Music Matters

Petroc Trelawny talks to the authors and is joined by critic Hilary Finch, violinist Paul Robertson and musicologist Tess Knighton.

Petroc Trelawny explores four new books about music, including a Schumann biography.

The life of composer and war poet Ivor Gurney is celebrated in Gloucester, and tenor Ian Bostridge talks about his year-long series of concerts at London's Barbican.

Tom Service immerses himself in the music of Domenico Scarlatti.

There's an update on the Music Manifesto from composer and broadcaster Howard Goodall, and Tony Hall, Executive Director of the Royal Opera House, talks about the challenges of finding new audiences for opera and ballet.

Tom Service's guests include violinist Itzhak Perlman and broadcaster Howard Goodall.

Plus 25 years after the death of pianist Artur Rubinstein, friends and colleagues assess his legacy, and a new collection of essays entitled Philosophers on Music falls under the Music Matters spotlight.

Tom Service talks to composer Judith Weir.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales celebrate the music of Henri Dutilleux. And a major exhibition of field recordings from India opens at the Horniman Museum in London.

With pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard on recording Bach and managing the Aldeburgh Festival.

Tom Service looks at the links between music and mental and physical health.

Plus a review of Alex Ross's new book about 20th-century music The Rest is Noise, and miniature opera, with a look at five 15-minute chamber operas, the fruit of collaborations between Scotland's leading creative figures.

Petroc Trelawny meets the Grand Union Youth Orchestra. Plus a book on 20th century music.

As Harrison Birtwistle's opera Punch and Judy opens on two London stages in the coming weeks, the programme asks how Mr Punch has infiltrated the world of classical music.

Plus a look at whether music can shape the politics of the artist.

Petroc Trelawny seeks out one of Britain's best Wurlitzer organs.

Born in Poland in 1956, Zimerman became the youngest-ever winner of the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1975, before studying intensively with the great Artur Rubinstein. Highly self-critical, Zimerman gives relatively few concert performances and has not released a solo recording for nearly two decades.

Featuring a rare interview with celebrated Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman.

Investigating the complex relationship between Chopin and his homeland.

Novelist Ian McEwan has written his first libretto for composer Michael Berkeley and both composer and librettist talk together about their collaboration, For You.

Plus a look at the world of philanthropy, asking how much does the classical music world rely on the charitable donations of the super-rich.

Looking at the place of classical music in fiction, plus Ian McEwan and Michael Berkeley.

With iconic sitar player Ravin Shankar and a reassessment of Rimsky-Korsakov's legacy.

Tom Service takes a look at the latest news in the musical world.

Part of Radio 3's Focus on China season.

Petroc Trelawny is in Beijing to look at Western classical music's place in China today.

James Jolly explores the myths surrounding him, the media image he projected and the music he championed, with contributions from Karajan's biographer, his record producer and musicians who worked with him.

(All conducted by Karajan)

Beethoven: Coriolan Overture (1953)

Philharmonia Orchestra

Herbert von Karajan (conductor)

EMI 512038-2 (88-CD box set: Herbert von Karajan: Volume 1 - Orchestral)

Offenbach: Barcarolle (The Tales of Hoffmann) (1954)

EMI CDM 566603-2

Strauss: Tod und Verklarung (1972)

Berlin Philharmonic

DG 447 422-2

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra (1965)

DG 477 7160

Mozart: Soave il vento (Cosi fan tutte)

EMI 511973-2 (72-CD box set: Herbert von Karajan: Volume 2 - Opera and Vocal)

Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (1956 recording)

EMI CDS 556242-2

Ponchielli: Dance of the Hours (La Gioconda) (1960 recording)

Wagner: Siegfried's Funeral March (Gotterdammerung)

DG 457 795-2

Shostakovich: Symphony No 10 (1966 recording)

DG 429 716-2

Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande (1978 recording)

Richard Stilwell (baritone)

Frederica von Stade (mezzo-soprano)

EMI CDS 749350-2

Chabrier: Espana (1947 recording)

Vienna Philharmonic

Beethoven: Symphony No 6 (1982 recording)

DG 439 004-2.

James Jolly explores the myths and the media image of conductor Herbert von Karajan.

Conductors stay in the spotlight as Tom and Petroc Trelawny meet two other major figures: Esa-Pekka Salonen, newly appointed principal conductor and artistic advisor to the Philharmonia Orchestra, and Charles Mackerras, who talks about Mozart as he launches the Royal Opera House season with Don Giovanni.

In this programme:-

The Lucerne Festival has been running since 1938, when Arturo Toscanini brought together a special orchestra to play a concert in the grounds of Wagner's house. Now Lucerne's concert hall, the KKL, hosts Claudio Abbado's Lucerne Festival Orchestra and visiting orchestras from around the world. In addition, for three weeks of the Festival, the Lucerne Festival Academy assembles with 140 of the world's finest young players to focus exclusively on 20th and 21st Century repertoire. The Academy is an opportunity for young musicians to learn from a living legend: Pierre Boulez. Tom went to Lucerne to visit the Academy and talk with Boulez and his students to find out exactly how the experience changes the lives of the young players, composers and conductors who take part in it.

Sir Charles Mackerras

Born in New York in 1925, Sir Charles Mackerras was brought up in Sydney and emigrated to England in1946. In the course of a remarkable conducting career, Sir Charles promoted Janacek's music and the repertoire of the period instrument movement, including Handel and Mozart which he performed in groundbreaking new ways in the 1950s and 60s. Sir Charles is currently conducting Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House in London, and continues as Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonia and Conductor Laureate of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Tom went to meet Sir Charles at home and to ask him what inspires him as he continues to take to the podium in his eighties.

Link: Royal Opera House http://www.roh.org.uk/

Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen takes up his post as Principal Conductor of the Philharmonia in London this autumn. Salonen has been running the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the last 16 years whilst simultaneously composing an impressive catalogue of music. But, how does he balance the hectic schedule of an international conductor and the creative demands of his compositional life, and why does he think now is the right time to take up such a significant role in London? Petroc Trelawny talked with Salonen about the appeal of his new appointment.

Link: Philharmonia http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/

Tom Service visits the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland. Plus Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Tom visits London's newest concert hall, Kings Place, the brain child of Peter Millican, set to host chamber music, jazz, and world music events from the start of October. Peter's plan is an ambitious one: to finance the year-round artistic programme with the rents from the Guardian and other corporate clients renting space at the complex. But can he make King's Place fly without cash from the Arts Council? And what will the impact be on London's flagship chamber music venue, the Wigmore Hall? Tom talks to John Gilhooly of the Wigmore Hall, and to two wise men of British culture: John Tusa, former Chief Executive of the Barbican and now Chairman of the University of the Arts, and Anthony Sargent, General Director at the Sage in Gateshead.

www.kingsplace.co.uk

Mauricio Kagel

Composer Mauricio Kagel died on Thursday, at the age of 76. Growing up in Argentina, Kagel studied with Borges before moving to Cologne in 1957, and throwing himself into the musical avant-garde. But Kagel remained a literary composer, in the sense that he questioned all of the received wisdoms of the musical world. He staged pieces like Match, for two cellists and a percussionist who referees their musical tug-of-war, to a recent theatre work that faked a kidnapping in a concert hall. Tom remembers this master of the avant-garde with composer and ex-Kagel pupil Gerald Barry, and Kagel expert Bj怀rn Heile.

Bjorn Heile's Mauricio Kagel website

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/bh25/kagel.htm

La Calisto

Francesco Cavalli's 17th century tale of conflict between gods and mortals, La Calisto, opens at the Royal Opera House on Tuesday. This is the first time that any of Cavalli's dozens of operas have made it to the stage at Covent Garden. Tom explores why it has taken so long to showcase the work of a composer who made Venetian opera his own in the wake of Monteverdi's advances in the mid 17th century, and wrote among the first public (as opposed to princely) operatic entertainments. Tom went along to rehearsals at the Royal Opera House and spoke to director David Alden, conductor Ivor Bolton, and Soprano Sally Matthews.

La Calisto is at the Royal Opera House September 23rd - October 10th

http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/production.aspx?pid=6573

You can hear La Calisto on Opera on 3 on Saturday October 25th

http://www.BBC.co.uk/radio3/operaon3/

Anthony Marwood

There is something of a musical revolution going on in Ireland at the moment and one of those at the forefront is violinist Anthony Marwood, who conducts the Irish Chamber Orchestra at the Wigmore Hall on Tuesday. Marwood's career as chamber musician and soloist - he performs with the Florestan Trio and premiered Thomas Ad耀s's Violin Concerto - sees him navigate the extremes of the violin's repertoire. But Marwood's skills extend beyond music. He has combined his acting and dancing skills with his violin-playing in recent years, notably in a production of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, where he played the Soldier - and the violin part. Tom meets him to ask how all this musical multi-tasking is connected.

Don't miss Music Matters special Irish edition on October 11th when Tom will be travelling across Ireland to get a sense of what has shaped Irish musical life.

Anthony Marwood directs the Irish Chamber Orchestra at the Wigmore Hall on Tuesday 23rd September

http://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/productions/irish-chamber-orchestra-21697

With Tom Service. With a feature on new King's Place concert hall in London.

The life of Thomas Beecham falls under the spotlight as author John Lucas presents new material on the conductor's private life, including his visits to Nazi Germany and his views of its leaders.

And singing Rossini - what exactly does it involve? Credited with the invention of the modern tenor, Rossini makes demands of his singers that far exceed those of his predecessors. Some of today's leading Rossinians reveal the secrets of their success, pianist and vocal coach Gerald Martin Moore looks back at some of the great Rossini singers of the past, and opera historian Emanuele Senici explains why singers in Rossini's day had it so much easier than the divas of today.

29-year-old Latvian Andris Nelsons has just taken over as Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle and Sakari Oramo's old job. Many saw his appointment as a risk, coming as it did on the basis of a recording session and a couple of private performances. But it seems the risk has paid off: his opening concerts have gone down a storm in Britain's second city. Tom Service meets Nelsons and hears how his musical life as a pianist, trumpeter, composer, and pupil of Mariss Jansons prepared him for life on the podium.

Andris Nelsons conducts concert performances of Puccini's La Boheme with the CBSO October 23 - 25th

Rossini Voices

Rossini singing is going through its biggest ever renaissance. Not since the early 19th century have Rossini's operas been as popular as they are now - thanks largely to a new generation of interpreters who are devoting their lives to Rossini's coloratura, his comedies - and his tragedies. Tom meets mezzo Joyce DiDonato, Italian musicologist Emanuele Senici, vocal coach Gerald Martin Moore and tenor Bruce Ford to find out how this new tradition of Rossini singing relates to what Rossini himself wanted from his leading ladies and gentlemen.

The Royal Opera House's production of Rossini's ‘Matilde de Shabran' will be broadcast on Opera on 3 Saturday 22nd November at 6pm

Tom meets John Lucas, whose new biography of Sir Thomas Beecham scotches a few myths about one of classical music's most colourful figures. Beecham fed many of the myths himself, his autobiography is full of factual errors, and his public persona, especially in his later years, was a manufactured mix of dandified wit and obfuscation. But John Lucas explains that behind these public affectations was a musician of real seriousness and ambition, who almost single-handedly transformed the pre- and post-war cultural landscape: setting up orchestras that are still around today (the Royal and London Philharmonics) and making opera part of British musical life. We also hear from two musicians who played with Beecham: Raymond Cohen, who worked with Sir Thomas and the Halle in 1936 - and trumpeter David Mason, who performed in the first ever Royal Philharmonic season in 1946.

Thomas Beecham: An Obsession with Music by John Lucas is published by Boydell & Brewer, £25

Raymond Scott

This year marks the centenary of musical maverick Raymond Scott's birth. Scott poses a series of musical paradoxes: he had a jazz quintet - which consisted of six players; he insisted that the musicians never improvise - but he never gave them sheet music; and he invented some of the most potentially influential electronic instruments of the 20th century - but he refused to make any of them public. And yet his influence spread everywhere. Now a new generation of composers and musicians are discovering Scott's unique musico-technological inventions. Tom talks to Scott's collaborator Herb Deutsch, Irwin Chusid, chairman of the Raymond Scott archive, as well as his wife, Mitzi.

Stuart Brown and his Raymond Scott Project Quintet, will be playing at Kings Place Arts Centre on 14th October

Tom Service meets young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons.

Tom Service travels to Ireland to explore the part classical music plays in Irish culture.

Petroc Trelawny talks to leading American composer John Adams.

Plus author John Tilbury talking about his controversial biography of composer Cornelius Cardew, and a conversation with Leon Fleisher, hailed as one of the great pianists of the 1950s and 60s and who was forced into early retirement by repetitive strain injury.

Tom Service discusses the impact of the 2008 US elections on the country's music scene.

He also hears a Remembrance Sunday commission from Portsmouth Grammar School by Peter Maxwell Davies and Andrew Motion.

Petroc Trelawny talks to Alexander Waugh about his book The House of Wittgenstein.

With the latest Streetwise Opera project, My Secret Heart, bringing together the homeless with professional opera through Allegri's Miserere, and an interview with leading young German composer Jorg Widmann.

