All-day revels for un-ancient Marriner

We have been accused at times, quite unfairly, of being a tad harsh on that derivative, soporific, life-draining operation known as Classic FM. ‘Never a good word to say about us,’ we’ve heard its bosses complains.

Well, here’s one.

On Tuesday, April 15, Sir Neville Marriner’s 90th birthday, all music broadcast on Classic FM will be conducted by him. Prior to that, from Saturday March 29 Classic FM will relay Neville Marriner at 90 Week, climaxing with a broadcast of Sir Neville’s 90^th birthday concert from the Royal Festival Hall with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields – the ensemble he founded in 1958.

Well done, Classic FM.

Neville is the most recorded conductor after Herbert von Karajan and the kindest man that ever set foot on a podium. It is fit and proper to honour him in this way. Good programming, too. Press release follows.

Classic FM, Global’s national classical music station, has announced a major celebration of Sir Neville Marriner to mark the British conductor’s 90^th birthday.

For the first time in its 21-year history, Classic FM will play one conductor’s recordings for an entire 24-hour period. On Tuesday 15^th April – Sir Neville’s birthday – every single piece of music broadcast on Classic FM will be conducted by him, as the station honours this remarkable musician.

Preceding this unique takeover, from Saturday 29^th March Classic FM will devote a week of special programmes to the conductor.Neville Marriner at 90 Week will culminate in an exclusive broadcast of Sir Neville’s 90^th birthday concert on Friday 4^th April from the Royal Festival Hall with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields – the ensemble he founded in 1958. Sir Neville has worked with the Academy for over fifty years and remains Life President.

The celebratory week will include an interview with Sir Neville and his son, the clarinettist Andrew Marriner, both of whom will be guests onCharlotte Green’s Culture Club on Sunday 30^th March (3pm to 5pm). The programme will also feature an interview with the current Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, violinist Joshua Bell. Later that evening (7pm to 9pm), David Mellor will present an affectionate tribute to the conductor with some of his finest archive recordings.

From Monday 31^st March, Jane Jones will host five special Full Works Concerts (8pm to 10pm), dedicated to profiling the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. On Monday, Jane begins with an exclusive broadcast of a concert recorded for Classic FM at London’s Cadogan Hall in January, which sees Joshua Bell lead the orchestra in Bach’s Violin Concerto in E and Beethoven’s Symphony No.3 (‘Eroica’). From Tuesday to Thursday, many of Sir Neville’s most acclaimed recordings with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields will be played, whilst on Friday the celebrations continue with the broadcast of the conductor’s 90^th birthday concert, recorded on Monday 1^stApril at the Royal Festival Hall with the Academy.

Further celebrations during the week will include a special edition of Saturday Night at the Movies with Howard Goodall (5pm to 7pm) in which the film score discography of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields will be profiled, while Classic FM morning presenter John Suchet will feature the orchestra’s brand new recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 14 and 27 with pianist Ingrid Jacoby, conducted by Sir Neville, as Classic FM’s Album of the Week.