Celebrating the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Singers

An Advent concert of seasonal British choral works by Arnold Bax and Cheryl Frances-Hoad recorded in November. Glowing with textural interest and intensity, as though lit from within, Frances-Hoad’s choral writing looks to the musical past for music that is very much of the present. Her carols and motets take us from festive rejoicing, in the exuberant Gaude et Laetare, to rapt wonder in There is no Rose. Bax – Master of the King’s Music under George VI – also draws on the carol’s medieval origins in his graceful I Sing of A Maiden and This Worldes Joie

Followed by a concert given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra on tour last year in Spain: three twentieth century masterpieces from either side of the Iron Curtain conducted by Sakari Oramo

Presented by Penny Gore

2.00pm
Cheryl Frances-Hoad: Gaude et Laetare
Arnold Bax: I Sing Of A Maiden
Cheryl Frances-Hoad: This time a child is born
Arnold Bax: This Worldes Joie
Cheryl Frances-Hoad: From the Beginning of the World; Floodlight, Starlight
Arnold Bax: Five Greek Folk Songs
Cheryl Frances-Hoad: There is no Rose
BBC Singers
Ben Palmer (Conductor)

2.45pm
Finzi: Nocturne
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Andrew Davis (Conductor)

2.55pm
As part of New Year, New Music, Radio 3 presenters introduce some of the latest pieces of music they love

3.00pm
Wiren: Symphony no.3
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Rumon Gamba(Conductor)

3.30pm
Shostakovich: Symphony No 9
Copland: Concerto for clarinet, strings, harp and piano
Prokofiev: Symphony no.6
Martin Fröst (Clarinet)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (Conductor)