Star guests, spectacular Proms and festive music in the BBC classical line-up for Christmas
The BBC is delighted to reveal its classical music programming on television, radio and in the concert hall across the Christmas season.
On BBC television, two highlights from the 2014 BBC Proms – John Wilson’s hugely anticipated Kiss Me, Kate Prom and the War Horse Prom – as well as the world-famous annual New Year’s Day concert from Vienna and the Final of the UK’s largest amateur singing competition – Choir of the Year.
BBC Radio 3 presents a feast of classical music programming, including the culmination of its Christmas Carol competition, interviews with guests including pianist Alfred Brendel and fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, an In Tune Christmas Special featuring BBC Young Musician winner Martin James Bartlett and The Sixteen, and a week of live concerts from the Temple Winter Festival.
Television Treats
Choir of the Year 2014
The Final of the UK’s largest amateur singing competition sees six choirs battling it out to win the prestigious title of Choir of the Year 2014. Recorded at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, and presented on BBC Four by award-winning choirmaster Gareth Malone with Josie D’Arby following the choirs through the day, as well as expert judges include Paul Mealor, Angel Blue, Mary King and Greg Beardsell. Broadcast on BBC Four on Friday 12 December, with highlights of the full competition broadcast on Radio 3’s 'The Choir' throughout November and December.
New Year’s Day from Vienna
Conductor Zubin Mehta presents the Vienna Philharmonic’s world-famous New Year’s Day concert, from the Golden Hall at the Wiener Musikverein in Vienna. The concert includes works by Franz von Suppé, Johann Strauss, Jr., Josef Strauss, Eduard Strauss, Johann Strauss, sen., and Hans Christian Lumbye. Broadcast on Thursday 1 January, first half on BBC Four, second half on BBC Two, and live in full on BBC Radio 3.
Ten Pieces
Aimed at primary school children, Ten Pieces (run by BBC Learning and the BBC Performing Groups), will run over the course of an academic year, using ten pieces of music to open up the world of classical music to a generation of children.
The Ten Pieces film was screened in cinemas across the UK in October 2014, introducing ten pieces of music performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and introduced by a range of presenters from Children’s television, including Dick and Dom and Blue Peter’s Barney Harwood. Broadcast on BBC Two, guide-date of 24-26 December (schedule not finalised until two weeks before transmission).
Also in time for Christmas, Ten Pieces will launch an exclusive e-book – a video-rich interactive guide to the orchestra for 7-11 year olds. Barney Harwood introduces the families of instruments, and professional musicians from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales explain how their instruments work and make sounds. The free e-book is designed to be viewed on tablets and can be downloaded from Amazon, the iBookstore and the Google Play store.
Swingin’ Christmas, with John Wilson
Sir Michael Parkinson presents the sensational John Wilson Orchestra in a celebration of festival musical treats from the golden age of swing, with soloists Seth MacFarlane, Anna-Jane Casey and special guest Curtis Stigers. The Christmas classics include Winter Wonderland, Baby It’s Cold Outside, Let it Snow and White Christmas. Broadcast on BBC Four on Sunday 21 December (first broadcast in December 2010).
Sir Tim Rice: A Life in Song
Recorded live in July 2014 at the Royal Festival Hall, London, Sir Tim Rice, one of our greatest musical lyricists, reminisces in the company of Michael Grade over 40 years of hit songs that conquered the world. Hear the stories behind some of his best-loved work from Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Chess and The Lion King.
On the concert platform are stars including Tim Minchin, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Alexander Armstrong, Gemma Arterton, Rob Brydon, Laura Mvula, Tom Chaplin and Rufus Wainwright. Accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Mike Dixon. Broadcast on BBC Two on Thursday 25 December.
BBC Proms 2014
Kiss Me, Kate Prom
The appearance of John Wilson and his orchestra has become one of the annual highlights of the BBC Proms. Following the enormous success of the staged performance of My Fair Lady in 2012, John Wilson returned to the 2014 Proms to perform Cole Porter’s Tony Award-winning musical Kiss Me, Kate in its original 1948 arrangement. In the Prom, he was joined by a cast of leading singers in this irreverent reworking of The Taming of the Shrew – a play within a play. Broadcast on BBC Two, guide-date of 24-26 December (schedule not finalised until two weeks before transmission).
War Horse Prom
From the 2014 BBC Proms, a concert inspired by the National Theatre’s play based on Michael Morpurgo’s novel, War Horse. Featuring a new suite created by Adrian Sutton from his score for the original production, as well as other music from the period with performers including the Proms Military Wives Choir and Gareth Malone. Broadcast on BBC Two, guide-date of 24-26 December (schedule not finalised until two weeks before transmission).
