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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: Thursday - Rob Cowan with Nicholas Hytner

Monday - Rob Cowan with guest Nicholas Hytner

27/07/2017

Thursday - Rob Cowan with Nicholas Hytner

BBC Radio 3 - Essential Classics, Thursday - Rob Cowan with Nicholas Hytnersearch

Rob Cowan's guest is highly acclaimed theatre, opera and film director Nicholas Hytner.

Discover definitive recordings of classical music with your trusted guide, Rob Cowan. His guest is highly acclaimed theatre, opera and film director Nicholas Hytner.

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

9.30  
Take part in today's musical challenge: two pieces of music are played together - can you identify them?

10am 
Rob's guest this week is the highly acclaimed theatre, opera and film director Nicholas Hytner. Until recently Nicholas was Director of the National Theatre, a role he held for nearly 12 years. He began his directing career in the opera house as an assistant at English National Opera, where he went on to lead productions of Wagner, Handel and Mozart. In 1989 he directed the first production of Miss Saigon in the West End and soon afterwards began his long association with the National Theatre. At the National, Nicholas directed the original theatre production of Alan Bennett's The History Boys before directing the much-loved film adaptation. This was by no means his first or last collaboration with Bennett; he directed both the stage and film productions of Bennett's The Madness of George III and The Lady in the Van. As well as discussing his work as a director, Nicholas shares his passion for classical music, choosing a selection of his favourite works by composers including Monteverdi, Sibelius and Britten.

10.30 
Music on Location: Rome 
Rob explores the life of a composer who spent most of his career in Rome: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. 

Double Take 
Rob explores the nature of performance by highlighting the differences between two interpretations of Chopin's Mazurka in A flat major, Op 59 No 2, by Pavel Kolesnikov and Maurizio Pollini

11am 
Rob's Proms Artist of the Week is the Scottish pianist Steven Osborne. Osborne is publicly acknowledged as one of the great pianists of his generation; in 2013 he was named Instrumentalist of the Year by The Royal Philharmonic Society and he is the recipient of two Gramophone awards. Osborne has given concerto performances and recitals around the world and is a regular at the BBC Proms; this year he is giving the premiere of a new piano concerto by Julian Anderson with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBCSSO). Osborne has a long-term relationship with the BBCSSO and this week Rob has chosen their recordings of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, Britten's Piano Concerto in D major, Stravinsky's Concerto for piano and wind instruments, and Manuel de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain. We'll also hear Osborne's award-winning recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. 

Stravinsky 
Concerto for piano and wind instruments
Steven Osborne (piano) 
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra 
Ilan Volkov (conductor) 
 

Producer SUSAN KENYON.

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.

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Thursday - Rob Cowan with Nicholas Hytner

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