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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: Monday - Rob Cowan with Kasper Holten

Monday - Rob Cowan with Kasper Holten

10/04/2017

BBC Radio 3 - Essential Classics, Monday - Rob Cowan with Kasper Holtensearch

Artist of the Week: tenor Franco Corelli. With Puccini's E lucevan le stelle (Tosca).

With Rob Cowan. Including Musical challenge; Music in Time: CPE Bach; Artist of the Week: tenor Franco Corelli, featured in a performance of Puccini's E lucevan le stelle (Tosca).

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 our daily musical challenge: identify a piece of music played in reverse.    

10am
Rob's guest this week is Kasper Holten, the departing Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Kasper's passion for opera began aged nine after hearing Bizet's Carmen and he went on to train with directors such as Harry Kupfer, John Cox and David Pountney. Aged 27 he was appointed Artistic Director of Royal Danish Opera, where he directed productions of Weber's Der Freischütz, Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre and Wagner's Ring Cycle; he held the position for 11 years. In 2011 he became the youngest ever Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he has since directed Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Szymanowski's Król Roger as well as overseeing successes such as George Benjamin's Written on Skin. As well as discussing his work as a director and his life, Kasper shares some of his favourite classical music by composers including Wagner, Szymanowski and Mozart. 

10.30am  
Music in Time: Classical 
Rob's in the early Classical period exploring a rather novel concerto. CPE Bach took full advantage of the developments in keyboard technology - from harpsichord to fortepiano - that were happening at this time by writing a concerto for both instruments! 

11am  
Artist of the Week: Franco Corelli 
Rob's Artist of the Week is the tenor Franco Corelli, one of the most famous and feted tenors of the 20th century. Growing up in Italy, Corelli was set to be a naval engineer like his father, but when a musical friend heard him sing, he was encouraged to attend a conservatoire. It wasn't completely plain sailing for Corelli, but he was determined, and even taught himself by listening to recordings of Enrico Caruso and Beniamino Gigli. He made his La Scala debut alongside Maria Callas and enjoyed a successful international career thereafter; he made over 250 appearances at New York's Metropolitan Opera alone. Corelli's repertoire included most of the major tenor roles in operas by composers such as Puccini, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Giordano, and Bizet - we'll hear Corelli in well-loved arias from Tosca, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Andrea Chénier and Carmen during the week, as well as popular arias such as Granada, and excerpts from Verdi's Requiem and Rossini's Petite messe solennelle.
  
Puccini 
Tosca: "E lucevan le stelle" 
Franco Corelli (tenor) 
Philharmonia Orchestra 
Franco Ferraris (conductor).

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