SATURDAY 27 JANUARY 2024

SAT 01:00 Composed (m001lc4n)
Composed with Devonté Hynes

OPERA: Celebrating the voice, the stories and the drama

Devonté Hynes explores the powerful, evolving sounds of classical music, with playlists drawn from across the musical spectrum.

This episode shines a spotlight on the voice and 20th and 21st-century composers, with a trip to the opera house.

The selection includes Missy MazolI, John Adams, Thomas Adès, David McAlmont and Suzanne Vega.

01 00:01:17 John Adams
Doctor Atomic: Batter My Heart
Singer: Gerald Finley
Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Duration 00:07:34

02 00:09:22 Francis Poulenc
Dialogues des Carmélites: N'allez pas croire que ce fauteuil soit un privilège
Singer: Sally Matthews
Singer: Deborah Polaski
Orchestra: The ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Duration 00:02:41

03 00:12:03 Missy Mazzoli
You Are The Dust
Lyricist: Royce Vavrek
Singer: Emily D'Angelo
Orchestra: das freie orchester Berlin
Duration 00:03:43

04 00:15:46 H. Leslie Adams
For You There Is No Song
Performer: David Korevaar
Lyricist: Edna St. Vincent Millay
Singer: Odekhiren Amaize
Duration 00:02:08

05 00:17:54 Michael Nyman & David McAlmont (artist)
In Laos
Performer: Michael Nyman & David McAlmont
Duration 00:06:26

06 00:25:13 Matthew Aucoin
Gallup (Na'nízhoozhí): IV. Afterparty
Lyricist: Jake Skeets
Singer: Davóne Tines
Orchestra: Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Duration 00:02:35

07 00:27:48 Dorothy Rudd Moore
Dream Variation
Performer: Kermit Moore
Lyricist: Langston Hughes
Singer: Hilda Harris
Duration 00:01:29

08 00:30:28 Claude Debussy
Pelléas et Mélisande: Je ne pourrai plus sortir de cette forêt
Singer: José van Dam
Singer: Maria Ewing
Orchestra: The Vienna Philharmonic
Duration 00:03:07

09 00:33:35 Kaija Saariaho
La Passion de Simone: Simone, grande soeur - Tu as choisi de porter ta croix
Singer: Dawn Upshaw
Orchestra: Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Choir: Tapiolan Kamarikuoro
Duration 00:03:05

10 00:37:41 Olivier Messiaen
Saint François d'Assise: Act 1, Scene 3: J'ai peur, sur la route
Singer: José van Dam
Orchestra: Hallé
Duration 00:06:25

11 00:44:06 György Ligeti
Kállai kettős. II: Eb fél, kutya fél
Choir: London Voices
Duration 00:01:28

12 00:46:38 Sir George Benjamin
Part Two, Scene X: Agnès and the Boy
Singer: Barbara Hannigan
Singer: Bejun Mehta
Orchestra: Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Duration 00:05:16

13 00:51:54 Thomas Adès
Berceuse from The Exterminating Angel
Performer: Kirill Gerstein
Duration 00:05:05

14 00:57:24 Suzanne Vega (artist)
Fifty-Fifty Chance
Performer: Suzanne Vega
Duration 00:02:36


SAT 02:00 Gameplay with Baby Queen (m0012spn)
Inspiring soundtracks to fill you with courage

Baby Queen mixes the best gaming soundtracks to help you face your fears head-on, featuring tracks from Dusk, Great Ace Attorney and Ratchet & Clank.

Join the Gameplay community at The Student Room to share stories about your favourite gaming soundtracks. Search The Student Room x Gameplay to be part of the conversation.

01 Darren Korb (artist)
Hades - House of Hades
Performer: Darren Korb
Duration 00:04:49

02 00:04:54 Disasterpeace (artist)
FEZ - Flow
Performer: Disasterpeace
Duration 00:03:57

03 00:08:51 Andrew Hulshult (artist)
Dusk - Tension Ascension
Performer: Andrew Hulshult
Duration 00:03:30

04 00:12:24 Peter McConnell (artist)
Psychonauts 2 - Mal-BIG-Ula
Performer: Peter McConnell
Duration 00:02:58

05 00:15:22 Mili (artist)
Ender Lilies - Harmonious
Performer: Mili
Duration 00:03:29

06 00:18:51 David Fenn (artist)
Death's Door - Secrets and Silent Servers
Performer: David Fenn
Duration 00:05:36

07 00:24:26 Pedro Bronfman (artist)
Far Cry 6 - Fields of Red
Performer: Pedro Bronfman
Duration 00:04:00

08 00:28:26 Mark Mothersbaugh (artist)
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart - Culmination at Corson V
Performer: Mark Mothersbaugh
Duration 00:06:11

09 00:34:32 Alexey Omelchuk (artist)
Metro Exodus - Dawn of Hope
Performer: Alexey Omelchuk
Duration 00:03:29

10 00:38:00 J.D. Spears (artist)
Chivalry 2 - The True King
Performer: J.D. Spears
Duration 00:01:51

11 00:39:52 Dan Salvato (artist)
Doki Doki Literature Club - Play With Me
Performer: Dan Salvato
Duration 00:02:46

12 00:42:38 Yasumasa Kitagawa (artist)
The Great Ace Attorney - Pursuit: A Great Turnaround
Performer: Yasumasa Kitagawa
Duration 00:03:20

13 00:45:58 Yugo Kanno (artist)
Nioh - Main Theme
Performer: Yugo Kanno
Duration 00:04:20

14 00:50:18 Trent Moriarty (artist)
The Forgotten City - Remembrance of Stars
Performer: Trent Moriarty
Duration 00:03:30

15 00:53:48 Yuzo Koshiro (artist)
Streets of Rage 4 - Main Theme
Performer: Yuzo Koshiro
Duration 00:06:12


SAT 03:00 Through the Night (m001vdrb)
Eos Quartet

The first prize winners of the Swiss Chamber Music Festival 2021 perform Lombardini Sirmen, Alsu Nigmatullina and Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet. Presented by John Shea.

03:01 AM
Maddalena Laura Lombardini Sirmen (1745-1818)
String Quartet no.1 in E flat major, Op.3
Eos Quartet

03:11 AM
Alsu Nigmatullina (1989-)
Crown Shyness for string quartet
Eos Quartet

03:23 AM
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
String Quartet no.14 in D minor, D.810, 'Death and the Maiden'
Eos Quartet

03:59 AM
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Andante from Divertimento in D major, K.136
Eos Quartet

04:03 AM
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Symphony no 9 (D.944) in C major "The Great"
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton (conductor)

04:55 AM
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Sehnsucht ('Longing') (D.636) - 2nd setting
Christoph Pregardien (tenor), Andreas Staier (pianoforte)

05:01 AM
Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki (1665-1734)
Laetatus sum for 4 voices, 2 violins, 2 trumpets and organ
Olga Pasiecznik (soprano), Henning Voss (counter tenor), Wojciech Parchem (tenor), Miroslaw Borczynski (bass), Sine Nomine Chamber Choir, Concerto Polacco Baroque Orchestra, Marek Toporowski (director)

05:06 AM
Dora Pejacevic (1885-1923)
Four piano pieces: Barkarola; Song without words (Op.5); Butterfly (Op.6); Impromptu (Op.9)
Ida Gamulin (piano)

05:16 AM
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Première rapsodie arr. for clarinet and orchestra
Kari Kriikku (clarinet), Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jukka-Pekka Saraste (conductor)

05:25 AM
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704)
Sonata in C minor for violin and bass continuo
Salzburger Hofmusik, Wolfgang Brunner (director)

05:37 AM
Percy Grainger (1882-1961)
Hill-Song No 1
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Geoffrey Simon (conductor)

05:51 AM
Benedict Anton Aufschnaiter (1665-1742)
Menuett, Gavotta and Menuett from Serenade No.3
L'Orfeo Baroque Orchestra, Michi Gaigg (director)




SAT 07:00 Breakfast (m001vmfh)
Start your weekend the Radio 3 way, with Saturday Breakfast

Elizabeth Alker with a Breakfast melange of classical music, folk, found sounds and the odd Unclassified track. Start your weekend right.


SAT 09:00 Record Review (m001vmfk)
Mozart String Quintet No.3 in C in Building a Library with Roger Parker and Andrew McGregor

Andrew McGregor with the best new recordings of classical music.

9.30 am
Violinist Tasmin Little brings her selection of exciting new releases to the studio and shares her On Repeat track: music she has been listening to again and again.

10.30 am
Building a Library

Roger Parker chooses his favourite recording of Mozart's String Quintet No.3 in C major.

Mozart reaches a high peak of his genius in this quintet for strings. He and his friends played his quintets for fun, but what happened after that remains mysterious. Unlike his piano concertos which were quickly sold, the quintets were hardly snapped up by the amateurs, partly because of their technical difficulty. He was eventually forced to sell them to his publishers for next to nothing. The poignant slow movement is pure Mozart and the finale is jubilant and life-enhancing.

11.20 am
Record of the Week: Andrew’s top pick.

Send us your On Repeat recommendations at recordreview@bbc.co.uk or tweet us @BBCRadio3


SAT 11:45 Music Matters (m001vlnp)
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Alice Sara Ott, Bryce Dessner

Tom Service meets French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet during his recital tour where he performs both books of Debussy’s Préludes. His 1996 recording of the pieces has just been re-released on vinyl with artwork created by his friend Vivienne Westwood, shortly before she died. Jean-Yves talks to Tom about the need to collaborate, his love of Debussy, Gershwin and Bill Evans, and why challenging conventions and being yourself as an artist are the keys to success and happiness. He also shares his excitement about an upcoming multisensory performance of Alexander Scriabin’s 1910 tone poem 'Prometheus, The Poem of Fire' - a collaboration with Cartier in-house perfumer Mathilde Laurent, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen and San Francisco Symphony which involves not only light and colour in addition to the music, but scent too.

Tom talks to pianist Alice Sara Ott and composer Bryce Dessner about a new piano concerto he's written for her, which receives its UK premiere in February. Inspired by Alice’s playing, the piece is also dedicated to Bryce’s sister Jessica, a dancer and choreographer who has shaped his musical life. Alice talks about her love of Bryce’s music and the challenges of getting inside a new piece. Bryce discusses his approach to the concerto, the power of acoustic music and how his work as a composer for the concert hall relates to his life as guitarist and writer in the band The National.


SAT 12:30 This Classical Life (m001n8pn)
Jess Gillam with... Johan Dalene

Jess Gillam meets Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene to swap some of their favourite music.

At 23 years old, Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene is already the winner of several awards, including the prestigious Carl Nielsen Competition in 2019, the Gramophone Young Artist of the Year Award in 2022, and a Swedish Grammy in 2023. His music choices include a squelchy bassline from Thundercat, a Swedish Eurovision classic, and a virtuosic violin concerto that’s close to his heart. Jess's choices include Bernstein conducting a favourite Mozart symphony, and music from the saxophonist Branford Marsalis.

PLAYLIST:

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN – Sonata for Violin and Piano No 8 in G major, Op 30 No 3 (3rd mvt) [Gidon Kremer, Martha Argerich]
BRANFORD MARSALIS – A Thousand Autumns [Branford Marsalis Quartet]
TOMMY KÖRBERG - Stad i ljus (City in Light)
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART – Symphony No 40 in G minor, K 550 (1st mvt) [Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein]
THUNDERCAT – Them Changes
CARL NIELSEN – Violin Concerto Op 33 (IIb – Rondo: Allegretto Scherzando) [Arve Tellefsen, Yehudi Menuhin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]
YEAH YEAH YEAHS FT. PERFUME GENIUS – Spitting Off the Edge of the World
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY – The Nutcracker, Op 71: Miniature Overture [Simon Rattle, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra]


SAT 13:00 Inside Music (m001vmfm)
Pianist James Baillieu with melodies that touch the heart

James Baillieu is a song and chamber music pianist, and a senior professor at the Royal Academy of Music. His choices today include some of the voices and pianists who made him fall in love with art song, such as the golden voice of soprano Mimi Coertse and the sensitive playing of pianist Gerald Moore.

James shares several pieces from South Africa, where he grew up, one of which features the sound of the uhadi, a instrument fashioned from the dehydrated skin of a calabash gourd.

He also gives insights into the difficulties of yodelling, how to imitate an orchestra on the piano, and what makes a piece sound tropical.

A series in which each week a musician explores a selection of music - from the inside.

A Tandem Production for BBC Radio 3


SAT 15:00 Sound of Cinema (m001vmfp)
Kris Bowers

The American composer of TV's Bridgerton, The Green Book, Chevalier and King Richard, Kris Bowers, joins Matthew Sweet to talk about his music for the remake of The Color Purple and Origin in a look back on his screen career to date.


