano

Viktoria Mullova violin

Sheila Atim narrator

Tenebrae choir

Robert Ziegler conductor

Following the performance, Max Richter introduces his own playlist of pieces which have inspired him, including Bob Dylan's 'The Times they are a-Changin'; the 40-part motet 'Spem in Alium' by Thomas Tallis in the version by the Kronos Quartet; 'Soweto' by South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim; Kraftwerk's classic track 'Computer World'; ending with Charles Ives' orchestral work 'The Unanswered Question'.

Marking Human Rights Day with the first broadcast performance of Max Richter's new work.

Maxim Vengerov20160224Maxim Vengerov in recital live from the Barbican.

One of the world's leading violinists makes a welcome return to London's Barbican Hall with a programme which evokes the spirit of the legendary Romantic virtuosi. Maxim Vengerov is a violinist steeped in the great Russian tradition of violin playing and, since his debut as a child prodigy he has been at the forefront of world music making as a player, mentor, teacher and cultural ambassador. Tonight's programme begins in the lyrical Viennese world of Beethoven and Schubert and ends with the fireworks of Paganini's variations on Rossini. And there are sure to be plenty of encores.

Presented by Martin Handley

Schubert: Sonata in A major 'Grand Duo,' D.574

Beethoven: Violin Sonata in C minor, Op.30 No.2

8.10pm Interval Music

Maxim Vengerov plays the Passacaglia last movement of Britten's Violin Concerto in a recroding he made in 2002 the London Symphony Orchestra and his friend and mentor, Mstislav Rostropovich.

8.30pm

Ravel: Violin Sonata in G major

Eugene Ysaÿe: Sonata No.6 in E major, Op.27 No.6

Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst: Introduction, Theme and Variations on the Irish Folksong 'The Last Rose of Summer

Paganini: I Palpiti - Introduction and variations Op.13 on Rossini's 'Di tanti palpiti' [from 'Tancredi']

Maxim Vengerov (violin)

Roustem Saitkoulov (piano).

Maxim Vengerov (violin) in music by Schubert, Beethoven, Ravel, Ysaye, Ernst and Paganini.

Mdr Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gershwin, Tchaikovsky20170212Ian Skelly introduces performances recorded at a concert in the RadiRo Festival in Bucharest. With Kristjan J䀀rvi, principal conductor of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, as its honorary director, this is billed as the only international musical event dedicated exclusively to radio ensembles.

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Stefano Bollani (piano),

MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kristjan J䀀rvi (conductor)

Tchaikovsky: Suite from 'Swan Lake

MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra Kristjan J䀀rvi (conductor).

Ian Skelly introduces music by Gerswhin and Tchaikovsky performed in Bucharest.

Me And 4 Ponys, Music Inspired, By Children's Drawings20210113Ensemble 360 play Brahms, Korngold and 'me and 4 Ponys,' a new work by Laurence Osborn inspired by children's drawings which the composer says he loves 'because they are completely unconcerned with consequence or correction.

Martin Handley introduces these performances recorded in 2018 at Emmanuel Church, Barnsley by Music in the Round's resident ensemble. he also finds out about their plans for the immediate future and talks to Ensemble 360's pianist, Tim Horton.

Brahms: String Quartet No.1 in C minor, Op.51 No.1

Laurence Osborn; Me and 4 Ponys [sic] for piano quintet

Korngold: Piano Quintet in E major, Op.15

Benjamin Nabarro (violin)

Natalie Klouda (violin)

Rachel Roberts (viola)

Gemma Rosefield (cello)

Tim Horton (piano)

Brahms's First Quartet and Korngold's Piano Quintet recorded in Barnsley by Ensemble 360

Mecklenburg-vorpommern Festival, Mozart, Soler, Bloch And Brahms20160117Ian Skelly presents performances from the 2015 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, including Mozart's Divertimento K136, Soler's Fandango, Bloch's From Jewish Life and Brahms's Serenade No 1

Mozart: Divertimento in D major, K136

Ebene Quartet

Soler: Fandango

Nils Monkemeyer (viola)

Klaus-Dieter Brandt (cello)

Helmut Branny (double bass)

Andreas Arend (theorbo)

Sabine Erdmann (harpsichord)

Anja Hermann (percussion)

Bloch: From Jewish Life

Daniel Muller-Schott (cello)

Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra, Heilbronn

Ruben Gazarian (conductor)

Brahms arr. David Walter: Serenade No. 1 in D major, Op. 11

Matthias Schorn (clarinet)

Philipp Bohnen (violin)

Gabriel le Magadure (violin)

Krzysztof Chorzelski (viola)

Raphael Merlin (cello)

Laurene Durantel (double bass)

Aquilon Reed Quintet

Anon (Spanish): Jacaras

Picture of Ulrichshusen (c) Geert Maciejewski.

Ian Skelly presents Mozart, Bloch and Brahms from the 2015 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival

Meistersinger, An Orchestral Tribute20220203Antony Hermus conducts the BBC SSO in an orchestral version of Wagner's Die Meistersinger; and they are joined by Benjamin Beilman in Korngold's Violin Concerto

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Korngold: Violin Concerto

8.00 Interval

8.15 Part 2

Wagner (arr. de Vlieger): Meistersinger - An Orchestral Tribute

Benjamin Beilman (violin)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Antony Hermus (conductor)

Dutch composer Henk de Vlieger has made an art of orchestral compilations drawn from the operatic works of Wagner, selecting the most important fragments of these operas and placing them in a new symphonic context. In tonight's concert the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Antony Hermus explore his transformation of Wagner's comic opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg into an 11-part symphony. By way of prelude the orchestra are joined by 'monstrously talented' violinist Benjamin Beilman to perform Korngold's Violin Concerto of 1945, a work imbued with cinematic melodies from a golden era of Hollywood.

Photo: Antony Hermus (credit, Marco Borggreve)

Antony Hermus conducts the BBC SSO in an orchestral version of Wagner's opera.

Melvyn Tan At Wigmore Hall, Beethoven, Czerny, Liszt20161013Live from Wigmore Hall.

Melvyn Tan celebrates his 60th birthday with a programme which includes some of the great pillars of the pianistic repertoire. The first half reflects Melvyn Tan's life-long love of Beethoven whilst in the second half, he prefaces Liszt's monumental Sonata with a heartfelt tribute to Beethoven by his former pupil and friend, Carl Czerny.

Beethoven: 6 Bagatelles Op. 126

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major Op. 109

Czerny: Variations on a Theme of Rode, 'La Ricordanza', Op. 33

8.10pm Interval music

Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony no 1, op 9

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly (conductor)

8.30

Czerny: Marcia funebre sulla morte di Luigi van Beethoven, Op. 146

Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor.

Live from Wigmore Hall, Melvyn Tan performs piano music by Beethoven, Czerny and Liszt.

Mendelssohn And Dvo\u0159\u00e1k In Amsterdam20231016Dalia Stasevska conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme of tuneful classics. They begin with the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn's miraculous Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Then it's Mendelssohn's Concerto for Two Pianos in E major, music Felix wrote for him and his sister Fanny to play when he was 14 years old. Tonight Dutch sibling duo Lukas and Arthur Jussen are the soloists. The concert ends with Dvořák's joyful, evergreen Eighth Symphony.

Recorded in August at the Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Mendelssohn: Overture (A Midsummer Night's Dream, op. 21)

8.20 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Leoš JanáĀ?ek: Mládí

Orsino Ensemble

8.40 pm

Dvořák: Symphony No. 8 in G major, op. 88

Lukas and Arthur Jussen (pianos)

Dalia Stasevska (conductor)

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra play Mendelssohn and Dvo\u0159\u00e1k.

Dalia Stasevska conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream and Dvořák's Eighth Symphony.

Dalia Stasevska conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme of tuneful classics. They begin with the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn's miraculous Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Then it's Mendelssohn's Concerto for Two Pianos in E major, music Felix wrote for him and his sister Fanny to play when he was 14 years old. Tonight Dutch sibling duo Lukas and Arthur Jussen are the soloists. The concert ends with Dvo?ကk's joyful, evergreen Eighth Symphony.

Leoš Janက?ek: Mlကd퀀

Dvo?ကk: Symphony No. 8 in G major, op. 88

Mendelssohn And Mozart With Fran\u00e7ois Leleux2021051320211014 (R3)Fran瀀ois Leleux plays his own arrangements of arias from two of Mozart's most celebrated operas and directs the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in music by Farrenc and Mendelssohn

Recorded last month at City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Mendelssohn: Overture, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Mozart arr. Leleux: arias from The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni

c. 8.05pm Interval

c. 8.20pm

Farrenc: Overture No.1, Op.23

Mendelssohn: Symphony No.4 (Italian)

Fran瀀ois Leleux, director/oboe

Photo: Fran瀀ois Leleux (credit, Jean-Baptiste Millot)

The BBC SSO and Fran\u00e7ois Leleux play music by Farrenc, Mozart and Mendelssohn.

Mendelssohn's Elijah20200211A superb cast of soloists joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus for Mendelssohn's great choral masterpiece of grandeur and soulfulness, his musical telling of the story of the prophet Elijah.

Both Felix Mendelssohn and Sakari Oramo have strong links to the city of Birmingham, which in 1846 saw the premiere of the composer's grand and spectacular musical telling of events from the life, death and ascension of the Old Testament prophet Elijah.

Mendelssohn's work is known for pomp and circumstance, doom and wrath, but this performance is sure to reaffirm Elijah as also a work of great tenderness, a final utterance which the composer considered his greatest achievement.

Presented by Martin Handley

Recorded at the Barbican on 7th February

Mendelssohn: Elijah

1930 Part 1

2035 Part 2

Elizabeth Watts (soprano) Widow/Angel

Claudia Huckle (contralto) Angel/Queen

Allan Clayton (tenor) Obadiah/Ahab

Johan Reuter (bass-baritone) Elijah

Toby Davies (treble) Youth

BBC Symphony Chorus - Neil Ferris (chorus-master)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and soloists conducted by Sakari Oramo at the Barbican.

Mendelssohn's Elijah20200702Petroc Trelawny introduces a performance of Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah, recorded in Birmingham Town Hall in October 2008, in a version made especially for this evening's concert based on the original 1846 first performance there, which was conducted by the composer. The concert is presented in conversation with this evening's conductor, Jeffrey Skidmore.

Mendelssohn: Elijah (Original 1846 edition)

James Rutherford (baritone - Elijah)

Julia Doyle (soprano)

Grace Davidson (soprano)

Diana Moore (alto)

Lucy Ballard (alto)

Nicholas Mulroy (tenor)

Mark Padmore (tenor)

Marcus Farnsworth (bass)

James Mustard (bass)

Ex Cathedra (Choir)

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Conducted by Jeffrey Skidmore

Jeffrey Skidmore conducts Mendelssohn's Elijah. Concert from Birmingham Town Hall in 2008.

Mendelssohn's Elijah From Prague20220418Mendelssohn's oratorio on the Biblical story of the prophet Elijah was first performed at the 1846 Birmingham Festival and has been a classic of the choral repertoire around the world ever since.

Fiona Talkington presents this performance sung in German at the Smetana Hall in Prague.

Mendelssohn: Elijah

Luk  Ba?ကk - Baritone (Elijah, The Prophet)

Petr Nekoranec - Tenor (Obediah / Ahab, King of Israel)

Vကclava Krej?퀀 Houskovက - Alto (Queen Jezebel / Angel)

Nicola Proksch - Soprano (Widow / Angel)

Czech Philharmonic Chorus Brno

Prague Symphony Orchestra

Petr Altrichter - Conductor

Rec. Smetana Hall, Prague 08 December 2021

Image courtesy of Petr Dyrc.

Mendelssohn's Elijah in a performance from Prague conducted by Petr Altrichter

Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto20230320The celebrated veteran Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt, now well into his tenth decade, can pick and choose from any of the world's great orchestras and soloists. In this concert, recorded at the Hercules Hall, Residenz, Munich in January, Blomstedt conducts the internationally renowned Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner's monumental 'Romantic' Symphony, and they're joined by Leonidas Kavakos for Mendelssohn's ever-popular Violin Concerto.

Introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64

8.00 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Bruckner: Ave Maria

Polyphony

Stephen Layton (conductor)

8.05 pm

Bruckner Symphony: No. 4 in E flat ('Romantic')

Leonidas Kavakos (violin)

Herbert Blomstedt (conductor)

Herbert Blomstedt leads the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn and Bruckner.

Messages Without Words20190219As part of Kings Place's year-long exploration of the work of women composers, the Scottish Ensemble joins pianist Gabriela Montero for a compelling programme of 20th- and 21st-century music with a message. The concert includes a new piece by Montero herself (a portrait of her experience as a human rights activist), as well her trademark improvisations, and the sense of a journey is at the heart of Bulgarian-born British composer Dobrinka Tabakova's 2007 string sextet Such Different Paths.

Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony began life as his 10th String Quartet, music full of bitterness, disillusion and defiance in the face of Soviet-controlled life. Philip Glass says his Echorus was 'inspired by thoughts of compassion and is meant to evoke feelings of serenity and peace', and so it shares a similar vibe to Messiaen's ecstatic, suspended-time vision of heaven which ends the concert.

Recorded last week at Kings Place, London, and presented by Natasha Riordan.

Dmitry Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony, Op. 118a

Philip Glass: Echorus

Interval

Michael Tippett: 5 Spirituals from 'A Child of our Time' arr. for chorus

BBC Singers

Stephen Cleobury (conductor)

Dobrinka Tabakova: Such Different Paths

Gabriela Montero: Babel (London premiere)

Olivier Messiaen: Louange

Messiaen's \u00c9clairs Sur L'au-del\u00e0... At The Salzburg Festival20230921Olivier Messiaen's ɀclairs sur l'Au-del
Messiah20211216John Butt leads the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales for Handel's ever popular oratorio, Messiah. Handel and his librettist Charles Jennens created a commentary on the key moments of the life of Jesus Christ; beginning with the prophecy and his birth, then the passion and his death, and finally his resurrection and ascension. Fundamentally intertwined with Christmas in the UK, this is also a piece close to the heart of Butt, and one in which he hears communal joy, and worship not limited to the religious tradition on which it is based.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, and recorded in St. David's Hall in Cardiff on the 7th of December.

7.30 Handel: Messiah, HWV 56

Rhian Lois (soprano)

Helen Charlston (mezzo soprano)

Hiroshi Amako (tenor)

Matthew Brook (bass)

John Butt (conductor)

John Butt and the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales perform Handel's epic oratorio.

Michael Collins And Friends, Schubert, Mozart20160531Michael Collins is joined at London's Wigmore Hall by friends and colleagues in a programme of three indisputable masterworks. The concert opens with 'Der Hirt auf dem Felsen' (The Shepherd on the Rock) for soprano, clarinet and piano, before continuing with Mozart's sublime Clarinet Quintet and Schubert's spacious and richly tuneful Octet for winds and strings.

Introduced by Ian Skelly.

Recorded 28 May 2016

Schubert: Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D965

Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A, K581

8.15: Interval

8.35

Schubert: Octet in F, D803

Michael Collins (clarinet)

Lucy Crowe (soprano)

Michael McHale (piano)

Alexander Sitkovetsky (violin)

Laura Samuel (violin)

Krzysztof Chorzelski (viola)

Leonard Elschenbroich (cello)

Lynda Houghton (double bass

Robin O'Neill (bassoon)

Richard Watkins (horn).

Clarinettist Michael Collins and friends play Mozart and Schubert at Wigmore Hall, London.

Midnight Sun20191121Conductor John Storgards brings from his home in Lapland the phenomenal natural beauty of the Arctic, inspiration here for composers Outi Tarkiainen and Kalevi Aho.

Live from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Kalevi Aho: Theremin Concerto 'Eight Seasons' (UK premiere)

8.05

Music Interval

Outi Tarkiainen: Midnight Sun Variations

Shostakovich: Symphony No.12 'The Year 1917

Carolina Eyck (Theremin)

BBC Philharmonic

John Storgards (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic's Chief Guest Conductor, John Storgards brings music from his Lapland home to Manchester. Outi Tarkiainen's 'Midnight Sun Variations' immerses us in the light of the arctic tundra on a Summer's night, in the least polluted part of Europe, and amongst dense mysterious forests. Summer moves towards the mists of Autumn, she says, the time of year her first baby was born, the parting of mother and child restoring her former self. Kalevi Aho's Theremin Concerto, written for Carolina Eyck, widely considered the world's leading exponent of the instrument, also takes its inspiration from the natural world. The native Sami of Lapland divide the year into eight seasons which become the eight movements of the piece and the unique sound-world portrays different snow landscapes, the mists of Autumn and the last section of the piece is titled 'Midnight Sun'. The third movement of Shostakovich's Twelfth Symphony is headed 'Aurora' but we move in a completely different direction here; this was the name of the battleship whose first shots at the Winter Palace heralded the start of the 1917 Revolution. Dedicated to Lenin this is perhaps Shostakovich's most filmic Symphony and graphically depicts the events of the Revolution.

The BBC Philharmonic plays music by Kalevi Aho, Outi Tarkiainen and Shostakovich

Midori, Ozgur Aydin, Liszt, Elgar, Schoenberg, Strauss20160314From Wigmore Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Violinist Midori and pianist րzgür Aydin play music by Liszt, Elgar, Schoenberg and Strauss.

Liszt: Valse caprice No. 6 (transc. David Oistrakh)

from Soir退es de Vienne: Valses caprices d'apr耀s Schubert S427

Elgar: Violin Sonata in E minor Op. 82

INTERVAL

Schoenberg: Phantasy Op. 47

Strauss: Violin Sonata in E flat major Op. 18

Midori, violin

րzgür Aydin, piano

Midori, one of the world's finest violinists, brings a collection of wonderful but nevertheless rather neglected late-romantic works to the Wigmore Hall.

Violinist Midori and pianist Ozgur Aydin perform Liszt, Elgar, Schoenberg and Strauss.

Midsummer Music In The Chilterns2017062820170704 (R3)Midsummer Music in the Chilterns. In Concert tonight comes from the church of St Mary Magdalene, Latimer in the Chilterns. This is the intimate setting for Midsummer Music, a chamber music festival artistically directed by the renowned pianist Paul Lewis and his cellist wife, Bjørg. Each summer they invite some musicians they both admire to programme works that inspire them.

Presented by Georgia Mann.

J S Bach: Partita No.1 in B flat major, BWV.825

Paul Lewis (piano)

Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major, K.581

Richard Hosford (clarinet); Isabelle van Keulen, Alexander Sitkovetsky (violins); Scott Dickinson (viola); Bjørg Lewis (cello)

approx 8.15pm INTERVAL MUSIC

Alfred Brendel, who was Paul Lewis's mentor and who is giving a talk about playing Mozart as part of Midsummer Music, plays Mozart's Piano Concerto in B flat, K 238, in a recording he made with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields as part of their ground-breaking complete Mozart Piano Concertos set.

8.35pm

Schubert: The Shepherd on the Rock, D.965

Nika Gori? (soprano); Richard Hosford (clarinet); Marianna Shirinyan (piano)

Dvorak: Piano Trio No.4 in E minor Op.90 (Dumky)

Alexander Sitkovetsky (violins); Bjørg Lewis (cello); Marianna Shirinyan (piano).

Paul and Bjorg Lewis with friends perform music by Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Dvorak.

Minnesota Strings20190310The best concerts from across the globe. With Kate Molleson. Tonight, members of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minnesota in works from the Old World and the New.

Amy Beach was Boston born and had a successful composing and performing career in and around Boston and New York, she joined a Boston based Quartet to perform quintets by Schumann and Brahms, and in 1905 performed her own Quintet we'll hear tonight.

Dvorak's 2 Serenades - one for winds and the other for strings are Dvorak at his most informal. and we'll hear the one for strings tonight, written in 1875 at a time when Dvorak's chosen career as a composer was beginning to pay off.

Both performances are by members of the St Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Piano Quintet in F sharp minor, Op 67

String Serenade in E major, Op 22

The best concerts from across the globe. Tonight we are in Minnesota with Kate Molleson.

Mirga Gra\u017einyt\u0117-tyla And The Cbso, Live20230315Tom McKinney introduces a programme of live music from Symphony Hall Birmingham from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra marking one of Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla's final appearances as the orchestra's chief conductor. Pianist Kirill Gerstein joins the CBSO for one the best loved of all romantic concertos, and Mirga also conducts music by the Polish born Mieczys?aw Weinberg for whom she has been a great advocate and champion. The concert ends with highlights from one of the 20th century's greatest ballets.

Weinberg - Sinfonietta No. 1

Schumann - Piano Concerto

(Kirill Gerstein - Piano)

INTERVAL

Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet (highlights)

Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla - Conductor

Mirga Gra\u017einyt\u0117-Tyla conducts the CBSO in a Schumann concerto and a Prokofiev ballet.

Mirga Gra\u017einyt\u0117-tyla Conducts The Cbso2017100520210223 (R3)Tom Redmond offers another chance to hear a concert given by the CBSO of music by Mozart, Widmann and Brahms, with conductor Mirga Grazinyte and clarinettist J怀rg Widmann. Recorded in Symphony Hall Birmingham in 2017.

Brahms grappled with his First Symphony - and the weight of music history - for well over ten years. But he needn't have worried. From the pounding heartbeats of the opening, to the roof-raiser of a peroration, it's really no wonder it was instantly dubbed 'Beethoven's Tenth'. Tonight's concert also gives the opportunity to hear Artist in Residence J怀rg Widmann in two musical guises: as soloist in Mozart's valedictory Clarinet Concerto (about which Mozart wrote 'I smoked a glorious pipe of tobacco. Then I orchestrated almost the entire Rondo...'), then as composer in his Babylon-Suite.

PART ONE

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A K.622

J怀rg Widmann: Babylon-Suite

INTERVAL

(From CD)

Robert Schumann: Fantasiestücke for clarinet, flute, harp and two violas (arr. by Aribert Reimann)

J怀rg Widmann (clarinet), Andrea Lieberknecht (flute), Jana Bouškovက (harp), Tatjana Masurenko, Hanna Weinmeister (violas)

Brahms: Piano Sonata no 3 in F minor Op. 5 - 5th mvt.

Nelson Freire (Piano)

PART TWO

Brahms: Symphony No. 1

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla (conductor)

Tom Redmond presents a programme of Mozart, Widmann and Brahms given by the CBSO.

Mirga Grazinyte-tyla Conducts The City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra20231206Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla takes us on a very personal tour of Eastern Europe, from Georgia to the Baltic. There will be gripping new discoveries from her personal favourite Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Ciurlionis, the “Lithuanian Elgar ?, takes us on a walk through the forests.

Andrew McGregor presents live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

CIURLIONIS Miske (In the Forest);

WEINBERG Clarinet Concerto;

LOBODA Requiem for Ukraine;

WEINBERG 12 Miniatures for flute and orchestra;

KAKHIDZE Bruderschaft (Brotherhood)

Eugene Tzikindelean, violin

Oliver Janes, clarinet

Marie-Christine Zupancic, flute

Adam Römer, viola

Onute Grazinyte, piano

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, conductor

Music from Eastern European composers, including Mieczyslaw Weinberg's Clarinet Concerto.

Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla takes us on a very personal tour of Eastern Europe, from Georgia to the Baltic, including music by Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Ciurlionis, the 'Lithuanian Elgar'.

Mirga's Beethoven20200204Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla conducts the CBSO in a programme of Beethoven marking an anniversary for the composer and the start of the 100th anniversary year of the orchestra itself. The programme includes two of Beethoven's most life enhancing symphonies plus a new work by the South Korean born composer Unsuk Chin, commissioned to mark the CBSO's centenary. Presented by Ian Skelly.

Unsuk Chin: SPIRA - A Concerto for Orchestra (UK Premiere)

Beethoven: Symphony No 2

INTERVAL

During the interval Ian Skelly talks to Richard Bratby about his new book `Forward` marking the centenary of the CBSO.

Beethoven: Symphony No 4

Commissioned encores to mark the centenary of the orchestra:

Liam Taylor-West: Turning Points

Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla (conductor)

The CBSO from Symphony Hall in Birmingham.

Misha Maisky And Sabine Meyer In Barcelona20180506Kate Molleson presents performances from Barcelona featuring star soloists cellist Misha Maisky and clarinettist Sabine Meyer, recorded last year in two different concerts at the Palau de la Musica Catalana.

Falla arr. Casals

Spanish Popular Suite

Misha Maisky (cello)

Lily Maisky (piano)

Mozart

Clarinet Concerto in A major, K622

Sabine Meyer (clarinet)

Camera Musicae Orchestra

Thomas Grau (conductor)

Gasper Cassado

Requiebros

Tchaikovsky

Serenade for Strings in C major

Thomas Grau (conductor).

Performances from Barcelona featuring cellist Misha Maisky and clarinettist Sabine Meyer.

Missa Solemnis, A Mount Everest Of Music20210222Beethoven Missa Solemnis - a Mount Everest of music.

Beethoven's sublime but fearsome mass is recreated by the conductor and Beethoven scholar Jan Caeyer and Le Concert Olympique, a hand-picked ensemble of 45 instrumentalists, drawn from the whole of Europe. They are joined by the Arnold Schoenberg Chorus of Vienna and a starry line-up of soloists at the Blue Hall in Antwerp.

Beethoven Missa Solemnis in D, Op.123

Malin Hartelius (soprano)

Sarah Connolly (mezzo)

Steve Davislim (tenor)

Hanno Müller-Brachmann (bass)

Le Concert Olympique, Jan Caeyer (conductor)

rec. Blue Hall, de Singel, Antwerp, Belgium 21 November. 2018

followed at approx 8.45pm by recordings from two of Radio 3's current New Generation Artists.

Brahms: 6 Pieces Op.118 for piano

Alexander Gadjiev (piano)

Dvorak: String Quartet No.13 in G major,Op.106

Aris String Quartet

Beethoven's Missa solemnis recreated by Le Concert Olympique.

Mitsuko Uchida Plays Schubert20210602As part of Wigmore Hall's 120th anniversary celebrations, internationally renowned pianist Mitsuko Uchida plays Schubert's Impromptus. Originally aimed at the amateur market and the well-heeled drawing room, Schubert's two sets of Impromptus are among his best-known and best-loved keyboard works, wonderful examples of his incomparable melodic gift and ability to change emotional tack, from solace and joy, to sudden bursts of drama and fury.

Presented live from Wigmore Hall by Sean Rafferty.

4 Impromptus D.899

4 Impromptus D. 935

Mitsuko Uchida (piano)

And to follow that

Schwanengesang D.957

Ashley Riches (bass baritone)

Joseph Middleton (piano)

Mitsuko Uchida plays all eight of Schubert's impromptus, live at Wigmore Hall.

Monteverdi 450: Les Talens Lyriques20170607Live from St John's Smith Square, Christophe Rousset directs Les Talens Lyriques in music by Monteverdi and his contemporaries. In a programme that they have called 'Zefiro Torna,' this leading French early music ensemble explore the opposition between life's beauties and death's violence as portrayed by Monteverdi. Born four hundred and fifty years ago this year, Monteverdi was the pivotal figure as music moved from the polyphonic world of the Renaissance to the solo voice and instrumental world of the Baroque. Les Talens Lyrique's programme draws on some of the most beautiful music from Monteverdi's madrigals of Love and War and also from his ground breaking operas, L'Incoronazione di Poppea and Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in patria. As Les talens Lyriques say: 'All human sentiments are here, from the the lightest to the most profound, all captured in music that even today sounds astonishingly modern.

Presented by Martin Handley

Monteverdi: Chiome d'oro & O come sei gentile from 7th Madrigal Book (1619)

Castello: Second Sonata (1621)

Monteverdi: O sia tranquillo il mare & Ardo e scoprir from 8th Madrigal Book (1638)

Fontana: Seventh Sonata

Monteverdi: Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (1640) - selections

Christophe Rousset (organ/harpsichord/ director)

INTERVAL

Monteverdi: Mentre vaga angioletta from 8th Madrigal Book (1638)

Monteverdi: Zefiro torna from 9th Madrigal Book (1642)

Monteverdi: L'Incoronazione di Poppea (1642) - selections

Emiliano Gonzalez Toro and Anders J. Dahlin (tenors)

Christophe Rousset (organ/harpsichord/ director).

Christophe Rousset directs Les Talens Lyriques: music by Monteverdi and his contemporaries

Monteverdi 450: Vespers Of 161020170515As part of the Monteverdi 450 celebrations his monumental 1610 Vespers is performed by two of Europe's leading early music ensembles, Freiburg Baroque Consort and Vox Luminis, directed by Lionel Meunier.

No one knows why Claudio Monteverdi published his great masterpiece in praise of the Virgin Mary. It might even have been one of history's most elaborate and convincing job applications: Monteverdi, miserable in his current employment at the Mantuan court, possibly had an eye on impressing the authorities in Venice, a city where the Marian cult was especially strong. It's not even certain if this ravishing collection of psalms, motets, a sonata, hymn and seven-part setting of the Magnificat was intended for performance as a continuous liturgical sequence.

But what is beyond doubt is that the Vespers shows one of the greatest composers of all time at the height of his powers and working on an unprecedented scale: in this endlessly inventive, dazzlingly expressive music, old and new musical styles collide and fuse, and the intimate and sensuous give way to the splendid and elaborate.

Recorded yesterday at the London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square and presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Claudio Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine (beginning)

8.20pm Interval: Lionel Meunier talks to Sara Mohr-Pietsch about his approach to performing Monteverdi's Vespers.

8.30pm Claudio Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine (conclusion)

Lionel Meunier (director).

The Freiburg Baroque Consort and Vox Luminis perform Monteverdi's monumental Vespers.

Monteverdi's Vespers Of The Blessed Virgin Mary20231030Monteverdi's Vespers from the Utrecht Early Music Festival.

Simon-Pierre Bestion directs a performance of Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin) in an imaginative recreation of the way this great landmark of music history might have been heard at the Basilica of Saint Mark in Venice. Alongside the great choral psalm settings by Monteverdi himself, Simon-Pierre Bestion includes the Gregorian chants on which they are based. But he goes even further, by including songs from a manuscript in the Carpentras library. These anonymous songs reflect the centuries-long oral traditions found throughout the Mediterranean basin, their harmonies and inflections evoking the folk traditions of Italy, Sardinia and Corsica. These songs, the conductor suggests, would have found their way into any performance in early Baroque Venice, that great centre of economic and cultural exchange.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610)

Amélie Raison, soprano

Brenda Poupard, alto

Aline Quentin, alto

Axelle Verner, alto

Fanny Châtelain, alto

Francisco Mañalich, tenor

Sébastian Obrecht, tenor

Edouard Monjanel, tenor

René Ramos Premier, baritone

Florent Martin, bass

Eugénie De Mey (baritone and chanter)

La Tempête

Simon-Pierre Bestion, conductor

Monteverdi's Vespers of the Blessed Virgin Mary performed by La Temp\u00eate in Utrecht.

Monteverdi's Vespers from the Utrecht Early Music Festival. Simon-Pierre Bestion directs La Tempête in a recreation of the multicultural sound world of Baroque Venice.

Am退lie Raison, soprano

Fanny Ch telain, alto

Francisco Maကalich, tenor

S退bastian Obrecht, tenor

Ren退 Ramos Premier, baritone

Eug退nie De Mey (baritone and chanter)

La Tempꀀte

Mother Goose20190607Live from King George's Hall, Blackburn

Presented by Tom Redmond

Ravel: Mother Goose - complete Ballet

Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No.1

8.20 Music Interval (CD)

Prokofiev: Visions fugitives Op.22 for piano

(Steven Osborne)

8.40

Dvorak: Symphony No.9 'From the New World

Ye-Eun Choi (Violin)

BBC Philharmonic

Rory Macdonald (conductor)

Ravel expanded his Mother Goose Ballet from a set of five piano duets he'd penned for two children whose parents he was friends with. We meet Sleeping Beauty and Tom Thumb, hear the touching story of Beauty and Beast and end our journey in the most luminous, ravishing and entrancing Fairy Garden. Ye-Eun Choi joins the orchestra for Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto; started while he was in love with the daughter of a wealthy St Petersburg family with whom he spent his summers. The fragrance of the opening melody is clear. The programme ends with Dvorak's thrilling Ninth Symphony 'From the New World'; the heady conflict he felt between homesickness and optimism make us wait until the last few bars for resolution, leading us there via some of the most memorable tunes in the whole symphonic repertory.

The BBC Philharmonic, live from Blackburn, in Ravel, Prokofiev and Dvorak.

Mozart 250, Music Of 176720170117Live from Wigmore Hall, Classical Opera presents MOZART 250 - Music of 1767.

Spanning 27 years - from the 250th anniversary of Mozart's childhood visit to London to the 250th anniversary of his death - Classical Opera tonight reach the third year in a journey in which they re-tread the steps of musical history, examining, contextualising and celebrating the life of Mozart.

Ian Page's period instrument ensemble are joined by three outstanding young soloists, including the BBC New Generation Artist, Ashley Riches as they explore the music of the young Mozart and the composers who influenced him.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Mozart: Symphony no.6 in F major

K.43

Gassmann: Bella in un vago viso from Amore e Psiche

Gluck: No, crudel, non posso vivere from Alceste

JC Bach: Sopra quell capo indegno from Carataco

Abel: Frene le belle lagrime from Sifari

INTERVAL

Mozart: Grabmusik K.42

Haydn: Vidit suum & Flammis orci from Stabat Mater HXXbis

Arne: Symphony no.1 in C major

Mozart: Natus cadit atque Deus from Apollo et Hyacinthus K.38

Gemma Summerfield (soprano); Stuart Jackson (tenor); Ashley Riches (bass-baritone)

Classical Opera Orchestra

Ian Page (conductor).

Classical Opera performs music by Mozart, Gassmann, Gluck, JC Bach, Abel and Arne.

Mozart And Brahms Clarinet Quintets20230419Radio 3 New Generation Artists past (Martin Fr怀st) and present (Leonkoro Quartet) perform two of the greatest clarinet quintets of all time, by Mozart and Brahms, together with a new work by America's most celebrated living composer, John Adams.

Recorded at London's Wigmore Hall, 16th April 2023

Presented by Martin Handley

John Adams: Dolce pianissimo (UK premi耀re)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A, K 581

8:20pm

Interval music (from CD)

John Adams: Naive and Sentimental Music: II. Mother of the Man

Sean Shibe (steel-string guitar)

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Peter Oundjian (conductor)

8:35pm

Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op 115

Martin Fr怀st (clarinet)

Martin Fr\u00f6st and the Leonkoro Quartet perform two of the greatest clarinet quintets.

Mozart And Brahms From The Augsburg Mozart Festival20151011Ian Skelly introduces performances of Mozart and Brahms recorded at the Augsburg Mozartfest

Mozart: Overture to 'Cos쀀 fan tutte

Mozart: Come scoglio, from 'Cos쀀 fan tutte

Mozart: Sinfonia concertante in E flat, K. 297b

Alex Penda (soprano), Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, Vaclav Luks (director)

Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B flat minor, Op. 115

J怀rg Widmann (clarinet), Sarah Christian (violin), Antje Weithaas (violin), Jano Lisboa (viola), Maximilian Hornung (cello).

Ian Skelly introduces performances of Mozart and Brahms from the Augsburg Mozartfest.

Mozart And Dvorak20210204Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Suk: Meditation on an old Czech hymn 'St Wenceslas

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante K297b

Dvorak: Serenade for Strings

Laura Samuel (Violin/Director)

Stella McCracken (Oboe)

Yann Ghiro (Clarinet)

Julian Roberts (Bassoon)

Alberto Men退ndez Escribano (Horn)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Photo: Laura Samuel

Laura Samuel directs the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in concert.

Mozart And Mahler20190528The finale to the Ulster Orchestra's 2018/19 Season featuring the American/Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor. Concluding the concert, and their season, the orchestra perform Mahler's Symphony No. 5, written at the turn of the 20th Century around 10 years before the composer's death. The work is probably best known for it's 4th movement, a beautiful Adagietto scored for strings and harp. Conducted by the orchestra's Music Director- Rafael Payare

The interval of this concert will feature an interview with pianist Inon Barnatan with presenter John Toal

Rafael Payare conducts the Ulster Orchestra's 2018/2019 Season Finale concert

Mozart And Mendelssohn20200318Nicola Benedetti joins the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and viola player Lawrence Power in a celebration of Mozart and Mendelssohn; musical geniuses whose lives were cut tragically short and yet whose works remain at the centre of the concert repertoire today.

Mendelssohn: Sinfonia No 10 in B minor

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto

Interval at 8.15pm approx.

Jamie MacDougall features the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Wind Soloists from their 2018 recording of Beethoven's Sextet in Eflat Major

Mozart: Overture, La clemenza di Tito

Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante, K364

Nicola Benedetti - Violin / Director

Benjamin Marquise Gilmore - Violin / Director

Lawrence Power - Viola

Presenter: Jamie MacDougall

Producer: Lindsay Pell

Nicola Benedetti joins the SCO with Lawrence Power to play works by Mozart and Mendelssohn

Mozart And Schmidt From The Berlin Philharmonic And Evgeny Kissin20231023Evgeny Kissin joins the Berlin Philharmonic for a famous piano concerto by Mozart before the orchestra embarks on a rare performance of a symphony by Franz Schmidt, at one time, one of the most respected musicians in Vienna.

The fabled orchestra plays the Second Symphony by Franz Schmidt, a cellist, pianist and teacher admired by Mahler and Schoenberg and once one of the leading lights in Viennese music. His music is heavily influenced by Bruckner, Reger and the young Schoenberg, not least in the vast forces required, and which promise to fill the stage of the Philharmonie for this performance, recorded earlier this month. Before that the star-pianist, Evgeny Kissin renews his relationship with an orchestra with which he made his debut at the age of nineteen - under Herbert von Karajan. And the concert opens with a short sinfonia by Marianne MartÀ?nez, a favourite pupil of Haydn, and an important figure in European musical life in the time of Mozart.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Marianne Martinez: Sinfonia in C

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K. 488

Franz Schmidt: Symphony no. 2 in E flat

Evgeny Kissin (piano)

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Fabio Luisi (conductor)

Recorded at the Philharmonie, Berlin 06.10.2023

The Berlin Philharmonic and Evgeny Kissin in Mozart and Franz Schmidt, his Symphony no.2.

Evgeny Kissin joins the Berlin Philharmonic for Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 23 and the orchestra then plays Franz Schmidt's Symphony no. 2 and a Sinfonia by Marianne von MartÀ?nez.

The fabled orchestra plays the Second Symphony by Franz Schmidt, a cellist, pianist and teacher admired by Mahler and Schoenberg and once one of the leading lights in Viennese music. His music is heavily influenced by Bruckner, Reger and the young Schoenberg, not least in the vast forces required, and which promise to fill the stage of the Philharmonie for this performance, recorded earlier this month. Before that the star-pianist, Evgeny Kissin renews his relationship with an orchestra with which he made his debut at the age of nineteen - under Herbert von Karajan. And the concert opens with a short sinfonia by Marianne Mart̀nez, a favourite pupil of Haydn, and an important figure in European musical life in the time of Mozart.

Mozart And The Bach Family20160119The Bach family and Mozart: John Butt directs a programme exploring the foundations of Mozart's artistry in the music of the Bach family. In this first concert of the Aurora orchestra's five year project to stage the complete Mozart keyboard concertos we hear tonight from CPE Bach, who Mozart referred to as his 'musical father.' There's also music by Johann Christian 'the London' Bach who awakened the boy Mozart's interest in the keyboard concerto and from 'Old Sebastian' whose music left the mature Mozart awe-struck.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and recorded at King's Place, London

J C Bach

Symphony No.6 in G Minor Op.6

Keyboard Concerto No.1 in F K.37

Sinfonia in D WQ 183/1

Interval

JS Bach

Brandenburg Concerto No.1 in F BWV 1046

Adagio and Fugue in C Minor K.546

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G BWV 1048

John Butt (harpsichord/director).

John Butt directs a programme of music by JC, CPE and JS Bach and Mozart.

Mozart Concertos At Wigmore Hall20231115Violinist Alina Ibragimova and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, musicians internationally renowned for bringing an invigorating dynamism to historically informed performance, join forces with the Basel Chamber Orchestra for two Mozart concertos.

Written when he was 21 years old the Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat K. 271 is the earliest of Mozart's keyboard concertos to show the innovation and musical depths of expression of his later concertos. From a couple of years earlier, the Violin Concerto No. 5 in A K. 219 likewise shows originality, playfulness and innovation, as when the solo violin's very first entry seems suddenly suspended in time, or when 'Turkish' music appears out of nowhere in the midst of a graceful minuet. One of Haydn's most dramatic symphonies and a world premiere from Basel-based Jannik Giger complete the programme.

Recorded on Saturday at Wigmore Hall and introduced by Ian Skelly.

Haydn: Symphony No. 52 in C minor

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat K. 271

Jannik Giger: Troisième œil (world premiere)

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A K. 219

Alina Ibragimova (violin)

Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano and director)

Violinist Alina Ibragimova and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout recorded live in concert

Violinist Alina Ibragimova and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout join forces with the Basel Chamber Orchestra for two Mozart concertos. Plus a Haydn symphony and a world premiere.

Mozart Flute Quartets, A Bach Cello Suite And Reger Motets20151018Ian Skelly introduces performances of Mozart's airy flute quartets given by Emanuel Pahud and his colleagues in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and the SWR Vocal Ensemble present a moving sequence of Bach and Reger in the spacious acoustics of the cathedral in Koblenz. Reger himself said of his O Tod that: 'It will be a shockingly sad work with a transfiguring conclusion.

Flute Quartet No. 2 in G, K285a

Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Strings of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Mein Odem ist schwach, from Motets, Op. 110/1

Cello Suite No. 6 in D, BWV 1012

Prelude, Allemande, Courante

Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello)

Nachtlied, from Acht geistlichen Ges䀀ngen, Op. 138

SWR Vocal Ensemble, Stuttgart, Frieder Bernius (director)

Sarabande, Gavotte, Gigue

O Tod, wie bitter bist du, from Motets, Op. 110/3

rec. St Castor's Basilica, Koblenz at the Rheinvokal Festival

Flute Quartet No. 1 in D, K285

Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Strings of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - Daishin Kashimoto (violin), Joaquin Riquelme Garcia (viola), Stephan Koncz (cello)

rec. Auditorium, Cantonal School, Glarus

Reger's Mein Odem is schwach ('My spirit is weak') (1909) sets words from the Book of Job.

O Tod, wie bitter bist du ('O death, how bitter you are') (1912) sets words from the Book of Ecclesiasticus and begins in the depths of grief but ends in sublime resignation.

Emanuel Pahud performs Mozart flute quartets and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras plays Bach.

Mozart From His Home Territory.20210111Fiona Talkington presents a concert by the Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg, featuring early works by Mozart, alongside those of his maturity.

Mozart: Symphony No.14 in A, K.114

Regina coeli, K.108

Symphony No.28 in C, K.200

Rondo in E flat, K.371

Adagio from Clarinet Concerto in A, K.622

Bassoon Concerto in B flat, K.191

Claire Elizabeth Craig, soprano

Ben Goldscheider, horn

Annelien Van Wauwe, clarinet

Riccardo Terzo, bassoon

Michaela Aigner, organ

Arnold Schoenberg Chorus

Kristiina Poska, conductor

Concert given in the Grand Hall of the Mozarteum, Grand Hall, Salzburg, Austria on 23/01/2020.

Image: Wolfgang Lienbacher

A concert from the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg.

Mozart From Munich20230130Ivan Repuši? conducts Lutos?awski and Mozart in the Herz-Jesu-Kirche, a modern church in Munich which boasts the largest church doors in the world.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Lutos?awski's Musique Fun耀bre was supposed to be a memorial piece on the 10th anniversary of B退la Bart k's death, but the composer delivered it three years too late. Nevertheless, his 'Musique fun耀bre', premiered in 1958 at the Warsaw Autumn, caused a sensation, making him known in the West and showing many fellow Eastern European composers an alternative to the socialist-realist, Soviet-influenced 'folk art'. The cantata 'Davide penitente' was commissioned for a concert in Vienna by the charitable Tonkünstler-Societ䀀t, and Mozart reworked his great Mass in C minor into a cantata about the penitent David.

Lutos?awski: Musique fun耀bre

Mozart: Davide penitente, K. 469, cantata

Ilse Eerens, soprano

Angela Brower, mezzo-soprano

Benjamin Hulett, tenor

Munich Radio Orchestra and Chorus

Ivan Repuši?, conductor

Lutos\u0142awski and Mozart from Munich.

Mozart In Croydon20191004The London Mozart Players celebrate their seventieth birthday with a gala concert at the newly refurbished Fairfield Halls. Newly refurbished and re-named the Phoenix Hall, the auditorium in Croydon has what many people consider one of the finest acoustics in the UK. After the three-year renovation, Britain's oldest chamber orchestra is back in its home and re-unites with four of its former conductors in this celebratory event. The concert includes a specially commissioned fanfare and the sensational brilliant soprano Elizabeth Watts joins them for arias by Mozart himself. [Programme page picture credit - The Town That Love Built]

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 in D major, 'Classical

Howard Shelley (conductor)

Mozart: Zeffiretti lusinghieri, Ilia's aria from Idomeneo, r耀 di Creta K.366

Mozart: Concert Aria, Ch'io mi scordi di te,` K.505

Elizabeth Watts (soprano), Howard Shelley (piano), Jane Glover (conductor)

Alex Woolf: 'Fairfield Fanfare' (New commission)

Hilary Davan Wetton (conductor)

approx 8.10 pm

INTERVAL: Mozart's Sinfonia concertante in a recording made in 1953 by the London Mozart Players and their founder, Harry Blech.

approx 8.20pm

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major

G退rard Korsten (conductor)

[Concert recorded on 18 September.]

The London Mozart Players at 70: a gala concert of Mozart, Beethoven and Prokofiev.

Mozart In Munich20200427Presented by Fiona Talkington

For the great nonagenarian conductor Herbert Blomstedt, conducting `is a good profession to grow old in, because it's always a challenge, and you need challenges when you get older.` And in this concert, he continues his longstanding collaboration with the magnificent Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a programme full of challenges. With Mozart, as Blomstedt says, `you have to articulate very precisely and can't rely on power and impact.`

7.30: Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E flat, K. 543

8.00: Interval: Mozart: Piano Sonata in D major, K576

Mitsuko Uchida, piano

8.20: Mozart: Mass in C minor, K. 427

Christina Landshamer, soprano

Tara Erraught, soprano

Robin Tritschler, tenor

J hann Kristinsson, baritone

Bavarian Radio Chorus

Herbert Blomstedt, conductor

(Concert given in the Gasteig, Munich on 20th December 2019.)

Brahms: Horn Trio Op 40

Sarah Willis, horn

Kotowa Machida, violin

Cordelia Hoefer, piano

Herbert Blomstedt conducts Mozart in Munich.

Mozart, Boccherini20161016Ian Skelly presents his regular Sunday evening round-up of some concerts given recently at some of continental Europe's music festivals with music by Mozart and Boccherini.

Bach: Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227

Gabrieli Consort and Players

Paul McCreesh, conductor

Boccherini: Cello Concerto No. 6 in D major, G. 479

Truls Mørk, cello

Trondheim Soloists

؀yvind Gimse, director

Mozart: Symphony No. 33 in B flat, K. 319

Britten: Hymn to St Cecilia

Paul McCreesh, conductor.

Ian Skelly presents Bach, Mozart, Britten and Boccherini from European music festivals.

Mozart, Debussy And Prokofiev20160918Ian Skelly presents European Festival performances by the Mariinsky Orchestra and Camerata Salzburg of music by Mozart and Prokofiev plus Anne Qu退ffelec plays Debussy and Hahn.

Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K546

Andrew Manze

Recorded at the Mozart Festival, Würzburg

Prokofiev: Russian Overture, Op.72

Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra

Valery Gergiev

Recorded at the Mikkeli Music Festival

Debussy: Cloches

Mozart, Mahler And Schumann From The Bath Mozartfest20181119New Generation Artists at the Bath Mozartfest. The Amatis Piano Trio are joined by the viola player Eivind Ringstad in a programme of Mahler, Mozart and Schumann.

In this concert, recorded last Friday afternoon at Bath's ornate Guildhall, these prodigiously talented young musicians explore three works for piano quartet. This oddly neglected instrumental combination inspired Mozart to pen the first masterpiece in a genre which went on to capture the imagination of the young Gustav Mahler and before him the mature Robert Schumann.

Presented by Georgia Mann.

Mahler Piano Quartet Movement in A minor

Mozart Piano Quartet in G minor K 478

Amatis Piano Trio with Eivind Ringstad (viola)

c. 8.20pm

Interval Music NGA, Ashley Riches sings Brahms's Four Serious Songs with pianist Sholto Kynoch

c. 8.35pm

Schumann Piano Quartet in E flat major Op 47

New Generation Artists at the Bath Mozartfest perform Mozart, Mahler and Schumann.

Mozart, Paganini And Beethoven20160501Ian Skelly introduces performances recorded in concert halls around Europe. Tonight we have Mozart from Lugano, Beethoven from Gentofte and Ilya Gringolts playing Paganini's First Violin concerto in Helsinki.

Overture to 'The Marriage of Figaro

Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana

Markus Poschner (conductor)

recorded at the LAC Arts Centre on the shores of Lake Lugano

Violin Concerto No. 1 in E flat (original version)

Ilya Gringolts (violin)

Finnish Baroque Orchestra

recorded at Musiikkitalo (Helsinki Music Centre)

String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59 No. 2 (Razumovsky)

Cuarteto Casals

recorded at Helleruplund Church, Gentofte, Denmark.

Ian Skelly presents performances of music by Mozart, Beethoven and Paganini.

Mozart, Rameau And Haydn From The Norfolk And Norwich Festival20230606New Generation Artists at the 2023 Norfolk and Norwich Festival.

Some of the most exciting young musical talent on the world stage make their eagerly-awaited appearances in the pitch-perfect acoustics of Norwich's historic Octagon Chapel. On the bill in this selection of recordings made at the series of Radio 3 New Generation Artists' concerts, the violinist Geneva Lewis pairs a sonata by Mozart with one from her compatriot, the New Zealander, Douglas Lilburn and the young Scottish accordion sensation, Ryan Corbett, plays Rameau. Also in the first half, the Leonkoro Quartet - who over the last year or two have won just about every string quartet prize going - play Haydn's charming 'Bird' Quartet; its opening promises to sound especially magical in the glorious acoustic of the Octagon chapel, built around the time that Haydn wrote the work. And after Haydn, the lights are dimmed for the sell-out concert from the star jazz keyboardist Fergus McCreadie and his Trio as they play tracks from their album Forest Floor. Shortlisted for a Mercury Prize it instantly topped the UK Jazz & Blues charts.

Presented by Hannah French

Mozart: Sonata in C Major, K303

Douglas Lilburn: Violin Sonata [1950]

Geneva Lewis (violin), Evren Ozel (piano)

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Les Cyclopes and Les Sauvages from Pi耀ces de clavecin

Shostakovich: Prelude and Fugue no. 24, Op.87

Mikhail Bronner: ‘Insomnia' Four poems by Marina Tsvetaeva

Ryan Corbett (accordion)

Haydn: String Quartet in C major 'The Bird', Op 33 No 3

c. 8.55pm

The Fergus McCreadie Trio play tracks from Forest Floor

New Generation Artists play Mozart, Rameau and Haydn at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival.

Mozart, Schubert, Haydn And Beethoven20160221Ian Skelly introduces quartets by Mozart and Beethoven from a concert given by Cuarteto Casals at the 2015 Augsburg Mozart Festival, and performances of Schubert and Haydn from the 54th Cuenca Sacred Music Week.

Mozart: String Quartet in C major, K465 'Dissonance

Schubert: Allegretto in C minor, D915

Javier Peranes (piano)

Haydn: Violin Concerto in G major, Hob.VIIa:4

Fabio Biondi (violin/director)

Stavanger Symphony Orchestra

Beethoven: String Quartet in E flat major, Op. 74 'Harp

Cuarteto Casals.

Cuarteto Casals performs Mozart and Beethoven. Plus Haydn and Schubert from Cuenca.

Mozart, Shostakovich And Debussy20161009Ian Skelly presents his regular Sunday evening round-up of some concerts given recently at some of continental Europe's music festivals including a short work for string quartet in honour of Shakespeare and choral music spanning five centuries.

Josquin Desprez: Kyrie from Missa Pange Lingua

Ars Nova Copenhagen, Paul Hillier (conductor)

Debussy: Violin Sonata in G minor

Tobias Feldmann (violin), Anne Qu退ffelec (piano)

Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E flat, K543

Basel Chamber Orchestra, Giovanni Antonini (conductor)

Lubica Cekovskက: A Midsummer Quartet

Pavel Haas Quartet

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110

rec. Concentus Moraviae Festival - Castle, Zdar nad Sazavou

St Thomas Aquinas: 3 verses from Pange Lingua

Anon/Johannes Louront: 3 verses from Trent Codices

Arvo P䀀rt: Drei Hirtenkinder aus Fatima

Ars Nova Copenhagen, Paul Hillier (conductor).

Mozart, Lubica Cekovska, Shostakovich, Debussy and Part from continental music festivals.

Mozart, Webern And Brahms, Harrogate Festival20170710BBC New Generation Artists at the 2017 Harrogate Music Festival. Celebrating its 51st season this year with a theme of 'Generations: music passing from one generation to the next', this concert brings together the brilliant Belgian clarintettist Annelien Van Wauwe and the French Van Kuijk Quartet. The programme, which was recorded last night at the magnificent Royal Hall, begins with one of Mozart's most popular quartets and ends with Brahms's autumnal masterpiece for clarinet and string quartet.

Presented by Tom Redmond

Mozart: String Quartet No.19 in C major, K.465 (Dissonance)

Webern: Langsamer Satz

c.8.10pm

Interval Music: NGA Beatrice Rana plays Bach's Partita No. 2 in C minor, BWV 826 in a BBC studio recording she made last year.

c. 8.30pm

Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op.115

Annelien Van Wauwe (clarinet)

recorded last night at the Royal Hall, Harrogate.

Radio 3 New Generation Artists at the 2017 Harrogate Music Festival: Mozart and Brahms.

Mozart, Webern, Schubert20160612Ian Skelly presents highlights of concerts from around Europe.

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466

Andrကs Schiff, piano,

Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Mozart: Piano Sonata in D, K. 576

Webern: Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Daniel Blendulf, conductor

Schubert: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D. 417 ('Tragic')

Daniel Blendulf, conductor.

Ian Skelly presents highlights of concerts from around Europe: Mozart, Webern and Schubert

Mozart's Coronation Mass From The Berlin Philharmonie20230508The Berlin Philharmonic are joined by the celebrated Orfe  Catal
Mozart's Final Flourish20200212Ivကn Fischer, one of today's most exciting conductors, joins forces with the period-instrument Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Mozart's last three symphonies.

In summer 1788, broke and out of favour with the notoriously fickle Viennese public, Mozart was at a low ebb. Yet in just nine weeks (which included the death of his daughter) he was able to produce a trio of brilliant and brilliantly contrasting symphonies, from the genial and playful No. 39, through the drama and tragedy of No. 40, to the exuberant tour de force of the 'Jupiter's' finale where Mozart seems joyfully to revel in his own genius.

Recorded last week at the Royal Festival Hall and presented by Ian Skelly.

Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E flat major, K543

Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K550

Interval

Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major, K551 'Jupiter

Ivကn Fischer (conductor)

Photo (c) Marco Borggreve

Iv\u00e1n Fischer conducts the OAE in Mozart's last three symphonies at the Royal Festival Hall

Mozart's Great Mass From Berlin20230522Philippe Herreweghe conducts two Mozart masterpieces in Berlin.

The great Flemish period-instrument specialist brings his Collegium Vocale Ghent to the Berlin Philharmonie to perform Mozart's 'Great' Mass in C minor. The brilliant soprano Katharina Konradi gets to sing the sublime 'Et incarnatus est,' written for Mozart's wife Constanze and the choir shows off Mozart's new-found interest in the music of JS Bach in the fugues and other contrapuntal devices of the double choruses. Before this, the Berlin Symphony Radio Orchestra plays Mozart's stupendous final symphony, with its exhilarating fugal finale.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C, K. 551 ('Jupiter')

Mozart Mass in C minor K 427 ('Great')

Katharina Konradi (soprano)

Eva Zacik (soprano)

Ilker Arcayürek (tenor)

Mikhail Timoshenko (bass)

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra

Philippe Herreweghe, conductor

rec. Berlin Philhamonie on 12 March 2023

Philippe Herreweghe conducts Mozart's 'Jupiter' Symphony and 'Great' Mass in C minor.

Mozart's Requiem From Gateshead20231130Celebrating fifty years of the Chorus of the Royal Northern Sinfonia, a performance of Mozart's Requiem, preceded by five pieces written in the past five years. Kerensa Briggs's 'A blue and tender flower' was commissioned especially for this concert, which was recorded last month at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead. Linton Stephens presents.

Joanna Ward: I Cannot Get To My Love

Roderick Williams: Ave verum corpus Reimagined

Oliver Tarney: The Spirit of the Lord

Kerensa Briggs: A blue and tender flower (world premiere)

Jonathan Dove: Sappho Sings

Mozart: Requiem

Mhairi Lawson (soprano)

Sophie Harmsen (mezzo-soprano)

Robert Murray (tenor)

Neal Davies (baritone)

Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia

Tim Burke (chorus director)

Alison Gill (chorus accompanist)

Stephen Layton (conductor)

Celebrating fifty years of the Chorus of the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Stephen Layton conducts the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Chorus in Mozart's Requiem alongside a world premiere composed by Kerensa Briggs and other choral works.

Music Fit For A Medici20190627Aristocratic music lovers didn't come much more enthusiastic than Ferdinando de' Medici. But as well as the considerable resources at the disposal of a Grand Prince of Tuscany (including an opera theatre in his country pile outside Florence), Ferdinando was himself an accomplished and discerning musician who attracted the finest contemporary musicians to dedicate some of their most important works to him. Tonight's concert, given by one of the UK's leading period instrument groups, features groundbreaking instrumental music by giants of the Italian baroque including Corelli and Vivaldi, and the overture to Handel's Rodrigo, premiered in Florence in 1707.

Recorded earlier this month at Wigmore Hall and introduced by Georgia Mann.

Handel: Overture from Rodrigo, HWV5

Giovanni Legrenzi: La cetra Op. 10: Sonata for four violins

Corelli: Concerto grosso in D, Op. 6, No. 4

Vivaldi: Concerto for two violins and cello in D minor, Op. 3, No. 11 ('L'estro armonico')

8.20pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Music from the 1589 wedding celebrations of Ferdinando I de' Medici and Christina of Lorraine

Giovanni Battista Buonamente: Ballo del Granduca, a 7

Cristofano Malvezzi-Ottavio Rinuccini: Dolcissime sirene, a 6; A voi, reali amanti, a 15; Coppia gentil, a 6

Emilio de' Cavalieri-Laura Lucchesini: O che nuovo miracolo, a 5/a 3

Pygmalion

Rapha뀀l Pichon (director)

8.40pm

Alessandro Scarlatti: Introduction from Cain, overo Il primo omicidio

Benedetto Vinaccesi: Sonata IV

Marcello: Oboe Concerto in D minor

Vivaldi: Concerto for four violins and cello in B minor Op. 3, No. 10 ('L'estro armonico')

Katharina Spreckelsen (oboe)

Nadja Zwiener, Alice Evans, Jacek Kurzyd?o and Kinga Ujszကzsi (violins)

The English Concert

Harry Bicket (director/harpsichord)

The English Concert play music written for Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany.

Music For A New Life20211101Fiona Talkington presents a highlight from this year's European orchestra season, in which the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Adam Plachetka in music by Janacek and Zemlinsky.

Also on the programme is `Genesis - creation`, the new Violin Concerto which Toshio Hosokawa wrote for violinist Veronika Eberle.

`Veronika Eberle gave birth to a baby last November`, says the composer. `I composed the piece as a present for

her and her baby. In the concerto, the soloist represents a human being, while the orchestra is imagined as nature and the universe surrounding him.`

Janacek: Suite from 'The Cunning Little Vixen

Toshio Hosokawa: Violin Concerto

Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony

Johanna Winkel, soprano

Veronika Eberle, violin

Adam Plachetka, conductor

Recorded at the Dvorak Hall, Rudolfinum, Prague, on 14/06/2021

Image Credit: Ilona Sochorova

Adam Plachetka conducts the Prague Radio Symphony orchestra playing Janacek and Zemlinsky.

Music For Good Friday20210402Presented by Martin Handley, live from Watford Colosseum. The BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra are joined by conductor Daniel Hyde, Director of Music at King's College Cambridge. There's choral music by Dobrinka Tabakova, Composer in Residence with the BBC CO, and Roderick Williams; and the orchestra play music by influential American composer Judith Lang Zaimont and Joseph Haydn. The climax of the concert is a recent orchestration of Vaughan Wiilliams's Dona nobis pacem, which uses texts from the Mass, the Bible and poems by Walt Whitman.

Judith Lang Zaimont Elegy for Strings

Dobrinka Tabakova Alma Redemptoris Mater

Roderick Williams O Saviour of the World

Haydn Symphony No.70 - 2nd mvt Andante

Vaughan Williams, orch Jonathan Rathbone Dona nobis pacem

Rebecca Lea (soprano)

Jamie W Hall (baritone)

The BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Singers join forces live from Watford Colosseum.

Music For Royal Occasions: Choral Music, By Handel20200526Three of Handel's Coronation Anthems and his Dixit Dominus give the BBC Singers and St James' Baroque the chance to shine in much-loved music.

Handel, newly naturalised a British citizen by George I, was asked to write the coronation anthems for his successor, George II and his queen, Caroline. He gave us four magnificent choral works, three of which we hear in this concert, and one of which, Zadok the Priest, has been heard at every British coronation since 1727. Stephen Farr joins St James' Baroque for Handel's delightful 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale' organ concerto before the concert closes with Handel's thrilling Dixit Dominus, a work from his early years in Italy. Sofi Jeannin returns to London and the BBC Singers for this stirring celebration of Handel.

Presented by Sarah Walker in May 2018 from Milton Court in London's Barbican Centre.

Coronation Anthem 'Zadok the priest

Organ Concerto in F major, 'The cuckoo and the nightingale

Coronation Anthem 'My heart is inditing

Coronation Anthem 'The king shall rejoice

Dixit Dominus, HWV 232

Stephen Farr - organ

Sofi Jeannin - conductor.

From 2018, BBC Singers Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin conducts choral music by Handel.

Music For The Soul: Vaughan Williams And Tippett20190320Live from the Lighthouse, Poole

Presented by Martin Handley

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with a concert entitled `Music for the Soul`: Vaughan Williams and Tippett.

Tallis: How shall I sing that majesty (Third mode melody)

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

8.15: Interval

Tippett: A Child of Our Time

Lauren Fagan, soprano

Madeleine Shaw, Mezzo soprano

Samuel Sakker, tenor

Simon Shibambu, bass

Bournemouth Symphony Chorus

David Hill , conductor

The oratorio A Child of Our Time was Tippett's artistic and emotional response to the events that led to the ‘Kristallnacht' pogrom of November 1938. Tippett used as his formal and historical models the Bach Passions and Handel's Messiah which share with this contemporary morality the subject of the death of an individual set against the universal background of human suffering. His use of the spiritual as a contemporary equivalent for the Lutheran chorale of the Bach settings draws the listener more closely into the drama through the spirituals' unique verbal and musical metaphor.

The Tallis melody that is the basis for Vaughan Williams' Fantasia is one of nine he contributed to the Psalter of 1567 for the first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. It is heard in its complete form three times and serves as the source for a wonderful miasma of variants and developments in this rich orchestral composition written for a large string orchestra divided into three parts. Although it is not specifically religious music, it seems to speak to the spirit.

Music From Brussels20190616Music from a festival in Brussels. Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Each year one national broadcaster in Belgium runs their own music festival, and tonight we have two works from this year's Klarafestival.

From a concert titled 'Looking for Salvation with the Devil as your guide', rising star in the world of conductors David Afkham leads the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in a Mozart concerto that presages the 19th-century obsessions with virtuosity (the devil's work) and which Mozart himself said would make the soloist sweat. Pierre-Laurent Aimard rises to the challenge in this performance.

The prize-winning Belgian Tana Quartet usually focus on contemporary works, but in the Klaradfestival this year, over a number of concerts, they outlined the progression of the string quartet from the days of Haydn and Mozart. As Goethe remarked about the 'new' spectacle of quartet playing: It is like a conversation between four intelligent people. Sometimes together, sometimes one after another, the art of debate supported with argument.

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat, K. 450

Debussy: String Quartet in G

Music by Mozart and Debussy from the 2019 Klarafestival in Brussels.

Music From Finland, By Sibelius And Rautavaara20231101From Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

In a programme which explores time, space and legend, the BBC Philharmonic's Finnish Chief Conductor, John Storgards, opens with a visceral portrayal of heroic deeds in Sibelius's tone poem 'Pohjola's Daughter'; music of dark gloom, warm light and an unobtainable heroine seated on a rainbow, weaving golden cloth. Unapproachable too are the angels in Rautavaara's Seventh Symphony, one of a series of pieces taking poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke as inspiration; 'Every angel is terrifying ... its .. stronger presence would kill you if it held you tight.' This is expansive, free-flowing and expressive music which invites us into a world all of its own, and the first piece to bring Rautavaara fame.

Violinist Tobias Feldmann joins the BBC Philharmonic for Sofia Gubaidulina's Concerto 'In tempus praesens' - for the present time. The Concerto explores her philosophical and religious beliefs; 'Only in sleep, in the religious experience and in art, are we able to experience lasting present time' she says.

Sibelius: Pohjola's Daughter

Sofia Gubaidulina: In tempus praesens, for violin and orchestra

Rautavaara: Symphony No.7 (Angel of Light)

Tobias Feldmann (violin)

John Storgards (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and John Storgards from Manchester's Bridgewater Hall

The BBC Philharmonic and John Storgards in music by Rautavaara and Sibelius. They are joined by violinist Tobias Feldmann for Sofia Gubaidulina's concerto, 'In Tempus Praesens'.

Music In The Blitz: The Nash Ensemble20220315The Nash Ensemble recreates two of Dame Myra Hess's legendary National Gallery concerts.

Wigmore Hall's Chamber Ensemble in Residence, recreate two concerts from the famous series of 'Admission one Shilling,' lunchtime recitals that were given at the National Gallery during the Second World War. Under the visionary leadership of Dame Myra Hess, these concerts were given five days a week to enthusiastic audiences throughout the war.

Beethoven: Piano Trio in E flat Op. 70 No. 2

George Dyson: A poet's hymn

Arnold Bax: The white peace

Henry Balfour Gardiner: Winter

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: A song cycle, Sons of the sea

Frederick Keel: Trade Winds from 'Three Salt Water Ballads

Peter Warlock: Captain Stratton's Fancy

John Ireland: Phantasie-Trio in A minor

c. 8.30pm INTERVAL: BBC Archive footage of Dame Myra Hess talking about the National Gallery concerts in which some 824,152 people attended 1968 concerts, with all artists paid the same fee of 5 guineas.

c. 8.50pm Mozart: Serenade in B flat K361 'Gran Partita

Alasdair Beatson (piano)

Benjamin Nabarro (violin)

Adrian Brendel (cello)

Marcus Farnsworth (baritone)

Picture: Dame Myra Hess at the National Gallery.

Myra Hess's legendary National Gallery concerts during WWII recreated for 2022.

Music Inextinguishable20220510The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste in Prokofiev's dazzling Piano Concerto No.2 with soloist Denis Kozhukhin, Daniel Kidane's Be Still and Nielsen's Fourth Symphony.

Sergey Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.2, a student piece written just before he graduated from the St Petersburg Conservatory, already spectacularly demonstrates his ability to conjure fantastical moods and his astonishing piano technique. For the soloist, it is arguably the most technically demanding of his five piano concertos, whose original score was lost in the 1917-21 Civil War and had to be reconstructed by the composer in 1923.

In neutral Denmark, Carl Nielsen, looked on in horror as the First World War tore Europe apart. The composer's Symphony No. 4 erupts in violence, forcing two sets of drums to tear into one another from either side of a fissile orchestra. Before all that, though, we enter an oasis of calm courtesy of composer Daniel Kidane, whose Be Still is a reflection on a common experience of spring 2020 in which time itself appeared to stand still.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London on 6th May

Presented by Ian Skelly

Daniel Kidane: Be Still

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor Op.16

8.20 Interval [From CD]

Germaine Tailleferre: String Quartet (1917)

Stenhammar Quartet

Serenade, FS 300 (Sung in English)

Morten Broup's May Song), FS 305 (Sung in English)

Ars Nova Copenhagen

Michael Bojesen (conductor)

8.50

Carl Nielsen: Symphony No 4 'Inextinguishable

Denis Kozhukhin (piano)

Jukka-Pekka Saraste (conductor)

Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Prokofiev, Kidane and Nielsen.

Music Inspired, By Birds20160619In keeping with the theme of the day, music inspired by birds from concerts around Europe

Stravinsky: The Song of the nightingale

Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Alain Altinoglu, conductor

Rimsky-Korsakov: Fantasy on Themes from 'The Golden Cockerel

Anne-Liisa Bezrodny, violin

Vikingur Ӏlafsson, piano.

A selection of music inspired by birds, by Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Music Of Love And Anxiety20190327Vasily Petrenko conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Tchaikovsky, Khachaturian and Walton.

Live from the? Royal Festival Hall, London.

Prsented by Martin Handley

Khachaturian: Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1

8.15: Interval

Walton: Symphony No. 1

George Li, piano

Vasily Petrenko, conductor

William Walton was the original angry young composer, and his First Symphony is a cry of rage from an age of anxiety, a controlled explosion of anger, ardour and shattering power. There's no possible way to follow it, so guest conductor Vasily Petrenko looks back to his childhood in the USSR, and starts the concert with the no-holds-barred romance of Khachaturian's famous Adagio. And pianist George Li, a medallist in the 2015 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow, joins them in Tchaikovsky's hugely popular First Piano Concerto.

George Li plays Tchaikovsky's piano concerto with the LPO live at the Royal Festival Hall.

Musical Fairy Tales20230307Clemens Schuldt conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky, Borisova-Ollas's A Portrait of a Lady by Swan Lake, with violinist Tessa Lark, and Zemlinsky's The Mermaid.

Fairy tales both light and hauntingly dark. A misty lake, a doomed love, a swan princess - Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is one of those stories that lingers in the imagination. Guest conductor Clemens Schuldt follows it with two more fairy tales: Zemlinsky's sumptuous re-telling of The Little Mermaid, and the UK premiere of a reinterpretation of Swan Lake by Victoria Borisova-Ollas.

Swan Lake, says Borisova-Ollas, is `a story that has it all`. The central role in her new concerto is taken by Tessa Lark; come and surrender to its spell. And then dive into the lush, passionately romantic world of Alexander von Zemlinsky: if you love Mahler or Richard Strauss, he'll sweep you off your feet.

Recorded at the Barbican on Friday 3rd March

Presented by Hannah French

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake Suite (selected by Macelaru)

Victoria Borisova-Ollas: A Portrait of a Lady by Swan Lake (BBC co-commission - UK premiere)

20.10

Interval - Violinist Tessa Lark on her Stradgrass recordings

Lark: Cheese in the Wine:

Tessa Lark (violin)

Edgar Meyer: Concert Duo for Violin and Bass - Movt 1:

Tessa Lark (violin) Edgar Meyer (bass)

Cleveland: Lazy Katie:

Tessa (violin), Michael Cleveland (violin)

Stephen Foster: Meditation (On My Old Kentucky Home) (arr. Tessa Lark & Jon Batiste):

Tessa Lark (violin), Jon Batiste (piano)

20.30

Alexander von Zemlinsky: Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid)

Clemens Schuldt (conductor)

Clemens Schuldt conducts the BBC SO in music by Tchaikovsky, Borisova-Ollas and Zemlinsky.

Myths, Legends And Nordic Landscapes20191014For the opening night of The Oxford Lieder Festival, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Jac van Steen join soprano Camilla Tilling and bass-baritone Neal Davies for an evening exploring songs of myths and legends. The first half is devoted entirely to Franz Schubert, who was fascinated with classical mythology; his incidental music to the play about Greek legend Princess Rosamunde leads into six of his songs, all orchestrated by other great composers - Brahms, Reger and Berlioz. Two songs by Hugo Wolf are followed by Sibelius's wonderfully evocative tone poem Luonnotar, a depiction of the creation of the world from Finnish folklore, with words from the epic poetry of the Kalevala and sung here by Camilla Tilling. Finally, both Neal and Camilla sing three songs from Grieg's music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, which was based on a fairy tale about a lonely Norwegian hunter, interspersed with the first suite that Grieg created from the original.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, recorded at Oxford Town Hall last Friday.

Schubert: Rosamunde, D.644 (Overture; Der Vollmond strahlt)

Schubert, arr. Brahms: An schwager Kronos

Schubert, arr. Reger: Prometheus

Schubert, arr. Reger: Du bist die Ruh, D 776 No 3

Schubert, arr. Brahms: Gruppe aus dem Tartarus

Schubert, arr. Brahms: Memnon D 541

Schubert, arr. Berlioz: Der Erlk怀nig

Interval

Wolf, arr. Kahler: Goethe Lieder (Gebet; Anakreons Grab)

Sibelius: Luonnotar, Op 70

Grieg: Peer Gynt (Suite No 1; Solveig's Song; Peer Gynts Serenade; Solveig's Cradle Song)

Camilla Tilling (soprano)

Neal Davies (bass-baritone)

Jac van Steen (conductor)

Camilla Tilling and Neal Davies sing with BBC NOW at The Oxford Lieder Festival.

Nadia And Lili Boulanger20190427A programme pairing the startlingly beautiful and harmonically daring choral works of Lili Boulanger with music by her sister Nadia.

This BBC Singers concert offers a rare opportunity to compare the musical voices of two sisters - one a Prix de Rome-winning composer, the other best known today as a pedagogue, teacher to Philip Glass, Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter, among others.

Lili's expansive gestures and bold harmonic palette - all the more striking when you consider that they are the product of a composer still in her 20s - are showcased in the blazing Hymn au soleil and the delicate sensuality of Les Sirenes, while Nadia's more contained musical language is at its best in miniature Maeterlinck-setting Cantique and immaculate song-cycle Les heures claires.

Lili Boulanger: Les sir耀nes

Lili Boulanger: Sous-bois

Nadia Boulanger: Cantique

Lili Boulanger: Hymne au soleil

Nadia Boulanger: Les heures claires

Lili Boulanger: La Source

Nadia Boulanger: Allons voir sur le lac d'argent

Anna Tilbrook - piano

Katie Thomas - conductor

Members of the BBC Singers perform choral and solo works by Nadia and Lili Boulanger.

Naive And Sentimental Music20190520The BBC Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Joana Carneiro in John Adams' epic masterpiece. The BBC Symphony Chorus & singer Nora Fischer join for Osvaldo Golijov's cantata Oceana.

Recorded at the Barbican on 11th May

Presented by Martin Handley

Augusta Read Thomas: Radiant Circles UK premiere

Osvaldo Golijov: Oceana UK premiere

20.15

Interval Music:

Samuel Barber: Piano Sonata Op.26

Marc-Andre Hamelin (piano)

Part 2

John Adams: Nave and Sentimental Music

Nora Fischer (vocals)

Finchley Children's Music Group

Joana Carneiro (conductor)

Joana Carneiro, Principal Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfonica Portuguesa, makes her debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a programme of 21st-century works that take inspiration from classical greats. At its heart is John Adams's Bruckner and Busoni-inspired Nave and Sentimental Music. A symphony by any other name, this large-scale work delights in the slow-build and shift of patterns and pulses - Minimalism at its most maximal. Bach and the sounds of Latin America are the influences behind Golijov's choral cantata Oceana, which marks the BBCSO debut of genre-bending chanteuse Nora Fischer and features the BBC Symphony Chorus in this UK premiere . And the evening sets off with another UK premiere - American composer Augusta Read Thomas's Radiant Circles, which starts with a star-like flicker and finishes with a flourishing fanfare.

Joana Carneiro conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in John Adams's epic masterpiece.

Nash Ensemble And Stephanie D'oustrac20180117Nash Ensemble and mezzo-soprano St退phanie d'Oustrac in an all-French programme from Wigmore Hall. The programme includes songs by Duparc and an arrangement of Debussy's elusive Mallarm退 cycle, viola music by Vierne and Debussy, and ends with two glorious works by Ravel.

Debussy: Pr退lude

Nash Ensemble At Wigmore Hall20181127The Nash Ensemble is joined by mezzo Christine Rice for a programme including Wagner's famous late-1850s settings of passionately smouldering poems by Mathilde Wesendonck. The wife of the composer's patron, Mathilde inflamed Wagner's desire but nonetheless seems to have kept him at arms' length. And from almost the same time, they play Brahms's big-boned and expressive G minor Piano Quartet with its wild gypsy rondo finale. But they begin with a delightful rarity: Schumann's Andante and Variations for the unusual forces of horn and a pair each of pianos and cellos.

Recorded lat week at Wigmore Hall and presented by Sarah Walker.

Schumann: Andante and Variations for 2 pianos, 2 cellos and horn, WoO. 10

Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder

8.20pm

Interval music (from CD)

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Claudio Abbado (conductor)

8.40pm

Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25

Christine Rice (mezzo-soprano)

Nash Ensemble:

Ian Brown (piano)

Alasdair Beatson (piano)

Richard Watkins (horn)

Benjamin Nabarro (violin)

Timothy Ridout (viola)

Adrian Brendel (cello)

Bjørg Lewis (cello)

Image copyright K. Leighton

Schumann, Wagner and Brahms performed by mezzo Christine Rice and the Nash Ensemble

Nash Ensemble At Wigmore Hall: 'nash Inventions'20170920Wigmore Hall's Chamber Ensemble in residence, the Nash Ensemble, premiere Alexander Goehr's latest chamber work, scored for an intriguingly mixed quintet, alongside Sir Harrison Birtwistle's single-movement Trio, and the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's String Quintet, first performed as part of the Ensemble's 50th anniversary celebrations. The programme is crowned by John Casken's folk-inspired Quintet.

Live from Wigmore Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Stravinsky: Concertino for String Quartet

John Casken: Misted Land for clarinet and string quartet (first performance)

Alexander Goehr: The Waking (for two baritones)

Alexander Goehr: after 'The Waking' for clarinet, bassoon, horn, violin and double bass (first performance)

Interval

Part 2

Harrison Birtwistle: Piano Trio

Peter Maxwell Davies: String Quintet

Simon Wallfisch and Peter Tregear (baritones)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor).

The Nash Ensemble feature live from Wigmore Hall in London.

Nash Ensemble, Boccherini, Wolf, Mendelssohn, Mozart20160118Recorded at Wigmore Hall, London

Presented by Ian Skelly

The Nash Ensemble with Roderick Williams, baritone, perform Boccherini, Mendelssohn and Mozart.

Boccherini: String Quintet in C major Op. 28 No. 4

Wolf: Italian Serenade in G major for string quartet

Mendelssohn: Im Frühling, Op. 9 No. 4, Im Herbst, Op. 9 No. 5, Neue Liebe, Op. 19a No. 4, Bei der Wiege, Op. 47 No. 6, Nachtlied, Op. 71 No. 6, Frühlingslied, Op. 71, No. 2

8.15: Interval

Interval music (from CD)

Debussy: Sonate en trio (for flute, viola and harp)

Nash Ensemble: Philippa Davies (flute), Roger Chase (viola), Marisa Robles (harp)

Mozart: String Quintet in G minor K516

Ian Brown (piano)

Stephanie Gonley & Laura Samuel (violins)

Lawrence Power & Scott Dickinson (violas)

Adrian Brendel & Alice Neary(cellos)

One of the graceful quintets with two cellos by the Italian-born, Spanish-based Luigi Boccherini opens this programme; the most dramatic and intense of Mozart's quintets with two violas closes it. In between come a quartet movement by Hugo Wolf drenched in Italian sunshine, and a group of Mendelssohn songs sung by baritone Roderick Williams.

The Nash Ensemble with Roderick Williams perform Mozart, Mendelssohn, Boccherini and Wolf.

Nash Ensemble, Mahler, Schoenberg, Schubert20161027Ian Skelly introduces a concert given by the Nash Ensemble at Wigmore Hall, London, in music by Mahler, Schoenberg and Schubert.

Mahler: Piano Quartet Movement in A minor

Schoenberg: Verkl䀀rte Nacht, Op. 4

8.15 Interval

8.35 Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major, D667, 'Trout

The Nash Ensemble play a programme of music by composers closely associated with the city of Vienna. The concert opens with Mahler's only chamber work, his Piano Quartet Movement, followed by Schoenberg's emotionally charged 'Transfigured Night'. The second half of the concert features one work: Schubert's ever-popular 'Trout' quintet, a work full of sunny and exuberant charm.

The Nash Ensemble plays music by Mahler, Schoenberg and Schubert at Wigmore Hall, London.

Nash Ensemble, Mozart, Ravel, Schubert20160401The Nash Ensemble play Mozart, Ravel and Schubert in a concert recorded earlier this week at the Town Hall, Reading.

Mozart: Piano Trio in C, K548

Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor

8.15: Interval

8.35

Schubert: Piano Trio in B flat Major D.898

The Nash Ensemble:

Ian Brown, piano

Benjamin Nabarro, violin

Adrian Brendel, cello

The Nash Ensemble has built up a remarkable reputation as one of Britain's finest chamber groups. It has premiered around 300 new works, and has won two Royal Philharmonic Society awards in the chamber music category 'for the breadth of its taste and its immaculate performance of a wide range of music'. In tonight's concert from Reading, they feature three of the greatest works in the Piano Trio repertory.

The Nash Ensemble performs Mozart, Ravel and Schubert at the Town Hall in Reading.

National Orchestra Of France20210531Recorded last September, conductor Juraj Val?uha began the opening concert of Radio France's Orchestre National de France season with a sumptuous selection of Strauss songs sung by internationally renowned Swedish soprano Miah Persson, and finished it with Schumann's Symphony No. 2. This life-affirming, positive work, including a wonderful slow movement and exultant finale, marked a temporary return to health for Schumann after a major mental breakdown.

Introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Richard Strauss:

St䀀ndchen, Op. 17, No. 2

Freundliche Vision, Op. 48, No. 1

Ich wollt' ein Str䀀u߀lein binden, Op. 68, No. 2

Waldseligkeit, Op. 49 No. 1

Zueignung, Op. 10, No. 1

Morgen, Op. 27, No. 4

Miah Persson (soprano)

Juraj Val?uha (conductor)

7.50pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Josef Labor: Cello Sonata in A Major, Op. 7

Floris Mijnders (cello)

Oliver Triendl (piano)

8.10pm

Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 2 in C, Op. 61

The National Orchestra of France perform Richard Strauss and Robert Schumann.

National Youth Orchestra Of Great Britain20220222Every concert the extraordinary teenagers of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain are giving this year is embracing the theme of ‘Open Up' - the idea being to open up new perspectives, form new relationships, and disperse preconceptions about music and musicians. Tonight's theme of ‘Open Up and Let Loose,' in celebrating the power of orchestral music played by teenagers, is a call to action, championing what music education can bring into a young person's life - and the potential it can unlock.

Sian Edwards conducts a programme that ends with Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances. Before it come two much newer pieces, Dani Howard's Coalescence - which explores how the human race has attempted to ‘outsmart' nature over the centuries, and Karim Al-Zand's City Scenes, which captures the beauty and chaos of life in a city.

Presented by Martin Handley and members of the orchestra.

Ravel: La Valse

Karim Al-Zand: City Scenes (Three Urban Dances): No.2

(conducted by Lee Reynolds)

Dani Howard: Coalescence

During the interval musicians from the orchestra discuss their work.

Musgrave: Boreas

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances

Meredith Monk: Panda Chant II

Sian Edwards Conductor

(Concert recorded at the Barbican Hall, London, on January 3rd.)

Open Up and Let Loose' - the National Youth Orchestra's New Year concert.

National Youth Orchestra Of Great Britain20230425'NYO Ignite'

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain ignites a musical fire in its Spring concert, recorded at Saffron Hall, Essex.

After pieces featuring the various sections of the orchestra, the whole band gathers together for Stravinsky's Firebird. This music tells the story of the phoenix rising from the ashes. NYO's teenage superstars bring their inimitable energy to this enormous score, as they do to everything they play.

Presented by Linton Stephens

Jessie Montgomery: Source Code (string orchestra)

Judith Weir: Fresh Air (wind ensemble)

Various composers: Embers (Associates of the NYOGB)

Simon Dobson: Incandenza (brass ensemble)

Andy Akiho: Karakurenai (percussion ensemble)

Stravinsky: The Firebird

Andrew Gourlay, conductor

NYOGB present a concert called Ignite, featuring Stravinsky's Firebird.

National Youth Orchestra Of Great Britain Play Bernstein And John Williams20180410Just another night at the Royal Festival Hall? No! The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain promises to deliver 'a totally electrifying live musical experience'. But as you might already know, the world's greatest orchestra of teenagers routinely provides those, in any case. Recorded on Sunday, Georgia Mann presents what will undoubtedly be a very lively occasion, centred on the music from Leonard Bernstein's seven-decades-old but forever-young West Side Story.

Mason Bates: Mothership

James Newton Howard: Suite from The Hunger Games

Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

John Williams: Star Wars Suite

Kwam退 Ryan (conductor).

National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain play music by Bernstein and John Williams.

National Youth Orchestra Of Great Britain, Dean, Szymanowski, Rachmaninov20170106Live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, conducted by John Wilson, plays Rachmaninov's Second Symphony.

Brett Dean: Komarvo's Fall

Szymanowski: Symphony No 4 (Sinfonia Concertante)

8.15: Interval

8.35: Rachmaninov: Symphony No 2

Tamara Stefanovich, piano

John Wilson, conductor

The NYO's Winter journey begins in the chilly isolation of outer space, lands in the middle of a lively Polish party and ends in the radiant warmth of a show-stopping Russian symphony.

Brett Dean's Komarov's Fall begins with sparse, icy strings and woodwind glistening in the silence of space. As the tragic drama unfolds, jagged percussion and urgent brass take over the story of the Russian cosmonaut who became a hapless victim of the ruthless 1960s space race.

The finale of the evening is Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2, the ultimate Russian Romantic symphony. With big, bold melodies and lush, glowing harmonies, this music will blaze in a performance of irresistible sparkle and flamboyance by this orchestra of young musicians.

National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in Brett Dean, Szymanowski and Rachmaninov.

National Youth Orchestra Of Great Britain, Shostakovich And Revueltas20170411The National Youth Orchestra performs Shostakovich and Revueltas, with winner of BBC Young Musician of the year 2016 Sheku Kanneh-Mason.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London, on 9th April.

Presented by Martin Handley

Revueltas: Night of the Mayas

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No 1

8.15: Interval

8.35

Shostakovich: Symphony No 5

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello

National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain

Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor.

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain performs music by Shostakovich and Revueltas

National Youth Orchestra Of Great Britain, Stravinsky, Michael Daugherty20160411Photograph: (c) Jason Alden

From the Royal Festival Hall

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain plays Stravinsky's Firebird

Stravinsky: Fireworks (Feu d'artifice)

Michael Daugherty: Fire and Blood for violin & orchestra

8.00: Interval: BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the first of the finalists in this year's woodwind category.

Flautist Lucy Driver plays music by Godard and Dutilleux.

Stravinsky: The Firebird, complete ballet (1910)

Chad Hoopes, violin

Kristjan J䀀rvi, conductor

The NYO is joined by virtuosic young violinist Chad Hoopes for Fire and Blood - a concerto by Michael Daugherty, one of America's most significant living composers. Its highly charged music describes the fiery furnaces of 1930s America's car assembly lines, with colourful orchestration and pulsing rhythms.

In contrast, Stravinsky's masterpiece The Firebird is a romantic fairy-tale ballet based on the Russian legend, weaving human and supernatural worlds and brilliantly showcasing every instrument in the orchestra.

Followed by: Menuhin 100 - classic recordings from Yehudi Menuhin's discography.

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in music by Stravinsky and Michael Daugherty

National Youth Orchestra Of Great Britain, Tchaikovsky, Korngold, Prokofiev20160104Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London

Nicholas Collon conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in Tchaikovsky, Korngold and Prokofiev.

Tchaikovsky: Hamlet, Fantasy-Overture Op 67

Korngold: Violin Concerto

8.15: Interval

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5

Tai Murray, violin

Nicholas Collon, conductor.

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain performs Tchaikovsky, Korngold and Prokofiev

National Youth Orchestra Of Scotland20190613Donald Macleod presents the 40th anniversary concert given by NYOS Symphony Orchestra at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

40 years ago, the United Nations proclaimed 1979 the International Year of the Child and, in the same year, Scotland took steps to enrich the lives and develop the talents of young people with the formation of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. Now 40 years on there are multiple orchestras and training ensembles enabling young people to follow a pathway in classical and/or jazz performance from the age of 8 through to 25.

In this celebratory concert, the young players of the NYOS Symphony Orchestra are joined by internationally acclaimed Scottish pianist Steven Osborne and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor, Elim Chan, in a concert filled with high drama, atmosphere and virtuosity.

The concert starts with Rachmaninov's expansive Piano Concerto No 3. In Liguria, by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi, NYOS take us on a musical walking tour with five evocative depictions of coastal villages in the north-west of Italy. After the interval we'll hear the Mussorgsky's brilliant orchestral show-piece, Pictures at an Exhibition, in the orchestration by Maurice Ravel.

Programme

Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3

Andrea Tarrodi: Liguria

Interval at 8.35pm

Donald Macleod speaks to some of the players of the NYOS Symphony Orchestra and introduces a recording by tonight's soloist of Steve Reich's 'Proverb' featuring the Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals.

Modest Mussorgsky (orch. Maurice Ravel): Pictures at an Exhibition

Steven Osborne (piano)

Elim Chan (conductor)

Celebrating 40 years of performances, Elim Chan conducts with soloist Steven Osborne

National Youth Orchestra, Larry Groves, Mahler20140113The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain play Mahler's Symphony No 5 and a new work by Larry Groves at the Barbican Hall, London.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Larry Goves: The Rules (new commission)

Mahler: Symphony No 5

Paul Daniel, conductor

Some of the finest young musicians of our time tackle the emotional breadth of Mahler's heart-wrenching fifth symphony, while The Rules, a new piece by Larry Groves, harnesses the NYO's electric energy to stunning effect.

Concert recorded on 5th January.

The National Youth Orchestra in concert. Larry Goves: The Rules. Mahler: Symphony No 5.

National Youth Orchestra, Totally Teenage Orchestral Brilliance20190424The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the Royal Festival Hall in music from America, Cuba and Mexico.

There is nothing quite like an NYO concert. The power and passion of the world's greatest orchestra of teenagers is unleashed in a programme which unashamedly crosses borders from Cuba and Mexico to New York.

Silvestre Revueltas's Sensemayက is based on an Afro-Cuban poem depicting the sacrifice of a snake. Feel the tension build as ritualistic percussion pounds out the poem's chant ‘Mayomb退-bomb退-mayomb退!' and frenzied brass wail in thrilling anticipation of an epic battle between man and beast.

Chavez's Sinfonia India is bursting with the spirit of Mexico, a lively whirlwind of pure, unadulterated fun.

The lights of 1920s Broadway twinkle in Gershwin's Piano Concerto and the NYO finish their concert with ‘the great American Symphony' Aaron Copland's show-stopping Symphony No 3.

Presented by Natasha Riordan

Revueltas: Sensemayက

Chကvez: Symphony No.2 (Sinfon퀀a India)

Gershwin: Piano Concerto

at 8.35pm

During the interval, Natasha finds talks to members of the NYO about life in the orchestra and some of its associated projects.

at 8.40

Copland: Symphony No.3

Xiayin Wang (piano)

Carlos Miguel Prieto (conductor)

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the Royal Festival Hall.

Nature, Hope And Beauty20231025Anna-Maria Helsing conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in music reflecting on humanity's relationship with the natural world. Jess Gillam is the saxophone soloist in Michael Nyman's Where the Bee Dances; and we hear two symphonies written almost a century apart. Sibelius was known to embrace nature for inspiration; and after the interval (here receiving its UK premiere), Jimmy Lopez Bellido's third symphony 'Altered Landscape' draws upon a collection of photographs held in the Nevada Museum of Art, the lived experience of a global pandemic in 2020 and the vibration of the earth itself.

Presented by Sarah Walker.

Recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London on 12th October.

Sibelius Symphony No.7 in C

Michael Nyman Where The Bee Dances for Soprano Saxophone & Chamber Orchestra

Jimmy Lopez Bellido Symphony No.3: Altered landscape

Jess Gillam soprano saxophone

Anna-Maria Helsing conductor

Anna-Maria Helsing conducts BBC Concert Orchestra in music by Sibelius, Nyman and Lopez.

Anna-Maria Helsing conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in music by Sibelius, Nyman and Lopez, with Jess Gillam (sax), in a concert reflecting on our relationship with nature.

Naughty Limericks And Nutcracker Magic20191204Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in music by two Russian composers. Rodion Shchedrin's highly spirited first concerto for orchestra, derives from an irreverent type of topical song, often danced and sung accompanied by a balalaika or folk accordion. We also have further dance inspired music in Tchaikovsky's sparkling Nutcracker Suite, which has entertained audiences for well over a hundred years with vivid depictions of a Sugar-Plum Fairy, and the Waltz of the Flowers.

Between these two lively Russian works, pianist Gabriela Montero joins the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for one of only two concertos Mozart composed in the minor key. The C minor concerto is rich, dark and brooding, and is the last work Mozart himself performed in public as a pianist. Upon hearing this work Beethoven exclaimed, `Ah, we shall never be able to do anything like that!`

Presented by Martin Handley, live from the Lighthouse in Poole.

Shchedrin: Concerto for Orchestra No 1 (Naughty Limericks)

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 24 in C minor, K.491

8.34

Interval music (from CD)

Anton Ferdinand Titz

Quartet in C minor (No. 4 of Six Quartets 1781)

Hoffmeister Quartet

8.55

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite, Op 71a

Gabriela Montero, piano

Kirill Karabits (conductor)

Produced by Luke Whitlock

Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth SO in Naughty Limericks and some Nutcracker magic

Navarra Quartet And James Gilchrist20210601This evening's concert is hosted live this evening in the BBC's Maida Vale Studio 1 as part of the Halifax Philharmonic Club - the pandemic postponed this concert which was due to be performed in the heart of the Pennines in January. Tonight features an all British-based line-up of artists: the Navarra Quartet and tenor James Gilchrist.

The concert opens with music by Alec Roth - Seven Elements - setting words by Vikram Seth, a mystical work taking the elements as its starting point. Beethoven's only song-cycle An die ferne Geliebte - To the distant beloved - was written for voice and piano but this evening it's heard in an arrangement by viola player and composer Simon Roland-Jones for tenor and string quartet. The evening concludes with Mozart's warmly lyrical String Quartet in 14 in G major K.387 - nick-named the 'Spring', the first of the six quartets Mozart dedicated to Haydn.

Presented live from Maida Vale Studio 1 by Ian Skelly.

19.30

Alec Roth: Seven Elements

20:00

Beethoven, arr Simon Rowland-Jones: An die ferne Geliebte

20:15

Interval music:

Schubert

Rondo in A major D.951

Paul Lewis / Steven Osborne, piano duet

20:30

Mozart: String Quartet in G, K387

James Gilchrist, tenor

Photo: © Patrick Allen

Navarra Quartet and James Gilchrist in music by Beethoven, Mozart and Vikram Seth.

Ndr Radio Philharmonic20210614Andrew Manze conducts the NDR Radio Philharmonic in a concert recorded at their home in Hanover last October, including music by Poul Rouders, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Haydn and Korngold.

During the interval you can hear Andrew Manze in other guises, as the soloist in Biber's Passacaglia for solo violin and as director of The English Concert in Bach's Keyboard Concerto in F.

7.30pm

Poul Ruders - Kafkapriccio

Richard Strauss - Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Op.60

Igor Stravinsky - Symphonies of Wind Instruments

Andrew Manze (conductor)

approx 8.25pm

Heinrich Ignaz Biber - Passacaglia for solo violin

Andrew Manze (violin)

JS Bach - Concerto for harpsichord in F, BWV.1056

Richard Egarr (harpsichord)

approx 8.45pm

Joseph Haydn - Symphony No.80 in D minor

Erich Korngold - Suite from 'Much Ado About Nothing', Op.11

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Andrew Manze conducts the NDR Radio Philharmonic in Strauss, Stravinsky, Haydn & Korngold.

Nelson Goerner, Handel, Schumann, Chopin, Scriabin20150928Live from Wigmore Hall, London

Nelson Goerner plays piano music by Handel, Schumann, Chopin and Scriabin.

Handel: Chaconne in G major HWV435

Schumann: Fantasie in C major Op. 17

8.15: INTERVAL

8.35

Chopin: Ballade No. 3 in A flat major Op. 47

Nocturne in F minor Op. 55 No. 1

Nocturne in E flat major Op. 55 No. 2

Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp minor Op. 39

Scriabin: Deux po耀mes Op. 32

Piano Sonata No. 5 Op. 53

Nelson Goerner, piano

Since making his debut as a prodigiously talented youngster thirty-five years ago, Nelson Goerner has developed to become one of the most gifted all-round pianists of his generation.

The Argentine artist's tonal richness and expressive invention are sure to reveal fresh perspectives on the works in this programme, complete with Schumann's monumental Fantasie in C and Chopin's ravishing Ballade in A flat.

Nelson Goerner (piano) performs Handel, Schumann, Chopin and Scriabin at Wigmore Hall.

Nelson Mass20230406Baroque specialist Christian Curnyn joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to conduct three works that all take a degree of inspiration from battles. We begin with arguably the first ever battle, the chaos that reined before the creation of the world, as depicted by pioneering French composer, Jean-F退ry Rebel. His Chaos became the opening movement to his work Les ɀl退mens, which goes on to portray the creation of the universe from out of his pandemoniac dissonance. Purcell's King Arthur follows, a work that depicts the battles between the Britons, led by King Arthur, and the invading Saxons, rather than using Arthurian legend. Tonight we'll hear selections chosen from that stage work by our conductor, Christian Curnyn. The concert concludes with Haydn's 11th mass that he later subtitled a 'Mass for troubled times', but quickly became known publicly as the Nelson Mass, in relation to the military leader. It was written during the Napoleonic wars, prior to Nelson's victory, and possibly gained its popular title after Haydn performed the mass in the presence of Nelson, some five years before the battle of Trafalgar, and Nelson was greatly moved by the piece.

Presented live from BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff by Ian Skelly.

7.30pm

Rebel: Chaos (Les ɀl退mens)

Purcell: King Arthur (selections)

8.10pm

Interval Music

8.30pm

Haydn: Mass No 11 in D minor, Hob XXII/11 (Nelson Mass)

Anna Dennis (soprano)

Rupert Charlesworth (tenor)

Edward Hawkins (bass)

Hilary Summers (contralto)

BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales

Christian Curnyn (conductor)

BBC NOW and Christian Curnyn perform Haydn's 'Mass for troubled times'.

Netherlands Radio Chorus20170115Ian Skelly introduces French sacred music performed by the Netherlands Radio Chorus with organist Jan Hage, conducted by Ed Spanjaard. The concert was recorded last October in Utrecht. The main work of the evening is Durufl退's Requiem, one of the greatest and most influential sacred works of the 20th century, which at the same time harks back to earlier composition techniques in which the liturgical plainsong Requiem melodies form the backbone of the music.

Gabriel Faur退: Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11

Robert Heppener: Del iubilo del core che esce in voce

Maurice Durufl退: Scherzo, Op. 2

Francis Poulenc: Salve Regina

Maurice Durufl退: Requiem, Op. 9

Virginie Verrez (mezzo-soprano)

Benjamin Appl (baritone)

Michael Müller (cello)

Jan Hage (organ)

Ed Spanjaard (conductor).

The Netherlands Radio Chorus performs music by Faure, Heppener, Durufle and Poulenc.

New Generation Artists At Snape20200226Petroc Trelawny presents a concert of chamber music by Mozart, Debussy and Tchaikovsky recorded at the Britten Studio, Snape, by past and present Radio 3 New Generation Artists.

Friendship is to the fore in Mozart's delicious Duo in G major for violin and viola, one of two he composed to help out a friend in need, and in Tchaikovsky's epic and moving Piano Trio written in memory of the great pianist Nikolay Rubinstein. Debussy's elegant Cello Sonata was written in the last years of his life, and is infused with the spirts of the commedia dell'arte and the French music of the past.

Mozart: Duo in G major for violin, and viola, K423

Aleksey Semenenko (violin)

Eivind Ringstad (viola)

Debussy: Cello Sonata

Anastasia Kobekina (cello)

Elisabeth Brauss (piano)

8pm Interval

Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A minor, Op 50

Recorded at the Britten Studio, Snape, on 22 February 2020

A Mozart duo for violin and viola, Debussy's Cello Sonata and Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio.

New Generation Artists At St George's Bristol20221013BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, Johan Dalene, Eivind Ringstad, Andrei Ioni?? and Eric Lu come together at St George's Bristol to perform music by Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin.

The BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists Scheme supports the most talented young musicians in the early stages of their careers and brings compelling performances from these stars of tomorrow to listeners across the UK. In this concert, four current members of the scheme join forces in Bristol in a richly colourful programme, culminating in Mozart's intricate and dramatic Piano Quartet.

Handel, arr. Johan Halvorsen: Passacaglia in G minor

Johan Dalene (violin)

Eivind Ringstad (viola)

Mozart: Violin Sonata in E minor, K304

Eric Lu (piano)

Beethoven: String Trio in C minor, Op 9 No 3

Andrei Ioni?? (cello)

Chopin: Nocturne in C minor, Op 48 No 1

Mozart: Piano Quartet in G minor K 478

Four exciting new performers join forces to perform music by Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin

New Generation Artists At The Aldeburgh Festival20220623New Generation Artists at the Aldeburgh Festival 2022.

Ian Skelly introduces performances given at three concerts at the festival last week by some of the current members of Radio 3's prestigious young artist programme along with recent members. Tonight's compilation includes performances from the viola player Timothy Ridout and the Arod Quartet. And, after that, Timothy Ridout joins the mezzo soprano Ema Nikolovska and collaborative pianist Kunal Lahiry in 'Devotions,' a brilliantly-conceived meditation on our relationship to nature and how we navigate the modern world. This journey of 25 songs features the world premiere of 'Apperceptive Algorithms' from the Korean-American composer and Youtuber, Nahre Sol.

Beethoven: Horn (Viola) Sonata in F, Op. 17

Timothy Ridout (viola), J ms Coleman (piano)

Mozart: Quartet in C major K.465 (Dissonance)

Quatuor Arod

c. 8.15pm 'Devotions

Priaulx Rainier: Wee cannot bid the fruits

Copland: There came a wind like a bugle

Prokofiev: No.5, from Five Songs Without Words

Tansy Davies: Winter

Copland: When they come back

Prokofiev: No.2, from Five Songs Without Words

Copland: Dear March, come in!

Messiaen: Pourquoi?

Copland: I felt a funeral in my brain

Vaughan Williams: Three Vocalises

Copland: Why do they shut me out of heaven?

Emily Doolittle: Batter my heart

Copland: The world feels Dusty

Copland: Nature, the gentlest mother

Emily Doolittle: Vocalise

Crumb: The Fly

H退lose Werner: Le coeur crucifi退

Messiaen: Vocalise-ɀtude

Crumb: The Interrupted Concert

Rainier: In the wombe of the earth

Bridge: Three songs for voice, viola and piano

Nahre Sol: Apperceptive Algorithms (world premiere, BBC commission)

Rainier: Nunc, lento, sonitu dicunt, morieris

Ema Nikolovska (mezzo soprano)

Kunal Lahiry (collaborative pianist)

New Generation Artists At The Norfolk And Norwich Festival20220629New Generation Artists at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival 2022: mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, the Consone Quartet and jazz guitarist Rob Luft.

In a three-part In Concert tonight, the period instruments of the Consone Quartet play Haydn, Rob Luft is joined by the Albanian-Swiss vocalist Elina Duni to present Lost Ships - songs of love and exile. And, to begin, Helen Charlston is supported by the theorbo of Toby Carr for Battle Cry, her homage to the intimate world of the Venice-born Barbara Strozzi, one of the most talked about singers and composers of the 17th century.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Henry Purcell: Bonduca's Song ‘Oh lead me to some peaceful gloom

Barbara Strozzi: L'eraclito Amoroso de Visee Prelude

Robert de Vis退e: Prelude

John Eccles: Restless in thought, disturbed in mind

Purcell: Dido's Lament

Owain Park: Battle Cry

Giovanni Kapsberger: Preludio Quinto

Barbara Strozzi:La Travagliata

Claudio Monteverdi: Lamento d'Arianna

Robert de Vis退e: Sarabande

Henry Purcell: An Evening Hymn

Helen Charlston (mezzo soprano),

Toby Carr (theorbo)

Followed at approx. 8.35pm

Haydn: String Quartet in D, Op.71 no. 2

Followed at approx. 8.55pm

Lost Ships: Songs from Albania, Kosovo, France and the Arab world.

Elina Duni (voice), Rob Luft (jazz guitar), Fred Thomas (piano and drums)

All three concerts were recorded in the Octagon Chapel, Norwich during the 250th Norwich and Norfolk International Festival.

Helen Charlston presents Battle Cry, the Consone Quartet in Haydn and jazz from Rob Luft.

New Generation Artists In Concert: Spotlight On Kunal Lahiry20230704Radio 3 New Generation Artist Kunal Lahiry brings together the creative culture of LGBTQ+ artists and classical music in a specially curated `Queer Song Festival`, part of Bristol Pride.

Recorded at St George's Bristol, in these highlights from the two-day festival highly acclaimed soprano Ruby Hughes, herself a former New Generation Artist, and Kunal, a current member, perform a richly varied programme ranging from Schubert to a newly commissioned work by singer and performance artist Lyra Pramuk as well as poet Nat Marcus - a queer response to Schubert's Winterreise.

Grammy award-winning tenor Frederick Ballentine joins Kunal after the interval. `Our People` is a deeply moving story of the black and LGBTQ+ people of America's experience, told through song in four chapters: Otherness, Oppression, Reflection, and Revolution. From traditional spirituals like `Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child` and Margaret Bonds, to Rachmaninov to Billie Holiday's `Strange Fruit`, and contemporary responses from John Musto and Ricky Ian Gordon as part of the AIDS Quilt Songbook, 'Our People' explores and rejoices the journey of these two communities separately, but also together.

Introduced by Linton Stephens

Music includes

Purcell, arr Thomas Ad耀s : By beauteous softness (Now does the glorious day appear, Z332)

Lyra Pramuk,: Lyra

Schubert:

Die Sterne, D939

Nachtstuck, D 672

Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D774

Errollyn Wallen:

North

Rain

Ives:

Serenity

The Housatonic at Stockbridge

Ruby Hughes, soprano

Kunal Lahiry, collaborative piano

c. 8.15 Kunal Lahiry in conversation with Linton Stephens

Traditional spiritual : Sometimes I feel like a motherless child

Copland: Nature! The gentlest mother

William Bolcom: George

Copland: Why do they shut me out of heaven? (12 songs of Emily Dickinson)

Schubert: Memnon

Margaret Bonds: Minstrel Man (The Dream Portraits)

Going up in Smoke

David Krakauer: The 80s Miracle Diet

John Musto: Heartbeats

Ricky Ian Gordon: I never knew

Abel Meeropol , arr. Pablo Campos: Strange Fruit

Requiem

Gershwin arr. Earl Wild: The Man I Love

John Musto: Litany (Shades of Blue)

Purcell: When I was laid in Earth (Dido and Aeneas)

So Loud, So Proud

Ricky Ian Gordon: My People

Sergei Rachmaninov: Spring Waters, Op 14, No 11

Nina Simone, Langston Hughes arr. Pablo Campos: Backlash Blues

Frederick Ballentine, tenor

Producer: Johannah Smith

Highlights from Queer Song Festival at St George's Bristol, curated by Kunal Lahiry.

New Generation Artists Showcase20181031New Generation Artists, the guitarist Thibaut Garcia and the Quatuor Arod recorded In Concert at Champs Hill in West Sussex. In this NGA Showcase concert, the brilliant French musicians introduce music by Bach, Haydn and Tarrega before coming together for Boccherini's famous 'Fandango' Quintet.

Presented by Georgia Mann.

Bach Two Chorales

Jesus bleibet meine Freude (Chorale) from Cantata no. 147 BWV.147 (Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben)

Zion h怀rt die W䀀chter singen (Chorale) from Bach - Cantata No 140, 'Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140

Thibaut Garcia (guitar)

Barrios La Catedral

Haydn String Quartet in E flat, Op 76 No 6

c. 8.15pm Interval Music. NGA, Mariam Batsashvili plays Busoni's transcription of Bach's Violin Chaconne in d minor BWV 1004.

Tarrega Recuerdos de la Alhambra

Villa-Lobos Prelude No 3 in a minor (Homenagem a Bach) from 5 Preludes for guitar

Boccherini Guitar Quintet No 4 in D, G449 `Fandango`

Followed by:

9.10pm

Britten Songs and Proverbs of William Blake

Ashley RIches (bass-baritone), Anna Tilbrook (piano)

9.30pm

Bach Partita no. 2 in C minor BWV.826

Beatric Rana (piano)

Thibaut Garcia and the Arod Quartet perform Haydn and Boccherini at Champs Hill

New Responses To The Tragedy Of War20181111To mark the centenary of the end of World War One, British composers Roderick Williams and Bob Chilcott have created new, and very personal, responses to the tragedy of the First World War.

Recorded at Milton Court in London, the BBC Singers and their Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin give performances of two brand new choral works commemorating that War to End All Wars.

Like Britten before him, Bob Chilcott has taken his inspiration from Wilfred Owen, whose poem Futility is the starting point for his new work Move him into the sun. Roderick Williams, meanwhile, is best known as one of our most insightful and articulate baritones. Performed by one of the world's great chamber choirs, his new piece should be a uniquely touching meditation on events that still scar our imagination, a century on.

Bob Chilcott: Move him into the Sun

Roderick Williams: World Without End

Psappha Ensemble

Sofi Jeannin, conductor

Sofi Jeannin and the BBC Singers present contemporary choral works for Remembrance Sunday.

New Year New Music: Helmut Lachenmann20160103New Year New Music celebrates the 80th birthday of the leading German composer Helmut Lachenmann with music from a festival held in his honour in Stuttgart last November.

Lachenmann: Trio Fluido (1967)

ensemble recherche

Lachenmann: Schreiben for orchestra (2003/2004)

SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra, Michel Tabachnik (conductor)

Lachenmann: Les Consolations (1978)

SWR Vokalensemble, SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra,

Peter Rundel (conductor).

Music from a festival held in honour of German composer Helmut Lachenmann in Stuttgart.

New Year New Music: London Contemporary Orchestra20160108A New Year New Music concert featuring some of the most interesting developments in contemporary music.

The London Contemporary Orchestra offers a snapshot of where things are at in 2016, playing pieces by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, Catherine Lamb, Laurence Crane, Caroline Haines and Edmund Finnis.

Plus, solo performances from electronic artist Leafcutter John, composer/performer Jennifer Walshe, and soprano Juliet Fraser with pianist Mark Knoop.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch, live from St John-at-Hackney in East London.

A New Year New Music concert with London Contemporary Orchestra, plus Leafcutter John.

New Year New Music: Open Ear20180102Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents cutting-edge new music recorded in the round at LSO St Luke's, London.

Part One

Linda Catlin Smith: Sarabande

An Assembly

Philip Glass: Music in Contrary Motion

James McVinnie (sampled organ)

You Are Wolf: Pleasant and Delightful

Sarah Nemtsov: Drummed Variation

Serge Vuille (junk percussion)

Joe Richards (electronics)

Jürg Frey: Circular Music No.2

8.50 pm: Interval: Innocent Ear - a selection of new music chosen by tonight's concert artists

9.10 pm:Part Two

You Are Wolf: As Sylvie Was Walking; Drowndown

Serge Vuille: Modulation 360

Serge Vuille and Joe Richards (snare drum)

James Weeks: Saenredam

Philip Glass: Mad Rush

James McVinnie (sampled organ).

