Alan Hovhaness News | Hovhaness is BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week

February 28th to March 4th, 2005
Hovhaness Profiled on UK Radio

Alan Hovhaness is BBC Radio 3's Composer of the Week. The five one-hour programmes more or less chronoligically chart his music and life, and are broadcast at mid-day UK time (7am EST, 4am PST). They are repeated the following week at midnight (7pm EST, 4pm PST). The BBC orchestras were keen to record works especially for this series, including some (such as Arjuna and Meditation on Zeami) not commercially available or heard since the 1960s. The series was first broadcast in early 2002.

Works in RED are specially recorded by the BBC's orchestras

For BBC Radio 3 Web site click here

Program 1: Monday
• Monadnock op 2 -- BBC Scottish Symphony Orch / Ken Young - BBC Recording
• Storm on Mount Wildcat op 2a - BBC Scottish Symphony Orch / Ken Young
• String Quartet No 3 op 208 no 1 - Shanghai Quartet - Delos CD
• Symphony No 1, Exile Symphony, op 17 - Delos CD

Program 2: Tuesday
• Prayer of St Gregory (1946) Ulster Orchestra/Kenneth Montgomery (conductor)/Paul Young (trumpet) - BBC Recording
• Arjuna (Symphony No.8) (1947) BBC Scottish Symphony Orch / Ken Young / Lynda Cochran (piano) - BBC Recording
• Twelve Armenian Folksongs - excerpts (1943) - Sahan Arzruni (piano) - Hearts of Space CD
• Vision from High Rock op 123 (1954) - BBC SO / Rumon Gamba - BBC Recording

Program 3: Wednesday
• Upon Enchanted Ground op 90 no 1, for Flute Cello Giant Tam-Tam and Harp (1951) - Telarc CD
• Mysterious Mountain (Symphony no 2), op 132 (1955) - Chicago SO / Fritz Reiner - RCA Victor CD
• Symphony no 15, 'Silver Pilgrimage' (1963) - BBC SO / Rumon Gamba - BBC Recording

Program 4: Thursday
• Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints (1965) - BBC SSO/Ken Young/Heather Corbett (Xyl) - BBC Recording
• Distant Lake of Sighs -- Ara Berberian (bass) / Hovhaness (piano) - Poseidon LP
• The Holy City op 218 (1965 or 1967) - BBC SO / Douglas Bostock - BBC Recording
• Suite from String Quartet no 2 - Shanghai Quartet -- Delos CD
• Meditation on Zeami op 207 (1964) - BBC SO / Douglas Bostock - BBC Recording

Program 5: Friday
• Symphony no 22 'City of Light' (1971) - Ulster Orchestra / Kenneth Montgomery - BBC Recording
• Symphony no 53, 'Star Dawn' op 377, - Ohio State Univ. Concert Band / Keith Brion - 2nd movt - Delos CD
• The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, op 282 (1975) - Seattle SO / Diane Schnidt (accordion) / Gerard Schwarz / Michael York (narrator) - Delos CD
• A Rose Tree Blossoms op 246 no 4 - Choir and Orchestra of St John's Cathedral, Denver / Donald Pearson – Delos CD