Programmes

Classic FM Hall of Fame

Full programme

  • Mendelssohn, A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Overture  (11mins)
  • Puccini, Tosca: Vissi d’Arte  (3mins)
  • Beethoven, Symphony No. 7: Allegretto  (7mins)
  • Puccini, La Bohème: O Soave Fanciulla  (5mins)
  • Tchaikovsky, Sleeping Beauty: Waltz  (5mins)
  • Puccini, Turandot: Nessun Dorma  (3mins)
  • Williams, Jurassic Park: Theme  (5mins)
  • Sibelius, Karelia Suite  (8mins)
  • Mozart, The Magic Flute: Ach, Ich Fuhl’s  (4mins)
  • Rachmaninoff, Symphony No. 2: Adagio  (16mins)
  • Verdi, Rigoletto: La Donna è Mobile  (2mins)
  • Zimmer, Gladiator  (4mins)
  • Mascagni, Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo  (5mins)
  • Verdi, La Traviata: Libiam ne‘ lieti calici  (3mins)

Performers

  • Headshot of Ben Palmer

    Ben Palmer

    Conductor
  • Headshot of Ella Taylor

    Ella Taylor

    Soprano

  • Charne Rochford

    Tenor
  • Headshot of John Suchet

    John Suchet

    Presenter

Introduction

Imagine you are asked to put a concert programme together of your all-time favourite pieces of music. Now have a look at tonight’s programme. I can see the smiles of recognition. Every piece you will hear tonight has been voted — by you — into the Classic FM Hall of Fame, the largest survey of classical music tastes in the world. If you listen in this coming Easter weekend, you will hear the new top 300, counted all the way down from No. 300 on Good Friday morning, to the climax, the new No.1, on Easter Monday evening. What a feast of music that promises to be!

Tonight, we have a foretaste of that; a selection of the best-loved pieces of classical music played by the wonderful City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - Classic FM’s Orchestra in the Midlands. We will hear music from the opera stage, from ballet, music conjuring up an enchanted forest, music as a gift of love, music to thrill us, whether in the Colosseum of ancient Rome or a park of prehistoric monsters.

The first piece tonight has been called the most remarkable display of young genius in the history of music. No, not Mozart but Mendelssohn, who at the age of just sixteen composed a perfect overture, his overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Mozart does indeed feature in part two of tonight’s concert, with an aria from his last great opera, The Magic Flute.

The central piece of part two is a piece of music that its composer was convinced would be a flop. The premiere of Rachmaninov’s First Symphony was a total fiasco — an inebriated conductor did not help — and he remarked that if his Second Symphony also flopped, he would never write another note. It was a triumph and the slow movement, which we will hear tonight, being one of his most tender and beautiful creations.

The two greatest composers of Italian opera, Verdi and Puccini, also feature, as well as Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and a piece of music so popular from the moment it was first heard that its composer, who never equaled it again, bemoaned that he was crowned before he became king.

Sit back, relax, and listen out for your favourite.

John Suchet
Presenter