Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Wednesday - Rob Cowan with Max Richter

With Rob Cowan. Including My Favourite Bach Arrangements; Music in Time: Haydn: String Quartet in B flat; Artist of the Week: Pierre Monteux conducts Stravinsky: Petrushka.

9am
My Favourite... Bach Arrangements. A new feature in which Rob and Sarah reveal their favourite recordings of music, connected to a weekly theme. In the week of New Year New Music, Rob features his top arrangements of Bach - all of them made in the last hundred years, and which cast new light on the baroque master. Throughout the week he shares recreations of Bach by Myra Hess (Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring), Ottorino Respighi (Passcaglia and Fugue, BWV582), Robin Holloway (Gilded Goldbergs) and Webern (Ricercar from the Musical Offering).

9.30am
Take part in today's challenge. Two pieces of music are played together - can you work out what they are?

10am
Throughout the week of New Year New Music, five leading composers of the current generation tell Rob about a piece of music that has influenced them, and share one of their own works. The composer and producer Max Richter joins Rob in the studio. Max has written for film, theatre and ballet, and is well known for his record-breaking work Sleep, and for his remix of Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

10.30am
Rob places Music in Time. Rob focuses on the Classical period and Haydn, the so-called father of the string quartet. Haydn described his String Quartet in B flat Op. 33 No. 4 as having been written in a 'new and special way'.

11am
Rob's Artist of the Week is Pierre Monteux, a conductor who was at the cutting edge of new music in the early 20th century. He premiered works by composers who were the movers and shakers of the period, including Debussy, Stravinsky and Ravel. He also brought music to audiences in Paris, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Boston and London. Rob showcases recordings by Monteux ranging from Debussy's Images and Stravinsky's Petrushka to symphonies by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

Stravinsky
Petrushka
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Pierre Monteux (conductor).

3 hours

Music Played

  • Traditional Irish

    Jefferson and Liberty (The Gobby O)

    Ensemble: Ensemble Phoenix Munich. Conductor: Joel Frederiksen.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • Felix Mendelssohn

    Trumpet Overture, Op 101

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
  • MY FAVOURITE...J.S. BACH ARRANGEMENTS

    • Johann Sebastian Bach

      Ert枚t uns durch dein G眉te (Cantata, BWV.22)

      Music Arranger: Harriet Cohen. Performer: Hubert Harry.
      • ROYSS MUSIC.
  • Franz Liszt

    Hungarian Rhapsody No.6, 鈥楥arnival in Pesth鈥

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Performer: Antal Dor谩ti.
    • MERCURY LIVING PRESENCE.
  • Jean鈥怭hilippe Rameau

    Les Niais de Sologne avec doubles (Suite in D major, Pi猫ces de clavecin)

    Performer: Trevor Pinnock.
    • CRD.
  • Bedrich Smetana

    From my 91热爆land

    Performer: Josef Suk. Performer: Jan Panenka.
    • SUPRAPHON.
  • Charles Ives

    The Unanswered Question (2 Contemplations)

    Orchestra: New York Philharmonic. Conductor: Leonard Bernstein.
    • DG.
  • MAX RICHTER'S CHOICE NO.1

    • Henry Purcell

      Fantasia No 7 in C minor

      Ensemble: Fretwork.
      • VIRGIN VERITAS.
  • MAX RICHTER'S CHOICE NO.2

    • Max Richter

      On the Nature of Daylight

      Performer: Louisa Fuller. Performer: John Metcalf. Performer: Philip Sheppard. Performer: Chris Worsey.
      • The Blue Notebooks.
      • FAT CAT.
  • Trad. Armenian

    Loosin Yelav

    Music Arranger: Luciano Berio. Singer: Cathy Berberian. Ensemble: Juilliard Ensemble. Conductor: Luciano Berio.
    • RCA.
  • Claude Debussy

    The Little Shepherd (Children's Corner)

    Performer: Simon Trpceski.
  • MUSIC IN TIME: CLASSICAL

    • Joseph Haydn

      String Quartet in B flat major, Op.33 No.4

      Ensemble: Weller Quartet.
      • DECCA.
  • George Frideric Handel

    My heart is inditing HWV.261

    Choir: Choir of King鈥檚 College, Cambridge. Orchestra: Academy of Ancient Music. Conductor: Stephen Cleobury.
    • Handel: Coronation Anthems: Choir of King's college, Cleobury.
    • EMI Classics.
  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: PIERRE MONTEUX

    • Igor Stravinsky

      Petrushka

      Orchestra: Boston Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Pierre Monteux.
      • RCA.
  • Edward Elgar

    Introduction and Allegro, Op.47

    Orchestra: Sinfonia of London. Ensemble: Allegri String Quartet. Conductor: John Barbirolli.
    • EMI.
  • Franz Schubert

    Impromptu in A flat major, D.899 No.4

    Performer: Alfred Brendel.
    • PHILIPS.

Imperfect Harmony

The music played:

Trad. arr. Tom Poster & Alison Balsom
Nobody Knows
Alison Balsom (trumpet)
WARNER

Ives
The Unanswered Question
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Michael Tilson Thomas (conductor)
SONY

Broadcast

  • Wed 6 Jan 2016 09:00

Featured in...

Our Classical Century

Our Classical Century

Radio 3 explores 100 key musical moments that shaped us, from 1918 to the present day.

Time Travellers: the podcast

Time Travellers: the podcast

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough presents quirky tales gathered from the corners of history.