Plus a look back at the history of the London Sinfonietta, reflecting on the progress made in new music since its establishment 40 years ago.

With Tom Service. Including Fiona Shaw on directing her first opera.

Tom Service talks to conductor Roger Norrington. Plus pianist Richard Goode.

Young Iranian American harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani looks forwards and backwards when preparing a concert programme, and he takes Suzy to visit the harpsichord he uses to play the music of Ligeti in the Goble harpsichord factory in Oxford.

Suzy Klein remembers conductor Sir Colin Davis with those he knew, and in his own words.

Author Philip Eisenbeiss comes into the Music Matters studio to talk about his new biography of the legendary impresario Domenico Barbaja, who dominated European operatic stages for thirty years at the height of the bel canto era, and was responsible for commissioning operas by Donizetti, Weber and Bellini among others.

Tom also catches up with Alexander Pereira, for nearly two decades director of Zurich Opera, and since 2011 artistic director of the Salzburg Festival. Pereira talks about the importance of new music for the Festival, how he's dealing with a large budget deficit, and who the Festival is really for, given that ticket prices which are beyond the reach of many people.

Producer Emma Bloxham

BILLING ENDS.

With Tom Service, including a report from the new Mariinsky II in St Petersburg.

Discrimination and harassment have increased significantly in the music industry, according to the latest report published by the Independent Society of Musicians. Tom hears from the ISM's Chief Executive, Deborah Annetts, about these findings and hears testimonies from musicians who've been subject to harassment during their careers.

~Music Matters joins the designer and video artist Netia Jones, and composer Brian Irvine, to hear about the UK performance of 'Least Like The Other: Searching for Rosemary Kennedy' which is staged this month in the Royal Opera House's Lindbury Theatre. Commissioned by Irish National Opera, the work received its premiere in 2019 and both Netia and Brian explain how the story behind John Fitzgerald Kennedy's sister, who was lobotomised in 1941 when she was a young woman, is a mirror to the way in which society treated women both at the time and still.

And, Tom speaks to the conductor and author Alice Farnham about as her new book, 'In Good Hands: the Making of a Modern Conductor'. They discuss what it means to be a conductor in modern times and Alice's efforts to make the profession more open, gender-equal and diverse.

Horn player Felix Klieser. Netia Jones on her new opera. Alice Farnham on conducting.

The stories that matter, the people that matter, the music that matters

Tom Service presents a special programme marking the 150th anniversary of Puccini's birth.

Tom Service listens back and investigates how Radio 3 has reacted to the outside world.

Six decades after Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' iconic film hit the screens, director Steven Spielberg's new production of West Side Story is due to be released in cinemas this Friday, and presenter Tom Service is joined by the Hollywood director, the new Maria - Rachel Zegler - as well as arranger David Newman and choreographer Justin Peck, to learn more about their aspirations for this modern-day Romeo and Juliet story.

As the 1961 film celebrates its 60th anniversary, we hear from Jamie Bernstein who shares her memories of her father's involvement in this now classic musical. We eavesdrop on the author, composer and critic Neil Brand, and Tom too, as they re-watch the original movie and reflect on the lyrical, musical and choreographic magic that made West Side Story so powerful.

The tenor Jos退 Carreras recollects his role in the historic 1985 recording of West Side Story - the first complete recording of the piece with Bernstein conducting - and the American-British playwright, novelist, and critic Bonnie Greer considers how the social issues and tensions of New York's barrios in the 1950s and 1960s remain as alive and relevant for contemporary audiences.

As we celebrate the iconic 1961 film, we explore Spielberg's new take on West Side Story.

Music historian Laurie Stras and composer-performers Kerry Andrew, Laura Jurd and Anna Meredith debate the issues which 'Venus Unwrapped', a 2019 series at Kings Place, is attempting to address as it 'throws a spotlight on the creative fire power of female composers'.

Exploring the high-value market for stringed instruments, Tom talks to the Carpenters, a trio of stringed instrument playing and dealing siblings in New York, and visits the London dealers Ingels and Hayday. And Louisa Tuck, principal cello with the Oslo Philharmonic, explains the story behind her new instrument, on loan from one of the world's largest collectors, the Norwegian foundation Dextra Musica.

And a seasonal Hidden Voices: composer, actor and theatrical entrepreneur, Charles Dibdin. Tom's guides are the 18th century historian Harriet Guest, and on the streets of London's West End, baritone Simon Butteriss, who has recreated Dibdin's pioneering 'table entertainments', including his Christmas Gambols.

Photo Credit: Nick White

A new book for classical music lovers.

We hear from the writer and Managing Director of the Barbican Centre in London, Nicholas Kenyon. His new book The Life of Music is published this month. He describes how performance remains the life force of music, and how the classical music cannon is constantly evolving.

And finally, the composer and conductor Tania Le　n speaks to Kate about her extraordinary journey from her native Cuba in 1967, to New York where she has become one of the leading music figures in the U.S.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see a video of Tom as he reflects on the journey ahead, and a piece by Nottingham-based visual artist Hetain Patel - and listen to a specially recorded feature about Sinfonia ViVa's 'In The Space Between' project at the Drill Hall in Lincoln, a creative collaboration between the orchestra and local schools.

Tom Service travels across the English Midlands taking a snapshot of music making.

Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes joins Kate for a walk on the windy slopes of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. With a new boxset featuring Leif Ove's recordings from 1990-2010 due out in October, he reflects on how his approach to music has changed over the years, why there are certain composers whose music he preserves for listening not performing, and how the natural world is at the heart of how he plays.

And as the new school year gets underway, we visit Acland Burghley School in Camden, North London, where three years ago the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment moved in. The orchestra's Chief Executive Crispin Woodhead gives us a tour of the school and explains how students, teachers, orchestral musicians and the wider community benefit from the collaboration and how he believes this model answers many of the problems faced by the arts and by education right now.

Kate Molleson in conversation with cellist Abel Selaocoe plus pianist Leif Ove Andsnes.

He discusses the big picture with tech visionary and composer Jaron Lanier, renowned author of 'Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now'; looks at virtual reality audience experiences of an orchestra with Luke Ritchie, Head of Innovation at the Philharmonia; examines the legal implications with Sophie Goossens, a lawyer working on music copyright and changing digital listening habits; checks out the Future Music conference at the Royal Northern College of Music; and hears how Robert Laidlow is using AI to compose orchestral scores. Tom also speaks to Holly Herndon, who has cultivated an AI 'child' called Spawn, and then collaborated with it to make an album; and David Harrington of Kronos Quartet describes performing in concert with surveillance technology AI observing and manipulating their images on video screens.

A special edition exploring the impact of artificial intelligence on music.

Kate travels to rehearsals to meet members of the Glasgow Senior Citizens Orchestra where she finds them preparing for their next concert; and she talks to music therapist, Grace Meadows from the Utley Foundation and David Cutler Director of the Baring Foundation about the benefits music brings to older people.

Author Frederick W. Skinner introduces his new book 'Beethoven in Russia: Music and Politics' which explores how the composer's music interfaced with politics in Russia and the revolutionary struggle that culminated in the Revolution of 1917. Marina Frolova-Walker, Professor of Music History and a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge sets the context and describes the current musical climate in Russia.

Plus, Kate speaks to Ammo Talwar from UK Music about their newly published Diversity Report. And Charisse Beaumont joins us from Black Lives in Music to explain some of the findings of the report.

Produced by Marie-Claire Doris.

Kate Molleson speaks to Irish soprano Ailish Tynan at home.

Presented by Tom Service. Featuring conductor Alan Gilbert and composer Nico Muhly.

Author Paul Elie discusses his new book Reinventing Bach. Conductor and Bach expert Andrew Parrott gives his verdict on the book and its take on Bach as a forerunner of the technological age.

Tom Service visits Suffolk during preparations for a staging of Peter Grimes on the beach.

There's a visit to the Huddersfield Choral Society who are celebrating their 175th anniversary this month, and new music for bells: how the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, one of the country's oldest and last remaining bell foundries, is providing the starting point for a series of concerts at the Spitalfields Festival.

Producer: Jeremy Evans.

Tom Service meets musicians in Aldeburgh, Huddersfield and East London.

Tom Service talks to Alexander Goehr about his new opera Promised End.

Pianist Alfred Brendel talks to Tom Service about his life, career and new book on music.

As the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference concludes, Music Matters hears from Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, Kathryn McDowell, Chief Executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Michael Eakin, Executive Chairman of Harrison Parrott, Jasper Parrott, and Professor of Geosystem Science and leader of the group responsible for climate modelling at the University of Oxford, Myles Allen, about the degree to which the classical music industry is delivering its own promises to reduce its impact on the environment.

With all eyes on Qatar for the opening of the FIFA World Cup, Tom hears from the BBC's Series producer for Arabic Digital Investigative Documentaries, Rosie Garthwaite, about the construction she witnessed of Doha's opera house in the Katara Cultural Centre. He learns how the country has nurtured both Western art forms and cultural institutions, and the potential projection of soft power.

Tom joins the soprano Danielle de Niese and tenor Frederick Ballentine during rehearsals for a new production, by English National Opera, of Jake Heggie's It's a Wonderful Life. The composer shares how he adapted the story behind Frank Capra's classic movie, and Tom speaks to the journalist, broadcaster, and author, Matthew Sweet, about the phenomenon of setting operas from film, as well as different roles music plays on both the screen and the stage.

The pianist Alice Sara Ott, Classical music and Climate Change, and culture in Qatar.

The composer and violinist Alma Deutscher was born in 2005, started composing aged 4, and wrote her first piano sonata when she was 6. Her first piece for symphony orchestra, Dance of the Solent Mermaids, and an opera, Cinderella, had their first performances in 2015. Tom meets Alma at her home in Surrey to find out more about her musical journey, and listen to her improvising at the piano.

As a new production of Hipermestra, a rarely staged opera by Cavalli, opens at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Tom heads to the gardens of the Sussex opera house to meet the conductor William Christie and director Graham Vick, finding a dynamic partnership working on an operatic ideal.

And Tom looks at the main parties' cultural policies in the run-up to the UK general election.

Tom Service meets young composer and violinist Alma Deutscher.

Tom takes a look at the amateur orchestra scene in the UK - their repertoire and how they build a sense of community around music - including postcards of three ensembles from around the country: the Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra and the North London Sinfonia.

A new book has compiled Arnold Schoenberg's correspondence with more than 70 American composers throughout his life: Tom talks to its compiler and translator, Sabine Feisst.

Plus Hidden Voices: Kathleen Schlesinger, whose pioneering research at the turn of the 20th century into ancient Greek instruments and tuning systems deserves recognition in today's world.

Photo credit: Jiyang Chen

Soprano Diana Damrau, amateur orchestras and Schoenberg's correspondence

With churches closed and organs silent this Easter, Kate Molleson presents an organ fest.

Tom Service's guests include 'King of the Waltz' Andre Rieu, and pianist Pavel Kolesnikov.

Benedictine monks in monasteries all over the UK and around the world structure their whole day around the singing of plainchant - five or six times a day they gather together and sing the psalms. Sara visits Downside Abbey in Somerset to experience first hand the musical life of monks.

People often have a very traditional view of brass band music, yet composers from Harrison Birtwistle to Hans Werner Henze not to mention young contemporary composers have all written for bands. The composers Edward Gregson and Lucy Pankhurst reveal the cutting edge of brass band composition.

And Viviana Durante - former Royal Ballet principal and mentor on BBC4's BBC Young Dancer programme - talks to Sara about the show and the prospects for young dancers today.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to pianist Andreas Haefliger and visits a musical monastery.

The clarinettist and conductor Andreas Ottensamer joins presenter Tom Service, ahead of his forthcoming performance as soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, to discuss family lineages, his chair at the Berlin Philharmonic, and the view from both sides of the conducting podium.

The Australian musicologist and author Sarah Kirby discusses her new book, 'Exhibitions, Music and the British Empire', alongside pianist and composer David Owen Norris, and explores music's presence among the industrial, manufacturing and scientific achievements on show during the grand expos of the late nineteenth century.

As the archive of the Czech-born conductor Walter Susskind moves to its new home at the Exilarte Centre in the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Tom delves into the legacy of the man who began his career in Prague, before fleeing when Germany invaded the city in 1939, and learns about his contributions to, amongst other things, the musical life of Britain and the recording heritage of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

We hear too from Reylon Yount, co-director of 'Tangram', and the composer Tonia Ko whose new commission 'Farewell Dwelling' forms part of the programme the group will perform to ring in the Lunar New Year.

Tom Service talks to Sarah Kirby about her book Exhibitions, Music and the British Empire.

Irish mezzo-soprano Ann Murray is one of the great voices of the past 50 years. As she prepares to give her last full recital at Wigmore Hall in London, Tom talks to her about her long and distinguished career both on the operatic stage and the concert platform.

A new book about Arnold Schoenberg's years in America throws new light on this controversial period in the composer's life, and Tom meets composer Nico Muhly as his new work about the fatal stabbing of a teenage boy takes shape at English National Opera.

