Presented by Susan Sharpe.
FAIREST ISLE
1.00 New series
Masque into Opera Bruce Wood begins a three-part series exploring the beginnings of the British operatic tradition. The first programme includes excerpts from court masques from the time of James I and Charles I and describes how extravagant entertainments of this kind developed in the years before the Civil War. Producer Gwen Hughes
2.00 Schools
Playtime 2.15 Time to Move 2.35 Listen!
FAIREST ISLE
3.00 British Cities
Bradford
Dave Russell introduces a portrait of musical life in Bradford from the mid-19th century to the First World War. From a northern town with a population of 13,000 in 1800, Bradford had grown to a city of over
100,000 inhabitants by 1850. Civic pride ran high, and St George 's Hall was opened in 1853. The hall and the first Bradford festival opened with Mendelssohn's St Paul , and the subscription concerts there included the first Yorkshire performances of Wagner's Tannhauser overture. In 1907,
Sam Midgley began a series of chamber concerts for the working classes featuring a wide range of instrumental and vocal music including pieces by Bridge,
William Hurlstone , Quilter and Cyril Scott. Also included in the programme are operatic excerpts from
William Wallace 's Maritana and Balfe's The Bohemian Girl, as well as part songs by Bradford's famous musical son Frederick Delius.
Producer Mark Rowlinson