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Thursday - Rob Cowan, plus Sarah Walker with Rick Wakeman

Essential Classics

With Rob Cowan. Including Five Reasons to Love the Harpsichord; Musical challenge; Proms Artist of the Week: percussionist Evelyn Glennie, featured in Vittorio Monti's Czardas.

9am
A selection of music including '5 reasons to love... the harpsichord'. Rob explores the range of styles of this characterful instrument, including Spanish flavoured pieces by Soler and Scarlatti, works by Couperin with a sense of nobility, Bach's intricate Fantasia and Fugue and the percussive excitement of a concerto by Henryk Gorecki.

9.30am
Take part in today's challenge: listen to the clues and identify the mystery music-related object.

10am
Throughout the week Sarah talks to the musician Rick Wakeman, who shares a selection of his favourite classical music. Rick abandoned his piano studies at the Royal College of Music to pursue a career in rock, both as a solo performer and in the prog-rock group Yes. He has since become a familiar face on television through his appearances in the BBC television series Grumpy Old Men. Rick's music choices range from Bach to Shostakovich, and his conversations with Sarah cover topics including his friendship with the harpsichord maker Thomas Goff, as well as the everyday business of being a rock legend.

10.30am
This week Rob features recordings by BBC Proms artist Dame Evelyn Glennie, one of the UK's best loved solo musicians who celebrates her 50th birthday this summer. Glennie was born in Aberdeenshire, trained at the Royal Academy of Music, and swiftly became the world's most successful virtuoso percussionist. She has recorded over thirty CDs and, as well as commissioning new works, has written percussion pieces of her own to perform. Her range of instruments is huge; from her beloved marimba to ones she's developed herself including the Simtak, made from an old car exhaust pipe.

Monti orch. Palmer, arr Glennie
Czardas
Evelyn Glennie (marimba/xylophone/vibraphone/glockenspiel)
National Philharmonic Orchestra
Barry Wordsworth (conductor).

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2 hours

Last on

Thu 13 Aug 2015 09:00

BBC Radio 3

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Gioachino Rossini

Soldier’s Dance from William Tell
Orchestra: Paris Conservatoire Orchestra. Conductor: Anatole Fistoulari.
- DECCA.
5 REASONS TO LOVE... HARPSICHORDS
- François Couperin
  
  Passacaille (Ordre No.8)
  Performer: Blandine Verlet.
  
  ASTREE.
Felix Mendelssohn

Christe, du Lamm Gottes (Four sacred cantatas, No.4)
Choir: Stuttgart Chamber Choir. Orchestra: Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn. Conductor: Frieder Bernius.
- EMI.
Johannes Brahms

Ballade in B major, Op 10 No 4
Performer: Barry Douglas.
- CHANDOS.
RICK WAKEMAN'S CHOICE NO. 1
- Claude Debussy
  
  Clair de Lune
  Performer: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Polonaise (Eugene Onegin)
Orchestra: Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, Rome. Conductor: Sir Antonio Pappano.
- EMI.
Luigi Boccherini

Quartet in G major, Op.44 No.4 ‘La Tiranna’
Ensemble: Quartetto Italiano.
- ICA.
Benedetto Marcello

Se morto mi brami
Performer: Albrecht Mayer. Ensemble: New Seasons Ensemble.
- DECCA.
Claude Debussy

Clair de lune (Suite bergamasque)
Performer: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet.
- CHANDOS.
RICK WAKEMAN'S CHOICE NO. 2
- Edvard Grieg
  
  In the Hall of the Mountain King (Peer Gynt Suite, No.1)
  Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Herbert von Karajan.
  
  DG.
RICK WAKEMAN'S CHOICE NO. 3
- Jean‐Philippe Rameau
  
  L’enharmonique (Suite in G minor, Premier livre de pieces de clavecin)
  Performer: Mahan Esfahani.
  
  HYPERION.
PROMS ARTIST OF THE WEEK: EVELYN GLENNIE
- Vittorio Monti
  
  Czardas
  Music Arranger: Evelyn Glennie. Orchestrator: Christopher Palmer. Performer: Evelyn Glennie. Orchestra: National Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Barry Wordsworth.
  
  RCA.
Franz Liszt

Hungarian Rhapsody No.5 in E minor (Heroide-elegiaque)
Performer: Georges Cziffra.
- EMI.
PROMS ARTIST OF THE WEEK: EVELYN GLENNIE
- Sir James MacMillan
  
  Gaude, Gaude (Veni, Veni, Emmanuel)
  Performer: Evelyn Glennie. Orchestra: Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Jukka‐Pekka Saraste.
  
  CATALYST.
Jean Sibelius

Why Is Spring So Fleeting (Op.17 No 1)
Performer: Elisabeth Söderström. Performer: Vladimir Ashkenazy.