BBC Four is entering an ambitious partnership with the Southbank Centre for a groundbreaking year-long classical music festival, The Rest is Noise, to be held in 2013.
Controller of BBC Four Richard Klein today announced that the channel - the home of arts, music and culture - is to enter into a partnership with Southbank Centre for its major year-long classical music festival, The Rest is Noise, curated by Southbank Centre Artistic Director Jude Kelly.
BBC Four will support Southbank Centre's initiative by broadcasting a landmark television series about 20th century classical music alongside other activity to be announced later in the year.
BBC Radio 3 will once again work alongside BBC Four to provide complementary programming of the classical events and performances which will tie in to the television series and other activities across the year.
Inspired by Alex Ross' award-winning accessible book about 20th century classical music, Southbank Centre's festival will feature nearly 100 events, including talks, films, performances, participation events, and concerts, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra providing the orchestral backbone of the Festival. The Rest Is Noise Festival will be a chronological exploration of 20th century classical music in the context of the century's historical, political, and cultural upheavals.
“The 20th century divides classical music lovers like no other and there's no more thrilling way of discovering what the last 100 years brought us, than by listening to its music, in all its rich, vibrant, challenging and melodic glories,” said Richard Klein, Controller of BBC Four.
“As the home of classical music on television and a channel committed to partnering the arts sector, BBC Four's partnership with Southbank Centre will bring audiences an exciting opportunity to explore 20th century music in a way that only the BBC can do, with depth, breadth and passion.”
Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre, added: "We hope this groundbreaking Festival will inspire audiences and artists to experience 20th century classical music from a new perspective. By placing this music within its historical and social context, the Festival will reveal why individual composers were compelled to create the music they did and how the music was inspired by landmark moments and the turbulent upheavals of the century. We are thrilled to be working in partnership with BBC Four on this ambitious project."
Roger Wright, Controller of BBC Radio 3 and the Proms, added: “Radio 3 is the home of classical music on radio and its regular live concert strands will bring audiences at home, world class performances, enhancing the broad offering across BBC Four and Southbank Centre's Festival Programming.”
The BBC Four landmark television series will be made by Fresh One Productions, commissioned for and on behalf of Controller of BBC Four Richard Klein by BBC Commissioning Editor for Music Jan Younghusband and Executive Produced for Fresh One by Roy Ackerman.
Notes to Editors
Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 21-acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames.
The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and The Hayward as well as The Saison Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection.
The Royal Festival Hall reopened in June 2007 following the major refurbishment of the Hall and redevelopment of the surrounding area and facilities. Southbank Centre is home to Resident Orchestras, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
- The BBC aims to provide the broadest range and depth of music and arts programmes across television and radio
- The BBC aims to provide context through original, fresh discussion and perspectives
- As the gold card channel for arts, BBC Four features the most music programming on television and is the home of classical music on television which features in the heart of the schedule.
- BBC Radio 3 as the home of classical music on radio and BBC Four, the home of classical music on TV regularly work together to engage as many audiences as possible for classical music. Recent collaborations include Symphony in 2011 and British Composers focus in 2012.
VW
BBC Four's partnership with Southbank Centre will bring audiences an exciting opportunity to explore 20th Century music in a way that only the BBC can do, with depth, breadth and passion."