Presented by Tom Service. With mezzo Ann Murray and a new opera by Nico Muhly.

Also, Marques L.A. Garrett tell us about The Oxford Book of Choral Music by Black Composers, which he has edited. It features 35 pieces from countries including Brazil, Canada, Portugal, the USA and Britain, which span from the 16th century to the current day.

Kate visits a new musical opening in London this month about Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian former Prime Minister and tycoon. At rehearsals, Kate met composer Ricky Simmonds, director James Grieve, and actor Emma Hatton who plays Veronica, Silvio Berlusconi's second wife.

Plus, we look into the business of music streaming ahead of the launch of the classical music streaming app, Apple Classical. We hear from Sophie Jones, Chief Strategy Officer and Interim Chief Executive of the British Phonographic Industry; Naomi Pohl, General Secretary of the Musicians' Union; and Chris O'Reilly, CEO of Presto Music.

Kate Molleson with Anna Clyne, Martin Frost and Pekka Kuusisto.

Pianist Igor Levit talks to Tom about his new album featuring Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words. He talks about his admiration for Busoni and the deep emotion and connection he feels when he plays music by Mahler.

Tom Service with latest news and features from the classical music world.

Tom Service talks to composer Anna Meredith and to pianist Igor Levit.

Among the highlights of Igor Levit's Wigmore Hall appearances in London is his complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle in 2016/17. He later went on to record the complete sonatas for SONY and the recording won many awards and accolades. He is a regular soloist with ensembles such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic. Tom Service talks to the pianist who combines sensitivity and musical intelligence with technical panache, providing the listener with fresh, exciting, and utterly absorbing performances.

Tom Service talks to pianist Igor Levit who last month became the youngest ever recipient of The Wigmore Hall Medal in recognition of his outstanding musical achievements.

Kate meets the Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, whose big orchestral pieces feature layers of dense sound reflecting her inner world and nature as well - she's composer-in-residence of The Iceland Symphony Orchestra, currently touring the UK.

With the UK having left the European Union, Kate explores the challenges facing music industry, with Thorben Dittes (Director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Classical Music Programme, Sage Gateshead), Tom Kiehl (Acting CEO of UK Music) and Donald Shaw (Artistic Director of the Celtic Connections Festival).

As the Oscars are revealed this weekend, the film composer and conductor Debbie Wiseman takes a look at the nominees for best original score, reflecting on today's film industry too.

Plus the hot topics of discussion from the conference of the Association of British Orchestras last week: new environmental business models, embracing diversity and equality, and orchestras relevance in society. Joining Kate to reflect on these issues are John Warner (Orchestra for the Earth), Jenny Jamieson (Scottish Ensemble) and Jessica Schmidt (US organisation Orchestrate Inclusion).

Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and the Oscar nominees for best original scores.

The musicologist Jillian C. Rogers, author of a new book ‘Resonant Recoveries: French Music and Trauma Between the World Wars', describes how sound played a role in healing throughout the interwar period, and draws parallels with today's world during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the Endellion Quartet announces its retirement, we speak to violinist Andrew Watkinson and cellist David Waterman about the joy of playing card games during concert intervals, arguments over concert attire, and more than four decades of life together inside the ensemble.

And following the recent announcements of plans to ease lockdown restrictions, we ask musicians on the ground to share their expectations and fears for performance as well as what the roadmap might mean for musical activity. We hear from the Afrobeat band leader and educator, Dele Sosimi; solo horn with the City of Hull Band, Wendy Orr; and soprano with the Tallis Scholars, Amy Haworth.

Pianist Anne Queffelec; a book on France and trauma during wars; the Endellion Quartet.

On the 400th anniversary of the death of the composer Thomas Weelkes, Music Matters visits Chichester Cathedral - the scene of some of his greatest music and noted misdemeanours. BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker, Dr. Ellie Chan, and Organist and Master of the Choristers at Chichester Cathedral, Charles Harrison, discuss how he advanced the English choral tradition.

Following the recent news that the Music Department at Oxford Brookes University it set to close, Professor of music at Oxford University, Jonathan Cross, shares his thoughts about the place of music education in our society.

And, Sara Mohr Pietsch sits down with the pianist Imogen Cooper to talk about her life in music, studying with Alfred Brendel, her love of Schubert, and how she's curating darkness and light into her forthcoming concert programmes.

Tom Service speaks to clarinettist Anthony McGill.

Tom Service speaks to clarinettist Anthony McGill as he begins his residency at the Barbican in London, and Sara Mohr-Pietsch joins pianist Imogen Cooper.

Tom Service speaks to the clarinettist Anthony McGill.

Presented by Tom Service. Featuring Irvine Arditti talking about the LaSalle Quartet.

Tom takes a trip to The Holbeck in Leeds where, during the pandemic, Alan Lane's ground breaking Slung Low Theatre company operated the venue as a food bank, serving the local community with a mission to ‘provide the best cultural life for the people of Holbeck'. Slung Low's work has been an inspiration for Kate Whitley, the composer and founder of the Multi-Story Orchestra; she tells us how in making the connections between an arts organisation and the communities where they work, there are resonances for the whole of classical music culture.

Food and Music are undoubtedly two things that bring people together. We talk to author Pierpaolo Polzonetti about the importance of food in opera with reference to his new book, ‘Feasting and Fasting in Opera - From Renaissance Banquets to the Callas Diet', and to mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston about her online resource and cookbook, ‘Notes from Musician's Kitchens'. Plus, we find out what she really eats on stage -

And we talk to conductor Giovanni Antonini about his 'Haydn 2032' project, in which he aims to record all 107 Haydn symphonies by 2032, and immerse ourselves in the world of Haydn's life-affirming music.

Producer: Martin Webb

Tom Service asks if the future of music venues and cultural hotspots is big or small.

In partnership with the Music and Science Lab from Durham University, Tom Service and members of Royal Northern Sinfonia we explore how performing together affects a string quartet's movements - do they interact as one ensemble or as 4 individuals?

The Finnish conductor Susanna M䀀lkki is acclaimed across the world for her work with both symphony orchestras and new music ensembles - she talks to Tom about why a conductor's job is to bring people together, whether that's musicians or audience members, and also considers the conductor's relationship with the many composers in their lives.

Talking of composers, Tom is joined live by composer Laura Bowler, whose new piece /?f?m??n?n?ti/. was premiered earlier in the week by the Manchester Camerata - she talks about the curious process every composer goes through of creating music alone, that then must be performed by a whole orchestra of musicians. How does a composer translate that personal vision into something to be consumed by thousands of other people?

And Tom looks at how we interact with music today - as more and more music listening is done solely on headphones and less in the concert hall. Are we losing something if we listen to music alone rather than with others?

Tom Service and the Music and Science Lab from Durham University return to Free Thinking.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch interviews Maurizio Pollini. Plus the centenary of George Malcolm.

The Afghan Youth Orchestra is embarking on its first UK tour - Breaking the Silence. Currently exiled in Portugal, the young musicians live and study, having escaped the Taliban's censorship of music. The orchestra's founder, Dr Ahmad Sarmast and two of his violinists, Sevinch Majidi and Ali Sina Hotak, talk to Tom about their hopes of keeping Afghanistan's situation on the international radar through their music, which fuses traditional and Western instruments into a bold new sound.

Tenor Allan Clayton and Aurora Orchestra join forces in a new and highly imaginative theatrical production of Hans Zender's composed interpretation of Schubert's Winterreise. Tom Service finds out more when he visits them in rehearsal. He talks to Allan alongside Aurora's conductor Nicholas Collon and creative director Jane Mitchell about Zender's interpretation of Schubert's original song-cycle.

Tom Service also talks to Kerry Andrew, multi-talented composer, singer, performer and writer. Kerry's third novel, We are Together Because, is out now and Tom talks to them about how music infuses their writing. Tom also talks to Kerry about their last album - Hare - Hunter - Moth - Ghost - recorded as You Are Wolf and in which they turn folk songs and myths inside out.

Tom Service talks to composer Kerry Andrew and visits the Aurora Orchestra in rehearsal.

The stories that matter, the people that matter, the music that matters

Tom Service talks to composer Kerry Andrew, and visits Alan Clayton in rehearsal with Aurora Orchestra as they mount Hans Zender's reimagination of Schubert's Winterreise on stage.

BBC Radio London's Robert Elms talks about his lifetime passion for live music, from early experiences at pop and rock gigs to a love of jazz clubs and flamenco bars, as his new book 'Live!: Why We Go Out' is published. The book was born out of Robert's reflections on the absence of live music-making during the pandemic, and that's also the inspiration behind 'Mending Wall', a new work by pianist Stewart Goodyear, commissioned for Wigmore Hall's 'Voices of Today' series. Ahead of its premiere this weekend, in a recital which also includes Beethoven's 'Hammerklavier' sonata, Sara heads to the London venue and sits with Stewart at the piano.

Also today, Sara explores the phenomenon of large-scale light and sound shows taking place across in cathedrals across the UK, with the sculptor and artistic director of the production company Luxmuralis, Peter Walker, and Ruth Massey, a choral singer and Southwell Minster's head of fundraising.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch meets soprano-conductor Barbara Hannigan during rehearsals with the LSO.

Tom Service explores the changes in the performance of Baroque music over 40 years.

Tom travels to the South Downs to speak to Australian director Barrie Kosky about a new production, opening this weekend at Glyndebourne, of Poulenc's Dialogues des Carm退lites. He's joined by sopranos Golda Schultz and Sally Matthews, as well as conductor Robin Ticciati, to talk about the story of sixteen nuns who meet their death at the hands of the French Revolution.

Amid rehearsals at the Royal Opera House, Music Matters hears about the World Premiere of a new ballet, Untitled 2023 - a collaboration between the Royal Ballet's resident choreographer Wayne McGregor and composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir. They discuss the somatic relationship between body, dance and music, and why listening to Thorvaldsdottir's compositions is not a passive experience.

And one hundred years after its premiere at the Aeolian Hall in June 1923, Tom speaks to the writer and broadcaster William Sitwell about his great-aunt Edith Sitwell's creative relationship with the composer William Walton - a collaboration which resulted in the entertainment, Fa瀀ade. He's also joined by writer and researcher Lucy Walker. Together they discuss the work's nonsensical parody of popular music, jazz, and poetry and knotty issues it presents to contemporary audiences.

Tom Service speaks to the CBSO's chief conductor, Kazuki Yamada.

Ahead of BBC Music Day on 26th September, Tom visits LV21, a 40-metre steel-hulled lightship in Gravesham, Kent, now a floating art space and home this month to the Reflect Arts & Minds Project, with performances exploring the relationship between sound, music and wellbeing. Featuring the folk singer Lucy Farrell and a sound installation in the bowels of the ship from Tania Holland Williams. Plus a project called Musical Portraits from producers Turtle Key Arts, in which young people with autism create new music from visual art.

Plus the electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani, who appears in the second season of Luminate at Kings Place, on her lifelong obsession with the Buchla synthesizer, and the connections between sea, sound and machine.

Tom meets Sir Simon Rattle

Sara meets the mezzo Dame Felicity Palmer who talks candidly about her life in the opera house, why the job of an opera singer is nothing like the glamour that people expect, how she sometimes doesn't feel opera works and why it's great fun to play horrible women.

The Belfast born opera director Annilese Miskimmon talks about the challenges opera faces today - from new audiences and gender inequality to battles between traditionalists and innovators.

We meet creators of the most cutting edge new opera that pushes the medium right to its boundaries - from sonic bicycles with composer Kaffe Matthews, to video games with director Sjaron Minailo, and an opera based entirely on the live sounds of a rock band with Travis Just from Object Collection.

And the opera historian Suzanne Aspden surveys where the operatic landscape is today and the different opera companies vying for our attention. And our money, given opera costs a great deal of money to put on. Alex Beard, Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Daisy Evans, founder of Silent Opera, talk about how they give audiences the biggest bang for their buck.

Image (c) Johan Persson.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch asks: 'What is the future of opera?' With Dame Felicity Palmer.

The Italian pianist Beatrice Rana joins Tom Service to discuss her immersion in Beethoven's late piano sonatas during Italy's lockdown, and her relationship with one of the most famous works in the canon - the composer's ‘Emperor' concerto. She reflects on how the circumstances of Chopin's life are articulated in his Scherzi, and on thanking audiences for being part of performances.

With Robert Nathaniel Dett's Oratorio, The Ordering of Moses, receiving its first outing in the UK with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on Wednesday, some 85 years after the live broadcast of its premiere at Carnegie Hall, Music Matters is joined by the conductor Joshua Weilerstein, soprano Nadine Benjamin and researcher, horn player, and conductor Dwight Pile-Gray to explore what Dett's music can tell us today.

As Lindisfarne Castle welcomes back visitors after its winter recess, we speak to the sound artist Paul Rooney and cellist Gy

Photo credit: Frans Jansen

Kate Molleson talks to Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla. Music fan clubs. Folk singer Josephine Foster

Tom Service meets conductors, performers and biographers to explore the strange powers and imaginative visions in the music of Hector Berlioz.