SAT 16:00 Music Planet (m001vmfr)
Celtic Connections live from Glasgow

Kathryn Tickell is live from Glasgow with studio sessions from artists in this year’s Celtic Connections Festival. The annual festival brings together over two thousand artists from the Celtic world and beyond in three hundred events over 18 days. In the second of two programmes from BBC Scotland’s music studio, a selection of Festival’s leading artists come together is special performances for Music Planet – including Ævestaden, a Norwegian-Swedish trio who blend traditional instruments with electronics in songs which bring Scandinavian folklore into the modern age. Daimh also plays live, a band based in the Scottish Highlands, whose members come from across Scotland and also Canada, and the line-up is completed by Scottish harpist Catriona McKay.


SAT 17:00 J to Z (m001dftn)
New Worlds

Kevin Le Gendre presents a special edition of J to Z exploring jazz, Afrofuturism and beyond with special guest Nicole Mitchell. Playing cosmic tracks by Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane and others, Kevin investigates why so many jazz musicians have used music to travel the space ways, embracing futuristic sounds and alternate realities.

Later in the programme, Nicole, a visionary flautist and composer known for her tributes to science fiction writer Octavia Butler, shares some of her own favourite Afrofuturist tracks. They include a healing, meditative work by Nala Sinephro, music by Moor Mother that Nicole sees as "pleasure activism", and a radical statement from Jimi Hendrix who “took the blues to outer space".

Elsewhere, we hear the voices of other prominent Afrofuturists, including bassist William Parker, trumpeter Theo Croker, Octavia Butler (whose groundbreaking Afrofuturist novel Parable of the Sower was published 30 years ago this year) and Sun Ra himself.

Produced by Thomas Rees & Makeda Krish for Somethin’ Else

01 00:00:09 Sun Ra Arkestra (artist)
Space Is The Place
Performer: Sun Ra Arkestra
Duration 00:04:21

02 00:06:48 Sons of Kemet (artist)
The Long Night of Octavia Butler
Performer: Sons of Kemet
Duration 00:04:35

03 00:13:01 William Parker (artist)
Gilmore's Hat
Performer: William Parker
Performer: Hamid Drake
Duration 00:07:08

04 00:21:12 Alice Coltrane (artist)
Galaxy In Turiya
Performer: Alice Coltrane
Duration 00:09:50

05 00:33:28 Theo Croker (artist)
LOVE QUANTUM (Soliloquy)
Performer: Theo Croker
Duration 00:02:47

06 00:36:58 Seed (artist)
The Dreamkeeper
Performer: Seed
Featured Artist: Cherise Adams‐Burnett
Duration 00:06:59

07 00:44:37 McCoy Tyner (artist)
Song of the New World
Performer: McCoy Tyner
Duration 00:06:44

08 00:52:36 Nicole Mitchell (artist)
Dance of Many Hands
Performer: Nicole Mitchell
Duration 00:05:36

09 00:58:40 Nala Sinephro (artist)
Space 5
Performer: Nala Sinephro
Duration 00:03:50

10 01:02:52 Moor Mother (artist)
Golden Lady
Performer: Moor Mother
Featured Artist: Melanie Charles
Duration 00:01:46

11 01:07:26 Renée Baker (artist)
My Mysterious Cloud
Performer: Renée Baker
Performer: Chicago Modern Orchestra Project
Duration 00:02:36

12 01:10:08 Jovia Armstrong (artist)
Breathe
Performer: Jovia Armstrong
Performer: Eunoia Society
Duration 00:03:35

13 01:13:43 Tomeka Reid (artist)
Imagist Theme (revised)
Performer: Tomeka Reid
Duration 00:03:10

14 01:17:14 Jimi Hendrix (artist)
Star Spangled Banner
Performer: Jimi Hendrix
Duration 00:03:44

15 01:23:02 Don Cherry (artist)
Utopia and Visions
Performer: Don Cherry
Performer: Tommy Koverhult
Performer: Maffy Falay
Performer: Okay Temiz
Performer: Tage Siven
Performer: Tommy Goldman
Duration 00:05:35


SAT 18:30 Opera on 3 (m001vmft)
Mozart's Don Giovanni

This evening's Opera on 3 marks both Mozart's birthday, born January 27th 1756, and the 50th anniversary this year of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with a remarkable recording from 1996 of one of Mozart's most celebrated works, Don Giovanni, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.
Bo Skovhus leads the stellar cast as the legendary bad boy, Don Giovanni, who hopes his womanising ways can continue unchecked - that is until he meets the ghost of the man he kills.

Kate Molleson introduces this performance in conversation with soprano Christine Brewer, who sings the role of Donna Anna, and she shares her memories of working with Mackerras.

Don Giovanni ..... Bo Skovhus (baritone)
Leporello ..... Alessandro Corbelli (baritone)
Donna Anna ..... Christine Brewer (soprano)
Don Ottavio ..... Jerry Hadley (tenor)
Donna Elvira ..... Felicity Lott (soprano)
Zerlina ..... Nuccia Focile (soprano)
Il Commendatore / Masetto ..... Umberto Chiummo (bass)
Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus
Sir Charles Mackerras, conductor


SAT 22:00 New Music Show (m001vmfw)
Kate Molleson introduces exclusive new music recordings and new releases from the new music and experimental music scene including a new Cello Concerto, titled "Mna" by Deirdre Gribbin and commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for cellist Natalie Clein and Ulster Orchestra with conductor David Brophy. As well as music from Donaueschingen 2023 by Younghi Pagh-Paan, and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2023 by Meriç Artaç.

SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2024

SUN 00:00 Freeness (m001vmfy)
Waves and Flames

Corey Mwamba shares fiery free jazz and improvised music that flows in waves, including an excerpt from a forthcoming album by Han-earl Park, Yorgos Dimitriadis and Camila Nebbia. To be released later this year, Gonggong 225088 captures the trio in a live performance recorded in Berlin.

Meanwhile, multilayered polyrhythms are contrasted with rapid crosscutting tricks and beat juggling in a session from Ignaz Schick (turntables) and Oliver Steidle (drums) entitled ILOG3. And there’s the chance to hear the fluid improvisation from Sayozoku’s new album, Childhood In The Cloud.

Elsewhere in the show, Welsh guitarist Ash Cooke shares recommendations of rising improvising talent from Cymru, including a track from the Exotic Connections & Other Such Stuff Vol 2 compilation, which documents the free jazz scene in Wales.

Produced by Silvia Malnati
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio


SUN 01:00 Through the Night (m001vmg0)
Il Giuramento by Saverio Mercadante

WDR Radio Orchestra and Chorus, conductor Carlo Montanaro and soloists in a concert performance of Mercadante's Il Giuramento. John Shea presents.

01:01 AM
Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870), Gaetano Rossi (librettist)
Il Giuramento - Act 1
Roberta Mantegna (soprano), Jean-Francois Borras (tenor), German E. Alccntara (baritone), Teresa Iervolino (mezzo soprano), Ivana Rusko (soprano), John Heuzenroeder (tenor), WDR Chorus, Tilman Michael (director), WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Carlo Montanaro (conductor)

01:55 AM
Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870), Gaetano Rossi (librettist)
Il Giuramento - Act 2
Roberta Mantegna (soprano), Jean-Francois Borras (tenor), German E. Alcantara (baritone), Teresa Iervolino (mezzo soprano), Ivana Rusko (soprano), John Heuzenroeder (tenor), WDR Chorus, Tilman Michael (director), WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Carlo Montanaro (conductor)

02:30 AM
Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870), Gaetano Rossi (librettist)
Il Giuramento Act 3
Roberta Mantegna (soprano), Jean-Francois Borras (tenor), German E. Alccntara (baritone), Teresa Iervolino (mezzo soprano), Ivana Rusko (soprano), John Heuzenroeder (tenor), WDR Chorus, Tilman Michael (director), WDR Radio Orchestra, Cologne, Carlo Montanaro (conductor)

02:49 AM
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Keyboard Sonata in D major, Hob.XVI/37
Andreas Staier (fortepiano)

03:01 AM
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Quartet for strings (Op.130) in B flat major vers. standard
Vertavo String Quartet

03:43 AM
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Fantasiestucke, Op 12
Kevin Kenner (piano)

04:08 AM
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Pavane pour une infante defunte
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Jorge Mester (conductor)

04:16 AM
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704)
Kyrie from Missa Sancti Henrici (1701)
James Griffett (tenor), Michael Schopper (bass), Regensburger Domspatzen, Collegium Aureum, Herbert Metzger (organ), Georg Ratzinger (conductor)

04:24 AM
Jacques Buus (c.1500-1565)
Ricercare
Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet

04:31 AM
Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819-1872)
Introduction to Act III & Dances of the Highlanders from 'Halka'
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lukasz Borowicz (conductor)

04:39 AM
Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)
Danse macabre, Op 40
Ouellet-Murray Duo (duo)

04:46 AM
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Abendempfindung K523
Elly Ameling (soprano), Jorg Demus (piano)

04:51 AM
Petronio Franceschini (1650-1680)
Sonata for 2 trumpets, strings & basso continuo in D major
Yordan Kojuharov (trumpet), Petar Ivanov (trumpet), Teodor Moussev (organ), Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Yordan Dafov (conductor)

05:01 AM
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
Prague Waltzes B.99
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stefan Robl (conductor)

05:09 AM
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Ballade No 1 in G minor, Op 23
Shura Cherkassky (piano)

05:18 AM
Henk Badings (1907-1987)
Canamus, amici, canamus; Finnigan's wake
Netherlands Chamber Choir, Uwe Gronostay (conductor)

05:26 AM
Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764)
Badinage & Chaconne from Deuxieme Recreation de musique d'une execution facile
Les Ambassadeurs, Alexis Kossenko (director)

05:35 AM
Ion Dumitrescu (1913-1996)
Symphonic Prelude
Romanian Youth Orchestra, Cristian Mandeal (conductor)

05:45 AM
Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829)
6 Variations for violin and guitar, Op 81
Laura Vadjon (violin), Romana Matanovac (guitar)

05:53 AM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Magnificat in D major BWV.243
Lydia Teuscher (soprano), Maria Espada (soprano), Marie-Claude Chappuis (mezzo soprano), Kenneth Tarver (tenor), Florian Boesch (baritone), Bavarian Radio Choir, Peter Dijkstra (director), Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini (conductor)

06:21 AM
Anton Wilhelm Solnitz (c.1708-1753)
Sinfonia in A major, Op 3 no 4
Musica ad Rhenum

06:33 AM
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Symphonic Suite from Porgy and Bess
William Tritt (piano), Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Boris Brott (conductor)


SUN 07:00 Breakfast (m001vm7d)
Classical lie-in

Martin Handley presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show with music that captures the mood of Sunday morning. Email 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk


SUN 09:00 Sunday Morning (m001vm7j)
An enticing classical Sunday mix

Sarah Walker chooses three hours of attractive and uplifting music to complement your morning.

Sarah’s selections range from the sparkling clarity of Scarlatti in a performance from pianist Christian Zacharias, to a 1000 year old antiphon brought to life by the Armonico Consort. And while Alamire revel in Thomas Tallis’ intricate polyphony, Barbara Bonney demonstrates perfect control of a single vocal line in a sumptuous Schubert Lied.

There’s also rich tones and harmonies in a waltz from Brazilian composer Chiquinha Gonzaga, Emmanuel Pahud shines in a Mozart flute quartet, and we embark on orchestral adventures aplenty with contributions from Borodin and Bruckner.

Plus, a sharp-edged nocturnal concerto from Vivaldi is reworked for Milos Karadaglic’s guitar...

A Tandem Production for BBC Radio 3


SUN 12:00 Private Passions (m001vm7l)
Neil Hannon

Neil Hannon is a singer, songwriter and the driving force behind the band The Divine Comedy, which he founded in 1989. Along with hit singles such as National Express, and 12 albums with the band, his music appears in an impressively varied range of settings – including original songs for the recent film Wonka, a chamber opera inspired by Tolstoy for Covent Garden, and the theme tune for the sitcom Father Ted.

Neil talks to Michael Berkeley about growing up in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland with a bishop for a father, writing his first pop song when he was 14, and how, as a self-described "pathetic twerp", he managed to make it in the pop world. His typically wide-ranging musical passions include works by Puccini, Stravinsky, Chopin and Ravel, alongside tracks by Michael Nyman, Kate Bush and Scott Walker.

Producer: Graham Rogers


SUN 13:00 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert (m001vcpt)
Brentano Quartet

Two masterworks from the classical era: Haydn’s 'Bird' Quartet (1781), so-called because of the repeated notes the violin plays at the very opening; coupled with Mozart's The String Quartet in D major, K. 499 (1786), written for his good friend, the publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister.

Live from Wigmore Hall, London
Presented by Hannah French

Haydn: String Quartet in C, Op 33 No 3 'The Bird'
Mozart: String Quartet No 20 in D, K499 'Hoffmeister'

Brentanto Quartet


SUN 14:00 The Early Music Show (m001q72r)
Wroclaw Baroque Ensemble

Wroclaw Baroque Ensemble from Poland perform music by Monteverdi and Zieleński in Czechia at the 2023 Leoš Janáček International Music Festival. The venue for their concert was the beautiful former church of St Wenceslas in the Czech city of Opava, just a few miles from the Polish border.


