John Humphrys, one of Britain’s best-known broadcasters, joins the Classic FM team to share his own stories and reflections of his favourite composers and their music, every Sunday, 4pm to 7pm.
With a successful career spanning six decades, John has presented on both radio and TV, and has anchored many of the country’s flagship news programmes, including the Today Programme.
John marks the birth of a French pianist who was the first female composer to be awarded the highest French order of merit, Legion d’honneur. Cecile Chaminade composed more than 350 works, and her Scarf Dance was one of the most popular piano pieces of the day, selling five million copies by the time of her death in 1944. John features a performance by Stephen Hough.
Then, he chooses a new recording from a young Korean violinist, Bomsori. Her first solo album features some of her favourite pieces from the stage, and John chooses her recording of the Meditation from Massenet’s opera Thais.
Sunday 15 August
John marks the anniversary of a British composer and conductor who made his Classic FM Hall of Fame debut this year, and in his day achieved such success that contemporary musicians referred to him as the “African Mahler”. John chooses Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto, played by Philippe Graffin, composed for the American violinist Maud Powell, and which was subject to rewrites as parts were lost during their transit to the United States.
Then, as we reach the middle of August, John features music from the 2021 Vienna Midsummer Concert, held in June in the Schoenbrunn Palace Gardens. The annual event was led by the British conductor Daniel Harding for the first time.
