Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Thursday - Sarah Walker with Clare Balding

With Sarah Walker. My Favourite Beecham Lollipops; Music in Time: Mozart: Symphony No 31; Artists of the Week: Academy of Ancient Music, featured in Haydn's Symphony No 104.

9am
My favourite... 'Beecham lollipops'. This week Sarah shares a selection of orchestral encores favoured by the acclaimed British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. Beecham was a larger-than-life character whose musical gifts were matched by his acerbic wit and legendary anecdotes. Sarah chooses favourite lollipops including pieces by Chabrier, Delius, Sibelius, Grieg and Saint-Sa毛ns.

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

10am
Sarah's guest this week is the broadcaster and writer Clare Balding. Clare is best known for her expert coverage of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. She was the lead presenter in Rio this summer, and won the BAFTA Special Award and RTS Presenter of the Year Award for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Clare began broadcasting on radio in 1994 and became the main presenter of horse racing on 大象传媒 TV four years later. Since then her remit has broadened to cover almost every sport, from cricket and tennis to rugby and football. She is also the host of walking series Ramblings on Radio 4, and presents Good Morning Sunday on Radio 2, as well as having her own sports chat show, The Clare Balding Show. A bestselling author, Clare's autobiography My Animals and Other Family received critical and popular acclaim, and she has recently published her first children's book, The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop. Clare shares some of her favourite classical music with Sarah throughout the week, including Caliban's Dream featuring Dame Evelyn Glennie, which was written for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, Mozart's A Musical Joke, which Clare remembers as the soundtrack to the 大象传媒 showjumping coverage, and her favourite carol, In The Bleak Midwinter.

10.30am
Music in Time: Classical
Sarah places Music in Time. She travels back to the Classical era and listens to Mozart's so-called 'Paris' Symphony, written in 1778 when the composer was on an extended visit to the French capital. The composer's time in Paris was marked by tragedy, as his mother - who had accompanied him on the trip - died of an undiagnosed illness only a fortnight after the symphony's first public performance at the Concert Spirituel.

11am
Sarah's artists of the week are the trailblazing Academy of Ancient Music, founded in 1973 by Christopher Hogwood, whose rare combination of scholarship, musicianship and instrumental virtuosity shaped the orchestra's character from the start. Sarah's choices include the Academy's first recording, a disc of overtures by English composer Thomas Arne; both of their versions of Handel's Messiah, from 1980 and 2009; Mozart and Haydn's final symphonies; Schubert's 'Trout' Quintet, courtesy of The Academy of Ancient Music Chamber Ensemble and fortepianist Steven Lubin; and John Tavener's Eternity's Sunrise, written for the Academy with soprano Patricia Rozario in 1997.

Haydn
Symphony No. 104 in D, Hob I:104 'London'
The Academy of Ancient Music
Christopher Hogwood (conductor).

3 hours

Music Played

  • Percy Grainger

    Handel in the Strand

    Performer: Marc-Andr茅 Hamelin.
    • Grainger: Solo Piano Music: Marc-Andre Hamelin.
    • Hyperion.
    • 13.
  • Edvard Grieg

    Symphonic Dances, Op.64: No.2 Allegretto grazioso

  • Jan Dismas Zelenka

    Overture concertanti in F for 2 violins, 2 oboes, viola, bassoon & continuo

    Ensemble: Il Fondamento. Conductor: Paul Dombrecht.
    • PASSACAILLE.
  • Tan Dun

    Eight Memories in Watercolour, Op.1: No.1 Missing Moon

    Performer: Lang Lang.
    • DG.
  • Tan Dun

    Eight Memories in Watercolour, Op.1 (Floating Clouds)

    Performer: Lang Lang.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Tan Dun

    Eight Memories in Watercolour, Op.1: No.8 Sunrain

    Performer: Lang Lang.
    • DG.
  • Fr茅d茅ric Chopin

    Nocturne in B major, Op.62 No.1

    Performer: Vladimir Horowitz.
    • SONY.
  • Franz Liszt

    Hungarian Rhapsody No.11 in A minor

    Performer: Gary Graffman.
    • SONY.
  • Domenico Scarlatti

    Sonata in G major, Kk.455

    Performer: Yuja Wang.
    • DG.
  • Gy枚rgy Ligeti

    Studies - Bk.2 (The Sorcerer's Apprentice)

    Performer: Yuja Wang.
    • DG.
  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Symphony No.5 in C minor: IV. Allegro

    Orchestra: Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. Conductor: David Zinman.
    • ARS NOVA.
  • Antonio Vivaldi

    Let it Go

    Composer: Kristen Anderson鈥怢opez. Ensemble: The Piano Guys.
    • SONY.
  • William Byrd

    Domine, praestolamur for 5 voices

    Choir: The Sixteen. Conductor: Harry Christophers.
    • Ceremony and Devotion: Music for the Tudors.
    • Coro.
    • 7.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Symphony No. 31 in D major, K.297, 1st Mvt

    Orchestra: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Performer: Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
    • TELDEC.
  • Barbara Strozzi

    Mater Anna (Sacri musicali affetti, Libro 1)

    Singer: Mar铆a Cristina Kiehr. Ensemble: Concerto Soave.
    • Barbara Strozzi.
    • l'empreinte digitale.
    • 4-5.
  • Joseph Haydn

    Symphony No.104 in D major, 'London'

    Orchestra: Academy of Ancient Music. Conductor: Christopher Hogwood.
    • L'OISEAU LYRE.
  • Dmitry Shostakovich

    Cello Concerto No.1 in E flat major, Op.107

    Performer: Alisa Weilerstein. Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Pablo Heras鈥怌asado.
    • DECCA.

Mystery Person

Answer: Yuja Wang

Broadcast

  • Thu 29 Dec 2016 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.