Music for Togetherness

“As part of the BBC's Wellbeing Week, Radio 3 Unwind's Niall Breslin curates a mixtape on the theme of Togetherness. From instruments weaving around each other in Bach's concerto for two violins, and sibling pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque playing Fauré's piano duet, made famous by the radio programme "Listen with Mother", to the communal celebration of a new year with Auld Lang Syne, today's Classical Mixtape celebrates being together in myriad musical ways. Stephen Sondheim's witty "The little things we do together" from his musical "Company" cynically enjoys the secrets of a good marriage, and William Grant Still's beautiful "Lyric Quartet" is lovingly dedicated to a friend. John Williams' rousing fanfare for the Olympic Games in 1984 reminds us how sport brings so many of us together, followed by Gershwin's "Walking the dog", a promenade with man's best friend. A more philosophical togetherness is portrayed in Youmi Kimura's "Always with me", from the soundtrack to the Studio Ghibli film "Spirited Away", about the companionship of an inner light. The sequence ends with with a similar concept and another nod towards sport (for many at least), in a stirring rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein, performed by Jennifer Johnston, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra under Ian Tracey, all of whom come from the city that has adopted that anthem as its own - "Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you'll never walk alone". Producer: Helen Garrison”