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Wednesday - Sarah Walker with Wasfi Kani

With Sarah Walker. Including musical challenge; Music on Location: London. With pieces by Purcell; Artist of the Week: Edward Gardner, featured conducting Britten's Violin Concerto.

9am
Sarah sets the tone and mood of the day's programme with a range of music to intrigue, surprise and entertain.

9.30
Take part in today's musical challenge: listen to the clues and identify a mystery person.

10am
Sarah's guest this week is the opera impresario Wasfi Kani. Wasfi is one of the UK's leading opera organisers and fundraisers, and the founder of Pimlico Opera and Grange Park Opera. After studying music at the University of Oxford she worked as a computer programmer in the City, before realising she wanted to return to music. She founded Pimlico Opera with the aim of using music and drama for the public good, and it was one of the first opera companies to specialise in performing in unusual places, such as hospitals, banks and prisons. Grange Park Opera has become one of the UK's most successful summer opera companies and is currently enjoying its first season at a brand-new theatre in Surrey. As a pianist, violinist and conductor, much of the music that Wasfi has chosen for the week is music that she's played herself, including music by Schubert, Richard Strauss and Mozart.

10.30
Music on Location: London
Henry Purcell was born and raised no more than 500 metres from Westminster Abbey, where he was later Organist and is now buried. Sarah explores some of the music Purcell wrote for this, one of London's most famous churches.

11am
Sarah's featured artist is one of Britain's most celebrated living conductors, Edward Gardner. Gardner is currently Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, but has spent much of his career in the opera house. From 2007-2015 he was Music Director at English National Opera and during this time he won the RPS Conductor of the Year Award and an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera. His big breakthrough came when he stood in at short notice for a r茅p茅titeur at the Salzburg Festival, and from there he went on to be Music Director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. He regularly works with the National Youth Orchestra and the 91热爆 Symphony Orchestra (91热爆SO) with whom he led the Last Night of the Proms in 2011. Sarah's chosen four of Gardner's recordings with the 91热爆SO: recordings of Walton's Symphony No.1, Szymanowski's Symphony No. 4 'Symphonie Concertante' (with pianist Louis Lortie), Britten's Violin Concerto with Tasmin Little, and Lutos艂awski's song cycle Chantefleurs et Chantefables with soprano Lucy Crowe. She's also chosen his recording of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder (Part III) with an array of musicians drawn from Norway, Sweden and the UK.

Britten
Violin Concerto
Tasmin Little (violin)
91热爆 Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner (conductor).

3 hours

Music Played

  • Aram Khachaturian

    Gayane: Lezghinka

    Orchestra: Boston Pops Orchestra. Conductor: Arthur Fiedler.
    • RCA LIVING STEREO.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Rondo in C major, Op 51 No 1

    Performer: Alfred Brendel.
    • PHILIPS.
  • Fran莽ois Couperin

    Les Concerts Royaux: Second Concert

    Orchestra: Le Concert des Nations. Director: Jordi Savall.
    • ALIA VOX.
  • Sergey Prokofiev

    Semyon Kotko (Introduction)

    Orchestra: Russian National Orchestra. Conductor: Mikhail Pletnev.
    • Russian Overtures: Russian National Orchestra, Pletnev.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 4.
  • Gabriel Faur茅

    Papillon

    Performer: Andreas Brantelid. Performer: Bengt Forsberg.
    • BIS.
  • Louis Andriessen

    Un beau baiser

    Choir: Ars Nova Copenhagen. Conductor: Paul Hillier.
    • First Drop.
    • Cantaloupe Music.
    • 601.
  • Robert Schumann

    Manfred (Overture)

    Orchestra: Orchestra Mozart. Conductor: Claudio Abbado.
    • DG.
  • John Tavener

    Dhyana - a song for Nicola

    Performer: Nicola Benedetti. Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Andrew Litton.
    • DG.
  • Wasfi Kani's First Choice

    • William Kroll

      Banjo and Fiddle

      Performer: Jascha Heifetz. Performer: Emanuel Bay.
      • RCA.
  • Wasfi Kani's Second Choice

    • Robert Schumann

      Liederkreis, Op.39: Mondnacht

      Performer: Jennifer Partridge. Singer: Ian Partridge.
      • CLASSICS FOR PLEASURE.
  • Wasfi Kani's Third Choice

    • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

      The Marriage of Figaro: Overture & opening Duettino

      Singer: Patrizia Ciofi. Singer: Lorenzo Regazzo. Orchestra: Concerto K枚ln. Conductor: Ren茅 Jacobs.
      • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • John Adams

    Tromba lontana

    Performer: Jonathan Holland. Performer: Wesley Warren. Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle.
    • EMI.
  • Music on Location: London (Westminster Abbey)

    • Henry Purcell

      Complete Service in B flat, Z.232: Benedicte; Benedictus

      Performer: Robert Quinney. Choir: Choir of Westminster Abbey. Conductor: James O鈥橠onnell.
      • HYPERION.
  • Francis Poulenc

    Clarinet Sonata

    Performer: Michel Portal. Performer: Pascal Rog茅.
    • Poulenc: Solo Piano & Chamber Works: Pascal Roge.
    • Decca.
    • 4.
  • Artist of the Week: Edward Gardner

    • Benjamin Britten

      Violin Concerto

      Orchestra: 91热爆 Philharmonic. Conductor: Edward Gardner.
      • CHANDOS.
  • Dmitry Shostakovich

    Waltz of the Flowers (Moscow Cheryomushki)

    Orchestra: Residentie Orkest. Conductor: Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky.
    • CHANDOS.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Piano Sonata in E major, Op 109

    Performer: Igor Levit.
    • Sony.
  • Robert Lucas Pearsall

    Lay a garland on her hearse

    Choir: Royal Holloway Choir. Conductor: Rupert Gough.
    • Hyperion.

Musical Challenge: Mystery Person

The Mystery Person was the contemporary composer John Tavener.

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