CLASSIC FM PROGRAMME SCHEDULE SATURDAY 28TH APRIL to FRIDAY 4TH MAY 2018 WEEK 18 1 PROGRAMME SCHEDULE DAY: SATURDAY DATE: 28 APRIL 2018 2200 (Friday) - 0100 SMOOTH CLASSICS with MARGHERITA TAYLOR Three hours of the smoothest sounds in the company of Margherita Taylor. 0100 KATIE BREATHWICK Katie presents the perfect blend of night-time music. 0400 JANE JONES Jane presents three hours of start-the-day music, along with plenty of information about what’s in store on Classic FM this weekend. 0700 ALAN TITCHMARSH Join Alan for his Great British Discovery and Gardening Tip after 8am, followed by the Classic FM Hall of Fame Hour at 9am. 1000 BILL TURNBULL Bill invites you to join him for three hours of the best classical music. He’s here every Saturday and Sunday from 10am, with an unmissable morning of old favourites and new discoveries. 1300 ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG Join Alexander for two hours of the world’s greatest music. 1500 NICHOLAS OWEN Nicholas Owen keeps you company every Saturday afternoon on Classic FM. 1700 SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES with ANDREW COLLINS As we are now four months into 2018, Andrew Collins spends two hours taking stock of the best film music the year has offered us so far. He’ll feature Alexandre Desplat’s Oscar-winning score to The Shape of Water and a range of other soundtracks including I, Tonya, Black Panther, Early Man, Phantom Thread and one of the late composer Johann Johannsson’s final projects, The Mercy. 2 PROGRAMME SCHEDULE DAY: SATURDAY DATE: 28 APRIL 2018 1900 COWAN’S CLASSICS with ROB COWAN Rob Cowan delves into his record collection to select two hours of hand- picked recordings. Rob’s Artist of the Week is the Hungarian-born orchestral and operatic conductor Sir Georg Solti. Rob will play a range of his finest recordings with several different orchestras. Plus, Ravel’s Bolero is the springboard for Beyond the Hall of Fame, allowing Rob to pick a similar, but lesser-played, work. 2100 DAVID MELLOR’S LIGHT MUSIC MASTERS Tonight, as Classic FM’s new series continues, David Mellor focuses on French masters of Light Music. He’ll be focusing on this year’s centenarian – Claude Debussy – and proving why some of the composer’s music definitely fits into the ‘Light Music’ category. Plus – performances from the much-loved Edith Piaf. 2200 SMOOTH CLASSICS with MYLEENE KLASS Myleene presents Classic FM’s weekend wind-down, with three hours of Smooth Classics. 3 PROGRAMME SCHEDULE DAY: SUNDAY DATE: 29 APRIL 2018 0100 KATIE BREATHWICK Katie presents the perfect blend of night-time music. 0400 JANE JONES Jane presents three hours of start-the-day music, along with plenty of information about what’s in store on Classic FM this weekend. 0700 ALED JONES Join Aled for a three-hour programme full of the world’s greatest classical music. Includes the Classic FM Hall of Fame Hour at 9am. 1000 BILL TURNBULL Bill is on Classic FM every Saturday and Sunday from 10am, with an unmissable morning of old favourites and new discoveries. 1300 ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG Join Alexander for two hours of the world’s greatest music. 1500 CHARLOTTE HAWKINS Charlotte plays the perfect selection of Classic FM favourites and new discoveries, with a particular focus on young artists – as demonstrated by her Young Classical Star. At the age of only 31, Chinese classical pianist Yuja Wang has taken the classical music world by storm with her extravagant performances. Having started studying piano at the age of six, by 21 she was already an internationally recognised concert pianist, performing around the world alongside the greatest orchestras. Wang has worked extensively with the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras, and conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Claudio Abbado, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Paavo Järvi, Zubin Mehta and Gustavo Dudamel. This afternoon, we’ll hear just what makes her so special. 1700 THE CLASSIC FM CHART with JOHN BRUNNING John counts down the new Top 30 classical albums of the week, revealing the all-important number one just before 7pm. 1900 DAVID MELLOR To mark the anniversary of the birth of Sir Thomas Beecham, born on this day in 1879, David presents two hours of the great English maestro’s finest recordings. Among the highlights, David will explore Beecham’s love of the music of Delius, and his mastery of Beethoven, even though he believed the great composer was “a great bore”! Sir Thomas also excelled in his performances of French music, some of which David features this evening. 