Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Thursday - Sarah Walker with Sally Phillips

With Sarah Walker. Including My Favourite English Idylls; Music in Time: classical; Proms Artist of the Day: cellist Truls Mork, featured in Miaskovsky's Cello Sonata No 1.

9am
My favourite... English Idylls
This week Sarah chooses a selection of pieces that are perfect for summer - English Idylls. Usually inspired by landscape or folk traditions, they tend to be a wistful and melodic reflection of pastoral or rural life. Sarah has lined up a selection of some of the best, by composers including Arnold Bax, George Butterworth, Gustav Holst, Percy Grainger and Frederic Delius.

9.30am
Take part in our daily musical challenge: can you work out which two composers are associated with a particular piece?

10am
Sarah's guest is the actress Sally Phillips. Famous for her roles in Miranda, the Bridget Jones films and Clare in the Community and Talking to Strangers on Radio 4, Sally will be sharing a selection of her favourite classical music including works which recall her upbringing in the Middle East and pieces which she discovered from playing the flute, including works by Saint-Saëns, Smetana, Rachmaninov and Cecile Chaminade. Sally is Sarah's guest every day at 10am.

10.30am
Music in Time: Classical
Sarah places Music in Time and today discovers how sets of variations were composed in the Classical era. Often the basis for the variations were well-known songs, nursery rhymes, or in the case of Beethoven's Variations on "Kind, willst du ruhig schlafen", from a popular opera. Beethoven takes what is quite a simple tune, and produces something altogether more complex.

10.45am
Sarah's Proms artist of the day is the Danish cellist Truls Mørk. Tonight Truls will be tackling the fiendishly difficult First Cello Concerto by Shostakovich, and this morning Sarah features Truls in music by another Soviet composer, Nikolai Miaskovsky, his First Cello Sonata, a relaxed and reflective piece written in a much more Romantic style.

Miaskovsky
Cello Sonata No.1
Truls Mørk (cello)
Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano).

2 hours

Music Played

  • Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky

    Prichudi [Whimsies], Op.25: V. Allegretto vivace

    Performer: Masha Dimitrieva.
    • EDITION ZEITKLANG.
  • MY FAVOURITE...ENGLISH IDYLLS

    • Percy Grainger

      Youthful Rapture

      Performer: Stephen Orton. Performer: Hamish Milne.
      • CHANDOS.
  • François Couperin

    La sultane: Sonate en quatuor

    Performer: Amandine Beyer. Ensemble: Gli Incogniti.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • Bedrich Smetana

    Prelude to Libuse

    Orchestra: 鶹Լ Philharmonic. Conductor: Gianandrea Noseda.
    • CHANDOS.
  • Claude Debussy

    Pour le piano

    Performer: Rafał Blechacz.
    • DG.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Madamina, il catalogo è questo (Don Giovanni)

    Singer: Bryn Terfel. Orchestra: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Conductor: James Levine.
    • 111 Years Of Deutsche Grammophon The Collector's Edition Vol.2.
    • Deutshe Grammophon.
    • 3.
  • William Henry Harris

    Faire is the heaven

    Choir: Choir of Merton College, Oxford. Conductor: Benjamin Nicholas.
    • Viri Galilaei: Favourite Anthems from Merton.
    • Delphian.
    • 11.
  • SALLY PHILLIPS' CHOICE NO.1

    • Ennio Morricone

      Once Upon a Time in the West: Main Title

      Conductor: Ennio Morricone. Orchestra: Orchestra. Orchestra: Choir.
      • RCA.
  • SALLY PHILLIPS' CHOICE NO.2

    • Goran Bregović

      Underground: ‘Mescina/Moonlight’

      Performer: Zorz Gruic. Performer: Nenad Jelic. Performer: Ogi Radivojevic. Singer: Zdravko Čolić. Singer: Zdravko Čolić. Orchestra: Slobodan Salijevic Gypsy Brass Orchestra. Orchestra: Slobodan Salijevic Gypsy Brass Orchestra. Orchestra: Boban Markovic Gypsy Brass Orchestra. Orchestra: Boban Markovic Gypsy Brass Orchestra.
      • MERCURY.
  • SALLY PHILLIPS' CHOICE NO.3

    • Ruggero Leoncavallo

      Pagliacci: Intermezzo

      Orchestra: Berliner Philharmoniker. Conductor: Herbert von Karajan.
      • DG.
  • Jean‐Philippe Rameau

    Les Paladins - orchestral suite, Air tres gay

    Orchestra: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Conductor: Gustav Leonhardt.
    • Rameau: Suite Les Paladins: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Leonhardt.
    • Philips.
  • Music in Time: Classical

    • Ludwig van Beethoven

      8 Variations in C major on a romance from Gretry’s Richard Coeur de Lion

      Performer: Ronald Brautigam.
      • BIS.
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Danse Napolitaine (Swan Lake, Act III)

    Orchestra: Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. Conductor: Charles Dutoit.
    • DECCA.
  • PROMS ARTIST OF THE DAY: TRULS MORK

    • Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky

      Cello Sonata No.1

      Performer: Truls Mørk. Performer: Jean‐Yves Thibaudet.
      • VIRGIN.

By Association

Answer: Mozart and Michael Nyman

The music played:

Nyman
In re Don Giovanni
Michael Nyman Band
Michael Nyman (director)
VENTURE

Broadcast

  • Thu 25 Aug 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.