Hugh Cutting sings Jonathan Dove's Hojoki: An account of my hut

Radio 3's New Generation Artists play music by César Franck and Ravel at concert halls and festivals around the UK. And, recorded at the BBC Studios, there's a performance by the brilliant countertenor Hugh Cutting of a work commissioned by the BBC in 2006 whose subject matter is more than ever relevant to our times.

César Franck (arr. Jean-Pierre Rampal): Violin Sonata in A
Elizaveta Ivanova (flute), Sanja Bizjak (piano)
Recorded at 2025 Ryedale Festival in All Saints Church, Hovingham, Yorkshire

Ravel: Prélude
Ravel: Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn
Asal: Improvisation
Ravel: A la manière de ... Borodine
Asal: Improvisation
Franck: Prélude, choral et fugue
Julius Asal (piano)
Recorded in Radio 3 Monday Lunchtime Concert series at Wigmore Hall

Sibelius: Five Pieces for Violin and Piano Op.81
Hana Chang (violin), Arthur Hinnewinkel (piano)

Jonathan Dove: Hojoki: An account of my hut
Hugh Cutting (countertenor)
BBC SO, Martijn Dendievel (conductor)

Emma Rawicz: Pianosa Dream
Emma Rawicz with Marc Michel (drums), Freddie Jensen (string bass), Rasmus Sørensen (piano)

Jonathan Dove writes: "These days it seems that natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more dramatic. So it is interesting to read the 800-year-old essay by Kamo no Chomei (1153–1216) called Hojoki (An account of my hut) and learn that, in the span of less than a decade in Kyoto, this medieval monk witnessed the devastation caused by a great fire, a mighty whirlwind, the uprooting and relocation of his city, a two-year famine, and finally an earthquake... Not surprisingly, these events caused the writer to reflect on the impermanence of human dwellings. His own life shows a progressive shedding of living-space, and eventually a retirement from the world to the life of a hermit...."

Also tonight, Pianosa Dream by the brilliant jazz saxophonist Emma Rawicz, inspired by the small Italian island of Pianosa which was the setting for the 1961 novel Catch-22 by Paul Heller. As Emma writes: "The book is in many ways absurd and dreamlike, not least because the island itself is in reality far too small to accommodate all of the outlandish and bizarre events of the story. This piece was inspired by that mood of surreal and dreamlike storytelling."