Music Nation

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen. Presented by Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein.

Petroc Trelawny introduces a concert by the Academy of Ancient Music and violinist Alina Ibragimova, recorded earlier this evening at the Assembly Rooms in Ludlow.

Alina Ibragimova makes her Academy of Ancient Music debut in a programme which vividly charts groundbreaking developments in the role of the violin as a solo instrument.

The concert begins with Ibragimova alone on the stage, performing what is thought to be the first work for solo violin: Biber's Passacaglia. Then she's joined by a harpsichord for JS Bach's Violin Sonata in E major. Later, the stage bustles with action as the whole orchestra arrives to perform violin concertos by Bach and Vivaldi. As Ibragimova says, 'These works aren't just the start of something. They form their own world, with the full spectrum of colour and emotion - everything that music is about, in fact.

H. Biber - Passacaglia in G minor from the Mystery/Rosary Sonatas

JS Bach - Sonata for violin and harpsichord in E major, BWV 1016

JS Bach - Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041

Vivaldi - Violin Concerto in D major, RV 234 (L'inquietudine)

Vivaldi - Concerto for two violins and cello in D major, Op. 3 no. 11 (RV 565)

H. Biber - Battalia

JS Bach - Violin Concerto in E major, BWV 1042.

The Academy of Ancient Music and violinist Alina Ibragimova in Bach, Biber and Vivaldi.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen. Presented by Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein.

Catherine Bott introduces the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, recorded last night at Kings Place, London.

The principal players of one of London's best-loved chamber orchestras come together to play Brahms. Chamber music was central to Brahms in his early years, both as a composer and performer. These two string sextets have a sense of refinement building on his love of Schubert and Vienna, but with a more opulent texture.

Brahms - String Sextet No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 18; String Sextet No. 2 in G, Op. 36

Further information about Music Nation:

~Music Nation is a nationwide weekend of over 100 live music events across the UK on 3 & 4 March 2012. Devised and led by the BBC the weekend is the first nationwide countdown event to the London 2012 Festival, and includes performances by all of the BBC's performing groups.

From Cornwall to the Shetland Isles and Belfast to Birmingham, Music Nation is an unprecedented collaboration of the UK's orchestral and music-making communities, built primarily around classical music, but taking in jazz, folk and world music.

~Music Nation is a partnership with Arts Council England, the Association of British Orchestras (ABO), British Association of Concert Halls (BACH), Orchestras Live, Making Music, Conservatoires UK and Locog to celebrate the richness, diversity and excellence of Britain's musical life.

BBC Radio 3, Music Nation's principal media partner, will broadcast live content throughout the weekend, with additional programming on BBC Radio1, 1Xtra, BBC Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and BBC local radio.

For further details on all the events visit bbc.co.uk/musicnation.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble in Brahms's String Sextets.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen. Presented by Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein.

Energetic, inspiring and astonishing in equal measures, the Aurora Orchestra has built an enviable following in its relatively short life. As the Music Nation spotlight falls on Bristol the group takes to the stage at St George's with conductor Nicholas Collon for a concert contrasting dark-hued, impassioned sounds from Richard Strauss with Mozart at his brilliant best. Highlights from the concert, recorded earlier today.

Nicholas Collon conducts the Aurora Orchestra in music by Strauss and Mozart.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen. Presented by Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein.

Live from St David's Hall, Cardiff, Nicola Heywood Thomas introduces a celebratory concert inspired by the Olympics, and featuring a world premiere by celebrated Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. On stage are the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the BBC National Chorus of Wales, students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and 250 young singers from county youth choirs across Wales. The music includes Shostakovich's Festival Overture, which featured in the 1980 Moscow games, and Michael Torke's Javelin, composed for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The huge forces combine for the climax of the concert - the first performance of Songs of the Earth by Karl Jenkins, composed especially for the occasion.

Shostakovich: Festival Overture

Michael Torke: Javelin

Lloyd Coleman: Breaking the Wall (extract)

Special schools workshop performance

Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture

Karl Jenkins: Songs of the Earth (world premiere)

Massed county youth choirs

Sian Edwards (conductor)

Karl Jenkins (conductor).

Nicola Heywood Thomas presents a celebratory concert inspired by the Olympics.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen.

