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Thursday - Rob Cowan with Samantha Bond

With Rob Cowan. My Favourite Gypsy-Style Showpieces; Music in Time: Stravinsky: Firebird Suite; Artists of the Week: Staatskapelle Dresden, playing Vivaldi: Violin Concerto, RV277.

9am
My favourite... Gypsy-style showpieces
Gypsy music has inspired generations of composers to write some of their fieriest and most appealing lighter, and sometimes not-so-light, music. Rob's selection ranges from authentic gypsy tunes played by the great Romanian violinist Grigoras Dinicu (and an Enescu Rhapsody that was inspired by them) to Brahms Zigeunerlieder and Strauss's effervescent Gypsy Baron overture.

9.30am
Take part in today's musical challenge: identify a piece of music played backwards.

10am
Rob's guest is the celebrated actress Samantha Bond, one of our most versatile actresses. Born into an acting family, her great uncle was a music hall performer and her father was in The Onedin Line, Samantha is famous for her appearances as Lady Rosalind Painswick in the worldwide hit Downton Abbey and the role of Auntie Angela in the comedy series Outnumbered. Her notable stage and screen appearances also include Juliet in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet with Kenneth Branagh, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels with Robert Lindsay, and Miss Moneypenny to Pierce Brosnan's James Bond. Through the week, Samantha shares her favourite pieces of classical music with Rob.

10.30am
Music in Time: Modern
Rob places Music in Time. Stravinsky's "The Firebird" was his first ballet score, and his first collaboration with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. Stravinsky used elements of folk music and dazzling orchestration to conjure up a Russian fairy-tale world. The huge success of the premiere in 1910 brought him worldwide fame, and soon afterwards he produced a version of the ballet that could be performed in concert - the Firebird Suite.

11am
Artist of the Week: Staatskapelle Dresden
The Staatskapelle Dresden visits the Proms this week with Principal Conductor, Christian Thielemann. With a roll-call of past directors that has included Schütz, Weber and Wagner, the orchestra is one of Europe's musical glories, its sound warm yet transparent, full-bodied and dynamic. Rob chooses a diverse and distinctive roster of recordings from Vittorio Negri in Vivaldi to Herbert Blomstedt in Beethoven and Otmar Suitner in Tchaikovsky.

Vivaldi
Concerto in E minor, RV.277, "ll Favorito"
Arthur Grumiaux (violin)
Staatskapelle Dresden
Vittorio Negri (conductor).

3 hours

Music Played

  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

    Flight of the Bumble Bee (The Tale of Tsar Saltan)

    Orchestra: Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Neville Marriner.
    • EMI.
  • Johann David Heinichen

    Dresden Concerto in F major, S 235

    Ensemble: Musica Antiqua Köln. Director: Reinhard Goebel.
    • DG.
  • Johannes Brahms

    Zigeunerlieder, Op.103: Brauner Bursche fuhrt zum Tanze

    Performer: Hertha Klust. Singer: Maureen Forrester.
    • AUDITE.
  • Johannes Brahms

    Zigeunerlieder, Op.103: Roslein dreie in der Reihe bluhn so rot

    Performer: Hertha Klust. Singer: Maureen Forrester.
    • AUDITE.
  • Bohuslav Martinů

    In the Magic Bag

    Orchestra: Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Neeme Järvi.
    • Chandos.
  • Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka

    Overture in D major

    Orchestra: 鶹Լ Philharmonic. Conductor: Vassily Sinaisky.
    • CHANDOS.
  • Heinrich Isaac

    Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen

    Singer: Lieven Termont. Choir: Capilla Flamenca.
    • Naxos.
  • Albert Roussel

    Divertissement for Piano and Wind Quintet, Op.6

    Performer: Jet Röling. Performer: Paul Verhey. Performer: Hans Roerade. Performer: Frank van den Brink. Performer: Herman Jeurissen. Performer: Jos de Lange.
    • BRILLIANT CLASSICS.
  • Henry Purcell

    Come Ye Sons of Art, away (Chorus & Sound the Trumpet)

    Singer: James Bowman. Singer: Michael Chance. Choir: Choir of New College Oxford. Orchestra: King's Consort. Conductor: Robert King.
    • HYPERION.
  • Giacomo Puccini

    Un bel di vedremo (Madame Butterfly)

    Singer: Victoria de los Ángeles. Orchestra: The Rome Opera Orchestra. Conductor: Gabriele Santini.
    • WARNER.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    St Matthew Passion, BWV224: Kommt, ihr Tochter

    Choir: Monteverdi Choir. Choir: London Oratory Junior Choir. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
    • Bach: St Matthew Passion: Monteverdi Choir/English Baroque Soloists/Gardiner.
    • Archiv.
    • 1.
  • Franz Liszt

    Mephisto Waltz no.2 S.515

    Performer: Leif Ove Andsnes.
    • EMI.
  • Igor Stravinsky

    The Firebird Suite (1910)

    Orchestra: 鶹Լ Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Pierre Boulez.
    • SONY CLASSICAL.
  • Igor Stravinsky

    Firebird Suite (1945 version): Final Hymn

    Orchestra: Columbia Symphony Orchestra.
    • Sony.
  • Antonio Vivaldi

    Concerto in E minor 'Il Favorito', RV277

    Performer: Arthur Grumiaux. Orchestra: Staatskapelle Dresden. Conductor: Vittorio Negri.
    • PHILIPS.
  • Richard Strauss

    Macbeth, Op.23

    Orchestra: Staatskapelle Dresden. Conductor: Rudolf Kempe.
    • Warner Classics.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Divertimento in D major, K.136

    Ensemble: Van Kuijk Quartet.
    • ALPHA.
  • Carl Maria von Weber

    Rondo Brillant in E flat major Op.62 'La Gaîté'

    Performer: Hamish Milne.
    • CRD.

Recording Rewind

The music played:

ʳܰ 
Come ye sons of Art, away: Sound the Trumpet
James Bowman and Michael Chance (countertenors) 
Choir of New College, Oxford 
King's Consort 
Robert King (director)
HYPERION

Broadcast

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