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Thursday - Rob Cowan with Cerys Matthews

With Rob Cowan. CD of the Week: Vienna - waltzes by the Strauss family; Brahms Experience: Brahms: Gesang der Parzen; Rob's Essential Choice: Prokofiev: Scythian Suite, Op 20.

Discover definitive recordings of the greatest classical music with your trusted guide, Rob Cowan. This week his guest is singer, songwriter, author and broadcaster Cerys Matthews.

9am
A selection of music including Rob's Essential CD of the Week: Vienna - a collection of waltzes and polkas by the Strauss family with Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

9.30am
Classical Consequences
Take part in our daily musical challenge: listen to the story and tell us what happens next.

10.00am
Rob is joined by Cerys Matthews, who shares a selection of her favourite classical music. A founder member of Welsh rock band Catatonia, Cerys has since enjoyed a successful solo career and is now a popular broadcaster and author. She talks to Rob about the influence that classical music has had on her life, and about her role as an ambassador for the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ initiative Ten Pieces, which aims to inspire a generation of children to get creative with classical music.

10.30am
Rob celebrates the performers who reveal the emotion in Brahms' great works, as part of Radio 3's Brahms Experience.
Gesang der Parzen
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Herbert Blomstedt (conductor)

11am
Rob's Essential Choice
This week Rob's Essential Choices at 11am are inspired by the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ's Ten Pieces season. He takes listeners on a musical journey, each day recommending a work that's connected to one of the Ten Pieces.

Prokofiev
Scythian Suite, Op.20
London Symphony Orchestra
Antal Dorati (conductor).

3 hours

Last on

Thu 9 Oct 2014 09:00
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Chaconne in D minor arr. Mendelssohn from the Partita No.2, BWV1004

    Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Director: Joshua Bell. Performer: Joshua Bell.
    • SONY CLASSICAL.

  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Violin Concerto in D, Op.35: Finale

    Conductor: Vladimir Ashkenazy. Performer: Joshua Bell. Orchestra: The Cleveland Orchestra.
    • Decca.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    String Quartet No.14 Op.131 - Adagio ma non troppo

    Ensemble: Quartetto Italiano.
    • Philips.

  • Johannes Brahms

    Gesang der Parzen

    Orchestra: San Francisco Symphony. Choir: San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Conductor: Herbert Blomstedt.
    • Decca.

  • Johannes Brahms

    Klavierstucke, Op.118: Ballade in G minor; Intermezzo in F minor

    Performer: Stephen Kovacevich.
    • Philips.

  • Carlo Gesualdo

    Questa crudele e pia

    Ensemble: Delitiæ Musicæ. Director: Marco Longhini.
    • Naxos.

  • Edvard Grieg

    Sommerfugl, Op 43 No 1 (Lyric Pieces)

    Performer: Mikhail Pletnev.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • George Frideric Handel

    Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (Solomon)

    Orchestra: Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Conductor: Jaime Laredo.
    • IMP.

  • Amilcare Ponchielli

    Dance of the Hours (La Gioconda)

    Conductor: Rudolf Kempe. Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • Testament.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    The Wasps: Overture

    Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Adrian Boult.
    • HMV.

  • Sergey Prokofiev

    Scythian Suite, Op.20

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Antal DorΓ‘ti.
    • Mercury Living Presence.

  • AntonΓ­n DvoΕ™Γ‘k

    String Sextet in A major, Op. 48

    Performer: Richard Strabl. Ensemble: European String Quartet. Performer: Wolfgang Herzer.
    • Westminster.

  • Jean Sibelius

    The Oceanides Op.73

    Orchestra: Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Jukka‐Pekka Saraste.
    • RCA.

  • Richard Strauss

    Der Rosenkavalier (Waltzes)

    Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Fritz Reiner.
    • RCA Living Stereo.

Musical Challenge - Classical Consequences

The composer Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, received a tip-off that his wife Donna Maria d’Avalos was having an affair – with Fabrizio Carafa, Duke of Andria. What’s more, they were conducting it in his own palace, under his very nose! What happened next?

Μύ

Rather than confront his wife with the allegation of adultery, Gesualdo hatched a cunning plan to catch her in flagranti. Having tricked her into believing that he was going off on an extended hunting trip, he snuck back to his palace, gathered a retinue of servants and burst in on the ill-fated lovers. Both were brutally murdered.

Broadcast

  • Thu 9 Oct 2014 09:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

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Our Classical Century

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