Blimey. I know a lot of people are saying this, but I've also never seen my twitter feed so full of total anger. And I mostly follow pacifist tree-hugging birdwatchers, lepidopterists and botanists!
From April next year I'll be taking on
@BBCRadio3
weekday Breakfast. I'll be inheriting a programme from the absolute broadcasting master
@PetrocTrelawny
, who'll be driving a pickaxe through his alarm clock and starting your evenings in real style on In Tune.
Ah. I appear to have broken the door and trapped myself inside the
@BBCRadio3
studio. I think I'll wait until we're off air to embarrassingly call for assistance! 😂
Thanks to everyone last month who sponsored my Grade 1 singing exam. Just found out I got a distinction! 😂 😂 😂 So in Classical Live on Radio 3 this afternoon, I was going to play Harmonielehre by John Adams, but I'm ditching it and singing you my Grade 1 songs instead 😲🕺
We had some really nice news last week - listener numbers are up for Sunday Breakfast
@bbcradio3
. A huge thank you to everyone who joins us 6.30 - 9am! So a very good morning from Salford, and here's a family of Barn Owls I found last night. ❤️
To anyone thinking of cancelling their RSPB
@Natures_Voice
membership. Here's a pretty good reason (alongside a trillion others) as to why you really really really shouldn't.
BREAKING - Grouse moor gamekeeper pleads guilty to shooting two Short-eared Owls after being witnessed by RSPB Investigations staff - read our blog and watch our video
My childhood Sunday mornings were spent rolling cigarettes for my grandad whilst listening to
@BBCRadio3
. Seriously! 😂 So an honour to now be trusted with your music for Sunday Breakfast. I hope to keep the perfect tone that wonderful Martin Handley has managed so brilliantly.
Enjoyed the
@bbcproms
this year on TV or
@BBCRadio3
? Then remember that classical music doesn't stop when the Proms ends! I can guarantee that almost no matter where you are, there will be concerts not far from you. Go and experience it live. It will blow your effin mind!
Brenig Osprey Project.
Last night, at 21.42, someone took a chainsaw to the osprey nest and felled it.
any information that can help us identifying the individuals responsible, please let us know or contact the police with crime reference 2059734.
Please share
#wales
#osprey
The first concert I ever went to was the BBC Philharmonic at Vic Hall in Hanley. Tonight Nancy went to her first concert. The BBC Philharmonic at Vic Hall in Hanley to see Stephen
@houghhough
play Beethoven. Her one word review - 'amazing!'
@BBCPhilharmonic
5am in the Blue Peter garden. Did we get a decent recording of birdsong for International Dawn Chorus Day? All will be revealed at 6.45 on
@BBCRadio3
. Plus Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, Dvorak's Serenade for Strings and the Cello Sonata by Louise Farrenc. See you shortly ☕
Culinary alchemy - a Staffordshire oatcake made by mother McKinney, served on ironstone pottery from Burslem. There were four on the plate to start. It doesn't get any more Stoke than this!
Proud to be a snowflake. Better still a lefty, tree-hugging, Save the Whales, PC, Remoaning snowflake. And my 2019 resolution is to be even more so
#bemoresnowflakey
#justbeafuckingniceperson
Felt very strange all weekend. The
#NPO
@ace_national
news has really got to me. Friday was a complete disaster. The tiny gains for deserving organisations mean nothing against those who took a kicking.
@PsapphaEnsemble
and
@BrittenSinfonia
? Utterly miserable
Couldn't find my waterproof so had to get soaked. But April rain... chance of an Arctic Tern... and finally my first one at Woodhead! Stayed until 8.30 and then flew off NE. The bird with the longest migration, 24,000km round trip each year from the Arctic to Antarctic. Mega!
