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Thursday - Rob Cowan with Nicholas Hytner

Discover definitive recordings of classical music with your trusted guide, Rob Cowan. His guest is highly acclaimed theatre, opera and film director Nicholas Hytner.

9²¹³¾â€¯
Rob 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: two pieces of music are played together - can you identify them?

10am
Rob's guest this week is the highly acclaimed theatre, opera and film director Nicholas Hytner. Until recently Nicholas was Director of the National Theatre, a role he held for nearly 12 years. He began his directing career in the opera house as an assistant at English National Opera, where he went on to lead productions of Wagner, Handel and Mozart. In 1989 he directed the first production of Miss Saigon in the West End and soon afterwards began his long association with the National Theatre. At the National, Nicholas directed the original theatre production of Alan Bennett's The History Boys before directing the much-loved film adaptation. This was by no means his first or last collaboration with Bennett; he directed both the stage and film productions of Bennett's The Madness of George III and The Lady in the Van. As well as discussing his work as a director, Nicholas shares his passion for classical music, choosing a selection of his favourite works by composers including Monteverdi, Sibelius and Britten.

10.30
Music on Location: Rome
Rob explores the life of a composer who spent most of his career in Rome: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Double Take
Rob explores the nature of performance by highlighting the differences between two interpretations of Chopin's Mazurka in A flat major, Op 59 No 2, by Pavel Kolesnikov and Maurizio Pollini

11am
Rob's Proms Artist of the Week is the Scottish pianist Steven Osborne. Osborne is publicly acknowledged as one of the great pianists of his generation; in 2013 he was named Instrumentalist of the Year by The Royal Philharmonic Society and he is the recipient of two Gramophone awards. Osborne has given concerto performances and recitals around the world and is a regular at the 91Èȱ¬ Proms; this year he is giving the premiere of a new piano concerto by Julian Anderson with the 91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra (91Èȱ¬SSO). Osborne has a long-term relationship with the 91Èȱ¬SSO and this week Rob has chosen their recordings of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, Britten's Piano Concerto in D major, Stravinsky's Concerto for piano and wind instruments, and Manuel de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain. We'll also hear Osborne's award-winning recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Stravinsky
Concerto for piano and wind instruments
Steven Osborne (piano)
91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov (conductor)

Producer SUSAN KENYON.

3 hours

Music Played

  • George Butterworth

    The Banks of Green Willow

    Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Conductor: Neville Marriner.
    • DECCA.
  • Nikolai Karlovich Medtner

    Sonata reminiscenza in A minor, Op.38 No.1

    Performer: Yevgeny Sudbin.
    • BIS.
  • Jules Massenet

    La vierge: Le dernier sommeil de la vierge; Extase de la vierge

    Singer: Véronique Gens. Orchestra: Munich Radio Orchestra. Conductor: Hervé Niquet.
    • ALPHA.
  • John Jenkins

    Fantasy à 5 No 16 in D major

    Ensemble: Fretwork.
    • VIRGIN.
  • Joseph Haydn

    Symphony no. 12 in E major H.1.12

    Orchestra: Il Giardino Armonico. Conductor: Giovanni Antonini.
    • ALPHA.
  • Ivor Gurney

    Sleep (5 Elizabethan Songs)

    Singer: Ian Bostridge. Performer: Julius Drake.
    • EMI.
  • Francisco Tárrega

    Rosita

    Performer: Göran Söllscher.
    • Cavatina.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • 4.
  • Nicholas Hytner's First Choice

    • Dmitry Shostakovich

      String Quartet No.8: I. Largo

      Ensemble: Fitzwilliam String Quartet.
      • DECCA.
  • Nicholas Hytner's Second Choice

    • Franz Schubert

      Octet, D.803: VI. Andante molto - Allegro

      Ensemble: Wiener Oktett.
      • DECCA.
  • Roxanna Panufnik

    Westminster Mass: Deus, Deus meus

    Choir: Westminster Cathedral Choir. Singer: Timothy Lacy. Orchestra: City of London Sinfonia. Conductor: James O’Donnell.
    • WARNER.
  • Music on Location: Rome

    • Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

      Missa Papae Marcelli (Agnus Dei)

      Choir: Oxford Camerata. Conductor: Jeremy Summerly.
      • NAXOS.
  • Double Take

    • Frédéric Chopin

      Mazurka in A flat major, Op.59 No.2

      Performer: Pavel Kolesnikov.
      • HYPERION.
    • Frédéric Chopin

      Mazurka in A flat major, Op.59 No.2

      Performer: Maurizio Pollini.
      • DG.
  • Félicien-César David

    The Last Judgement

    Orchestra: Brussels Philharmonic. Choir: Finnish Radio Choir. Conductor: Hervé Niquet.
    • EDICIONES SINGULARES.
    • ES1028.
    • 2.
  • Proms Artist of the Week: Steven Osborne

    • Igor Stravinsky

      Concerto for piano and wind instruments 

      Performer: Steven Osborne. Orchestra: 91Èȱ¬ Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Ilan Volkov.
      • HYPERION.
  • Edvard Grieg

    Two Elegiac Melodies, Op 34

    Orchestra: Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Neeme Järvi.
    • DG.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Orchestral Suite No.1 in C major, BWV1066

    Orchestra: Le Concert des Nations. Conductor: Jordi Savall.
    • ALIA VOX.

Musical Challenge: Imperfect Harmony

The two mashed-up pieces of music were 'Sleep' by Ivor Gurney & the prologue of Britten's opera Billy Budd.

Broadcast

  • Thu 27 Jul 2017 09:00

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