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Friday - Rob Cowan with Samuel West

With Rob Cowan. Including My Favourite Etudes; Music in Time: Ligeti: Atmospheres; Artist of the Week: pianist Artur Rubinstein, featured in Ravel's Piano Trio.

9am
My favourite... études. Rob showcases a selection of these works which many composers regarded not as traditional studies but demanding miniatures. He considers the innovation of Chopin, who transformed a traditionally dry exercise into an exploration of virtuoso technique, and features works ranging from Vieuxtemps's Concert Études and Rachmaninov's Études-Tableaux to Stravinsky's Four Orchestral Études and Bartók's Three Études Op. 18.

9.30am
Take part in our daily musical challenge: Two pieces of music have been altered. Can you identify them?

10am
Rob's guest this week is the actor and director Samuel West. Samuel has received accolades for his work across stage and screen. He was nominated for a Bafta for his role in the acclaimed film Howards End, earned a Critics' Circle Award for his role as Hamlet with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has performed to critical acclaim in West End productions including Lucy Prebble's play Enron. Currently playing Frank Edwards in the popular television series Mr Selfridge, Samuel also has experience behind the scenes directing plays and operas. He has toured with the Choir of London and provided narration for groups including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Nash Ensemble, besides making a number of appearances at the Proms. Samuel will be talking about his life on and off stage and sharing a selection of his favourite classical music every day at 10am.

10:30
Rob places Music in Time. Today it's the turn of the Modern era and Ligeti's ground-breaking 1961 orchestral work Atmosphères, whose washes of tone-colour - like a kind of shifting sonic plasma - are familiar to millions from the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The beguiling textures of Atmosphères are actually composed of multiple webs of strictly controlled part-writing - a technique Ligeti christened 'micropolyphony'.

11am
Rob's artist of the week is the pianist Artur Rubinstein. Few musicians in living memory were more widely loved than Artur Rubinstein, so it's not surprising that he was always in demand as a chamber player. Though a musical giant in his own right, Rubinstein would happily - and regularly - join forces with his younger peers in pursuit of performances that combine wisdom and spontaneity. Throughout the week Rob shares some of Rubinstein's best ensemble playing, in works including Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Fauré's Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor and Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata.

Ravel
Piano Trio
Jascha Heifetz, violin
Gregor Piatigorsky, cello
Artur Rubinstein, piano.

3 hours

Music Played

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Cello Suite No 1 in G major, BWV 1007 (Gigue)

    Performer: Steven Isserlis.
    • HYPERION.
  • Antonín Dvořák

    Othello Overture, Op.93

    Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Rafael Kubelík.
    • DG.
  • William Byrd

    Ave Verum Corpus

    Choir: Stile Antico.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • MY FAVOURITE...ÉTUDES

    • Béla Bartók

      3 Studies for piano, Op.18

      Performer: Charles Rosen.
      • SONY.
  • George Frideric Handel

    Overture in D major arr Elgar

    Music Arranger: Edward Elgar. Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Malcolm Sargent.
    • WARNER.
  • William Brade

    Cornish Dance; Irish Dance; Scottish Dance

    Ensemble: His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts. Performer: Timothy Roberts.
    • English music from Henry VIII to Charles II.
    • HYPERION.
    • 17.
  • Franz Liszt

    Ballade No.2 in B minor, S171

    Performer: Nelson Freire.
    • DECCA.
  • SAMUEL WEST'S CHOICE NO.1

    • Chris Fitkin

      Sextet

      Ensemble: Piano Circus.
      • ARGO.
  • SAMUEL WEST'S CHOICE NO.2

    • Johann Sebastian Bach

      Cello Suite No 3 in C major, BWV 1009 (Sarabande)

      Performer: Steven Isserlis.
      • HYPERION.
  • SAMUEL WEST'S CHOICE NO.3

    • Aaron Copland

      Lincoln Portrait (conclusion)

      Narrator: William Warfield. Orchestra: New York Philharmonic. Conductor: Leonard Bernstein.
      • NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC.
  • MUSIC IN TIME: MODERN

    • György Ligeti

      Atmospheres

      Orchestra: Vienna Philharmonic. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
      • DG.
  • Jean‐Philippe Rameau

    Les Indes galantes Suite

    Orchestra: Concert Des Nations. Director: Jordi Savall.
    • Le Concert Spirituel - Au Temps de Louis XV: Le Concert Des Nations, Jordi Saval.
    • Alia Vox.
    • 25-31.
  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: ARTUR RUBINSTEIN

    • Maurice Ravel

      Piano Trio in A minor

      Performer: Jascha Heifetz. Performer: Gregor Piatigorsky. Performer: Arthur Rubinstein.
      • BMG.
  • Franz Schubert

    Symphony No.6 in C major, D.589

    Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Lorin Maazel.
    • BR KLASSIK.

Imperfect Harmony

The music played:

Kodaly
Solo Cello Sonata: 1st movement
Alisa Weilerstein (cello)
DECCA


Liszt
Piano Sonata in B minor: 1st movement
Yuja Wang (piano)
DG

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  • Fri 26 Feb 2016 09:00

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