Episodes
| Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 20170912 | Music from the 22nd West Cork Chamber Music Festival spotlights Haydn, Debussy and Mozart. John Toal presents highlights from the 22nd West Cork Chamber Music Festival. We begin in the rich acoustic of St. Brendan's Church, situated on the main square in the centre of Bantry, for a performance of Haydn's Quartet in F major, Op.50 No.5, known as The Dream. Its nickname stems from the lulling effect of the Poco adagio, which is filled with undulating chords below a rhapsodic violin line. We then move to the opulence and grandeur of the Library in Bantry House for Debussy's Violin Sonata in G minor: a work which he began to sketch in 1916 and completed it the following year. It is his final composition. And finally a performance of Mozart's Serenade in E flat for wind octet, K.375, performed by an international line-up. It is the earliest of Mozart's three great wind serenades, and the most modest in scale. Haydn: Quartet in F major, Op.50 No.5, The Dream Debussy: Violin Sonata in G minor Mozart: Serenade in E flat for wind octet, K.375 John Toal presents highlights from the 22nd West Cork Chamber Music Festival. We begin in the rich acoustic of St. Brendan's Church, situated on the main square in the centre of Bantry, for a performance of Haydn's Quartet in F major, Op.50 No.5, known as The Dream. Its nickname stems from the lulling effect of the Poco adagio, which is filled with undulating chords below a rhapsodic violin line. We then move to the opulence and grandeur of the Library in Bantry House for Debussy's Violin Sonata in G minor: a work which he began to sketch in 1916 and completed it the following year. It is his final composition. And finally a performance of Mozart's Serenade in E flat for wind octet, K.375, performed by an international line-up. It is the earliest of Mozart's three great wind serenades, and the most modest in scale. Haydn: Quartet in F major, Op.50 No.5, The Dream Debussy: Violin Sonata in G minor Mozart: Serenade in E flat for wind octet, K.375 | |
| 02 | 20170913 | Music from the 22nd West Cork Chamber Music Festival spotlights Grieg and Schumann. John Toal presents highlights from the 22nd West Cork Chamber Music Festival. We begin today's programme with Grieg's Violin Sonata No.1 in F major, Op.8 - composed in 1865, when Grieg was 22. The composer himself played the piano in the first performance of the work, in Leipzig in mid-November 1865, during a stop-over on his way to Italy; the violinist was the Swede Anders Petterson. Today's performers are the Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud and Hungarian pianist Dénes Várjon, in the setting of St. Brendan's church, Bantry. We'll then hear Dénes is a solo capacity with Schumann's Fantasiestücke, Op.12 of 1838. The set of eight pieces pay oblique tribute to one of Schumann's favoured authors, E T A Hoffmann, and present wonderful contrasts from movement to movement. They are performed in the library of Bantry House. Grieg: Violin Sonata No.1 in F major, Op.8 Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op.12 | |
| 03 | 20170914 | Music from the West Cork Festival spotlights Hugo Wolf, Rebecca Clarke and Thomas Ades. John Toal presents highlights from the 22nd West Cork Chamber Music Festival. Today's programme is bookended by string quartets performing Romantic and more recent repertoire. We begin with Hugo Wolf's concise Italian Serenade, written in May 1887 when he was beginning to find his true voice as a composer of lieder. It is performed here by the French quartet, Quatuor Zaïde. And we end with Thomas Adès's The Four Quarters, commissioned in 2010 by the Carnegie Hall Corporation for the Emerson Quartet. Today the British Doric String Quartet journey through its four movements. The Viola Sonata by Harrow-born Rebecca Clarke was written in 1919. She described the work as her "one little whiff of success", having come a close second to the Suite by Ernst Bloch for the Coolidge Prize at the Berkshire Festival where it was premiered. Today it's performed by Netherlands-based viola player Dana Zemtsov and Finnish pianist Joonas Ahonen. Wolf: Italian Serenade Clarke: Viola Sonata Thomas Adès: The Four Quarters, Op.28 John Toal presents highlights from the 22nd West Cork Chamber Music Festival. Today's programme is bookended by string quartets performing Romantic and more recent repertoire. We begin with Hugo Wolf's concise Italian Serenade, written in May 1887 when he was beginning to find his true voice as a composer of lieder. It is performed here by the French quartet, Quatuor Zaïde. And we end with Thomas Adès's The Four Quarters, commissioned in 2010 by the Carnegie Hall Corporation for the Emerson Quartet. Today the British Doric String Quartet journey through its four movements. The Viola Sonata by Harrow-born Rebecca Clarke was written in 1919. She described the work as her "one little whiff of success", having come a close second to the Suite by Ernst Bloch for the Coolidge Prize at the Berkshire Festival where it was premiered. Today it's performed by Netherlands-based viola player Dana Zemtsov and Finnish pianist Joonas Ahonen. Wolf: Italian Serenade Clarke: Viola Sonata Thomas Adès: The Four Quarters, Op.28 | |
| 04 | Beethoven And Mozart | 20170915 | Music from the West Cork Festival spotlights Beethoven and Mozart. In our final visit of the week to the 22nd West Cork Chamber Music Festival, John Toal introduces works by Beethoven and Mozart. Beethoven's Piano Trio No.3 in C minor begins the programme: the last of the three Op.1 trios dedicated to Prince Karl von Lichnowsky, who had been generous to Beethoven following his arrival in Vienna in 1792. The same prince had also supported Mozart and it's with his expansive Serenade in C minor for wind octet, written ten years earlier than the Beethoven, that we end our Bantry series. Beethoven: Piano Trio No.3 in C minor, Op.1 No.3 Mozart: Serenade in C minor for wind octet, K.388 Music from the West Cork Festival spotlights Beethoven and Mozart. In our final visit of the week to the 22nd West Cork Chamber Music Festival, John Toal introduces works by Beethoven and Mozart. Beethoven's Piano Trio No.3 in C minor begins the programme: the last of the three Op.1 trios dedicated to Prince Karl von Lichnowsky, who had been generous to Beethoven following his arrival in Vienna in 1792. The same prince had also supported Mozart and it's with his expansive Serenade in C minor for wind octet, written ten years earlier than the Beethoven, that we end our Bantry series. Beethoven: Piano Trio No.3 in C minor, Op.1 No.3 Mozart: Serenade in C minor for wind octet, K.388 |