Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Thursday - Rob Cowan with Tom Phillips

With Rob Cowan. Five Reasons to Love Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words; Arvo Part: Fratres; Artist of the Week: David Willcocks, featured conducting Vaughan Williams's Epithalamion.

9am
A selection of music including '5 reasons to love... Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words'. Rob explores the tonal variety, subtle poetry, drama and aria-like expression of Felix Mendelssohn's intimate miniatures, in the hands of pianists including Livia RΓ©v, Vladimir Horowitz and Ignaz Friedman. He also showcases a pair of songs by Felix's sister Fanny, which demonstrate that her compositions matched his in their charm and originality.

9.30am
Take part in our daily musical challenge: identify a piece of music played backwards.

10am
Rob's guest this week is the artist Tom Phillips. Tom is renowned for his portraiture, sculpture and collages, including his extraordinary ongoing project A Humument, an altered Victorian novel (the pages of which Tom paints, draws and collages over), 49 years in the making. An illustrator, set designer, librettist, composer, curator and collector, Tom is also the author of Music in Art, a survey of art inspired by music. Tom will be sharing a selection of his favourite classical music, every day at 10am.

10.30am
Rob places Music in Time as he travels back to the Baroque to sample the ingenious counterpoint of J.S Bach's Musical Offering. Frederick the Great provided the theme and Bach worked it into one of the incomparable masterpieces of his later years.

11am
Rob's Artist of the Week is Sir David Willcocks. Throughout the week Rob pays tribute to Sir David Willcocks: organist, composer, and the most celebrated British choral conductor of his generation, who died in September, aged 95. From 1957 until 1974 he was Director of Music at King's College, Cambridge; under his leadership and training the choir became internationally renowned for its precision, immaculate tuning and pure beauty of tone. Through their annual broadcasts of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, and Sir David's dazzling carol arrangements and descants, his name has become indelibly associated with Advent and Christmas. For 38 years he was also the musical director of the Bach Choir, conducting them in some eighty performances of the St Matthew Passion, as well as championing music by contemporary British composers. Rob surveys Sir David's glittering recorded legacy, showcasing some of his most acclaimed interpretations, and unearthing some rare gems.

Vaughan Williams
Epithalamion
Stephen Roberts (baritone)
Howard Shelley (piano)
Jonathan Snowden (flute)
The Bach Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir David Willcocks (conductor).

3 hours

Last on

Thu 3 Dec 2015 09:00
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

More episodes

Previous

Wednesday - Rob Cowan with Tom Phillips

Next

Friday - Rob Cowan with Tom Phillips

See all episodes from Essential Classics

Music Played

  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: SIR DAVID WILLCOCKS

    • Ralph Vaughan Williams

      Over hill, over dale (Three Shakespeare Songs)

      Choir: Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Conductor: Sir David Willcocks.
      • DECCA.

  • Felix Mendelssohn

    Wedding March (Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

    Orchestra: Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Paul Paray.
    • MERCURY.

  • 5 REASONS TO LOVE...MENDELSSOHN'S SONGS WITHOUT WORDS

    • Fanny Mendelssohn

      Song without Words, Op 2 No 4

      Performer: Dinorah Varsi.
      • GENUIN.

  • Fanny Mendelssohn

    Saltarello Romano, Op 6 No 4

    Performer: Dinorah Varsi.
    • GENUIN.

  • Hector Berlioz

    Roman Carnival Overture

    Orchestra: Boston Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Charles Munch.
    • RCA.

  • Fanny Mendelssohn

    December (The Year)

    Performer: Lauma Skride.
    • SONY BMG.

  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: SIR DAVID WILLCOCKS

    • Johann Sebastian Bach

      Vom Himmel hoch, da komm' ich her BWV.700

      Performer: Andrew Davis.
      • EMI.

  • Claude Debussy

    Petite suite

    Orchestrator: Henri BΓΌsser. Orchestra: Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Paul Paray.
    • MERCURY.

