Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Friday - Rob Cowan with Liz Lochhead

With Rob Cowan. Including My Favourite Old-School Violinists; Music in Time: Delius's Brigg Fair; Artist of the Week: Antal Dorati, featured conducting Beethoven's Symphony No 5.

9am
My favourite... old-school violinists. Throughout the week Rob shares recordings by some of his favourite violinists. The line-up includes Jascha Heifetz, Ivry Gitlis, Christian Ferras, Toscha Seidel and Philippe Hirschhorn, in music by Richard Strauss, Lili Boulanger, Paganini, Tartini, Wagner and Saint-Saëns.

9.30am
Take part in today's challenge: two pieces of music are played together - can you work out what they are?

10am
Rob's guest this week, in the run-up to Radio 3's Folk Connections weekend, is the Scots Makar - the National Poet for Scotland - Liz Lochhead. Liz's poetry collections include Dreaming Frankenstein, True Confessions and New Cliches, Bagpipe Muzak and The Colour of Black and White: Poems 1984-2003. Liz is also a successful dramatist known for her historical play Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, her award-winning interpretation of the story of Medea, and her critically acclaimed translation of Molière's Tartuffe. She has been announced as the 2016 recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Every day at 10am Liz will be sharing a selection of her favourite classical music, including music by Gluck, Sibelius and Korngold, plus Robert Burns' song Green Grow the Rashes.

10.30am
Rob places Music in Time. The focus is on the Modern period and Delius's English rhapsody, Brigg Fair. Written in 1907, it was one of the earliest and most effective concert works to reflect the recent English Folk Song Revival, in which Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Percy Grainger were pioneering figures. 'Brigg Fair', the folksong, was 'collected' by Grainger in 1905 after a musical festival in the North Lincolnshire town of Brigg. When Delius heard Grainger's own arrangement of the song for solo tenor and chorus, he asked his permission to use it as the basis for this magnificent orchestral theme and variations.

11am
Rob's artist of the week is the acclaimed Hungarian-American conductor Antal Doráti, whose early experience in opera houses in Budapest, Munster, Dresden and Monte Carlo led to a dazzling international career at the helm of a string of top orchestras in the USA and Britain. His vast and varied recording legacy is witness to his performing style, which combined dramatic intensity, rhythmic vigor and an acute ear for colour. Throughout the week Rob showcases a selection of Doráti's finest interpretations of works including Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3 in G, Schumann's Violin Concerto in D minor, Bartók's Dance Suite, Koechlin's Les Bandar-Log and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Beethoven
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
London Symphony Orchestra
Antal Doráti, conductor.

3 hours

Music Played

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    'Auf dunklem Irrweg' (King Stephen, Op.117)

    Choir: Ambrosian Singers. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Michael Tilson Thomas.
    • CBS.
  • George Frideric Handel

    Concerto Grosso in B flat major, Op.6 No.7

    Orchestra: Academy of Ancient Music. Director: Andrew Manze.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • Jonathan Harvey

    I love the Lord

    Choir: The Choir of St Paul's Cathedral. Conductor: John Scott.
    • HYPERION.
  • MY FAVOURITE...OLD-SCHOOL VIOLINISTS

    • Camille Saint‐Saëns

      Caprice after the study in the form of a waltz

      Music Arranger: Eugène Ysaÿe. Performer: Philippe Hirschhorn. Performer: Lidiya Leonskaya.
      • DOREMI.
  • Johannes Ockeghem

    Requiem aeternam; Introitus (Missa pro defunctis)

    Choir: The Hilliard Ensemble.
    • EMI.
  • Alexander Borodin

    Polovtsian March (Prince Igor)

    Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Fritz Reiner.
    • SONY.
  • György Ligeti

    Six Bagatelles for wind quintet

    Performer: Philippa Davies. Performer: Gareth Hulse. Performer: Michael Collins. Performer: Robin O’Neill. Performer: Richard Watkins. Ensemble: London Winds.
    • CHANDOS.
  • LIZ LOCHHEAD'S CHOICE NO.1

    • Philip Glass

      Or a Wolf (Dracula)

      Ensemble: Kronos Quartet.
      • NONESUCH.
  • LIZ LOCHHEAD'S CHOICE NO.2

    • Robert Burns

      Green Grow the Rashes, O

      Singer: Michael Marra. Ensemble: Mr. McFall’s Chamber.
      • DELPHIAN.
  • LIZ LOCHHEAD'S CHOICE NO.3

    • Trad.

      Sarba Si Hora Din Teis

      Music Arranger: Grigoras Dinicu. Performer: Grigoras Dinicu.
      • SYMPOSIUM.
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Waltz (Swan Lake)

    Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Morton Gould.
    • SONY.
  • MUSIC IN TIME: MODERN

    • Frederick Delius

      Brigg Fair, an English rhapsody

      Orchestra: The Philadelphia Orchestra. Conductor: Eugene Ormandy.
      • SONY.
  • Louise Farrenc

    Andante sostenuto (Sonata for violin and piano)

    Performer: Mary Ellen Haupert. Performer: Nancy Oliveros.
    • Centaur.
  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: ANTAL DORATI

    • Ludwig van Beethoven

      Symphony No.5 in C minor, Op.67

      Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Antal Doráti.
      • MERCURY.
  • Franz Liszt

    Mazeppa; Feux follets; Vision; Eroica, Wilde Jagd (Transcendental Studies)

    Performer: Claire‐Marie Le Guay.
    • DECCA.

Imperfect Harmony

The music played:

Ligeti
Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet, No.1
Barry Tuckwell Wind Quintet
EMI

Mahler
Symphony No.2: 1st movement
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
John Barbirolli (conductor)
EMI

Broadcast

  • Fri 29 Jan 2016 09:00

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.