04/13/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/13/2022 10:37
Today BBC Radio 3 reveals highlights of its schedule for Spring 2022, with a celebration of live music from UK Festivals at its heart.
Alan Davey, Controller BBC Radio 3, says: "As we gear up to unveil the return of the Proms as we know them, after two strange and uncertain years for music and the arts, we can now rejoice in the arrival of the Spring and Summer seasons, with a fantastic choice of performances happening on stages in concert halls, outdoor venues and from our studios across the UK.
"Passion, emotion, drama and space to reflect; food for the heart and soul is the core of Radio 3 this Spring, with a season of exciting and stimulating programmes of music, drama, poetry and ideas. Music and Art for Everyone - that's the continuing spirit of BBC Radio 3 as we make sense of the world around us."
Highlights include:
BBC Radio 3 at Festivals across the UK
As the festival season returns in 2022, after two years of uncertainty and cancellations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, BBC Radio 3 celebrates live music with broadcasts from:
Hay Festival
In a series of four BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts (broadcast from Tuesday 21 to Friday 24 June), New Generation Artists past and present, among others, present works including music by Dvořák, Maria Theresia von Paradis, Amanda Maier, Mahler; Shulamit Ran, and Britten.
The series features performances by Aleksey Semenenko (violin) with Sam Haywood (piano); Mithras Piano Trio with Gary Pomeroy (viola); and soprano Ruby Hughes with Huw Watkins (piano), who perform four UK broadcast premieres of music by Leokadiya Aleksandrovna Kashperova.
A special episode Free Thinking at Hay: The Sea (Tuesday 31 May) explores the ideas of sea and ocean in a panel discussion hosted by Rana Mitter, with guests Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah, whose books have drawn on his birthplace Zanzibar and the refugees arriving at the Kent coast; climate scientist Professor Emily Shuckburgh, who worked at the British Antarctic Survey; and Joan Passey, author of Cornish Gothic, a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Aldeburgh Festival
Six Radio 3 In Concert programmes across 10 days on June (Tuesday 14 to Friday 24 June) present highlights of the 73rd edition of the Aldeburgh Festival, at Snape Maltings Concert Hall in Suffolk.
These include live broadcasts of performances by: BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Martyn Brabbins, joined by cellist Laura van der Heijden for Walton's Cello Concerto, and by baritone Roderick Williams and mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons for Britten's A Time There Was, with BBC Symphony Orchestra presenting music by Knussen and Mussorgsky.
Further concerts include City of Birmingham Concert Orchestra with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja in Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No.2; and New Generation Artists Timothy Ridout (viola), Alexander Gadjiev (piano), Ema Nikolovska (mezzo-soprano), Kunal Lahiry (piano), and the Quatuor Arod giving three morning concerts at the Britten Studio, recorded for future broadcast on Radio 3.
In Tune Special is live from Aldeburgh (Friday 17 June) and New Music Show broadcasts the premiere of Tom Coult's new opera Violet (Saturday 18 June) as captured at the Festival.
Cheltenham Festival
Introduced by Ian Skelly, a week of live Radio 3 Lunchtime concerts (Tuesday 12 to Friday 15 July) spotlights New Generation Artists, with mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston (mezzo soprano); pianists Kunal Lahiry, Tom Borrow and Alexander Gadjiev; Johan Dalene (violin) and the Quatuor Arod in repertoire from the Baroque to contemporary, including works by Purcell, Brahms, Britten, Mahler, Messiaen, Weir, Ravel, Copland, Boulanger, and Stravinsky among others.
York Early Music Festival
BBC Radio 3 In Concert presents The Sixteen with Harry Christophers, in a special exploration of choral repertoire Choral Pilgrimage 2022: Author Of Light (Tuesday 12 July); and a live broadcast of Gabrieli's A Venetian Coronation by Gabrieli Consort & Players led by Paul McCreesh (Wednesday 13 July).
This Classical Life at UK Festivals
Saxophonist and broadcaster Jess Gillam takes her award-winning Radio 3 programme This Classical Life - where she is joined by other musicians to discuss and suggest their favourite tracks from across the musical spectrum - on the road to UK festivals for the first time. She will be sitting down for a listening party with festival audiences to chat about the music they love most from any era, genre or style.
At a special edition recorded at Hay Festival on 30 May, her guest is acclaimed trumpeter Alison Balsom (broadcast on Saturday 4 June); and at Latitude Festival on 24 July the show will be staged at The Listening Post with a live audience of festival goers (broadcast on Saturday 30 July).