  • Franz Schubert

    Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D 965

    Performer: Sharon Kam. Performer: Geoffrey Parsons. Singer: Barbara Bonney.
    • TELDEC.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Canon cancrizans (Musical Offering, BWV1079)

    Performer: Gottfried von der Goltz. Performer: Michael Behringer.
    • HANSSLER CLASSIC.

  • George Gershwin

    Three-quarter blues for piano

    Performer: Richard Rodney Bennett.
    • Gershwin/Kern etc: That certain feeling: Richard Rodney Bennett.
    • CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE.

  • TOM PHILLIPS' CHOICE NO.1

    • Tom Phillips

      Lesbia Waltz

      Music Arranger: John Woolrich. Ensemble: The Composers Ensemble. Conductor: John Woolrich.
      • LARGO.

  • TOM PHILLIPS' CHOICE NO.2

    • Tom Phillips

      Six of Hearts: Songs for Mary Wiegold (Nos. 2, 4 & 5)

      Singer: Mary Wiegold. Ensemble: The Composers Ensemble. Conductor: John Woolrich.
      • LARGO.

  • TOM PHILLIPS' CHOICE NO.3

    • Tarik O’Regan

      Heart of Darkness suite (extract)

      Orchestra: ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ National Orchestra of Wales. Conductor: Duncan Ward. Narrator: Simon Callow.

  • Jean‐Philippe Rameau

    Hippolyte et Aricie: Orchestral Suite

    Ensemble: La Petite Bande. Conductor: Sigiswald Kuijken.

  • MUSIC IN TIME: BAROQUE

    • Johann Sebastian Bach

      Royal Theme (theme of the Musical Offering, BWV1079)

      Performer: Marc HantaΓ―.
      • ALIA VOX.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Musical Offering, BWV1079 (excerpts)

    Performer: Barthold Kuijken. Performer: Sigiswald Kuijken. Performer: Marie Leonhardt. Performer: Wieland Kuijken. Performer: Robert Kohnen. Performer: Gustav Leonhardt.
    • SEON.

  • Friedrich der Große

    Sinfonia in D major

    Performer: Manfred Friedrich. Orchestra: Kammerorchester Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Conductor: Hartmut Haenchen.
    • CAPRICCIO.

  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: SIR DAVID WILLCOCKS

    • Ralph Vaughan Williams

      Epithalamion

      Performer: Howard Shelley. Performer: Jonathan Snowden. Singer: Stephen Roberts. Choir: Bach Choir. Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Sir David Willcocks.
      • EMI.

  • Thomas Tallis

    Fantasia Γ  5

    Ensemble: Fretwork.
    • AMON.

  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: SIR DAVID WILLCOCKS

    • Thomas Tallis

      Sancte Deus, sancte fortis

      Choir: Choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Conductor: Sir David Willcocks.
      • DECCA.

  • Sir George Dyson

    To Music

    Choir: Royal College of Music Chamber Choir. Conductor: Sir David Willcocks.
    • SOMM.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Concerto no. 1 in D major K.412 for horn and orchestra, compl. Sussmayr

    Performer: Timothy Brown. Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chorus. Director: Iona Brown.
    • W.A. Mozart: Horn Concertos Nos.1-4 KV 412/514, 417, 447, 495.
    • Hanssler Classic.
    • 10-11.

Recording Rewind

Answer:

Bach
Cancrizans Canon (Musical Offering, BWV1079)
Gottfried von der Goltz (violin)
Michael Behringer (harpsichord)
HANSSLER CLASSIC

Broadcast

  • Thu 3 Dec 2015 09:00
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3

Our Classical Century

Our Classical Century

Radio 3 explores 100 key musical moments that shaped us, from 1918 to the present day.

Time Travellers: the podcast

Time Travellers: the podcast

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough presents quirky tales gathered from the corners of history.