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Wednesday - Rob Cowan with Helen Sharman

With Rob Cowan. Including My Favourite Hollywood Film Scores; Music in Time: The Western Wind; Artist of the Week: pianist Clifford Curzon, featured in Schubert's Trout Quintet.

9am
My favourite... Hollywood film scores. Rob takes a trip to the cinema as he shares his favourite scores from the golden age of Hollywood. The showreel includes classics such as Max Steiner's soundtrack to Gone with the Wind and Erich Korngold's The Sea Hawk, as well as Bernard Herrmann's iconic shrieking strings accompaniment to Hitchcock's horror movie Psycho.

9.30am
Take part in our daily musical challenge: can you work out which two composers are associated with a particular piece?

10am
Rob's guest is the astronaut Helen Sharman. Helen Sharman made history when she became the first Briton in space in 1991. Helen's space mission came about after she heard a radio advert for an astronaut whilst working as a research chemist. She beat over 13,000 other applicants to become a crew-member on the eight-day mission. Throughout the week Helen will be reflecting on her trip into space twenty-five years on, talking about life after the mission and sharing a selection of her favourite classical music, including works by Liszt and Haydn, and Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, which she first saw during astronaut training in Russia.

10:30am
Rob places Music in Time as he delves into the Renaissance period and examines how a poplar song - The Western Wind - was used as a basis for mass settings by three English composers: Tavener, Tye and Sheppard.

11am
Rob's artist of the week is the British pianist, Clifford Curzon. A pupil of such distinguished figures as Artur Schnabel, Wanda Landowska and Nadia Boulanger, Curzon was praised for his grace and poise at the keyboard. He specialised in music from the Classical and Romantic periods, especially from the Austro-German tradition, and this week, Rob features some of the pianist's most celebrated recordings, including piano sonatas by Brahms and Liszt, piano concertos by Mozart (K.488) and Beethoven (No. 5 'Emperor) and Schubert's ever-popular 'Trout' Quintet.

Schubert
Piano Quintet in A, D.667 'Trout'
Clifford Curzon (piano)
Members of the Vienna Octet.

3 hours

Music Played

  • Franz Schubert

    Die Forelle, D 550

    Performer: James Lockhart. Singer: Margaret Price.
    • EMI CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE.
  • Manuel de Falla

    Interlude & Dance No.1 (La vida breve)

    Orchestra: Minnesota Orchestra. Conductor: Antal Doráti.
    • MERCURY.
  • Frédéric Chopin

    Prelude No.4 in E minor, Op.28

    Performer: Pieter Wispelwey. Performer: Dejan Lazić.
    • CHANNEL CLASSICS.
  • MY FAVOURITE...GREAT HOLLYWOOD FILM SCORES

    • Leonard Rosenman

      Main Title; The Planetarium; The Hunt; Finale (Rebel Without a Cause)

      Orchestra: London Sinfonietta. Conductor: John Adams.
      • NONESUCH.
  • John Dowland

    Semper Dowland semper dolens

    Performer: Paul O’Dette.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • Carl Nielsen

    Little Suite, Op 1

    Orchestra: Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Ulf Schirmer.
    • DECCA.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Es ist genug (Cantata No 60)

    Choir: Monteverdi Choir. Orchestra: English Baroque Soloists. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
    • J.S. Bach, Cantatas Vol 12: Gardiner.
    • Soli Deo Gloria.
    • 22.
  • HELEN SHARMAN'S CHOICE NO.1

    • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

      Swan Lake (Act 4 Finale)

      Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: André Previn.
      • EMI.
  • HELEN SHARMAN'S CHOICE NO.2

    • Henryk MikoÅ‚aj Górecki

      Symphony No 3, 'Sorrowful Songs' (2nd mvt)

      Singer: Dawn Upshaw. Orchestra: London Sinfonietta. Conductor: David Zinman.
      • ELEKTRA NONESUCH.
  • Arthur Sullivan

    The Merchant of Venice Suite (Finale)

    Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Vivian Dunn.
    • Classics for Pleasure.
  • MUSIC IN TIME: RENAISSANCE

    • John Taverner

      Western wynde - Mass for 4 voices (Gloria)

      Choir: Tallis Scholars. Director: Peter Phillips.
      • GIMELL.
    • John Sheppard

      Credo (Western Wind Mass)

      Choir: Tallis Scholars. Director: Peter Phillips.
      • GIMELL.
    • Christopher Tye

      Agnus Dei I, II and III (Western Wind Mass)

      Choir: Tallis Scholars. Director: Peter Phillips.
      • GIMELL.
  • Ambroise Thomas

    Mignon (Overture)

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Charles Mackerras.
    • Kaleidoscope: An Orchestral Extravaganza: Mackerras, LSO.
    • Mercury.
    • 7.
  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: CLIFFORD CURZON

    • Franz Schubert

      Piano Quintet in A major, D667 ‘Trout’

      Performer: Clifford Curzon. Ensemble: Vienna Octet.
      • DECCA.
  • Richard Wagner

    Siegfried's Rhine Journey (Gotterdammerung)

    Orchestra: St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Yevgeny Mravinsky.
    • SCRIBENDUM.
  • Antonio Vivaldi

    Concerto in B minor for 4 violins, RV 580

    Ensemble: Brecon Baroque. Director: Rachel Podger.
    • CHANNEL CLASSICS.

By Association

Answer: Alban Berg and J.S. Bach

The music played:

Berg
II. Allegro - Adagio (Violin Concerto)
Isabelle Faust (violin)
Orchestra Mozart
Claudio Abbado (conductor)
HARMONIA MUNDI

Broadcast

  • Wed 18 May 2016 09:00

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