The Spring schedule also includes two This Classical Life: Live events, where Jess Gillam brings her show to life with two concerts featuring a host of musical stars at The Old Woollen in Leeds on 25 May with the BBC Philharmonic and conductor Ellie Slorach. Guests include pianist and composer Belle Chen, and multi-instrumentalist and composer Erland Cooper. Broadcast on Radio 3 In Concert, Wednesday 5 July.
The second is at Alexandra Palace Theatre in London on 21 June, with the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Jonathan Bloxham (guests include: trumpeter and former Radio 3 New Generation Artist Simon Höfele; soprano Ella Taylor; and award-winning composer, arranger and saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi speaking to Gillam on-stage, and the BBC Concert Orchestra performing one of Cassie's orchestral pieces. Broadcast on Radio 3 In Concert, Sunday 10 July.
WOMAD
BBC Radio 3 celebrates WOMAD At 40 with a weekend of special broadcasts, including performances by some of the headline acts, introduced by Lopa Kothari (Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 July). Details will be announced in due course.
Edinburgh International Festival: live weekday broadcasts (Monday 8 to Friday 26 August) in a special EIF slot, feature performances by some of the best-known names on the classical music scene, such as mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter; Chineke! Chamber Ensemble; Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Takács Quartet; Golda Schultz; and mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, amongst others.
BBC Radio 3's special month of programming Vaughan Williams Today celebrates the composer at 150 with a 20-hour Composer Of The Week series (Monday 2 to Friday 27 May).
Throughout May, BBC Radio 3 continues its focus on Ralph Vaughan Williams with Vaughan Williams Today - a series of special programmes which started in March 2022, marking 150 years since the composer's birth on 12 October 1872.
At the heart of the celebration, Donald Macleod presents an in-depth survey of Vaughan Williams' life and music in a four-week Composer Of The Week edition. With contributions from guests including pianist and academic Ceri Owen, conductor Martyn Brabbins, and musicologist Eric Saylor, the episodes reassess the composer's impact on British musical life, with discussions illustrated by playlists including much-loved pieces such as The Lark Ascending, as well as lesser-known works such as Vaughan Williams' early Fantasia For Piano And Orchestra.
In April and May, Vaughan Williams Today also includes BBC Radio 3 In Concert broadcasts of performances by BBC Philharmonic and the Hallé, as they join forces at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall to complete the cycle of Vaughan Williams' symphonies, which started in March 2022.
BBC Philharmonic, with conductor John Wilson, is joined by soprano Sarah Fox and the Ladies of the Manchester Choir for Sinfonia Antartica and A London Symphony (Tuesday 12 April); Wilson returns to the podium for Symphony No. 9 with the Hallé (Thursday 21 April), and Manchester's ensemble is led by Sir Mark Elder in the last two performances of the cycle: Symphony No. 6 and A Sea Symphony with soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha and baritone Roderick Williams (Tuesday 3 May); and Symphony No. 8 closing the cycle on Thursday 12 May.
Also part of Vaughan Williams Today in May are:
Giving listeners a place in the front row at some of the country's most prestigious opera houses for their much-anticipated new productions, Opera on 3 presents:
BBC Singers
A Choral Pilgrimage with Chief Conductor Sofi Jeannin, including music by Joby Talbot and a brand new collaboration between Joanna Marsh and electronics artist Glenn Scott (BBC Radio 3 In Concert, Friday 20 May);
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The ensemble is live from London's Barbican Centre with conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, presenting a programme including the UK premiere of Tristan Murail's BBC co-commission Piano Concerto, L'œil Du Cyclone with pianist François-Frédéric Guy; and with conductor Alpesh Chauhan for the closing concert in the orchestra's 2021-22 Barbican season, presenting the world premiere of Richard Baker's BBC commission The Price Of Curiosity; Rachmaninov's Fantasy On A Theme Of Paganini with pianist Stephen Hough; and Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 (Radio 3 In Concert, Friday 27 May).
The Spring season also includes a performance recorded at London's Barbican Centre, led by Nathalie Stuzmann, including Brahms's Naïne, with the BBC Symphony Chorus; and Tchiakovsky's Symphony No. 5, Pathétique (Radio 3 In Concert, Tuesday 31 May).
BBC Concert Orchestra
The ensemble is live from King's College, Cambridge, on Good Friday, led by conductor Daniel Hyde, in a programme featuring Haydn's Symphony no. 26 in D minor, Hob. I:26 Lamentatione and Mozart's Mass in C minor, K427 with sopranos Carolyn Sampson and Ruby Hughes, tenor Daniel Norman, bass David Shipley, and the Philharmonia Chorus (Radio 3 In Concert, Friday 15 April).
