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Linton Stephens showcases the best performances by ´óÏó´«Ã½ orchestras, choirs, ensembles and other great performing groups from Europe and around the globe.

The week on Classical Live is all about musical journeys, and we start with a big one: the complete second suite from Liszt’s Years of Pilgrimage, transporting us to Italy through the composer’s responses to the art, music and literature he experienced on his travels there. Our guide on this epic solo piano voyage is South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho, who performed the complete suite in recital at this summer’s Edinburgh International Festival. Also from the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, we hear current ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 New Generation Artists the Kleio Quartet performing music by Britten; and we’ve another current member of the flagship scheme - mezzo soprano Niamh O’Sullivan - singing Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel in recital in Birmingham.

Our centrepiece today features more musical travelling, with Daniele Gatti conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in orchestral excerpts from Wagner's Götterdämmerung – the climax of his monumental Ring Cycle of operas – including Siegfried’s Journey down the Rhine.

1303
Felix Mendelssohn
The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave) – overture (Op.26)
´óÏó´«Ã½ National Orchestra of Wales
Richard Hickox (conductor)

Franz Liszt
Years of Pilgrimage: Second Year - Italy
Seong-Jin Cho (piano)

1400
Benjamin Britten
3 Divertimenti for String Quartet
Kleio Quartet

Joseph Haydn
Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major
Andreas Brantelid (cello)
Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Andrew Manze (conductor)

Ralph Vaughan Williams
Songs of Travel (selection)
Niamh O’Sullivan (mezzo soprano)
Gary Beecher (piano)

1500
Richard Wagner
Götterdämmerung (orchestral excerpts)
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Daniele Gatti (conductor)

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