BBC Radio 3 will also be giving audiences the opportunity to relive some highlights of the 2014 Proms 2014, including the Tallis Scholars atmospheric Tavener Late Night Prom (Wednesday 24 December), Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmoniker (Thursday 25 December) and the Last Night of the Proms (Wednesday 31 December). Full schedule in the Notes to Editors.
On BBC Radio 3
Radio 3 Breakfast
Hundreds of listeners have submitted their compositions for Radio 3’s first ever Christmas Carol Competition, and the six shortlisted carols, as judged by a panel including Judith Weir and David Hill, will be revealed on Tuesday 16 December. They will be performed live by the BBC Singers, before listeners are asked to vote for their favourite work. The carol receiving the largest number of votes will be performed again live on the Breakfast show on Tuesday 23 December and played on Christmas day on BBC Radio 3.
Temple Winter Festival
After the success of its inaugural year, BBC Radio 3 returns to the Temple Church for a week of festive vocal music (Monday 15 – Friday 19 December). The programme includes German music from Vox Luminis, English Choral music by Sir John Tavener and performed by Stephen Layton’s Polyphony, music by Tallis and Josquin from Gallicantus, a Magna Carta-inspired world premiere by Nico Muhly performed by the Temple Church Choir, and Handel’s Messiah performed by the BBC Singers and the Norwegian Wind Ensemble.
Private Passions
Guests from all walks of life join Michael Berkeley to discuss their musical loves, and to talk about the influence music has had on their lives. Over Christmas two special guests join Michael – fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood (Sunday21 December), who talks to Michael about her passion for classical music has inspired her creations. Her choices include ballet music by Stravinsky and Milhaud and Bach’s St John Passion. The following week Bond actor Sir Roger Moore (Sunday 28 December) explores his love of opera and strings and choses music performed by some of his musician friends – among them Julian Rachlin and Janine Jansen.
In Tune Christmas Special
The In Tune Christmas Special (Friday 19 December) has in recent years become something of a tradition for regular listeners, and an eagerly anticipated feature in Radio 3’s Christmas scheduling, drawing on some of the best performers in the classical music world. Presenters Sean Rafferty and Suzy Klein set up camp again in the Radio Theatre of Broadcasting House for back to back live music and seasonal fare from Harry Christophers’ long-established vocal ensemble The Sixteen, now in its 35th year, jazz-meets-classical explorations from the David Rees-Williams Trio, this year’s BBC Young Musician, pianist Martin James Bartlett, plus some very special guests, to be announced.
Also on In Tune, Radio 3 picks the brains of some of our Ten Pieces ambassadors – Alison Balsom, Catrin Finch, Cerys Matthews and Julian Joseph - who will be presenting a series of ‘Christmas Crackers’ – revealing their favourite pieces of Christmas music and explaining what it means to them (Monday 15 – Thursday 18 December).
EBU Day of Christmas Music
BBC Radio 3 links up with radio stations around Europe for a festive day of Christmas music (Sunday 21 December, from 1pm). The day includes a live broadcast of traditional Finnish works performed in Kallio Church in Helsinki by the internationally-renowned soprano Soile Isokoski with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra and John Stogards and a performance in the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague of Josef Schreier's Missa pastoralis by the Brno Radio Folk Instrument Orchestra (BROLN).
There will also be a broadcast from New York Public Radio of Anonymous 4 singing early Christmas music, the Graduale Nobili Girls' Choir broadcasting seasonal Icelandic folksongs from Langholt Church in Reykjavik, and a live broadcast from the DR Concert House in Copenhagen of Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Enna given by Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
CD Review
Andrew McGregor and an expert panel present their traditional Christmas round-up of the year’s best classical discs and downloads (Saturday 20 December). Flora Wilson, Simon Heighes and Richard Morrison recommend, discuss and debate what goes into the Christmas stocking for 2014.
In a CD Review exclusive, Andrew McGregor talks to legendary pianist Alfred Brendel (Saturday 27 December). Now retired from the concert platform, Brendel’s career stretched over six decades and saw collaborations with the leading conductors, singers and instrumentalists of the day. He shares his memories of a fascinating career in an interview rich in insight and his characteristic dry humour.
Early Music Show
Lucie Skeaping takes a festive look at the ancient tradition of Wassailing in a special feature – ‘Here we come a-wassailing’ - when peasant singers would go from house to house singing carols in return for a bowl of hot, mulled cider.