Alarm set for 4.45am. 😬 Sitting in for
@elizabethalker
to present Saturday Breakfast on
@BBCRadio3
. There'll be all the stuff I like - guitars,
@Ensemble_360
, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and BIRDS! Here's a frosty looking Chaffinch 📸. See you at 7am 🥂
No doubt about it,
@BBCRadio3
's producers are truly spectacular people. Producer Barnaby
@Bray_Odn
went on a 19 mile run at night (seriously!) in order to get this morning's birdsong - Nightjars. Sunday Breakfast 6.30 - 9. See you there.
Nightjars at dusk on the summer solstice 🌕
The captivating sounds of the Suffolk heathland just up the coast from Aldeburgh Festival
@BrittenPears
on the longest day of the year 🐦 Join
@tom_mckinney
for more birdsong on Sunday Breakfast 🕡
Blah blah, moan moan... but for various reasons I've not been having the best time recently. So getting to spend six hours with this obscenely impressive bird today has blown my head off. And at one stage I thought it was going to take my head off! 😂😂😂
In my head I'm not even vaguely close to being a proper grown up, responsible, mature adult. So how am I suddenly taking my 11yo daughter to look at secondary schools? 🤔
All
@BBCRadio3
broadcasts are equal, but some are more equal than others. A special live In Concert for me tonight from Victoria Hall in Hanley, where I saw my first ever orchestral concert. And it was also the
@BBCPhilharmonic
. Join us from 7.30 the Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony
Exactly ten years ago today I did my first live broadcast on
@BBCRadio3
. It was the Halle conducted by Mark Elder at Bridgewater Hall. Ten years on and here I am tonight with the Halle conducted by Mark Elder at Bridgewater Hall. It's been a lot of fun! 😍
Sending best wishes to
@PetrocTrelawny
for a quick return to good health. Turns out I'm presenting Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
from a rather lonely Broadcasting House in London today - I guess people will do anything to avoid me! Get well soon x
First 45 minutes of
#vismig
an absolute triumph. Possibly heard a single Meadow Pipit deep within the fog and battered by the wind, but could also have been a squeaky gate.
The brilliant
@MannGeorgia
is taking a well deserved week off, so I'm nicking her seat and mic for next week's Essential Classics. Every weekday from 9am on
@BBCRadio3
. I promise not to break anything.
My last visit to Salford Quays for 2023, & only a Song Thrush for company as I walked to the studio. Join me from 9 for the last Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
of the year. Bach, Beach and Berlioz all in the first half hour, followed by composers whose names don't start with B 🥂
Proms Countdown on
@BBCRadio3
. The afternoon team has arrived at the Royal Albert Hall
@bonaomi1
@HoskinLizzie
@josephzubier
. We're on from 1-4, looking through the season ahead & plenty to get you ready for it all starting tonight. Special guests & loads of great music. 🌞
It's really no surprise that the Finns consistently come top in rankings of the world's happiest people. Such a beautiful place!
🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮
@Lucy_SMTurner
Ooh la la! An Arctic Warbler in the pub car park to end the day, with a Yellow-browed Warbler calling just behind and a Curlew Sandpiper on the Humber. Kerching!
#spurnbirds
@spurnbirdobs
Pretty much every good thing in my life is because I went to state schools that had amazing music teachers and loads of music going on. Any headteacher preventing kids from excelling in music are simply depriving them of a real education. It's pretty appalling
You can travel back in time to any point in history. Where are you going? I'm going to whenever someone decided to cover the walls of our house with woodchip. And when I get there I'm going to violently persuade them not to. This is hell! 😂
"A bleak little place … and what a wallop the sea makes as it pounds the shingle!" E.M.Forster's description of Aldeburgh. Not sure about bleak, but he was right about the sea.
