Beethoven live from London's Wigmore Hall

Linton Stephens brings you an afternoon of exclusive music-making including a live concert from London's Wigmore Hall. Pianist Paul Lewis and double bassist Tim Gibbs join Norwegian ensemble the Vertavo String Quartet to perform Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto in an arrangement made in 1881 by Vinzenz Lachner, one of four brothers who became composers, and Schubert’s melancholy, often tempestuous ‘Quartettsatz’.

In the week leading up to Good Friday, there is music inspired by spirituality. Handel's Te Deum, a choral setting of the traditional Christian hymn of praise, is performed by Le Concert Spirituel, pianist Kit Armstrong performs music which explores the religious culture of Elizabethan England and the RTS Chorus sing Rachmaninov's The Mother of God, ever-vigilant in prayer. There are also excerpts from a concert by the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra in which Haydn’s Seven Last Words on the Cross is interspersed with Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, juxtaposing Christ’s suffering with human grief and suggesting that art and religion may confer spiritual meaning on life.

Elsewhere in the programme, cellist Li-Wei Qin and pianist Jeremy Young join forces to play Britten's virtuosic Sonata for Cello and Piano in a concert recorded in Sheffield.

Live from Wigmore Hall and presented by Petroc Trelawny

Ludwig van Beethoven (arr. Vinzenz Lachner)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Op. 15

Franz Schubert
String Quartet in C minor D703 'Quartettsatz'

Paul Lewis (piano)
Vertavo String Quartet
Tim Gibbs (double bass)

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George Frideric Handel
Te Deum, HWV 283 (Excerpts)
Le Concert Spirituel
Hervé Niquet (conductor)

Guillaume de Machaut
Six Songs (arr. for piano)
Kit Armstrong (piano)

Gustav Mahler
Kindertotenlieder: Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgehn
Johan Reuter (bass-baritone)
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra
Hossein Pishkar, (conductor)

Benjamin Britten
Sonata for Cello and Piano Op.65
Li-Wei Qin (cello)
Jeremy Young (piano)

Sergei Rachmaninov
The Mother of God, ever-vigilant in prayer
RTS Chorus
Hadži Jakov Milutinović (conductor)

Joseph Haydn
Seven Last Words on the Cross: Introduzione. Adagio and Sonata 1: Largo
Johan Reuter (bass-baritone)
Lausanne Chamber Orchestra
Hossein Pishkar, (conductor)

William Byrd
Walsingham
Kit Armstrong (piano)

To listen to this programme (using most smart speakers), just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Classical Live".