Including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, one of the UK's biggest champions for Berlioz and his music, on his own relationship with the music and on his pioneering work with the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. Tom also meets two of the ORR's players, horn player Anneke Scott and cellist Robin Michael.

The conductor Nicholas Collon joins Tom to examine Berlioz's extraordinary use of structure and harmony in Symphonie Fantastique, also revealing an out of body experience he had whilst playing the symphony as a member of the National Youth Orchestra.

Tom also meets David Cairns, one of the most influential Berlioz biographers of recent times, and talks to Bruno Messina, who directs the Festival Berlioz in his and the composer's home town in South West France, and is the author of a new French biography.

Plus Chi-Chi Nwanoku on the rare and extraordinary Octobass. soprano Carolyn Sampson on singing Les Nuit d'Ete, and the musician and researcher Carmel Raz on Berlioz's interest in neurophysiology and the effects of music, and how he used it in his music.

Tom also took the opportunity to catch up with the American countertenor Lawrence Zazzo when he was in town and found out about the influence Frankie Valli and the Bee Gees had on him...as well as James Bowman! Zazzo also expressed his frustration at the idea that countertenors are a continuation of the castrati line and not seen as falsettists in their own right. Tom also visits Birmingham to see how preparations are coming along for the composer David Lang's new work called Crowd Out which features a thousand voices shouting, whispering and chanting!

Benvenuto Cellini, Peter Gelb, Lawrence Zazzo and Crowd Out. Presented by Tom Service.

Tom meets the celebrated conductor Bernard Haitink who talks about how conducting is a strange profession, the differences between his many orchestras and despite 6 decades at the very top of his game admits he still gets nervous before rehearsals. He also shows Tom round his treasured wall of composer letters and autographs - a treasury that's built up as his wife, Patricia, finds a new one for his birthday each year.

Tom also talks to the baritone Simon Keenlyside and ballet dancer Zenaida Yanowsky about their shared life in music and dance. They talk about the similarities between the worlds of opera and dance, how their childhoods have shaped their careers and why they don't want their children to grow up to be singers or dancers.

And we preview 'Marnie' the new opera by the American composer Nico Muhly opening at English National Opera. Based on a Winston Graham novel, it follows a kleptomaniac with multiple identities, a hidden past, and a set of disturbing relationships. Tom talks to Nico about how he went about writing it - and speaks to two of its stars, Sasha Cooke and Daniel Okulitch.

Tom Service meets conductor Bernard Haitink at his London home.

Tom Service talks to conductor Bernard Haitink.

Tom visits Jamie Bernstein at the flat where the Bernstein family archives resides, while at the archives of the New York Philharmonic, Tom finds a musical score which reveals a fascinating self-insight by the maestro himself, and with the orchestra's archivist Barbara Haws remembers her time working with Bernstein, how he changed orchestral relations, and how his conducting traditions are still in place today. Historian Julia Foulkes explains how resonances of West Side Story are found in the hit Broadway musicals of the 21st century, and with Deborah Borda, CEO of the New York Philharmonic and conductors Michael Tilson Thomas and Joshua Weilerstein, Tom discovers initiatives aimed at bringing the joy of classical music to new audiences today, as Bernstein did. Tom visits National Sawdust in Brooklyn, which carries on Bernstein's ideas on social and musical collaboration, and Humphrey Burton, Bernstein biographer, offers his views on where Bernstein's legacy can be found today.

Tom Service travels to New York City to discover Bernstein's musical and social legacy.

Tom travels to Bristol's The Galleries shopping centre, home of Bristol's Eye Hospital Assessment centre, to visit a new installation featuring the testimony of 100 voices from across 12 NHS hospitals - including doctors, porters, nurses, consultants, and patients - which have been curated into an hour-long immersive experience. Providing a therapeutic space for contributors to express themselves, and an opportunity for audiences to contemplate the lived experience of hospital communities, Tom learns how the project's composer, Hannah Conway, and librettist, Hazel Gould, created four arias around common themes they encountered, and hears how they've become creatively projected into a bespoke structure that will tour Bristol, London, Preston and Addenbrooke over the coming weeks. With contributions, too, from Manager at NHS Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, Dipa Dave, and Head of Arts at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Natalie Ellis.

Also today, as the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble prepares to perform a concert including Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Carter at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London this weekend, the violinist Michael Barenboim tells Music Matters how, despite the situation in the Middle-East, the collaborative principles behind his father's and Edward Said's orchestra – which seek to bring together Arab, Palestinian and Israeli musicians – are more important than ever.

And the composer Jack van Zandt - author of a new book, Alexander Goehr, Composing a Life - speaks to Tom about the ongoing teacher-pupil relationship he's developed under the tutelage of Alexander - Sandy - Goehr, and how Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, and among others, Richard Hall, have in turn provided tuition and inspiration across Sandy's musical life.

Tom Service speaks to the pianist Bertrand Chamayou and violinist Michael Barenboim

Tom Service speaks to the pianist Bertrand Chamayou about his new album, and violinist Michael Barenboim explains why the West-Eastern Divan orchestra is more important than ever.

Kate Molleson presents a special episode of Music Matters which explores the line between tradition and innovation in Scotland's musical life.

We hear from the Canadian piper, composer and arranger Jack Lee, winner of the 2021 Glenfiddich Piping Championship held at Blair Castle, as he reflects on the challenges of preparing for what is the world's premiere piping competition; we speak to competition's judge of the Fear an Tighe category - Bob Worrall - about the boundaries and creative possibilities of music making and attire; and the piper, performer, and BBC Scotland presenter Gary West discusses, amongst other things, why the competition had no women finalists this year.

Kate meets the columnist and arts critic for the Scotsman, Joyce McMillan, and Professor of Architectural History and Theory, Ian Campbell, on location at Calton Hill in the heart of Edinburgh - site of the Royal High School, which has been abandoned for decades - to hear about recently approved plans to create a new centre for culture and education in one of the city's most iconic buildings.

As the School of Scottish Studies Archives celebrates its 70th year, Kate is joined by the singers Steve Byrne and Julie Fowlis, and the Scottish writer, folklorist, ethnologist, broadcaster, and singer Margaret Bennett, to assess the archive's role in the preservation and expansion of Gaelic and Scots culture today.

And, the principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Maxim Emelyanychev, tells Kate about the ensemble's role in music making across Scotland, describes how he navigates fluidly between the world of period instruments and traditional orchestras, and shares the story of his own journey into the profession.

Piping competition, a new music centre in Edinburgh, School of Scottish Studies archive.

Also, an oratorio in Hebrew which was written in 1774, has its UK premiere! Tom eavesdrops on rehearsals of 'Ester' by Cristiano Lidarti with words by Rabbi Saraval. He learns about the fascinating history of the piece from David Conway, members of Hampstead Garden Opera and conductor Andrew Griffiths.

With the help of the Sonica Festival in Glasgow, we ask: 'What is sonic art?' The festival is celebrating its tenth anniversary and we hear from the festival's Artistic Director Cathie Boyd and from artist Kathy Hinde.

And, Jazz guitarist and genre-challenger Bill Frisell on his life as well as his fears and joys in music as his biography, 'Beautiful Dreamer', written by Philip Watson, is published this month.

Producers: Elizabeth Arno and Juan Carlos Jaramillo

Photo: Bill Frisell (c) Carole D'Inverno

Guitarist Bill Frisell, composer Eleanor Alberga, Hebrew oratorio Ester & Sonica Festival.

Folk musician Mari Kalkun comes to the studio with her kannel, a traditional Estonian plucked string instrument with a long history which plays a central role in much of her music. Mari talks to Tom about her personal and artistic response to the war in Ukraine and how musical activism is now an essential part of her role as an artist.

We visit English National Opera to find out more about a new production of Poul Ruders's The Handmaid's Tale, based on Margaret Atwood's seminal novel. Tom is joined by director Annilese Miskimmon, mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey who sings Offred and soprano Emma Bell who sings Aunt Lydia, to explore how the story is being brought to life on stage and why it is a shattering story of our times.

Plus conductor and harpsichordist Rinaldo Alessandrini tells us about the irresistible theatrical energy of Vivaldi's 'L'estro armonico' concertos from 1711 and why placing them alongside reworkings by JS Bach on his new recording with his ensemble Concerto Italiano offers a new perspective and a thrilling ride.

Image: © Carol Friedman

Tom Service talks to virtuoso vocalist Bobby McFerrin, plus The Handmaid's Tale in opera.

Fifty years after it was written, composer Matthew Shlomowitz gets inside Luciano Berio's Sinfonia - a patchwork of borrowed musical fragments written for orchestra and amplified voices - and asks what it all means.

For the latest in our Hidden Voices series, in which we shine a spotlight on musical figures from the past who we think should be better known, we explore the extraordinary life and work of Brazilian composer, conductor and pianist Chiquinha Gonzaga (pictured). She wrote over 2000 pieces including 77 operettas and a song that would become a classic in the carnivals of Brazil. Gabriella Di Laccio, soprano and founder of ‘Donne: Women in Music', and pianist Andr退 Mehmari tell Gonzago's story.

Plus, we find out about the hardest decision that some of the world's finest musicians will ever make: when's it time to take your final bow? Tom explores how musicians decide when to give up their performing careers and what comes next, with contributions from soprano Dame Anne Evans, pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, horn player Sarah Willis and artist manager Thomas Hull.

Czech conductor Jakub Hrusa plus getting inside Luciano Berio's Sinfonia

Telling the story the 18th-century `Irish giant` Charles Byrne, whose corpse was stolen to order and put on public display, Kate speaks to composer Sarah Angliss about the World Premiere of her new opera Giant at this year's Aldeburgh Festival. She explains how she's treating this surprisingly tender tale of grave robbing and dissection.

As Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month gets under way, Music Matters learns about a new project to highlight the invaluable recorded collection of gypsy and traveller voices archived within the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. We speak to the University of East Anglia's Dr. Hazel Marsh about the impetus to make collections, housed at the English Folk Dance and Song Society, more accessible to Gypsy and Traveller people seeking engagement with their cultural heritage, and hear from the Scottish Traveller Ian McGregor.

Celebrating two decades of music making with Les Si耀cles, Kate hears from conductor Fran瀀ois-Xavier Roth as he prepares to tour with the orchestra to the Barbican, Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Proms. With new albums of works by Ravel and Ligeti about to be released this month, too, he tells Kate about the energy of discovery which drives the ensemble's prolific recording activity, and why performance needs to be dangerous.

Kate Molleson talks to pianist Brad Mehldau and conductor Fran\u00e7ois-Xavier Roth.

Tom Service discusses the legacy of the Second Viennese School.

Tom meets Teodor Currentzis, the controversial Greek-born, Russian-nationalised conductor who has revolutionised musical life in the city of Perm, near the Ural Mountains on the edge of Siberia. Currentzis reveals how he and his period instrument ensemble, Musicaeterna, are finding news way of making music together and changing the nature of the relationship with their audience. Plus, why he dislikes going to classical concerts, and listening to his latest recording of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony on a boat in a Greek storm.

Tom also explores musical life in Russia now, talking to composers Sergej Newski, who runs the Platform Project, an experimental contemporary arts programme in Moscow, and Elena Langer, who left Russia in the late 1990s and has lived in London ever since. British composer Gabriel Prokofiev reflects on taking his music to the homeland of his grandfather Sergei, and the violinist Roman Mints, whose Homecoming Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary in January, tells Tom about the impact of today's Russian cultural policy on musical freedom.

Tom Service meets conductor Teodor Currentzis.

Tom Service talks to pianist Leif Ove Andsnes about a new four-year-long performing and recording project with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the 'Mozart Momentum 1785/1786', which explores two of the most crucial years in the composer's life.

We visit the Royal Opera House to witness their latest project, 'Current, Rising' - a hyper reality opera, inspired by Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', which combines virtual reality with a multi-sensory set. We hear from director Netia Jones and composer Samantha Fernando.

The scholar Geoff Baker speaks to Tom about his new book, 'Rethinking Social Action Through Music' - a case study of music schools in Medell퀀n, Colombia's second city, whose recent history has been marked by a courageous fight against its endemic violence and social deprivation.

And as Glyndebourne opens its doors for a new Covid-adapted production of Janacek's Kက?a Kabanovက, Tom snoops on rehearsals and hears from opera director, Damiano Michieletto, and soprano Kate?ina Kn?ž퀀kovက, who takes the title role. Glyndebourne's Artistic Director, Stephen Langridge, also explains the challenges the company faces as it embraces new ways of producing opera.

Producer: Juan Carlos Jaramillo

Leif Ove Andsnes on Mozart. ROH hyper reality opera inspired by Shakespeare.

Fassbaender made her stage debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in the early 1960s and since then has performed around the world concentrating on roles in Austro-German opera from Mozart to Wagner. It was her performance as Octavian in Richard Strauss' Rosenkavalier in Munich in 1967 that launched her international career, leading to debuts at Covent Garden (1971) and the Metropolitan Opera (1974) in the same role. Aside from the operatic stage Fassbaender is well known as a lieder singer, winning admirers worldwide with her richly imaginative, psychologically revealing interpretations.