@Lucy_SMTurner
Get well soon
@elizabethalker
! So with short(ish) notice, it's me with you for Breakfast on
@BBCRadio3
this morning. Vivaldi, Schubert, Faure,
@seanstshibe
plays Barrios, megastar soprano Mirella Freni sings Puccini... and more more more. Join me from 7-9 🤸🤸🤸
Here's the very hilltop that Sibelius visited in Karelia 🇫🇮 when he wrote his 4th Symphony. It's all about solitude & the elemental forces of the natural world. It's incredible & you can hear it at 3pm in Classical Live
@BBCRadio3
with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Seeing a Hoopoe in Glossop wasn't on my to-do list for yesterday! Thanks to whoever found it and posted about it on Facebook. Lots of happy Glossop birders! Unfortunately no sign today
A Peregrine screaming from the rooftop as I walked in to Media City, presumably so excited because Schubert, Philip Glass, Francois Devienne and Rudolph Wurlitzer were all born on this day. A big birthday bash in today's Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
. Join me from 9am 🎂🎉🥳
Utterly terrified for tomorrow, when I'm doing my grade one singing exam. 😬 All for the amazing learning & participation work of
@MusicintheRound
. I've only recently set up a Just Giving page, but if you can spare a penny or two, that would be fab 👌
Utterly immense concert of Poulenc, Tabakova and Saint-Saens by
@the_halle
and Anna Lapwood at the Bridgewater Hall. And very classy for
@annalapwood
to mention her former piano teacher
@AdamSwayne
. KAPOW!!! 🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾
Just a lone Robin singing before sunrise at Media City. I'm here with you for Sunday Breakfast
@BBCRadio3
. Guitarist
@craig_ogden
plays Malcolm Arnold, Vaughan Williams's Tallis Fantasia from
@the_halle
and the star of the show is a Willow Warbler! See you at 6.30 ⏰
A Red Grouse standing in a puddle on the Staffordshire moors... on the 4th day of Christmas Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
gave to me: Respighi's Cuckoos, 16 migrating Whooper Swans in Sibelius's 5th Symphony, an ascending Skylark and a Tawny Owl in Suffolk. Come join us from 9.
Descending out of the murk after looking for Ring Ouzels in the High Peak cloughs. Found a distant pair at the bottom of the valley. And now I'm off to Salford for the first Classical Live on
@BBCRadio3
from 1pm. Mitsuko Uchida playing Schubert - that's a classy Easter Monday!
7 today! Nina - what a dude. A little girl who loves Star Wars, gymnastics, dungarees, Fleetwood Mac, and puts up with her dad making her look at rare birds because she'll thank me one day when she's got a massive list. Super proud of her! 😍 😍 😍
Recently went birding in the rain with
@hannahcfrench
! It's Classical Live
@BBCRadio3
at 1pm & Hannah's starting the afternoon from
@wigmore_hall
& a recital with Angela Hewitt
@HewittJSB
. Then it's over to me from 2pm for Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Agon by Stravinsky.
Good morning from Salford! It's a playlister for Valentine's Day in Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
. Declarations of love, or maybe a twist with tragic love scenes in music. Here's me showing some loving affection to a bonsai horse last week 💕💕💕
My last Sunday Breakfast
@BBCRadio3
for a couple of weeks. Black Redstart is bird of the day, there's Martha Argerich playing Mozart, a violin sonata from Revolutionary Paris by Hélène de Montgeroult & a brilliant new album of Schubert sung by Konstantin Krimmel. See you there!
Alarm set for 3.45am. The plan is to record the dawn chorus at Media City to play in Sunday Breakfast
@BBCRadio3
. Fingers crossed it stays dry, or it could be a bit of a weak feature! 😂 Still, we'll be celebrating International Dawn Chorus Day. More ⬇️
The strangest, but also most memorable, radio interview I've ever recorded was sitting on Aldeburgh beach with Harrison Birtwistle. It began with a small argument about the identification of a moth I'd photographed (ha!) and then 90% of the following interview turned out ... 1/3
Greetings from Finland, where there's currently a massive passage of Yellow Wagtails going on. Non-stop overhead calls and flocks on every bit of open grass in Joensuu. And with a nice mix of thunbergi and flava subspecies. Yay! 🇫🇮❤️🇫🇮❤️🇫🇮❤️
Still not light at Media City & currently raining. So here's a photo of a Stonechat on a wall that has no link whatsoever to Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
starting at 9. If you like spiders then today's playlister challenge will be fab. 🕸 Apologies in advance if you don't 😂
Crowden vulture still there at 7pm. Same place on Black Tor. It looked utterly miserable, stuffed into a crack hiding from the rain. Although it was considerably more comfortable than us. Wet!