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a concert of new music by Catlin Smith, Glass, Weeks and Vuille

New Year New Music: Psappha20160107Stuart Maconie introduces a concert by the Manchester-based contemporary music ensemble Psappha of characteristically inventive music from America by Steve Reich, Elliott Carter and George Crumb. Live from St Michael's in Ancoats in Manchester.

In a programme of conflicts and reconciliations Reich's 'Double Sextet' fuses a live performance with a recorded double of itself; Elliott Carter's 'Triple Duo' explores the potential for small ensembles within an ensemble; and George Crumb's 'Quest', an atmospheric journey for solo guitar and a diverse group of instruments, juxtaposes the colourful and varied with the familiar.

George Crumb: Quest

(solo guitar: Tom McKinney)

Interval

Elliott Carter: Triple Duo

(conductor: Jamie Phillips)

Steve Reich: Double Sextet.

Psappha performs music by George Crumb, Elliott Carter and Steve Reich.

Nga 20th Anniversary Week20200126Fiona Talkington presents concerts from across Europe featuring alumni of the BBC New Generation Artist scheme, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary year this week.

Tonight's programme features one-time members of the BBC NGA scheme who have gone on to international success and now perform all over the world.

In this selection of recordings from the past twelve months, we visit the Belgian Radio 'Klarafest' in Brussels, the Montpellier Festival the Mihail Jora Concert Hall in Bucharest, the Czech Chamber Music Society concerts in the Rudolfinum in Prague, and the Konzerthaus in Berlin - all in the company of some of the outstanding musicians of our time, all of whom have come through the BBC's scheme to support young musicians.

In the days before 'BBC introducing', the New Generation Scheme began offering a helping hand and concert experience to a varied collection of singers, groups and instrumentalists just starting out on their musical careers, and every two years the doors would open to a new intake of potential super stars.

The Artemis Quartet featured between 2003 and 2005, Nicolas Alstaedt in 2010-2012, the Pavel Haas Quartet (2007-2009) and Alina Ibragimova (2005-2007).

Schubert

String Quartet No 14 in D minor, D 810, 'Death and the Maiden

Schumann

Cello Concerto in A minor, Op 129

Nicolas Alstaedt, cello

Orchestre National de France

Emmanuel Krivine, conductor

Tchaikovsky

The Seasons (excerpts)

Eduard Kunz (piano)

Shostakovich

String Quartet No 8 in C minor, Op 110

Strauss

Violin Concerto in D minor, Op 8

Alina Ibragimova (violin)

Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski

Concerts from Europe, featuring alumni of the BBC NGA Scheme in its 20th anniversary year.

Nga Showcase: Andrei Ionita Plays Bach And Ligeti And Mariam Batsashvili Plays Schubert And Liszt20180518Georgia Mann presents the cellist Andrei Ionita and the pianist Mariam Batsashvili in a New Generation Artist Showcase at Turner Sims Southampton.

In this concert, recorded last week as part of the hall's prestigious international concert series, two of Radio 3's current New Generation Artists play solo music by Bach, Schubert, Liszt and Ligeti. From the dark, intimate world of Bach's Cello Suite to the drama of Liszt's Dante-inspired Fantasia, these two remarkable artists promise solo performances of originality, virtuosity and soulfulness in equal measure.

Vaja Azararashvili: Nostalgia

Prokfiev arr Piatigorsky: March for solo cello from Music for Children op. 65

Bach: Cello Suite No 5 in c minor, BWV 1011

c.8.10pm Interval Music: The Calidore String Quartet play Haydn's Quartet in D major Op.64'5 (Lark) in a recording made in the BBC studios. .

Schubert: Impromptu in F minor, D935 [Op posth 142 No 1]

Ligeti: Cello Sonata

Liszt: Apr耀s une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata

Andrei Ionita (cello)

Mariam Batsashvili (piano)

During the concert, Georgia will talk to Mariam (who hails from Georgia) and Andrei (who was born in Rumania) about the music they are playing, finding their own musical voice and about the pros and cons of winning major international competitions.

Since its launch in 1999 the BBC's renowned New Generation Artists scheme has brought to the public's attention many young musicians on the threshold of glittering international careers. Both of tonight's soloists are recent first prize winners - cellist Andrei Ionita at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2015, and Mariam Batsashvili at the 10th Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht in 2014. Both are artists of questing originality.

This concert is one of a series of showcase concerts taking place around the UK this month.

NGA Showcase: Andrei Ionita plays Bach and Ligeti, and Mariam Batsashvili plays Liszt.

Nicholas Collon And The Residentie Orkester The Hague20201102Mozart's dark, brooding D minor piano concerto and the symphony of Anton Bruckner's known as 'the Romantic' performed by Ronald Brautigam, Residentie Orkester The Hague and Nicholas Collon

Presented by Fiona Talkington

7.30pm

Concerto in D minor, K.466

8.00

Interval:

Beethoven

Sonata in F minor, Op.57 'Appassionata

Ronald Brautigam, fortepiano

8.25

Symphony No.4 in E flat 'Romantic

Ronald Brautigam, piano

Residentie Orkester Den Haag

Nicholas Collon, conductor

Followed by music off disc:

Joseph Haydn

Symphony no. 86 in D major, H.1.86

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

Image: Julie Algra

Mozart and Bruckner from Ronald Brautigam and Nicholas Collon

Nicholas Lanier, Musician And Art Collector20220622New Worlds: Travelogue Laurence Cummings, Anna Dennis, Thomas Walker and Academy of Ancient Music follow the 17th-century adventures of Nicholas Lanier, the first master of the king's music, who forever changed the course of British music and art when he returned from a voyage across Europe. The programme includes music by Dowland, Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Caccini and Lanier himself.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Dowland Come again, sweet love

Monteverdi Lamento d'Arianna

Lanier Sinfonia

Lanier No more shall meads

Ramsey, arr. Lanier The Witch of Endor

Frescobaldi Recercar settimo

Duarte Sinfonia No.6

Sweelinck Poi che non volete

Di Lasso Un jour vis un foulon

Claudia Rusca Canzona prima က 4, La Borromea

Claudio Monteverdi Cruda Amarilli

Tobias Hume Harke, Harke, No.11 and Captaine Humes Pavane, No.47

Biagio Marini Sonata Quarta per sonar com due corde, Op.8

Francesca Caccini Lasciatemi qui solo

Nicholas Lanier Hero's complaint to Leander

Claudio Monteverdi Tirsi e Clori

Anna Dennis (soprano), Thomas Walker (tenor)

Academy of Ancient Music Laurence Cummings (director)

Recorded at Milton Court, London in February 2022.

The Academy of Ancient Music conducted by Laurence Cummings.

Nicola Benedetti And City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Play Shostakovich.20180627Violinist Nicola Benedetti joins the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for Shostakovich's dramatic and dark First Violin Concerto; a work so potent that it remained locked in a desk drawer, away from Soviet authorities, until Stalin's death in 1953.

Live from Symphony Hall, Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla conducts the CBSO in a concert which also features Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and the Lithuanian folk song which inspired the work's opening bassoon melody.

Plus the Birmingham premiere of a lost Stravinsky work, Funeral Song, which was only rediscovered in December 2016.

Presenter: Tom Redmond.

Part One

Stravinsky - Funeral Song

Shostakovich - Violin Concerto No. 1

(Nicola Benedetti - Violin)

INTERVAL

Part Two

Lithuanian Folk Songs

Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring

CBSO Youth Chorus

Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla - Conductor.

Live from Symphony Hall, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla conducts Stravinsky and Shostakovich.

Nicola Benedetti And Lso Play Mark Simpson And Tchaikovsky20210616The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Noseda perform two powerful works, beginning with a world premiere. The Liverpudlian composer Mark Simpson wrote his Violin Concerto for tonight's soloist, Grammy-winning Nicola Benedetti. At once thrilling and engaging, critics described it as 'electrifying' and as having 'visceral energy'.

The second half of the concert, too, packs an emotional punch: Tchaikovsky's final symphony, the ‘Path退tique', whose angst-filled outer movements flank a lopsided waltz and a glittering march (the ‘Path退tique' impressed Mahler so much he took it as a model for his own ninth symphony).

Recorded at LSO St Luke's in April and presented by Martin Handley.

Mark Simpson: Violin Concerto

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 6, 'Path退tique

Nicola Benedetti, violin

Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Nicola Benedetti gives the world premiere of Mark Simpson's Violin Concerto.

Nicola Benedetti Plays Beethoven20210209Best known as an excitingly unconventional violinist, Pekka Kuusisto takes up the baton for this all-Beethoven concert with the Philharmonia Orchestra. They're joined by one of Britain's best-loved violinists, the multi award-winning Nicola Benedetti in the Violin Concerto. As you might expect with Beethoven, he wrote a concerto on a hitherto unprecedented symphonic scale which has long been de rigueur in every violinist's repertoire and an audience favourite.

The concert ends with Symphony No. 2. Although it comes from one of the most miserable times of a life which had more than its fair share of misery, it's among Beethoven's most exuberantly playful and joyous works.

Recorded in November at the Royal Festival Hall and introduced by Martin Handley.

Nicola Benedetti (violin)

Pekka Kuusisto (conductor)

Nicola Benedetti plays Beethoven's Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Nicola Benedetti Plays Elgar's Violin Concerto20190426Live from the Barbican Hall, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Dvorak's dark and passionate Symphony No 7. Nicola Benedetti joins for Elgar's Violin Concerto.

Presented by Natasha Riordan.

Elgar: Violin Concerto in B Minor, Op.61

08.20

Interval

Dvo?ကk: Symphony No.7 in D Minor Op.70

Nicola Benedetti (violin)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Violinist Nicola Benedetti joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo for Elgar's Violin Concerto - a work in which bravura technique and dazzling display meet confessional intimacy, one the composer himself described as ‘too emotional'. The concerto is paired with Dvo?ကk's Seventh Symphony, whose brooding opening movement and elegiac Adagio grew out of recent tragedy - the loss of the composer's mother and the mental collapse of his friend and colleague Smetana. It was premiered in London and considered by many to be his finest symphony.

Live from the Barbican Hall, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Nicola Benedetti Plays Wynton Marsalis20231109Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts the Philharmonia in an exciting all-American programme from the 20th and 21st centuries.

With music redolent of the spirituals, blues and gospel of his native America, Wynton Marsalis's violin concerto also includes folk-like fiddle tunes and ends with an exuberant hootenanny: affectionate nods to its dedicatee, Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti.

Three Black Kings, for jazz band and symphony orchestra, was Duke Ellington's final composition, its last movement a gospel-inspired tribute to Martin Luther King. The first two movements respectively evoke Balthazar, one of the three wise men who travelled to Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus, and the Old Testament King Solomon.

Gershwin's 1935 landmark opera Porgy and Bess is a gritty depiction of a poor black fishing community in the American South. The story is grim but the songs - including 'Summertime', 'Bess, You Is My Woman Now', 'It Ain't Necessarily So' - are some of the greatest and most memorable of all time, presented tonight in a symphonic orchestration.

Introduced live from the Royal Festival Hall by Martin Handley.

Wynton Marsalis: Violin Concerto

Ellington Three Black Kings

Gershwin (arr. Bennett): Porgy and Bess: a Symphonic Picture

Nicola Benedetti (violin)

Philharmonia Orchestra

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

Nicola Benedetti plays Wynton Marsalis's Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Nicola Benedetti Plays Wynton Marsalis With The Philharmonia20231109Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts the Philharmonia in an exciting all-American programme from the 20th and 21st centuries.

With music redolent of the spirituals, blues and gospel of his native America, Wynton Marsalis's violin concerto also includes folk-like fiddle tunes and ends with an exuberant hootenanny: affectionate nods to its dedicatee, Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti.

Three Black Kings, for jazz band and symphony orchestra, was Duke Ellington's final composition, its last movement a gospel-inspired tribute to Martin Luther King. The first two movements respectively evoke Balthazar, one of the three wise men who travelled to Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus, and the Old Testament King Solomon.

Gershwin's 1935 landmark opera Porgy and Bess is a gritty depiction of a poor black fishing community in the American South. The story is grim but the songs – including 'Summertime', 'Bess, You Is My Woman Now', 'It Ain't Necessarily So' – are some of the greatest and most memorable of all time, presented tonight in a symphonic orchestration.

Introduced live from the Royal Festival Hall by Martin Handley.

Wynton Marsalis: Violin Concerto

Ellington: Three Black Kings

Gershwin (arr. Bennett): Porgy and Bess: a Symphonic Picture

Nicola Benedetti (violin)

Philharmonia Orchestra

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts an all-American programme including Gershwin and Ellington.

At the Royal Festival Hall, Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts the Philharmonia in an all-American programme, including Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and Wynton Marsalis's Violin Concerto.

Nicolas Altstaedt, Alexander Lonquich, Beethoven Cello Sonatas20170621Live from Wigmore Hall, Beethoven's Cello Sonatas are played by Nicolas Altstaedt, one of today's most exciting cellists, and pianist Alexander Lonquich. Spanning two decades of Beethoven's career, the five works, at once groundbreaking, witty, playful and profound, thrillingly demonstrate his transition from young Turk in the late eighteenth century to the great composer he had become by second decade of the nineteenth.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Beethoven:

Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 5 No. 1

Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 5 No. 2

Cello Sonata in A major, Op. 69

Nicolas Altstaedt (cello)

Alexander Lonquich (piano)

8.55pm Interval Music (from CD)

Handel: Concerto Grosso in D major, Op. 6 No. 5

The English Consort

Trevor Pinnock (director)

9.15pm

Cello Sonata in C major, Op. 102 No. 1

Cello Sonata in D major, Op. 102 No. 2

Alexander Lonquich (piano).

Nicolas Altstaedt (cello) and Alexander Lonquich (piano) perform Beethoven's cello sonatas

Nielsen And Bruckner From The Berlin Philharmonic20221212John Storg倀rds makes his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in Nielsen's Helios Overture and Bruckner's Sixth Symphony.

John Storg倀rds, chief guest conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic at their home, the Berlin Philharmonie, in a programme which opened with Nielsen's memorable depiction of the sun rising over the Aegean Sea and ended with Bruckner seldom-heard Sixth Symphony.

Nielsen: Helios, op. 17, overture

Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 in A

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, John Storg倀rds (conductor)

The Berlin Philharmonic plays Nielsen's Helios Overture and Bruckner's Sixth Symphony.

Nielsen, Lindberg And Sibelius20170416Ian Skelly presents a concert by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, featuring Christian Lindberg as composer, soloist and conductor, recorded in the Dvorကk Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague in November last year.

Nielsen: Helios Overture

Leopold Mozart: Trombone Concerto in D

Lindberg: The Tale of Kundraan

Sibelius: Symphony No.2 in D Op.43

Christian Lindberg (trombone & conductor).

The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in Nielsen, Leopold Mozart, Lindberg and Sibelius.

Nielsen's Inextinguishable With Simon Rattle20190110Sir Simon Rattle brings together three harrowing and mournful pieces in this tragic tour-de-force.

The concert opens with Sibelius unconventional Symphony No 7, described by Sir Simon Rattle as ‘almost like a scream.

The LSO is joined by Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan for Hans Abrahamsen's 'Let me tell you' The Danish composer was inspired to write this song cycle by the 2008 novel of the same title by the writer Paul Griffiths, telling the tale of Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The violence of WW1 is reflected in Nielsen's energetic Symphony No 4, but the work contains a redemptive and hopeful quality which the composer described as ‘the elemental will to live', or ‘the inextinguishable'.

Introduced by Martin Handley.

Jean Sibelius: Symphony no. 7 in C major Op.105

Hans Abrahamsen (1952): let me tell you for soprano and orchestra

INTERVAL

Carl Nielsen: Symphony no. 4 Op.29 (The Inextinguishable)

Tune in tomorrow after the BBC Singers concert to hear Esmeralda Conde Ruiz's The other ocean, performed by The Fretful Federation Mandolin Orchestra, Brighton as part of the Adopt a Composer scheme from Making Music.

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the LSO in Sibelius's Symphony No 7 and Nielsen's Symphony No 4

Nikolaj Znaider's Elgar Violin Concerto Centenary Tour20200507Presented by Martin Handley.

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hall退 in a programme including two pieces at the very heart of British 20th-century music: Vaughan Williams's 'A London Symphony' - his own personal view of the English capital and its inhabitants, and Elgar's Violin Concerto - performed almost exactly a hundred years after its premiere by Danish virtuoso Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider who plays the very violin, a 1741 Guarnieri del Gesu, used on that occasion by Fritz Kreisler. Recorded at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester in 2010.

The Halle has selected this concert as among their favourites for a repeat broadcast during the current pandemic crisis.

ELGAR: Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Symphony No.2, 'A London Symphony

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, violin

Hall退 Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder, conductor

The Halle conducted by Sir Mark Elder with music by Elgar and Vaughan Williams.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt Conducts Haydn And Beethoven20160522Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts Concentus Musicus in two Viennese masterpieces.

The Austrian conductor is heard here in two of his last concerts where his typically inspirational performances with his own period instrument orchestra are a reminder of why he is seen as one of the most influential musicians of the past half century.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Haydn

Mass No. 10 in C, Hob. XXII:9 ('Missa in Tempore Belli') ('Paukenmesse')

Sylvia Schwartz (soprano), Elisabeth von Magnus (mezzo-soprano),

Daniel Johannsen (tenor), Ruben Drole (bass),

Arnold Schoenberg Choir

Concentus Musicus, Vienna, Nikolaus Harnoncourt (conductor)

rec. Parish Church, Stainz - Styriarte Festival - 12.07.15

Beethoven

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67

rec. Musikverein, Vienna - 10.05.15.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts Concentus Musicus Wien in music by Haydn and Beethoven.

Nordic Nights: London Sinfonietta, Buene, Saariaho, Isaksson, Wallin20170606Live from St John's Smith Square

Presented by Martin Handley

Nordic Nights: The London Sinfonietta play new music from Scandinavia.

Eivind Buene: Sea Change (2016) (UK premiere)

Kaija Saariaho: Graal th退 tre (1994)

8.00: Interval

8.20

Madeleine Isaksson: Is䀀r (UK premiere)

Rolf Wallin: Spirit (2016) (UK premiere)

Peter Herresthal violin

Guro Kleven Hagen violin

Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad viola

Kian Soltani cello

Ida Nielsen electric bass

Pierre-Andr退 Valade conductor

Once the preserve of melancholic films and bare tonal landscapes, in recent years Scandinavian artists have revealed another side to their vibrant heritage - one that is rich in life and colour. Part of Southbank Centre's 2017 celebrations of Nordic culture, Nordic Matters, this concert showcases the best of contemporary music from Kaija Saariaho's enigmatic violin concerto, which revels in the delicate interactions between violin and orchestra, to a new commission from Rolf Wallin - written for the charismatic Danish bassist Ida Nielsen.

The London Sinfonietta in new music from Scandinavia: Buene, Saariaho, Isaksson, Wallin.

Nordic Summer Nights20181029We may be in the midst of autumn now, but let Royal Northern Sinfonia transport you to a Nordic summer night (as part of their season of the same name) recorded in St Cuthbert's Church, Darlington in July 2018.

PROGRAMME:

SIBELIUS: Andante Festivo

SVENDSEN: Romance for Violin and Orchestra

NIELSEN: Serenata in Vano

NIELSEN: Little Suite for Strings

SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 2, arr. Farrington

Directed by Tristan Gurney

Royal Northern Sinfonia play Nordic music from St Cuthbert's Church, Darlington.

Norse Gods20230530Like so many of his other descriptive works, Sibelius's symphonic fantasy 'Pohjola's Daughter' was inspired by Finland's national epic, the Kalevala. In terms of sheer orchestral opulence Sibelius never surpassed what he achieved in this score, evoking the vastness of the setting and the brilliant colours of Pohjola's rainbow. Grieg is beloved for his lyricism which derives from Norwegian folk tunes and the Romantic tradition to which he belongs, and the striking, opening gesture of the Piano Concerto is perhaps one of the most recognisable in all of classical music. Based upon descending seconds and thirds, it is but one sign of how Norwegian folk music was making its impact on his emerging style. It continues with many attractive themes, a thrilling cadenza and much dazzling originality. Written at the height of the First World War, Nielsen's Fourth Symphony is a tectonic musical struggle between the forces of destruction and the energy of life itself. It culminates in one of the most uplifting and thrilling of all symphonic climaxes.

Recorded at Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts, presented by Martin Handley.

Sibelius: Pohjola's Daughter

Grieg: Piano Concerto

Interval:

Wagner: Eine Sonate für das Album von Frau Mathilde Wesendonck in As, WWV85

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)

Nielsen: Symphony No.4 'The Inextinguishable

Alexander Malofeev, piano

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra

Kirill Karabits, conductor

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra perform works by Sibelius, Grieg and Nielsen.

North To South20211008From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

We depart on our musical journey from Helsinki with music Sibelius wrote for Maurice Maeterlinck's play Pelleas and Melisande. Journeying east, we arrive in Leningrad for Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto; written for his friend Rostropovich the opening is immediately arresting and memorable. Our tour ends under the azure sky of the Mediterranean, joining Mendelssohn on the Italian leg of his own Grand Tour that's full of southern light, closing our holiday with a frenzied dance.

Sibelius: Pelleas and Melisande, Suite

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1

8.25pm

Interval Music

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 'Italian

Jakob Kullberg (cello)

BBC Philharmonic

John Storgards (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic perform music by Sibelius, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich.

Northern European Music For Midsummer20170625Ian Skelly presents a programme of Northern European music to celebrate Midsummer. First to Norway and a performance of Svendsen's String Octet performed by the Vertavo and Opus 13 String Quartets at the Bergen International Festival this summer. Midsummer is a very special time in Estonia, and Veljo Tormis's Jaanulaulu' are settings of the Estonian folk songs sung at the Midsummer fires each year. Finally to Sweden, and Stenhammar's Piano Concerto No.2, performed by Martin Sturf䀀lt at the Berwaldhallen in Stockholm.

Johan Svendsen: String Octet, Op.3

Vertavo String Quartet, Opus 13 String Quartet

Veljo Tormis: Jaanulaulu

Linn退a Lomholt (contralto)

Tobias Nilsson (alto)

Danish Radio Vocal Ensemble

Olof Boman (director)

Stenhammar: Piano Concerto No.2 in D minor

Martin Sturf䀀lt (piano)

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Herbert Blomstedt (conductor).

Northern Lights, Performances From Finland And Iceland20151213Northern Lights: Ian Skelly presents performances by artists from Finland, Sweden and Iceland.

JS Bach: Two-Part Inventions, from BWV 772-786

Pekka Kuusisto (violin), Nicolas Altstaedt (cello)

One of Finland's leading violinists, recorded by Bavarian Radio

Bernhard Henrik Crusell (1775-1838): Flute Quartet, Op. 7

Emily Beynon (flute), Paula Sundqvist (violin), Riitta-Liisa Ristiluoma (viola), Mikko Ivars (cello)

The best-known Finnish-born composer before Sibelius, recorded in his home town of Uusikaupunki

Michael Kirsten (1682-1742): Partie a tre for Viola, Cello and Double Bass

Johanna Persson (viola), Kati Raitinen (cello), Ediscon Ruiz (double bass)

A rarely-heard composer recorded at the Grünewaldsalen, Stockholm

Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 6 in F minor Op. 80

Sigrún Edvaldsd ttir (violin), Pascal La Rosa (violin), Th runn Ӏsk Marin sd ttir (viola), Sigurgeir Agnarsson (cello)

Some of Iceland's leading string players come together for this performance at the Northern Lights Hall in Reykjavik

Photo of Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavik (c) Nic Lehoux.

Musicians from Finland, Sweden and Iceland perform Bach, Crusell, Kirsten and Mendelssohn.

Northern Lights: Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales20151215As part of Radio 3's Northern Lights season, BBC NOW plays music from latitude 60 degrees north and above.

Live from BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Nystroem: The Tempest - Prelude

Stenhammar: Piano Concerto No.2 in D minor

8.15: Interval

Rautavaara: Cantus Articus

Leifs: Geysir

Sibelius: Tapiola

Christian Ihle Hadland (piano)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

B Tommy Andersson (conductor)

As part of BBC Radio 3's Northern Lights season, exploring artistic responses to the very far north, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales performs music from latitude 60 degrees north and above.

The BBC NOW performs music by Nystroem, Stenhammar, Rautavaara, Leifs and Sibelius.

Northern Lights: Helsinki Philharmonic20151210The Helsinki Philharmonic and John Storgards play Sibelius live from Symphony Hall Birmingham, including the Violin Concerto with 2015 International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition winner Christel Lee.

Presented by Tom Redmond.

Sibelius: En Saga, Op 9

Sibelius: Violin Concerto

8.25pm INTERVAL

Sibelius: Karelia Suite, Op 11

Sibelius: Symphony No 7, Op 105

Christel Lee (violin)

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

John Storgards (conductor).

The Helsinki Philharmonic and John Storgards play Sibelius from Birmingham.

Northern Lights: Nordic Christmas20151218Northern Lights: Music for a Nordic Christmas, sung by the Temple Church Choir and Temple Singers with baritone Thomas Guthrie and organist Greg Morris, directed by Roger Sayer.

Live from the Temple Church, London

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Mathias: A Babe Is Born

Leighton: Coventry Carol

Dove: The Three Kings

Rautavaara: Rubကiyကt (baritone: Thomas Guthrie)

Rautavaara: Our Joyful'st Feast

Rautavaara: Christmas Carol

arr Darbourne: Silent Night

Mendelssohn: Three movements from Christus

8.15: Interval

Roman: Drottningholmsmusiken - Music for a Royal Wedding

Arvo P䀀rt: The Deer Cry

Arvo P䀀rt: The Woman with the Alabaster Box

Arvo P䀀rt: De profundis

Arvo P䀀rt: Morning Star

Durufl退: Four Motets, Op. 10

Grieg: Ave Maria

Rheinberger: Abendlied

Whitacre: Sleep

Tavener: God Is with Us.

Petroc Trelawny presents music for a Nordic Christmas sung by the Temple Church Choir.

Northern Lights: Sibelius's Kullervo20151206Northern Lights: Sibelius Kullervo.

Ian Skelly introduces a performance of Sibelius's epic musical hybrid given at the BBC Proms as part of this year's celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth. That's preceded by some recently discovered fragments which probably belong to the composer's Eighth Symphony, the 'holy grail' of Finnish classical music, plus songs by the Swedish early 20th century composer Ture Rangstr怀m.

Rangstr怀m: 3 Songs - Melody, Wings in the Night, The Shield Maiden

Malin Bystr怀m (soprano), Matti Hirvonen (piano)

Sibelius: Fragments from the Eighth Symphony

BBC Philharmonic, John Storg倀rds (conductor)

Sibelius: Kullervo

Johanna Rusanen-Kartano (soprano)

Waltteri Torikka (baritone)

Polytech Choir

BBC Symphony Chorus (men's voices)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

The folk hero Kullervo was the inspiration behind a powerful national statement for a country struggling to overthrow Russian rule. This massive musical hybrid - part cantata, part symphony, part suite - is a vivid and thrilling work, richly melodic but looking ahead to modernism.

Ian Skelly introduces a performance of Sibelius's Kullervo given at the 2015 Proms.

Notes From The New World20190326From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Presented by Tom Redmond

Stravinsky: Orpheus

Dvo?ကk: Cello Concerto in B minor

Music Interval

Martin?: Symphony No 4

BBC Philharmonic

Andrei Ionit? (cello)

John Storgards (conductor)

Having fled across the Atlantic to escape in Nazi Europe, Martin? marked the defeat of his persecutors in 1945 with his Fourth Symphony. In this joyous and powerful work we hear military sounds but also snatches of Czech folk song. The following year, in Los Angeles, Stravinsky finished his ballet 'Orpheus' which received its premiere in New York in 1948. Choreographed by Balanchine the music is translucent, lyrical and restrained; the dreadful moment when Orpheus turns back to see Eurydice is powerfully marked - by silence. Andrei Ionit? joins the orchestra for another work which marks the loss of a loved-one. Fifty years before Stravinsky and Martin? made America their home a home-sick Dvorak was teaching in New York. His Cello Concerto is infused with a powerful longing for his homeland, and for his sister-in-law Josefina; she had a particular fondness for one of his songs which appears in the slow movement. When she died a few years later, he revised the piece in homage to her.

The BBC Philharmonic in music by Martinu, Stravinsky and Dvorak with American roots.

Notes From The New World20200709From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Presented by Tom Redmond

First broadcast in March 2019.

Stravinsky: Orpheus

20.10 Dvo?ကk: Cello Concerto in B minor

21.00 Music Interval

Previn: Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano

Stephen Taylor (oboe)

Dennis Godburn (bassoon)

Andre Previn (piano)

21.20 Martin?: Symphony No 4

BBC Philharmonic

Andrei Ionit? (cello)

John Storgards (conductor)

Having fled across the Atlantic to escape Nazi Europe, Martin? marked the defeat of his persecutors in 1945 with his Fourth Symphony. In this joyous and powerful work, we hear military sounds but also snatches of Czech folk song. The following year, in Los Angeles, Stravinsky finished his ballet 'Orpheus' which received its premiere in New York in 1948, with choreography by Balanchine, The music is translucent, lyrical and restrained; the dreadful moment when Orpheus turns back to see Eurydice is powerfully marked - by silence. Andrei Ionit? joins the orchestra for another work which marks the loss of a loved-one: fifty years before Stravinsky and Martin? made America their home, a home-sick Dvo?ကk was teaching in New York, and his Cello Concerto is infused with a powerful longing for his homeland, and for his sister-in-law, Josefina. She had a particular fondness for one of his songs which appears in the slow movement. When she died a few years later, he revised the Concerto in homage to her.

The BBC Philharmonic in music by Martin\u016f, Stravinsky and Dvo\u0159\u00e1k with American roots.

Nyos Symphony Orchestra And National Youth Orchestra Of Canada20180912In the year of Young People as designated by the Scottish Government, the National Youth Orchestras from Scotland and Canada perform at the Edinburgh International Festival with music from France, England, America and Canada. The NYOS Symphony Orchestra is the top orchestra of the National Youth Orchestras of Scotland family. They make their first appearance at the EIF for 30 years with two of Debussy's great orchestral masterpieces and a rarely heard work by Lili Boulanger dating from 1918, the year of her death. The National Youth Orchestra of Canada was formed in 1960 by Walter Susskind to prepare young Canadian musicians as professional orchestral players. They bring a new commission by the prominent Canadian composer John Estacio inspired by lunar tides on Earth which lends itself to a cinematic style currently being set to film. Their programme also includes the evergreen Appalachian Spring, perhaps Copland's most quintessentially American work. It was a collaboration with the dancer Martha Graham for a ballet which was premiered at the Library of Congress in Washington DC and is probably his both well-loved masterpiece. They end their programme with Vaughan William's pastoral Symphony considered by some as the composer's 'war 'requiem'. It is largely quiet and largely elegiac in mood and suggests an infinite sadness for the slaughter of many young lives.

Debussy: Iberia

Boulanger: D'un matin de printemps

Debussy: La Mer

Estacio: Moontides

Copland: Appalachian Spring

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 3

National Youth Orchestra of Scotland Symphony Orchestra

Paul Daniel, conductor

John Darlington, conductor

Marjorie Maltais, soprano

Double bill of NYOS Symphony Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada at EIF

Octets In Edinburgh2019102420200218 (R3)Recorded at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh, the Scottish Ensemble performs octets by Mendelssohn and Enescu, with guest director Marianne Thorsen. At the age of 16, Mendelssohn wrote his sublime String Octet and described it as his 'favourite of all compositions, I had a wonderful time in the writing of it'. He dedicated it to his violin teacher Eduard Rietz and gave it to him as a birthday present. Another prodigious talent, Georges Enescu graduated from the Vienna Conservatory at 13 and wrote his String Octet at 19. Where Mendelssohn played with melody and flowing changes of colour, Enescu's chamber work is stormy at times, with tinges of Romanian folk music.

Felix Mendelssohn: String Octet in E-flat major Op. 20

INTERVAL: Grieg: Violin Sonata No.2, G Major, Op.13,

Marianne Thorsen (violin), Jorgen Larsen (piano)

George Enescu: Octet for Strings in C major Op. 7

Presenter - Andrew McGregor

Producer - Laura Metcalfe

Photo Credit - Tommy Slack

The Scottish Ensemble performs octets by Mendelssohn and Enescu.

Ode To Joy20211027Domingo Hindoyan launches his first season with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's with Beethoven's Symphony No 9 and the world premiere of Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra's Symphony No 6. Presented by Ian Skelly.

Programme

Roberto Sierra: Symphony No 6

ca. 8.00pm - Interval

ca. 8.20pm - Beethoven: Symphony No 9 ‘Choral

Performers:

Anita Hartig (soprano)

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano)

Andrew Staples (tenor)

Tareq Nazmi (bass)

Members from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir

Domingo Hindoyan (conductor)

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with a world premiere by Roberto Sierra.

Of Paradise And Light20210624Dalia Stasevska, Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and her strings bring dance rhythms, American inflexions, and Jazz notes in a programme ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary. The sparkle of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.3, and Stravinsky's equally exhilarating reimagining of the Baroque era in Dumbarton Oaks frame two American works.

For Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto comes luxury casting with Richard Hosford the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Principal Clarinettist as soloist. Richard's recording of the work has consistently won BBC Radio 3's Record Review Building a Library.

Plus Augusta Read Thomas's Of Paradise and Light (2010), a song without voices, based on an E E Cummings poem, and a fine addition to the American school of string mediation started by Samuel Barber's Adagio.

Recorded at BBC Maida Vale Studios

Presented by Ian Skelly

JS Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G BWV1048

Aaron Copland: Clarinet Concerto

Interval: Berlioz from the BBC Symphony Chorus

Berlioz: Hymne pour la consecration du nouveau Tabernacle

Berlioz: Tantum ergo

Berlioz: Veni Creator

Richard Pearce (organ)

Neil Ferris (conductor)

Part 2

Augusta Read Thomas: Of Paradise and Light

Igor Stravinsky : Dumbarton Oaks

Richard Hosford (clarinet)

Dalia Stasevska (conductor)

Photo of Dalia Stasevska (c) Jarmo Katila

Dalia Stasevska conducts the BBC SO in Bach, Copland, Stravinsky and Read Thomas.

On Christmas Night20211224To mark the 21st anniversary of the reintroduction of the role of Royal Harpist, HRH The Prince of Wales joins Ian Skelly to introduce a special performance of Benjamin Britten's popular collection of carols for harp and voices, A Ceremony of Carols. The sopranos and altos of the BBC Singers are joined by Catrin Finch, who in 2000 was the first holder of the title Harpist to HRH The Prince of Wales - a role that had not previously been filled since the reign of Queen Victoria.

Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols

Benjamin Britten: A New Year Carol

Catrin Finch - harp

Grace Rossiter - conductor

In the second half of the programme, the BBC Singers celebrate the 60th anniversary of the publication of 'Carols for Choirs', the iconic anthology of Christmas carols published by Oxford University Press that has gone on to sell over a million copies worldwide. The BBC Singers also look ahead to the publication of 'Carols for Choirs 6' in 2023 with carols from the new volume by Brittney Boykin and Reena Esmail.

Polish carol, arr. David Willcocks: Infant Holy, Infant Lowly

English traditional, arr. Elizabeth Poston: The Boar's Head Carol

Hungarian traditional, arr. Zoltကn Kodကly: A Christmas Carol

English traditional, arr. David Willcocks: Blessed be that maid Mary

Arnold Cooke: O men from the fields

Hector Berlioz: The Shepherd's farewell

Brittney Boykin: Coventry Carol

Reena Esmail: The unexpected early hour

John Francis Wade, arr. David Willcocks: O come, all ye faithful

Embassy Brass

Francesca Massey and Ashley Grote - organists

Bob Chilcott and Sir Stephen Cleobury - conductors

The BBC Singers perform Britten's A Ceremony of Carols with harpist Catrin Finch.

On Christmas Night With The Bbc Singers And Bbc Concert Orchestra20201225Two contrasting pieces of narration set to music. The BBC Singers and conductor Nicolas Chalmers present Hymn - Alan Bennett's early musical recollections, originally set to music written for string quartet by George Fenton. Hymn has been arranged for the BBC Singers by Clare Wheeler, with additional material by Jonathan Manners and Paul Spicer. The BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor David Hill then perform Richard Allain's musical setting of A Christmas Carol with narration by Stephen Fry.

Alan Bennett/George Fenton: Hymn (arr. Clare Wheeler)

Alan Bennett - narrator

Nicholas Chalmers - conductor

Richard Allain: A Christmas Carol

Stephen Fry - narrator

David Hill - conductor

The BBC Singers perform Hymn, with music by George Fenton and narration by Alan Bennett.

On Wenlock Edge20190509Live from City Halls Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Tenor David Webb joins Ben Gernon and the BBC SSO to sing Vaughan Williams' Song Cycle 'On Wenlock Edge'; and the orchestra perform Stravinsky's 1910 ballet The Firebird, and a poignant miniature from 1913 by George Butterworth.

Butterworth: The Banks of Green Willow

Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge

8.05 Interval

8.25 Part 2

Stravinsky: The Firebird (complete)

Photo credit: Leo Holden

Tenor David Webb joins Ben Gernon and the BBC SSO to sing Vaughan Williams's Song Cycle

Open Ear, Liam Byrne, Riot Ensemble, Heather Roche, Charles Mitchener20180104Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents cutting-edge New Music recorded in the round at LSO St Luke's, London.

Part One

Clara Iannotta: The people here go mad. They blame the wind

Riot Ensemble

Alex Mills: Suspensions and Solutions

Liam Byrne (viol & electronics)

Charles Mitchener: duet 1

Elaine Mitchener (voice)

Neil Charles (double bass)

Michelle Lou: Telegrams

Heather Roche (bass clarinet)

Chaya Czernowin: Ayre: Towed through plumes, thicket, asphalt, sawdust and hazardous air I shall not forget the sound of

8.50 pm: Interval: Innocent Ear - a selection of new music chosen by tonight's concert artists

9.10 Part Two

Charles Mitchener: duet 2

Thierry Tidrow: Clarintabile

Heather Roche (clarinet)

Lorenzo da Firenze: A poste messe

Valgeir Sigur

Open Ear, London Contemporary Orchestra, Sarah Nicolls, Neil Luck, Shiva Feshareki20160630Open Ear - a concert of contemporary music with the London Contemporary Orchestra playing pieces by Meredith Monk, Andrew Hamilton and Shiva Feshareki, plus solo performances from composer/performer Neil Luck, pianist Sarah Nicolls and electronic artist Shiva Feshareki.

Hosted by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and broadcast live from St John-at-Hackney in London.

Sarah Nicholls will be performing on her specially designed Inside Out Piano, the strings of which can be strummed and plucked while the keyboard is also played.

Shiva Feshareki will be performing on turntables, in duet with Kit Downes playing the massive pipe organ of St John.

Neil Luck performs provocative performance-art spoken word pieces that play with fragmentation and interruption.

London Contemporary Orchestra bring two UK premieres, one by the veteran American minimalist Meredith Monk, and one by the Irish maverick Andrew Hamilton;

plus a piece for two separate string ensembles by Shiva Feshareki.

London Contemporary Orchestra and performers Neil Luck, Sarah Nicolls and Shiva Feshareki.

Open Ear: Apartment House, Juice, Joby Burgess20161104Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents Open Ear, a concert of New Music live from St John-at-Hackney in East London. Apartment House plays ensemble pieces by Christopher Fox, Martin Arnold, Laszlo Vidovszky and Aldo Clementi. Juice vocal trio sings pieces by Sarah Dacey, James Lindsay and Ben Oliver. Joby Burgess plays percussion pieces by Linda Buckley and Nicol Lizee. Plus Richard Birkin demonstrates a computerised music box.

Live at St John-at-Hackney, music by Apartment House, Juice, Joby Burgess, Richard Birkin.

Oramo Conducts Mahler20231006From the hillsides of Transylvania, shepherds' horns echo and resound. Gustav Mahler contemplates personal tragedy, then fights his way - through waltzes, storms and a heartfelt musical love letter - to life, hope and triumph. And Dora Peja?evi? dreams out loud, in a neglected, impassioned masterpiece haunted by the shadows of the Great War.

Central Europe doesn't stop at Vienna: although with Sakari Oramo conducting, Mahler's Fifth Symphony is a truly epic way to launch the new BBCSO season. But he begins with a wilder, stranger vision from a great Hungarian modernist - and joins pianist Alexandra Dariescu to champion the UK premiere of the Phantasie Concertante by Dora Peja?evi?, the Croatian composer whose symphony was described as `a genuine find` when Oramo recorded it in 2022.

Live from the Barbican London presented by Martin Handley

Gy怀rgy Ligeti: Concert Rom nesc

Dora Peja?evi?: Phantasie Concertante (UK premiere)*

c. 20.00

Interval music chosen by Alexandra Dariescu:

Enescu: Octet Op.7 in C (1st Movt)

Vilde Frang , Erik Schumann, Gabriel Le Magadure, Rosanne Philippens (violins)

Lawrence Power, Lily Francis (violas)

Nicolas Altstaedt, Jan-Erik Gustafsson (cellos)

Szymanowski: 9 Preludes Op.1 (Nos 1 & 2)

Alexandra Dariescu (piano)

20.20 Concert Part 2

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor

Alexandra Dariescu (piano)*

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's famed Fifth Symphony.

Orchestra Della Svizzera Italiana20210215Alexander Vedernikov conducts music by Enrico Chapela and Franck, with Johannes Moser soloist in Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto no.1, in a concert recorded in Lugano, Switzerland in September 2019

Vedernikov sadly died in October but had a long-standing and productive relationship with the Swiss Italian orchestra, and this evening's concert recording reflects both his interpretative strength in well-known repertoire as well as his passionate commitment to new music. Mexican composer Enrico Chapela has an eclectic ear for sound and eclectic tastes in inspiration - indeed his concerto for electric cello and orchestra, Magnetar, stems from both science and science fiction

Presented by Fiona Talkington

7.30pm

Cello Concerto no.1 in A minor, Op.33

Magnetar - Concerto for electric cello and orchestra

8.15pm

Interval:

Arno Babajanian

Piano Trio in F sharp minor

Vadim Gluzman, violin

Johannes Moser, cello

Yevgeny Sudbin, piano

8.35pm

Symphony in D minor, Op.48

Johannes Moser, cello / electric cello

Alexander Vedernikov, conductor

Alexander Vedernikov conducts music by Saint-Saens, Enrico Chapela and Franck

Orchestra Of Santa Cecilia20220509Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome.

Fiona Talkington presents this concert recorded at the Renzo Piano-designed Auditorium at the Parco della Musica in Rome.

Beethoven: Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Op.43

Mozart: Piano Concerto No.9 in E flat, K.271, 'Jeunehomme

Sibelius: Symphony No.1 in E minor, Op.39

Daniil Trifonov (piano)

Antonio Pappano (conductor)

Auditorium, Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy, 26/11/2021

Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra of St Cecilia in Beethoven, Mozart and Sibelius.

Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment20160208As part of their series 'Marin, Madness and Music', Marin Alsop conducts the period instrument Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Brahms and Schumann. The personal tragedy of Robert Schumann's life-long mental illness drove him to attempt suicide, after which he spent the final years of his life in a mental asylum, unable even to recognise his wife, Clara. But despite, or perhaps because of his condition he wrote wrote some of the greatest music of the 19th century including the heroic 3rd symphony. Inspired by a trip with his wife to the Rhineland, the 'Rhenish' symphony portrays some of the sights they saw including the surging Rhine and the glowing stained glass of Cologne Cathedral.

Schumann's violin concerto languished in a library with the stipulation that it should not be performed until his centenary in 1937, when it was championed by Yehudi Menuhin, among others; tonight's soloist is the versatile, intense and compelling Patricia Kopatchinskaja. And it was while Schumann was writing this work that he was first introduced to Brahms, who became such an important figure in Clara's life, and the concert begins with Brahms's St Anthony Variations.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny and recorded last Saturday.

Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn 'Saint Anthony Variations,' Op. 56a

Schumann: Violin Concerto in D Minor, WoO 23

Schumann: Symphony No. 3 In E Flat Op.97 'Rhenish

Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin)

Marin Alsop (conductor)

Followed by a glimpse into Adopt a Composer - Making Music's scheme pairing composers with performing groups from around the country.

Tonight, the Kensington Symphony Orchestra works on Seကn Doherty's Hive Mind.

Marin Alsop conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Brahms and Schumann.

Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment, Campra, Fischer, Bach, Rameau20170630Live from Birmingham's Symphony Hall, William Christie and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment present a colourful programme from every corner of the Baroque world. Two of Bach's glorious orchestral suites anchor the concert, but there's also 'exotic' music from Jean-Philippe Rameau, a Frenchman dancing his way through Carnival season in Venice, and a salute to the coming of spring - all performed with Christie's ravishing sense of colour and inimitable rhythmic verve. Presented by Stuart Flinders.

Campra: Suite 'Les Fꀀtes v退nitiennes

Fischer: Le Journal du printemps, Op.1 No.7

Bach: Orchestral Suite No.4 in D major, BWV.1069

8.15pm

INTERVAL

8.35

Rameau: Suite 'Les Indes galantes

Bach: Orchestral Suite No.3 in D major, BWV.1068

William Christie (conductor)

Followed by

Canada 150

After this week's concerts, as part of a season marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of Canada, a chance to hear music from across the nation.

William Christie conducts the OAE in music by Bach, Campra, Fischer and Rameau.

Orchestra Of Welsh National Opera: Mahler, Shostakovich20171123Live from St David's Hall, Cardiff.

Welsh National Opera Music Director Tom  Hanus conducts Shostakovich's powerful and imposing Leningrad Symphony with the WNO Orchestra.

Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

8.05: Interval

8.25

Shostakovich: Symphony No 7 (Leningrad)

Tara Erraught, mezzo soprano

Orchestra of Welsh National Opera

Tom  Hanus, conductor

German romanticism and a lyric sensibility rub shoulders in four richly-scored and moving songs by Gustav Mahler. By sharp contrast, Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony resonates with the rhythms of war. The 'Leningrad' became a symbol of Russian defiance when in August 1942 a half-starved and heroic orchestra played it through loudspeakers to the surrounding German forces in one of the deadliest sieges in history.

Welsh National Opera Music Director Tomas Hanus conducts Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony

Orchestral Enchantment And Grandeur20210622Light and carefree, Mendelssohn's incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream depicts the fairy realm of Shakespeare's play with enchanting, perhaps even enchanted, music. Scriabin's Rꀀverie, for all its brevity, is packed full of luscious harmonies interwoven to create a swirling dreamscape that ebbs and flows mysteriously. The concert ends with one of the really great, late-Romantic symphonies, Sibelius's epic Fifth, which has a sweep and grandeur triumphing over passing feelings of anxiety to celebrate the heroic, optimistic power of life.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra play Mendelssohn, Scriabin and Sibelius.

Kirill Karabits, conductor

Mendelssohn: Suite: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Overture, Scherzo, Nocturne, Intermezzo, Wedding March)

Scriabin: Reverie

Sibelius: Symphony No. 5

Recorded on the 27th March 2021, at the Lighthouse, Poole, under lockdown conditions.

Orchestral Music From Opera North20210428Richard Farnes conducts the Orchestra of Opera North.
Orchestral Titans20221108Recorded at The Lighthouse, Poole, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with chief conductor Kirill Karabits are joined by French-Russian violinist Fedor Rudin for Beethoven's majestic Violin Concerto. Plus two pieces showing very different sides of Bart?k's character: his Romanian Folk Dances and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.

Presented by Martin Handley

Bart?k: Romanian Folk Dances

Beethoven: Violin Concerto

c.8.30pm Interval Music

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.10 in G major, Op. 14 No. 2

Elisabeth Brauss, piano

c.8.45pm

Bart?k: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta

Fedor Rudin (violin)

Kirill Karabits (conductor)

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra perform Bart\u00f3k and Beethoven at The Lighthouse, Poole.

Orchestras Of Switzerland20180204Clemency Burton-Hill presents recordings of recent concerts given by orchestras in Switzerland, from the Zurich Tonhalle to l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra to the Basel Chamber Orchestra.

Biber: Battalia a 10 in D, C61

Joshua Weilerstein (conductor)

Bach: Excerpts from 'The Art of Fugue' (Contrapunctus I - Contrapunctus II)

Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra

Philippe Herreweghe (conductor)

Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No 2 in D minor, Op 40

Martin Helmchen (piano)

Bach: 'Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639

Danzi: Symphony Concertante in B flat, Op 41

Sabine Meyer (clarinet)

Emmanuel Pahud (flute)

Giovanni Antonini (conductor)

Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy (Le Po耀me de l'extase), Op 54

Matthias Pintscher (conductor).

Clemency Burton-Hill presents recordings from recent concerts given by Swiss orchestras.

Orchestre De La Suisse Romande20220516Jonathan Nott, since 2017 Music and Artistic Director of the Geneva-based Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, conducts a typically stimulating programme bookended by two 20th-century modernist classics.

There is still no more influential piece of music from the last century than Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and today, well over a hundred years after its infamous Paris premiere, its brutal, primitive-sounding rhythms and spectacular orchestration still pack a punch. In his 1927 Arcana, Edgar Var耀se, who described himself as 'a worker in frequencies and intensities' rather than a composer, also made use of a huge orchestra with a percussion battery to match. But, unlike the ancient history scenario of The Rite, this phantasmagorical, hallucinatory work seems rooted in the urban sprawl of 1920s New York where Var耀se lived.

In between these two iconic behemoths, celebrated German soprano Christiane Karg joins the OSR and Nott for Ravel's song cycle Sh退h退razade, born of his fascination with the exotic allure of the Orient.

Recorded in March at Victoria Hall, Geneva, and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

8.10 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Ravel: Introduction & Allegro

Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Wenzel Fuchs (clarinet),

Marie-Pierre Langlamet (harp), Christophe Horak (violin),

Simon Roturier (violin), Ignacy Miecznikowski (viola),

Bruno Delepelaire (cello)

8.20 pm

Ravel: Sh退h退razade

Edgard Var耀se: Arcana

Christiane Karg (soprano)

Jonathan Nott (conductor)

Jonathan Nott conducts Stravinsky, Ravel with soprano Christiane Karg, and Var\u00e8se.

Orchestre De La Suisse Romande, Debussy, Saint-saens, Ravel, Brahms20160605Ian Skelly presents Philippe Herreweghe conducting Haydn, and Renaud Capu瀀on with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Osmo V䀀nsk䀀, in highlights from recent European concerts:

Debussy: Pr退lude

Orchestre National De France20220606Bertrand de Billy conducts Gallic forces in an all-French concert recorded in March at the Grand Auditorium of the Maison de la Radio, Paris.

To begin, Henri Dutilleux's Symphony No. 2 ('Double'). This 1959 commission, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, makes a feature of the interplay between a 12-part ensemble and a large orchestra (hence the 'Double'), described by Dutilleux as 'a musical play of mirrors and of contrasting colours' and including a lively finale, partly inspired by Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

In the concert's second half, two 19th-century poems are the starting point for Debussy. His sensuous ballet score, Pr退lude

Orchestre National De France, Dvorak, Rachmaninov20170423Ian Skelly presents a concert recorded at the newly opened Auditorium at the Maison de la Radio, Paris, in which the Orchestre National de France is conducted by its music director designate, Emmanuel Krivine. And the acclaimed Russian pianist, Denis Matsuev joins them for Rachmaninov plus a couple of encores.

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 3 in D minor, Op 30

Rachmaninov: ɀtude tableau, Op 39 No 2 ('The Sea and the Seagulls')

Denis Matsuev: Jazz improvisation

Dvo?ကk: Symphony No 7 in D minor, Op 70

Denis Matsuev (piano)

Emmanuel Krivine (conductor)

rec. 12.01.2017.

The Orchestre National de France plays music by Dvorak and Rachmaninov in Paris.

Orchestre National De France, Emmanuel Krivine20171119Ian Skelly presents highlights from concerts around Europe. Tonight, the inaugural concert by Emmanuel Krivine as Music Director of the Orchestre National de France, recorded on 7th September at the Auditorium, Radio France, Paris.

Webern: Passacaglia for Orchestra, Op. 1

Strauss: Four Last Songs

Franck: Symphony in D minor

Ann Peterson, soprano

Emmanuel Krivine, conductor.

Ian Skelly presents the Orchestre National de France conducted by Emmanuel Krivine.

Orchestre National De France, Schumann, Bach, Strauss20170702Riccardo Muti conducts the French National Orchestra in music by Strauss and Schumann.

One of the world's leading maestros for over five decades, Riccardo Muti here conducts a French orchestra with whom he's enjoyed a long association. The Naples-born maestro steers the Orchestre National de France through Strauss's evocative early symphonic fantasy, a work inspired by the twenty one year old composer's tour of Italy in 1885. As he wrote at the time: 'In the Roman ruins...ideas just came flying to me.' It was the seldom performed Aus Italien which paved the way for Strauss's more famous tone poems.

David Fray (piano)

Riccardo Muti (conductor)

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54

Bach/Busoni: Nun kommt der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659

Strauss: Aus Italien, symphonic fantasy, Op.16

rec. Auditorium, Maison de la Radio, Paris on 24 March 2017.

Riccardo Muti conducts the Orchestre National de France in Schumann, Bach and Strauss.

Organ Music From The Suffolk Coast20200317Saved from flood and from years in storage, the magnificent organ made by Peter Collins in 1977 has found a new home on the Suffolk Coast. In a varied programme, virtuoso organist Catherine Ennis demonstrates the colours of the newly restored instrument now delighting listeners in St Bartholomew's Church, Orford.

[Photo © CLIVE BARDA/ArenaPAL]

J.S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565

Frescobaldi: Fiori Musicali: Toccata; Toccata per Elevatione; Bergamasca

de Grigny: Hymnus: Veni Creator En taille

Organ Recital From The Royal Festival Hall20220923Iveta Apkalna plays the organ of the Royal festival Hall: music by Glass, Bach and Widor.

Presented by Ian Skelly, live from the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna is renowned for her virtuosity and adventurous progamming. Keen to bring organ music beyond the borders of church walls, she has toured the concert halls of the world, and since its opening in 2016, has served as the principal organist of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Tonight's programme on the famous Harrison and Harrison organ of the Royal Festival Hall moves from the glistening serenity of Philip Glass to the overwhelming majesty of Widor's Symphony No.5, ending with the famous Toccata.

Philip Glass: Conclusion from Act 3 from Satyagraha arr. Michael Riesman for organ

Bach: Ricercar a 6, No.5 from A Musical Offering

Widor: Organ Symphony No.5 in F minor, Op.42 No.1

Iveta Apkalna, organ

Organ Reformation20170518Live from St Giles' Cripplegate Church. Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.BBC Radio 3 celebrates music of the Reformation. The BBC Singers under Paul Brough join forces with organist William Whitehead in a concert of music focusing on the organ, and in particular JS Bach's Orgelbüchlein (Little Organ Book).

The evening includes world premiere performances as part of The Orgelbüchlein Project, a major international composition project to complete Bach's Orgelbüchlein which has been curated by William Whitehead. This is a unique opportunity to hear works by Bach and contemporary composers played on the organ, with BBC Singers singing the chorales on which these compositions are based.

Celebrating music of the Reformation, a concert of music focusing on the organ.

Oslo Philharmonic And Romanian National Symphony Orchestra20181021Stephen Hough is the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.5, the Emperor, with the Oslo Philharmonic conducted by Vasily Petrenko at the opening concert of their 2018 autumn season. Plus, highlights from Romania's Magic Summer Festival - favourite orchestral works by Strauss and Ravel.

Kate Molleson presents.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.5 in E flat 'Emperor

Stephen Hough (piano)

Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra

Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

Strauss: Suite from Der Rosenkavalier

Ravel: Bolero

Romanian National Symphony Orchestra

Cristian Macelaru (conductor)

Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with Stephen Hough in Oslo. Strauss and Ravel from Romania

Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra20210118Vasily Petrenko conducts the Oslo Philharmonic at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, in Arne Nordheim's Canzone for Orchestra, Grieg's Piano Concerto with soloist Leif Ove Andsnes, and Rachmaninov's Second Symphony.

During the interval you can hear a complete performance of the String Quartet No.1 by 19th-century Danish composer Nancy Dalberg.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Arne Nordheim - Canzone for Orchestra

Edvard Grieg - Piano Concerto in A minor

Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)

Conducted by Vasily Petrenko

20.10

Nancy Dalberg - String Quartet No.1 in D minor

Nordic String Quartet

20.30

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Symphony No.2 in E minor, Op.27

Followed by a selection of trio sonatas on disc.

Vasily Petrenko conducts Oslo Philharmonic in music by Arne Nordheim, Grieg & Rachmaninov

Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra: Schumann20180318Radio 3's weekly look at some of the best concerts from around Europe.

Tonight, a visit to the Oslo Concerto Hall, where Arvid Engeg倀rd conducts the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in music by Schumann.

Schumann:Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op.52

Cello Concerto in A minor, Op.129

Symphony No.1 in B flat, Op.38 'Spring

Daniel Müller-Schott, cello

Arvid Engeg倀rd, conductor.

Arvid Engegard conducts the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in music by Schumann.

Our Valley Is His Golden Cup...20221109From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

Recorded in September, this concert opened the BBC Philharmonic's 2022/23 season. A theme running through their current concerts is that of last works and conductor Mark Wigglesworth opens this concert with the Prelude to Wagner's final opera, Parsifal, the tale of an Arthurian knight's quest for the Holy Grail. In his Second Symphony, Elgar expresses his search for certainty at a time of transition, personal turmoil and doubt. A quotation from Shelley heads the score, 'Rarely, rarely comest though, Spirit of Delight.' George Meredith's poem 'The Lark Ascending' sets the scene for Vaughan Williams's work of the same name; the lark isn't seeking the Holy Grail, but creating it through song, 'And ever winging up and up, Our valley is our golden cup, And he the wine which overflows To lift us with him as he goes.

Violinist Zoe Beyers leads us on the journey.

Wagner: Parsifal: Prelude

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

8.05pm

Interval (CD)

British vocal and choral songs by Delius, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Parry and Dilys Elwyn Edwards, inspired by British birds

8.25

Elgar: Symphony No.2

Zoe Beyers (violin)

Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)

Mark Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Wagner.

Oxford Lieder Festival20171025Anna St退phany sings Mahler, Grieg and Brahms at the Oxford Lieder Festival, with pianist Sholto Kynoch.

Recorded at the Holywell Music Room, Oxford on Saturday 14th November 2017.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Mahler: Starke Einbildungskraft; Hans und Grethe; Frühlingsmorgen (from Lieder und Ges䀀nge aus der Jugendzeit)

Im Lenz; Winterlied

Abl怀sung im Sommer; Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald (from Lieder und Ges䀀nge aus der Jugendzeit)

Grieg: Six Songs, Op. 48 (1. Gruss; 2. Dereinst, Gedanke mein; 3. Lauf der Welt; 4. Die verschwiegene Nachtigall; 5. Zur Rosenzeit; 6. Ein Traum)

8.15: Interval

Brahms: Nachtigallen schwingen, Op.6 No.6; An die Nachtigall, Op.46 No.4; Lerchengesang, Op.70 No. 2; Alte Liebe, Op.72 No.1; Volkslied, Op.7 No.4;

8 Songs from 49 Deutsche Volkslieder: Ach, englische sch䀀ferin; Dort in den Weiden; Schwesterlein, schwesterlein, wann gehn wir; Es reit ein Herr und auch sein Knecht; Die Sonne scheint nicht mehr; Och Moder, ich well en Ding han!; Es steht ein' Lind'; Da unten im Tale

Wie die Wolke nach der Sonne, Op.6 No.6

Juchhe! Op.6 No.4

Anna St退phany (mezzo-soprano)

Sholto Kynoch (piano)

Following recent acclaim in the Royal Opera's Der Rosenkavalier and Glyndebourne's La Clemenza di Tito, Anna St退phany returns to the Oxford Lieder Festival, joined by Oxford Lieder's artistic director Sholto Kynoch. The first half of their programme includes songs by the young Mahler, written in the 1880s and inspired by nature and folk music, and Grieg's wonderful six settings of German poetry, Opus 48, written in exactly the same period. After the interval, they perform a selection of songs by the senior statesman of song in Vienna, Johannes Brahms, including some of his arrangements of folk songs, by turns amusing and profoundly moving.

Anna Stephany sings Mahler, Grieg and Brahms at the Oxford Lieder Festival.

Oxford Lieder Festival 2020: Connections Across Time20201001Like so many festivals, Oxford Lieder has had to reinvent itself for 2020, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. A rich season of live-streamed concerts and events begins on 10 October, but as a curtain-raiser to the main Festival, Artistic Director Sholto Kynoch and friends perform live at BBC Maida Vale studios Including Ashley Riches in Schumann's great song-cycle, Dichterliebe, songs by Hugo Wolf, Rebecca Clarke and Saint-Sa뀀ns and newly-written songs from leading contemporary ensemble, The Hermes Experiment.

Introduced by Ian Skelly.

Rebecca Clarke: The Tailor and his Mouse

Britten: At the railway station, Upway

Wolf: Der Musikant, St䀀ndchen and Wie lange schon war immer mein Verlangen

Spohr: Der Spielmann und seiner Geige

Saint-Sa뀀ns:Violons dans le soir and Danse Macabre

Caitlin Hulcup (mezzo soprano),

Jonathan Stone (violin),

Sholto Kynoch (piano)

Schumann: Dichterliebe, Op. 48

Ashley Riches (baritone)

New works

The Hermes Experiment:

H退lose Werner (soprano)

Oliver Pashley (clarinet)

Anne Denholm (harp)

Marianne Schofield (double bass)

Ashley Riches and Sholto Kynoch perform Schumann's Dichterliebe

Oxford Lieder Festival's Schumann Project20161031Christopher Cook presents a recital of Schumann partsongs at the Oxford Lieder Festival. The pianist and festival director Sholto Kynoch brings together a distinguished line up of soloists for an ensemble evening of Schumann song.

Including:

Schumann: Minnespiel

Schumann: Spanische Liebeslieder

Ailish Tynan (soprano)

Kitty Whately (mezzo-soprano)

James Gilchrist (tenor)

Jacques Imbrailo (baritone)

Sholto Kynoch (piano)

The culmination of the Oxford Lieder Festival's Schumann Project, this concert features a star cast in two of Schumann's cycles for four singers and piano. In Minnespiel, Op. 101, Schumann sets poems of Friedrich Rückert in a series of eight solos, duets and quartets. The Spanische Liebeslieder, Op. 138, follows a similar pattern, but with the ensemble including four hands at the piano; an inspiration for Brahms's later Liebeslieder Walzer. Together with other songs and duets, they form a fitting and uplifting send-off to the Festival.

Christopher Cook presents Schumann partsongs from the 2016 Oxford Lieder Festival.

Pappano Conducts Kendall, Liszt And Strauss20231017In his first concert as Chief Conductor Designate of the LSO, Sir Antonio Pappano conducts a programme including the world premiere of Hannah Kendall's O flower of fire; Liszt's ferocious vision of mortality, Totentanz (featuring Alice Sara Ott as soloist); and Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, made famous by its use in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Recorded at the Barbican Centre, London, 5th October 2023

Presented by Georgia Mann

Hannah Kendall: O flower of fire (world premiere)

Franz Liszt: Totentanz

Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra

Alice Sara Ott (piano)

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor)

Antonio Pappano conducts the London Symphony Orchestra and pianist Alice Sara Ott.

Antonio Pappano conducts the London Symphony Orchestra and Alice Sara Ott in Hannah Kendall's O flower of fire, Liszt's Totentanz and Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra.

Paris-manchester 1918, Elgar, Debussy And Wagner20180305Paris-Manchester 1918. Musicians from the Royal Northern College of Music and the Paris Conservatoire join forces at London's Cadogan Hall to explore music performed in Manchester and Paris during the First World War. Included in the programme is music by Richard Wagner, a composer championed by Sir Thomas Beecham in his wartime concerts with the Hall退 Orchestra.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Debussy: Pr退lude

Parting Tears And Present Sleep20220610From Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Linton Stephens

Alma and Gustav Mahler provide the inspiration for the works that bookend the programme. Shortly after Gustav's death in 1911, his wife Alma began an affair with the Expressionist painter Oskar Kokoshka and his painting, 'Die Windsbraut' (The Bride of the Wind), portrays Alma and Oskar in bed together, she sleeping peacefully, he lying awake with worry. Alissa Firsova takes the painting as a starting point for her piece, creating music which depicts this powerful image as well as the turbulence of their relationship and their love. Ending the concert is Gustav's First Symphony. Privately he revealed that it was inspired by a failed love affair with a singer and although he became increasingly wary of revealing a programme behind his work, his quotations from his 'Songs of a Wayfarer' provide a definitive link on this occasion. The sounds of the forest coming to life, the folk-song inspired melodies and ground-breaking use of orchestral colour combine in music which remains new to this day. A decade after Mahler penned that Symphony in a state of emotional chaos, Edward Elgar was orchestrating the five songs that make up his 'Sea Pictures' for performance at the Norwich Festival; contralto Jess Dandy joins the orchestra for a performance of one of Elgar's best known works. In 'Haven' the second song, he sets words by his wife, Alice: 'Joy, sea-swept, may fade today; love alone will stay.

Alissa Firsova: Die Windsbraut

Elgar: Sea Pictures

Music Interval (CD)

Schumann: Waldszenen

Leon McCawley (piano)

8.30pm

Mahler: Symphony No.1

Jess Dandy (contralto)

BBC Philharmonic

Gemma New (conductor)

Gemma New and the BBC Philharmonic perform music by Alissa Firsova, Mahler and Elgar.

Passio20210408Arvo Part's profoundly moving contemporary meditation on Easter performed in a collaboration between two of Scotland 's leading ensembles. Two solo voices, baritone for Jesus and tenor for Pilate relate this ancient story of suffering with a solo quartet taking the Evangelist role.

Arvo Part - Passio

Dunedin Consort

Hebrides Ensemble

Choir of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh

Matthew Brook.....Christus

Hugo Hymas.....Pilatus

William Conway, conductor

Presented by Kate Molleson

Dunedin Consort & Hebrides Ensemble present Arvo Part's contemporary meditation on Easter

Patrick Watson With Jules Buckley And The Bbc Symphony Orchestra20220522Musical omnivore Patrick Watson has given us some of the most beautiful songs of recent years. He has garnered a dedicated following of deep-listening fans, all of them attracted by music that mines deep subtlety from its expansive tendencies. Watson's musical outlook ranges from rock to classical chamber music via cabaret and film soundtracks. His gift for melody and narrative and his personal vocal delivery have secured his status as one of the most distinctive songwriters of his generation. With its deep regard for texture, silence and emotion, Watson's music has always glanced towards the huge universe of the symphony orchestra. This concert, recorded at the Barbican Hall in February, was conducted by the BBC SO's Creative Artist in Association Jules Buckley - who also wrote many of the arrangements. Watson fans and newcomers alike will hear his songs magnified to reveal all their artful depth.

Dark > Light (Patrick Watson and Jules Buckley)

Lost With You (Patrick Watson arr. Jochen Neuffer)

The Wave (Patrick Watson arr. Tom Trapp)

Big Bird in a Small Cage (Patrick Watson and Gabriel Desjardins)

Wooden Arms (Patrick Watson arr. Jules Buckley)

Beijing (Patrick Watson arr. Jules Buckley)

Melody Noir* (Patrick Watson)

In Circles (Joseph Grass, Robbie Kuster, Mikhail Stein, Patrick Watson arr. Jochen Neuffer)

Adventures in Your Own Backyard (Patrick Watson arr. Jules Buckley)

Man Like You (Patrick Watson arr. Jules Buckley)

Look at You (Patrick Watson and Gabriel Desjardin)*

Turn Into the Noise (Patrick Watson arr. Tom Trapp)

Je te laisserai des mots (Patrick Watson arr. Jochen Neuffer)

Here Comes the River (Patrick Watson arr. Jules Buckley)

Where the Wild Things Are (Patrick Watson arr. Jules Buckley)

Encores:

To Build a Home (Patrick Watson and Jason Swinscoe arr. Jules Buckley)

Lighthouse (Patrick Watson arr. Jules Buckley)

Man under the Sea (Patrick Watson arr. Jules Buckley)

Patrick Watson (vocals, piano/synth)

Mikhail Stein (bass guitar)

Dana Gavanski* (vocals)

Andrew Barr (drums)

London Contemporary Voices

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Jules Buckley (conductor)

The Canadian boutique singer-songwriter's songs reimagined in a concert at the Barbican.

Paul Lewis20180126Martin Handley introduces a recital Paul Lewis gave in May 2016 at the Royal Festival Hall, with music by Schubert, Brahms and Liszt, culminating in Liszt's epic Dante Sonata.

Schubert: Piano Sonata in B major, D575

Brahms: Four Ballades, Op 10

Interval: Mozart: Piano Quartet In E Flat, K493 (1st movement)

Brahms: Three Intermezzi, Op 117

Liszt: Dante Sonata

Liszt: Klavierstück in F sharp major, S193

Paul Lewis (piano)

A musical ride through Hell is how Paul Lewis describes Liszt's Dante Sonata - it's Liszt at his most wild and eccentric, a virtuosic dazzler. It's also the piece with which Paul Lewis first made his reputation while still a teenager - he has since become known more for his interpretations of the great piano works of Beethoven and Schubert, but now he is taking a more mature look at Liszt's nightmare epic. He contrasts this with some less well-known early Schubert, some early Brahms and Brahms's well-loved Intermezzi.

Paul Lewis plays piano music by Schubert, Brahms and Liszt.

Paul Lewis Fiftieth Birthday Concert20220706Internationally acclaimed pianist Paul Lewis celebrates his fiftieth birthday with his debut solo recital at the Barbican Hall in London. Beethoven is a composer central to Lewis's life, and he bookends his recital with two of the most popular of the Sonatas. In between comes perhaps less expected repertoire. Sibelius's Six Bagatelles are Lewis's lockdown discovery and he pairs them with another set of miniatures: Mendelssohn's Songs without Words are, says Lewis, 'perfect, lyrical miniatures - how can you not want to play them?' Chopin's Polonaise-fantaisie, at once anguished, desperate and introspective, completes the programme.

Recorded in May and introduced by Martin Handley, including comments from Paul Lewis.

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor (Path退tique)

Mendelssohn: Songs without Words

No. 1 in E major, Op. 19

No. 3 in G minor, Op. 53

No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 53

No. 2 in A minor, Op. 19

No. 3 in E major, Op. 30

Sibelius: Six Bagatelles

8.20 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Mark Padmore (tenor)

Richard Watkins (horn)

Paul Lewis (piano)

8.30 pm

Chopin: Polonaise No. 7 in A-flat major (Polonaise-fantaisie)

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Appassionata

Pianist Paul Lewis plays Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Sibelius and Chopin at the Barbican.

Paul Lewis Live At The Royal Festival Hall20181113Internationally acclaimed pianist Paul Lewis continues his two year recital series revealing connections between Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms.

Brahms's Op.116 Fantasies are characteristic of his late works, at once introspective and melancholy, qualities shared by parts of Haydn's C minor Sonata; Beethoven's Op.33 Bagatelles are his first set, a series of miniature distillations of his piano style, by turns humorous, dramatic and improvisatory. They're contrasted with Haydn's last and most expansive sonata, the form which Beethoven came to dominate.

Ian Skelly presents.

Brahms: 7 Fantasias, Op.116

Haydn: Sonata in C minor, Hob.XVI/20

Interval

Beethoven: 7 Bagatelles, Op.33

Haydn: Sonata in E flat, Hob.XVI/52

Paul Lewis (piano)

Internationally acclaimed pianist Paul Lewis plays Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms.

Paul Lewis Plays Schubert20230502Three important works from Schubert's output. D664 is one of the shortest of the series, and one of the sunniest. When posthumously published in 1861, the incomplete D840 was named ‘Reliquie' - meaning ‘relic' - as it was (incorrectly) supposed to be the composer's final work; the A minor D845 is one of several that postdate it.

Recorded at Wigmore Hall, London, presented by Hannah French.

Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata in C D840 'Reliquie

Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata in A D664

8.15pm interval music

Franz Schubert: Gesang der Geister über den Wassern, D714

RIAS Chamber Choir

Scharoun Ensemble

Marcus Creed, conductor

8.25pm

Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata in A minor D845

Paul Lewis, piano

Three sonatas by Franz Schubert, recorded at Wigmore Hall in London.

Paul Lewis Plays Schubert20231214Recorded at London's Wigmore Hall, the multi-award winning pianist continues his exploration of Schubert's piano writing with a performance of three sonatas. Presented by Sarah Walker.

Schubert: Piano Sonata in A minor D537

Schubert: Piano Sonata in B D575

Schubert: Fantasy Sonata in G D894

Paul Lewis, piano

Paul Lewis continues his exploration of Schubert's piano writing.

Recorded at London's Wigmore Hall, multi-award-winning pianist Paul Lewis continues his exploration of Schubert's piano writing with a performance of three of his sonatas.

Paul Lewis With The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic20230929Star pianist Paul Lewis joins the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for the opening concert of their orchestral season, conducted by Domingo Hindoyan.

In 1950s Manhattan, electrifying dance rhythms punch and kick across the hot city streets. A world away, a composer in exile creates a masterpiece that's part-symphony, part-ballet, and all Rachmaninov. And in between, Liverpool's own piano superstar Paul Lewis salutes jazz-age America in Copland's Piano Concerto and George Gershwin's inimitable, irresistible Rhapsody in Blue.

Presented by Penny Gore.

Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Copland: Piano Concerto

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Domingo Hindoyan, conductor

Paul Lewis, piano

Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin and Rachmaninov in the orchestra's season-opening concert.

Paul Lewis, Live In Concert, Plays Beethoven, Haydn And Brahms At The Royal Festival Hall20180605Pianist Paul Lewis performs music by Beethoven, Haydn and Brahms, in the second recital of a series he's devised exploring the connections between these composers, associated with the musical life in Vienna and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late 18th and 19th-Centuries. The concert opens with Beethoven's 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119, a collection of short pieces written over a period of more than 25 years, from the 1790s to the early 1820s. Then, on either side of the interval, come two pieces by Haydn: first, his Sonata in E flat major, Hob. XVI/49, written for the fortepiano in 1789/90, marking the beginning of his mature style for the keyboard; then, opening the second half of this recital, it's his Sonata in B minor, Hob. XVI/32, part of a set of six, published privately in 1776. The concert closes with Brahms' 4 Pieces, Op. 119, written in 1892/3, part of the wonderful chamber music that the composer wrote towards the end of his life. The piece is comprised by three intermezzi followed by a rhapsody.

Live from the Royal Festival Hall in London

Presented by Mark Forrest

7.31pm

Beethoven: 11 Bagatelles, Op.119

Haydn: Sonata in E flat, Hob.XVI/49

8.06pm

Interval Music

8.30pm

Haydn: Sonata in B minor, Hob.XVI/32

Brahms: 4 Pieces, Op.119

Paul Lewis, piano.

Live - Pianist Paul Lewis plays Beethoven, Haydn and Brahms at the Royal Festival Hall.

Paul Lewis, Schubert, Brahms, Liszt20160707Martin Handley introduces a Royal Festival Hall recital by pianist Paul Lewis, with music by Schubert, Brahms and Liszt, culminating in Liszt's epic Dante Sonata

Schubert: Piano Sonata in B major, D575

Brahms: Four Ballades Op.10

Brahms: Three Intermezzi Op.117

Liszt: Dante Sonata

Paul Lewis (piano)

A musical ride through Hell is how Paul Lewis describes Liszt's Dante Sonata - it's Liszt at his most wild and eccentric, a virtuosic dazzler. It's also the piece with which Paul Lewis first made his reputation 25 years ago as a teenager - he has since become known more for his interpretations of the great piano works of Beethoven and Schubert, but now he is taking a more mature look at Liszt's nightmare epic. He contrasts this with some less well-known early Schubert, some early Brahms and Brahms's well-loved Intermezzi.

Pianist Paul Lewis performs music by Schubert, Brahms and Liszt at the Royal Festival Hall

Pavel Haas Quartet, Live From Wigmore Hall: Stravinsky, Ravel, Dvorak20171010Live from Wigmore Hall The Pavel Haas Quartet music by Stravinsky, Ravel and Dvorak.

The Pavel Haas Quartet have won many awards for their recordings of the music of Smetana and Janacek. Tonight they are joined by viola player Pavel Nikl for more music from their Czech homeland. And they pair this with a classic of the French repertoire.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Stravinsky: Concertino for string quartet

Ravel: String Quartet in F major

INTERVAL music: Andras Schiff plays movements from Janacek's On an overgrown path.

Dvo?ကk: String Quintet in E flat major, Op. 97

Pavel Haas Quartet with Pavel Nikl (viola)

Written in 1920 to enliven the famous Flonzaley Quartet's repertoire, Stravinsky's brief Concertino revels in the contrasts and tension between two different scales.

It prefaces the Pavel Haas Quartet's exploration of Ravel's String Quartet in F, an emblem of poise and playfulness, and Dvo?ကk's sonorous 'viola quintet', written in the summer of 1893 in Spillville, Iowa.

Live from Wigmore Hall, Pavel Haas Quartet play music by Stravinsky, Ravel and Dvorak.

Pavel Kolesnikov At Wigmore Hall20180510Acclaimed Russian-born pianist Pavel Kolesnikov marks the centenary of the death of Claude Debussy with a highly original and personal programme, interspersing Debussy's 'Children's Corner' with complimentary works by Liszt, Bach, Chopin and contemporary composer Helmut Lachenmann. Pavel Kolesnikov ends by pairing Louis Couperin's Tombeau de Mr Blancrocher with one of Schumannn's most original and personal works - his Fantasie in C Major - full of autobiographical allusions to his beloved wife-to-be, Clara Wieck.

Recorded last week at Wigmore Hall and presented by Sarah Walker.

Helmut Lachenmann: Schattentanz (Ein Kinderspiel)

Debussy: Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum; Jimbo's Lullaby (Children's Corner)

Lachenmann: Akiko (Ein Kinderspiel)

Debussy: Serenade for the Doll (Children's Corner)

Chopin: Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op. 30, No. 4; ɀtude, Op. 25, No. 2

Debussy: The Snow is Dancing (Children's Corner Suite)

Liszt: La Campanella

Debussy: The Little Shepherd (Children's Corner)

JS Bach: Prelude in C sharp major (The Well Tempered Clavier, Book II)

Debussy: Golliwog's Cakewalk (Children's Corner)

Lachenmann: Filter-Schaukel (Ein Kinderspiel)

Debussy: Feux d'artifice (Pr退ludes, Book II No 12)

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

Interval music:

Francis Poulenc: 4 Motets pour un temps de penitence

Netherlands Chamber Choir

Eric Ericson (conductor)

Part 2 from Wigmore Hall

Louis Couperin: Tombeau de Mr Blancrocher

Schumann: Fantasie in C Major, Op. 17

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano).

Pavel Kolesnikov plays Lachenmann, Debussy, Bach, Liszt, Couperin and Schumann.

Pavel Kolesnikov At Wigmore Hall20200630Acclaimed Russian-born pianist Pavel Kolesnikov marks the centenary of the death of Claude Debussy with a highly original and personal programme, interspersing Debussy's 'Children's Corner' with complementary works by Liszt, Bach, Chopin and contemporary composer Helmut Lachenmann. Pavel Kolesnikov ends by pairing Louis Couperin's Tombeau de Mr Blancrocher with one of Schumann's most original and personal works - his Fantasie in C Major - full of autobiographical allusions to his beloved wife-to-be, Clara Wieck.

Another chance to hear this concert recorded in April 2018 week at Wigmore Hall and presented by Sarah Walker.

Helmut Lachenmann: Schattentanz (Ein Kinderspiel)

Debussy: Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum; Jimbo's Lullaby (Children's Corner)

Lachenmann: Akiko (Ein Kinderspiel)

Debussy: Serenade for the Doll (Children's Corner)

Chopin: Mazurka in C sharp minor, Op. 30, No. 4; ɀtude, Op. 25, No. 2

Debussy: The Snow is Dancing (Children's Corner Suite)

Liszt: La Campanella

Debussy: The Little Shepherd (Children's Corner)

JS Bach: Prelude in C sharp major (The Well Tempered Clavier, Book II)

Debussy: Cakewalk (Children's Corner)

Lachenmann: Filter-Schaukel (Ein Kinderspiel)

Debussy: Feux d'artifice (Pr退ludes, Book II No 12)

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

8.25pm

Interval music (from CD)

Francis Poulenc: 4 Motets pour un temps de penitence

Netherlands Chamber Choir

Eric Ericson (conductor)

8.40pm

Louis Couperin: Tombeau de Mr Blancrocher

Schumann: Fantasie in C Major, Op. 17

Pavel Kolesnikov plays Lachenmann, Debussy, Bach, Liszt, Couperin and Schumann.

Pavel Kolesnikov Plays Tchaikovsky20210407The Philharmonia Orchestra plays Tchaikovsky and Sibelius at the Royal Festival Hall.

Recorded last month at their home at London's South Bank Centre, the Philharmonia's thrilling programme combined a dramatic early work by Sibelius with one of the most popular concertos of all time. For this, the orchestra is joined by the brilliantly imaginative pianist Pavel Kolesnikov who brings poetry to everything he plays.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Sibelius: Dance intermezzo Op.45`2,

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto no. 1 in B flat minor Op.23

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

at approx. 8.00pm

Interval Music: current Radio 3 New Generation Artist, the violinist, Johan Dalene plays three miniatures by Sibelius: Souvenir, Tanz-Idylle and Berceuse from Six Pieces, Op.79 with the pianist Christian Ihle Hadland.

at. approx. 8.15pm

Sibelius: King Christian II - suite Op.27 [from the incidental music

Rory Macdonald (conductor)

Sibelius's incidental music for King Christian II was written for a play which told the story of the love of King Christian II, ruler of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, for a Dutch girl, Dyvecke, a commoner. Its music moves from love story to idyll and in this suite concludes with a dramatic ballad depicting the 1520 bloodbath which the king ordered in Stockholm.

[Concert Recorded RFH March 2021.]

Followed by:

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op.35

Johan Dalene, violin

Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra

Daniel Blendulf, conductor

The Philharmonia and pianist Pavel Kolesnikov play Sibelius and Tchaikovsky at the RFH.

Peer Gynt20190123Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vasily Petrenko, play Grieg, Sibelius and are being joined by Italian pianist Beatrice Rana for a performance of Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto.

Grieg - Peer Gynt, Suite No 1

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No 3

Sibelius - Symphony No 4

Beatrice Rana, piano

Vasily Petrenko, conductor

Presented by Mark Forrest.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra plays Grieg, Beethoven and Sibelius.

Peer Gynt20200402Another chance to hear the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vasily Petrenko, play Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto with Italian pianist Beatrice Rana, and Sibelius's Fourth Symphony.

This concert, first broadcast in January last year, took place at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall.

19.30

Grieg - Peer Gynt, Suite No.1

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.3

Beatrice Rana, piano

Vasily Petrenko, conductor

20.20

During the interval you can hear Sibelius' String Quartet No.1 in E flat major, written when he was just 19 years of age.

20.40

Sibelius - Symphony No 4

Presented by Mark Forrest.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra play Grieg, Beethoven and Sibelius.

Pekka Kuusisto Directs The Sco In Music, By Nico Muhly, Britten And Haydn2022091720230321 (R3)Renowned violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto directs the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and acclaimed tenor Allan Clayton in a performance recorded at Glasgow's City Halls. Presented by Stephen Broad.

Surreal French poetry weaves through Benjamin Britten's work for tenor and orchestra as he sets words by Arthur Rimbaud depicting castles made of bone and howling moons and Nico Muhly keeps us in a fantasy world using Andre Breton's imaginary visions and the many loves of Jaques-Bernard Brunius in his Three Songs for tenor, violin and drones. Before the interval is Haydn's final symphony No. 104, and after it Muhly's violin concerto ‘Shrink'. It's a work that ‘obsesses over certain musical intervals like ninths and sevenths', performed tonight by its dedicatee Pekka Kuusisto.

Muhly: Three Songs for tenor, violin and drones

Haydn: Symphony No 104 in D ‘London

20:30 - Interval.

Britten: Rejoice In The Lamb, in a recording by the Choir of Kings College Cambridge, Ben San Lau (organ) and Stephen Cleobury.

20:50

Muhly: Violin Concerto ‘Shrink

Britten: Les Illuminations Op.18

Pekka Kuusisto Violin/Director

Allan Clayton Tenor

Stephen Broad - presenter

Laura Metcalfe - producer

Castles made of bone, musical obsession and Haydn's last symphony.

Peter Phillips Conducts Latin American Renaissance Polyphony20210507Peter Phillips, the founder and director of The Tallis Scholars, returns to conduct the BBC Singers in a programme of polyphony focusing on Latin American composers. Within the programme is a newly-discovered piece Peter Phillips brought back from Puebla Cathedral Library in the autumn of 2020.

Music for the Consecration of Puebla Cathedral in 1649

Padilla: Deus in adiutorium meum intende (3)

Padilla: Mirabilia testimonia tua (10)

Franco: Lumen ad revelationem (2)

Padilla: Salve regina (7)

Music by the Spanish/Mexican composer Hernando Franco, which survives in Puebla Cathedral library:

Franco: Salve regina (11)

Interval

A Litany, with three attendant motets, recently discovered in Puebla Cathedral Library - world premiere:

Anon: Litany (7)

Anon: Sub tuum praesidium (4)

Victoria: Nigra sum (4)

Victoria: Vidi speciosam (8)

Music by Francisco L pez Capillas, born in Mexico City and employed at Puebla Cathedral:

Francisco L pez Capillas: In horrore visionis nocturnae (5)

Francisco L pez Capillas: Alleluia! Dic nobis Maria (5)

Sarah Baldock - organ

Peter Phillips - conductor

Peter Phillips conducts the BBC Singers in a programme of Latin American polyphony.

Petrenko Conducts Mahler 12020012320201015 (R3)Another chance to hear Vasily Petrenko conducting the RLPO in Mahler's First Symphony at the start of this year. The piece opens with the dawn of time itself and ends by practically blowing the roof off! Meanwhile, Mahler's disciple Anton Webern evokes the sweetest of dreams in the blissful Im Sommerwind. In between, baritone Benjamin Appl joins the orchestra once again to explore the tender, deeply romantic songs of Franz Schubert.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Anton Webern: Im Sommerwind

Franz Schubert arr. Jackson: ‘Die Forelle' (The Trout)

Franz Schubert arr. Webern: 'Du bist die Ruh

Franz Schubert arr. Brahms: ‘Geheimes

Franz Schubert arr. Reger: ‘Am Tage aller Seelen

Franz Schubert arr. Liszt: ‘Erlk怀nig

Mahler Symphony No.1

Benjamin Appl, baritone

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Vasily Petrenko, conductor

This concert was first broadcast on Thursday 23rd January 2020.

Followed by music off disc:

Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata in C minor, D.958

Alfred Brendel, piano

Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in Webern, Schubert and Mahler

Phaeton's Journey20190301From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Schumann: Overture, Scherzo and Finale

Robin Holloway: Phaeton's Journey: Son of the Sun (world premiere, BBC commission)

8.15 CD

Schumann: Liederkreis Op. 39 (selection)

Felicity Lott (soprano)

Graham Johnson (piano)

8.35

Silvestrov: Symphony No.5

BBC Philharmonic

John Storgards (conductor)

Hakan Hardenberger (trumpet)

Super-star trumpeter Hakan Hardenberger joins the BBC Philharmonic and John Storgards for the world premiere of Robin Holloway's 'Phaeton's Journey: son of the sun'. This BBC commission draws on one of the myths of the the ill-fated attempt of Phaeton, son of Apollo (here the Sun god) to drive his father's chariot across the heavens for a day. With the soloist portraying both sun and son the work gives a graphic portrayal of the exhilaration of the flight, of danger and disaster and finally of mourning lament. Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov finished his Fifth Symphony in 1982 and its first recording developed quite a cult following in the former Soviet Union. Its meditative, transcendental atmosphere and unique sound-world draws the audience in. The programme opens with Schumann's sparkling 'Overture, Scherzo and Finale'. Conceived in the year after he was married (Clara was encouraging him to write more orchestral music) he thought of the piece as a three-movement symphony and it is full of vivacious lightness and energy.

Hakan Hardenberger joins the BBC Philharmonic for a new BBC commission by Robin Holloway.

Philharmonia Chorus' 60th Anniversary Concert: Elgar, Phibbs And Walton2017112920171128 (R3)Edward Gardner conducts the Philharmonia in Elgar, Joseph Phibbs and Walton.

Recorded on Sunday 5 November at the Royal Festival Hall

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Elgar: Overture - In the South (Alassio)

Joseph Phibbs: Clarinet Concerto

c.8.20: Interval

Walton: Belshazzar's Feast

Mark van de Wiel, clarinet

Roland Wood, baritone

Philharmonia Chorus

Philharmonia Orchestra

Edward Gardner, conductor

In a concert celebrating the Philharmonia Chorus' 60th anniversary, Edward Gardner conducts a concert featuring three English composers. Elgar's epic concert overture In the South, written during a family holiday in Italy, precedes the London premiere of Joseph Phibbs's new Clarinet Concerto, dedicated to and performed by Mark van de Wiel. In Walton's dramatic cantata Belshazzar's Feast, massed choral and orchestral forces tell the story of King Belshazzar, including the ominous 'writing on the wall' that foretells his fate.

Philharmonia Chorus' 60th Anniversary Concert: Elgar, Phibbs & Walton.

Philharmonia Orchestra, Brahms, Beethoven20170525Tonight youth and experience come together for one of the most hotly anticipated concerts of the season. Herbert Blomstedt celebrates his ninetieth birthday this year and made his professional conducting debut in 1954; Martin Helmchen's breakthrough moment came in 2001 when he won the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition at the age of nineteen. They tackle Brahms's monumental First Piano Concerto and then, after the interval, Blomstedt conducts Beethoven's tumultuous 7th Symphony, famously dubbed by Wagner 'the apotheosis of the dance'.

Live from the Royal Festival Hall.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Martin Helmchen (piano)

Philharmonia Orchestra

Herbert Blomstedt (conductor)

Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op.15

8.20pm Interval

8.40

Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op.92.

Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in music by Brahms and Beethoven.

Philharmonia Orchestra, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Torsten Rasch20140919From this year's Three Choirs Festival, the Philharmonia Orchestra, with Baldur Br怀nnimann perform the world premiere of Torsten Rasch's new choral work 'A Foreign Field', for soprano and baritone soloists, boys' choir and large chorus, preceded by Vaughan Williams' poignant 'The Lark Ascending' and Elgar's rarely heard setting of three poems by Laurence Binyon, 'The Spirit of England' in a programme marking the outbreak of the first World War.

Recorded at Worcester Cathedral on 31st July

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Elgar: The Spirit of England

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

Torsten Rasch: A Foreign Field

Yeree Suh, soprano

Peter Hoare, tenor

Roderick Williams, baritone

Three Choirs Festival Chorus

Chorus of the Three Cathedral Choirs

Singers from Die Kantorei der Kreuzkirche, Chemnitz

Matthew Trusler, violin

Baldur Br怀nnimann, conductor

A Three Choirs Festival commission, Torsten Rasch's new choral work for soprano and baritone soloists, boys' choir, chorus and orchestra sets poetry in English and German. The title, 'A Foreign Field' is borrowed from Rupert Brooke's poem, 'The Soldier' while the texts are drawn from poetry of the first world war, biblical texts and part of the Latin Requiem Mass. At its heart lie extracts from the writings of Edward Thomas to his wife Helen. Thomas was killed on the Western Front in 1917. Vaughan Williams' evocation of an English idyll, 'The Lark Ascending' was written on the very day that Britain entered the First World War and to begin this concert marking the outbreak of the Great War, a rarely heard choral work by Edward Elgar, a composer with a close association to Worcester and Three Choirs Festival, settings of three war poems by Laurence Binyon.

Philharmonia Orchestra under Baldur Bronnimann: Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Torsten Rasch.

Philharmonia Orchestra, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms20170302The Philharmonia Orchestra at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester in a programme of Mendelssohn and Brahms, with pianist David Fray in Schumann's Piano Concerto.

Presented by Martin Handley

Recorded 15th February 2016

Mendelssohn: Overture, Ruy Blas Op 95

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op 54

8.15 INTERVAL

8.35

Brahms: Symphony No 3 in F major, Op 90

David Fray, piano

Karl-Heinz Steffens, conductor

Pianist David Fray joins the Philharmonia Orchestra in Schumann's evergreen Piano Concerto. After the interval, Karl-Heinz Steffans conducts Brahms's glorious Third Symphony, his most personal of the four symphonies. The concert opens with Mendelssohn's ebullient 'Ruy Blas' Overture.

Followed by music by past recipients of the Women Make Music Fund from PRS Foundation - in anticipation of International Women's Day next Wednesday.

The Philharmonia Orchestra performs music by Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms.

Philharmonia Orchestra, Mozart, Debussy, Ravel20160218Alain Altinoglu conducts the Philharmonia in music by Debussy and Ravel. David Frayjoins them for Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24, K491.

Live from the Royal Festival Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Ravel: Suite, Ma M耀re l'Oye

Debussy: La Mer

8.15pm

Interval Music: Bach's French Suite in d minor played on a CD recording by tonight's soloist, David Fray.

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K491

Ravel: La Valse

David Fray, piano

Alain Altinoglu, conductor

French conductor Alain Altinoglu, a regular with the Metropolitan Opera, New York and Wiener Staatsoper, makes his Philharmonia d退but conducting favourite impressionist works along with one of Mozart's finest concertos.

Alain Altinoglu conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in music by Debussy, Mozart and Ravel.

Philharmonia Orchestra, Stravinsky20160516Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia in an all-Stravinsky programme recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London, including The Rite of Spring.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Stravinsky: Symphonies of Wind Instruments, 1947 revision

Stravinsky: Agon

8pm: Interval music

8.20 pm

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Philharmonia Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor

The Philharmonia's Principal Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen takes the baton in tonight's concert as part of the orchestra's Myths and Rituals series. The concert opens with a work dedicated to the memory of Claude Debussy who died in 1918, the Symphonies of Wind Instruments, a one-movement work scored for wind and brass ensemble. Stravinsky wrote his ballet Agon for twelve dancers, with choreography by George Balanchine. Tonight's performance includes choreography by Karole Armitage. After the interval, the concert concludes with another ballet score - The Rite of Spring, written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company, with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky. The first performance of the ballet famously caused a near-riot in the audience, but is now regarded as one of the most influential and most recorded and popular works of the 20th century.

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in an all-Stravinsky concert.

Philharmonia Orchestra: Mendelssohn, Strauss, Mahler Symphony No 420180212The Philharmonia Orchestra performs Mahler's celestial Fourth Symphony and is joined by soprano Chen Reiss in songs by Richard Strauss celebrating life and love.

Recorded 11th February at the Royal Festival Hall, London

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Mendelssohn: Overture, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage

R Strauss: Wiegenlied, Op 41 No 1; Meinem Kinde, Op 37 No 3; Ich wollt' ein Str䀀usslein binden, Op 68 No 2; S䀀usle, liebe Myrthe, Op 68 No 3; Morgen, Op 27 No 4; Das Rosenband, Op 36 No 1

8.15: Interval

8.35

Mahler: Symphony No 4

Chen Reiss, soprano

Lahav Shani, conductor.

The Philharmonia Orchestra in concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Philharmonia Orchestra: Stravinsky Myths And Rituals20160602Music,' said Stravinsky 'is essentially powerless to express anything at all'. But for all his deliberately misleading protestations Stravinsky, long-exiled from his homeland, often tapped a deep and deeply personal vein of nostalgia in his music, never more so than as he entered his old age and lived furthest away from Russia itself.

The third of Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra's all-Stravinsky Series 'Myths & Rituals' is a chance to hear a sequence of rarely performed late, great religious and memorial works whose austere sound-world nevertheless conveys their composer's longings and faith, both of which which he was loath to express in any other medium.

Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch from St John's Smith Square, London.

Stravinsky:

Requiem Canticles

Introitus (TS Eliot in Memoriam)

In Memoriam Dylan Thomas

Mass

Elegy for JFK

Cantata

H退l耀ne H退brard (mezzo soprano)

Allan Clayton (tenor)

David Soar (bass)

Philharmonia Voices

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor).

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Stravinsky, including the Requiem Canticles, Mass and Cantata.

Philharmonia Play Stravinsky And Prokofiev20230531Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts the Philharmonia in Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka, a tale of unrequited love featuring three puppets brought to life by the bewitching flute melody of the Magician. The Lieutenant Kije Suite, best known for its famous ‘Troika', depicting a winter sleigh ride, is taken from Prokofiev's first film score and manages to blend of humour, romance, pathos and satire into its brief span. Similarly, his Violin Concerto No 1 alternates between the sweetly lyrical and the breathtakingly virtuosic (especially in its playful central scherzo), performed here by the brilliant American violinist, Esther Yoo.

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London, 21st May 2023.

Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kij退 Suite

Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No 1 in D, Op 19

Interval

Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947)

Esther Yoo (violin)

Philharmonia Orchestra

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts Petrushka and the Lieutenant Kije Suite.

Philharmonia: Inspirations, Ligeti And Ravel20170224Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra give the UK premiere of Funeral Song, an orchestral work by the young Igor Stravinsky, assumed lost in the Russian Revolution but recently discovered at the St Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory. The orchestra is then joined by the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard for Gyorgy Ligeti's Piano Concerto, a late tour de force by the ever engaging Ligeti and one of the late 20th century's musical masterpieces. In the second half, Esa-Pekka Salonen brings to life Ravel's beautifully orchestrated love story of Daphnis and Chlo退 set among a magical Grecian world of nymphs, pirates and intervening gods.

Presented by Martin Handley

Stravinsky Funeral Song (UK Premier)

Ligeti Piano Concerto

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)

at approx 8pm

Interval music

at approx 8.25pm

Ravel Daphnis et Chlo退 (complete)

Philharmonia Voices, Rodolfus Choir

Philharmonia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

concert recorded live at RFH 19 February 2017

Igor Stravinsky composed his Pogrebal'naya Pesnya (Funeral Song) in memory of his teacher, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. This 12-minute work was performed only once, in 1909, just before Stravinsky found international success with his Firebird. The score of Funeral Song was presumed to have been destroyed in the 1917 revolutions or the civil war that followed. Although Stravinsky remembered the work as one of his best early works, he could not later recall the music itself. Although searches for the lost score had been made over the years, it was only last year that an alert librarian spotted piles of previously hidden manuscripts in a backroom of the labyrinthine St Petersburg Conservatoire during a major refurbishment of the building. Stravinsky's orchestral parts were saved from the builder's skip and the orchestral score reconstructed.

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia in music by Stravinsky, Ligeti and Ravel.

Philharmonia: Voices Of Revolution20180507As part of their series 'Voices of Revolution' Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia Orchestra perform the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, the USSR's most celebrated composer.

Stalin's baleful influence cast a long shadow over Shostakovich's career and both the works in tonight's concert were only premiered after Stalin's death.

The epic Fourth Symphony calling for 125 players, was withdrawn in 1936 after a vicious attack on Shostakovich in the state newspaper Pravda, thought to have been written by the Soviet dictator himself. The blow changed the direction of Shostakovich's music from radical and groundbreaking to a style he hoped would please the authorities, or at least get them off his case. But in 1948 Shostakovich was again denounced, this time for 'formalism', that most egregious of Soviet sins. So he put away his recently finished Violin Concerto and waited for better times. They came in 1955 for the Concerto and 1961 for the Fourth Symphony, 25 years to the day after its first scheduled premiere. That evening was an unforgettable event for the Soviet audience which included a certain Vladimir Ahskenazy. He's joined by James Ehnes, one of the great violinists of our times, to play Shostakovich's deeply-felt concerto.

Recorded last month at the Royal Festival Hall and presented by Ian Skelly.

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op.77

James Ehnes (violin)

Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor)

8.20pm

Interval music (from CD)

Prokofiev: Flute Sonata in D Major, Op.94

Sharon Bezaly (flute)

Vladimir Ahskenazy (piano)

8.45pm

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op.43

Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor).

Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia Orchestra perform the music of Shostakovich.

Philippe Herreweghe Conducts The Orchestre Des Champs-elysees20200109In the fourth of this week's highlights from around Europe, the Collegium Vocale Gent and the period instrument Orchestre des Champs-Elys退es are conducted by their founder Philippe Herreweghe. This all-Bruckner programme recorded at the Ghent Festival in September in the magnificent setting of St Bavo's Cathedral pairs the devotional, heartfelt and masterly Mass in E minor with the rarely heard Symphony No. 2 which set the template for Bruckner's later symphonies.

Presented by Georgia Mann

Bruckner: Mass No. 2 in E minor

8.15pm Interval music (from CD)

Bruckner: Intermezzo in D minor

Fitzwilliam Quartet

James Boyd, viola

8.25pm

Bruckner: Symphony No. 2 in C minor

Philippe Herreweghe (conductor)

Followed by:

Robert Laidlow and the Southampton Concert Wind Band

Making Music's Adopt a Composer scheme, in association with Sound and Music, paired composer and wind band to create a piece of music. The Southampton Concert Wind Band's Director of Music Calum Gray and principal clarinet Jackie Swann, along with composer Robert Laidlow discuss the creation and performance of the new piece Jumpcut/longshot.

James Banner and the Two Rivers Concert Band

In the second of tonight's Adopt A Composer features Les Goldman and Gunilla Friesendorp from the Two Rivers Concert Band in Yorkshire talk about the year they spent collaborating with their adopted composer, James Banner and listen to his work Concertino for Concert Band.

Bruckner's Mass No 2 in E minor and Symphony No 2 in C minor.

Pianist Daniil Trifonov At Wigmore Hall20160609Live from Wigmore Hall, London

Daniil Trifonov performs Brahms's take on Bach's great Chaconne, alongside his Paganini Variations, and sonatas by Schubert and Rachmaninov. Brahms deliberately wrote his piano transcription for the left hand alone in order to better duplicate the restrictions of the violin.

Bach/Brahms: Chaconne (Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV1004)

Schubert: Sonata in G major D894 'Fantasie

Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Paganini (Book I) Op. 35

Interval

Rachmaninov: Sonata No. 1 in D minor Op. 28

The phenomenal young Russian pianist, recently described by the Guardian as 'a marvel', closes his Wigmore Hall Residency with a programme that spans a universe of contrasting emotions and moods.

Live from Wigmore Hall, Daniil Trifonov (piano) in Bach, Schubert, Brahms and Rachmaninov.

Pianist Elisabeth Brauss At The Cheltenham Festival20210511New Generation Artists Showcase: Pianist Elisabeth Brauss at the 2019 Cheltenham Festival

The young German pianist heard in performances she gave as she joined other Radio 3 New Generation Artists at the 2019 Cheltenham Festival.

Presented by Kate Molleson.

Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor, K. 310

Elisabeth Brauss (piano)

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No 2 in C minor, Op 66

Aleksey Semenenko (violin), Anastasia Kobekina (cello), Elisabeth Brauss (piano)

at approx 8.15pm

Fatma Said sings Schubert's The Shepherd on the Rock with clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe and pianist Simon Lepper at the 2017 Cheltenham Festival.

Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34

Elisabeth Brauss (piano), Arod Quartet

Pianist Elisabeth Brauss and friends perform chamber music by Mendelssohn and Brahms.

Piano Experiments20200303Beethoven's piano variations are a continuous thread which run through the whole of his composing life. The five sets of variations in C退dric Tiberghien's recital, from the earliest period in Beethoven's career, brilliantly show what Beethoven could already do with a simple theme.

Tiberghien has chosen to intersperse Beethoven's variations with music by 20th century American experimentalists. It's a fitting tribute: Beethoven was, after all, one of the most forward-thinking figures in all music, constantly trying out what could be achieved by pushing the limits of instruments, especially his own, the piano.

And like Beethoven, these 20th-century composers are striving to discover new ways of writing for the piano: from the chance elements of John Cage's 7 Haiku, to the haunting beauty of George Crumb's Processional, which lets the pianist choose from alternative passages in the score.

Recorded last month at Wigmore Hall and presented by Georgia Mann.

Beethoven: 5 Variations on 'Rule Britannia' in D, WoO 79

Feldman: Last Pieces

Beethoven: 6 Variations on an Original Theme in G, WoO 77

Cage: 7 Haiku

Beethoven: 9 Variations on a March by Dressler in C minor, WoO 63

INTERVAL

Crumb: Processional

Beethoven: 12 Variations on 'Menuet

Piano Finals Of The 2018 Geneva Music Competition20190113The best concerts from across the UK and Europe. Presented by Kate Molleson with young soloists from France and Russia, performing piano concertos by Bartok and Prokofiev

Piano Concerto No.3

Th退o Fouchenneret

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Peter Oundjian

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C, O. 26

Dmitry Shishkin

Piano In Autumn, Piano In Spring20200115Eric Lu, winner of the 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition and Radio 3 New Generation Artist, makes his Wigmore Hall debut with an enticing programme featuring some of the greatest piano composers of the 19th century.

Fragile and melancholy, Schumann's Geistervariationen - 'Ghost Variations' - was Schumann's final work for piano, dedicated to his wife Clara and composed shortly before he was committed to an asylum after a long struggle with mental illness. Brahms, Schumann's prot退g退 in happier times, dedicated his six Klavierstücke -- his penultimate set of piano pieces -- to Schumann's widow. This is music at once rich, spare and ambiguous, freighted with repressed passion and perhaps reflecting the nature of Brahms and Clara's relationship. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier was the inspiration for Chopin's 24 Preludes. Like the Bach, Chopin's Preludes stroll through all the major and minor keys as they explore the technical and expressive challenges of keyboard playing. And like the Bach, they are still a formidable challenge to any pianist.

Recorded last month and presented by Martin Handley.

Schumann: Geistervariationen, WoO 24

Brahms: 6 Klavierstücke, Op 118

Interval

Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op 28

Eric Lu (piano)

Photo © Ben Ealovega

Eric Lu makes his Wigmore Hall debut with music by Schumann, Brahms and Chopin.

Piano In Autumn, Piano In Spring20200716Eric Lu, winner of the 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition and Radio 3 New Generation Artist, recorded in December 2019 at his Wigmore Hall. In an eagerly anticipated debut at Wigmore Hall - attended by 'piano royalty' - the Boston-born pianist played music by three of the greatest composers of the 19th century. That was followed by three encores.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Schumann: Geistervariationen, WoO 24

Brahms: 6 Klavierstücke, Op 118

Interval music: Handel Concerto Grosso in B flat Op.6 no. 7

Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op 28

Eric Lu (piano)

followed at approx. 9.30pm by tracks from recent New Generation Artist, Misha Mullov-Abbado's latest album.

Photo © Ben Ealovega

Eric Lu makes his Wigmore Hall debut in 2019 with music by Schumann, Brahms and Chopin.

Pictures At Exhibitions At The Aldeburgh Festival20220624The BBC Symphony Orchestra gives the UK premiere of Oliver Knussen's Cleveland Pictures, performs two ravishing Mussorgsky scores, and Martin Owen is the soloist in Knussen's dreamlike Horn Concerto.

Mussorgsky's brilliant translation of paintings into music in Pictures at an Exhibition have inspired others to take similar approaches, including the late Oliver Knussen, doyen of the Aldeburgh Festival and much-loved conductor-composer associate of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. We are treated to the posthumous UK premiere/1st pubic performance (and a second performance as was his whim!) of his piece interpreting pictures and objects seen at the Cleveland Museum of Art, from Goya and Gaugin to Faberg退. Knussen worked on it from the 1990s until 2008, but it remained unfinished at his death in 2018.

Live from Snape Maltings

Presented by Martin Handley

Mussorgsky (arr. Stokowski): A Night on the Bare Mountain

Knussen: Horn Concerto

Knussen: Cleveland Pictures (UK premiere and 1st public performance)

1. Portail avec Penseur (Fa瀀ades and lake with Rodin)

2. Calabazas (Velasquez)

3. Dans les vagues (Gauguin) [fragment]

4. Two Clocks (Tiffany/Faberg退)

5. St Ambrose (Goya)

[6. Don Quixote (Masson) - not performed, only exists as sketches]

7. The Burning of the House of Lords and Commons (Turner) [fragment]

19.50 Interval [off CD]

Helen Grime: Three Whistler Pictures

i) the Little Note in Yellow and Green; ii) Lapis Lazuli; iii) Violet note

Claremont Trio

Plus Martin Handley talks live to Zo뀀 Martlew about Oliver Knussen, the man and his music.

20.10

Knussen: Cleveland Pictures (2nd public performance)

Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel)

Martin Owen (horn)

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth in Mussorgsky and Knussen.

Pierre-laurent Aimard At Aldeburgh20170623Tom Redmond presents a concert of music for piano given by Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Snape Maltings at this year's Aldeburgh Festival.

The best mixtapes are never just a succession of repetitive beats but an inspired sequence of moods and sounds. Pierre-Laurent Aimard has similarly finessed his selection of dance music for tonight: from the elegance of Bach to the earthy folk of Bartok, and Chopin's sparkling waltzes to Schubert's sentimental L䀀ndler. The urge to express ourselves in space, motion and sound has proved a continuous lure for composers, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard leaps nimbly between centuries, welcoming us all to the dance.

French Suite No 2 in C minor, BWV 813: Allemande; Courante; Sarabande; Gigue

20 Valses 'Last Waltzes', D146 (Op.127): No.12 in G minor

16 L䀀ndler D366: No.12 in E flat minor; No.10 in B minor; No.4 in A minor

Valses, L䀀ndler and Ecossaises, D145 (Op.18); Valse No.9 in F sharp minor; Valse No.6 in B minor

12 L䀀ndler, D 790 (Op.posth.171): No.6 in G sharp minor; No.8 in A flat minor

Schumann

Carnaval, Op.9: Chiarina; Estrella

Mazurkas: Op.24 No.4 in B flat minor; Op.59 No.1 A minor; Op.67 No.4 in A minor

Bart k

For Children: No.17 'Rundtanz

Microkosmos: No.128 'Peasant Dance

INTERVAL

French Suite No.5 in G major, BWV 816: Allemande; Courante; Sarabande; Gigue

20 Valses 'Last Waltzes', D146 (Op.127): No.6 in D major; No.11 in B flat major; No.10 in F major

16 L䀀ndler D366: No.7 in G major

Valses, L䀀ndler and Ecossaises, D145 (Op.18): L䀀ndler No.9 in D flat major; L䀀ndler No.6 in D flat major

12 L䀀ndler, D 790 (Op.posth.171): No.9 in B major; No.11 in A flat major

Carnaval, Op.9: Valse allemande; Valse noble

Mazurkas: Op.59 No.2 in A flat major; Op.24 No.2 in C major; Op.67 No.3 in C major

For Children: No.40 'Schweinehirtentanz

Microkosmos: No.146 'Ostinato

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano).

Tom Redmond presents a concert of dance music for piano given by Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

Pioneers Of A Century20210308Georgia Mann presents a concert, live from the Watford Colosseum, devised and conducted by Jessica Horsley as part of the fifth Swiss frauenkomponiert festival, whose stated aims are to give a voice to women composers and spread enthusiasm for their music, thus enriching the musical world.

We'll hear an early piece by Ruth Gipps, who was an oboist, pianist, conductor, teacher and prolific composer. A pupil of Gordon Jacob and Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music, an early success came when she was only 21, when Sir Henry Wood conducted her tone poem Knight in Armour at the Last Night of the Proms in 1942.

Peggy Glanville-Hicks also studied at the RCM for a while with Vaughan Williams and had conducting lessons from Constant Lambert and Malcolm Sargent. Sir Adrian Boult was an early champion of her music, before she emigrated to America and ran concert series for the Museum of Modern Art in New York and was music critic for the New York Herald Tribune, among other things. She wrote operas and ballets as well as concert works (two of which are given their UK premieres in this concert), and after living in Greece for many years, finally returned to her native Australia and was a dynamic force on the music scene there.

Cecile Marti (pictured) is a contemporary Swiss prize-winning composer, who also combines music and visual arts with her stone sculptures. Wave trip, revised for this concert, is the culmination of a four part cycle, with two orchestral works framing a violin concerto and solo violin piece.

Ruth Gipps Symphony no. 2 (in one movement) Op. 30 (1945)

Cecile Marti Wave trip (2011 rev. 2020)

INTERVAL

Music from the BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Residence Dobrinka Tabakova.

Peggy Glanville-Hicks Tragic Celebration (1964)

Peggy Glanville-Hicks Sinfonia Pacifica (1953)

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Jessica Horsley

Plus at c. 9.35pm, following the live concert, the world premi耀re of Monody for the World of the Two Skylarks by Electra Perivolaris, played by members of Aurora Orchestra.

