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Friday - Rob Cowan with Stephen Fry

With Rob Cowan. Including CD of the Week: Dances - Benjamin Grosvenor; Brainteaser: Only Connect; Proms Artist of the Week: Andrew Litton; Rob's Essential Choice: Choral Fantasy.

Rob Cowan's guest this week is the writer, actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry.

9am
A selection of music, including the Essential CD of the Week: Dances, Benjamin Grosvenor, DECCA. We also have our daily brainteaser at 9.30.

10am
Proms Artist of the Week: Andrew Litton.

10:30
Rob's guest this week is the writer, actor, and broadcaster Stephen Fry.

Stephen admits that beneath the puckish and jovial exterior there lies a miasma of contradictions. He strives for bold authenticity and truth, but is known for his modest self-effacement and insecurities. Early success in series such as Blackadder, A Bit of Fry and Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster, led to film roles (Wilde; Gosford Park ; Alice in Wonderland; The Hobbit), novels (The Liar and The Hippopotamus to name but two) autobiographical memoirs (Moab Is My Washpot; More Fool Me, published this month) and a series of challenging and critically-acclaimed documentaries including Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive, in which he discusses his bipolar disorder; Stephen Fry: Wagner and Me, on the stain of Nazism on the reputation of Wagner; Stephen Fry: Out There, in which he explores attitudes to homosexuality and the lives of gay people in different parts of the globe. Currently the host of the popular quiz show QI, Stephen has appeared on popular panel games such as Just a Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

Stephen's music choices include classic recordings of Wilhelm Kempff performing Beethoven and Glenn Gould performing Bach, as well as great opera recordings of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro conducted by Georg Solti, Verdi's Rigoletto featuring Luciano Pavarotti and Dame Joan Sutherland, and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde conducted by Wilhelm Furtwangler.

11am
Rob's Essential Choice
Beethoven
Choral Fantasy
Rudolf Serkin (piano)
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra & Choir
Rafael Kubelík (conductor)
ORFEO.

2 hours, 58 minutes

Music Played

  • Niccolò Paganini

    Moto perpetuo, Op 11

    Performer: Michael Rabin. Orchestra: Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Conductor: Felix Slatkin.
    • Testament.
  • Isaac Albéniz

    Tango (Espana)

    Performer: Benjamin Grosvenor.
    • Decca.
  • Morton Gould

    Boogie-Woogie Etude

    Performer: Benjamin Grosvenor.
    • Decca.
  • Claude Debussy

    Valse 'La plus que lente'

    Performer: Alexandre Tharaud. Performer: Jean‐Guihen Queyras.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
  • Antonín Dvořák

    In Nature's Realm

    Conductor: José Serebrier. Orchestra: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
    • Warner.
  • anon

    Only Connect

    Conductor: anon.
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Bluebird pas de deux (Sleeping Beauty)

    Music Arranger: Igor Stravinsky. Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Andrew Litton.
    • BIS.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542

    Performer: Simon Preston.
    • DG.
  • Louis Moreau Gottschalk

    The Dying Swan, Op.100

    Performer: Philip Martin.
    • Hyperion.
  • Felix Mendelssohn

    Symphony No. 1

    Orchestra: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Andrew Litton.
    • BIS.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Egmont Overture

    Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Ferenc Fricsay.
    • DG.
  • Richard Wagner

    "Fliegt heim, ihr Raben... Grane, meine Ross" (Gotterdammerung)

    Orchestra: Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. Conductor: Hans Knappertsbusch. Singer: Astrid Varnay.
    • Testament.
  • Frédéric Chopin

    Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 28 No. 10

    Performer: Martha Argerich (piano).
    • DG.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Choral Fantasy, Op 80

    Performer: Rudolf Serkin. Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Choir: Bavarian Radio Symphony Choir. Conductor: Rafael Kubelík.
    • Orfeo.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Partita No. 2 in D minor for violin solo

    Performer: Janine Jansen.
    • Decca.
  • Mahler arr. Berio

    Ich ging mit Lust durch grunen Wald; Fruhlingsmorgen

    Performer: Roderick Williams (baritone). Performer: Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Performer: Edward Gardner (conductor).
    • CHANDOS.

Today's Brainteaser Answer - Only Connect

The connection was Swansongs.


The music played:


Gottschalk
The Dying Swan, Op. 100
Philip Martin (piano)
HYPERION CDA 67478

Tchaikovsky
Swan Lake (final scene)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Mstislav Rostropovich (conductor)
DG 449 726 2

Saint-Saens
Carnival of the Animals, Movement XIII The Swan (end)
Jacqueline Du Pre (cello)
Osian Ellis (harp)
EMI CDC 555 529 2

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