@RareBirdAlertUK
@BirdGuides
@BirdsDerbyshire
Huuuuuge orchestra! Bucket list live music experience about to be ticked off at Bridgewater Hall thanks to
@BBCPhilharmonic
- The Triumph of Time by Birtwistle. So many times on recordings but never heard it in a concert. Recorded by
@BBCRadio3
for broadcast on Wednesday night.
Good morning! Here's the beautiful view from the car park at BBC Newcastle. I'm here with producer Les
@bonaomi1
for Sunday Breakfast
@BBCRadio3
. Otto Klemperer conducting Schubert's 5th Symphony, cellist Sol Gabbetta playing Haydn and Elgar recorded in Newcastle Cathedral.
Here's a toad I bumped into the last night to start your weekend!
@elizabethalker
is away so I'm in for Breakfast
@BBCRadio3
. Andreas Scholl sings Vivaldi, George Butterworth's Shropshire Lad from
@the_halle
, Angela Hewitt plays Chopin & grown adults pretend to be woodpeckers.
I basically went to Finland last week just to get photos I can use in tweets for Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
. We had a pizza at Koli with Sibelius watching over us, so this morning there's Sibelius's hymn to wilderness in his 5th Symphony. That and so much more! See you from 9
Sad to say goodbye to the back window view up the Longdendale Valley today. But our new back window view over to the Snake Pass and Peak District isn't too bad! And a couple of floods on the land behind are looking tasty for a few migrant waders. 🥂
I went up Scafell Pike a couple of years ago. Good views! We'll be celebrating England's highest point in Sunday Breakfast
@BBCRadio3
. Plus Night Music in Mahler's 7th Symphony, Fanny Mendelssohn's Piano Quartet & Stabat Maters from Alissa Firsova & Giovanni Pergolesi. 6.30 - 9
Proper good morning down at Porthgwarra. Hundreds of Cory's Shearwaters, with dozens at a time in a single scan, and the strange experience of a decent seawatch whilst remaining bone dry and warm!
Morning! Salford Quays looking fine, I must say. Breakfast
@BBCRadio3
6.30 - 9. Bach played by violinist Lisa Batiashvili, blooming flowers from Gustav Mahler, Amy Beach's string quartet and an absolute classic recording of the Grumiaux Trio playing Mozart. See you there!
OK, you’re probably getting a bit fed up with these on Twitter but unlikely I’ll see another anytime soon. Crimson Speckled at Yarmouth North Denes this afternoon. An absolute corker!
When there's a Polish Opera
In Afternoon Concert
Who you gonna call?
THE BBC PRONUNCIATION UNIT!
(I ain't afraid of no 'cz')
The Haunted Manor by Moniuszko. Starts at 2pm on
@BBCRadio3
Essential Classics from 9. Kiri Te Kanawa singing sacred Mozart, Marc Minkowski conducts Schubert and my essential piece for guitar is from the great JW's Seville Concert. As a kid I had this on VHS and watched it so much that he ended up haloed by an orange glow!
@BBCRadio3
A couple of hours of inner city birding before Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
. Major thrills when a migrant Whinchat dropped in to Regent's Park briefly. Can guarantee equal musical thrills if you join us from 9. See you shortly
And here we go. After 9 years it's my last week working for
@musicintheround
and my last Sheffield Chamber Music Festival with
@Ensemble_360
😭 It's our 40th anniversary since the Lindsay Quartet started it all off and this one is sensational!
