27 & 28 October

This weekend's Classical Break is a preview of the Bath Mozartfest, running from November 9 - 17.

Rupert Kirkham interviews Emma Cross and Julie Peacock, festival organisers, about some of the highlights of the festival and there's a competition to win 2 tickets to the prestigious Last Night on November 17th, where Hannu Lintu conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert at the Forum, which includes pianist Angela Hewitt performing the C minor Piano Concerto by Mozart. Listen for the details of how to enter the competition at the end of the programme.

The programme features music by Britten, Saint-Saens, Schumann, Bach, Mendelssohn, Haydn and  of course, Mozart.

Don't forget, this show is available for the next few weeks on Somer Valley FM's Listen Again service. Click the link on the right to hear this programme again.

20 & 21 October

It's another repeat I'm afraid this weekend. The programme was  first broadcast in April 2009 and the theme is Seasons. There are seasonal compositions by Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Debussy, Satie, Cesar Frank, Barber, Granados and Rachmaninov. The programme opens with the Comedy Overture, a piece for brass band, performed by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band.

As I remember, I recorded the programme 'as live' so the links are not quite as polished and professional as you're used to on this programme! (Who am I kidding?). Anyway, hope you enjoy it and the chances are we'll have a completely original programme next week - fresh from the pen of young Mike Burrows, my co-producer on Classical Break.

Don't forget, if you have any requests or you would like to make a Classical Break - we're here to help. This is a community radio station, so it's your right to bombard the airwaves with just about whatever you feel like as long as it's legal.

Take care and let's have your feedback! Just email rupertkirkham@somervalleyfm.co.uk and make us happy.

Rupert

13 & 14 October

This week's Classical Break takes folk music as its theme or rather classical music influenced by folk music. There is a small bit of 'finger in the ear' folk music from a Somerset-based folk group (apologies to them - no slur intended) and a lot of folk-inspired music by English composers such as Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams from the turn of the century.
Don't forget to reserve your tickets to the Bath Mozartfest events, from November 9th to 17th. We'll remind you two weeks before, as in Classical Break on October 27th and 28th we'll be talking to the organisers about the delights in store.
http://www.bathmozartfest.org.uk/
Enjoy!

6 & 7 October

Music for Children

In this week's repeat broadcast, a Classical Break first aired in 2010, Rupert interprets the dramatic setting of one of Tchaikovsky's best-known works - The Nutcracker Suite - and we play lots more music written with children in mind. This includes works by Debussy and Prokofiev. This programme is light and bouncy - enjoy!

If you missed Saturday's broadcast, tune in on Sunday at 8am or 3pm!

Comments please!
 

 

29 & 30 September

CB 107 Gaos

CB107 The First Symphony of Andres Gaos

A programme-repeat dedicated to Miss Suvi Burrows, who is celebrating liberation from formal schooling, and to Rupert and his wife, who are settling into their new home!

Andres Gaos (b A Coruna, Galicia, 1874-d at Mar Del Plata, Argentina, 1959)

A virtuoso-violinist, protege of Sarasate and pupil of Ysaye, Gaos was educated in Madrid, Paris and Brussels, and sought his fortune - and adventure - in the Caribbean and South America. This programme presents his first large-scale composition to survive, the First Symphony, begun on his recovery from nervous illness in 1899. Never published, perhaps never so much as played-through in his lifetime, this extraordinary piece, in three movements (modified sonata, andante and rondo), is now an almost unknown masterpiece. The influences on its style - Galician folksong and Franckist and Russian Nationalist traits of form, harmony and orchestration - are integrated with inspiration and unusual skill. Gaos himself kept back the score and seems to have wanted to forget it - its personal associations perhaps too disturbing for him to acknowledge its existence: it was a young man's music, associated with his ultimately unhappy first marriage; so, it was suppressed, snatches of it appearing in other works of his. On the other hand, he preserved the score; one hopes that at some level, he knew how good a work his First Symphony was. Its discovery by his son led eventually to performance and a recording supported by the Galician Cultural Council. It may be that its broadcast last year on Somer Valley FM was the first by a British radio-station! If you love the music of Franck, Borodin or early Sibelius, and have never heard this Symphony before, our advice is, don't miss it!

 

 

22 & 23 September

The Galician Symphonist

Today's programme is repeated from 2011, and is devoted to life and orchestral music of Andres Gaos-Berea (B La Coruna 1874-D Mar Del Plata, 1959), a Galician violinist-composer, trained at Madrid, Paris and Brussels, who emigrated to Argentina after making a break and touring - with a theatrical circus for a time - in the Caribbean and South America.  The works include the Fantasy for Violin and Symphony No 2, "In The Galician Mountains".  His music is a real discovery, showing rare and fastidious skill and sensibility as well as lovely tunes!

14 & 15 September

CB Guitar

"Only one thing is more beautiful to hear than a guitar, and that is two guitars." Frederik Chopin

This weekend's Classical Break is a repeat of a programme first broadcast earlier in 2012 and  features music for the Guitar. Written by Mike Burrows and presented by Rupert Kirkham, the programme takes a look at music written for the world's most ubiquitous instrument.

Most of the music in the programme comes from the birthplace of the guitar we know today - Spain, with compositions by Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-99), Miguel Llobet-Soles (1878-1938), Fernando Sor (1778-1839), Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909), Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909) but we start with a piece by Argentinian composer, Jorge Gomez-Crespo (1900-1971).

See what you think.