Since retiring from public performances in 1995 Fassbaender has continued to work closely with the operatic world - as a stage director and intendantin of the Tiroler Landestheatre in Innsbruck for 13 years from 1999-2012. The works of Richard Strauss have always had a special part in Fassbaender's career, and she curates the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, the town he lived in for over 40 years.

In this interview Fassbaender talks about her transition from singer to director, her work with young singers and about the music of Richard Strauss.

Mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender talks to Tom Service about her life and career.

And are we facing the demise of the brass band? As bands struggle to clinch sponsorship deals, Tom investigates the future of the British institution.

Producer: Jeremy Evans.

Tom Service presents. New biographies of Benjamin Britten plus the future of brass bands.

Tom Service talks to the creators of the new opera Brokeback Mountain.

And Tom also visits Leeds to find out about some of Yorkshire's lost pianos.

Tom Service talks to Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel. Plus some of Yorkshire's lost pianos.

Producer: Jeremy Evans.

Petroc Trelawny meets Bryn Terfel in Cardiff and marks the centenary of tenor Peter Pears.

Kurtag once said that his mother tongue is Bartok, and Kate visits the Bela Bartok Memorial House where she talks to the curator, Zoltán Farkas, about the composer's relationship with Hungary and the folk traditions that he collected both at home and in neighbouring countries. During a break in a busy rehearsal schedule, the conductor Ivan Fischer also shares his views on Bartok and the distinctive sound of the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Kate joins the director of the Hungarian Radio Choir, Zoltán Pad, and the composer Daniel Dinyes, to learn how the Hungarian language is expressed in music, and hear more about the unique sound of the choir. Kate also meets Hungary's queen of song, Márta Sebestyén, who is at the very heart of Hungary's folk music. Márta Sebestyén talks with pride about her mother, a celebrated student of Zoltan Kodaly, about her own travels in search of pure folk music. She treats Kate, too, to a traditional Christmas carol.

Kate Molleson talks to composer Gy\u00f6rgy Kurt\u00e1g, plus Ivan Fischer and M\u00e1rta Sebestyen.

Kate Molleson visits Budapest to talk to one the most celebrated composers, György Kurtág, and she also talks to conductor Ivan Fischer and the folk legend Márta Sebestyén.

Tom Service explores Carlo Gesualdo's music. Plus Stephen Kovacevich and Eliza Carthy.

Tom Service on Cavalli's L'Ormindo, a women's conducting course and the music of Scriabin.

We hear from Piazzolla himself in rare BBC archive material, as well as his widow Laura Escalada Piazzolla; his grandsons Daniel Villaflor Piazzolla, who runs the 'Fundaci　n Piazzolla' and Daniel 'Pipi' Piazzolla, drummer in jazz band 'Escalandrum'. There are contributions, too, from the critic Fernando Gonzကlez, who translated Piazzolla's Memoirs into English and interviewed him for international publications; the pianist Pablo Ziegler, who performed with Piazzolla for 11 years in one of his Quintets; and amongst others, the singers Amelita Baltar, who premiered many of Piazzolla's songs, and Elena Roger, who offers a new take of Piazzolla's music.

Also in the programme, the violinist Isabelle Faust describes her recent experience of travelling to Japan where she was able to perform to sold-out concert hall audiences. She shares her thoughts about the future of touring the world as soloist, how things may look in a post-Covid world, and the role of music for her during the pandemic.

Producer: Juan Carlos Jaramillo

Using archive, family members and musicians who played with him. Also Isabelle Faust.

Kate Molleson with the stories that matter, the people that matter, the music that matters

Also, we take a look at how string quartets replace departing members and the challenges for everybody of adapting to new, both personal and artistic environments - with contributions by the Fitzwilliam and the Doric Quartets.

Tom is in Southampton to hear the hidden voices of nuns and convent music with Laurie Stras and Deborah Roberts, who are bringing this polyphonic music back to life with their ensemble Musica Secreta - and he hears about a remarkable new discovery, a polyphonic work not heard in more than four centuries.

Also, the impact of Brexit on British musicians working in Europe and how they're planning to adapt to new immigration and travelling rules.

Tom speaks to Emma Kirkby. Also, the impact of Brexit on musicians. And music in convents.

Whether as concert soloist, as founder of Silkroad Ensemble which explores musical traditions across the world, or through his collaborations with communities in Chicago, Yo-Yo Ma has consistently pushed the boundaries of what it means to be a musician, driven by his desire to explore the relationship between culture and the human experience. Although not a Chicagoan, Ma has had a big impact on the city through his performances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Riccardo Muti, and his work with the orchestra's outreach department, the Negaunee Music Institute.

Riccardo Muti is famed as a conductor of Verdi and became Music Director at the orchestra in 2010 where he has continued his plight to engage people of all ages and from all backgrounds with classical music. Like Ma, Muti sees music as more than just entertainment - he is focused on making connections through music, both in his work in the schools, communities and prisons of Chicago and on his 'Roads of Friendship' project, collaborating with orchestras and musicians in conflict zones.

Tom talks to both about their musical lives, Chicago and the role music and culture can play in helping our understanding of the world and of each other. And 85 years after the premiere of her first symphony at Chicago Symphony Orchestra, we hear about the inspirational figure of Florence Price - Chicago-based composer and the first black American woman to have a symphony played by a major orchestra. Tom visits the Center for Black Music Research to meet Melanie Zeck and talks to composer and musician Ren耀e Baker about her work with the Chicago Sinfonietta and The Chicago Modern Orchestra Project, discovering how Florence is just one part of a history that needs to be told and a legacy that needs to be fulfilled.

Tom Service visits Chicago to talk to cellist Yo-Yo Ma and conductor Riccardo Muti.

[Please note the programme order: Playing Chopin (Kenneth Hamilton), Maurizio Pollini, British Library Exhibition, Krystian Zimerman]

Pianists Maurizio Pollini and Krystian Zimerman talk about the music of Chopin.

Also, in light of rising living costs and of the latest Government measures, Kate is joined by critic and broadcaster Ivan Hewett, and Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, Chief Executive of UK Music, to assess how the music industry is being affected.

There's also news of a recently launched orchestra in Colombia, consisting entirely of female players, the Women's Philharmonic Orchestra.

Writer Mark Katz tells Kate about his new book 'Music and technology: a short introduction', in which he suggests music and technology have co-existed for much longer than we might think, to explain why technology can be used for good or evil, and how technology have empowered marginalised communities in societies across the world.

Kate Molleson talks to violinist Christian Tetzlaff.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest living exponents of the Austro-German symphonic and operatic repertoire - his Ring cycle at Bayreuth in 2006 was hugely acclaimed, and his performances of Strauss and Schumann have also been praised for their richness and intensity - Thielemann has held posts at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Munich Philharmonic among others, and has had a very close relationship with the Bayreuth festival since his debut there in 2000.

In this lively and thought-provoking interview Thielemann tells Tom Service why he prefers to be thought of as a kapellmeister rather than a conductor, why tradition is an inspiration as well as challenge, and why flexibilty is the key to everything. He also explains why he believes music can't possibly be political, and what drives him to conduct.

Producer Emma Bloxham.

Tom Service presents an extended interview with German conductor Christian Thielemann.

With preparations well underway for this year's London Jazz Festival, Tom catches-up with the ‘Queen of African Music' - Angélique Kidjo. She describes her first encounter with Beethoven among the vinyl records of classical music her father had collected before the disruption of Benin's dictatorships, and speaks about her escape to Paris in the 1980s, as well as the joyous spirit of defiance and power of music in the conflicts she's witnessed in Sudan and Uganda.

And as ensembles around the country gear up for the finals of this year's National Brass Band Championships, Music Matters eavesdrops on the preparatory rehearsals of last year's winner's, Foden's Brass Band. With contributions from principal cornet, Mark Wilkinson, principal trombone and Chairman, John Barber, flugel horn player, Melanie Whyle, and conductor, Russell Gray, Tom also speaks to the composer of this year's test piece, Edward Gregson, about his ‘Of Men and Mountains', which will be performed by twenty bands at this year's championships.

Tom Service talks to conductor Christian Thielemann and hears from Angelique Kidjo.

Tom Service talks to German conductor Christian Thielemann and hears from Beninese-French singer-songwriter and actress Angélique Kidjo.

With preparations well underway for this year's London Jazz Festival, Tom catches-up with the ‘Queen of African Music' - Ang退lique Kidjo. She describes her first encounter with Beethoven among the vinyl records of classical music her father had collected before the disruption of Benin's dictatorships, and speaks about her escape to Paris in the 1980s, as well as the joyous spirit of defiance and power of music in the conflicts she's witnessed in Sudan and Uganda.

And as ensembles around the country gear up for the finals of this year's National Brass Band Championships, Music Matters eavesdrops on the preparatory rehearsals of last year's winner's, Foden's Brass Band. With contributions from principal cornet, Mark Wilkinson, principal trombone and Chairman, John Barber, flugel horn player, Melanie Whyle, and conductor, Russell Gray, Tom also speaks to the composer of this year's test piece, Edward Gregson, about his ‘Of Men and Mountains', which will be performed by twenty bands at this year's championships.

Kate Molleson visits the Fens to explore some of the music-making going at Christmas

Tom Service reviews three new books on music and a CD of Debussy songs.

Image (c) Eric Larrayadieu.

Tom Service meets Christophe Rousset, the inspirational harpsichordist and conductor.

Michael Volpe from Opera Holland Park and Polly Graham, Artistic Director of Longborough Festival Opera join Tom in the studio, to discover if Summer Festival opera companies can advance the art-form, as well as serve the audiences who come for the experience, and Antony Feeny, economist and researcher discusses the business model of these festivals.

Music and Maths - Tom explores the spaghetti-like interconnectedness of these two ancient disciplines with Eli Maor, whose new book 'Music By The Numbers' shows how musical ideas have inspired mathematicians over the ages, and Eugenia Cheng, mathematician and musician, who sees a musical-like creativity in maths, and a logic in all classical composition.

The Yorkshire Young Sinfonia became the first youth orchestra to play concerts reading their scores from tablets. Some professional orchestras use this technology too. Tom finds out what are the benefits and limitations surrounding digital technology on the concert platform.

Tom Service talks to acclaimed British baritone Christopher Purves.

Conductor and founder of The Sixteen Harry Christophers joins Tom as he prepares to take the choir on the road once again for this year’s choral pilgrimage, featuring music by Lassus, Josquin and Casulana. He reflects on 45 years of The Sixteen and discusses the current appetite for choral music and his role in connecting music, musicians and audiences.

Archaeologist and musician Graeme Lawson visits the studio with replica instruments in hand to discuss his new book “Sound Tracks: Uncovering Our Musical Past ? in which he examines musical instruments from around the world dating back thousands of years in order to tell the history of our relationship with music.

And Tom talks to Suhail Khoury, Honorary President of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music which has centres in Gaza, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nablus. They discuss the current situation for the teachers and students of the conservatory in Gaza, the damage to the building itself and the workshops being provided for children in refugee camps as a way of offering respite and hope.

Tom Service talks to organist Claire M Singer and conductor Harry Christophers.

The stories that matter, the people that matter, the music that matters

Formed of present and former students of the college, Tom catches-up with three members of an all-female genre-defying string quartet, Vulva Voce, to hear how their approach to repertoire and performance is winning over audiences.

With Manchester's leading classical ensembles descending on Bridgewater Hall for a weekend-long festival celebrating the city's rich musical heritage, Tom Service meets the Director of the BBC Philharmonic, Beth Wells; Chief Executive of the Hall退 Orchestra, David Butcher; Creative Director of the Manchester Camerata, Samantha McShane; and Artistic Director & Chief Executive of the Manchester Collective, Adam Szabo.

And, Music Matters hears from the composer John Luther Adams, whose new work 'Prophecies of Stone' is set to premiere next month at the Manchester International Festival. We chat too to the biennial festival's Director of Music, Jane Beese, about the ambitions for Manchester's new cultural venue - Aviva Studios.

Royal Northern College of Music at 50; Manchester Classical Weekender at Bridgewater Hall.

Richard McKerrow, the producer behind Channel 4's The Piano, on classical music on TV and the impact he hopes the series will have on our musical life.

Sarah Price from Liverpool University, on her research into audiences: why do we return to the familiar when choosing which concerts to attend?

Kully Thiarai, creative director and CEO of Leeds 2023, on the importance of the arts and culture for community and belonging.

Andrew Mellor, a British journalist in Denmark, on the relationship the Nordic countries have with classical music, and why it's different in the UK.

Bobby Duffy from the Policy Institute at King's College London, on how the arts and classical music fit into the culture wars debate.

Nwando Ebizie, the multidisciplinary artist, on working with Aurora Orchestra on 'Inside Beethoven' and making events work for D/deaf audiences.

Ed Vaizey, Member of the House of Lords and former culture minister, on perceptions and political decision-making around the arts and music.

Tom Service explores classical music's place in British society.