Went to see him in events on countless occasions, but I never spoke to him - he was way too cool to pester with some stupid crap I would have bored him with. Like many thousands of silent fans, he was someone I was absolutely in awe of. RIP DIMW
Sunset trip to Swineshaw Reservoir yesterday & our Oystercatchers are back 🥂. Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
starts with the Pilgrims Chorus by Wagner, there's Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, Green Bough from Joan Trimble, Snowdrops from Tchaikovsky & a Pancake Day playlister 🥞
This date 200 years ago, Beethoven's 9th Symphony was first heard in Vienna at the Corinthian Gate Theatre. It was later knocked down to make way for the Sacher Hotel & Sachertorte cake. It's good cake. Beethoven's Symphony is pretty good too & it's on
@BBCRadio3
at 3pm today.
Who's with us for Sunday Breakfast on
@BBCRadio3
from Salford, 6.30 - 9? Haydn's Sunrise Quartet, Schubert’s String Quintet, stunt-guitarist Kazuhito Yamashita, a sonata by Germaine Tailleferre and marking the recent freak influx of Golden Orioles. Good morning!
I feel this very personally. Artistic Director
@pianistben
and previously
@PercUk
are two close friends of mine, as are many of the players. I've worked with group for a very long time. It's just really sad. And such a huge loss to Manchester and the UK.
Good to be back for Sunday Breakfast
@BBCRadio3
. And it's the sounds of a Ural Owl in a forest in Finland for your dawn chorus of birdsong. 6.30- 9. See you there! ☕️
Nightmare snow journey out of Derbyshire, but Media City, as ever, just above freezing and damp 😂. Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
- Christian Gerhaher sings Mahler,
@MBJFarnsworth
sings Rubbra, Jonas Kaufmann sings Puccini... but I promise it's not all song! See you at 9 🌨️🌨️🌨️
Nightingales are a big part of
@BBCRadio3
today. Here's one I recorded recently
@RSPBLakenheath
. And producer
@Bray_Odn
came in ridiculously early to record a dawn chorus. Sunday Breakfast starts at 6.30. Bach, Faure, Farrenc, Vaughan Williams, Beach and Schubert all on the way.
So I not only survived the first ABRSM exam I've done since I was in my teens, I also bizarrely enjoyed it! All thanks to
@AJPHenderson
at the piano. Thanks for all the messages, and now we await the results 😂
Well
@tom_mckinney
is currently taking his Grade 1 singing exam alongside so many other fab people
@MusicintheRound
🥳 The team are raising funds for their brilliant eduction work, link below to donate 👇
Sunday Morning at Salford Quays. And
@BBCRadio3
Breakfast starts at 6.30. A violin concerto by Bach, a journey out to remote islands with Margaret Hubicki, Sibelius's Andante Festivo, pianist Fazil Say plays Mozart and it's Leach's Petrel for the Sunday Breakfast birdsong
The wild open plains of good ol' Media City. And at the last minute, in today's playlister challenge it'll be me galloping over Texan plains... because sadly
@MannGeorgia
isn't feeling great today - get well soon! So I'm with you for Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
: 9am - 12pm.
Brown Shrike at Pendeen still showing well at 5pm. Only my second after Flamborough 2008 and the very first shrike for two little girls. Shrikes are the best. And don't even bother arguing
@BirdGuides
The Cardsharps by Caravaggio. Trouble at the card table in our playlister challenge on Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
- The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky. Also Benjamin Grosvenor plays Scriabin, ridiculously precocious Mozart aged 8 and Jessye Norman sings Strauss. All from 9am
For those of you missing
@MannGeorgia
's tweets featuring a row of pastries and buns, I offer my own weirder and much less appealing version. One for me, two for my daughters later! Essential Classics
@BBCRadio3
starts at 9. Join us if you can!