Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Migrated podcast image for: The Essential Classics Interview

Essential Classics

Music: Classical

Refresh your morning with a great selection of classical music

Refresh your morning with a great selection of classical music, presented by Georgia Mann.

Essential Classics: Friday - Rob Cowan with Antony Beevor

essential-classics_wk37_e_alice-twomey.jpg

16/09/2016

Friday - Rob Cowan with Antony Beevor

BBC Radio 3 - Essential Classics, Friday - Rob Cowan with Antony Beevor

Artist of the Week: pianist Clara Haskil, featured performing Chopin's Piano Concerto No 2

With Rob Cowan. Including My Favourite Fugues; Music in Time: Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances; Artist of the Week: Clara Haskil, featured performing Chopin's Piano Concerto No 2.

9am
My favourite... Fugues
This week, Rob explores that ultimate test of a composer's mettle, the fugue - a musical form in which successive entries of the same melody weave together to create a complex contrapuntal fabric. Rob's favourites include fugues by Bach, Mozart, Walton and Shostakovich - plus a rarely-heard vocal one by the pianist Glenn Gould, aptly titled: "So you want to write a fugue?"

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

10am 
Rob's guest this week, sharing his favourite classical music every day, is the acclaimed military historian Antony Beevor. Famous for the best-selling histories of World War Two, Stalingrad and Berlin - The Downfall 1945, his works also include Crete: The Battle and the Resistance and The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-39. Antony studied at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and went on to serve with the 11th Hussars before becoming a writer, and this week he shares with Rob music including works by Vaughan Williams, Dvorak, Bach and Vivaldi. 

10.30am
Music in Time: Modern
Rob places Music in Time. Today the spotlight is on the Modern era and a work that swam against the prevailing tide of music history - Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, Op 45. Written in 1940, towards the end of the composer's life, Rachmaninov's magnificent orchestral swan song combines the regal splendour of Old Russia with the optimism and glamour of the New World. 

11am
Artist of the Week: Clara Haskil
Rob's Artist of the Week is the Romanian pianist Clara Haskil, one of the finest musicians of her generation, who endured a life of great suffering but was adored by a discerning public. Her precious discography has stood the test of time and includes many celebrated recordings - not least, Mozart concertos, heartfelt Schumann, sultry Falla, poetic Chopin, and Beethoven violin sonatas with Arthur Grumiaux, with whom she gave her last concert.

Chopin
Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor, Op 21
Clara Haskil (piano)
Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux
Igor Markevitch (conductor).

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Essential Classics

Friday - Rob Cowan with Antony Beevor

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3