Programme information
Saturday 17 February to Friday 23 February 2018
WEEK 08
NEW SERIES: TURNING POINTS on CLASSIC FM
Saturday 17 February, 9pm to 10pm
Tonight, we launch a brand new series on Classic FM in partnership with the Honda Jazz, exploring the biggest moments, changes and ‘turning points’ in the history of classical music.
Who were the innovators? Who took the risks? Who challenged the norm – and what did they do?
From Franz Liszt, whose radical approach made him the first true classical music ‘superstar’; to the invention of the printing press; to the revolutionary female composer Hildegard of Bingen, we’ll hear stories of extraordinary people – and the music that accompanied the most exciting moments in classical music over the last 600 years.
Classic FM is available across the UK on 100-102 FM, DAB digital radio and TV, at ClassicFM.com and on the Classic FM app.
1 WEEK 08
SATURDAY 17 FEBRUARY
5pm to 7pm: SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES with ANDREW COLLINS
With the awards season in full flow, Andrew Collins presents the first of two special awards trivia shows, looking at the big winners, losers and surprises over the decades.
Who was the first woman to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards? Who was the first actress to receive twenty nominations for acting? And which film composers have received Oscar nominations over the longest span of time – six decades to be precise?
Expect two hours of fun facts and great film scores from the 1930s to the present day, including Toy Story, Gone With the Wind and Ben-Hur.
7pm to 9pm: COWAN’S CLASSICS with ROB COWAN
Rob Cowan selects two hours of music from his personal record collection, spanning old favourites, new discoveries and rarely-played performances. His Sure Shot this week is a new recording of Vltava from Ma Vlast by Bedrich Smetana, and he also features music by Telemann, Faure and Rossini.
9pm to 10pm: TURNING POINTS
Tonight, we launch a brand new series on Classic FM in partnership with the Honda Jazz, exploring the biggest moments, changes and ‘turning points’ in the history of classical music.
Who were the innovators? Who took the risks? Who challenged the norm – and what did they do?
From Franz Liszt, whose radical approach made him the first true classical music ‘superstar’; to the invention of the printing press; to the revolutionary female composer Hildegard of Bingen, we’ll hear stories of extraordinary people – and the music that accompanied the most exciting moments in classical music over the last 600 years.
Tonight, we begin with some musical ‘firsts’: among them, the introduction of music notation some 2,000 years ago, and the story of Haydn, ‘The Father of the Symphony’.
Please note: The presenter will be announced shortly.
2 SUNDAY 18 FEBRUARY
3pm to 5pm: CHARLOTTE HAWKINS
Charlotte plays the perfect selection of Classic FM favourites and new discoveries, with a particular focus on young artists – as demonstrated with her Young Classical Star. Today, Charlotte shines the spotlight on the extraordinary Chinese classical violinist Tianwa Yang. Since recording her first album at just 13 years old, she’s been touring the world and enjoying international acclaim in some of the greatest concert halls.
7pm to 9pm: DAVID MELLOR
Voting in the annual Classic FM Hall of Fame is now open – and tonight, David presents two hours of outstanding music which, perhaps surprisingly, isn’t in the current Top 300.
Puccini’s opera, Turandot – with its world-famous aria, ‘Nessun Dorma’ – is nowhere to be found in the current countdown. Ditto Glazunov’s wonderfully evocative description of The Seasons, and Richard Strauss’s masterpiece Don Juan.
Tonight, David plays selections from these works – and many others – as he hopefully inspires you to make your three selections for this year’s chart.
9pm to 10pm: EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT CLASSICAL MUSIC with CATHERINE BOTT
Catherine Bott always welcomes suggestions from Classic FM listeners about the topics for the programme, and this week she takes the lead from Nicholas in Surrey who would like to learn more about Henry Purcell.
She’ll put forward the argument that Purcell is not just a good British composer and not just a good baroque composer, but a genius. Selecting key works from solemn church music to opera and innovative instrumental music to bawdy drinking songs, Catherine demonstrates Purcell’s impact and influence on music.
3 MONDAY 19 FEBRUARY
8pm to 10pm: THE FULL WORKS CONCERT: THE PHENOMINAL PHONOGRAPH
It’s 140 years to the day since Thomas Edison patented his invention the phonograph – later known as the gramophone – which could not only record, but reproduce sound for the very first time in history.
Since the phonograph’s inception, countless recordings have been made by musicians all over the world. Tonight, presenter Jane Jones celebrates some of the very best, as chosen by experts from Gramophone Magazine.
Among the legendary recordings chosen by a distinguished panel including Marin Alsop, Steven Isserlis and Vasily Petrenko are Carlos Kleiber’s performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra – described as “one of the all-time great recordings” and Schumann’s Piano Concerto, performed by Leon Fleisher: “for many, the finest account of this work”.
Trevor Pinnock “drives his English Concert to joyful heights” with Bach’s Orchestral Suite No.3, and the panel invite listeners to discover the brilliant, but often overlooked, playing of cellist Daniil Shafran. The concert closes with “perhaps the finest Spem in Alium on record”.
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No.7 in A major Opus 92 Carlos Kleiber conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky Souvenir d’un lieu cher Opus 42 No.3 (‘Melodie’) Cello: Daniil Shafran Piano: Nina Musinian
Johann Sebastian Bach Orchestral Suite No.3 in D major Trevor Pinnock conducts the English Concert
Robert Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor Opus 16 Piano: Leon Fleisher George Szell conducts the Cleveland Orchestra
Thomas Tallis Spem in Alium David Wulstan conducts the Clerkes of Oxenford
4 TUESDAY 20 FEBRUARY
8pm to 10pm: THE FULL WORKS CONCERT: BRILLIANT BIRDSONG
On the anniversary of the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s enormously popular ballet, Swan Lake, Jane Jones presents a concert suite of the work performed by the ensemble who played at its premiere, the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra.