SUN 15:00 Choral Evensong (m001vczm)
St Paul's Cathedral

Live from St Paul’s Cathedral, London, for the Eve of the Conversion of St Paul.

Introit: Tu es vas electionis (Philips)
Responses: Leighton
Psalm 149 (Stanford)
First Lesson: Isaiah 49 vv.1-13
Canticles: Oriel Service (Judith Bingham)
Second Lesson: Acts 22 vv.3-16
Anthem: Light out of darkness (Elgar)
Hymn: We sing the glorious conquest (King’s Lynn)
Te Deum: Ireland in F
Voluntary: Festival Fanfare (Leighton)

Andrew Carwood (Director of Music)
William Fox (Assistant Director of Music)


SUN 16:00 Jazz Record Requests (m001vm7n)
Jazz for a Sunday afternoon

Alyn Shipton presents jazz records of all styles as requested by you, including music by Keith Jarrett, Peggy Lee, and Tony Kofi.

Get in touch: jrr@bbc.co.uk or use #jazzrecordrequests on social.


SUN 17:00 The Listening Service (m000k26j)
The Musical Universe of Maurice Ravel

Tom Service scopes the musical world of one of his favourite composers, Maurice Ravel.


SUN 17:30 Words and Music (m000llhd)
The Black Sun

John Donne's poetry was read and quoted by Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who led the Los Alamos laboratory which developed the atomic bomb. With the film version of his story gaining award nominations here's another chance to hear a Words and Music first broadcast to mark the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and 9th August 1945. Readers Iain Glen and Kae Alexander (who was born in Kobe in Japan), read work by Japanese writers, including Hiroshima survivors Nakamura On and Sadako Kurihara; poetry by Allen Ginsberg, John Donne, Ukrainian poet and Chernobyl survivor Liubov Sirota and the British writer Susan Wicks. The programme includes extracts from the journalist John Hersey’s Hiroshima, first broadcast on The Third Programme in 1948, an unflinching account of some of the survivors Hersey met. There’s also an excerpt from John Osbourne’s 1956 play Look Back In Anger, capturing the cynicism and sense of dread that reverberated across the world in the years after the Atomic bombings. Musically, Japan is evoked by shakuhachi player Toshimitsu Ishikawa and koto player Kimio Eto, there’s also music by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Electronic pioneer Isao Tomita. You’ll also hear part of Krzysztof Penderecki’s harrowing piece Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, and music from Hildur Gudnadottir’s award-winning score for the television series Chenobyl – plus songs by country duo The Louvin Brothers, pop band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Kate Bush, dealing with the fear and ferment of the Nuclear age.

READINGS:
Ota Yoko, translated by Richard H Minear extract from Hiroshima, City of Doom
Nakamura On, translated Kyoko Selden extract from City in Flames
John Hersey excerpt from Hiroshima
Shoji Tokie translated by Kyoko and Mark Selden Hiroshima is without light a white white city
Allen Ginsberg extract from Plutonian Ode
Seirai Yuicho, translated by Paul Warham extract from Insects
Taruma Yoshikazu translated by Kyoko and Mark Selden Firefly in an orphan's hands
John Hersey excerpt from Hiroshima
Ed Simon extract from Extract from Printed in Utopia: The Renaissance's Radicalism
Susan Wicks Nuclear
William E Stafford At the Bomb Testing Site
Suga Takashi translated by by Kyoko and Mark Selden In the cathedral in the ruins of boundless expanse
W.H Auden extract from September 1, 1939
Debora Greger Ship Burial
Peter Porter Your Attention Please
Liubov Sirota, translated by Leonid Levin and Elisavietta Ritchie extract from Radiophobia
John Osbourne extract from Look Back In Anger
Stuart Evers extract from The Blind Light
Sadako Kurihara, translated by Richard Minear Let Us Be Midwives! An untold story of the atomic bombing

01 00:01:17 Teruyuki Noda
Kokiriko Variations on a Japanese Folk-Tune, for flute & guitar
Performer: Susan Hoeppner
Performer: Rachel Gauk
Duration 00:01:27

02 00:02:05
Ota Yoko, translated by Richard H Minear
Extract from Hiroshima, City of Doom, read by Iain Glen
Duration 00:00:48

03 00:02:53 Krzysztof Penderecki
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
Orchestra: Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Krzysztof Penderecki
Duration 00:02:28

04 00:03:45
Nakamura On, translated Kyoko Selden
Extract from City in Flames, read by Kae Alexander
Duration 00:00:58

05 00:05:26
John Hersey
Excerpt from Hiroshima
Duration 00:00:53

06 00:06:20 Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Stabat mater for soprano, alto, strings & organ in F min, Stabat mater dolorosa
Singer: Andreas Scholl
Singer: Barbara Bonney
Ensemble: Les Talens Lyriques
Conductor: Christophe Rousset
Duration 00:04:10

07 00:06:20 Frédéric Chopin
Nocturne (Op.posth) in C sharp minor arr. misc. for violin & piano
Performer: Midori
Performer: Robert Macdonald
Duration 00:02:26

08 00:10:32
Shoji Tokie translated by Kyoko and Mark Selden
Hiroshima is without light a white white city, read by Kae Alexander and Iain Glen
Duration 00:00:10

09 00:12:44 Claude Debussy
Passapied from Suite Bergamasque
Music Arranger: Isao Tomita
Performer: Isao Tomita
Duration 00:01:15

10 00:12:51
Allen Ginsberg
Extract from Plutonian Ode, read by Iain Glen
Duration 00:00:48

11 00:13:50 Miles Davis (artist)
Bitches Brew
Performer: Miles Davis
Duration 00:01:15

12 00:15:02
Seirai Yuicho, translated by Paul Warham
Extract from Insects, read by Kae Alexander
Duration 00:01:34

13 00:16:00 Träd
Sakura - variations on a Japanese theme for guitar [The cherry blossom tree]
Performer: Alison Smith
Duration 00:02:34

14 00:18:30 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Enola Gay
Performer: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Duration 00:01:47

15 00:20:10 Toshimitsu Ishikawa
Koden Sugomori
Performer: Toshimitsu Ishikawa
Duration 00:00:29

16 00:20:21
Taruma Yoshikazu translated by Kyoko and Mark Selden
Firefly in an orphan’s hands, read by Kae Alexander
Duration 00:00:14

17 00:20:45
John Hersey
Excerpt from Hiroshima
Duration 00:00:47

18 00:21:32 Philip Glass
Mishima
Performer: Nick Shipman
Duration 00:04:05

19 00:25:36
Ed Simon
Extract from Extract from Printed in Utopia: The Renaissance’s Radicalism, read by Iain Glenn
Duration 00:01:30

20 00:27:06 John Taverner
In Nomine a 4 III / Taverner: In Nomine
Music Arranger: Peter Maxwell Davies
Performer: Fretwork
Duration 00:03:13

21 00:30:14 John Adams
'Batter my heart, three-personed God' (from Doctor Atomic)
Singer: Gerald Finley
Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Duration 00:04:57

22 00:35:30 Ravel
Jeux d’eau
Performer: Pierre‐Laurent Aimard
Duration 00:04:11

23 00:35:43
Susan Wicks
Nuclear, read by Kae Alexander
Duration 00:01:25

24 00:39:22
William E Stafford
At the Bomb Testing Site, read by Iain Glen
Duration 00:00:38

25 00:40:15
Suga Takashi translated by by Kyoko and Mark Selden
In the cathedral in the ruins of boundless expanse, read by Kae Alexander
Duration 00:00:18

26 00:40:37 Samuel Barber
Agnus Dei for chorus [& kb ad lib], arr. from Adagio of Quartet for strings
Choir: The Sixteen
Conductor: Harry Christophers
Duration 00:04:26

27 00:42:57
W.H Auden
Extract from September 1, 1939, read by Iain Glen
Duration 00:01:20

28 00:45:35 Laura Cannell
Simultaneous Flight Movement
Performer: Laura Cannell
Duration 00:02:05

29 00:45:51
Debora Greger
Ship Burial, read by Kae Alexander
Duration 00:01:24

30 00:47:35
Peter Porter
Your Attention Please, read by Iain Glen
Duration 00:02:09

31 00:49:43 The Louvin Brothers
The Great Atomic Power
Performer: The Louvin Brothers
Duration 00:02:40

32 00:52:19 Dmitry Shostakovich
Quartet for strings no. 8 (Op.110)in C minor, 2nd movement; Allegro molto
Performer: St. Petersburg String Quartet
Duration 00:02:35

33 00:52:31
Liubov Sirota, translated by Leonid Levin and Elisavietta Ritchie
Extract from Radiophobia, read by Kae Alexander
Duration 00:01:37

34 00:54:55 Hildur Guðnadóttir
Chernobyl - music for the TV series: Vichnaya Pamyat [Memory Eternal]
Performer: Homin Lviv Municipal Choir
Duration 00:04:07

35 00:58:56
John Osbourne
Extract from Look Back In Anger, read by Iain Glen
Duration 00:00:34

36 00:58:56 Laurie Johnson
Bomb Run from Dr Strangelove
Orchestra: The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
Choir: Crouch End Festival Chorus
Conductor: Nic Raine
Duration 00:02:14

37 01:01:45
Stuart Evers
Extract from The Blind Light, read by Ian Glen
Duration 00:01:30

38 01:03:15 Ryuichi Sakamoto
Epilogue
Performer: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Duration 00:03:42

39 01:06:52 Kate Bush
Breathing
Performer: Kate Bush
Duration 00:03:05

40 01:09:53 Träd
Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)
Performer: Kimio Eto
Duration 00:03:25

41 01:10:20
Sadako Kurihara, translated by Richard Minear
Let Us Be Midwives! An untold story of the atomic bombing, read by Kae Alexander
Duration 00:01:32


SUN 18:45 Sunday Feature (m001fdw1)
Briggflatts - A Northern Poetic Odyssey

Rory Stewart travels across Cumbria and Northumbria from an ancient Quaker meeting house in Brigflatts, to a medieval tower on Newcastle city walls, in search of clues in Basil Bunting's life and work, to help understand this neglected masterpiece of twentieth century modernist poetry .

It's a landscape which the former MP for Penrith and the Borders came to know and love, and it's where Bunting's poetic masterpiece is largely set. Bunting called it his ‘acknowledged land’, an area stretching from Scotland to the Humber, which was once the ancient kingdom of Northumbria.

A moment in time during the Dark Ages which saw a flourishing of Northumbrian art and culture, which produced the Lindisfarne Gospels, and was populated by larger than life historical figures like Eric Bloodaxe and Saint Cuthbert.

It’s a complex poem, which is not in the least parochial, taking in the poets travels around the world and his wide learning, and it has much in common with the modernist poetry of Eliot's Waste Land and Pounds Cantos. Briggflatts popularity spear headed a Sixties' north-eastern poetry renaissance, and yet in its homeland its been criticised for not being written in an authentic regional voice.

Rory examines the many contradictions in Bunting's life, the conscientious objector who later served in the RAF, the socialist who had fascist friends, and the principled public man who led an unexamined private life.

But Rory leaves his journey with an acknowledgement of Bunting's exceptional poetic skill and the way in which his life weaves into the life of Northern England with all its complexity and fierce rooted national pride.

Produced by Andrew Carter at BBC Radio Cumbria


SUN 19:30 Drama on 3 (m001vm7r)
Under Milk Woods

To mark the 70th anniversary of the first radio broadcast of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood (25 January 1954), five Welsh writers present short dramatic portraits of their area of Wales in 2024, with Ruth Jones as First Voice. The writers are Joe Dunthorne (Swansea), Manon Steffan Ros (Tywyn), Menna Elfyn (New Quay), Hanan Issa (Cardiff) and Rachel Trezise (the Rhondda). With additional narration by Joe Dunthorne.

Thomas’s Under Milk Wood moves through the fictional town of Llareggub over the course of a single day, from before dawn to after dusk. Our five dramatic portraits follow this chronology, but shift location around Wales. They each take a line from Thomas as their starting point and their spur.

