The Classic FM Concert with John Suchet

John shares more of the works that he thinks deserve a vote in the Classic FM Hall of Fame 2021, including Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto in D major, flawlessly played by Nicola Benedetti. This is followed by Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings, which hasn’t been in the chart since 2002, in a recording by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under the late great Neville Marriner.

Sogno di Volare by the exciting American composer Christopher Tin, which first featured as the main theme for the video game Civilization VI, has now come to be celebrated as a choral piece in its own right.The final piece in the programme is Florence Price’s Symphony No.1, which in 1933 was the first symphony by a black women to be performed by a major symphony orchestra.

Aaron Copland
Hoe down
(From Rodeo - 4 Dance Episodes)
Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra

Antonio Vivaldi
Violin Concerto in D major RV.208
Violin: Nicola Benedetti
Christian Curnyn conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Antonín Dvořák
Serenade for Strings Op. 22
Neville Marriner conducts the Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Felix Mendelssohn
Piano Concerto No.1 in G minor Op. 25
Piano: Saleem Ashkar
Riccardo Chailly conducts the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

Christopher Tin
Sogno di Volare
Organ: Anna Lapwood
William Spaulding conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Opera Chorus

Florence Price
Symphony No.1 in E minor
John Jeter conducts the Fort Smith Symphony

John presents the final evening of a weeklong survey of music not currently in the Classic FM Hall of Fame, which may inspire listeners who have a few weeks left to make their choices for this year’s chart.

The programme opens with Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, before Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto, which has never made it into the top 300, played by Isata Kanneh-Mason on her debut solo album.

Elsewhere, there’s a Haydn symphony, a peaceful choral favourite, and a beautiful wind instrument showcase; Mozart’s Gran Partita Serenade.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Coriolan Overture Op. 62
Riccardo Chailly conducts the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

Clara Schumann
Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 7
Piano: Isata Kanneh-Mason
Holly Mathieson conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Cesar Franck
Panis Angelicus
Stephen Cleobury conducts the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge

Joseph Haydn
Symphony No.94 in G major
(‘Surprise’)
Howard Shelley conducts the Swiss-Italian Orchestra

Gabriel Fauré
Après un rêve (Op. 7 No.1)
Cello: Gautier Capuçon
Douglas Boyd conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Paris

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Gran Partita Serenade K.361
Christopher Hogwood conducts Amadeus Winds

John marks St David’s Day with an evening of music written by Welsh composers, inspired by the Cambrian countryside, and performed by just some of the talented musicians that Wales has produced.

To begin, a traditional Welsh lullaby, Suo Gân, before a performance by one of Wales’ most commercially successful exports, Katherine Jenkins, and a suite by Grace Williiams, who was the first British woman to score a feature film. Elsewhere, there’s beautiful music for harp by former Soft Machine rocker Karl Jenkins, a tribute to Welsh folk music by Vaughan Williams, and star soloist Bryn Terfel takes to the stage.

Traditional
Suo Gân
Iain Sutherland conducts the Iain Sutherland Concert Orchestra

Traditional
Lisa Lan
Soprano: Katherine Jenkins
Nicholas Dodd conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra

Grace Williams
Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes
Andrew Penny conducts the Royal Ballet Sinfonia

George Frideric Handel
‘Where’er you walk’
Bass-baritone: Bryn Terfel
Charles Mackerras conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Ralph Vaughan Wiliams
Prelude founded on Welsh Hymn Tune ‘Rhosymedre’
Richard Hickox conducts the Royal Northern Sinfonia

Karl Jenkins
Over the Stone
Harp: Catrin Finch
Karl Jenkins conducts the London Symphony Orchestra

Arwel Hughes
Fantasia in A minor
Owain Arwel Hughes conducts Camerata Wales

Traditional
All Through the Night
Tenor: Aled Jones
Iain Tilley conducts the New Zealand Sinfonietta

Alun Hoddinott
Folksong Suite
Andrew Penny conducts the Royal Ballet Sinfonia

Claude Debussy
Arabesque No.1 in E major
Harp: Osian ellis

Edward German
Welsh Rhapsody
Alexander Gibson conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Paul Mealor
Peace
Nigel Short conducts Tenebrae

To mark Bedřich Smetana’s birthday, John presents an evening of Czech-inspired music. To begin, one of his most celebrated works; the overture to The Bartered Bride, which is often considered to be the first great Czech opera, followed by Mozart’s ‘Prague’ symphony, which was premiered in the capital on the great composer’s first visit there, at a concert described by Mozart as “one of the happiest of my life”.

There’s also a piano concerto by Mozart’s successor at the court of Emperor Franz II, Koželuch, and a set of variations written by Dvořák in response to a challenge from a friend.

Bedřich Smetana
The Bartered Bride - Overture
Darrell Ang conducts the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony No.38 in D major K.504
(‘Prague’)
Riccardo Muti conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Julius Fučík
Danube Legends Op. 233
Neeme Järvi
conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Leopold Koželuch
Piano Concerto No.5 in E-flat major
Howard Shelley directs the London Mozart Players from the keyboard

Antonín Dvořák
Symphonic Variations Pus 78
Ivan Fischer conducts the Budapest Festival Orchestra

This evening’s concert features a suite of music from Bizet’s opera Carmen, which premiered on this day in 1875 to a famously disastrous reception. Before then, the Cologne Piano Duet play Czerny’s Concerto for Piano Duet, one of over a thousand pieces written by this extraordinarily productive composer.

Later, there’s a fiery scherzo by Clara Schumann performed by Sophie Pacini, and Respighi’s 3 Botticelli Pictures, inspired by three paintings by the Italian master: Spring, Adoration of the Magi, and Birth of Venus.

Edward Elgar
Introduction & Allegro for Strings Op. 47
English Chamber Orchestra

Carl Czerny
Concerto for Piano Duet Op. 153
Cologne Piano Duet
Florian Merz conducts the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra

Georges Bizet
Carmen Suite No.2
Pablo Gonzalez conducts the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra

Antonio Vivaldi
‘Nulla in Mundo Pax Sincera’
Soprano: Emma Kirkby
Christopher Hogwood conducts the Academy of Ancient Music

William Boyce
Symphony No.4 In F major
Trevor Pinnock conducts The English Concert

Clara Schumann
Scherzo No.2 in C minor Op. 14
Piano: Sophie Pacini

Ottorino Respighi
3 Botticelli Pictures
Geoffrey Simon conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra

John turns back the clock this evening for an evening of 1960s nostalgia – with a classical twist.

The centrepiece of the programme is The Doors Concerto, which features some of the band’s best-loved hits, rearranged for violin and orchestra by Jaz Coleman, and performed by the violin’s enfant terrible, Nigel Kennedy, who Coleman says “reincarnate[ed] the soul of Jim Morrison on a single string”. To compliment the work, there’s a theme from one of the most iconic films of the decade, and Miloš Karadaglić plays his own arrangement of Simon and Garfunkel’s 1965 single The Sound of Silence.

Ennio Morricone
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Main Theme
Ennio Morricone conducts a studio orchestra

Paul Simon
The Sound of Silence
Guitar: Miloš Karadaglić
12 Ensemble

The Doors & Jaz Coleman
The Doors Concerto
Violin: Nigel Kennedy
Peter Scholes conducts the Prague Symphony Orchestra

David Bowie
Space Oddity
Piano: Rick Wakeman

Leonard Bernstein
West Side Story – Symphonic Dances
Leonard Bernstein conducts the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

Jon Lord
Evening Song
Piano: Jon Lord
Clark Rundell conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra