
Tuesday - Rob Cowan with James May
With Rob Cowan. Including Five Reasons to Love Orchestral Lollipops; Musical Challenge: Relative Values; Riccardo Muti; Rob's Essential Choice: Bach: The Art of Fugue (excerpt).
Discover definitive recordings of the greatest classical music with your trusted guide, Rob Cowan. His guest is journalist and presenter of BBC's Top Gear programme, James May.
9am
A selection of music including '5 Reasons to Love... orchestral lollipops'. Throughout the week Rob welcomes in the New Year with a selection of orchestral lollipops recalling the tradition of Thomas Beecham's orchestral bons-bons. The San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas play familiar favourites include Rachmaninov's Vocalise, Delius's On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Schubert's Entracte No.3 from Rosamunde and Litolff's celebrated Scherzo.
9.30am
Musical challenge: Relative Values
10am
Rob's guest this week, sharing his favourite classical music every day at 10am, is James May. Best known as co-presenter of the BBC's Top Gear programme, the Renaissance man of motoring takes off his driving gloves and returns to Essential Classics to dig deeper into another of his great passions. A former chorister and occasional flautist, May is a classical music enthusiast with a particular love of the keyboard.
10.30am
This week Rob's featured artist is the eminent Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, whose performances combine probing intelligence and an intense conviction. Rob will feature benchmark recordings throughout the week from his prestigious career with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic and from his tenure as music director at La Scala, Milan. Not forgetting his memorable New Year's Day Concert of 2000.
11am
Essential Choice
Bach
The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 (extract)
Charles Rosen (piano).
Last on
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Music Played
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5 reasons to love... orchestral miniatures
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Artist of the week: Riccardo Muti
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James May's Choice No. 1
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James May's Choice No. 2
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James May's Choice No. 3
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Artist of the week: Riccardo Muti
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Essential Choice
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Relative Values
Broadcast
- Tue 30 Dec 2014 09:00