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
The ensemble's annual festival devoted to new and experimental music Tectonics - co-curated by the orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor Ilan Volkov with Alasdair Campbell (Counterflows) - returns to a live format after two editions on-line only due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Events take place in Glasgow's City Halls and Old Fruitmarket on Saturday 30 April and Sunday 1 May, including a focus on Glasgow-based electronic music pioneer Janet Beat; five world premieres including BBC commissions from Pascale Criton, Joanna Ward and Amber Preistley, and new works by Cassandra Miller and Silvia Tarozzi and James Weeks; collaborations between sound artist and producer Russell Haswell and viola player Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh, and bassist Joëlle Léandre with artist and musician Douglas R Ewart; and Japan-based sound artist FUJI||||||||||TA aka Yosuke Fujita in residence in the City Halls' Recital Room all weekend (highlights of the festival are broadcast on New Music Show on Saturday 7 May).
Radio 3 in Concert presents a live broadcast of the culmination of the ensemble's Nielsen Symphony Cycle, with Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard leading the First and Fourth Symphonies with the orchestra's Artist in Association Jörg Widmann playing Mozart's Clarinet Concerto (Thursday 19 May).
On Easter weekend, BBC Radio 3 marks the 100th anniversary of trailblazing double bassist, composer, bandleader, and all-round musical icon Charles Mingus, who was born on 22 April 1922.
In J to Z, Julian Joseph pays tribute Mingus' remarkable talent and examines his lasting impact on the jazz world, playing recordings from across his career, including some recently unearthed live material. He's joined by one of the musicians who knew Mingus best: altoist Charles McPherson. A long-standing friend and close collaborator during the 1960s and 70s, McPherson shares stories from their time together and insights into Mingus' genius (Saturday 16 April).
On Easter Sunday, 17 April, on Freeness Corey Mwamba shares the most adventurous records from across Mingus' decades-long career, such as Mingus Ah Um, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady and Mingus Plays Piano, and is joined by Mingus' son, Eric, to pay tribute to his enduring legacy of inventiveness and creativity. Jazz Record Requests has a programme packed with requests from listeners and some big jazz names for their favourite Mingus tracks.
Celebrated sitar player, composer and producer Anoushka Shankar takes listeners on a journey to tell the story of Indian classical music and what makes it 'classical'.
With roots thousands of years ago in the Vedic traditions of Hinduism and the dynasties and kingdoms that covered what is now modern day South Asia, Anoushka explores these ancient Hindu and Sanskrit roots, presenting the distinct traditions of Northern 'Hindustani' music, with its emphasis on improvisation, and its more composed Southern 'Carnatic' counterpart. She also shines a light on ragas and talas and the instruments, and through her own family's deep involvement, brings a personal perspective on how these traditions have developed over the centuries, influencing other musical genres in the world along the way.
A brand new weekly music mix show for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds fronted by Emeli Sandé, with the Brit and MOBO Award-winning musician exploring the music that brings her strength and inspiration. Delving into her own private record collection, this intimate show highlights the classical music Emeli connected with during lockdown alongside her favourite pop and electronic music.
All the works featured in this year's New Music Biennial (PRS Foundation and Southbank Centre's free festival comprising 20 pieces of music: 10 brand new works selected from an open call and ten pre-existing New Music Biennial works from across the last 10 years to mark its launch back in 2012) will be broadcast across BBC Radio 3's New Music Show at 10pm every Saturday evening from April to July. Programmes will include new works recorded in Coventry (where the festival will be from 22 to 24 April) and previously commissioned works, ahead of the festival's culmination at London's Southbank Centre 1-3 July.
Broadcast as part of the new works, the BBC Concert Orchestra presents the world premiere of Philip Herbert's BBC CO commission Towards Renewal, reflecting on what it would be like to move towards building a world without Covid, as well as accepting the nature of our present reality.
The ensemble is also featured amongst the broadcasts of previously commissioned works, with Gazelle Twin's The Power And The Glory, commissioned by the BBC CO for New Music Biennial 2019, and a collaboration between composer, producer and musician Gazelle Twin and composer Max de Wardener, bringing a blend of traditional musical concepts and futuristic pop from her album Pastoral to the full forces of the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Clemency Burton-Hill returns to BBC Radio 3 to present two special editions of Classical Fix tied in with Mental Health Awareness Week (Sunday 1 and Sunday 8 May).
Celebrated broadcaster Clemency Burton-Hill makes a welcome return to BBC Radio 3 to host two special editions of the award-winning podcast Classical Fix, talking to her guests about the playlists she's made for them and exploring the effects of music on mental health (broadcast on Sunday 1 and Sunday 8 May).
The two programmes are part of a station-wide focus on the 2022 Mental Health Awareness Week (Monday 9 to Sunday 15 May). Other BBC Radio 3 programmes marking the Week are Music Matters, which will be discussing musicians' mental health, and Free Thinking, looking at ASMR.
BBC Radio 3 this Spring also presents programming inspired by mindfulness and nature, including:
Petroc Trelawny presents the latest instalment of his weeks of Radio 3 Breakfast on the road, travelling the Great Glen in Scotland as it cuts through the Highlands from north east to south west.
Beginning at Cromarty, looking out to the Moray Firth towards Scandinavia, and ending in Fionnphort on the Isle of Mull looking out into Iona and across the Atlantic Ocean, Petroc travels along the 'Great Fault' - a geological fault line pulling the top of the country north eastwards. Along the way, travelling by Loch Ness, the Caledonian Canal and through Oban, he meets locals who help tell the story of how landscape and history intertwine to make culture and music.
Marking the centenary of T.S Eliot's The Waste Land, which was published in December 1922, Drama On 3 presents He Do The Waste Land in Different Voices, a new radio performance of the 20th century poetic masterpiece.
In this, the text has been studied as a piece of drama, with no narrative imposed on the poem, just a representation of the collection of voices within it. Featuring award-winning sound designer David Thomas, this is a faithful but creative response to T. S. Eliot's monumental poem. Sound is carefully selected to create a sense of a fractured time, with whispers of catastrophes across the 20th and 21st century, capturing a real sense of the unease of the post-WW1 period (when Eliot wrote the poem), and of our times. It is recorded on location in binaural sound.
The programme is preceded by a feature about the poem, with contributions by leading Eliot scholars Dr Lyndall Gordon, Professor Seamus Perry, Professor Mark Ford and Professor Steven Connor, and taking listeners into the Eliot archive.
This Spring, Drama On 3 also premieres special new radio adaptations of masterpieces of British and international theatre and literature. Amongst them:
Marking May Day, award-winning North East folk band The Young'uns present their production of The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff, recorded in front of a live audience in their hometown of Stockton-on-Tees. This is the true story of one man's journey from unemployment, through the Hunger Marches of the 1930s, the mass trespass movement and the Battle Of Cable Street, to fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War (Sunday 1 May).
Marking the BBC's relationship with poets and poetry in the corporation's centenary year, which through the decades has seen on air contributions from the voices of T.S. Eliot, Stevie Smith, Dylan Thomas, Seamus Heaney, Sylvia Plath, and Kamau Brathwaite amongst others, Radio 3's poetry and language programme The Verb, presented by Ian McMillan, broadcasts new commissions by thirty-eight contemporary poets (Glyn Maxwell, Moniza Alvi, Luke Wright, Daljit Nagra and Liz Berry amongst them). This new collection of poetry taking snapshots of the present is accompanied by poems from the archive in every episode over the next year.
The BBC is working with the Poetry Archive and the University of East Anglia to create a new centenary archive: 100 years of BBC & Poetry.
Composer Of The Week focuses on the 'one-hit wonders' of classical music (from Monday 18 April) and a Tour de France-linked series of 15 programmes spanning three weeks explores French composers Rameau, Hélène de Montergoult and Ravel (from Monday 4 July for three weeks). Other composes featured this Spring include Handel, Dvořák, Victoria, Beethoven and Monteverdi, with a week dedicated to 19th century French ballet music.
This Spring, Free Thinking explores a range of topics including the works of Shakespeare (Wednesday 20 April), May Day rituals (Thursday 28 April), the Tudors (Tuesday 24 to Thursday 26 May), Modernism, Bastille Day, and Rana Mitter in discussion with the authors shortlisted for The Wolfson History Prize 2022 (Tuesday 7 June).
This Spring, Radio 3's weekly series where guests from a variety of musical backgrounds explore a selection of music, features: pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (Saturday 23 April); Julian Lloyd-Webber (Saturday 21 May); accordionist Ksenija Sidorova (Saturday 28 May); and soprano Mary Bevan (Saturday 25 June), among others.
Michael Berkeley's guests sharing their musical passions and revealing which pieces bring them joy and sustain them through hard times include: ornithologist Tim Birkhead (17 April), fashion designer Osman Yousefzada (1 May), doctor Waheed Arian (15 May), musician and broadcaster Jarvis Cocker (29 May), former lady-in-waiting Anne Glenconner (5 June), author Francesca Simon (12 June), and psychotherapist Gwen Adshead (3 July), among others.
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