Saturday Classics
On Saturday Classics, Peter Day, the BBC’s Business Correspondent, offers a personal take on music for the Christmas season, introducing works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Arvo Part, among others (Saturday 20 December). The following week the Royal Ballet’s Principal Dancer, Zenaida Yanowsky, presents her selection of festive music (Saturday 27 December).
Opera on 3
Opera on 3 presents Christmas highlights live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, including Wagner’s ‘Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg’ with Michael Volle (Saturday 13 December), Mozart’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ with Erwin Schrott and Danielle de Niese (Saturday 20 December), Humperdinck’s ‘Hansel and Gretel’ with Christine Rice and Heidi Stober (Saturday 3 January) as well as ‘Tristan and Isolde’ recorded at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano (Monday 29 December).
Afternoon on 3
Radio 3’s Afternoon on 3 presents no fewer than six live concerts showcasing the BBC Performing Groups and Ulster Orchestra in the week before Christmas (Monday 15 – Friday 19 December): on Monday the BBC Concert Orchestra present a programme featuring music by Nielsen and Sibelius, live from the Watford Colosseum; on Tuesday the BBC National Orchestra of Wales give a concert of French and Czech music from the BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff; on Wednesday the BBC Singers perform music by Tallis and Mathaias, plus the finalists of Radio 3’s Breakfast Carol Competition; on Thursday the BBC Symphony Orchestra present a concert of Nielsen, Sibelius and Klami; and on Friday not one but two live concerts from the Ulster Orchestra in music from Finland, and the BBC Philharmonic playing Sibelius and the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks. The following week Radio 3 also offers listeners a chance to hear Sir Simon Rattle’s recent cycle of the Schumann and Brahms symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic (Monday 22 to Friday 26 December).
Essential Classics
Rob Cowan and Sarah Walker play definitive recordings of the greatest classical music, joined by guests every day, including presenter and journalist James May. Sarah presents ‘Five Reasons to Love…Bach at Christmas’, showcasing choruses and arias from works composed by Bach especially for performance at Christmas, while her featured artist is acclaimed Argentine pianist Martha Argerich (Monday 22 – Friday 26 December). Rob welcomes in the New Year with his Artist of the Week – Riccardo Muti – while showcasing ‘Five Reasons to Love…Masterpieces in Miniature – San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas’ (Monday 29 December - Friday 2 January).
Composer of the Week
In a special series of Composer of the Week, Donald Macleod speaks visits the New York apartment of multitalented conductor, composer and pianist Andre Previn, for an exclusive conversation with him about his remarkable musical life – with a selection of concert hall, jazz and film works spanning his entire career (Monday 15 – Friday 19 December). The following week Donald introduces the life and music of Vivaldi (Monday 22 – Friday 26 December).
Radio 3’s New Generation Artists
Listeners get their first chance to hear some of Radio 3’s newly-announced 2014-16 New Generation Artists as Clemency Burton-Hill presents a ten-part series showcasing recent performances (beginning Monday 22 December), including a brand new recording of Schubert’s Winterreise by baritone Benjamin Appl with pianist Joseph Middleton and mezzo-soprano Kitty Whately singing Brahms with pianist Joseph Middleton and violist Lise Berthaud.
The Essay
French film director Christian Carion explores the famous World War One Christmas Truce – the subject of his Oscar-nominated film ‘Joyeux Noël’ – in an Essay specially commissioned to mark the centenary of the spontaneous ceasefire which took place across the Western Front at Christmas 1914 (Monday 29 December). Recorded in front of an audience in Paris as part of a partnership between BBC Radio 3, BBC World Service and the British Council – ‘The War That Changed The World’.
The Sunday Feature: The Supernatural North
As the dark, winter nights draw in, our thoughts turn to all things Northern - roaring fires and woolly jumpers , snow, ice, and the faint jingle of Father Christmas' sleigh. But across the centuries, a weirder, wilder North has lurked in the imaginative shadows: a North populated by mountain trolls, demons and direwolves, white witches and white walkers, snow queens and Sámi shamans. This icy world has inspired writers from ancient Greece, to CS Lewis, Tolkein, Philip Pullman and George RR Martin.
