Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Sound Frontiers: Tuesday - Rob Cowan with Lucian Msamati

Rob Cowan presents live from Southbank Centre. With Music in Time: Clementi: Piano Sonata, Op 12; Artist of the Week: Michael Gielen, featured conducting Schubert's Symphony No 9.

9am
My favourite... Brahms Intermezzos. Such is his love of Brahms' piano music that Rob struggled to find his favourite intermezzos, but eventually chose a selection primarily from the Opp. 117-119 collections. They are performed by such varied Brahms interpreters as Steven Kovacevich, Clifford Curzon, Eugene Istomin, Evgeny Kissin and Glenn Gould, all of whom bring their unique, individual voices to the poetry of Brahms' piano-writing.

9.30am
Take part in today's musical challenge: identify a piece of music played backwards.

10am
Rob's guest is the actor Lucian Msamati. Best known for his role as Salladhor Saan in Game of Thrones, in 2015 Lucian he became the first black actor ever to play Iago in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Othello, alongside Hugh Quarshie as Othello. In the same year he made his directorial debut with Boi Boi Is Dead. His stage work includes Clybourne Park and the London riots play Little Revolution, while recent TV credits include The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Ashes to Ashes and Doctor Who. Throughout the week, Lucian shares his favourite pieces of classical music with Rob and on Friday he appears live in the Essential Classics pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre.

10.30am
Power of Three - the next episode in a 70-part daily series of pioneering sounds from the 91热爆 Third Programme and Radio 3 archives presented by David Hendy.

Followed by
Music in Time: Classical
Rob dives into the Classical period and a piano sonata from Clementi's Op. 12 set. These four sonatas are remarkable in particular their slow movements, all of which are deeply serious pieces that aim for depths of expression seldom encountered in the composer's earlier music.

11am
Rob's Artist of the Week is the German conductor and composer Michael Gielen who when he retired in 2014, left behind an extensive recorded legacy. He held conducting posts from Vienna and Stockholm to Cincinnati and London. Besides championing the music of contemporary composers, he also excelled in music of the classical and romantic eras, which Rob focuses on this week, with Mozart's 'Haffner' Symphony, Schubert's 'Great' C major Symphony, Debussy's tennis-themed ballet Jeux, Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 and the opening Adagio from Mahler's final, incomplete Symphony No. 10.

Schubert
Symphony No. 9 in C major 'Great'
SWR-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Michael Gielen (conductor).

3 hours

Music Played

  • George Frideric Handel

    Il pastor fido: Overture (allegro)

    Orchestra: La Nuova Musica. Director: David Bates.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • Percy Grainger

    Handel in the Strand

    Performer: Philip Martin. Orchestra: Bournemouth Sinfonietta. Conductor: Kenneth Montgomery.
    • CHANDOS.
  • Alfred Schnittke

    Waltz Suite

    Music Arranger: Frank Strobel. Orchestra: Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Conductor: Frank Strobel.
    • CAPRICCIO.
  • MY FAVOURITE...BRAHMS INTERMEZZOS

    • Johannes Brahms

      Intermezzo in A minor, Op.118 No.1

      Performer: Glenn Gould.
      • SONY.
    • Johannes Brahms

      Intermezzo in A major, Op.118 No.2

      Performer: Glenn Gould.
      • SONY.
  • Anton Bruckner

    Intermezzo in D minor

    Performer: James Boyd. Ensemble: Fitzwilliam String Quartet.
    • LINN.
  • Anton铆n Dvo艡谩k

    Scherzo capriccioso

    Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Rafael Kubel铆k.
    • DG.
  • Claudio Monteverdi

    L'Orfeo: Toccata

    Ensemble: Le Concert d鈥橝str茅e. Conductor: Emmanuelle Ha茂m.
    • VIRGIN.
  • Lucian Msamati's Choice No.1

    • Richard Wagner

      Die Walk眉re: Ride of the Valkyries

      Singer: Anja Fidelia Ulrich. Singer: Fionnuala McCarthy. Singer: Carola H枚hn. Singer: Heike Wessels. Singer: Wilke te Brummelstroete. Singer: Renate Spingler. Singer: Kismara Pessatti. Singer: Nicole Piccolomini. Orchestra: Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Conductor: Marek Janowski.
      • PENTATONE.
  • Lucian Msamati's Choice No.2

    • George Frideric Handel

      Zadok the priest, HWV 258

      Choir: Choir of Westminster Abbey. Orchestra: The English Concert. Performer: Simon Preston. Director: Trevor Pinnock.
      • Handel: Coronation Anthems: Preston, Pinnock.
      • Archiv.
      • 1.
  • Jean鈥怋aptiste Lully

    Le Triomphe de L鈥橝mour: Ouverture

    Ensemble: Musica Antiqua K枚ln. Director: Reinhard Goebel.
    • ARCHIV.
  • MUsic in time: classical

    • Muzio Clementi

      Piano Sonata in E flat major, Op.12 No.4

      Performer: Howard Shelley.
      • HYPERION.
  • John Field

    Piano Quintet in A flat major H.34

    Performer: M铆膵e谩l O'Rourke. Performer: David Juritz. Performer: Jennifer Godson. Performer: Sarah-Jane Bradley. Performer: Julia Desbruslais.
    • CHANDOS.
  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: MICHAEL GIELEN

    • Franz Schubert

      Symphony No.9 in C major, 'Great'

      Orchestra: SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg. Conductor: Michael Gielen.
      • HANSSLER.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Three German Dances, K.605

    Orchestra: Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Michael Gielen.
    • SWR MUSIC.

Recording Rewind

The music played:

惭辞苍迟别惫别谤诲颈鈥
L'Orfeo: Toccata鈥
Le Concert d鈥橝stree鈥
Emmanuelle Ha茂m鈥(conductor)鈥
VIRGIN

Broadcast

  • Tue 4 Oct 2016 09:00

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.