First Voice.....Ruth Jones

Act 1: Swansea by Joe Dunthorne
Caitlin....Sophie Melville
Emlyn....Shaheen Jafargholi
Fiona.....Nadia Wyn Abouayen
Helen.....Tamara Brabon
Mikey.....Antoine Lopez-Norton

Act 2: Tywyn by Manon Steffan Ros
Mrs Satin....Sara Harris-Davies
Gwil the Poet.....Gwion Morris Jones
Delyth Elen.....Lois Meleri Jones
Afanc.....James O'Quinn

Act 3: New Quay by Menna Elfyn
Cai.....Ioan Hefin
Osian.....Ifan Huw Dafydd
Rhiannon.....Eiry Thomas

Act 4: Cardiff by Hanan Issa
Hanan.....Hanan Issa
Diff.....Dean Rehman
Lord Bute.....Colin Paterson

Act 5: The Rhondda by Rachel Trezise
Gracie Rowlands.....Maisie Lee Bryant
Bex.....Sophie Melville
Eric Watkins....Alan David
Amy Jenkins...Tamara Brabon

Production Co-ordinators Eleri Sydney McAuliffe and Lindsay Rees
Sound design by Jonathan Thomas and Catherine Robinson
Directed by Fay Lomas and Emma Harding, BBC Audio Drama Wales


SUN 21:00 Record Review Extra (m001vm7t)
Mozart's Third String Quintet

Hannah French presents a deeper dive into some of the recordings featured in yesterday's Record Review, including the recommended version of the Building a Library work: Mozart's String Quintet No 3 in C major, K 515.


SUN 23:30 Slow Radio (m001vm7w)
Morocco Suite

From the medina of Marrakech to the palmeries in Zagora, join sound recordists Andrea Campisi and Silvia Malnati as they embark upon a roadtrip in sound, leaving the capital city to journey across southeast Morocco. Across four movements of contrasting energies, bound together by the motif of the muezzin’s call to prayer, we listen to an immersive musical suite comprising binaural field recordings and on-location sound.

I. Allegro: In Marrakech medina we take a walk through a maze of streets and stalls before arriving out onto the iconic Jemaa el-Fnaa square. Here, we’re met with the hypnotising sound of pungi flutes and, as the sun sets, of gnawa musicians, jesters and Said Anazoure’s intricate banjo playing.

II. Largo: We leave the city behind to seek refuge in the mountainous region of Ourika. Here, we hear sounds of village life, as well as the distant voices of children reciting the Koran from behind the school’s door.

III. Scherzo: Having crossed the Atlas mountains, we descend towards the Draa Valley and its oasis, tuning in to the sound of the palmeries just outside Zagora. As night falls, crickets take their place alongside the mating calls of cats under the stars.

IV. Finale: We resume our drive, headed for a village outside Aït Benhaddou. A local family invites us to spend the night inside their tigmi, a traditional house, and attend an Ahwach ceremony with the musicians of Ahwach Asfalou.

With special thanks to Hamid Boukhch, Said Anazoure, Ahwach Asfalou (Mme Ijja, Hiba, Iken, Oumaghlif, Bendrisse, Hanafi, Ait houssa, Tabrahimte, Belmadan, Mr Haji, Mr Ifliisse, Almsalla, Belaabass, Benhdouch, Boularia, Ait Bikouch, Khalfi) and Alexa Kruger.

Produced by Andrea Campisi and Silvia Malnati
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3

MONDAY 29 JANUARY 2024

MON 00:00 Classical Fix (m001rywg)
Michelle Dockery and Michael Fox

Linton Stephens tries out a classical playlist on his music-loving guests. This week, Linton is joined by Downton Abbey stars turned music duo Michelle Dockery and Michael Fox.

Classical Fix is a podcast aimed at opening up the world of classical music to anyone who fancies giving it a go. Each week, Linton mixes a bespoke playlist for his guest, who then joins him to share their impressions of their new classical discoveries.

Linton Stephens is a bassoonist with the Chineke! Orchestra and has also performed with the BBC Philharmonic, Halle Orchestra and Opera North, amongst many others.


MON 00:30 Through the Night (m001vm7y)
Dancing in Cologne

Dance music by Roussel and Ravel from the WDR Symphony Orchestra, with Augustin Hadelich the soloist in Sibelius's Violin Concerto. John Shea presents.

12:31 AM
Guillaume Connesson (1970-)
Flammenschrift
WDR Symphony Orchestra, Stephane Deneve (conductor)

12:41 AM
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op 47
Augustin Hadelich (violin), WDR Symphony Orchestra, Stephane Deneve (conductor)

01:15 AM
Albert Roussel (1869-1937)
Bacchus et Ariane (Suite No 2)
WDR Symphony Orchestra, Stephane Deneve (conductor)

01:34 AM
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
La Valse
WDR Symphony Orchestra, Stephane Deneve (conductor)

01:48 AM
Francois Couperin (1668-1733)
Messe pour les couvents (1690)
Marcel Verheggen (organ)

02:06 AM
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Stabat mater for 10 voices, organ & basso continuo in C minor
Danish National Radio Chorus, Soren Christian Vestergaard (organ), Bo Holten (conductor)

02:31 AM
Louise Farrenc (1804-1875)
Symphony no 3 in G minor, Op 36
Bern Chamber Orchestra, Graziella Contratto (conductor)

03:06 AM
Bela Bartok (1881-1945)
8 Improvisations on Hungarian peasant songs for piano (Sz.74) (Op.20)
Grace Francis (piano)

03:18 AM
Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)
String Quartet no 1 in E minor, Op 112
Amar Quartet

03:52 AM
Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016)
Canticum Mariae virginis
Jutland Chamber Choir, Mogens Dahl (director)

04:00 AM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Prelude and Fugue in C sharp, BWV 848
Ivett Gyongyosi (piano)

04:04 AM
Percy Grainger (1882-1961)
The Gum-Suckers' March, No.4 from In a Nutshell suite for orchestra
Symphony Nova Scotia, Georg Tintner (conductor)

04:08 AM
Giovanni Benedetto Platti (1697-1763)
Concerto in G minor for oboe, strings and bass continuo
Hans-Peter Westermann (oboe), Neue Dusseldorfer Hofmusik, Mary Utiger (director)

04:20 AM
Artemy Vedel (1767-1808)
Choral concerto No.5 "I cried unto the Lord With my voice" Psalm 142
Platon Maiborada Academic Choir, Viktor Skoromny (conductor)

04:31 AM
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868),Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968)
Concert transcription of 'Largo al factotum' from Rossini's Barber of Seville
Sol Gabetta (cello), Bertrand Chamayou (piano)

04:37 AM
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
'Misera, dove son!' (scena) and 'Ah! non son'io che parlo' (aria), K369
Rosemary Joshua (soprano), Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Rene Jacobs (conductor)

04:44 AM
Leos Janacek (1854-1928)
Violin Sonata
Erik Heide (violin), Martin Qvist Hansen (piano)

05:01 AM
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Introduction and Allegro appassionato (Op.92)
Ivan Palovic (piano), Radio Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, Ondrej Lenard (conductor)

05:17 AM
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Prelude for guitar no.1 in E minor
Norbert Kraft (guitar)

05:22 AM
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Sept chansons: (La blanche neige [Apollinaire]; A peine defiguree [Paul Eluard]; Par une nuit nouvelle [Eluard]; Tous les droits [Eluard]; Belle et ressemblante [Eluard]; Marie [Apollinaire]; Luire [Eluard]
Swedish Radio Choir, Par Fridberg (conductor)

05:35 AM
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Concerto Grosso in A minor, Op 6 no 4
Sixth Floor Ensemble, Anssi Mattila (conductor)

05:46 AM
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
The Lark Ascending
Pekka Kuusisto (violin), Basel Symphony Orchestra, Ivor Bolton (conductor)

06:02 AM
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Piano Quartet No 1 in C minor, Op 1
Harald Aadland (violin), Nora Taksdal (viola), Audun Sandvik (cello), Christian Ihle Hadland (piano)


MON 06:30 Breakfast (m001vlkd)
Classical music to brighten your morning

Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show with music that captures the mood of the morning.

Email your requests to 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk


MON 09:00 Essential Classics (m001vlkw)
Great classical music for your morning

Georgia Mann plays the best in classical music, with familiar favourites alongside new discoveries and musical surprises.

0930 Playlist starter – listen and send us your ideas for the next step in our musical journey today.

1010 Song of the Day – harnessing the magic of words, music and the human voice.

1045 Playlist reveal – a sequence of music suggested by you in response to our starter today.

1130 Slow Moment – time to take a break for a moment's musical reflection.


MON 12:00 Composer of the Week (m001vll8)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

An Old, Old Story

Kate Molleson explores the multiple legends and lore of Igor Stravinsky, from fables and rituals, to folk tales, myths and religious ceremonies.

Beginning today with the biggest myth of them all: the Rite of Spring. Or, more specifically, the opening night of the ballet of that name, performed by Sergey Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes to Stravinsky’s music. The event was a success de scandale. But the degree to which the fevered reaction was due to Stravinsky’s music is still up for debate.

Either way, the furore suited Stravinsky and Diaghilev just fine.

The Rite was hailed by some as the apex of modernity, but it was an old, old story: rooted in a pagan, prehistoric world and climaxing with the sacrifice of a woman to the sun – a totemic work in Stravinsky’s early fascination for the folk culture of his native Russia.

Rite of Spring, Part 1: Adoration of the Earth
musicAeterna
Teodor Currentzis, conductor

Fireworks
Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Russian Dance, from Three Movements from Petrushka
Daniil Trifonov, piano

Infernal Dance, from The Firebird
Orchestre de Paris
Klaus Mäkelä, conductor

The Rite of Spring, Part 2: The Sacrifice
NHK Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Järvi, conductor


MON 13:00 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert (m001vlln)
Fabio Biondi plays Paganini

A tribute to the legendary violinist and composer Nicolò Paganini which also features works for guitar, live from London's Wigmore Hall. Celebrated Italian violinist Fabio Biondi is joined by his duo partner, guitarist Giangiacomo Pinardi.

Presented by Andrew McGregor

Niccolò Paganini:
Sonata No. 6 in A from Centone di sonate
Sonata No. 7 in F from Centone di sonate
Sonata concertata in A
Sonata in A minor Op. 3 No. 4
Sonata No. 2 in D from Centone di sonate
Sonata No. 12 in D from Centone di sonate

Fabio Biondi, violin
Giangiacomo Pinardi, guitar


MON 14:00 Afternoon Concert (m001vlm2)
Sibelius's Violin Concerto

Violinist Julia Fischer plays Sibelius's brooding and passionate concerto, and there's music by Mozart, Vaughan Williams and Arvo Part.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

German virtuoso Julia Fischer joins the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in a specially-recorded performance of the only concerto by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. There's also Vaughan Williams exuberantly celebrating Shakespeare and Mozart from Salzburg, his birthplace.

2.00
Schubert
Italian Overture in C, D.591
L'Orfeo Barockorchester
Michi Gaigg, conductor

Vaughan Williams
In Windsor Forest
Bournemouth Symphony Chorus & Orchestra
Norman Del Mar, conductor

Mozart
Symphony no.1 in E flat
Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg
Antonello Manacorda, conductor

Mozart
Non mi dir, bell’idol mio, aria from Part Two of Don Giovanni
Golda Schultz, soprano
Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg
Antonello Manacorda, conductor

3.00
Sibelius
Violin Concerto in D minor
Julia Fischer, violin
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Alain Altinoglu, conductor

Suk
Serenade for strings
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
James Clark, conductor

Arvo Part
Magnificat
Voces8


MON 16:30 New Generation Artists (m001vlmf)
Niamh O'Sullivan sings Sondheim and Jerome Kern

Chamber music from Radio 3's New Generation Artists: mezzo-soprano Niamh O'Sullivan's voice has been described as 'bewitchingly beautiful', and this afternoon we'll hear that beauty in songs by Sondheim and Jerome Kern. James Atkinson is earning an impressive reputation as a natural lieder singer with his lyrical baritone voice, and he'll sing the beautiful song by Dilys Elwyn-Edwards, The Cloths of Heaven. The Leonkoro Quartet's career has already been crowned by success and numerous prestigious awards, and we'll hear a track from their debut album, the opening movement from Ravel's String Quartet. The mellow sequence ends with another award-winning musician, the jazz pianist Fergus McCreadie with saxophonist Matt Carmichael.

Sondheim
Send in the Clowns
Niamh O'Sullivan, (mezzo-soprano)
Gary Beecher (piano)

Dilys Elwyn-Edwards
The Cloths Of Heaven
James Atkinson (baritone)
Michael Pandya (piano)

Ravel
Quartet in F major for strings: 1st mvt
Leonkoro Quartet

Jerome Kern
Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man (arr. Beecher)
Niamh O'Sullivan, (mezzo-soprano)
Gary Beecher (piano)

Fergus McCreadie
The Teacher
Matt Carmichael, (saxophone)
Fergus McCreadie (piano)


MON 17:00 In Tune (m001vlmv)
Classical music live from the BBC

Composer Patrick Doyle speaks to Sean Rafferty about the upcoming performance of his soundtrack to the 1920s silent film It, which stars Clara Bow.


MON 19:00 Classical Mixtape (m001vln7)
Classical music for your journey

Take time out with a 30-minute soundscape of classical music.


MON 19:30 Radio 3 in Concert (m001vlng)
Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Nicholas Collon conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony.

