Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Tuesday - Rob Cowan with Tom Phillips

With Rob Cowan. Five Reasons to Love Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words; Beethoven's Grosse Fuge; Artist of the Week: David Willcocks, featured conducting Howells's Collegium Regale.

9am
A selection of music including '5 reasons to love... Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words'. Rob explores the tonal variety, subtle poetry, drama and aria-like expression of Felix Mendelssohn's intimate miniatures, in the hands of pianists including Livia R茅v, Vladimir Horowitz and Ignaz Friedman. He also showcases a pair of songs by Felix's sister Fanny, which demonstrate that her compositions matched his in their charm and originality.

9.30am
Take part in today's challenge: listen to the clues and identify the mystery music-related object.

10am
Rob's guest this week is the artist Tom Phillips. Tom is renowned for his portraiture, sculpture and collages, including his extraordinary ongoing project A Humument, an altered Victorian novel (the pages of which Tom paints, draws and collages over), 49 years in the making. An illustrator, set designer, librettist, composer, curator and collector, Tom is also the author of Music in Art, a survey of art inspired by music. Tom will be sharing a selection of his favourite classical music, every day at 10am.

10.30am
Rob places Music in Time as he visits the Classical period to hear Beethoven's Grosse Fuge for string quartet - a use of fugal form that sounds as daringly modern now as it did when an unsuspecting first audience felt its full force.

11am
Rob's Artist of the Week is Sir David Willcocks. Throughout the week Rob pays tribute to Sir David Willcocks: organist, composer, and the most celebrated British choral conductor of his generation, who died in September, aged 95. From 1957 until 1974 he was Director of Music at King's College, Cambridge; under his leadership and training the choir became internationally renowned for its precision, immaculate tuning and pure beauty of tone. Through their annual broadcasts of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, and Sir David's dazzling carol arrangements and descants, his name has become indelibly associated with Advent and Christmas. For 38 years he was also the musical director of the Bach Choir, conducting them in some eighty performances of the St Matthew Passion, as well as championing music by contemporary British composers. Rob surveys Sir David's glittering recorded legacy, showcasing some of his most acclaimed interpretations, and unearthing some rare gems.

Howells
Collegium Regale
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Andrew Davis (organ)
Sir David Willcocks (conductor).

3 hours

Last on

Tue 1 Dec 2015 09:00

Music Played

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Bagatelle in A flat major, Op 33 No 7

    Performer: Alfred Brendel.
    • PHILIPS.
  • Georg Philipp Telemann

    Suite in G major 'des Nations anciens et modernes'

    Ensemble: Collegium Musicum 90. Director: Simon Standage.
    • CHANDOS.
  • 5 REASONS TO LOVE...MENDELSSOHN'S SONGS WITHOUT WORDS

    • Felix Mendelssohn

      Song without words, Op.85 No.4, 'Elegie'

      Performer: Vladimir Horowitz.
      • SONY.
  • Felix Mendelssohn

    Spring Song, Op 62 No 6

    Performer: Vladimir Horowitz.
  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: SIR DAVID WILLCOCKS

    • Orlando Gibbons

      Drop, drop, slow tears

      Choir: Choir of King鈥檚 College, Cambridge. Conductor: Sir David Willcocks.
      • DECCA.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Z盲rtliche Liebe, WoO 123

    Performer: Christoph Berner. Singer: Werner G眉ra.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.
  • Hugo Wolf

    Italian Serenade

    Ensemble: Hagen Quartett.
    • DG.
  • Maurice Ravel

    La valse

    Orchestra: Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Yannick N茅zet鈥怱茅guin.
    • EMI.
  • Reinhold Moritzevich Gli猫re

    Impromptu

    Performer: Lavinia Meijer.
    • CHANNEL CLASSICS.
  • TOM PHILLIPS' CHOICE NO.1

    • Terry Riley

      In C (excerpt)

      Performer: Terry Riley. Performer: Margaret Hassel. Performer: Lawrence Singer. Performer: Darlene Reynard. Performer: Jon Hassell. Performer: Jerry Kirkbride. Performer: David Shostac. Performer: David Rosenboom. Performer: Stuart Dempster. Performer: Edward Burnham. Performer: Jan Williams.
      • SONY.
  • TOM PHILLIPS' CHOICE NO.2

    • Richard Wagner

      Siegfried, Act II Scene 2 (extract)

      Singer: Siegfried Jerusalem. Singer: Philip Kang. Singer: Hilde Leidland. Orchestra: Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele. Conductor: Daniel Barenboim.
      • TELDEC.
  • Music in Time: Classical

    • Ludwig van Beethoven

      Grosse Fuge, Op.133

      Ensemble: Yale Quartet.
      • VANGUARD CLASSICS.
  • Carl Maria von Weber

    Overture to Oberon

    Orchestra: Staatskapelle Berlin. Conductor: Otmar Suitner.
    • EDEL CLASSICS.
  • Bedrich Smetana

    Salon Polka No 3 in A flat major

    Performer: Sir Andr谩s Schiff.
    • WARNER.
  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: SIR DAVID WILLCOCKS

    • Herbert Howells

      Te Deum and Jubilate (Collegium Regale)

      Performer: Sir Andrew Davis. Choir: Choir of King鈥檚 College, Cambridge. Conductor: Sir David Willcocks.
      • DECCA.
  • Herbert Howells

    Psalm Prelude: 'Lo, the poor crieth'

    Performer: Sir David Willcocks.
    • DECCA.
  • Herbert Howells

    Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, 'Collegium Regale'

    Choir: Choir of King鈥檚 College, Cambridge. Performer: Sir Andrew Davis. Conductor: Sir David Willcocks.
    • DECCA.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Divertimento in F major, K 213

    Ensemble: Danzi Quintet.
    • Mozart: Wind Divertimentos.
    • SONY CLASSICAL.
    • 1.
  • Johannes Brahms

    Ballade in B major, Op 10 No 4

    Performer: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
    • DG.
  • ARTIST OF THE WEEK: SIR DAVID WILLCOCKS

    • Johann Sebastian Bach

      In Dulci Jubilo, BWV 729

      Performer: Sir David Willcocks.
  • Gabriel Faur茅

    Pie Jesu (Requiem, Op.48)

    Singer: Bob Chilcott. Performer: John Wells. Orchestra: New Philharmonia. Conductor: Sir David Willcocks.
    • EMI.

Mystery Object

Answer: Harp pedals

Broadcast

  • Tue 1 Dec 2015 09:00

Our Classical Century

Our Classical Century

Radio 3 explores 100 key musical moments that shaped us, from 1918 to the present day.

Time Travellers: the podcast

Time Travellers: the podcast

Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough presents quirky tales gathered from the corners of history.