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Press Releases
150th anniversary of Elgar's birth celebrated on the 91Èȱ¬
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Marking the 150th anniversary of Edward Elgar's birth in June this year, 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3 and 91Èȱ¬ Four present a series of special programmes and music broadcasts.
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On 91Èȱ¬ Four, Sir Andrew Davis explores the stories behind one of the most famous pieces of English music – Elgar's Enigma Variations – and 91Èȱ¬ celebrations launch with a new film, 10 Best Elgar, on 27 April, in which Dame Janet Baker and Vernon Handley are among personalities suggesting their favourite works.
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Radio 3 focuses its initial celebrations over a two-week period following the anniversary weekend in June.
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Highlights include the composer's choral masterpieces performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo alongside performances of key works by the Philharmonia and Sir Andrew Davis.
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Speech programmes complement the music performances and include the broadcast premiere of David Pownall's play Elgar's Rondo and Elgar And Empire in which Tristam Hunt analyses Elgar's music and personality in context of the contemporary social and cultural environment.
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He will be joined by a panel of contributors including Mark Elder and David Owen Norris.
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Celebrations on Radio 3 launch on Friday 1 June, with an all-Elgar programme in Performance On 3 (7pm) which includes his legendary Cello Concerto, performed by Truls Mørk.
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This concert is part of the year-long anniversary series by the Philharmonia and Sir Andrew Davis and a further highlight is broadcast the following week when James Ehnes performs the Violin Concerto in a programme completed by the Serenade for Strings and Symphony No. 2.
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Over the anniversary weekend, Sakari Oramo conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the ensemble Elgar helped to found, alongside soloists and choruses in three great choral works that the composer wrote for the city.
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The oratorios are broadcast on consecutive nights across the station, opening with The Dream Of Gerontius, widely considered one of his finest works, and followed by The Apostles and The Kingdom.
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Playwright David Pownall has written two dramas about Elgar and Radio 3 broadcasts the first of these in Drama On 3.
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Elgar's Rondo was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1994 and the play concentrates upon the composer's complex feelings in the latter period of his life following the unfavourable response to the premiere of his second symphony.
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Historian Tristram Hunt explores how Elgar articulated the Victorian notion of Empire, its triumph and decline in the Sunday Feature, Elgar And Empire (3 June, 9.30pm).
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For many the image of Elgar is defined by Land Of Hope And Glory, but this programme explores different theories about Elgar's imperialist sympathies. Tristram Hunt presents this portrait of the composer alongside extracts from his correspondance, reviews and archive material.
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Other contributors include eminent historians, Bernard Porter, John MacKenzie, Jeffrey Richards and musicologist, Byron Adams.
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In Radio 3's late-night speech programme The Essay (Monday to Thursday, 11-11.15pm), four musicians and writers consider aspects of Elgar's life and thought, including Elgar and Religion, and Elgar's landmark 1905 Birmingham University Lectures.
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Regular programmes across the station contribute to the anniversary celebrations featuring Elgar-related content.
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Donald McLeod guides Radio 3 listeners through the life and music of this most famous of English Composers in Composer Of The Week (weekdays, noon and 8.45pm).
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And CD Review's Building A Library focuses upon distinctive recordings of Elgar's Introduction and Allegro Op.47 (Saturday, 9am).
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91Èȱ¬ Four features a raft of programmes starting in April with a new film 10 Best Elgar (27 April) in which guests nominate their favourite work.
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Contributors include: Dame Janet Baker, Paul Watkins, Sir Andrew Davis, Vernon Handley, Catherine Sloan (director of the Elgar Museum) and Charles Kennedy.
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The channel also broadcasts repeats of two major 91Èȱ¬ One documentaries, Elgar's Hidden Portrait ( 4 May, 91Èȱ¬ Four) in which Sir Andrew Davis explores the stories behind one of the most famous pieces of English music - the Enigma Variations - and Imagine: Elgar's Lost Concerto (11 May, 91Èȱ¬ Four).
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The Enigma Variations catapulted the composer to fame virtually overnight and in this programme Davis, as a renowned interpreter of Elgar's music, conducts the 91Èȱ¬ Symphony Orchestra in a selection of the variations in the glorious setting of Worcester Cathedral.
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Examining Elgar's "lost concerto", Robert Walker and pianist David Owen Norris tell the story of the reconstruction of the composer's piano concerto, a piece he worked on for 20 years but never completed.
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Prior to the anniversary, Radio 3's website seeks to uncover the "forgotten Elgar", inviting listeners to nominate lesser-known works. The most popular suggestions will be featured in regular programmes across the station during the anniversary weekend.
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Radio 3 will also feature a second phase of celebrations on air and online during the autumn months.
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CF2
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