An inspiring concert for International Women's Day performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra

Playing In The Dark: Neil Gaiman And The Bbc Symphony Orchestra20191223Neil Gaiman is one of the great storytellers of our time, his work loved by fans of all ages in books, films, on TV and in the theatre. He joins the BBC Symphony Orchestra, along with special guests David Tennant and Amanda Palmer, for a walk on the dark side, reading from his best-selling books, weaving together his dystopian visions with music to thrill and excite the senses on a chilled December day. On the music menu the BBC SO performs music by Dukas, Gershwin, Sibelius, Sullivan, Wagner, Herrmann, and Britten.

Recorded at the Barbican on Tuesday 12th November 2019.

Neil Gaiman (narrator)

Amanda Palmer (singer)

David Tennant (narrator)

Simon Butteriss (baritone)

Mihhail Gerts (conductor)

Author Neil Gaiman reads from his best-selling books, with music from the BBC SO & guests.

Pleasure Garden2021102220211110 (R3)From the Bridgewater Hall

Presented by Ian Skelly

Conductor Elena Schwarz and violinist Daniel Pioro celebrate the magic of nature as they join the BBC Philharmonic for the world premiere of 'Pleasure Garden', a violin concerto by the orchestra's Composer-in-Association, Tom Coult. Co-commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and Salford University it has been written in association with the Royal Horticultural Society to celebrate the recent opening of their garden in the BBC Philharmonic's home city of Salford, RHS Bridgewater. Tom Coult takes inspiration from images of 'constructed natural spaces' around cities, drawing on stories from 9th century Japan and 14th century Italy as well as a visit from Queen Victoria to the very spot in which RHS Bridgewater now flourishes. Ravel brings a Fairy Garden to life at the end of his ballet about favourite fairy-tale characters, 'Mother Goose' and the programme opens with music written for a real princess; Weill's Second Symphony written while he was in France in the 1930s was commissioned by the Princesse de Polignac, Winnaretta Singer, heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune and a generous patron of the arts.

Weill: Symphony No 2

8.00pm Interval Music (CD)

Britten: Five Flower Songs Op 47

RIAS Kammerchor

Justin Doyle (conductor)

Tom Coult: Pleasure Garden (BBC Commission, world premiere)

Ravel: Ballet, Mother Goose

Daniel Pioro (violin)

Elena Schwarz (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic conducted by Elena Schwarz, in music by Tom Coult, Ravel and Weill.

Poems Of Ecstasy20220201Karina Canellakis and the London Philharmonic Orchestra take us on an ecstatic voyage that encompasses Wagner's yearning Tristan und Isolde, Lili Boulanger's dreams in the twilight and the height of romanticism in Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy.

Recorded last month at the Royal Festival Hall in London, and introduced by Ian Skelly.

7.30pm

L. Boulanger: D'un soir triste

Wagner: Prelude & Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

c.8.00pm

Interval music:

Karol Szymanowski Three Paganini Caprices

Alina Ibragimova (violin)

C退dric Tiberghien (piano)

c.8.15pm

Scriabin: Le po耀me de l'extase, Op.54 (Symphony No.4)

Karina Canellakis (conductor)

Karina Canellakis conducts the LPO in Wagner, Lili Boulanger and Scriabin.

Polish Symphonies With The Bbc Symphony Orchestra20230210Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Chorus and Soloists: Szymanowski's Third Symphony 'Song of the Night' and Bacewicz's Fourth Symphony, plus Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante.

`To be completely honest, I compose, because I find it pleasurable` said Grazyna Bacewicz, and her Fourth Symphony is like a bolt of electricity: energetic, atmospheric, and utterly original. It's a gripping contrast to the fragrant ecstasies of Szymanowski's ‘Song of the Night', scored for solo tenor and chorus with orchestra -a symphony like no other from a composer who worshipped sensuality and sunlight. Nicky Spence is the tenor soloist.

For Sakari Oramo, though, these two great Polish symphonies are natural companions - and both make an unforgettable impression. He's placing them both alongside the timeless beauty of one of Mozart's most personal masterpieces - the magnificent Sinfonia Concertante, played today by two former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists who just happen to be two of the most charismatic string players of our time - violinist Johan Dalene and violist Timothy Ridout. This is music that demands no less.

Live from the Barbican London

Presented by Hannah French

Gra?yna Bacewicz: Symphony No. 4

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major, K 364

20.30 Interval (off CD)

Karol Szymanowski: Prelude and fugue in C sharp minor for piano [1905]

Rafal Blechacz (piano)

Karol Szymanowski: 20 Mazurkas Op.50 for piano (Nos 4,7,9,11,14)

Marc-Andre Hamelin (piano)

20.50

Karol Szymanowski: Symphony No 3, 'The Song of the Night

Johan Dalene (violin)

Timothy Ridout (viola)

Nicky Spence (tenor)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC SO, Chorus and Soloists in Szymanowski, Bacewicz and Mozart.

Postcard From Zurich20190716Georgia Mann presents the second of four 2018/19 season highlights from around Europe. Tonight we celebrate Zurich's 150-year-old orchestral tradition with a concert from the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. This season American Alan Gilbert was one of the latest in the long list of distinguished international conductors to work with the orchestra, with a wide-ranging programme from Thomas Ad耀s's 21st-century re-imaginings of courtly French 18th-century keyboard music, to Nielsen's life-affirming 1911 third symphony.

Thomas Ad耀s: 3 Studies from Couperin

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major Op.58

8.25pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Nielsen: Wind Quintet, Op. 43 (FS 100): Tema con variazioni

James Galway (flute), Niels Thomsen (clarinet), Jens Tofte-Hansen (bassoon),

Bj怀rn Carl Nielsen (oboe), Bj怀rn Fosdal (horn)

8.40pm

Nielsen: Symphony No. 3 Op. 27 (Sinfonia espansiva)

Inon Barnatan (piano)

Christina Landshamer (soprano) & Benjamin Appl (baritone)

Alan Gilbert (conductor)

Alan Gilbert conducts the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra in Ad\u00e8s, Beethoven and Nielsen.

Poulenc And Ravel20170129Ian Skelly introduces a concert of Poulenc's Gloria and Ravel's ballet Daphnis et Chlo退 from the Orchestre National de France conducted by Bernard Haitink

Poulenc: Gloria

Patricia Petibon (soprano)

Radio France Chorus

Bernard Haitink (conductor)

Ravel: Daphnis et Chlo退, complete ballet

Recorded at the Maison de la Radio, Paris

Photo of rehearsal (c) Radio France/Christophe Abramowitz.

Ian Skelly presents a concert of Poulenc and Ravel from the Orchestre National de France.

Poulenc's Stabat Mater From Hanover20230501In Hanover, soprano Ania Vegry joins the Europa Chor Akademie, NDR Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Lionel Bringuier for a performance of Poulenc's Stabat Mater, which he composed in Paris in 1950.

That's followed in the second half by a great stalwart of French orchestral repertoire - Berlioz's groundbreaking programmatic Symphonie fantastique - once described by Leonard Bernstein as the first musical expedition into psychedelia because of its hallucinatory and dream-like qualities.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Francis Poulenc - Stabat Mater

Ania Vegry (soprano)

NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra

Lionel Bringuier (conductor)

c.20.05

Hector Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique, Op.14

This concert was recorded in Hanover in February 2023.

The Europa Chor Akademie and NDR Philharmonic Orchestra perform Poulenc and Berlioz.

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra20210426Alexander Liebreich conducts Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in a concert recorded in January this year, featuring Weber's overture to Der Freischutz, Poulenc's Concert Champetre with harpsichord soloist Mahan Esfahani, and Beethoven's Fourth Symphony.

During the interval you can hear Mahan playing to his harpsichord roots, with John Bull's 'Walsingham', written at the turn of the 17th century.

19.30

Weber - Overture: Der Freischutz

Poulenc - Concert Champetre

Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)

Alexander Liebreich (conductor)

20.05

Bull - Walsingham

20.25

Beethoven - Symphony No.4 in B flat, Op.60

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Alexander Liebreich conducts the Prague RSO in Weber, Poulenc and Beethoven.

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra20210628Prague born-and-bred Robert Jindra conducts the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in a tuneful programme recorded at their studio in the city's Main Czech Radio Building, the 85-year-old functionalist cultural historical landmark at the heart of radio broadcasting in the Czech Republic.

Sibelius's Valse Triste, with its earworm tune is probably the most popular six minutes of music he wrote. At the end of the 19th century, Faur退 was the first composer out of the blocks to be inspired by Pell退as et M退lisande, Maurice Maeterlinck's play about forbidden and doomed love (Debussy, Schoenberg and Sibelius followed). Faur退 evokes the subtle ambiguities and sudden passionate outbursts of the play's half-lit, erotic, sylvan world with modal harmonies and distant horn calls.

Tchaikovsky's ever-popular Violin Concerto is performed by Jan Mrက?ek, laureate of the Prague Spring International Music Competition, winner of the prestigious International Fritz Kreisler Competition in Vienna and concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic.

Recorded in February and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Sibelius: Valse Triste, Op.44

Faur退: Suite from Pell退as et M退lisande, Op. 80

Robert Jindra (conductor)

8.00 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Chabrier: Paysage; Idylle; Scherzo-valse (from 10 Pi耀ces pittoresques)

Angela Hewitt (piano)

8.20 pm

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D, Op.35

Jan Mrကcek (violin)

Robert Jindra and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius, Faure and Tchaikovsky

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra20220321Petr Popelka, chief conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, conducts the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in this highlight from the European concert season.

The programme opens with the Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra that Bohuslav Martin? wrote in New York in 1953. The piece bears the typical features of its composer's later work, combining restless expanses with simple intimate melodies.

After the interval, the concert continues with a contemporary composer's response to the work of one of the greats of musical history.

Wolfgang Rihm wrote Ernster Gesang (Serious Song) in the 1990s at the behest of conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch, as a composition intended specifically to be played before the music of Johannes Brahms.

At the time, Rihm sought inspiration in Brahms's later songs and piano pieces, the harmonies of which enchanted him with their 'sharpness and at the same time dark sweetness'. He derived the title from the Four Serious Songs that Brahms wrote for bass and piano a year before his death in Vienna. Rihm's introverted, lyrical work prepares the atmosphere for one of Brahms's greatest works: the Symphony No. 3 in F major, written in the summer of 1883 in the spa town of Wiesbaden.

Josepf Spacek, violin

Miroslav Sekera, piano

Petr Popelka, conductor

Martinu: Concerto for violin & piano

Rihm: Ernster Gesang

Brahms: Symphony No.3 in F, Op90

Concert given in the Dvorak Hall, Rudolfinum, Prague, on 09/10/2021

Petr Popelka conducts Martinu, Rihm and Brahms.

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra20220411Acclaimed Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra artist-in-residence, performs Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 14, and teams up with the Prague RSO's principal trumpet Ji?퀀 Houdek for Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1. Prokofiev bookends the concert, beginning with his witty nod to Haydn in his 'Classical' Symphony and ending with the original version of his Symphony No. 4. Based on music from his ballet The Prodigal Son, the symphony is a characteristic combination of the mechanical and hard-edged, and the warmly lyrical.

Recorded in February at the acoustically renowned Dvo?ကk Hall in the Rudolfinum, Prague, and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 in D, Op. 25 'Classical

Mozart: Piano Concerto No.14 in E flat, K. 449

8.10 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Haydn: String Quartet in D major, Op. 76 No.5

Chiaroscuro Quartet

8.25 pm

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No.1 in C minor, Op. 35

Prokofiev: Symphony No.4 in C, Op. 47

Gabriela Montero (piano)

Ji?퀀 Houdek (trumpet)

Joseph Bastian (conductor)

Image : © Shelly Mosman

Gabriela Montero plays concertos by Mozart and Shostakovich.

Prague Spring International Music Festival 201720170528Ian Skelly presents Smetana's Ma Vlast played by the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Barenboim at the opening concert of the Prague Spring International Music Festival earlier this month.

Ian Skelly (presenter)

Skroup

National Anthem of the Czech Republic - Kde domov m?j (Where is my home?)

Daniel Barenboim (conductor)

Mက vlast (My Country), cycle of six symphonic poems

Daniel Barenboim (conductor).

Ian Skelly with the opening concert of the Prague Spring International Music Festival 2017

Prankster, Adventurer And Rogue20190214Live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus present music given as part of their ‘Baltic Way' season, including a comprehensive selection of music by Grieg written for Ibsen's folklore inspired story of Norwegian `prankster, adventurer and rogue` - Peer Gynt.

Presented by Tom Redmond.

PART ONE

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Dona Nobis Pacem

Rautavaara: Cantus Articus: Concerto for Birds and Orchestra

Sibelius: Rakastava (The Lover) unaccompanied choral version.

Sibelius: En Saga

INTERVAL

A selection of folk tunes from Hardanger arranged for piano by Geirr Tveitt:

Welcome with Honour;

Flute Sound;

A-wooing;

The Song Ends Just in Time;

Welcome to the Bridal Farm;

The Crown Bride;

The Spoiled Bridal Drink;

The most beautiful song on the earth

What Beer!

(Havard Gimse - piano)

PART TWO

Grieg: Peer Gynt (Incidental Music)

Act 1 Prelude: At the Wedding

Act 2 Prelude: The Abduction of the Bride

Ingrid's Lament

In the Hall of the Mountain King

Act 3 The Death of ŀse

Act 4 Morning

Arabian Dance

Anitra's Dance

Solveig's Song

Act 5 Prelude: Peer Gynt's Homecoming

Whitsun Hymn

Solveig's Cradle Song

CBSO Chorus

CBSO Youth Chorus

Klara Ek (soprano)

Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla (conductor)

Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla and the CBSO with music from the northern realms.

Prokofiev From The Elbphilharmonie20230227Fiona Talkington presents one of the highlights of the European music season, in which violinist Alina Pogostkina joins the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and conductor Sakari Oramo in Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No 1, alongside music by Shostakovich and Janက?ek.

»Well, that sounds even better than the original!« is how Dmitri Shostakovich is said to have reacted on hearing the arrangement of his »String Quartet in C minor, Op. 110« written by his student, the conductor Rudolf Barschai. The composer appended an »a« to the opus number and called the whole thing: »Chamber Symphony«. Shostakovich had written the quartet as he devoted his attention to the bombing of Dresden for a film production. From beneath harsh sounds, he brings forth a Jewish lament and evokes a firing squad with fierce bowing of the strings. The larger instrumentation of the »Chamber Symphony«, with the full depth provided by the double basses, intensifies this effect still further.

Prokofiev was in his mid-twenties when he wrote his first violin concerto in 1917, a year which was astonishingly productive for him given what was going on in Russia at the time. The opening of the concerto is magical, especially in the hands of violinist Alina Pogostkina.

The dark sound of the Elbphilharmonie's strings in the Shostakovich is complemented by the triumphant wind fanfares, featuring 12 trumpets, of Leoš Janက?ek's Sinfonietta. In this piece, the Czech composer celebrates his homeland with melodies that invoke mellow folk dances and lively rhythms.

Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony in C minor, op. 110a

Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 in D, op. 19

Janက?ek: Sinfonietta

Alina Pogostkina, violin

Sakari Oramo, conductor

Sakari Oramo conducts the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in music by Prokofiev and Jan\u00e1\u010dek.

Prokofiev's Romeo And Juliet From The Danish National Symphony Orchestra20231108Romeo and Juliet in Copenhagen: the Danish National Symphony Orchestra plays music from Prokofiev's great ballet score.

Dmitry Matvienko, the winner of the prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors in 2021, leads Denmark's national orchestra in a specially-devised sequence of music from Prokofiev's ballet. Before that, the brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen join the orchestra for Francis Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos, a work influenced both by the music of Mozart and Bach and by the composer's encounters with the Balinese gamelan at the 1931 Exposition and the recent premiere of Ravel's jazz-inflected Piano Concerto. And the concert opens with a modern classic from West Coast America as Madame Mao gate-crashes a presidential banquet, strips down to a cheongsam, and signals the orchestra to play. Mao steps down from his portrait on the wall, and they begin to foxtrot together.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

John Adams: The Chairman Dances - Foxtrot for Orchestra

Poulenc: Concerto for Two Pianos in D minor, FP 61

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, op. 64 - extracts

Montagues and Capulets (from suite No. 2)

Tableau (from suite No. 1)

The child Juliet (from suite No. 2)

Madrigal (from suite No. 1)

Masked Ball (from suite No. 1)

Balcony Scene (from suite No. 1)

Death of Tybalt (from suite No. 1)

Romeo at Juliet's before Parting (from suite No. 2)

Friar Laurence (from suite No. 2)

Romeo at the Grave of Juliet (from suite No. 2)

The Death of Juliet (from suite No. 3)

Lucas Jussen and Arthur Jussen (pianos)

Dmitry Matvienko (conductor)

Recorded DR Concert House, Copenhagen 02/11/2023

John Adams' Chairman Dances, Poulenc's Two Piano Concerto and Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet

Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Poulenc's delicious Concerto for Two Pianos from the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the rising young conductor Dmitry Matvienko

Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos from Denmark.

Puccini's Messa Di Gloria20221214Domingo Hindoyan conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Mexican tenor, Jesús L退on, performs the beautiful and rarely heard Messa di Gloria alongside the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir. Two of Debussy's best-loved musical pictures set the mood: stormy, and glowing with colour. The concert was recorded on 24th November at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and is presented by Tom McKinney.

Programme:

Debussy Pr退lude

Puccini's Messa Di Gloria From Budapest20220704In a concert given at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest in February, Jos退 Cura conducts the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Puccini's Messa di Gloria, alongside Respighi's Concerto Gregoriano with violinist @dကm Banda.

During the interval, you can hear both composers in more intimate mode, with Puccini's miniature for string quartet, Crisantemi, and Respighi's depiction of a sunset - Il Tramonto.

Respighi - Concerto Gregoriano

@dကm Banda (violin)

Jos退 Cura (conductor)

8.05pm INTERVAL

Respighi - Il Tramonto

Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano)

Brodsky Quartet

Puccini - Crisantemi

Quatuour Varese

8.25pm

Puccini - Messa di Gloria

Attila Fekete (tenor)

Mikl s Sebesty退n (baritone)

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Jose Cura conducts the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Respighi and Puccini.

Quartet For The End Of Time20220306The BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion 'Music for the End of Time' in January this year focused on the Theresienstadt Ghetto of the 1940s. Here many of the finest musical talents of the time were held pawns in an appalling Nazi propaganda exercise, then taken to the concentration camps from which they never returned.

Over the course of a day at the Barbican, to reflect their fate, the number of performers on the Barbican stage dwindled from full orchestra to conclude with just four. Messiaen composed his Quartet for the End of Time for fellow musicians imprisoned with him in 1941 in a Silesian camp, saying of the premiere: ‘never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension'. Outstanding musicians from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama gave a performance described by The Guardian as 'sensationally played'.

Recorded at the Barbican on Sunday 23rd January 2022

Presented by Georgia Mann

Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

Sabine Sergejeva (Violin)

Ben Tarlton (Cello)

Cara Doyle (Clarinet)

Ben Smith (Piano)

The Guildhall School of Music performs Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time.

Quatuor Ebene And Martin Frost At Wigmore Hall20180626It is enough to give all those people who are not Beethoven the jitters!' wrote Gabriel Faur退 to his wife as he began his string quartet in 1923, the year before he died. Stravinsky's Rite of Spring was already a decade old, Schoenberg had embarked on serialism and the composers of Les Six were the toast of fashionable Paris. But Faur退 ploughed on in his unique modal style and his quartet in fact owes little to Beethoven, let alone to any of Faur退's contemporaries. Brahms's Clarinet Quintet is another late, great work which finds its composer at the height of his powers, comfortable with himself in old age. By contrast, Beethoven's Quartet in G major, Op.18, No.2 is Beethoven in unbuttoned, richly humorous mood, playful and witty. It's a programme which demands superb musicianship and which has it in abundance with Quatuor Eb耀ne and clarinettist Martin Fr怀st.

Recorded yesterday at Wigmore Hall and presented by Martin Handley.

Beethoven: String Quartet in G major, Op.18, No.2

Faur退: String Quartet in E minor, Op.121

c8:20 INTERVAL

Faure: Masques et bergamasques - suite Op.112

BBC Philharmonic

Yan Pascal Tortelier (conductor)

Brahms: Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115

Martin Fr怀st (clarinet)

Quatuor Eb耀ne.

The Ebene Quartet play Beethoven, Faure and, with Martin Frost, Brahms Clarinet Quintet.

Rachmaninov And Lyatoshynsky20230117The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kirill Karabits, performs Lyatoshynsky's Symphony No.3 and, with soloist Anna Fedorova, Rachmaninov's wistful Piano Concerto No.3.

`Delicacy and passion in every phrase` was how one critic described the playing of the young Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova. She'll bring all her powers into play when she joins Kirill Karabits and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the mightiest of all Romantic piano concertos - an imposing upbeat to Boris Lyatoshynsky's tempestuous Third Symphony of 1951.

It's still something of a rarity in the UK, but Kirill Karabits has been an outspoken champion of neglected Soviet-era composers, and he's convinced that the music of this major Ukrainain symphonist is powerful enough to speak on its own terms. `If only Lyatoshynsky had lived in Moscow during Soviet times, instead of staying in Kyiv, his name would stand next to Shostakovich` he says `It's just great music. Really great music`.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Recorded at the Barbican London on Sunday 15th January 2023

Sergey Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 3 in D minor

20.30

Interval Music from the Baltic States (off CD)

Peteris Vasks: Silent Songs: 1-4 (Latvia)

Latvian Radio Choir

Sigvards Klava (conductor)

M.K. ?iurlionis: String Quartet in C Minor Movt 1 (Lithuania)

Vilnius String Quartet

20.55

Boris Lyatoshynsky: Symphony No. 3 'Peace shall defeat War

Anna Fedorova (piano)

Kirill Karabits (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kirill Karabits with pianist Anna Fedorova

Rachmaninov, Beethoven And Berlioz20200209Highlights of classical music concerts from around the world, care of the European Broadcasting Union, introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) - Le Corsaire, op. 21, overture

KBS Symphony Orchestra

Yoel Levi, conductor

Recorded last year at the Concert Hall, Arts Center, Seoul 

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) - Cello Sonata No. 3 in A, op. 69

Sol Gabetta, cello

Kristian Bezuidenhout, piano

Recorded last year in the Music Hall, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Osvaldo Golijov (1960) - Tenebrae

A Far Cry

Recorded summer 2018 at the Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, USA

Serge Rachmaninov (1873-1943) - Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, op. 30

Sunwook Kim, piano

Highlights from classical concerts in South Korea and Switzerland.

Radio 3 At The Biggest Weekend, Live From Coventry20180528Strictly stars Chloe Hewitt, Amy Dowden, AJ Pritchard and Gorka Marquez join Katie Derham, conductor Gavin Sutherland and the BBC Concert Orchestra for music and dance. There'll also be an appearance from the new BBC Young Musician winner Lauren Zhang; and in part 2 violin legend Nigel Kennedy plays excerpts from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and his own unique tribute to Jimi Hendrix. Live from the War Memorial Park, Coventry.

Styne: Gypsy Overture

Rodgers: Carousel Waltz

arr. Paul Hart: Roaring Twenties Medley

Ary Barroso: Aquarela do Brasil

Tchaikovsky: Adagio from the Act III Grand Pas de Deux in Sleeping Beauty

Irving Berlin: Top Hat

BBC Young Musician winner - Lauren Zhang

INTERVAL

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (excerpts)

Classical Hendrix, featuring the music of Jimi Hendrix

Strictly dancers: Amy Dowden, Chloe Hewitt, Gorka Marquez, AJ Pritchard

Nigel Kennedy (acoustic & electric violin)

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Gavin Sutherland.

Live from Coventry, the BBC Concert Orchestra with stars from Strictly and Nigel Kennedy.

Radio 3 At The Biggest Weekend, Live From Perth20180525Radio 3 at BBC Music's Biggest Weekend.

From the iconic and historic Scone Palace in Perthshire, Scotland, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, is joined by a host of brilliant musicians to celebrate the best of BBC Music.

Edinburgh born Karine Polwart, winner BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year performs a few of her best known tunes.

Scottish virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie plays the first movement, Da Vinci's wings from Michael Daugherty 's Concerto - Dream Machine, written in 2014. It is a piece that is a tribute to the imagination of inventors who dream about new machines.

Star soprano Danielle de Niese joins the orchestra, bringing her unique combination of artistic credibility and exotic 21st century allure.

After the Interval, one of classical music's true greats, the violinist, Nigel Kennedy and his band, join the BBC SSO, to play some of the greatest music ever written.

Live from BBC Music's Biggest Weekend, the concert is presented from the stage by Katie Derham.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra celebrate the best of BBC Music.

Radio 3 Big Chamber Weekend: Messiaen At Wells Cathedral20161017Pungent harmonies and scintillating colour in two of Messiaen's most popular works, performed on Saturday evening at Wells Cathedral for Radio 3's Big Chamber Weekend.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Messiaen: Trois petites liturgies de la pr退sence divine

Wells Cathedral School Choralia

Simon Smith, piano

Cynthia Millar, ondes martenot

Percussionists from Wells Cathedral School

London Contemporary Orchestra

Conducted by Christopher Finch

8.15pm

Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time

Atos Piano Trio

Mark Simpson, clarinet

Fiona Talkington presents the first in a series of concerts, curated by Radio 3 in partnership with Cedars Hall at Wells Cathedral School, together with the Atos Trio of Berlin. Across this evening and the rest of the week's Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts, they take us on a musical journey around four European cities.

Tonight's concert comes from Wells Cathedral and the focus is on Paris, where Oliver Messiaen lived and worked for over seventy years. Both works on the programme were composed during the Second World War, and reflect Messiaen's profound Roman Catholic faith. Trois petites liturgies is an ecstatic three-part hymn to the divine presence in all things, whilst his Quartet for the End of Time was famously written and performed in a prisoner of war camp at G怀rlitz, and was inspired by a vision of angelic glory described in the Book of Revelation.

Two of Olivier Messiaen's most popular works, performed at Wells Cathedral.

Radio 3's New Generation Artists At Snape Maltings20220420Photo of Ema Nikolovska (mezzo-soprano), Kunal Lahiry (piano) and Quatuor Van Kuijk: © Ian Skelly

Tonight's recordings were made during a weekend of concerts given in the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings in March by some of Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme, the well-established programme for exceptional musicians at the beginning of national and international careers.

The Van Kuijk Quartet open the concert with Dvorak's Ninth String Quartet; it was written at a tragic time in the composer's life when he had recently suffered the loss of two of his children, and this sadness is palpable right from the opening melody that drives the movement.

One of the many riches to come from the Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme is new collaborations between the musicians, and the second half of the concert is a fine example of this. The Van Kuijk Quartet join pianist Tom Borrow and the violinist of the Mithras Trio, Ionel Manciu, for a performance of the rarely played work by Chausson, his thrilling Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet Op. 21.

The concert concludes with another work by Chausson, and another collaboration: mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and pianist Kunal Lahiry join the Van Kuijk Quartet for Chausson's very last work, his beautiful Chanson perp退tuelle, Op. 37.

Introduced by Ian Skelly.

Dvorak: String Quartet No. 9 in D minor, Op. 34

c.8pm: Interval music:

Chausson's orchestral tone poem, Soir de fete Op. 32 played by the Swiss Romande Orchestra conducted by Marek Janowski

c.8.15pm

Chausson: Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet

Ionel Manciu (violin)

Tom Borrow (piano)

c.8.55pm

Chausson: Chanson perp退tuelle, Op. 37

Dvorak's String Quartet No 9 and Chausson's Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet.

Radio France And Montpellier Festival20171015Ian Skelly presents highlights from the Radio France and Montpellier Festival that took place in July this year, including Le Concert de la Loge performing Devienne's Symphonie Concertante, Fazil Say playing Mozart, the soprano Albina Shagimuratova singing Gliere's Coloratura Concerto, and the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra in Shostakovich's ballet suite, The Bolt.

Haydn

Symphony No. 82 in C, Hob. I:82 'The Bear

Le Concert de la Loge, Julien Chauvin (director)

Fantaisie in C minor, K.475

Fazil Say (piano)

Albina Shagimuratova (soprano)

Vladimir Fedosseyev (conductor)

The Bolt, Op.27a - ballet suite

Vladimir Fedosseyev (conductor).

Ian Skelly presents highlights from the Radio France and Montpellier Festival in July 2017

Radu Lupu And The Berlin Philharmonic20220620Another chance to hear this concert recorded at the Philharmonie, Berlin, in November 2002, as a tribute to legendary Romanian pianist Radu Lupu who died in April at the age of 76.

Radu Lupu established himself early on in his career as one of the major pianists of his time after winning three international piano competitions: Van Cliburn, George Enescu and Leeds. Notoriously reclusive, Lupu's concerts were not-to-be-missed events, his performances characterised by integrity, vision and imagination. He's ideally partnered here with Bernard Haitink in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17, with its typically Mozartian combination of joyousness and melancholy. Haitink ends with an orchestral tour de force, Richard Strauss's vivid portrayal of an epic day in the mountains.

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G, K. 453

8.05 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op. 117

Radu Lupu (piano)

8.20 pm

Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie, Op. 64

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Bernard Haitink (conductor)

Bernard Haitink conducts Strauss and Radu Lupu plays Mozart's Piano Concerto No 17 in G.

Rai National Symphony Orchestra20210503Recorded in November 2020 at the Arturo Toscanini RAI Auditorium in lockdown Turin, Daniele Gatti and Italy's premiere radio orchestra perform two works that take their inspiration from the natural world.

Introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F, Op. 68 ('Pastoral')

Daniele Gatti (conductor)

Daniele Gatti conducts the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Wagner and Beethoven.

Rai National Symphony Orchestra20211018John Axelrod conducts the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Nino Rota's music for the film Il Gattopardo, plus excerpts of Duke Ellington's jazzy arrangement of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker and Catfish Row - the suite from Gershwin's opera Porgy & Bess.

During the interval you can hear a performance of Nino Rota's little-known nonetto - one of his personal favourite pieces of his own chamber music.

This concert was recorded at the Arturo Toscanini Auditorium in Turin in July.

7.30pm

Nino Rota - Ballabili da il Gattopardo

Tchaikovsky arr. Duke Ellington - The Nutcracker (excerpts)

Conducted by John Axelrod

c. 8.10pm

Nino Rota - Nonetto

Daishin Kashimoto (violin)

Joaqu퀀n Riquelme Garc퀀a (viola)

Claudio Boh rquez (cello)

Olivier Thiery (double bass)

Emmanuel Pahud (flute)

Paul Meyer (clarinet)

Fran瀀ois Meyer (oboe

Gilbert Audin (bassoon)

Benot de Barsony (horn)

c. 8.35pm

Gershwin - Catfish Row (Porgy & Bess)

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

John Axelrod conducts music by Rota, Tchaikovsky and Gershwin in Turin.

Rameau, Debussy, Chausson20150920Ian Skelly introduces recordings made recently at some of Europe's leading international music festivals. In this first programme of his Sunday night series, tonight Ian presents Nelson Goerner playing Debussy in Montpellier and a disitnguished team of chamber musicians playing Chausson's seldom heard Piano Trio in Geneva.

Rameau Excerpt from 'Les Fꀀtes d'H退b退 ou Les Talens liriques

MusicAeterna Ensemble, Teodor Currentzis (director)

Debussy Twelve Preludes Bk. 1

Nelson Goerner (piano)

Chausson Piano Trio in G minor, op. 3

Philippe Cassard (piano), David Grimal (violin), Anne Gastinel (cello)

Rameau Overture to 'Nas, op退ra pour la Paix' (1749)

Rameau Le Poule, from 'Nouvelles Suites de pi耀ces de clavecin

Air pour les esclaves africaines, from Les Indes galantes

MusicAeterna Ensemble, Teodor Currentzis (director).

Debussy's Preludes (Book 1) performed by Nelson Goerner, plus Chausson's Piano Trio.

Rattle At Radio 320170914Sir Simon Rattle conducts his inaugural concert as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra.

As part of the Barbican Centre's 'This is Rattle,' celebrations, Sir Simon Rattle begins his inaugural season as Music Director of the LSO and Artist-in-Association with the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music with works by Harrison Birtwistle, Oliver Knussen and Thomas Ades which have played an important part in his musical life. And those three modern masterworks are framed by the world premiere of a Fanfare by Helen Grime and Elgar's Enigma Variations, the work Rattle says, 'Opened the door to the twentieth century for British music.' Part of the ongoing series 'Rattle on Radio 3.

Presented by Martin Handley in the Barbican Hall and Georgia Mann in the Barbican's Sculpture Court.

Live from Barbican Hall.

Christian Tetzlaff (violin), London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Helen Grime: Fanfare (first performance)

Thomas Ad耀s: Asyla

Harrison Birtwistle: Violin Concerto

approx 8.40pm

interval Music: performances by artists taking part in the associated concerts this week at LSO St Luke's and Milton Court concert halls.

approx. 9.10

Oliver Knussen: Symphony No.3

Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme, 'Enigma.'.

Sir Simon Rattle conducts his inaugural concert as LSO' musical director.

Rattle At Radio 3, Stravinsky20170921Sir Simon Rattle conducts Stravinsky's Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring - live from the Barbican Hall.

Simon Rattle achieves a long-held ambition to conduct the first three great Stravinsky ballet scores written for Diaghilev's Ballets russes in a single evening. As he says: 'The LSO is a Stravinsky orchestra par excellence, ready to meet the challenge of performing these three great scores in the order in which the were written. I'm sure that we and the audience will learn a lot about Stravinsky in the process.

Martin Handley presents as part of 'Rattle on Radio 3, 'live from the Barbican Hall.

Stravinsky The Firebird (original ballet of 1910)

Stravinsky Petrushka (1910-11, rev. 1947)

Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (1913).

Stravinsky's Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, live at the Barbican.

Rattle At Radio 3, Stravinsky20200423Another chance to hear Sir Simon Rattle conduct Stravinsky's Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring - from the Barbican Hall.

Simon Rattle achieves a long-held ambition to conduct the first three great Stravinsky ballet scores written for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in a single evening. As he says: 'The LSO is a Stravinsky orchestra par excellence, ready to meet the challenge of performing these three great scores in the order they were written. I'm sure that we and the audience will learn a lot about Stravinsky in the process.

Martin Handley presents as part of 'Rattle on Radio 3, recorded at the Barbican Hall in September 2017.

Stravinsky The Firebird (original ballet of 1910)

Stravinsky Petrushka (1910-11, rev. 1947)

Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (1913).

Photo - Mark Allen

Stravinsky's Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, from the Barbican.

Rattle At Radio 3: The Damnation Of Faust20170917Sir Simon Rattle conducts Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust - live from the Barbican Hall

As part of the celebrations to mark his inaugural season as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon conducts Berlioz's 'dramatic legend,' a tale that captures the extremes of man's ambition and folly. Berlioz's fantastical setting of Goethe's Faust is, as Rattle says, 'A dramatic legend waiting for cinema which needs to be experienced live...within forty-five seconds, you're in an ecstatic world.

Presented by Martin Handley as part of Rattle at Radio 3

Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust

Marguerite ..... Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano)

Faust ..... Bryan Hymel (tenor)

Mephistopheles ..... Christopher Purves (baritone)

Brander ..... Gကbor Bretz (baritone)

London Symphony Chorus, Simon Halsey (chorus director)

Tiffin Boys' Choir, Girls' Choir and Children's Chorus, James Day (Tiffin choirs director)

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Parts 1 and 2

approx 7pm: Interval

approx 7.25: Parts 3 and 4.

Sir Simon Rattle conducts Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust live from the Barbican.

Rattle At Radio 3: The Damnation Of Faust20200501Another chance to hear Sir Simon Rattle conducting Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust. In September 2017, as part of the celebrations to mark his inaugural season as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon conducted Berlioz's 'dramatic legend', a tale that captures the extremes of man's ambition and folly. Berlioz's fantastical setting of Goethe's Faust is, as Rattle says, 'A dramatic legend waiting for cinema which needs to be experienced live... within forty-five seconds, you're in an ecstatic world.

Recorded at London's Barbican Hall and presented by Martin Handley

Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust, Parts 1 and 2

Interval

Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust, Parts 3 and 4

Marguerite ..... Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano)

Faust ..... Bryan Hymel (tenor)

Mephistopheles ..... Christopher Purves (baritone)

Brander ..... Gကbor Bretz (baritone)

London Symphony Chorus, Simon Halsey (chorus director)

Tiffin Boys' Choir, Girls' Choir and Children's Chorus, James Day (Tiffin choirs director)

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the LSO in Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust

Rattle Conducts Messiaen20230630Presented by Andrew McGregor

Sir Simon Rattle ends his final Barbican concert as LSO Music Director with Messiaen's Turangalla-Symphonie, joined by two of his oldest musical collaborators - pianist Peter Donohoe and Ondes-Martenot player Cynthia Millar.

Joy in the blood of the stars' - Olivier Messiaen

In Turangalla, named from two Sanskrit words, turanga and lla, meaning roughly 'time' and 'love', Messiaen wanted to create a 'love song and hymn of joy, time, movement, rhythm, life, and death.' This inventive piece is like no other - a work of huge structural scope that strives to convey, from most tender to most wild, its basic theme: love. Betsy Jolas' music is more understated - but it still packs a tremendous emotional punch.

Betsy Jolas: Ces belles ann退es -

Olivier Messiaen: Turangalla-Symphonie

Faustine de Mon耀s, soprano

Peter Donohoe, piano

Cynthia Millar, Ondes Martenot

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

Sir Simon Rattle conducts music by Messaien and Betsy Jolas.

Ravel And Shostakovich From Copenhagen20221114The Danish National Symphony Orchestra plays Ravel and Shostakovich.

Dmitry Matvienko, winner of the prestigious Malko Competition 2021, conducts Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony, planned for performance in Leningrad in December 1936 but abandoned at the eleventh hour under suspicious circumstances. And before that, Andrey Gugnin plays the concert that Maurice Ravel had written a few years earlier for the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during World War I.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 43

Andrey Gugnin (piano)

Dmitri Matvienko (conductor)

Andrey Gugnin performs Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand.

Ravel, Gershwin And Bernstein20190210A second week of highlights from a concert by the WDR Radio Orchestra recorded in Cologne. 'Let me entertain you' focuses on two of the most important American composers of the twentieth century - George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, under the musical direction of Wayne Marshall.

Plus highlights from the 2018 RadioRo International Festival of Radio Orchestras in Bucharest, featuring ballet music by Ravel.

Introduced by Kate Molleson

George Gershwin - Overture to 'Strike up the Band

WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne

Wayne Marshall, conductor

Maurice Ravel - Pavane pour une infante defunte; Daphnis et Chlo退, Suite No. 2

Romanian Radio National Orchestra

Jean-Claude Casadesus, conductor

Leonard Bernstein arr. Charlie Harmon - Suite, from 'Candide

George Gershwin - An American in Paris

Music from Cologne and highlights from RadioRo International Festival of Radio Orchestras.

Ravel, Shostakovich And Grieg From Germany And New Zealand20200322Fiona Talkington introduces highlights of concerts from two festivals in Germany, St Paul Minnesota for a performance of Ravel's String Quartet, and returns to New Zealand to hear the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Shostakovich's deeply moving Symphony No 10, and Grieg's Piano Concerto with soloist Simon Trpceski.

Joseph Haydn - Symphony no. 88 in G major H.1.88

SWR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart

Alessandro De Marchi (conductor)

Recorded at the 2019 Schwetzingen Festival, Germany

Maurice Ravel - String Quartet in F

Musicians of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Maureen Nelson (violin)

Daria T. Adams (violin)

Maiya Papach (viola)

Richard Belcher (cello)

Recorded May 2019 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

Anonymous

Since sounding drums (Ireland, Vocal magazine 1798)

Highland battle (Caledonian pockt companion 1750)

Ilektra Platiopoulou, mezzo-soprano

The Curious Bards

Recorded at the 2019 RheinVokal Festival, Germany

Edvard Grieg - Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 16

Dmitri Shostakovich - Symphony No. 10 in E minor, op. 93

Simon Trp?eski (piano)

Jaime Mart퀀n (conductor)

Recorded in Summer 2019 in Wellington, New Zealand

Producer Helen Garrison

Highlights from classical concerts around the world

Ravi Shankar's Sukanya20170601Radio 3 presents the first broadcast of Indian music legend Ravi Shankar's only opera, Sukanya, which premiered posthumously in May.

Myth, music and dance meet in Shankar's extravagant work, based on a story from the legendary Sanskrit texts of the Mahabharata, with a score which combines traditional Indian instruments with a Western orchestra and singers.

After a terrible mistake leaves the ancient sage Chyavana blinded, the beautiful princess Sukanya finds herself marrying for the sake of her kingdom. As a pair of swaggering, meddling gods watch this unlikely union blossom, will love grow in the strangest of circumstances?

This semi-staged concert performance is directed by Suba Das, Associate Director of the Curve Theatre Leicester, with dance choreographed by the Aakash Odedra Company, production by The Royal Opera and music performed by the BBC Singers and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Susanna Hurrell (soprano) Sukanya

Alok Kumar (tenor), Chyavana

Keel Watson (bass-baritone), King Shaariyati

Michel de Souza (baritone), Aswini Twin

Njabulo Madlala (baritone), Aswini Twin

Eleanor Minney (alto), Friend

Parimal Sadaphal (sitar)

Ashwani Shankar (shehnai)

Pandit Rajkumar Misra (tabla)

M Balachander (mridangam, konnakol)

Pirashanna Thevarajah (ghatam, morsing, konnakol)

David Murphy, conductor

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, 19 May 2017.

From the Royal Festival Hall, London, the first broadcast of Ravi Shankar's opera Sukanya.

Re:sound , Voices Of Our Cities20230329Keith Lockhart conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra, members of The Sixteen and Streetwise Opera, a group made up of people who have experienced homelessness. Nine micro-operas have been commissioned for this collaboration, called Re:Sound - Voices of Our Cities, featuring performers from Manchester, Nottingham and London.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Bernstein 3 Dance Episodes from On the Town

Copland Music For a Great City: 2. 'Night Thoughts`

Errollyn Wallen Mighty River

INTERVAL

1 Ben See, orch Liam Taylor-West Hustle Bustle ?

2 Electra Perivolaris Standing by the Thames

3 Kemal Yusuf No Ordinary City

4 Alison Willis We're Nor 'Avin It

5 Tim Lole, orch Liam Taylor-West Everything Happens at the Clock

6 Elizabeth Kelly Museum of Nottingham Life

7 Emily Levy City of Bee-ting Hearts

8 Michael Betteridge Manchester Rain

9 Nicolas Lewis, orch Jennifer Whyte The Spirit of Manchester

Conductor Keith Lockhart

Sound design Alex Groves

BBC Concert Orchestra and Streetwise Opera at the QEH London with conductor Keith Lockhart

Rearranging For Silent Cinema20201125Thomas Kemp conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a fascinating programme of works which have been adapted for salon forces. Kathryn Rudge joins the orchestra for two works; Strauss's Four Songs, in a reduced version by his contemporary Arnold Wilke, and Schoenberg's Song of the Wood Dove, from his seminal Gurrelieder, reorchestrated for chamber forces by his friend and colleague, Erwin Stein. Before the interval, we move away from Vienna for Alexander Goehr's Broken Lute, a piece based on a traditional Chinese story, which has been reworked for chamber orchestra from a solo violin piece.

After the interval, the programme culminates with Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier Suite, but in a very different form. Strauss rewrote his opera for a silent film version in 1925, scored for a theatre orchestra, and tonight it is in this adapted form that we will hear the Suite of the work.

Strauss, arr Wilke: Four Songs, Op.27

Schoenberg, arr Stein: Lied der Waldtaube (Gurrelieder)

Goehr: Broken Lute, Op 78a

8.20pm

Interval music

8.40pm

Strauss, ed Kemp and Langley: Der Rosenkavalier - Musik zum der Film, Op.59b (Suite)

Followed by music off disc:

Rebecca Clarke: Sonata for viola and piano

Philip Dukes, viola

Sophia Rahman, piano

BBC NOW and Thomas Kemp play music for alternative forces.

Rediscovered Composers20221104Linton Stephens introduces a concert live from Media City UK in Salford given by the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Jack Sheen, that foregrounds the music of composers from diverse backgrounds working in the Western classical music tradition. The programme presented this evening has been suggested by a select group of academics under the umbrella of the Arts and Humanities Research Council who, in collaboration with Radio 3, are investigating and bringing this rediscovered music before the public.

Samantha Ege champions the music of the Black American composer Margaret Bonds. Ahmed Abdul Rahman looks to his native Sudan, to the music of Ali Osman.

Christopher Dingle has been exploring the work of 18th Century Frenchman Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Dwight Pile-Gray and Michael Harper champion, respectively, the music of early 20th Century Americans Nathaniel Dett and Julia Perry. Mai Kawabata advocates music by the Japanese pioneer Kikuko Kanai; and Philip Alexander makes the case for a Russian born Jewish migrant to Glasgow, Isaac Hirshow.

Part One

Nathaniel Dett: Magnolia Suite Part Two: No 4 ‘Mammy' (BBC First Performance)

Chevalier de Saint Georges: Sinfonia concertante in B flat Op 6 No 2 (UK Premiere)

(Midori Sugiyama and Lisa Obert, violins)

Julia Perry: Piano Concerto No 2 - in 2 speeds (BBC First Performance)

(Kunal Lahiry, piano)

Interval

Nathaniel Dett: Music in the Mine

BBC National Chorus of Wales

Ruairi Bowen, tenor

Adrian Partington, conductor

Philip Alexander takes us to Glaswegian synagogue where Isaac Hirshow worked and introduces us to some of his music.

Isaac Hirshow: Shlof mayn kind (UK Premiere) Kol Gojim (UK Premiere)

BBC Singers

Tom Raskin, tenor

Paul Brough, conductor

Nathaniel Dett: The Daybreak Charioteer

Margaret Bonds: Troubled Water

(Samantha Ege, piano)

Ali Osman: From The South (UK Premiere)

(Alex Jakeman, flute)

Kikuko Kanai: Ry?ky? where the Deigo flowers blossom (UK Premiere)

Margaret Bonds: Montgomery Variations

Jack Sheen (conductor)

Music by Dett, Bonds, Kanai, Osman, Hirshow, Perry and Saint-Georges.

Reimagining Early Polyphony20220225As part of The Keble Early Music Festival, the Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers Sofi Jeannin directs an intriguing programme pairing contemporary choral music and the Renaissance music on which they are based.

Live from the chapel of Keble College, Oxford.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Tallis: Loquebantur variis linguis

Ken Burton: Many are the wonders

Sheppard: In Manus Tuas 3

Josephine Stephenson: Into thy hands

Victoria: O vos omnes

Reena Esmail: When the violin

Sweelink: Je sens en moy une flamme nouvelle

Nico Muhly: A New Flame

Sheppard: Lord's Prayer

Owain Park: The Lord's Prayer

Byrd: Ave verum corpus

Roderick Williams: Ave verum corpus Re-imagined

Janequin: Le chant des oiseaux

Bernard Hughes: Birdchant

Liam Byrne (viola da gamba)

Tom Rogerson (synthesisers)

Stuart King (bass clarinet)

Delia Stevens (percussion)

Sofi Jeannin (conductor)

The BBC Singers and Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin perform live at Keble College, Oxford.

Remembering World War 1: Vaughan Williams And Beyond20181130Live from the Barbican, the BBC SO conducted by Martyn Brabbins in WW1-inspired music: Bax, Vaughan Williams plus baritone Marcus Farnsworth in a new work by Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

Presented by Martin Handley

Arnold Bax: November Woods

Cheryl Frances-Hoad: Last Man Standing (World Premiere)

8.15pm

Interval

8.35

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.4 in F Minor

Marcus Farnsworth (baritone)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Shocking the audience at its 1935 premiere, the surface violence of Vaughan Williams's Fourth Symphony conceals the composer's most classical symphony - a work whose greatest debt is to Beethoven. The symphony's knotty, introspective drama draws on the composer's wartime experiences in the Medical Corps, and WWI is also the starting point for Cheryl Frances-Hoad's Last Man Standing. This song-cycle, premiered here by baritone Marcus Farnsworth, sets a new text by Tamsin Collison inspired by WW1 texts and personal testimonies. Bax's turbulent, 1917 tone-poem November Woods completes the programme.

Live from the Barbican, the BBC SO conducted by Martyn Brabbins in music inspired by WW1.

Resonances Of Bizet20180114Clemency Burton-Hill presents a programme of French music beginning with Bizet's early Symphony in C performed by the Pznan Philharmonic Orchestra under Lukasz Borowicz at the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw. Earlier in the year, in Riga, the violinist Sergei Dogadin and pianist Gleb Korolev gave a recital that included Alexander Rozenblatt's take on Bizet's Carmen followed by Ravel's Violin Sonata. The programme ends with the First Symphony by Henri Dutilleux, performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Bizet: Symphony in C

Lukasz Borowicz (conductor)

Alexander Rozenblatt: Carmen Fantasy

Sergei Dogadin (violin)

Gleb Korolev (piano)

Ravel: Violin Sonata

Dutilleux: Symphony No 1

Lionel Bringuier (conductor)

Massenet: Meditation from Thais

Gleb Korolev (piano).

Clemency Burton-Hill presents a French programme, including Bizet, Ravel and Dutilleux.

Respighi's Roman Pines, Fountains And Festivals20231106Iván Fischer conducts a cinematic tour of Rome via Respighi's Technicolor tone poems evoking some of the Italian capital's most famous landmarks. The Roman holiday begins at the Villa Borghese and ends with a cinematic spectacular in the Piazza Navona as the teeming throng parties on the night before Epiphany. Interspersing Respighi's colourful tone poems are two solemn, Rome-inspired contemplative choral rarities by Liszt.

Recorded last month at the Auditorium, Parco della Musica, Rome, and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Respighi: Pines of Rome

Liszt: O Roma Nobilis, S. 54

Respighi: Fountains of Rome

Liszt: Dall'Alma Roma, S. 36

Respighi: Roman Festivals

Santa Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra

Iván Fischer (conductor)

Iv\u00e1n Fischer conducts the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Respighi's three famous tone poems.

Iván Fischer conducts a tour of Rome through Respighi's three colourful tone poems – Pines, Fountains and Festivals of Rome – interspersed with Roman choral rarities by Liszt.

Ivကn Fischer conducts a cinematic tour of Rome via Respighi's Technicolor tone poems evoking some of the Italian capital's most famous landmarks. The Roman holiday begins at the Villa Borghese and ends with a cinematic spectacular in the Piazza Navona as the teeming throng parties on the night before Epiphany. Interspersing Respighi's colourful tone poems are two solemn, Rome-inspired contemplative choral rarities by Liszt.

Ivကn Fischer (conductor)

Resurrection20190523Mahler may have avoided definitive programmatic statements about his gargantuan Symphony No 2 but it is no great leap to suggest that in it we hear such fundamental topics as death, nature, redemption and re-birth. Tonight, two of the world's finest artists, Anne Schwanewilms and Alice Coote join the Hall退 to perform it live from Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. Tom Redmond presents.

Programme:

Mahler: Symphony No 2

Anne Schwanewilms (soprano)

Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)

Hall退 Choir

Hall退 Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

Mahler's gargantuan Symphony No 2, live from Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

Resurrection In Warsaw20190127Kate Molleson presents the best concerts from across Europe. Tonight, Mahler's Resurrection Symphony from the 2018 Beethoven Festival in Warsaw.

Mahler - Symphony No 2 in C minor, 'Resurrection

Martina Jankovက, soprano

Bernada Fink, mezzo-soprano

NFM Chorus

Polish National Youth Chorus

Agnieszka Frank w-?elazny, choir conductor, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Katowice

Leonard Slatkin, conductor

Revolution In The Head20191211Live at the Royal Festival Hall Vladimir Jurowski conducts the LPO in Shostakovich's epic 11th Symphony, a dramatic and cinematic portrayal of the events of 1905 which marked the beginning of the Russian revolution, including chiming bells, gunshots and revolutionary songs. Peter Donohoe is the soloist in John Foulds's Dynamic Triptych. From the late 1920s, it's a rarely heard, hugely energetic and strange piano concerto which dizzyingly fuses ideas from east and west.

Introduced by Martin Handley.

John Foulds: Dynamic Triptych

Interval

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 (The Year 1905)

Peter Donohoe (piano)

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski (conductor)

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the LPO in Shostakovich and John Foulds's Dynamic Triptych.

Revolution, Destruction And A Nobel Prize20190714Chopin's Warsaw piano, recreated for the first time in this concert from Polish period ensemble Collegium 1704 and pianist Krzysztof Ksiazek and presented by Fiona Talkington.

Around 1815, a certified organ-maker Fryderyk Buchholtz opened a piano-making workshop in Warsaw, where a student Chopin would drop in to test his new pieces. By 1825 Chopin's family could buy and install a Buchholz instrument in their apartment, where Chopin created many of his early masterpieces including both of his piano concertos. Chopin left Warsaw in 1830, never to return, and his piano was inherited by his sister Izabella, who took it with her to her new apartment near the lavish Zamoyski Palace when she married, and where in 1863 Tsarist soldiers, in retribution for a failed assassination attempt on the Tsarist governor of Poland, ransacked the palace and nearby homes. Chopin's Buchholz piano was thrown through an upper floor window and it shattered on the pavement below.

There are so few surviving Buchholtz pianos that it has taken until now to get sufficient information together to attempt a re-creation, which is by period keyboard specialist Paul McNulty.

And there is Tchaikovksy from the 2018 Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm. Every year there is a classical concert which happens alongside the awarding of the Nobel Prizes and last year the central work was a symphony by Tchaikovsky. The Fourth Symphony begins with a brass fanfare depicting 'Fate'. As Tchaikovsky wrote to his patron and the symphony's dedicatee Madam Nazheda von Meck: 'the fatal power which prevents one from attaining the goal of happiness ... There is nothing to be done but to submit to it and lament in vain'. In tonight's performance the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Karina Canellakis.

Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor, Op 21

Krzysztof Ksiazek (piano)

Ensemble 1705

Vကclav Luks

Symphony No 4 in F minor, Op 36

Krzysztof Ksiazek plays on Chopin's Buchholtz Warsaw piano, recreated for the first time.

Rhapsodies And Dancing20190915Music by Gershwin, Dvorak, Stravinsky and Ravel performed in concerts from around Europe, introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Igor Stravinsky - Petrushka

Maurice Ravel - La Valse

Montreal Symphony Orchestra

Kent Nagano (conductor)

2019 KlaraFestival - International Brussels Music Festival

George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

Yuja Wang (piano)

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Gustavo Dudamel (conductor)

2019 Sch怀nbrunn Summer Nights Season

Anton퀀n Dvo?ကk - Serenade in D minor, op. 44

Mecklenburg Wind Academy

Gregor Witt (conductor)

2019 Gezeiten-Festival Ostfriesische Landschaft

Image Credit: Julius Silver

Fiona Talkington with highlights of classical concerts from Belgium, Austria and Germany

Rhythm Of Life: Kirill Karabits Conducts Messiaen's Turangalila-symphonie20171004Live from the Lighthouse, Poole

Presented by Martin Handley

Rhythm of Life: Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Bizet and Messiaen.

Bizet: Symphony in C

8.05: Interval

Messiaen: Turangalla-symphonie

Cynthia Millar, Ondes Martinot

Steven Osborne, piano

Kirill Karabits, conductor

In Turangalla, named from two Sanskrit words, turanga and lla, meaning roughly 'time' and 'love', Messiaen wanted to create a 'love song and hymn of joy, time, movement, rhythm, life, and death.' This inventive piece is like no other - a work of huge structural scope that strives to convey, from most tender to most wild, its basic theme: love.

By contrast, written in a single month, Bizet's polished gem of a symphony is remarkable not so much for its originality, but for its skilful reworking of others' designs. It is a brilliant work that shows a grasp of unity and overall design that was remarkable for a seventeen-year old composer.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Messiaen's Turangalila-symphonie.

Rich Romance With The Royal Scottish National Orchestra20220701From Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall, The RSNO and Music Director Thomas Sondergard join the award-winning French pianist Lise de la Salle for a richly romantic concert.

William Walton's lively musical sketch of Scapino, a vibrant comedy character was written in the 1940s and inspired by a series of etchings by the French artist Jacques Callot. Then comes one of the most popular concertos in classical music, written by Rachmaninov and dedicated to Dr Dahl whose daily treatments enabled the composer to recover after a dark period in his life. Finally Elgar's First Symphony, written in his fifties closes this concert. He said about it ‘There is no program beyond a wide experience of human life with a great charity - and a massive hope in the future,`

Recorded at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and presented by Jamie MacDougall.

Walton: Scapino, A Comedy Overture

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2

20:10

INTERVAL

20:30

Elgar: Symphony No1

Lise de la Salle - piano

Thomas Sondergard - conductor

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Presenter: Jamie MacDougall

Producer: Laura Metcalfe

The RSNO, Thomas Sondergard and pianist Lise de la Salle perform Rachmaninov.

Rlpo Plays Ravel And Debussy20220215Recorded in January this year at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool.

A drum, a rhythm, and a tune you'll never forget. That's all Maurice Ravel needed to create Bol退ro and it's the spectacular climax to a concert that glows with Mediterranean sunshine, from the pastel colours and rhythmic games of Debussy's Jeux to the Spanish fragrances and jazz-inspired flair of Ravel's Piano Concerto - played by the sensational Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. First, though, Domingo Hindoyan shares a personal discovery - Roussel's dazzling Bacchus and Ariadne.

Debussy: Jeux

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

8.15pm Interval

Mozart: Quartet in C major K.465 (Dissonance) - 1st movement; Adagio - allegro

Mosaiques Quartet

Teresa Carreno: Elegie no. 1 Op.17 (Plainte!)

Clara Rodriguez (piano)

8.35pm Part 2

Roussel: Bacchus and Ariadne, Suite No.2

Ravel: Pavane pour une infante d退funte

Ravel: Bol退ro

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Domingo Hindoyan, conductor

Image courtesy of Dead Pixels.

Domingo Hindoyan conducts the RLPO in music by Debussy and Ravel.

Rncm 50th Birthday Gala20230629A gala concert to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

For over five decades, the RNCM has been home to amazing musicians who've forged incredible careers in all areas of the industry, and in an evening that celebrates the college's past, present and future, they pull out all the stops for this spectacular 50th anniversary event.

Join the RNCM string orchestra, chamber choir and symphony orchestra for an evening of innovative performances incorporating movement, improvisation, new music and old, bringing together the past and present with RNCM alumni and current students playing and singing side by side.

Katy Lavinia Cooper - Cattle Call

Trad (arr. Danish String Quartet) - O Fredrik, O Fredrik

Edvard Grieg - Holberg Suite (Movements 1-3)

Shruthi Rajasekar - Heart of Earth

Lucy Hale - Four Folk Tunes

Shruthi Rajasekar - Bahaari Baarish

Trad (arr. Danish String Quartet) - Jasspodspolska

Shruthi Rajasekar - To Manc, with Love

Edvard Grieg - Holberg Suite (Movement 5)

Katy Lavinia Cooper - The Shepherd's Wife

RNCM Chamber Choir

Alumni Guest Leaders:

Caroline Pether violin (Manchester Camerata)

Lily Whitehurst violin (BBC Philharmonic)

Alex Mitchell viola (Manchester Camerata)

Stephanie Tress cello (Solem Quartet)

INTERVAL

c. 8.40pm

Thomas Ad耀s - Three-Piece Suite from 'Powder Her Face

Florence Price - Piano Concerto in One Movement (excerpt)

Leonard Bernstein - Glitter and Be Gay from 'Candide

Ottorino Respighi - Roman Festivals

Alexandra Dariescu (piano)

Soraya Mafi (soprano)

RNCM Symphony Orchestra

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

Agata Zajac (conductor)

Presented by Tom McKinney

A gala concert to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Royal Northern College of Music.

Rncm Brass Band Festival20180131Tom Redmond presents performances from the Black Dyke Band and the Cory Band at this year's Brass Band Festival at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Part 1 - Cory Band, conductor Philip Harper:

Christopher Bond: Corineus (world premiere)

John Pickard: Rain, Steam and Speed (world premiere)

Philip Harper: Destination Moon

INTERVAL

Part 2 - Black Dyke Band, conductor Nicholas Childs:

Robert Farnon: Une vie de matelot

Peter Graham: Radio City (Peter Moore, solo trombone; Dale Gerrard, narrator)

Paul Mealor: Paradise (world premiere) (featuring Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus)

New York Movie by Peter Graham (world premiere) (featuring Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus).

Performances from 2018's Brass Band Festival at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Rncm Brass Band Festival 20162016020320160204 (R3)Tom Redmond presents performances from the Grimethorpe Colliery Band and the Cory Band at this year's Brass Band Festival at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

This year the festival pays tribute to the creativity of John McCabe (1939 - 2015), whose brass band works are among the most highly regarded in the brass band repertoire. A retrospective of the complete brass band music of Joseph Horovitz honours this distinguished composer and teacher in his 90th year. Both composers have works featured in tonight's concerts.

Part 1: Grimethorpe Colliery Band, conducted by Robert Childs with Jamie Smith and Alexis Demailly (cornets)*

John McCabe: Salamander

Joseph Horovitz: Concerto Classico*

Nigel Clarke: Further Adventures of the Same (first performance)

INTERVAL

During the Interval Tom Redmond discusses the role of the brass band in the 21st century with four key figures from the modern brass band world.

Part 2: Cory Band, conducted by Philip Harper

John McCabe: Images

Alexander Comitas: Audita Tremendi (first performance)

Gustav Holst: A Moorside Suite

Photo credit: John Stirzaker ARPS.

Tom Redmond presents two performances from the RNCM Brass Band Festival in Manchester.

Robin Ticciati And Scottish Chamber Orchestra Farewell Concert20180328Robin Ticciati comes to the end of his tenure with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as Principal Conductor since 2009. His final concert features the orchestra's principal clarinettist Maximiliano Martin as soloist in Copland's jazz-infused concerto plus that monumental landmark of an all-American style, Dvorak's ever-popular 'New World' Symphony. The concert is presented by Kate Molleson

JS Bach: Orchestral Suite No 4 in D

Copland: Clarinet Concerto

Interval

Dvorak: Symphony No 9 in E minor, 'From the New World

Maximiliano Martin, clarinet

Robin Ticciati, conductor.

Robin Ticciati's final concert as Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Roderick Williams And The Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment20201020As part of Southbank Centre's Inside Out season baritone Roderick Williams directs the OAE and sings sacred solo cantatas by Telemann and JS Bach. After the interval Williams joins soprano Rowan Pierce for Apollo e Dafne. In Handel's poignant and seductive setting of the tale from Ovid's Metamorphoses, passion and desire are succeeded by regret and penitence as Daphne fights off Apollo's insatiable lust and finds escape by transforming herself into a laurel tree, its branches forever watered by Apollo's remorseful tears.

Introduced live from the Royal Festival Hall by Martin Handley.

Telemann: Die Stille Nacht (Der am րlberg zagende Jesus), TWV.1:364

JS Bach: Cantata No. 82 Ich habe genug

8.15pm

Roderick Williams introduces his choice of interval music (from CD):

Charles Villiers Stanford: Nunc Dimittis in G Major, Op. 81

Charlie Baigent (baritone)

Choir of King's College, Cambridge

Henry Websdale (organ)

Stephen Cleobury (conductor)

Mendelssohn: Elijah, Part II (excerpt)

Bryn Terfel (bass-baritone, Elijah)

Ren退e Fleming (soprano)

Patricia Bardon (mezzo-soprano)

John Mark Ainsley (tenor)

Edinburgh Festival Chorus

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Paul Daniel (conductor)

8.45pm

Handel: Apollo e Dafne (Italian cantata No.16 HWV.122)

Rowan Pierce (soprano)

Roderick Williams (baritone and director)

Followed by music chosen by young people involved in the outreach and artist development schemes run by Southbank's Resident and Associate orchestras and Creative Learning Partners

Roderick Williams sings Telemann, Bach and Handel with the OAE.

Roderick Williams: Voices Unwrapped At Kings Place20220518As part of Kings Place's Voices Unwrapped, a year-long celebration of the power and the joy of singing, one of Britain's best-loved and most versatile singers, baritone Roderick Williams is joined by Aurora Orchestra for a musical journey which travels from darkness to light, joy to sorrow, and regret to redemption.

Roderick Williams's beautifully conceived programme builds gradually from a single solo voice up to the small ensemble used by Iain Farrington in his virtuosic chamber arrangement of Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer. Along the way, Roderick Williams sings his own transcriptions of three favourite Purcell songs and Judith Weir's haunting meditation on night-time, Good Morning, Midnight.

Recorded in February and introduced by Ian Skelly.

Brian Elias: Meet me in the Green Glen

Vaughan Williams: 'The Woodcutter's Song' from The Pilgrim's Progress

Berio: Duets for Two Violin: No. 24 ‘Aldo'; No. 27 ‘Alfredo'; No. 29 ‘Alfred

Purcell (arr. R. Williams): If Music be the food of love; Ah! How sweet it is to love; Music for a while

Judith Weir: Good Morning, Midnight

Schoenberg: Verkl䀀rte Nacht, Op. 4

Mahler (arr. Farrington): Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

Roderick Williams (baritone)

Roderick Williams sings Purcell, Judith Weir, Schoenberg and Mahler with Aurora Orchestra.

Romanticism's Last Stand20200313In the last decade of the nineteenth century, musical Romanticism was breathing its last, reaching heights of passion that would deliver some of the most moving music in history. Written two years apart, both Arnold Schoenberg and Oskar Fried's responses to Richard Dehmel's well-known poem on love's power to transform and transcend share a lusciousness and warmth that could only have come from 1890s Vienna. That was the time and place where Schoenberg met his hero, Johannes Brahms, and soon decided to rework a Brahms piano quartet known for its good-natured energy and drive.

Lehကr's Tone Poem Fieber for tenor and orchestra, written during World War I, sets words by Erwin Weill describing the hallucinations of a dying soldier. Tenor Stuart Skelton makes a welcome return to the BBC SO to perform this extraordinary and heart-rending delve into Romanticism's last stand. Edward Gardner conducts.

Presented by Martin Handley

Schoenberg: Verkl䀀rte Nacht

Oskar Fried: Verkl䀀rte Nacht, Op.9*#

Franz Lehကr: Fieber#

8.30

Interval

Franz Schreker: Der Wind

Stefan Arzberger (violin)

Matthias Moosdorf (cello)

Marco Thomas (clarinet)

Clemens Roger (horn)

Olga Gollej (piano)

Zemlinsky: Albumblatt (Albumleaf)

Silke Avenhaus (piano)

Zemlinksy: String Quintet in D Minor o.O 2nd movement prestissimo

Bartholdy Quintet

8.50

Part 2

Brahms arr. Schoenberg: Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor

Christine Rice (Mezzo-soprano)*

Stuart Skelton (Tenor)*#

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Edward Gardner (Conductor)

Live from the Barbican, the BBC SO conducted by Edward Gardner in Brahms and Schoenberg.

Romantics In Exile20220408Live from the Barbican Centre, London, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in two 20th-century classics.

Having begun his musical life as a child prodigy composer in Austria, in 1934 Erich Korngold headed for California. His characteristic musical style, with its sweeping Romantic melodies and consummate writing for orchestra, came to define the sound of Hollywood soundtracks. Korngold plundered several of his film scores for his lyrical and virtuosic Violin Concerto, played tonight by one of its most committed advocates, Nicola Benedetti.

Marginalised in his native Denmark, Rued Langgaard's compelling music is at last getting the recognition it deserves. In 1911 Langgaard was only 17 when he finished his Symphony No. 1 'Klippepastoraler' - Pastoral of the Rocks. This late-Romantic epic (think Wagner, Bruckner and Strauss) is scored for huge orchestra, a symphonic paean to nature and human struggle whose concept uncannily prefigures Richard Strauss's An Alpine Symphony from four years later.

Presented by Martin Handley

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Violin Concerto in D major

20.05

Interval (from CD)

Carl Nielsen: Chaconne

John McCabe (piano)

Rued Langgaard: Gitanjali Hymns - The Light of Thy Music; The Sky Groans

Berit Johansen Tange (piano)

20.25

Rued Langgaard: Symphony No. 1 in B minor 'Klippepastoraler

Nicola Benedetti (violin)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC SO and Nicola Benedetti in Korngold and Langgaard.

Roof-shaking Janacek And Majestic Mahler20221018Domingo Hindoyan conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's dazzling season opener. Janacek's triumphant and celebratory Sinfonietta provides the perfect introduction to what has been described as Mahler's 'sunniest' symphony, his fourth. The concert was recorded on 18 September at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall and is presented by Tom McKinney.

Programme:

Leos Janက?ek - Sinfonietta

Gustav Mahler - Symphony No.4

Kate?ina Kn?ž퀀kovက soprano

Domingo Hindoyan conductor

Domingo Hindoyan with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's dazzling season opener.

Rose Matafeo20210304Sean Rafferty meets much-loved figures from the worlds of dance, drama and the media. This evening New Zealand comedian Rose Matafeo chooses music from the BBC Experience Classical Archive, including pieces with the flavours of impressionism, which she loves, like Debussy La mer and Ravel Jeux d'eau, but also in Delius' tone poem 'On hearing the first cuckoo in spring'. Rose also loves Gershwin and jazz-infused pieces, so she's selected his 'An American in Paris'.

Elgar: Cockaigne (in London Town), Op. 40

BBC Philharmonic

Andrew Davis, conductor

Ravel: Jeux d'eau

Zhang Zuo, piano

Debussy: La mer

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Ilan Volkov, conductor

Delius: On hearing the first cuckoo in spring

BBC Concert Orchestra

Barry Wordsworth, conductor

Respighi: Pines of Rome (binaural recording)

John Storgards, conductor

Bernstein: Sonata for clarinet and piano

Annelien Van Wauwe, clarinet

Martin Klett, piano

Gershwin: An American in Paris

Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor

Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Prelude and Liebestod

Vassily Sinaisky, conductor

Comedian Rose Matafeo with music by Elgar, Debussy, Ravel, Gershwin, Bernstein and Wagner.

Rotterdam Philharmonic20210108American pianist Emanuel Ax plays Brahms' First Piano Concerto, and Lahav Shani conducts Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra in a concert recorded in December 2019.

A rising star, Shani is chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and soon starts his tenure as music director of the Israel Philharmonic

Presented by Fiona Talkington

7.30pm

Brahms: Piano Concerto no.1 in D minor

8.25pm

Interval

Mozart: Trio in E flat 'Kegelstatt

Richard Stoltzman, clarinet

Yo-Yo Ma, cello

Emanuel Ax, piano

8.45pm

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

Lahav Shani, conductor

Image: Lisa Marie Mazzucco

Emanuel Ax plays Brahms, and Lahav Shani conducts Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra2011010520210329 (R3)Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in an all-Sibelius concert recorded at De Doelen in November 2019. Baiba Skride is the soloist in Sibelius's Violin Concerto, and in the second half, the evergreen Symphony No.2.

During the interval you can hear more music by Sibelius which reflects some of the influences he absorbed in his early years - his teacher Martin Wegelius, his friend Ferruccio Busoni and, of course, Finnish folk music.

Sibelius - Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47

Baiba Skride (violin)

Jukka-Pekka Saraste (conductor)

20.10

Sibelius - Fugue for Martin Wegelius

Jean Sibelius Quartet

Busoni - Finlandische Volksweisen, Op.27

Hector Moreno & Norberto Capelli (piano duet)

Sibelius - Finlandia Hymn

YL Male Voice Choir

Matti Hyokki (conductor)

20.30

Sibelius - Symphony No.2 in D major, Op.43

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts the Rotterdam Philharmonic in an all-Sibelius programme.

Rough Voices20211005Join the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and their Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft for their opening concert of the season. The evening will begin by revisiting Composer-in-Association Gavin Higgins' 2020 Proms commission Rough Voices. Inspired by a Tony Walsh poem which also gives the work its title, Rough Voices is a call to arms to redress the balance of class and diversity in classical music as we emerge from the current pandemic. Before the interval the orchestra welcomes BBC New Generation Artist Eric Lu, who will perform Beethoven's much-loved Fourth Piano Concerto, arguably the finest of Beethoven's concertos. The evening culminates with the majesty and warmth of Sibelius's Second Symphony, which began life as four unconnected tone poems sketched in Italy. Once back in Finland, Sibelius realised how connected the material was, and the resulting symphony is unique, innovative, and exhilarating.

Recorded on the 30th September at St. David's Hall in Cardiff, and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Gavin Higgins: Rough Voices

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 4 in G major, Op 58

8.25pm

Interval Music

8.45pm

Sibelius: Symphony No 2 in D major, Op 43

Eric Lu (piano)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

BBC NOW and Ryan Bancroft perform Gavin Higgins's work alongside Beethoven and Sibelius.

Royal Academy Of Music Piano Festival20170629Trios by Panufnik, Rachmaninov and Martin, and duos by Adams and Grainger, form the final concert of the Royal Academy of Music's 2017 Summer Piano Festival, curated by the Academy's Head of Piano, Joanna MacGregor.

Introduced by Sara Mohr-Pietsch

Panufnik: Piano Trio, Op 1

Rachmaninov: Elegiac Trio No 1 in G minor

Martin: Trio on Popular Irish folk tunes

Bukolika Piano Trio

Interval

John Adams: Hallelujah Junction

Grainger: Fantasy on Gershwin's 'Porgy and Bess

Joseph Havlat and Thomas Ang (piano duo)

Recorded on Wednesday 28 June in the Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London

Followed by

Canada 150

After this week's concerts, as part of a season marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of Canada, a chance to hear music from across the nation.

Works by Panufnik, Rachmaninov, Martin, Adams and Grainger from the Royal Academy of Music

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Gala Concert20180312Tom Redmond presents Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's Royal Opening Gala Concert with the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conductor Mirga Gražinyt退-Tyla and Andrey Ivanov (piano), marking the official opening of the new building on Birmingham's East side. Opening with the world premiere of Elsewhere by the Conservatoire's Head of Composition Joe Cutler, there's another premiere from Lithuanian polymath M.K. Ciurlionis, 117 years after its composition. In between, pianist and student Andrey Ivanov performs Chopin's youthful Second Piano Concerto. And to end, that paean to yearning, Ravel's second suite from Daphnis and Chloe - a work described by Stravinsky as 'one of the most beautiful products in all of French music'.

Part 1

Joe Cutler: Elsewhereness (world premi耀re)

Chopin: Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor

INTERVAL

Tom Redmond in conversation with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's Principal, Julian Lloyd Webber along with music from disc featuring the Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir conducted by Paul Spicer:

James MacMillan: Invocation

John Joubert: A Hymne to God the Father

Part 2.

Ciurlionis: In the Forest (UK premi耀re)

Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe Suite No 2

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

Mirga Gražinyt退-Tyla (conductor).

Tom Redmond presents Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's Royal Opening Gala Concert.

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Piano Showcase20180625From the Birmingham International Piano Festival at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, this piano showcase features four rising stars and competition winners: Domonkos Csabay, Roman Kosyakov, Pascal Pascalev, and Daniel Lebhardt, performing at the Vice Chancellor's Concert in the newly named Bradshaw Concert Hall of the Conservatoire. Introduced by Tom Redmond.

PART ONE

Domonkos Csabay (piano):

Beethoven 'Eroica' Variations Op.35

Roman Kosyakov (piano):

Schubert Four Impromptus Op.90

INTERVAL

Clara Schumann: Piano Trio in G minor - iv mvt

Antje Weithaas (violin)

Tanja Tetzlaff (cello)

Gunilla Sussmann (piano)

(from CD)

Also, a specially made recording by this year's BBC Young Music of the Year and student of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Junior Department, Lauren Zhang, performing Scriabin's Allegro de Concert.

PART TWO

Pascal Pascalev (piano):

Scriabin Sonata No.9 Op.68 'Black Mass

Daniel Lebhardt (piano):

Liszt Dante Sonata

Bartok Piano Sonata (1926).

Four exceptional young pianists play Beethoven, Chopin, Scriabin, Bartok, and Liszt.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra20210419In Concert from Amsterdam. Mariss Jansons conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Bruckner and Beethoven.

The great Latvian-born conductor enjoyed a decade as the orchestra's chief conductor and he is heard here in one of the great Romantic works for which he was held in such high regard. He brings a luminous grandeur to Anton Bruckner's Ninth Symphony. The composer implored: `Let me be well, I need my health to finish the Ninth,` but he died with the work unfinished. It ends with one of the most poignant adagios in all music. The concert opens with Lars Vogt playing Beethoven in classical mode: all grace and charm and this famous orchestra matches his every move.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1 in C, Op.15

Bruckner: Symphony No.9 in D minor

Recorded in the Main Hall, Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, 23 March 2014

Royal Festival Hall Organ Recital, Margaret Phillips20160608Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall

Margaret Phillips returns to Royal Festival Hall as part of the Southbank's International Organ Series.

In a mostly French programme she contrasts music from the 20th century with a work by a composer from the French baroque, Nicolas de Grigny, who was organist at Rheims cathedral. Jean Guillou's colourful Variations explore the nethermost regions of the Royal Festival Hall organ's vast tonal resources, and the Durufl退 work is one of the most beautiful 20th century additions to the organ's repertoire. Bach's Piece d'Orgue completes the programme - a work in which he pays homage to the French baroque style.

Nicolas de Grigny: Veni creator

Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasia in G (Piece d'orgue) BWV.572

Maurice Durufl退: Prelude, adagio et choral vari退 sur le th耀me du Veni creator, Op.4

Interval - Interval music

Jean Guillou: 18 Variations, Op.3

Marcel Dupr退: Prelude and Fugue in G minor, Op.7 No.3

The glorious sound of the Royal Festival Hall organ was first heard in March 1954. Sixty years later, in 2014, it was restored to its former glory by Harrison & Harrison Ltd. This organ series looks both to the history and the future of this fascinating instrument.

Margaret Phillips performs Bach, Durufle and Dupre on the Royal Festival Hall organ.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic And Stephen Hough Play Holst, Vaughan Williams And Beethoven20180607Did you know that Vaughan Williams' Seventh Symphony, the Sinfonia Antartica, started life as a film score? It was originally composed for the 1948 production Scott of the Antarctic, which told the story of the failed South Pole expedition of Robert Falcon Scott. Vaughan Williams was so inspired by the atmospheric subject matter that he gave his score the symphonic treatment and the new work was premiered in 1953. The eerie, shimmering landscape of the Antarctic is conjured in this concert by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, soprano Rowan Pierce, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Andrew Manze.

The programme also contains Holst's elegiac Ode to Death: a setting of transcendentalist poet Walt Whitman's 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' and composed by Holst in honour of his friends who lost their lives in World War I.

As RLPO Artist in Residence this season, celebrated pianist Stephen Hough has been performing all of Beethoven's piano concertos. Tonight he reaches the fifth: the majestic Emperor Concerto. This is a piece that just doesn't get old, as Hough himself confirms: 'You could have played Beethoven's Emperor Concerto for 50 years, and you play it in your 51st year, and you're trembling with excitement and passion all over again'.

Holst - Ode to Death

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No 5, 'Emperor

Vaughan Williams- Symphony No 7, Sinfonia Antartica

Andrew Manze - conductor

Stephen Hough -piano

Rowan Pierce - soprano

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir.

Majesty and awe abound in a live concert conducted by Andrew Manze in Liverpool.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra20180402Tom Redmond presents a concert of Mozart, Beethoven and Debussy given in Liverpool by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Stephen Hough (piano) and Vasily Petrenko.

Exotic climes in tonight's programme, beginning with Mozart's sparkling overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio, whose loud bits ring like the marching of the Turkish military band found later in the opera. Debussy conjures up the sultry warmth of Spain in Iberia, the second in his late orchestral triptych, Images. Then to the sea with La Mer, Debussy's impressionist oil-painting of a work whose iridescent surface hints at the brooding depths beneath. Before the interval, Stephen Hough performs Beethoven's youthful and virtuosic First Piano Concerto, with its distinctly Mozartian moments.

Mozart: Overture, The Abduction from the Seraglio

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1

Debussy: Ib退ria

Debussy: La Mer

Vasily Petrenko (conductor).

A concert of Mozart, Beethoven and Debussy given in Liverpool by the RLPO.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra2018040520180406 (R3)Live from Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Presented by Tom Redmond.

The RLPO plays Wagner, Elgar and Schumann.

Wagner: Overture, Rienzi

Elgar: Cello Concerto

8.15: Interval

8.35: Schumann: Symphony No 2

Narek Hakhnazaryan, cello

Ben Gernon, conductor

Young Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan caused quite a stir at the 2016 Proms. Tonight, he plays Elgar's Cello Concerto, with its blend of poetry, passion and very English nostalgia. Shropshire-born Ben Gernon is another fast-rising talent, and he brings Wagner's barnstorming Rienzi overture, and Schumann's Second Symphony, basically a coded love-letter to the composer's wife, to complete the programme.

The RLPO plays Wagner, Elgar and Schumann, live from Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra20210625Domingo Hindoyan conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Stravinsky's Octet, Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin, Prokofiev's 'Classical' Symphony and the world premi耀re of a new trombone concerto by Dani Howard, written especially for soloist Peter Moore.

This is Domingo Hindoyan's first concert since his announcement as the RLPO's Chief Conductor Designate last June.

During the interval you can hear Peter Moore playing an arrangement of Schumann's Phantasiestücke for trombone and piano with James Baillieu at the keyboard. And James is then joined by soprano Katherine Broderick for a performance of Ravel's song-cycle Histoires Naturelles.

And to end the programme, Domingo Hindoyan joins the orchestra again for a performance of Mendelssohn's Symphony No.4

7.30pm

Igor Stravinsky - Octet

Dani Howard - Trombone Concerto (world premiere, Liverpool Philharmonic commission)

Peter Moore (trombone)

Domingo Hindoyan conductor

approx 8.10pm

Robert Schumann - Phantasiestücke, Op.73 arr. for trombone & piano

James Baillieu (piano)

Maurice Ravel - Histoires Naturelles, M.50

Katherine Broderick (soprano)

approx 8.40pm

Maurice Ravel - Le Tombeau de Couperin

Sergei Prokofiev Symphony No.1 ‘Classical

Felix Mendelssohn - Symphony No.4 in A major, Op.90 'Italian

Presented by Tom McKinney

Domingo Hindoyan conducts music by Stravinsky, Ravel, Prokofiev and Dani Howard.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra With Julian Joseph20180503Clark Rundell conducts the RLPO, saxophonist Iain Ballamy and jazz pianist Julian Joseph in a night of swinging, sparkling, toe-tapping jazz live from Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Presented by Tom Redmond.

Duke Ellington - Night Creature

Gary Carpenter - Set for Saxophone and Orchestra

Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

Julian Joseph - Symphonic Stories, Suite for Piano and Orchestra (includes UK Premiere of new movement)

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Clark Rundell (conductor)

Iain Ballamy (saxophone)

Julian Joseph (piano)

Julian Joseph Trio

(Mark Mondesir drums and Mark Hodgson acoustic bass).

Live jazz from the RLPO, with saxophonist Iain Ballamy and pianist Julian Joseph.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Mozart, Mendelssohn20151126Live from Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by Julian Rachlin, play Mozart and Mendelssohn.

Mozart: Overture, The Marriage of Figaro

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor

8.15: Interval

8.35

Mozart: Symphony No.35 in D 'Haffner

Mendelssohn: Symphony No.4 in A 'Italian

Julian Rachlin, violin/director

Mozart's Marriage of Figaro overture opens an evening of celebratory music, including Mendelssohn's sun-drenched Italian Symphony. Julian Rachlin, meanwhile, picks up his violin and stars as both conductor and soloist in Mendelssohn's hugely popular Violin Concerto - bittersweet romance and sparkling fun, all rolled up into one irresistibly tuneful masterpiece.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Julian Rachlin in music by Mozart and Mendelssohn.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Nicolai, Elgar, Brahms20170504Adam Tomlinson introduces a concert from Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, given by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and their Conductor Emeritus Sir Andrew Davis. The programme begins with Otto Nicolai's hum-along overture to his one-hit-wonder opera The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Elgar's virtuosic Shakespearian ode to growing old disgracefully - his symphonic poem Falstaff. And after the interval, American keyboard legend Garrick Ohlsson joins the orchestra for the first time this century with Brahms's majestic Second Piano Concerto, described by Brahms himself as 'some little piano pieces'.

Nicolai: Overture, The Merry Wives of Windsor

Elgar: Falstaff

8.20 INTERVAL

8.40

Brahms: Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat

Garrick Ohlsson (piano)

Andrew Davis (conductor).

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra performs music by Nicolai, Elgar and Brahms.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky20161026The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and pianist Alexandre Tharaud play Rachmaninov and Stravinsky.

Recorded on Sunday 23 October 2016 at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

Presented by Stuart Flinders.

Rachmaninov: The Rock

Piano Concerto No.2

8.20: Interval

8.40: Stravinsky: Scherzo

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Stephens, Gabrieli, Macmillan, Messiaen, Poulenc20170619Stuart Flinders presents a concert of orchestral and choral glories given by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir James MacMillan in Liverpool's iconic Metropolitan Cathedral. Opening with 'a great choral shout', James MacMillan's hymn of praise 'Gloria' was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the consecration of Coventry's new cathedral. It was first performed by Ian Bostridge, and Ian returns for this 50th anniversary of Liverpool's second cathedral. Messiaen's 'Forgotten Offerings' is a powerful depiction of Christ's sacrifice, written when he was barely in his 20s, and it remains a remarkable statement of belief. And proving that faith expresses itself in many forms - Poulenc's Gloria, with its distinctive mixture of seriousness and zesty exuberance. 'While writing it I had in mind those Crozzoli frescoes with angels sticking out their tongues, and also some solemn-looking Benedictine monks that I saw playing football one day.

Ian Stephens: The World in One City

Gabrieli: Sonata pian' e forte a 8

James MacMillan: Gloria

Messiaen: Les Offrandes oubli退es

Poulenc: Gloria

Elizabeth Atherton (soprano)

Ian Bostridge (tenor)

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir with choirs of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral

James MacMillan (conductor).

A concert of choral music given by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and James MacMillan.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vaughan Williams20160505Andrew Manze and the RLPO play a programme of Vaughan Williams, live from Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. introduced by Stuart Flinders.

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Symphony No.4

8.20: Interval:

BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the fourth of the finalists in this year's strings category.

Cellist Joe Pritchard plays music by:

JS Bach, Debussy and Sollima

8.40

Vaughan Williams: Linden Lea

Symphony No.3 'Pastoral

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Jennifer Johnston, mezzo-soprano

Andrew Manze, conductor

Vaughan Williams is the sound of England - but which England? Ancient cathedrals and green fields, or an industrial nation steeling itself for war? Tonight, Andrew Manze takes a personal journey through the many worlds of this very British master. Beginning in the deep calm of the Tallis Fantasia, he unleashes the mechanical hell of the shattering Fourth Symphony, is joined by mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston in the rural idyll of Linden Lea and brings out the sadness and shadows behind the tranquil surface of the lovely Pastoral Symphony - Vaughan Williams's haunted memorial to the friends he lost in the First World War. Still waters run deep, and no conductor loves this music more than Andrew Manze.

Andrew Manze and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra perform Vaughan Williams.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Wolf, Mahler20170403Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in Mahler's 5th Symphony and two pieces by Mahler's contemporary and friend Hugo Wolf.

Presented by Stuart Flinders, from Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

Wolf, arr. Mahler: Prelude from 'Der Corregidor

Wolf: Scherzo and Finale

7.50: Interval, songs from Hugo Wolf's Italian Songbook

8.10

Mahler: Symphony No 5 in C sharp minor

Vasily Petrenko, conductor

Gustav Mahler and Hugo Wolf were almost exact contemporaries, born just 4 months apart in 1860, and from similar modest social backgrounds in the provinces of the Austrian empire. Artistically, their lives were both shaped by the ever-looming influence of Wagner. Their early careers were also intertwined: both arrived in Vienna in 1875 and enrolled at the Vienna Conservatoire at the precocious age of 15, even studying harmony together in the same class. They even shared an apartment together with another friend,

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Holst's The Planets20171023Tom Redmond presents a concert given by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with Timothy Jackson (horn) and conductor James Feddeck at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool.

The docks and slums of postwar New Jersey are the setting for tonight's curtain opener, Leonard Bernstein's suite On the Waterfront. The searing imagery of Elia Kazan's classic film - starring a young Marlon Brando - pulls no punches, and Bernstein responded in kind with seething musical tension.

Aaron Jay Kernis's horn concerto Legacy also explores conflicting and harmonious relationships, and is dedicated to former president Barack Obama 'to honor his humanity, humility, intelligence and inspiration'.

Then, Holst's The Planets, written at a time of personal turmoil and disappointment. Although interested in astrology (and introduced to it by Clifford Bax, brother of composer Arnold), it held no deeper significance for him than musical suggestion; Holst's daughter wrote that once an idea was formulated, 'he let the music have its way with him'. And what music! From the relentless, inhuman tread of Mars the Bringer of War, to the diaphanous veil of Neptune the Mystic, via the lightning feet of Mercury the Winged Messenger and the patriotic big tune of Jupiter the Bringer of Jollity, it's a shame that Holst could not enjoy the fantastic success it brought. 'Every artist ought to pray that he may not be 'a success',' he remarked. 'If he's a failure he stands a good chance of concentrating upon the best work of which he's capable.

Bernstein: On the Waterfront - Suite

Aaron Jay Kernis: Legacy - for solo horn, harp, percussion and strings (UK premiere)

INTERVAL

Holst: The Planets - Suite, Op.32

Ladies of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir

James Feddeck (conductor).

Tom Redmond presents the RLPO with Timothy Jackson (horn) and conductor James Feddeck.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra: Ortiz, Rachmaninov And Shostakovich20171107The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto perform music from pre- and post-revolutionary Russia and contemporary Mexico.

Sergey Rachmaninov, one of the world's great pianists, was determined to wow the audiences on his first American tour in 1909 and he made sure his Third Piano Concerto played to all his considerable pianistic strengths. Over a century later, it's still regarded as one of the most virtuosic and technically demanding concertos in the repertoire. Boris Giltburg, one of today's leading pianists, takes it on tonight.

A product of mid-century USSR, Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony is an ambiguous work whose journey begins with a stark, gloomy, long slow movement and ends with a trip to the circus.

The concert begins with a UK premiere from conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto's native Mexico: the Suite from Hominem by Gabriela Ortiz, one of her country's leading composers with a rising international reputation.

Recorded last week at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and presented by Tom Redmond as part of Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture - Radio 3's season of programmes marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution,

Gabriela Ortiz: Suite from Hominum (UK premiere)

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op.30

8.50pm Interval music (from CD)

Robert Schumann: Papillons, Op.2

Boris Giltburg (piano)

9.10pm

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op.53

Carlos Miguel Prieto (conductor).

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic plays Gabriela Ortiz, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra: Strauss Alpine Symphony20151002The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra play the Alpine Symphony by Strauss and Jennifer Johnston joins them for Berio's Folk Songs.

Recorded on October 1st in Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and presented by Stuart Flinders.

Tchaikovsky (orch. Sergei Abir): The Seasons - September, October, November, December

Berio: Folk Songs

8.15: Interval

8.35

Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony

Jennifer Johnston, mezzo-soprano

Vasily Petrenko, conductor

Out of the lowest depths of the orchestra, murmurs arise, daylight gathers in the brasses, and then, all of a sudden, the sun appears in full orchestral blaze. Dawn arrives and so begins music's most vividly depicted mountainous ascent. One hundred years after its premiere, Vasily Petrenko and a super-sized orchestra scale the peak of Strauss's mighty Alpine Symphony. Waterfalls, glaciers, an ear-splitting storm - the whole of nature is evoked. First, though, take an autumn stroll in the Russian countryside with four lovely miniatures by Tchaikovsky, and join Liverpool's own star mezzo Jennifer Johnston for a whistle-stop world tour in Luciano Berio's Folk Songs.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko in Tchaikovsky, Berio and Strauss.

Royal Northern College Of Music Brass Band Festival 201920190206Tredegar Town Band and Cory Band celebrate James MacMillan's 60th-birthday year and the centenary of renowned brass band composer Wilfred Heaton.

Programme:

Tredegar Town Band conducted by Ian Porthouse, David Childs (euphonium)*

James MacMillan: Jubel

Edward Gregson: Euphonium Concerto*

Hans Werner Henze: Ragtimes and Habaneras

Cory Band conducted by Philip Harper, Christopher Thomas (trombone)*

Ray Steadman-Allen: Immortal Theme*

James MacMillan: The Gallant Weaver

Wilfred Heaton: Variations

The Tredegar Town Band and Cory Band with music by James MacMillan and Wilfred Heaton.

Royal Northern Sinfonia20210929Royal Northern Sinfonia officially welcomes Dinis Sousa as its new Principal Conductor and marks the orchestra's return to regular concerts at Sage Gateshead. They open with a brand-new piece from composer, performer and DJ Mira Calix who has collaborated with film-maker Sarah Turner to produce a work that reflects on local people's experiences of the past 18 months. They're joined by cellist Anastasia Kobekina for a performance of Shostakovich's spiky yet wistful Cello Concerto - renowned as one of the trickiest pieces in the cello repertoire.

During the interval, you can hear Anastasia Kobekina, a recent Radio 3 New Generation Artist in a 2018 recording of Miaskovsky's Cello Sonata No.2.

And in the second half of the concert, Royal Northern Sinfonia returns to play one of Dvo?ကk's sunniest symphonies, the exuberantly cheerful No.8.

7.30pm

Mira Calix - Oot-Ower (World Premiere)

Shostakovich - Cello Concerto No.1 in E flat, Op.107

Anastasia Kobekina (cello)

Conducted by Dinis Sousa

c. 8.20pm

Miaskovsky - Cello Sonata No.2, Op.81

Paloma Kouider (piano)

c.8.45pm

Dvorak - Symphony No.8 in G major, Op.88

Presented by Ian Skelly

Royal Northern Sinfonia and Anastasia Kobekina perform Shostakovich's Cello Concerto.

Royal Northern Sinfonia And Julian Rachlin, Beethoven20170216Royal Northern Sinfonia with violinist Julian Rachlin as soloist and conductor in an all-Beethoven concert recorded last week at Sage Gateshead.

Presented by Adam Tomlinson.

Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D, Op 61

8.15pm Interval

During the interval we hear this evening's conductor and soloist, Julian Rachlin perform chamber music. Part of a CD of JS Bach's Goldberg Variations arranged for string trio by Dmitry Sitkovetsky in 1985 to mark the tercentenary of Bach's birth.

JS Bach: Goldberg Variations - Nos XXV - end (arr. Sitkovetsky)

Julian Rachlin (violin)

Nobuko Imai (viola)

Mischa Maisky (cello)

8.35

Beethoven: Symphony No 3 in E flat, Op 55, 'Eroica

conductor, Julian Rachlin (violin).

Royal Northern Sinfonia and Julian Rachlin in an all-Beethoven concert at Sage Gateshead.

Royal Northern Sinfonia Play Haydn20220615A recording of historically informed performance practice pioneer Roger Norrington's outgoing appearance (aged 87) as conductor given last November, at Sage Gateshead. The all-Haydn programme features orchestral works interspersed with chamber works: English songs and a quartet performed by members of the orchestra. Susan Gritton (soprano), Steven Devine (fortepiano), Royal Northern Sinfonia, conductor Roger Norrington. Haydn: Symphony No 103 in E flat (Drumroll) (1st and 2nd mvts); Canzonettas; String Quartet, Op 76 No 5; Symphony No 103 in E flat (Drumroll) (3rd and 4th mvts); March in E flat, H VIII 3 (March for the Prince of Wales); Canzonettas; Symphony No 101 in D (Clock).

HAYDN Symphony No 103 'Drumroll' (movements 1 and 2);

Set of English Canzonettas;

String Quartet Op 76 No 5;

Symphony No 103 'Drumroll' (movements 3 and 4);

March for the Prince of Wales;

Symphony No 101 'Clock

Sir Roger Norrington's final appearance on the podium.

Royal Northern Sinfonia Playing Britten, Bach And Mendelssohn20171006Adam Tomlinson presents the Royal Northern Sinfonia, directed by Bradley Creswick, with violinist Kyra Humphreys playing Britten, Bach and Mendelssohn at Sage Gateshead. Britten's Op.1 was written whilst a composition student of John Ireland at the Royal College of Music. It's an astonishingly assured debut for an 18 year old: in spite the hostility of the College to the radicalism of the Second Viennese School - Britten was prevented from studying with Berg in 1934 - the influence of Schoenberg is clear. In contrast, Mendelssohn's youthful Symphony No 1 looks back - Mozart a huge influence on the then-15 year old. And further, to the contrapuntalism of JS Bach, whose Concerto for 2 Violins - fittingly written for two principle orchestral violinists - also bridges the centuries as the basis of Vaughan Williams' relatively neglected Violin Concerto. And in between, a contribution to the nascent Sinfonia genre by Wilhelm Friedmann Bach, eldest (and reputedly both favourite and most talented) child of dad Johann Sebastian.

Britten: Sinfonietta, Op.1

Vaughan Williams: Violin Concerto in D minor (Accademico)

JS Bach: Double Violin Concerto in D minr, BWV 1043

WF Bach: Sinfonia in D minor

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op 11

Kyra Humphreys (violin)

Bradley Creswick (violin/director).

Adam Tomlinson presents the Royal Northern Sinfonia playing Britten, Bach and Mendelssohn.

Royal Northern Sinfonia, Elgar, Finzi, Vaughan Williams20170301The Royal Northern Sinfonia directed by Bradley Creswick perform an all-English programme, including works by Elgar, Finzi and Vaughan Williams, live from Sage Gateshead

Presented by Tom Redmond

Elgar: Introduction and Allegro

Finzi: Clarinet Concerto

8.15 Interval

8.35

Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

Tippett: Divertimento on Sellinger's Round

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Timothy Orpen (clarinet)

Bradley Creswick (director)

Followed by music by past recipients of the Women Make Music Fund from PRS Foundation - in anticipation of International Women's Day next Wednesday.

Live from Sage Gateshead, the Royal Northern Sinfonia in Elgar, Finzi and Vaughan Williams

Royal Northern Sinfonia, Mozart, Stravinsky, Debussy20160307Alexandre Bloch and the Royal Northern Sinfonia perform Mozart's 'Paris' Symphony as well as works by Stravinsky and Debussy, and Francesco Piemontesi joins them to perform Mozart's Piano Concerto No.25.

Sage Gateshead

Presented by Adam Tomlinson

Alexandre Bloch conductor

Francesco Piemontesi piano

Mozart: Symphony No.31 in D, K297 'Paris

Stravinsky: Danses Concertantes

8.10 Interval

8.30 Debussy: Petite Suite

Mozart: Piano Concerto No.25 in C, K503

Mozart's 'Paris' symphony was composed almost in spite of the contemporary French musical styles, but its reception in the city nonetheless proved a huge success. This and his later Piano Concerto are staples of the young composer's cosmopolitan style, perfectly complemented by the Gallic flair of Debussy, and Stravinsky.

Alexandre Bloch conducts the Royal Northern Sinfonia in Mozart, Stravinsky and Debussy.

Royal Northern Sinfonia, Sibelius, Mozart2016061420160610 (R3)Royal Northern Sinfonia, conducted by Lars Vogt, perform Sibelius's Seventh Symphony and Mozart's Requiem.

Live from Sage Gateshead.

Sibelius: Symphony No.7

8.00: Interval

8.20: Mozart: Requiem

Ruby Hughes, soprano

Jennifer Johnston, mezzo

Benjamin Hulett, tenor

Neal Davies, bass

Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia

Lars Vogt, conductor

The two journeys pursued by the Royal Northern Sinfonia over the past season, Sibelius and the Musical North and Reclaiming Mozart, come to a conclusion as Lars Vogt conducts Sibelius's last and most condensed symphony, and Mozart's final choral masterpiece.

Royal Northern Sinfonia under Lars Vogt in Sibelius's Symphony No 7 and Mozart's Requiem.

Royal Northern Sinfonia, Smetana, Mozart, Dvorak20160429Lars Vogt and the Royal Northern Sinfonia perform Mozart's Symphony No.38 and Smetana's Bartered Bride Overture, plus Tanja Tetzlaff performs Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B minor.

Live from Sage Gateshead

Presented by Adam Tomlinson

Lars Vogt conductor

Tanja Tetzlaff cello

Smetana: The Bartered Bride Overture

Mozart: Symphony No.38 'Prague

8.15 Interval: BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the fifth of the category finalists in this year's brass competition.

Sam Dye plays music by Folke Rabe, Debussy and Ropartz.

8.35

Dvorak: Cello Concerto

Mozart's symphony revels in his lifelong love affair with the Czech capital, with its intense radiance and lively animation. Dvorak's concerto reveals a homesickness for Prague and the bohemian style, so much so that it was composed on both sides of the Atlantic as he made his return home.

The Royal Northern Sinfonia conducted by Lars Vogt in music by Smetana, Mozart and Dvorak.

Royal Northern Sinfonia, Stravinsky, Strauss, Mozart, Shostakovich20151106Live from Sage Gateshead, the Royal Northern Sinfonia with Mozart's Exsultate, Jubilate

Stravinsky: Concerto in D

Strauss: Ich Wolt ein Strausslein binden, Op. 68 No. 6; Morgen, Op. 27 No. 4

Mozart: Se tutti i mali miei, K83

Mozart: Voi avete un cor fedele, K217

8.15: Interval

Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony in A flat major, Op. 118a (arr. Barshai from 10th String Quartet)

Mozart: Exsultate, Jubilate, K165

Elizabeth Watts, soprano

Kyra Humphreys, director

Originally written for a castrato, but now one of the showpieces for soprano, the Exsultate, Jubilate is a fine example of Mozart's genius: it was written in a day, and most likely without a keyboard to assist, as the teenage composer did what came naturally. Sung by Elizabeth Watts, it forms the finale of this concert which combines Mozart favourites with twentieth-century classics.

The Royal Northern Sinfonia performs music by Stravinsky, Strauss, Mozart and Shostakovich

Royal Northern Sinfonia: Mendelssohn And Schumann20180216Adam Tomlinson presents a concert of Mendelssohn, Schumann and P䀀rt given by Royal Northern Sinfonia, violinist Alina Ibragimova and conductor Clemens Schuldt live at Sage Gateshead.

The influence of JS Bach reaches across the centuries tonight, in a programme that opens with his youngest son - and 'London's Bach' - Johann Christian. His symphonies are signature works of the eighteenth century, and No 6 is arguably his most unsettlingly dramatic; Johann Christian's influence upon the young Mozart is unmistakeable. The beloved Lutheran hymn Ein' feste Burg is unser Gott (A mighty fortress is our God) informs the finale of Mendelssohn's 'Reformation' Symphony, a piece that JS Bach had worked into a cantata for the Augsburg bicentennial a century earlier. In between, Arvo P䀀rt's buzzing If Bach had been a Beekeeper uses the musical notation of the letters BACH. And Alina Ibragimova performs Schumann's Violin Concerto in D minor, on the 80th anniversary of the work's UK premiere.

J C Bach; Symphony in G minor, Op 6 No 6

Schumann: Violin Concerto in D minor, WoO 23

Interval

Arvo P䀀rt: Wenn Bach Bienen gezüchtet h䀀tte...

Mendelssohn: Symphony No.5, 'Reformation

Alina Ibragimova (violin)

Clemens Schuldt (conductor).

Adam Tomlinson presents a concert of Mendelssohn and Schumann by Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Royal Northern Sinfonia: Mendelssohn And Schumann20200616Adam Tomlinson presents a concert of Mendelssohn, Schumann and P䀀rt given by Royal Northern Sinfonia, violinist Alina Ibragimova and conductor Clemens Schuldt from Sage Gateshead.

The influence of JS Bach reaches across the centuries in a programme that opens with his youngest son - and 'London's Bach' - Johann Christian. His symphonies are signature works of the eighteenth century, and No 6 is arguably his most unsettlingly dramatic; Johann Christian's influence upon the young Mozart is unmistakable. The beloved Lutheran hymn Ein' feste Burg is unser Gott (A mighty fortress is our God) informs the finale of Mendelssohn's 'Reformation' Symphony, a piece that JS Bach had worked into a cantata for the Augsburg bicentennial a century earlier. In between, Arvo P䀀rt's buzzing If Bach had been a beekeeper uses the musical notation of the letters BACH. And Alina Ibragimova performs Schumann's Violin Concerto in D minor, on the 80th anniversary of the work's UK premiere.

J C Bach; Symphony in G minor, Op 6 No 6

Schumann: Violin Concerto in D minor, WoO 23

Interval

Arvo P䀀rt: Wenn Bach Bienen gezüchtet h䀀tte...

Mendelssohn: Symphony No.5, 'Reformation

Alina Ibragimova (violin)

Clemens Schuldt (conductor).

Adam Tomlinson presents a concert of Mendelssohn and Schumann by Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Royal Opera House Gala20200922Much-loved classics of the opera repertory performed at Covent Garden by an all-star cast including Gerald Finley, Aigul Akhmetshina, Charles Castronovo and Vito Priante. They're joined by the rising stars of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, with Antonio Pappano conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House, performing together in person for the first time since 16th March 2020.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Rossini: ‘Largo al factotum‘ (The Barber of Seville)

Donizetti: ‘Caro elisir!' recitative and duet?(L'elisir d'amore)

Rossini: ‘Non più mesta' (La Cenerentola)

Bellini: La sonnambula, final scene

Verdi: ‘Forse la soglia attinse' (Un ballo in maschera)

Verdi: ‘Credo in un Dio crudel' (Otello)

Dvorak: Song to the Moon (Rusalka)

Offenbach: ‘Scintille, diamant' (Les Contes d'Hoffmann)

Massenet: Recitative and Gavotte (Manon)

Bizet: Final act of Carmen

Puccini: Final scene of Act One and ‘Te Deum' from Tosca

Antonio Pappano (conductor)

Lisette Oropesa (soprano)

Kristine Opolais (soprano)

Gerald Finley (bass-baritone)

Aigul Akhmetshina (mezzo-soprano)

Charles Castronovo (tenor)

Filipe Manu (tenor)

Vito Priante (baritone)

Jeremy White (bass)

Royal Opera Chorus

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Opera classics performed by a cast including Gerald Finley and Jette Parker Young Artists.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra20221012Wagner: Faust Overture

Grieg: Piano Concerto

Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra

Vasily Petrenko Conductor

Simon Trp?eski Piano

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

This programme starts and ends in utter darkness, casting the moments of light and revelation in sharp relief. In his Overture, Wagner underscores Faust's pact with the devil with music of fear and trepidation. After its famous sunrise, Strauss's tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra fades into a question mark at the stroke of midnight.

Both give us heroes that are reaching desperately for enlightenment, either grappling with evil forces or declaring 'God is dead'. For Faust the struggle is between faith, intellect and passion. For Zarathustra the prophet, only humanity can solve its own riddles.

This is German Romanticism at its headiest, with music that is both brooding and bold. Wagner's 'unending melody' is the perfect match for Faust's yearning and deep-held passions, while Strauss takes us in nine imaginative scenes from desolation to a mountain-top awakening and the dawn of a new understanding.

Mountains of a different kind define Grieg's Piano Concerto, whose melodic richness echoes the beauty of the fjords. The finale is inspired by a folk fiddle dance that challenges how high the dancers can jump. This is a work that invites you to embrace the simpler pleasures in life.

Simon Trp\u010deski joins Vasily Petrenko and the RPO to perform Greig's mighty Piano Concerto.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 70th Birthday Concert20160919Live from the Royal Albert Hall

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates its 70th Birthday, with Martha Argerich, Pinchas Zukerman and Charles Dutoit.

Rossini: Overture - William Tell

Bruch: Violin Concerto

8.15: Interval

8.35: Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor

Stravinsky: The Firebird (1919)

Martha Argerich, piano

Pinchas Zukerman, violin/director

Charles Dutoit, conductor

In celebration of its platinum year, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is joined by a trio of outstanding artists in an evening of classical masterpieces.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates its 70th birthday at the Royal Albert Hall.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Live From Hull City Halls.20171109Adam Tomlinson presents a concert given live by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Alexander Shelley, and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich in a fairy-tale programme of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov at Hull City Halls.

Are you sitting comfortably?... Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral saga of love, adventure and intrigue in exotic lands, Scheherezade, is a kaleidoscopic tale-within-a-tale. Over 1001 nights, the eponymous princess narrator spins yarns of romance and derring-do - in order to save her neck from a murderous husband convinced of the 'duplicity and infidelity of all women.' Voyaging across oceans with Sinbad, the work was intended to be 'beyond doubt an Oriental narrative of some numerous and varied fairy-tale wonders and not merely four pieces played one after another.

To open the concert, Tchaikovsky's ballet music to the 18th-century tale of the Sleeping Beauty. Based on the Grimm Brother's re-working, it's stuffed to the brim with magical imagery and tunes to match. The suite makes the most of it, with the Waltz and Rose Adagio from Act 1 and the birdsong of the 'Bluebird' pas de deux of Act 3.

In between, cellist Leonard Elschenbroich join the orchestra for Tchaikovsky's graceful Variations on a Rococo Theme, the first compositional expression of the composer's love of Mozart and idealised 18th-century poise - perhaps surprising in a composer more readily known for heightened emotional states.

Tchaikovsky: Sleeping Beauty Suite, Op 66a; Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op 33

INTERVAL

Rimsky-Korakov: Scheherazade, Op 35

Leonard Elschenbroich (cello)

Alexander Shelley (conductor).

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov at Hull City Halls.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ravel, Prokofiev, Dvorak20170419Presented by Martin Handley

Live from the Royal Festival Hall, London

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra plays Dvorကk's New World Symphony.

Ravel: Ma M耀re l'Oye (Mother Goose) - suite

Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.63

8.15: Interval

Dvorကk: Symphony No.9 in E minor (From the New World)

Vadim Repin, violin

Charles Dutoit, conductor

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra explores the innocent realms of childhood fairy tales and Vadim Repin performs Prokofiev Violin Concerto No.2.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performs music by Ravel, Prokofiev and Dvorak.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Respighi, Dvorak, Stravinsky20160329Live from the Royal Festival Hall

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is joined by their Principal Conductor Charles Dutoit in a programme of Respighi, Dvorကk and Stravinsky.

Respighi: Fountains of Rome

Dvorကk: Cello Concerto

8.15: Interval

8.35

Stravinsky: Petrushka (1911)

Gautier Capu瀀on, cello

Charles Dutoit, conductor

Respighi's Fountains of Rome and Stravinsky's Petrushka are two of the most colourful orchestral scores ever written, depicting as they do the wonders of Rome from dawn to dusk, and the St. Petersburg Shrovetide fair.

The orchestra is joined by Gautier Capu瀀on for another favourite, Dvorကk's Cello Concerto.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Charles Dutoit in Respighi, Dvorak and Stravinsky.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Roslavets, Ravel, Shostakovich20160202Ilan Volkov conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra live at the Royal Festival Hall in a programme including music by two composers who suffered under the Soviet regime. From the pre-Soviet 20th century comes Nikolay Roslavets's short, sinister symphonic poem In the Hours of the New Moon, one of his earliest existing works; 'A Soviet Artist's Response to Justified Criticism' was how Dimitri Shostakovich described his 5th symphony. The symphony premiered in 1937, at the height of Stalin's purges, and the recently denounced Shostakovich apparently appeased the authorities, but it has long been thought to contain anti-Stalin messages and personal defiance. Maurice Ravel's jazz age piano concerto, urbane and angst-free, played by Ingrid Fliter completes the bill. Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Roslavets: In the Hours of the New Moon

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

8.10pm Interval music choral and chamber music by Shostkovich's contemporary, Vissarion Shebalin, a composer whom Shotakovich described as the best composition teacher in the Soviet Union.

Shostakovich: Symphony No.5

Ingrid Fliter (piano)

Ilan Volkov (conductor).

Ilan Volkov conducts the Royal Philharmonic in music by Roslavets, Ravel and Shostakovich.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sibelius, Schumann, Tchaikovsky20160503Live from the Royal Festival Hall: Khatia Buniatishvili plays Schumann's Piano Concerto with the RPO conducted by Thomas Dausgaard. Also on the programme: Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony.

