BBC Radio 3 Classical LiveGratis

Join BBC Radio 3 live at a FREE invitation concert with the Ulster Orchestra, presented by John Toal.

The French composer Eric Satie wrote his Le Fils des étoiles (The Son of the Stars) in December 1891, as incidental music for a three-act drama of the same name by Joséphin Péladan. Péladan alternately subtitled his play a "Chaldean Pastoral" or a "Wagnérie Kaldéenne" – the latter referring to the author's fascination with Wagner – and while only three short Preludes made the premiere, Satie’s arrangements of them for solo piano provided wider exposure. The English conductor Jack Sheen has orchestrated the Preludes especially for this concert.

Our focus then shifts to Wagner and his Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde. Based on the story of forbidden love, between the Cornish knight Tristan and the Irish princess Isolde, plush strings and aching dissonances map out the emotional highs and lows of their journey, which ultimately ends in tragedy.

The final work in the programme moves from opera to ballet. Based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Ice Maiden, Stravinsky’s The Fairy’s Kiss is very much a tribute to Tchaikovsky – written to mark the 35th anniversary of his death. It makes use of a number of Tchaikovsky’s melodies – from songs to piano pieces – and the Divertimento, which came in 1934, is based on a violin and piano transcription of roughly half of the original score. Affection, wit and imagination abounds.

The concert will be broadcast live into Radio 3’s Essential Classics at 2.30pm.