This Classical Life

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...

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-...

Jess Gillam meets composer Owain Park for a virtual lockdown listening party, with music including Prokofiev, Sam Cooke, Kabantu and JS Bach. Playlist: Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet Suite - Montagues and the Capulets (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Muti) Judith Bingham - The Drowned Lovers (Tenebrae, Martha McLorinan, Nigel Short) Sam Cooke - A Change is gonna come Copland: Appalachian Spring...

Jess Gillam and cellist Sergio Serra share the music they love, including Estrella Morente, Pekka Kuusisto, Stan Getz and CPE Bach. Playlist: Merula - Ciacconna and harpsichord improvisation (Il Giardino Armonico) Kurt Weill arr. Richard Rodney Bennett - It Was Never You (Barbara Thompson, The Medici Quartet) Dinosaur - Set Free Sibelius - 5 pieces; no. 1 (Pekka Kuusisto, Heini Karkkainen) Estrell...

Jess Gillam meets with London based Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean for virtual lockdown listening party, in which they are raving to Rachmaninov, marvelling over the voices of Cape Verde’s barefoot diva and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, whilst also enjoying the other worldly dream pop of Cocteau Twins and Mahler’s humongous ‘Symphony of a Thousand’. Playlist: Rachmaninov - Rhapsody on a Theme...

Jess Gillam and horn player Ben Goldscheider share the music they love. Today we have some big, bold and brassy music, in the form of Janacek’s Sinfonietta and Haydn’s ‘Hornsignal’ symphony, the calm and space of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s ‘Good morning Midnight’, and then we are taken up to space by Elton John then to the bottom of the Sea by Elgar. Playlist: Janacek - Sinfonietta, first movement (Simon...

Jess Gillam welcomes back bassist and flatmate Sam Becker to share some more of the music they love whist in lockdown. This time they choose Britten’s vivid Sea interludes, Pablo Casals’s Song of the Birds and Sam gets all weepy over Mary Poppins feeding the birds! Playlist: Benjamin Britten - 4 sea interludes – Dawn (Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Neeme Jarvi) The Platters - Smoke gets in your ey...

Jess Gillam and percussionist Elsa Bradley chat about the music they love. Featuring the drama of Mozart's Requiem in D minor, Eugen Cicero injecting some caffeine into CPE Bach's Solfeggio, Arnold Bax’s majestic symphonic poem Tintagel. Plus Elsa goes wild in a field, or maybe just her kitchen, to the Warsaw Village Band, and we have a miniature moment of calm from Isobel Waller-Bridge. Playlist:...

Jess Gillam and soprano Ella Taylor have a ‘virtual’ listening party, with music from Prokofiev, Ella Fitzgerald, Bach and Ella’s favourite track by their favourite band tUnE-yArDs. Playlist: Prokofiev - Symphony no. 1 (Op.25) in D major "Classical", 4th movement; Molto vivace London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev tUnE-yArDs - Water Fountain Gordon, Lang and Wolfe - Shelter: Before I Enter Car...

Jess Gillam and trumpeter Matilda Lloyd chat about the music they love. With works by Tchaikovsky, Charles Ives, Salsa Celtica and Sting! This week we listened to... Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Suite (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy) - Kirov Orchestra, Valery Gergiev James MacMillan: O Radiant Dawn - The Sixteen Charles Ives: The Unanswered Question - Orchestra of St. Luke's, John Adams Salsa Celtica: E...

Jess Gillam talks to harpist Anne Denholm about the music they love. With epic Finnish grandeur from Sibelius and Rautavaara, a genre-blurring concerto by Gabriel Prokofiev and the simple beauty of Carole King’s You’ve Got a Friend. Music we listened to today... Sibelius - Finlandia (CBSO, Sakari Oramo) Morten Lauridsen - O Magnum Mysterium (ORA Singers, Suzi Digby) Karl Jenkins - Over The Stone:...