The British conductor - best known in the UK for his work with the Aurora Orchestra - conducts Shostakovich's symphony premiered shortly after the death of Stalin. Indeed, one biographer has Shostakovich relating that: "I did depict Stalin in . . . the Tenth. I wrote it right after Stalin’s death, and no one has yet guessed what the symphony is about. It’s about Stalin and the Stalin years. The second part, the scherzo, is a musical portrait of Stalin, roughly speaking. Of course, there are many other things in it, but that’s the basis.” The work was a notable success at its premiere but nonetheless it was scrutiny by the Composer’s Union. After three days of deliberation, the Union reached its conclusion: the Tenth Symphony was indeed "an optimistic tragedy.” Before the Shostakovich, the young violin virtuoso, Augustin Hadelich plays Prokofiev's joyful Second Concerto, a work whose genesis reflected the composers travels in the mid-1030s. As Prokofiev wrote: "the main theme of the 1st movement was written in Paris, the first theme of the 2nd movement at Voronezh, the orchestration was finished in Baku and the premiere was given in Madrid in 1935."

Presented by Fiona Talkington

Grażyna Bacewicz: Overture
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, op. 63
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 in E minor, op. 93

Augustin Hadelich (violin)
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Nicholas Collon (conductor)


MON 22:00 Music Matters (m001vlnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Saturday]


MON 22:45 The Essay (m001vlnt)
A Circumnavigation of the British Isles in Five Traditional Boats

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Pilot Gig

John Ruskin observed that the bow of a wooden boat is ‘the pinnacle of Man's achievement’. He appreciated that the some of our most beautiful and effective creations are not designed as such but evolve to fulfil their task in their place, according to the history and affections of the people who use them. Some are scarcely noticed - because they are not buildings but boats, built to do jobs. In this series of The Essay five writers, each personally involved with their craft, circumnavigate the British Isles in five traditional boats – without leaving home.

Annamaria Murphy, whose work is familiar to listeners from Curious Under the Stars and In Search of the Severn Serpent, writes about the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Pilot Gig, the elegant six oared rowing boat that sped out to ships in the Southwest Approaches, to get their pilot aboard, and so get paid, and to trade (they could outpace the Revenue cutters). They also, as recently as the 1950s, saved lives, rescuing people in distress.

The oldest rowing boat in the world that is still used is a pilot gig, the Newquay, built in 1812. Today gig racing has become the national sport of the Cornish and Scillonians; almost every coastal village has a gig club. Annamaria Murphy is a keen rower based in Newlyn. Gigs have been rowed around the coast of Cornwall, are sometimes rowed from the mainland to the Isles of Scilly and even across to Brittany.

Presenter: Annamaria Murphy
Producer: Julian May


MON 23:00 Night Tracks (m001vlny)
Adventures in sound

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents an adventurous, immersive soundtrack for late-night listening, from classical to contemporary and everything in between.

TUESDAY 30 JANUARY 2024

TUE 00:30 Through the Night (m001vlp2)
Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri

La Cetra Baroque Choir and Orchestra Basel perform Buxtehude's cantata cycle in Arlesheim Cathedral, Switzerland. Presented by John Shea

12:31 AM
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Organ Interlude, Membra Jesu nostri, BuxWV 75
lrene Gonzalez Roldan (organ)

12:32 AM
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Kantate No. 1, Ad pedes - Ecce super montes pedes
La Cetra Vocalensemble Basel, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, Carlos Federico Sepulveda (conductor)

12:40 AM
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Kantate No. 2 Ad genua - Ad ubera prtabimini
La Cetra Vocalensemble Basel, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, Carlos Federico Sepulveda (conductor)

12:48 AM
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Kantate No. 3 Ad manus - Quid sunt plagae istae
La Cetra Vocalensemble Basel, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, Carlos Federico Sepulveda (conductor)

12:58 AM
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Kantate No. 4 Ad Latus - Surge amica mea
La Cetra Vocalensemble Basel, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, Carlos Federico Sepulveda (conductor)

01:06 AM
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Kantate No. 5 Ad Pectus - Sicut modo geniti
La Cetra Vocalensemble Basel, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, Carlos Federico Sepulveda (conductor)

01:15 AM
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Kantate No. 6 Ad Cor - Vulnerasti cor meum
La Cetra Vocalensemble Basel, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, Carlos Federico Sepulveda (conductor)

01:24 AM
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Kantate No. 7 Ad Faciem - Illustra faciem tuam
La Cetra Vocalensemble Basel, La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, Carlos Federico Sepulveda (conductor)

01:32 AM
George Enescu (1881-1955)
Violin Sonata No 3 in A minor, Op 25, 'dans le caractère populaire roumain'
Malin Broman (violin), Teo Gheorghiu (piano)

01:59 AM
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
25 Variations and fugue on a theme by G F Handel Op.24
Hinko Haas (piano)

02:31 AM
Mily Balakirev (1859-1924)
Tamara - Symphonic Poem
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Oliver Dohnanyi (conductor)

02:53 AM
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Sonata in D major (Wq.83/H.505)
Les Coucous Benevoles

03:10 AM
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Rhapsody in Blue for piano and orchestra
William Tritt (piano), Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Boris Brott (conductor)

03:27 AM
Willem De Fesch (1687-1761)
Concerto No.3 in G major – from Six Concerti Opera Quinta (Op.5)
Musica ad Rhenum

03:35 AM
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Andante, Op 3 no 1
Ludmil Angelov (piano)

03:42 AM
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Adagio and fugue for strings in C minor, K.546
Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Andrew Manze (conductor)

03:50 AM
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Sonata for clarinet or viola and piano (Op.120 No.2) in E flat major
Hans Christian Braein (clarinet), Havard Gimse (piano)

04:10 AM
Johann Christoph Pez (1664-1716)
Passacaglia & Aria (presto)
Carin van Heerden (recorder), Ales Rypan (recorder), L'Orfeo Baroque Orchestra, Michi Gaigg (director)

04:18 AM
Michael Tippett (1905-1998)
Five Spirituals from the oratorio "A Child of our Time"
Vancouver Bach Choir, Bruce Pullan (conductor)

04:31 AM
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Ballade No 3 in A flat, Op 47
Anika Vavic (piano)

04:39 AM
Andrea Gabrieli (1532-1585)
Aria della battaglia à 8
Theatrum Instrumentorum, Stefano Innocenti (conductor)

04:49 AM
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
Symphonic metamorphosis of themes by Carl Maria von Weber
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Riccardo Chailly (conductor)

05:11 AM
Jean Francaix (1912-1997)
L'Heure du berger
Festival Ensemble of the Festival of the Sound, James Campbell (conductor)

05:19 AM
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Overture (May Night)
Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Mario Bernardi (conductor)

05:28 AM
Jan Sandstrom (b.1954)
Surge, aquilo for 16 voices
Erik Westberg Vocal Ensemble

05:36 AM
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Toccata per cembalo d'ottava stesa in D minor (Napoli 1723)
Rinaldo Alessandrini (harpsichord)

05:56 AM
Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959)
3 Madrigals for violin and viola
Andrej Kursakov (violin), Mikhail Tolpygo (viola)

06:12 AM
Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987)
Comedians - suite
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Oliver Dohnanyi (conductor)


TUE 06:30 Breakfast (m001vlc0)
Start the day right with classical music

Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show with music that captures the mood of the morning.

Email your requests to 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk


TUE 09:00 Essential Classics (m001vlcd)
Classical coffee break

Georgia Mann plays the best in classical music, with discoveries and surprises rubbing shoulders with familiar favourites.

0930 Playlist starter – listen and send us your ideas for the next step in our musical journey today.

1010 Song of the Day – harnessing the magic of words, music and the human voice.

1045 Playlist reveal – a sequence of music suggested by you in response to our starter today.

1130 Slow Moment – time to take a break for a moment's musical reflection.


TUE 12:00 Composer of the Week (m001vlcx)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

A Russia of the Mind

In a week of programmes dedicated to the myths and masks and rituals of Igor Stravinsky, Kate Molleson explores the years of Stravinsky’s exile from Russia during WW1.

Stravinsky spend almost all his working life in one sort of exile or another. First he left Russia for France, then at the start of the First World War he left France for neutral Switzerland where he lived near Lausanne surrounded by Russian artist refugees.

He didn’t return to Russia for 50 years but his homeland loomed large in his imagination. Marooned in landlocked Switzerland, he pined for Russia as he would for the rest of his life – and that homesickness took on all sorts of guises. In another sense, the distance was useful. He was free to reinvent a Russia of the mind, refracted through memory, nostalgia and myth.

King Ki Ki
Little Tich

Excentrique, from Three Pieces for String Quartet
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

Four Russian Peasant Songs
La Maîtrise de Toulouse
Mark Opstad, director

The Mechanical Nightingale, from Song of the Nightingale
New York Philharmonic
Pierre Boulez, conductor

Renard (excerpts)
Paris National Opera Chorus & Orchestra
James Conlon, conductor

Soldier’s Tale (excerpts)
Jean Cocteau, narrator

The Wedding Feast, from Les Noces
MusicAeterna
Teodor Currentzis, conductor


TUE 13:00 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert (m001vldv)
Leeds International Concert Season (1/4)

Saint-Saens, Chopin and Ravel from the Leeds International Concert Season.

Hannah French this week presents chamber music highlights from last year's Leeds International Concert Season, curated by flautist Adam Walker. Today, Canadian pianist Louis Lortie - one of the leading pianists of this generation, plays the complete set of Chopin's Opus 10 Etudes and an all-star trio plays Paul Silverthorne's arrangement for flute, vioa and harp of Ravel's "Tombeau de Couperin". And, to begin, three members of the Orsino Ensemble perform Saint-Saens' lively tarantella for flute, clarinet and piano.

Saint-Saens – Tarantelle for flute, clarinet & piano
Orsino Ensemble

Chopin – Etudes, Op.10
Louis Lortie (piano)

Ravel arr. Paul Silverthorne – Le Tombeau de Couperin
Adam Walker (flute)
Timothy Ridout (viola)
Anneleen Lenaerts (harp)


TUE 14:00 Afternoon Concert (m001vlfc)
Bartok's Concerto for orchestra

The Danish National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Juraj Valcuha play Bartok's final masterpiece. There's also music by Debussy, Sibelius, Schubert and Haydn.

Presented by Ian Skelly

Two great twentieth century works for orchestra this afternoon: Bartok's late crowd-pleaser, his Concerto for Orchestra, and Debussy's evocative sea-scape, La mer. There's a string quartet by the very young Schubert and a dazzling Haydn Piano Trio

2.00
Schubert
Italian Overture in D, D.590
La Scala Philharmonic, Milan
Riccardo Chailly, conductor

Mozart
Concert aria: Chi sa, chi sa, qual sia
Golda Schultz, soprano
Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg
Antonello Manacorda, conductor

Haydn
Piano Trio in G “Gypsy Rondo”
ATOS Trio

3.00
Bartok
Concerto for orchestra
Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Juraj Valcuha, conductor

Schubert
Quartet in D, D.94
Minetti Quartet

Debussy
La mer
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Alain Altinoglu, conductor

John Taverner
Magnificat a 6
Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips, conductor


TUE 17:00 In Tune (m001vlft)
Live music and news from the world of classical

Composer and Radiohead member Jonny Greenwood and percussionist/conductor Colin Currie speak to Sean Rafferty about The Hallé's Steve Reich Festival in Manchester. The Heath Quartet play live in the studio ahead of their Wigmore Hall recital, and the RPS Awards 2024 shortlist is announced, with one of the shortlisted artists performing in the studio.


TUE 19:00 Classical Mixtape (m000p1ds)
Your daily classical soundtrack

Pour yourself a cuppa or a glass of something nice, sit back, and enjoy an uninterrupted half hour of cheering classical music. Included on the menu is Britten's joyous "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra", some lush orchestral sounds from George Michael, a beautiful choral work yearning for better times by John Rutter, a comedy film score from Malcolm Arnold, and Stephen Hough's delightful arrangement of "My Favourite Things".

