Performance on 3 - Play to the Nation

Martin Handley presents the opening programme of Radio 3's Play to the Nation season, celebrating the rich world of amateur music-making in a series of special recordings for Radio 3. BBC Radio 3 has teamed up with Making Music to find four of the best amateur orchestras in the UK for broadcast tonight as part of Play to the Nation. Tonight's line-up includes four amateur orchestras specially recorded by Radio 3: the Dundee Symphony Orchestra playing Beethoven, the Kensington Chamber Orchestra playing Bruch, the Slaithwaite Philharmonic with music from their Summer Proms, and Birmingham Symphonic Winds with Rodrigo. Play to the Nation aims to show off the vibrant, diverse and often excellent activity of amateur orchestras around the UK. No other radio station in the UK could make this possible. Building on the ambitious Listen Up! festivals (2004 and 2006), which also celebrated the enormous part amateur orchestras play in British cultural life, amateur orchestras have been invited to send in recordings of their performances. Throughout October, following the main evening concert from the UK’s top professional orchestras, Performance on 3 will continue to feature some of the hundreds of amateur orchestras regularly performing throughout the UK. There will also be the chance to hear highlights of five Pianothons which take place in Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow, London and Manchester - eight-hour-long piano marathons which aim to bring together amateur pianists of all ages and abilities during October. WOOLFENDEN: Bohemian Dances Birmingham Symphonic Winds Guy Woolfenden (conductor) BRUCH: Double Concerto Naoko Miyamoto (violin) Mark Braithwaite (viola) Kensington Chamber Orchestra Nicholas Collon (conductor) COATES: Knightsbridge March Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra John Anderson (conductor) RODRIGO: Fantasia para un gentilhombre Craig Ogden (guitar) Birmingham Symphonic Winds Keith Allen (conductor) WINTERS: The Serious Side of Madness Kensington Chamber Orchestra Nicholas Collon (conductor) BARBER: Violin Concerto Emily Steinitz (violin) Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestra John Anderson (conductor) BEETHOVEN: Symphony no. 1 Dundee Symphony Orchestra Robert Dick (conductor)