Sunday Night is Music Night

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BBC Radio 2 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Light Programme.

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Music: Easy Listening, Soundtracks & Musicals

The world's longest-running live orchestral programme featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra

The world's longest-running live orchestral music programme on radio, featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra and broadcast from locations throughout the UK

BBC Concert Orchestra

Sunday Night is Music Night: Classics at the Movies

Classics at the Movies

BBC Radio 2 - Sunday Night is Music Night, Classics at the Movies

Ken Bruce presents a selection of classical music used in films.

Ken Bruce presents a selection of classical music used in films, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra.

From Apocalypse Now to Toy Story, Hollywood has regularly raided the works of the great composers for their blockbuster movie soundtracks. 

Of all the great classical composers, few lived to see their music used in the cinema. Sir William Walton wrote for the First of the Few, the Battle of Britain and for Olivier's great Shakespearean films, and Sir Malcolm Arnold wrote extensively for the screen including Bridge Over the River Kwai, and the Belles of St Trinians. 

Just imagine the tally of Oscars Mozart might have won had he been around in the cinema age. To date, his works have been used in the likes of Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Charlie's Angels, Star Trek, X Men, Fame, Out of Africa , When Harry Met Sally...and of course, his own 8 Academy Award winning biopic Amadeus.

Ken Bruce is shining his torch towards your seats and Christopher Warren-Green will be conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra. The programme includes Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries (Minions), Rossini's Largo Al Factotum (Mrs Doubtfire and Three Coins in the Fountain), Beethoven's Emperor Piano Concerto (Dead Poet's Society), Puccini's Nessun Dorma (Bend it Like Beckham), Bizet's Pearl Fishers Duet (Galipoli) and, of course, the classical repertoire's most famous piece of film music, Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto (Brief Encounter).

Tonight's guests include Ilona Domnich (soprano); Bonaventura Bottone (tenor); Simon Thorpe (baritone) and Valentina Lisitsa (piano).

Popcorn is not included....

During the interval we visit the Imperial War Museum's Real to Reel exhibition to explore 100 years of war films. This year marks the centenary of the Battle of the Somme and the release of a film shot by cinematographers, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell on the Western Front. Following its premiere in London on 10 August 1916 an estimated 20 million people attended their local cinemas to see the film - that was more than half the UK population at the time. Each screening was preceded by the reading of a letter from Lloyd George, exhorting the audience to "see that this picture, which is in itself an epic of self-sacrifice and gallantry, reaches everyone. Herald the deeds of our brave men to the ends of the earth. This is your duty." 

Curator Laura Clouting explains how war stories of love and loss, fear and courage, triumph and tragedy are transformed into movies for the big screen with illustrations from The Dam Busters, Where Eagles Dare, Saving Private Ryan and War Horse. We'll also hear how the silent film - The Battle of the Somme - has been transformed - 100 years on - by a brand new orchestral score by Laura Rossi.

First broadcast in 2016.

Amazing music. Played by an amazing line up.

Radio 2: Amazing music. Played by an amazing line-up. The home of great music, entertainment and documentaries

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