Producer: Helen Garrison

01 00:03:01 Johann Strauss II
Thunder and Lightning Polka, Op.324
Orchestra: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Duration 00:02:55

02 00:05:52 Richard Rodgers
My Favourite Things (The Sound of Music)
Music Arranger: Sir Stephen Hough
Performer: Sir Stephen Hough
Duration 00:02:34

03 00:08:26 Cole Porter
It's Allright With Me
Music Arranger: Rob Mounsey
Duration 00:03:27

04 00:11:47 Antonio Bazzini
The Dance of the Goblins Op.25
Performer: Leonidas Kavakos
Performer: Peter Nagy
Duration 00:05:01


06 00:18:15 Luigi Denza
Finiculi, Finiculá
Lyricist: Giuseppe Turco
Music Arranger: Giancarlo Chiaramello
Singer: Luciano Pavarotti
Choir: Coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Orchestra: Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna
Conductor: Anton Guadagno
Duration 00:02:45

07 00:20:55 John Rutter
Look to the day
Choir: The Cambridge Singers
Performer: John Birch
Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: John Rutter
Duration 00:04:08

08 00:24:57 Modest Mussorgsky
Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks (Pictures from an Exhibition)
Orchestrator: Maurice Ravel
Orchestra: Mariinsky Orchestra
Conductor: Valery Gergiev
Duration 00:01:09

09 00:26:06 Igor Stravinsky
The Firebird's Dance & The Firebird Variation (Firebird Suite)
Orchestra: Bastille Opera Orchestra
Conductor: Myung-Whun Chung
Duration 00:01:33

10 00:27:35 Benjamin Britten
The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op.34 (Variations and fugue on a theme of Purcell)
Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle
Duration 00:16:45


TUE 19:30 Radio 3 in Concert (m001vlgt)
Brahms Symphony No 2

Jaime Martín returns to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to conduct Parry and Brahms, as well as a World Premiere by their Composer in Association, Gavin Higgins. The concert opens with the orchestral Elegy Hubert Parry composed in response to the death of his contemporary — and musical hero — Johannes Brahms. Parry wove many references to Brahms's music into the fabric of his piece, including music from his 2nd Symphony, which we will hear in its entirety in the second half of the concert. To close the first half we will hear the world premiere of Gavin Higgins's Horn Concerto, written for Ben Goldscheider who will perform the work, and also featuring the horn section of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Given that the last collaboration between Higgins and the Orchestra won a coveted RPS award, this new BBC Radio 3 commission is definitely not to be missed. After the interval we turn to Brahms himself. In his 2nd Symphony he was, in a way at least, responding to his own 1st Symphony by juxtaposing the dark, stormy sound-world of the earlier work with a new sense of joy and serenity; it is rightly regarded as a Romantic masterpiece.

Presented by Verity Sharp in BBC Hoddinott Hall, and recorded on January 14th.

Parry: Elegy to Johannes Brahms
Gavin Higgins: Horn Concerto
Brahms: Symphony No 2 in D major, Op 73

Ben Goldscheider (French horn)
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Jaime Martín (conductor)


TUE 22:00 Free Thinking (m001vlhc)
Secrets, lies and Irish History

The stories told and secrets kept in Ireland north and south are the focus of a pair of deeply personal new non fiction books - Missing Persons Or My Grandmother's Secrets from University of Cambridge Professor of English Literature Clair Wills and Dirty Linen by Martin Doyle who is Books Editor of the Irish Times. They're joined by the criminologist Dr Louise Brangan who researches the sociology of punishment, including work on Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and the poet Scott McKendry whose work deals with generational trauma and social decay in Belfast. John Gallagher hosts a discussion of how the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and others can shape society and history itself.

Professor Clair Will's books include Lovers and Strangers: An Immigrant History of Post-War Britain and The Family Plot: Three Pieces on Containment.
Martin Doyle's book is called Dirty Linen The Troubles in My Home Place.
Scott McKendry's debut poetry collection is Gub.
Dr Louise Brangan is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde and a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker.

You can find other episodes exploring Irish history and writing on the Free Thinking programme website under past episodes and Arts & Ideas podcasts including programmes about Emigration and "bad Bridgets"; Ireland's Hidden Histories and Secret Stories; Edna O'Brien; Colm Tóibín; Anne Enright.

Radio 3 has a three part series tracing music and composers from the island over the past two hundred years - Irish Classical, hidden in plain sight. Find it on BBC Sounds.

Producer in Salford: Olive Clancy


TUE 22:45 The Essay (m001vlhy)
A Circumnavigation of the British Isles in Five Traditional Boats

The Curach

John Ruskin observed that the bow of a wooden boat is ‘the pinnacle of Man's achievement’. He appreciated that some of our most beautiful and effective creations are not designed as such but evolve to fulfil their task in their place, according to the history and affections of the people who use them. Some are scarcely noticed - because they are not buildings but boats, built to do jobs. In this series of The Essay five writers, each personally involved with their craft, circumnavigate the British Isles in five traditional boats – without leaving home.

The poet Keith Payne’s collection 'Building the Boat' chronicles the creation of a curach, the Irish boat created by tying wooden rods into a framework, stretching a skin of canvas over it and covering it with pitch. 'This is a boat you can't build alone,' he writes, and he relishes the community of the meitheal, the working party who together create it. Also, the language associated with the craft, and his connection with previous curach builders stretching back generations. St Brendan is said to have sailed to North America in a curach a thousand years before Columbus - and this has been done.

In the National Museum of Ireland there’s a seven-inch-long model boat of beaten gold, smooth hulled with oars for 18 crew. It’s a curach, hammered out by a goldsmith in the 1st century. Two millennia later curachs are still used, all around the Irish coasts, often with a phial of holy water tied in the bow. Payne writes about making and putting to sea in a curach, in prose that is poetic, like gusts of wind.

Presenter: Keith Payne
Producer: Julian May


TUE 23:00 Night Tracks (m001vljq)
Night music

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents an adventurous, immersive soundtrack for late-night listening, from classical to contemporary and everything in between.

WEDNESDAY 31 JANUARY 2024

WED 00:30 Through the Night (m001vlk9)
Best of British

The Zurich Chamber Orchestra perform a programme of Vaughan Williams, Britten and Tippett. Presented by John Shea.

12:31 AM
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis
Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Duncan Ward (conductor)

12:46 AM
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, Op.31
Mark Padmore (tenor), Thomas Muller (horn), Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Duncan Ward (conductor)

01:11 AM
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Lachrymae (Reflections on a song of Dowland) Op.48a, arr. for viola and strings
Ryszard Groblewski (viola), Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Duncan Ward (conductor)

01:25 AM
Michael Tippett (1905-1998)
Concerto for Double String Orchestra
Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Duncan Ward (conductor)

01:47 AM
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
The Music Makers, Op 69
Jane Irwin (mezzo soprano), Netherlands Radio Choir, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Jaap van Zweden (conductor)

02:26 AM
Percy Grainger (1882-1961)
Handel in the Strand
Leslie Howard (piano)


03:05 AM
John Tavener (1944-2013)
The Hidden Treasure
Mucha Quartet

03:32 AM
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704)
Sonata no 1 à 8, from sonatae tam aris, quam aulis servientes (1676)
Collegium Aureum

03:37 AM
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Op 35 No 1
Sylviane Deferne (piano)

03:47 AM
Grace Williams (1906-1977)
Sea Sketches (1944)
Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Roy Goodman (conductor)

04:05 AM
Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594)
Dulces Exuviae - motet
Currende, Erik van Nevel (conductor)

04:11 AM
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Pelléas et Mélisande, Op 46
Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Kolbjorn Holthe (conductor)

04:22 AM
William Byrd (1543-1623)
The Bells for keyboard (MB.27.38)
Colin Tilney (harpsichord)

04:31 AM
Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)
Italian Serenade
Ljubljanski Godalni Quartet

04:39 AM
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c.1525-1594)
Agnus Dei - super ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la (for 6 and 7 voices)
Huelgas Ensemble, Paul van Nevel (director)

04:46 AM
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Concerto fragment for horn and orchestra in E flat (K.370b and K.371)
James Sommerville (horn), CBC Vancouver Orchestra, Mario Bernardi (conductor)

04:58 AM
Lars-Erik Larsson (1908-1986)
Violin Sonatina in G minor, Op.3
Arve Tellefsen (violin), Lucia Negro (piano)

05:12 AM
Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)
Serenade for orchestra
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jan Krenz (conductor)

05:17 AM
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)
Rondo in B minor Op.109
Stefan Lindgren (piano)

05:26 AM
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Overture in D major
Bratislava Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ondrej Lenard (conductor)

05:32 AM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir, BWV131 (Cantata)
Roberta Invernizzi (soprano), Sonia Prina (contralto), Krystian Adam (tenor), Christopher Purves (bass), Wroclaw Philharmonic Chorus, Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini (conductor)

05:57 AM
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
Piano Quintet in A major, Op 81
Menahem Pressler (piano), Orlando Quartet


WED 06:30 Breakfast (m001vlhs)
Wake up with classical music

Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show with music that captures the mood of the morning.

Email your requests to 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk


WED 09:00 Essential Classics (m001vljb)
The very best of classical music

Georgia Mann plays the best in classical music, featuring new discoveries, some musical surprises and plenty of familiar favourites.

0930 Playlist starter – listen and send us your ideas for the next step in our musical journey today.

1010 Song of the Day – harnessing the magic of words, music and the human voice.

1045 Playlist reveal – a sequence of music suggested by you in response to our starter today.

1130 Slow Moment – time to take a break for a moment's musical reflection.


WED 12:00 Composer of the Week (m001vljv)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Neoclassical Mask

Kate Molleson explores Igor Stravinsky’s multiple masks and myths. His love of rites and rituals. Today leaning into his neoclassicism – his turn to the past to make sense of the present.

After WW1 Stravinsky began to compose in a new way – a new style for a new age. Beginning with Pulcinella, refracting the music of Pergolesi. He described this period as a crisis, because like every modernist he was faced with a problem: how could art be meaningful after what they’d witnessed during the Great War? He described Pulcinella as a “backward look – first of many love affairs in that direction – but it was a look in the mirror, too.” Through music that was fresh and fractured, arch and ironic, Stravinsky came up with a re-ordering of the past that was ultra-present.

Overture: Sinfonia, from Pulcinella Suite
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Masaaki Suzuki, conductor

Suite Italienne
Amalie Stalheim, cello
Christian Ihle Hadland, piano

Sonata for Piano
Oxana Shevchenko, piano

Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Nash Ensemble
Simon Rattle, conductor

Octet
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Neeme Jarvi, conductor

Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov, conductor
Steven Osborne, piano


WED 13:00 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert (m001vlkc)
Leeds International Concert Season (2/4)

Hannah French continues her week of chamber music highlights from last year's Leeds International Concert Season, curated by flautist Adam Walker. Today, the Orsino Ensemble perform pieces by Germaine Tailleferre and Francis Poulenc, Louis Lortie returns to play two of Chopin’s “Trois Nouvelles Etudes”, and there’s more music for flute, viola & harp, including the piece which put that particular ensemble into the spotlight: Debussy’s Sonata, written in 1915.

Ibert – Deux Interludes for flute, viola & harp
Adam Walker (flute)
Timothy Ridout (viola)
Anneleen Lenaerts (harp)

Tailleferre – Sonata Champêtre for oboe, clarinet, bassoon & piano
Orsino Ensemble

Chopin – Trois Nouvelles Etudes (Nos 1 & 2)
Louis Lortie (piano)

Debussy – Sonata for flute, viola & harp
Adam Walker (flute)
Timothy Ridout (viola)
Anneleen Lenaerts (harp)

Poulenc – Trio for oboe, bassoon & piano
Orsino Ensemble


WED 14:00 Afternoon Concert (m001vlks)
Dvorak's Seventh

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales and conductor Ryan Bancroft play Dvorak's dramatic and sometimes dark Symphony no.7, there's dazzling music by one of J.S. Bach's sons and searingly romantic Walton

Presented by Ian Skelly

Inspired by Brahms' recently completed Symphony no.3, Czech composer Antonin Dvorak's Seventh was commissioned by the London (now Royal) Philharmonic Society, so was actually premiered in London in 1885

2.00
Schubert
Overture in D, D.26
Prague Sinfonia
Christian Benda, conductor

Walton/Christopher Palmer
Troilus and Cressida Suite: The Lovers
LPO
Bryden Thomson, conductor

Mozart
Per pieta, ben mio, perdona, from Act Two of Cosi fan tutte
Golda Schultz, soprano
Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg
Antonello Manacorda, conductor

CPE Bach
Symphony in D, Wq.183/1
Arcangelo
Jonathan Cohen, director

Tomkins
When David heard
Stile Antico

3.00
Dvorak
Symphony no.7
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Ryan Bancroft, conductor

Martin
Songs of Ariel
Eric Ericson Chamber Choir
Grete Pedersen, conductor


WED 16:00 Choral Evensong (m001vll7)
Leeds Cathedral

Choral Vespers live from Leeds Cathedral

Introit: Ave maris stella (Judith Weir)
Office Hymn: Sol ecce, lentus occidens (Plainsong)
Psalm 139 (Johns, Justin, Pipe, Roberts)
Canticle: Colossians 1 vv.12-20 (Justin)
Magnificat octavi toni (Morales)
Anthem: Videte miraculum (Tallis)
Hymn: Jesu the very thought of thee (St Botolph)
Marian Antiphon: Alma redemptoris mater (Plainsong)
Voluntary: Prelude and Fugue in D ‘Halleluja’ (Schmidt)

Thomas Leech (Conductor)
David Pipe (Organist)


WED 17:00 In Tune (m001vllp)
In session with stellar classical artists

Soprano Nadine Benjamin performs live in the studio ahead of ENO's production of Poul Ruders’ The Handmaid's Tale, and horn player Ben Goldscheider speaks to Sean Rafferty about his concert with London Chamber Orchestra at Cadogan Hall.


