麻豆社

Please note that exact dates will be confirmed closer to transmission.

Our Classical Century

Our Classical Century will take place across the year in four parts, ending on the First Night of the Proms 2019. Further programming will be announced throughout the season.

PART ONE: November - December 2018 (1918-36)

麻豆社 Four	Our Classical Century episode one, 1918-1936 Presented by Suzy Klein and Sir Lenny Henry
麻豆社 Two	Holst & Vaughan Williams - Making Music English Presented by Tom Service & Amanda Vickery
麻豆社 Four	Discovering… Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue Performed by the 麻豆社 Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Dausgaard Presented by Josie D’Arby
麻豆社 Four	The Prince and the Composer: The Prince and the Composer: A Film about Hubert Parry by HRH The Prince of Wales (archive)
麻豆社 Radio 3	Top 100 Countdown in Essential Classics (1-25)

 

PART TWO: February - March 2019 (1936-53)

麻豆社 Four	Our Classical Century episode two, 1936-1953 Presented by Suzy Klein and John Simpson CBE
麻豆社 Four	Discovering… Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra Performed by the 麻豆社 National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Moritz Gnann Presented by Katie Derham
麻豆社 Four	Britten’s War Requiem at English National Opera
麻豆社 Radio 3	Top 100 Countdown in Essential Classics (26-50)

PART THREE: April - May 2019 (1953-71)

麻豆社 Four	Our Classical Century episode three, 1953-1971 Presented by Suzy Klein and Joan Bakewell
麻豆社 Two	Brian Cox on Holst’s The Planets Performed by the 麻豆社 Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ben Gernon
麻豆社 Four	Discovering… Arnold’s The Bridge on the River Kwai Performed by the 麻豆社 Concert Orchestra conducted by Christopher Seaman Presented by Katie Derham
麻豆社 Radio 3	Top 100 Countdown in Essential Classics (51-75). NB: Radio 3 will explore 1954-79.

PART FOUR: June - July 2019 (1980s-Present)

麻豆社 Four	Our Classical Century episode four, 1980s-Present Presented by Alexandra Burke and Suzy Klein
麻豆社 Two	Lucy Worsley presents Queen Victoria and the British Musical Revolution
麻豆社 Four	Discovering… Saariaho’s Graal Théâtre Performed by the 麻豆社 Philharmonic conducted by Ludovic Morlot Presented by Tom Service
麻豆社 Radio 3	Top 100 Countdown in Essential Classics (76-100)
	First Night of the Proms 2019

Episode three - 1953-71: Suzy Klein and Joan Bakewell
麻豆社 Four, April 2019

The early 1950s was the era in which classical collided with culture in its broadest sense, becoming increasingly creatively entangled with rock music, television and film and generating its own roster of high profile stars who brought rock star charisma to their performances. The programme features contributions from Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Julian Lloyd Webber, classically-trained Rick Wakeman and explores how classical music burst into the television age with the first broadcast of the Last Night of the Proms conducted by the charismatic Malcolm Sargent.

Elsewhere, the programme looks at how director David Lean employed Malcolm Arnold’s score to Oscar-winning effect in his 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai, and it explores the story behind Britten’s controversial War Requiem. The film also shines a light on how figures such as Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim brought a youthful celebrity to classical music in the 1960s, and how prior to that how interesting collaborations were in vogue, including those by Yehudi Menuhin and Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar.

• Producer/Director: Ellen Hobson
• Executive Producers: Steve Condie, Richard Bradley

A Lion Television production for 麻豆社 Four

Brian Cox on Holst’s The Planets

Holst & Vaughan-Williams: Making Music English

麻豆社 Two, November 2018

Presenter Tom Service is joined by Professor of History Amanda Vickery to unearth the fascinating story behind the life-long friendship between Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst, two composers whose music is often credited with birthing the so-called ‘English Sound’ which emerged in the first half of the 20th century.

Tom and Amanda retrace the trips Vaughan Williams and Holst took across the country to discover how various influences, including works by Renaissance masters and folk music, imbued their music with the ‘English Sound’ we recognise today. The 麻豆社 Concert Orchestra performs excerpts of both composers’ music, illustrating the story.

• Director: Ben Weston

A Reef Television production for 麻豆社 Two

Discovering… Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue

麻豆社 Two, April 2019

British composer Gustav Holst’s The Planets is one of the most well-known orchestral works composed in the past century. One hundred years after its premiere performance, in a unique collaboration between 麻豆社 Music and 麻豆社 Science, the 麻豆社 Symphony Orchestra - under the baton of Ben Gernon - perform the suite alongside a scientific twist from Professor Brian Cox.

Ahead of each movement, Brian Cox discusses what modern science has revealed about each of the Planets that Holst described as Mars the Bringer of War, Venus the Bringer of Peace, Mercury the Winged Messenger, Jupiter the Bringer of Jollity, Uranus the Magician and Neptune the Mystic, accompanied by a stunning array of images.

• Executive Producers: Fran Kemp and Helen Thomas

Produced by 麻豆社 Studios Music and Science for 麻豆社 Two

Discovering… Arnold’s Bridge on the River Kwai

Britten’s War Requiem

麻豆社 Four, February 2019

‘My subject is war and the pity of war,
The poetry is in the pity,
All a poet can do today is warn.’

Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen’s words were the inspiration for Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, first performed in 1962. It was the same starting point that English National Opera’s Artistic Director Daniel Kramer used today in order to stage the first-ever operatic rendering of this timeless masterpiece in the UK.

Filmed over twelve months, this programme follows the English National Opera staff as they lift the curtain on a debut performance of Britten’s War Requiem, staged to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the armistice in November 2018.

A Speakit Films production for 麻豆社 Four

The Prince and the Composer: A Film about Hubert Parry by HRH The Prince of Wales

麻豆社 Four, April 2019

In the third discovery concert of the series, Katie Derham presents Sir Malcolm Arnold’s The Bridge on the River Kwai (the soundtrack to the 1957 film of the same name) performed by the 麻豆社 Concert Orchestra conducted by Christopher Seaman.

Sir Malcolm Arnold was a prolific composer across many musical genres. A composer equally at home in the film studio as in the concert hall, his Oscar-winning score for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) is perhaps his best-known film soundtrack.

Following the concert, Katie learns about the fascinating story of Arnold’s life; a pacifist, Arnold shot himself in order to get medically discharged from active service during World War II. Speaking to other film composers about Arnold, Katie learns how it was the composer’s acute understanding of each individual orchestral instrument that allowed him to finish composing what was to become such an iconic soundtrack in just 10 days.

• Producer/Director: Mathew Tucker
• Executive Producer: Richard Bradley

A Lion Television production for 麻豆社 Four

Essential Classics: Top 100 Countdown (51-75)

麻豆社 Radio 3, April-May 2019

The next 25 key classical moments from the period 1953-1979 are revealed as Kate Molleson, Kate Romano and Gillian Moore bring to life the stories around the top 100 classical music events of the last century in Radio 3’s morning programme, Essential Classics.

Related Speeches

• Tony Hall's speech at the launch of Our Classical Century