As the ENO stages a new production of The Mask of Orpheus retelling the Orpheus myth in an innovative way, we talk to composer Harrison Birtwistle. He speaks candidly about the origins of the piece, its pioneering musical language and about the difficulties of realising his artistic dreams. We also hear from the production's director Daniel Kramer, and conductor and ENO Music Director Martyn Brabbins.

We take a look at the landscape of music charities in the UK today, to see how much they are doing to fill the gaps left by the state and also how their innovations can be supported.

And a new book 'The Letters of Cole Porter', compiled by Cliff Eisen and Dominic McHugh, reveals surprising insights into the great American composer and songwriter's attitudes toward music theatre, money and success... and those he loved. With a contribution by the singer Sarah Fox, who has performed and recorded some of his songs.

The Mask of Orpheus at ENO, The Letters of Cole Porter, and music charities in the UK.

At the Royal Opera House, conductor Antonio Pappano and director Christof Loy discuss their new production of Berg's Lulu, an epic tale of moral and social decline.

And Tom debates the wider links between music and morality with an expert panel - musicologist John Deathridge, composer Deirdre Gribbin and philosopher Roger Scruton.

Tom Service talks to Colin Davis and explores the links between music and morality.

Tom talks to the Grammy-Award American composer Joan Tower, who turns 80 this month and who's crafted one of the most successful careers in music in her country, which include also the roles of piano performer and teacher.

As Gustav Holst's masterwork reaches its first centenary, we take a look at the new Planets, a project mixing music and science creating 8 new compositions to be performed by the Ligeti String Quartet at Planetarium around the UK. Among the composers included are Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Deborah Pritchard and Samuel Bordoli.

Also, a portrait of the African-American composer Ulysses Kay as part of our new Hidden Voices series, and the critic Fiona Maddocks and academic Erik Levi join Tom to meet the philosopher and composer Roger Scruton, to discuss his latest book, 'Music as an Art' which touches on subjects such as the historical importance of Modernism and the moral dimension of music.

Tom Service meets composer Joan Tower, and hears a new musical Planets inspired by Holst.

With her new sound and video installation opening at Kings Place in London, Composer Hannah Conway joins Tom to talk about her work exploring voice loss and identity. We also speak to the soprano Lucy Crowe and Tanja Bage, a singer whose larynx were removed following a diagnosis of throat cancer, about their involvement in Sound Voice and their experience of duetting together.

And, the four members of the Takacs Quartet join Tom from their home in Boulder, Colorado, to discuss - amongst other things - surviving lockdown, the ensemble's 47-year history, and their latest projects.

How conductors work their magic today, and voice loss.

Kate Molleson presents a live edition from the BBC's Strong Language Festival in Coventry.

Michael Tilson Thomas, music and 30 years of the Berlin Wall's fall, and Paul Hillier

She begins at the heart of Coventry in the ruins of the old cathedral, which was destroyed the November night in 1940 when the German Luftwaffe flattened the city centre. It is poignantly connected to the new cathedral by Basil Spence. With its consecration began a distinctive new choral tradition, particularly under music director David Lepine. Kate talks to one of the first choristers, David Sleath, who sang at the premiere of Britten's War Requiem, conductor Paul Daniel who joined the choir in the mid-60s, and organist Rachel Mahon who is the current music director.

Composer Dan Jones talks to Kate about his new work, Coventry Moves Together, which was commissioned by Coventry UK City of Culture for their inaugural day of events on 5th June, and which takes the ideas of the city's most pioneering composer, Delia Derbyshire. Kate talks to Chenine Bhathena, the Creative Director of Coventry UK City of Culture about the promises that she is making to the people of the city.

Birmingham-born conductor, and recently appointed Music Director of Birmingham Opera, Alpesh Chauhan, has made Coventry his home over the last few years and talks to Kate about his impressions of the city and its cultural significance.

Arguably Coventry's biggest musical export is 2-Tone Music, and Kate follows the 2-Tone Trail with Neville Staples of The Specials and visits the Coventry Music Museum set up by Pete Chambers, who has devoted his life to finding out about Coventry's music history from Roman Times to the now. Central to his museum is his homage to The Specials' chart-topping song, Ghost Town.

Kate Molleson celebrates musical life in Coventry as UK City of Culture 2021.

Sarah Connolly campaigns for singers. Plus the effects of Covid-19 on music education.

Petroc Trelawny on CPE Bach, and interviews with Rudolf Buchbinder and Jonathan Reekie.

Sara investigates the state of early music instrument building in the UK, amid concerns from some of today's makers about a missing generation of traditional craftspeople. With harpsichord builder Andrew Wooderson, maker of viols Shem Mackey, and Richard Earle, a player and maker of baroque oboes.

Introducing a new series on Music Matters exploring dialects and languages around the British Isles and how they influence music-making, Sara talks to the English folklore expert Steve Roud, and finds out about songs in the Scots language from singer Steve Byrne.

The composer and vocalist Jennifer Walshe muses on the delights and horrors of Christmas musical kitsch.

And Sara visits the Nottingham Contemporary art gallery for a new exhibition, From Ear to Ear to Eye, which uses sound, music and listening to reflect on stories across the Arab world. Two of the featured artists, Jumana Manna and Haig Aivazian, introduce their work and share their passion for exploring oriental musical cultures.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch explores traditions and crafts from the UK to the Arab world.

Ahead of a concert with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Tom talks to the winner of the 2020 Diapason d'or de l'ann退e concerto award, the pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, about setting up a new festival in lockdown, and the sense of freedom he creates in his performances, from Chopin to Rachmaninov.

And the prophetic voice of Glenn Gould: Tom is joined by the Canadian music historian Kevin Bazzana, the American-Canadian clarinettist James Campbell, and the American journalist Tim Page, to explore how Gould's decision to recede from public performance and communicate instead using contemporary recording technologies - mediums such as vinyl, radio, television and film - makes him the perfect musician for our times.

As Northern Opera Group prepare for their film adaptation of Pauline Viardot's opera, Cinderella, Tom hears from the company's artistic director, David Ward, director Sophie Gilpin and the stage director and academic Rachel M Harris, about Viardot's musical language and how to make film for, and with, the community.

And we hear from amateur music-makers across the UK - the Open Arts Community Choir in Belfast, Derwent Brass in Derbyshire, and Helensburgh Orchestral Society in the West of Scotland - about making connections online and how much they're missed by the communities and audiences they live for.

Benjamin Grosvenor and the prophetic voice of Glenn Gould.

Tom talks to pianist Yuja Wang and conductor Jaap van Zweden.

Plus a discussion on music education in England - how do children make progress in music and how is this measured? Music Matters talks to Lincoln Abbotts from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, Diane Widdison from the Musicians' Union and Fiona Harvey from the Association of British Orchestras, plus we hear the views from some of the music education hubs around the country.

Tom Service visits The Cumnock Tryst Festival and talks to its founder Sir James MacMillan

Serving the score of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, the much-lauded conductor John Wilson joins Sara to discuss his sumptuous new album - the first ever complete recording of the musical's original Broadway manuscript. He explains the painstaking research behind the restoration of Robert Russell Bennett's original orchestrations, how he approaches the task of preparing repertoire for the stage, and how to create the magical sound of musical theatre during its ‘golden age' in the 1940s.

Recently returned from filming concerts performed for soldiers fighting on the frontline, the BBC correspondent Mark Urban tells Music Matters about the current situation inside Ukraine. Sara speaks to composer and performer Ihor Zavhorodnii, and violinist Vera Lytovschenko, about their efforts to bring musical relief to residents in schools, hospitals and bomb shelters, and hears how they're trying to reach and serve audiences inside their war-torn country. She hears, too, from the Chief Music Editor of Ukrainian Public Radio's cultural station, Oleksandr Piriyev, who describes how he's promoting Ukrainian music through the European Broadcasting Union.

Presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch speaks to mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb and Chief Executive of the Incorporated Society of Musicians Deborah Annetts speak to Tom about the current state of music education in primary and secondary schools.

Tom also talks to Fran瀀ois Dru, the editor of a new, unpublished score of Ravel's Bolero, taken from the 1928 ballet premiere in Paris, with the original instrumentation for the percussion section.

And in Hidden Voices: Guillermo Uribe Holgu퀀n, the Colombian composer and reluctant impressionist, inspired by the popular culture of his land, but also violinist, teacher and founder of the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia in the early 20th century.

Violinist Baiba Skride, and a new score of Ravel's Bolero.

Tom meets Daniel Barenboim in Berlin, as the city's newest concert hall, the Pierre Boulez Saal, opens its doors to the public. The hall will host up to 100 chamber music concerts a year, and is home to the Barenboim-Said Akademie, which Barenboim and the philosopher Edward Said created to train young musicians - mostly from the Middle East - and whose public face is the world famous West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. He's a musician who is always interested in the wider world and Barenboim talks to Tom about the middle eastern conflict, world politics, music education and whether or not music can change the world.

And looking ahead to International Women's Day, the American conductor Marin Alsop meets Sylvia Caduff in Lucerne. Caduff, who is now in her 80s, was Leonard Bernstein's assistant at the New York Philharmonic and was mentored by Herbert von Karajan. She became one of the first women to conduct the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1960s when it was virtually unheard of for a woman to conduct a top orchestra.

Marin was also mentored by Leonard Bernstein and a generation later has similarly broken new ground for women in conducting - becoming the first female conductor of the last night of the Proms, and with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra the first to hold a music director post of an American orchestra.

The two conductors compare notes on their lives in music, their roads to becoming conductors and breaking down barriers for female musicians.

Featuring conductors Marin Alsop, Sylvia Caduff and Daniel Barenboim.

Tom Service talks to Daniel Harding, a book and an opera by Poulenc and songs by Faure.

Tom takes a look at 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', an opera which receives its world premiere in Seattle this week, based on Khaled Hosseini's novel spanning a generation about two women going through political and social changes in Afghanistan, including the first Taliban rule, amid a tale of despair and sacrifice. He talks to Hosseini, to the composer Sheila Silver, to the opera director, the film-maker Roya Sadat and to the opera's cultural consultant, Humaira Ghilzai.

Also, the book 'Troubled Inheritances: Memory, Music and Aging' featuring research in different parts of the world looking into how music accompanies us, both individually and collectively, changing and shaping our memories as we age. With contributions by two of the editors of this collection of essays, Sara Cohen, who's done research with older people in Liverpool, and Line Grenier, who's worked with deaf communities in Montreal.

Also, another new opera, The Emperor's New Waltz, by 18-year-old Alma Deutscher, commissioned by Salzburg State Theatre, to be premiered on March 4th. Tom talks to Alma about the piece, a romantic story about two young lovers, which she sees as leading a revolution bringing 'beautiful melodies' back to the present.

David Hockney's installation with music. New opera A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Tom Service talks to conductor David Zinman and reviews Birmingham Opera's Khovanskygate.

Tom is in Glyndebourne to preview a new production of Debussy's opera Pelleas et Melisande, exploring the opera's themes of dream, reality and our relationship with the past with the director Stefan Herheim and singers Christina Gansch and John Chest.

David Toop tells Tom about working with flutes and electronics to reinterpret the musical dreamscape of traditional Japanese Noh theatre, as he performs at Kings Place as part of Noh Reimagined festival.

With events celebrating the 70th anniversary of the NHS happening this week, Kate Molleson meets the pianist and mathematics researcher Elaine Chew, whose own experiences with heart arrhythmias have led her to respond to music differently and create new pieces.

Tom also talks to Kevin le Gendre about his new book, Don't Stop the Carnival: The story of Black music in Britain, and we take a walk along the River Tyne with the folk musician Martin Green, creator of Aeons, a new sound piece for the Great Exhibition of the North.

Tom Service previews Glyndebourne's new production of Pelleas et Melisande.

As Kaija Saariaho's opera L'Amour de loin opens at English National Opera, Tom meets the composer and the director Daniele Finzi Pasca.

Sound artist Martin Parker discusses his new works for headphones, designed specially for locations around East Neuk in Scotland.

Tom explores perceptions of classical music with the help of BBC 6 Music's Chris Hawkins.

Tom Service talks to Kaija Saariaho about L'Amour de loin at English National Opera.

As part of 'Debussy's Paris' on BBC Radio 3, marking the 100th anniversary of the composer's death this weekend, Tom explores new perspectives on Debussy's music.

At a centenary conference hosted jointly by the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Glasgow, Tom discovers Debussy's Manchester connection, and meets researchers at the forefront of today's thinking about the French composer: Marianne Wheeldon, on the legacy of the late works written during the First World War; Helen Abbott and Mylene Dubiau on bringing meaning out in performances of his songs; and Matthew Brown, on the influence of Bach on the Violin Sonata.

Tom also talks to the conductor Francois-Xavier Roth about releasing the colours in Debussy's music, both with his French period instrument ensemble Les Siecles and with the London Symphony Orchestra. The composer Betsy Jolas reveals the inspiration of the Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp on her own music, and Bruno Mantovani, director of the Paris Conservatoire, considers whether young composers today are retaining enough of a Debussy connection.

Plus the author of a new biography, Stephen Walsh, on the challenges of putting into words how Debussy's music works.

Tom Service with new perspectives on Debussy.

