John Humphrys, one of Britain’s best-known broadcasters, joins the Classic FM team this year to present his own Sunday show from 4pm to 7pm.
Each week he will share his own stories and reflections of his favourite composers and their music.
With a successful career spanning six decades, John has presented on both radio and TV, and has anchored many of the country’s flagship news programmes, including the Today Programme.
John plays music by Schubert aged just 19; a light, bright work that may well have been the piece that convinced him to break off from studying law and make music his life. We The Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Neville Marriner, perform the second movement of Schubert’s Symphony No.5.
Then, there’s a recording from a young boy treble who crowd-funded his first album, and found recent fame singing the title music to TV’s The Pembrokeshire Murders. John features a track from Cai Thomas’s debut album Seren.
Sunday 25 April
John plays the opening movement of one of the most performed symphonies around, and the work that many claim to be Beethoven’s greatest achievement; his Symphony No.9, the “Choral”. There’s a recording from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle.
Then, John features a pianist described by the New York Times as “Iceland’s Glenn Gould”. He plays a piece from Vikingur Olafsson’s latest album featuring reworkings of the music of Debussy and Rameau.
Sunday 2 May
John has three hours of music to celebrate the Bank Holiday weekend, including the sunny second movement of the work that cemented Rodrigo as one of Spain's favourite composers; the Concierto de Aranjuez.
Then, there’s more music to brighten the afternoon with the opening movement of ‘Spring’ from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, performed by an award-winning pair of Franco-Swiss sisters, Camille and Julie Berthollet.