Live on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Scotland from the Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, Jamie MacDougall and Rhona McLeod introduce Music Nation: A Sporting Fanfare. Celebrating musical and sporting excellence, and inspiring the youth of today to be the experts of tomorrow.

It's an all-star lineup. Onstage with Scottish Olympic heroes Allan Wells, Liz McColgan, David Wilkie and Aileen McGlynn will be the combined forces of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, the National Youth Choir of Scotland, singers and players from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Sistema Scotland, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - plus celebrated violinist Nicola Benedetti, BBC Radio Scotland's Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2011, Kristan Harvey. At the helm is the conductor Stephen Bell.

This celebration of music and sport will include performances of John Williams' Olympic Fanfare, Vangelis's world-famous theme from Chariots of Fire, Ravel's Bolero, highlights from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana and the world premiere of a newly commissioned fanfare from acclaimed Scottish composer James MacMillan.

Jamie MacDougall and Rhona McLeod present a celebration of music, sport and youth.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen. Presented by Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein.

Petroc Trelawny introduces singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright performing his exquisite Five Shakespeare Sonnets with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a Shakespeare-inspired programme live from the Barbican Centre in London.

Rufus Wainwright, one of the leading singer-songwriters of his generation, performs the UK premiere of his settings of five of Shakespeare's sonnets including 'Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing' (Sonnet 87). The evening features readings of the sonnets by one of the UK's finest actors, Siân Phillips.

There's also music from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet, the Much Ado About Nothing Suite by the great Hollywood composer Erich Korngold, and John Adams's rollicking Lollapalooza.

John Adams: Lollapalooza

Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing (Suite)

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (highlights)

Rufus Wainwright: Five Shakespeare Sonnets

Rory MacDonald (conductor).

From the Barbican in London, Petroc Trelawny presents a Shakespeare-inspired concert.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen. Presented by Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein.

Ivan Hewett introduces the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group Chamber Players at the CBSO Centre in Birmingham, with a colourful programme of British and Italian chamber music gems from the last 30 years. Everything from Thomas Ades to John Woolrich via Harrison Birtwistle, Oliver Knussen reworking of Purcell, and a Berceuse by Aldo Clementi - who died exactly a year ago today.

Alexandra Wood (violin)

Ulrich Heinen (cello)

Marie-Christine Zupancic (flute)

Timothy Lines (clarinet)

Malcolm Wilson (piano).

BCMG Chamber Players in Ades, Woolrich, Birtwistle, Purcell and Aldo Clementi.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen.

This morning Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present highlights from Music Nation concerts across the full length of England - Plymouth to Cockermouth and beyond.

At the Plymouth Pavilions, the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Matthew Coorey celebrate Music Nation in style with celebrity local guest Seth Lakeman in new arrangements of his material made specially for the occasion by Anne Dudley. Musical families from across the region join together as the Devon and Cornwall Family Orchestras to perform alongside the BBC CO in a specially devised piece by Tim Steiner. And the Plymouth audience also get a chance to let their hair down and participate in a fun sing-a-long.

At Christ Church in Cockermouth, Cumbria, the Scottish Ensemble are joined south of the border by English trumpeter Alison Balsom. Alison solos in James MacMillan's Seraph - a joint commission by the Scottish Ensemble and Perth Concert Halls - and the Ensemble play Tchaikovsky's well-loved Serenade for Strings.

At London's Cadogan Hall, the City of London Sinfonia and conductor Stephen Layton retrace the steps of Captain Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole in music, images and words. Excerpts from Vaughan Williams's film score Scott of the Antarctic are interwoven with moving readings from Scott's diary, and there's a world premiere of Cecilia McDowall's Seventy Degrees Below Zero, setting words by poet Seကn Street inspired by Scott's own letters.

At the Assembly Rooms in Derby, another brand-new work specially created for Music Nation: Invocation, by composer and multi-instrumentalist Tunde Jegede, who's equally at home on the worlds of Western classical, African and pop music. Invocation is scored for orchestra, African percussion and two soloists in dialogue - a cello and a contemporary African dancer. Cellist Matthew Barley and dancer Bode Lawal join conductor Nicholas Collon and sinfonia ViVA, who co-commissioned the work with Orchestras Live.