4 PROGRAMME SCHEDULE DAY: SUNDAY DATE: 29 APRIL 2018 2100 EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT CLASSICAL MUSIC with CATHERINE BOTT This week, Catherine turns to a life of crime – true crime in the classical music world, that is. Just in case you haven’t yet listened to Classic FM’s new podcast, Case Notes, Catherine will bring you up to speed with some of classical music’s biggest mysteries, such as the mystery of Tchaikovsky’s death, and the case of Haydn’s missing head! 2200 SMOOTH CLASSICS with MYLEENE KLASS Myleene invites you to join her with three hours of Smooth Classics. 5 PROGRAMME SCHEDULE DAY: MONDAY DATE: 30 APRIL 2018 0100 SAM PITTIS Sam presents the perfect blend of night-time music. 0600 CLASSIC FM’S MORE MUSIC BREAKFAST with TIM LIHOREAU Tim eases you into the start of a new week with music to recharge the batteries, and keeps you up-to-date with the latest news and financial updates. The programme features the Early Toast at 6.35am, and the Breakfast Serial at 7.35am. 0900 JOHN SUCHET John presents all the classical hits on Classic FM. From 9am it’s The Classic FM Hall of Fame Hour – favourite pieces voted into the Classic FM Top 300. 1300 NICHOLAS OWEN Including Classic FM Requests 1pm-3pm – a chance for listeners to phone in over the course of the programme and request a personal favourite. After Classic FM Requests, Nicholas presents the Hall of Fame 3 at 3 – three pieces of music from the Classic FM Hall of Fame chart. Phone in with your request on 03457 49 1812 Listeners can also post their requests to: 30 Leicester Square, London WC2H 7LA Or email via the Classic FM website: ClassicFM.com 1700 CLASSIC FM DRIVE with JOHN BRUNNING John takes you into the evening with three hours of old favourites and new discoveries. Includes the Big Piece After Six, the Drive Discovery at 6.20pm, and an hour of Smooth Classics at Seven. 1900 SMOOTH CLASSICS AT SEVEN with JOHN BRUNNING John features a selection of perfect music to wind down to at the end of the working day. 6 PROGRAMME SCHEDULE DAY: MONDAY DATE: 30 APRIL 2018 2000 THE FULL WORKS CONCERT: COMPOSER INSULTS If you thought classical music was all about peaceful tunes and harmony, think again! Tonight, Jane Jones explores some of the rudest, most insulting composer put-downs in the history of classical music. “Rossini would have been a great composer if his teacher had spanked him enough on the backside.” So said Beethoven, when discussing his Italian counterpart. Aaron Copland, meanwhile, once commented that “listening to the Fifth Symphony of Ralph Vaughan Williams is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes”. Russian composers could also be cutting: Tchaikovsky declared that “Handel is only fourth rate. He is not even interesting”. As for Stravinsky, he demurred that Rachmaninov was nothing more than “a six-and-a-half-foot scowl.” We’ll also hear music by Saint-Saëns, who went as far as saying that if Ravel had been “making shell cases during the war, it would have been better for music”, and Wagner, who didn’t hold back when concluding that Chopin was “a composer for one right hand.” Tonight, you decide whether or not the comments made about these supposedly revered composers were justified! Gioachino Rossini Thieving Magpie – Overture Herbert von Karajan conducts the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Frédéric Chopin Nocturne in C-sharp minor Opus Posth. Piano: Jan Lisiecki Ralph Vaughan Williams Symphony No.5 in D major John Barbirolli conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra George Frideric Handel Sarabande Marc Minkowski conducts the Orchestre de Chambre Leopoldinum Maurice Ravel Bolero Daniel Barenboim conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Sergei Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.4 in G minor Opus 40 Piano: Daniil Trifonov Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 7 PROGRAMME SCHEDULE DAY: MONDAY DATE: 30 APRIL 2018 2200 SMOOTH CLASSICS with MARGHERITA TAYLOR Three hours of the smoothest sounds in the company of Margherita Taylor. 8 PROGRAMME SCHEDULE DAY: TUESDAY DATE: 1 MAY 2018 0100 SAM PITTIS Sam presents the perfect blend of night-time music. 0600 CLASSIC FM’S MORE MUSIC BREAKFAST with TIM LIHOREAU Tim eases you into the start of a new day with music to recharge the batteries, and keeps you up-to-date with the latest news and financial updates. The programme features the Early Toast at 6.35am, and the Breakfast Serial at 7.35am. 0900 JOHN SUCHET John presents all the classical hits on Classic FM. From 9am it’s The Classic FM Hall of Fame Hour – favourite pieces voted into the Classic FM Top 300 – followed by the Classic FM Album of the Week at 10:15am. 1300 NICHOLAS OWEN Including Classic FM Requests 1pm-3pm – a chance for listeners to phone in over the course of the programme and request a personal favourite. After Classic FM Requests, Nicholas presents the Hall of Fame 3 at 3 – three pieces of music from the Classic FM Hall of Fame chart.