Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Tuesday - Rob Cowan with Noma Dumezweni

With Rob Cowan. My Favourite Baroque Concertos; Music in Time: Florence B Price: Concerto in One Movement; Artist of the Week: Emil Gilels, featured in Schubert: Sonata in D.

9am
My favourite...Baroque concertos. Rob's selection includes a lively bassoon concerto by Vivaldi, a festive trumpet concerto by Torelli, and Bach's darkly intense Triple Concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord. He also chooses a pair of Concerti Grossi: the final (and Rob believes the loveliest) of Handel's Op. 6, and one of the Corelli set that was Handel's inspiration.

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

10am
Rob's guest this week is the actress Noma Dumezweni. Noma is currently starring as Hermione in the West End play Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, the much-anticipated stage sequel to J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. She has recently played the title role in Linda at the Royal Court Theatre, receiving outstanding reviews. Her other theatre credits include Feast and Belong also for the Royal Court, A Human Being Died That Night at the Hampstead Theatre, The Fugard and The Market theatres in South Africa and Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York and Macbeth, Breakfast With Mugabe, The Winter's Tale and Romeo and Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company. She won the Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role for A Raisin In The Sun for the Young Vic at the Lyric Hammersmith. Her film credits include The Incident, Dirty Pretty Things and Macbeth, and she has made appearances in television series including Casualty, Capital and Dr Who. Noma will be talking about her career and sharing a selection of her favourite classical music throughout the week.

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
This week, Rob places Music in Time, and explores the music of six pioneering African and African-American composers. Florence B Price (1887-1953), born in Little Rock, was a concert pianist, organist and composer - the first African-American woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra. In 1930 she gave the premiere of her Concerto In One Movement, a virtuoso and romantic work, ending with a lively dance in the style of a Juba.

11am
Rob's artist of the week is the pianist Emil Gilels. Gilels was born in Odessa on 19th October 1916, and Rob celebrates the centenary of this great musician with dazzling recordings demonstrating the breadth of his repertoire. Gilels married power to finesse like no other pianist. His Mozart was elegant and incisive, his Beethoven rigorously argued, his Schubert graced by charm and clarity, and his Chopin, ever attentive to the music's emotional and intellectual aspects, making him in Rob's eyes the complete musician.

Schubert
Sonata in D, D850
Emil Gilels (piano).

3 hours

Music Played

  • Florence Price

    Organ suite no.1 (Toccato)

    Performer: Kimberly Marshall.
    • GAMUT CLASSICS.
  • My Favourite...Baroque Concertos

    • Antonio Vivaldi

      Bassoon Concerto in C major, RV467

      Performer: Gustavo Nunes. Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
      • Pentatone.
  • Joseph Haydn

    Fantasia in C major, Hob.XVII:4

    Performer: Alfred Brendel.
    • Philips.
  • John Ireland

    The Forgotten Rite

    Orchestra: Halle. Conductor: John Wilson.
    • HALLE.
  • Jean Fran莽aix

    L'heure du berger

    Performer: Susan Tomes. Ensemble: Gaudier Ensemble.
    • HYPERION.
  • Antonio Salieri

    La Locandiera (Overture)

    Orchestra: London Mozart Players. Conductor: Matthias Bamert.
    • Chandos.
  • Percy Grainger

    Molly on the Shore

    Ensemble: Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble.
    • CHANDOS.
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    The Nutcracker: Russian Dance

    Performer: Martha Argerich. Performer: Nicolas Economou. Music Arranger: Nicolas Economou.
    • DG.
  • Duke Ellington

    The Nutcracker Suite: The Volga Vouty (Russian Dance)

    Orchestra: Duke Ellington Orchestra.
    • COLUMBIA.
  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: EMIL GILELS

    • Edvard Grieg

      Lyric Pieces Op.47: No.3 Melodie

      Performer: Emil Grigoryevich Gilels.
      • DG.
  • NOMA DUMEZWENI'S CHOICE NO.1

    • Giuseppe Verdi

      Un ballo in maschera, Act 1: 'Re dell'abisso, affrettati'

      Singer: Marian Anderson. Singer: Jan Peerce. Choir: Metropolitan Opera Chorus. Orchestra: Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Conductor: Dimitri Mitropoulos.
      • RCA.
  • NOMA DUMEZWENI'S CHOICE NO.2

    • Gustave Charpentier

      Louise: 'Depuis le jour'

      Performer: Arp谩d S谩ndor. Singer: Dorothy Maynor.
      • BRIDGE.
  • NOMA DUMEZWENI'S CHOICE NO.3

    • Jerome Kern

      Showboat: 'I still suits me'

      Singer: Paul Robeson. Singer: Elisabeth Welch. Orchestra: New Mayfair Orchestra. Conductor: Clifford Greenwood.
      • CONIFER.
  • MUSIC IN TIME

    • Florence Price

      Piano Concerto

      Performer: Karen Walwyn. Orchestra: New Black Music Repertory Ensemble. Conductor: Leslie B.Dunner.
      • Albany records.
  • Traditional Spiritual

    My Soul's been anchored in the Lord

    Music Arranger: Florence Price. Singer: Marian Anderson. Performer: Franz Rupp.
  • Henry Purcell

    The Fairy Queen: Second Musick - Air

    Orchestra: The Symphony of Harmony and Invention. Conductor: Harry Christophers.
    • CORO.
  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: EMIL GILELS

    • Franz Schubert

      Piano Sonata in D major, D.850

      Performer: Emil Grigoryevich Gilels.
      • RCA.
  • Jan Dismas Zelenka

    Capriccio No.1 in D major

    Performer: Alexander Van Wijnkoop. Ensemble: Camerata Bern. Director: Alexander Van Wijnkoop.

Imperfect Harmony

The music played:

Grainger
Molly on the Shore
Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble
CHANDOS

Tchaikovsky (arr. Economou)
The Nutcracker: Trepak
Martha Argerich & Nicolas Economou (piano)
DG

Broadcast

  • Tue 18 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.