This Classical Life

Jess Gillam and conductor Toby Thatcher share the music they love. With music including Debussy, George Lewis, Bartok, and Sixto Rodriguez.Playlist: Ella Fitzgerald - Mack the Knife (Live in Berlin) Debussy - La Damoiselle élue (Vikingur Olafsson) George Lewis - Anthem (Wet Ink Ensemble) Vaughan Williams - Symphony No 5 in D major (3rd mvt) Rodriguez - Cause Poulenc - C'est ainsi que tu es (Métamorphoses; No.2) Bartók - Bluebeard's Castle: Door 6 Charlie Chaplin - Smile (Nat King Cole)

Jess Gillam shares music with viola player Stephen UpshawPlaylist:Robert Schumann - Marchenbilder Mvt IV [Nobuko Imai, Martha Argerich (pianos) Johann Strauss II – Der Fledermaus; Overture [Carlos Kleiber, Bavarian State Opera] Idjah Hadidjah - Aram Bandung Steve Reich – Mallet Quartet: iii. Fast [Colin Currie group] Orlando – Blood Orange Kurt Weill – September Song [Sydney Bechet] Morton Feldman – Rothko Chapel 5 Florence Price arr. W.G. Still - Dance in the Canebrakes i. Nimble Feet [Chicago Sinfonietta, Mei-Ann Chen]

Jess Gillam and soprano Seljan Nasibli share the music they love. Their selections include Miles Davis, Karayev, Caroline Shaw and Mozart.Playlist: Alim Qasimov Ensemble and Kronos Quartet – Getme, Getme Bach – Cello Suite No 2: Prelude Mozart – Ah Chi Mi Dice Mai (Don Giovanni) Miles Davis / Gil Evans / George Gershwin – It Ain’t Necessarily So (Porgy and Bess) Kara Karayev- The Seven Beauties Suite (2nd mvt) Caroline Shaw – Is a Rose: No 1, The Edge Prokofiev – Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor (4th mvt) Buena Vista Social Club – El cuarto de Tula

Jess Gillam and guitarist Alexandra Whittingham share the music they love. With music including Goat Rodeo, Eric Whitacre, Celeste and Korngold.Playlist: Goat Rodeo - Hill Justice Shostakovich: String Quartet No.8 in C Minor, Op.110: II. Allegro Molto (Borodin Quartet) Celeste - Strange Malcolm Arnold: Guitar Concerto, Op.67: II. Lento (Julian Bream & Melos Ensemble) Glazunov - Chant du Menestrel (Rostropovich, Boston SO, Seiji Ozawa) The Impossible Gentlemen – Clockmaker Korngold - King’s Row Eric Whitacre - Sleep

Jess Gillam and harpist Cecilia De Maria share the music they love, with Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air, Grieg's Holberg suite, new jazz sounds from Polar Bear, Dorothy Ashby's Soul Vibrations from Afro-Harping and classic film theme by John Williams.Playlist: Edvard Grieg - Holberg suite Op.40 vers. for string orchestra: Praeludium (Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi) Pierne - Impromptu Caprice (Marisa Robles - harp) Polar Bear - Peepers Wagner - Siegfried's Funeral March (Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer) Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air Dorothy Ashby - Soul Vibrations from Afro-Harping Allegri – Miserere (Tallis Scholars) John Williams - Jurassic Park theme

Jess Gillam talks to mezzo-soprano Stephanie Wake-Edwards about the music they love, including the overture to Mozart's Don Giovanni, Jessye Norman singing Mahler, Lianne La Havas singing Radiohead and Slim Gaillard singing about his Cement Mixer!

Jess Gillam and composer Robert Reid Allan share Glenn Gould playing Brahms, film music by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Sufjan Stevens, new music by composer Oliver Leith, and South African soprano Pumeza singing a Scottish song of diversity and inclusion.

Jess Gillam and violinist Caroline Pether share the music they love, including a moving meditation on life in lockdown by Brad Meldhau, Jacqueline du Pre’s stunning take on Dvorak, a musical sunrise from Alice Zawadzki. Caroline also attempts to convert Jess to the joys of Brahms.

Jess Gillam and recorder player Tabea Debus have a virtual lockdown listening party to share the music they love, including Take 6, Joby Talbot, and Johann Bernhard Bach.Playlist: Johann Bernhard Bach - Ouverture from Suite in E Minor (L’Acheron, Francois Joubert-Caillet) Joby Talbot – Transit of Venus (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Christopher Austin) Michel Legrand -Windmills of your mind (Take 6) Johannes Brahms - Cello sonata no. 1 in E minor Op. 38: 1st mvt Allegor non troppo (Truls Mork , cello; Juhani Lagerspetz, piano) Ugis Praulins - The Nightingale: Tableau VII ‘The Artificial Bird’ (Danish National Vocal Ensemble; Michala Petri, recorder; Stephen Layton, director) Basement Jaxx – Where’s your head at Antonio Sartorio – Giulio Cesare in Egitto: Aria, Quando voglio (Anna Prohaska, soprano; Il Giardino Armonico; Giovanni Antonini, director) Maurice Ravel – Concerto in G Major, 1st mvt Allegramente (Martha Argerich, piano; Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana; Jacek Kaspszyk, conductor)

Jess Gillam and Latvian violinist Roberts Balanas share the music love, including Anna Clyne, Kamasi Washington and Jessye Norman singing Poulenc.This Classical Life is also available as a podcast on BBC Sounds.Here's what we listened to today...Hindemith – Ludus Tonalis (Alena Cherny) Elton John – Bennie and the Jets Anna Clyne – Night Ferry (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ricardo Muti) Poulenc- Les Chemins de l’amour FP 106 (Jessye Norman, Dalton Balwdwin) Paganini – 24 Caprices Op.1 No. 2 in B minor (Itzhak Perlman) Shostakovich – String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110: Allegro molto (Borodin Quartet ) JS Bach – Prelude and Fugue in A Major BWV 864 from the Well-Tempered Clavier (Trevor Pinnock) Kamasi Washington – Final Thought