At the Philharmonie, Tom joins the conductor, airline pilot and Paris resident Daniel Harding as he prepares for a performance of Mahler's first symphony with the Orchestre de Paris. Harding explains his reasons for leaving the orchestra after his 3-year contract, and reveals the similarities and differences between his two passions, music and flying.

Plus the sounds of Paris itself with Sara Adhitya, author of Musical Cities: Listening to Urban Design and Planning.

Delius and the Sound of Place, and conductor Daniel Harding

We hear about the little-known Welsh chanting tradition of Can'r Pwnc, and how the Cardiff theatre company August 012 is remoulding the style as a frame for ancient love poetry.

The American scholar Rachel May Golden has written a new book on southern French troubadours during the time of the Crusades, showing how many of their songs were effectively pro-Crusader proaganda - and she follows the stories of troubadours such as Jaufre Rudel, who died during the Second Crusade, according to legend in Tripoli the arms of his lover.

American jazz composer Wynton Marsalis joins Tom to trumpet his views contemporary America, as reflected in his new album The Democracy! Suite, released in the week leading up to the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States. Marsalis hopes that jazz. as America's own music, can inspire Americans to find ways to heal the divisions.

Talking about his own career, Perahia discusses new theories surrounding Beethoven's 'Moonlight' sonata, and his friend and mentor Vladimir Horowitz.

Producer Paul Frankl.

Tom Service reflects on the career of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch interviews conductor Simone Young. Plus a tribute to Dinu Lipatti.

As part of the BBC's focus on disability this month, marking the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act, Tom Service takes a look at how the music industry deals with disability. We hear from the celebrated American violinist Itzhak Perlman, who suffered from polio as a child, as he tells Tom about the need for the industry to adopt practices in favour of disabled musicians so that it becomes fairer and more inclusive in the future. We also eavesdrop on the 'Sound Voice' project, helping people with laryngectomy and motor neuron disease find their voices again. The CEO of 'Youth Music', Matt Griffiths, discusses their latest report which reveals how education is apparently failing disabled students who wish to break into the industry. And we hear about the experiences learned by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra during BSO Resound, their professional disabled-led ensemble. With a new lockdown beginning across England, we ask two institutions - English Touring Opera and the London Symphony Orchestra - how they'll be affected by the changing landscape. And, as the American election reaches its climax, we ask what the results could mean for the country's cultural and musical life.

Tom Service takes a look at how the music industry deals with disability and its impact.

Tom Service learns about adaptive instruments and celebrates Maria Callas's centenary.

Tom Service visits adaptive instrument maker Peter Worrell to learn about changes he's making to accommodate the needs of musicians.

Tom visits the site of the new Shireland City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Academy in West Bromwich, which opens in September 2023. As the first state school in the country to be established in collaboration with an orchestra, the academy is built around a central performance space which will also be open as a venue in evenings and throughout the year for the wider Sandwell community and beyond. Tom takes a tour of the site with CBSO Chief Executive Stephen Maddock, Principal Designate David Green and architect Claire Mantle to find out more.

Emily MacGregor joins Tom to talk about her new book ‘Interwar Symphonies and the Imagination: Politics, Identity and the Sound of 1933' which explores how symphonies in Europe and America reflect and shape the politics of their time, and how they resonate with us today. The book looks at symphonies by composers such as Kurt Weill, Hans Pfitzner, Roy Harris and Florence Price which were written or premiered in 1933 - a year in which Hitler came to power in Germany and the Great Depression reached its peak in the United States.

We explore the past, present and future of immersive performances with David Owen Norris who takes us on a whistle-stop tour of how composers and musicians have played with sound and space throughout the centuries. Tom also visits the d&b Audiotechnik demo facility in Stroud to find out about the latest technology being used to create immersive audio performances in halls, theatres and opera houses across the world.

Tom Service talks to composer Dobrinka Tabakova and visits the new Shireland CBSO Academy.

A new film looking at the life of Edward Elgar is featured at the Sheffield Documentary Festival at the beginning of November. Its director, John Bridcut discusses how Elgar - The Man Behind the Mask reveals the hidden identity of a composer we think we know so well.

And Tom meets one of the most performed composers alive - Eric Whitacre. Known for his top selling albums and a brand of choral music that both challenges choirs, and touches a massive audience, he talks ahead of his performances conducting choirs in London and Cardiff.

Tom Service talks to Ed Vaizey on the Government's spending review and music-making.

Petroc Trelawny explores the music of innovative 20th century composer Edgar Varese, he visits early music pioneer Ton Koopman, and delves into the rich and largely forgotten history of piano making in London. Plus Norman Lebrecht shares his thoughts on a collision between high art and politics. Produced by Brian Jackson.

Petroc Trelawny explores the music of Edgar Varese and talks to Ton Koopman.

In 1871 Giuseppe Verdi's grand opera Aida was given its world premiere at the newly built Cairo Opera House. In June 2013, on the stage of the new opera house, singers and musicians appeared in full dress once more for a performance of Aida, but this time holding protest placards against interference from the sixth culture minister to be appointed in two years. Suzy speaks to Nayer Nagui, conductor of the Cairo Opera Orchestra, and journalist Ati Metwaly and asks whether the protests within the arts mirror wider unrest across the country, and what role the arts have in protecting cultural diversity in a country of 80 million people. She also takes the artists' concerns to the now deposed Minister for Culture Alaa Abdel Aziz, and asks for a direct response to their allegations.

Cultural activist Basma El Husseiny, who runs Culture Resource, a non-governmental arts body, tells Suzy how the fine arts in Egypt have traditionally been associated with ruling elites and that as she takes music, theatre and dance out into deprived communities, the need for new modes of expression amongst the Egyptian people is stronger than ever.

One of the most significant religious minorities in Egypt today are the Coptic Christians. Founded in the 1st century AD, the Copts have preserved their music over 20 centuries as an oral tradition. Since the advent of recording technology the Insitute of Coptic Studies in Cairo has been working to catalogue and record this tradition, and now it has been digitised. Dr Michael Ghattas tells Suzy how the music of the Copts can be traced back to Pharaonic times, and why Egypt's Coptic community worry for their future in Egypt today.

With a tradition dating back to at least the 14th Century, the Egyptian oud is one of the lynchpins of Arabic classical music. In a suburban flat surrounded by 78rpm gramophone records, archivist and oud player Mustafa Said explains to Suzy how, since the 1950s Arabic classical music has looked to the West for ways to innovate and why he believes it is now crucial that musicians draw inspiration from the classical repertoire of an older era and use this music to find a new way to look forward.

Finally, in a small music studio in downtown Cairo, Suzy meets 22 year old composer Bahaa El Ansary, and musician and curator Mahmoud Refat. Refat's '100 Copies' label and venue has been a key player in the experimental music scene in Egypt over the last 10 years, and he talks frankly about how, since 2011, musicians in Egypt are pigeonholed as 'revolutionary' by Western media, to the detriment of the vibrant music scene that has long existed in Egypt.

Suzy Klein travelled to Cairo to find out how Egypt's cultural identity is evolving.

Ahead of her Prom with the BBC Symphony Orchestra later this month, Tom also hears from the conductor Elim Chan. Winner of the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition in 2014, she tells Tom about her journey at the helm of several of the world's leading orchestras and why being on stage feels like being a rockstar.

Tom Service visits Lincoln Cathedral on the 400th anniversary of Byrd.

Tom Service with a portrait of Enescu. Plus Philip Venables on his opera 4.48 Psychosis.

Tom also explores the music and ideas in a new book by the music journalist Tim Rutherford-Johnson. Music After the Fall sets out to answer questions about the complex relationship between new music and wider culture since 1989.

And he travels to Devon for this year's Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival, Voice 2.0, staged in partnership with Plymouth University's pioneering Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research. Tom meets the ICCMR's director Eduardo Reck Miranda, whose work for human and synthetic voices, Vov, features a new language by David Peterson, creator of the Dothraki language for Games of Thrones. Alexis Kirke explains how he's analysed the emotional content of lyrics by Lennon and McCartney for his new piece Come Together, and Nuria Bonnet demonstrates how she's using data from a buoy in Looe harbour in her electronic work Voice of the Sea.

Tom Service talks to the creators of a new opera based on Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.

Tom Service talks to Sir James Galway and reviews Julian Anderson's new opera, Thebans.

Tom also talks to composer Unsuk Chin, whose new Violin Concerto No.2 is premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra this week, and to choral composer/conductor Eric Whitacre about his work The Sacred Veil, ahead of a London performance with Voces8 which Eric will conduct. Plus, Clemency Burton-Hill on her new book, Another Year of Wonder.

Composers Eric Whitacre and Unsuk Chin, plus a look ahead to arts events in 2022.

Satie was an eccentric figure in Paris: the velvet gentleman with identical suits, who lived in a cramped 'cupboard' in Montmartre before moving to the suburbs in Arcueil. He had an uncanny knack of being involved in all the latest artistic advances of the time, collaborating with Jean Cocteau and Pablo Picasso among others.

Tom visits some of Satie's favourite haunts in Paris and endeavours to find the truth behind the colourful stories of his eccentric life. At the Mus退e de Montmartre he discovers Satie's connections with visual artists, and at the Lapin Agile he experiences the form of artistic cabaret as Satie would have encountered it.

With expert opinion from musicologists Caroline Potter and Robert Orledge, pianist Pascal Rog退, composer Kurt Schwertsik, stage director Danielle Mathieu-Bouillon, and Satie enthusiast Alistair McGowan.

Tom Service explores Satie, the man and his music, on the 150th anniversary of his birth.

Philip Venables is one of the most exciting and confrontational composers working today, and with the help of the London Sinfonietta his new project The Gender Agenda is turning London's Queen Elizabeth Hall into a giant irreverant gameshow exploring the idea of gender (in)equality. Tom talks to him about the project and how and why he uses music as a political mouthpiece.

Since its opening in 1967 the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's Southbank has seen any number of superstars from the worlds of classical, jazz, pop and folk play on its stage. Re-opening its doors to the public this week, Tom takes a tour to see what's in store for the audience and also discovers the secrets behind the famously iconic, and slightly marmite, brutalist concrete architecture.

Tom also talks to the soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek. Now an internationally acclaimed singer performing in the world's biggest opera houses, she tells Tom how she started her career as a singing waitress and had to fight to reach the top of her profession. Performing this month in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Royal Opera House she also tells Tom why she doesn't want to sing Brunnhilde, she never listens to her recordings, and why her back up career was as a truck driver.

And as a new book 'Mindfulness in Music' asks us to listen to music in a more thoughtful way as a route to wellbeing, Tom talks to its author Mark Tanner and also discovers from music health professionals how music can aid our wellbeing in a very practical sense too with the latest thoughts on music's power to heal, including why music is increasingly being harnessed by the NHS.

Tom Service talks to composer Philip Venables and soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek.

Tom Service meets Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie to discuss her life and career.

With pianist Evgeny Kissin, plus a discussion about gender issues in media composition.

Marking 60-years of the humble cassette tape, Kate explores the medium's unlikely revival as part of Radio 3's Casseptember season. She talks to the British Phonographic Industry's representative, Gennaro Castaldo, about the 443% increase in sales the cassette tape has seen over the past decade, and hears from the ethnomusicologist, DJ and filmmaker Arlen Dilsizian about the new releases he distributes on both the Hakuna Kulala and Nyege Nyege Tape label. She learns, too, how the blogger Brian Shimkovitz is using the analogue medium's creative potential to build audiences for the artists he works with at his Awesome Tapes from Africa label.

The music critic Jeremy Eichler joins Kate to discuss his new book ‘Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance'. He argues against the passive consumption of music ‘for relaxation', tells Kate why certain areas of the repertoire require active engagement, and examines music's ability to transcend physical monuments and act instead as one of the most profound forms of memorial.

And as Hollywood writers vote on an agreement the Writers Guild of America have reached with studios to end their five-month strike, we hear from the General Secretary of the Musicians' Union, Naomi Pohl, and Interim Chief Executive of UK Music, Tom Kiehl, about what the deal means for music professionals on this side of the Atlantic.

Pianist Ewa Poblocka; Casseptember; Jeremy Eichler's book about the Holocaust and music.

Tom also visits the Brighton Festival 2009 to talk to artist Anish Kapoor, its guest artistic director, who has collaborated on a challenging music programme to go with the rest of the event. Is this the way forward for artistic festivals in the future?

Tom Service talks to mezzo-soprano Felicity Palmer and visits the Brighton Festival 2009.

Plus composers Howard Shore and Mike Figgis explain their own philosophies of film composing, and a look at the modern sound library technology which shapes the scores of today.

Three musicians reflect on the role of music in creating awareness about the current state of the environment: the Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto on the lost forests of Finland and his support for Greenpeace's Save the Forests campaign, composer Laura Bowler on her travels to the Antarctic and the resulting new work with the Manchester Camerata, and at the other end of the world, Stuart MacRae and Scottish Opera's new work 'Anthropocene', set in the frozen Arctic wastelands where an expeditionary team of scientists become trapped. Tensions rise and relationships crumble; and then something appears, out of the ice...

