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Music for a summer's evening

Take time out with a 30-minute soundscape of classical favourites, including music by Bach, Barber, Mahler and Bruckner.

Today's mixtape opens with Yevgeny Subin playing a haunting sonata by Domenico Scarlatti, followed by a truly sublime aria by Bach from one of his cantatas, as the singer (joined by a plangent oboe) contemplates his own mortality: "Es ist vollbracht" (It is accomplished). Waltzing along with a piano miniature by Tarresa Carreno, we reach one of the iconic pieces of twentieth century American music, used to great effect in several films including Platoon and The Elephant Man: Barber’s Adagio for strings. And this cinematic mood continues with a short excerpt from Mahler's epic Third Symphony - a particularly poignant moment featuring an offstage post horn solo. Finally, Mahler passes the baton to his fellow Austrian, Bruckner, for the celestial choral motet, Ave Maria.

Producer: Dom Wells

25 days left to listen

30 minutes

Music Played

  • Domenico Scarlatti

    Sonata in A major Kk.208

    Performer: Yevgeny Sudbin.
    • Scarlatti: 18 Sonatas.
    • BIS.
    • 2.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    'Es ist vollbracht' from Cantata BWV 159 (Sehet, wir gehn hinauf gen Jerusalem)

    Singer: Peter Kooij. Orchestra: Bach Collegium Japan. Conductor: Masaaki Suzuki.
    • BIS.
  • Teresa Carreño

    Mi Teresita [Little Waltz]

    Performer: Gabriela Montero.
    • WARNER.
  • Samuel Barber

    Adagio for Strings

    Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Conductor: Marin Alsop.
    • Barber: Cello Concerto / Medea Suite / Adagio for Strings.
    • Naxos.
    • 11.
  • Gustav Mahler

    Symphony no.3 in D Minor (Pt 2 3rd mvt)

    Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Bernard Haitink.
    • Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor.
    • BR-Klassik.
    • 202.
  • Anton Bruckner

    Ave Maria

    Choir: Polyphony. Conductor: Stephen Layton.
    • Bruckner: Mass in E minor/Motets: Polyphony/Britten Sinfonia/Layton.
    • Hyperion.
    • 1.

Broadcast

  • Friday 19:00

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