Sibelius: Symphony No.7 in C

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor

8.30: Interval:

BBC Young Musician 2016

Clemency Burton-Hill introduces the second of the finalists in this year's strings category.

Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays music by Cassad , Rachmaninov and Shostakovich

8:50

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4 in F minor

Khatia Buniatishvili, piano

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Thomas Dausgaard conductor

Tonight's concert features two masterworks from the symphonic repertoire: it opens with Sibelius's single-movement Seventh Symphony, music in which conductor Thomas Dausgaard has been hailed by the New York Times for finding 'broody suppressed passion'. Tchaikovsky's mighty Fourth Symphony, the so-called 'Fate' symphony, concludes the concert, taking us on a journey from darkness to jubilation.

Between these two symphonies, the soloist in Schumann's romantic Piano Concerto is Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili, a player praised by Martha Argerich as 'a young pianist of extraordinary talent'.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, with Khatia Buniatishvili

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Britten, Elgar, Rachmaninov20180404Live from the Royal Festival Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Steven Isserlis perform Elgar's melancholic Cello Concerto and Thomas Dausgaard conducts Rachmaninov's glittering Symphonic Dances.

Britten: 4 Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

Elgar: Cello Concerto

8.15: Interval Music: Vladimir Ashkenazy, a former Principal Conductor of the RPO, plays Rachmaninov's piano Variations on a Theme of Corelli Op. 42.

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances

Steven Isserlis, cello

Thomas Dausgaard conductor

Conductor Thomas Dausgaard sets the scene for this concert with Britten's dramatic Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. Then follows Elgar's much-loved Cello Concerto played by Steven Isserlis. The concert ends with Rachmaninov's last composition, the brilliantly orchestrated Symphonic Dances.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Steven Isserlis perform Elgar's Cello Concerto.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra: Britten, Elgar, Rachmaninov20200515The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Steven Isserlis perform Elgar's melancholic Cello Concerto and Thomas Dausgaard conducts Rachmaninov's glittering Symphonic Dances.

First broadcast live from the Royal Festival Hall, London, in April 2018.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Britten: 4Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

Elgar: Cello Concerto

8.15pm: Interval Music: Vladimir Ashkenazy, a former Principal Conductor of the RPO, plays Rachmaninov's piano Variations on a Theme of Corelli Op. 42.

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances

Steven Isserlis, cello

Thomas Dausgaard conductor

followed at 9.20pm by Bartok's String Quartet No. 5 played by the Calidore Quartet in a performance recorded when they were members of Radio 3's prestigious New Generation Artist scheme.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Steven Isserlis perform Elgar's Cello Concerto.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Peter Oundjian And Nicola Benedetti20171009RSNO perform Stravinsky's ground-breaking Rite of Spring alongside a brilliant new work 'Velocity' by UK composer Gavin Higgins. And Scotland's best-loved violinist and international superstar Nicola Benedetti joins the orchestra for the tempestuous violin concerto by Elgar.

Recorded on Saturday 7 October at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

Higgins: Velocity

Elgar: Violin Concerto

Interval at c.8.35pm

Jamie MacDougall introduces revolutionary music of another kind written by Debussy in 1913 around the same time that the infamous Rite of Spring premiered in Paris. Steven Osborne performs some of the preludes from book 2 including La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune, Ondine, Hommage

Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Shostakovich And Prokofiev20160524The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Peter Oundjian perform a powerful Russian programme of Shostakovich's 8th Symphony and Prokofiev's spirited 2nd Piano Concerto.

Recorded at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 21 May

Introduced by Tom Redmond

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No 2

8.05pm

Interval Music

Schubert: Four Impromptus D.935 performed by Nikolai Lugansky

8.25

Shostakovich: Symphony No 8

Peter Oundjian, conductor

Nikolai Lugansky, piano.

The RSNO and Nikolai Lugansky in Shostakovich, Schubert and Prokofiev.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Szymanowski, Macmillan, Berlioz20160322In a year-long celebration of the 125 years of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Peter Oundjian takes the helm for a colourful evening of romance, drama and sheer sensuous beauty. Nicola Benedetti performs the Szymanowski Violin Concerto which has become synonymous with her name since her performance of this work at the final of the Young Musician of the Year competition in 2004. James MacMillan's substantial 'Little Mass' which received its first performance last year in Liverpool enjoys a reprise on home turf in this performance with the sparkling young RSNO junior chorus

James MacMillan - Little Mass

Szymanowski - Violin Concerto No 2

8.30 Interval

MacMillan - From Ayrshire (from CD 'Mendelssohn, MacMillan, Mozart')

Nicola Benedetti, violin

Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields

James MacMillan, conductor

Mahler - Piano Quartet in A minor (from CD 'The Silver Violin')

Tom Dunn, viola

Leonard Elschenbroich, cello

Alexei Grynuk, piano

8.50

Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique

RSNO Junior Chorus (Christopher Bell, choirmaster)

Peter Oundjian, conductor.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Peter Oundjian in MacMillan, Szymanowski, Berlioz.

Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Rachmaninov20170220The young Hong Kong-born conductor Elim Chan has the distinction of being the first female to win the prestigious Donatella Flick Conducting competition in 2014. She makes her debut with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with two staples of the Russian Romantic movement.

Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 2 is a great vehicle for the virtuosic young pianist Louis Schwizgebel, formerly a Radio 3 New Generation Artist.

Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet - Fantasy Overture

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 2 in B flat

8.15pm Interval: Louis Schwizgebel plays four of Schubert's best loved songs arranged for piano by Liszt: Erlk怀nig, Du bist die Ruh, Auf dem Wasser zu singen and St䀀ndchen.

Rachmaninov: Symphony No 2 in E minor

Louis Schwizgebel, piano

Elim Chan, conductor.

Elim Chan conducts the RSNO in music by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Rachmaninov.

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic20200914Herbert Blomstedt conducts the 2019 Nobel Prize Concert. With music by Nielsen, Stenhammar, Grieg and Sibelius.

The prestigious gala concert is held each year to honour the year's Nobel laureates. It is always a glittering affair, held every December 8th in the Stockholm Konserthuset - the very same venue as the awards ceremony itself

Last year's concert celebrated, appropriately enough, four Nordic composers: opera extracts by Nielsen, songs by Grieg and Stenhammar and Sibelius's epic, sweeping second symphony

During the interval, the talented young Nightingale String Quartet plays the exquisite fourth quartet by fellow-Dane Rued Langgaard. A pupil of Nielsen's, he gave it the subtitle 'Summer Days' and it is concise, elegant and quite delicious

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

7.30pm

Carl Nielsen

Aladdin, op. 34: four orchestral extracts

Wilhelm Stenhammar

Flickan knyter i Johannenatten (The Girl is Binding on Midsummer Eve)

Flickan kom ifr倀n sin 䀀lsklings m怀te (The Girl Comes from Meeting her Lover)

S倀ngen, op. 44: Intermezzo

Edvard Grieg

V倀ren (Last Spring)

En drøm (A Dream)

8.05pm

Interval:

String Quartet no. 4 'Summer Days

8.25pm

Jean Sibelius

Symphony no. 2 in D, op. 43

Miah Persson, soprano

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Herbert Blomstedt, conductor

Image: Martin UK Lengemann

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic And Romanian Radio Orchestra20190303Tchaikovsky's lushly romantic and sparkling Violin Concerto is performed with grace and ebullience by Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. Before that, another great concerto: Ravel's jazz-infused Piano Concerto. Soloist Javier Perianes joins the Romanian Radio National Orchestra, who begin the programme with their countryman George Enescu's energetically folksy Romanian Rhapsody No.1.

Presented by Kate Molleson.

Ensecu: Romanian Rhapsody No.1

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

Javier Perianes (piano)

Jean-Claude Casadesus (conductor)

Ann-Sofi S怀derqvist: Movements

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D

Lisa Batiashvili (violin)

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Karina Canellakis (conductor)

Enescu and Ravel from Romania and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D from Stockholm.

Royal String Quartet, Mozart, Glass, Gorecki20170201Recorded on 27th January 2017 at the Royal Pump Rooms, Leamington Spa

Presented by Adam Tomlinson

The Royal String Quartet plays Mozart, Glass and Gorecki.

Mozart: Quartet in D minor, K421

Philip Glass: Quartet No 3, 'Mishima

8.15: Interval

8.35

Gorecki: Quartet No 1, Op 62, 'Already it is dusk

Mozart: Quartet in C K465, 'Dissonance

The Royal String Quartet is back in Leamington with a fascinating programme in which quartets by Mozart framing two cult composers' works. Philip Glass wrote his quartet for the film Mishima and the first of Gorecki's quartets was written for the Kronos Quartet. The Royal Quartet has recorded all of Gorecki's quartets to great acclaim.

Followed by music for brass band written by British composers as a prelude to tomorrow's Radio 3 in Concert from the Royal Northern College of Music's Brass Band Festival featuring the Cory Band.

The Royal String Quartet plays music by Mozart, Glass and Gorecki in Leamington Spa.

Rps Awards20201123Georgia Mann introduces music performed by some of the winners of 2020's Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, announced at the Wigmore Hall earlier this month.

She'll play music performed by some of the winners of various categories, including Outstanding Instrumentalist, Singer, Conductor and by the recipient of this year's prestigious RPS Gold Medal Award.

An evening showcasing some of the winners of the 2020 RPS Awards.

Rps Awards20211108Katie Derham introduces an evening of music showcasing some of the winners of this year's Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, announced at the Wigmore Hall last week.

She'll play music performed by some of the winners of various categories including Outstanding Instrumentalist, Singer, Conductor and Young Artist.

An evening showcasing some of the winners of this year's RPS Awards.

Rps Awards 201620160511Photo of conductor Sakari Oramo receiving his RPS Award (c) Simon Jay Price

The RPS Awards 2016

Andrew McGregor presents highlights of last night's ceremony at The Brewery in London, at which the winners of the 2016 Awards from the Royal Philharmonic Society were announced.

The RPS Music Awards are the highest recognition for live classical music-making in the United Kingdom and reflect their guiding principles of Excellence, Creativity and Understanding.

These independent awards were set up in 1989 to celebrate the outstanding musical achievements of both young and established, British and International, musicians.

The Awards are peer-judged. Each category is decided by an eminent jury from the music profession. The list of winners since 1989 reads as a roll call of the finest living musicians.

The awards honour a broad sweep of live music making including categories for performers, composers, inspirational arts organisations learning, participation and engagement. There is no restriction on the nationality of recipients, but the awards are for achievements within the United Kingdom.

The Royal Philharmonic Society has been at the heart of music for over 200 years and is dedicated to creating a future for music. It is one of the world's oldest music societies and has a thriving membership.

Andrew McGregor presents highlights from the 2016 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.

Rsno, Mahler20170605The Royal Scottish National Orchestra under their Music Director, Peter Oundjian perform Mahler's Third Symphony which creates a vast and colourful landscape and features the voices of the ladies of the RSNO Chorus and the Junior Chorus.

This concert, recorded on 3 June, rounds off the RSNO's 125th anniversary season from the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. It is presented by Kate Molleson

Mahler: Symphony No 3

Susan Platts, soprano

RSNO Junior Chorus

Peter Oundjian, conductor.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra performs Mahler's Third Symphony in Glasgow.

Rsno, Mahler's Symphony No 22015100220151005 (R3)The RSNO open their season with Mahler's Resurrection Symphony. Recorded on Friday at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Resurrection

Valentina Farcas, soprano

Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano

RSNO Chorus and Orchestra

Peter Oundjian, conductor

Broken by grief, a man stands by the grave of a friend. But that's just the start of an incredible journey. Mahler's epic Resurrection Symphony sweeps through storms, love songs, tragedy and triumph to the end of the world itself - and beyond. Peter Oundjian, the RSNO and the RSNO Chorus are joined by two truly world-class soloists to launch the RSNO's Anniversary Season in a blaze of pure, soaring inspiration.

Peter Oundjian conducts the RSNO and Chorus in Mahler's Symphony No 2 (Resurrection).

Rte National Symphony Orchestra20180211Clemency Burton-Hill presents highlights of recent concerts from Europe: Nathalie Stutzmann conducts the RTɀ National Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.

Beethoven: Symphony No.1 in C major, Op.21

Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, Op.77

Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 in D major, Op.25 'Classical

Veronika Eberle, violin

Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor.

Clemency Burton-Hill shares highlights of the RTE National Stmphony Orchestra from Dublin.

Rtve Orchestra Madrid20210105Fiona Talkington presents a highlight from last year's concert season.

Japonese conductor Kazuki Yamada directs the Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid and the tenor Fran瀀ois Paolino in the ‘Te Deum' by Berlioz.

The programme begins with the Symphony in C by Bizet, and early work, in which the composer of Carmen demonstrates his innate flair for orchestration.

In the second half, the enormous forces of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid perform the Te Deum by Berlioz, an oratorio of colossal scale and rarely performed for that reason. Tenor Fran瀀ois Piolino is the soloist. The programme begins with Bizet's Symphony in C.

Concert given in Feburary, 2019.

In the second half, the enormous forces of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra and massed choruses perform the Te Deum by Berlioz, an oratorio of colossal scale requiring the acoustics of a vast buiding - and rarely performed for that reason. Tenor Fran瀀ois Piolino is the soloist.

Fran瀀ois Paolino, tenor

Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of RTVE

Kazuki Yamada, conductor

Concert given in February 2019.

The RTVE Symphony Orchestra and Chorus play Bizet and Berlioz, conducted by Kazuki Yamada.

Rtve Symphony Orchestra Madrid20210621Pablo Gonzalez conducts the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in a concert recorded at Madrid's Teatro Monumental in February. Emmanuel Tjeknavorian is the soloist in his father Loris Tjeknavorian's Violin Concerto, and in the second half you can hear the complete score of Ravel's ballet 'Ma M耀re l'Oye'.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Loris Tjeknavorian - Violin Concerto, Op.1

Komitas - Krunk (The Crane) [encore]

Maurice Ravel - Ma M耀re l'Oye (complete ballet)

Emmanuel Tjeknavorian (violin)

Pablo Gonzalez (conductor)

approx 8.50pm

Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge

Philip Langridge (tenor), Britten Quartet, Howard Shelley (piano)

Mendelssohn: Octet Op. 20

Gringolts Quartet and Meta4

Sibelius: Night Ride and Sunrise Op.55

Philharmonia Orchestra, Simon Rattle (conductor)

Pablo Gonzalez conducts RTVE Symphony Orchestra in music by Loris Tjeknavorian and Ravel.

Rtve Symphony Orchestra Perform Berlioz And Beethoven20220627The RTVE Symphony Orchestra play Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and before that, Gerhild Romberger sings Berlioz's Les nuits d'退t退, an exquisite setting of poems charting the progress of love, from youthful innocence to loss and finally renewal. These two popular works were recorded at the 100-year-old Teatro Monumental in Madrid:

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Berlioz: Les nuits d'退t退, Op.7

c. 8pm.

Interval Music: Alicia de Larrocha plays Evocaci n, El Puerto and Fꀀte - Dieu

Rtve Symphony Orchestra, Madrid20210927Pablo Heras-Casado conducts the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in a concert recorded in Madrid in April, featuring Beethoven's Fourth Symphony, and Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. with soloist Leticia Moreno.

During the interval you can hear more from violinist Leticia Moreno, playing chamber music by Granados and Piazzolla.

Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64

Leticia Moreno (violin)

Pablo Heras-Casado (conductor)

c. 8.05pm

Granados - Violin Sonata

Ana Maria Vera (piano)

c. 8.15pm

Piazzolla - Grand Tango arr. for violin & piano

Jos退 Gallardo (piano)

c.8.30pm

Beethoven - Symphony No.4 in B flat, Op.60

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Pablo Heras-Casado conducts the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in Mendelssohn and Beethoven.

Ruby Hughes And Joseph Middleton At Wigmore Hall20180220~Radio 3 In Concert this evening offers an exploration of love, lullabies and the bond between parent and child in a programme of songs performed by the soprano Ruby Hughes and the pianist Joseph Middleton. As well as songs by Schumann, Mahler, Ives and Britten the evening features the world premiere of a song cycle by Wigmore Hall's Composer in Residence Helen Grime, setting poems from Fiona Benson's Bright Travellers, a remarkable and moving collection of poetry which explores the pain, passion, beauty and joy of becoming a parent.

Presented by Georgia Mann.

Robert Schumann: Tr䀀umerei (Kinderszenen Op. 15)

Robert Schumann: Frauenliebe und leben Op. 42

Gustav Mahler: Kindertotenlieder

INTERVAL

Charles Ives: Serenity

Charles Ives: The Housatonic at Stockbridge

Charles Ives: Memories: a. Very Pleasant, b. Rather Sad

Charles Ives: Songs my mother taught me

Helen Grime: Bright Travellers (world premi耀re)

Benjamin Britten: Ca' the yowes

Benjamin Britten: Come you not from Newcastle?

Benjamin Britten: At the mid hour of night

Benjamin Britten: O Waly, Waly

Ruby Hughes (soprano)

Joseph Middleton (piano)

Recorded at Wigmore Hall, London on Thursday 15th February.

Soprano Ruby Hughes & pianist Joseph Middleton in Schumann, Mahler, Ives, Grime & Britten.

Ruby Hughes And The London Handel Players2015110420151102 (R3)This year's Brighton Early Music Festival celebrates on a grand scale music by female composers of the past. From St George's Church Kemp Town, Brighton, Ruby Hughes takes on two dramatic solo cantatas on biblical themes by Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. De La Guerre first burst onto the musical scene aged eight when she performed at the Court of Louis XIV, majorly impressing the King. These sandwich performances by the London Handel players of some of the finest and earliest examples of string sonatas, and keyboard works by the master of the keyboard Francois Couperin. Presented by Ian Skelly.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber 1644-1704

Rosary Sonata No.1 'Annunciation

Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre 1665-1729

Violin Sonata No.2 in D major

Jacquet de La Guerre Cantata: Susanne

Jean-F退ry Rebel 1666-1747

Violin Sonata in D major No.5 Deuxi耀me Livre

8.15: INTERVAL: Imogen Holst: Mass in A minor

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge

Graham Ross, director

Jean-Marie Leclair 1697-1764

Violin Sonata No.8 in G major (Premier livre) for violin and continuo

Fran瀀ois Couperin 1668-1733

Pi耀ces de Clavecin Premier Ordre

Les Abeilles

La Nan耀te

Les Sentiments

La Pastorelle

Les Non耀tes

L'Enchanteresse

Cantata: Judith

Ruby Hughes (soprano)

The London Handel Players:

Adrian Butterfield (violin)

Katherine Sharman (viola da gamba)

Laurence Cummings (harpsichord).

Soprano Ruby Hughes and London Handel Players at the 2015 Brighton Early Music Festival.

Running Riot With The National Youth Orchestra20220526Running riot', with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Gabriela Ortiz: T退enek- Invenciones de Territorio

Dinuk Wijeratne: Tabla Concerto

Interval, featuring Members of the NYO

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Sandeep Das, tabla

Carlos Miguel Prieto conductor

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain are celebrating the theme of ‘Open Up' - the idea being to open up new perspectives, form new relationships, and disperse preconceptions about music and musicians. Tonight's theme is ‘Running Riot', and Carlos Miguel Prieto conducts a programme that ends with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, the piece which came out of nowhere to catapult music into the 20th century, not adhering to any tradition, and exploring the cycles of nature that in the end connect everyone. The Rite takes up the second part of this concert, and before it comes music by two innovative composers working right now, Dinuk Wijeratne and Gabriela Ortiz, who are exploring difference and diversity, transcending barriers and finding human connection through music. Sandeep Das will be the tabla soloist in Wijeratne's tabla concerto, and he says it's ‘simply the best Western Classical piece written for my instrument.

Concert recorded on 23rd April at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

The National Youth Orchestra perform Stravinsky at the Royal Festival Hall.

Ruslan, Petrushka And Nimrod20210715Sir Mark Elder and the Hall退 orchestra return for their first concert in front of a live audience since lockdown began. It's a programme full of life - Russian folk tunes abound in Glinka's overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla. There's Stravinsky's depiction of the puppet Petrushka embued with magical life, and Elgar's Enigma is the parade of his nearest and dearest that secured his place in history.

Presented by Linton Stephens.

Glinka: Overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla

Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947 version)

Elgar: Enigma Variations

The Halle orchestra's first concert in front of a live audience since lockdown began.

Russia Comes To London20190501Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts the Philharmonia in an all-Russian programme at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Beginning with Glinka's lively Ruslan and Ludmila Overture, and culminating in Shostakovich's deeply personal Tenth Symphony, written during the horrors of Stalin's reign. Plus, Esther Yoo joins the orchestra for Glazunov's lyrical, folk-inspired violin Concerto. Presented by Martin Handley

7.30pm

Glinka Overture, Ruslan and Ludmila

Glazunov Violin Concerto in A minor (Op. 82)

c.8pm

Interval Music from CD

Rachmaninov 5 Morceaux de fantasie, op. 3

Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano)

c.8.20pm

Shostakovich Symphony No. 10

Esther Yoo (violin)

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor

Glinka, Glazunov and Shostakovich from the Philharmonia.

Russian Classics20200221The Philharmonia's Principal Conductor Designate, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, directs the orchestra in a programme of Russian favourites.

Borodin died before finishing his opera Prince Igor and the rousing Overture was reconstructed by Glazunov. With its exhilarating energy and ravishing lyricism, it sets the tone for this concert.

If Glazunov helped Borodin's reputation by bringing Prince Igor to life, he almost destroyed Rachmaninov's, by conducting the premiere of his First Symphony when drunk. The fiasco drove Rachmaninov into a severe and prolonged depression, which he eventually overcame with the help of a hypnotherapist. The breakthrough work was the Second Piano Concerto, suffused with yearning and memorable melodies. Behzod Abduraimov, born in Tashkent, joins the orchestra for what is one of the most popular of all piano concertos.

Prokofiev wrote his Fifth Symphony during World War II, describing it as a 'hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty powers, his pure and noble spirit'. A serene opening for solo flute and bassoon begins a journey through tension and struggle which ends in a spirit of optimism.

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London on 9th February and presented by Ian Skelly.

Borodin:Overture, Prince Igor

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2

8.15 Interval: Bortniansky: Cantata No 27: I cried unto God.

Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Paul Hillier (director)

8.25

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5

Behzod Abduraimov (piano)

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

The Philharmonia performs favourites by Borodin, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev.

Russian Heart, Soviet Steel20220204From the unsettling vantage point of the 1920s and 30s three Russian composers reflect on their homeland. Dmitri Shostakovich's outlandish Piano Concerto No.1 is performed by young Albanian Marie-Ange Nguci, with its standout part for trumpet, played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Principal Trumpet Philip Cobb. Rachmaninov, who had fled the Soviet Union to America, in his final Symphony No.3 pines in broad melodies, and astonishing orchestral sounds, for pre-Soviet Russia. The shock of the new begins it all with the heat of Soviet futurism in Alexander Mosolov's The Iron Foundry, a punch of a piece in which the whole orchestra literally imitates the sounds of a factory floor.

During the interval of this live broadcast from the Barbican Hall, the BBC Symphony Chorus with Chorus Director Neil Ferris perform Russian and Russian-inspired works live from the Maida Vale Studios.

Presented by Hannah French

Alexander Mosolov: The Iron Foundry (1927)

Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 1 (1933)

8.05pm Interval live from Maida Vale Studio 1.

Rachmaninov: Priiditye, poklonimsia

Rachmaninov: Bogoroditse Dyevo

Cheryl Frances-Hoad: Bogoroditse Dyevo

Galina Grigorjeva: In Paradisum

Schnittke: Three Sacred Hymns

Neil Ferris (conductor)

8.25pm

Sergei Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 3 (1935-36)

Marie-Ange Nguci (piano)

Philip Cobb (trumpet)

Dalia Stasevska (conductor)

Photo (c) Jarmo Katila

Dalia Stasevska conducts the BBC SO in works by Mosolov, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich.

Russian Orchestral Masterpieces20231107Shostakovich's Eleventh Symphony may have been written at the request of the Soviet authorities, but it is now renowned as passionately empathetic to the oppressed citizens at the time of the Russian Revolution. Vasily Petrenko conducts it for the first time in Liverpool, and it is a great opportunity to hear the orchestra's incredible full-sized set of church bells: a powerful contrast to the romance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, played by rising star Christian Li.

Recorded at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and presented by Elizabeth Alker.

Liadov: Kikimora

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto

Shostakovich: Symphony No.11, ‘The Year 1905

Christian Li (violin)

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

Shostakovich, Liadov and Tchaikovsky from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Shostakovich's Symphony No 11, Liadov's Kikimora and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Presented by Elizabeth Alker.

Ryan Bancroft Conducts The Rite Of Spring20221006The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and their Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft perform two monumental Russian works in a concert which launches the Orchestra's new season in Cardiff. Rachmaninov's lush Third Piano Concerto occupies the first half, a work which is often cited as being one of the most difficult solo parts in the repertoire. After the interval, we will be treated to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, his landmark work which supposedly caused a riot at it's premiere, and has been the touchstone for modern music ever since.

Live from St David's Hall, presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

7.30pm

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 3 in D minor, Op 30

8.15pm

Interval Music

8.35pm

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Yeol Eum Son (piano)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

BBC NOW perform Stravinsky's landmark work with their Principal Conductor

Saariaho, Ravel And Mendelssohn20230511Simone Menezes and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform music by Kaija Saariaho and Felix Mendelssohn, and pianist Denis Kozhukhin joins to play Ravel.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Saariaho: Laterna Magica

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

8.30 Interval: Kate introduces a recent recording of 'Stone, Salt and Sky' by composer Sally Beamish, performed by the GAIA duo.

8.50 Part Two

Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony No.3 (Scottish)

Light abounds in a concert from City Halls, in Glasgow. Composer Kaija Saariaho was inspired by references in Ingmar Bergman's autobiography to the first machine to create the illusion of a moving image: the magic lantern, or Laterna Magica. Ravel's Piano Concerto in G is dazzlingly entertaining from its opening whip-crack to its jazz-infused finale. It is brought to life by pianist, Denis Kozhukhin. And, as the sun sets, a deep Scottish twilight inspires Felix Mendelssohn's vivacious Third Symphony.

Simone Menezes (conductor)

Denis Kozhukhin (piano)

Simone Menezes conducts the BBC SSO in music by Saariaho, Mendelssohn and Ravel.

Sacred Choral Music: Durufle's Requiem20221110Maurice Durufl退's beautiful Requiem - one of the best-loved of 20th-century choral masterpieces - performed live by the BBC Singers under conductor Lionel Sow.

Imagine a music that seems to exist outside of time. Deep tranquillity and profound emotion fuse to create a single, indefinable feeling, and ancient chants blossom like flowers into rich, shimmering harmonies. But words can't really describe Maurice Durufl退's beautiful Requiem: composed just after World War II, it's one of those pieces that quietly finds its way into your heart, and stays there forever.

Recorded at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London on 4 November 2022. Presented by Ian Skelly.

1930:

Harris - Faire is the Heaven

Helen Neeves - Pan (world premiere)

Vaughan Williams - Serenade to Music

Becky McGlade - To a Skylark

Harris - Bring us, O Lord God

Lucy Walker - O sacrum convivium

Sarah Quartel - God with me

Tavener - Song for Athene

2040: Interval

2100:

Durufl退 - Notre Pere

Durufl退 - Requiem

Lionel Sow makes his debut with the BBC Singers, performing Durufle's Requiem.

Saffron Hall New Year Celebration20230124Chloe Rooke conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra at Saffron Hall in a concert of festive Viennese New Year music. Emma Johnson is the soloist in Mozart's popular Clarinet Concerto and in the second half they are joined by soprano Sarah Redgwick in more music by Mozart, alongside Lehar and Strauss.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Mozart: Overture, The Marriage of Figaro

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto

INTERVAL

8.15pm

Nico Dostal: Frohliches Spiel

Franz Grothe: Illusion

Lehar: Fata Morgana

Ethel Smyth: Overture, ‘The Boatswain's Mate

Mozart: Deh vieni non tardar (from Marriage of Figaro)

Anna Clyne: Restless Oceans

Lehar: Vilja's Song (from The Merry Widow)

J Strauss II: Mein Herr Marquis Adele's Laughing Song (from Die Fledermaus)

J Strauss II: Unter Donner und Blitz 3

J Strauss II: On the Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz

Emma Johnson (basset clarinet)

Sarah Redgwick (soprano)

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Chloe Rooke

Chloe Rooke conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra and soloists in Viennese music.

Saint-sa\u00ebns's Organ Symphony20230328Maxim Emelyanychev, one of the outstanding conductors of the younger generation, leads the period instrument Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in an all-Saint-Sa뀀ns programme.

Camille Saint-Sa뀀ns's long musical life began in the first half of the 19th century as extraordinary child-prodigy - he wrote his first composition aged three - and ended in 1921 as reactionary grand-old-man of French music. He had the distinction being mocked by Berlioz at one end of his career (as a composer who `knows everything, but lacks inexperience`) and dismissed by Debussy at the other (as `the musician of tradition`).

But the 'French Beethoven' (as Gounod described him) turned out to have staying power. This concert amply demonstrates Saint-Sa뀀ns's gift for dazzling orchestral narrative and memorable tunes, opening with the symphonic poem Pha退ton, with its vivid galloping horses and climactic lightning bolt, and closing with the visceral excitement and grandeur of the 'Organ' Symphony. In between, Steven Isserlis is the soloist in the first Cello Concerto, and in the ever-popular Danse macabre OAE concertmaster Matthew Truscott plays devilish violin to the rattling skeleton bones of the xylophone.

Recorded in January at the Royal Festival Hall, London, and introduced by Martin Handley.

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Pha退ton, op. 39

Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, op. 33

8.20 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Rameau: Les Paladins (Suite - selection)

Gustav Leonhardt (conductor)

8.30 pm

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Danse macabre, op. 40*

Symphony No. 3 in C minor, op. 78 ('Organ Symphony')

Steven Isserlis (cello)

*Matthew Truscott (violin)

James McVinnie (organ)

Maxim Emelyanychev (conductor)

Maxim Emelyanychev conducts Saint-Sa\u00ebns with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Sakari Oramo Conducts Rachmaninov20221005Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Rachmaninov's famed Piano Concerto No 2 with soloist Boris Giltburg, Prokofiev's Cinderella, and a Sophie Lacaze premiere.

The opening chords of Rachmaninov's Second Piano seem to grow out of silence: just the starting point of one of the most gripping adventures ever created for virtuoso pianist and symphony orchestra. For Cinderella, meanwhile, the chimes of midnight change everything, at the brilliant climax of Prokofiev's fairy-tale ballet suite.

There's a definite aura of magic about this opening concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's new season. Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo is joined by Boris Giltburg - a pianist whose performances have been compared to Rachmaninov's own. And in between comes a whole new enchantment: Sighs of Stars, a brand-new work from Sophie Lacaze, a French composer with a rare gift for weaving spells in sound.

Live from the Barbican, London presented by Penny Gore

Sergey Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor

8.15pm

Interval - Choral music chosen by Sophie Lacaze :

Machaut: Messe de notre dame - Kyrie

Schola Cantorum of Oxford, Jeremy Summerly (conductor)

[performed in Rheims Cathedral]

Dunstable: Credo (Jesu Christe Fili Dei), JD 16

Tonus Peregrinus, Antony Pitts (conductor)

Josquin: D退ploration sur la mort d'Ockeghem

La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Jordi Savall (director)

8.30pm

Sophie Lacaze: Sighs of Stars (BBC co-commission: world premiere)

8.50pm

Sergei Prokofiev: Cinderella Suite No. 1

Boris Giltburg (piano)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC SO in Rachmaninov, Sophie Lacaze and Prokofiev

Sakari Oramo Sibelius Cycle: Symphonies 2 And 720180108The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo conclude their Sibelius cycle with Symphonies 2 and 7. Soprano Anu Komsi solos in Sibelius's soaring, intense Luonnotar, and fellow Finnish composer Aarre Merikanto's equally daring 'Ekho', a portrait of the doomed love of Echo for Narcissus.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall on Saturday 6th January

Presented by Martin Handley

Sibelius: Symphony No 7 in C, Op 105

Sibelius: Luonnotar Op 70 *

8.00

Interval. Martin Handley talks to Sibelius expert Leah Broad of Oxford University.

8.20

Aarre Merikanto: Ekho*

Sibelius: Symphony No 2 in D, Op 43

Anu Komsi (soprano)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Twenty-five years separate Sibelius's Second and Seventh symphonies, but that hardly hints at the growth in his musical style - No 2 rich, romantic and the work that sealed his international reputation; No 7 a powerful study, in one movement, of organic musical growth. Together, they conclude Sakari Oramo's Sibelius symphony cycle with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Luonnotar (1913) from mid-way between the two is a magical creation-story for soprano and orchestra and finds Anu Komsi the soloist - in a work premiered in Gloucester. no less! Aarre Merikanto's Ekho (1922), a perfect, beautiful work makes an ideal partner to Luonnotar - and Komsi is a superb exponent of this vocally taxing score, having already made a magnificent recording of the piece.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo in Sibelius Symphonies 2 and 7

Sakari Oramo Sibelius Cycle: Symphony No 120171206Live from the Barbican. The BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sakari Oramo mark 100 years of Finnish Independence with music by the young Sibelius, including the First Symphony,

Presented by Martin Handley.

Sibelius: Press Celebrations Music (UK premiere)

8.05

Interval: Sibelius and Finnish Independence. Professor Daniel Grimley of Oxford University, and conductor Sakari Oramo in conversation with Martin Handley

Sibelius: Jaegar March

Laulun Yst䀀v䀀t Male Choir

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Sibelius Impromptu in E Op.5 no.6 - Commodo (1890-1893)

Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)

Part 2

8.25

Sibelius: 'Cantique' and 'Devotion' (Two Pieces, Op 77)

Sibelius: Symphony No 1

Guy Johnston (cello)

To celebrate the centenary of Finland's Independence - when Finland ended its autonomy as a Grand Duchy within Russia and became a republic on 6 December 1917 - the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Finnish Chief Conductor presents a programme by Finland's greatest composer. We open with the first UK performance of the complete Press Celebrations Music (including Finland Awakes, the original version of Finlandia). Guy Johnston plays two rarities for cello and orchestra and the BBC SO's Sibelius Symphony Cycle continues with the powerful First from 1899.

Live from the Barbican. BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo - Sibelius's Symphony No 1

Sakari Oramo Sibelius Cycle: Symphony No 320171027Live from the Barbican. Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius's 3rd Symphony, Schmitt's 2nd Symphony, and two concertante pieces by Franck and Ravel with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.

Presented by Martin Handley

Florent Schmitt: Symphony No.2, Op.137

C退sar Franck: Symphonic Variations

08.10

Interval

8.30

Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

Jean Sibelius: Symphony No.3 in C major

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Two symphonies written 50 years apart, and perfectly complementary, bookend two great French works for piano and orchestra played by a master.

C退sar Franck's once hugely popular Symphonic Variations are paired with Ravel's inventive Concerto for the Left Hand, both works played by the award-winning Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, a pianist with an innate and wonderfully natural feeling for French music.

They form the heart of a programme that opens with Florent Schmitt's last work, his Second Symphony of 1957, a piece of luxuriant orchestration with a battery of percussion - a captivating follow-up to last season's performance of Schmitt's incidental music for Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Sibelius's Third makes a perfect complement to the Francophone tone of the programme, a work of almost classical poise and scale; another staging post in Sakari Oramo's Sibelius symphony cycle.

Live from the Barbican, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo in Sibelius' Symphony No 3

Sakari Oramo Sibelius Cycle: Symphony No 520170927Live from the Barbican. Sakari Oramo begins his Sibelius symphonies cycle with the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Symphony No. 5. Alina Pogostkina joins for Berg's Violin Concerto.

Presented by Martin Handley

Richard Strauss: Death and Transfiguration

Berg: Violin Concerto

8.15: Interval

8.35

Sibelius; Symphony No 5 in E flat major

Alina Pogostkina, violin

Sakari Oramo, conductor

Sakari Oramo conducts music by his fellow countryman Jean Sibelius, launching a Finnish theme for the BBC Symphony Orchestra's 2017-18 Barbican Season's concerts, which includes the complete Sibelius Symphonies. The exhilarating Fifth Symphony, which culminates in the evocation of swans in flight, starts this magnificent journey.

The young Richard Strauss imagines the end of a man's journey through life as his strength ebbs away and his mind reviews his achievements in Death and Transfiguration. And Russian violinist Alina Pogostkina performs Alban Berg's Violin Concerto - an intense and beautifully sensitive hymn devoted to Manon Gropius, the daughter of Alma (n退e Mahler) and Walter Gropius, who died aged 18.

Live from the Barbican. BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo in Sibelius' Symphony No 5

Sakari Oramo Sibelius Cycle: Symphony No 62017113020171129 (R3)Live from the Barbican. Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius's 4th & 6th Symphonies. Lisa Batiashvili joins for Anders Hillborg's Violin Concerto No 2.

Presented by Martin Handley

Sibelius: Symphony No 6

Anders Hillborg: Violin Concerto No.2 (UK premiere)

8.15

Interval

8.35

Sibelius: Symphony No 4

Lisa Batiashvili (violin)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

If the current fascination with things Nordic has gripped you, this is your concert! Sakari Oramo and Lisa Batiashvili gave the world premiere in Stockholm in October 2016 of the Swede Anders Hillborg's Second Violin Concerto ('fresh and skilfully constructed... virtuosic - unbelievably exciting' Leipziger Volkszeitung). They bring it to London in the context of music from Finland - two further symphonies in the cycle that the BBC SO and Sakari Oramo are presenting this season. The Fourth with its powerful sense of foreboding is an enormously powerful work while the enigmatic and concentrated Sixth rarely fails to make a huge impact on its listeners.

Live from the Barbican. BBC Symphony Orchestra & Sakari Oramo: Sibelius's Symphonies 4 & 6

Sakari Oramo's Sibelius Cycle: Symphonies 2 And 720200403Twenty-five years separate Sibelius's Second and Seventh symphonies, but that hardly hints at the growth in his musical style: No 2 rich, romantic and the work that sealed his international reputation; No 7 a powerful study, in one movement, of organic musical growth. Together, they conclude Sakari Oramo's Sibelius symphony cycle with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in the 2017-18 season. Luonnotar (1913) from mid-way between the two is a magical creation-story for soprano and orchestra and finds Anu Komsi the soloist - in a work premiered in Gloucester. no less! Aarre Merikanto's Ekho (1922), a perfect, beautiful work makes an ideal partner to Luonnotar - and Komsi is a superb exponent of this vocally taxing score, having already made a magnificent recording of the piece.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall on Saturday 6th January 2018

Presented by Martin Handley

Sibelius: Symphony No 7 in C, Op 105

Sibelius: Luonnotar Op 70 *

8.10

Interval. Martin Handley talks to Sibelius expert Leah Broad of Oxford University, and discusses, with illustrations, Sibelius's Scaramouche

8.35

Aarre Merikanto: Ekho*

Sibelius: Symphony No 2 in D, Op 43

Anu Komsi (soprano)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra with its Chief Conductor in Sibelius's Symphonies 2 and 7.

Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra20220207For a century, in its spectacular setting among the lakes and mountains of the Salzkammergut,and against the Baroque backdrop of the city of Mozart's birth, the Salzburg Festival has been a magnet for music lovers. In this recording from the 2021 festival the versatile composer, clarinettist and conductor J怀rg Widmann, directs and plays in a concert of Mozart masterpieces, including the 'Jupiter' Symphony and Clarinet Concerto.

Introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Mozart: Overture to 'The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492

Clarinet Concerto in A, K. 622

8.10 pm

Interval music (from CD):

Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545 'Facile

Andrကs Schiff (fortepiano)

8.20pm

Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C, K. 551 ('Jupiter')

J怀rg Widmann (clarinet and conductor)

Image: © Marco Borggreve

J\u00f6rg Widmann picks up baton and clarinet for an all-Mozart Salzburg Festival concert.

Santa Cecilia Orchestra And Antonio Pappano20210208In the opening concert of the 2020/21 Symphonic Season of the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, Antonio Pappano conducts two very different vocal works.

Bruckner's uplifting Te Deum is cast on the biggest scale and, with four soloists and large choir, ends in a blaze of glory. Mahler's 'Song of the Earth' sets translations of ancient Chinese poems, some bawdy, some delicate and concludes with a farewell to life which never fails to move.

In the interval, Pappano proves his versatility as a musician, partnering cellist and fellow conductor Luigi Piovano from the piano in a sonata by Brahms.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

7.30pm

Anton Bruckner

Donika Mataj, soprano

Daniela Salvo, contralto

Anselmo Fabiani, tenor

Antonio Vincenzo Serra, bass

Santa Cecilia Chorus & Orchestra

Antonio Pappano, conductor

7.55pm Interval

Johannes Brahms

Sonata in E minor, Op.38

Luigi Piovano, cello

Antonio Pappano, piano

8.20pm

Gustav Mahler

Das Lied von der Erde

Gerhild Romberger, mezzo-soprano

Clay Hilley, tenor

Santa Cecilia Orchestra

Antonio Pappano conducts the Santa Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra in Bruckner and Mahler.

Santtu-matias Rouvali Conducts Sibelius And Shostakovich20231010Now in his third season as the Philharmonia Orchestra's charismatic Principal Conductor, Santtu-Matias Rouvali begins this concert with fellow Finn Sibelius's Symphony No. 6, defiantly described by the composer himself as 'pure cold water' as opposed to the fashionable 'cocktails of every hue' provided by so many of his 1920s contemporaries.

Full of whacky, tail-chasing, Keystone Cops-type moments, Shostakovich seems to be recalling his days as a silent cinema pianist in his playful Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings. The soloists are Chopin Competition winner Seong-Jin Cho and the Philharmonia's brilliant young principal, Jason Evans.

Shostakovich ends the concert: the last of the three contrasting movements of his Symphony No. 6 is a manic, circus-like dash to the finish.

Recorded last month at the Royal Festival Hall and introduced by Martin Handley.

Sibelius: Symphony No. 6 in D minor, Op. 104

Shostakovich: Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings

8.30 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Stravinsky: Octet

London Sinfonietta

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

8.45 pm

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 54

Seong-Jin Cho (piano)

Jason Evans (trumpet)

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.

Santtu-matias Rouvali Conducts The Philharmonia In An All-american Programme20201026Although it's not until next season that Santtu-Matias Rouvali takes over from fellow Finn and long-time Philharmonia Principal Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, he has already begun to make his mark as an original programmer - and performer - with his new orchestra.

Tonight's all-American programme is book-ended by two classic scores. In Appalachian Spring, Copland defined the sound of an idealised mid-century America, with broad, singable tunes, one famously taken from directly a Shaker source; Stravinsky's lively and engaging Dumbarton Oaks (commissioned by a wealthy Washington couple as an expensive wedding anniversary present to themselves) takes JS Bach's Brandenburg Concertos as its model. Less well known is African American composer Florence Price's Dances in the Canebrakes, which conjures up the Deep South of her childhood. And Rouvali steps off the podium to join four members of the Philharmonia's percussion section for Steve Reich's 1973 Music for Pieces of Wood, a compelling and mesmerising tour de force of shifting rhythms and sophisticated simplicity.

Introduced live from the Royal Festival Hall by Ian Skelly as part of Southbank Centre's Inside Out season.

Copland: Appalachian Spring

Florence Price: Dances in the Canebrakes

Steve Reich: Music for Pieces of Wood

Stravinsky: Dumbarton Oaks

Philharmonia Orchestra

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

Followed by:

Thomas Ad耀s

Concerto for violin and orchestra

Pekka Kuusisto (violin)

Aurora Orchestra

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

Album: DG 4838228

18'23

Followed by music chosen by young people involved in the outreach programmes and artist development schemes run by Southbank's Resident and Associate orchestras and Creative Learning Partners.

Photo - Camilla Greenwell

Aaron Copland, Steve Reich, Florence Price and Stravinsky, live at the Royal Festival Hall

Santtu-matias Rouvali Conducts The Philharmonia In Tchaikovsky20220316Tormented souls, bitter despair, a wretched marriage and clandestine passion: what better subject for a symphonic poem for a tortured composer? No wonder Francesca da Rimini's journey into Dante's second circle of Hell resonated with Tchaikovsky! In 1893, nearly 20 years later, Tchaikovsky had finished another symphonic work with, he wrote, 'such a programme that will remain an enigma to everyone—let them guess'. People have been guessing about the 'Path退tique' symphony ever since. Its extreme emotional contrasts, pivoting between euphoric outbursts and dark anguish, have helped most imagine that the music is autobiographical. Added to which, memorable tunes and gripping musical drama have made the 'Path退tique' enduringly popular. But that in no way overshadows its revolutionary sequence of movements (no less than Mahler took it as a model), capped by a long drawn-out, slow finale which dissolves into silence.

Completing this all-Tchaikovsky programme, Bruce Liu, much-praised winner of last year's Chopin International Piano Competition, plays the Second Piano Concerto.

Recorded last week at the Royal Festival Hall and presented by Martin Handley.

Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32

Piano Concerto No. 2 in G major, Op. 44

8.55 pm

Interval

Bruce Liu Looks back to the 2021 Chopin Competition and introduces this recording he made there:

Chopin: Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54

9.10 pm

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, Op. 74 'Path退tique

Bruce Liu (piano)

Philharmonia Orchestra

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

Including the 'Pathetique' Symphony and Second Piano Concerto with award-winning Bruce Liu

Sarah Connolly And Ian Bostridge Sing Vaughan Williams And Chausson20201118Two of Britain's most celebrated singers, Sarah Connolly and Ian Bostridge, join Julius Drake at the piano and the Carducci Quartet for a pair of song cycles inspired by nature. Chausson's Po耀me de l'amour et de la mer, evokes the sea, at once serene, wild, mocking, cruel. Interwoven throughout the text are the subjects of love and death, themes also found in Vaughan Williams's On Wenlock Edge, where rolling waves are replaced by a quintessentially English rural landscape. Vaughan Williams sets six poems from a collection that inspired many English song composers in the first half of the twentieth century, AE Housman's A Shropshire Lad, including the poignant 'Is My Team Ploughing?', sung by the ghost of a lover.

Presented by Martin Handley and recorded at London's Barbican Hall on 1st November 2020.

Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge

Chausson: Po耀me de l'amour et de la mer (arranged for quartet and piano by Franck Villard)

Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)

Ian Bostridge (tenor)

Julius Drake (piano)

Sarah Connolly and Ian Bostridge with Julius Drake and the Carducci Quartet.

Saved From The Titanic20191107Live from the Queen Elizabeth hall, London

Presented by Georgia Mann

Coleridge-Taylor wrote his Violin Concerto in 1912 for an American soloist, sending the completed score of the on the Titanic. The material never arrived, of course, and he had to hastily rewrite the piece from memory.

Brahms finished his Second Symphony some 35 years earlier, claiming that it was ‘so melancholy that you will not be able to bear it. I have never written anything so sad, and the score must come out in mourning'. Nothing could be further from the truth - this symphony is one of the composer's sunniest and most cheerful works.

Kevin John Edusei makes a welcome return to conduct Chineke! and the violin soloist is Elena Urioste, one of Radio 3's New Generation artists.

Weber: Overture, Oberon

Coleridge-Taylor: Violin Concerto in G minor, Op.80

8.15: Interval

Brahms: Symphony No.2

Elena Urioste (violin)

Chineke! Orchestra

Kevin John Edusei (conductor)

The Chineke! Orchestra play Coleridge-Taylor and Brahms.

Scheherazade20221201Alpesh Chauhan and the BBC SSO perform Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, and they are joined by Pablo Ferrကndez in Ernest Bloch's Schelomo: a Hebraic Rhapsody for cello and orchestra.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Thomas Ad耀s: Three-piece Suite from Powder Her Face (Suite No.1)

Bloch: Schelomo (Hebraic Rhapsody)

8.05 Interval

Recent recordings of music to complement this evening's concert

8.25

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

Pablo Ferrကndez (cello)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

In a concert broadcast live from City Halls in Glasgow, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their Associate Conductor Alpesh Chauhan bring musical story-telling to the fore. Rimsky-Korsakov's colourfully descriptive renderings of folk tales from One Thousand and One Nights feature some of the best known tunes in classical music. In the first half Pablo Ferrကndez is cello soloist in Ernest Bloch's serious meditation on his Jewish heritage. And the orchestra begins with three dance-peppered sketches drawn from Thomas Ad耀s's skewering opera, Powder Her Face.

Alpesh Chauhan and the BBC SSO perform Rimsky-Korsakov's folk-tale inspired music.

Schmidt's Second Symphony20221101Jonathan Berman conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a performance of Franz Schmidt's 2nd Symphony. The work is the largest of the Austro-Hungarian composer's four symphonies, and is characteristically innovative in form and scope. Tonight's performance marks the latest in the cycle of symphonies which Berman began with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in 2020. Before the interval, Berman will lead the orchestra through the Ricercare for 3 voices - the opening movement of JS Bach's The Musical Offering, heard here in Igor Markevich's version for double string orchestra and string trio. Following this, Matthew Featherstone appears as the soloist in Lowell Liebermann's Flute concerto, a work commissioned and made famous by Sir James Galway 30 years ago.

Presented by Hannah French, and recorded on 21st of October in Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff.

JS Bach, arr Markevitch: Ricercare a 3 (The Musical Offering, BWV 1079)

Lowell Liebermann: Flute Concerto, Op 39

8.10pm

Interval Music

8.30pm

Schmidt: Symphony No 2 in E flat major

Matthew Featherstone (flute)

Jonathan Berman (conductor)

Jonathan Berman and the BBC NOW perform works by Schmidt, Bach and Liebermann.

Schmidt's Third Symphony20211019The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Jonathan Berman present three different perspectives of Austria-Hungary: Kurt Schwertsik, Ernst von Dohnကnyi, and Franz Schmidt. The three composers were born less than 40 miles apart and all have fiercely nationalistic voices, yet all have strikingly different musical identities. Dohnကnyi was born in Pozsony, modern day Bratislava, during the Austro-Hungarian empire and remained fiercely Hungarian. Tonight the Orchestra will be joined by cellist Raphael Wallfisch for his Konzertstück, a masterwork in symphonic cello writing. Vienna born Kurt Schwerzik is instigator of the Third Viennese School, and is the voice of modern day Austria. The evening begins with his Epilog zu 'Rosamunde', a paean to Schubert and the lost space between Schubert's music and that of today. These two composers are bought together by Franz Schmidt, whose Schubert inspired Third Symphony closes the evening. Schmidt was born like Dohnကnyi in Pozsony, but moved to Vienna and fell utterly under the spell of the city, where his music has been championed ever since. The third symphony is the most cheerful of the four which he wrote, but the lightness of theme obscures a work of staggering harmonic writing.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, and recorded in Hoddinott Hall on the 7th of October.

7.30pm

Kurt Schwertsik: Epilog zu Rosamunde, Op 33

Dohnကnyi: Konzertstück in D major, Op 12

Interval Music

Schmidt: Symphony No 3 in A major

Raphael Wallfisch (cello)

Jonathan Berman (conductor)

Jonathan Berman conducts the BBC NOW in a distinctly Austro-Hungarian programme.

Schoenberg's Gurrelieder20170609Mark Elder conducts the combined forces of the BBC Philharmonic, the Hall退 Orchestra and choirs for a performance of Schoenberg's 'Gurrelieder'.

From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder

Brandon Jovanovich, tenor (Waldemar)

Emily Magee, soprano (Tove)

Alice Coote, mezzo (Wood Dove)

Graham Clark, tenor (Klaus the Fool)

James Creswell, bass (Peasant)

Thomas Allen, speaker

Hall退 Choir

Edinburgh Festival Chorus and London Philharmonic Choir (men's voices)

Mark Elder, conductor

Continuing their tradition of musical collaboration, the Hall退 and BBC Philharmonic orchestras close their respective Bridgewater Hall seasons with a rare performance of Schoenberg's gigantic 'Gurrelieder'. Richly Romantic and exquisitely lyrical, the piece draws us into a unique and all-embracing sound landscape. A setting of poetry by Jens Peter Jacobson, the libretto of this epic work is based on an ancient Danish saga; a tale of illicit love, jealousy and murder, set at the castle of Gurre in north Zealand. This performance features an all-star vocal line-up and massive choral forces as well as the combined warmth and power of two orchestras.

The BBC Philharmonic and the Halle in a performance of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder.

Schoenberg's Gurrelieder20220924Schoenberg‘s Gurrelieder, conducted by Edward Gardner.

Presented by Ian Skelly, live from the Royal Festival Hall, London.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra opens its new season at the Royal Festival Hall with a rare performance of Schoenberg's gigantic 'Gurrelieder'. Richly romantic and exquisitely lyrical, the piece takes its audience on a journey into a unique and all-embracing sound landscape. A setting of poetry by Jens Peter Jacobson, this epic work is based on an ancient Danish saga, a tale of illicit love, jealousy and murder, set at the castle of Gurre in north Zealand. Tonight's performance features an all-star vocal line-up and massive choral forces as well as the power of a colossal orchestra.

Lise Lindstrom soprano, Tove

Karen Cargill mezzo-soprano, Waldtaube

David Butt Philip tenor, Waldemar

Robert Murray tenor, Klaus-Narr

James Creswell bass-baritone, Bauer

London Philharmonic Choir

Members of London Symphony Chorus

Edward Gardner conductor

Edward Gardner conducts Schoenberg's Gurrelieder at the Royal Festival Hall.

Schreker, De Leeuw, Glinka And Tchaikovsky20170402Ian Skelly introduces a concert given in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw of music by Franz Schreker and Reinbert de Leeuw and the Dutch premi耀re of the original version of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto performed by Kirill Gerstein with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Edo de Waart

Schreker: Vorspiel zu einem Drama

Reinbert de Leeuw: Abschied

Glinka: Russian Songs - Doubt; Where is our Rose; Lullaby; Do not Tempt Me Needlessly

Henk Neven (baritone), Jan Bastiaan Neven (cello), Hans Eijsackers, (piano)

Recorded at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, in February

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 (Dutch premi耀re of the original version)

Kirill Gerstein (piano)

Edo de Waart (conductor)

Recorded at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, in January.

Ian Skelly introduces a concert given in Amsterdam, with Schreker, Glinka and Tchaikovsky.

Schubert And Weinberg20191020Fiona Talkington presents performances from across Europe

We are back this week at the Würzburg Mozart Festival with two Schubert symphonies - live performances of pieces that Heinz Holliger has been working with the Basel Chamber Orchestra to bring out as commercial recordings.

And the Karajan Academy are back with Ravel. The young musicians of the Karajan Academy are supported and mentored by members of the Berlin Philharmonic and are playing Ravel's orchestral tribute to Couperin.

And among these orchestral delights comes a powerful Piano Trio by Mieczys?aw Weinberg, a Polish-born composer of Jewish heritage, who fled east to the Soviet Union at the outbreak of the Second World War - he was the only survivor from his immediate family. Weinberg struck up a friendship with Shostakovich and this trio shares some of his friend's soundworld, but this is also a powerfully personal and individual piece. The Marvin Trio have been winning chamber music prizes across the globe, exciting audiences with their skill and commitment, and this resonates strongly in the Weinberg Trio as they count former Eastern Bloc countries as their homes.

Symphony No 3 in D major, D200

Basel Chamber Orchestra.

Heinz Holliger, conductor

Le Tombeau de Couperin

Berlin Philharmonic Karajan Academy

Pablo Heras-Casado, conductor

Piano Trio, Op 24

Symphony No. 2 in B flat, D125

Image credit: (c) Christian Schwab

Two Schubert Symphonies recorded at the Wurzburg Mozart Festival.

Schubert From Wigmore Hall20230111Paul Lewis plays three of Schubert's piano sonatas spanning three periods in composer's very short career - we meet him as an ambitious teenager aiming to emulate his great heroes Mozart and Beethoven; we meet him again just as he was struck down for the first time by the disease that was to kill him; and we meet him finally during an extremely happy period of remission from that disease, in the summer of 1825 when he felt well enough to head off on what turned out to be a holiday of a lifetime.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Schubert: Piano Sonata in E flat D568

Piano Sonata in A minor D784

Piano Sonata in D D850

Recorded at the Wigmore Hall on 30th November.

Paul Lewis plays three Schubert piano sonatas.

Schubert In Aldeburgh From The New Generation Artists20210224New Generation Artists play Schubert in Aldeburgh.

Members of Radio 3's prestigious young artists' programme delighted audiences as they explored together some of Schubert's best-loved works in the intimate surroundings of the Britten Studio in Snape, Suffolk in 2018.

Presented by Kate Molleson.

Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D821

Schubert: Piano Quintet in A, D667 (Trout)

Schubert: Piano Trio in E flat, D929

Amatis Piano Trio

Eivind Ringstad (viola)

with Adam Wynter (double bass)

Recorded in the Britten Studio, Snape, at the Big Chamber Weekend October 2018

followed at approx 9.40pm by Haydn's Trumpet Concerto played by recent New Generation Artist, Simon H怀fele with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Schubert's best-loved chamber works in performances by Radio 3's New Generation Artists.

Schubert With Laurence Equilbey20200207Sarah Walker is at Sage Gateshead for an all-Schubert programme from the Royal Northern Sinfonia in which Schubert's orchestral music is placed alongside some of his best-loved songs arranged by a series of different composers for voice and orchestra.

PART ONE

Schubert Overture to Rosamunde

Schubert Songs:

Im Abendrot, arr.Reger

An Silvia, arr.Krawczyk

Nacht und Traüme, arr.Krawczyk

Ganymed, arr.Strauss

Die Forelle, arr.Britten

St䀀ndchen, arr.Mottl

Erlk怀nig, arr.Berlioz

Du bist die Ruh, arr.Webern

INTERVAL

Pianist Marc Andre Hamelin and his recording of Godowsky's Passacaglia for solo piano, which is based on the opening idea of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony.

PART TWO

Schubert Symphony No.4 ‘Tragic

Ilker Arcayürek tenor

Laurence Equilbey conductor

A concert of Schubert, live from Sage Gateshead.

Schubert, Beethoven, Kapralova20151122Ian Skelly presents two beautiful sequences of Schubert choral music recorded at the Styriarte Festival, Graz, and the great hall of Thun castle in the canton of Berne is a suitably grand setting for Beethoven's Archduke Trio. And there's an all too rare chance to hear a concertino by Vitezslava Kaprကlovက, born a hundred years ago and who at her death at the age of twenty five left a remarkable body of works which suggest that she was destined to become one of the leading composers of her generation.

Das Grab, D330

Das Leben, D269

Grab und Mond, D893

Psalm 23 D706

Stefan Gottfried (piano)

Arnold Schoenberg Choir of Vienna

Erwin Ortner (director)

Concertino for Violin and Clarinet, Op 21

Jana Herajnovက (violin), Lukကs Dittrich (clarinet)

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hrusa (conductor)

Piano Trio No 7 in B flat, Op 97 ('Archduke')

Trio Rafale

Der Geistertanz, D494

Coronach, D836

Gebet, D815

Erwin Ortner (director).

Ian Skelly presents music by Schubert, Beethoven and Kapralova performed around Europe.

Schubert, Smetana And Dvorak20160403Ian Skelly presents music by Schubert, Smetana and Dvorak recorded in two of the world's most most hallowed concert halls.

Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, D. 821, arranged for flute and piano

Daria Dyagileva (flute), Mikhail Voskresensky (piano)

rec. Small Hall, Moscow State Conservatory

Hakon Jarl, op. 16

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jakub Hrusa (conductor)

Rudolfinum, Prague

Dvorak Piano Quintet No. 2 in A, op. 81

Mikhail Voskresensky (piano), Glinka String Quartet

Small Hall, Moscow State Conservatory.

Ian Skelly presents music by Schubert, Smetana and Dvorak from two famous concert halls.

Schumann And Beethoven From Gateshead20221014Royal Northern Sinfonia, live in concert from Sage Gateshead, featuring Schumann's Cello Concerto performed by the extraordinary Russian cellist and recent BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Anastasia Kobekina. The programme also features Nymph退a Reflection, a stunning autumnal tone poem by Kaija Saariaho. And tonight's concert ends with one of the greatest orchestral works ever written: Beethoven's Symphony No. 8.

Presented live by Linton Stephens.

Kaija Saariaho Nymphea Reflection

Robert Schumann Cello Concerto

Ludwig Van Beethoven Symphony No. 8

Dinis Sousa conductor

Anastasia Kobekina cello

Royal Northern Sinfonia play Schumann's Cello Concerto and Beethoven's Eighth Symphony.

Schumann Chamber Music From Wigmore Hall20181001Internationally acclaimed artists join forces for this all-Schumann programme recorded last week at Wigmore Hall. 'If I ever stop finding music challenging and life-altering, I'll quit and become an accountant,' says American pianist Jonathan Biss. Happily for music lovers, Jonathan Biss has stuck with the piano and has continues to garner an impressive list of awards for his performances and recordings. He's joined by the equally celebrated Elias Quartet, one of the UK's leading ensembles; they're regular collaborators and this promises to be an evening of memorable music-making.

Presented by Natasha Riordan.

Robert Schumann:

Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105

String Quartet in F Op. 41, No. 2

8.20pm

Interval Music (from CD)

JS Bach: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV. 225

The Norwegian Soloists' Choir

Ensemble Allegria

Grete Pedersen (conductor)

8.35pm

Piano Quintet in E flat, Op. 44

Jonathan Biss (piano)

Elias string Quartet

Sara Bitlloch and Donald Grant (violins)

Simone van der Giessen (viola)

Marie Bitlloch (cello)

Pianist Jonathan Biss joins forces with the Elias Quartet for an all-Schumann programme.

Schumann, Mozart, Ravel, Massenet And Smetana20161002Ian Skelly introduces performances recorded at some recent continental music festivals.

Schumann: Cello Concerto in A minor, op. 129

Sol Gabetta (cello), Basel Chamber Orchestra, Giovanni Antonini (conductor)

rec. Kaisersaal, Würzburg during Mozart Festival, Würzburg

Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 11 in A, K. 331 ('Alla Turca')

Anne Qu退ffelec (piano)

Ravel: Kaddisch

Tobias Feldmann (violin), Anne Qu退ffelec (piano)

rec. Musiq'3 Festival (Wallonie Festival) - Flagey, Brussels

Smetana: String Quartet No. 2 in D minor, JB 1:124

Pavel Haas Quartet

rec. Castle Palace, Zdar nad Sazavou during Concentus Moraviae Festival.

Ian Skelly presents music by Schumann, Mozart, Ravel, Massenet and Smetana.

Schumann's Cello Concerto And Mahler's Symphony No 520190610The first concert in our week-long focus on young artists on Radio 3 'Take 5'. Tonight's concert comes from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Rebecca Tong conducts cellist Yukyung Na and the RNCM Symphony Orchestra for Schumann's lyrical, flowing cello concerto. In the second half of the concert Vassily Sinaisky takes the helm for Mahler's virtuosic orchestral tour-de-force, his Symphony No 5. The students were keen to give the audience something out of the ordinary so treated them, and us, to a surprise as well.

Elizabeth Alker presents.

Part 1

Robert Schumann: Cello Concerto in A minor*

Interval

Elizabeth talks to three graduate students about their thoughts on preparing for a career in classical music.

Part 2

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No 5 in C sharp minor+

Yukyung Na (cello)

Rebecca Tong (conductor)*

Vassily Sinaisky (conductor)+

1st VIOLINS

Jody Smith (leader), Xander Croft, Elizabeth Lister, Isabella Baker, Amelia Dew, Jocelyn Lau, Dylan Edge, Cheuk Lam Lai, Elyena Clap, James Warburton, William McGahon, John Phillips, Mollie Wrafter, Jade Segler, John Hutchinson

2nd VIOLINS

William Chadwick, Didier Osindero, Susanna Griffin, Pijus Jonusas, Dylan Latham, Andrew Birse, Lucy Noden, Yinkai Zhao, Rebecca Howell, Eliette Harris, Alice Flannery, Samy Okuma-Chin

VIOLAS

Rebecca Stephenson, Chance Freeman, Emily Lois Davies, Jenny Key, Anthony Jones, Dominic Adams, Xin He, Gabriel-Teodor Dirtu, Karl Egeland, Abigail Hammett, Adonis Lau

CELLOS

Gunda Baranauskaite, Jacob Barns, Chloe Randall?, Kotryna Siugzdinyte?, Abigail Davies, Rosie Spinks?, Xiaodi Zhao?, Peter Phelan, Prudence Carter-Phillips?

BASSES

Marcus de Oliveira, Thomas Betts, Nigel Smith, Richard Walsh, Filipe Modafferi Dandalo, Ria Nolan, Ziqi Li

FLUTES

Leila Marshall, Lok-Yin Hui, Carina Udriste, Jack Rainey

OBOES

Heather Cossins, Jessica Vinson, Jessica Holmes

CLARINETS

Michael Yun-S Choi, Andrew Broome, Seb Marshall

BASSOONS

Holly Redshaw, Eleanor Mills, Ching Ho Man

HORNS

Sophie Bell, Molly Edwards, Jack Sindall, Robert Mehlig, Emily Douglas, Tom Edwards, Lauren Collings

TRUMPETS

Ben Jarvis, Tom Watts, Dominic Longhurst, Gray Tracy, Daniel Tarrant, Liam Orr

TROMBONES

Sheung Yin Chan, Charlotte Horsfield, Joshua Cargill

TUBA

Harry Cunningham

TIMPANI

Paula O'Malley

PERCUSSION

Leonardo Caleffi, Abby Chan, Darren Gallacher, Abigail Flood

Kathryn Mason

The Royal Northern College of Music kicks off Radio 3's week-long focus on young artists.

Schumann's Fourth Symphony20230118Schumann originally penned his final symphony directly after the completion of his first, but heavily revised it a decade later for it to be eventually published as his Fourth Symphony. Ryan Bancroft and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales will perform the sunnier, original version, in a programme with Beethoven's Overture to Coriolan, and Ligeti's Violin Concerto. Anthony Marwood will join them as soloist for Ligeti's remarkable concerto, which includes an ensemble of ocarinas, and in which he will play a cadenza composed by Thomas Ades.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas in BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff on the 9th of December.

7.30pm

Beethoven: Overture to Coriolan, Op 62

Ligeti: Violin Concerto

8.10pm Interval music (from CD)

R Schumann: Toccata, Op 7

Schulhoff: String Sextet (1st mvt)

C Schumann: Piano Trio Op 17 (4th mvt)

8.30pm

R Schumann: Symphony No 4 in D minor, Op 120 (original version, 1841)

Anthony Marwood (violin)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

BBC NOW and Ryan Bancroft perform Schumann's Fourth Symphony, Ligeti and Beethoven.

Schumann's 'spring' Symphony20220929Matthias Pintscher conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Robert Schumann's Symphony No 1, and they are joined by Cristina G mez Godoy to perform Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Stephen Broad

Zemlinsky: Sinfonietta

Strauss: Oboe Concerto

8.20 Interval Music (from recent recordings)

Johanna Muller-Hermann: String Quartet in E flat major, Movements 3 and 4 (performed by the Artis Quartet)

Clara Schumann: Romance in G minor, Op 11 No 2 (performed by Isata Kanneh-Mason)

8.40 Part Two

Robert Schumann: Symphony No 1 (Spring)

Cristina G mez Godoy (oboe)

Matthias Pintscher (conductor)

Matthias Pintscher conducts the BBC SSO in Schumann's Symphony No 1.

Schwetzingen Festival 201720170709Ian Skelly presents highlights from this year's Schwetzingen Festival, with music performed by the SWR Symphony Orchestra and the SWR Vocal Ensemble.

CPE Bach: Symphony in D minor, Wq.183'1

Konrad Junghanel (conductor)

Bruckner: Locus iste

SWR Vocal Ensemble Stuttgart

Marcus Creed (director)

Mozart: Symphony No.25 in G minor, K.183

Morton Feldman: Rothko Chapel

Sabine Czinczel (alto)

Andra Darzins (viola)

Markus Stange (celeste)

Marcus Maier (percussion)

Haydn: Symphony No.100 in G major, H.1:10 'Military

Konrad Jungh䀀nel (conductor).

Ian Skelly presents highlights from the 2017 Schwetzingen Festival.

Scotland Inspires20210504Three composers reveal the power of Scotland's history, landscape,and folklore over them. Sally Beamish's Viola Concerto No 3 'Under the Wing of the Rock', with BBC New Generation artist Timothy Ridout as soloist, tells in sound the story of an extraordinary act of human kindness at the time of the Glencoe Massacre. For Mendelssohn a masterpiece of a symphony was seeded by a visit to Holyrood Palace Edinburgh where he witnessed light shining into the ruins of the chapel where Mary Queen of Scots was crowned. And to start this Caledonian immersion 'a picture postcard record of a wedding in Hoy' is Peter Maxwell Davies's description of an Orkney Wedding with Sunrise - an eventful evocation of Scottish sleet, of dancing, of fine weather on a hopeful new day.

Recorded at the Barbican on 25th April 2021

Presented by Martin Handley

Mendelssohn: Symphony No 3 in A 'Scottish

Interval: Music by Geraldine Mucha

Mucha: Epitaph in Memory of Ji?i Mucha

Vil退m Veverka (oboe), Jan Machat (flute)

Stamic Quartet

Mucha: Variations on an Old Scottish Song

Patricia Goodson (piano)

Part 2

Peter Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise

Sally Beamish: Viola Concerto No 3 'Under the Wing of the Rock'*

Timothy Ridout (viola)*

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra performs music by Mendelssohn, Beamish and Maxwell Davies

Scotland Week, The Rsno20210528The Royal Scottish National Orchestra opens its celebration of music by Polish composers with a medley of folk tunes by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a close friend of Shostakovich. He wrote this Rhapsody in 1949 whilst living in Russia after fleeing Poland and the Nazi invasion, and as was encouraged by the Soviet Communist Party it includes Jewish klezmer dance tunes and Moldavian folk songs from his family heritage. International soloist Nicola Benedetti joins the orchestra for Szymanowski's first violin concerto; the piece that won her the title of BBC Young Musician in 2004. After the interval Andrzej Panufnik's third Symphony expresses his religious and patriotic feelings, based on the Bogurodzica, a medieval Polish hymn that translates as ‘she who gave birth to God'.

Recorded earlier in the spring at the RSNO Centre in Glasgow

Weinberg: Rhapsody on Moldavian Themes

Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No.1 Op.35

Approx 8.10pm

Approx 8.30pm

Andrzej Panufnik: Sinfonia Sacra (Symphony No3) 1963

Thomas Sondergard - Conductor

Nicola Benedetti - Violin

Presenter - Kate Molleson

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra celebrates the music of Poland

Scotland Week, The Scottish Chamber Orchestra20210527A medieval legend opens The Scottish Chamber Orchestra's performance, recorded at Perth Concert Hall last month. Written by a 25 year old Mendelssohn, it depicts the water sprite Melusine in musical form. The musical escapism continues with Ravel's magnificent piano concerto in G major as the sensational Edinburgh-based pianist Steven Osborne joins the SCO on stage, continuing his 50th birthday celebrations this year. After the interval we hear Mozart's Symphony No 31 in D major, written to please his Parisian audience. His use of several fashionable compositional techniques and the newly available clarinet impressed his audience so much, that they not only applauded between movements, but during them!

Mendelssohn: The Fair Melusine Overture Op.32

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

Approx 8.05pm

Approx 8.25pm

Mozart: Symphony no.31 in D major K.297 ‘The Paris

Steven Osborne - piano

Douglas Boyd - conductor

Presented by Kate Molleson

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra provides musical escapism with Mendelssohn and Ravel

Scotland Week, The Scottish Ensemble20210525With characteristic joy and eclecticism, the Scottish Ensemble's opening concert for Perth's Festival of the Arts celebrates the arrival of Summer with traditional Hungarian and Balkan dances, a waltz from Vienna and Argentinian Tango. Alongside these sits buoyant music by one of the most significant composers of the mid-twentieth century Grazyna Bacewicz. After the interval, we hear Tchaikovsky's Serenade for strings that he described as a 'heartfelt piece and so, I dare to think - not lacking in real qualities'.

Recorded earlier this month at The Byre at Inchyra.

Grazyna Bacewicz: Allegro from Concerto for String Orchestra

Macmillan; Memento

Meredith: Tullochgorm - from Scottish Variations

Dvorak: Waltz in D major op 54 no 4

Schubert: Minuet and Trio in C major - from 5 German Dances D89

Sandor Veress: Dobbantos from Four Transylvanian Dances

Piazzolla: Verano Porteno

William Grant Still: Tamborito from Danzas de Panama

Fredrik Sjolin: Intermezzo

Rune Tonsgaard Sorenson: Shine You No More

Approx 20:10

Approx 20:30

Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Produced by Laura Metcalfe

From The Byre at Inchyra in Perth, the Scottish Ensemble celebrates the arrival of summer.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra20151217As part of their ongoing survey of concertos by Mozart and Beethoven, Pianist Llyr Williams joins the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, directed from the violin by Alexander Janicek to perform Beethoven's dramatic 3rd piano concerto alongside works by CPE Bach and Mozart.

CPE Bach - Symphony in E flat major

Mozart - Violin Concerto No 1

Mozart - Rondo

Interval at 8.10pm

Wagner arr. Williams - Siegfried's Rhine Journey (Gotterdammerung)

Wagner arr. Williams - Spinning Chorus (Tannhauser)

Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 3

Alexander Janiczek, director/violin

Llyr Williams, piano.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra and pianist Llyr Williams in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 3.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra And Maria Joao Pires20170130The great Mozartian pianist Maria Jo o Pires joins the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and their Principal Conductor Robin Ticciati to perform two of Mozart's best-loved piano concertos alongside Dvorak's cycle of ten short pieces entitled Legends, arranged for chamber orchestra.

Dvorak: Legends, Op 59 Nos 1-5

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 23 in A, K488

interval at 8.25pm approx

8.45pm approx

Dvorak: Legends, Op 59 Nos 6-10

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 27 in B flat, K595

Maria Jo o Pires, piano

Robin Ticciati, conductor

Followed by music for brass band written by British composers as a prelude to Thursday's Radio 3 in Concert from the Royal Northern College of Music's Brass Band Festival featuring the Cory Band.

Maria Joao Pires (piano) and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra perform Dvorak and Mozart.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra At The East Neuk Festival20170706Described by the Festival as a journey departing from Orkney and touring the Northlands before returning home to the East Neuk o' Fife, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra strings enjoy a rare concert on their own directed by the violinist Stephanie Gonley.

McCrae - Kirkwall Session

Sibelius - Suite champꀀtre

JPP - Anitn Mikko

Grieg - Norwegian Melody 'In Folk Style

Dag Wir退n - Serenade

Oswald (arr.King) The East Neuk o' Fife

Interval at c.8.20pm Kate Molleson introduces wind soloists from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra including Maximiliano Martin and William Stafford (clarinet), Peter Whelan, Alison Green (bassoon) and Alec Frank-Gemmill and Harry Johnstone (horns) performing Mozart's Serenade in E flat major K375.

Tchaikovsky - Souvenir de Florence

Stephanie Gonley director.

The strings of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in McCrae, Sibelius, Grieg, Wirenand Oswald.

Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Gustavo Gimeno, Renaud Capucon20180515From the City Halls, Glasgow, the charismatic young Spanish Gustavo Gimeno, who was appointed as Music Director to the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg makes his debut with the SCO in this programme of core classical and early Romantic works by Beethoven, Schumann and Mendelssohn. The French violinist Renaud Capu瀀on is the soloist in Mendelssohn's effervescent and evergreen violin concerto.

Beethoven: Leonore Overture No 3

Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor

Schumann: Symphony No 2

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Gustavo Gimeno, conductor

Renaud Capu瀀on, violin.

Gustavo Gimeno and the SCO perform Mendelssohn and Schumann from the City Halls, Glasgow.

Scottish Ensemble, Part, Bach, Gubaidulina20151214From St John's Kirk Perth, Kate Molleson presents The Scottish Ensemble directed by Matthew Truscott, in a concert of P䀀rt, Bach and Gubaidulina.

P䀀rt: Fratres

Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041

Bach: Chorale: Wenn wir in h怀chsten N怀ten sein (from Art of Fugue, BWV 1080)

Gubaidulina: Meditation über der Bach Chorale: Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit

8.11: Interval

Bach: Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043

P䀀rt: Collage über Bach - Toccata

Bach: Contrapunctus XIX (from Art of Fugue, BWV 1080)

P䀀rt: Summa

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 (with Stravinsky arrangement of B minor Prelude from Well Tempered Clavier as Second Movement)

The meditative, cyclic, cascading notes of Bach hold a subtle power. Add to this slices of spiritual calm, in the form of Arvo P䀀rt's cinematic violins, as well as the surprise of Sofia Gubaidulina's eerie homage to the Baroque master, and the overall effect is one of meditation, reflection and immersion.

With his specialist knowledge and passion for period instrument performance, Matthew Truscott is guest director and solo violinist in two Bach concerti.

Matthew Truscott - Guest Director

Kate Molleson - presenter.

Matthew Truscott directs the Scottish Ensemble in music by Part, Bach and Gubaidulina.

Scottish Inspirations20210529Since taking up the post of chief conductor in 2016, Thomas Dausgaard has commissioned international composers to write music inspired by Scotland, and performed these works in concerts with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. As part of Radio 3's focus on music made in Scotland, this is a chance to hear a sequence of recent recordings of these varied responses to Scotland's people, music and culture.

Jay Capperauld: Fein-aithne

Sally Beamish: Piano Concerto No 2 (Cauldron of the Speckled Seas)

Anna Clyne: Beltane

David Fennessy: The Ground

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

Martin Roscoe (piano)

Music inspired by Scotland, performed by Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC SSO.

Scottish Sunrise And Nordic Soul-baring20191028The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and its chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard stir great passion as they render some of the biggest tunes in classical music. Sibelius's deeply personal, and thoroughly melodic Second Symphony ends the concert. Yulianna Avdeeva is the thrilling soloist in Tchaikovsky's most popular piano concerto, his first. And before all that, Scottish folk song abounds in Peter Maxwell Davies's camp classic: An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow on Thursday 24th October.

Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 1

8:20 Interval

8:40 Part 2

Sibelius: Symphony No 2

Yulianna Avdeeva (piano)

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

Maxwell Davies's An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise and Sibelius's Symphony No 2 from Glasgow

Sean Shibe, Julian Bliss20170707Sean Shibe, guitar, & Julian Bliss, clarinet, join forces at the East Neuk Festival in an eclectic recital from Bach to Reich at the Dreel Halls, Anstruther.

Steve Reich loves few composers more than JS Bach, so Sean Shibe and Julian Bliss takes that passion as inspiration for pairing ancient and modern with works for solo guitar and solo clarinet. On acoustic guitar Sean plays both Bach and the gorgeous traditional music of Fife's own James Oswald, then contrasts it with a modern classic on electric guitar, Reich's mesmerising Electric Counterpoint. Julian introduces short atmospheric works for solo clarinet from France including Messiaen's famous Abime des oiseaux, the third movement of his Quartet for the End of Time.

Oswald: Divertimenti

Excerpts from Scottish lute manuscripts, including the Rowallan, Wemyss, Straloch, Skene and Balcarres.

Messiaen: Abime des oiseaux (Quartet for the End of Time)

Bach: Solo Violin Sonata in G minor, BWV 1001 (Presto)

Julia Wolfe: LAD

8.15: Interval

8.35

Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint

Maxwell Davies: Farewell to Stromness

Tiberiu Olah: Solo Clarinet Sonata

David Lang: Killer

Bach: Solo Violin Sonata in G minor, BWV 1001 (Adagio)

Steve Reich: Electric Counterpoint

Sean Shibe, guitars

Julian Bliss, clarinet.

Sean Shibe (guitar) and Julian Bliss (clarinet) in concert at the Dreel Halls, Anstruther.

Seasonal Music From The Gesualdo Six20201216A highlight of the 35th Christmas Festival at St John's Smith Square, London.

The Gesualdo Six, directed by Owain Park, with a concert of seasonal music.

For centuries, Christmas and the surrounding seasons have inspired composers to new heights of invention. This programme reaches across the ages, from the eternal beauty of the Tudor church right up to the twenty-first century, with each piece chosen to evoke a sense of mystery and joy. Featuring works by Orlande de Lassus, Michael Praetorius, Judith Bingham and Sally Beamish.

Followed by music off disc:

Pietro Locatelli: Concerto grosso in F minor, Op. 1 '8 'Christmas Concerto

CPE Bach Chamber Orchestra

Hartmut Haenchen, conductor

The Gesualdo Six, directed by Owain Park, perform a concert of seasonal music

Seductive Voices20220119Direct from Symphony Hall Birmingham the CBSO and conductor Kazuki Yamada are joined by soprano Fatma Said for a concert of music by Mozart, Mahler and Strauss. The concert begins with Strauss's tone poem Don Juan recalling music's greatest seducer, a story which shares associations with Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. And Mozart also appears in the CBSO's programme, two of his most seductive orchestral arias sung by the soprano and R3 New Generation Artist Fatma Said, who is also the soloist in Mahler's heaven-bound Fourth Symphony.

Richard Strauss: Don Juan

Wolfgang Mozart: 'Vado, ma dove' & 'Non Piu di fiori

Interval

(from CD)

Felix Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words Opps 19 & 30 Nos 11&12

Daniel Barenboim (piano)

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No 4

Fatma Said (soprano)

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Kazuki Yamada (conductor)

Presented by Sarah Walker

Fatma Said photographer credit: Josef Fischnaller Warner Classics

Soprano Fatma Said joins Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO live in Mozart, Mahler and Strauss.

Seeing The Light20230316Violinist Mari Samuelsen joins conductor Anna-Maria Helsing and the BBC Concert Orchestra in music inspired by light. The concert begins with Philip Glass's first full orchestral work, referencing 19th-century experiments investigating the speed of light, and ending with Rautavaara's Symphony No 7, 'Angel of Light', drawing on dreams from his childhood.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Philip Glaas: The Light

Peteris Vasks: Lonely Angel *

INTERVAL

Meredi: White Flowers Take Their Bath *

Hildur Gu

Seek The Light20220426Violinist Hugo Ticciati directs the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in a programme inspired by the natural world. Its centrepiece is a new commission of spoken word, song and instrumental music by Scottish singer-songwriter Karine Polwart and composer Pippa Murphy. Swedish composer, Andrea Tarrodi's short work Birds of Paradise was inspired by one of the BBC's Planet Earth films about the strange and beautiful birds of paradise while Erkki Sven Tüür work is inspired by the cooler landscape of his homeland Estonia. The violin concerto by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks completes this Nordic and Baltic vista of landscapes; a contemplative work with bursts of drama and melancholy and a sense of nostalgia for distant memories. The concert is presented by Kathryn Tickell.

BEETHOVEN: Adagio from Symphony No 4

POLWART/MURPHY: You Know Where You Are

TARRODI: Birds of Paradise

POLWART/MURPHY: The Night Mare

T܀܀R: Insula Deserta

Interval

RAUTAVAARA: Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61 (Concerto for Birds & Orchestra)

POLWART/MURPHY: A Love Too Loud

VASKS: Distant Light

POLWART / MURPHY Sleep Now

Karine Polwart, singer

Hugo Ticciati, violin, director

Karine Polwart joins violinist Hugo Ticciati and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Semyon Bychkov Conducts The Czech Philharmonic20220419In March, to end their European tour, the Czech Philharmonic and their Chief Conductor Semyon Bychkov came to the Barbican Hall for this eagerly awaited concert - the first international visiting orchestra to perform there since the pandemic.

In a world where one orchestra often sounds very much like another, the Czech Philharmonic has retained an immediately recognisable distinctiveness, especially, as here, in two peaks of the Czech repertoire, each so characteristic of its composer.

Dvo?ကk's unique joyousness, sensuous happiness and nostalgia combine in his lyrical Eighth Symphony, by turns rustic, wistful and exuberant.

The church's all-consuming obsession (as he saw it) with death and suffering, was not for Janက?ek and his Glagolitic Mass, an ecstatic, visionary, pantheistic celebration, including fanfares, a wild organ solo and sudden outbursts, is like nothing else. 'Luminous, totally crazy, insane, full of joy of life,' is how Semyon Bychkov describes it.

Introduced by Ian Skelly.

Dvo?ကk: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88

8.15 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Janက?ek: Pohကdka

Laura van der Heijden (cello)

J ms Coleman (piano)

8.30 pm

Janက?ek: Glagolitic Mass

Evelina Dobra?eva (soprano)

Lucie Hilscherovက (alto)

Aleš Briscein (tenor)

Boris Prýgl (bass)

City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

Semyon Bychkov (conductor)

Dvo\u0159\u00e1k's Symphony No 8 and Jan\u00e1\u010dek's Glagolitic Mass, recorded live at the Barbican Hall.

Serenades And Variations20191125Brahms' ever-popular variations on the St Anthony Chorale attribute their theme to Haydn, although contemporary thought casts doubt on this, and the source remains a mystery. Benjamin Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings is an intense enactment of mysterious romantic poetry in music: sung by Stuart Jackson with French Horn counterpoint from the BBC SSO's principal, Alberto Men退ndez Escribano.

And the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra concludes its concert with music by Dvorak. Up and coming conductor Sergej Bolkhovets joins the orchestra to direct the composer's Serenade for Wind, and John Wilson returns to the podium for a second spin on the theme of themes and variations. Dvorak exploring his own melody, 'I am a fiddler', in an elegant set of Symphonic Variations.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Brahms: Variations on a Theme By Haydn

Britten: Serenade for tenor, horn and strings

8.30 Interval

8.50 Part 2

Dvorak: Serenade for Wind*

Dvorak: Symphonic Variations

Stuart Jackson (tenor)

Alberto Men退ndez Escribano (horn)

John Wilson (conductor)

Sergej Bolkhovets (conductor)*

John Wilson conducts music by Brahms, Dvorak and Britten from City Halls in Glasgow.

Serenading Lincolnshire20181129Britten Sinfonia is joined by acclaimed tenor, Mark Padmore in the beautiful setting of Crowland Abbey, Lincolnshire. Mark Forrest presents.

Programme to include:

Purcell (ed. Britten): Chacony in G minor

Bart k: Allegro molto capriccioso from String Quartet No. 2

Alec Roth: Concerto for Guitar and String Orchestra

Bart k: Romanian Folk Dances

Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings

The Britten Sinfonia and tenor Mark Padmore perform music by Britten and Bartok.

Serene Landscapes20230302The Ulster Orchestra take to the stage at the Ulster Hall in Belfast with their Chief Conductor Daniele Rustioni in a programme of works inspired by place and landscapes, opening with Sibelius's Symphony No 7 in C Major which the composer completed in 1924 and at that time was titled a 'Symphonic Fantasy' perhaps because it is one continuous movement lasting around 22 minutes- it was only later that he assigned a number to it. Like so many of Sibelius' pieces, the work evoked the landscapes of his native Finland and of vast spaces and all beautifully orchestrated.

We then welcome oboist Nicholas Daniel for a performance of Richard Strauss' Oboe Concerto, written in 1945 during the composer's final period of writing which some have described as his 'Indian Summer'. Originally Strauss had no intention of writing a concerto for the oboe, but on the suggestion being made to him by a 24-year-old US intelligence officer called John de Lancie while he was based in Garmisch, the composer thought on it for a time and soon he had sketched out the short score. As a civilian John de Lancie was principal oboist of the Pittsburgh Orchestra, and Strauss gave the dedication on the final score 'Oboe Concerto - 1945 - suggested by an American soldier.`

Finally, Brahms's Symphony No. 2 in D Major completes our concert this evening - composed during the summer of 1877 the work has a distinctly pastoral tone with the composer remarking on the manuscript- 'Es liebt sich so lieblich im Lenze!` (`It's so lovely to be in love in the springtime!`).

Presented by John Toal

Ulster Hall, Belfast

Nicholas Daniel, oboe

Daniele Rustioni, conductor

Sibelius - Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 105

Richard Strauss - Oboe Concerto

Brahms - Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73

The Ulster Orchestra perform works by Sibelius, Richard Strauss and Brahms.

Seven Last Words From The Cross20220405Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers Sofi Jeannin makes her debut at Kings Place, conducting a programme that also features works by two of north America's most distinctive musical voices: Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw (best known for her work with?a cappella?group Roomful of Teeth) and Californian composer Reena Esmail, whose work combines Western and Indian classical influences. Timothy Burke's intimate arrangement of Ralph Vaughan Williams's?Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis?and James MacMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross completes what promises to be a highlight of Kings Place's year-long Voices Unwrapped series.

Recorded live at Kings Place, London on Saturday 2 April.

Presented by Hannah French.

1930

Victoria: O Vos Omnes??

Reena Esmail: When the Violin??

Caroline Shaw: Entr'acte

Vaughan Williams arr. Timothy Burke: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

2010 - Interval

Delius: Brigg Fair 'An English Rhapsody

2030

James MacMillan: Seven Last Words from the Cross?

Aurora Orchestra

Sofi Jeannin - conductor

Sofi Jeannin and the BBC Singers join forces with Aurora Orchestra at Kings Place, London

Shaker Loops20201119The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra pair John Adams's minimalist masterpiece 'Shaker Loops' with Schumann's Second Symphony in a concert broadcast live from City Halls, Glasgow.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Joan Tower: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (No 1)

John Adams: Shaker Loops

Schumann: Symphony No 2

Jessica Cottis (conductor)

A study in musical energy, John Adams' 1978 piece for strings 'Shaker Loops' generates waves and oscillations of sound from the simplest of materials. Schumann's Second Symphony, published in 1847, creates its own 19th century energies from the twists and turns of its musical counterpoints.

And this concert, broadcast live from Glasgow's City Halls, the home of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, opens with a dynamic fanfare. Part rebuke, part tribute, the influential American composer Joan Tower's Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No 1 was written as a rejoinder to the male-dominated music scene of the 1960s, and a spirited salute to the inspiration of risk-taking women.

BBC SSO pair John Adams's masterpiece with Schumann's Second Symphony.

Sheherazade: Rimsky-korsakov's Suite And Ravel's Sultry Songs From Soprano Fatma Said And The Radio France Philharmonic20231218Tales of the Arabian Nights: Fatma Said sings Ravel's Shéhérazade and the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra plays Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade Suite.

The Egyptian soprano, a former Radio 3 New Generation Artist and Gramophone Award winner, brings a special affinity to Ravel's settings of three poems inspired by the Tales of the Arabian Nights. After hearing these poems by Tristan Klingsor Ravel wrote: “I yielded to the profound attraction that the east has always held for me since my childhood. ? After the interval the orchestra plays a work that Ravel admired hugely, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade Suite, four movements unified by the haunting sound of the violin solos played by the leader of the orchestra which depict Scheherazade herself as she tells her wondrous tales to the stern Sultan.

And the concert opens with Conte fantastique, a dark chamber work by André Caplet inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Masque of the Red Death.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

André Caplet: Conte fantastique

Ravel: Shéhérazade, song cycle

Mohammed Abdul Wahab: La Mosh Ana Ely Abky-Abki

Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, op. 35, symphonic suite

Fatma Said (soprano)

Pietari Inkinen (conductor)

Sheherazade: Fatma Said sings Ravel and Radio France Philharmonic play Rimsky-Korsakov.

Fatma Said sings Ravel's Shéhérazade, and the Radio France Philharmonic plays Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade Suite and, beginning the programme, André Caplet's Conte fantastique.

Sheku Kanneh-mason20210311Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, March 2021.

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Augusta Read Thomas: Plea for Peace

Dvorak: Cello Concerto (arr. Morton)

James MacMillan: Tryst

Three takes on melody. The brilliant cellist, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at City Halls, Glasgow, to shine new light on a favourite concerto. Dvorak's masterpiece is performed in a new scaled-down version bringing its melodic invention into even sharper focus.

The stalwart concerto is sandwiched with 2 more recent compositions. 'A Plea For Peace' by Augusta Read Thomas, a wordless song for orchestra, its sinuous melody at times hopeful, needling, sad. And James MacMillan's 1989 piece for orchestra, 'Tryst', which has one of the composer's own folk-inspired melodies at its heart.

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello)

Photo: Sheku Kanneh-Mason (credit, Jake Turney)

Dvorak Cello Concerto performed with BBC SSO and Martyn Brabbins from City Halls, Glasgow.

Shostakovich And Copland20210422Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform music by Copland and Shostakovich, with pianist Steven Osborne.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, 15th April 2021.

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Copland: Appalachian Spring

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No 2

Copland: Quiet City

Shostakovich: Hamlet Suite

Steven Osborne (piano)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Optimistic and vivacious music by Shostakovich: his Second Piano concerto. Steven Osborne joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to perform this cheerful work as the Scottish virtuoso celebrates his 50th birthday. The orchestra also bring to life Shostakovich's sharply characterised music for an absurdist stage adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet from 1932.

Alongside and in between, the orchestra, with conductor Martyn Brabbins, evoke two dramatic landscapes by Aaron Copland. The atmospheric urban loneliness of Quiet City; and the steep, inaccessible mountains of Appalachian Spring.

Photo: Steven Osborne (credit, Ben Ealovega)

Pianist Steven Osborne and conductor Martyn Brabbins join the BBC SSO in Glasgow.

Shostakovich And Strauss20230309Alpesh Chauhan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in dramatic works by Shostakovich and Richard Strauss, with guest cellist Pablo Ferrandez.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Stephen Broad

Richard Strauss: Don Quixote

8.15 Interval, Recent recordings of music to complement this evening's concert.

8.35 Part Two

Shostakovich: Symphony no. 5

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

Scott Dickinson (viola)

Pablo Ferrandez (cello)

Alpesh Chauhan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Shostakovich From Ljubljana20191222Fiona Talkington introduces highlights from concerts around Europe, including Shostakovich performed in the Slovenian capital city of Ljubljana, and CPE Bach performed at the Schwarzenburg Schubertiade in Austria.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Piano Sonata in E minor Wq.59`1

Marc-Andre Hamelin (piano)

Recorded in August at the 2019 Schwarzenburg Schubertiade, Austria

Dmitri Shostakovich - Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, op. 77

Robert Lakatos (violin)

RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra

James Tuggle (conductor)

Featured concerts from around Europe including Slovenia and Austria.

Shostakovich From Manchester20230518Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

The BBC Philharmonic and their Chief Conductor, John Storgards, welcome the outstanding Estonian National Male Choir to the Bridgewater Hall for a rare performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No.13. Shostakovich set texts by Russian dissident poet Yevgeni Yevtushenko, including his searing 'Babi Yar', in which he condemns anti-Semitism and writes powerfully about the 1941 massacre in Kyiv perpetrated by the Nazis, as a starting point for the Symphony. The programme opens with music based on the text of Psalm 130 'De profundis clamavi ad te Domine' (Out of the depths have I called to you, Lord), poetry both personal and universal, here set by Estonian composer Arvo P䀀rt. Jennifer Pike joins the orchestra for Sibelius's dark and dramatic Violin Concerto.

Arvo P䀀rt: De profundis

Sibelius: Violin Concerto

8.10

Music Interval (CD)

Ravel: Violin Sonata in G

Jennifer Pike (violin)

Martin Roscoe (piano)

8.30

Shostakovich: Symphony No.13 (Babi Yar)

Albert Dohmen (bass-baritone)

John Storgards (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and Estonian National Male Choir in Shostakovich's Symphony No 13.

Shostakovich In Reykjav\u00edk And Mozart In Bavaria20200105Highlights of concerts from around Europe, care of the European Broadcasting Union, introduced by Fiona Talkington. This selection includes an impressionistic orchestral piece by Slovenian composer Demetrij Žebre, chamber music by Shostakovich and Saariaho from the Reykjav퀀k Midsummer Music Festival, and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard performing a Mozart piano concert in Bavaria.

Demetrij Žebre - Prebujenje, for orchestra

RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra,

James Tuggle, conductor

Recorded last February in Ljubljana, Central Slovenia

Kaija Saariaho - Sept Papillons for cello solo

Dmitri Shostakovich

Piano Quintet in G minor, op. 57

Ilya Gringolts, violin

Anahit Kurtikyan, violin

Yura Lee, viola

Jakob Koranyi, cello

V퀀kingur Ӏlafsson, piano

Recorded at Reykjav퀀k Midsummer Music 2019

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat, K. 450

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Munich Chamber Orchestra

Clemens Schuldt, conductor

Recorded in June at the Mozart Festival, Würzburg

~Radio 3 In Concert. Highlights from classical concerts around Europe

Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony20210603The BBC National Orchestra of Wales with their principal conductor, Ryan Bancroft, play two 20th-century masterpieces. Britten's tribute to his much-loved teacher Frank Bridge uses variations to represent different aspects of Bridge's personality, and was the work, which first bought Britten to international attention. The Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge is followed by another tribute; this time a work dedicated to Britten by Shostakovich: his Fourteenth Symphony. In this piece Shostakovich muses on the subject of death, setting 11 poems by four poets, sung here by the former Radio 3 New Generation Artist bass-baritone Ashley Riches and Welsh Soprano Natalya Romaniw.

Recorded on the 29th May in BBC Hoddinott Hall and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Britten: Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op 10

8.05pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Britten: The Poet's Echo, Op 76

Galina Vishnevskaya (soprano)

Mstislav Rostropovich (piano)

8.25pm

Shostakovich: Symphony No.14, Op 135

Natalya Romaniw (soprano)

Ashley Riches (bass)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

BBC NOW and Ryan Bancroft perform the composer's penultimate symphony.

Shostakovich's Leningrad20200504Fiona Talkington presents a concert given by the SWR Symphony Orchestra and conductor Teodor Currrentzis in Stuttgart last June.

Just one piece in this concert - Shostakovich's mammoth 7th Symphony, completed in December 1941 and dedicated to the besieged city of Leningrad where it was given its first performance under dire circumstances a few months later. The symphony is still regarded as a testament to the 27 million Soviet people who lost their lives in World War II.

To end the programme, we'll focus on recordings of German viola-player Tabea Zimmermann, including a solo suite by Max Reger, Rebecca Clarke's 1919 sonata with pianist Kirill Gerstein, and Paul Hindemith's 1935 concerto `Der Schwanendreher`.

19:30

Shostakovich: Symphony No.7 in C major, Op.60

Teodor Currentzis (conductor)

20:45

Max Reger: Suite for viola solo in D major, Op.131d No.2

Tabea Zimmermann (viola)

20:55

Rebecca Clarke: Sonata for viola & piano

Kirill Gerstein (piano)

21:20

Paul Hindemith: Der Schwanendreher

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

David Shallon (conductor)

Teodor Currentzis conducts the SWR Symphony Orchestra in Shostakovich's Symphony No 7.

Shostakovich's Symphony No 4 And Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs20190124The Ulster Orchestra are joined by their Artistic Director, conductor Rafael Payare, for this concert of music by Richard Strauss and Dmitri Shostakovich. Soprano Dorothea R怀schmann will open the concert with Strauss's Four Last Songs, written towards the end of the composer's life when he was aged 84, and published after his death in 1949 by his friend Ernst Roth. The work can be said in many ways to be a reflection of Strauss's own life - the work is for solo soprano and orchestra and contains prominent sections for the horn; Strauss's father Franz was a professional horn player and his wife, Pauline de Ahna, a soprano.

Three of the poems which Strauss set to music are around the subject of death, indeed in his setting of 'Im Abendrot' he actually quotes a passage from his earlier work 'Death and Transfiguration', the so-called 'transfiguration theme'.

Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4 in C minor, although written between 1935-36, wouldn't actually receive its premiere for another 25 years, eventually being performed by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in December 1961 under conductor Kirill Kondrashin. During the piece's composition, Shostakovich was coming under increased scrutiny and criticism from Stalin, who ordered a scathing piece to be written, denouncing the composer in the communist publication 'Pravda.' This may have been the reason Shostakovich decided to withdraw the work for its planned performance in Leningrad in December 1936. When asked by colleagues about the article, the composer replied, 'I don't write for Pravda, I write for myself.

The orchestra in the symphony is enormous, boasting 4 flutes and 2 piccolos, 5 clarinets and 8 horns alongside 2 harps and a vast percussion section.

The Ulster Orchestra performs music by Richard Strauss and Dmitri Shostakovich.

Shostakovich's Symphony No 820200124Live at the Barbican Hall, Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In Part 1 there's the UK premiere of Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund's Water Atlas, and exquisite songs by Alma Mahler with mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill. Then comes Dmitry Shostakovich's symphonic denunciation of the futility of war. On 4 November 1943, a war-fatigued audience in Moscow heard the first performance of Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony. Unlike its predecessor, this was no rallying cry to arms. It was a masterpiece of despair, grotesquery and anger powered by music both grief-stricken in stillness and hurtling in paranoia. The piece was denounced by the Stalinist regime and banned in 1948.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Sebastian Fagerlund: Water Atlas

(UK premiere; BBC commission)

Alma Mahler: Lieder (arr. Colin & David Matthews and Jorma Panula)

Die stille Stadt (no.1 from 5 Lieder)

In meines Vaters Garten (No.2 from 5 Lieder)

Laue Sommernacht (No.3 from 5 Lieder)

Bei dir ist es traut (No.4 from 5 Lieder)

Leise weht ein erstes Bluhn

Kennst du meine Nachte?

8.10pm

Telemann: Overture in C Wassermusik Hamburger Ebb und Fluth TWV 55 C:3

Bremen Baroque Orchestra

Wolfgang Helbich (director)

8.30pm

Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No 8 in C minor

Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano)

Jukka-Pekka Saraste (conductor)

Live from the Barbican Hall, Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Sibelius And Nielsen20200514Another chance to hear the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and former Principal Conductor Thomas Sondergard perform a concert celebrating the work of two brilliant Nordic composers. We begin with a suite by Finland's most loved composer Sibelius, inspired by music he wrote for a play about King Christian II. Next, the Orchestra's Principal Flautist Matthew Featherstone takes on the challenging role of soloist in Nielsen's playful Flute Concerto, before paying tribute in the interval to BBC NOW's former piccolo player, Eva Stewart, who sadly passed away in 2017. Then it is all Sibelius, beginning with a bombastic performance of his most patriotic and anthemic tone poem, Finlandia, and ending with his Fifth Symphony — a majestic work celebrating the nature and countryside of his homeland, with a famous theme in the final movement inspired by a flock of swans taking flight.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, recorded in the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea in February 2018.

Sibelius: King Kristian II Suite, Op 27

Nielsen: Flute Concerto, FS 119

8.30pm

Interval Music

Debussy: Syrinx, L 129

B Tommy Andersson: Pan

Nielsen: Wind Quintet (2nd movement)

8.50pm

Sibelius: Finlandia, Op 26

Sibelius Symphony No 5 in E flat major, Op 82

Matthew Featherstone (flute)

Thomas Sondergard (conductor)

Thomas Sondergard and the BBC NOW perform works by two Nordic masters.

Sibelius The Storyteller (1-4)20221120Last month the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion day 'Sibelius the Storyteller' ventured into the literary and cultural hinterland of one of the 20th century's great symphonists. No genius creates in a vacuum, and while Sibelius's seven symphonies are landmarks of 20th-century orchestral music, they have deep roots. Today, over four concerts, we venture into the forests (both real and legendary) that nourished Sibelius's imagination: the words, the landscapes, the colleagues and the traditions that formed the bedrock on which he built his distinctive musical vision.

In this first concert, 'Phantoms, Visions, Siren Voices', poetry and music merge in readings and songs performed by Guildhall Musicians and Actors. We'll hear songs spanning three decades of creativity: tales of nature, of supernatural encounters and of love, sung in both Finnish and Swedish. And there's a rare opportunity to hear two of Sibelius's melodramas - spoken-word poetry set to a powerfully evocative score. And we begin with an introduction from the day's curator, Professor Daniel Grimley.

Jean Sibelius: Ved Strandens Granar, Dr怀mmen and Till Frigga from 7 Songs, Op 13

Felix Gygli (baritone)

Thomas Jesty (piano)

Jean Sibelius: S'en har jag ej fr倀gat mera, Illalle and Lastu Lainehilla from 7 Songs, Op 17

Jean Sibelius: Norden from 6 Songs, Op 90

Caroline Bourg (soprano)

Edward Picton-Turbervill (piano)

Jean Sibelius: Svartsjukans N䀀tter

Aina Miyagi Magnell (reciter)

Luke Lally-Maguire, (piano)

Violetta Suvini (violin)

Gabriel Francis-Dehqani (cello)

Jean Sibelius: Ett ensamt skidsp倀r

Shayde Sinclair (narrator)

Curt Ray (narrator)

Recorded at Milton Court, Barbican Centre, on 9 October.

Sibelius The Storyteller (2-4)20221120Last month the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion day 'Sibelius the Storyteller' ventured into the literary and cultural hinterland of one of the 20th century's great symphonists. No genius creates in a vacuum, and while Sibelius's seven symphonies are landmarks of 20th-century orchestral music, they have deep roots. Today, over four concerts, we venture into the forests (both real and legendary) that nourished Sibelius's imagination: the words, the landscapes, the colleagues and the traditions that formed the bedrock on which he built his distinctive musical vision.

In this second concert, 'Songs and Seasons: Spring Dreams, Summer Fires, Winter Nights', we explore Finland's choral tradition, as Owain Park and the BBC Singers present songs by Sibelius and his pupils - with readings of the poetry. No artist works in isolation, and Sibelius's struggle to tell Finland's stories opened a path for a generation of his compatriots. There are radiant, intensely romantic partsongs by two of Sibelius's most gifted pupils, as well as Sibelius's own Rakastava (The Lover). It's a world of changing seasons, of glowing landscapes and - burning beneath the music's lush textures and radiant harmonies - an unmistakable passion. Toivo Kuula died tragically young, just months after Finland won its independence; Madetoja went on to follow in Sibelius's footsteps as a symphonist. But their choral music, like Sibelius's own, finds them making music for (and with) their fellow-Finns: and speaking straight from the heart.

Jean Sibelius: 'Venematka', 'Saarella palaa', 'Sortunut' and 'Sydameni Laulu' from Part Songs, Op 18

Leevi Madetoja: No 6 'Mets䀀n kuninkaalle', Op 13

No 2 'Erkki-paimen' from 3 Songs, Op 30a

No 3 'Kev䀀tunta' and No 1 'Kehtolaulu', Op 50

Toivo Kuula: 'Tuuti lasta Tuonelahan', 'Hautalaulu', 'Keinutan kaikua' from Part Songs, Op 11

Jean Sibelius: Rakastava

Owain Park conductor

Laura Lake Adebisi narrator

Hughie O'Donnell narrator

Recorded at Milton Court, Barbican Centre, on 9 October.

Explore Finland's choral tradition with Owain Park and the BBC Singers in music and words.

Sibelius The Storyteller (3-4)20221120Last month the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion day 'Sibelius the Storyteller' ventured into the literary and cultural hinterland of one of the 20th century's great symphonists. No genius creates in a vacuum, and while Sibelius's seven symphonies are landmarks of 20th-century orchestral music, they have deep roots. Today, over four concerts, we venture into the forests (both real and legendary) that nourished Sibelius's imagination: the words, the landscapes, the colleagues and the traditions that formed the bedrock on which he built his distinctive musical vision.

In this third concert, 'Stories, Quests and Secret Sagas', Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in four vivid musical mini-epics, accompanied by readings from stories that inspired them. On top of a rainbow beyond the northern edge of the world sits Pohjola's daughter, her fingers weaving golden threads on a magic loom. Finnish mythology opened new worlds of creative possibility for Sibelius, but he was master of his own imagination, and the results are not always what you might expect. Heroic myths reveal their darker sides, poets weave quiet mysteries, and patriotic pageants suddenly break into irreverent laughter. Sakari Oramo understands this music like few living conductors, and the epic struggles of En Saga to the quiet enigma of The Bard acquire new dimensions when heard alongside the words that fired Sibelius's imagination - read by Ӏlafur Darri Ӏlafsson.

Jean Sibelius

All'Overtura' from Sc耀nes Historiques

Sakari Oramo conductor

Ӏlafur Darri Ӏlafsson narrator

Recorded at the Barbican Concert Hall on 9 October.

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in four vivid musical mini-epics.

Sibelius The Storyteller (4-4)20221120Last month the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion day 'Sibelius the Storyteller' ventured into the literary and cultural hinterland of one of the 20th century's great symphonists. No genius creates in a vacuum, and while Sibelius's seven symphonies are landmarks of 20th-century orchestral music, they have deep roots. Today, over four concerts, we venture into the forests (both real and legendary) that nourished Sibelius's imagination: the words, the landscapes, the colleagues and the traditions that formed the bedrock on which he built his distinctive musical vision.

In this final concert, 'Crossings, Creations and Immersion', we hear music and words - read by Ӏlafur Darri Ӏlafsson - inspired by Finnish legend and landscape. The BBC SO with its Finnish Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo and soprano Anu Komsi take us on a final journey into those forests of the far north. They begin in a blaze of light: the life-affirming dawn that concludes Night Ride and Sunrise. Komsi is the soloist in three more musical legends, including the astonishing Luonnotar - a Finnish creation-myth, retold in music of primal grandeur. And then, at the end, comes Tapiola - one of music's timeless mysteries, as urgent now as the day it was conceived. Tapiola sings of the endless northern forests: primal, elemental, ‘brooding savage dreams'. And after its premiere in 1926, the composer fell silent - as if he had no more stories to tell.

Jean Sibelius Nightride and Sunrise

The Echo Nymph

Soluppg倀ng (Sunrise)

Sakari Oramo conductor

Ӏlafur Darri Ӏlafsson narrator

Recorded at the Barbican Concert Hall on 9 October.

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius's final masterpiece Tapiola.

Sibelius, Prokofiev And The Cbso20230222Conductor Ilan Volkov joins the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra alongside pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason for a much loved concerto by Prokofiev in a programme that also includes a new CBSO centenary commission from Freya Waley-Cohen and symphonic music by Sibelius. Presented by Tom McKinney.

Jean Sibelius: The Oceanides

Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3

(Isata Kanneh-Mason - Piano)

INTERVAL

Freya Waley-Cohen: Demon (CBSO Centenary Commission: World Premiere)

Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5

Ilan Volkov - Conductor

The CBSO, live from Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Sibelius, Stenhammar And Saariaho From The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra20180218Clemency Burton-Hill introduces recent performances by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Philharmonie and the historic Herkulessaaland, Munich.

The sprightly nonagenarian Herbert Blomstedt guides the orchestra through a symphony by a composer who died a few months after his birth and Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts a work written for him in 2009.

Sibelius: Symphony No 6 in D minor, Op 104

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

Kaija Saariaho: Lumi耀re et pesanteur

Stenhammar: Symphony No 2 in G minor, Op 34

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Blomstedt (conductor).

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra plays Sibelius, Stenhammar and Saariaho in Munich.

Silent Night20181217The story of the 1914 Christmas truce, transformed into a Pulitzer Prize-winning opera by Kevin Puts and performed by Opera North conducted by Nicholas Kok. With a libretto by Mark Campbell, Silent Night tells of the Christmas Eve when Scottish, French and German front-line troops sang Christmas songs to each other across no man's land and the spontaneous, hesitant cease-fire that followed. Mark Forrest presents from Leeds Town Hall.

Cast:

Anna Sørensen - Mကire Flavin

Nikolaus Sprink - Rupert Charlesworth

Lieutenant Audebert - Quirijn de Lang

Lieutenant Gordon - Timothy Nelson

Lieutenant Horstmayer - Richard Burkhard

Ponchel - Geoffrey Dolton

Father Palmer - Adrian Clarke

Jonathan Dale - Alex Banfield

The General - Stephen Richardson

Kronprinz (son of Kaiser Wilhelm II) - Tim Ochala-Greenough

William Dale - Christopher Nairne

Madeleine - Laura Kelly-McInroy

British Major - Dean Robinson

Chorus of Opera North

Students of the Royal Northern College of Music

Opera North Youth Chorus

Soldiers' Chorus - Community Singers

Orchestra of Opera North

Nicholas Kok (conductor)

Photo credit: Tristram Kenton

Kevin Puts' dramatic opera about the 1914 Christmas truce, performed by Opera North.

Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar Symphony Orchestra Of Venezuela, Conductor Gustavo Dudamel20230911Venezuela's flagship orchestra, conducted by the charismatic Gustavo Dudamel bring a fusion of Venezuelan alongside Mahler's folk-infused Symphony No 1. Paul Desenne named his work Guasamacabra - a twisted kind of joke, which starts with a simple melody and evolves into something more complicated, reflecting his dismay at the current events in Venezuela. Gonzalo Grau's concerto is written for the national instrument of Venezuela - a small folk guitar with four strings. It was written for tonight's soloist, the grammy award-winning latin musician Jorge Glem who is a something of a national treasure. The music traces a fictional journey as he leaves his home in Cumanက and travels east over 400 miles to the home of Gustavo Dudamel in the village of Barquisimeto.