It wasn’t just Tchaikovsky who found creative inspiration in our flying friends: Jane explores how birds have been represented in classical music throughout history, from Delius’ On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring to the early sounds of Orlando Gibbons and his setting of The Silver Swan. There’s also a playful lark from Haydn, a mischevious magpie from Rossini and a blissful bluebird, courtesy of Charles Villiers Stanford.
Gioachino Rossini The Thieving Magpie – Overture Yehudi Menuhin conducts Sinfonia Varsovia
Antonio Vivaldi Flute Concerto in D major Opus 10 No.3 RV.428 (‘The Goldfinch’) Flute: Emmanuel Pahud Richard Tognetti conducts the Australian Chamber Orchestra
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky Swan Lake: Suite Alexander lazarev conducts the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra
Ottorino Respighi The Birds Claudio Scimone conducts I Solisti Veneti
Frederick Delius On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring Owain Arwel Hughes conducts Camerata Wales
Joseph Haydn String Quartet in D major Opus 64 No.5 (‘The Lark’) The Emerson Quartet
Charles Villiers Stanford The Bluebird Paul McCreesh conducts the Gabrielli Consort
Orlando Gibbons The Silver Swan Julian Podger leads Trinity Baroque
Traditional Song of the Birds Cello: Pablo Ferrandez Radoslaw Szulc conducts the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra
5 WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY
8pm to 10pm: THE FULL WORKS CONCERT: WEIRD AND WONDERFUL
It’s true that in every creative genius there’s a streak of eccentricity, and tonight there are no exceptions, as presenter Jane Jones celebrates the weird and wonderful sides of the great composers.
There’s Beethoven, who was so addicted to coffee that he personally counted 60 beans every morning to make an industrial-strength brew, and Grieg, who carried a frog in his pocket which he’d rub before each performance as a good-luck ritual.
Dvorak was a seriously committed trainspotter in his later life, visiting Prague’s railway station daily to chat drivers and engineers, and in a bizarre twist of fate, Handel was blinded by the same ocular surgeon as Bach after an operation which went seriously wrong. The concert opens with Mozart’s overture to Don Giovanni, which he ‘cobbled together’ on the day of the premiere whilst suffering from an almighty hangover.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Don Giovanni – Overture Jonathan Cohen leads Archangelo
George Frideric Handel Organ Concerto in B-flat major HWV.306 Organ: Ton Koopman Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
Edvard Grieg Symphonic Dances Opus 64 Neeme Jarvi conducts the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven Rondo in G major Piano: Howard Shelley Orchestra of Opera North
Antonin Dvorak Cello Concerto in B minor Opus 104 Cello: Mischa Maisky Zubin Mehta conducts the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
6 THURSDAY 22 FEBRUARY
8pm to 10pm: THE FULL WORKS CONCERT: UNRECOGNISED COMPOSERS
As the Classic FM Hall of Fame approaches, presenter Catherine Bott showcases composers who don’t enjoy the same status as the ‘great’ composers, but who were well-established in their time.
On the line-up is composer/virtuoso Henry Litolff, whose Concerto Symphonique No.4 is performed by Peter Donohoe and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and Austrian composer Hugo Wolf, whose beautiful Italian Serenade is played on what would have been his 115th birthday.
Malcolm Arnold’s lively 4 Scottish Dances open proceedings, and Respighi gives a flavour of distant times with his evocative The Pines of Rome performed by the National Academy of St Cecilia under Sir Antonio Pappano.
Malcolm Arnold 4 Scottish Dances Bryden Thomson conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra
Henry Litolff Concerto Symphonique No.4 in D minor Piano: Peter Donohoe Andrew Litton conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Ottorino Respighi The Pines of Rome Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra of the National Academy of St Cecilia
Leopold Mozart Horn Concerto in D major Horn: Barry Tuckwell Neville Marriner conducts the Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Hugo Wolf Italian Serenade Seiji Ozawa conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra
Gerald Finzi 5 Bagatelles Opus 23 Clarinet: Emma Johnson Piano: Malcolm Martineau
7 FRIDAY 23 FEBRUARY
8pm to 10pm: THE FULL WORKS CONCERT: SPIRIT OF ENGLAND
As the classical music world celebrates the birth of Handel and marks the passing of Sir Edward Elgar today, Catherine Bott presents a concert celebrating the best of English music across the ages.
The unmistakable majesty of Handel’s Zadok the Priest begins proceedings, after which the Central Band of the Royal Air Force play a joyful arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ English Folksongs Suite. William Walton’s Spitfire Prelude & Fugue never fails to raise spirits, and we hear from often-forgotten composers John Ireland and Thomas Arne.
The centrepiece of tonight’s concert is a performance of Elgar’s mighty Cello Concerto, performed by Yo-Yo Ma under the direction of legendary conductor Andre Previn and Classic FM’s Orchestra in the City of London, the LSO.
George Frideric Handel Zadok the Priest Martin Neary conducts the Choir of Westminster Abbey and English Concert
Ralph Vaughan Williams English Folksongs Suite Wing Commander Duncan Stubbs conducts the Central Band of the Royal Air Force
Edward Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor Opus 85 Cello Yo-Yo Ma Andre Previn conducts the London Symphony Orchestra
Thomas Arne Sonata in G major Opus 3 No.2 London Baroque
William Walton Spitfire Prelude & Fugue Paul Daniel conducts the Orchestra of Opera North
Percy Grainger Lincolnshire Posy Piano: John Lavender and Penelope Thwaites
Eric Coates 3 Elizabeths Suite Reginald Kilbey conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
John Ireland Cavatina Violin: Clare Howick Piano: John Paul Ekins
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