Saturday Classics

Rob presents works by Mozart, Saint-Saens, Wagner and Dvorak from performers including Arturo Toscanini, Christian Zacharias, David Oistrakh and Il Giardino Armonico.

Pianist James Rhodes continues his series of three consecutive Saturday Classics, sharing the music, recordings and musicians he's most passionate about.

Today's show includes Teodor Currentzis, the Russian-Greek conductor who once claimed 'I will save Classical Music', in Stravinsky and Shostakovich, chamber music by Schubert and Tchaikovsky, and the iconic Herbert Von Karajan with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Bruckner.

Pianist James Rhodes is back with the first of three consecutive Saturday Classics, choosing the music, recordings and musicians he's most passionate about.

Today's show includes the iconic pianists Martha Argerich, Vladimir Horowitz, and Mikhail Pletnev, plus violinist James Ehnes in Bach and Mendelssohn, and Mariss Jansons conducting Wagner.

Rob Cowan with music by Richard Strauss, Debussy, Verdi and Copland from performers including Mirella Freni, Gérard Souzay and Maurizio Pollini.

Pianist James Rhodes presents a personal selection of music including works by Chopin, Saint-Saëns and Beethoven, and performances by Krystian Zimerman and Garrick Ohlsson. Plus extracts of Don Giovanni conducted by Teodor Currentzis. James is back with more choices next Saturday at 1pm.

Live from Free Thinking at Sage Gateshead the composer and pianist Richard Sisson brings his infectious enthusiasm to an idiosyncratic journey through music articulated by the boundless, cyclic, remorseless unfolding of Time; from the clock's ominous striking of midnight in Prokofiev's Cinderella to vivid evocations of heady times past in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, with works by Finzi, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven along the way.

For many years the piano playing half of cabaret act Kit and the Widow, Richard has composed extensively, particularly for the theatre, including the music for Alan Bennett's The History Boys.

CBeebies presenter Chris Jarvis chooses music composed for, and about, children - including pieces by Mozart, Britten, Debussy, Mussorgsky, Humperdinck, Poulenc, Tchaikovsky, Delibes, Paul Paterson and Jim Parker's "Captain Beaky and his Band"!

Rob presents a specially chosen selection of music including works by Franck, Bach and Bartok, performed by Ernest Ansermet, Zuzana Ruzickova and Stanley Drucker.

On the eve of the BAFTA awards, film critic Peter Bradshaw presents a personal selection of music from cinema and beyond: from Hannibal Lecter's favourite Bach, to Katharine Hepburn as Clara Schumann, and a Handel aria used in a chilling Michael Haneke horror film.

Rob Cowan with music by Beethoven, Arnold, Chopin and Debussy, in classic recordings from artists including Fritz Wunderlich, Emil Gilels, Thomas Beecham and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.