Mahler too takes his listener on an epic journey in his first symphony, beginning with the quietest shimmer of ethereal sound through the earthy reality of street music and kletzmer and a child's nursery tune played by a mournful double bass. At times both terrifying and joyful, the symphony encapsulates the human condition on a vast canvas. A symphonic journey that captures the whole world through Mahler's imagination.

Paul Desenne: Guasamacabra

Gonzalo Grau: Odisea, Concerto for Cuatro and Orchestra

Interval:

Rafaelo Gonzalo: Maracaibero performed by Jorge Glem and Cesar Orozco

Teresa Carreကo: Memories of my homeland performed by Alexandra Oehler

Mahler: Symphony No 1

Sim n Bol퀀var Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela

Gustavo Dudamel, Conductor

Jorge Glem, Cuatro

Presented by Donald Macleod

Produced by Lindsay Pell

A fusion of Venezuelan culture alongside Mahler's folk-infused Symphony No 1.

Simon Rattle And The London Symphony Orchestra20210924Sir Simon Rattle launches the London Symphony Orchestra's new season with 'New Music Britain.

In this concert, which spans 300 years of British music, the LSO and the LSO Chorus range from Purcell's agonised funeral sentences to the premiere of two movements by Julian Anderson inspired by the poetry of exile. And at the heart of the programme comes Vaughan Williams's Pastoral Symphony, the composer's deeply personal response to the traumas he encountered in the trenches of the Western Front.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London and presented by Martin Handley.

Purcell: Remember not, Lord, our offences

Tippett: Praeludium

Julian Anderson: Two movements from ‘Exiles' (world premiere)

Judith Weir Natural History

c. 8.15pm Interval Music. Vaughan Williams's Six Studies in English Folk Song played by current BBC New Generation Artist, viola player, Timothy Ridout and the pianist, James James Baillieu.

c. 8.25pm

Vaughan Williams: A Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No 3)

Maxwell Davies: An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise

Lucy Crowe (soprano)

Robert Jordan (bagpipes)

London Symphony Chorus

Simon Halsey (chorus director)

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Sir Simon Rattle launches the London Symphony Orchestra's season with 'New Music Britain.

Simon Rattle And The Lso20220504Alongside well-known works by Dvo?ကk and Schumann, Sir Simon Rattle presents George Walker's setting of Walt Whitman's great poem beginning `When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night, I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.`

Presented by Martin Handley.

Dvo?ကk: American Suite Op 98b

George Walker: Lilacs for voice and orchestra (London premiere)

Interval

Schumann: Symphony No 2

Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London on 10th March 2022

The London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle play Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Schumann and George Walker.

Simon Rattle And The Lso In Berg, Janacek And Bartok20180116Rattle: Twentieth Century Masters.

In tonight's concert, recorded on Sunday at London's Barbican Hall, Simon Rattle conducts late works from four composers which show that even on the brink of death, they were still capable of vital, even surprising, bursts of creativity, not least from the 103-year-old Elliott Carter.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Janကcek: Overture to 'From the House of the Dead

Carter: Instances

Berg: Violin Concerto

c. 8.05pm

Interval Music: Olli Mustonen plays the three final Interludes, Fugues and the Postludium from Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis written, like Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, in America in 1943.

c. 8.25pm

Bart k: Concerto for Orchestra

Isabelle Faust (violin)

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor).

Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra Janacek, Berg and Bartok.

Simon Rattle Conducts Mahler's Ninth Symphony In Munich20221017Sir Simon Rattle conducts Mahler's Ninth Symphony at Munich's new Isarphilharmonie.

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra's Principal conductor elect conducts Mahler's last completed symphony in a performance recorded last year under the shadow of the pandemic. The concert was dedicated to the memory of Bernard Haitink who enjoyed a 60-year relationship with the Munich-based orchestra whose Mahlerian lineage stretches through such distinguished music directors as Mariss Jansons, Lorin Maazel and Rafael Kubelik to Eugene Jochum.

Mahler Symphony no. 9

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Mahler's Ninth Symphony conducted by Sir Simon Rattle with the Bavarian RSO.

Simon Rattle Conducts Strauss And Mahler20171213Live from the Barbican Hall, London - Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in late masterpieces by Strauss and Mahler

In a red letter day for all music lovers, the London Symphony Orchestra's musical director conducts Mahler's great farewell to the earth and the aged Strauss's typically complex Metamorphosen. Composed in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, is it a reaction to the destruction of war or a musical and spiritual metamorphosis from the mundane to the divine?

Presented by Martin Handley.

Strauss: Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings

c. 8.00-8.20pm Interval - Christiane Karg sings Strauss's Four Last Songs in a recording made earlier this year at the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch with the pianist, Woflram Rieger.

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Simon O'Neill (tenor)

Christian Gerhaher (baritone)

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor).

Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in late Mahler and Strauss.

Simon Rattle Conducts The Cbso At Aldeburgh20200623From Snape Maltings, Suffolk

Louise Fryer introduces an archive recording from the 65th Aldeburgh Festival in 2011.

Abundant with the sounds of nature and charged with an irresistible sense of spirituality, Messiaen's 'Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum' and Mahler's song-cycle 'Das Lied von der Erde'epitomise two powerful and utterly distinctive musical styles. Mahler's last work - by turns elegiac and ebullient - concludes with a tender farewell to this earthly existence whilst Messiaen's chorales, solemn prayers and massive incantations convey an emphatic assurance of the life to come.

Messiaen: Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Magdalena Koženက (mezzo-soprano)

Michael Schade (tenor)

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the CBSO in Messiaen and Mahler at the 65th Aldeburgh Festival.

Simon Rattle Conducts The London Symphony Orchestra20220118For their first concert of 2022, Simon Rattle and the LSO begin with an eagerly awaited, Covid-postponed world premiere. The internationally renowned Korean-born, Berlin-based composer Unsuk Chin thought she had written her one and only violin concerto until she heard the playing of Leonidas Kavakos. The result is her Violin Concerto No. 2, ‘Scherben der Stille' - 'Shards of Silence - inspired by, as she puts it, Kavakos's burningly intense and completely focused personality and unique musicianship.

Two very different 20th century masterpieces by composers close to Rattle's heart complete the programme. The inevitability of Sibelius's intense and compact final symphony in some way seems profoundly to reflect the natural world, in stark contrast to Bart k's albeit dazzling suite from his ballet The Miraculous Mandarin with its squalid and tawdry urban setting peopled by sleazy characters.

Recorded earlier this month at the Barbican Hall and introduced by Martin Handley.

Unsuk Chin: Violin Concerto No. 2, ‘Scherben der Stille

Sibelius: Symphony No. 7

Bart k: The Miraculous Mandarin (Suite)

Leonidas Kavakos (violin)

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Leonidas Kavakos premieres Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto No 2, plus Sibelius and Bart\u00f3k.

Simon Rattle Conducts The Lso20210427Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra perform a special strings concert with and for freelance musicians, celebrating the uniquely vital role freelancers play in Britain's musical life and drawing attention to the devastating impact the last year of pandemic has had on the freelance profession.

Government restrictions have reduced the number of concerts and necessitated smaller numbers of socially-distanced musicians on stage, so this configuration of the Orchestra made up of 40 LSO members and 30 freelance 'extras' symbolises both a commitment to freelancers and a hope for a better future. The concert marks the first time a large number of extras have played with the LSO since March 2020.

The commitment to freelancers is literally at the foundation of the LSO, formed over a century ago by a renegade group of musicians whose freelance status in the Queen's Hall Orchestra was threatened: to this day, the LSO is a collective of freelance musicians.

The concert, recorded last month at LSO St Luke's and introduced by Martin Handley, includes two 20th-century classics of the string repertoire, Barber's moving Adagio and Vaughan William's other-worldly, ecstatic Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.

Grieg: Holberg Suite (Prelude)

Puccini: Crisantemi

Barber: Adagio

Bernard Herrmann: Psycho (Suite from the film)

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Simon Rattle (conductor)

8.40pm

Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27

A chance to hear Simon Rattle's latest recording with the LSO

Music for strings by Grieg, Puccini, Barber, Bernard Herrmann and Vaughan Williams.

Simon Trpceski Plays Grieg, Mendelssohn And Rimsky-korsakov20180427Macedonian pianist Simon Trp?eski isn't afraid of a challenge: the climax of this recital at Birmingham Town Hall is Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral tour de force Scheherazade - but performed by one man! This arrangement for solo piano by Paul Gilson shouldn't faze Trp?eski, who has been described as 'a first rate virtuoso' by The Arts Desk.

The programme also includes Grieg's masterful Holberg Suite in its original composition for piano and a selection of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words.

Mark Forrest presents this recital from the Grade I-listed Birmingham Town Hall, with its imposing Roman-inspired architecture and enormous pipe organ, once played by Felix Mendelssohn himself.

Since being chosen as one of BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists back in 2001, Simon Trp?eski has established himself both as an eminent recitalist and soloist with orchestras around the world, as well as a passionate advocate of Macedonia's cultural scene.

Edvard Grieg - Holberg Suite

Felix Mendelssohn - Songs Without Words (selection)

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (arr Paul Gilson) - Scheherazade.

Simon Trpceski performs a remarkable piano arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.

Sinfonia Cymru And Sheku Kanneh-mason20190319Sinfonia Cymru match their trademark sparkle to a programme of works that themselves fizz with confidence, drama and vitality. They are joined by young cello star, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, fresh from his Royal Wedding performance and chart-topping debut album, to perform Haydn's first Cello Concerto. Later in the programme, composer Charles Ives attempts nothing less than solving the riddle of life, the universe, and everything, in his extraordinary six minute piece,The Unanswered Question. Their concert begins with C.P.E. Bach, whose music is daring and brimming with passion, and they finish with Beethoven's musical announcement to the world that he might just be the greatest symphonist of all time.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas from the Riverfront, Newport.

C.P.E. Bach: Symphony No. 1 in D major H 663

Haydn: Cello Concerto No.1 in C

Ives: The Unanswered Question

Beethoven: Symphony No.1

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello

Jonathan Bloxham, conductor

Producer: Chris Taylor for BBC Wales

Photo: Sheku Kanneh-Mason (credit Sinfonia Cymru / Kirsten McTernan)

Sinfonia Cymru and star cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason perform Haydn's First Cello Concerto.

Sinfonia Cymru And Sheku Kanneh-mason20200710Sinfonia Cymru match their trademark sparkle to a programme of works that themselves fizz with confidence, drama and vitality. They are joined by young cello star, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, fresh from his Royal Wedding performance and chart-topping debut album, to perform Haydn's First Cello Concerto. Later in the programme, composer Charles Ives attempts nothing less than solving the riddle of life, the universe, and everything, in his extraordinary six-minute piece, The Unanswered Question. Their concert begins with CPE Bach, whose music is daring and brimming with passion, and they finish with Beethoven's musical announcement to the world that he might just be the greatest symphonist of all time.

Another chance to hear this concert recorded in March 2019 at the Riverfront, Newport. Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

CPE Bach: Symphony No. 1 in D major H 663

Haydn: Cello Concerto No.1 in C

Ives: The Unanswered Question

Beethoven: Symphony No.1

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello

Jonathan Bloxham, conductor

Producer: Chris Taylor for BBC Wales

Photo: Sheku Kanneh-Mason (credit Sinfonia Cymru / Kirsten McTernan)

Sinfonia Cymru and star cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason performs Haydn's first Cello Concerto.

Sing, Choir Of Angels!: The Centenary Of Sir David Willcocks201912222019 marks the centenary of the birth of Sir David Willcocks, whose carol arrangements made famous by the choir of King's College, Cambridge changed the landscape of choral music around the world. Anna Lapwood explores Sir David's career and speaks to those associated with his life. Recorded in the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, the BBC Singers are joined by organist Ashley Grote in this final recording made with their Conductor Laureate Sir Stephen Cleobury before his death in November. Performances include some of Willcocks's iconic festive settings. Featuring interviews with Sir Stephen Cleobury, Lady Willcocks, Bob Chilcott, Daniel Hyde and James Lancelot.

Ashley Grote - organ

Sir Stephen Cleobury - conductor

Sir Stephen Cleobury and the BBC Singers mark the centenary of Sir David Willcocks.

Sir Andras Schiff Plays Janacek And Schumann20201209Martin Handley introduces a recital recorded earlier this year at London's Wigmore Hall by one of our greatest living pianists, Sir Andras Schiff. A renowned interpreter of the music of Bach, Schubert and Beethoven, tonight Schiff brings together two composers who plumbed the depths of human emotion through the smallest forms: Robert Schumann and Leos Janacek.

Janacek: On an Overgrown Path

Schumann: Davidsbündlert䀀nze, Op 6

Janacek: Sonata 1.X.1905

Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op 17

Andras Schiff (piano)

Sir Andras Schiff plays Janacek and Schumann at London's Wigmore Hall.

Sir Andrew Davis Conducts The Bbc Symphony Orchestra20200603‘A song without words for orchestra' - Tippett's final work The Rose Lake was his response to witnessing a lake in Senegal flushed pink by the midday sun. The result is an ecstatic hymn to nature, teeming with rhythmic energy and thick slashes of melody. Sir Andrew Davis's programme with the BBC Symphony Orchestra includes two other richly coloured works. There's a suite from Debussy's shadowy fairy-tale opera Pell退as et M退lisande, arranged by Alain Altinoglu, which receives its UK premiere. And Lisa Batiashvili is the soloist in Szymanowski's sumptuous Violin Concerto No. 1 - inspired by a poem by the Polish poet Tadeusz Mici?ski and which includes the words 'And now we stand by the lake in crimson blossom, in flowing tears of joy, with rapture and fear....

Recorded at the Barbican Hall on 17 April 2019

Presented by Martin Handley

Michael Tippett: The Rose Lake

8pm Interval

Ravel: Histoires naturelles (1907)

Le Paon (Peacock), Le Grillon (Grasshopper), Le Cygne (Swan), Le Martin-P?cheur (Kingfisher), La Pintade (Guinea fowl)

Nora Gubisch (mezzo)

Alain Altinoglu (piano)

Dupr退: Fugue from Prelude and Fugue in G minor

Pierre Cochereau (organ of Notre Dame, Paris)

8.25pm

Karol Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No 1

Claude Debussy, arr. Altinoglu: Pell退as et M退lisande Suite (UK premiere)

Lisa Batiashvili (violin)

Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

Glorious orchestral soundworlds from Tippett, Szymanowski and Debussy.

Sir Andrew Davis's Half Century20220218In a change to the advertised programme - the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Barbican concert has been cancelled due to Storm Eunice - BBC Radio 3 celebrates fifty years of Conductor Laureate Sir Andrew Davis's collaborations with the BBC SO.

Tom Service presents a selection of highlights, some of Sir Andrew's favourite works. From his advocacy of the young Mark-Anthony Turnage via Alban Berg's intimate Violin Concerto and Rachmaninov's ever-hummable, heartrendingly poignant Vocalise, to Vaughan Williams' pastoral 5th Symphony.

Mark-Anthony Turnage: Momentum

Alban Berg: Violin Concerto

Leonidas Kavakos (violin)

Elgar: Froissart - concert overture Op.19

Sergey Rachmaninov: Vocalise

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5

Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis in highlights from his 50 years.

Sir James Macmillan At 6020190227Sir James MacMillan conducts his 60th birthday concert with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, celebrating a partnership that has stretched across decades. Arvo Part's popular elegy to Benjamin Britten opens the evening, written to mourn the passing of a composer whose work he thought most resembled his own. MacMillan's celebrated concerto for percussion and orchestra 'Veni, Veni, Emmanuel' follows, performed by Scottish percussionist Colin Currie. The piece takes inspiration from biblical text found in Luke 21: `for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory`. The evening closes with Macmillan's Cantata for chorus and strings. Drawing on text from the gospels the piece is a heart rending depiction of Christ's crucifixion.

Arvo Part: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten

James MacMillan: Veni, Veni, Emmanuel

20:10

INTERVAL: Olli Mustonen: Toccata performed by Mr McFall's Chamber

20:30

James Macmillan: Seven Last Words from the Cross

Colin Currie - Percussion

James MacMillan - conductor

Presenter - Kate Molleson

Producer - Laura Metcalfe

Scotland's foremost composer birthday celebrations with friends, the SCO and Colin Currie.

Sir James Macmillan At 6020200508Another chance to hear Sir James MacMillan conduct his 60th birthday concert with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, celebrating a partnership that has stretched across decades. Recorded in February 2019, the concert opens with Arvo Part's popular elegy to Benjamin Britten, written to mourn the passing of a composer whose work he thought most resembled his own. MacMillan's celebrated concerto for percussion and orchestra 'Veni, Veni, Emmanuel' follows, performed by Scottish percussionist Colin Currie. The piece takes inspiration from biblical text found in Luke 21: `for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory`. The concert closes with Macmillan's Cantata for chorus and strings. Drawing on text from the gospels the piece is a heart-rending depiction of Christ's crucifixion.

Arvo Part: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten

James MacMillan: Veni, Veni, Emmanuel

20:10

INTERVAL: Olli Mustonen: Toccata performed by Mr McFall's Chamber

20:30

James Macmillan: Seven Last Words from the Cross

Colin Currie - Percussion

James MacMillan - conductor

Presenter - Kate Molleson

Producer - Laura Metcalfe

Scotland's foremost composer celebrates his birthday with the SCO and Colin Currie.

Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra20210405Fiona Talkington presents a concert given by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava in October 2019. Ondrej Lenard conducts the orchestra in music by Smetana, Eugen Suchon and Dvorak's Symphony No.9.

During the interval you can hear more Czech music - a little performed chamber piece by Janacek - his Capriccio for piano and brass instruments.

Bedrich Smetana - Vyšehrad from Mက vlast

Eugen Suchon - Metamorphoses

Ondrej Lenard (conductor)

20.20

Leos Janacek - Capriccio

Andrကs Schiff (piano)

Wolfgang Schulz (flute)

Konrad Monsberger & Hans Gansch (trumpets)

Erik Hainzl & William McElheney (trombones)

Hans Stroecker (bass trombone)

Rudolf Josel (tenor tuba)

20.40

Antonin Dvorak - Symphony No.9 in E minor, Op.95 'From the New World

Ondrej Lenard conducts the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Smetana, Suchon and Dvorak.

Smoke And Mirrors, Aurora Orchestra Perform Hk Gruber And Beethoven At The Qeh20180918Recorded over the weekend at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Aurora Orchestra perform HK Gruber's Frankenstein!!, inspired by Mary Shelley's novel, and Beethoven's 5th Symphony, played from memory, under the baton of conductor Nicholas Collon.

Part of the Orchestral Theatre: Claus Moser Series at the Southbank Centre, this performance takes elements from the early 19th-Century Parisian theatrical genre called phantasmagoria, where optical illusions, ghostly projections and eerie sound effects combine for a terrifying experience. This action develops out of three early romantic masterpieces - Schubert's Der Wanderer , Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as seen by Austrian contemporary composer HK Gruber, and Beethoven's 5th Symphony. Directed by Jane Mitchell, whose original concept this is, the event also includes surreal narrations by chansonnier Marcus Farnsworth.

Schubert: Der Wanderer D.489

HK Gruber: Frankenstein!!

Beethoven: Symphony No.5 (performed from memory)

Nicholas Collon, conductor

Marcus Farnsworth, chansonnier

Aurora Orchestra perform HK Gruber's Frankenstein!! and Beethoven's 5th Symphony

Sondheim On Sondheim2018032020211227 (R3)As a tribute to Stephen Sondheim, who died in November, another chance to hear a review of his words and music recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in March 2018. Keith Lockhart conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra and a host of music theatre stars, featuring some of his best-known songs such as 'Send in the Clowns' and 'Losing my Mind', from some of his greatest shows including Company, Follies, Gypsy and A Little Night Music. The concert includes specially recorded introductions to some of the songs by Stephen Sondheim himself.

Singers: Liz Callaway, Claire Moore, Julian Ovenden, Rebecca Trehearn, Tyrone Huntley, Damian Humbley

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Keith Lockhart

Director: Bill Deamer.

Another chance to hear a gala celebrating the words and music of Stephen Sondheim.

Song Of The Wood Dove20220301Karen Cargill joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Alpesh Chauhan, in romantic music by Schoenberg: with Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, and Webern's Passacaglia.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Ian Skelly

Webern: Passacaglia Op.1

Schoenberg: Song of the Wood Dove (from Gurrelieder)

8.00 Interval

8.20 Part Two

Bruckner: Symphony No.4

Karen Cargill (mezzo soprano)

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

Photo: Karen Cargill (credit, Nadine Boyd Photography)

Karen Cargill and the BBC SSO in an intimate version of Schoenberg's Romantic masterpiece.

Song Prize Final, Bbc Cardiff Singer Of The World 202120210617Andrew McGregor presents the nail-biting finale of 2021 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize, with guest contributor, soprano Rebecca Evans.

After a year like no other, five of the world's most exciting young singers are through to the final of the Singer of the World lieder and art song competition. They'll be performing on stage at St. David's Hall in Cardiff, for an expert jury chaired by Wigmore Hall's Artistic and Executive Director John Gilhooly. Expectations are high, there can only be one winner. Whoever secures the prestigious title follows in the footsteps of some of our finest recitalists, among them, bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel, the first recipient of the Song Prize in 1989, baritones Neal Davies and Christopher Maltman, tenor Andrew Kennedy and sopranos Ailish Tynan and Elizabeth Watts.

Producer: Johannah Smith

Andrew McGregor and Rebecca Evans at the 2021 Final of the BBC Cardiff Singer Song Prize

Songs Of Longing, Love And Lust From Leeds Lieder Festival20180424BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2017 finalist Louise Alder and acclaimed pianist Joseph Middleton give a concert of songs by Liszt, Debussy, Britten and Hahn.

Recorded at the Leeds Lieder Festival at The Venue at the Leeds College of Music.

Richard Strauss:

'Waldseligkeit'

'St䀀nchen'

'Breit über mein Haupt'

'Das Rosenband'

'Heimliche Aufforderung'

'Meinem Kinde'

Reynaldo Hahn:

'Fꀀtes galantes'

'Si mes vers'

'Le printemps'

'L'heure exquise'

Franz Liszt:

3 Petrarch Sonnets

'Pace non trovo'

'Benedetto sia'il giorno'

'I'vidi in terra angelica costume'

Interval

Schubert/Liszt: 'Wanderer Fantasy' for Piano and Orchestra

Louis Lortie (piano)

Residentie Orchestra The Hague

(CD)

Claude Debussy: Ariettes oubli退es

'C'est l'extase langoureuse'

'Il pleure dans mon coeur'

'L'ombre des arbres'

'Chevaux de bois'

'Green'

'Spleen'

Benjamin Britten: On this Island

'Let the florid music praise!'

'Now the leaves are falling fast'

'Seascape'

'Nocturne'

'As it is, plenty'

Louise Alder (soprano)

Joseph Middleton (piano)

Photo credit: Robert Piwko.

Soprano Louise Alder and pianist Joseph Middleton perform songs by Liszt and Britten.

Songs Of Love And Longing20200923One of the leading duos of our day returns to the Wigmore Hall for a programme of songs from the German Lieder tradition, including the set of five songs by Berg whose texts are taken from picture-postcard texts by the contemporary Viennese poet Peter Altenberg. The words, like those of the other songs in the concert, deal with the stormy travails of the soul, and sensations of love and longing.

Schubert: Abendbilder D650

Himmelsfunken D651

Berg: 4 Lieder Op. 2

Schubert: Sonett I D628

Sonett II D629

Sonett III D630

Berg: Schliesse mir die Augen beide

Schubert: Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt (Ges䀀nge des Harfners I) D478

An die Türen will ich schleichen (Ges䀀nge des Harfners II) D479

Wer nie sein Brot mit Tr䀀nen ass (Ges䀀nge des Harfners III) D480

Berg: Altenberg Lieder Op. 4

Schubert: Am Fenster D878

Alinde D904

Im Frühling D882

Christian Gerhaher, baritone

Gerold Huber, piano

Recorded at the Wigmore Hall, London, on 13th September

Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber perform songs by Schubert and Berg.

Songs Of The Earth20190404Live from City Halls Glasgow

Presented by Tom Redmond

Donald Runnicles and the BBC SSO are joined by Kelley O'Connor and Paul Groves to perform Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, alongside works by Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu.

Takemitsu: A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden

Takemitsu: Requiem

8.00 Interval

8.20 Part Two

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Kelley O'Connor (mezzo soprano)

Paul Groves (tenor)

Donald Runnicles (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

The dear earth everywhere blossoms in spring and grown green', the closing words of Mahler's symphonic song-cycle Das Lied von der Erde. Inspired by a volume of Chinese poetry it sets a meditation of earthly beauty and existential angst amid some of the most imaginative and powerful writing for orchestra from the 20th Century.

And dreams of the natural world haunt the music of Toru Takemitsu. The Japanese composer best known to European audiences: his music is both modern and in touch with the traditions of Japan. The concert opens with 2 of his most characteristic works. 'A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden' is music inspired by a vivid dream in which birds swirl through a garden situated on the head of Marcel Duchamp. This is paired with the composer's terse but haunting 'Requiem' for string orchestra from 1957 - the piece which really rocketed him towards international recognition.

Photo credit: Simon Pauly

Donald Runnicles conducts the BBC SSO in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde

Songs Of The Earth20220506Live from the Royal Festival Hall, the LPO and their Principal Conductor Edward Gardner close their season with one of music's most moving farewells. Mahler's great song-symphony sets six texts for mezzo-soprano and tenor based on Chinese poetry, where drunken exaltation rubs shoulders with deep sadness, and wistful introspection contrasts with youth and beauty. And in the intensely moving final song, Der Abschied, eternity seems to open up as the music finally fades into silence. Both of tonight's soloists, Magdalena Koženက and Andrew Staples, are hot tickets on the world's concert hall and opera house stages.

The concert begins with a tribute to Harrison Birtwistle, one of the major musical figures of the last 50 years, who died last month. Scored for huge orchestra, Birtwistle's 2016 Deep Time is an elemental, darkly impressive meditation on geological forces.

Introduced by Martin Handley.

Harrison Birtwistle: Deep Time

8.05 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Beethoven: 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126

Nicolas Hodges (piano)

8.25 pm

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Magdalena Koženက (mezzo-soprano)

Andrew Staples (tenor)

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Edward Gardner (conductor)

Edward Gardner conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Birtwistle and Mahler.

Sonia Prina At Wigmore Hall20180111Live from Wigmore Hall in London, contralto Sonia Prina and the Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, perform works by Handel, Ferrandini, Bach, Locatelli and Vivaldi.

Handel: Concerto Grosso in F, Op 6 No 2

Ferrandini: Cantata 'Il pianto di Maria

8.15pm Interval

Bach: Cantata 'Widerstehe doch der Sünde' BWV54

Locatelli: Concerto Grosso in E flat, Op 7 No 6 'Il Pianto d'Arianna

Vivaldi: Motet 'Longe mala, umbrae, terrores' RV629

Sonia Prina (contralto)

Italian contralto Sonia Prina has established a reputation as one of the world's most dazzlingly virtuosic and freely expressive interpreters of Baroque vocal repertoire. In this concert she is joined by the equally admired period orchestra, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, for an evening of vivid cantatas by Ferrandini, Bach and Vivaldi intermixed with concertos by Handel and Locatelli.

Live from Wigmore Hall, London, contralto Sonia Prina sings Ferrandini, Bach and Vivaldi.

Sound Frontiers: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli At The Royal Festival Hall20160927Sound Frontiers: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli at the Royal Festival Hall, London

An archive recording from 13 April 1982, featuring a recital given as part of the South Bank Centre's Great Pianists series.

Beethoven: Sonata No 12 in A flat, Op 26; Sonata No 4 in E flat, Op 7

Debussy: Preludes Book 1.

Archive recording of pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli playing Beethoven and Debussy.

Sound Frontiers: Chineke! Orchestra20161006As part of Radio 3 live at Southbank Centre, London, the Chineke! Orchestra are conducted by Kevin John Edusei in Sibelius's Finlandia, a symphony by Saint-Georges and Dvorak's 'New World' Symphony, and are joined by BBC Young Musician of the Year Sheku Kanneh-Mason in Haydn's Cello Concerto in C.

Introduced by Ian Skelly

Sibelius: Finlandia

Saint-Georges: Overture to L'amant anonyme (Symphony in B flat, Op 11 No 2)

Haydn: Cello Concerto in C

Dvorကk: Symphony No 9 in D minor (From the New World)

Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello)

Kevin John Edusei (conductor)

Recorded last month at the Royal Festival Hall.

Chineke! Orchestra performs music by Sibelius, Saint-Georges, Haydn and Dvorak.

Sound Frontiers: Claudio Abbado Conducts The Lucerne Festival Orchestra20161005Sound Frontiers: Archive recording of Claudio Abbado conducting the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Mozart's 'Haffner' Symphony and Bruckner's 5th Symphony.

Recorded on 11th October, 2011.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Hand-picked by Abbado himself, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra comprised renowned soloist and chamber musicians from around the globe sitting side by side with 40 members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. priding themselves on idea of 'friendship, freedom and a joy in making music'. Following their residency at the Lucerne Festival every summer the orchestra tours some of the world's musical capitals and its stop in London was one of the highlights of the season.

Mozart: Symphony no.35 in D major 'Haffner

7.55pm Interval.

8.15pm

Bruckner: Symphony no.5 in B flat

Claudio Abbado (conductor).

Claudio Abbado conducts the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Mozart and Bruckner.

Sound Frontiers: Gillian Weir At The Royal Festival Hall20161004Sound Frontiers: Radio 3 at Southbank Centre.

From the archive: organist Gillian Weir plays at the Royal Festival Hall. Recorded on 4th May 2001.

Presented by Ian Skelly in conversation with William McVicker.

Bach: Toccata and Fugue in F major, BWV.540

Schnizer: Sonata in C

Healey Willan: Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue in E flat minor, B.149

Franck: Chorale No. 2 in B minor, M.39

Reubke: Sonata on Psalm 94, in C minor

Gillian Weir, organ.

Archive performance in which organist Gillian Weir plays at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Sound Frontiers: London Philharmonic Orchestra, Debussy, Szymanowski, Bartok20160923Live from the Royal Festival Hall

As part of Radio 3 live at Southbank Centre, London, Nicola Benedetti joins the LPO in a programme of Debussy, Szymanowski and Bart k.

Debussy: Pr退lude

Sound Frontiers: London Sinfonietta, Coll, Coult, Davies, Birtwistle20160928Recorded at St John's Smith Square on 1st June, 2016

Presented by Martin Handley

London Sinfonietta, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, plays recent works by Coll, Coult Davies and Birtwistle

Francisco Coll: Liquid Symmetries (UK premiere)

Tom Coult: Spirit of the Staircase (world premiere of a London Sinfonietta commission)

8.15: Interval:

From the archive: Schoenberg: Serenade Op 25, Finale

David Atherton, conductor

8.35

Tansy Davies: Falling Angel (London premiere)

Sir Harrison Birtwistle: Five Lessons in a Frame (world premiere of a London Sinfonietta commission)

London Sinfonietta has been in an extended duet with Sir Harrison Birtwistle for over 45 years, a relationship that has been reflected in an evolving series of commissions for pairs of Principal Players. This journey reaches its peak with the world premiere of Five Lessons in a Frame, in which five of these duets are linked by a new chorale. As relationships with Tansy Davies and Francisco Coll also continue, so a new one begins - with a commission from Tom Coult, one of the most promising young voices of his generation, praised for his iridescent timbres and clear, articulate gestures.

The London Sinfonietta in music by Francisco Coll, Tom Coult, Tansy Davies and Birtwistle.

Sound Frontiers: Simon Rattle Conducts The Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment20161007Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in music by Brahms, Hans Rott and Bruckner, all pieces composed in Vienna in the year 1880.

Recorded in April and introduced from the Royal Festival Hall by Christopher Cook.

Brahms: Tragic Overture Op.81

Hans Rott: Scherzo from Symphony No.1 in E major

Bruckner: Symphony No.6 in A major

Conducted by Sir Simon Rattle

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's Principal Artist, Sir Simon Rattle, here recreates the sound-world of Vienna in 1880, in a performance on period instruments of three works composed in that year. The three composers knew each other well, but were not exactly best friends: Brahms was the great tradition-bearer of Viennese music, and strongly disapproved of the new orchestral visions of Bruckner; Hans Rott was taking Bruckner's visions further, and was a massive influence on his flatmate Mahler, as can be heard in the movement from Rott's symphony. The disapproval of Brahms and the Viennese establishment eventually drove Bruckner to depression, and Rott to mental breakdown and a premature death - dramas and tensions played out in these pieces, heard in a new transparency with the OAE's period instruments.

Simon Rattle conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Brahms, Rott, Bruckner.

Sound Frontiers: Southbank Sinfonia, National Youth Orchestra Of Great Britain20160930Sound Frontiers: as part of Radio 3 live at Southbank Centre, the Southbank Sinfonia, conducted by Maxime Tortelier, perform Boulez's delicate M退moriale for flute and chamber ensemble and Shostakovich's death-haunted song-cycle, his Symphony No 14.

Boulez: M退moriale

Shostakovich: Symphony No 14

Helena Gourd (flute)

Anush Hovhannisyan (soprano)

Jihoon Kim (bass)

Maxime Tortelier (conductor)

Photo of Southbank Sinfonia (c) Matt Belcher

Followed at 8:30pm by a recording made in April 2014 at the Royal Festival Hall, featuring the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain

Thomas Ad耀s: Asyla

Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben Op.40

Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth (conductor).

Southbank Sinfonia in music by Boulez and Shostakovich. Plus Ades and Strauss.

Sound Frontiers: The Philharmonia Performs Stravinsky20160929Live from the Royal Festival Hall

The Philharmonia conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen perform Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, and Oedipus rex, which features Sir Willard White and Katarina Dalayman, produced by Peter Sellars.

Igor Stravinsky: Oedipus rex - opera/oratorio in 2 acts

Interval - Interval music

Igor Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms for chorus & orchestra

Oedipus...Joseph Kaiser (tenor)

Jocasta...Katarina Dalayman (mezzo-soprano)

Creon/Tiresias/Messenger... Willard White (bass)

Shepherd...Joshua Stewart (tenor)

Orphei Dr䀀ngar

Ladies of the Gustaf Sj怀kvists Kammark怀r

Ladies of the Sofia Vokalensemble

Philharmonia Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

To a text by Cocteau derived from Sophocles and translated back into Latin, Stravinsky's Oedipus rex is a chilling, monumental retelling of the tragic myth. A work that abandons sentiment, it confronts the spectator with the true horror of the 'infernal machine' of fate. The Latin Psalms, too, seemingly so ancient, so distant, speak here of the tragedy of exile through a music of electrifying austerity and intensity.

The Philharmonia and Esa-Pekka Salonen in Stravinsky's Oedipus rex and Symphony of Psalms.

Sound Frontiers: The Philharmonia Plays Stravinsky20160926Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia in an all-Stravinsky concert, with narration by acclaimed French actress Pauline Cheviller. Recorded yesterday at the Royal Festival Hall in London's Southbank Centre. Photo (c) Camilla Greenwell

Igor Stravinsky: Orpheus

Igor Stravinsky: Apollon musag耀te

8.25: Interval

8.45: Igor Stravinsky: Pers退phone

Andrew Staples (tenor)

Pauline Cheviller (narrator)

Tiffin Boys' Choir

Philharmonia Voices

Philharmonia Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

This concert in the Philharmonia's major Stravinsky series Myths and Rituals explores his fascination with classical mythology. Music of great subtlety and exquisite beauty, Apollon musag耀te and Orpheus sit alongside Stravinsky's alluring melodrama based on the Homeric hymn to the goddess Persephone, retold in collaboration with the French novelist and poet Andr退 Gide, here narrated by Pauline Cheviller.

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in an all-Stravinsky concert.

Sound, Nature And The Seasons20190530Cage: The Seasons

Beethoven: Violin Concerto

8.15: Interval

Bart k Concerto for Orchestra

Julia Fischer, violin

London Symphony Orchestra

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

The cycle of the year, inspired by the composer's immersion into Indian philosophy, is the backdrop to John Cage's The Seasons, with each moment, from the austerity of winter to the stirring of spring, conjured up through vivid orchestral colours.

Julia Fischer then joins the orchestra in Beethoven's Violin Concerto, and the concert ends with the Concerto for Orchestra by Bartok, in which every instrument and section shines, resulting in a joyful celebration of music and the collection of individuals that makes up the orchestra.

Music by Cage, Beethoven and Bartok.

Sounds Of Shakespeare20160422Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon, the church where Shakespeare was baptised, worshipped and is buried, is the setting for a spectacular commemorative concert of Shakespeare-inspired works from the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries, performed by Ex Cathedra and City Musick, directed by Jeffrey Skidmore.

It's 1769. A building 'in the neighbourhood of Stratford-upon-Avon' is to be dedicated to Shakespeare and David Garrick, superstar actor-manager, needs to mark the occasion fittingly. An Ode is the thing. Garrick's Ode celebrates his theatrical hero with 'Testimonies (both in prose and verse) of his unequalled original talents'. Some of the 'testimonies' were spoken by Garrick himself; others were set by England's leading composer, Dr Thomas 'Rule Britannia' Arne. As the London Magazine reported, it went down well. 'The performance was noble and affecting: it was like an exhibition in Athens or Rome. The whole audience were fixed in the most earnest attention, and I do believe, that if any one had attempted to disturb the performance, he would have been in danger of his life.

For tonight's performance the Ode has been reconstructed for the first time since the eighteenth century. Samuel West takes the part of Garrick and Sally Beamish has written the music for the missing opening and closing choruses.

To end the concert, Sally Beamish and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy have collaborated on a contemporary tribute to Shakespeare. The world premiere of A Shakespeare Masque includes children from local schools among the performers, and aims to develop a love of music, a love of singing and a love of Shakespeare.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents as part of Radio 3's Sounds of Shakespeare weekend, live from Stratford-upon-Avon (22-24th April), celebrating 400 years since his death.

Arne: The Garrick Ode

David Garrick .... Samuel West (narrator)

Mrs Bartelemon .... Katie Trethewey (soprano)

Mr Vernon .... Jeremy Budd (tenor)

Mr Champness .... Greg Skidmore (baritone)

Mrs Baddeley .... Louise Prickett (soprano)

Miss Weller .... Angela Hicks (soprano)

Master Brown .... Martha McLorinan (alto)

Emilia Benjamin (violin)

Liam Byrne (bass viol)

James Johnstone (harpsichord)

Jeffrey Skidmore (conductor)

8.25pm: Interval

When did Stratford-upon-Avon and the country at large really begin to celebrate Shakespeare? Radio 3 presenter Suzy Klein is in conversation in Radio 3's pop-up studio with Professors Michael Dobson and Ewan Fernie of the Shakespeare Institute to tell the story of how Stratford grew to love the memory of the man and revived his writing.

8.45

Sally Beamish: A Shakespeare Masque

Anne Hathaway .... Katie Trethewey (soprano)

Shakespeare .... Greg Skidmore (baritone)

Young Shakespeare .... [TBC] (treble)

Ex Cathedra Academy of Vocal Music

The City Musick

William Lyons (flute and recorder), Emilia Benjamin (treble viol), Liam Byrne (bass viol),

Jacob Heringman (cittern), Arngeir Hauksson (bandora), David Miller (lute), Simone Rebello (percussion)

Jeffrey Skidmore (conductor).

Shakespeare-inspired music. Arne: The Garrick Ode and Sally Beamish: A Shakespeare Masque.

Spanish Obsession20190430For the sophisticated French of Maurice Ravel's generation, the country on the other side of the Pyrenees was excitingly exotic. But with his Spanish roots, Spain meant more to Ravel than toreadors and tapas, and inspired some of his most memorable music.

Tonight's programme brings together a clutch of Ravel's Spanish-themed works, showing the wide-ranging inspiration he gained from the country of his mother's birth, including his famous one-tune wonder Bol退ro and the delightful single-act comic opera L'heure espagnole set in 18th-century Toledo, a tale of a clockmaker, his frisky wife and her gentleman friends.

Recorded last week at the Barbican Hall and introduced by Martin Handley

Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole

Ravel: Bol退ro

London Symphony Orchestra

Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth (conductor)

8.20pm

Interval music (from CD)

Spanish Scenes20190314The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Dausgaard and Javier Perianes perform Debussy, Falla and Ravel.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Debussy - Images

Falla - The Three-Cornered Hat, Suite No. 2

Interval

Ravel - Alborada del gracioso

Falla - Nights in the Gardens of Spain

Ravel - Rapsodie espagnole

Javier Perianes (piano)

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

From an impressionistic era of composition, come the sounds of Spain in three composers highly influenced by the country.

Debussy takes us through the streets and paths, the fragrant nights and to the morning festivals. Ravel, whose mother was Basque, had natural affinity with Spain and set four different aspects of Spanish life in the Rapsodie espagnole and also in the Morning after the long night (Alborada). Falla painted a picture of his home country in a suite from his ballet and also in his enchanting nocturnes for piano played by the young Spanish virtuoso - Javier Perianes.

Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC SSO paint a picture of Spain.

Spanish Scenes20200323The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Dausgaard and Javier Perianes perform Debussy, Falla and Ravel.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, in March 2019

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Debussy - Images

Falla - The Three-Cornered Hat, Suite No. 2

8.20 Interval Music

Falla - Homenaje, Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy (Milos Karadaglic, guitar)

Viardot - Havanaise (Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo soprano)

Ridrigo - Invocacion y Danza, Homenaje a Manuel de Falla (Xuefei Yang, guitar)

8.40 Part 2

Ravel - Alborada del gracioso

Falla - Nights in the Gardens of Spain

Ravel - Rapsodie espagnole

Javier Perianes (piano)

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

Another chance to hear a concert of music performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and their chief conductor Thomas Dausgaard. Works by three composers highly influenced by Spain.

Debussy takes us through the streets and paths, the fragrant nights and to the morning festivals. Ravel, whose mother was Basque, had natural affinity with Spain and set four different aspects of Spanish life in the Rapsodie espagnole and also in the Morning after the long night (Alborada). Falla painted a picture of his home country in a suite from his ballet and also in his enchanting nocturnes for piano played by the young Spanish virtuoso - Javier Perianes.

Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC SSO paint a picture of Spain.

Spiegel Im Spiegel20210406Violinist Elena Urioste, and pianist Tom Poster, join the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to explore music by P䀀rt, Finzi, Clarice Assad, and Felix Mendelssohn, from the stage of City Halls, Glasgow.

Presented by Kate Molleson

P䀀rt: Spiegel im Spiegel

Finzi: Eclogue for Piano and Strings

Clarice Assad: Dreamscapes for Violin and Strings

Felix Mendelssohn: Concerto for Violin and Piano in D minor

The parallel reflections of an infinity mirror inspired Arvo P䀀rt's famous composition: its still-revolving fragments much repeated on film and television make it an oft-sought soundtrack to emotional on-screen moments.

Written in the late 1920s Gerald Finzi's slow-movement from a planned piano concerto seems to be part of an English nostalgia for a time before the explosions of violence in the First World War: with its soft-toned strings, gentle, close-stepping melodies, it inhabits a dream world.

The Dreamscapes of Clarice Assad's 2009 work for violin and strings are more feverish and varied: using music to explore the phenomena of rapid eye movement, and lucid dreaming.

And the concert ends with Mendelssohn's double-concerto for Piano and Violin, from 1823, originally performed by Felix and Fanny as a sibling double act. Something of a rarity, it is redolent of Berlin's private salons, especially in the string version heard this evening. But its musical sophistication and elegance are quite remarkable from the young 14-year-old.

Elena Urioste (violin)

Tom Poster (piano)

Photo: Elena Urioste and Tom Poster (credit, Juan-Miguel Hernandez)

Arvo P\u00e4rt's iconic masterpiece begins a musical journey with Tom Poster and Elena Urioste.

Spirit Of Adventure And Discovery20190402Cellist Nicolas Altstaedt performs one of Haydn's masterpieces, his Cello Concerto in C major. Lost for nearly 200 years before resurfacing in the 1960s, today it is one of the most celebrated works for the cello. Stretching the form of the baroque concerto to its limits, it perfectly combines 18th-century elegance with the adventurous, questioning spirit of the Enlightenment.

The same spirit of adventure and experimentation continues throughout a programme directed from the cello by Altstaedt, including early symphonic works by Haydn (the 'Father of the Symphony'); an overture by the Austrian singer, pianist and composer Marianna Martines; and a cello concerto by CPE Bach, who demands that the heroic soloist engages in battle with music that reflects the highly individual, forward-looking voice of its composer.

Recorded at Milton Court, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Marianna Martines: Overture in C major

CPE Bach: Cello Concerto in A major, Wq 172, H439

Haydn: ‘Andante Cantabile' from Symphony No 13

Interval music

Haydn: Symphony No 14

Haydn: Cello Concerto in C

Nicolas Altstaedt (director/cello)

Academy of Ancient Music

Photo credit - Marco Borggreve.

Nicolas Altstaedt directs the Academy of Ancient Music from the cello.

Spirit Of Bach: B Minor Mass20171224As part of Spirit of Bach, Ian Skelly presents a performance of Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV232, which was given by Vox Luminis, directed by Lionel Meunier, at the Utrecht Early Music Festival. The concert was recorded at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, in August.

Anna Besson & Jan van den Borre (flute)

Jasu Moisio & Christopher Palameta, Mario Topper (oboe)

Lisa Goldberg & Anais Ramage (bassoon)

Bart Cypers (horn)

Rudolf Lorinc, Moritz Gorg & Tibor Meszaros (trumpet)

Peppie Wiersma (kettle drums)

Tuomo Suni, Jacek Kurzyd?o & Johannes Frisch (violin I)

Cynthia Freivogel, Antina Hugosson & Nadine Henrichs, (violin II)

Raquel Masadas & Annemarie Kosten-Dur (viola)

Lucy Scotchmer & Anton Baba (cello)

Benoit Vanden Bemden (double bass)

Bart Jacobs (organ)

Lionel Meunier (director).

Ian Skelly presents Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV232 performed by Vox Luminis in Utrecht.

Spohr And Schubert Octets20200121From Wigmore Hall in London, the Nash Ensemble perform colourful chamber music from the early 19th century. The first of the pre-teen Rossini's jolly string sonatas precedes a pair of octets for wind and strings. Spohr's includes a set of variations on Handel's ‘Harmonious Blacksmith' theme, and Schubert's genial Octet, the longest chamber work he wrote, is an hour of inspired melody and endlessly inventive scoring.

Recorded on Saturday and presented by Martin Handley.

Rossini: Sonata No. 1 for strings in G major

Louis Spohr: Octet in E major Op.32

c.8.10pm

Interval music from CD

Marchenerzahlungen Op.132

c.8.20pm

Schubert: Octet in F major D.803

Martin Handley presents the Nash Ensemble at Wigmore Hall.

St Albans Organ Festival20170919St Albans International Organ Festival

Three of the UK's finest choirs, those of St Albans Cathedral, St Paul's Cathedral and the Temple Church, combine forces in music ranging from a majestic anthem by SS Wesley to Leonard Bernstein's ebullient Chichester Psalms.

Presented by Martin Handley

Nicolai transc. Liszt: Festival overture on Ein Feste burg

JS Bach: Nun danket alle Gott BWV.657

Holst: The Evening Watch

Vaughan Williams: Credo from Mass in G minor

Eric Whitacre: Lux aurumque

SS Wesley: Ascribe unto the Lord

Interval music - Peter Hurford, founder of the St Albans International Organ Festival in 1963 plays Bach's Toccata, Adagio And Fugue In C, BWV 564, on the organ of The Church Of Our Lady Of Sorrow, Toronto, Canada

Tippett: 5 Spirituals from 'A Child of our Time

Bernstein: Chichester Psalms

Mendelssohn: Verleih uns Frieden

James Hall (countertenor), Elizabeth Bass (harp), Rebecca McChrystal (percussion)

Pier Damiano Peretti, Simon Johnson, Tom Winpenny, Greg Morris (organ)

Andrew Carwood, Roger Sayer, Andrew Lucas (conductors)

rec. 17.07.2017.

Three of the UK's finest choirs combine forces for St Albans International Organ Festival.

St Matthew Passion20220413The BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales are joined by conductor Harry Bicket to perform JS Bach's celebrated setting of the Passion according to St. Matthew. Considered to be the pinnacle of Baroque sacred music, it is a work which tells the story of Jesus Christ's apotheosis with incredible scope and complexity.

Recorded in St. David's Hall on the 9th April, and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

JS Bach: St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244

Jeremy Budd (tenor, Evangelist)

David Shipley (bass, Christus)

Mhairi Lawson (soprano)

Jess Dandy (contralto)

Anthony Gregory (tenor)

James Newby (baritone)

Harry Bicket (conductor)

Harry Bicket and the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales perform Bach's masterwork.

Staatskapelle Dresden20201214Both dramatic and intensely moving, Dvorak's epic depiction of the Virgin Mary's grief is here performed by a fine international group of soloists in a performance recorded in Dresden in February last year.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Dvorak: Stabat Mater, Op.58

Venera Gimadieva, soprano

Elisabeth Kulman, contralto

Pavol Breslik, tenor

Ren退 Pape, bass

Dresden State Opera Chorus

Dresden Staatskapelle

Christoph Eschenbach, conductor

Followed by music off disc:

Victor Hely-Hutchinson: A Carol Symphony

City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

Gavin Sutherland, conductor

Christoph Eschenbach conducts Dvorak's Stabat Mater.

Stabat Mater20210401Live from Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff, Nicola Heywood Thomas presents a concert in which the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Jac van Steen play two final works by Mahler and Pergolesi, and one by a living composer, Arvo P䀀rt.

The concert begins with Mahler's final symphony, which was left unfinished at his death. Tonight, we will hear the Adagio from that work in a relatively new chamber arrangement by conductor and composer Michelle Castelletti. Arvo P䀀rt's meditative Fratres follows, a tintinnabulous work which has no set orchestration, played here by violin soloist Jack Liebeck, alongside the strings and percussion of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The concert ends with Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's setting of the Stabat Mater. He composed the work in the final weeks of his life, using an incredibly advanced sense of harmony for his time, and combining gravitas with the lightness of his comic operas, creating a truly original work which speaks profoundly across the ages.

Mahler, arr Castelletti: Symphony No.10 (Adagio)

Arvo P䀀rt: Fratres

8.15pm

Interval Music

8.35pm

Pergolesi: Stabat Mater, P.77

Jack Liebeck (violin)

Jennifer France (Soprano)

Katie Bray (Mezzo Soprano)

Jac van Steen (conductor)

BBC NOW and Jac van Steen perform Pergolesi's deathbed masterwork.

Star-crossed Lovers20191119Michael Tilson Thomas celebrates his 50-year collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra, with Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet, an adaptation of Shakespeare's bittersweet tragedy, which combines the musical drama of a symphony with the theatricality of solo voices and chorus.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London on 10th November and presented by Tom Service.

Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet.

Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)

Nicholas Phan (tenor)

Nicolas Courjal (bass)

Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor)

The London Symphony Orchestra plays Romeo and Juliet by Berlioz.

Stephen Hough And Friends Play Mozart And Poulenc20210609Composer-pianist Stephen Hough is joined by a starry line-up of wind players for two of the great works for piano and wind. Mozart, peerless in so many ways, was one of the great keyboard players of his time who also had an unerring affinity for wind instruments and their capabilities. In his miraculous 1784 Quintet the individual players take characterful turns in the limelight or play collectively to magical effect. Writing to his father, Mozart described it as 'the best thing I have written in my life'.

Poulenc loved Mozart above all composers and there are nods towards him here and there his Sextet which is by turns witty, buffoonish, wistful and acerbic -- and great fun to listen to and play.

Hough's own music begins the programme. His Trio Was mit den Tr䀀nen geschieht (‘What happens to the tears') is for the unusual combination of piano, flute and bassoon.

Recorded last month at Wigmore Hall and presented by Martin Handley.

Stephen Hough: Trio (Was mit den Tr䀀nen geschiet)

Mozart: Quintet in E flat for piano and winds K. 452

8.15pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Poulenc: Quatre petites pri耀res de Saint Fran瀀ois d'Assise

Tenebrae

Nigel Short (director)

8.25pm

Poulenc: Sextet for wind quintet and piano

Thomas Hancox (flute)

Olivier Stankiewicz (oboe)

Julian Bliss (clarinet)

Amy Harman (bassoon)

Ben Goldscheider (horn)

Stephen Hough (piano)

Stephen Hough and a starry line-up of wind players play masterpieces by Mozart and Poulenc

Stephen Hough Joins The Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales In Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto.20180314Stephen Hough joins the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto. Plus Chief Conductor Thomas Sondergard leads Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C minor.

Recorded at Cheltenham Town Hall. Nicola Heywood Thomas presents.

Dvorak The Golden Spinning Wheel

Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No.1 in G minor

c. 8.25pm Interval

c. 8.45

Brahms Symphony No.1 in C minor

Stephen Hough (piano)

Thomas Sondergard (conductor)

Dvorak wrote five symphonic poems, four of which are based on gruesome fairy tales by Karl Erben. The Golden Spinning Wheel is a great example of the composer's attention to bloodcurdling detail, with almost every bar relating to the original story. Mendelssohn's Italianate piano concerto will sweeten the tone before the marvellous statement that is Brahms' first symphony, which signalled the composer's escape from the shadows of Beethoven.

Stephen Hough Plays Rachmaninov With The Bbc Symphony Orchestra20220527The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alpesh Chauhan join pianist Stephen Hough in Rachmaninov, plus a Richard Baker premiere, and Bruckner's transcendental Symphony No.9.

In his most famous work, Sergei Rachmaninov pits piano against orchestra in a witty, bolshie and wickedly entertaining dual. Who wins? Find out as Stephen Hough takes on this remarkable piece.

Anton Bruckner's last, unfinished symphony was intended as his great spiritual autobiography. Even from the three movements the composer did finish, we experience intense power, cataclysmic terror and exquisite tenderness. Fate decreed that the symphony would end with music apparently slow enough to stop time itself - a great, transfiguring Adagio that forms Bruckner's epitaph.

The concert begins with the world premiere of a BBC SO commission: Richard Baker's orchestral reimagining of a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Live from the Barbican London

Presented by Martin Handley

Richard Baker: The Price of Curiosity (BBC Commission: world premiere)

Sergey Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

8.05pm

Interval music chosen by composer Richard Baker [off CD]

Jonathan Harvey: Come, Holy Ghost

St John's College Cambridge Choir

Andrew Nethsingha (conductor)

Mary Finsterer (1962): Julian suite III - Angelus for clarinet, cello and piano

Ensemble Liaison

8.25pm [Concert Part 2]

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No 9

Stephen Hough (piano)

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

Alpesh Chauhan conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner, Baker and Rachmaninov.

Stephen Hough Plays Saint-saens's Egyptian Concerto20190128Hall退 Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder perform Berlioz and Vaughan Williams from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. They are also joined by Stephen Hough for a performance of Saint-Sa뀀ns's Piano Concerto No 5.

Programme:

Berlioz - Overture: Benvenuto Cellini

Saint-Sa뀀ns - Piano Concerto No.5 in F, Op 133, ‘Egyptian

INTERVAL

Vaughan Williams - Sinfonia Antartica

Stephen Hough, piano

Sophie Bevan, soprano

Ladies of the Hall退 Choir

Sir Mark Elder, conductor

Presented by Mark Forrest.

The Halle Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder perform Berlioz, Saint-Saens and Vaughan Williams.

Stephen Hough Plays The Egyptian Concerto, By Saint-sa\u00ebns20200320The Hall退 Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder perform Berlioz and Vaughan Williams from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. They are also joined by Stephen Hough for a performance of Saint-Sa뀀ns's Piano Concerto No 5.

Another chance to hear this concert recorded in January last year and presented by Mark Forrest.

Berlioz: Overture: Benvenuto Cellini

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Piano Concerto No.5 in F, Op 133, ‘Egyptian

INTERVAL

Vaughan Williams: Sinfonia Antartica

Stephen Hough (piano)

Sophie Bevan (soprano)

Ladies of the Hall退 Choir

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

The Halle Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder perform Berlioz, Saint-Sa\u00ebns and Vaughan Williams.

Stephen Hough Wigmore Hall Residency20191217In the first concert of his Wigmore Hall residency, pianist and composer Stephen Hough is joined by his long-term friend and collaborator, the cellist Steven Isserlis for a programme including music by Dvorak, Suk and both Brahms cello sonatas. Plus one of Stephen's own compositions which he describes as non-programmatic, but 'conjuring up ghosts of Beethoven and Dussek'.

Recorded earlier this month and presented by Georgia Mann.

7.30pm

Anton퀀n Dvo?ကk: Silent Woods

Josef Suk: Ballade in D minor, Op. 3, No. 1; Serenade in A Op. 3 No. 2

Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38

c. 8.15pm

Interval

Stephen Hough introduces his choice of interval music to complement tonight's programme:

Webern Passacaglia, Op. 1

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Herbert von Karajan (conductor)

c. 8.30pm

Stephen Hough: Sonata for cello and piano left hand (Les adieux)

Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 2 in F, Op. 99

Steven Isserlis (cello)

Stephen Hough (piano)

Pianist Stephen Hough is joined by cellist Steven Isserlis for Dvorak, Suk and Brahms.

Stephen Hough Wigmore Hall Residency20200117In this, the second of the three concerts from his residency at Wigmore Hall, Stephen Hough is joined by Michael Collins and Andrei Ioni?? in music by Schumann, Frühling and Brahms.

Stephen Hough has put together this programme, featuring two German romantic giants and a relatively obscure composer. History can be unfair in who it chooses to immortalise, and the neglected figure of the Austrian composer Carl Frühling is a case in point. In the wake of the First World War, Frühling's career was virtually destroyed and both he and his music were soon forgotten, though some of his chamber works, including his Brahms-inspired Clarinet Trio have been championed by leading musicians in recent years. Composed around half a century earlier, Schumann's five short Stücke im Volkston (Pieces in Folk Style) date from 1849, his most fruitful year, portraying a wide range of characters: beginning with a drunken, one-legged soldier and finishing not with a happy ending but a fierce finale.

A profound sense of nostalgia infuses Brahms' Clarinet Trio, one of the finest examples of the genre. It was composed for star German clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, after Brahms had already declared he had written his final composition. Raw passion battles with moments of reflective introspection throughout, and like so much of his work from this period, the music is laced with a sense of angst, regret and wistfulness.

Recorded last month at London's Wigmore Hall and presented by Ian Skelly.

Schumann: 5 Stücke im Volkston Op 102

Carl Frühling: Clarinet Trio Op 40

Interval music (from CD)

Stephen Hough introduces his choice of interval music to complement tonight's programme:

Bruckner: Christus factus est; Os Justi; Locus iste

Polyphony

Stephen Layton (conductor)

Brahms: Hungarian Dance No 5 in F sharp minor WoO 1 (trans. Stephen Hough for clarinet trio)

Brahms: Intermezzo in E flat Op 117 No 1 (trans. Stephen Hough for clarinet trio)

Brahms: Clarinet Trio in A minor Op 114

Stephen Hough (piano)

Michael Collins (clarinet)

Andrei Ioni?? (cello)

Pianist Stephen Hough and friends play Schumann, Fr\u00fchling and Brahms.

Stephen Hough Wigmore Hall Residency20200312In his third and final Wigmore Hall residency concert, Stephen Hough is joined by clarinettist Michael Collins to explore Brahms's late great works for the clarinet, including both clarinet sonatas. The Castalian Quartet take over accompanying duty for Hough's arrangement of Beethoven's Violin Sonata in F, 'Spring', and the concert culminates with Brahms' Clarinet Quintet.

Presented by Georgia Mann.

Johannes Brahms

Clarinet Sonata in F minor Op. 120 No. 1

Michael Collins (clarinet)

Stephen Hough (piano)

Ludwig van Beethoven

Violin Sonata in F Op. 24 'Spring', arr. Stephen Hough for clarinet and string quartet

c.8.20pm - Interval music from CD

Stephen Hough: Herbstlieder

Jacques Imbrailo (baritone)

c.8.35pm

Clarinet Sonata in E flat Op. 120 No. 2

Clarinet Quintet in B minor Op. 115

Stephen Hough and Michael Collins explore Brahms's late great works for the clarinet.

Stephen Hough, Schubert, Franck, Liszt, Hough20151029Recorded on Tuesday at the Barbican, London

Stephen Hough plays Schubert, Franck and Liszt.

Schubert: Sonata No 14 in A minor, D784

Franck: Prelude, Chorale and Fugue

8.15: Interval

8.35

Stephen Hough: Piano Sonata III (world premiere, commissioned to mark the 175th anniversary of The Tablet)

Liszt: Valses Oubli退es Nos 1 & 2

Liszt:Transcendental ɀtudes No 11 (Harmonies du soir) and No 10

Stephen Hough,piano

Stephen Hough is a performer of astonishing technical brilliance with the power to find profundity in even the splashiest piano showpiece. Tonight he traces the darkness-to-light journey of three great pianist-composers - and premieres his own Third Sonata. To celebrate the 175th anniversary of The Tablet, Hough has devised a programme by composers - Schubert, Liszt and Franck - whose spiritual preoccupations match his own.

From the Barbican, Stephen Hough plays Schubert, Franck, Liszt and his own work.

Steven Isserlis And Shostakovich20210225Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Orchestral melodies to calm, intrigue and enliven - performed live from the stage of City Halls in Glasgow. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and guest solo cellist Steven Isserlis, bring to life music from the vibrant, elegant corners of Haydn and Mozart's Symphonies; to the sharp-edged, code-rich virtuosity of Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No 1; to the tender nostalgia of Ravel's ever-popular Pavane.

Haydn: Symphony No 1

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No 1

8.15 Interval

8.35 Part 2

Ravel: Pavane pour une infante d退funte

Mozart: Symphony No 40

Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)

Steven Isserlis (cello)

Photo: Steven Isserlis (credit, Jean-Baptiste Millot)

BBC SSO performs Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto, live from Glasgow's City Halls.

Steven Isserlis Plays Schumann And Faure.20190423Live from Wigmore Hall, London

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Steven Isserlis and friends play Schumann and Faur退

Schumann: Fantasiestücke Op. 73

Faur退: Piano Quintet No. 1 in D minor Op. 89

8.15: Interval

Faur退: Romance Op. 69

El退gie Op. 24

Schumann: Piano Quartet in E flat Op. 47

Steven Isserlis, cello

Veronika Eberle, violin

Arisa Fujita, violin

Amihai Grosz, viola

Connie Shih, piano

Steven Isserlis and friends play the first of Faur退's two piano quintets, unveiled in 1906, and Schumann's single piano quartet, an exuberant work emanating from his year devoted to chamber music (1842).

Concerts from around the country: Steven Isserlis and friends play Schumann and Faure.

Steven Osborne 50th Birthday Concert20210421In March, the acclaimed Scottish pianist with a worldwide reputation celebrated his birthday in the company of a distinguished line-up of musical friends and two of his favourite composers.

Recorded at Wigmore Hall and introduced by Kate Molleson.

Schubert: The Shepherd on the Rock D965

Ailish Tynan (soprano)

Jean Johnson (clarinet)

Steven Osborne (piano)

Fantasy in F minor D940

Steven Osborne & Paul Lewis (piano)

Interval, including Aaron Jay Kernis: Musica Celestis

Ravel: La vall退e des cloches (Miroirs)

Piano Trio in A minor

Alina Ibragimova (violin)

Bjørg Lewis (cello)

Photo © Ben Ealovega

Pianist Steven Osborne celebrates his half-century in the company of Schubert and Ravel.

Steven Osborne Plays Mozart And Shostakovich At Kings Place20210112Internationally renowned Scottish pianist Steven Osborne joins Principal Players of Aurora for one of the final concerts in Aurora's five-year project 'Mozart's Piano': the first complete performance cycle of Mozart's piano concertos ever staged in the UK. Mozart's piano Concerto No. 23 was written at the same time as his opera The Marriage of Figaro and its seemingly endless succession of memorable tunes have ensured that it's still one of his most popular concertos. Social distancing rules give us a rare chance to hear the concerto in a chamber version.

Even though it meant he was 100,000 roubles better off, perhaps Shostakovich felt ambivalent when his Piano Quintet won the 1940 Stalin Prize. But this wartime piece is one of the great works of Soviet 20th-Century chamber music and packs a huge emotional punch.

Between these two classics, a world premiere from Sylvia Lim whose interest in the materiality of sound, rawness and instability has led her to write for the unusual combination of trombone and string quartet.

Recorded last month at Kings Place and introduced by Tom Service.

Mozart (arr. Lachner for string quintet): Piano Concerto No.23 in A major, K488

Sylvia Lim: Points of Intersection (world premiere)

Shostakovich: Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57

Steven Osborne (piano)

Pianist Steven Osborne joins Principal Players of Aurora in Mozart and Shostakovich.

Steven Osborne, Beethoven And Brahms20170322Live from Wigmore Hall, Steven Osborne performs piano pieces by Brahms and Beethoven. Introduced by Martin Handley.

Brahms: Intermezzo in C sharp minor, Op. 117 No. 3

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109

Brahms: Intermezzo in B flat minor, Op. 117 No. 2

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110

8.25 pm

INTERVAL: The Paris Bastille Wind Octet play Beethoven's Wind Octet op.103

8.45 pm

Part 2:

Brahms: Intermezzo in E flat major, Op. 117 No. 1

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111

Steven Osborne (piano)

A powerful programme with Beethoven's last three piano sonatas paired with pieces which Brahms referred to as 'cradle-songs of my sorrows'.

Live at Wigmore Hall, London, Steven Osborne performs piano works by Brahms and Beethoven.

Steven Osborne, Schubert, Debussy, Rachmaninov20160210Steven Osborne plays piano music by Schubert, Debussy and Rachmaninov at St John's Smith Square, London.

Schubert: Impromptus D935: No. 1 in F minor, No. 4 in F minor

Debussy: Masques; Images, Set 2; L'isle joyeuse

8.15: Interval

Crumb: Processional

Rachmaninov: ɀtudes-tableaux Op. 33: No. 2 in C, No. 3 in C minor, No. 5 in D minor; ɀtudes-tableaux Op. 39: No. 2 in A minor, No. 5 in E flat minor, No. 8 in D minor, No. 9 in D

Steven Osborne's recital is typically diverse, opening with some of Schubert's song-like impromptus and Debussy pieces that find the composer conjuring up magical images, and finishing with a selection of Rachmaninov's ɀtudes-tableaux, where the most demanding technical tasks are presented in the form of expressive character pieces.

Followed by a glimpse into Adopt a Composer - Making Music's scheme pairing composers with performing groups from around the country.

Tonight, the Quirky Choir of Doncaster works on Anna Braithwaite's Look up Doncaster.

Photo of Steven Osborne (c) Benjamin Ealovega.

Steven Osborne performs piano music by Schubert, Debussy and Rachmaninov.

Steven Osborne's Rachmaninov2017022320210128 (R3)Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform a work by Edmund Finnis, Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, February 2017.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Edmund Finnis: The Air, Turning

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 2

8.20 Interval

8.40

Rimsky-Korsakov: Sheherazade

Steven Osborne (piano)

Ilan Volkov (Conductor)

Another chance to hear a concert originally broadcast live in February 2017. From their home at the City Halls in Glasgow the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and their Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov, explored two familiar Russian works of ostentatious virtuosity, and a work by composer Edmund Finnis. His piece The Air, Turning received its world premiere performance at the concert.

Then Rachmaninov's oft-quoted Second Piano Concerto. One of the most commonly heard pieces on the concert platform, despite its ferocious technical difficulties: tackled by Steven Osborne.

And the evening concluded with Rimsky-Korsakov's opulent Sheherazade, a work which in 1888 pushed the very limits of creative orchestration. A tuneful masterclass in orchestral sound-painting and tale-telling, taking as it does inspiration from stories of One Thousand and One Nights.

Photo: Steven Osborne (credit, Ben Ealovega)

The pianist joins Ilan Volkov and the BBC SSO for Rachmaninov's Second Concerto.

Stile Antico, Music For Margaret Of Austria, Mary I And Elizabeth I20190429Recorded at Kings Place, London, on 17th April

That Most Graceful Melody: music for three queens.

Stile Antico perform Margaret of Austria, Mary I and Elizabeth I, bringing to life women from the Renaissance through song.

Music for Margaret of Austria

Raffaella Alleotti: ‘Exaudi Deus orationem meam

Pierre de la Rue: 'Absalon fili mi

Anon. (possibly by Margaret of Austria) 'Se je souspire'/'Ecce iterum

Alexander Agricola: 'Dulces exuviae

Maddalena Casulana: ‘O notte, o ciel, o mar

Sulpitia Cesis: ‘Ascendo ad patrem

Music for Queen Mary 1

Thomas Tallis: ‘Loquebantur variis linguis

John Sheppard: 'Gaude, gaude, gaude Maria

Leonora d'Este: ‘Veni sponsa Christi'; 'Ego sum panis

Maddalena Casulana: ‘Vagh' amorosi augelli

Music for Queen Elizabeth 1

William Byrd: ‘O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth

John Taverner: ‘Christe Jesu, pastor bone

John Bennet: ‘All creatures now are merry minded

Richard Carlton: 'Calm was the air

Sulpitia Cesis: ‘Cantemus Domino

Raffaella Alleotti: ‘Angelus ad pastores ait

Joanna Marsh: Dialogo and Quodlibet

From the powerful Medici women in Italy to the great Tudor queens of England, women across Europe held more power in the 16th century than ever before. Many of these monarchs used their patronage to facilitate the production of music of exquisite beauty by the finest composers of the day, extravagant showcases of their power contrasting with intimate and personal compositions. The century also saw the first publications of music by female composers, often Italian nuns, whose convents supported musical groups of astonishing ability.

Stile Antico shines a light on an often-neglected repertoire, focusing on the music written for three queens, Margaret of Austria, Mary I and Elizabeth I, bringing to life women from the Renaissance through song.

Stile Antico perform music written for Margaret of Austria, Mary I and Elizabeth I

Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra20220523Ryan Bancroft conducts the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra at the Stockholm Concert Hall in music by Stenhammar and Rimsky-Korsakov, and Hannah Kendall's 2017 piece 'The Spark Catchers'. Cellist Sol Gabetta also joins the orchestra for a performance of Saint-Saens's Cello Concerto No.1.

Introduced by Fiona Talkington.

7.30pm

Wilhelm Stenhammar - Excelsior!

Camille Saint-Saens - Concerto for cello & orchestra No.1 in A minor, Op.33

Sol Gabetta (cello)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

INTERVAL

Claude Debussy - Sonata for cello & piano

H退l耀ne Grimaud (piano)

Hannah Kendall - On the Chequer'd Field Array'd

Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

c. 8.40pm

Hannah Kendall - The Spark Catchers

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Capriccio espagnol, Op.34

The Stockholm Philharmonic in Stenhammar, Saint-Sa\u00ebns, Hannah Kendall and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Stories From Around Europe20191124Fiona Talkington introduces highlights from concerts from around the world. Tonight the journey takes in performances from Slovenia, Germany and Switzerland, with musical references to some famous fairy tales and a beautiful, impressionistic orchestral work by a little known 20th-century Slovenian composer, and Beethoven's iconic 7th Symphony.

Demetrij Žebre - Prebujenje, for orchestra

RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra

James Tuggle, conductor

Recorded last February in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Franz Schubert - Fantasy in C, D. 760 ('Wandererfantasie')

Marc-Andre hamelin, piano

Recorded at the 2019 Schubertiade in Schwarzburg, Germany

Maurice Ravel - Sh退h退razade, song cycle

Patricia Petitbon, soprano

Zurich Tonhalle Orchestr

Kent Nagano, conductor

Recorded in September in the Tonhalle Maag, Zurich

Anton퀀n Reicha - Wind Quintet in D, op. 91/3

Azahar Ensemble

Recorded last July in Hitzacker, Germany

Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 7 in A, op. 92

Highlights from classical concerts around Europe

Strauss And Mahler20231116Impassioned orchestral music and soul-searching voices from City Halls in Glasgow, the home of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Thoughts of death haunt all of Mahler's compositions but, inspired by a volume of ancient Chinese poetry, his symphonic song-cycle Das Lied von der Erde sets a meditation of earthly beauty and existential angst amid some of the most imaginative and emotionally powerful music ever written.

And, before it, a piece written just a few years later as Europe cracked under the violent upheavals of the First World War. Richard Strauss' twenty-minute distillation of his symbolist opera Die Frau ohne Schatten, which nevertheless bristles with exotic inventions and big-boned romanticism.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Tom McKinney

R. Strauss: Symphonic fantasy from Die Frau ohne Schatten

G. Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano)

Brenden Gunnell (tenor)

Alpesh Chauhan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a concert from Glasgow.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Alpesh Chauhan are joined by singers Karen Cargill and Brenden Gunnell to perform music by Mahler and Strauss.

Strauss And Schumann From Copenhagen20230220Fiona Talkington presents one of the highlights of the concert season in Europe: Fabio Luisi conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Richard Strauss's gripping portrait of the seducer Don Juan, while Schumann celebrates the joy of life in his Symphony no. 2.

Along with these familiar works is Hans Abrahamsen's Horn Concerto, a new masterpiece by the famous Danish composer, described by one critic after its Berlin premiere in the following terms: 'a panorama of vastness and tranquillity opens up at the beginning, the strings and flageolet hint at dawning distances, plucks of the harp light up like the first stars in the evening, and the block of wood that a percussionist beats meaningfully cracks. And the horn? It sings above it as longingly and brightly as only a horn can: softly muted, with a vision of great adventures, perhaps also with the memory of them.

Strauss: Don Juan

Hans Abrahamsen: Horn Concerto

Schumann Symphony no. 2 in C, Op 61

Stefan Dohr, horn

Fabio Luisi, conductor

Recorded at the Danish Radio Concert House, Copenhagen, on 13/10/2022.

The Danish National Symphony Orchestra play Strauss, Abrahamsen and Schumann.

Strauss Songs And Brahms In Bath Abbey20210519After two years of closure for major refurbishment, Bath Abbey is the historic setting for the opening concert of 2021 Bath Festival. Peter Manning conducts the newly formed Bath Festival Orchestra in Weber's thrilling Overture to his romantic drama Der Freischütz. The young soprano Rowan Pierce joins the orchestra for a set of Richard Strauss's songs.

After a lengthy gap, during which Strauss had been preoccupied with writing operas, his opus 68 songs of 1918 affirmed his mastery of the form was undiminished. Touchingly, Morgen was among the songs Strauss gave as a wedding present to his wife, the soprano Pauline de Ahna, and this setting of a text by John Henry Mackay remains one of his most enduring. The first of Brahms' two serenades finds the composing revelling in the symphonic form. Originally scored for a chamber ensemble in 1859, Brahms enlarged the work for a full orchestra, exploiting the instrument combinations, colours, effects and contrasts to great effect.

Recorded on Monday, and introduced by Nicola Heywood Thomas

7.30 Weber: Overture Der Freischütz

Ich wollt ein Str䀀usslein binden, op 68/2

S䀀usle, liebe Myrthe, op 68/3

Amor, op 68/5

Morgen, op 27/4

Das Rosenband, op 36/1

c.8.10 Interval

Brahms: Serenade No 1 in D, op 11

Peter Manning, conductor

Rowan Pierce, soprano

Producers: Johannah Smith & Amelia Parker for BBC Wales

The Bath Festival Orchestra play Weber, songs by Strauss and Brahms in Bath Abbey.

Strauss, Mozart And Beethoven20191209Two of today's most exciting musicians, conductor Jakub Hr?ša and pianist and Martin Helmchen, join forces with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Is there a more thrilling concert opener than Richard Strauss's Don Juan? With his second tone poem the 24-year-old Strauss immediately established himself as one of the most brilliant and progressive composers of his day and gave orchestras and conductors an electrifying showpiece which has never lost its dazzling appeal. Late 1785: Mozart is at the height of his popularity in Vienna when he writes three of his greatest piano concertos, a genre in which he had no equal. No 22 was the first of them: bravura first and last movements flank a theme-and-variations Andante (which its first audience encored) and Mozart clearly enjoys his big orchestra, revelling in brass fanfares and the most wonderful woodwind writing. The concert ends with Beethoven at his most unbuttoned. His ebullient Fourth Symphony is full of sly tricks and playful humour, a test for orchestra and conductor, even today.

Recorded yesterday at the Royal Festival Hall and presented by Martin Handley.

Strauss: Don Juan, Op 20

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 22 in E flat major, K482

8.35pm

Interval music (from CD)

Josef Suk: Piano Quartet in A Minor, Op 1: ii. Adagio

Martin Helmchen (piano)

Antje Weithaas (violin)

Vicki Powell (viola)

Maximilian Hornung (cello)

8.45pm

Beethoven: Symphony No 4 in B Flat major, Op 60

Jakub Hr?ša (conductor)

Jakub Hr\u016f\u0161a conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra and Martin Helmchen plays the piano.

Stravinsky Tales20160526Stravinsky Tales - Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in Renard, Mavra and Les Noces - three short operatic works by Stravinsky.

The Philharmonia is joined by a group of soloists from the Mariinsky Theatre for three tales which in different ways reflect Stravinsky's love of his Russian homeland. Renard, The Fable of the Vixen, the Cock, the Cat and the Ram, is a 'burlesque for the stage with singing and music,' based on Russian folktales whilst Mavra is a one act homage to Russian writers and maybe too a satire of bourgeois manners. Although its premiere in Paris in 1922 was not wholly successful, Stravinsky himself thought very highly of the work, saying once that 'Mavra seems to me the best thing I've done'. After the interval comes Les noces, a glorious celebration, tinged with sadness, of a Russian peasant wedding. Though not as famous as his earlier works for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Les noces is perhaps the most original and radical of them all.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces these semi-staged performances live from the Royal Festival Hall.

-interval-

Soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Tamara Stefanovich, Nenad Lecic and Lorenzo Soul耀s (pianos)

Philharmonia Voices

Philharmonia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor.

Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen in three short operatic works by Stravinsky

Stravinsky, Mozart And Tchaikovsky20200326Stravinsky's own programme for his Scherzo fantastique explains that this music was inspired by the life of bees 'the increasing work in the hive, continuing for generations and generations: the nuptial flight of the queen bee, with the destruction of the male, her lover in the giddy heights.' Although an early work, the colourful orchestration, daring harmonic language and whirling energy impressed Diaghilev who was later to commission some of Stravinsky's most famous scores. Tchaikovsky described the opening of his Fourth Symphony, as 'Fate, the power of destiny, which ever prevents our pursuit of happiness from reaching its goal', reflecting the turmoil in his life as he was writing it. Only, he said, by sharing in the joy of others was he able to create the resolute drive with which the Symphony ends. Imogen Cooper joins the BBC Philharmonic and conductor Ben Gernon in what's perhaps Mozart's grandest and most dramatic concerto. A second chance to hear this concert given in Manchester's Bridgewater Hall in January 2019, presented by Tom McKinney.

Stravinsky: Scherzo fantastique

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 25 in C (K 503)

8.20

Interval

Beethoven: Bagatelles Op 119

8.35

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 4

Imogen Cooper (piano)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

Ben Gernon conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Mozart, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky.

Stravinsky's Firebird, Beethoven's Quintet In E Flat20190505Fiona Talkington presents the Spanish 'Azahar' Wind Ensemble in a witty and characterful arrangement of one of Beethoven's early chamber works, and that's followed by Stravinsky's Firebird Suite from the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra and Ivကn Fischer.

arr, Mordechai Rechtman

Quintet in E flat major (Op.4)

Azahar Ensemble

Firebird Suite (1919)

The best European concerts with Fiona Talkington.

Strings, Sea, Symphony20191212Although the three works in this concert are English, composed within a span of less than half a century, their expressive diversity is vast. Elgar's 1894 song-cycle Sea Pictures, setting texts evoking the fear of and fascination of the sea, is in lush late-Romantic style. From the brink of World War II, Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra draws on an eclectic range of musical styles from Elizabethan madrigals and Italian baroque music to folk songs and jazz. Premiered in 1935, Vaughan Williams' Symphony No 4 is harsh, dissonant and tense, seemingly reflecting the oppressive, ever-present threat of war during the 1930s.

Live from London's Barbican Hall, presented by Martin Handley.

Tippett: Concerto for Double String Orchestra

Elgar: Sea Pictures

Interval

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 4

Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano)

London Symphony Orchestra

Antonio Pappano (conductor)

Antonio Pappano conducts the LSO in works by Elgar, Tippett and Vaughan Williams

Stutzmann Conducts Tchaikovsky's 'pathetique' Symphony20220531The BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Chorus conducted by Natalie Stuzmann in Brahms' N䀀nie, Song of the Fates, and Song of Destiny. Plus Tchaikovsky's great Symphony No.6.

In the combination of choir and orchestra, Brahms found a perfect medium for spellbinding visions of paradise and heartfelt lamentations for lost love. Both are enshrined in the hushed tones of?N䀀nie,?Song of the Fates?and the?Song of Destiny, for which debuting conductor Nathalie Stutzmann marshals the full forces of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

The atmosphere intensifies with a symphonic drama by a composer who always wore his heart on his sleeve. Tchaikovsky conducted this work's premiere just nine days before his death, the cause of which remains unsolved. Whatever the true story, the music is the most emotional symphony Tchaikovsky ever wrote - a vivid, moving concert hall experience.

Recorded at the Barbican, London on 22nd May

Presented by Martin Handley

Johannes Brahms: N䀀nie

Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates) Op.89

Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) Op.54

8.10pm

Interval [Off CD]

Ursula Mamlok: Woodwind Quintet i) Molto Vivo; ii) Andante Tranquillo; iii) Allegro Molto

Windscape

Alessandro Scarlatti O cessate di piagarmi (Orch Courbier and Delaforge)

Nathalie Stuzmann (contralto)

Orfeo 55

8.30 [Concert Part 2]

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 6, 'Path退tique

Neil Ferris (chorus director)

Nathalie Stutzmann (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus conducted by Natalie Stuzmann in Brahms & Tchaikovsky.

Sublime Swansong20190618Ahead of Saturday's hotly-anticipated Cardiff Singer of the World final, Georgia Mann introduces a concert recorded at the Grand Hall of Frankfurt's Alte Oper featuring the 1999 Cardiff winner. Since then, German soprano Anja Harteros has enjoyed a stellar international career in both opera house and concert hall, with Strauss's moving farewell to life, the Four Last Songs, one of her party pieces. Book-ending the concert given by the Frankfurt Radio SO and their Music Director Andr退s Orozco-Estrada are Wagner's erotically-charged music from Tristan und Isolde and Shostakovich's final symphony.

Wagner: Prelude und Isolde Liebestod (Tristan and Isolde)

Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 in A, Op. 141

Anja Harteros (soprano)

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Andr退s Orozco-Estrada (conductor)

Soprano Anja Harteros sings Strauss's Four Last Songs with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony.

Summer Festivals Across Europe20191013Fiona Talkington presents some of the best of this summer's concerts from across Europe.

Tonight we're back at the Feldafing Festival in Bavaria, and at the Mozart Festival in Wurzburg and we're also at the Bad Kissinger summer festival.

Kit Armstrong is the pianist in Franck's Piano Quintet, a role taken at the premiere by Camille Saint-Saens, in a work which struck one member of the original audience for its emotional intensity - and that member of the audience? Franz Liszt.

Unsuk Chin brings us more up to date - in fact this performance is the premiere of this particular re-imagining of her opera 'Alice in Wonderland', played by the Karajan Academy ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic, which was set up by Herbert von Karajan over 40 years ago for young musicians to be taught and mentored by members of the Berlin Philharmonic.

And finally, the Ural Philharmonic and their music director Dmitry Liss leave their base in Ekaterinburg to bring Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony to Bad Kissinger. As Tchaikovsky said after the symphony's premiere 'Not everything is sad - There are simple but potent pleasures. Enjoy other people's happiness'.

Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor, FWV 7

Kit Armstrong (piano)

Schumann Quartet

Unsuk Chin: Puzzles and Games, from 'Alice in Wonderland

Nika Gori? (soprano)

Berlin Philharmonic Karajan Academy,

Pablo Heras-Casado

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 4 in F minor, Op 36

Ural Philharmonic Orchestra

Image Credit: (c) Oliver Lang

Summer Nights In Montpellier20231009Fiona Talkington presents one of the highlights of the 2023 Summer festival season, in which mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes joins the Orchestre National de Montpellier and conductor by Michael Schønwandt in music by Berlioz, Horneman and Schoenberg.

Horneman: Aladdin, ouverture

Berlioz: Les Nuits d'退t退

Schoenberg: Pell退as and M退lisande

Karine Deshayes, mezzo-soprano

Michael Schønwandt , conductor

In this concert from the Montpelier Festival in the south of France, Karine Deshayes sings Berlioz' songs of summer nights; wonders spring from Aladdin's lamp in a work by the Danish composer Horneman, friend and contemporary of Grieg, and love's intricacies and agonies are evoked by Schoenberg (who, at this early stage in his career, is still the heir of Brahms and Wagner) in his vast and voluptuous symphonic poem Pell退as and M退lisande.

Concert recorded on 21st July 2023 at the Montpellier Opera.

The Orchestre National de Montpellier play Berlioz and Schoenberg.

Summer Nights In Sch\u00f6nbrunn20190922Highlights from a 2019 Sch怀nbrunn Summer Night Concert in Austria and Mozart from the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, introduced by Fiona Talkington

Leonard Bernstein - Overture to 'Candide

Johann Strauss (II) - Jubil䀀umst䀀nze, Walzer

Max Steiner - Casablanca Suite

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Gustavo Dudamel (conductor)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K. 488

Mitsuko Uchida (piano)

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Bernard Haitink (conductor)

Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Photo Credit: Julius Silver

Fiona Talkington introduces highlights from classical concerts in Austria and Amsterdam.

Swashbuckling And Swans From Liverpool20211117Andrew Manze and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra perform, Strauss's swashbuckling 'Don Juan', Sibelius's swan-inspired Fifth Symphony and the world premiere of Anders Hillborg's viola concerto. Presented by Tom McKinney.

Programme:

Richard Strauss: Don Juan

Anders Hillborg: Viola Concerto (world premiere)

ca. 8.10pm - Interval

Arthur Benjamin - Viola Sonata

Lawrence Power (viola)

Simon Crawford-Phillips (piano)

ca. 8.30pm

Dag Wiren: Serenade for Strings

Jean Sibelius: Symphony No.5

Andrew Manze (conductor)

Lawrence Power performs the world premiere of Anders Hillborg's Viola Concerto.

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dvorak, Boulez20170305Ian Skelly introduces highlights from a concert recorded earlier this year in Stockholm by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding, with music by Dvorak and Boulez.

Dvorak: Othello, Op.93 concert overture

Boulez: Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna

Dvorak: Violin Concerto in A minor Op.53

Christian Tetzlaff (violin)

Daniel Harding (conductor).

Ian Skelly presents the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra performing Dvorak and Boulez.

Sweet Singing In The Choir, A Choral Christmas With The Bbc Singers20201218King of Christmas Bob Chilcott conducts the BBC Singers with special guests Jess Gillam and Katie Melua for a perfect concert to sing in the festive season.

Joined by members of the BBC Concert Orchestra, the celebration of the magic, jubilation, fun and joie-de-vivre of seasonal music is brought to life by Bob Chilcott, the BBC Singers's very own Principal Guest Conductor. Singer Katie Melua and saxophonist Jess Gillam add their touch of Christmas sparkle into the mix with solo sets.

Programme to include:

Stuart Nicholson: Ding! Dong! Merrily on high

Christian Onyeji: Amuworo ayi otu nwa

Bob Chilcott: The Midnight of your birth

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence

John Gardner: Tomorrow shall be my dancing day

Traditional: O little town (arr Bob Chilcott)

Leslie Pearson: In Dulci Jubilo

Traditional: Twelve Days of Christmas (arr Bob Chilcott)

Roger Harvey: Festive Cheer

Elizabeth Poston: Balulalow

Bob Chilcott: The Shepherds Sing

Darius Milhaud: 'Brazileiria' from Scaramouche

Bob Chilcott: 'Sweet was the song' from On Christmas Night

Mack Willberg: Jingle Bells

Johnny Marks: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (arr Bob Chilcott)

Anders Edenroth: The World for Christmas

Traditional/Blaine/Martin: Deck the Hall/Have yourself a merry little Christmas (arr Bob Chilcott)

David Willcocks: O come, all ye faithful

Jess Gillam - presenter/saxophone

Katie Melua - guest vocalist

Bob Chilcott - conductor

Members of BBC Concert Orchestra

Rachel Mahon - organ

Ashok Gupta - piano

Followed by music off disc:

Arnold Bax: Christmas Eve - tone poem

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Malcolm Hicks, organ

Bryden Thomson, conductor

A Choral Christmas with the BBC Singers, Jess Gillam, Katie Melua and Bob Chilcott.

Swr Symphony Orchestra20170626Christoph Eschenbach conducts the SWR Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven's playful 8th Symphony which the composer referred to as 'my little symphony in F' which is followed by Mahler's mighty 1st Symphony, the 'Titan'.

Recorded at The Usher Hall in Edinburgh.

Canada 150

After this week's concerts, as part of a season marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of Canada, a chance to hear music from across the nation.

The SWR Symphony Orchestra performs Beethoven's Eighth and Mahler's First Symphonies.

Symphonic Dances, Symphonic Psalms, Symphonic Requiems20191104Composed in the shadow of the Second World War, Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem opens Dalia Stasevska's first concert at the Barbican as the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor.

Then to Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms - a devout musical gesture, re-imagining religious rituals on a symphonic scale -for which the BBC Symphony Orchestra are joined by the BBC Singers. They conclude with one of the greatest tests of the conductor's art, Rachmaninov's exhilarating Symphonic Dances; composed in America in 1940 just three years before his death, it pulses with rhythmic energy, embracing jazz, plainchant and the waltz.

Recorded at the Barbican, London on Saturday 26th October

Presented by Martin Handley

Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms*

8.15pm

Interval - Dalia Stasevska's choices:

J hann J hannsson

They Being Dead Yet Speaketh

Cornets: Niall Thompson, Tony Thompson

Trumpets: Thomas Glendinning, Russell Jackson

Electronics : J hann J hannsson

Organ: Robert Houssart

Fat Cat Records CD13 13 (recorded in Durham Cathedral)

Kurtag/Bach: Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit.. (Actus tragicus) BWV 106

Kurtag/Bach: Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir BWV 687

Marta and Gyorgy Kurtag (piano)

ECM 453 5112

Part 2

8.35pm

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances Op.45

BBC Singers*

Dalia Stasevska (Conductor)

BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dalia Stasevska in Britten, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky

Symphonic Landscapes20220318Pianist Ronald Brautigam joins the Ulster Orchestra and conductor Jac van Steen in concertos by Mozart and Sally Beamish, in a concert also featuring Sibelius' Third Symphony.

Brautigan commissioned Sally Beamish's Piano Concerto No. 1 `Hill Stanzas` in 2016 and it's a work imbued with the landscape of the Cairngorms where she moved to write the work. He'll also be performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 in Bb Major, his last concerto for the instrument first performed in the year of his death in 1791. Completing this concert, Sibelius' Symphony No. 3 in C Major- a work which brings together a neo-classical style together with Finnish folk influences- as well as using material originally written for his tone poem Pohjola's Daughter.

Sally Beamish- Piano Concerto No. 1 'Hill Stanzas

Mozart- Piano Concerto No. 27 in B? major, K. 595

Sibelius- Symphony no. 3 in C major, Op. 52

Jac van Steen, Conductor

Ronald Brautigam, Piano

Jac van Steen conducts the Ulster Orchestra in Mozart, Sibelius and Sally Beamish.

Symphonic Pictures20211026Kirill Karabits, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's Chief Conductor, leads the orchestra in a colourful programme ranging from the bright southern French sunshine of Bizet's L'Arl退sienne to the more muted colours of Prokofiev's Russian Autumn Sketch. Also on the bill are Ravel's sparkling piano concerto with Louis Schwizgebel, and his famous orchestration of Mussorgsky's series of piano miniatures, Pictures at an Exhibition, painted in vivid orchestral colours.

Recorded earlier this month and introduced by Martin Handley.

Bizet: L'Arl退sienne Suite No. 1

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

Prokofiev: Autumnal Sketch

Mussorgsky (arr. Ravel): Pictures at an Exhibition

Louis Schwizgebel (piano)

Kirill Karabits (conductor)

Kirill Karabits conducts the Bournemouth SO in Bizet, Ravel, Prokofiev and Mussorgsky.

Symphonic Redemption In Brussels20190623A concert from the Palais des Beaux-Arts, (BOZAR) Brussels, as part of the Klarafestival 2019. Presented by Fiona Talkington. Berlioz, Wagner and Debussy.

The Montreal Symphony Orchestra under their chief conductor Kent Nagano perform a programme creatively titled 'Symphonic Redemption', which uses Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder as a fulcrum between Berlioz and Debussy to span the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with Debussy's orchestral language continuing Wagner's own explorations.

Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust (orchestral excerpts)

Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder

Debussy: Jeux

Marie-Nicole Lemieux, (contralto)

Kent Nagano (conductor)

Image credit: BOZAR/Yannick Sas

A concert from Brussels as part of the Klarafestival 2019. Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Symphonic Trio, Schubert From Salford20201203The BBC Philharmonic continues its exploration of the music of Schubert. Tonight, conductor Douglas Boyd explores the youthful exuberance of his First and Third, contrasted with the darker hues of his Fourth, which begins our programme.

Live from MediaCityUK in Salford

Presented by Tom McKinney

Schubert: Symphony No 4 (Tragic)

Schubert: Symphony No 3

8.25pm

Music Interval (CD)

Schubert: Symphony No 1 (pre-recorded at MediaCityUK on 2 December 2020)

Douglas Boyd (conductor)

Followed by music off disc

Mozart

Piano Concerto No 21 in C major, K 467

Maria Jo o Pires (piano)

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Claudio Abbado (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic continues its exploration of Schubert's music.

Symphonie Fantastique20220401When Hector Berlioz saw a performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet featuring an Irish actress named Harriet Smithson as Ophelia, he fell head over heels in love and found his calling in life. In his Symphonie Fantastique, Berlioz set out to prove that love while writing a manifesto for French music based on passion, humour, spirit and pride. But Berlioz's captivating symphonic story would be remembered just as much for its compelling debauchery and torment.

Jordan de Souza brings with him a premonition of Berlioz's own Witches' Sabbath in the form of ɀdith Canat de Chizy's new work Omen, and has both Noriko Ogawa and Kathryn Stott for company in Vaughan Williams's rarely heard and consistently surprising Concerto for Two Pianos.

Live from the Barbican Hall, London.

ɀdith Canat de Chizy: Omen (UK premiere)

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Concerto for Two Pianos in C major

20.30 Interval

Jean Francaix: Ode a la Gastronomie

I Fagiolini

Robert Hollingworth (conductor)

20.50

Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Noriko Ogawa (piano)

Kathryn Stott (piano)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Jordan de Souza (conductor)

The BBC SO conducted by Jordan de Souza in Berlioz, Canat de Chizy and Vaughan Williams.

Symphonie Fantastique20230928Bold sounds, and musical storytelling, characterise this concert from Glasgow: brought to life with passionate precision by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's long-time collaborator, Ilan Volkov. Cassandra Miller's composition 'Duet for Cello and Orchestra' is a 30-minute homage to the Sicilian opera composer Vincenzo Bellini and has been recognised as one of the most significant and original works of the Twenty-First Century. And in this concert it is paired with an equitably ground-breaking one from the Nineteenth: Berlioz's far-sighted piece of orchestral narrative-making, the Symphonie Fantastique.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Miller: Duet for Cello and Orchestra

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

Charles Curtis (cello)

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Ilan Volkov conducts Berlioz's masterpiece with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Symphonies Of Requiem And Revolution20200113The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, whose reputation as the world's greatest orchestra of teenagers reaches far beyond the UK, and conductor Jaime Martin perform a trio of politically charged 20th-century works.

Hans Eisler's visceral choral revolutionary song kicks off the proceedings, followed by Britten's brilliant orchestral Sinfonia da Requiem, an unlikely pre-World War II commission by the Japanese government to mark the Japanese Empire's 2600th anniversary. Shostakovich's quasi-cinematic Symphony No 11, subtitled 'The Year 1905', vividly depicts scenes from the failed first Russian Revolution, long-celebrated as the Soviet people's initial, faltering step towards the establishment of a socialist state. The symphony proved an instant success in the Soviet Union at its 1957 premiere and in a superbly ironic twist it also won the Lenin Prize. Ironic because Shostakovich was covertly portraying another much more recent failed revolution, that of the brutally suppressed 1956 Hungarian uprising against Soviet rule.

Recorded at London's Barbican hall and presented by Martin Handley.

Eisler: Auf den Strassen zu Singen

Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem

Interval

Shostakovich: Symphony No 11 'The Year 1905

Jaime Martin (conductor)

Photo © Jason Alden

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain performs music by Britten and Shostakovich.

Symphonies Of The Human Spirit20230526The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk perform symphonic masterpieces by Mozart, Prokofiev and Stravinsky's powerful Symphony of Psalms.

The young Mozart pops the musical champagne corks in 18th century Salzburg. In a time of terror, Prokofiev writes a symphony to delight the hearts of children, and ends up uncovering something far more personal. And Stravinsky raises his voice in praise, in the extraordinary Symphony of Psalms. It's still one of the miracles of 20th-century music: a work of profound faith and timeless ritual, written by classical music's supreme iconoclast. The BBC Symphony Chorus squares that circle today, and conductor Dima Slobodeniouk - in his first appearance with the BBC SO - surrounds it with wonder, whether it's Mozart in party mood, or Prokofiev's magical but haunted last symphony: music that seems to smile through its tears.

Live from the Barbican Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major, 'Haffner

Igor Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms

20.20 Interval (off CD)

Kapralova: Variations sur le carillon de l'退glise St-ɀtienne-du-Mont, Op. 16

Giorgio Koukl (piano)

George Walker: Stars

BBC Singers

Grace Rossiter (conductor)

Joseph Haydn String Quartet in D major Op.50`6 1st Movement (Frog)

Consone Quartet

20.40

Sergey Prokofiev: Symphony No 7 in C sharp minor

Dima Slobodeniouk (conductor)

Dima Slobodeniouk conducts the BBC SO and Chorus in Mozart, Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

Tabea Zimmermann With The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra20230213The German violist Tabea Zimmermann joins the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for a performance of Walton's Viola Concerto. Also in this programme from the Isarphilharmonie - Munich's most modern concert hall - is the waltz sequence from Richard Strauss's 'Der Rosenkavalier' and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

Strauss - Waltz Sequence from 'Der Rosenkavalier

Walton - Viola Concerto

Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra

Tabea Zimmermann (viola)

Ivan Fischer (conductor)

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Ivan Fischer conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Strauss and Walton.

Tak\u00e1cs Quartet At Wigmore Hall20181109Haydn, Bart k and Brahms live from London. Wigmore Hall's Associate Artists begin their programme with the fourth of Haydn's 'Sun Quartets.' It was this collection that defined the nature of the string quartet for over a hundred years. One of Brahms's first published quartets sees him striving to model each movement on a tiny motif and Bart k's first quartet mourns an unhappy love affair.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Haydn String Quartet in D Op. 20 No. 4

Bart k String Quartet No. 1 Sz.40

Interval

Brahms String Quartet in A minor Op. 51 No. 2

Takကcs Quartet

Live from Wigmore Hall, London. The Takacs Quartet play Haydn, Bartok and Brahms.

Tak\u00e1cs Quartet At Wigmore Hall20200618Haydn, Bart k and Brahms from London. Recorded at Wigmore Hall in November 2018, the hall's Associate Artists began their programme with the fourth of Haydn's 'Sun Quartets'. It was this collection that defined the nature of the string quartet for over a hundred years. One of Brahms's first published quartets sees him striving to model each movement on a tiny motif and Bart k's first quartet mourns an unhappy love affair.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Haydn: String Quartet in D Op. 20 No. 4

Bart k: String Quartet No. 1 Sz.40

Ic. 8.25pm

Interval Music: Pavel Kolesnikov plays Beethoven: Piano Sonata in G Op. 14 no. 2.

c. 8.50pm

Brahms: String Quartet in A minor Op. 51 No. 2

Takကcs Quartet

The Takas Quartet at Wigmore Hall, London, in 2018, perform Haydn, Bart\u00f3k and Brahms.

Takacs Quartet, Beethoven String Quartets20170516The Takကcs Quartet play three of Beethoven's string quartets, recorded at Wigmore Hall, London, on 15th May and introduced by Fiona Talkington.

Beethoven: String Quartet in B flat major, Op.18 No.6

Beethoven: String Quartet in F major, Op.135

8:35pm

Interval music

8:55pm

Beethoven: String Quartet in C major, Op.59 No.3 (Razumovsky)

Faced with damning criticism from the musicians charged with playing his Razumovsky Quartets, Beethoven coolly replied 'they are not for you, but for a later age'. The intervening years have done nothing to dim their free-wheeling invention and emotional impact.

The third of these quartets concludes tonight's recital by experienced Beethoven interpreters the Takကcs Quartet. In the first half, they perform quartets from both ends of Beethoven's composing career: his sixth, Op18 No.6, already displaying a mastery of the medium, and sixteenth, Op.135, the last major work he completed.

The Takacs Quartet performs Beethoven: String Quartets Nos 6, 17 and 9.

Takacs Quartet, Haydn, Shostakovich20160201Live from Wigmore Hall, London

The Takကcs Quartet play Haydn and Shostakovich

Haydn: String Quartet in C major Op. 74 No. 1

Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 3 in F major Op. 73

8.15: Interval

Haydn: String Quartet in G minor Op. 74 No. 3 'Rider

Haydn's Op. 74 quartets, written for the 1793 London concert season, are shot through with appealing melodies and intricate thematic developments, while Shostakovich's Third String Quartet offers a searing lament for the victims of tyranny. Composed in 1946, its five moments allude to wartime experience, moving from 'Blithe ignorance of the future cataclysm' to 'The eternal question: Why? And for what?'.

The Takacs Quartet performs music by Haydn and Shostakovich at Wigmore Hall in London.

Tales Of The Forest20211104Presented by Martin Handley.

Dvo?ကk's In Nature's Realm evokes the landscape around Dvo?ကk's home town, Vysokက, where he composed in a forest; the only noises that disturbed him being the natural sounds outside his window. In The Golden Spinning Wheel, however, the forest turns dark, as it is revealed as the place of the gruesome murder of a young girl.

Over the course of his viola concerto, J怀rg Widmann lets his soloist move freely about the stage, continually producing fresh orchestral colours within a novel structure, and giving a theatrical dimension to what is a hauntingly beautiful work.

‘Even with the viola's C-string alone, you can tell stories unimaginable on any other string instrument', Widmann says, and he wrote this piece specially for Antoine Tamestit, tonight's soloist.

J怀rg Widmann: Viola Concerto

Interval

Dvo?ကk: In der Natur

Dvo?ကk: The Golden Spinning Wheel

Antoine Tamestit, viola

London Symphony Orchestra

Daniel Harding, conductor

Recorded Sun 31 Oct 2021 at the Barbican Hall, London

Antoine Tamestit joins the London Symphony Orchestra in J\u00f6rg Widmann's Viola Concerto.

Tallis Scholars, Beverley Minster20170531Adam Tomlinson presents a programme of English and French sacred vocal music, given by the Tallis Scholars and director Peter Phillips in the Gothic splendour of Beverley Minster as part of this year's Beverley Festival.

Polyphonic innovator Nicolas Gombert was arguably the musical link between Josquin and Palestrina; his 12-part antiphon Regina Coeli rejoices in the 'Queen of Heaven'. Josquin's own offerings here include a work very close to his heart, the 'Pater Noster'. In it, sublime intimations of the knowledge that all of us will end up as dust; in his will Josquin asked for it to be performed posthumously before his house during all general church processions. There's also English music from the Eton Choirbook by John Browne - his 6-part 'O regina mundi clara'. And to bookend the concert, William Byrd's early work 'Laetentur coeli', and a favourite motet with singers of all stripes, 'Vigilate', with its cock-crowing and breathtaking imitation.

The programme is inspired by the music represented within this year's Beverley Festival Exhibition: a large-scale immersive exhibition, featuring a visually and aurally striking installation that focuses on one of the most extraordinary pan-European music collections in history. 'Through the Looking Glass' features the installation 'Speculum Musurgica' by Flemish visual and music artist Rudi Knoops. The heptagonal media installation consists of large-scale ingenious mirror structures and sound projections that invite visitors to take a physical walk through the rich polyphonic texture of the music of Petrus Alamire, delving into his double life as a spy and music scribe through cracking secret codes and other activities. Alamire published many of Josquin's masses - the 'Missa Malheur me bat' being one of the most famous. Based on a chanson, possibly by Ockeghem, it is for four voices until the final movement, when it blossoms into six. Its complex canons continued to be talked about by theorists for over a hundred years, and are models of the art.

Byrd: Laetentur coeli

Josquin: Missa Malheur me bat

8.20pm

INTERVAL

8.40pm

Gombert: Regina coeli

Josquin: Pater noster

Browne: O regina mundi clara

Byrd: Plorans plorabit

Byrd: Vigilate

Peter Phillips (director).

Adam Tomlinson presents a programme of sacred vocal music performed by the Tallis Scholars

Tallis Scholars, Taverner, Sheppard, Byrd20150921Live from St John's Smith Square, London.

The Tallis Scholars and Peter Phillips give their 2000th concert: Taverner's Missa Cantate and works by Sheppard, Byrd and Gabriel Jackson

Taverner: Leroy Kyrie

Sheppard: Missa Cantate

8.15: Interval

8.35

Gabriel Jackson: Ave Dei Patris filia

Byrd: Infelix Ego

Byrd: Ye Sacred Muses

Byrd: Tribue Domine

The Tallis Scholars, formed by conductor Peter Phillips in 1973, have long been recognised as one of the world's foremost ensembles specialising in Renaissance sacred music. 42 years on, and with numerous awards under their belt, they give their 2000th concert at St John's Smith Square in London, presenting music from the heart of their repertoire by 16th-century English composers John Taverner, John Sheppard and William Byrd. The concert is the opening event in the 2015 London International A Cappella Choir Competition, and also includes a work written for specially for the Tallis Scholars by this year's featured composer, Gabriel Jackson.

Peter Phillips says 'With the Taverner I decided to go for one of the most exciting - and least performed - of all the big Tudor Mass settings. The very title - Cantate: Sing! - gives the clue. In the second half we reprise a work which Gabriel Jackson wrote for us on our 40th anniversary. This again is a shout of praise. And we end with 'Tribue Domine', the piece by Byrd we have performed most often over the years.'.

Peter Phillips conducts the Tallis Scholars in music by Taverner, Sheppard and Byrd.

Tasmin Little Bids Farewell To The Southbank Centre20201022As part her long-delayed final season before retiring from the concert stage Tasmin Little, one of Britain's best-loved violinists, is joined by four of her favourite piano partners in a wide-ranging and intriguing programme where the familiar rubs shoulders with the lesser known.

Introduced live from the Royal Festival Hall by Andrew McGregor as part of Southbank Centre's Inside Out season.

Brahms: Scherzo (from Sonata (F.A.E.)) (Piers Lane)

Clara Schumann: 3 Romances, Op.22 (Martin Roscoe)

Lili Boulanger: Nocturne (Piers Lane)

Brahms: Sonata no. 3 in D minor, Op.108 (Andrey Gugnin)

Interval

Roxanna Panufnik: Hora Bessarabia

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Demande et R退ponse (from Petite suite de concert, Op.77) (Piers Lane)

Amy Beach: Romance, Op.23 (Martin Roscoe)

Amy Beach: Sonata in A minor, Op.34 (John Lenehan)

Tasmin Little (violin)

Andrey Gugnin, Piers Lane, John Lenehan and Martin Roscoe (piano)

Followed by music chosen by young people involved in the outreach programmes and artist development schemes run by Southbank's Resident and Associate orchestras and Creative Learning Partners.

Photo by Benjamin Ealovega

Violinist Tasmin Little plays a wide-ranging programme from Brahms to Roxanna Panufnik

Tchaikovsky And Rachmaninov From Cardiff20230517The BBC National Orchestra of Wales join forces with American conductor James Feddeck for a performance of Anna Clyne's Proms curtain-raiser, Masquerade, and two Russian masterworks that found their fame not in Russia, but in America: Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances and Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto.

Clyne took inspiration from 18th-century promenade concerts in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens for her Masquerade, which she wrote a decade ago for the Last Night of the Proms. 125 years earlier again, Tchaikovsky was just finishing the final revisions to his first Piano Concerto. It's the work that established his fame in America, thanks in part to its dedicatee, Hans von Bülow, who gave its first performance in Boston. Tonight, the soloist is Daniel Ciobanu. While the first half features works written by composers fairly early in their compositional journey, after the interval we move to the final major composition of Rachmaninov, his Symphonic Dances. It was probably the only work he wrote entirely in the USA, which Rachmaninov filled with an irrepressible energy and quotes from his previous compositions, and it is considered one of his greatest orchestral achievements.

Recorded on the 11th of May in St David's Hall, Cardiff, and presented by Linton Stephens.

7.30pm

Anna Clyne: Masquerade

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 1 in B flat minor, Op 23, TH 55

8.15pm

Interval Music (from CD)

8.35pm

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, Op 45

Daniel Ciobanu (piano)

James Feddeck (conductor)

James Feddeck and the BBC NOW play two Russian masterworks and an overture by Anna Clyne.

Tchaikovsky From Gottingen20230710From the Renaissance Court at Weilburg Castle, Nicholas Milton conducts the Gottingen Symphony Orchestra in music by Borodin and Tchaikovsky.

They begin with the dramatic Polovtsian Dances from Borodin's opera 'Prince Igor' before being joined by recent Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Aleksey Semenenko for a performance of Tchaikovsky's intimate and balletic Violin Concerto. In the second half, the orchestra picks up the balletic theme with the Suite from 'Swan Lake'.

During the interval, you can hear recordings of Tchaikovsky String Quartet Movement in B flat and Borodin's unfinished String Sextet.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Borodin - Polovtsian Dances from 'Prince Igor

Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D major, Op.35

Aleksey Semenenko (violin)

c. 8.25pm

Tchaikovsky - Quartet Movement in B flat major

Endellion String Quartet

Borodin - String Sextet in D minor (unfinished)

Lindsay String Quartet

Louise Williams (viola)

Raphael Wallfisch (cello)

c. 8.45pm

Tchaikovsky - Suite from 'Swan Lake', Op.20a

Nicholas Milton conducts the Gottingen Symphony Orchestra in Borodin and Tchaikovsky.

Tchaikovsky In Hamburg And Elgar In Lubeck20181007Kate Mollesen presents performances from across Europe

This week Elgar's Cello Concerto from Lübeck with soloist Sol Gabetta. And from the opening concert of the Autumn season of the NDR Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony.

Schumann: Genoveva (overture)

Elgar: Cello Concerto

Sol Gabetta (cello)

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra

Christoph Eschenbach

Symphony No.4

Krzysztof Urbanski

Kate Mollesen presents Elgar's Cello Concerto from Lubeck with cellist Sol Gabetta

Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto And Souvenirs De Florence20150927Ian Skelly presents recent performances of Tchaikovsky by some of the leading musicians of our time. Tonight Anne-Sophie Mutter plays the Violin Concerto at this summer's Salzburg Festival and members of the Gringolts and Casals Quartets play his light-infused reminiscence of Florence.

Tchaikovsky: String Sextet in D minor, op. 70 ('Souvenir de Florence')

Gringolts Quartet with Jonathan Brown (viola), Arnau Tom

Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, Ethel Smyth's Mass20181115Live from the Barbican Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in Ethel Smyth's Mass in D. Pavel Koleshnikov is the soloist in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1

Presented by Martin Handley

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 in Bb Minor, Op.23 (original version)

08.00 Interval:

Dame Ethyl Smyth, in a radio talk from 1935, briefly reminisces about Brahms at the piano

BACH

Prelude and Fugue in B Minor BWV 544

Ton Koopman (Rudolf Garrels organ built 1729-1732, Grote Kerk, Maassluis, Holland)

Eleven Chorale Preludes, Opus posth.122 - No.11 O Welt, ich muss dich lassen

Kevin Bowyer (Marcussen organ of Odense Cathedral, Denmark)

Martin Handley talks to Neil Ferris Chorus Director of the BBC Symphony Chorus in this their 90th year; and we hear from Chorus members: Lizzie Howard, Alan Barker, Helen Tierney and Simon Frais.