Jess Gillam and composer Alex Baranowski swap tracks and share the music they love, with Philip Glass Koyaanisqatsi, Yevgeny Kissin playing Schubert, Goldfrapp and Mazzy Star. Tracks we listened to today... Philip Glass – Koyaanisqatsi The Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, Michael Riesman Antonio Vivaldi - Nisi Dominus (mvt 1 nisi dominus) Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor), Ensemble Matheus, Jean-Chris...

Jess Gillam is joined by jazz guitarist Rob Luft to swap tracks and share the music they love, with music from Bach, James Blake and Billie Holiday.

Saxophonist Jess Gillam is joined by composer Dani Howard, and between them they swap music by Thomas Adès, Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Fats Waller. Track we played today... Thomas Ades - In Seven Days: iv. Stars - Sun - Moon Nicolas Hodges (piano) London Sinfonietta, Thomas Ades Toshio Hosokawa - Japanese folksongs: no.2; Itsuki no komori uta (Lullaby of Itsuki) Emmanuel Pahud (flute) Christian Rive...

Saxophonist Jess Gillam is joined by composer Grace-Evangeline Mason to share music by Mica Levi, Kaija Saariaho and Joni Mitchell. Today we listened to... Bach - Cello suite no 1 BWV 1007 - Yo-yo Ma Hans Abrahamsen - Let Me Tell You, Pt. III: I Will Go Out Now - Barbara Hannigan, Symphonie-Orchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Andris Nelsons The Beatles - A day in the life Clément Janequin - Toute...

Saxophonist Jess Gillam is joined by violinist Flora Curzon. They share music by Vivaldi, film music by Jonny Greenwood and Shostakovich and a traditional Romanian doina and hora.

Saxophonist Jess Gillam is joined by viola player Timothy Ridout to share music from Bach to The Beatles via Michael Kiwanuka, Haydn and Bartok. Tracks we played today... David Popper - Dance of the Elves, Op. 39 - Mstislav Rostropovich (cello) Alexander Dedyukhin (piano) Joseph Haydn – String Quartet in C major Op 20 No 2; 2nd Movement Capriccio - The London Haydn Quartet Max Richter - On The Nat...

Jess Gillam is joined by pianist Elisabeth Brauss to swap tracks and share the music they love. With music from Benjamin Britten to Oscar Peterson. Tracks we played today... Johann Strauss II – Die Fledermaus; Overture (Carlos Kleiber, Vienna Philharmonic) John Cage - Dream Britten/Pears - Down by the Salley Gardens Julia Wolfe - Fire in My mouth: ii. Factory Jacob Collier - Fascinating Rhythm Mie...

Jess Gillam is joined by pianist Leif Kaner-Lidstrom to swap tracks and share the music they love. With music from Richard Strauss to The Comet Is Coming. Tracks we played today... Richard Strauss - Ein Heldenleben, op.40 The Comet is Coming – The Universe Wakes Up Antonio Bazzini – La ronde des lutins (Scherzo fantastique), Op. 25 Ilse Weber – Wiegala Judd Greenstein – Clearing, Dawn , Dance Schu...

Jess Gillam is joined by violinist Rakhi Singh to swap tracks and share the music they love, with music from Bach to Portishead, and we squeeze bees with Ivor Cutler.

Jess Gillam is joined by Ivor Novello award winning composer and fellow saxophonist Charlotte Harding to swap tracks, including two saxophone greats - Branford Marsalis and Ivy Benson, other worldly textures from John Luther Adams and Anders Hillborg, and two generations of Prokofievs. Tracks we played today... Gabriel Prokofiev – Saxophone Concerto: IV. Allegro Mechanico Nadia Boulanger - 3 Piece...

In a special edition of the show with BBC Ten Pieces, Jess is joined in the studio by young musicians Evelyn, George and Emma to listen to music by Brahms, Grieg, Clean Bandit and a number from the hit musical Hamilton.