Episodes
Cerys Matthews takes us on a personal guided tour of the musical world, taking in Bellini and Blind Snooks Eaglin, Max Richter and the Rhos Male Voice Choir, with poetry too from Rumi, Dylan Thomas and W B Yeats.
Published 03/31/18
Conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier chooses music from Paris in the Belle Époque as part of "Debussy's Paris" marking the 100th anniversary of the death of Debussy this weekend. His choices include music by Maurice Ravel, Paul Dukas, Florent Schmitt, Jacques Offenbach, Camille Saint-Saens, Lili Boulanger, and Claude Debussy.
1.30-1.40 Debussy's Paris 4: "The Paris Expositions and Art Nouveau"
Georgia Mann continues her journey through fin-de-siècle Paris at the Eiffel Tower and the Grand Palais...
Published 03/24/18
Rosalind Plowright introduces the music that has been most influential on her life and operatic career. Including John Ogdon playing Beethoven, Maria Callas singing Puccini and Bernhard Klee conducting Mahler.
Published 03/17/18
Baritone Roderick Williams chooses music concerned with different modes of transport, including works by Schubert, Wagner, Stanford, Liszt, Honegger, Vaughan Williams and John Adams.
Published 02/10/18
Clarinettist Julian Bliss, who plays both classical and jazz clarinet, chooses pieces that show the influence of jazz on classical music. With compositions by Gershwin, Bartok, Bernstein, Copland and Stravinsky, who once agreed to write an 'easy-listening' piece for the Paul Whiteman band.
Published 02/03/18
To mark Australia Day on 26th January, Artistic Director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra Richard Tognetti chooses some of his favourite pieces and performers, including works by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Grainger, Lutoslawski, Peter Sculthorpe and Brett Dean.
Published 01/27/18
The composer, pianist and producer Max Richter introduces some of the music that has inspired him.
Published 01/26/18
The trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth with her personal choices, including music that inspired her when she was growing up in Norway.
Published 01/20/18
Baritone Sir Thomas Allen shares some of his favourite musical moments: works by Beethoven, Wagner and Humperdinck; treasured voices such as Nicolai Ghiaurov in Verdi's Don Carlo and Kenneth McKellar in Handel's Messiah; and festive treats, including Finzi's Christmas Scene, In Terra Pax.
Published 12/23/17
Soprano Ailish Tynan explores the effect different languages have on songs and vocal works. Ailish feels that words are the foundation blocks to unlocking a song, and explores the fascinating way different languages (English, French, German) very often dictate the style of a song or vocal work. Her music choices include Reynaldo Hahn's Bach-flavoured A Chloris, the Irish folk-song The Last Rose of Summer, Handel's Messiah and the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, as well as works by...
Published 12/09/17
Sakari Oramo, Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, introduces a selection of music from his home country of Finland. His choices include piano music by the great symphonist Sibelius, music for orchestra and birds by Rautavaara, early choral music, a fine symphony by the little-known composer Ernst Mielck, and Songs from the Sea by Sallinen.
Published 12/02/17
Soprano Ailish Tynan shares great moments in opera, including music by Handel, Mozart, Humperdinck, Wagner, Richard Strauss, Janacek and Benjamin Britten.
Published 11/25/17
As part of the BBC Opera Season, one of the greatest singers of his generation, bass Robert Lloyd charts the cultural, social and technological changes of the opera stage through the music he has performed and experienced over the past 50 years.
Published 11/11/17
In a special show in front of a live audience at Wellcome Collection, star soprano Lesley Garrett presents music that brings back memories for her - from the people, places and events that have shaped her life and career.
Part of Why Music? The Key to Memory, a weekend of live events, concerts and discussions exploring the implications of music's unique capacity to be remembered, produced by Radio 3 in partnership with Wellcome Collection.
Published 11/06/17
In the second of two programmes Rachel Podger, described by The Sunday Times as "Queen of the Baroque violin", shares the music that has helped to define her musical personality - much of it encountered during her childhood years in Kassel. Rachel's choices range from Tallis to Stravinsky via Monteverdi, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and Vaughan Williams, and not forgetting her beloved Bach, of whose music she says "I don't think a day goes by when I don't play some or listen to some'. She talks...
Published 11/04/17
In the first of two programmes, Rachel Podger, "queen of the Baroque violin", introduces some of the music that inspires her.
Published 10/28/17
As part of the BBC's autumn Opera Season, Danielle de Niese, hailed as "opera's coolest soprano" by New York Times Magazine presents a personal selection of the music closest to her heart.
Published 09/30/17
Rob's selection this week includes music by Bartok, Verdi, Prokofiev and Monteverdi performed by Janos Starker, Margaret Price and Paul McCreesh.
Published 09/02/17
Chi-chi Nwanoku profiles black composers and performers down the centuries, with their friends and contemporaries.
Published 08/26/17
Rob presents works by Mozart, Saint-Saens, Wagner and Dvorak from performers including Arturo Toscanini, Christian Zacharias, David Oistrakh and Il Giardino Armonico.
Published 08/19/17
Pianist James Rhodes continues his series of three consecutive Saturday Classics, sharing the music, recordings and musicians he's most passionate about.
Today's show includes Teodor Currentzis, the Russian-Greek conductor who once claimed 'I will save Classical Music', in Stravinsky and Shostakovich, chamber music by Schubert and Tchaikovsky, and the iconic Herbert Von Karajan with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Bruckner.
Published 07/22/17
Pianist James Rhodes is back with the first of three consecutive Saturday Classics, choosing the music, recordings and musicians he's most passionate about.
Today's show includes the iconic pianists Martha Argerich, Vladimir Horowitz, and Mikhail Pletnev, plus violinist James Ehnes in Bach and Mendelssohn, and Mariss Jansons conducting Wagner.
Published 07/15/17
James Rhodes has been obsessed with the iconic Canadian pianist Glenn Gould for as long as he can remember. Ahead of his Sunday Feature tomorrow, this afternoon he selects his pick of Gould's idiosyncratic and often controversial recordings - from his distinctive Bach, to Beethoven with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, his own transcription of the Meistersingers Overture, and Prokofiev's 7th Piano Sonata, which the New York Times described as 'an explosive burst of rock and roll with a...
Published 06/24/17
Rob Cowan with music by Richard Strauss, Debussy, Verdi and Copland from performers including Mirella Freni, Gérard Souzay and Maurizio Pollini.
Published 05/27/17