08.20 Concert Part 2 Ethel Smyth: Mass in D

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

Lucy Crowe (soprano)

Catriona Morison (mezzo-soprano)

Ben Johnson (tenor)

Duncan Rock (bass-baritone)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Chorus launches its 90th birthday season with a concert featuring Ethel Smyth's Mass in D. Admired by Adrian Boult and Thomas Beecham, and counting Tchaikovsky among her personal friends and supporters, composer-suffragette Ethel Smyth was a pioneer both in and out of the concert hall. Her Mass in D, fittingly performed in the centenary year of women's suffrage, is a major work whose highlights include the blazing Sanctus and a delicate Benedictus.

Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 is deservedly considered one of the Romantic greats; the majesty of its opening movement, the lullaby of the slow, and the fleetness of finger work required in the finale will tonight be in the sympathetic hands of young Russian pianist Pavel Koleshnikov. After Tchaikovsky's death unauthorised editions of the concerto were circulated; these are stripped away in this evening's performance of the work in its original version.

Live from the Barbican, Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony20210201Fiona Talkington presents a highlight from the archives of the Verbier Festival, in which Mikhail Pletnev conducted the Verbier Festival Orchestra in an all-Russian programme, with Janine Jansen as soloist in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto.

Glazunov: Prelude to 'From the Middle Ages', Op.79

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D, Op.35

Symphony No.4 in F minor, Op.36

Recorded at Combins Hall, Verbier, Switzerland, on 06/08/2017.

followed at 9.15pm by:

Jean Gilles: Messe des morts (Requiem)

Few works written during France's 'grand Si耀cle' were as celebrated in the 18th century as Gilles' Messe des morts. Not only was it performed around fifteen times during the famous Concerts Spirituels in Paris, but it was also sung at the memorial services for Rameau, King Stanislas of Poland and Louis XV. Gilles wrote the Requiem in 1700 whilst organist at the cathedral of Saint-ɀtienne in Toulouse where he died a few years later at the age of only thirty-seven. Gilles' Messe des morts ispermeated by a serene and peaceful light, and hearing it in this live recording one can appreciate how it earned its posthumous reputation as one of the jewels of the French Baroque.

Orlando Ensemble, Fribourg

La Cetra Baroque Orchestra, Basel

Laurent Gendre, conductor

[Recorded at Eglise du Coll耀ge Saint-Michel, Fribourg Festival during International Sacred Music Festival, Fribourg in July 2010.]

Glazunov and Tchaikovsky from the Verbier Festival.

Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony20231004Edward Gardner conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony.

Presented by Martin Handley, from the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Beethoven: Overture, Egmont

Bart k: Violin Concerto No. 2

Interval

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4

Christian Tetzlaff, violin

Edward Gardner, conductor

For Tchaikovsky, the fanfare that opens the Fourth Symphony symbolised 'Fate', this being 'the fatal power which prevents one from attaining the goal of happiness. There is nothing to be done but to submit to it and lament in vain'. As he further explained, the first movement suggests that 'all life is an unbroken alternation of hard reality with swiftly passing dreams and visions of happiness'.

Beethoven's Egmont Overture tells a tale of oppression and liberation, in which the hero's craving for justice is confronted by a despot's inflexibility. He too accepts the fate that awaits him with courage and honesty.

Between these fate-laden romantic works, Christian Tetzlaff joins the orchestra for Bart k's Second Violin Concerto, evoking the folk music of Transylvania, which the composer heard in the Carpathian Mountains in the early years of the 20th century.

Edward Gardner conducts the LPO in Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony.

Tchaikovsky's Pathetique20211202Live from City Halls Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Alpesh Chauhan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in music by Tchaikovsky and Schoenberg. They are joined by mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill for music by Korngold.

Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No 2

Korngold: Abschiedslieder (Songs of Farewell)

8.15 Interval

8.30 Part Two

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 6 (Path退tique)

Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano)

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

Photo: Alpesh Chauhan (credit Patrick Allen / Opera Omnia)

Alpesh Chauhan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow.

Tchaikovsky's 'pathetique'20190218From the Victoria Hall in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent

Presented by Tom Redmond

Mendelssohn: Overture 'Ruy Blas

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat (K 271)

8.15 CD

Mendelssohn: String Quartet No.12 in Eb major Op.12

Cherubini Quartet

8.35 Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 'Path退tique

When the cultured young Mendelssohn read Victor Hugo's play, 'Ruy Blas', which had been finished just the year earlier, he found it 'detestable'. But that didn't stop him writing a zesty overture to precede a performance of the play - for no fee, and in only three days! Martin James Bartlett joins Andrew Gourlay and the BBC Philharmonic for Mozart's Piano Concerto No.9; some say that this was the first of his works to show his true colours and maturity, hinting at what was yet to come in his music. Sometimes known by its twentieth-century nickname 'Jeunehomme' after a misspelling of the name of the pianist who commissioned the work, the Concerto allows the piano to make itself known at the start of the piece, a conversational device that Mozart never repeated in his piano concertos. The title of Tchaikovsky's 'Path退tique' Symphony was suggested by his brother over dinner. In a letter to his publisher Tchaikovsky said 'I give you my word of honour that never in my life have I been so contented, so proud, so happy, in the knowledge that I've written a good piece.' He conducted the premiere just a week before he died, that tragedy seemingly predicted in the emotional involvement of the Symphony's closing Adagio lamentoso.

Martin James Bartlett (piano)

Andrew Gourlay (conductor)

Tchaikovsky's 'Pathetique' Symphony with the BBC Philharmonic from Stoke-on-Trent.

Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio And Dvorak's Stabat Mater20191027The best concerts across Europe - Fiona Talkington introduces Rossini's Thieving Magpie overture from Bad Kissinger, Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio performed by the Marvin Trio in Oberstdorf. and Dvo?ကk's Stabat mater from the Rostock Bach Festival, conducted by Markus Johannes Langer.

Rossini: Overture 'La gazza ladra

Ural Philharmonic Orchestra

Dmitry Liss (conductor)

Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50

Dvo?ကk: Stabat mater

Soloists

Allhelgona Motet Choir, Lund

Rostock Motet Choir

Figural Choir, St John's Church, Rostock

North German Philharmonic, Rostock

Markus Johannes Langer (conductor)

The best concerts across Europe - Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio and Dvorak's Stabat mater.

Tears And Transformation20210324From MediaCityUK, Salford.

Presented by Tom McKinney

Working in Vienna at the start of the twentieth century, Schreker was obsessed with tone colours and sound. His Chamber Symphony entrances with motives that transform as they are explored by different instruments in an orchestra that includes celeste, harp, harmonium and piano. Timothy Ridout joins the strings of the orchestra for Britten's Lacrymae, in which he reflects on a song by Dowland from the very end of the sixteenth-century, 'If my complaints could passions move' in a series of shimmering variations; disintegration gently transforms to unity and we feel a sense of the whole song only as we arrive at the end of the piece.

Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony started life as his Third String Quartet, a piece he withdrew shortly after its premiere; arranged by Barshai to include woodwind, and harp it becomes a public statement

Schreker: Chamber Symphony

Britten: Lachrymae

8.15 (CD)

Britten: Nocturnal after John Dowland

Sean Shibe (guitar)

Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony op 73a

Timothy Ridout (viola)

BBC Philharmonic

Nicholas Collon (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and Nicholas Collon play music by Schreker, Shostakovich and Britten.

Temple Church, Bach, Mendelssohn And Dupre20170511Live from the Temple Church, London. Roger Sayer, the church's Director of Music and one of the world's leading recitalists, plays music by Bach, Mendelssohn and Marcel Dupr退 on the famous organ of the Temple. The recital culminates in a rare live performance of Dupr退's Passion Symphony, a half-hour-long work based on four plainsong hymns, which chart the life of Christ and ends with a great organ crescendo based on the hymn 'Adoro te devote.

Presented by Martin Handley

Roger Sayer (organ)

J S Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 546

Mendelssohn: Sonata in D minor, Op.65 No.6

Rheinberger: Sonata No.3 in G major, Op.88 (Pastoral)

8.15 INTERVAL

8.35

Tournemire: Choral-Improvisation on Victimae Paschali (transc. Durufl退)

Dupr退: Passion Symphony, Op.23.

Live from the Temple Church. Organist Roger Sayer in Bach, Mendelssohn and Marcel Dupre.

Temple Song 2017: Ian Bostridge, Julius Drake And The Piatti Quartet20171205Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents a concert from Middle Temple Hall, with star tenor Ian Bostridge, pianist Julius Drake and the Piatti Quartet. The programme features Britten's arrangements of works by Purcell, Pelham Humfrey and William Croft, and Britten's Holy Sonnets of John Donne. Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake are joined after the interval by the Piatti Quartet for a performance of Vaughan Williams's poignant song cycle On Wenlock Edge.

Purcell: Chacony in G minor for string quartet

Purcell: The Queen's Epicedium

William Croft: A Hymn On Divine Musick

Pelham Humfrey: Lord! I Have Sinned

Pelham Humfrey: Hymn to God the Father

Britten: The Holy Sonnets of John Donne

Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge for tenor, piano and string quartet.

Ian Bostridge, Julius Drake and the Piatti Quartet perform at Middle Temple Hall.

Temple Winter Festival 2016, The Tallis Scholars Sing Christmas Music20161216Live from the Temple Church, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Victoria: Magnificat Primi Toni

P䀀rt: Magnificat

Sheppard: Libera nos I and II

Britten: Hymn to the Virgin

Tavener: The Lamb

Tallis: Missa Puer natus est nobis (Gloria)

8.15: Interval Music: A Concerto grosso by John Stanley, the famed eighteenth century organist of the Temple Church, and an organ concerto by his admirer, George Frederic Handel.

8.35:

Tallis: Missa Puer natus est nobis (Sanctus)

Sheppard: Gaude, gaude, gaude

Tallis: Missa Puer natus est nobis (Agnus Dei)

Victoria: Salve Regina

Tallis Scholars

Peter Philips director

Sandwiched between Victoria's two grandest double-choir compositions, the Tallis Scholars' programme features Tallis's seven-voice Christmas Mass 'Puer natus'. Its three surviving movements are separated by masterpieces of this seasonal repertoire, the two by Sheppard involving the specialist high treble voice. The modern pieces by P䀀rt, Britten and Tavener have long been recognised as classics.

Live from the Temple Church in London, the Tallis Scholars give a Christmas concert.

Temple Winter Festival 2016: Temple Church Choir In Seasonal Music20161212Temple Winter Festival 2016: The Temple Church Choir, with harpist Catrin Finch.

Live from the Temple Church, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Bernstein: Chichester Psalms

Vaughan Williams: Serenade to Music

Britten: Hymn to St Cecilia

8.15: Interval

8.35: Britten: A Ceremony of Carols

Britten: The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard

Wallton: Coronation Te Deum

Catrin Finch (harp)

Rebecca McChrystal (percussion)

Greg Morris (organ)

Temple Singers

Roger Sayer (director)

The Temple Church Choir and the Temple Singers share the stage for a concert celebrating the 90th birthday of HM The Queen and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Two iconic works of Benjamin Britten are featured, including a truly seasonal offering from the choristers and harpist Catrin Finch in the Ceremony of Carols. The two choirs join forces to perform Bernstein's Chichester Psalms.

Temple Church Choir, Catrin Finch (harp) in a concert for the Temple Winter Festival 2016.

Tenebrae In Concert20210414An evening of performances by Tenebrae, during which the choir's conductor, Nigel Short, talks about early lockdown projects, the 'Tenebrae Unlocked' film series, the Canterbury Festival and music recently recorded during Holy Week.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Purcell: Thou knowest Lord the secrets of our hearts

Lobo: Versa est in luctum

Tallis: If ye love me

Byrd: Ne irascaris Domine

Rachmaninov: Cherubic Hymn

Reger: Nachtlied

Moore: Morning Prayers from Three Prayers of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Holst: Hymns from the Rig Veda

Willan: Rise Up My Love

Rutter: Hymn to the Creator of Light

Stainer: God so loved the world (The Crucifixion)

Bach: Singet dem Herrn

Nigel Short (conductor)

Music sung by Tenebrae, with discussion from the choir's conductor, Nigel Short.

The 12 Ensemble Plays Max Richter At Kings Place20211102When it comes to encouraging new audiences into concert halls, few contemporary classical composers hit the mark as surely as Max Richter with his trademark combination of floaty ambient strings and slow-moving harmonies. In this concert, recorded on Saturday at Kings Place, the dynamic 12 Ensemble presents three quintessential Richter pieces.

Originally a track from Richter's The Blue Notebooks album written in protest during the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, On the Nature of Daylight (Entropy) has since become a favourite shortcut of filmmakers who want to invest a scene with poignant emotional resonance. Journey (CP1919) is inspired by Jocelyn Bell's groundbreaking 1967 discovery of the first pulsar star, CP1919.

Taking a new path through a well-known landscape' is how Richter describes his reworking of the world's most overfamiliar concerto. It was a journey that involved, as he put it, 'throwing molecules of the original Vivaldi into a test tube with a bunch of other things and waiting for an explosion' - an experiment which resulted in one of Richter's most popular works.

Introduced by Andrew McGregor.

Max Richter:

Vivaldi - The Four Seasons: Recomposed

Eloisa-Fleur Thom (violin)

The pioneering string group plays Max Richter's reworking of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.

The Abandoned Lover20190322Abandoned heroines are the central figures in this programme, including iconic two characters from ancient Roman and Greek narratives: Dido, queen of Carthage, deserted by Aeneas in Virgil's epic The Aeneid; and the Cretan princess Arianna, left by Theseus on the island of Naxos while sleeping. Taking on these roles is the Croatian mezzo Renata Pokupi?, accompanied by La Serenissima, a period-instrument ensemble that specialises in the music of Vivaldi and his contemporaries.

Recorded at Wigmore Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Vivaldi: Che giova il sospirar RV679

Marcello: Arianna abbandonata S98

Interval music

Alessandro Scarlatti: Notte ch'in carro d'ombre H480

Vivaldi: Concerto in A for strings and continuo RV158

Ristori: Didone abbandonata

Renata Pokupi? (mezzo-soprano)

Adrian Chandler (director)

Renata Pokupic and La Serenissima in Italian Baroque music inspired by abandoned heroines.

The Academy Of St Martin In The Fields And Joshua Bell Play Vivaldi And Beethoven20180125A generous sprinkling of iconic Vivaldian 'seasoning' and Beethoven's defiant symphonic optimism swaddle something whose ink is scarcely dry: a new work by bassist Edgar Meyer.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, live from Colston Hall, Bristol

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

8.10: Interval

Edgar Meyer: Overture for Violin and Orchestra

Beethoven: Symphony No 2

Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Joshua Bell, conductor and violin.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields plays Vivaldi and Beethoven.

The Amorous Duel20181212Two leading singers, soprano Louise Alder and countertenor Tim Mead join Jonathan Cohen and his period-instrument orchestra, Arcangelo, for cantatas by Scarlatti, Handel and the latter's onetime rival, the Neapolitan Porpora - prolific vocal composer and teacher of the famed castrato Farinelli.

Recorded on Friday 7 December at Wigmore Hall.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Part one:

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725): Cantata: Piango, sospiro, e peno

Alessandro Scarlatti: Clori e Mirtillo

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759): Trio Sonata Op. 2 No. 1 HWV386b

Nicola Porpora (1686-1768): Ecco che il primo albore

Interval music:

Lodovico Giustini (1685-1743): Sonatina No 1 in G minor (1732) Linda Nicholson (pianoforte)

Pietro Domenico Paradisi (1707-1791): Sonata No 10 in D major (1754) Linda Nicholson (pianoforte)

Part two:

Nicola Porpora: Il ritiro; Sinfonia da camera in G minor Op. 2 No. 3

George Frideric Handel: Cantata: Amarilli Vezzosa (Il Duello Amoroso) HWV82

Louise Alder soprano

Tim Mead countertenor

Arcangelo:

Sophie Gent violin

Louis Creach violin

Max Mandel viola

Jonathan Byers cello

Thomas Dunford lute

Jonathan Cohen director, harpsichord

This concert replaces the advertised programme of Stravinsky and Berio by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

Arcangelo are joined by Louise Alder and Tim Mead in Handel's Cantata, The Amorous Duel.

The Amorous Duel20200401Two leading singers, soprano Louise Alder and countertenor Tim Mead join Jonathan Cohen and his period-instrument orchestra, Arcangelo, for cantatas by Scarlatti, Handel and the latter's onetime rival, the Neapolitan Porpora - prolific vocal composer and teacher of the famed castrato Farinelli.

Recorded at Wigmore Hall and first broadcast in December 2018.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Part one:

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725): Cantata: Piango, sospiro, e peno

Alessandro Scarlatti: Clori e Mirtillo

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759): Trio Sonata Op. 2 No. 1 HWV386b

Nicola Porpora (1686-1768): Ecco che il primo albore

Interval music:

Lodovico Giustini (1685-1743): Sonatina No 1 in G minor (1732)

Pietro Domenico Paradisi (1707-1791): Sonata No 10 in D major (1754)

Linda Nicholson (copy of Cristofori-type piano)

Part two:

Nicola Porpora: Il ritiro; Sinfonia da camera in G minor Op. 2 No. 3

George Frideric Handel: Cantata: Amarilli Vezzosa (Il Duello Amoroso) HWV82

Louise Alder soprano

Tim Mead countertenor

Arcangelo:

Sophie Gent violin

Louis Creach violin

Max Mandel viola

Jonathan Byers cello

Thomas Dunford lute

Jonathan Cohen director, harpsichord

Recorded and first broadcast in December 2018 at Wigmore Hall and chosen by Jonathan Cohen for repeat broadcast tonight. This concert replaces the advertised programme of Stravinsky and Berio by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

Arcangelo are joined by Louise Alder and Tim Mead in Handel's Cantata, The Amorous Duel.

The Barbican Centre At 40 With The Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Chorus20220304Brutalism meets orchestral beauty as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo mark 40 years of the Barbican Centre with music as idealistic, integral and provocative as the building itself.

For his 1912 ballet depicting the pure, enduring love of Daphnis and Chlo退, Michel Fokine knew who to ask for music of the most beguiling atmosphere. This story brimming with exotic passions drew a magnificent score from Maurice Ravel, an orchestra-choral tapestry dripping in nostalgia and opulence.

Six decades and two wars later, our idea of beauty had been changed forever. Judith Weir's Concrete for speaker, chorus and orchestra (commissioned and premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 2008) pays homage to the Barbican - its idealism, its boldness, and the stories of the city from which it emerged. Completing the programme is a concerto performed at the building's first public concert. Despite the longing lyricism of Edward Elgar's seminal work for cello and orchestra, it displays many of the rough edges of the twentieth century - as if cast in concrete.

Live from the Barbican, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Judith Weir: Concrete

Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85

20.25

Interval

20.45

Maurice Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe

Jamie Parker (speaker)

Senja Rummukainen (cello)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Neil Ferris (Chorus Director)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Sakari Oramo conducts Elgar's Cello Concerto, Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe and Judith Weir.

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra20200131Presented by Georgia Mann

~Radio 3 In Concert presents one of the highlights from classical concerts around Europe, recorded in Munich on 16th January.

The phenomenal Russo-German pianist Igor Levit joins the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in one of Mozart's most ceremonious and multi-hued creations, the Piano Concerto K 482. In contrast, Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony is imbued with impassioned romanticism. Here the composer traverses an entire cosmos of human emotions.

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat major, K. 482

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 4

Igor Levit, piano

Ivကn Fischer, conductor

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra play Tchaikovsky and Mozart.

The Bbc National Orchestra And Chorus Of Wales Celebrate St David's Day20180301Due to bad weather in Cardiff, tonight's concert by the BBC National Chorus and Orchestra of Wales has been cancelled. Instead, there's another chance to hear their St David's Day gala concert from 2015, when they were joined by Bryn Terfel.

Recorded at St David's Hall, Cardiff, 1st March 2015.

Gareth Glyn: Gwlad y Gan

R S Hughes: Y Dymestl

T Vincent Davies: Bryniau Aur fy Ngwlad

E T Davies: Ynys y Plant

David Richards; Cymru Fach

Robat Arwyn: Benedictus

Karl Jenkins: Adiemus

Bryan Davies: A Medley of Welsh Folk Songs

Interval

Hoddinott: Investiture Dances

Meirion Williams: Aros Mae'r Mynyddau Mawr

W S Gwynn Williams: Tosturi Duw

Mathias: Harp Concerto (Mvt III only)

Trad: Bugeilio'r Gwenith Gwyn (arr. Chris Hazell)

Mansel Thomas: Daffodils

Robat Arwyn: Anfonaf Angel

Hughes: Tydi a Roddaist

Jeff Howard: A Welsh Celebration

Bryn Terfel, Bass-Baritone

Menna Cazel, Soprano

Hannah Stone, Harp

BBC National Chorus of Wales

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Gareth Jones, Conductor

St David's Day 2015 was a remarkable occasion for the Orchestra and Chorus as they were joined in St David's Hall by acclaimed Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel, to celebrate the music of Wales through song. Bryn performed some of the music closest to his heart with potential stars of the future, bringing a joyful 'hwyl' to the festivities.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales's 2015 St David's Day celebrations with Bryn Terfel.

The Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales Perform Brahms20220217Carlos Miguel Prieto returns to conduct the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in a performance of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Brahms with three pieces that have all been referred to as neoclassical, but for very different stylistic reasons.

The concert begins with Stravinsky's Chamber Concerto Dumbarton Oaks, written in the middle of his neoclassical period. The focus of the piece falls on Bach's Brandenburg Concertos for inspiration, although as it progresses it owes much more to modernism than to the Baroque. Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto follows, a work often referred to as Neoclassical for its clean lines and light orchestration, in much the same vein as his 'Classical' Symphony No 1. The programme concludes with Brahms's astonishing First Symphony, a work that took 21 years to complete before Brahms felt he could emerge from the shadow of Beethoven that had plagued him. To do this, he looked past Beethoven and created a radical, innovative symphony steeped in much older German traditions, most notably Bachian polyphony, and created a work that set him firmly in the canon as one of the most enduring composers of all time.

Nicola Heywood Thomas presents live from St. David's Hall in Cardiff.

7.30pm

Stravinsky: Concerto in E-flat, 'Dumbarton Oaks

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No 3 in C major, op 26

c.8.20pm

Interval - Dr Cameron Gardener discusses Neoclassism in Brahms.

c.8.40pm

Brahms: Symphony No 1 in C minor, op 68

Daniel Ciobanu (piano)

Carlos Miguel Prieto (conductor)

Carlos Miguel Prieto conducts Brahms's First Symphony alongside Stravinsky and Prokofiev.

The Bbc Philharmonic In Stoke-on-trent20230203Live from the Victoria Hall in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent

Presented by Tom McKinney

Conductor Leslie Suganandarajah returns to the BBC Philharmonic for a visit to one of the orchestra's favourite audiences and venues, the Victoria Hall in Hanley.

This engaging and tuneful programme ends with the warming melody of Saint-S䀀ens's Symphony No.3, his `Organ Symphony`. Organist Jonathan Scott joins the orchestra for this luscious music, which is almost exactly contemporary with the organ and the hall; all three completed within two years in the 1880s.

Three knocks at the door open our concert as we launch into Mozart's overture to The Magic Flute and a lone timpanist paves the way for the lyricism and dance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto; Tobias Feldmann makes a welcome return to the orchestra as soloist.

Mozart: The Magic Flute, Overture

Beethoven: Violin Concerto

8.15

Music Interval (CD)

Saint-S䀀ens: Symphony No.3 (Organ)

Tobias Feldmann (violin)

Jonathan Scott (organ)

Winter Warmers: Mozart, Beethoven and Saint-S\u00e4ens's Organ Symphony.

The Bbc Philharmonic Perform Szymanowski And Tchaikovsky20180530From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Stuart Flinders

Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No 1

Music Interval

Tchaikovsky: 'Manfred' Symphony

Tasmin Little (violin)

BBC Philharmonic

Vassily Sinaisky (conductor)

Tchaikovsky's multi-coloured 'Manfred', inspired by Byron's poem, sees us travel on an epic musical journey with our hero in the Alps. We meet a fairy in a waterfall and spend time with the peasants who live and hunt in the mountains before being witness to his death. Tasmin Little joins the orchestra for Szymanowski's First Violin Concerto which opens the programme, a piece which also takes as its inspiration a poem, 'May Night' by Tadeusz Mici?ski. Its undertones of the occult and mysticism which fascinated the poet inspired Szymanowski's concerto with its fantasy structure and captivating new sound world . 'It is my greatest triumph' he wrote to the violinist for whom he'd composed it.

Vassily Sinaisky conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Szymanowski and Tchaikovsky.

The Bbc Proms Japan 2022, First Night20221103The BBC Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska, for the First Night of the BBC Proms Japan 2022. Dai Fujikura's 'Glorious Clouds' opens the concert: the result of the Japanese composer's unusual obsession with microorganisms flying around us! Nicola Benedetti is the soloist in Sibelius's dramatic Violin Concerto and in the second half is Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony - a work with which the composer managed to appease the Soviet censors while also expressing the horrors of his time.

Recorded at the Orchard Hall, Tokyo on 31st October

Presented by Penny Gore

Dai Fujikura: Glorious Clouds

Sibelius: Violin Concerto Op.47

20.30

Interval: Japanese Music chosen by Dai Fujikura

Traditional Japanese: Kakiokuru (music from the Edo period)

Hidetaro Honjoh (singer and shamisen)

Traditional Japanese: Entenraku (Kangen) (Gagaku music)

Reigakusha Gagaku ensemble

Toru Takemitsu: Rain tree sketch I for piano

Yo Kosuge (piano)

Toru Takemitsu: In an Autumn Garden for Gagaku ensemble [1973] (excerpt)

The Music Department of the Imperial Household Agency Tokyo

20.50

Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 Op.57

Nicola Benedetti (violin)

Dalia Stasevska (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and violinist Nicola Benedetti, conducted by Dalia Stasevska.

The Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra Play Mozart And Tippett20180122Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Andrew McGregor.

Debussy: Pr退lude

The Bbc Singers Perform Brahms20230314`Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.` A choral masterpiece designed to comfort the living, Brahms's A German Requiem is performed by the BBC Singers and guest conductor Krista Audere, with all the ardour and drama it deserves.

Recorded at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, and presented by Martin Handley.

Brahms: A German Requiem

Libby Burgess and Caroline Jaya-Ratnam - piano

Krista Audere - conductor

Krista Audere makes her debut with the BBC Singers conducting A German Requiem by Brahms.

The Bbc Singers 'songs From The Shows' Christmas Party20231222Special guest Clare Teal joins the BBC Singers, members of the BBC Concert Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor Owain Park for a night of popular show tunes from London's West End and Broadway.

Alongside several examples of the genius of Richard Rodgers are staples of the genre – the iconic sound of Bernstein's West Side Story, the complexity of Sondheim, and the all out razzmatazz of Irving Berlin. There are also nods to Noel Gay and Noel Coward in what is a special anniversary year for both composers.

Recorded earlier this month at Milton Court and presented by Clare Teal.

Porter: Another Op'nin', Another Show (Kiss Me, Kate)

Rodgers, arr. Guy Barker: It Might as Well be Spring (State Fair)

Rodgers: There is Nothing Like a Dame (South Pacific)

Rodgers: Some Enchanted Evening (South Pacific)

Rodgers: I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair (South Pacific)

Rodgers arr. Martin Williams: Hello, Young Lovers (The King and I)

Sondheim: Finishing the Hat (Sunday in the Park with George)

Sondheim: Sunday (Sunday in the Park with George)

Bernstein: Jet Song (West Side Story)

Bernstein: I Feel Pretty (West Side Story)

Bernstein: Tonight (West Side Story)

Pola/Wyle arr. Barker: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Huddleston/Rinker, arr. L'Estrange/Armstrong: December

Coward: If Love Were All (Bitter Sweet)

Porter arr. Guy Barker: Always True to You in My Fashion (Kiss Me, Kate)

Gay: Once You Lose Your Heart (Me and My Girl)

Rodgers: People Will Say We're in Love (Oklahoma!)

Rodgers: Oklahoma (Oklahoma!)

Adam, arr. L'Estrange: O Holy Night

Coots, arr. L'Estrange: Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

Thome & Wells: Arr. L'Estrange: The Christmas Song

Berlin, arr. Guy Barker: I Got the Sun in the Morning (Annie Get Your Gun)

Berlin: There's No Business Like Show Business (There's No Business Like Show Business)

Performers:

Owain Park (conductor)

Join Clare Teal and the BBC Singers for a night of show tunes and festive favourites.

Clare Teal joins the BBC Singers, Principal Guest Conductor Owain Park and members of the BBC Concert Orchestra for a night of popular show tunes.

A concert from the BBC Singers.

The Bbc Singers: Mendelssohn's Bach St Matthew Passion20180213Recorded at Milton Court in London, Peter Dijkstra conducts the BBC Singers and St James' Baroque in a performance of Mendelssohn's orchestration of JS Bach's St Matthew Passion.

Bach/Mendelssohn: St Matthew Passion

Nicholas Mulroy (tenor) Evangelist

Jimmy Holliday (bass) Christus

Peter Dijkstra (conductor)

Mendelssohn's grandmother hosted a salon that championed Bach's music, his father collected Bach manuscripts, so it is no surprise that Felix should share their adoration and become involved in the modern revival of the great JSB's music. Tonight's concert takes us back to the Berlin of March 1829, when Mendelssohn conducted the forces of the Singakademie in a performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion, a performance that played a major role in re-establishing Bach's music in the concert repertoire.

The BBC Singers perform Mendelssohn's orchestration of JS Bach's St Matthew Passion.

The Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Chorus Perform Elgar's The Dream Of Gerontius20180521Sakari Oramo, a passionate Elgarian, conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus plus a superb trio of soloists in Elgar's greatest oratorio, The Dream of Gerontius.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London, on 16 May.

Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius

Alice Coote (Mezzo-soprano)

Stuart Skelton (Tenor)

Alan Ewing (Bass)

BBC Symphony Chorus

SAKARI ORAMO (Conductor)

Sir Edward Elgar's strong Roman Catholic faith drew him to a text by Cardinal Newman which explores the journey of man's soul through death, divine judgement and Purgatory. It contains some of his greatest music and caused Richard Strauss to raise a glass, saying 'I drink to the success and welfare of the first English progressive musician, Meister Elgar'. The BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra won a Gramophone Choral Award in 2015 for their recording of Gerontius.

Sakari Oramo, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus perform Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius.

The Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Oliver Knussen At The Aldeburgh Festival.20180621The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Oliver Knussen, performs Copland and Morton Feldman, and premiere Philip Cashian's The Book of Ingenious Devices with pianist Huw Watkins.

Recorded at Snape Maltings Concert Hall on Saturday 16th June

Presented by Martin Handley

Copland: Music for a Great City

Philip Cashian: Piano Concerto No.2: The Book of Ingenious Devices (world premiere)

C. 8.15

Interval

Copland: Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson (a selection chosen by Oliver Knussen)

1: Nature, the gentlest mother

2: There came a wind like a bugle

5: Heart, we will forget him

6: Dear March, come in!

7: Sleep is supposed to be

11: Going to Heaven!

12: The Chariot

Adele Addison (soprano), Aaron Copland (piano)

Morton Feldman: Structures

Copland: Appalachian Spring Suite

Huw Watkins (piano)

Oliver Knussen (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Oliver Knussen, at the 2018 Aldeburgh Festival.

Aaron Copland's ballet music for Appalachian Spring is probably his most popular creation. Suffused with tender melodies, Shaker tunes and rhythmic energy, this work by an immigrant originally from Lithuanian captures the radiant pastoral side of the American dream like no other. In contrast, Copland's Music for a Great City, first performed in London, displays Copland's more muscular modernist sounds; sounds that are so admired by tonight's composer-conductor Oliver Knussen. He'll preside over the long-awaited first performance of Philip Cashian's new Piano Concerto, which promises to show off the virtuosity of its soloist, composer-pianist Huw Watkins. Also in the mix, American Morton Feldman's Structures, an intriguing, beautiful essay in sound from 1962.

BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen at the Aldeburgh Festival 2018.

The Bbc Symphony Orchestra At The Aldeburgh Festival 202320230616Live from Snape Maltings, the BBC SO conducted by Hannu Lintu. Anna Thorvaldsdottir's AI?N, Mahler's Symphony No.1, and to begin, Ciel d'hiver d'hiver by the late Kaija Saariaho.

Plunge into a multi-dimensional world of the most extraordinary orchestral sonorities. Mahler's Symphony No.1, pulses with the sap and rhythms of nature and the heady questions of life. And immerse your ears in the UK premiere of Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir's AI?N, an electrifying exploration of time.

Thorvaldsdottir describes her symphonic work as 'being inspired by the abstract metaphor of being able to move freely in time, of being able to explore time as a space that you inhabit rather than experiencing it as a one-directional journey through a single dimension. Disorienting at first, you realise that time extends in all directions simultaneously and that whenever you feel like it, you can access any moment, even simultaneously. How we relate to our lives, to the ecosystem and to our place in the broader scheme of things, and how at any given moment we are connected both to the past and to the future, not just of our own lives but across - and beyond - generations.

The concert begins with a tribute to the great Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who died on 2nd June.

Live from Snape Maltings as part of the Aldeburgh Festival 2023

Presented by Martin Handley

Kaija Saariaho: Ciel d'Hiver (from Orion)?

Anna Thorvaldsdottir: AI?N (UK premiere)

20.00 Interval: Britten Folksong arrangements (off CD)

Britten: Folksong Arrangements, Book 3 'British Isles': No. 1, The Plough Boy

Britten: Folksong Arrangements, Book 3 'British Isles': No. 5, The Foggy, Foggy Dew

Christopher Maltman (baritone), Julius Drake (piano)

Britten: Two Ballads (1936)

i) Mother Comfort [Montagu Slater]

ii) Underneath the Abject Willow [Auden]

Felicity Lott (soprano) Ann Murray (mezzo) Graham Johnson (piano)

Honey and the Bear: Springtime

Lucy Hart and Jon Hart (voice and guitar)

Britten: Folksong Arrangements - Book 4: 'Moore's Irish Melodies': The Last Rose of Summer

Ailish Tynan (soprano) Iain Burnside (piano)

20.20 Concert Part 2

Mahler: Symphony No.1 in D

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Hannu Lintu (conductor)

The BBC SO, conducted by Hannu Lintu, perform Saariaho, Thorvaldsdottir and Mahler.

The Bbc Symphony Orchestra: Discovering George Walker20221130Music by the late great African American composer, conducted by Alpesh Chauhan. Two sinfonias, a cello concerto and the Mass with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and soloists. Plus his single best-known work - the beautiful Lyric for Strings.

George Walker died in 2018 at the age of 96. He was a modernist of formidable intellectual and imaginative power; a true American individualist, who followed no artistic agenda but his own - and in doing so, created music of urgent and uncompromising integrity. `I try to write something I'm going to be able to live with, and hope that others will begin to find some of the things that I feel have given certain strength to the music` said George Walker. `I don't really believe in creating something that doesn't have any strength`.

Walker didn't go in for elaborate titles. `Things that are overly embellished, or that are too rich, just don't suit my temperament` he said. His Movements (a cello concerto), his concise but deeply-felt Mass and his late masterpiece - the Sinfonia No.5 - are music that speaks directly to our times, impassioned, unsparing and unambiguously sincere.

Recorded at the Barbican Concert Hall, London, on 26 November as part of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's 'Total Immersion: Discovering George Walker'.

Presented by Linton Stephens.

George Walker: Sinfonia No. 2 [UK premiere]

George Walker: Lyric for Strings

George Walker Movements for Cello and Orchestra [UK premiere]

8.20pm Interval: Chamber music and songs by George Walker performed by Guildhall Musicians, with readings from Walker's autobiography 'Reminiscences of an American Composer and Pianist' read by Jeremy Mitchell.

George Walker: Spektra: Antonia Huang (piano)

George Walker: Hey Nonny No*

George Walker: A Red, Red Rose +

George Walker: In Time of Silver Rain**

George Walker: I Got A Letter from Jesus+

Jacob Dyksterhouse* (bass baritone), Manon Ogwen Parry+ (soprano), Bethan Terry (soprano)** Lucy Colquhoun (piano)**, Hugh Rowlands (piano)

8.40pm

George Walker Sinfonia No. 5, ‘Visions

George Walker: Mass for Soloists, Chorus, and Orchestra [UK premiere]

Laura van der Heijden (cello)

April Koyejo-Audiger (soprano)

Zoe Drummond (soprano)

Georgia Mae Bishop (mezzo-soprano)

Jess Gillingwater (mezzo-soprano)

Joshua Stewart (tenor)

Florian Panzieri (tenor)

Henry Waddington (bass)

Frazer Scott (bass)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

The Best Concerts Across Europe20191006Fiona Talkington presents some of the best concerts from across Europe.

Tonight we are at the Feldafing Festival in Bavaria and the Mozart Festival in Wurzburg Rezidenz, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Clara Schumann, Brahms and Joseph Joachim, the dedicatee of Robert Schumann's violin concerto, agreed to remove the work from publication after just one private performance as Joachim convinced the others that it showed too much of Schumann's mental decline and should not be performed again. Bizarrely the work re-surfaced in the 1930's following a s退ance attended by the famous violinist Jelly D'Aranyi, in which the spirit of Schumann told her to find the lost work and play it again. In a second s退ance the spirit of Joachim manifested himself and thoughtfully informed Jelly D'Aranyi that the score and parts were in the Prussian State Library, where he had deposited them all those years before.

No such scandal surrounds Dvorak's Piano Quintet which is one of his most relaxed and carefree works and has attracted musicians for generations.

Piano Quintet in A major, op. 81

Kit Armstrong (piano)

Schumann Quartet

Violin Concerto in D minor, WoO 23

Isabelle Faust

Basel Chamber Orchestra

Heinz Holliger

Fiona Talkington presents the best of European concert-going.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra20211215Andrew Litton conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in a concert including French music and the inspiration of dance. First comes Debussy's dreamy Prelude
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra20220602I Was Glad has become an essential part of the British coronation ceremony since its first inclusion in 1902 at the crowning of Edward VI. The anthem is a superb piece of ceremonial music; tonight, it's performed in an orchestration by Gordon Jacob, made for the 1953 Coronation of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth.

Tchaikovsky's music for Shakespeare's The Tempest evokes the atmospheres and passions of the play. The gently undulating sea in the opening is calm on the surface, but a storm is on its way, which will change the lives of the characters for ever. The music which Walton wrote for Olivier's Henry V was one of his most celebrated film scores. Christopher Palmer has reworked Walton's score into a concert piece, featuring some of Shakespeare's most rousing speeches, recited tonight by Alex Hassell.

Presented by Martin Handley

Parry: I Was Glad

Tchaikovsky: The Tempest Fantasy Overture

Walton: Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario

Alex Hassell, actor

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

Kirill Karabits, conductor

Recorded at the Lighthouse, Poole, on 11th May 2022.

I Was Glad: the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra plays Parry, Tchaikovsky and Walton.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Live From The Lighthouse, Poole20180425The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, live from the Lighthouse in Poole, presented by Martin Handley

7.30pm

Britten: Sea Inteludes from Peter Grimes

Dvorak: Cello Concerto

c.8.35pm

Interval

c.8.55pm

Strauss: Death and Transfiguration

Daniel Müller-Schott (cello)

James Feddeck (conductor)

In a concert called Notes of Nostalgia, James Feddeck conducts the orchestra in a programme of Britten, Dvorak and Strauss. Daniel Müller-Schott is soloist in Dvorak's Cello Concerto. Though written while he was in America the concerto is filled with the spirit of Bohemia. And then Strauss's Death and Transfiguration, a tone poem which describes the last moments of an artist as he looks back on his life.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra perform Britten, Dvorak and Strauss, live from Poole.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Live From The Lighthouse, Poole, Perform Mahler's 'resurrection' Symphony20181003Martin Handley presents the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in its season opener, live from The Lighthouse in Poole. Kirill Karabits conducts the orchestra in Ligeti's Lontano. Meaning 'distant', the music repeats the same phrase at different speeds, creating drifting clouds of sound before disappearing to nothing. In contrast the second half is Mahler's mighty Resurrection Symphony for which the orchestra is joined by the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and soprano Nadine Weissmann.

7.30pm

Ligeti Lontano

Mahler Symphony no.2 'Resurrection

Lise Lindstrom (soprano)

Nadine Weissmann (mezzo-soprano)

Kirill Karabits (conductor)

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, live from Poole, performs Ligeti and Mahler.

The Britten Sinfonia In Beethoven And Barry20180522Martin Handley presents the Britten Sinfonia live from the Barbican in London. Thomas Ad耀s and the Orchestra have been working their way through the Beethoven symphonies, and now reach the half-way point with the ever popular Symphony No 5 and the subdued, poignant Symphony No 4. These two monuments of the orchestral repertoire are set alongside the inventive music of Irish composer Gerald Barry. The concert features the London premiere of Barry's Piano Concerto written specially for, and performed by Nicolas Hodges.

7.30pm

Beethoven Symphony no.4 in B flat major, Op.60

Gerald Barry Piano Concerto (UK Premiere)

c.8.25

Interval music

c.8.45pm

Beethoven Symphony no.5 in C minor, Op.67

Nicolas Hodges (piano)

Thomas Ad耀s (conductor).

The Britten Sinfona under Thomas Ades live from the Barbican in London.

The Britten Sinfonia In Beethoven And Barry20180614Ian Skelly presents the Britten Sinfonia from the Barbican in London. Thomas Ad耀s and the Orchestra continue their three year long Beethoven symphony cycle with no. 6, the Pastoral. As before, Beethoven's music is paired with the inventive music of Irish composer Gerald Barry: Bass Joshua Bloom is the soloist in Barry's The Conquest of Ireland, based on a 12th century account of Henry II's military conquest of Ireland.

7.30pm

Barry The Conquest of Ireland

c.7.50pm Interval music

c.8.10

Beethoven Symphony no.6 in F major 'Pastoral

Joshua Bloom (bass)

Thomas Ad耀s.

The Britten Sinfonia perform Beethoven and Barry.

The Cbso At 10020201117From Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Tom McKinney introduces a special concert, conducted by music director Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla, given as part of an evening on Radio 3 to mark the orchestra's 100th anniversary. The evening includes features, archive recordings and interviews in salute of one the county's foremost and much loved musical institutions. The opening concert, given on the actual day of the orchestra's first official concert foregrounds two composers with direct historical links to the orchestra, and another who, like the CBSO, has an anniversary this year.

Concert from Symphony Hall

Sibelius: Lemminkainen's Return

Elgar: Cello Concerto

Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela

Beethoven: Overture - Leonore No 3

Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello)

Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla (conductor)

After the concert Tom McKinney looks back on the last 100 years of the CBSO aided by the orchestra's biographer, Richard Bratby. The evening features a wealth of recordings from the orchestra's back catalogue, ending with their most recent.

Tom McKinney marks 100 years of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

The Cbso Perform Anderson And Dvorak20210702A new cello concerto by former CBSO Composer in Association, Julian Anderson, written especially for Alban Gerhardt, and the Seventh Symphony by Dvorak form the double bill of this concert given by the CBSO conducted by its principal guest conductor, Kazuki Yamada. The concert is introduced by Jess Gillam.

Julian Anderson: Litanies (CBSO Centenary Commission)

Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No 7

Alban Gerhardt (cello)

Kazuki Yamada (conductor)

Jess Gillam introduces a concert from Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

The Clear Day At Sea Orchestra20190609A concert from Tokyo with Fiona Talkington.

Tonight we're in Japan and the conductor-less Triton Hareta Umino Orchestra. The name translates roughly as the Triton Clear Day at Sea orchestra and is based in the Harumi (Clear Sea) district of Tokyo.

The orchestra was formed in 2015, led by Tatsuya Yabe and made up of some of the leading players from other Tokyo orchestras like the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic. The idea is to play as a true chamber orchestra without conductor to achieve a level of spontaneity and the highest quality music making.

This is the first chance to hear the result of their efforts in two symphonies by Beethoven.

Symphony No 1 in C major, Op 21

Symphony No 3 in E flat major, Op 55 'Eroica

Triton Hareta-umino Orchestra

Tatsuya Yabe (leader)

The Company Of Heaven20190131A concert recorded last night at Wigmore Hall in London, given by The Cardinall's Musick.

Works connected to individual female saints inform this programme by a vocal ensemble whose performances of the Renaissance repertoire have won consistent acclaim. Initially focusing on St Mary Magdalene, the concert closes with the Magnificat, the Virgin Mary's hymn of thanksgiving.

Introduced by Ian Skelly

Thomas Crecquillon (c.1505-1557) - Congratulamini mihi

Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599) - Missa Congratulamini mihi

Gregorian Chant - Propers for the Feast of St Mary Magdalene

INTERVAL

Peter Philips (c.1560-1628) - Cecilia Virgo

Philippe Verdelot (c.1480-1530) - Salve Barbara

Adrian Willaert (c.1490-1562) - In tua patientia

Francisco Guerrero - Surge propera

Luca Marenzio (1553-1599) - Cantantibus organis

Daniel Torquet - Cantantibus organis

William Byrd (c.1540-1623) - Salve regina

Michael Praetorius (c.1571-1621) - Regina caeli jubila

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c.1525-1594) - Magnificat primi toni

Andrew Carwood (conductor)

The Consone Quartet20211103New Generation Artists at Snape: the Consone Quartet plays Schubert, Haydn and Mendelssohn.

The rising period instrument quartet bring fresh insights to some of the cornerstones of the quartet repertory in this concert, given as part of last weekend's New Generation Artists residency at Snape Maltings, near Aldeburgh.

Presented by Georgia Mann.

Schubert: Quartettsatz in C minor, D. 703

Haydn: String Quartet in F major, Op.77 No.2

at approx. 8.10pm: Interval Music

Alexander Gadjiev - a major prizewinner at the recent Warsaw International Chopoin Competition - plays Chopin's 3 Mazurkas, Op.56 in the Britten Studio, Snape Maltings as part of the New Generation Artists residency.

at approx 8.25pm

Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartet in D major, Op.44 No.1

The Consone Quartet play Schubert, Haydn and Mendelssohn at Snape.

The Consone Quartet In Haydn, Brahms And A Haunting New Work, By Gavin Bryars20231024The Consone Quartet and friends play Haydn and Brahms and give the London premiere of Gavin Bryars's Sextet 'The Bridges of K怀nigsberg.

The young period instrument string quartet, former Radio 3 New Generation Artists, promise to bring fresh insights to the music of Haydn and Brahms at this concert recorded at one of London's landmark churches. The programme opens with one of the quartets that Haydn brought with him to London in 1790 and ends with Brahms when the Consone Quartet are joined by two colleagues for his second string sextet, this one written in the aftermath of a failed love affair. And in between, we witness a piece of history in the making, the London premiere of The Bridges of K怀nigsberg by Gavin Bryars who celebrated his eightieth birthday earlier this year. Springing to fame with such early works as The Sinking of the Titanic and Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, Gavin Bryars's haunting new work captures the melancholic world of the K怀nigsberg of the great Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant in music of meditative beauty.

Presented by Ian Skelly at the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London.

Haydn: String Quartet in E flat, Op. 64, No.6

Gavin Bryars: String Sextet ‘The Bridges of K怀nigsberg' (London premiere)

Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G, Op.36

Ren退e Hemsing (viola)

Guy Fishman (cello)

Gavin Bryars writes: 'While the subtitle 'The Bridges of K怀nigsberg' refers to a well-known mathematical puzzle, it also gives a link to a chamber opera that I have wanted to do for almost 40 years, The Last Days of Immanuel Kant. K怀nigsberg, now Kaliningrad, was where Kant lived for his entire life, and where he established unerringly repetitive daily routines. Unlike Konigsberg, my `mathematical` problem involved just six elements not seven: how to manage the integration of two additional players into an existing long-established unit, the string quartet, in as many ways as possible, step by step, and with maximum diplomacy -

The Consone Quartet play Haydn, Brahms and premiere a haunting new work by Gavin Bryars.

The Consone Quartet and friends play Haydn and Brahms and give the London premiere of Gavin Bryars's Sextet 'The Bridges of Königsberg.

The young period instrument string quartet, former Radio 3 New Generation Artists, promise to bring fresh insights to the music of Haydn and Brahms at this concert recorded at one of London's landmark churches. The programme opens with one of the quartets that Haydn brought with him to London in 1790 and ends with Brahms when the Consone Quartet are joined by two colleagues for his second string sextet, this one written in the aftermath of a failed love affair. And in between, we witness a piece of history in the making, the London premiere of The Bridges of Königsberg by Gavin Bryars who celebrated his eightieth birthday earlier this year. Springing to fame with such early works as The Sinking of the Titanic and Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, Gavin Bryars's haunting new work captures the melancholic world of the Königsberg of the great Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant in music of meditative beauty.

Gavin Bryars: String Sextet ‘The Bridges of Königsberg' (London premiere)

Renée Hemsing (viola)

Gavin Bryars writes: 'While the subtitle 'The Bridges of Königsberg' refers to a well-known mathematical puzzle, it also gives a link to a chamber opera that I have wanted to do for almost 40 years, The Last Days of Immanuel Kant. Königsberg, now Kaliningrad, was where Kant lived for his entire life, and where he established unerringly repetitive daily routines. Unlike Konigsberg, my “mathematical ? problem involved just six elements not seven: how to manage the integration of two additional players into an existing long-established unit, the string quartet, in as many ways as possible, step by step, and with maximum diplomacy -

The Consone Quartet and friends play music by Haydn and Brahms and premiere cult composer Gavin Bryars's haunting sextet The Bridges of Königsberg.

The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra20230403The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra are joined by the violinist Johan Dalene in Sibelius's Violin Concerto and the orchestra gives the long-awaited Czech premiere of Detlev Glanert's Prague Symphony.

The supremely musical Swedish violinist, Johan Dalene, a recent Radio 3 New Generation Artist, makes his debut with the venerable Czech orchestra. And, after the interval, the orchestra premieres Detlev Glanert's Prague Symphony', Lyric Fragments after Franz Kafka. For this major new work, Glanert chose twelve of Franz Kafka's lyrical descriptions of Prague. As Kafka wrote to a schoolmate: `Prague never lets go. Neither of you, nor of me. This little mother has claws.` And in writing the work Glanert realised he says that: 'the poems could tell a story about two people, by using two singers and allocating the texts as Mahler had done.....the mezzo and the bass voices are two sides of a personality, as if expressing an interior dialogue between opposing halves of a single character... They start in isolation but progressively grow together through the cycle...and the orchestra is the fluid medium between the two parts....in one sense, inevitably, the orchestra is me, the composer, so you could say there is an active triangular relationship in operation. This is my personal connection with Kafka.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, op. 47

Johan Dalene (violin)

8.05pm Interval music: New Generation Artist, Tom Borrow plays Janacek's Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 'From the Street.

Detlev Glanert: 'Prague Symphony', Lyric Fragments after Franz Kafka (Symphony No. 4) (World Premiere)

Catriona Morison (mezzo-soprano)

Christian Immler (bass-baritone)

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Semyon Bychkov (conductor)

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra premieres Detlev Glanert's Prague Symphony after Franz Kafka.

The Divine Poem20230524Is it a symphony, or is it a tone poem?

Scriabin's theosophical behemoth 'The Divine Poem' was written in a blaze of romantic passion. And with new philosophical ideas from the continent also occupying him, he described it as 'the evolution of the human spirit from pantheism to unity with the universe.' Before that, the UK premiere of Phantasma by Bernd Richard Deutsch. It's inspired by the three panels of Gustav Klimt's monumental Beethoven Frieze, the metallic tones of the orchestra evoking all that painterly gold leaf. And there's musical treasure too in the Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston.

Recorded at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 4 May 2023. Presented by Miriam Skinner.

Bernd Richard Deutsch: Phantasma (UK premiere: co-commissioned with the Concertgebouw, Cleveland Orchestra and Bamberger Symphoniker)

Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano)

c.8.10pm

Interval music from CD:

Scriabin -

12 Etudes Op. 8: No. 12 in D sharp minor

2 Poemes Op. 32: No. 1 in F sharp major

2 Mazurkas Op. 40: No. 2 in F-Sharp Major: Piacevole

2 Morceaux Op. 57: Desir

Alexander Scriabin (piano), taken from the piano roll recordings for Welte-Mignon.

c.8.30pm

Scriabin: Symphony No.3, The Divine Poem

Vasily Petrenko conductor

RLPO and Vasily Petrenko perform Scriabin's rapturous Third Symphony.

The Dream Of Gerontius20200414The Dream of Gerontius, one of the most moving works in the choral repertory, is based on a poem by the Catholic Cardinal (now Saint) John Henry Newman which tells the story of the dying Gerontius's soul as it passes from life into death, from judgement to purgatory. Elgar imagined Gerontius as a man like us with all his worldly sins, brought before God for judgement. He poured his heart into the work, throughout the score his great mastery of orchestration and choral writing is on display and it is for good reason that Elgar wrote at the end of his manuscript 'This is the best of me..this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory.

Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius

Angel ..... Christine Rice (mezzo soprano)

Gerontius ..... Paul Groves (tenor)

Priest/Angel of the Agony ..... Neal Davies (bass)

Choir of Clare College Cambridge

London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra

Edward Gardner (conductor)

Performance given in March 2011 at The Royal Festival Hall.

Photo: Edward Gardner credit Benjamin Ealogvega

Edward Gardner conducts Elgar's 'The Dream of Gerontius' with the London Philharmonic

The Dream Of Gerontius20230711Director of Music Daniel Hyde conducts Elgar's masterpiece Dream of Gerontius, recorded last month in King's College, Cambridge. Elgar composed his setting of John Henry Newman's mystical poem in 1900, an overt display of his Catholic faith. In spite of a poor premiere it's a work of which Elgar was justly proud and it tells of Gerontius's journey from deathbed, through divine judgement to his eventual arrival in Purgatory.

Presented by Andrew McGregor.

Elgar The Dream of Gerontius

Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo)

Andrew Staples (tenor)

James Platt (bass)

The Bach Choir

Choir of King's College, Cambridge

BBC Concert Orchestra

Conductor Daniel Hyde

Andrew McGregor presents Elgar's Dream of Gerontius from King's College, Cambridge.

The Dreamers Of Dreams20190704The Music Makers is some of Elgar's most profoundly beautiful and heartfelt music and it's paired tonight with Walton's rambunctions Fac?ade Suite. The concert begins with wild energy as a wizard summons the Earth Spirits with a trombone invocation in a suite from Holst's one-act opera The Perfect Fool. This is English music at its most exuberant.

Presented by Tom McKinney, live from Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool.

Programme

Holst: The Perfect Fool, Suite

Walton: Fac?ade, Suite

Elgar: The Music Makers

Kathryn Rudge (mezzo-soprano)

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

Elgar's profoundly beautiful The Music Makers Live from Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

The English Chamber Orchestra And Christian Zacharias Play Mozart20180403Recorded at Cadogan Hall, London on 29th March 2018

Presented by Martin Handley.

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503

Mozart: Ch'io mi scordi di te, K. 505

8.05: Interval

Mozart: Parto, Parto from La clemenza di Tito, K. 621

Mozart: Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504 (Prague)

Tamara Gura soprano

Christian Zacharias piano/conductor

The German master-pianist Christian Zacharias has devoted a lifetime to the music of Mozart, and today he directs the ECO in both the majestic Prague Symphony and some of Mozart's brilliant concert arias - music that Mozart said should fit a singer's voice 'like a well-tailored suit'. First, however, he stars as both soloist and director in Mozart's 25th Piano Concerto exactly as the composer himself would have done, back in 1786.

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir Performs The Music Of Arvo Part20180130Live from Milton Court, London

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir performs the music of Arvo P䀀rt and his Estonian compatriots, marking 100 years since the proclamation of Estonia as an independent, democratic republic.

Arvo P䀀rt: Solfeggio; Summa; Magnificat; Zwei Beter; The Woman with the Alabaster Box; Nunc dimittis; Dopo la vittoria

Jonathan Harvey: Plainsongs for Peace and Light; The Angels

Cyrillus Kreek: Psalms of David

Veljo Tormis: St John's Day Songs for Midsummer Eve; Curse Upon Iron

Kaspars Putninš, conductor

The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir embodies a very particular choral tradition - with one eye on the Russian vocal heritage, another looking very definitely west. Their relationship with Arvo P䀀rt is famous, but tonight they broaden that picture with music by his compatriots and Jonathan Harvey.

The Faun And The Firebird20231103The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Roderick Cox with works by Debussy, Stravinsky and Lyatoshinsky. Violinist Ilya Gringolts joins them to premiere Wenn䀀koski's Prosoidia.

A sultry flute, a shower of sparks, a flash of light and a sensuous, sumptuous wave of pure emotion. In the years before World War One, Debussy and Stravinsky transformed the way we listen: inventing musical colours that dazzled, startled and seduced. Debussy's ravishing Pr退lude and Stravinsky's Firebird open and close a concert filled with fantastic stories and sounds. Take Lotta Wenn䀀koski's new violin concerto Prosoidia, for example. The composer imagines music as a wordless conversation - and if any violinist can make it talk, it's the phenomenal Ilya Gringolts. Roderick Cox conducts, and shares another work that speaks more potently than any words: Grazhyna, a musical tale of courage and struggle from Ukraine's greatest 20th century composer, Boris Lyatoshinsky.

Live from the Barbican Hall, presented by Martin Handley

Claude Debussy: Pr退lude

The Four Seasons20210212Igor Yuzefovich is soloist/director with the BBC Symphony Orchestra's strings in Vivaldi's ground-breaking The Four Seasons alongside Astor Piazzolla's thrilling Las cuatro estaciones porteကas - The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Baroque meets tango.

Introduced by Igor Yuzefovich.

Recorded at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in November 2020,

Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons. Concerto in E Major, Op 8 No 1, RV 269 'Spring

Astor Piazzolla (arr. Leonid Desyatnikov): The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Verano porteကo (Buenos Aires Summer)

Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons. Concerto in G minor, Op 8 No 2, RV 315, 'Summer

Astor Piazzolla (arr. Leonid Desyatnikov): The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Otoကo porteကo (Buenos Aires Autumn)

Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons. Concerto in F major, Op 8 No 3, RV 293, `Autumn`

Astor Piazzolla (arr. Leonid Desyatnikov): The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Invierno porteကo (Buenos Aires Winter)

Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons. Concerto in F minor, Op 8 No 4, RV 297, 'Winter

Astor Piazzolla (arr.Leonid Desyatnikov): The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Primavera porteကa (Buenos Aires Spring)

AND TO FOLLOW THAT

Franz Schubert: Die Winterreise

Ashley Riches (bass-baritone)

Joseph Middleton (piano)

Violin concertos by Vivaldi and Piazzolla with Igor Yuzefovich and the BBC SO's strings.

The Frankfurt Radio Symphony20230410The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra plays early works by Shostakovich and Hilary Hahn joins them for Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto.

Alain Altinoglu conducts Shostakovich's remarkable First Symphony, written when he was still a student, and premiered to huge acclaim by the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1926. That symphony and the Scherzo which opens this concert from Frankfurt's Alter Oper launches Alain Altinoglu's long-term project to explore the major works of Shostakovich with his orchestra. Also on the bill is Prokofiev's Violin Concerto no. 1 which Hilary Hahn says: 'is unique because almost every note needs its own coloration and a different technical approach. It all changes at lightning speed. It's mentally challenging, but also insanely fun.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Shostakovich: Scherzo Op. 1,

Prokofiev Violin Concerto no. 1 in D Op. 19

approx. 8pm

Interval Music: Linda Nicholson plays Lodovico Giustini's Sonata no. 1 in G minor Op.1`1, the first work written specifically for the piano.

approx. 8.15pm

Shostakovich Symphony no. 1 Op. 10

Hilary Hahn (violin)

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Alain Altinoglu (conductor)

Grand Hall, Alte Oper, Frankfurt 24 Feb. 2023

The Frankfurt RSO play Shostakovich. Violinist Hilary Hahn joins them for Prokofiev.

The French In Vienna20190707Concerts from Vienna and Rotterdam with Fiona Talkington, with the French National Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic.

In 1971 an American pianist bought a box of unidentified manuscript music from a local sale for $11. Inside was the manuscript of a score by Max Bruch of his concerto for two pianos, which he had written for two piano-playing sisters. The sisters had never played Bruch's original, preferring to make their own performing edition. The orchestral parts for the original version were available at the same music sale, and gradually they were gathered together and Bruch's original was given its premiere in 1973.

The other pieces in the French National Orchestra's concert are Bizet's suite of incidental music to the play L'Arl退sienne (the girl from Arles), and Albert Roussel's suite from his ballet Bacchus et Ariane.

Mahler wrote his symphonic poem Totenfeier with a view to turning it into part of a symphony, but a less than sympathetic Hans von Bülow was not impressed and that mattered to Mahler, because he was the leading conductor in Hamburg where Mahler was now working at the opera. Von Bülow's health began to decline and Mahler found himself filling in for his indisposed colleague more and more until von Bülow's death in 1894. 'Totenfeier' translates as 'funeral rites' and with that and attending von Bülow's funeral, Mahler was propelled into writing his Second Symphony, the 'Resurrection', so called after the words of poet Klopstock that had been read at von Bülow's funeral. And that leaves Totenfeier as part of and yet separate from Mahler's Second Symphony.

Bruch: Concerto for 2 pianos in A flat minor, Op 88a

Bizet: L'Arl退sienne, suite No 2

Roussel: Bacchus et Ariane, Suite No 2, Op 43

Katia Lab耀que (piano)

Marielle lab耀que (piano)

Alain Altinoglu

Mahler: Totenfeier

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Yannick N退zet-S退guin

Concerts from Vienna and Rotterdam with Fiona Talkington.

The Fruit Of Silence At Truro Cathedral20191029The Fruit of Silence' is City of London Sinfonia's nationwide tour of cathedrals encouraging audiences to explore the acoustics and spaces of some of the UK's most beautiful buildings. Tonight they reach Truro Cathedral where members of the Cathedral Choir, directed by Christopher Gray, join forces with the City of London Sinfonia to perform a selection of contemporary works ranging from Tavener to Tabakova. The music is performed in different locations around the building, varying from the High Altar to the Boar Chapel, and is an opportunity for listeners and audience members to enjoy the alternating spaces and sounds emanating from this Gothic Revival-style cathedral in the heart of Cornwall.

Recorded earlier this month and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

James MacMillan: A Child's Prayer

Peteris Vasks: The Fruit of Silence

John Tavener: Mother of God here I stand

Arvo P䀀rt: Summa

Russell Pascoe: Threnody for Jowan

Dobrinka Tabakova: Organum Light

Eric Whitacre: The Seal Lullaby

Arvo P䀀rt: Fratres

Dobrinka Tabakov: Centuries of Meditations

Katherine Gregory (soprano)

Helena Paish (soprano)

Truro Cathedral Choir

Manuel Piazza (piano)

Christopher Gray (director)

Photo © John Jones for City of London Sinfonia and Truro Cathedral, 2019

The City of London Sinfonia and Truro Cathedral Choir perform contemporary choral music.

The German Radio Philharmonic And Bamberg Symphony Orchestras20171008Ian Skelly presents performances from the German Radio Philharmonic and Bamberg Symphony Orchestras. Josep Pons conducts the German Radio Philharmonic in Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and music by Beethoven's contemporary, Jan Vကclav Vo?횀ek. The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra is joined by its new Chief Conductor, Jakub Hrusa to perform a piece by Var耀se which parodies the sound of an orchestra tuning, and includes references to many other works. Plus music by Schubert performed by the Arnold Schoenberg Chorus.

Beethoven: Symphony No.7 in A major, Op.92

German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Saarbrucken Kaiserslautern, Josep Pons (conductor)

Var耀se: Tuning Up

Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Jakub Hrusa (conductor)

Schubert: Gebet, D.815

Arnold Schoenberg Chorus, Sholto Kynoch (piano).

Vo?횀ek: Symphony in D major, Op.24

Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Jakub Hrusa (conductor).

The German Radio Philharmonic Orchestra performs Beethoven and Vorisek.

The Gift To Sing: 60 Years Of Let The Peoples Sing20211122Sixty years after the first Let the Peoples Sing competition for amateur choirs took place in London, the BBC Singers and Chief conductor Sofi Jeannin present a concert of choral and organ music celebrating the joy of singing on St Cecilia Day - Patron Saint of Music and Musicians. Included in the programme is the BBC and EBU commission by LTPS juror and BBC Singers Principal Guest Conductor, Bob Chilcott, whose setting of The Gift to Sing by James Weldon Johnson is a gift to choirs everywhere, starting to make music again after the events of the last 18 months.

Francesca Massey: Improvisational Fanfare Variations on Euro Radio Theme

Arr. Sarah Quartel: How can I keep from singing? SATB Version

Mathias: Let the people praise thee, O God

James Macmillan: Cecilia Virgo

James MacMillan: Gaudeamus in loci pace

Britten: Rejoice in the Lamb

Interval

Bob Chilcott: The gift to sing (World premiere - European Broadcasting Union and BBC commission)

Cecilia McDowall: Cecilia, busy like a bee

Kenneth Leighton: Let all the world in every corner sing

Organ: Kenneth Leighton: Ite, missa est (from Missa de Gloria)

Gabriel Jackson: La musique

Thea Musgrave: Anthem - to St Cecilia

Widor, arr. David Willcocks: Sing!

Francesca Massey - organ

Sofi Jeannin - conductor

The BBC Singers celebrate 60 years of the Let the Peoples Sing competition.

The 'great' C Major20190411Live from St David's Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 2 in C minor, Op 18

20.10 Interval Music

Schubert: Symphony No 9 in C major, D 944 (The Great)

Boris Giltburg (piano)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Alexander Vedernikov (conductor)

In tonight's concert we offer two towering works of the Romantic period, from the tolling chords which open Rachmaninov's tempestuous second Piano Concerto to the triumphant ending of the work that was dubbed Schubert's 'Great' C major symphony. Rachmaninov was deeply depressed by the poor critical reception to his first symphony, and felt completely unable to compose. Undertaking a course of daily suggestive hypnosis for three months in order to regain his ability to write music bore remarkable fruit in the composition of his second piano concerto. The critical response to this piece was highly favourable and it has endured as one of his best loved pieces. Similarly, Schubert's 'Great' C major symphony is often heralded as one of his greatest works. Sadly, Schubert was not able to enjoy its success; the first recorded public performance did not occur until ten years after his death, no orchestra being prepared to take it seriously due to its length and the difficulty of the parts. Happily, his fellow composer and critic Robert Schumann saved the work from obscurity when he sent it to Mendelssohn who, in spite of complaints from contemporary orchestras, continued to champion the work until it achieved the recognition it so richly deserves.

BBC NOW and Alexander Vedernikov perform Schubert's Symphony No 9 in C, the 'Great'.

The 'great' G Minor20190513Recorded in Brangwyn Hall, Swansea

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales under the baton of Jac van Steen perform in a concert which culminates in Mozart's 40th Symphony, the penultimate symphony that he wrote. They start with Beethoven's Coriolan overture, which was written for Heinrich Joseph von Collin's play of the same name, and depicts the tragic state of the antihero of the title, with little of the optimism usually present in Beethoven's heroic works. The Orchestra will then be joined by Llyr Williams for Bartok's 3rd Piano Concerto, a work which was one of the last the composer wrote before succumbing to leukaemia. Despite this, the piece was written as a birthday present for his wife, and as such is untroubled and an absolute delight to hear. Mozart's 40th Symphony, nicknamed the Great G minor, was written during a busy period in 1788 in which Mozart wrote a plethora of late works, including his last three symphonies, and it is one of Mozart's most passionate works. It thrills throughout, from the instantly recognisable opening, right through to the final chords.

Beethoven: Coriolan Overture, Op 62

Bartok: Piano Concerto No 3, BB 127

8.10pm Interval music

Mozart: Symphony No 40 in G minor, K 550

Llyr Williams (piano)

Jac van Steen (conductor)

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Jac van Steen play Mozart's Symphony No 40.

The Great Unknown20190918To celebrate Sir James MacMillan's 60th birthday year, long-time collaborator the Scottish Chamber Orchestra joins together with acclaimed vocal group The Sixteen, alumni of the youth chorus Genesis Sixteen and director Harry Christophers for the World Premiere of James MacMillan's newly composed choral Fifth Symphony, which meditates on the mystery of the Holy Spirit. An earlier work by MacMillan opens the evening, his Second Symphony. Written twenty years ago, it is dedicated to writer and fellow Ayrshire man Andrew O'Hagan.

MacMillan: Symphony No 2*

20.00

Interval - Maxim Emelyanychev conducts the Nizhny Novgorod Soloists Chamber Orchestra in Brahms: Variations on a theme by Haydn for orchestra, Op. 56a 'St Anthony Variations

20.20 - Part 2

Macmillan: Symphony No.5 Le grand Inconnu - World Premiere**

The Sixteen & Genesis Sixteen

James MacMillan - conductor *

Harry Christophers - conductor **

Presenter: Donald MacLeod

Producer: Laura Metcalfe

Photo credit: Ryan Buchanan

James MacMillan premieres his latest choral symphony, a meditation on the Holy Spirit.

The Halle And Mark Elder Perform Schubert, Mendelssohn And Mozart20180604Stuart Flinders introduces a concert from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester in which Mark Elder conducts the Halle Orchestra in a programme of beautifully crafted music by Schubert, Mozart and Mendelssohn, including Mozart's vibrant and colourful Piano Concerto No 18 performed by the Chinese pianist Hong Xu.

PART ONE

Schubert - Symphony No.8, 'Unfinished

Mozart - Piano Concerto No.18, K456

(Hong Xu - piano)

INTERVAL

From CD, a selection of Scottish folksong arrangements by Beethoven:

BEETHOVEN: 'Bonnie Laddie , Highland Laddie' Op 108/7

Sarah Walker (mezzo)

Krystia Osostowics (violin)

Ursula Smith (Cello)

Malcolm Martineau (piano)

BEETHOVEN: 'The Maid of Isla' Op 108/4

Christopher Maltman (mezzo)

Elizabeth Layton (violin)

BEETHOVEN: 'The Lovely Lass of Inverness' Op 108/8

BEETHOVEN: 'Enchantress, farewell' Op 108/18

Toby Spence (mezzo)

BEETHOVEN: 'O Swiftly Glides The Bonnie Boat' Op 108/19

Janice Watson (soprano)

Ruby Philogene (mezzo)

Timothy Robinson (tenor)

Thomas Allen (baritone)

PART TWO

Mendelssohn - Symphony No.3 in A minor, 'Scottish

Halle Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder.

The Halle Orchestra in a programme of music by Schubert, Mozart and Mendelssohn.

The Halle And Mark Elder, Mahler's Sixth Symphony20151012Sir Mark Elder conducts the Halle in Mahler's Sixth Symphony and Christian Zacharias joins them as soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No.12.

Recorded last week at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Presented by Adam Tomlinson

Mozart: Piano Concerto No.12 in A, K414

8.00: Interval

8.20

Mahler: Symphony No.6 in A minor

The Hall退

Christian Zacharias, piano

Sir Mark Elder, conductor

Mahler's Sixth Symphony, a seminal work of 20th-century orchestral writing, was created during the happiest period of the composer's life. Its first movement features tinkling Alpine cowbells and a tender love theme representing Mahler's wife Alma, while the third portrays their children joyfully at play. Yet this almost schizophrenic work also possesses hugely tragic qualities, its finale punctuated at different points by three sinister hammer blows of fate. Whether or not Mahler had premonitions of tragedies about to befall him, the symphony features mammoth orchestral forces and an astonishingly wide emotional spectrum. Before this, the celebrated Mozart pianist, Christian Zacharias, plays the composer's A major Piano Concerto No 12, a piece that charmed the audiences of its time and continues to do so today.

Mark Elder conducts The Halle in Mahler's Sixth Symphony and a Mozart piano concerto.

The Halle Play Grieg And Shostakovich20230208Alpesh Chauhan conducts The Halle Orchestra in Grieg's Piano Concerto with soloist Elisabeth Brauss, and in the second half, Shostakovich's tumultuous Symphony No.10. During the interval, you can also hear two unfinished string quartets by both those composers.

Edvard Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16

Elisabeth Brauss (piano)

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

Edvard Grieg: String Quartet No.2 in F major (Incomplete)

Norwegian String Quartet

Dmitri Shostakovich: Quartet Movement in E flat major (Unfinished)

Borodin String Quartet

2nd HALF

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No.10 in E minor, Op.93

Presented by Tom McKinney

The Halle orchestra play Grieg's Piano Concerto and Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony.

The Halle Plays Shostakovich20180118Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hall退, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and bass James Platt in an all-Shostakovich programme live from the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Tom Redmond presents.

Shostakovich: Four Romances on Poems by Pushkin

Cello Concerto No 1

8.15 - Interval

8.35 - Shostakovich: Symphony No 5

Alisa Weilerstein, cello

James Platt, bass

Sir Mark Elder, conductor

Pretend to be kissing someone, but then spit when they are not looking' is an old Russian proverb, and one which might well be applied to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. His Four Romances on Poems by Pushkin was the first serious work to be written in the aftermath of the 1936 political attacks on him and the banning of his Fourth Symphony, examining memory, loss and betrayal. In a simpler, pared-down style, Shostakovich sets the words of Russia's greatest poet; the first movement compares the artist to a masterwork that has been graffitied over by a barbarian. Just after their completion, Shostakovich began work on his Fifth Symphony and made sure to quote from this first song in the last movement. Much has been written about this 'Soviet artist's practical and creative response to just criticism' (a journalist's, not Shostakovich's, subtitle), but whatever the meanings hidden or otherwise, there is no doubt that the audience at its premiere understood what the music was saying. In between, the First Cello Concerto, whose opening notes are both based on the musical notes of Shostakovich's own name and a rhythm that can't help but somehow remind you of Beethoven's famous 'fate' motif.

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Halle in an all-Shostakovich programme live from Manchester.

The Halle, Live From Bridgewater Hall20220512Sir Mark Elder conducts The Hall退 Orchestra in music by Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, Elena Langer and Vaughan Williams.

This lively programme starts with Stravinsky's Concerto for piano and winds in which he looked back to Bach. Sir Mark describes the outer movements as having ‘such fun with plenty of cut and thrust' and a slow middle movement of ‘intimacy and tenderness'. Steven Osborne gained critical plaudits for his recording of the work and the Hall退 is delighted he's coming back to perform it. It's followed by Till Eulenspiegel, Richard Strauss's virtuoso symphonic poem vividly recounting the hero's ‘merry pranks.' Elena Langer's colourful and immediate music follows with her concert suite from her lauded opera Figaro gets a Divorce. Continuing the Vaughan Williams symphonic cycle, Sir Mark conducts the witty Eighth Symphony which was premiered by the Hall退 under Barbirolli with the composer inscribing the dedication to ‘Glorious John'.

7.30pm

Stravinsky - Concerto for piano and wind instruments

R. Strauss - Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche

Steven Osborne (piano)

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

c. 8.20pm INTERVAL music

Vaughan Williams - 4 Poems of Fredegond Shove

Roderick Williams (baritone)

Iain Burnside (piano)

Elena Langer - Two Cats Songs

Anna Dennis (soprano)

Kristine Blaumane (cello)

Katya Apekisheva (piano)

c. 8.40pm

Elena Langer - Figaro gets a Divorce

Vaughan Williams - Symphony No.8

Presented by Tom McKinney

Mark Elder conducts The Halle in Stravinsky, Strauss, Elena Langer and Vaughan Williams.

The Halle, Live From Nottingham20171017Stuart Flinders presents a concert of works by Ravel, Debussy and Mussorgsky given by the Hall退, clarinettist Sergio Castello Lopez and conductor Sir Mark Elder, live from the Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham.

Impressions of exotic lands long held a fascination for Ravel, and a hint came early in his career: Rapsodie Espagnole is a vision of Spain conjured by his mother's memories of Madrid. It incorporates a Carmen-inspired Habanera written 12 years earlier, and concludes with a dramatic explosion of colour and passion - and castanets.

But how else to end his Bolero other than with the instruction 'as loudly as possible'? Beginning life as a commission for ballerina Ida Rubinstein, Ravel built a daringly simple structure of 17 variations, whose mounting excitement is reflected in the work's signature crescendo. Its sensational success somewhat baffled Ravel, who had predicted that most orchestras would refuse to play it.

The conductor Serge Koussevitzky urged Ravel to turn his dazzling use of orchestration to an orchestral transcription of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition for solo piano, and in the process created another 20th-century classic. Ravel's gallery tour retains all the bizarre imagery and muscular realism of the original, and blends delicate image-painting with all-Russian majesty.

In between, Debussy's exacting Premi耀re Rhapsodie - a work composed as a test piece for the Paris Conservatoire's annual clarinet competition, yet one which Debussy felt to be one of the most pleasing works he had written.

Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole

Debussy: Rhapsodie for clarinet and orchestra

Ravel: Bolero

INTERVAL

Mussorgsky (orch Ravel): Pictures at an Exhibition

Mark Elder (conductor)

Sergio Castello Lopez (clarinet).

Stuart Flinders presents a live concert given by the Halle and conductor Sir Mark Elder.

The Halle, Ravel, Haydn, Brahms20161208Live from the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

The Hall退 plays Ravel, Haydn and Brahms.

Presented by Tom Redmond.

Ravel: Mother Goose Suite

Haydn: Symphony No.88

8.15: Interval - interval music

Brahms: Violin Concerto

Viviane Hagner, violin

Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor

Principal Guest Conductor of the Hall退, Ryan Wigglesworth, conducts the lovely Mother Goose - five 'fairytale' pieces Ravel originally composed for the children of two friends. With Tom Thumb, Beauty and the Beast and nodding toy figures, Ravel leads us into an enchanting sound-world. German violinist Viviane Hagner always leaves a lasting impression. In these concerts she performs Brahms's lyrical and masterfully constructed Violin Concerto. Brahms wrote it in a relaxed holiday mood as he savoured the stunning natural beauties of Carinthia. The work ends with a spirited Hungarian-style finale. Haydn's G major symphony is one of the composer's most concise, brilliant and humorous creations.

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the Halle in music by Ravel, Haydn and Brahms.

The Heath Quartet And James Baillieu, Mozart And Elgar At Wigmore Hall20160105The Heath Quartet and James Baillieu, piano, play Mozart and Elgar, live, at Wigmore Hall.

Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in C minor K546

Piano Concerto in A major K414

8.15: Interval

Elgar: Piano Quintet in A minor Op. 84

Mozart described the music of his Piano Concerto No. 12 in A K414, conceived for performance either with small orchestra or string quartet, as 'very brilliant, pleasing to the ear, and natural'.

James Baillieu moves from concerto soloist to chamber music partner in the second half, joining the Heath Quartet in Elgar's Piano Quintet, which received its first public performance at Wigmore Hall in May 1919.

The Heath Quartet and James Baillieu (piano) play Mozart and Elgar at Wigmore Hall.

The Inextinguishable20220519Thomas Dausgaard conducts the BBC SSO in the First and Fourth Symphonies by Carl Nielsen. And J怀rg Widmann joins the orchestra to perform Mozart's beloved Clarinet Concerto.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Nielsen: Symphony No. 1

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto

8.30 Interval

8.50

Nielsen: Symphony No. 4 - The Inextinguishable

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

J怀rg Widmann (clarinet)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Thomas Dausgaard conducts Carl Nielsen's great Fourth Symphony alongside music by Mozart.

The Italian Job2018092420210312 (R3)From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom Redmond

Respighi: Fountains of Rome

Walton: Cello Concerto

8.15 Interval

Anonymous: Italiana; Besard: Air de cour; Anonymous: Spagnoletta: Poncalli arr J Williams: Passacaglia

Paul O'Dette (lute)

Rogers Covey-Crump (tenor)

8.35

Sibelius: Symphony No 2

BBC Philharmonic

Alban Gerhardt (cello)

John Storgards (conductor)

Another chance to hear Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, John Storgards, present an Italian-inspired programme. Respighi's symphonic poem 'Fountains of Rome' takes us on a tour of the Eternal City from dawn to sunset with visits to four of its fountains, 'contemplated' the composer explained 'at the hour in which their character is most in harmony with the surrounding landscape'. Alban Gerhardt joins the orchestra for the lyrical and rhapsodic Cello Concerto written while Walton was living on Ischia, in the Gulf of Naples. To end the concert, John Storgards brings us music of his compatriot, Sibelius; his Second Symphony, distinctively Finnish but conceived and first sketched while he was on holiday in Rapello and Rome.

First broadcast in September 2018

John Storgards conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Respighi, Walton and Sibelius.

The Ivors Composer Awards20201201The Ivors Composer Awards presented by Kate Molleson and Tom Service.

Now in their 18th year, The Ivors Composer Awards celebrate the best new works by composers writing for classical, jazz and sound art.

Fifty-three works across eleven categories have been nominated for an Ivor Novello Award, demonstrating the wide diversity of settings, styles and themes of contemporary music being composed in the UK. These eleven categories range from music written for orchestral and chamber music to stage music, jazz and sound art along with music designed for community participation. With the nominees ranging in age from their early twenties to their early eighties, The Ivors Composer Awards present an ideal opportunity to catch up with some of the best of the UK's creative talent in an action-packed two hours.

This year, the awards ceremony is hosted by Radio 3 as an exclusive broadcast only event with interviews and extracts from many of the winners and nominees.

The Ivors Composer Awards: catch up with the best of the UK's creative musical talent.

The Jansen-maisky-argerich Trio At The Barbican20180208Martha Argerich, Janine Jansen and Mischa Maisky - three of the world's finest instrumentalists - come together at London's Barbican Hall in music by Beethoven, Shostakovich, Schumann and Mendelssohn.

Introduced by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Beethoven: Cello Sonata No 2 in G minor, Op 5

Shostakovich: Piano Trio No 2 in E minor, Op 67

Interval

Schumann: Violin Sonata No 1 in A minor, Op 105

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No 1 in D minor, Op 49

Janine Jansen (violin)

Mischa Maisky (cello)

Martha Argerich (piano)

Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London, on 6 February 2018

Mischa Maisky and Martha Argerich cherish a musical friendship that goes back decades, recently enriched by their chamber music partnership with Janine Jansen. But the chance to hear them all together is still rare and precious, especially in music as emotionally-charged as these sonatas and trios by four of the greatest composers of chamber music.

Violinist Janine Jansen, cellist Mischa Maisky and pianist Martha Argerich at the Barbican

The Journey To The Cross20190418As part of the Holy Week Festival at St John's Smith Square in London, Sir James MacMillan conducts the BBC Singers in a sequence of music for Maundy Thursday. Alongside movements from Carlo Gesualdo's Responsories for Maundy Thursday, MacMillan conducts his own works, including movements from The Strathclyde Motets and A Choral Sequence from the St John Passion.

James MacMillan - Cum vidisset Jesus

MacMillan- 'Qui meditabitur' from The Strathclyde Motets

Gesualdo - 'In Monte Oliveti' from Responsories for Maundy Thursday, 1st Nocturn

MacMillan - 'Videns Dominus' from The Strathclyde Motets

Gesualdo - 'Tristis est anima mea' from Responsories for Maundy Thursday, 1st Nocturn

MacMillan - 'Mitte manum tuam' from The Strathclyde Motets

Gesualdo - 'Ecce vidimus eum' from Responsories for Maundy Thursday, 1st Nocturn

MacMillan - Pascha nostrum immolatus est

INTERVAL

MacMillan - Domine non secundum peccata nostra

Gesualdo - Benedictus

MacMillan - A Choral Sequence from the St John Passion

Richard Pearce - Organ

Sir James MacMillan - Conductor

Sir James MacMillan conducts the BBC Singers in a programme of music for Maundy Thursday.

The Lark Ascending20221209The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Clemens Schuldt, and violinist Jennifer Pike pair Vaughan Williams's icon with a Deborah Pritchard premiere inspired by east-European larks.

In the shadow of the First World War, Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending sounded like a vision of peace. Deborah Pritchard's Calandra evokes the same spirit in a 21st century context; it's specially written for the radiant tone and poetic insight of soloist Jennifer Pike.

Calandra, says Pritchard represents a different kind of lark - `an Eastern European lark, symbolic of freedom, ascending without borders`. Like Vaughan Williams, Pritchard is responding to her time; but music can deal with turbulence as well as serenity and guest conductor Clemens Schuldt frames these two idylls with Britten's volcanic Sinfonia da Requiem - a protest against the inhumanity of World War Two - and Strauss's musical fantasy of triumph rising from the darkest tragedy. Strong emotions; ravishing sounds.

Presented by Hannah French

Live from the Barbican Concert Hall, London

Benjamin Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem

Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending

20.00 Interval

Deborah Pritchard: Calandra (BBC commission: world premiere)

Richard Strauss: Death and Transfiguration

Jennifer Pike (violin)

Clemens Schuldt (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Clemens Schuldt with violinist Jennifer Pike

The London Mozart Players At Fairfield Halls20211012In the final concert in their Spotlight On series, the London Mozart Players are joined in their Croydon home by the 14-year-old violinist Leia Zhu for Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. Also on the bill, Beethoven joyful Eighth Symphony and one of Mozart's most popular overtures.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Mozart: Magic Flute Overture

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op.35

at approx. 8.20pm Interval Music: Katharina Konradi, a current Radio 3 New Generation Artist, sings Tchaikovsky.

at approx. 8.30pm

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

Leia Zhu (violin)

Jonathan Bloxham (conductor)

Teenager Leia Zhu joins the London Mozart Players in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra Perform Works, By Ad\u00e8s, Barry And Stravinsky20180411Composer Thomas Ad耀s is fast becoming known as a conductor to be reckoned with, not only in his own music but also in a wide range of repertoire. This not-to-be missed concert begins with the suite from Powder her Face, the darkly comic opera which in 1995 helped established Ad耀s as one of the UK's leading composers.

I've never had any luck with sacristans,' says Gerald Barry, whose youthful organ playing antagonised congregations and clergy alike. Barry's new concerto, played by virtuoso Thomas Trotter on the spectacular instrument of the Royal Festival Hall, partly draws on memories of his Irish childhood. But don't expect at pastoral idyll. Barry was also inspired by a picture of a cat to put the 'fight for atonality against tonality into the concerto' which ends with organ and orchestra (including 21 metronomes) joining in the hymn, Humiliated and Insulted.

The concert finishes with a rare performance of Pers退phone, Stravinsky's restrained and austere 1930s retelling of the Greek myth of Persephone whose descent to the Underworld to become the wife of Pluto plunges the world into winter and whose return to the living brings spring. Dame Kristin Scott Thomas narrates.

Martin Handley presents, live from the Royal Festival Hall.

Thomas Ad耀s: Powder her Face Suite

Gerald Barry: Organ Concerto (London premiere)

Stravinsky: Pers退phone

Thomas Trotter (organ)

Dame Kristin Scott Thomas (narrator)

Toby Spence (tenor)

Trinity Boys Choir

London Philharmonic Choir

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Thomas Ad耀s (conductor).

From the Royal Festival Hall, with Thomas Ad\u00e8s and narrator Kristin Scott Thomas.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra Plays Stravinsky And Rimsky-korsakoff20180207The London Philharmonic Orchestra plays Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Live from the Royal Festival Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Stravinsky: Scherzo fantastique; Funeral Song

Rimsky-Korsakov: Piano Concerto in C sharp minor, Op 30

8.15: Interval

Stravinsky: The Firebird, complete ballet (1910)

Alexander Ghindin, piano

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

When Stravinsky joined forces with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, his creativity was ignited. The Firebird takes an old Russian tale of love, sorcery and rebirth and drenches it in sounds that no one had ever heard before. Over a century on, it's still one of the most ravishing of all orchestral showpieces.

The concert also includes the 26-year-old Stravinsky's recently rediscovered musical epitaph for his friend and mentor Rimsky-Korsakov. And Alexander Ghindin - a pianist born into the Russian tradition - is the soloist in Rimsky-Korsakov's own bittersweet, folk-inspired Piano Concerto.

The London Philharmonic Perform Sibelius20220330The LPO's principal guest conductor, Karina Canellakis, conducts the orchestra in a programme of which Sibelius's radiant Fifth Symphony is the climax. Before that, the vibrant rhythms of John Adams's 1987 opera Nixon in China set the scene for Gershwin's jazz-infused Piano Concerto, a classic of its kind.

Adams The Chairman Dances (Nixon in China)

Gershwin Piano Concerto in F

INTERVAL

Sibelius The Oceanides, Op 73; Symphony No 5 in E flat, Op 82

Inon Barnatan (piano)

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor Karina Canellakis

Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall on 27 November 2021.

Karina Canellakis conducts the London Philharmonic in Adams, Gershwin and Sibelius.

The London Philharmonic Performs Shostakovich, Vasks And Rachmaninov20171106The London Philharmonic are conducted by Andres Orozco-Estrada in works by Peteris Vasks and Rachmaninov, and joined by Istvan Vardai in Shostakovich's First Cello Concerto.

Presented at the Royal Festival Hall in London by Martin Handley as part of Radio 3's season 'Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture'.

Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No 1

Peteris Vasks: Dona nobis pacem

8.15pm Interval

Gregorian Chant: Dies irae

Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances

Istvan Vardai (cello)

The Lay Vicars of Westminster Abbey

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Andres Orozco-Estrada (conductor)

Dispatches from a dark century: Shostakovich's powerful First Cello Concerto speaks both in whispers and warnings, in a USSR in which Stalin's death was still all too recent. Rachmaninov, exiled from Russia, celebrates all the colours of a virtuoso orchestra - but still sounds a note of sadness and loss. The link is faith. The ancient chants that echo through Rachmaninoff's music form the emotional core of the music of P?teris Vasks: a priest's son from Latvia, born under Soviet oppression, whose Dona nobis pacem speaks with a quiet but fierce sincerity.

Concert recorded on 25 October 2017.

The London Philharmonic perform works Shostakovich, Peteris Vasks and Rachmaninov.

The London Sinfonietta And Sound Intermedia At The Royal Festival Hall20230412Leading contemporary music group London Sinfonietta joins forces with renowned sound designers Sound Intermedia at the Royal Festival Hall for an intriguing New York-focussed evening.

Beginning his composing career in the vanguard of Minimalism in 60s New York, Steve Reich has long-been a hugely influential international figure. His 2019 Reich/Richter is a mesmeric, pulsating and colour-shifting score designed as a soundtrack for the abstract images of visual artist Gerhard Richter's film Moving Picture.

Julia Wolfe's Tell me everything, from 1994, was inspired by hearing the jolly cacophony of a South American band on a cassette tape. 'It was joyful and unwieldy,' she says. 'There were so many times while writing this piece that I broke into laughter — wondering can I really write this, can it really go on like this?

Unpredictable, provocative, charismatic and visionary, Julius Eastman's short life spiralled out of control in the 1980s and he died at the age of 49 in 1990. His 1974 Joy Boy for small ensemble shimmers and slowly morphs as musical layers are added in a process Eastman described as 'organic composition'. Tonight the London Sinfonietta perform it twice in two different instrumental combinations.

Born in 1969, British-based Mira Calix, visual artist and musician, also died too young, only last year. Her Nunu is based on audio and video sampling and mixing of a collection of insects including cicadas, cockroaches, crickets and beetles.

The concert also includes a premiere from London-born, New York-based Anna Clyne, one of today's most in-demand composers who collaborates with many of the world's leading orchestras, choreographers, filmmakers, and visual artists.

Recorded last week and introduced by Martin Handley.

Julia Wolfe: Tell me everything

Julius Eastman: Joy Boy

Mira Calix: Nunu

Anna Clyne: Fractured Time (world premiere)

8:20pm

Interval music (from CD)

John Cage: In a landscape

Alexei Lubimov (piano)

8:30pm

Steve Reich: Reich / Richter

Manoj Kamps (conductor)

Music by Steve Reich, Julius Eastman, Julia Wolfe, Mira Calix and Anna Clyne.

The London Sinfonietta Plays Xenakis, Wolfgang Rihm, Colin Matthews And Birtwistle20180123Over the past half-century, the London Sinfonietta has been at the forefront of new music performance, racking up an impressive commissioning record with many of the greatest composers of our times. 'Landmarks', recorded last November at St John's Smith Square, was part of the London Sinfonietta's 50th anniversary season and showcased a handful of iconic Sinfonietta commissions from the last century, written for their classic one-to-a-part formation.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Iannis Xenakis: Thallein for chamber orchestra (1984)

Colin Matthews: Contraflow (1992)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

8.10pm Interval music (from CD)

P退rotin: Viderunt omnes

Early Music Consort of London

David Munrow (conductor)

8.25pm

Wolfgang Rihm: Chiffre ii: Silence to be beaten (1983)

Harrison Birtwistle: Silbury Air (1977)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor).

Martyn Brabbins conducts the London Sinfonietta in a programme of modern classics.

The London Symphony Orchestra20180423The London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, London

Presented by Ian Skelly

7.30pm

Tippett The Rose Lake

c.8.00pm

Interval Music

c.8.20pm

Mahler compl Cooke Symphony no. 10

Simon Rattle (conductor)

Ian Skelly presents the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle, recorded at the Barbican last night. The programme comprises the final works of Michael Tippett and Gustav Mahler. Tippett described The Rose Lake as a song without words for orchestra, and was inspired by journeys to Lake Retba in Senegal. Mahler's final symphony was written as he suffered with a fatal heart condition, and was left incomplete at his death.

The London Symphony Orchestra perform Tippett and Mahler's final works.

The Lpo And Vladimir Jurowski Play Debussy, Stravinsky And Shostakovich20180418Live from the Royal Festival Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Stravinsky: Symphony in C

Stravinsky: Tango

Debussy: Fantaisie

8.15: Interval

Shostakovich Symphony No. 6

Leif Ove Andsnes, piano

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

By the outbreak of the Second World War, Stravinsky was a musical omnivore - and as he started a new life under the Californian sun in 1940, everything he touched came out bold, provocative and sparkling new. Vladimir Jurowski opens the programme with Stravinsky's brilliant deconstruction of the Classical symphony, before Leif Ove Andsnes breathes fresh life into Debussy's early Fantaisie. Meanwhile, back in the USSR, Dmitri Shostakovich confronted an altogether bleaker reality. His extraordinary Sixth Symphony, written on the eve of the conflict, is a compelling, sometimes terrifying collision between pitch-black sorrow and sheer, uproarious farce.

The Lso And Sir Antonio Pappano20220630Presented by Martin Handley

Sir Antonio Pappano explores some of the less well-known byways of Italian music, including Gabrieli, Vivaldi, Petrassi and Puccini.

The concert opens with two of Giovanni Gabrieli's canzone for multiple brass choirs, specially designed to suit the acoustics of a Venetian church. After a Vivaldi masterpiece much admired by Bach comes one of Petrassi's eight Concertos for Orchestra - No 5 is a virtuoso tour-de-force written to show off the brilliance of the Boston Symphony. In his graduation piece for the Milan Conservatory, the Capriccio Sinfonico, Puccini set the scene for later works: themes from La Boh耀me and Tosca appear more or less note by note. The extraordinary Juventus of 1919 by Victor de Sabata is a luscious hymn to youth by a composer who would become one of Italy's greatest conductors.

Giovanni Gabrieli: Canzone for Brass

Vivaldi: Concerto for Four Violins in B minor

Petrassi: Concerto for Orchestra No. 5

Interval

Puccini: Capriccio sinf nico

De Sabata: Juventus

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Antonio Pappano, conductor

Concert recorded at the Barbican, London, on 2nd June.

Sir Antonio Pappano explores some of the byways of Italian music.

The Lso And Sir Simon Rattle20220920Presented by Ian Skelly

As the LSO's Music Director, Sir Simon Rattle makes a point of beginning each new season with a celebration of British music in all its diversity - past, present and future. Tonight's concert begins with Sun Poem, a recent piece about the journey of fatherhood by Daniel Kidane. In the words of one reviewer: `A single muted trumpet note sounded hesitantly, which gave birth to another note in the flutes, then another in the brass. Suddenly the whole orchestra seemed to be capering madly, suggesting an enticing future ahead of the new-born.`

After this, Frank Bridge celebrates the dazzling rebirth of nature in Enter Spring, and Elgar traces what he called 'the passionate pilgrimage of the soul' in his Second Symphony.

Daniel Kidane: Sun Poem

Frank Bridge: Enter Spring

Edward Elgar: Symphony No 2

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

Concert recorded at the Barbican, London, on 11th September.

Sir Simon Rattle opens the LSO's new season with music by Kidane, Bridge and Elgar.

The Lso And Sir Simon Rattle Play Holst And Britten20180917The LSO and Sir Simon Rattle play works by Birtwistle, Holst and Turnage alongside Britten's Spring Symphony.

Recorded at the Barbican hall, London on 16th September.

Birtwistle: Donum Simoni MMXVIII * (premiere)

Holst: Egdon Heath

Turnage: Dispelling the Fears

8.15: Interval

Britten: Spring Symphony

Philip Cobb, Gကbor Tark怀vi, trumpets

Elizabeth Watts, soprano

Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano

Allan Clayton, tenor

London Symphony Chorus

Tiffin Boys' Choir

Tiffin Children's Chorus

The Tiffin Girls' School Choir

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

The LSO opens its new season with an all-British programme, featuring the world premiere of Sir Harrison Birtwistle's new Fanfare and Mark-Anthony Turnage's double trumpet concerto Dispelling the Fears.

Holst's Egdon Heath evokes the world of Thomas Hardy's major works, a place ‘accordant with man's nature - neither ghastly, hateful, nor ugly; - but, like man, slighted and enduring'. Britten's symphony, by contrast, reflects on ‘the progress of winter to spring and the reawakening of the earth and life'.

The Mozartists20190708The Mozartists explore Mozart's travels across Europe, featuring works composed in London, The Hague, Paris, Munich, Vienna, Prague and Rome. The music includes two of Mozart's finest early symphonies, three arias sung by award-winning soprano Louise Alder, and two of the composer's most popular concertos, performed by principals of the company's outstanding period-instrument orchestra.

Presented live from Wigmore Hall by Martin Handley.

7.30pm - LIVE

Symphony No. 1 in E flat K16

O temerario Arbace - Per quel paterno amplesso K79

Concerto in C for flute and harp K299

Idomeneo K366

Se il padre perdei

Horn Concerto No. 4 in E flat K495

Bella mia fiamma - Resta, o cara K528

Symphony No. 10 in G K74

Ian Page conductor

Louise Alder soprano

Katy Bircher flute

Oliver Wass harp

Gavin Edwards horn

Martin Handley presents The Mozartists, live from London's Wigmore Hall.

The Mozartists20200604Another chance to hear The Mozartists exploring Mozart's travels across Europe, featuring works composed in London, The Hague, Paris, Munich, Vienna, Prague and Rome. The music includes two of Mozart's finest early symphonies, three arias sung by award-winning soprano Louise Alder, and two of the composer's most popular concertos, performed by principals of the company's outstanding period-instrument orchestra.

Presented from Wigmore Hall by Martin Handley.

7.30pm

Symphony No. 1 in E flat K16

O temerario Arbace - Per quel paterno amplesso K79

Concerto in C for flute and harp K299

Idomeneo K366

Se il padre perdei

Horn Concerto No. 4 in E flat K495

Bella mia fiamma - Resta, o cara K528

Symphony No. 10 in G K74

Ian Page conductor

Louise Alder soprano

Katy Bircher flute

Oliver Wass harp

Gavin Edwards horn

Martin Handley presents The Mozartists, from London's Wigmore Hall.

The Musical Memory Palace20171013Live from Maida Vale Studios, Sarah Walker joins Aurora Orchestra to present a concert devoted memory and music. In the first half, ancient Greece, a much admired flautist and New England are recalled by Claude Debussy, Pierre Boulez and Charles Ives.

After the interval Aurora Orchestra, famous for its feats of memory, turn the tables and ask the audience to do the memorising in a session you will never forget!

Enter the Musical Memory Palace as, with the help of Aurora Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Collon, Grandmaster of Memory Ed Cooke shows you how to memorise the dramatic and complex first movement of Mozart's late, great Symphony No. 40, before the orchestra play the complete symphony. Listeners at home will be able to join in by following online a series of the same mnemonic symbols that the audience is seeing.

Part of Why Music? The Key to Memory, a weekend of live events, concerts and discussions exploring the implications of music's unique capacity to be remembered, produced by Radio 3 in partnership with Wellcome Collection.

Debussy: Syrinx

Boulez: M退moriale

Ives: 3 Places in New England

8.25pm Interval

Baritone Peter Snipp describes the difficulties and pitfalls of opera singing, including having to remember all the words at the same time as singing, acting, and coming on and off stage at the right moment.

8.45pm

Mozart: Symphony No.40 in G minor, K.550

Jane Mitchell, flute

Ed Cooke, Grandmaster of Memory

Nicholas Collon, conductor.

The Aurora Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon perform Debussy, Boulez, Ives and Mozart

The Nash Ensemble At Wigmore Hall20170105The Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall's Resident Chamber Ensemble, perform music from their series 'Vienna and its Empire

Introduced by Ian Skelly.

Leoš Janက?ek: Mlကd퀀 (Youth) - suite for wind sextet

Smetana: Rybကr (The fisher boy) B.138 for reciter, accordion, harp and strings

Dvo?ကk: Pisne milostne (Love songs) Op.83 (arranged David Matthews for voice & strings)

8.20 pm Interval: Music from the recent recording of 'Les Mysteres d'Isis' with Renata Pokupic and Le Concert Spirituel conducted by Diego Fasolis. This was a freely-adapted version for the Paris Opera of Mozart's The Magic Flute, dating from 1801.

8.40 pm Part Two

Dvo?ကk: Piano Quintet no.2 in A major Op.81 for piano and strings

Renata Pokupi? (mezzo-soprano)

Music from the Czech lands, which were once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, are performed by the Nash Ensemble with Croatian mezzo-soprano Renata Pokupi?. Janက?ek's wind sextet 'Mlကd퀀' looks back to his youth as a choirboy; Rybကr (The fisher boy) by Smetana was composed as a 'tableau vivant' in 1869, a recitation of Goethe's poem 'Der Fischer', originally with a dramatic backdrop; Dvo?ကk composed his Love Songs in 1888, a revised version of his youthful song cycle 'Cypresses'; and his Piano Quintet No.2 was inspired by Czech folk music.

The Nash Ensemble and mezzo-soprano Renata Pokupic perform Janacek, Smetana and Dvorak.

The National Youth Orchestra Of Great Britain Plays Music, By Liadov, Dukas And Bartok.20180109The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain plays music by Liadov, Dukas and Bartok, recorded at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham on 6th January and introduced by Ian Skelly.

Part 1

Liadov: The Enchanted Lake

Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

7.55: Interval

Ian Skelly in conversation with Mark Elder, Sarah Alexander - Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the NYO - and the current orchestra leader Patrick Bevan.

Plus a selection of music from disc from Book VI of Bartok's Mikrokosmos.

No 140 Free Variation

No 142 From the Diary of a Fly

No 143 Dividee Arpeggios

No 146 Ostinato

No 147 March

Zoltan Kocsis (piano)

Part 2

8.14: Bart k Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Robert Hayward (bass-baritone), Bluebeard

Rinat Shaham (mezzo-soprano), Judith

Prologue:

Members of the National Youth Theatre:

Charlotte Burke

Elizabeth Slater

Riccardo Roma

Zara Ramtohul-Akbur

Sir Mark Elder, conductor

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain marks the start of its 70th anniversary by taking listeners on a musical journey into the mystical, the magical and the fantastical, culminating with Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle. It is the first time the orchestra has presented a full length opera. The NYO are joined by members of the National Youth Theatre for a chilling tale of a determined young bride who uncovers the dark truth about her new husband. The performance is brought to life with lighting, acting and theatre conceived by director Daisy Evans.

The episode image for this programme is by Children's Laureate Chris Riddell, the National Youth Orchestra's first ever Artist in Residence.

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain plays music by Liadov, Dukas and Bartok.

The North German Radio Philharmonic At 7520211011The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra at 75.

Fiona Talkington introduces two of the concerts given this summer at the orchestra's home at the Elbphilharmonie to mark its seventy-fifth anniversary. In the first, the orchestra is joined by the Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and star trumpeter H倀kan Hardenberger for a performance of a trumpet concerto by Bernd Alois Zimmermann premiered by this orchestra in 1955. The score is based on the spiritual 'Nobody knows de trouble I see«,' a sign of solidarity with the oppressed black population of the USA. And in the second concert, they are directed by Alan Gilbert, their current Principal, who moved from the New York Philharmonic to join them in 2019.

Falla: Suite from El amor brujo

Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Nobody knows the trouble I see (Trumpet Concerto)

Ginastera: Variaciones concertantes, Op.23

H倀kan Hardenberger (trumpet)

Carlos Miguel Prieto (conductor)

at c. 8.30pm

Interval music: former Radio 3 New Generation Artist, soprano Fatma Said sings songs by the playwright-composer Federico Garcia Lorca and Manuel de Falla with the guitarist Rafael Aguirre.

at c. 8.40pm

Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio Espagnol

Copland: Appalachian Spring Suite

Ravel: Bolero

Alan Gilbert (conductor)

Image credit: Michael Zapf

The NDR Philharmonie Orchestra at 75: favourites by Falla, Copland and Ravel

The Ordering Of Moses20220511The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and conductor Joshua Weilerstein give the UK premiere of Nathaniel Dett's sweeping oratorio The Ordering of Moses.

Charles Ives: Variations on America

Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story: Symphonic Dances

Joshua Weilerstein - conductor

INTERVAL

During the interval pianist Claire Hammond performs a selection of short piano pieces by Nathaniel Dett:

'Barcarolle of Tears'

'Winter'

Nepenthe and the Muse

'Inspiraton Waltzes'

PART TWO

c.20.25

Nathaniel Dett: The Ordering of Moses (UK Premiere)

Nadine Benjamin - Soprano

Chrystal E Williams - Mezzo Soprano

Rodrick Dixon - Tenor

Eric Greene - Baritone

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus

The CBSO give the UK premiere of Nathaniel Dett's oratorio The Ordering of Moses.

The Organ Resounds20190925David Briggs puts the spectacular new organ at Llandaff Cathedral through its paces in its first radio broadcast since the instrument was installed there in 2010. David makes the most of its sumptuous colours and room filling power in a programme that features his own version of Saint-Sa뀀ns's famous ‘Organ Symphony' finale, Widor in prayerful mode and Dupr退 at his most flamboyant. Plus, David puts to the test his reputation as one of the world's greatest exponents in the art of extemporisation. The entire second half of his programme comprises a full-length, fully improvised organ symphony; a technical and musical feat that has to be heard to be believed.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Saint-Sa뀀ns (transc. Briggs): Finale from Symphony No.3 in C minor, Op.78

Bach: Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier BWV 731

Bach: Pi耀ce d'orgue BWV 572

Widor: Andante sostenuto (Symphonie gothique)

Dupr退: Deuxi耀me Symphonie, Op 26

INTERVAL

David Briggs: Symphonie improvis退e on Three Welsh Themes

David Briggs (organ)

David Briggs in a spectacular concert featuring a fully improvised organ symphony.

The Other Vaughan Williams20220708The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth in Ravel, a Murail concerto premiere with pianist Fran瀀ois-Fr退d退ric Guy, Vaughan Williams, and a new discovery by Franck.

Something erupted inside Ralph Vaughan Williams one morning in 1931, as he read a review of an outspoken new symphony from Europe. The violence, rage and volcanic temper that the composer subsequently channelled into his Symphony No. 4 has been retrospectively analysed as a manifestation of post-traumatic stress - the composer processing his horrific experiences from the First World War as he sensed Europe slipping towards yet another cataclysmic conflict.

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts this riveting British symphony, preceded by music from its composer's Parisian teacher Maurice Ravel, who like his pupil worked as an ambulance driver at the front during the 1914-18 conflict. In between comes a brand-new piano concerto by the French composer Tristan Murail and before it, the tantalizing world premiere of a symphonic poem by C退sar Franck discarded from his 1872 work R退demption

Recorded at the Barbican Hall on Friday 13th May

Presented by Hannah French

Maurice Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales (orchestral version)

Tristan Murail: L' Oeil du cyclone - fantaisie-impromptu for piano and orchestra (BBC co-commission and UK premiere)

8.20pm Interval (from CD)

Vaughan Williams: Suite for Pipes

Early Music Consort of London

David Munrow (director)

Cesar Franck Choral No.3 in A Minor

Olivier Latry (organ of Notre Dame, Paris)

8.50 Part 2

C退sar Franck: Symphonie from R退demption (world premiere)

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 4 in F minor

Fran瀀ois-Fr退d退ric Guy (piano)

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC SO in Ravel, Murail, Franck and Vaughan Williams.

The Paradis Files20220618Graeae Theatre Company and members of the BBC Concert Orchestra combine in Errollyn Wallen's new chamber opera The Paradis Files. Composer and pianist Maria Theresia von Paradis was a pupil of Salieri and friend of Mozart and graced the aristocratic salons of 18th-century Vienna. As she concentrates on her performing and teaching career, we uncover a dark secret from her youth as she battles against all those who insist on trying to cure her of her blindness.

Librettists Nicola Werenowska and Selina Mills

Composer Errollyn Wallen

Directed by Jenny Sealey

Maria Theresia von Paradis... Bethan Langford

Gerda, The Maid / Soprano Gossip... Ella Taylor

Hilde, The Baroness von Paradis... Maureen Brathwaite

Salieri / A Doctor / Tenor Gossip... Ben Thapa

Joseph, The Baron von Paradis / A Doctor / Baritone Gossip... Omar Ebrahim

A Doctor/ Alto Gossip... Andee-Louise Hypolite

Members of the BBC Concert Orchestra:

Violin - Charles Mutter

Double bass - Dominic Worsley

Percussion - James Gambold

Accordion - Milos Milivojevic

Piano - Jelena Marakova

Conductor Andrea Brown

Graeae Theatre and BBC Concert Orchestra in Errollyn Wallen's new opera The Paradis Files.

The Passionate Piano20190416Live from Queen Elizabeth Hall at London's Southbank Centre.

Making his International Piano Series debut, Javier Perianes performs two of Chopin's most emotionally-charged works: the Nocturnes Op 48; and his final large-scale composition for the piano, the Third Sonata.

The second half opens with Debussy's Estampes, musical explorations of geographical regions including East Asia, Granada and Normandy, and the recital concludes with the exuberant music of Perianes' native Spain in works by Falla.

Chopin: 2 Nocturnes, Op 48

Chopin: Sonata No 3 in B minor, Op 58

Interval

Debussy: Estampes

Falla: 4 Piezas espagကolas for piano

Falla: 3 Dances from The Three-cornered Hat arr. piano

Javier Perianes plays Chopin, Debussy and Falla.

The Pavel Haas Quartet Play Stravinsky, Ravel, Dvorak At Wigmore Hall20200602From Wigmore Hall in 2017 The Pavel Haas Quartet music by Stravinsky, Ravel and Dvorak.

The Pavel Haas Quartet have won many awards for their recordings of the music of Smetana and Janacek. Tonight they are joined by viola player Pavel Nikl for more music from their Czech homeland. And they pair this with a classic of the French repertoire.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Stravinsky: Concertino for string quartet

Ravel: String Quartet in F major

INTERVAL music: Andras Schiff plays movements from Janacek's On an overgrown path.

Dvo?ကk: String Quintet in E flat major, Op. 97

Pavel Haas Quartet with Pavel Nikl (viola)

Written in 1920 to enliven the famous Flonzaley Quartet's repertoire, Stravinsky's brief Concertino revels in the contrasts and tension between two different scales.

It prefaces the Pavel Haas Quartet's exploration of Ravel's String Quartet in F, an emblem of poise and playfulness, and Dvo?ကk's sonorous 'viola quintet', written in the summer of 1893 in Spillville, Iowa.

From Wigmore Hall, the Pavel Haas Quartet play music by Stravinsky, Ravel and Dvorak.

The Philharmonia And V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson In Mahler And John Adams20220927The Philharmonia opens its new season with Mahler's 5th Symphony.

Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts Mahler's most famous symphony with its sinister opening trumpet fanfare and haunting Adagietto. And before that the Icelandic pianist V퀀kingur Ӏlafsson brings his dazzling brand of pianism to a piano concerto from American minimalist John Adams inspired by the sounds of American funk and rock music. And to begin, a celebratory work from Anna Clyne, the orchestra's featured composer, inspired by London's 18th-century pleasure gardens.

