Elgar’s Enigma Variations

Mark Forrest showcases the best performances by BBC orchestras, choirs, ensembles and other great performing groups from Europe and around the globe.

In the wake of Radio 3’s celebrations on Monday, all this week on Classical Live we’re marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great conductor Charles Mackerras, with the help of the BBC Concert Orchestra and a tribute concert they gave recently in Brno, Czech Republic. On the programme were several of his favourite works, including beloved British repertoire like Elgar’s Enigma Variations, which we open with today.

Our ensemble in focus this week is the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra – we hear them play Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony at a concert given earlier this year in Malvern.

We continue our exploration of the music Robert Schumann wrote in 1842, his extraordinarily productive ‘year of chamber music’, in which he composed all three of his string quartets (plus the piano quartet and quintet). Today we hear former Radio 3 New Generation Artists the Arod Quartet perform the String Quartet No. 3.

And we return to the 2025 Glenarm Festival of Voice in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, to hear a current member of the New Generation Artist scheme, baritone James Atkinson, singing music by Schubert.

1pm
Edward Elgar
Variations on an original theme for orchestra, 'Enigma', Op. 36
BBC Concert Orchestra
Anne-Maria Helsing (conductor)

Franz Schubert
5 Songs: Der Wanderer; Der Wanderer an den Mond; Der Wegweiser; Im Frühling; Wilkommen und Abschied
James Atkinson (baritone)
Simon Lepper (piano)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 ‘Pastoral’
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
Nicholas Carter (conductor)

Robert Schumann
String Quartet No. 3 in A major, Op. 41 No. 3
Arod Quartet

Maurice Ravel
Gaspard de la Nuit
Bertrand Chamayou (piano)

Grace Williams
Hen Walia - Overture
BBC NOW
Jac van Steen (conductor)

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