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Three hours of classical sparkle

Join Sarah Walker for a colourful Sunday mix, from pastoral landscapes and Renaissance choral music to Russian orchestral drama and moments of reflection.

This week, Sarah Walker’s playlist takes in gardens, forests and wide open landscapes, with music inspired by the natural world and the changing seasons.

There’s French elegance from Mel Bonis, Beethoven’s much-loved Pastoral Symphony, and Percy Grainger’s irrepressible Country Gardens.

Sarah also heads to Renaissance Italy for this week’s Choral Reflection, with a motet by Palestrina sung by one of the UK’s most revered choral ensembles, The Tallis Scholars.

Elsewhere, there’s sunny Mozart with his Piano Concerto No. 23, while Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee buzzes into view ahead of the morning’s centrepiece: Tchaikovsky’s richly melodic ‘Little Russian’ Symphony.

Plus, Sibelius ventures deep into the shadowy world of Finnish legend with music from the Lemminkäinen Suite.

A Tandem Production for BBC Radio 3.

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Last on

Sunday09:00
BBC Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Mel Bonis

    3 Danses, Op 62/2 (No 1, Bourrée)

    Conductor: Rumon Gamba. Orchestra: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
    • Chandos.

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    Symphony No 6 in F major, Op 68, 'Pastoral' (1st mvt)

    Conductor: Daniel Barenboim. Orchestra: Staatskapelle Berlin.
    • Warner Classics International.

  • Edward Elgar

    Enfants d'un reve (Dream Children), Op 43 (2nd mvt)

    Performer: Ashley Wass.
    • Naxos.

  • Edvard Grieg

    String Quartet No 1 in G minor, Op 27 (3rd mvt, Intermezzo)

    Ensemble: Emerson String Quartet.
    • Intimate Voices.
    • Deutsche Grammophon (DG).

  • John Blow

    Chaconne a 4 in G major

    Ensemble: Arcangelo. Director: Jonathan Cohen.
    • Hyperion.

  • Percy Grainger

    Country Gardens

    Orchestrator: Leopold Stokowski. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle. Orchestra: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
    • Warner Classics.

  • Richard Wagner

    Siegfried (Act 2: Waldweben)

    Conductor: Klaus Tennstedt. Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic.
    • Warner Classics.

  • Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

    Sicut lilium inter spinas I

    Choir: Tallis Scholars. Conductor: Peter Phillips.
    • GIMELL.

  • Catrin Finch

    Kin

    Performer: Catrin Finch.
    • Notes To Self.
    • bendigedig.
    • 3.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Piano Concerto No 23 in A Major, K 488 (1st mvt)

    Performer: Kristian Bezuidenhout. Orchestra: Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.
    • harmonia mundi.

  • Dmitry Shostakovich

    Prelude No 12 in G sharp minor (24 Preludes, Op 34)

    Performer: Julian Rachlin. Performer: Itamar Golan. Music Arranger: Dmitri Tsyganov.
    • Warner Classics International.

  • John Stafford Smith

    The Star Spangled Banner

    Music Arranger: Igor Stravinsky. Conductor: Michael Tilson Thomas. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra.
    • Stravinsky In America.
    • RCA Red Seal.
    • 1.

  • Joseph Haydn

    String Quartet in C major, Op 76 No 3, Hob III:77, 'Emperor' (2nd mvt, a-e)

    Ensemble: Quatuor Arod.
    • Warner Classics.

  • Benjamin Britten

    The National Anthem (God Save The Queen)

    Conductor: Benjamin Britten. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Choir: London Symphony Chorus.
    • HM QUEEN - THE COMMEMORATIVE ALBUM.
    • Decca (UMO).
    • 1.

  • Rudy Plaate

    Raspado

    Performer: Rudy Plaate.
    • Dureco.

  • Antonín Dvořák

    Symphony No 8 in G major, Op 88 (4th mvt)

    Conductor: István Kertész. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd.

  • William Byrd

    Emendemus in Melius

    Ensemble: The Gesualdo Six.
    • Hyperion.

  • Christopher Gibbons

    Fantasy-Suite in D minor

    Ensemble: Academy of Ancient Music.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI.

  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

    The Flight Of The Bumble-Bee (The Tale of Tsar Saltan: 4th mvt)

    Conductor: Vitaly Gnutov. Orchestra: Osipov Russian Folk Orchestra.
    • Balalaika Favourites.
    • Decca Music Group Ltd.
    • 14.

  • Pyotr Tchaikovsky

    Symphony No 2 in C minor, Op 17, 'Little Russian'

    Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski. Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • London Philharmonic Orchestra.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Bei Männern (The Magic Flute)

    Conductor: René Jacobs. Choir: RIAS Chamber Choir. Orchestra: Berlin Academy for Early Music.
    • Mozart - Die Zauberflote - Rene Jacobs.
    • Harmonia Mundi.
    • 12.

  • Gerald Finzi

    Forlana (Bagatelles, Op 23)

    Performer: John Bradbury. Performer: James Cryer.
    • The English Clarinet.
    • Naxos.
    • 11.

  • Susan Spain-Dunk

    The Farmer's Boy

    Orchestra: BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Stephen Bell.

  • Charles Villiers Stanford

    Drake's Drum (Songs of the Sea, Op 91)

    Singer: Gerald Finley. Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Choir: BBC National Chorus of Wales. Conductor: Richard Hickox.
    • Stanford: Orchestral Songs.
    • Chandos.
    • 12.

  • Joseph Haydn

    Piano Sonata in A flat major, H.16.43 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Marc‐André Hamelin.
    • Haydn: Piano Sonatas: Marc-Andre Hamelin.
    • Hyperion.
    • 6.

  • Jean Sibelius

    Lemminkäinen Suite, Op 22 (4th mvt, 'Lemminkäinenn's Return')

    Conductor: Osmo Vänskä. Orchestra: Lahti Symphony Orchestra.
    • BIS.

Broadcast

  • Sunday09:00
    BBC Radio 3