Presented from the Royal Festival Hall by Martin Handley

Anna Clyne: Masquerade

John Adam: Must the Devil have all the good tunes?

— Interval —

Mahler: Symphony no. 5 in C sharp minor

V퀀kingur Ӏlafsson (piano)

Philharmonia Orchestra

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

The Philharmonia At The Royal Festival Hall20221007Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in Mahler and Korngold at the Royal Festival Hall.

The Philharmonia and their principal conductor are joined by violinist Carolin Widmann for the Hollywood-drenched Violin Concerto by Erich Korngold and, after the interval, the orchestra plays Mahler's First Symphony which begins almost imperceptibly before a spring dawn appears, it then passes via a Jewish wedding and an Alpine village dance before building to a thrilling climax with all seven horns of the orchestras horn section on their feet, bells in the air. The programme opens though with the hushed strings of the Philharmonia in the poignant Lyric for strings by George Walker, a work similar in mood to Barber's more famous Adagio.

Presented by Martin Handley.

George Walker: Lyric for Strings

Korngold: Violin Concerto in D major Op.35

at c. 8.10pm -Interval music: tenor, Ilker Arcayürek sings Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer - some of which found their way into his First Symphony.

at c.8.35pm

Mahler: Symphony no. 1 in D major

Carolin Widmann (violin)

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

The Philharmonia in Mahler's First Symphony and Korngold at the Royal Festival Hall

The Philharmonia Perform Bruckner, Wagner And Schoenberg20200319Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia in Wagner, Schoenberg and Bruckner. Exploring the nature and intensity of love, Wagner brings to life the tragic beauty in the story of Tristan und Isolde, while the lyricism of Schoenberg's early tone poem Verkl䀀rte Nacht reveals his feelings for the woman he would later marry. Bruckner's Seventh Symphony (one of his most popular works) is a musical monument to Wagner. Bruckner began writing it in anticipation of Wagner's death (as he was in poor health), and featured four Wagner tubas - the first time the instrument appeared in a symphony. Far from being mournful, the work is ultimately optimistic in character, with the final brass fanfare rounding off this late-romantic programme in a triumphant orchestral flourish.

Another chance to hear this concert recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London in September 2018 and presented by Ian Skelly

Wagner: Prelude & Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

Schoenberg: Verkl䀀rte Nacht

c.8.20

Interval

Bruckner: Symphony No 7

Philharmonia Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

Photo: © Camilla Greenwell

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia in Bruckner, Wagner and Schoenberg.

The Philharmonia Performs Bruckner, Wagner And Schoenberg20181002In the second of the Philharmonia's season-opening concerts, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts Wagner, Schoenberg and Bruckner at their most heartfelt. Exploring the nature and intensity of love, Wagner brings to life the tragic beauty in the story of Tristan und Isolde, while the lyricism of Schoenberg's early tone poem Verkl䀀rte Nacht reveals his feelings for the woman he would later marry. Bruckner's Seventh Symphony (one of his most popular works) is a musical monument to Wagner. Bruckner began writing it in anticipation of Wagner's death (as he was in poor health), and featured four Wagner tubas - the first time the instrument appeared in a symphony. Far from being mournful, the work is ultimately optimistic in character, with the final brass fanfare rounding off this late-romantic programme in a triumphant orchestral flourish.

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London

Presented by Ian Skelly

Wagner: Prelude & Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

Schoenberg: Verkl䀀rte Nacht

c.8.20

Interval

Bruckner: Symphony No 7

Philharmonia Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

Photo: © Camilla Greenwell

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia in Bruckner, Wagner and Schoenberg.

The Philharmonia Plays Mendelssohn And Brahms20180524Daniele Gatti conducts the Phiharmonia Orchestra in two of the sunniest major key symphonies of the 19th-century, each the result of happy holidays.

Like many a German before and since, Italy's climate, landscape and rich cultural history had an irresistible allure for Mendelssohn. His exuberant 'Iltalian' Symphony, full of southern sunshine and energy, directly reflects the exhilaration and joy of his ten-month tour from Milan to Naples in 1830-31. Brahms's Second Symphony, cheery chalk to the soul-searching First Symphony's cheese, was written on holiday at P怀rtschach am W怀rthersee in southern Austria. The lakeside resort quickly became a favourite with the Viennese after it got its own railway station on the line from Vienna in 1864. For Brahms. The place evidently released in Brahms a cheerful D major, unbuttoned vibe: his unclouded Second Symphony was written during his 1877 summer holiday there, and the following year he was back again, this time writing his equally relaxed and happy Violin Concerto.

Martin Handley presents, live from the Royal Festival Hall.

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op.90 ('Italian')

Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op.73

Philharmonia Orchestra

Daniele Gatti (conductor).

Daniele Gatti and the Phiharmonia Orchestra perform symphonies by Mendelssohn and Brahms.

The Radio France Philharmonic Play Shostakovich And Stravinsky20221010Vasily Petrenko conducts the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra in music by Glinka, Shostakovich and Stravinsky.

The concert opens with the tune of the Volga Boatman at the start of Glinka's seldom heard tone poem and ends with the first score that Stravinsky wrote after emigrating to the USA - in it we hear echoes of Hollywood. And, in between, the Ukraine-born Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman plays Shostakovich's last concerto, written as a 60th birthday present for his friend David Oistrach. The key he chose suggests some sort of homage to Mahler's Fifth Symphony which Shostakovich had recently heard in Vienna and also to Beethoven's Opus 131 quartet.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Glazunov: Stenka Razin, op. 13

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 2 in C sharp minor, op. 129

c. 8.20pm Interval. Current New Generation Artist, Alexander Gadjiev plays Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin's Quatre Pr退ludes Nostalgiques for Piano,

Op. 23 (1923).

Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements

Vadim Gluzman (violin)

Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

Recorded at the Auditorium of Radio France 03/06/2022

Glinka, Shostakovich and Stravinsky from the Radio France PO and Vasily Petrenko.

The Rhythm Of The Dance20210707Presented by Georgia Mann from Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden.

The accordion - the quintessential sound of the Argentian tango - takes centre stage in Piazzolla's Concerto, subtitled Aconcagua , after the highest mountain peak in South America. It's a piece with all the sultry elegance and frenzied intensity of the Latin dance-hall. Tonight it's played by the Polish virtuoso, Rafa? ?uc. The concert begins with a nod to Bach's influence on Piazzolla in the form of a transcription for violin of his F minor keyboard concerto, played by Thomas Gould, and ends with Piazzolla's most iconic pairing: the smoky Oblivion and the raw, racy Libertango.

Bach: Violin Concerto BWV 1056R

Piazzolla: Bandon退on Concerto, 'Aconcagua

Various: A medley of folk/dance arrangements for strings (from Scandinavia, Transylvania, Scotland, USA)

Piazzolla: Libertango/Oblivion

Rafa? ?uc, accordion

Britten Sinfonia

Thomas Gould, director/violin

Concert recorded on 2nd July.

Photo by Bartosz Maz.

Piazzolla at 100, with accordionist Rafa\u0142 \u0141uc, the Britten Sinfonia and Thomas Gould.

The Rite Of Spring20230223Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Stravinsky's groundbreaking ballets The Rite of Spring and Agon, alongside music by JS Bach.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Bach: Concerto for keyboard and orchestra No. 2 BWV 1053

Stravinsky: Agon

8.15 Interval: Kate introduces recent recordings to explore the themes in tonight's concert.

8.35 Part Two

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor, piano)

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's chief conductor explores the intertwined synergies of music by composers separated by 200 years: J. S. Bach and Igor Stravinsky. In the first half we'll hear Stravinsky's elegantly esoteric take on classical models in his ballet score Agon alongside Bach's crisp, clean Keyboard Concerto No. 2, directed from the piano by Ryan Wigglesworth. And in the second half we'll hear more Stravinsky: the heart-stopping, epoch-changing ballet score, The Rite of Spring.

Stravinsky's groundbreaking ballet is performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

The Roots Of Genius2019101020191008 (R3)Recorded in St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, the BBC Singers are joined by The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble and conductor Robert Howarth for a concert celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Leopold Mozart. Father of Wolfgang Amadeus and composer in his own right, the concert features works by Leopold as well as works by his contemporaries.

Kaiser Leopold I: Missa pro defunctis

Georg Reutter: Ecce quomodo moritur

František Ignကc Anton퀀n Tuma: Regis superni nuntia

Leopold Mozart: Die Jagd, Für den Herbstmonat

Leopold Mozart: Offertorium de Sanctissimo Sacramento

INTERVAL

Vinzenz Fux: Canzon a 10 Voci pro Tabula

Johann Ernst Eberlin: Christus factus est

Johann Ernst Eberlin: Universi qui te expectant

H. E. Grossman: Af hoeleyden oprunden er (Chorale)

Leopold Mozart: Missa in A

Robert Howarth - conductor

The BBC Singers celebrate the 300th anniversary of the birth of Leopold Mozart.

The Rose Lake20190417Live from the Barbican, Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Tippett's evocation of a Senegalese lake. Lisa Batiashvili joins for Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No. 1.

Presented by Martin Handley

Michael Tippett: The Rose Lake

Karol Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No 1

8pm

Interval

Claude Debussy: Pell退as et M退lisande

Suite (UK premiere), arr. Altinoglu

Lisa Batiashvili (violin)

Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

‘A song without words for orchestra', Tippett's final work was inspired by a lake in Senegal, flushed pink by the midday sun. The result is an ecstatic hymn to nature teeming with rhythmic energy and thick slashes of melody. Tippett specialist Sir Andrew Davis, conducts The Rose Lake alongside two other richly coloured works - the Suite from Debussy's shadowy fairytale opera Pell退as et M退lisande, which receives its UK premiere here, and, with Lisa Batiashvili as soloist, Szymanowski's sumptuous Violin Concerto - inspired by a poem by the Polish poet Tadeusz Mici?ski with the words 'And now we stand by the lake in crimson blossom, in flowing tears of joy, with rapture and fear....

Live from the Barbican, Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC SO in Tippett's evocation of Senegal.

The Royal Concertgebouw20200525Tugan Sokhiev conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in music by Brahms, Bartok and Tchaikovsky.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn, op. 56a

Bartok: Viola Concerto

Reger: Excerpt from 'Viola Suite No. 1

8.15: Interval:

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 in G minor, op. 13 ('Winter Daydreams')

Tabea Zimmermann, viola

Tugan Sokhiev, conductor

(Concert given on 22 August 2019 at the Royal Concertgebouw, Amsterdam)

Image Credit: Patrice Nin

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra plays Brahms.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic20210202An evening celebrating the work of one of the UK's finest orchestras, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, founded in 1840 and still very much at the heart of Liverpool's cultural life.

Tonight, a chance to hear highlights of concerts given under Chief Conductor Vasily Petrenko in recent months.

Schreker Der Geburtstag der Infantin

Respighi Il Tramonto

Shchedrin, after Bizet Carmen suite

Shostakovich Chamber Symphony, Op 110a

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo)

RLPO

ENDS

Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in Shostakovich and Schreker.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Plays Strauss And Mozart20180327Live from the Royal Festival Hall - The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra plays Strauss and Mozart.

Rafael Payare conducts two great tone poems by Richard Strauss and a Mozart symphony which began life as a lighthearted serenade.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Strauss: Don Juan, Op. 20

Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385 'Haffner

Interval music - Alban Gerhardt plays Faur退's Cello Sonata no. 2 in g minor, op. 117

R Strauss: Don Quixote, Op. 35

Alban Gerhardt (cello)

Rafael Payare (conductor).

Live from the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Philharmonic plays Strauss and Mozart.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Plays Stravinsky And Beethoven.20180516The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra plays Stravinsky's Firebird and Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with pianist Kirill Gerstein.

Live from the Royal Festival Hall, London

Presented by Ian Skelly

Stravinsky: Scherzo

The Royal Philharmonic Play Walton, Delius, Finzi And Ireland20210518The Royal Philharmonic conducted by Michael Seal play an all-English programme of well-loved and less familiar music.

William Walton's Fa瀀ade, settings of Edith Sitwell's eccentric poems, was the witty piece that made Walton's name as a young composer in the early 1920s. The RPO play it in one of the orchestral versions he made to capitalise on its catchy tunes and bring it to a wider audience. For many, Delius's On hearing the first cuckoo in spring is a quintessential evocation in music of a certain sort of English landscape. But this nostalgic and pastoral work was premiered in Germany in 1913 and has always had an international appeal. Mark Bebbington is the soloist in Gerald Finzi's beguilingly serene Eclogue for piano and strings and plays two short, impressionistic and wistful pieces for solo piano by John Ireland. The orchestra returns for Ireland's Concertino Pastorale for strings. Written on the eve of World War II, it's easy now to imagine in this music a combination of foreboding prescience and a vision of a never-the-same-again English countryside.

Recorded last week at Cadogan Hall and presented by Ian Skelly.

Walton: Fa瀀ade: Suite No. 2

Delius: On hearing the first cuckoo in spring

Finzi: Eclogue

Ireland: Month's Mind; The Island Spell (Decorations)

Ireland: Concertino Pastorale

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Mark Bebbington (piano)

Michael Seal (conductor)

The Royal Philharmonic conducted by Michael Seal perform all-English programme.

The Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 202320230306Andrew McGregor presents highlights from last week's event at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank. Regarded by many as the BAFTAs for classical music, the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards are classical music's annual good news story, shining much-needed light on inspirational individuals, groups and initiatives whose music has lifted hearts and minds across the nation. The twelve categories span classical music making in all its diversity.

Chamber-Scale Composition

Bကra G퀀slad ttir Animals of your pasture

Ben Nobuto SERENITY 2.0

Thomas Ad耀s Alchymia

Conductor

Karina Canellakis

Martyn Brabbins

Robert Ames

Ensemble

BBC Singers

Ensemble 360

Manchester Collective

Impact

Awards for Young Musicians

Opera-tic - Second Movement

The Endz - The Multi-Story Orchestra

Bradford Festival Choral Society

C䀀r CF1

Torbay Symphony Orchestra

Tredegar Town Band

Ula Weber

Instrumentalist

Abel Selaocoe - cello

Adam Walker - flute

Elena Urioste - violin

Large-Scale Composition

Gavin Higgins Concerto Grosso for Brass Band and Orchestra

George Lewis Minds in Flux

Joe Cutler Concerto Grosso

Rebecca Saunders To an utterance

Opera and Music Theatre

Bluebeard's Castle - Theatre of Sound and Opera Ventures

Orfeo - Garsington Opera

Scottish Opera

The Handmaid's Tale - English National Opera

Series and Events

Leeds Piano Trail

Oxford Lieder Festival

Ryedale Festival

Sound Festival

Anna Dennis soprano

Lise Davidsen soprano

Lucy Schaufer mezzo-soprano

Storytelling

Sound Within Sound - Kate Molleson

The Great Passion - James Runcie

Untold: Keith - Manchester Camerata

Young Artist

Nardus Williams - soprano

Tangram

Timothy Ridout - viola

The Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 2023 from Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank.

The Rpo At 7520210921Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London

Presented by Martin Handley

Tonight the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates its 75th anniversary with a star-studded concert at the Royal Albert Hall. This very special occasion also welcomes Vasily Petrenko as the RPO's new Music Director.

The programme will feature masterpieces written by three great English composers, Delius, Elgar and Walton, all of whom closely associated with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and its founder Sir Thomas Beecham.

Joining Vasily Petrenko and the RPO are Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who will play Elgar's beautiful and introspective Cello Concerto, whilst Sir Bryn Terfel will take the solo role in William Walton's dramatic cantata, Belshazzar's Feast, supported by the Philharmonia Chorus.

Delius: Over the Hills and Far Away

Elgar: Cello Concerto

8.15: Interval

Walton: Belshazzar's Feast

Sir Bryn Terfel, Baritone

Sheku Kanneh-Mason MBE, Cello

Vasily Petrenko Conductor

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary.

The Rps Awards 201720170514Petroc Trelawny presents highlights of Tuesday night's ceremony at The Brewery in London, at which the winners of the 2017 Awards from the Royal Philharmonic Society were announced by Sarah Walker and Andrew McGregor

The RPS Music Awards are the highest recognition for live classical music-making in the United Kingdom and reflect their guiding principles of Excellence, Creativity and Understanding

These independent awards were set up in 1989 to celebrate the outstanding musical achievements of both young and established, British and International, musicians

The Awards are peer-judged. Each category is decided by an eminent jury from the music profession. The list of winners since 1989 reads as a roll call of the finest living musicians

The awards honour a broad sweep of live music making including categories for performers, composers, inspirational arts organisations learning, participation and engagement. There is no restriction on the nationality of recipients, but the awards are for achievements within the United Kingdom

The Royal Philharmonic Society has been at the heart of music for over 200 years and is dedicated to creating a future for music. It is one of the world's oldest music societies and has a thriving membership.

Petroc Trelawny presents highlights of 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards ceremony.

The Rps Awards From The Brewery In London20180514Andrew McGregor presents highlights of Wednesday night's ceremony at The Brewery in London, at which the winners of the 2018 Awards from the Royal Philharmonic Society were announced by Georgia Mann and Petroc Trelawny

The RPS Awards are the UK's most prestigious awards for live classical music, and this year's shortlists are particularly wide-ranging. Over 50 musicians, ensembles and organisations nationwide are in contention for this year's awards, which celebrate outstanding music making in 2017. The shortlists reveal a kaleidoscope of musical talent, invention and imagination, whether in the concert hall or on the opera stage, in the community or online, in written word, film or for the first time, via virtual reality.

These independent awards were set up in 1989 to celebrate the outstanding musical achievements of both young and established, British and International, musicians

The Awards are peer-judged. Each category is decided by an eminent jury from the music profession. The list of winners since 1989 reads as a roll call of the finest living musicians

The awards honour a broad sweep of live music making including categories for performers, composers, inspirational arts organisations learning, participation and engagement. There is no restriction on the nationality of recipients, but the awards are for achievements within the United Kingdom

The Royal Philharmonic Society has been at the heart of music for over 200 years and is dedicated to creating a future for music. It is one of the world's oldest music societies and has a thriving membership.

Highlights of the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, announced last week.

The Rsno, Catriona Morison And Thomas Sondergard In Grieg, Ravel And Rachmaninov20181016Newly appointed Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Thomas Sondergard begins this evening's concert with Grieg's Peer Gynt Suites 1 & 2, before former Cardiff singer of the world winner and Radio 3 New Generation Artist Catriona Morison joins them to perform Ravel's exotic orchestral song cycle Sheherazade. The concert closes with Rachmaninov's hugely ambitious and passionate First Symphony that he believed ‘opened up entirely new paths'. It was dedicated rather enigmatically to' A.L' thought to be Anna Lodzhenskaya, the wife of a friend and it shares the biblical quotation 'Vengeance is mine, I shall repay' which was also used to preface Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. We can only speculate as to what if anything was the relationship between the composer and this Anna.

Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites No1 and No2

Movement order;

Morning Mood

The Abduction of the Bride

Arabian Dance

Peer Gynt's Journey Home

Aase's Death

Anitra's Dance

Solveig's Song

In the Hall of the Mountain King

Ravel: Sh退h退razade

Interval: Sibelius En Saga Op. 9, BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Rachmaninov: Symphony No1

Catriona Morison - mezzo soprano

Thomas Sondergard - conductor

Presenter - Kate Molleson

Producer - Laura Metcalfe

Thomas Sondergard begins his tenure with RSNO with Grieg, Ravel and Rachmaninov

The Schumanns: Husband And Wife20190321Recorded at Kings Place, London

Presented by Ian Skelly

The Kungsbacka Trio with music by Robert and Clara Schumann.

Robert Schumann: Six Canonic Studies, Op. 56

Clara Schumann: Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17

8.15: Interval

Natalie Klouda: Fantasy Triptych (2014)

Robert Schumann: Piano Trio No. 2 in F, Op. 80

The fꀀted Swedish-based Kungsbacka Trio return to Kings Place with two great works by Clara and Robert Schumann. The former penned her masterpiece of poignant poetry during a period of intense emotional upheaval, before her urgent need to earn money as an international concert pianist curtailed her composing career. A year later came Robert's visionary essay in the form, with its musical references to his beloved Clara, for whom he had fought so long. Prefacing this is Natalie Klouda's deft exploration of the intense three-way relationship between Robert, Clara and Johannes Brahms, Fantasy Triptych.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra And Elisabeth Leonskaja Play Beethoven20180206Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, on 2nd February

Prokofiev: Symphony No 1 'Classical

Shostakovich arr. Barshai: Chamber Symphony, Op 110a

8.15: Interval

8.35

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 5 'Emperor

Elisabeth Leonskaja, piano

Clemens Schuldt, conductor

Elisabeth Leonskaja, now in her seventies, brings the experience and insight of decades to Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto.

In the first half, Clemens Schuldt acknowledges Leonskaja's heritage with two hugely popular symphonies by the greatest Soviet composers. The shenanigans and wit of Prokofiev's 'Classical' contrast starkly with the intense tragedy unleashed by Shostakovich.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Produced by Laura Metalfe.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Joseph Swensen And Amy Dickson Perform Sibelius, Macmillan, Glazunov And Beethoven20180417From the City Halls in Glasgow, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra is joined by Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen for a varied concert programme featuring Sibelius, Beethoven and a double-bill of saxophone concertos written over eighty years apart. Amy Dickson joins the ensemble to perform Glazunov's Saxophone concerto in the second half of the concert. In the first half she plays a new concerto from composer James MacMillan, jointly commissioned by Perth Concert Hall, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Aurora Orchestra.

Presented by Tom Redmond.

Sibelius: Pell退as et M退lisande

James MacMillan: Saxophone Concerto - World Premiere Recording

INTERVAL

Glazunov: Saxophone Concerto

Beethoven: Symphony No 8

Amy Dickson, saxophone

Joseph Swensen, conductor.

Joseph Swensen conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Glasgow's City Halls.

The Sex Life Of Bees And The Power Of Fate.20190201From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

This is Fate, the power of destiny, which ever prevents our pursuit of happiness from reaching its goal.' Tchaikovsky's own description of the opening theme of his Fourth Symphony reflects the turmoil of his life while he was writing it. Only, he says, by sharing in the joy of others was he able to create the resolute drive with which the Symphony ends. Stravinsky's own programme note for his Scherzo fantastique says that this piece was inspired by the life of bees 'the increasing work in the hive, continuing for generations and generations: the nuptial flight of the queen bee, with the destruction of the male, her lover in the giddy heights.' Although an early work, the colourful orchestration, daring harmonic language and whirling energy impressed Diaghilev who was later to commission some of Stravinsky's most famous scores. Imogen Cooper joins the orchestra for perhaps Mozart's most grand-scale and dramatic concerto.

Stravinsky: Scherzo fantastique

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 25 in C, K503

8.20

Music interval (CD)

Beethoven: Bagatelles Op.119

8.35

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 4 in F minor

Imogen Cooper (piano)

BBC Philharmonic

Ben Gernon (conductor)

Ben Gernon conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Mozart, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky.

The Sixteen At 4020190709On their latest stop in the 2019 Choral Pilgrimage, The Sixteen reach York Minster, where they perform choral music from the 16th and 21st centuries as part of this year's York Early Music Festival.

The Sixteen's 2019 Choral Pilgrimage brings together music past and present, highlighting the group's musical journey over the 40 years since it was founded. Their continuing close relationship with Sir James MacMillan is represented by a new commission, O virgo prudentissima, here contrasted with music by Fayrfax (which appeared on The Sixteen's very first recording) and complemented by music by Wylkynson and Sheppard. These superb examples of English polyphony are juxtaposed with stunning music by John Tavener and Eric Whitacre.

Plainsong: Salve Regina

Tavener: Hymn to the Mother of God

Sheppard: Gloria from Cantate Mass

Eric Whitacre: Sainte-Chapelle

Wylkynson: Salve Regina a9

Fayrfax: Aeternae laudis lilium

Gabriel Jackson: Ave Maria

Tavener: Hymn for the Dormition of the Mother of God

Sir James MacMillan: O virgo prudentissima

Sheppard: Agnus Dei from Cantate Mass

The Sixteen (choir)

Harry Christophers (conductor)

Presented by Hannah French

The Sixteen sing 16th- and 21st-century British classics at the York Early Music Festival.

The Sixteen At Kings Place20180115Monteverdi's music is linked to the earlier polyphonic tradition that so influenced him, and is interleaved with the Dante-inspired poetry of Seamus Heaney.

The Sixteen, recorded at Kings Place, London on 13 January 2018

Monteverdi: Missa In illo tempore

Gombert: In illo tempore

Victoria and Guerrero: Settings from the Song of Songs

Seamus Heaney: Selections from Station Island

Sean Campion, narrator

Harry Christophers, conductor

Monteverdi derived his striking Missa In illo tempore (Mass 'At that time') from a motet by Flemish maestro Nicolas Gombert, written a century earlier. Sensuous settings of the Song of Songs by the great Iberian composers Guerrero and Victoria will be woven through the Mass.

In his 1984 collection 'Station Island', Irish poet Seamus Heaney questioned his place in a nation riven by the Troubles. It includes the poem 'In illo tempore', which considers the grammar and politics of a Mass service. Heaney takes us on a Dantean voyage, encountering ghosts from his past, just as Monteverdi recalled and transformed the ideas of his forebears.

Music by Monteverdi, Guerrero and Victoria interleaved with the poetry of Seamus Heaney.

The Sixteen At York Early Music Festival 201520200714Recorded at the 2015 York Early Music Festival, tonight's concert features The Sixteen directed by Harry Christophers, performing works by two Spanish Renaissance composers: Francisco Guerrero and Alonso Lobo, who flourished in the cosmopolitan surroundings of 16th-century Seville.

Guerrero: Duo Seraphim

Lobo: Kyrie from Missa Maria Magdalene

Lobo: Libera me

Guerrero: Gloria from Missa Surge propera

Guerrero: Laudate Dominum

Guerrero: Maria Magdalene

INTERVAL

Guerrero: Credo from Missa de la batalla escoutez

Guerrero: Vexilla Regis

Lobo: Ave Regina coelorum

Lobo: Ave Maria

Lobo: Versa est in luctum

Guerrero: Agnus Dei I and II from Missa Congratulamini mihi

The Sixteen perform Lobo and Guerrero at the 2015 York Early Music Festival.

The Sixteen At York Minster20230712Marking the 400th anniversary of the death of William Byrd, an exploration of the influences, colleagues and pervading Catholic faith of one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance. As well as music by the Flemish composer Philippe De Monte - who entered into a fascinating compositional correspondence with Byrd - The Sixteen explore the sombre textures of works by Clemens non Papa that inspired Byrd's setting of Tristitia et anxietas, and take Byrd's legacy firmly into the modern day with two new works by Dobrinka Tabakova.

Presented by Hannah French.

William Byrd - Arise Lord into thy rest

Philip van Wilder - O doux regard

William Byrd - Ne irascaris / Civitas sancti tui

Philippe de Monte - O suavitas et dulcedo

Dobrinka Tabakova - Arise Lord into thy rest (new commission)

Clemens Non Papa - Tristitia et anxietas

William Byrd - Tristitia et anxietas

William Byrd - Turn our captivity

Clemens Non Papa - Ego flos campi

Dobrinka Tabakova - Turn our captivity (new commission)

Philippe de Monte - Super flumina Babylonis

William Byrd - Quomodo cantabimus?

William Byrd - Vigilate

Renaissance choral music from the York Early Music Festival.

The Sixteen From Birmingham20211214Music for Advent is at the heart of The Sixteen's concert from Birmingham, led by Harry Christophers and featuring an atmospheric mixture of the old and the new, the sacred and profane. The programme includes performances of Bob Chilcott's seasonal Advent Antiphons. Introduced by Tom McKinney.

Bob Chilcott: Advent Antiphons

1. O Sapientia

2. O Adonai

Traditional: Sans Day Carol

Alec Roth: Song of the Shepherds

Traditional: Deck the hall with boughs of holly

Murray: The Rose of Bethlehem

Victoria: Conditor alme siderum

Traditional: The Holly and the Ivy

3. O Radix Jesse

INTERVAL (From CD)

Messiaen: La Nativit退 du Seigneur Nos 1-3 (Bk1)

Richard Gowers (The organ of King's College Cambridge)

Arvo P䀀rt: Magnificat

4. O Clavis David

5. O Oriens

Traditional: Carol of the Advent

Howells: A Spotless Rose

Traditional: Wassail Song

Bob Chilcott: The Shepherd's Carol

Guerrero: Conditor alme siderum

Traditional: Christmas Eve

6. O Rex gentium

7. O Emmanuel

Victoria: Magnificat primi toni a8

Harry Christophers (director)

Harry Christophers leads The Sixteen in a concert in Birmingham with Advent at its heart.

The Sixteen, Handel20160225Live from Chichester Cathedral, The Sixteen Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Harry Christophers, in a sparkling all-Handel programme including the virtuosic Dixit Dominus.

Presented by Petroc Trelawny

Handel: Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (from 'Solomon')

Handel: Chandos Anthem no. 11 'Let God arise

Interval

Handel: Overture to Jephtha [Grave/Allegro - Menuet]

Handel: Dixit Dominus

Grace Davidson (soprano)

Charlotte Mobbs (soprano)

Katy Hill (alto)

Jeremy Budd (tenor)

Simon Berridge (tenor)

Eamonn Dougan (bass)

Harry Christophers (conductor)

Handel wrote Dixit Dominus in Rome at the start of his composing career, and shaped one of the most exciting and virtuosic choral works of the baroque era. The Sixteen Choir and Orchestra precede it with two prized Handel oratorio overtures, and the fine Chandos Anthem 'Let God Arise', written for Cannons house north of London.

Live from Chichester Cathedral, Harry Christophers conducts The Sixteen in music by Handel

The Sixteen, Palestrina And Poulenc20170711Adam Tomlinson presents a concert of sacred works by Poulenc and Palestrina, given by The Sixteen and director Harry Christophers in the magnificent York Minster as part of their Choral Pilgrimage and this year's York Early Music Festival. Palestrina and Poulenc: two sacred masters separated by four centuries. Palestrina's Mass L'Homme Arm退 is based on the popular song of the same name - a 16th-century reminder of the horror of war. Conflict also inspired Poulenc, who was deeply affected by the death of his composer friend Pierre-Octave Ferroud in an horrific car accident. His Salve Regina - one of a pair of motets - quietly expresses conveys reverence, penitence and, ultimately, hope. In contrast, Un soir de neige, composed in December 1944, juxtaposes the brutal beauty of nature with death and coldness - reflecting no doubt another bleak winter of occupation in his native France. The concluding 'Angus Dei' of his Mass in G also lays to rest any accusations of compositional flippancy, with its serene final utterance of 'Dona nobis pacem' ('give us peace').

Poulenc: Salve Regina

Palestrina: Surge amica mea; Parce mihi, Domine; Surgam et circuibo civitatem

Poulenc; Quatre motets pour un temps de p退nitence

Palestrina: Peccantem me quotidie; Kyrie and Gloria from Missa L'Homme Arm退

Poulenc: Un Soir de neige

Palestrina: Credo from Missa L'Homme Arm退; Salve Regina

Poulenc: Agnus Dei from Mass in G

Harry Christophers (director).

The Sixteen perform works by Palestrina and Poulenc at the 2017 York Early Music Festival.

The Skampa Quartet And Melvyn Tan At Wigmore Hall20180222At London's Wigmore Hall, the Skampa String Quartet play Mozart and Janက?ek, and are joined by pianist Melvyn Tan for the rarely performed Piano Quintet by Korngold.

Introduced by Martin Handley.

Mozart: String Quartet in C, K465 (Dissonance)

Janက?ek: String Quartet No 1 (Kreutzer Sonata)

8.15pm Interval

Interval music:

Korngold - Abschiedslieder op. 14

Sarah Connolly - Mezzo-soprano

William Dazeley - Bass

Iain Burnside - Piano

Part 2:

Korngold: Piano Quintet in E, Op 15

Škampa Quartet

Melvyn Tan (piano)

Encore:

Dvorak: Scherzo from Quintet no. 2 in A major op. 81

Recorded at Wigmore Hall, London, on 18 February 2018

The Škampa Quartet, from the Czech Republic, perform two of the great works of the quartet repertoire: Mozart's 'Dissonance', which takes its name from its harmonically probing slow introduction; and Janက?ek's fiercely passionate First Quartet, named after a novella by Tolstoy which in turn is named after a Beethoven Violin Sonata. After the interval they are joined by pianist Melvyn Tan for Erich Korngold's rarely heard Piano Quintet: composed in 1923 before he left Europe for Hollywood it is typically expansive and Romantic, but also an essentially good-humoured work, apparently laced with coded musical messages to his fianc退e.

The Skampa String Quartet and pianist Melvyn Tan play Mozart, Janacek and Korngold.

The Soldier's Tale20210605Actor Mark Lewis Jones and Tenor Elgan Ll?r Thomas star in a performance of Stravinsky's otherworldly drama The Soldier's Tale, with conductor Martyn Brabbins and members of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Stravinsky's theatrical work 'to be read, played, and danced' is here reimagined as a musical radio drama, in which the Devil persuades the soldier to sell him his precious violin for untold riches—but at what cost?

Recorded last October in BBC Hoddinott Hall.

Stravinsky: The Soldier's Tale

Mark Lewis Jones (Narrator; The Devil)

Elgan Ll?r Thomas (The Soldier)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Stravinsky's theatrical piece performed by Mark Lewis Jones, Elgan Ll\u0177r Thomas and BBC NOW

The Somme Remembered20160211The Somme Remembered: BBC Singers commemorate one of the bloodiest battles of World War 1.

Live from Milton Court Concert Hall

Presented by Martin Handley

Daniel Saleeb: For the Fallen

Gurney: 5 Elizabethan Songs

Cecilia McDowall: Standing as I do before God

Gabriel Jackson: Am Abend

Hindemith: Der Tod; Traumwald from Melancholie

Holst: Ode to death

Ravel: Trois Chansons; 'Prelude' from Le Tombeau de Couperin

Butterworth: 'Is my team ploughing' from A Shropshire Lad; Suite for String Quartet, first movement

Judith Bingham: An Ancient Music

Plus readings from letters, diaries and poetry from the First World War.

Samuel West, reader

The Carducci Quartet

Richard Pearce, piano

Paul Brough, conductor

The Battle of the Somme, the five-month offensive recognised as one of the bloodiest campaigns of the First World War, took place 100 years ago this summer. Tonight's concert reflects on that terrible battle and its catastrophic human cost, in words and music from both sides of the war and in pieces by composers of our own time.

A concert in which the BBC Singers commemorate the Battle of the Somme.

The Sound Of Science Fiction20190114The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, conducted by Kirill Karabits, play Rick Dior's Science Fiction (complete with theremin), John Adams' Doctor Atomic Symphony, and Jean Sibelius' Second Symphony from Warwick Arts Centre.

Rick Dior - Science Fiction

John Adams - Doctor Atomic Symphony

INTERVAL

Sibelius - Symphony No 2

Presented by Tom Redmond.

After the concert:

Adopt a Composer

The Adopt a Composer scheme is run by Making Music, in association with Sound and Music. This year seven composers have been paired with seven amateur performing groups around the country. The composer gets to work with the group over the course of a year to create a piece of music that is given its premiere performance by the ensemble, and Radio 3 is broadcasting the results.

Tonight you'll hear:

Peter Yarde Martin's piece, performed by Bellfolk Bell Ringers in Norwich.

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain performs music by Dior, Adams and Sibelius.

The Strings Of The Bbc Symphony Orchestra20210423The lush sounds of Vaughan Williams's folk-song settings of Five variants of Dives and Lazarus for strings and harp contrast with the comforting balm of a Shetland fiddle tune offered to a grieving mother in Sally Beamish's The Day Dawn. Plus a new work by Carmen Ho which explores rustling, whispering and sound masses. The BBC Symphony Orchestra Strings are joined by BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists tenor Alessandro Fisher and violist Timothy Ridout for Vaughan Williams's Four Hymns of 1914, a work of ravishing ecstasy and contemplation which sets poems by Jeremy Taylor, Isaac Watts, Richard Crashaw and Robert Bridges.

Recorded at Maida Vale Studios in March 2021

Presented by Martin Handley

Sally Beamish: The Day Dawn

Vaughan Williams: Four Hymns*

8pm Interval

Lennox Berkeley Sonatina for Guitar Op.52

Sean Shibe (guitar)

Anonymous: From John Playford's the Dancing Master (1719)

Greensleeves and Yellow Lace, The Constant Lover, The British Toper

The Happy Clown, Salley's Fancy, The Maiden's Blush, London's Glory

Joseph Payne (organ of Annisquam Village Church, Cape Ann, Massachusetts)

Concert Part 2 8.20pm

Carmen Ho: Susurrus for string orchestra (world premiere)

Vaughan Williams: Five variants of Dives and Lazarus

Alessandro Fisher (Tenor)* - BBC New Generation Artist

Timothy Ridout (Viola)* - BBC New Generation Artist

Strings and harp of the BBC Symphony Orchestra

Martyn Brabbins (Conductor)

Martyn Brabbins conducts works by Vaughan Williams, Sally Beamish and Carmen Ho.

The Swr Symphony Orchestra Perform Prokofiev's Cinderella20220912The SWR Symphony Orchestra of Stuttgart plays Rachmaninov and Prokofiev.

The highly regarded orchestra revels in Prokofiev's richly characterised ballet score. Written after his more famous Romeo and Juliet, it's a work of deep passion, wit and charm. And before that, a former winner of the Van Cliburn Competition, the Ukrainian-born pianist Vadym Kholodenko joins them for Rachmaninov's evergreen Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, op. 43

Prokofiev: Cinderella, op. 87, ballet music

Vadym Kholodenko (piano)

SWR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart,

Dima Slobodeniouk (conductor)

Recorded at the Liederhalle, Stuttgart

Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Prokofiev's ballet music for Cinderella.

The 'symphony Of The Greatness Of The Human Spirit'20220517Domingo Hindoyan conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in Prokofiev's wartime Fifth Symphony, composed in 1944 shortly after the Allied landings in Normandy. In the first half: Beethoven's Overture, Leonore No.3 and Sibelius's Violin Concerto featuring the violinist Mar퀀a Dueကas, a BBC New Generation Artist.

BEETHOVEN Overture: Leonore No 3

SIBELIUS Violin Concerto

Mar퀀a Dueကas - violin

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Domingo Hindoyan - conductor

INTERVAL

c.8.45pm

PROKOFIEV Symphony No 5

Domingo Hindoyan conducts the RLPO in Prokofiev's wartime Fifth Symphony.

The Talented Boulanger Sisters20190508James Gaffigan conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and soloists in Lili's Psalms and cantata Faust et H退l耀ne. Pianist Alexandra Dariescu joins for Nadia's Fantaisie vari退e.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall London on Saturday 6th April 2019 as part of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion: Lili and Nadia Boulanger.

Presented by Natasha Riordan.

Lili Boulanger: Psaume 24: La terre appartient

The Talented Boulanger Sisters20200527Two sisters, two extraordinary musical lives. Counting Bernstein, Copland, Glass and Carter among her pupils, Nadia Boulanger was the most important music teacher of her day, shaping the sound of the 20th century through her rigorous, idiosyncratic methods. She also opened up the realms of conducting to women as the first female conductor of several orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra. We'll hear Nadia's rarely-performed dramatic piano concerto, the Fantaisie vari退e, performed by Alexandra Dariescu.

Her sister Lili was a Prix de Rome-winning composer, a prodigy whose fragile health cut short a career of tantalising brilliance and promise at the age of just 24 in 1918. James Gaffigan, a passionate champion of Lili's music, conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and a superb line-up of soloists in a programme that includes all the composer's major works - and that gives just a taste of the original voice the world lost at her early death. There's Faust et H退l耀ne - the cantata with which Lili won the Prix de Rome - and also her final masterpiece, the brooding psalm-setting Du fond de l'abime .

Recorded at the Barbican Hall London on Saturday 6th April 2019 as part of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion: Lili and Nadia Boulanger.

Presented by Natasha Riordan.

Lili Boulanger: Psaume 24: La terre appartient

The Tallis Scholars Bridge The Centuries20230216Taverner and Tavener: The Tallis Scholars bridge the centuries in a programme which celebrates the sacred music of the Tudor master, John Taverner and his hugely popular twentieth century namesake, Sir John Tavener, who died ten years ago this year.

Celebrating their fiftieth anniversary this year, the Tallis Scholars have performed over 2400 concerts worldwide, bringing Renaissance works to audiences in churches, cathedrals and venues on every continent on the planet except Antarctica. They have also championed the music of contemporary composers, among them Sir John Tavener. Tonight's programme includes two works written by him especially for the Tallis Scholars. The hushed mysticism of his music, which caught the mood of the late twentieth century, promises to be the perfect foil for the expansive polyphonic lines of his Renaissance counterpart, the undisputed master of his generation.

Recorded last week at Cadogan Hall, London and introduced by Ian Skelly.

John Taverner (c1490 - 1545): Dum transisset Sabbatum I

John Tavener (1944 - 2013): As one who has slept

John Tavener: Funeral ikos (The Greek funeral sentences)

John Taverner: In pace in idipsum for 4 voices

John Taverner: Dum transisset Sabbatum II

c. 8.15pm

Interval Music: pianist Kit Armstrong plays William Byrd's The Bells and Steven Isserlis leads in his multi-cello arrangement of one of John Tavener's last works, his Preces and Responses.

c. 8.30pm

John Tavener: Song for Athene

John Tavener: The Lamb

John Tavener: The Lord's prayer

John Taverner: Quemadmodum

John Taverner: Gaude plurimum for 5 voices

Peter Phillips (director)

The Tallis Scholars sing motets by the Tudor John Taverner and his namesake, John Tavener.

The Teenage Mozart20190405Live from Glasgow, Nicola Benedetti joins the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to play and direct from the violin two of Mozart's sparkling and well-loved concertos, written in 1775 when he was just 19. Mozart's Concerto No 5 K219 was the last violin concerto he would write, nicknamed the ‘Turkish' after certain complex rhythms and col legno effects in the low strings. Mozart performed his Concerto No 3 K216 himself whilst visiting a Germany monastery. He wrote to his father that ‘During the meal we had some music. ... I played my concerto, which went like oil. Everyone praised my beautiful, pure tone.' Before the interval, another work by Mozart, his ‘Haffner' symphony, written to celebrate the ennoblement of a family friend Sigmund Haffner. After the interval the SCO strings perform a work by their Composer in Residence, the Grammy nominated Anna Clyne.

Mozart: Violin Concerto No 3 in G, K216 *

Mozart: Symphony No 35 in D, K385 ‘Haffner' **

20:15

Anna Clyne: Night Ferry performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra

20:35

Anna Clyne: Within her Arms **

Mozart: Violin Concerto No 5 in A, K219 ‘Turkish' *

Nicola Benedetti Violin/Director *

Benjamin Marquise Gilmore Violin/Director **

Presenter - Kate Molleson

Producer - Laura Metcalfe

Live from Glasgow, Nicola Benedetti joins the SCO in two sparkling violin concertos.

The Temple Church Resounds20210611Live from the Temple Church, London. The boys of the Temple Church Choir sing music ranging from Bach and Handel to Poulenc and the famous Temple organ is heard in some classics of the repertoire. The concert concludes with the world premiere of a new work by Kenneth Hesketh with texts gathered by the choristers: 'Songs from a time of virus

Presented by Martin Handley.

Britten: Missa Brevis in D, op.63

Alan Ridout: Sacred Songs for treble voices (Set 2)

Stanford: A Song of Wisdom

William Harris: Flourish for an occasion

Handel: O lovely peace (from Judas Maccabeus)

Bach: Ich folge dir gleichfalls (from St John Passion BWV 245)

Bach: Toccata in F, BWV 540

Poulenc: Litanies

The Transports20180110Verity Sharp presents the new production, featuring many of Britain's finest younger folk musicians, of Peter Bellamy's famous ballad opera The Transports, recorded live at the Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House.

7.30 The Transports: Part One

8.20 Interval Feature: A Portrait of Peter Bellamy

Verity Sharp sketches a portrait, in words and music, of The Transports' composer, Peter Bellamy, revealing a complex, troubled character and rather an outsider. He admired Rudyard Kipling, when most dismissed him as an imperialist, for giving voice to ordinary soldiers, and set his Barrack-Room Ballads. There are contributions from Heather Wood, who sang with Bellamy in The Young Tradition, in which he came to fame in the 1960s; the singer Martin Carthy; fellow Norfolk musician Damien Barber, who was mentored by Bellamy; Jon Boden, a musician much influenced by Bellamy; and his widow, Jenny Bellamy. It features, too, Bellamy's own music, with his distinctive singing.

8.40 The Transports: Part Two

Susannah Holmes ..... Rachel McShane (cello, vocals)

Henry Kable ..... Sean Cooney (vocals)

Narrator ..... Matthew Crampton (vocals)

Abe Carman ..... David Eagle (vocals, accordion)

The Coachman ..... Michael Hughes (vocals)

The Mother ..... Nancy Kerr (fiddle, vocals)

The Convict ..... Benji Kirkpatrick (guitar, bouzouki, vocals)

The Shantyman ..... Saul Rose (melodeons, vocals)

John Simpson, the humane turnkey ..... Greg Russell (guitar, vocals)

The Father ..... Paul Sartin (oboe, cor anglais, fiddle, vocals)

The Transports tells true story of Susannah Holmes and Henry Kable. She was convicted of stealing £2's-worth of spoons and linen. He broke into a house. Both were sentenced to death in 1784. This was commuted to transportation. They met in Norwich gaol, fell in love and had a child and, after forced separation and great anguish, and the stubborn compassion of a humane turnkey, sailed on the First Fleet to Australia. This sounds like a traditional song and it inspired the folk singer Peter Bellamy to compose a cycle of ballads. The Transports was recorded in 1977, with arrangements by Dolly Collins and a glittering roster of musicians - Dave Swarbrick, Nic Jones, June Tabor, Mike & Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy - and this album is one of the monuments of English folk music. The new production features a new generation of musicians of similar calibre: BBC Folk Award winners The Young 'Uns, Nancy Kerr, members of Bellowhead and Faustus. Bellamy's songs have been arranged afresh by Paul Sartin and narrator Matthew Crampton weaves the story through them with new material linking Susannah Holmes and Henry Kable's story with the experience of refugees and migrants today.

Producer: Julian May.

Britain's finest young folk musicians perform Peter Bellamy's ballad opera The Transports.

The Triumph Of Time20230301From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

Conductor Ludovic Morlot joins the orchestra for a programme exploring our experiences of time. At the centre of the programme is Dutilleux's 'Le temps l'horloge' (Time, clock); Soprano Elizabeth Atherton joins the BBC Philharmonic for this, his last important work. Through poetry by Charles Baudelaire, Robert Desnos and Jean Tardieu he explores different facets of our experience; 'The other day I listened to time passing in the clock' are the soprano's opening lines. The second poem is a meditation on timelessness beside an ancient artefact, and in the last, Baudelaire advocates getting drunk as a way of escaping time altogether.

A 16th-century Flemish woodcut by Pieter Bruegel the Elder provides inspiration for Harrison Birtwistle's 1971 classic, 'The Triumph of Time'. At the centre of this allegorical picture, suspended from a tree, is a fascinating early chiming clock accompanied by weighing scales. The inexorable tread of a cortege with Death on a horse and an elephant at the rear are integral to this stunning music.

Betsy Jolas describes her work 'A Little Summer Music' as 'walking stroll' and it contains a section she calls 'knocks and clocks'. Ravel's iconic Bol退ro with its unrelenting side-drum-propelled forward tread invites the orchestra to use time to explore texture and colour before its emphatic conclusion.

Honegger's Pacific 2-3-1 is a picture of a powerful steam locomotive starting, reaching full speed and then reaching its destination. Beyond this, and a famous 1949 French film based on the music, Honegger admitted he was experimenting with time 'giving the impression of a mathematical acceleration of rhythm, while the movement itself slowed'. And time is certainly of the essence in Dukas's Sorcerer's Apprentice; the sorcerer returns in the nick of time to prevent watery catastrophe.

Honegger: Pacific 2-3-1

Jolas: A Little Summer Suite

Dutilleux: Le temps, l'horloge

Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

8.15 Music Interval (CD)

Birtwistle: Harrison's Clocks - Clock 1 (Joanna MacGregor)

Brahms: Verlorene Jugend (Consortium, Andrew-John Smith)

Beethoven: Piece for Musical Clock WoO.33 - No.2 Scherzo (Hans-Ola Ericsson)

Haydn: Piece for Musical Clock H.19.9 - Minuet (Hans-Ola Ericsson)

Dowland: Time stands still (Ed Lyon, Theatre of the Ayre)

Lassus: In hora ultima (Capella Sancti Michaeli, Currende Consort)

8.30

Birtwistle: The Triumph of Time

Ravel: Bol退ro

Elizabeth Atherton (soprano)

Ludovic Morlot (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and conductor Ludovic Morlot explore our experiences of time.

The Vienna Philharmonic Plays Strauss And Ligeti At The Salzburg Festival20230920Daniel Harding conducts the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival.

Recorded last month at the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg, the Vienna Philharmonic paired the ageing Strauss's moving Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings with his epic Also sprach Zarathustra. And, as a centenary hommage to Gy怀rgy Ligeti, they play two of his best-known works.

Presented by Georgia Mann.

Gy怀rgy Ligeti: Atmosph耀res

Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen

c. 8.10pm

Interval music (from CD):

Pierre-Laurent Aimard - a featured artist at the Salzburg Festival - plays Liszt's Saint Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds and a movement from Gy怀rgy Ligeti's Musica ricercata.

c. 8.25pm

Gy怀rgy Ligeti: Lontano

Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30, symphonic poem after Nietzsche

Daniel Harding (conductor)

Daniel Harding conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Richard Strauss and Gy\u00f6rgy Ligeti.

The Wanderer's Archduke20190318Piano Trios by Haydn and Beethoven played by Trio Wanderer, performed at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Programme

Haydn: Piano Trio in A major Hob XV:18;

Haydn: Piano Trio in F sharp minor Hob XV:26;

Haydn: Piano Trio in E flat minor Hob XV:31

Interval

Beethoven: Piano Trio in B flat major Op 97 ‘Archduke

Piano Trios by Haydn and Beethoven played by Trio Wanderer.

The Whole World In A Symphony20190524Live at the Barbican Hall, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's richly-scored Symphony No. 7, and the UK premiere of Chiasma by Austrian Thomas Larcher.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Thomas Larcher: Chiasma

Mahler: Symphony No.7

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

A symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything' so said Gustav Mahler, and many think he achieved just that in his Symphony No.7 whose opening he described as 'nature roars'. Cowbells, mandolin, and tubular bells all add their colours to his shadowy, phantasmagorical vision of night, with its sinister central scherzo and the sober, night-time procession of the Andante, before darkness is swept away in the bright blaze of the finale - bringing the BBC Symphony Orchestra's 2018-19 season of Barbican Hall concerts to a powerful close.

The programme begins with Thomas Larcher's Chiasma for a similarly large orchestra including prepared piano and accordion - the third and final piece in the BBC SO's recent mini-focus on his free-thinking music. In Larcher's words: 'Chiasma develops out of the juxtaposition and confrontation of motifs, and achieves a distinct dramatic ‘double-peak climax' before collapsing into itself. In a way, this work has turned out to be a compressed micro-symphony. The special challenge I posed myself in its composition was to develop a piece within the period of ten minutes containing the entire world'.

Live at the Barbican Hall, Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC SO in Mahler's Symphony No 7.

The Wooden Prince20220525Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow on May 12th, 2022

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Bart k: The Wooden Prince (complete ballet score)

8.20 Interval Music (recording)

Nancy Dalberg: String Quartet No.3

Performed by the Nordic Quartet

8.40 Part Two

Nielsen: Symphony No. 2 'The Four Temperaments

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Thomas Dausgaard conducts the BBC SSO in Bart\u00f3k's most colourful ballet score.

The Year 190520231107Shostakovich's Eleventh Symphony may have been written at the request of the Soviet authorities, but it is now renowned as passionately empathetic to the oppressed citizens at the time of the Russian Revolution. Vasily Petrenko conducts it for the first time in Liverpool, and it is a great opportunity to hear the orchestra's incredible full-sized set of church bells: a powerful contrast to the romance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, played by rising star Christian Li.

Recorded at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and presented by Elizabeth Alker.

Liadov: Kikimora

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto

Shostakovich: Symphony No.11, ‘The Year 1905

Christian Li (violin)

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

Shostakovich, Liadov and Tchaikovsky from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thea Musgrave At 9020180629Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra celebrates the music of Thea Musgrave in her 90th-birthday year: conducted by Jac van Steen and joined by soloists Evelyn Glennie and Nicholas Daniel.

Musgrave: Song of the Enchanter

Copland: Short Symphony (Symphony No 2)

Musgrave: Two's Company

8.20

Tonight's interval includes a chance to hear Thea Musgrave in conversation.

8.40

Rodney Bennett: Celebration

Musgrave: Memento Vitae (in Homage to Beethoven)

Musgrave: Phoenix Rising

Nicholas Daniel (oboe)

Evelyn Glennie (percussion)

Jac van Steen (conductor)

Scottish-born composer Thea Musgrave joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Jac Van Steen, in Glasgow for a special tribute to her life and work. The concert includes music from the broad output of her orchestral writing, with an exploration of important musical influences and friends.

Thea's own works, Song of the Enchanter and Memento Vitae, pay tribute to Sibelius and Beethoven respectively, and alongside her own music we'll hear pieces by Aaron Copland and Richard Rodney Bennett: a nod to her dual creative life in Britain and America.

At the centre of the concert the orchestra will be joined by Evelyn Glennie and Nicholas Daniel to recreate the solo roles in the 2005 double concerto, Two's Company. And the evening ends with the 1998 masterpiece Phoenix Rising which takes the listener on an emotional journey from violence and desolation to luminous serenity and peace.

The BBC SSO celebrates the music of Thea Musgrave with Evelyn Glennie and Nicholas Daniel.

They Got Rhythm!20190604Classical music is at its most vibrant and vital when it's in touch with the common language', says John Adams, America's foremost living composer.

It's a sentiment that neatly fits all the music in this concert of 20th-Century classics where dancing rhythms joyfully propel an endless succession of memorable tunes. Stravinsky's Petrushka began life as the second of his three great pre-WWI Paris ballets. But with its masterful orchestration and folk-inspired melodies it needs no stage action to conjure up the vivid Russian fairground setting of its puppet love-triangle. In his Violin Concerto from a couple of decades later, Stravinsky once again shows his absolute mastery of the orchestra, as soloist and ensemble continuously intertwine and separate over the course of its four often playful and always tuneful movements.

First on the bill, one of John Adams's most popular concert pieces, his 1986 The Chairman Dances, a foxtrot to which Madame and Chairman Mao dance and make love. The Philharmonia is joined by two Finns who are among the 21st-century's most exciting performers. Pekka Kuusisto is one of today's most surprising and engaging violinists (at 2016's BBC Proms he had a packed Royal Albert Hall singing along with his encore) and 33-year-old Santtu-Matias Rouvali's varied musical CV includes rock drummer and, just announced, Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia from 2021.

Recorded last week at the Royal Festival Hall and presented by Andrew McGregor.

John Adams: The Chairman Dances

Stravinsky: Violin Concerto

8.20pm

Interval music (from CD)

Stravinsky: Octet

London Sinfonietta

Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor)

8.40pm

Stravinsky: Petrushka

Pekka Kuusisto (violin)

Philharmonia Orchestra

Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor)

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in John Adams and Stravinsky

Thirty Years Of Martyn Brabbins At The Bbc Sso20220628Martyn Brabbins and the BBC SSO mark a 30-year relationship with music by Errollyn Wallen and Edward Elgar; and Evelyn Glennie joins in a blistering concerto by James MacMillan.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, 11th June 2022

Presented by Kate Molleson

Errollyn Wallen: The World's Weather (World Premiere)

James MacMillan: Veni, veni, Emmanuel

8.20 Interval

Martyn Brabbins looks back on the last three decades of working with the BBC SSO. With contributions from Errollyn Wallen and Evelyn Glennie.

Young musicians from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland reflect on a week of workshops and performances led by Martyn.

8.30 Part Two

Elgar: Symphony No. 1

Evelyn Glennie (percussion)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Students of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Martyn Brabbins has been working with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for thirty years - so to celebrate he and the orchestra perform a concert at City Halls in Glasgow with music by two contemporary composers of whom he's been a great supporter: Errollyn Wallen's new reworking of a score from 2000, 'The World's Weather'; and -with percussionist Evelyn Glennie- James MacMillan's blistering concerto 'Veni, veni, Emmanuel.

And as part of Martyn and the orchestra's commitment to fostering new talent, they are joined by students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in a triumphant performance of Elgar's Symphony No. 1.

Celebrating in Glasgow with music by Errollyn Wallen, James MacMillan and Edward Elgar

This Classical Life, Live20210714Jess Gillam takes her ARIA award-winning show This Classical Life to the concert hall with the BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Hugh Brunt and special guests including composer Ollie Howell; soprano Soraya Mafi; singer Orlando Weeks (former frontman of The Maccabees) and songwriter, vocalist and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson for an exciting evening at Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall.

Jess and her guests explore their musical influences, sharing and performing an eclectic range of music they love, including Caroline Shaw's time-bending Entr'acte, George Walker's Lyric for Strings, Arvo Part's haunting Cantus in Memorium Benjamin Britten and Anna Meredith's ebullient Bubble Gun. Soraya Mafi sings Gounod ‘Je veux vivre' from Romeo et Juliette and Bernstein's ‘Glitter and be Gay' from Candide plus we get to hear the joyous overture. Ollie Howell introduces us to his work Something to Lose along and Quincy Jones' The Separation, Orlando Weeks performs glittering electronic songs from his second solo album and Ayanna Witter-Johnson shares her arrangement of Erroll Garner's classic ‘Misty', and all this is topped off with the glorious finale of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.

Darius Milhaud: Braziliera from Scaramouche

George Walker: Lyric for Strings

Charles Gounod: Je veux vivre from Romeo et Juliette

Leonard Bernstein: Candide Overture / Glitter and be Gay

Arvo Part: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten

Anna Meredith arr. Jack Ross: Bubble Gun

Ollie Howell: Something to Lose

Quincy Jones arr. Jules Buckley: The Separation

Orlando Weeks arr. Amy Langley: Big Skies Silly Faces

Orlando Weeks arr. Amy Langley: Deep Down Way Out

Caroline Shaw: Entr'acte

Ayanna Witter-Johnson arr. Katie Chatburn: These Four Walls

Erroll Garner arr. Witter-Johnson/Chatburn: Misty

Igor Stravinsky: Firebird Suite 1919 (excerpt)

Jess Gillam (presenter, saxophone)

Soraya Mafi (soprano)

Orlando Weeks (vocals, electronics)

Ayanna Witter-Johnson (vocals, cello)

Hugh Brunt (conductor)

Recorded on the 7th July 2021, at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre

This Classical Life goes to the concert hall.

This Year's Finest New Music, A Showcase20191208The Ivors Composer Awards 2019 from the British Museum.

Kate Molleson and Tom Service host the British music industry's annual showcase celebrating the creative talent of composers and sound artists to promote the art of composition in contemporary classical, jazz and sound art. With twelve awards - with nominations coming from other musicians - in categories ranging from young performers and sonic art, choral music and jazz to large scale orchestral compositions, this promises to be a lively and thought provoking evening. There is also a Lifetime Achievement award, presented in association with the Music Publishers Association. The awards are held in association with the Performing Rights Society and BBC Radio 3.

Thomas Ad\u00e8s Conducts Stravinsky, Ad\u00e8s And Lutos\u0142awski20180926The US links the music in this London Philharmonic Orchestra concert conducted by Thomas Ad耀s. From this century Kirill Gerstein is the soloist in Ad耀s's In Seven Days, a retelling of the Genesis story of creation and a piano concerto in all but name, jointly commissioned by the Southbank Centre and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Witold Lutos?awski's glittering third symphony, with its typical mix of semi-improvised and highly organised music, was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. LA resident Igor Stravinsky put his Symphony in Three Movements together from several disparate sources (an aborted film score is the basis of its middle movement), but it nevertheless makes for a satisfying whole: a mature masterpiece full of his trademark rhythmic vitality and ending with a chord straight out of Hollywood or Broadway.

Martin Handley presents live from the Royal Festival Hall.

Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements

Thomas Ad耀s: In Seven Days

8.40pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Faur退: Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 117

Steven Isserlis (cello)

Thomas Ad耀s (piano)

9.05pm

Witold Lutos?awski Symphony No. 3

Kirill Gerstein (piano)

Thomas Ad耀s (conductor)

Thomas Ades conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Stravinsky, Ades and Lutoslawski

Thomas Dausgaard And The Bbc Scottish Symphony Orchestra20171026Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC SSO perform Britten's Four Sea Interludes and Mendelssohn's Third Symphony; and are joined by Alexandra Soumm in Brahms' Violin Concerto.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Britten: Peter Grimes: Four Sea Interludes

Brahms: Violin Concerto

8.30 Interval

8.50

Mendelssohn: Symphony No 3 in A minor, 'Scottish

Alexandra Soumm (violin)

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC SSO with Alexandra Soumm perform Brahms's Violin Concerto.

Thomas Dausgaard And The Bbc Sso: Langgaard's Music Of The Spheres20180927Live from Glasgow Cathedral

Presented by Kate Molleson

Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC SSO perform Rued Langgaard's Music of the Spheres in a special concert from Glasgow Cathedral: along with songs by Richard Strauss sung by Rowan Pierce

Haydn: Symphony No 99

R Strauss: Ich wollt' ein Strausslein binden

Sausle, liebe Myrte!

Amor

Morgen

Interval

Langgaard: Sfaererned Musik (Music of the Spheres)

Rowan Pierce (soprano)

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Voices

Thomas Dausgaard (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Dausgaard, explores the music of a composer about whom he is passionate: Rued Langgaard. In a special performance from the atmospheric surroundings of Glasgow Cathedral, the orchestra and choir will surround the audience with a richly spiritual, and at times overtly dramatic, soundscape.

The concert begins in the choir of the cathedral with a performance of Haydn's Symphony No 99, and a selection of passionate songs by Richard Strauss, performed by the Yorkshire-born soprano Rowan Pierce.

Thomas Dausgaard Conducts The Bbc Sso In Beethoven's Ninth Symphony20170925Recorded on September 21st at City Halls, Glasgow.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Thomas Dausgaard conducts the BBC SSO in Beethoven's Ninth.

Palestrina: Sicut cervus (four-part motet)

Bach: Fugue in B flat minor, BWV 867 (arr. for string quintet by Beethoven) (Hess 38)

Handel: Coronation Anthem 'Zadok the Priest

Gluck: Dance of the Scythians (Iphig退nie en Tauride)

Mozart: Misericordias Domini, K222

Haydn: Symphony No. 70 in D major

8.20: Interval

Beethoven: Symphony No 9 in D minor, 'Choral

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Louise Alder, soprano

Jennifer Johnston, mezzo-soprano

Stuart Jackson, tenor

Neal Davis, bass

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Voices

Thomas Dausgaard, conductor

Every performance of the Ninth is a major occasion, and with four exceptional soloists and the fresh voices of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, this will be a magnificent opening to the new season. But no revolution happens in isolation, and in a specially-conceived first half, Thomas Dausgaard introduces a season-long exploration of Composers' Roots with a journey into Beethoven's musical ancestry: from Haydn and Mozart back to Handel, Bach and the music of the Renaissance.

Thomas Trotter At Manchester Cathedral20170926Tom Redmond presents a concert given by Thomas Trotter to mark the completion of Manchester Cathedral's new organ.

This new organ, built by Kenneth Tickell, is designed with a mechanical key action and is mounted on the screen, as pre-war organs were. Thomas Trotter gives the first performance of a major new work on it, written specially for him by Francis Pott: 'La chiesa del sole - in memoriam John Scott'. Dedicated to 'the happy memory' of Scott - organist, choir director and Pott's Cambridge contemporary - it's a powerful new addition to a noble tradition. The concert also includes one of the cornerstones of the organ repertoire, Reubke's Sonata on the 94th Psalm. In the form of a dramatic tone-poem for organ based upon the verses of Psalm 94, it's heavily influenced heavily by the Fantasia and Fugue on 'Ad nos, ad salutarem undam' of his composition teacher, Liszt. It ends in a blaze of terrifying and vengeful fervour and is a work of astonishing maturity for a 23-year-old. The programme opens and closes with the 16th-century book of Danserye by Tielman Susato - publisher of Orlande de Lassus and composer of accomplished works that lend themselves to any instrument - and arrangements of Mendelssohn.

Susato arr. Thomas Trotter: Danserye

Francis Pott: La chiesa del sole - in memoriam John Scott

INTERVAL

Reubke: Sonata on the 94th Psalm

Mendelssohn: Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream, arr. S Warren

Mendelssohn: St Paul - overture, arr. W T Best

Thomas Trotter: organ.

Organist Thomas Trotter plays the new Manchester Cathedral organ.

To The Memory Of An Angel20200422Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in February 2017

Presented by Martin Handley

The London Philharmonic Orchestra perform Berg, Denisov and Shostakovich.

Edison Denisov: Symphony No.2

Berg: Violin Concerto

8.20: Interval

Shostakovich: Symphony No.15

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

Berg dedicated his Violin Concerto 'to the memory of an angel', and a bottomless depth of personal loss lies beneath its gorgeous colours. Patricia Kopatchinskaja performs it between two final symphonies by two Soviet composers. Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony cloaks its sorrows in jokes, enigmas and pitch-black humour; two decades later, his friend Edison Denisov said farewell in a poignant, fantastical Second Symphony of his own. This is a rare British performance of a work that is close to Vladimir Jurowski's heart.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra performs music by Edison Denisov, Berg and Shostakovich.

To The Memory Of An Angel20210129Cancelled as a public concert at the Barbican due to government Covid restrictions, the LSO nevertheless recorded this programme earlier this month under Covid-safe conditions at LSO St Luke's. For the first of two great Viennese works, Simon Rattle and his orchestra are joined by one of the world's leading violinists, Leonidas Kavakos. He's the soloist in Alban Berg's 1935 Violin Concerto, famously dedicated 'to the memory of an angel' -- the death of Manon Gropius, the teenage daughter of Alma Mahler and Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius, was a profound blow to Berg. It's deeply-felt music that has become a cornerstone of the repertoire and Kavakos is one of its most celebrated interpreters.

It takes a top-notch conductor and the utmost orchestral virtuosity to bring off the joyful energy and majestic sweep of Schubert's Ninth Symphony, so Rattle and the LSO make the perfect combination for an upbeat ending to an unmissable concert.

Introduced by Martin Handley.

Berg: Violin Concerto

Schubert: Symphony No 9, 'The Great

Leonidas Kavakos (violin)

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle (conductor)

Simon Rattle and the LSO are joined by Leonidas Kavakos for Berg's Violin Concerto.

Tomasz Stanko Tribute20221118Alyn Shipton presents a concert from this year's EFG London Jazz Festival featuring the music of Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko. Marcin Wasilewski Trio and Avishai Cohen (trumpet) join the BBC Concert Orchestra on stage, with guest appearances from guitarist Rob Luft and young artists Alice Zawadzki (singer) and Emma Rawicz-Szczerbo (saxophone).

Sta?ko arr. Krzysztof Herdzin Yankiel's Lid

Sta?ko arr. Krzysztof Herdzin Street of Crocodiles

Krzysztof Komeda, arr Callum Au Lullaby from Rosemary's Baby

Sta?ko arr. Krzysztof Herdzin Wislawa

Sta?ko arr. Joakim Milder Gama

Alice Zawadzki Za G rami

Sta?ko arr. Joakim Milder Terminal 7

8.20pm

INTERVAL

Sta?ko arr. Krzysztof Herdzin Faces

Sta?ko arr. Krzysztof Herdzin Pozeganie z Maria

Stanko arr Tom Richards Roberto Zucco

Sta?ko arr. Joakim Milder Celine

Sta?ko arr. Krzysztof Herdzin April Story

Sta?ko arr. Krzysztof Herdzin Assassins

Marcin Wasilewski Trio (Marcin Wasilewski - piano, S?awomir Kurkiewicz - double bass, Micha? Mi?kiewicz - drums)

Rob Luft (guitar)

conductor Tom Richards

London Jazz Festival concert from BBC Concert Orchestra featuring music of Tomasz Stanko.

Too Hot To Handel20181203Two 18th-century Baroque giants collide with the 21st-century's Charles Coleman and Kristjan J䀀rvi as they rework Bach and Handel to make familiar old tunes resurface in the midst of the modern symphony orchestra. Two giants of American Minimalism make up the rest of this exciting concert, where all the music is receiving its UK premiere, with recent major works by Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

Ian Skelly presents.

Charles Coleman: Drenched; Bach Inspired

Philip Glass: Piano Concerto No. 3

8.40pm

Interval music (from CD)

Handel: Concerto Grosso in B flat Op.1, No. 3

The English Concert

Trevor Pinnock (director)

8.50pm

Kristjan J䀀rvi: Too Hot to Handel

Steve Reich: Music for ensemble and orchestra

Simone Dinnerstein (piano)

London Symphony Orchestra

Kristjan J䀀rvi (conductor)

Baroque and Minimalism collide as Kristjan Jarvi conducts the London Symphony Orchestra

Total Immersion Esa-pekka Salonen: Bbc Singers And Guildhall Musicians20180105Total Immersion Esa-Pekka Salonen. The BBC Singers in choral works by Salonen and his teacher Rautavaara; plus virtuosic instrumental works performed by musicians from the Guildhall.

Recorded at Milton Court, London on Sunday 10th December 2017

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Part 1

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Two Songs from Kalender R怀d

Rautavaara: Our Joyful'st

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Dona Nobis Pacem

Rautavaara: Missa a Capella

Esa-Pekka: Salonen Iri da iri

Nicholas Chalmers, conductor

Part 2

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Dichotomie for piano*

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Second Meeting for oboe and piano+

Esa-Pekka Salonen: YTA1 for solo alto flute **

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Memoria for wind quintet++

Musicians from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama:

*Ben Smith (piano)

+ Bernice Lee (oboe), Ljubica Stojanovic (piano)

** Simon Williams (alto flute)

++ Marcus Dawe (flute), Laura Ware-Heine (oboe), Liam Foster (clarinet), Stacey Newlin (bassoon), Billy Marshall (French horn)

In Part 1 of tonight's focus on the music of Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, music by teacher and pupil, complementary but distinctive, sits side by side. Einojuhani Rautavaara, who died in 2016, was one of Esa-Pekka Salonen's teachers in Helsinki and this concert juxtaposes choral works by the two men. Conductor Nicholas Chalmers joins the BBC Singers for a programme of music set to texts that range from the Mass to Dante (2014's Iri da iri). Rautavaara's Our Joyful'st Feast sets English words with glorious results while his Missa a Capella (2011) builds on an earlier setting of the Credo from 1972. The concert opens with two songs setting the poetry of Ann J䀀derlund, music of great sensuality that hearkens back to the counterpoint of Palestrina.

In Part 2, Musicians from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama platform Esa-Pekka Salonen's dazzling smaller-scale instrumental works, which reveal, as if under a microscope, his fascination with the intricacies of music. His 17-minute Dichotomie, written in 2000, 'deploys aggressive but constantly shifting rhythmic mechanisms whose origins lie in Prokofiev, while its second [movement] seems closer to the flowing spontaneity of the Ligeti ɀtudes' (Gramophone). And the three works featuring wind instruments are also powerful additions to the modern repertoire.

The BBC Singers and musicians from the Guildhall in music by Salonen and Rautavaara.

Total Immersion: Anders Hillborg20200302It is easy to immerse yourself in music as seductive as that of Anders Hillborg - the Swedish maverick with a background in pop and electronics. The climax of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion is this concert, in which large-scale, spectral canvases full of detail and playfulness will mesmerize you. Whilst some of Hillborg's works are traditional Nordic nature landscapes built on spatial breadth and filmic atmosphere, his clarinet concerto Peacock Tales is less abstract and more immediate, tailored to the theatrical and communicative flair of soloist Martin Fr怀st. There are two UK premieres: Carolin Widmann is the soloist in the Violin Concerto No 1, and Through Lost Landscapes is brand-new work co-commissioned by the BBC.

Presented by Natasha Riordan.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London, on Saturday 22nd February 2020.

Anders Hillborg:

Fanfare

Eleven Gates

Beast Sampler

Concerto for Clarinet 'Peacock Tales' Millennium Version

8.25pm

Interval - Anders Hillborg talks to Natasha Riordan about his life and music.

8.35pm

Violin Concerto no. 1

Through Lost Landscapes. (BBC co-commission, UK premiere)

Carolin Widmann (violin)

Martin Fr怀st (clarinet)

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in vibrant music by a Swedish maverick.

Total Immersion: Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Varese20170508Total Immersion: Edgard Var耀se - Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Varese's complete and extraordinary music for orchestra, joined by the BBC Singers.

Presented by Martin Handley with Var耀se expert Paul Griffiths.

Recorded at the Barbican on Saturday 6 May.

Var耀se: Arcana

Var耀se: Nocturnal +#

c.2010

Var耀se: Po耀me 退lectronique

c.2025

Var耀se: ɀtude pour Espace [UK premiere of arrangement by Chou Wen-Chung] +

Var耀se: D退serts

c.2115

Var耀se: Tuning Up [arrangement by Chou Wen-Chung]

Var耀se: Am退riques

Allison Bell (soprano) #

BBC Singers +

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Edgard Var耀se, even a half century after his death, remains a controversial yet cult figure. Born in France in 1883, he grew up in Italy, studied composition in Paris and Berlin, and knew all the major artistic figures of his day. His early music, influenced by Debussy, Strauss and Busoni, was destroyed in a Berlin warehouse fire in 1918. He emigrated to the US in 1915, and apart from a five-year stint in Paris, he remained in the US until his death in 1965. His unique voice and rigorous, though eclectic aesthetic, influenced countless younger composers even though his entire output can be performed in about three hours.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion day at the Barbican on Saturday 6 May embraces every note that has survived by the maverick composer, presented in two concerts and foyer events. This final concert by the BBC Symphony Orchestra leads the listener from the still startlingly original Am退riques of 1918-21, via the witty Tuning Up (arranged by Var耀se pupil Chou Wen-chung) to the late Nocturnal.

Sakari Oramo conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a Varese Total Immersion concert.

Total Immersion: Detlev Glanert's Requiem For Hieronymous Bosch20191210In the concluding concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion day at the Barbican, we hear a work that the German composer Detlev Glanert began in 2016 to mark five centuries since the death of the Dutch painter Hieronymous Bosch. Glanert's Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch combines the Latin texts of the Requiem Mass with selections from the medieval manuscript collection Carmina Burana. The result for four soloists, two choirs, organ and large orchestra is an ‘inward spectacle' equivalent in intensity to one of Bach's passions but full of Glanert's radioactive excitability and irreverence. Semyon Bychkov leads the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chorus and BBC Singers in the UK premiere of this major new work.

To preface the Requiem, the BBC Singers take us in sound to the mediaeval world Bosch inhabited. Instruments are often portrayed in his paintings, and even identifiable pieces of music such as Toutes les nuictz by Thomas Crecquillon, seen in the painting ‘Concert in the Egg'. The BBC Singers perform the three parts of this work alongside music by Johannes Ockeghem and Pierre de la Rue, who worked in s'-Hertogenbosch at the same time as Bosch, and who was also a member of his Confraternity.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall London on Saturday 7th December 2019

Presented by Martin Handley

Crecquillon: Toutes les nuits; Qu'il est it besoing; Tel est le tamps

La Rue: Delicta Juventutis

Ockeghem: Alma redemptoris mater (scribed Alamire)

7.55pm

Interval: Detlev Glanert talks to Martin Handley

8.15pm

Detlev Glanert Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch

Aga Mikolaj (Soprano)

Norbert Ernst (Tenor)

Christa Mayer (Mezzo-soprano)

Albert Pesendorfer (Bass-baritone)

David Wilson-Johnson (Narrator)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Andrew Griffiths (Chorus Master/Conductor)

Semyon Bychkov (Conductor)

Semyon Bychkov conducts the BBC Singers, Chorus, SO and soloists in an extraordinary epic.

Total Immersion: Frank Zappa20220325Few have influenced music like Frank Zappa. Now the 20th century titan becomes the focus of a BBC Symphony Orchestra Total Immersion Day, recorded last Saturday at the Barbican Centre. Ever the experimentalist, Zappa's music explores influences as diverse as classical modernism, free improvisation, rock and roll virtuosity and cultural satire. Expect the unexpected in an evening of performances where Brad Lubman conducts the BBC SO and the Guildhall's Ubu Ensemble, led by Simon Wills, explores the ensemble music.

Following a diagnosis of terminal cancer, in 1991 Zappa agreed to appear as a featured composer at the Frankfurt Festival the next year. What started as a cautious collaboration turned into an inspired one when Zappa started working with the German contemporary music orchestra, Ensemble Modern. The concerts that followed have gone down in history, thanks in part to The Yellow Shark. The Ubu Ensemble performs works that rhapsodize on Zappa's intense, disciplined interest in classical counterpoint, and by the composer's beloved Edgard Var耀se and Igor Stravinsky.

For Frank Zappa, the symphony orchestra was the consummate vehicle for musical storytelling. Brad Lubman leads this live streamed evening culminating in Zappa's acknowledged orchestral masterpieces. In 1983, Zappa hired the London Symphony Orchestra and recorded 90 minutes of his freest, most imaginative and most wickedly entertaining music with the ensemble. Included on the album was the tear-away invention of Pedro's Dowry, a frantic piece that obsesses over repeated fragments with all the primary-coloured brilliance of a cartoon soundtrack. This rampant hyperactivity finds the perfect counterbalance in Sad Jane, which is presented alongside its companion piece Bob in Dacron.

Mo ‘n Herb's Vacation is one of Zappa's most accomplished large-scale orchestral works. Within its three-movement, theme and variations structure, beauty and aggression mingle, paradoxically embodying the sort of ‘sophisticated' musical archetype Zappa loved to mock.

Presented by Andrew McGregor with Zappa proselytizer Ben Watson.

Recorded at the Barbican on 19th March 2022.

Igor Stravinsky: Variations 'Aldous Huxley in memoriam

Frank Zappa: Pedro's Dowry

Frank Zappa: Bob in Dacron / Sad Jane

Brad Lubman (conductor)

2025

Igor Stravinsky Pribaoutki

Edgard Var耀se Int退grales

Frank Zappa The Perfect Stranger

Simon Wills (conductor)

2100

Frank Zappa from The Yellow Shark:

The Dog Breath Variations / Uncle Meat: Main Title Theme

Outrage at Valdez

Be-Bop Tango (Of the Old Jazzmen's Church)

2120

Frank Zappa: Mo 'N Herb's Variations

Explore the music of Frank Zappa with the BBC SO and Guildhall's Ubu Ensemble.

Total Immersion: Philip Glass At 80, Bbc Symphony Orchestra20170131Marin Alsop conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at the Barbican in an all-Glass programme, including the UK premiere of his Concerto written for renowned piano duo Katia and Marielle Lab耀que.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Philip Glass: Prelude from Akhnaten

Double Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra (UK Premiere)

20. 17 Interval

Proms Inspire -Glass project

A featurette with Fraser Trainer (director) and two members of the composer band: Kate and Andrew

20.25

Philip Glass: Facades (Glassworks No.5)

Guildhall New Music Ensemble

Richard Benjafield (conductor)

20.30

Philip Glass: Piano Etude No.6

Ben Smith (piano)

Concert Part 2

20.45

Philip Glass: Itaipu

Katia Lab耀que (piano)

Marielle Lab耀que (piano)

BBC Symphony Chorus

Marin Alsop (conductor)

As a young violinist, Marin Alsop led the orchestra in the first recording of Glass's The Photographer and has long championed the influential Minimalist's music. She also conducts Itaipú, Glass's choral homage to the world's largest hydroelectric dam, and the prelude to the opera Ahknaten, about the Egyptian pharaoh.

Followed by music for brass band written by British composers as a prelude to Thursday's Radio 3 in Concert from the Royal Northern College of Music's Brass Band Festival, featuring the Cory Band.

Marin Alsop conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a Philip Glass birthday concert.

Total Immersion: Spotlight On Kaija Saariaho20230519The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo in the beguiling and beautiful music of the contemporary Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

All day and night, music - ' The ancient Persian poetry that inspired Kaija Saariaho's Circle Map, a hybrid painting of Persian script and musical notation could serve as a motto for this BBC Symphony Orchestra Total Immersion day. Sakari Oramo conducts the Orchestra in four orchestral works dating from 1989 to 2020 - including the UK premiere of the orchestral Saarikoski Songs, performed by their dedicatee, soprano Anu Komsi.

It's always the inner space that interests me', says Saariaho, but when her creative imagination ignites, the human mind can accommodate the entire cosmos. From the ravishing cello concerto Notes on Light to the early landmark Du Cristal, this is music that uses every colour on the spectrum, and invents some new ones too - a spectacular conclusion to a day of total immersion in her expanding sonic universe.

Plus performances of Saariaho's chamber music by Guildhall Musicians, recorded at Milton Court Concert Hall during the Total Immersion day.

Recorded at the Barbican, London on Sunday 7th May 2023 at the BBC SO's Total Immersion day.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Kaija Saariaho: Du Cristal

Kaija Saariaho Notes on Light#

20.20

Interval: Guildhall Musicians perform chamber works by Kaija Saariaho.

Kaija Saariaho: Changing Light

Ana Balestra (soprano)

Isabelle Harris (flute)

Kaija Saariaho: Spins and Spells

Gabriel Francis-Dehqani (cello)

20.40

Kaija Saariaho: Saarikoski Songs*, UK Premiere

Kaija Saariaho: Circle Map

Anssi Karttunen (cello)#

Anu Komsi (soprano)*

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

21:40

Kaija Saariaho: Caliices

Jeff Yunzhe Wu (violin)

David Palmer (piano)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo with music by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

Total Immersion: Spotlight On Kaija Saariaho20230520The BBC Singers give the UK premiere of Reconnaissance conducted by Krista Audere, plus a chance to hear Saariaho's string quartet Terra Memoria performed by Guildhall Musicians.

Reconnaissance sets a text by Kaija Saariaho's son Aleksi Barri耀re and combines the BBC Singers with the quirky scoring of percussion and double bass. Barri耀re describes the piece as a 'Science Fiction Madrigal', a warning to us on planet Earth, and a work haunted and inspired by NASA images showing Mars, once criss-crossed with rivers and seas, now bone dry. Saariaho's fascination with the vocal writing of the Itkuvirsi tradition found in Karelia is on display in Nuits adieux, and combines voices with electronics in Tag des Jahrs. The Fibonacci Quartet from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama end the sequence with Terra memoria, a work that seems to communicate, often in the softest of whispers, with spirits and those who have left this world.

From two concerts recorded at Milton Court on Sunday 7th May 2023

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Kaija Saariaho: Reconnaissance (Rusty Mirror Madrigal) (UK premi耀re)*

Kaija Saariaho: Nuits (adieux)

Kaija Saariaho: Tag des Jahrs

Beth Higham-Edwards (percussion)*

Dominic Worsley (double bass)*

Krista Audere (conductor)

21.20

Performances by Guildhall Musicians at Milton Court Concert Hall in the Total Immersion day.

Kaija Saariaho: Terra Memoria

Fibonacci Quartet: Krystof Kohout & Luna De Mol (violins), Elliot Kempton (viola), Kosta Popovic (cello)

Kaija Saariaho: Miranda's Lament

Ana Balestra (soprano)

Jeff Yunzhe Wu (violin)

Beကat Erro D퀀ez (clarinet)

Christopher Clark (harp)

Yat Hei Lee (double bass)

The BBC Singers in the UK premiere of Reconnaissance conducted by Krista Audere.

Total Immersion: The Music Of Gyorgy Ligeti20190305The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo, explores the enigmatic and magical music of the Hungarian composer. Including Atmosph耀res and the Violin and Piano Concertos.

Recorded at the Barbican, London on Saturday 2nd March.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Ligeti Atmosph耀res

Ligeti: Violin Concerto~

Ligeti: Clocks and Clouds+

8.20

Interval: Find out more about Gy怀rgy Ligeti with Andrew McGregor and expert Tim Rutherford-Johnson.

8.40

Ligeti: Piano Concerto*

Ligeti: San Francisco Polyphony

Augustin Hadelich (Violin)#

Nicolas Hodges (Piano)*

BBC Singers+

Sakari Oramo (conductor)

Some of Ligeti's greatest works come together for the final concert in the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion day. Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo and the Orchestra are joined by Grammy Award-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich for the wild, generous invention of the Violin Concerto, while Nicolas Hodges is soloist in the horseplay and dreamy brilliances of the Piano Concerto. The textural, densely patterned experiments of Atmosph耀res (famously used in Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey), Clocks and Clouds (with upper voices of the BBC Singers), and San Francisco Polyphony complete this wacky programme.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo explore the enigmatic Hungarian composer.

Total Immersion: The Music Of Missy Mazzoli20240228The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dalia Stasevska and Guildhall Musicians perform orchestral and chamber music by Missy Mazzoli, one of the most singular, potent voices of today. Pianist, visionary, musical dramatist and Grammy-nominated composer, Missy Mazzoli has been called “the 21st century's gatecrasher of new classical music ?. She's an artist for whom the personal is political, and in whose hands the intimate stories of modern America take on an epic scale and a global significance. “With each work, I endeavour to provide a new language for thoughts and feelings we suppress in everyday life ? she says - “to provide space in which we can process the overwhelming nature of the world ?.

Family memories, spiralling galaxies and a god of song, tormented by fate. In the orchestral works of Missy Mazzoli, private emotions inspire visions that span time and space. Dalia Stasevska conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra as the composer introduces four of her most powerful (and personal) orchestral pieces.

For Mazzoli, small ensembles unlock infinite possibilities, and her music for ensembles and electronics finds her exploring the wildest reaches of a boundless musical imagination, performed by the superb young artists of Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

Recorded at the Barbican Hall, London, on Sunday 25th February 2024. Presented by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Missy Mazzoli: Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres)

Missy Mazzoli: Violin Concerto (Procession)

Missy Mazzoli: These Worlds In Us

Missy Mazzoli: Orpheus Undone (UK Premiere)

Elina Vähälä (violin)

Dalia Stasevska (conductor)

The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dalia Stasevska with violinist Elina V\u00e4h\u00e4l\u00e4.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dalia Stasevska and Guildhall Musicians perform orchestral and chamber music by Missy Mazzoli, one of the most singular voices of today.

Toward The Unknown Region, Vaughan Williams 15020220302From the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

The 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams provides the BBC Philharmonic and Halle Orchestra scope for another of their groundbreaking collaborative series of concerts at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. Each of the six concerts reflects on his visionary symphonic cycle.

In the first concert, Mark Wigglesworth conducts the BBC Philharmonic in 'A Pastoral Symphony'; on one level the music presents a rural idyll, but has darker brooding undercurrents as Vaughan Williams remembers his time as an ambulance driver just behind enemy lines during the first world war, images which - as for many who experienced the conflict - echoed on in his mind years afterwards. The Fifth Symphony, completed in 1943 during one of the peaks of World War II ends with a gentle benediction for peace. In his hands personal experience becomes universal in this transcendent music.

Between these two symphonic statements, tenor Alessandro Fisher joins the orchestra for Vaughan Williams's setting of words by A. E. Housman, from 'A Shropshire Lad,' poems inspired by loss of life during the Boer War. Here, in 'On Wenlock Edge' Vaughan Williams luxuriates in the warm harmonies inspired by his time spent studying in France with Ravel. 'Be still, my lad, and sleep.

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 3 'A Pastoral Symphony

8.10 Music interval (CD)

Vaughan Williams: Mass in G minor

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge

8.35

Vaughan Williams: On Wenlock Edge

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5

Alessandro Fisher (tenor)

Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and Mark Wigglesworth reflect on the legacy of war.

Toward The Unknown Region, Vaughan Williams 15020220329From Bridgewater Hall in Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

In the second of six concerts presented in collaboration with the Halle Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic continue to explore the symphonies of Vaughan Williams. In this concert, the spotlight falls on his Fourth; in Vaughan Williams's words, 'not ... a definite picture of anything external - e.g. the state of Europe - but simply because it occurred to me like that.' Written between 1931 and 1934, what felt like unexpected dissonance to some listeners did, despite his assertion, reflect the discomfort many felt about the uncertainty of the political situation. Uncertainty frames the faith that is core to the Walt Whitman text Vaughan Williams sets in the music that opens the programme; the Halle choir joins the BBC Philharmonic and Sir Andrew Davis for Toward the Unknown Region, 'Darest though now, O soul, walk out with me toward the unknown region, where neither ground is for the feet nor any path to follow?', words which seem to permeate Vaughan Williams's spirituality for the rest of his life. Extra-musical influence from a different medium and century provide the inspiration for music which Vaughan Williams called a masque for dancing, 'Job'. William Blake's engravings for the biblical book form the basis of nine scenes and the metaphysical interpretation and freedom Blake displays in these unique works inspired Vaughan Williams to create a particularly powerful, intriguing and visionary score.

Vaughan Williams: Toward the Unknown Region

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 4

8.15 Interval

Vaughan Williams: Ten Blake songs

Mark Padmore (tenor)

Nicholas Daniel (oboe)

8.35

Vaughan Williams: Job

Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

Sir Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Philharmonic in music by Vaughan Williams.

Toward The Unknown Region, Vaughan Williams 15020220412From Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

Presented by Tom McKinney

In the third of this collaborative series of concerts in which the BBC Philharmonic and the Halle Orchestra explore the symphonies of Ralph Vaughan Williams in his 150th anniversary year, conductor John Wilson guides the BBC Philharmonic through the frozen wastes in the direction of the South Pole and back to London in the early years of the 20th century.

Fashioned from music for the film 'Scott of the Antarctic'. released in 1948 and charting the doomed 1912 expedition, Vaughan Williams's Sinfonia antartica immerses us in some of his most descriptive and chilling music. We hear the unstoppable force of nature in the movement of the ice floes, the howling of the incessant wind and blizzards on the glacier. We experience hope and patriotism as well as fear and despair, but are also allowed to enjoy the antics of the South Pole's resident penguins!

Closer to home, although born in the Gloucestershire countryside, Vaughan Williams considered himself a Londoner, and his portrait of the city during this period is evocative and powerful, framed by its depiction of the Westminster Chimes ringing out over the Thames. The lost atmosphere of those years is caught in the sound of the streets; the music of an accordion and a lavender seller clearly portray a sense of time and place in this rich symphonic tapestry.

Vaughan Williams: 'Sinfonia antartica' (Symphony No.7)

Music Interval (CD)

Vaughan Williams: A vision of aeroplanes

Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, Timothy Brown (conductor), James McVinnie (organ)

Vaughan Williams: Lord, thou hast been our refuge

Choir of St John's, Cambridge, Andrew Nethsinga (conductor), Joseph Wicks (organ), David Blackadder (trumpet)

Vaughan Williams: 'A London Symphony' (Symphony No.2)

Sarah Fox (soprano)

Manchester Chamber Choir

John Wilson (conductor)

John Wilson joins the BBC Philharmonic for Vaughan Williams's Symphonies No 7 and No 2

Toward The Unknown Region, Vaughan Williams 15020220503Sir Mark Elder conducts the Hall退 in an all-symphonic programme: Vaughan Williams's stormy Sixth Symphony and monumental A Sea Symphony, recorded at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Symphony no. 6 in E minor

Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony (Symphony no.1)

Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha (soprano)

Roderick Williams (baritone)

Hall退 Orchestra, Choir and Youth Choir

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

Sir Mark Elder conducts the Halle in Vaughan Williams's Symphony No 6 and A Sea Symphony.

Tragedy, Comedy And The Rhine20211116Principal Conductor Ryan Bancroft leads the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in three highly contrasting pieces. Brahms wrote his Tragic Overture as a direct response to his Academic Festival Overture, and it is the antithesis to the earlier work in every way, depicting a nameless hero in his ultimately doomed struggle against his fate. To lighten the mood, Brahms's dramatic work is followed by one of Mozart's most well-loved piano concertos, his twenty-first - a work characterised by its technical difficulty and lightness of tone, which is redolent of his comedic operas. The Orchestra will be joined by American pianist Jonathan Biss as soloist. The concert concludes with Schumann's magnificent paean to the Rhine, his Third Symphony. The Rhine inspired some of the greatest romantic works of art, and Schumann in his turn fell in love with the river, its surrounding lands, and the people who lived there. It led him to create one of the truly great symphonies, full of the majestic energy that its subject inspires.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas and recorded in St. David's Hall on 12th of November.

7.30pm

Brahms: Tragic overture, Op 81

Mozart: Piano Concerto No 21 in C major, K467

c.8.15

Interval Music

c.8.35

Schumann: Symphony No 3 in E flat major, Op 97 (Rhenish)

Jonathan Biss (piano)

Ryan Bancroft (conductor)

BBC NOW and their principal conductor Ryan Bancroft perform Brahms, Mozart and Schubert.

Tragedy, Love And Happy Endings20221215The Hall退 give a seasonal concert of theatrical works, with selections from Tchaikovsky's glorious and beloved Sleeping Beauty. There's also Wagner's Tristan und Isolde - the Prelude with its iconic opening 'Tristan chord' and the heart-rending Liebestod - and a jazzily climactic extract from Samuel Barber's ballet Medea, in its first performance for conductor Sir Mark Elder. Presented by Tom McKinney.

7.30pm

Wagner: Tristan and Isolde: Prelude and Liebestod

Barber: Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance

INTERVAL

Charpentier: M退d退e 

Prologue Overture to Act 1

Prologue - Loure

Prologue - Passe-pied

Prologue Overture to Act 1 (Reprise)

Act 4 Fantomes et Gardes

Act 3 Premiere air pour les d退mons

Act 2 Passacaille

Les Arts Florissant

William Christie

c.8.15pm

Tchaikovsky The Sleeping Beauty: extracts

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

Isolde, Medea and Aurora, recalled by the Halle.

Trinity College, Cambridge: Bach's B Minor Mass20170111Bach's B Minor Mass sung by The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge live from Trinity College Chapel.

Stephen Layton conducts this internationally acclaimed choir as they launch Trinity College's celebrations of the 700th anniversary of King's Hall, which went on to become part of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Bach: Mass in B Minor

Katherine Watson Soprano

Helen Charlston Mezzo-soprano

Iestyn Davies Countertenor

Gwilym Bowen Tenor

Neal Davies Bass

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Stephen Layton, conductor.

Stephen Layton conducts the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, in Bach's Mass in B minor

Trinity Laban Piano Showcase20160621Three of Trinity Laban's award-winning pianists showcased in a rich and varied programme.

Presented by Martin Handley, live from St John's Smith Square

Janကcek: Piano Sonata 1.X.1905

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat, Op. 31 No. 3

Lowell Liebermann: Gargoyles Op. 29

Haydn: Sonata in C Hob XVI:48

8.15: Interval

8.35

Stephen Montague: 'Nun-mul

Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No. 2 Op. 36 (original 1913 version)

Pianists from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance:

Giulio Potenza, Gen Li, Jenna Sung

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a magnet for talented young pianists from around the globe. This showcase concert offers the chance to hear three of Trinity Laban's award-winning pianists in a rich and varied programme.

It features Giulio Potenza ('a very gifted and deep pianist' - Martha Argerich) performing Janacek; Gen Li (winner of the 2015 Jaques Samuel Piano Competition) performing Beethoven and Liebermann; and Jenna Sung ('the talent of tomorrow, today' - Gramophone magazine) performing Haydn, Rachmaninov and a modern miniature masterpiece by Stephen Montague, composed for Sung's Wigmore Hall debut in 2014.

Live from St John's Smith Square, the Trinity Laban piano showcase.

Trios, By Brahms And Shostakovich20190125Lawrence Power and Friends play two great piano trios.

Recorded at Turner-Sims, Southampton

Presented by Martin Handley

Rebecca Clarke: Lullaby for viola and cello

Schumann: Fantasy Piece No 1, Op 73 for cello and piano

Tchaikovsky: Aveu Passion退 for viola and piano

Rebecca Clarke: Grotesque for viola and cello

Schumann, arr. Kirchner: Canonic Etudes Nos 5 and 6, Op 56 for violin, cello and piano

Brahms: Trio for viola, cello and piano in A minor, Op 114

8.15: Interval

Schubert: Auf dem Strom

Mark Padmore, tenor

Richard Watkins, horn

Paul Lewis, piano

Ravel: Kaddish for viola and piano

Bloch: Jewish Song for cello and piano (From Jewish Life)

Shostakovich: Piano Trio No 2 in E minor, Op 67

Lawrence Power, viola

Natalie Clein, cello

Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano

Lawrence Power is joined by two distinguished colleagues for a magical evening of chamber music. The programme combines works for duo with two major piano trios including Brahms' work which was inspired by the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld. The composer prepared a viola part as a possible alternative instrumentation, and both scorings were rehearsed (the viola part being played by Joseph Joachim) prior to the premiere and publication of the piece. The second half takes Jewish Song as the connective strand, concluding with Shostakovich's heartfelt Trio, completed in 1944 in memory of one of the composer's closest friends, Ivan Sollertinsky.

Truls Mork And Havard Gimse, Grieg, Janacek, Bridge, Sibelius20161123Two of Norway's leading musicians, cellist Truls Mørk and pianist H倀vard Gimse perform a pair of substantial late-Romantic cello sonatas by Grieg and Frank Bridge alongside lighter works by Janကcek and Sibelius.

Presented by Ian Skelly, live from Wigmore Hall.

Grieg: Intermezzo

Janကcek: Pohကdka

Frank Bridge: Cello Sonata in D minor

8.10pm Interval music: JS Bach: Suite No. 3 in C major BWV.1009 for solo cello (from CD)

Sibelius: Four Pieces Op. 78

Grieg: Cello Sonata in A minor Op. 36

Truls Mørk, cello

H倀vard Gimse, piano.

Truls Mork and Havard Gimse play Grieg and Bridge cello sonatas live from Wigmore Hall.

Trumpeter Simon Hofele And The Misha Mullov-abbado Group20190531New Generation Artist Showcase: trumpeter Simon H怀fele and the Misha Mullov-Abbado Group.

Georgia Mann introduces an evening of virtuoso music making recorded at the Octagon Chapel during the the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. First up, German trumpeter, Simon H怀fele is surrounded by a forest of percussion instruments as he plays Andr退 Jolivet's fiendish seven-movement Heptade alongside other twentieth century classics. After that Misha Mullov-Abbado and his Group cool things down with an eclectic and zany set of works by Misha himself.

Andr退 Jolivet Heptade

Iannis Xenakis: Rebonds b

Alexej Gerassimez Asventuras

Toru Takemitsu Paths for solo tumpet

HK Gruber Exposed throat for Trompete Solo

Simon H怀fele trumpet

Simone Rubino percussion

approx 8.35pm

During the interval Viktoria Mullova and Misha Mullov-Abbado play Bach in a recording they made recently at the BBC Studios.

approx 8.40pm

The Misha Mullov-Abbado Group in concert play some of Misha's own compositions including Blue Deer, Real eyes, Infamous Grouse, No Strictly Dancing, Little vision, Little Astronaut and Hair of the Bop.

James Davison (trumpet and flugelhorn)

Matthew Herd (alto sax)

Sam Rapley (tenor sax)

Liam Dunachie (piano)

Scott Chapman (drums)

Misha Mullov-Abbado (double bass)

Photo of Simon H怀fele: © Sebastian Heck

New Generation Artists: Simon H\u00f6fele and the Misha Mullov-Abbado Group in Norwich

Twilight Of The Gods20221117Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC SSO in a recent work by Hans Abrahamsen; and they are joined by soprano Katherine Broderick for a symphonic take on Wagner's G怀tterd䀀mmerung.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Kate Molleson

Abrahamsen: Vers le Silence

8.00 Interval: Recordings of music to complement this evening's concert

8.20 Part Two

Wagner (arranged Wigglesworth): G怀tterd䀀mmerung - A Symphonic Journey

Katherine Broderick (soprano)

Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Ryan Wigglesworth conducts the BBC SSO in a symphonic journey through Wagner's opera.

Two Hours Of Ecstasy20191106Live at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Steven Osborne performs his critically acclaimed interpretation of one of the most groundbreaking piano works of the 20th century. The monumental Vingt Regards sur l'enfant J退sus is a moving and personal expression of Messiaen's Catholic faith: twenty contemplations on the infant Jesus, based around three distinctive themes, powerfully woven through the music. With its superhuman demands on concentration and stamina, this is a rare chance to hear complete this intense, two-hour masterpiece.

Presented by Martin Handley

7.30pm

Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l'enfant J退sus

Steven Osborne (piano)

Steven Osborne performs Messiaen's epic piano work Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jesus.

Two Hours Of Ecstasy20200415Another chance to hear Steven Osborne performing his critically acclaimed interpretation of one of the most groundbreaking piano works of the 20th century. The monumental Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-J退sus is a moving and personal expression of Messiaen's Catholic faith: 20 contemplations on the infant Jesus, based around three distinctive themes, powerfully woven through the music. With its superhuman demands on concentration and stamina, this is a rare chance to hear complete this intense, two-hour masterpiece.

Presented by Martin Handley from Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-J退sus

Steven Osborne (piano)

Steven Osborne performs Messiaen's epic piano work Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-Jesus.

Two Piano Gala20211013Image: Viktor Erik Emanuel

Recorded at Kings Place, London, as part of the London Piano Festival 2021.

A celebration of music for two pianos, featuring Katya Apekisheva, Finghin Collins, Gabriela Montero, Charles Owen and Kathryn Stott.

Presented by Sarah Walker.

Mozart: Sonata in D for two pianos, K488

Katya Apekisheva, Finghin Collins, pianos

Schubert: Fantasie in F minor, D940

Gabriela Montero, Finghin Collins, piano duet

Ravel: Daphnis et Chlo退 Suite No. 2

Charles Owen, Kathryn Stott, piano duet

Sally Beamish: Sonnets (UK premiere)

Katya Apekisheva, Finghin Collins, Charles Owen, pianos

Rachmaninoff: Suite No. 2 in C minor for two pianos, Op. 17

Gabriela Montero, Kathryn Stott, pianos

Poulenc: Capriccio (after ‘Le bal Masqu退'), FP 155

ɀl退gie (en accords altern退s), FP 175

L'embarquement pour Cyth耀re, FP 150

Charles Owen, Katya Apekisheva, pianos

Grainger: Fantasy on Themes from Gershwin's Porgy & Bess

Kathryn Stott, Finghin Collins, pianos

The Two Piano Gala forms the heart of the London Piano Festival where five internationally acclaimed pianists will team up in various formations to celebrate the joys, challenges and sheer brilliance of pianistic collaboration. The varied selection of music spans three centuries ranging from works by Mozart and Schubert via Rachmaninoff and Poulenc. Sonnets, a brand new commission by Sally Beamish will feature six hands depicting an intricate Shakespearian love triangle in the time of plague.

Mozart, Schubert, Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Grainger and Poulenc played on two pianos.

Uchida Plays Schubert20210203A recital by one of the greatest living interpreters of Schubert, the pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Recorded at Wigmore Hall in London at the end of 2020, Uchida performed two of Schubert's late masterpieces, both of which date from the last few years of his life. The unfinished Sonata in C, D840, was nicknamed the Reliquie when it was published posthumously, in the mistaken belief that it was the composer's last work. And the deeply contemplative Sonata in G, D894, was a great favourite of Schumann's, described by the younger composer as `the most perfect in form and conception`.

Schubert: Sonata in C, 840 `Reliquie`; Sonata in G, D894

Mitsuko Uchida, piano

Pianist Mitsuko Uchida plays two Schubert sonatas.

Ulster Orchestra20160229Fiona Talkington introduces the Ulster Orchestra, conducted by their Chief Conductor Rafael Payare, from the Ulster Hall in Belfast. The programme features works by Beethoven and the European premiere of The Blind Banister, for piano and orchestra, by the American composer Timo Andres .

7.30

Beethoven: Leonore Overture No.2, Op.72

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.2 in B Flat, Op.19

8.15: INTERVAL

8.35

Timo Andres: The Blind Banister - European Premiere

Beethoven: Symphony No.2 in D Major, Op.36

Jonathan Biss, Piano

Rafael Payare Conductor

The programme begins with Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 2. Premiered in Vienna in 1805, the work is both lavish and daring: a great testament to the freedom and power of the composer's imagination, not yet restricted by the realities of working in the opera house. Ten years earlier, and also in Vienna, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.2 was unveiled. The concerto was a resounding success with both audience and critics, but Beethoven was dissatisfied with it and wrote an apologetic letter to his publisher: 'A concerto for pianoforte which, it is true, I do not make out to be one of my best.' It was the young composer-pianist's formal introduction to Viennese society, and reflected his mastery of Classical form and style.

During the interval Fiona Talkington talks to this evening's soloist, Jonathan Biss, about his love of Beethoven and the influences of the composer in The Blind Banister by Timo Andres, the work which begins the second half. Includes a selection of his chamber music recordings.

The work of the critically acclaimed American composer Timo Andres takes its inspiration from a wide range of sources, as diverse as Sigur R s and composers including Brahms, Schumann, Mozart, and Ives. The Blind Banister, for piano and orchestra, was written in 2015 for Jonathan Biss. It is also dedicated to him. It has close links with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.2. The composer writes: 'I tried as much as possible to start with those same extremely simple elements Beethoven uses; however, my piece is not a pastiche or an exercise in palimpsest. It doesn't even directly quote Beethoven. There are some surface similarities to his concerto (a three-movement structure, a B-flat tonal centre) but these are mostly red herrings. The best way I can describe my approach to writing the piece is: I started writing my own cadenza to Beethoven's concerto, and ended up devouring it from the inside out.

The programme ends with Beethoven's Second Symphony, written during one of the most emotionally troubled periods in his life. Despite his turmoil, the work is full of vitality: a composer smiling in the face of adversity.

The Ulster Orchestra perform works by Beethoven and Timo Andres.

Ulster Orchestra, Beethoven And Berlioz20160527Rafael Payare conducts the Ulster Orchestra in Beethoven's Fourth Symphony and the Symphony Fantastique by Berlioz.

Live from the Ulster Hall, Belfast

Presented by John Toal

Beethoven: Symphony No.4 in B flat

8.15: Interval

8.35

Berlioz: Symphony Fantastique

Chief Conductor Rafael Payare brings the season to a thrilling conclusion with a blockbuster programme of music by two of the heavyweights of the Romantic era.

The lively Fourth Symphony is Beethoven at the peak of his powers, whilst Berlioz's epic masterpiece of obsessive desire, Symphonie fantastique, with its five fantastic movements (including the famous March to the Scaffold and Witches' Sabbath), is a unique musical juggernaut of expressive force.

Rafael Payare conducts the Ulster Orchestra in music by Beethoven and Berlioz.

Ulster Orchestra, Elgar, Ravel, Franck20170207The Ulster Orchestra are joined by their former principal conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier in a performance of Elgar's tone poem In the South 'Alassio', written between 1903 and1904, the subtitle a reference to the town in Italy where the composer and his family stayed during the holiday when he wrote the work. Then, Ravel's Piano Trio in A minor, orchestrated and arranged by conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier. Tortelier explained that his reason for orchestrating the Trio goes back many years, when he and his father and sister performed the work, and much of it was completed during his time in Belfast and written specially for the Ulster Orchestra.

The programme is rounded off with Franck's Symphony in D minor, the only symphony the composer wrote, completed in August 1888. The piece received its premiere the following year at the Paris Conservatory and is dedicated to his pupil, the composer Henri Duparc.

Yan Pascal Tortelier conducts the Ulster Orchestra in music by Elgar, Ravel and Franck.

Ulster Orchestra, Prokofiev, Bruch And Tchaikovsky20161205Recorded on December 2nd at Ulster Hall, Belfast, and presented by John Toal.

The Ulster Orchestra play Prokofiev, Bruch and Tchaikovsky.

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1, Op.25 'Classical

Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op.26

8.15: During the Interval.John Toal speaks to tonight's soloist, Sergey Khachatryan.

8.35: Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.3 in D, 'Polish

Sergey Khachatryan, violin

Rafael Payare, conductor

Prokofiev's 'Classical' Symphony No. 1 was written between 1916 and 1917 alongside his First Violin Concerto. The piece shows the influence of Haydn's symphonic writing - a revelation to the young composer who had graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory only a few years previously in 1914.

Bruch's First Violin Concerto, written in 1866, has become one of the most performed violin concertos in the repertoire. Three movements played without a break, with its strong melodies drawing audiences in, the concerto became Bruch's most popular piece. It is performed here by the Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan.

Tchaikovsky's five-movement Third Symphony is his only symphony written in the major key and is brim-full with exuberant optimism - a terrific showcase for the composer's famed gift for great tunes.

The Ulster Orchestra performs music by Prokofiev, Bruch and Tchaikovsky.

Ulster Orchestra, Shostakovich, Beethoven, Prokofiev20170530The Ulster Orchestra round off their 50th anniversary season as they perform Shostakovich's Festive Overture, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, the 'Emperor', and Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony from the Ulster Hall in Belfast. With pianist Stephen Hough and conductor Rafael Payare. Presented by John Toal.

Shostakovich: Festive Overture, Op. 96

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, 'Emperor', Op. 73

8.20 pm Interval (featuring an interview with pianist Stephen Hough)

8.40 pm

Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100

Stephen Hough, piano

Rafael Payare, conductor.

Rafael Payare conducts the Ulster Orchestra in Shostakovich, Beethoven and Prokofiev.

Ulster Orchestra: Belfast Festival 2015, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich20151016John Toal introduces the Ulster Orchestra, conducted by their Chief Conductor Rafael Payare, live from the Ulster Hall as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival. The programme features works by Smetana, Tchaikovsky, Schnittke and Shostakovich.

Smetana: Overture - The Bartered Bride

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23

8.25: INTERVAL

8.45

Schnittke: Moz-Art

Ulster Orchestra: Kodaly, Britten, Stravinsky20171018Hungarian conductor Gergely Madras conducts the Ulster Orchestra in a concert featuring the music of another Hungarian, Zoltan Kodaly. His Variations on a Hungarian Folksong, or 'Peacock Variations', was commissioned by the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to celebrate their 50th anniversary and premiered on the 23rd November 1939. Benjamin Britten only wrote one piano concerto, completed in 1938 but then revised in 1945. The piece was premiered by the composer himself as soloist on 3rd August 1938 with Sir Henry Wood conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra as part of the BBC Proms.

Completing the programme is Stravinsky's glorious ballet The Firebird, which premiered in Paris on 25th June 1910. The work has been popular with audiences ever since and marked the beginning of the collaboration between the composer and Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

Kodaly: Variations on a Hungarian Folksong (The Peacock)

Britten: Piano Concerto

Stravinsky: The Firebird

Steven Osborne (piano)

Gergely Madras (conductor).

Gergely Madras conducts the Ulster Orchestra with music by Kodaly, Britten and Stravinsky.

Ulster Orchestra: Wagner, Liszt And Brahms20180313Rafael Payare conducts the Ulster Orchestra in an all-Romantic programme. Introduced by John Toal, music of the German Romantics bookends this Ulster Hall concert: Richard Wagner's bracing Overture to his 1845 opera Tannh䀀user; and Johannes Brahms's Symphony No.2, written on holiday during the summer of 1877 in P怀rtschach - an alpine area by the W怀rthersee which also inspired Mahler and Berg.

Liszt's Piano Concerto No.2 is at the heart of the programme: a work revised numerous times before its publication in 1863. It's a virtuosic partnership between piano and orchestra: one which is in turn lyrical and introspective, then triumphant and dramatic.

The soloist is the Russian-born American pianist Kirill Gerstein. He will also be speaking with John Toal during the interval.

Wagner: Overture to Tannh䀀user

Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, S.125

Brahms: Symphony No.2 in D major, Op. 73

Kirill Gerstein (piano)

Rafael Payare (conductor).

Rafael Payare conducts the Ulster Orchestra in music by Wagner, Liszt and Brahms.

