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Monday - Sarah Walker, plus Rob Cowan with Alistair McGowan

With Sarah Walker. Including My Favourite Vivaldi Concertos; Music in Time: classical; Proms Artist of the Week: mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, featured in Elgar's Sea Pictures.

9am
My favourite... Vivaldi Concertos. Sarah shares her favourite Baroque masterpieces from Vivaldi's impressive range of concertos. With over 600 to choose from, Sarah discovers rarely-heard masterpieces which catch the ear with their unusual instrumental soloists such as the soft velvety tones of the viola d'amore. There are also works with eccentric titles: Proteus or the World Turned Upside Down, and styles range from the dramatic - his late concertos written in Vienna - to the joyful trilling of the Goldfinch. Sarah's line up of leading performers includes Europa Galante with Fabio Biondi, recorder player Maurice Steger with I Barocchisti, and fiery ensemble Zefiro.

9.30am
Take part in our daily musical challenge: can you remember the film or television programme that featured this piece of classical music?

10am
Rob Cowan talks to the actor, comedian, impressionist and writer Alistair McGowan. Alistair appears at the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Proms next Monday in a cabaret chamber music concert devoted to the world of the French composer Erik Satie, one of Alistair's musical passions. Alistair's career has continued to diversify since his last appearance on Essential Classics in 2012, showing his culinary skills on the Great Sport Relief Bake Off, playing the title role in the critically-acclaimed 'An Audience With Jimmy Savile', as well as a successful stand-up tour with Jasper Carrott.

10.30am
Music in Time: Classical
Sarah heads back to the Classical period as she explores the development of a new equality in instrumental parts in Beethoven's violin sonatas.

11am
Sarah's Proms Artist of the Week is Sarah Connolly, who performs at the Proms, this Friday night in Mahler's Symphony No.3. A former member of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Singers, Sarah is one of the UK's most popular mezzo-sopranos, receiving critical acclaim for her performance on stage and on disc. Her breakthrough in Handel's opera Xerxes led to roles at Glyndebourne, ENO and the New York Metropolitan Opera. More recently she has made her name in Romantic and 20th-century masterpieces such as Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier and Mark-Anthony Turnage's The Silver Tassie. This week offers the chance to explore the range of Sarah's repertoire as the tragic queen Dido in Purcell's semi-opera, the intimate depiction of a woman's life in Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben, virtuoso arias by Handel from Alcina and Hercules, Elgar's Sea Pictures, and Romantic songs from Hahn and Brahms.

Elgar
Sea Pictures
Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Simon Wright (conductor).

3 hours

Music Played

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Fugue a la Gigue, BWV577

    Music Arranger: Gustav Holst. Ensemble: Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra. Conductor: Timothy Reynish.
    • CHANDOS.
  • Antonio Caprioli

    Quella bella e biancha mano

    Choir: The Hilliard Ensemble.
    • EMI.
  • MY FAVOURITE...VIVALDI CONCERTOS

    • Antonio Vivaldi

      Concerto for violin and cello in F major, RV544

      Performer: Christine Busch. Performer: Roel Dieltiens. Ensemble: Ensemble Explorations. Director: Roel Dieltiens.
      • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • César Franck

    Prelude, Fugue and Variations, Op 18

    Performer: Alexis Weissenberg.
    • EMI.
  • Camille Saintâ€Saëns

    Clarinet Sonata in E flat major, Op.167

    Performer: Sabine Meyer. Performer: Oleg Maisenberg.
    • EMI.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K 546

    Orchestra: The English Concert. Director: Andrew Manze.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • ALISTAIR MCGOWAN'S CHOICE NO.1

    • Johann Sebastian Bach

      Prelude and Fugue in C minor (Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1)

      Performer: Sir András Schiff.
      • DECCA.
  • ALISTAIR MCGOWAN'S CHOICE NO.2

    • Franz Liszt

      Hungarian Rhapsody in C sharp minor, S.244 no.2

      Performer: Roberto Szidon.
      • DG.
  • Johannes Brahms

    Hungarian Dance no.4 in F sharp minor

    Music Arranger: Iván Fischer. Orchestra: Budapest Festival Orchestra. Conductor: Iván Fischer.
    • Philips.
  • Johannes Brahms

    Hungarian Dance No 7

    Orchestrator: Iván Fischer. Orchestra: Budapest Festival Orchestra. Conductor: Iván Fischer.
    • DECCA.
  • MUSIC IN TIME: CLASSICAL

    • Ludwig van Beethoven

      Violin Sonata No.10 in G major, Op.96

      Performer: Isabelle Faust. Performer: Alexander Melnikov.
      • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • PROMS ARTIST OF THE WEEK: SARAH CONNOLLY

    • Edward Elgar

      Sea Pictures

      Singer: Dame Sarah Connolly. Orchestra: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Simon Wright.
      • NAXOS.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf, BWV 226

    Choir: Monteverdi Choir. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
    • Bach Motets.
    • SOLI DEO GLORIA.
    • 3.
  • Joseph Haydn

    Symphony no.70 in D major H.1.70; 1. Vivace con brio

    Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
    • EMI.
  • PROMS ARTIST OF THE WEEK: SARAH CONNOLLY

    • Fanny Mendelssohn

      Wenn ich in deine Augen sehe

      Performer: Eugene Asti. Singer: Sophie Daneman. Singer: Dame Sarah Connolly.
      • Mendelssohn: Songs and Duets - 3: Daneman, Connolly, Padmore, Loges, Asti.
      • Hyperion.

Heard on Screen

Answer: Horse of the Year Show

The music played:

²Ñ´Ç³ú²¹°ù³Ù 
A Musical Joke, K.522: IV Presto 
The English Concert 
´¡²Ô»å°ù±ð·É M²¹²Ô³ú±ð (»å¾±°ù±ð³¦³Ù´Ç°ù) 
HARMONIA MUNDI 

Broadcast

  • Mon 25 Jul 2016 09:00

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