Saturday Classics

As part of BBC Dance season, pioneering choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh presents her choice of music, including works which have influenced and inspired many of her dance compositions. Born in India and with roots in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, Shobana founded her dance company in London in 1988. Her acclaimed works are often created for outdoor and unusual settings and she regularly collaborates with contemporary composers including Kevin Volans and Michael Nyman.

(Photo: Shobana Jeyasingh / credit: Chris Nash)

Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka rose to fame in the 1950s with hits including 'Oh Carol', 'Calendar Girl' and 'Stairway to Heaven' and has sold millions of records in the last six decades. A prodigiously talented pianist from a young age he studied at the Juilliard School in New York in his teens and in the last few years has written his own classical works. His piano-themed selection today includes works by Chopin, Debussy and Prokofiev.

Journalist Martin Sixsmith presents a programme of Russian music. Having studied both Russian and Psychology extensively Martin explores how music might help us understand Russia's sense of self, and the extent to which it's been shaped by traumatic events and competing world views throughout its tumultuous history.

Rob Cowan's Gold Standard depository this week includes a rumbustious overture by Malcolm Arnold, Beethoven from pianist Julius Katchen, as well as two rarities: Czech composer Miloslav Kabelac's Hamlet Improvisation for large orchestra, as well as Cimarosa's sparkling operatic comedy, The Music Master.

Rob Cowan's Gold Standard selection this week features pianist Mindru Katz in Bach, Gianna d'Angelo singing Delibes, Janos Starker in Rautavaara's seldom-heard Cello Concerto, and Sviatoslav Richter in Miaskovsky's explosive Third Piano Sonata.

As Diplomatic Correspondent Bridget Kendall prepares to leave the BBC after more than three decades she looks back at her global postings and presents the music that accompanied her through them.

From Shostakovich, Gershwin and Shchedrin in Moscow, where she reported on the fall of the Soviet Union, to Bernstein, Villa Lobos and the Appalachian folk music she experienced for the first time whilst Washington Correspondent in the mid-nineties. Plus music from Cambridge, where she grew up and is now returning to as the first female master of Peterhouse College.

In the second of two programmes this month pianist James Rhodes presents music that's changed his life: including recordings by iconic twentieth century pianists Glenn Gould and Vladimir Ashkenazy, and performances by some of today's leading virtuosi including Marc-Andre Hamelin, Joseph Moog, and Evgeny Kissin. Plus extracts from The Marriage of Figaro conducted by Teodor Currentzis.

Until the age of 14, James had no formal academic musical education or dedicated mentoring. Aged 18 he stopped playing the piano entirely for a decade. Since returning to the piano, he has released five albums, all of which have topped the iTunes classical charts. His bestselling memoir, Instrumental, is a moving and compelling story that was almost banned until the Supreme Court unanimously overthrew an injunction in May 2015. He has performed in venues around the world from the Barbican, Roundhouse, Royal Albert Hall, Latitude Festival, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Soho Theatre in the UK to halls in Paris, Australia, Hong Kong, Chicago, Vienna and more.

Plus news of how you can take part in a special edition of Saturday Classics with James later this summer if you're an amateur pianist as part of the BBC Get Playing campaign.

In the first of two programmes this month pianist James Rhodes presents music that's changed his life: including recordings by iconic twentieth century pianists Glenn Gould and Vladimir Horowitz, and performances by some of today's leading virtuosi including the Labeque sisters, Arcadi Volodos, and Sergio Tiempo. Plus extracts from Cosi fan tutte conducted by Teodor Currentzis.

Until the age of 14, James had no formal academic musical education or dedicated mentoring. Aged 18 he stopped playing the piano entirely for a decade. Since returning to the piano, he has released five albums, all of which have topped the iTunes classical charts. His bestselling memoir, Instrumental, is a moving and compelling story that was almost banned until the Supreme Court unanimously overthrew an injunction in May 2015. He has performed in venues around the world from the Barbican, Roundhouse, Royal Albert Hall, Latitude Festival, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Soho Theatre in the UK to halls in Paris, Australia, Hong Kong, Chicago, Vienna and more.

James will be back next week with another edition of Saturday Classics.

In the second of two programmes, broadcaster Sue MacGregor describes her professional encounters with great musicians including Jessye Norman, Sir Thomas Allen and Mitsuko Uchida, with extracts from archive interviews she recorded with them. With music by Beethoven, Berlioz, Schubert, Mahler and Britten.

In the first of two programmes, broadcaster Sue MacGregor describes her introduction to classical music growing up in South Africa and during her early career in London. The programme includes her early encounters with the music of Wagner, Bach, Shostakovich and Mozart.