And at the Exchange in Sturminster Newton, Dorset, the contemporary music ensemble of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra - Kokoro - are joined by amateur groups from across the county to explore music with themes of local myth, legend or landmark. Music by Hywel Davies and Stephen McNeff - whose Bob the Fiddler and The Welshnut Tree feature the combined forces of community choir and string quartet in settings of poems in the local Dorset dialect by nineteenth century poet William Barnes. Plus the Memory Lane Big Band.

Further information about Music Nation:

~Music Nation is a nationwide weekend of over 100 live music events across the UK on 3 & 4 March 2012. Devised and led by the BBC the weekend is the first nationwide countdown event to the London 2012 Festival, and includes performances by all of the BBC's performing groups.

From Cornwall to the Shetland Isles and Belfast to Birmingham, Music Nation is an unprecedented collaboration of the UK's orchestral and music-making communities, built primarily around classical music, but taking in jazz, folk and world music.

~Music Nation is a partnership with Arts Council England, the Association of British Orchestras (ABO), British Association of Concert Halls (BACH), Orchestras Live, Making Music, Conservatoires UK and Locog to celebrate the richness, diversity and excellence of Britain's musical life.

BBC Radio 3, Music Nation's principal media partner, will broadcast live content throughout the weekend, with additional programming on BBC Radio1, 1Xtra, BBC Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and BBC local radio.

For further details on all the events visit bbc.co.uk/musicnation.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present concert highlights from Plymouth to Cockermouth.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen. Presented by Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein.

~Music Nation joins the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for one of their unique 'Night Shift' events, presenting great classical music in a relaxed late night setting. Tonight Alistair Appleton introduces an all Bach programme - his Fifth Brandenburg Concerto and Third Orchestral Suite, which includes the famous 'Air on a G String - live from the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

Bach Orchestral Suite no. 3 in D Major (BWV 1068)

Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 in D Major (BWV 1050)

Lisa Beznosiuk (flute)

Matthew Truscott (violin)

Laurence Cummings (director).

The OAE performs music by Bach: Orchestral Suite No 3; Brandenburg Concerto No 5.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen. Presented by Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein.

Highlights from a concert at St Mary's Church, Shrewsbury: Nicholas Ward conducts the Northern Chamber Orchestra in music from Britain and Europe, including the world premiere of John Joubert's new Cello Concerto with soloist Raphael Wallfisch.

Nicholas Ward conducts the Northern Chamber Orchestra in music from Britain and Europe.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen. Presented by Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein.

Stuart Flinders introduces a concert by the BBC Philharmonic, given last night at the Victoria Hall, Hanley. A Japanese conductor and soloist join the orchestra in a programme with an American flavour.

Dvorak: Carnival Overture

Chopin: Piano Concerto no. 1 in E minor

Nobuyuki Tsujii (piano)

Copland: Appalachian Spring (Suite)

Bernstein: West Side Story - Symphonic Dances

Yutaka Sado (conductor).

The BBC Philharmonic under Yutaka Sado in music by Dvorak, Chopin, Copland and Bernstein.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK

Radio 3 celebrates live music-making all weekend, handing on the baton from concert to concert, featuring a wide range of professional and amateur events and talking to the people who've made it all happen. Presented by Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein.

John Toal introduces a historic cooperation: live from the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, the Dublin-based RTɀ Concert Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra perform together for the first time. The massed orchestra will perform the world premiere of a new BBC Radio 3 commission, Praise Aloud the Trees by Northern Ireland composer Brian Irvine. The text is from Sweeney Astray, a translation by Seamus Heaney of Buile Suibhne, a 12th-century Irish cycle about the Ulster petty king 'mad Sweeney', who lost his reason at the Battle of Mag Rath or Moira in 637.

Also on the programme are a showpiece for each orchestra: the RTE Concert Orchestra play Korngold's 'Robin Hood Suite' - music to the 1938 film score Adventures of Robin Hood - and the Ulster Orchestra play Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio espagnol. The concert begins with the combined orchestra in the aptly named 'On the Waterfront' Symphonic Suite by Leonard Bernstein.

Bernstein: On the Waterfront - Symphonic Suite

Korngold: Robin Hood Suite

Rimsky Korsakov: Capriccio espagnol

Brian Irvine: Praise Aloud the Trees (Radio 3 commission) for 2 orchestras and choir

Chorus

Jurjen Hempel (conductor).

Ulster Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra in Bernstein, Korngold, Rimsky-Korsakov, Irvine.

Andrew McGregor and Suzy Klein present a weekend of music events from across the UK