WED 19:00 Classical Mixtape (m001vlm0)
Classical music to inspire you

Take time out and relax to a 30-minute soundscape including an elegant concerto for flute and oboe by Antonio Salieri, Gabriela Lena Frank's depiction of Andean men - 'romanceros' - singing a flirtatious love song and Kiri Te Kanawa as Tosca, baring her soul in Vissi d'Arte from Puccini's opera.

Also in the mix is music by Praetorius, Liszt, Shostakovich, Forqueray and Holst.

Producer: Ian Wallington




WED 22:00 Free Thinking (m001vlmg)
East/West religious connections

The Light of Asia: A History of Western Fascination with the East is the new book from New Generation Thinker and historian Christopher Harding. In Passions of the Soul, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams looks at the classics of Eastern Christian writing. At Compton Verney in Warwickshire, the artist Gayle Chong Kwan is preparing to unveil ‘shrines’ made up of newly cast bronze offerings, incorporating references to Chinese, Taoist and Buddhist cultures, as well as focusing on ideas around food, soil and the body. Rana Mitter hosts the conversation.

Producer: Julian Siddle

The Taotie runs at Compton Verney from 21 March 2024 – 31 March 2026
On the Free Thinking programme website you can find more collections of conversations exploring religious belief, and South and East Asian culture


WED 22:45 The Essay (m001vlmt)
A Circumnavigation of the British Isles in Five Traditional Boats

Shetland Whillies, Yoals and Sixerns

John Ruskin observed that the bow of a wooden boat is ‘the pinnacle of Man's achievement’. He appreciated that some of our most beautiful and effective creations are not designed as such but evolve to fulfil their task in their place, according to the history and affections of the people who use them. Some are scarcely noticed - because they are not buildings but boats, built to do jobs. In this series of The Essay five writers, each personally involved with their craft, circumnavigate the British Isles in five traditional boats – without leaving home.

From the 10th century to the 15th, Shetland was part of the Kingdom of Norway. Norse heritage still influences the islands’ language, music and boats. Whillies, yoals and sixerns are all akin to Viking longboats - light, fast and coming to a point at both ends. Shetlander Brian Wishart writes about these boats, how they shaped lives in Shetland for centuries - and still do today in Shetlanders' love of racing small sailing versions of them.

Wishart tells, too, of his experiences sailing the Vaila Mae, a copy of a 19th century sixern, learning the forgotten skills of handling this larger boat, which Shetlanders sailed or rowed far out to sea, to fish for saithe, ling and tusk at the 'Far Haaf', the distant water at edge of the continental shelf.

Presenter: Brian Wishart
Producer: Julian May


WED 23:00 Night Tracks (m001vln6)
Around midnight

Sara Mohr-Pietsch presents an adventurous, immersive soundtrack for late-night listening, from classical to contemporary and everything in between.

THURSDAY 01 FEBRUARY 2024

THU 00:30 Through the Night (m001vlnh)
Mendelssohn, Brahms and the premiere of Unsuk Chin's Alaraph 'Ritus des Herzschlags'

Dutch piano duo and brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen perform Mendelsohn's Concerto for Two pianos with the Basel Symphony Orchestra. John Shea presents.

12:31 AM
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Concerto for Two Pianos in E major, MWV 5
Lucas Jussen (piano), Arthur Jussen (piano), Basel Symphony Orchestra, Ivor Bolton (conductor)

01:03 AM
Igor Roma (b.1969)
Concert paraphrase on waltz themes from Johann Strauss's 'Die Fledermaus'
Lucas Jussen (piano), Arthur Jussen (piano)

01:07 AM
Unsuk Chin (b.1961)
Alaraph 'Ritus des Herzschlags'
Basel Symphony Orchestra, Ivor Bolton (conductor)

01:28 AM
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Symphony no 2 in D major, Op 73
Basel Symphony Orchestra, Ivor Bolton (conductor)

02:15 AM
Sandor Veress (1907-1992)
Four Transylvanian Dances
Musica Vitae Chamber Orchestra

02:31 AM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Sonata in B minor BWV.1030 for flute and keyboard
Bart Kuijken (flute), Gustav Leonhardt (harpsichord)

02:50 AM
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704)
Missa Alleluja a 36
Wiener Hofburgkapelle, Gradus ad Parnassum, Concerto Palatino, Konrad Junghanel (director)

03:27 AM
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Romance for viola and piano
Steven Dann (viola), Bruce Vogt (piano)

03:33 AM
Robert Kajanus (1856-1933)
Finnish Rhapsody No 1
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leif Segerstam (conductor)

03:44 AM
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Wie nahte mir der Schlummer...Leise, leise – from Act II of Der Freischütz
Charlotte Margiono (soprano), Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Kenneth Montgomery (conductor)

03:53 AM
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Auf stillem Waldespfad, from Stimmungsbilder (Op.9 No.1)
Ludmil Angelov (piano)

03:58 AM
Jean-Baptiste Cardon (1760-1803)
Sonata IV for harp Op.7 No.4
Branka Janjanin-Magdalenic (harp)

04:11 AM
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
Notturno in B major, Op 40
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jan Stanienda (conductor)

04:18 AM
Alessandro Marcello (1673-1747)
Concerto in D minor for oboe and strings
Maja Kojc (oboe), RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Pavle Despalj (conductor)

04:31 AM
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
No.1 'Minnelied' & No.10 'Und gehst du uber den Kirchhof' (Op.44)
Madchenchor Hannover, Gudrun Schrofel (director)

04:34 AM
Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
Canon and Gigue in D major
Geoffrey Lancaster (harpsichord), Tasmanian Symphony Chamber Players, Barbara Jane Gilby (director)

04:39 AM
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Symphonic dance No 2 (Allegro grazioso) Op 64 No 2
Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Ingar Bergby (conductor)

04:46 AM
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Piano Sonata No 26 in E flat, op. 81a 'Les Adieux'
Andre Laplante (piano)

05:05 AM
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D965
Barbara Hendricks (soprano), Martin Frost (clarinet), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)


05:38 AM
Hilda Sehested (1858-1936)
Tre Fantasistykker (3 Fantasy pieces) (1908)
Nina Reintoft (cello), Malene Thastum (piano)


06:06 AM
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Symphony No.73 in D major 'La Chasse', H.1.73
Radio Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, Ludovit Rajter (conductor)


THU 06:30 Breakfast (m001vlgn)
Your classical alarm call

Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show with music that captures the mood of the morning.

Email your requests to 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk


THU 09:00 Essential Classics (m001vlh5)
Celebrating classical greats

Georgia Mann plays the best in classical music, featuring new discoveries, some musical surprises and plenty of familiar favourites.

0930 Playlist starter – listen and send us your ideas for the next step in our musical journey today.

1010 Song of the Day – harnessing the magic of words, music and the human voice.

1045 Playlist reveal – a sequence of music suggested by you in response to our starter today.

1130 Slow Moment – time to take a break for a moment's musical reflection.


THU 12:00 Composer of the Week (m001vlhr)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Inexpressionism

Kate Molleson explores the multiple legends and lore of Igor Stravinsky, from fables and rituals, to folk tales, myths and religious ceremonies. Today focusing on Stravinsky’s fascination for the tales of Greek antiquity.

Maybe it was inevitable that Stravinsky would find his way back to Greece at some point. For a composer who notoriously claimed that music is ‘essentially powerless to express anything at all,’ the stories of Greek drama were a way to sidestep emotion and psychology – to present archetypes controlled by the mechanisms of fate, as in Oedipus Rex, or as accompaniment to the austere inexpressive dance of Apollo, or concert works structured by the forms of Greek poetry as in Duo Concertant.

Oedipus Rex
Act 1: Caedit nos pestis
Shinyukai Choir and Saito Kinen Orchestra
Seiji Ozawa, conductor

Oedipus Rex
Act 1: Nonn' erubescite, reges
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor

Romanza, from Serenade in A for piano
Alexie Lubimov, piano

Orpheus (excerpt)
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra

Apollo (excerpt)
Stuttgarter Kammerorchester
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor

Duo Concertant
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Peter Nagy, piano

Oedipus Rex
Act 2: Jocastae caput mortuum!
Act 2: “Ecce! Regem Oedipoda
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein, conductor


THU 13:00 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert (m001vlj8)
Leeds International Concert Season (3/4)

Chamber music from the Leeds International Concert Season.
Hannah French continues her week of chamber music highlights from last year's Leeds International Concert Season, curated by flautist Adam Walker. Today, the Orsino Ensemble perform André Caplet’s Quintet for piano & winds, Louis Lortie returns to play one of Chopin’s Nocturnes, and there’s more music for flute, viola & harp, including Arnold Bax’s Elegiac Trio, composed in 1916.

Vierne – Deux Pièces for viola & harp
Timothy Ridout (viola)
Anneleen Lenaerts (harp)

Chopin – Nocturne, Op.27’2
Louis Lortie (piano)

Caplet – Quintet for piano & winds
Orsino Ensemble

Bax – Elegiac Trio for flute, viola & harp
Adam Walker (flute)
Timothy Ridout (viola)
Anneleen Lenaerts (harp)


THU 14:00 Afternoon Concert (m001vljr)
Brahms's Violin Concerto

Isabelle Faust plays Brahms's Violin Concerto with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and there's music by Barber, Weber and Arvo Part.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

One of the key works from the late nineteenth century, Brahms's concerto for violin remains one of his best-loved works. There's more music by the very young Schubert, and one of Samuel Barber's most famous works in a perhaps unfamiliar guise.

2.00
Schubert
Overture: Fierrabras
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Mozart
Concert aria: Vado, ma dove?
Golda Schultz, soprano
Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg
Antonello Manacorda, conductor


Barber
Agnus Dei
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers

Weber
Clarinet Concertino
Kari Kriikku, clarinet
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo, conductor

3.00
Brahms
Violin Concerto in D
Isabelle Faust, violin
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor

Schubert
Quartet in E flat, D.87
Minetti Quartet

Arvo Part
Te Deum
Netherlands Radio Choir & Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko, conductor


THU 17:00 In Tune (m001vlk7)
World-class classical music - live

Members of Il Pomo d'Oro perform live in the studio and speak to Sean Rafferty ahead of their Barbican concert.


THU 19:00 Classical Mixtape (m000nvl7)
Classical music for focus and inspiration

Half an hour of back-to-back classical music to help you wind down at the end of the day, including Johann Strauss arranged for piano with virtuosa Yuja Wang; Bryn Terfel with Kurt Weill's three-penny opera; Shostakovich's Festive Overture; a pentatonic mass and a Macedonian dance.

Producer: Juan Carlos Jaramillo

01 00:00:03 Johann Strauss II
Tritsch-Tratsch Polka
Music Arranger: Georges Cziffra
Performer: Yuja Wang
Duration 00:03:15

02 00:03:18 Dmitry Shostakovich
Festive Overture Op.96
Orchestra: Philharmonia
Conductor: Vladimir Ashkenazy
Duration 00:05:50

03 00:09:00 Kurt Weill
The Ballad of Mack the Knife (The Threepenny Opera)
Singer: Bryn Terfel
Orchestra: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Paul Daniel
Duration 00:02:47

04 00:11:48 Trad.
Trad Macedonian (arranged by the band)
Performer: Nigel Kennedy
Ensemble: Kroke
Duration 00:04:25

05 00:15:35 Giovanni Gabrieli
Canzon primi toni à 8
Ensemble: Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Duration 00:03:54

06 00:24:26 Anon.
Ave Maria (pentatonica)
Singer: Montserrat Figueras
Choir: La Capella Reial de Catalunya
Performer: Ichiro Seki
Performer: Yukio Tanaka
Performer: Masako Hirao
Ensemble: Hespèrion XXI
Conductor: Jordi Savall
Duration 00:04:51

07 00:24:26 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Flute Concerto No 3 in A major, Wq 168 (1st mvt, Allegro)
Performer: Emmanuel Pahud
Orchestra: Potsdam Chamber Academy
Duration 00:05:28




THU 22:00 Free Thinking (m001vllj)
On the Silver Globe

The 'best sci-fi film' never made? That's what Andrzej Zulawski's project has been called. Shut down by the Polish government before production had finished in 1977, the film wasn't completed and released until 1987. It's a visually stunning and wildly ambitious exploration of myth, religion and being human in an alien world. Zulawski (1940-2016) studied cinema in France and became known for art-house films working with actresses including Romy Schneider, Isabelle Adjani and Sophie Marceau. Matthew Sweet and his guests, including Daniel Bird, Sarah Dillon and David Hering, have been watching On the Silver Globe.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod


THU 22:45 The Essay (m001vllx)
A Circumnavigation of the British Isles in Five Traditional Boats

The Coble

John Ruskin said the bow of a wooden boat is ‘the pinnacle of Man's achievement’. He appreciated that some of our most beautiful and effective creations are not designed as such but evolve to fulfil their task in their place, according to the history and affections of the people who use them. Some are scarcely noticed - because they are not buildings but boats, built to do jobs. In this series of The Essay five writers, each personally involved with their craft, circumnavigate the British Isles in five traditional boats – without leaving home.