BBC Radio 3 New Generation thinker and Old Norse-expert Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough journeys to the northernmost tip of Norway in search of the supernatural. (Sunday 14 December, 6:45pm)
The Sunday Feature: Matthew Sweet’s Palace of Great War Varieties
Matthew Sweet presents a special Sunday Feature about British popular culture during the First World War, recorded as a Music Hall Show at the BBC’s Maida Vale studios before a live audience. Matthew and his expert guests explore how the four Christmases of World War One provided oases of hope and joy, and sharp, bitter moments of irony. If this was the war that was supposed to be over by Christmas, how did popular culture capture the mood of the country as each festive season came around? (Sunday 28 December, 6:45pm). Featuring in the programme are: Fern Riddell on the Music Hall, Ian Christie on the Cinema, Viv Gardner on the Theatre and Marek Kohn on Drugs and Nightclubs.
The Verb at Christmas
For this year’s Christmas Verb Ian McMillan will be joined by Guy Garvey lead singer of Elbow, to explore the art of writing songs described as encounters with the ‘mysteries of the human heart’ and to explore why Guy is ‘happiest on the inside of a good song’. The Verb will be getting inside the language of the carol, asking which iconic phrases resonate most powerfully for The Verb’s guests. (Friday 19 December, 10pm)
In Concert
The BBC Performing Groups presents a yuletide feast of music this Christmas with concerts across the UK.
In Wales, the BBC National Chorus of Wales, members of BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and a schools choir comprising primary school pupils from across south Wales take part in BBC Cymru Wales’s annual Carol Concert at St David’s Hall (Saturday 13 December, recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio Wales on Wednesday 24 December, 9am, and Thursday 25 December, 2pm).
The orchestra also presents a series of Christmas Celebrations concerts packed full of festive treats including Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride at St David’s Hall in Cardiff (Thursday 18 December, recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio Wales on Tuesday 23 December, 4pm, and Thursday 25 December, 9am), Brangwyn Hall in Swansea (Friday 19 December) and Sir Thomas Picton School in Haverfordwest (Saturday 20 December).
BBC NOW can also be heard in TV households across the UK on Christmas Day as their soundtrack to the Doctor Who Christmas special is played across the nation on BBC One.
In Salford, the BBC Philharmonic invites audiences to enjoy seasonal music with musicians, mince pies & mulled wine on a cruise ending The Lowry Christmas Market (Sunday 7 December), ‘A Northern Christmas with the BBC Philharmonic’ an evening afternoon of classical seasonal favourites presented by BBC Radio Manchester’s Mike Sweeney at the orchestra’s studio in MediaCityUK, Salford, The Court House, Worsley (Monday 8 December, recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio Manchester on 24 December, 18.00 & 25 December, 12.00 & 18.00) and will join forces with the Royal Northern College of Music for a special Christmas celebration at the college’s newly refurbished Concert Hall (Monday 15 December).
In Scotland, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra gets into the festive spirit with its annual Christmas Classics concerts in Ayr (Thursday 18 December) and Aberdeen (Friday 19 December, recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland on Thursday 25 December, 4.05pm) and in London, the BBC Singers invite members of the public to join then in a Come and Sing: Christmas Carols workshop at Maida Vale Studios (Monday 1 December), a Christmas concert at St Paul’s Knightsbridge (Wednesday 17 December) and two special performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble at Temple Church (Friday 19 December, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3) and Saffron Hall (Saturday 20 December).
Notes to Editors
BBC Proms 2014 Highlights – BBC Radio 3
Sunday 21 December
Prom 41 (11:30pm)
Tuesday 23 December
Prom 56 (7pm)
Prom 8 (9pm)
Wednesday 24 December
Prom 61 (7pm)
Prom 3 (BBC Sport Prom, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live at 8pm)
Prom 25 (9pm)
Thursday 25 December
Prom 64 (7pm)
Prom 30 (9pm)
Friday 26 December
Prom 55: Seoul (7:30pm)
Saturday 27 December
Prom 62 (7:30pm)
Prom 37 (9:10pm)
Sunday 28 December
Prom 68 (7:30pm)
Prom 70 (11:15pm)
Tuesday 30 December
Prom 67 (7pm)
Prom 45 (9pm)
Wednesday 31 December
Prom 69 (7pm)
Prom 76 (9pm)
Thursday 1 January
Prom 21 (7pm)
Prom PSM3 (9:45pm)
Friday 2 January
Prom 73 (7pm)
Prom 65 (9pm)
Sunday 4 January
Prom 75 (7:30pm)
Prom PSM4
Monday 5 January
Prom 72 (7:30pm)
For further details visit www.bbc.co.uk/proms/what’s-on
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