Ulster Orchestra's 2017-2018 Season Finale With Conductor Rafael Payare And Mezzo-soprano Katarina Karneus20180606The finale concert in the Ulster Orchestra's 2017/2018 season from the Ulster Hall in Belfast. The orchestra are joined by their Artistic Director Rafael Payare in a programme inspired by poetry, and brings together Shostakovich with two of his musical heroes- Benjamin Britten and Gustav Mahler. Opening with Britten's Sea Interludes from his opera Peter Grimes, the orchestra will then be joined by Swedish soprano Katarina Karneus in a performance of Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, based on the words of the German poet Friedrich Rückert.

The programme ends with Shostakovich's stirring Symphony No. 5 in D minor, described as, '...a Soviet artist's reply to just criticism...', and brought the composer much critical acclaim and popularity after he fell out of favour with the Soviet authorities.

Rafael Payare (conductor)

Katarina Karneus (mezzo-soprano)*

Britten- Four Sea Interludes

Mahler- Rückert-Lieder*

Shostakovich- Symphony No.5 in D minor Op. 47.

2017/2018 season finale concert with the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Rafael Payare.

Under The Shadow Of The First World War: Sir Andrew Davis Conducts The Bbc Symphony Orchestra And Chorus20200701As recorded at the Barbican Hall in April 2018, Sir Andrew Davis conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at the Barbican. The programme includes music by Edward Elgar and Lilian Elkington, and baritone Roderick Williams joins for the London premiere of a song cycle by Raymond Yiu. And there's interval music by composers who served - and some who died - in the First World War: from Germany, Australia, UK and France.

When Elgar was asked early in the War to write music for a home front theatre adaptation of Algernon Blackwood's curious escapist novel A Prisoner in Fairyland he delivered a work of never-never land enchantment - The Starlight Express. Baritone Roderick Williams and soprano Emma Tring join the BBC SO. Baritone Roderick Williams's second appearance tonight is for The World Was Once All Miracle by the composer Raymond Yiu. Premiered in 2017 to great acclaim, the work sets texts by a hero of Yiu's, the writer and sometime composer Anthony Burgess - who was born in 1917.

Lilian Elkington's Out of the Mist (1921) is a recently discovered war treasure. It paints a picture of Dover on 10th November 1920 as HMS Verdun, with a flotilla of battleships, appears through the Channel fog bringing the body of the Unknown Warrior on its way to final rest in Westminster Abbey. Elgar's noble choral masterpiece The Spirit of England memorialises the fallen setting texts by Laurence Binyon , including the lines 'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old'. Andrew Staples is the tenor soloist with the BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra.

Enjoy this concert performed by famed Elgarians!

Presented by Martin Handley

Recorded at the Barbican Hall on 13 April 2018.

Elgar: The Starlight Express (selections)

Raymond Yiu: The World was Once All Miracle (London Premiere)

20.25 Interval Music

Rudi Stephan

Music for 7 Stringed Instruments, 'Nachspiel' (2nd mvt)

The Horenstein Ensemble.

Frederick Septimus Kelly

24 Monographs for Piano, No. 18

Tamara Anna Cislowska (piano)

William Denis Browne

4 Songs for Voice and Piano, 'Diaphenia' (no. 3)

Robin Tritschler (tenor) Malcolm Martineau (piano)

Maurice Ravel

Le Tombeau de Couperin, 'Toccata' (no. 6)

Bertrand Chamayou (piano)

20.45

Lilian Elkington: Out of the Mist

Elgar: The Spirit of England Op.80

Emma Tring (soprano)

Roderick Williams (baritone)

Andrew Staples (tenor)

Sir Andrew Davis (conductor)

Music written during or just after World War I by Edward Elgar and Lilian Elkington.

Unfinished Business20201009The BBC Philharmonic and their chief conductor, Omer Meir Wellber, present a feast of three symphonies by Schubert. Opening with his bright Second Symphony - unobtrusive innovation, charm and vivacity characterise a youthful piece - his Sixth ends our programme; Schubert spoke of Rossini as 'undeniably a genius' and Italian influences makes themselves felt throughout his 'little' C major Symphony. His famous 'Unfinished' Symphony completes the evening; the wealth of extraordinary innovation and luxurious, deeply felt melody make this stand out among his music of the time.

Live from the Philharmonic Studio at MediaCityUK in Salford.

Presented by Tom McKinney

Schubert: Symphony No. 2

Schubert: Symphony No. 8 'Unfinished

8.25

Music interval

Schubert: Sonata in C (D840)

Alfred Brendel (piano)

8.50

Schubert: Symphony No. 6

(Pre-recorded 8 October 2020)

Omer Meir Wellber (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic and Chief Conductor Omer Meir Wellber in symphonies by Schubert.

Unsuk Chin: Alice In Wonderland20150711The UK premiere of Unsuk Chin's opera Alice in Wonderland. Baldur Br怀nnimann conducts a top international cast, the BBC SO, BBC Singers and Tiffin Boys' Choir. Ivan Hewett talks to the composer and to countertenor Andrew Watts.

Recorded at the Barbican on 8th March 2015

Presented by Ivan Hewett

(Libretto by David Henry Hwang and Unsuk Chin after Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)

Alice ..... Rachele Gilmore (soprano)

Cheshire Cat ..... Marie Arnet (soprano)

Duchess ..... Jenni Bank (mezzo-soprano)

Queen of Hearts ..... Jane Henschel (mezzo-soprano)

White Rabbit/Badger/March Hare ..... Andrew Watts (countertenor)

Mouse/Dormouse ..... Christopher Lemmings (tenor)

Mad Hatter ..... Dietrich Henschel (baritone)

Old Man 2/Crab/King of Hearts ..... Stephen Richardson (bass-baritone)

Mock Turtle ..... David Finch (actor)

Jurors/Soldiers ..... BBC Singers

Baby animals/Children ..... Tiffin Boys' Choir

Caterpillar ..... Katherine Lacy (bass clarinet)

Tiffin Boys' Choir (Director - Simon Toyne)

BBC Singers (Chorus master - Tim Murray)

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Baldur Bronnimann (conductor)

Netia Jones (director)

Korean composer Unsuk Chin's dazzling score wittily portrays the well-known characters of Lewis Carroll's beloved book, offering great virtuoso opportunities for the solo singers - notably the Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, White Rabbit and Alice herself. Grappling with wordplay, mathematical games, riddles, paradoxes of pre-logic and the absurd, Chin created the libretto with David Henry Hwang, extracted from Lewis Carroll with additional new texts.

This performance in the Barbican Hall was directed in a stunning production using video projections drawn from Ralph Steadman's celebrated illustrations by Netia Jones.

The UK premiere of Unsuk Chin's opera Alice in Wonderland, with the BBC SO and Singers.

Urban Visions, Apparitions And Spring20200310From Symphony Hall Birmingham, Michael Seal conducts the CBSO in a programme of music that foregrounds the talents of the orchestra's youth wing - a CBSO Centenary Commission from Gary Carpenter based on Scottish ghost stories, written for the CBSO Youth and Children's Choruses. The programme also features Ralph Vaughan-Williams‘ atmospheric symphonic portrait of London, and music by John Foulds. Presented by Tom McKinney.

PART ONE

John Foulds: April - England

Gary Carpenter: Ghost Songs (CBSO Centenary Commission)

INTERVAL

from CD

MENDELSSOHN: incidental Music for A Midsummer Night's Dream

`You Spotted Snakes`

Rhian Lois (soprano)

Keri Fuge (soprano)

CBSO Youth Chorus

CBSO/Edward Gardiner

Tom McKinney talks to CBSO Chorus Directors Julian Wilkins and Ula Weber

VIERNE: Carillon de Westminster (Pieces de fantasie III Op54)

Wayne Marshall (organ)

Played on the organ of Coventry Cathedral.

PART TWO

Ralph Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony

CBSO Children's Chorus

Michael Seal - Conductor

The CBSO and youth choruses from Symphony Hall.

Van Kuijk Quartet20180617The Paris-based Van Kuijk Quartet, current Radio 3 New Generations Artists, makes its New York debut at the city's Frick Collection in this concert recorded in November 2017, performing string quartets by Janacek and Ravel.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Janacek: Quartet No. 1 'Kreutzer Sonata

Ravel: String Quartet

The Van Kuijk Quartet performs music by Janacek and Ravel.

Verbier Festival 25th Anniversary Gala20181014Highlights from the Verbier Festival 25th Anniversary Gala, recorded in July this year at Verbier. The term 'stellar' is greatly overused, but it really does apply here. The astonishing line-up of artists includes Andras Schiff, Evgeny Kissin, Richard Goode, Pinchas Zukerman, Maxim Vengerov, Renaud Capucon, Mischa Maisky, Vilde Frang and many, many more.

Kate Molleson presents.

Programme includes:

Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in G, BWV1048

Pinchas Zukerman, Maxim Vengerov, Vladim Repin, Leonidas Kavakos, Vilde Frang, Ilya Gringolts, Lisa Batiashvili, Renaud Capucon (violin)

Tabea Zimmermann, Nobuko Imai, Gerard Causse (viola)

Mischa Maisky, Andrei Ionita, Edgar Moreau (cello)

Smetana: Sonata for two pianos, 8 hands

Seong-Jin Cho, Andras Schiff, Evgeny Kissin, Yuja Wang (piano)

Johann Strauss II: Die Fledermaus - Overture

Verbier Festival Orchestra

Valery Gergiev (conductor)

Verbier Festival 25th Anniversary Gala with Andras Schiff, Pinchas Zukerman and many more

Verbier Festival And Minnesota Orchestra20181118Kate Molleson introduces highlights of concerts recorded around the world.

Piano legend Elizabeth Leonskaja performs Beethoven at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and the Minnesota Orchestra celebrates the centenary of Finland with a concert of music by Sibelius.

Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, op. 111

Elizabeth Leonskaja (piano)

Sibelius -  Symphony No. 2 in D, op. 43

Osmo V䀀nsk䀀 (conductor)

Verbier Festival Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev. Tchaikovsky20171105On the eve of Breaking Free: A Century of Russian Culture, Ian Skelly presents an all-Tchaikovsky concert given by the Verbier Festival Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev, which was recorded at the Combins Hall in August as part of the Verbier Festival. Janine Jansen joins the orchestra in Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, which is followed by his 4th Symphony.

Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35

Melodie Op.42 no.3

Symphony No.4 in F minor, Op.39

Janine Jansen (violin)

Mikhail Pletnev (conductor).

Ian Skelly presents an all-Tchaikovsky concert recorded at the Verbier Festival 2017.

Verdi And Bruckner From The Salzburg Festival20230919Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival.

The renowned maestro conducts the Vienna State Opera Chorus in the Stabat Mater and Te Deum from Verdi's Sacred Pieces and follows those with Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, with its magisterial laments for a quartet of Wagner tubas.

Presented by Georgia Mann.

Verdi: Stabat Mater and Te Deum from 'Quattro Pezzi sacri

Vienna State Opera Chorus Concert Association

c. 8pm Interval Music

Igor Levit plays Zoltan Kocsis's piano arrangement of the Prelude from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

(CD recording)

c. 8.10pm

Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E

Riccardo Muti, conductor

Recorded at Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg 15 August 2023.

Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Bruckner at the Salzburg Festival.

Verdi Requiem And Liszt Piano Music20200315Fiona Talkington introduces highlights of concerts from around the world, care of the European Broadcasting Union. Portugal, Austria and New Zealand feature in this edition, including a performance of Verdi's dramatic Requiem in Lisbon, and virtuoso pianist Marc-Andr退 Hamelin performing the ecstatic and dreamlike B退n退diction de Dieu dans la solitude by Liszt at the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade in Austria.

Giuseppe Verdi - Requiem

Erika Grimaldi (soprano)

Elena Zhidkova (mezzo-soprano)

Paulo Ferreira (tenor)

Nikolay Didenko (bass)

Gulbenkian Chorus

Gulbenkian Orchestra

Michel Corboz (conductor)

Recorded in November 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal

Franz Liszt - B退n退diction de Dieu dans la solitude, S.173'3

(from Harmonies poetiques et religieuses)

Marc-Andr退 Hamelin (piano)

Recorder last summer at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg in Austria

Dmitri Shostakovich - Festive overture Op.96

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Jaime Mart퀀n (conductor)

Recorded summer 2018 in Wellington, New Zealand

Producer Helen Garrison

Highlights from classical concerts around the world

Verdi Requiem From La Scala20201207Fiona Talkington presents a recording of Verdi's Requiem made at Milan Cathedral in September in memory of those who have died from Covid-19.

Riccardo Chailly conducts the chorus and orchestra of La Scala, Milan in this most emotional of performances, in front of members of the emergency services, healthcare workers and dignitaries from the region to remember the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Verdi: Requiem

Krassimira Stoyanova (soprano)

El?na Garan?a (mezzo soprano)

Francesco Meli (tenor)

Ren退 Pape (bass)

Riccardo Chailly (conductor)

Image: Brescia Amisano

Riccardo Chailly conducts the orchestra and chorus of La Scala, Milan in Verdi's Requiem.

Verdi, Elgar And Saint-saen\u200bs20190930The opening concert in the Ulster Orchestra's 2019/2020 season, conducted by the orchestra's new Chief Conductor, Daniele Rustioni. Beginning the concert is the Overture from Verdi's 1855 opera, 'I vespri siciliani.' Joining the orchestra will be cellist Johannes Moser in a performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto, and completing the programme the Ulster Hall's Grand Mullholland Organ will be on full display in Saint-Sa뀀n?s' 'Organ' Symphony No. 3 in C minor.

The concert will be presented by John Toal who will be talking to conductor Daniele Rustioni during the interval

Daniele Rustioni conducts the Ulster Orchestra's Season Opener.

Verdi's Requiem20191003The BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, under the baton of Richard Farnes, perform Giuseppe Verdi's celebrated Requiem, one of the most dramatic works of the genre. Written to mark the death of Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni, Verdi's Requiem starts and ends with a whisper, but the grief, surprise, violence, and joy create all the power and craft of an Italian Romantic opera in one condensed, emotional narrative.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas, live at St. David's Hall, Cardiff.

Verdi: Messa da Requiem

Vlada Borovko (soprano)

Jennifer Johnston (mezzo soprano)

David Butt Philip (tenor)

David Soar (bass)

Richard Farnes (conductor)

Richard Farnes conducts BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales in Verdi's Requiem.

Verdi's Requiem From Berlin20200601Recorded in November last year in the Philharmonie, Berlin, conductor Teodor Currentzis conducts a powerful performance of Verdi's Requiem. The Berlin Philharmonic is joined by musicAeterna Chorus and a starry line-up of soloists in this dramatic work.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Verdi: Requiem

Zarina Abaeva, soprano

Cl退mentine Margaine, mezzo-soprano

Sergey Romanovsky, tenor

Evgeny Stavinsky, bass

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Teodor Currentzis, conductor

Followed at 9pm with music by JS Bach and Shostakovich performed by German-born cellist Alban Gerhardt

JS Bach: Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV1008

Alban Gerhardt, cello

Shostakovich: Sonata in D minor Op.40 for cello and piano

Steven Osborne, piano

Image Credit: Nina Worb

Teodor Currentzis, the Berlin Philharmonic and musicAeterna Chorus in Verdi's Requiem.

Verdi's Requiem In Birmingham20231013The one with THAT Dies Irae, Verdi's Requiem is arguably more opera than church. From a terrifying day of judgement to bouncing angels and an ending that seems to offer crossed fingers rather than comfort, Verdi threw almost every dramatic device he could at his masterpiece. Remarkably, the first performance was a religious service officiated by a priest - for all the theatre, Verdi's sincerity was unquestionable. This electrifying mixture continues to thrill concert hall audiences, with its soaring solos, gripping chorus and rib-shaking bass courtesy of an upright serpent and a gigantic bass drum. Kazuki Yamada conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the opening night of a season celebrating the 50th anniversary of the CBSO Chorus.

Presented by Miriam Skinner.

Evalina Dobraceva, soprano

Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano

Jose Simerilla Romero, tenor

Ashley Riches, bass

Kazuki Yamada, conductor

Kazuki Yamada conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus and Orchestra.

Kazuki Yamada conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the opening night of a season celebrating the 50th anniversary of the CBSO Chorus, performing Verdi's Requiem.

Verdi's Requiem, Live From The Royal Opera House20181023On 22 May 1873, the Italian writer, poet and humanist Alessandro Manzoni died. In response to his death, Verdi resolved to write a Requiem (indeed the work was once known as the 'Manzoni Requiem'). He had already written the final movement, 'Libera me', as part of a joint project with other composers for a requiem to commemorate Rossini - the ill-fated Messa per Rossini, which remained unperformed until 1988. Taking this conclusion as a starting point, Verdi re-worked the movement and set the remaining texts, including the famously dramatic 'Dies irae', creating what has become one of the most celebrated, fiery and operatic works in the choral repertoire.

Live from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Presented by Martin Handley

Verdi: Messa da Requiem

Lise Davidsen (soprano)

Jamie Barton (mezzo-soprano)

Benjamin Bernheim (tenor)

Gကbor Bretz (bass)

Royal Opera Chorus

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor)

Sir Antonio Pappano conducts Verdi's Requiem, live from the Royal Opera House

Veronique Gens And Susan Manoff Perform French Song At Wigmore Hall20180702Celebrated recital partners soprano V退ronique Gens and pianist Susan Manoff perform a delightful programme of familiar and lesser known French song.

Charles Gounod:

Où voulez-vous aller?

Le Soir

O ma belle rebelle

S退r退nade

Mignon

Viens, les gazons sont verts

Edmond de Polignac:

Lamento

Jules Massenet:

Chant proven瀀al

El退gie

INTERVAL

Nuit d'Espagne

Henri Duparc:

Chanson triste

La vie ant退rieure

Extase

Reynaldo Hahn:

Le rossignol des lilas

Mai

Les cygnes

Infid退lit退

Rꀀverie

Jacques Offenbach:

La laiti耀re et le pot au lait

Le rat de ville et le rat des champs

Le corbeau et le renard.

Veronique Gens and Susan Manoff perform Gounod, Massenet, Duparc and Offenbach.

Vienna Philharmonic20201005Philippe Jordan conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in music by Bach, Arvo P䀀rt and Mendelssohn.

Last October, the Vienna Philharmonic and the singers of the Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde were joined by four top class soloists for a concert pairing the Magificats of JS Bach and Arvo P䀀rt alongside Mendelssohn's `Reformation` Symphony.

During the interval, we work our way from P䀀rt to Mendelssohn, via Villa-Lobos, courtesy of the 12 cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Presented by Fiona Talkington

7.30pm

JS Bach - Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV.303

Arvo P䀀rt - 7 Magnificat Antiphons

JS Bach - Magnificat in D, BWV.243

8.20pm

Interval:

Arvo P䀀rt - Fratres [version for 12 cellos]

Heitor Villa-Lobos - Embolada from Bachianas Brasileiras No.1

Felix Mendelssohn - Trio & Double Quartet from Elijah

8.40pm

Symphony No.5 in D minor, Op.107 `Reformation`

Regula Mühlemann, soprano

Robin Johannsen, soprano

Wiebke Lehmkuhl, contralto

Werner Güra, tenor

Michael Volle, bass

Philippe Jordan, conductor

Followed by Bach and Mendelssohn from current members of Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme. :

Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C sharp minor, BWV 849

Alexander Gadjiev (piano)

Mendelssohn: Quartet no. 2 in A minor Op.13

Aris Quartet

Philippe Jordan conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in music by Bach, P\u00e4rt and Mendelssohn.

Vienna Philharmonic20210106Beethoven's Fifth Symphony conducted by Semyon Bychkov, with opera star Piotr Becza?a and the Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde beguiling in vocal music by Haydn, Mozart and Schubert, a concert recorded a year ago to the day, the orchestra celebrates the 150th anniversary of its home in Vienna, the beautiful Musikverein

Presented by Fiona Talkington

7.30pm

Beethoven: Egmont Overture

Haydn: 'Stimmt an die Saiten' from The Creation

Mozart: 'Konstanze, dich wieder zu sehen'! - 'O wie 䀀ngstlich' from 'The Abduction from the Seraglio

Schubert: Pax vobiscum

7.55pm

Interval

Taffanel: Wind Quintet

Wien-Berlin Ensemble

8.20pm

Beethoven: Symphony no.5 in C minor

Piotr Becza?a, tenor

Semyon Bychkov, conductor

Image: Chris Christodoulou

Semyon Bychkov conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Vienna Philharmonic At The Salzburg Festival20220103The Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival.

The legendary orchestra is conducted in Salzburg's Festpielhaus by the eminent 94-year-old Herbert Blomstedt in two works particularly close to his heart. Written in the aftermath of the Second World War and with movements titles taken from the Roman Catholic Mass and the Psalms, Honegger wrote of his Symphonie Liturgique that: 'It is a drama in which three characters - real or symbolic - play: misery, happiness and man. It is an eternal problem. I have tried to face it anew.`

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Honegger: Symphony No.3 'Liturgical

c. 8.00pm.

Interval music: Murray Perahia plays Brahms's Autumnal 4 pieces for piano, Op.119

at 8.20pm

Brahms: Symphony No.4 in E minor, Op.98

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Herbert Blomstedt (conductor)

Recorded at Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg, Austria on 29 August 2021

Image: © SF / Marco Borrelli

Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Honegger and Brahms.

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra20220214The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on tour.

Tonight's Radio 3 in Concert begins with a new piece by the Canadian composer Samy Moussa, written specially for the colossal acoustic of the Basilica of the Sagrada Fam퀀lia, Gaud퀀's still uncompleted, flamboyant masterpiece in Barcelona. After the interval, we follow the orchestra to Bonn, where Herbert Blomstedt conducts Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 'Romantic'.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

Samy Moussa: Elysium

Christian Thielemann, conductor

7.45: Schubert: Tantum ergo in E flat major D962:

Wiener S䀀ngerknaben,

Chorus Viennensis,

Wiener Volksoper Kammerorchester

Peter Marschik, conductor

Schubert: Offertorium in C 'Totus in corde langueo', D. 136

Max Emanuel Cen?i? (solo soprano of the Wiener S䀀ngerknaben)

Erwin Monschein (clarinet),

Alfred Halbartschlager (organ)

Uwe Christian Harrer, conductor

7.55: Schubert: Symphony No.8 'Unfinished

Bruckner: Symphony No.4 in E flat 'Romantic

Herbert Blomstedt, conductor

The Vienna Philharmonic perform Bruckner's Fourth Symphony in E-flat, 'Romantic'.

Vienna Philharmonic With Christoph Von Dohnanyi20200629Fiona Talkington presents a concert given by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Christoph von Dohnကnyi, recorded at the Musikverein in November 2019.

The concert begins with Gy怀rgy Ligeti's `Atmospheres`, composed in 1961 and used by Stanley Kubrick in his film `2001 - A Space Odyssey` seven years later, followed immediately by the Prelude to Act I of Wagner's opera `Lohengrin`. A very creative and well thought out segue which shows the orchestra off in glorious technicolour.

The orchestra is then joined by Austrian violinist Rainer Honeck for a performance of Alban Berg's deeply moving Violin Concerto, completed in 1935, but inspired by the tragic death of Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler's 18-year-old daughter, Manon. It's dedicated `To the memory of an angel`.

During the interval we'll hear two solo instrumental pieces by the Hungarian composer Ern? Dohnကnyi - grandfather of tonight's conductor, Christoph von Dohnကnyi.

In the second half of the concert, the orchestra will perform one of the stalwarts of the Romantic symphonic repertoire - Brahms' 3rd. It was composed in the summer of 1883 in Wiesbaden, and premiered later that year by conductor Hans Richter, who proclaimed it to be Brahms; `Eroica`.

To end the programme, we'll hear British soprano Carolyn Sampson in recordings of one of Bach's secular cantata - Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten (Dissipate, you troublesome shadows), BWV.202 and a gentle chanson by Henri Duparc.

19:30

Gy怀rgy Ligeti: Atmospheres

Richard Wagner: Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin

Alban Berg: Violin Concerto

Rainer Honeck (violin)

Christoph von Dohnကnyi (conductor)

20:20

Ern? Dohnကnyi: Rhapsody in G minor, Op.11 No.1

Martin Roscoe (piano)

Ern? Dohnကnyi: Passacaglia for solo flute, Op.48 No.2

Sharon Bezaly (flute)

20:40

Johannes Brahms - Symphony No.3 in F, Op.90

21:20

JS Bach: Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten, BWV.202

Carolyn Sampson (soprano)

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

Petra Mullejeans (conductor)

Henri Duparc - Romance de Mignon

Joseph Middleton (piano)

Christoph von Dohnanyi and the Vienna Philharmonic in Ligeti, Wagner, Berg and Brahms.

Vienna Philharmonic, Enescu And Haydn20160214Ian Skelly presents two performances given by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the George Enescu Festival, Bucharest. And, looking ahead to Radio 3's lunchtime concerts later this week, a chance to hear a Beethoven rarity given at the Hohenems Schubertiade.

Sept Chansons de Clement Marot, Op. 15

Valentina Nafornita (soprano),

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Semyon Bychkov (conductor)

Rec. Palace Grand Hall, Bucharest

Piano Trio in E flat Op.38 (arr. from Septet Op. 20)

Andreas Ottensamer (clarinet),

Sol Gabetta (cello)

Dejan Lazic (piano)

rec. Hohenems Schubertiade 2015

Haydn

Symphony No. 44 in E minor, Hob. 1:44 'Trauersinfonie

Photo of Ottensamer, Gabetta, Lazic (c) Schubertiade Gmb 2015.

Ian Skelly presents the Vienna Philharmonic playing Enescu and Haydn in Bucharest.

Vienna Philharmonic: Brahms Second Symphony20151004Ian Skelly tonight presents a programme of Brahms and Mozart recorded at some of the principal European music festivals.

Brahms: Sonntag (Ludwig Uhland)

Brahms: Von ewiger Liebe (Josef Wenzig)

Malin Bystr怀m (soprano), Matti Hirvonen (piano)

Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A, K581

Shirley Brill (clarinet) with The Faur退 Quartet

recorded at the Rügen Spring Festival

Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op 73

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Riccardo Muti (conductor)

recorded at the Salzburg Summer Festival.

Ian Skelly presents Mozart and Brahms, including the Vienna Philharmonic from Salzburg.

Vienna Piano Trio And Ndr Philharmonic Orchestra20160703Ian Skelly presents his regular Sunday evening programme of performances recorded around Europe.

CPE Bach: Piano Trio in B flat, Wq. 89/1

Vienna Piano Trio

Recorded at the Konzerthaus, Vienna

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 in A minor, op. 56 ('Scottish')

NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra,

Andrew Manze (conductor)

Recorded at NDR, Hanover

Rebecca Clarke: Piano Trio (1921)

Recorded at the Konzerthaus, Vienna.

The Vienna Piano Trio play Rebecca Clarke's Trio and Andrew Manze conducts Mendelssohn.

Vienna Symphony Play Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony20221121Enrique Mazzola conducts the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's 'The Tempest' and Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony at the Festspielhaus in Bregenz.

Shostakovich completed his Tenth Symphony just after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. It has been described as '48 minutes of tragedy, despair, terror, and violence and two minutes of triumph'. The most widely accepted interpretation of the symphony is that it's a musical depiction of the Stalin years in the Soviet Union, when between eight and twenty million people died as a direct or indirect result of Stalin's regime and when those who didn't lived in constant fear. Shostakovich felt the capriciousness of Stalin's rule first-hand - he was publicly denounced, his works banned, and his status reduced to that of a `non-person.` Friends and colleagues disappeared, many of them never to return. The horror of these three decades - and the collective sigh of relief that doubtlessly followed Stalin's death - certainly make a plausible programme for Shostakovich's Tenth.

Tchaikovsky: The Tempest, fantasy after Shakespeare, Op.18

Shostakovich: Symphony No.10 in E minor, Op.93

Enrique Mazzola (conductor)

Festspielhaus, Bregenz

Enrique Mazzola conducts the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony.

Vienna's Golden Age20191011Thomas Sønderg倀rd opens the RSNO Autumn season with a romantic feast featuring star mezzo soprano Karen Cargill performing Berg's lush 7 Early Songs, Strauss' glorious tone poem of the anti-hero Don Juan and Mahler's vast canvas of his Symphony No 1 inspired by nature and reflecting the world and a sweep of emotions from tragic to euphoric.

Presented by Kate Molleson.

Strauss: Don Juan

Berg: 7 Early Songs

Mahler: Symphony No 1 'Titan

Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Thomas Sønderg倀rd, conductor

Karen Cargill, mezzo soprano

Thomas S\u00f8nderg\u00e5rd opens the RSNO season with Strauss, Berg and Mahler.

Viennese Whirl20210326Presented live from MediaCityUK, Salford by Tom McKinney

Sarah Connolly joins the BBC Philharmonic and Martyn Brabbins for an evening of music from Vienna. From Brahms's First Sextet, David Matthews's arrangement of the Andante brings expanded dimension to the piece. Zemlinsky's Six songs on poems by Maeterlinck are here heard in an arrangement by John Pickard; originally for piano and existing, too, in a version for large orchestra, tonight's performing edition draws inspiration from both to provide an intimate orchestral picture. A newly minted transcription of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder made by David Matthews specially for this concert sheds new light on this masterpiece and the programme ends with a classic, Schoenberg's First Chamber Symphony - a tour de force of of orchestra colour and virtuosity as seen through the lens of fifteen players.

Brahms arr David Matthews: Andante (from String Sextet Op 18)

Zemlinsky arr John Pickard: Six songs to poems by Maeterlinck

Music Interval (CD)

David Matthews: A Vision of the Sea

Jac van Steen (conductor)

Mahler arr David Matthews; Kindertotenlieder

Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)

Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No 1 (CD)

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Simon Rattle (conductor)

Martyn Brabbins conducts the BBC Philharmonic in Brahms, Schoenberg, Mahler and Zemlinsky.

Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser Von Atlantis20220311The BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion 'Music for the End of Time' in January this year centred its focus on the Theresienstadt ghetto of the 1940s. Here many of the finest musical talents of the time were held pawns in an appalling Nazi propaganda exercise, then taken to the concentration camps from which they never returned.

In a second broadcast from that day the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with a fine cast, perform Viktor Ullmann's parody of fascism, the chamber opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis [Plot summary below]. Before this come more musical testaments from Theresienstadt by Hans Krကsa and Pavel Haas, and a searing symphony by Erwin Schulhoff that warns of impending human catastrophe.

Presented by Georgia Mann

Recorded at the Barbican on 23rd January 2022

Hans Krasa: Overture for small orchestra

Pavel Haas: Study for string orchestra

Ervin Schulhoff: Symphony no. 5

Alpesh Chauhan (conductor)

Viktor Ullmann: Der Kaiser von Atlantis - legend in 4 scenes Op.49b

The Kaiser ..... Thomas Johannes (baritone)

Loudspeaker ..... Derrick Ballard (bass baritone)

A Soldier ..... Oliver Johnston (tenor)

Pierrot ..... Robert Murray (tenor)

A Maiden ..... Soraya Mafi (soprano)

Death ..... Henry Waddington (bass)

Drummer Girl ..... Hanna Hipp (mezzo-soprano)

Kenneth Richardson (Director)

Josep Pons (Conductor)

Plot of Der Kaiser von Atlantis: set in mythical times, centres on the desire and determination of Emperor Overall to rule over the whole world. In the first scene, the Emperor proclaims a universal war, conducting his campaign via a loudspeaker and conscripting his old ally Death to the cause. But Death denounces the Emperor for usurping his role and refuses to participate in the slaughter by stating unequivocally that people cannot die. The Emperor is shocked by Death's response and in particular by his refusal to carry out executions. In Scene 2 a mysterious epidemic breaks out. Yet, although many people are mortally wounded, nobody is able to die. The next scene takes place on the battlefield, but the conflict of arms brings about a completely unexpected result. Instead of fighting each other, a male soldier and a female soldier sing a love duet. With the final scene we return to the empty palace where the Emperor is sitting alone. He is becoming increasingly alarmed by the reports of the chaos ravaging the country and that the sick and suffering are unable to die. In desperation, he looks in the mirror and sees Death reflected there. Death is now prepared to resume his work, but on the condition that the Emperor agrees to be his first victim. After some initial resistance, the Emperor accepts Death's invitation and is then led away.

The BBC SO perform Ullmann and other music from the Nazi ghetto of Theresienstadt.

Visiting The Uk: Bach Collegium Japan20210723Bach Collegium Japan: Bach B Minor Mass.

Under the direction of founder Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan has built a worldwide reputation in Baroque sacred music. Bach's B minor Mass was a suitably inspired opening to the first major UK residency by the Collegium at the Barbican Hall in 2016.

Original concert presented by Martin Handley.

Presenter Hannah French.

Bach Mass in B minor (part 1)

8.30 pm

Interval

Robin Blaze talks to Hannah French about working with Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan.

8.40 pm

Bach Mass in B minor (part 2)

Rachel Nicholls (soprano)

Joanne Lunn (soprano)

Robin Blaze (alto)

Colin Balzer (tenor)

Dominik W怀rner (bass)

Masaaki Suzuki (conductor)

Masaaki Suzuki conducts Bach's Mass in B minor from the Barbican in 2016.

Visiting The Uk: Berlin Philharmonic20210729Martin Handley introduces the final recording in the series of outstanding concerts taken from the last ten years of the Radio 3 archive.

Simon Rattle's week-long 2015 London residency with the Berlin Philharmonic was the season's hottest ticket. The concerts, split between the Barbican and the Southbank Centre, ended with the work which inspired an 11-year-old Rattle to become a conductor. The epic drama of Mahler's 'Resurrection' Symphony is now something of a Rattle calling card and this performance, with the orchestra Rattle had led since 2002 and which had given the symphony's premiere in 1895, was variously summed up by critics as 'shattering... utterly compelling', 'genuinely awesome' and 'dizzyingly cathartic'.

Providing an upbeat to Mahler's transcendent symphony was Helmut Lachenmann's late 80s 'Tableau', a short, intense work which uses a huge conventional orchestra in unconventional ways. It was a perfect foil to the Mahler, a typical Rattle juxtaposition designed to make an audience sit up and think.

Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in February 2015 and presented on the night by Petroc Trelawny.

Helmut Lachenmann: Tableau

Mahler: Symphony No 2 ('Resurrection')

Kate Royal (soprano)

Magdalena Koženက (mezzo-soprano)

London Symphony Chorus

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus

Simon Rattle (conductor)

Simon Rattle conducts Mahler's Second Symphony, 'Resurrection'.

Visiting The Uk: Budapest Festival Orchestra20210724From the 2012 Edinburgh International Festival: Ivကn Fischer conducts his Budapest Festival Orchestra in music from their homeland as well as Mahler's epic Fifth Symphony, made famous by Visconti's film Death in Venice. Joining them in Bartok's First Violin Concerto was violinist Barnabကs Kelemen.

Original concert presentation by Donald Macleod.

Presented by Andrew McGregor.

Bart k: Hungarian Peasant Songs

Bart k: Violin Concerto No 1

Mahler: Symphony No 5

Ivကn Fischer - conductor

Barnabကs Kelemen - violin

Iv\u00e1n Fischer conducts a feast of Bart\u00f3k and Mahler at the Usher Hall.

Visiting The Uk: Chamber Orchestra Of Europe20210726Ian Skelly introduces a concert recorded live and first broadcast in June 2014 and presented on the night from London's Barbican Hall by Martin Handley.

Bernard Haitink conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in music by Schumann and Beethoven, and are joined by the violinist Isabelle Faust in Berg's austere but beautiful violin concerto, a work with which she is particularly associated.

The concert begins with Schumann's heart-on-sleeve romanticism of his tribute to Byron, the Overture to Manfred, and the concert ends with the sunny radiance of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, the 'Pastoral'.

Given as part of Haitink's 85th birthday celebrations, a critic wrote that this concert 'was a rich and glowing embodiment of Haitink's enduring mature mastery'.

Schumann: Overture to Manfred

Berg: Violin Concerto

8.10pm

Interval: Bernard Haitink in conversation. The veteran conductor talks to Martin Handley and reflects on a 60-year career that has led him to direct orchestras and opera companies all over the world.

8.30pm

Beethoven: Symphony no.6 'Pastoral

Isabelle Faust (violin)

Bernard Haitink (conductor)

Bernard Haitink conducts works by Schumann, Berg and Beethoven.

Visiting The Uk: Lucerne Festival Orchestra20210720From The Royal Festival Hall, London on 11 October 2011.

Claudio Abbado's last concert in London with his Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Mozart's 'Haffner' Symphony and Bruckner's Fifth Symphony.

On two nights in October 2011, the seventy-eight year old maestro brought his handpicked orchestra to The Royal Festival Hall to give legendary performances. As one reviewer wrote of the Bruckner: 'Abbado gave a performance that - in terms of ensemble, expression and flexibility - was among the most astonishing any of us are likely to experience...... A vision of infinity, a collapsing of time and space into a single point of brilliance and intensity.

With original concert presentation by Louise Fryer.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Mozart: Symphony no.35 in D major 'Haffner

7.50pm Interval: principal viola, B退atrice Muthelet talks about making music with Claudio Abbado.

8.05pm

Bruckner: Symphony no.5 in B flat

Claudio Abbado (conductor)

Followed by performances of music by Schumann and Mozart from pianist, Mitsuko Uchida, who appeared with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hal the previous evening.

Photo: © Peter Fischli/Lucerne Festival

Claudio Abbado conducts Mozart's 'Haffner' Symphony and Bruckner's Fifth Symphony.

Visiting The Uk: Ludwig Orchestra20210719Continuing the series of outstanding performances from visiting orchestras and ensembles drawn from the Radio 3 archive, Andrew McGregor introduces this concert recorded at Snape Maltings as part of 2019 Aldeburgh Festival. The versatile Barbara Hannigan took the roles of both conductor and soprano with the Dutch LUDWIG Orchestra in a programme spanning three centuries with music from Haydn to Gershwin, which was presented on the night by Martin Handley.

Stravinsky: Pulcinella (complete ballet)

8.15 pm

Martin Handley in conversation with Barbara Hannigan

8.30 pm

Haydn: Symphony No.49 ‘La Passione

Gershwin: Suite from Girl Crazy

Kate Howden (mezzo-soprano)

James Way (tenor)

Antoin Herrera-Lopez Kessel (bass)

Barbara Hannigan (soprano/conductor)

Soprano Barbara Hannigan is conductor and soloist at the 2019 Aldeburgh Festival.

Visiting The Uk: Mariss Jansons Conducts The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra20210716The first of a 12-part series featuring some of the world's top orchestras and conductors on tour in the UK, recorded in the last decade by Radio 3.

Tonight, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons are at the Royal Festival Hall in 2011. They are joined in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 3 by Mitsuko Uchida, praised by the New York Times for her ability to play 'the kind of fluid phrasing that creates the impression... of being improvised on the spot'. Also, a work by Richard Strauss, a composer with whom conductor and orchestra seemed to have a special affinity. Ein Heldenleben is a buccaneering, rollicking depiction of 'a hero's life' (the hero being Strauss himself), an orchestral tour de force where woodwind, brass and strings all have a chance shine, individually and collectively: the perfect end to this memorable concert.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37

Interval at 8.10pm - Hannah French talks to music critic Edward Seckerson, who was there on the night.

c.8.20pm

Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben

Mitsuko Uchida (piano)

Mariss Jansons (conductor)

c.9.10pm

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

Photo by Hiroyuki Ito

Archive recording from 2011 in Beethoven's Piano Concerto 3 and Strauss's Ein Heldenleben.

Visiting The Uk: New York Philharmonic20210727The New York Philharmonic has long been a committed advocate of new music and when they came to the Barbican in 2012 with their then Music Director Alan Gilbert, they chose to open their concert with the UK premiere of Thomas Ad耀s's Polaris. The rest of the programme continued with favourite mezzo Joyce DiDonato in Berlioz's ravishing song cycle Les nuits d'退t退 and a work premiered by a previous New York Phil generation, Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements, his 1946 masterpiece largely based on cast-offs from abandoned projects. The concert ended with another orchestral tour de force, music from Ravel's sumptuously scored ballet Daphnis et Chlo退. Well, not quite ended because the orchestra drove the sell-out audience to a frenzy with its two encores.

Martin Handley introduces this concert, which was originally presented by Louise Fryer.

Thomas Ad耀s: Polaris (UK premiere)

Berlioz: Les nuits d'退t退

8.30 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Stravinsky: Ebony Concerto

Michel Arrignon (clarinet)

Ensemble Intercontemporain

Pierre Boulez (conductor)

8.40 pm

Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements

Ravel: Daphnis et Chlo退 (Suite No 2)

Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano)

Alan Gilbert (conductor)

Photo by Simon Pauly

Alan Gilbert conducts and Joyce DiDonato sings Berlioz's Les nuits d'ete.

Visiting The Uk: Orchestra Dell'accademia Di Santa Cecilia20210721Continuing our series of International Orchestras in Radio 3 in Concert, an archive recording taken at the opening of the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival in a gala concert at the Usher Hall with Sir Antonio Pappano conducting one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, in Rome, performing works by Bellini, Verdi and also Rossini's operatic Stabat Mater.

Rossini: Sinfonia from Otello

Bellini: Sinfonia from I Capuleti e i Montecchi

Verdi: Ballabile from Macbeth

INTERVAL at 8.00pm / Martin Handley talks to music critic Keith Bruce, who was there on the night.

8.20pm

Rossini: Stabat Mater

Edinburgh Festival Chorus

Carmen Giannattasio (soprano)

Marianna Pizzolato (mezzo)

Yijie Shi (tenor)

Roberto Tagliavini (bass)

Sir Antonio Pappano (conductor)

Antonio Pappano conducts music by Bellini, Verdi and Rossini.

Visiting The Uk: St Petersburg Philharmonic20210722Continuing the series of memorable concerts given by visiting orchestras from the last decade of the Radio 3 archive, Yuri Temirkanov conducts the legendary St. Petersburg Philharmonic in a programme of Russian music recorded at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester in 2014. The repertoire has a link to the city as Liadov, who composed the first piece, the tone poem Kikimora, was born in St Petersburg as was Shostakovich. The orchestra premiered no fewer than seven of Shostakovich's symphonies, including the final piece in the concert, his 10th Symphony. Sandwiched between these two pieces is Tchaikovsky's great Romantic Violin Concerto, performed by the Spanish violinist Leticia Moreno.

Liadov: Kikimora

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto

8.20pm Interval - Martin Handley talks to Prof. Pauline Fairclough, expert in Soviet music, about the history of this orchestra and the role it played in the geo-politics of the Cold War with the West.

c.8.30pm

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10

Leticia Moreno (violin)

Yuri Temirkanov (conductor)

Yuri Temirkanov conducts an all-Russian programme.

Visiting The Uk: Staatskapelle Berlin20210725Ian Skelly introduces a concert given by Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin, first broadcast live from the Royal Festival Hall in 2012 and presented by Martin Handley. There was only one work on the bill: Bruckner's epic Symphony No 8. For many, it's the greatest of all Bruckner's symphonies and the one with a slow movement which, when Barenboim heard it for the first time as a teenager, 'absolutely tore my heart apart'. The acclaimed performance was described by one critic as 'organic and animated' and having an 'idiomatic spontaneity that... was Bruckner to treasure.

Bruckner: Symphony No.8 (vers. composite, ed. Haas)

Daniel Barenboim (conductor)

Daniel Barenboim conducts Bruckner's Eighth Symphony.

Visiting The Uk: Vox Luminis And Freiburg Baroque Consort20210728Andrew McGregor presents the latest in the series of outstanding concerts from the last ten years of visiting orchestras and ensembles, drawn from the Radio 3 archive.

2017 marked four-and-a-half centuries since the birth of Claudio Monteverdi, one of the great figures in Western music. One of the most memorable events of Monteverdi 450 was this exceptional performance of his masterpiece, the Vespers of 1610. Two of Europe's leading early music ensembles, Vox Luminis and Freiburg Baroque Consort joined to recreate this endlessly inventive, dazzlingly expressive music, a ravishing collection of psalms, motets, a sonata, hymn and seven-part setting of the Magnificat, at once intimate and sensuous, splendid and elaborate. Liturgical music, yes. But one critic one seemed to hit the nail on the head when he wrote that 'Nigra sum', one of the settings from the Song of Solomon, 'was the sort of performance that, in other contexts, might well be followed by a cigarette.

Recorded in May 2017 at the London Festival of Baroque Music at St John's Smith Square and presented on the night by Sara Mohr-Pietsch.

Claudio Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine (beginning)

8.20pm Interval: Lionel Meunier talks to Sara Mohr-Pietsch about the performance practicalities and musical decisions behind his vision of Monteverdi's Vespers.

8.30pm

Claudio Monteverdi: Vespro della Beata Vergine (conclusion)

Lionel Meunier (director)

Two of Europe's leading early music ensembles perform Monteverdi's monumental Vespers.

Viva Espana!20190211Recorded in St. David's Hall, Cardiff

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas

Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain

Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

8.20 Interval music

Falla: Suite No 1 (The Three-Cornered Hat)

Debussy: Iberia (Images)

Ravel: Bolero

Angela Hewitt (piano)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Jun M䀀rkl (conductor)

Jun M䀀rkl transports the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to early 20th Century impressionist Spain, through the music of Manuel de Falla and his French counterparts, Ravel and Debussy. Starting with a back-to-back performance from one of the world's leading pianists, Angela Hewitt, we hear Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain, the sultry nightscape of a flowering garden, and Ravel's ominously dark and jazz tinged piano concerto for the left hand, which was commissioned by the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein. In the second half, the lighter, brighter side of Spain is at the fore. The first suite of music from Falla's ballet The Three-Cornered Hat draws the listener in with its Andalusian folk melodies, and this is followed by Iberia, the centrepiece to Debussy's orchestral triptych Images, which completely encapsulates Spain, even though Debussy had spent less than a day in the country prior to writing the piece. Ravel's much-adored Bolero finishes the concert, a piece which was originally a ballet but which the music has outstripped its original purpose. The piece is in essence a long crescendo without any development, and questions the expected forms of classical music, and is notably included in Our Classical Century.

Jun Markl and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales give a concert inspired by Spain.

Vladimir Jurowski And The Lpo : Kancheli, Martinu, Vaughan Williams20170208Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Vaughan Williams's Ninth Symphony.

Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on 25th January.

Presented by Tom Redmond.

Giya Kancheli: Mourned by the Wind (Liturgy for solo viola and orchestra)

8.00: Interval

8.20

Martin?: Memorial to Lidice

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 9

Isabelle van Keulen, viola

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

From the darkest depths of the Second World War, Bohuslav Martin? cries out in anguish and rage. In Soviet Georgia, Giya Kancheli mourns a friend with a searingly beautiful musical liturgy; music stained with tears, performed tonight by one of the world's finest viola players. And the 85-year-old Vaughan Williams rages against the dying of the light in a Ninth Symphony of breathtaking ambition and imaginative fire. Three great composers, three extraordinary testimonies.

Vladimir Jurowski conducts London Philharmonic in Kancheli, Martinu and Vaughan Williams.

Vladimir Jurowski Conducts The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra20230327Fiona Talkington presents one of the highlights of the concert season in Europe:

The Berlin RSO, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, play Stravinsky and Schubert.

`The whole orchestra was pounding. A grandiose impression. Unbelievable enthusiasm from the audience in the sold-out Philharmonie`, one critic enthused after the premiere of Stravinsky's Violin Concerto, conducted by Stravinsky himself on 23 October 1931 with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The Concerto's witty side is mirrored in Stravinsky's good-natured caricature of the legendary impresario Sergei Diaghilev as an elephant in a china shop, which begins the concert.

Schubert was not so lucky during his lifetime. It was only after his death that the Symphony in C major was premiered by Mendelssohn, after Robert Schumann had found the manuscript at Schubert's brother's home.

Stravinsky: Circus Polka,

Stravinsky: Violin Concerto

Schubert: Symphony no. 9 in C, D. 944

Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

Concert given at the Berlin Philharmonie on 29/01/2023

Vladimir Jurowski Conducts The London Philharmonic20211208In his first concert with the LPO as their Conductor Emeritus, Vladimir Jurowski presents a programme featuring two 20th-century masterpieces with the spirit of Russia at their heart.

After Alina Ibragimova's and Vladimir Jurowski's multi-award-winning recording of Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No 1 was released in last year, a critic hailed her interpretation as having 'an unvarnished truth about it. It's the kind of playing that looks you unblinkingly in the eye and tells it like it is.' The emotional and searingly intense concerto was finished in 1948 but not heard in public until seven years later. The gap was due to another of Shostakovich's crises in confidence brought on by a very public humiliation at the hands of the Soviet authorities. But by 1955 Shostakovich's principal tormentors, Joseph Stalin and Andrei Zhdanov, were dead and the premiere revealed a major milestone among 20th-century concertos, which has never since been out of the repertoire.

Rachmaninov, too, was no stranger to crises of confidence (which often coincided with the premieres of his symphonies). At its 1935 premiere, the Third Symphony was dismissed by the critics who said it wasn't up to the first two, both of which in turn had been critically dismissed at their premieres. But, written for the great Philadelphia Orchestra, the Third is prime Rachmaninov, an engaging combination of his trademark lyrical Russian nostalgia and, in its finale, a virtuosic exuberance which has more than a nod to Hollywood.

A world premiere by LPO Composer-in-Residence Brett Dean completes the programme.

Introduced live from the Royal Festival Hall by Hannah French.

Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No 1 in A minor, Op 77

8.15 pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Rachmaninov: Valse; Romance and Tarantella (Suite No 2, Op.17 for two pianos)

Martha Argerich & Gabriela Montero (pianos)

8.35 pm

Brett Dean: Notturno inquieto (Rivisitato)

Rachmaninov: Symphony No 3 in A minor, Op 44

Alina Ibragimova (violin)

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski (conductor)

Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No 1 with Alina Ibragimova and Rachmaninov's Symphony No 3

Vladimir Jurowski Conducts The London Philharmonic Orchestra In Mozart And Bruckner20171002Recorded at the Royal Festival Hall on 30th September.

Presented by Penny Gore.

Grandeur out of darkness: Vladimir Jurowski conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Mozart and Bruckner.

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20, K466

8.10: Interval

Bruckner Symphony No. 5 (1878 version)

Richard Goode, piano

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

They want me to write differently. Certainly I could, but I must not', said Anton Bruckner. 'How then would I stand there before Almighty God, if I followed the others and not Him?' Bruckner's majestic Fifth Symphony will make a magnificent complement to the controlled darkness of Mozart's great D minor Piano Concerto, performed by Richard Goode.

Vocal Jewels, By Elgar And Brahms20191120David Hill celebrates the synthesis between voice and orchestra in a programme that brings together two leading romantic figures, Edward Elgar and Johannes Brahms. Marking his tenth anniversary as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's Associate Guest Conductor, tonight's concert opens with Elgar's only song cycle, Sea Pictures, sung by Jennifer Johnston. The text uses five poems, each one by a different author, to explore the fragility of man facing the depths of the sea, with the colours of the orchestral accompaniment evoking the ocean's changing moods. In the second half, the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and soloists Emma Bell and Gareth Brynmor John join the orchestra to perform Brahms' A German Requiem. Begun in the wake of his friend Schumann's death, and standing as a musical memorial to his mother, Brahms selected passages from Martin Luther's translation of the bible to create his own texts. The result is an uplifting and deeply human work that carries a message of hope and comfort to the living.

Presented by Martin Handley, live from the Lighthouse, Poole

Elgar: Sea Pictures, Op 37

David Hill, (conductor)

Jennifer Johnston, (mezzo-soprano)

7.58

Interval

Haydn: Piano Sonata in C major, Hob XVI 50

Paul Lewis, piano

8.18

Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem, Op 45

Emma Bell, (soprano)

Gareth Brynmor John, (baritone)

David Hill conducts the BSO in Elgar's Sea Pictures and Brahms's A German Requiem.

Voces820160513Live from Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge

Presented by Ian Skelly

Voces 8 sing motets by Bach

Bach: Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf BWV 226

Hieronymous Praetorius: Magnificat quinti toni

Buxtehude: Praeludium manualiter BuxWV 163

Mendelssohn: Denn er hat seinen Engeln bef怀hlen über dir (Elijah)

Bach: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied BWV 225

8.15: Interval: Looking ahead to the grand final of BBC Young Musician 2016, which is being held at the Barbican on Sunday May 15th, Freddy Kempf, winner of the competition in 1992 plays Rachmaninov's Variations on a theme of Corelli.

8.35

Bach: Jesu meine Freude BWV 227

August Kühnel: Variations on Herr Jesu Christ, du h怀chtes Gut, for viola da gamba

Giovanni Gabrieli: Jubilate Deo

Bach: Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden BWV 230

Andrea Haines & Emily Dickens, sopranos

Barnaby Smith & Chris Wardle, countertenors

Oliver Vincent & Sam Dressel, tenors

Paul Smith & Jonathan Pacey, basses

with

Heidi Groeger, viola da gamba

Patrick Ayrton, organ

Despite making up a very small fragment of Bach's oeuvre, the motets are considered to be amongst his greatest output both as artistic works and technical showcases. In this concert, four motets from the collection of six are programmed alongside polychoral music by Giovanni Gabrieli and Hieronymous Praetorius, two composers who greatly influenced Bach's motet writing. Also included is the music of Felix Mendelssohn, a composer influenced by Bach and instrumental in the revival of his music.

Live from Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, Voces8 performs motets by Bach.

Voces8 At St John's Smith Square20170421Renowned vocal ensemble VOCES8 are joined by the period instruments of Les Inventions in a programme which ranges from Tallis via Bach to Jonathan Dove in a celebration of beauty, hope and prayer.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents this imaginatively-devised concert recorded last week at the inaugural Holy Week Festival at St John's Smith Square, London.

Gibbons: Drop, Drop Slow Tears

Tallis: O Nata Lux

Britten: A Hymn to the Virgin

Mendelssohn: Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen über dir

Trad arr. Stefan Claas: Maria durch ein Dornwald ging

Jonathan Dove: The Passing of the Year

Bach: Komm Jesu Komm, BWV229

Alexander Levine: Magnus es domine

Alexander Levine: Invocabo Deum (world premiere)

Bach: Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV15

VOCES8, Jonathan Dove (piano), Les Inventions.

Voces8 are joined by the period instruments of Les Inventions in Tallis, Bach and Dove.

Voces8 Sing Christmas Music At The Temple Winter Festival20171215Balulalow: Lullabies to an Infant King: VOCES8 sing Christmas music at the Temple Winter Festival, live from the Temple Church in London.

Presented by Ian Skelly

M. Praetorius: Est ist ein Ros' entsprungen

Tallis arr. VOCES8: O nata lux

Trad. arr. Jim Clements: Gabriel's Message

Britten: A Hymn to the Virgin

Rachmaninov: Bogoroditse devo

Philip Stopford: Ave maris stella; Lully, Lulla, Lullay

H. Praetorius: Magnificat quinti toni; Josef, lieber Josef mein; In dulci jubilo

Interval

Francis Pott: Balulalow

Jonathan Dove: The Three Kings

Trad. arr. Stefan Claas: Maria durch ein Dornwald ging

Mendelssohn: Denn Er hat Seinen Engeln bef怀hlen über dir

Olafur Arnalds and Arnur Dan arr. Geoff Lawson: For Now I Am Winter

Trad. arr. Geoff Lawson: The Snow It Melts the Soonest

Scheidt: Puer natus in Bethlehem

Biebl: Ave Maria

VOCES8 present a seasonal programme of lullabies to an infant king as they perform for the first time in the Temple Church, singing from different locations around the building.

Lullabies to an Infant King: VOCES8 sing Christmas music at the Temple Winter Festival.

Voces8: Nature In Music20201007Acclaimed vocal ensemble VOCES8 perform a programme of music rooted in nature, including Jonathan Dove's song cycle 'The Passing of the Year', evoking the beauty and power of the changing seasons. The composer himself accompanies the singers on the piano. The concert also includes folksong arrangements describing the beauty of the landscape, a choral version of one of Sibelius' best-loved melodies, and music from Alex Roth and Kate Rusby, inspired by stars.

Presented by Hannah French and recorded at Kings Place, 2nd October 2020

Alex Roth: Stargazer

Various composers: The Triumphs of Oriana (1601)

Jean Sibelius: Be Still My Soul (Finlandia)

Jonathan Dove: Vertue; The Passing of the Year

Trad. arr. Joshua Pacey: Danny Boy

Kate Rusby arr. Jim Clements: Underneath the Stars

Jonathan Dove (piano)

Followed by music off disc, including, at 8:50pm:

Leokadiya Kashperova

Sonata in E minor Op.1`2 for cello and piano

Anastasia Kobekina - Cello

Luka Okros - Piano

The acclaimed vocal ensemble performs Jonathan Dove's song cycle 'The Passing of the Year

Voices Beyond The Score20200407Sofi Jeannin and the BBC Singers perform a concert featuring choral arrangements of some orchestral favourites under the splendour of historic sailing ship Cutty Sark. Ralph Vaughan Williams's soaring The Lark Ascending is performed in a version for choir and violin with rising young star Elodie Chousmer-Howelles. Also featured is a choral arrangement of Elgar's ‘Nimrod', music by William Walton and Samuel Barber and Roderick Williams's Ave verum corpus.

Edward Elgar: Lux Aeterna

William Walton (ARR. Bob Chilcott): Touch her soft lips, and part

Samuel Osmond Barber: Agnus Dei

Percy Grainger: Irish Tune from County Derry

Percy Grainger: The Sussex Mummers' Christmas Carol

Sven-David Sandstr怀m: Hear my prayer

Jan Sandstr怀m: Det 䀀r en ros utsprungen

William Byrd: Ave verum corpus

Roderick Williams: Ave Verum Corpus Re-Imagined

Ralph Vaughan Williams arr. Paul Drayton: The Lark Ascending

Sofi Jeannin conductor

Elodie Chousmer-Howells violin

The BBC Singers and Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin perform choral music from the Cutty Sark.

Voices New Zealand20181106As part of their 20th anniversary European tour Voices New Zealand bring a themed programme of music to London, 'Voices of Aotearoa', reflecting both Pacific and western choral repertoire, combined with the ancient sounds of M?ori music played on traditional instruments.

Recorded last week at Cadogan Hall and presented by Ian Skelly.

Voices of Saints and Angels

Hildegard von Bingen: O viridissima virga

Princess Te Ranji Pai: Hine e hine

David Childs: Salve Regina

Voices from the Earth

Mark Sirett: Ce beau Printemps

Jean Absil: Bestiaire

David Griffiths: Lie Deep my Love

Interval

Voices from the Deep

Helen Fisher: Pounamu

Jakko M䀀ntyj䀀rvi: Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae

Samuel Barber: To be sung on the water

Voices of Stars and Light

Trad: Pokarekare ana

David Hamilton: Karakia of the Stars

David Hamilton: Ecce beatam Lucem

Horomona Horo (Taongo Puoro, traditional M?ori instruments)

Karen Grylls (director)

Voices New Zealand combine repertoire spanning the globe with traditional Maori music.

Vox Luminis At Aldeburgh20170622Ian Skelly presents a concert marking the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's Reformation, given by Vox Luminis and director Lionel Meunier at this year's Aldeburgh Festival. Schütz: trailblazer and master of the German baroque, whose works brilliantly marry invention with an acute sense of colour. The Musikalische Exequien is a notable example of this compelling vision: written for the funeral of Count Henirich Reuss, the motet is based on two different texts for four choirs with three to be placed in the distance. No wonder his music profoundly influenced JS Bach and even Brahms, who owned a copy of the score, possibly influencing his own German Requiem. And Bach follows with two cantatas based on Lutheran chorales: the early 'Christ lag in Todesbanden' (Christ lay in the bonds of death), and 'Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit' (God's time is the very best time), also written for a funeral and with one of the loveliest, most comforting openings in any of his works, with its glowing viola da gamba and gently rocking recorders.

Musikalische Exequien (34'30)

INTERVAL

JS Bach:

Cantata, BWV 106: 'Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit' (19'50)

Cantata, BWV 4: 'Christ lag in Todesbanden' (19'25)

Lionel Meunier (director).

Ian Skelly presents a concert given by Vox Luminis at the 2017 Aldeburgh Festival.

Vox Luminis At Aldeburgh20200625Ian Skelly presents a concert marking the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's Reformation, given by Vox Luminis and director Lionel Meunier at the 2017 Aldeburgh Festival. Schütz: trailblazer and master of the German baroque, whose works brilliantly marry invention with an acute sense of colour. The Musikalische Exequien is a notable example of this compelling vision: written for the funeral of Count Henirich Reuss, the motet is based on two different texts for four choirs with three to be placed in the distance. No wonder his music profoundly influenced JS Bach and even Brahms, who owned a copy of the score, possibly influencing his own German Requiem. And Bach follows with two cantatas based on Lutheran chorales: the early 'Christ lag in Todesbanden' (Christ lay in the bonds of death), and 'Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit' (God's time is the very best time), also written for a funeral and with one of the loveliest, most comforting openings in any of his works, with its glowing viola da gamba and gently rocking recorders.

Musikalische Exequien (34'30)

INTERVAL

JS Bach:

Cantata, BWV 106: 'Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit' (19'50)

Cantata, BWV 4: 'Christ lag in Todesbanden' (19'25)

Lionel Meunier (director)

Visit https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000k9wq to hear immersive headphone mixes of these performances.

Ian Skelly presents a concert given by Vox Luminis at the 2017 Aldeburgh Festival.

Vox Luminis At Cadogan Hall20180531Vox Luminis was founded by its artistic director Lionel Meunier only in 2004 but the Belgian vocal ensemble has quickly gained an international reputation. Their concert, recorded last week as part of the Choral at Cadogan series, showcases some of the supreme masterpieces of English polyphony, including John Sheppard's epic Media vita, one of the greatest of all settings from the Tudor period, unique in its scale and expressive power.

Programme includes:

Thomas Tallis: O nata lux

Robert White: Christe, qui lux es et dies I

John Sheppard: In manus tuas

John Sheppard: Media vita

Thomas Tallis: Lamentations of Jeremiah I & II

Thomas Tomkins: Funeral Sentences

Lionel Meunier (director).

Vocal group Vox Luminis perform Tudor masterpieces by Tallis, Sheppard, White and Tomkins.

Vox Luminis, Music, By The Bach Family20160606From Salisbury Cathedral (as part of the Salisbury International Arts Festival), award-winning Belgian choir Vox Luminis perform sacred music by members of the Bach dynasty - Johann, Johann Michael, Johann Christoph and Johann Ludwig, culminating in Johann Sebastian's powerful motet Jesu meine Freude.

Introduced by Martin Handley

Johann Bach: Unser Leben ist ein Schatten; Sei nun wieder zufrieden

Johann Michael Bach: Herr ich warte auf dein Heil; Sei, lieber Tag, willkommen; Nun treten wir ins neue Jahr; Halt was du hast

Johann Christoph Bach: Lieber Herr Gott, wecke uns auf; Der Mensch von Weibe geboren; Fürchte dich nicht

Johann Ludwig Bach: Das Blut Jesu Christi

Interval

Johann Ludwig Bach: Das ist meine Freude

Johann Sebastian Bach: Jesu meine Freude

Lionel Meunier (director).

Vox Luminus sing sacred music by members of the Bach family at the 2016 Salisbury Festival

Wagner And Bruckner20191113The BBC Philharmonic is conducted by Simone Young in Bruckner's Fifth Symphony and soprano Sally Matthews sings Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder.

From Manchester's Bridgewater Hall

Presented by Tom Redmond

Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder

7.55 Music Interval

8.15

Bruckner: Symphony No.5

Sally Matthews (soprano)

Simone Young (conductor)

Soprano Sally Matthews joins the BBC Philharmonic and conductor Simone Young for a performance of Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, composed as Wagner was starting to explore the legend of Tristan and Isolde. The five songs, written to texts by Mathilde Wesendonck were penned while Wagner was living as a political fugitive, a guest in the Wesendock's home, and becoming increasingly obsessed by her. He orchestrated only the last, 'Dreams', himself, Felix Mottl scoring the others. Wagner was an unlikely hero of Bruckner's; his Fifth Symphony grows from its slow introduction; pizzicato bass lines, Viennese charm, organ-like sonorities and brass chorales all make their presence felt but Bruckner guides us towards his unique creative whole.

Photo Sigtryggur Ari Johannsson

The BBC Philharmonic conducted by Simone Young. With soprano Sally Matthews.

Wagner's Gotterdammerung20140707Adam Tomlinson introduces a semi-staged performance of Wagner's G怀tterd䀀mmerung - The Twilght of the Gods - from the Leeds Town Hall, concluding Opera North's highly praised four-year Nibelung Cycle.

In the previous opera in Wagner's tetralogy - Die Walküre - we left the hero Siegfried doting over his new found love Brünnhilde. In G怀tterd䀀mmerung, that love is tested by bitter betrayal, brought about by the machinations of Hagen, son of the Nibelung Alberich (the one who stole the gold from the Rhinemaidens, fashioned the The Ring, then put a curse upon it plunging the whole world into turmoil and strife). Only Brünnhilde's love and self-sacrifice can bring about redemption for mankind. But the cost will be an end to the days of gods.

The musical and dramatic power of G怀tterd䀀mmerung is awe-inspiring: it includes Siegfried's Rhine Journey; the mighty chorus of the Gibichung vassals; Siegfried's Funeral March and Brünnhilde's tour-de-force, the Immolation Scene.

In this presentation, recorded last month, Adam Tomlinson is joined by 19th-century opera expert Anastasia Belina-Johnson.

G怀tterd䀀mmerung is sung in German.

Cast

Brünnhilde ..... Alwyn Mellor (soprano)

Siegfried ..... Mati Turi (tenor)

Hagen ..... Mats Almgren (bass)

Gutrune ..... Orla Boylan (soprano)

Gunther ..... Eric Greene (baritone)

Alberich ..... Jo Pohlheim (bass)

Waltraute ..... Susan Bickley (mezzo)

First Norn ..... Fiona Kimm (mezzo)

Second Norn ..... Heather Shipp (mezzo)

Third Norn ..... Lee Bisset (soprano)

Woglinde ..... Katherine Broderick (soprano)

Wellgunde ..... Madeleine Shaw (mezzo)

Flosshilde ..... Sarah Castle (mezzo)

Opera North Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Richard Farnes.

Adam Tomlinson introduces Wagner's Gotterdammerung, concluding Opera North's Ring Cycle.

Wagner's Ring: An Orchestral Adventure20191203The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Antony Hermus present three orchestral works for orchestra, two of which derive from the operatic stage.

If the full 15 hours of Wagner's operatic Ring Cycle seem a bit much for a Thursday evening, then Henk De Vlieger has provided the answer in his 1-hour precis of the piece. It nevertheless highlights all the inherent musical drama in the form of what he calls ‘an orchestral adventure.

Before that, soprano Sara Hershkowitz joins the orchestra for Ligeti's ‘Mysteries of the Macabre'. She is the sparkling coloratura virtuoso cruising the axis between nonsense and high satire in this music derived from Ligeti's absurdist opera, Le Grand Macabre.

And mysteries of a grand and philosophical nature open the concert: evoked in the portentous opening moments of Haydn's Symphony No 22 nicknamed, by some, ‘The Philosopher.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Haydn: Symphony No 22 'The Philosopher

Ligeti: Mysteries of the Macabre

8.00 Interval

8.20 Part 2

Wagner (arr. de Vlieger): The Ring - An Orchestral Adventure

Sara Hershkowitz (soprano)

Antony Hermus (conductor)

From Glasgow, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra perform Wagner, Ligeti and Haydn.

Walton's Cello Concerto20181210Recorded at the Anvil, Basingstoke, on 1st December.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Cellist Johannes Moser joins Kirill Karabits and the BSO in Stravinsky, Walton and Shostakovich.

Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite

Walton: Cello Concerto

8.15: Interval

Shostakovich: Symphony No.1

Johannes Moser, cello

Kirill Karabits, conductor

Shostakovich was just 19 when he wrote his First Symphony as a graduation exercise in composition at the Leningrad Conservatory, but it speaks in his own distinctive voice, juxtaposing the ironic with the romantic, the intimate with the bombastic.

Pulcinella marked an important turning point in Stravinsky's career, heralding his `neo-classical' style which was to dominate his later works. Unlike his earlier ballets, characterised by huge orchestras and innovative rhythms, it is simple and sparse, using Pergolesi's melodies and bass lines with little change. Walton's Cello Concerto is introspective and reflective, combing romanticism with sizzling virtuosity.

Cellist Johannes Moser joins the BSO in Stravinsky, Walton and Shostakovich.

Walton's First Symphony20200217Carlos Miguel-Prieto returns to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with a concert which juxtaposes music of bristling energy and arresting beauty.

We begin with one of the four overtures that Beethoven wrote for his only opera Fidelio, a battle between heroic endeavour and romantic passion. Following this is Bruch's first violin concerto, a perennially popular work in which he follows one of the most celebrated slow movements with a third movement full of joyous motifs reminiscent of Hungarian dances. Rounding off our concert is Walton's superlative First Symphony, in which the perfect melancholy of the third movement is set within three movements filled with fury and darkness.

Presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas in St. David's Hall, recorded on the 9th of February.

7.30pm

Beethoven: Leonore Overture No 3, Op 72b

Bruch: Violin Concerto No 1, Op 26

8.15pm

Interval music

8.35pm

Walton: Symphony No 1

Esther Yoo (violin)

Carlos Miguel-Prieto (conductor)

BBC NOW and Carlos Miguel-Prieto perform youthful works by three great composers.

Waltzing With Beethoven20191015Live from the Royal Festival Hall, Paul Lewis concludes his three-year series dedicated to Haydn, Brahms and Beethoven. He begins with a playful sonata by Haydn and continues with music by Brahms, whose Op 117 Intermezzi are three poignant lullabies expressing the quiet melancholy of his last years. The second half features the epic 'Diabelli' Variations. Beethoven poured a lifetime's experience into his final major piano work: it's at once playful and profound, an endlessly imaginative (and often funny) set of 33 variations based on an unpromising little waltz by his contemporary, Anton Diabelli.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Haydn: Sonata in E minor, Hob XVI/34

Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op 117

8.10

Interval

8.30

Beethoven: 33 Variations on a waltz by Diabelli, Op 120

Paul Lewis (piano)

Live from the Royal Festival Hall, Paul Lewis performs Beethoven's 'Diabelli' Variations.

Waltzing With Beethoven20200505Another chance to hear Paul Lewis conclude his three-year series dedicated to Haydn, Brahms and Beethoven at the Royal Festival Hall in London. He begins with a playful sonata by Haydn and continues with music by Brahms, whose Op 117 Intermezzi are three poignant lullabies expressing the quiet melancholy of his last years. The second half features the epic 'Diabelli' Variations. Beethoven poured a lifetime's experience into his final major piano work: it's at once playful and profound, an endlessly imaginative (and often funny) set of 33 variations based on an unpromising little waltz by his contemporary, Anton Diabelli.

Presented by Martin Handley.

Haydn: Sonata in E minor, Hob XVI/34

Brahms: 3 Intermezzi, Op 117

8.10

Interval

8.30

Beethoven: 33 Variations on a waltz by Diabelli, Op 120

Paul Lewis (piano)

From the Royal Festival Hall, Paul Lewis performs Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.

Warriors, Outlaws And Football20190527From the Robin Hood figure of Colas Breugnon to the herioc Soviet footballers battling Western political incorrectness in Shostakovich's The Age of Gold, Vasily Petrenko and the RLPO bring us a night of Russian music to have the audience cheering from the stands, including cellist Alban Gerhardt performing Prokofiev's epic Sinfonia Concertante.

Recorded earlier this month at Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, and introduced by Tom Redmond.

Kabalevsky: Overture, Colas Breugnon

Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante

Shostakovich: Suite: The Age of Gold

Khachaturian: Suite: Spartacus

Alban Gerhardt (cello)

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Vasily Petrenko (conductor)

RLPO with a night of Russian music from Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Khachaturian.

Watery Fun And Tragic Love20190130Sir Roger Norrington brings a lifetime's expertise in period performance as he conducts the London Philharmonic in two great classics of the English Baroque.

One July evening in 1717, on the other side of the Thames from where tonight's concert is taking place, George I set off down the river to Chelsea. The royal party was closely followed not only by any and every Londoner with a boat, but but also by a barge full of musicians playing a work specially commissioned for the occasion by the king's favourite composer. Handel's Water Music, including festive trumpets and horns, so delighted George that he insisted it be repeated at least three times, including on the return trip to Whitehall Place. 30 years earlier, a Chelsea girls' school was the unlikely venue for the premiere of one of the greatest of all English musical stage works, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Based on Virgil's Aeneid, love and abandonment are its eternal themes and with an outstanding cast, this promises to be a very special performance.

Presented live from the Royal Festival Hall by Martin Handley.

Handel: Water Music Suite No.1 in F; Water Music Suite No.2 in D

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Sir Roger Norrington (conductor)

8.20pm Interval Music (from CD)

Elgar: Introduction & Allegro for strings, Op. 47

Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR

8.40pm

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas

Marie-Claude Chappuis......Dido (soprano)

Lucy Crowe......Belinda (soprano)

Benjamin Appl.....Aeneas (tenor)

Miriam Allan......2nd Woman (soprano)

Edward Grint......Sorceress, Spirit (bass-baritone)

Martha McLorinan......1st Witch (mezzo-soprano)

Anna Harvey......2nd Witch (mezzo-soprano)

The Schütz Choir of London

Roger Norrington conducts the LPO in Handel's Water Music and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.

Wdr Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Bartok20170205Ian Skelly introduces his regular Sunday evening programme of performances recorded in some of Europe's leading concert halls. Tonight's performances were recorded in November last year as the WDR Symphony Orchestra of Cologne embarked on a Bartok cycle with the Russian pianist Anna Vinnitskaya.

Bartok:

Divertimento, Sz 113,

Piano Concerto No. 1, Sz. 83

The Miraculous Mandarin, Op 19 (Sz 73), pantomime in one act

Anna Vinnitskaya (piano)

Women of the WDR Radio Chorus, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne

Jukka-Pekka Saraste (conductor).

Ian Skelly introduces an all-Bartok concert given in Cologne.

Wdr Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov20170611Ian Skelly introduces a concert of music by Rachmaninov and Tchaikokovsky recorded at the Philharmonie in Cologne in March, performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin.

Tchaikovsky

Capriccio Italien, Op.45

WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne

Leonard Slatkin (conductor)

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op.43, for piano and orchestra

Kirill Gerstein (piano)

The Isle of the Dead, Op.29, symphonic poem after B怀cklin

Francesca da Rimini, symphonic fantasy after Dante's 'Divine Comedy', Op.32

Leonard Slatkin (conductor).

The WDR Symphony Orchestra features in a concert of music by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.

Weber, Widmann, Schumann20211028Conductor, composer, clarinettist J怀rg Widmann joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow to direct and perform as soloist in Weber's First Clarinet Concerto.

Live from City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Donald Macleod

Clarinettist, composer, and conductor J怀rg Widmann is one of the most versatile and intriguing artists of his generation. Tonight he joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra from the stage of City Halls, Glasgow, exploring his multiple roles, in music by Weber and Schumann, and his own orchestral showpiece, Con Brio.

Weber: Clarinet Concerto No 1

J怀rg Widmann: Con Brio

8.15 Interval

8.25 Part 2

Schumann: Symphony No 2

J怀rg Widmann (soloist and conductor)

Photo: J怀rg Widmann (credit, Marco Borggreve)

J\u00f6rg Widmann joins the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow.

Weinberg, Ades... And The Sea20221004The sea frames this concert from Birmingham, presented by Tom McKinney, in which the CBSO are conducted by Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla in a characterstically imaginative and broad programme. As well as scores from Britten and Debussy inspired by the English coastline the CBSO present a symphony sourced by music from Thomas Ades's most recent opera The Exterminating Angel and the first performance of a rhapsody by a Polish composer whom Mirga has greatly championed - Mieczyslaw Weinberg.

PART ONE

Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

Ades: The Exterminating Angel Symphony

INTERVAL

During the interval the operatic theme continues with items from Mozart's Don Giovanni arranged for wind instruments by Josef Triebensee, taken from a recording made by the Wind Players of the Berlin Philharmonic

PART TWO

Weinberg: Jewish Rhapsody (first public performance)

Debussy: La Mer

Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla conducts the CBSO in music by Britten, Debussy, Weinberg and Ades.

What Is The Price Of The Human Soul?20190313Berlioz's dramatic telling of the legend of Faust, who sold his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for knowledge and power.

Faust - David Butt Philip (tenor)

Marguerite - Rachel Kelly (mezzo-soprano)

Brander - David Soar (bass)

M退phistoph退l耀s - Laurent Naouri (bass-baritone)

Hall退 Choir

Hall退 Children's Choir

London Philharmonic Choir (male voices)

Leeds Philharmonic Chorus (male voices)

Trebles of the Hall退 Youth Training Choir

Hall退 Orchestra

Sir Mark Elder (conductor)

Presented by Mark Forrest.

Berlioz tells the legend of Faust, who sold his soul to the Devil for knowledge and power.

Why Music?, Bbc Concert Orchestra: Human Story20150925Live from Maida Vale studios, London

As part of Why Music? - Radio 3's special weekend exploring the way in which music make our spines tingle and manipulate our minds - and with the help of philosopher Angie Hobbs, the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Michael Seal will seek, through music, to express what makes us human. Childhood, love, marriage, fear and death all feature.

Presented by Sarah Walker

Judith Weir: Welcome Arrival of Rain

Frank Bridge: Summer

Samuel Barber: Adagio

Rodgers: Carousel Waltz

Interval: Griff Rhys Jones's Wellcome Objects. In the second of a series of five special features, comedian and actor Griff Rhys Jones explores some of the weird and wonderful objects on display in Wellcome Collection's Reading Room. With the help of Simon Chaplin, Wellcome Trust's Director of Culture & Society, Griff finds out about the Pohl Omniskop. Although resembling a Heath Robinson contraption, the Omniskop is an early example of an X-ray machine, cutting-edge medical technology, 1920s-style.

Bernard Herrmann: Psycho -Suite

Elgar: Dream Children

Jonathan Dove: A Portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi

Peter Maxwell Davies: Orkney Wedding with Sunrise

Michael Seal (conductor)

The concert's 20th- and 21st-century repertoire conveys wide-ranging themes, from the nostalgia imbued in Frank Bridge's evocations of the pre-First World War halcyon days, through politics associated with Jonathan Dove's A Portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi, to the basic life-giving elements represented in the works by Judith Weir and Peter Maxwell Davies.

The BBC Concert Orchestra with music including Judith Weir, Frank Bridge, Elgar and Barber

Wigmore Hall, Jeremy Denk20160920Recorded at Wigmore Hall on 17th September.

Jeremy Denk explores six centuries of repertoire, transcribed for the piano.

Machaut: Doulz amis, oy mon compleint

Binchois: Triste plaisir

Ockeghem: Missa prolationum - Kyrie

Dufay: Franc cuer gentil

Josquin des Prez: Missa Pange lingua - Kyrie I

Janequin: Au joly jeu

Byrd: My Ladye Nevells Booke - A voluntarie

Gesualdo: Madrigali libro sesto - O Dolce mio tesoro

Monteverdi: Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti

Purcell: Ground in C minor

Scarlatti: Sonata in B flat major, K551

Bach: Chromatic fantasia and fugue, BWV903

8.15: Interval

8.35: Mozart: Piano Sonata in C major, K545 - II. Andante

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10 No. 1 - I. Allegro molto e con brio

Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 12 - No. 5 In der Nacht

Chopin: 24 Preludes Op. 28 - No. 1 in C major; No. 2 in A minor

Liszt: Isoldes Liebestod aus Tristan und Isolde, S447 (transcription from Richard Wagner)

Brahms: 4 Klavierstücke, Op. 119 - No. 1: Intermezzo in B minor

Schoenberg: M䀀ssige, Op. 11 No. 1

Debussy: Images Book 1 - Reflets dans l'eau

Stravinsky: Piano Rag Music

Stockhausen: Klavierstück I

Glass: Etude No. 2

Ligeti: ɀtude No. 6 Automne

Wigmore Hall, Simon Keenlyside And Malcolm Martineau20170705Live from Wigmore Hall, London

Simon Keenlyside, baritone and Malcolm Martineau, piano, with songs by Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Sibelius, Poulenc and Mahler.

Vaughan Williams: 5 Mystical Songs

Finzi: Let us garlands bring Op. 18

Fear no more the heat o' the sun

Sibelius: Romeo Op. 61 No. 4

Illalle (To Evening) Op. 17 No. 6

Kaiutar (The Echo Nymph) Op. 72 No. 4

Svarta rosor (Black Roses) Op. 36 No. 1

Im Feld ein M䀀dchen singt Op. 50 No. 3

Die stille Stadt Op. 50 No. 5

8.15: Interval

8.35:

Poulenc: Chansons gaillardes; La matresse volage; Chanson

Wigmore Hall: Carolyn Sampson And The Heath Quartet20150702In a concert recorded yesterday at Wigmore Hall in London, Carolyn Sampson and the Heath Quartet premiere American John Musto's 'Another Place', before performing Schoenberg's String Quartet No.2.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier BWV 731

Allein Gott in der H怀h sei Ehr BWV 662

In dulci jubilo BWV 729

John Musto (b.1954)

Another Place (world premi耀re)

INTERVAL

Anton Webern

Slow Movement (Langsamer Satz)

Arnold Schoenberg

String Quartet No.2 in F sharp minor, Op.10

In the final concert of the Wigmore Hall's 'Celebrating Carolyn Sampson' series, the soprano combines with the Heath Quartet in a brilliantly conceived programme that takes them, you, and the music they play to another place. The Quartet open with three Bach organ chorale preludes shifted to strings, before Carolyn joins them in the world premiere of Brooklyn-born John Musto's 'Another Place'. After the interval comes Webern's Slow Movement (Langsamer Satz) with its lush harmonies that marked a crossroads for the composer before he embraced more atonal sounds. Schoenberg's String Quartet No.2 of 1908 is innovative in just about every way, not least because it requires a soprano in the final two movements, which set texts by Stefan George. Carolyn Sampson, so admired for her interpretations of baroque and classical music, takes on the challenge of this sometimes ethereal, sometimes intense work which took the history of music to another place.

[This concert was recorded 1st July 2015 at Wigmore Hall, London.].

Carolyn Sampson and the Heath Quartet in Bach, Musto, Webern and Schoenberg.

Wigmore Hall: Ensemble Intercontemporain20170620Martin Handley presents a concert given by contemporary music specialists Ensemble intercontemporain, live from Wigmore Hall

Debussy: Premi耀re rapsodie, for clarinet and piano

Bruno Maderna: Viola

Messiaen: Le merle noir, for flute and piano

Philippe Schoeller: Madrigal, for piano quintet

Interval

Berio: Sequenza I, for solo flute

Ravel: Violin Sonata in G major

Matteo Franceschini: Les Excentriques (Trait退 physionomique

Wigmore Soloists Go French20230509Founded by violinist/violist Isabelle van Keulen and clarinettist Michael Collins, the Wigmore Soloists present an all-French programme, including two of Ravel's most celebrated chamber works, as well as several rarities: harpist-composer Alphonse Hasselmans's La source; and Guillaume Connesson's Techno Parade, from 2002.

Recorded at Wigmore Hall, London, 5th May 2023

Presented by Martin Handley

Claude Debussy: Syrinx

Guillaume Connesson: Techno Parade

Alphonse Hasselmans: La source Op 44

Gabriel Faur退: Impromptu No 6 Op 86

Maurice Ravel: Introduction et Allegro

c. 8:15pm

Interval music (from CD)

Rameau: Les tendres plaintes (from Suite in D major)

Vikingur Olafsson (piano)

Rameau: `Tristes apprets` (from Castor et Pollux)

Nadine Koutcher (soprano)

MusicAeterna

Teodor Currentzis (conductor)

c. 8:30pm

Gabriel Faur退: Trio in D minor Op 120 for clarinet, cello and piano

Maurice Ravel: Piano Trio in A minor

The star-studded ensemble perform works by Faure, Debussy and Ravel.

Wigmore Soloists Play Beethoven, Berwald And Zemlinsky20221025Wigmore Soloists is a group of starry musicians originally formed just before the pandemic and lockdown. They first performed online but now, in happier times, they present their programmes as a communal experience, tonight with a programme bookended by jolly septets.

Beethoven's Septet was premiered in Vienna in 1800. But much to his chagrin, and despite the next three decades of exacting effort and continual ground-breaking musical innovation, the affable and witty Septet stubbornly remained Beethoven's most popular work. Its then unusual combination of solo wind and strings was a direct model for the Swedish composer Franz Berwald whose own equally easy-going and good-humoured Septet premiered in Stockholm in 1818. In Vienna at the other end of the century, Zemlinsky's Clarinet Trio was composed very much in the shadow of Brahms and with the hope of his approval, which it duly received. Perhaps, whether unconsciously or not, the older composer was flattered by the pronounced similarities to his own music.

Recorded last week at Wigmore Hall and introduced by Ian Skelly.

Franz Berwald: Septet in B flat

Alexander von Zemlinsky: Clarinet Trio in D minor, Op. 3

8.30 pm

Interval music (from CD)

Beethoven: 7 Bagatelles, Op. 33

Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano)

8.50 pm

Beethoven: Septet in E flat, Op. 20

Michael Collins (clarinet)

Robin O'Neill (bassoon)

Alberto Men退ndez Escribano (horn)

Isabelle van Keulen (violin)

Adrien La Marca (viola)

Torleif Thed退en (cello)

Tim Gibbs double (double bass)

Michael McHale (piano)

Wigmore Soloists play septets by Beethoven and Berwald, and Zemlinsky's Clarinet Trio.

Windy City20210630Live from MediaCityUK, Salford

Presented by Tom McKinney

Featuring an orchestra with pairs of cor anglaises, bassoons and horns, the programme opens with Haydn's distinctly dark-hued Symphony No.22 'The Philosopher'. Sharing a key with that symphony by Haydn, Mozart's Symphony No.39 gives particular prominence to one of his favourite instruments, the clarinet. Rather like the first movement of the Haydn which opens this concert, the last movement of this Mozart explores a single theme, though here it is lively and playful rather than thoughtful and solemn. Between these contrasting works, the BBC Philharmonic's principal bassoonist, Roberto Giaccaglia takes centre-stage in Marco Betta's characterful concerto 'Citta Azzura', written in 2005.

Haydn: Symphoy No.22 in E flat 'Philosopher

Marco Betta: Citta Azzurra

Mozart: Symphony No.39 in E flat (K 543)

Roberto Giaccaglia (bassoon)

Ben Gernon (conductor)

The BBC Philharmonic in Haydn, Mozart and a bassoon concerto by Marco Betta.

Winter Dreaming20180107Clemency Burton-Hill presents a concert given at the Rudolfinum in Prague in December last year by the Prague Symphony Orchestra under Michal Nesterowicz, which was billed as Winter Dreaming.

Suk: Fantastic Scherzo, Op 25

Martinu: Rhapsody-Concerto, H.337, for viola and orchestra

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 1 in G minor, Op 13 (Winter Daydreams)

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

Maxim Rysanov (viola)

Michal Nesterowicz (conductor).

Clemency Burton-Hill presents the Prague Symphony Orchestra playing Suk and Tchaikovsky.

Winter Journey: Alice Coote Performs Schubert's Epic Song Cycle20200128Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the BBC New Generation Artists scheme.

Alice Coote sings Schubert's Winterreise.

Georgia Mann introduces Schubert's epic Winter Journey in a performance given recently at London's Wigmore Hall by the great British mezzo-soprano, an early member of Radio 3's prestigious young artist programme.

Founded in 1999 with the aim of supporting and nurturing some of the world's most exciting young musicians at the start of their international careers, the NGA scheme now boasts well over a hundred distinguished alumni, many of whom, like Alice Coote - an NGA between 2001 and 2003 - are major players on the world stage. Membership of the scheme is for a period of just over two years, during which time artists can expect to appear at some of the UK's most prestigious venues and festivals, perform with the BBC orchestras, make studio recordings, and commission new work.

Schubert: Winterreise - song-cycle D.911

Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)

Julius Drake (piano)

rec. 12.12.2019.

Schubert wrote his melancholy cycle in 1827 when he was already wracked by the illness which was to kill him. As his friend, the poet Mayrhofer wrote: 'His life had lost its rosiness and winter was upon him.' Yet these songs, often bleak in their outlook, were for Schubert, the greatest he'd ever written, he told his friends at the time: ' - Today - I will play you a cycle of terrifying songs; they have affected me more than has ever been the case with any other songs - These songs please me more than all the rest, and in time they will please you as well.

Alice Coote sings Schubert's epic song cycle, Winterreise.

Winter Lights20181205Martin Handley presents a concert of pieces written for the BBC Concert Orchestra by past and present Composers in Residence. There's the world premiere of a new piece by current title holder Dobrinka Tabakova; and also a brand new work from Sarah Jenkins, winner of last year's BBC Proms Inspire competition.

Anne Dudley Northern Lights

Guy Barker The Lanterne of Light*

INTERVAL

Dobrinka Tabakova Orpheus' Comet

Jonny Greenwood Suite from Norwegian Wood

Proms Inspire winner

Sarah Jenkins And the sun stood still (BBCCO commission, world premiere)

Dobrinka Tabakova Tectonic (BBCCO commission, world premiere)

*Alison Balsom (trumpet)

Bramwell Tovey conductor

Alison Balsom joins the BBC Concert Orchestra in Guy Barker's The Lanterne of Light.

Winter Warmers: Humperdinck, Tchaikovsky And Dvorak20200120From King George's Hall, Blackburn

Presented by Tom McKinney

The BBC Philharmonic is conducted by Holly Mathieson in feel-good music with luscious melody; Humperdinck, Dvorak's Eighth Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto.

Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel: Prelude to Act I

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto

8.10 Music Interval (CD)

Grieg: Sonata for violin and piano No.1

Aleksey Semenenko (violin)

Inna Firsova (piano)

Dvorak: Symphony No.8

Holly Mathieson and the BBC Philharmonic journey to King George's Hall in Blackburn for a concert of winter-warmers. Dvorak's life-affirming and melodious Eighth Symphony ends the concert. Remarkable violinist, Aleksey Semenenko, a recent graduate of BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artist scheme joins the orchestra for Tchaikovsky's passionate and evergreen Violin Concerto. One of the most evocative tunes in the repertoire opens our concert; the Overture to Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel which draws on the children's evening hymn from the opera's second act.

The BBC Philharmonic from King George's Hall, Blackburn

Winter Wind-down20210127Martin Handley presents an eclectic and chilled orchestral concert with a winter feel, given at the Alexandra Palace Theatre, London last December. Ben Glassberg conducts music by Byrd, Haydn, Judith Weir and Einojuhani Rautavaara - his birdsong inspired Cantus Arcticus. The orchestra is joined by special guest Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen, who directs Bach's Violin Concerto in E and Arvo Part's Fratres from the violin.

Rautavaara: Cantus Arcticus, Op 61

Bach: Violin Concerto in E, BWV1042

Judith Weir: Still, Glowing

Haydn: Symphony No 42 (second movement)

Byrd, arr Nico Muhly: Two Motets

Arvo P䀀rt: Fratres

Vivaldi, recomposed Max Richter: Winter (Four Seasons)

Mari Samuelsen (director/violin)

BBC Concert Orchestra

conductor Ben Glassberg

A chilled orchestral concert from the BBC Concert Orchestra and violinist Mari Samuelsen.

Winterreise: Schubert's Winter Journey.20181223Schubert's emotionally harrowing winter journey is performed by Ashley Riches and Joseph Middleton.

Schubert wrote his epic winter journey when, as one of his friends observed, ‘Life had lost its rosiness and winter had come upon him.' In this final song cycle, Schubert searched out and set twenty four poems by the Romantic, Wilhelm Müller which tell of a lonely traveller who ventures out into the snow: `A stranger I arrived; a stranger I depart.` As he passes his lover's house, the poet writes ‘Goodnight' on her gate post and so begins this harrowing journey of twilight hues and bleak landscapes, of snow and ice. As Schubert said, these songs are: `Truly terrible, they have affected me more than any others.` Winterreise is one of the greatest journeys in all music.

Schubert Winterreise D. 911

Ashley Riches (bass-baritone)

Joseph Middleton (piano)

The recording of this epic work marks the end of Ashley Riches's two years as a Radio 3 New Generation Artist.

Schubert's bleak winter journey sung by Ashley Riches with Joseph Middleton.

With A Little Bit Of Lerner20180622Broadway maestro Larry Blank conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra and a host of stars in a celebration of the genius of musical theatre lyricist Alan J Lerner in his centenary year. The concert features many of his best known songs from shows including My Fair Lady, Gigi, Brigadoon and Camelot as well some little-known gems, with music by Frederick Loewe, Burton Lane, John Barry, Charles Strouse and Leonard Bernstein.

Singers: Christine Andreas, David Bedella, Samantha Bond, Matt Ford, Ben Forster, Alex Hanson, Linzi Hateley, Rob Houchen, Alexia Khadime, Jamie Lambert, Julian Ovenden, Charlotte Page, Liz Robertson, Caroline Sheen, Rachel Tucker & the Guildford School of Acting Choir

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Larry Blank

Hosts: Samantha Bond & Jamie Lambert.

The BBC Concert Orchestra celebrates the centenary of the birth of lyricist Alan J Lerner.

World Environment Day Concert20200605Beethoven Pastoral Day Concert 2020, featuring Tan Dun's Prayer and Blessing

Andrew McGregor introduces an evening of music to mark the United Nations' International World Environment Day. The concert opens with Beethoven's homage to the sanctity of nature and continues with Tan Dun's response to the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake and other natural disasters which, as he says: 'All share in the same memory, one where the human spirit stays strong.' The concert ends with the radio broadcast premiere of Tan Dun's Prayer and Blessing, a work directly inspired by the coronavirus pandemic. And then, soon after 9pm, we return to a world before corona for Richard Strauss's epic Alpine Symphony, written for an orchestra of 130 musicians and performed in 2016 by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons. In a mountain journey between dawn and dusk, we hear the sounds of rushing streams and thunderstorms along with Strauss's heartfelt hymns of praise to nature.

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F, op. 68 ('Pastoral')

Michael Gottard Fischer (1773-1829) (arranger)

Members of the WDR Symphony Orchestra

Tan Dun: The Tears of Nature (chamber version)

Martin Grubinger, Richard Putz and Slavik Stakhov (percussion)

Ferhan րnder and Ferzan րnder (piano)

Tan Dun: Prayer and Blessing - Radio Premiere

with members of the WDR Symphony Orchestra

at 9.00pm

Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony

Mariss Jansons (conductor)

Music for International World Environment Day from Cologne Radio with Andrew McGregor.

World Premiere Of Christmas Music20191219The Three Choirs Festival is the oldest non-competitive music festival in the world, and in their 2019 season, Bob Chilcott's Christmas Oratorio received its world premiere. The performance included distinguished soloists such as Dame Sarah Connolly, and the festival's artistic director Adrian Partington conducted singers from the choirs of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester cathedrals. The festival commissioned this work from Chilcott, and it is a retelling of the Christmas story using texts from the Gospels of St Luke and St Matthew, intertwined with poetry and four hymns. The concert also includes Britten's festive Ceremony of Carols. It was written whilst the composer journeyed by boat between the United States and England in 1942. A very dangerous crossing to make, whilst German U boats patrolled the Atlantic Ocean.

Recorded at Gloucester Cathedral in August, and presented by Nicola Heywood Thomas.

Jacobus Handl: Impetum inimicorum

Tomကs Luis de Victoria: Leatatus sum

Benjamin Britten: A Ceremony of Carols

8.08pm

Interval Music (from CD)

Bach: Christmas Oratorio, BWV248 (Now you are truly revenged on the host of your enemies)

The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir

Ton Koopman (director)

St John Passion (There is a green hill far away)

Wells Cathedral Choir

Voluntary Choir

Chaconne Brass

Jonathan Vaughn (organ)

Matthew Owens (conductor)

The Advent Candle

Commotio

Tanya Houghton (harp)

Matthew Berry (conductor)

8.30pm

Bob Chilcott: Christmas Oratorio

Mary: Sarah Connolly (soprano)

Evangelist: Nick Pritchard (tenor)

Simeon: Neal Davies (baritone)

Gabriel: Ed Rimmer (vocalist)

Angel: Rachel Roper (vocalist)

Wise Man: Deryck Webb (vocalist)

Wise Man: Matthew Clark (vocalist)

Wise Man: Nick Perfect (vocalist)

Herod: Greg Bannan (vocalist)

Lay Clerks of the Three Cathedral Choirs

Choristers of the Three Cathedral Choirs

Philharmonia Players

Heidi Krutzen (harp)

Jonathan Hope (organ)

Adrian Partington (conductor)

Produced by Luke Whitlock

The Three Choirs Festival presents the world premiere of Bob Chilcott's Christmas Oratorio

Xenakis, Debussy, Ligeti, Bart\u00f3k20230112A concert from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, recorded last month in Glasgow City Halls. Ilan Volkov conducts the orchestra in music by Xenakis, Debussy, Ligeti and Bart k.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, in December 2022

Presented by Kate Molleson

Xenakis: Atr退es

Debussy: Jeux

8.05 Interval, Kate introduces a recording of Sujeichon for four pianos, by Filipino composer and ethnomusicologist Jos退 Maceda.

8.25 Part Two

Ligeti: Ramifications

Bart k: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Ilan Volkov conducts the BBC SSO in music by Xenakis, Debussy, Ligeti and Bart\u00f3k.

Yannick Nezet-seguin Conducts The Orchestre Metropolitain De Montreal20180624Formed in 1981 the Orchestre M退tropolitain de Montr退al made it's first-ever European tour last year with their Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Yannick N退zet-S退guin. This concert was recorded in December 2017 at the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg's no-expense-spared new concert hall, a spectacular building which already has a world-wide reputation for its acoustic.

Berlioz: Les nuits d'退t退, Op.7

Saint-Sa뀀ns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op.33

Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme ('Enigma') Op.36

Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto)

Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello)

Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal

Yannick N退zet-S退guin (conductor).

The Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal plays Berlioz, Saint-Saens and Elgar.

Yearning For The Light20191009Marking 50 years since the start of the Northern Ireland Troubles, John Toal introduces a live concert from the Ulster Hall in Belfast with soprano Ruby Hughes, Codetta choir and the Ulster Orchestra, conducted by David Brophy.

Featuring music and readings on the theme of conflict and its aftermath, it will incorporate new music commissions from BBC programmes about The Troubles, including an upcoming film Lost Lives. The concert will reflect on the cost of violent conflict and hopes for a more peaceful future. It will also deal with experiences that are both local and universal, immediate and timeless.

Marina Tsvetaeva - ‘I know the truth - give up all other truths

Barry Rose (arr. Graeme Stewart): Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation

Katharine Tynan - The Long Vacation

Mozart: Lacrimosa from The Requiem

Paul Muldoon -The Boundary Commission

Derek Mahon - Afterlives (extract)

Neil Martin: Miserere - Vitae Ereptae

Ciaran Carson - Home

Michael Longley - The Civil Servant

Sheridan Tongue: Extract from The Troubles Suite

Leontia Flynn - The Radio (extract)

Local schoolchildren - Short Prayer for Peace

Henryk G recki: 2nd Movement from Symphony of Sorrowful Songs

Interval (20 mins)

John Hewitt - Neither an Elegy Nor a Manifesto (extract)

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Extracts from ‘Pilgrims Progress

Robert McLiam Wilson - Eureka Street (extract)

Richard Hill: Weave

Michael Longley - Ceasefire

Karl Jenkins: Sanctus from The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace

Jan Carson - The Fire Starters (extract)

Frank Ormsby - Derelict Building, Limestone Road

Karl Jenkins: Angus Dei from The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace

Billy Collins - The Dead

Paula Meehan - The Seed

Arvo P䀀rt: Fratres

Sinead Morrisey - Guardians

Seamus Heaney - The Cure at Troy (extract)

Neil Martin & Score Draw: Yearning For The Light (BBC NI Commission)

Ruby Hughes (soprano)

Codetta (choir)

David Brophy (conductor)

Michelle Fairley, Stuart Graham, Ali White, Ian McElhinney (readers)

A meditation on conflict, loss, remembrance and hope with the Ulster Orchestra and guests.

Yet Unheard20201028Live from the Royal Festival Hall.

Andrew McGregor presents the first concert of the London Sinfonietta new season with a programme of music by established and emerging black composers, co-curated by leading composer and new music thinker George Lewis.

Partly inspired by the seismic changes in society over the summer, this varied and powerful programme addresses a range of under-represented points of view: Hannah Kendall's unsettling Verdala explores the experience of the British West Indian Regiment in the First World War in her typically uncompromising and richly textured style, while Courtney Bryan's intensely rhythmic Sanctum explores the sound of improvisation in Holiness-preaching traditions.

The exciting music of Cuban composer Tania Le n begins the second half of the programme, while George Lewis' energetic Assemblage provides a taste of what's to come in his upcoming commission for the London Sinfonietta.

Jason Yarde: Rude awakening arr. Kerry Yonge;

Leila Adu-Gilmore: Freedom Suite: Negative Space (mov I) and Ghost Lullaby (mov II);

Hannah Kendall: Verdala

Interval

Tania Le n: Indigena

George Lewis: Assemblage

Courtney Bryan: Sanctum

Elaine Mitchener, vocalist

Vimbayi Kaziboni, conductor

Live from the Royal Festival Hall - the London Sinfonietta.

York Early Music Festival20180711Live from York Early Music Festival, Harry Christophers and The Sixteen give a concert of music by English composers divided by over 300 years - Benjamin Britten and William Cornysh.

Britten: Hymn to the Virgin

Cornysh: My love she mourneth

Britten: Hymn to Saint Cecilia

Cornysh: Salve Regina

Britten: Advance Democracy

Cornysh: Ave Maria, Mater Dei

Cornysh: Woefully array'd

Cornysh: Ah Robin, gentle Robin

Britten: Sacred and Profane

Presented by Adam Tomlinson.

Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, live from the York Early Music Festival.

York Early Music Festival 2014, Hesperion Xxi20200715A concert recorded at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York as part of York Early Music Festival 2014.

Presented by Adam Tomlinson

Hesp耀rion XXI:

Pierre Hamon - flute, gaita

Dimitri Psonis - santur, moresca

Yurdal Tokan - oud

Hakan Gungor - kanun

David Mayoral - percussion

Jordi Savall - rebab lira and direction

Kalenda Maya: Folias and Dances from Palace and Desert

East meets West in this colourful evocation of medieval music from all around the Mediterranean. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Spain was a melting pot, where Christian, Jewish and Islamic cultures co-existed, where Proven瀀al troubadours and Arabic musicians could meet and exchange ideas. Manuscripts associated with the Castilian court of Alfonso X 'the Wise' show illustrations of musicians playing instruments that look remarkably similar to those still played in North Africa, the Middle East and around the Adriatic today, and this has inspired Jordi Savall to gather together a group of musicians from east and west to recreate the lost sounds of medieval Spain, Provence and Italy in the context of traditional music from Armenia, Persia and Turkey.

Hesp\u00e8rion XXI and Jordi Savall in a concert as part of the 2014 York Early Music Festival.

York Early Music Festival, Alamire20160712David Skinner directs the Alamire consort, performing Anne Boleyn's Songbook, live at the York Early Music Festival

Presented by Adam Tomlinson

Live at York Minster Chapter House

Anne Boleyn's Songbook: Music and Passions of a Tudor Queen

Alamire:

directed by David Skinner

Camilla Harris & Kirsty Hopkins, sopranos

Helen Charlston, alto

Nick Todd & Simon Wall, tenors

Greg Skidmore & Tim Whiteley, baritones

Rob Macdonald & Tom Flint, basses

Jacob Heringman, lute

Kirsty Whatley, harp

Anne Boleyn, the most notorious of Henry VIII's six wives, was brought up under the guardianship of Margaret of Austria - patron to some of the most famous composers in all of Europe - and then in the French court, where a collection of her favourite music was assembled in a book that she probably kept until her execution in 1536. Alamire explores the contents of this collection, which includes works by some of the greatest composers of the early 16th century: Comp耀re, Brumel, Mouton and Josquin. The programme concludes with a haunting setting of O Deathe Rock Me Asleep, possibly linked to Anne's fate as she awaited her execution in the Tower of London.

The Alamire consort perform Anne Boleyn's Songbook live at the York Early Music Festival.

York Early Music Festival: The Gabrieli Consort, A Venetian Coronation20220713Gabrieli Consort and Players recreate the 1595 Coronation Mass of the Venetian Doge Marino Grimani at St Mark's, Venice, live from York Minster. Paul McCreesh directs music by Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli.

A spectacular and popular recreation of the Coronation Mass of the Venetian Doge Marino Grimani at St Mark's, Venice, in 1595. This lavish sequence of festive music has become synonymous with tonight's performers and combines brilliance and solemnity in a compelling and kaleidoscopic programme of masterpieces for combinations of voices, cornetts and sackbuts by Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli. The Gabrieli Consort & Players' original 1989 recording, and the second recording in 2012, both won Gramophone Awards. A Venetian Coronation has been performed in many of the world's greatest cathedrals and concert halls and is revived here in celebration of the Gabrielis' 40th anniversary.

Presented by Hannah French.

Gabrieli Consort recreate the lavish Venetian Coronation Mass of 1595 at York Minster.

York Early Music Festival: The Sixteen's Choral Pilgrimage 202220220712Hubert Parry's six moving Songs of Farewell, plus works by Thomas Campion, Cecilia MacDowell and Herbert Howells. The Sixteen are conducted by Harry Christophers in a concert recorded at York Minster as part of this year's York Early Music Festival.

Choral Pilgrimage 2022: An Old Belief

Part 1

Anglia Medieval Carol: Deo gracias

Hubert Parry: Songs of Farewell

My soul, there is a country

I know my soul hath power to know all things

Never, weather-beaten sail

Medieval Carol: Saint Thomas honour we

There is an old belief

Thomas Campion: Never, weather-beaten sail

Herbert Howells: Take him, earth for cherishing

Harry Christophers (conductor)

c. 8.20pm INTERVAL

Hubert Parry - Hands across the Centuries (excerpts)

Peter Jacobs (piano)

Cecilia McDowall - Pavane

Ulster Orchestra

George Vass (conductor)

c. 8.40pm

Part 2

Cecilia McDowall: An Unexpected Shore

Medieval Carol: O blessed Lord

At the round earth's imagined corners

Thomas Campion: Author of light

Medieval Carol: Benedicite Deo

Thomas Campion: Tune thy music to thy heart

Lord, let me know mine end

Presented by Hannah French

The Sixteen perform Hubert Parry's six moving Songs of Farewell from York Minster.

Yuja Wang, The Oslo Philharmonic And Conductor Klaus Makela At The Edinburgh International Festival20230914Two jazz-influenced works open tonight's concert with the international piano virtuoso Yuja Wang, the Oslo Philharmonic and trailblazing young conductor Klaus M䀀kel䀀.

Ravel heard jazz during a concert tour of America in the late 1920s and he used some of those sounds and sensibilities in his G major and D major piano concertos, working on them both simultaneously. He had in mind the concerto in G for himself and the one in D (for the left hand) for the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein. For this Ravel created in his own words a ‘solemn kind of traditional concerto', challenging himself to write a ‘texture no thinner than that of a part written for both hands'. After the interval Shostakovich's fifth symphony, written at the height of the Stalin regime in Russia when the composer was under intense scrutiny - a work that remains enigmatic to this day.

Ravel: Piano Concerto in D major (for the left hand)

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

20.15

Interval - a selection of jazz inspired music by Shostakovich.

20.35

Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 in D minor, Op. 47

Yuja Wang - piano

Klaus Makela - conductor

Donald Macleod - presenter

Laura Metcalfe - producer

Celebrated Beijing-born pianist Yuja Wang performs Ravel before a Shostakovich symphony.

Zappa, Anderson, Ives20200408Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow, in October 2018.

Presented by Kate Molleson

Ilan Volkov and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra play music by Frank Zappa; a concerto by Julian Anderson with pianist Steven Osborne; and 4 Ives Holidays.

Zappa: The Perfect Stranger

7.45 Interval

8.00 Part 2

Julian Anderson: The Imaginary Museum (Piano Concerto)

8.30 Interval

8.45 Part 3

Ives: 4 New England Holidays

Steven Osborne (piano)

Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Another chance to hear a recent highlight from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra: a concert of eccentric musical imaginations.

The concert begins with orchestral music by Frank Zappa: the maverick experimenter. His uncharacterisable work The Perfect Stranger -commissioned by Pierre Boulez- gives us an insight into his unique brain.

This is followed by Julian Anderson's piano concerto 'The Imaginary Museum' - a concerto inspired, in part, by the improvisatory imagination of its dedicatee and tonight's solo performer, Steven Osborne.

And the concert concludes with a sequence of 4 symphonic works by that pioneer of American music, Charles Ives. A composer for whom nothing could stand in the way of his sonic and philosophical imagination.

Photo credit: Astrid Ackermann

Ilan Volkov conducts the BBC SSO in music by Zappa and Ives.

Zemlinsky, Rachmaninov And Mozart From Prague20190324The best concerts from Europe and beyond, with Kate Molleson. Tonight we're in Prague with an orchestra established by the conductor Jiri Belohlavek, the Prague Philharmonia, and it is now establishing a great reputation worldwide. Since 2015 it has been led by its principle conductor Emmanuel Villaume.

Tonight's concert could be about 2 cities, Vienna and Prague, featuring works by Zemlinsky - forever associated with Vienna's musical experimentation of the early 1900's and Mozart's Prague symphony, first performed in 1787 in the one city in that always gave Mozart the warmest welcome. And in between, orchestra songs by Rachmaninov filled with nostalgia for a Russia he could only return to in song.

Sinfonietta, Op 23

Ne Poj, Krasavica, Op 4, No 4, Lilacs, Op 21, No 5, Zdes' khorosho, Op 21, No 7, Son, Op. 38, No 5

Dinara Alieva (soprano)

Berg

Lyric Suite for Strings (excerpts)

Symphony No 38 in D major, K504, 'Prague

The best concerts from Europe and beyond, with Kate Molleson. Tonight we're in Prague.

Zlata Chochieva's Chopin20200210A diagnosis of acute depression, insomnia, exhaustion, auditory disturbances, bodily tremors and wide-ranging phobias led Schumann's doctor to prescribe a complete abandonment of music.

However Schumann's mind appears to have subsequently risen from its nadir in January of 1846 when he began to consider his Symphony in C major. Rather than give-up, a flurry of composition projects -intricate counterpoints, fugues, tuneful part-songs on poems by Robert Burns- must all have fed his artistic curiosity: resulting in the uplifting 2nd Symphony.

Like Schumann's symphonies, Chopin's Piano Concertos were written in the wrong order. His first, written second, by a Chopin set to flee the politically turbulent Warsaw. Its robust melodicism will this evening be brought to life by the brilliant young soloist, Zlata Chochieva.

And the concert opens with a short, myth-haunted piece by Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela.

Recorded at City Halls, Glasgow

Presented by Jamie MacDougall

Chopin: Piano Concerto no 1

8.20 Interval

8.40 Part 2

Schumann: Symphony no 2

Zlata Chochieva (piano)

Karl-Heinz Steffens (conductor)

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Photo credit: Nefeli Mousoura

Chopin's first Piano Concerto is brought to life with the BBC SSO and Karl-Heinz Steffens.

Zurich Philharmonic Orchestra20211213Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Zurich Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra in Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem, composed in 1868. In this recording made at the Zurich Opera House in February, the soprano soloist is Lydia Teuscher with baritone Konstantin Shushakov.

Presented by Fiona Talkington.

7.30pm

Brahms - Ein Deutsches Requiem

Lydia Teuscher (soprano)

Konstantin Shushakov (baritone)

Gianandrea Noseda (conductor)

Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Zurich Philharmonic in Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem.

Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra20220307Mahler famously told Sibelius that 'a symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything' and there's certainly a lot of everything in Mahler's Third Symphony. It takes over 90 minutes and massive orchestral forces to perform, as it lurches from resplendent and eloquent depictions of nature to military marches, earthy humour and rustic dances. There's song, too, when time seems suspended, only to be immediately followed by a jolly ding-dong folksong. And it's all capped by an extraordinary and transcendent slow orchestral finale.

The recording was made at the opening concert of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra's new season in September last year. After four years, the orchestra was finally back in its home, the lavishly renovated Grosse Tonhalle, internationally renowned for its superb acoustics.

Mahler: Symphony No. 3

Wiebke Lehmkuhl (alto)

Zurich Sing-Akademie

Zurich Boys' Choir

Paavo J䀀rvi (conductor)

Image: © Kaupo Kikkas

Paavo J\u00e4rvi conducts Mahler's epic Third Symphony.