The coble is the working boat of the northeast of England, with a high stem and knife-like forefoot for facing the breaking waves, but flat-bottomed aft, so it can be launched off the beach and sit upright on the sand at low tide, with not a straight line anywhere. Katrina Porteous lives on the coast of Northumberland and spent years with coble fishermen, learning their way and languages. Many of the poems in her first collection, The Lost Music focus on the Northumbrian fishing community, about which Katrina has also written in prose in The Bonny Fisher Lad. She weaves verse from her poem The Wund an’ the Wetter, into her unsentimental paean for the coble and the way of life it encapsulated. It's said it takes a village to raise a child; it certainly took a whole community to build a coble, to fish with and maintain one.

Presenter: Katrina Porteous
Producer: Julian May


THU 23:00 The Night Tracks Mix (m001vlm9)
Music for the night

Sara Mohr-Pietsch with a magical sonic journey for late-night listening. Subscribe to receive your weekly mix on BBC Sounds.


THU 23:30 Unclassified (m001vlmp)
New York States of Mind

Elizabeth Alker looks across the Atlantic for inspiration in this episode of Unclassified, presenting the latest experimental and ambient sounds to emerge from one of the world's great centres of adventurous music: New York City. Arto Lindsay, a longstanding figure in the city’s avant rock scene, releases a recording of an ambitious installation piece in which he recreates the atmosphere and sounds of a carnival parade inside a white cube. Post-metal Brooklyn outfit Guhts, meanwhile, blend synths and strings with the harsher, more abrasive sounds of the city. And, in a nod to New York’s pioneering past, Elizabeth plays a drone-infused slice from a fresh re-issue of the seminal recording Dreamhouse 78’ 17" by La Monte Young.

Produced by Geoff Bird
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3

FRIDAY 02 FEBRUARY 2024

FRI 00:30 Through the Night (m001vln3)
Monte-Carlo Phiharmonic

Nicola Benedetti joins the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Bernstein's Serenade, before the orchestra performs Faure's Pelléas et Mélisande Suite and Debussy's La Mer. John Shea presents.

12:31 AM
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Overture to 'Candide'
Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Stephane Deneve (conductor)

12:36 AM
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Serenade, after Plato's 'Symposium'
Nicola Benedetti (violin), Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Stephane Deneve (conductor)

01:09 AM
Anonymous
A Little Blues
Nicola Benedetti (violin)

01:11 AM
Gabriel Faure (1845 - 1924)
Suite from 'Pelléas et Mélisande', Op.80
Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Stephane Deneve (conductor)

01:30 AM
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
La Mer
Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Stephane Deneve (conductor)

01:57 AM
Francois Couperin (1668-1733)
Pieces de clavecin: ordre No.8 in B minor
Rosalind Halton (harpsichord)

02:31 AM
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Symphony no 5, Op 50
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Thomas Sondergard (conductor)

03:05 AM
Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)
Psalm 116, from 'Angst der Hellen und Friede der Seelen'
Cardinal Complex, Jonas Gassmann (conductor)

03:29 AM
Ana Milosavljevic (b.1982)
Red
Ensemble Metamorphosis

03:35 AM
Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)
Bassoon Sonata in G major, Op 168
Siu-tung Toby Chan (bassoon), Rachel Cheung Wai-Ching (piano)

03:48 AM
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Water Music: Suite in G major for 'flauto piccolo' HWV 350
Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Paul Dyer (director)

03:59 AM
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)
Introduction & variations on a theme from 'Herold's Ludovic' in B flat, Op 12
Ludmil Angelov (piano)

04:06 AM
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Pohjola's daughter - symphonic fantasia, Op 49
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Berglund (conductor)

04:20 AM
Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787)
Trio in F major for 2 flutes and continuo
Karl Kaiser (flute), Michael Schneider (flute), Rainer Zipperling (cello), Harald Hoeren (harpsichord)

04:31 AM
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Coriolan - Overture, Op 62
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Donald Runnicles (conductor)

04:39 AM
Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594)
S.U.su.P.E.R.per - motet for 4 voices
Currende, Erik van Nevel (conductor)

04:44 AM
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Symphony no 1 in G, Wq.182/1
Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini (director)

04:55 AM
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Bachiana brasileira No 5
Isabel Bayrakdarian (soprano), Bryan Epperson (cello), Maurizio Baccante (cello), Roman Borys (cello), Simon Fryer (cello), David Hetherington (cello), Roberta Jansen (cello), Paul Widner (cello), Thomas Wiebe (cello), Winona Zelenka (cello)

05:07 AM
Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959)
Little Suite, 'Comedy on the Bridge', H. 247a
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Jonathon Heyward (conductor)

05:14 AM
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Litanies à la Vierge Noire version for women's voices and organ
Maitrise de Radio France, National Orchestra of France, Georges Pretre (conductor)

05:24 AM
Gustav Holst (1874-1934), Walsh (arranger)
St Paul's Suite (arr for guitar quartet)
Guitar Trek

05:38 AM
Henryk Pachulski (1859-1921)
Suite in Memory of Tchaikovsky, Op 13
Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lukasz Borowicz (conductor)

05:56 AM
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Piano Trio in D minor, Op.63
Dan Almgren (violin), Torleif Thedeen (cello), Stefan Bojsten (piano)


FRI 06:30 Breakfast (m001vlqg)
Classical music to start the day

Petroc Trelawny presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show with the Friday poem and music that captures the mood of the morning.

Email your requests to 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk


FRI 09:00 Essential Classics (m001vlqj)
Classical soundtrack for your morning

Georgia Mann plays the best in classical music, with familiar favourites alongside new discoveries and musical surprises.

0930 Playlist starter – listen and send us your ideas for the next step in our musical journey today.

1010 Song of the Day – harnessing the magic of words, music and the human voice.

1045 Playlist reveal – a sequence of music suggested by you in response to our starter today.

1130 Slow Moment – time to take a break for a moment's musical reflection.


FRI 12:00 Composer of the Week (m001vlql)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

In Memoriam

Kate Molleson explores the multiple legends and lore of Igor Stravinsky, focusing today on his return to religion.

Stravinsky had grown up in a household that did religion by numbers – his parents weren’t devout but they stood by the Orthodox tradition. The composer drifted away from the church as a teenager and then, for reasons that are not entirely clear, made a dramatic return in his 40s. There was something profoundly rooted about his Orthodox faith. Something that connected him to the home he could never return to. When he reconnected with the church, Stravinsky didn’t opt for Catholicism, which would have made more sense in France. His friend Jean Cocteau had become enthusiastically Catholic through a haze of opium-enhanced mystery. But for Stravinsky it was the more austere rituals of orthodoxy and the sound of Old Slavonic that was the language of prayer, as reflected in his first sacred composition, Otche nash, from 1926.

Otche nash
The Sixteen
Harry Christophers, conductor

Symphony of Psalms
London Symphony Orchestra and the Monteverdi Choir
John Eliot Gardiner, conductor

Mass
IV: Sanctus
English Bach Choir
Leonard Bernstein, conductor

Ode
iii Epitaph
USSR State Symphony Orchestra
Igor Stravinsky, conductor

In Memoriam Dylan Thomas
Ensemble Intercontemporain
Pierre Boulez, conductor
Robert Tear, tenor

Requiem Canticles
Royal Flemish Philharmonic
Philippe Herreweghe, conductor


FRI 13:00 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert (m001vlqn)
Leeds International Concert Season (4/4)

Chamber music from the Leeds International Concert Season.

Hannah French concludes her week of chamber music highlights from last year's Leeds International Concert Season, curated by flautist Adam Walker. Today, Adam joins pianist Tom Poster for a performance of Milhaud’s sonata for flute & piano, Louis Lortie returns to play Chopin’s complete Opus 25 set of Etudes, and there’s more music for flute, viola & harp in the shape of André Jolivet’s Petite Suite.

Milhaud – Sonatine for flute & piano
Adam Walker (flute)
Tom Poster (piano)

Chopin – Etudes, Op.25
Louis Lortie (piano)

Jolivet – Petite Suite for flute, viola & harp
Adam Walker (flute)
Timothy Ridout (viola)
Anneleen Lenaerts (harp)


FRI 14:00 Afternoon Concert (m001vlqq)
Mozart's 'Jupiter' Symphony

The Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra plays the last of Mozart's symphonies, there are two viola concertos written almost 200 years apart, and music by Schubert, Debussy and Bach.

Presented by Ian Skelly.

Mozart's so-called "Jupiter" symphony was his last and one of his most substantial, performed here by the home orchestra of the composer's birthplace. There's also Parry from the Last Night of the BBC Proms and Saint-Saens's take on Cuban rhythms.

2.00
Schubert
Overture in D, D.556
Prague Sinfonia
Christian Benda, conductor

Saint-Saens
Havanaise
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Kathryn Stott, piano

Vivaldi
Concerto in A for viola d'amore and orchestra
Fabio Biondi, viola d’amore
Europa Galante


Debussy
L’isle Joyeuse
Louis Schwizgebel, piano

3.00
Mozart
Symphony in C “Jupiter”
Mozarteum Orchestra, Salzburg
Antonello Manacorda, conductor

Dobrinka Tabakova
Viola Concerto
Maxim Rysanov, viola
Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra
Emil Tabakov, conductor

Bach
Singet dem Herrn mein neues Lied
Voces8
Senesino Ensemble
Barnaby Smith, conductor


FRI 16:30 The Listening Service (m000k26j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 17:00 on Sunday]


FRI 17:00 In Tune (m001vlqs)
The classical soundtrack for your evening

Pianist Martin James Bartlett performs music from his new album 'La Danse', and Piatti Quartet speak to Sean Rafferty and play live in the studio ahead of their Kings Place concert.


FRI 19:00 Classical Mixtape (m001vlqv)
Take 30 minutes out with a relaxing classical mix

Take time out with a 30-minute soundscape of classical music.




FRI 22:00 The Verb (m001vlqz)
The Hip Hop Verb

The Verb goes back to the brilliant Contains Strong Language Festival held in September last year in Leeds to consider the poetics of rap, rhyme and flows with a celebration of 50 years of Hip Hop. Rapper and playwright, and friend of The Verb, Testament led a panel discussion on one of the 20th and 21st century’s most powerful and influential literary movement with guests UK rapper Jehst, writer and spoken word performer Michelle Scally Clarke, and hip hop luminary Paul 'Oddball' Edmeade,


FRI 22:45 The Essay (m001vlr1)
A Circumnavigation of the British Isles in Five Traditional Boats

The Essex Smack

John Ruskin said the bow of a wooden boat is ‘the pinnacle of Man's achievement’. He appreciated that some of our most beautiful and effective creations are not designed as such but evolve to fulfil their task in their place, according to the history and affections of the people who use them. Some are scarcely noticed - because they are not buildings but boats, built to do jobs. In this series of The Essay five writers, each personally involved with their craft, circumnavigate the British Isles in five traditional boats – without leaving home.

Malcolm ‘Mac’ Macgregor's memory is long, stretching back to the great storm of 1953, when he rowed down the street, rescuing people from the roofs of their houses. Mac is a retired fisherman and shipwright who built, repaired and sailed Essex Smacks, the very beautiful gaff-rigged boats that worked (and still sail today) out of the rivers Blackwater, Colne, Crouch and Orwell, dredging for oysters and trawling. He writes of his life with these boats and his love of them. They work so well, he says, because they are so beautiful, and vice versa. So, the angle of their counter sterns, for instance, so lovely to look at, are functional, lifting the boats in a heavy sea, and keeping them dry.

Presenter: Mac MacGregor
Producer: Julian May


FRI 23:00 Late Junction (m001vlr3)
Patrick Shiroishi and Piotr Kurek in session

Jennifer Lucy Allan shares the results of our latest remote collaboration session between saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi and composer Piotr Kurek, plus sonic loops for Groundhog Day.

Los Angeles-based musician Patrick Shiroishi uses his saxophone as an instrument of catharsis, investigating his family’s history and wrestling with the collective trauma of Japanese Americans. Improvisation is deeply embedded in his practice, and his last album - I was too young to hear silence - comprises a single take of solos recorded at night, in a deserted parking lot.

Piotr Kurek is a multi-instrumentalist and theatre music composer from Warsaw. Drawing on a diversity of approaches and influences spanning Baroque music and experimental jazz, he creates hypnotic music centred around the human voice and complemented by electronics and various acoustic instrumentation.

Elsewhere in the show, in the spirit of Groundhog Day (which falls on the 2nd of February), Jennifer Lucy Allan shares music which makes a feature of recurring phrases and loops. Amongst the picks are found sound collages from American artist Joseph Hammer, Carl Craig aka C2C4’s never-quite-arriving, drop-less remix of Once In A Lifetime by Talking Heads, and polyphonic Akazehe greetings from Burundi.

Produced by Silvia Malnati
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3