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

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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: Wednesday - Rob Cowan with Ed Balls

Monday - Rob Cowan with Ed Balls

18/01/2017

Wednesday - Rob Cowan with Ed Balls

BBC Radio 3 - Essential Classics, Wednesday - Rob Cowan with Ed Balls

Includes Artist of the Week: Georg Solti, featured conducting Beethoven's Symphony No 5.

With Rob Cowan. Musical challenge; Music in Time: Tchaikovsky's The Tempest; Artist of the Week: Georg Solti, featured conducting Beethoven's Symphony No 5.

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

9.30am 
Take part in today's musical challenge: which location is being depicted in this piece of music? 

10am 
Rob's guest this week is the former front-bench politician, Ed Balls. After leaving a promising career in journalism, Ed became a Labour MP in 2005. He went on to be Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families under Gordon Brown and Shadow Chancellor under Ed Miliband. Since leaving politics Ed has found fame as a dancer on Strictly Come Dancing (remaining in the competition much longer than most expected!) and he's recently brought out an autobiography, Speaking Out, a record of a life in politics and a window into the world of Westminster. He played the violin for 15 years and in adult life became a keen pianist, working publicly through grade exams and other performance milestones. Throughout the week Ed will be sharing some of his favourite classical music, including pieces by Handel, Bruch and George Dyson.

10.30 
Music in Time: Romantic 
Today Rob is in the Romantic period, exploring Tchaikovsky's symphonic fantasy The Tempest, which offers a vivid commentary on Shakespeare's play. 

11am 
Artist of the Week 
Rob's artist of the week is the conductor Sir Georg Solti. Solti was one of the twentieth century's leading musicians, leaving a vast legacy of over 250 studio recordings, including 45 complete operas. Born in Hungary he studied under Béla Bartók and worked at the Hungarian State Opera as a répétiteur. After leading a number of German opera houses, Solti took the helm at London's Covent Garden and was later director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
In the 1950s and early 1960s Solti was a powerhouse rostrum presence, as the rather melodramatic photos of him in action would suggest, but a good deal more than that. Solti could bring gravitas to Beethoven, warmth to Mendelssohn, and a dramatic impulse to Wagner, adapting his approach to suit the style and mood of the music. Throughout the week Rob shares recordings from early in Solti's career including symphonies by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Mahler, ballet by Offenbach and the conclusion to Wagner's Das Rheingold.

Beethoven 
Symphony No.5 in C minor, Op.67 
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra 
Georg Solti (conductor).

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Wednesday - Rob Cowan with Ed Balls

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