Radio 3 in Concert

Martin Handley presents a concert from London's Barbican, with Martyn Brabbins conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, with the BBC Symphony Chorus joining for Nunes García's Missa de Santa Cecilia. José Maurício Nunes García was a contemporary of Beethoven and a musician and priest of mixed heritage who scaled the pinnacle of Brazilian musical life when the exiled Portuguese court relocated to Rio de Janeiro. This magnificent Mass setting from 1826 - dedicated to the patron saint of music - might just be his masterpiece. Martyn Brabbins, a superb cast of soloists and the BBC Symphony Chorus bring it out of the shadows tonight. When Modest Mussorgsky visited an exhibition of pictures by a much-missed friend, his imagination ignited. With its glowing skulls, dancing chicks and the Great Gate of Kyiv, Pictures at an Exhibition is one of the most colourful half-hours you'll ever spend in a concert hall. Nunes Garcia: Missa de Santa Cecilia. Interval. Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, orch. Ravel. Erika Baikoff (soprano), Marta Fontanals-Simmons (mezzo), Joshua Stewart (tenor), Ross Ramgobin (baritone), BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins (conductor).