Music & Camp is a new collection of essays exploring this relationship in the 20th and 21st century: at the Vauxhall Tavern in London, Tom meets one of the editors Dr Philip Purvis and the cellist and cabaret performer Zo뀀 Martlew.

And an interview with the Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho, who takes to the Royal Opera House's stage to perform the role that made her fall in love with opera: Violetta in Verdi's 'La Traviata'.

Photo credit: Brad Kratchovil

From new compositions inspired by the icy poles to the fiery emotion of Ermonela Jaho.

Tom Service talks to French pianist Fran\u00e7ois-Frederic Guy.

There's also a report on the innovative music programme to help rehabilitate inmates at Karachi Central Jail in Pakistan, and news of a project taking music into schools in Bristol.

Tom Service talks to tenor Freddie De Tommaso and choral director Andre J Thomas.

What's happening in Venezuela and how does it relate to its famous El Sistema music education system? With the death of its founder Jose Antonio Abreu and Sistema becoming ever closer to the government amid a worsening economic situation, as well as protests and an upcoming election, what is the future for El Sistema and music in Venezuela? Tom talks to Geoff Baker who has written extensively on the programme.

He also meets Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero, known not just for her acclaimed performances on the classical concert stage and incredible improvisations, but also for her fierce political activism in defence of her Venezuelan people. Tom talks to Gabriela about how she sees music and society in Venezuela today, why she feels music without a message is banal and why artists have a responsibility to use their voices to affect change.

Tom meets composer Deborah Pritchard in her studio amongst her scores and paintings to talk about the relationship between music and visual arts. A synaesthete and an artist as well as a composer, Deborah talks about how art and colour permeate her musical life, while the writer and broadcaster Katy Hamilton picks her favourite five composer artists from musical history.

And 94 years young and still performing all over the world, the pianist Menahem Pressler tells Tom about his philosophy of music making and how he can sum it all up in one word - love.

Image (c) Shelly Mosman.

Tom Service talks to pianists Gabriela Montero and Menahem Pressler.

Singer Lise Davidsen, Alice Farnham on women conductors, Glass's Einstein on the Beach.

Known first as a jazz bassist in the 1960s, Bryars's early experimental work as a composer saw him collaborate with John Cage and Cornelius Cardew. His first major composition from 1969, ‘Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet', remains his most enduring work along with 'The Sinking of the Titanic', both of which he continues to perform with the Gavin Bryars Ensemble. But Bryars' portfolio is wide-ranging, from solo piano to choral works, theatre, dance, and full-length operas. He's written for soloists including John Harle, Julian Lloyd Webber and Mahan Esfahani, and leading ensembles including the Hilliard Ensemble and US-based choir The Crossing. His use of subjects and texts stretches from Greek mythology, to Thomas Traherne, to living authors including a close partnership with Blake Morrison.

Bryars talks to Tom about his influences, his musical language, why it's so important for him to work closely with other musicians, and why he always returns to the river in his East Yorkshire hometown of Goole.

Also today, as a new edition of Philip Glass's complete Etudes for piano is published, Tom talks to three of the composer's close friends and collaborators, all of whom have written essays for Studies in Time, a book which accompanies the new publication: artist and musician Laurie Anderson, pianist Maki Namekawa and composer Nico Muhly explain what this set of 20 piano studies means to them.

~Music Matters visits the London Coliseum to hear from sopranos Nadine Benjamin and Sophie Bevan, as Marina Abramović's 7 Deaths of Maria Callas opens at English National Opera: a celebratory stage production which reimagines some of Callas' best known arias alongside new original music by Marko Nikodijević.

And following the UK government's AI Safety Summit this week, and the release of The Beatles' AI-assisted single Now and Then, the interim chief of UK Music Tom Kiehl explains the challenges and opportunities that Artificial Intelligence presents for the music sector.

Tom Service talks to one of Britain's most influential composers, Gavin Bryars.

Tom Service talks to Gavin Bryars, one of Britain's most influential composers, and to some of Philip Glass's closest friends about a new edition of his complete Etudes for piano.

Tom Service talks to the British composer, Gavin Bryars. He became known as a bassist in the early sixties and worked for a time in the United States with John Cage. He released his first major composition, ‘Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet' in 1969 on Brian Eno's Obscure label. His works have been performed by leading ensembles and soloists including the Hilliard Ensemble, Charlie Haden, John Harle, Fretwork, Orlando Consort, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, and Julian Lloyd Webber. He has also composed numerous works for theatre and dance, and full-length operas.

Composer Ed Hughes and filmmaker Cesca Eaton trace the changing moods of the Cuckmere river in Sussex over the course of a year. We join them at Cuckmere Haven to discover the images and sounds that inspired their new collaboration of silent film and live music.

Kate becomes privy to Ludwig van Beethoven's most intimate and private thoughts as his Conversation Books begin to appear in English translation for the first time. Volume I covers the period February 1818 to March 1820, and offers insights on Beethoven's every day life in Vienna as his hearing starts to deteriorate.

In our continuing series on music and language around the British Isles, Kate travels to Wales to learn what it means to artists to make music in Welsh. She meets Pat Morgan of Punk 80s band Datblygu, who ranted against the romanticised clich退s of the Welsh traditions, to show their love of the Welsh language. Gareth Williams of the Pendyrus Male Choir gives us a sense of how the Rhondda Valley choirs' robust sound is a result of its industrial history and use of Welsh language. We hear how native language opera can change deeply-held attitudes to the art form from Patrick Young of Opra Cymru, and we meet electronic psych-pop musician Gwenno, a passionate advocate for minority languages as a force for self expression and social diversity.

Kate Molleson meets leading English composer George Benjamin.

Sara meets two artists who reveal how they discovered, and continue to cultivate their distinctive musical voices: the Serbian pianist Tamara Stefanovich, who plays the music of Hans Abrahamsen at the London Sinfonietta's 50th anniversary concert this month, and the Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley, who is currently singing the role of Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca at Covent Garden.

And Kate Molleson explores Scots dialect in song, the first in a new series about language and music around the British Isles. Focusing on the east and central belt of Scotland, Kate meets the writer James Robertson and singers Scott Gardiner, Aidan Moffat, Karine Polwart and Sheena Wellington, and discovers a language which is rich in history and sound, and full of resonances for today.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch meets Gerald Finley and Tamara Stefanovich.

Tom speaks to Alan Gilbert, the chief conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and conductor laureate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, about musical performances during the pandemic.

And Tom hears from the multi-media musical entrepreneur ThatViolaKid, otherwise known as Drew Alexander Forde, who has made viola practice, conservatoire training, Bartok and Shostakovich, and covers of Alicia Keys and Gnarls Barkley into musical YouTube phenomena.

Kate Molleson discusses jazz legend Dave Brubeck and we hear from violinist Tasmin Little

Grace Bumbry's career was launched when she won a competition at the tender age of 17. She was sought after across Europe and the USA as a mezzo soprano and later a soprano. Now aged 80, still actively coaching young singers, she's one of the jurors for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2017. She talks about her life on stage and in the concert hall, and passes on the wisdom of her career.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to opera star Grace Bumbry and Broadway singer Audra McDonald.

Directors including Nicholas Hytner and David Alden talk about the challenges and joys of putting Handel on the stage, and soprano Rosemary Joshua talks about the importance of authenticity in singing Handel.

Petroc also visits the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge to find out what the Handel manuscripts held there can tell us about the composer's working methods and his concept of the integrity of the musical work.

Petroc Trelawny and guests assess Handel's significance 250 years after his death.

On the centenary of his birth, Tom explores the legacy of the influential musicologist and broadcaster Hans Keller, with his biographers Alison Garnham and Susi Woodhouse, as well as critic Michael White. And there's some revealing archive material too...

Tom also speaks to Susan Rogers, Prince's sound engineer, on her 40 years as a recording engineer, record producer and researcher into music cognition, as she prepares to appear at the Sounds Like This Festival in Leeds.

And continuing Radio 3 and 6music's video game season, Tom looks at how music enhances the user's experience of video games. We talk to a composer, an academic and an avid game user.

Hans Keller and International Women's Day.

Also on the programme, an interview with academic Nancy November about her new book 'Cultivating String Quartets in Beethoven's Vienna', arguing for the need to readdress the context in which string quartets are to be understood at the beginning of the 19th-Century. Paul Cassidy, viola player from the Brodsky Quartet discusses the book with Tom and explains how it will inform his playing and enhance the understanding of this repertoire.

And Tom sits down at the piano with jazz pianist Brad Mehldau to discuss Bach and improvisation.

[the person pictured here is a model].

Tom Service looks at harassment in the classical music industry today.

Sir Harrison Birtwistle has never written a concerto for a stringed instrument. His violin concerto which receives its UK premiere on Wednesday evening at the Proms was given its first performance in Boston by violinist Christian Tetzlaff and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the beginning of March this year.

Tom Service meets Sir Harrison, or Harry as he's better known, at his home, a converted silk factory in Wiltshire in the weeks leading up the first performance of the concerto in the States. He then travels to Boston, and has unprecedented access to him in during rehearsals, and in the hours before the premiere. Birtwistle talks candidly about what drives his music, his fears for the concerto, his frustrations during rehearsal and how a composer can never be satisfied with their music:

'A clarinet player in Holland once asked me if I was pleased with what she'd just played. I asked her if she looked in the mirror this morning and did she like what she saw? And she said no she didn't. But nobody likes what they see. And I think it's a bit like that. I've gone through it note to note and made this piece, and at the back of my mind, as there always is, there are certain wounds. That could be better. I could go on writing a piece of music for quite a long time, but I'm not going to. I know the wounds, and I know the wounds from very early pieces, but when I hear them after a period of time, the wound has healed, but another one has appeared in the mean-time. That's the insecurity more than anything. It's insecurity more than tragedy!'

He talks about his early life in music growing up as a child in Accrington.

'I always wrote music. I wrote music from the age of 8. I've still got it. I just sort of had a notion that there was something else out there. I was attracted to making a music that in a sense didn't already exist.'

'I played in the pit orchestra in theatres as in Accrington. When that finished I was asked to stay on and play the pantomimes - I think it must have been terrible. For 2 years I carried on and then played in variety shows . comedians and all that. I'd got £56 I'd been saving up all my life to by a motorbike and bought a saxophone with it. I loved all that . The pantomime and the variety. I was a sort of a professional musician as a kid - 14 years old - still at school.'

'It was the idea of being a creative person I liked, but I didn't see it as pretentiously as that.'

It was the response to Birtwistle's piece Panic performed at the Last Night of the Proms in 1994 that brought his name to a wider public. The BBC switchboard was overwhelmed with callers complaining about such a piece being programmed on the Last Night. But Harry is philosophical about the public reaction to his work.

Compromise doesn't seem to be a word in Birtwistle's make up. He's a talented cook and gardener. He seems to approach everything with the same intensity as he does when he composes.

'Yes, I have no hobbies. I have no relaxations. If I do a bit of gardening or cooking, It'd be silly to do something that wasn't as good as possible. In that sense you can't do better.'

Service asks him what his limitations as a composer are.

'I can only do what I do. The sort of fluency that comes through commercial music, I couldn't do. I admire it, often it's very, very good, particularly with film music it's craft. I don't know where the craft is in what I do. If you listen to John Williams you know there craft that makes it have that Technicolour. I don't have another side.'

But before travelling to Boston, Birtwistle talks about the violin concerto:

'The side of it that worries me is the balance. Having looked at several violin concertos since, they're quite thin the instrumentation. I was conscious of it [the balance] but I don't know if I've solved it. Never mind what I've written, if I can hear it, I'll be happy!'

Tom asks if he's looking forward to hearing it in Boston.

'Oh yeh - yeh - of course I am!'

Presenter: Tom Service.

Producer: Jeremy Evans.

Email: musicmatters@BBC.co.uk.

Tom Service talks to Harrison Birtwistle ahead of the premiere of his violin concerto.

With the help of some of the leading Haydn aficionados - pianists Alfred Brendel and Robert Levin, leader of the Lindsays Peter Cropper, and pianist and musicologist Charles Rosen - Tom finds out just how Haydn did it, why it is we think of him as 'witty', and what sort of a man really lay behind that intricately constructed, sometimes humorous and always profound music.

Tom Service examines our attitudes to Haydn with the help of Alfred Brendel among others.

Kate meets the multiple award-winning composer Jocelyn Pook at her home studio. The creator of music for stage and screen, Jocelyn's film scores include Eyes Wide Shut, The Merchant of Venice, and her latest, The Wife, starring Glenn Glose. Her many collaborations include with the choreographer Akram Khan, whose Dust is at Sadler's Wells this month. Kate also hears about Jocelyn's trilogy of deeply personal works about mental health.

French conductor Sonia Ben Santamaria talks about her mission to address gender imbalance in classical music with her new ensemble, the Glass Ceiling Orchestra, and Kate considers the proposals for Edinburgh's new concert hall, the IMPACT Centre, with Herald journalist Neil Cooper and folk singer Karine Polwart. On the banks of the Thames, Kate meets Ruth Mariner and Sarah Dacey, the director and composer behind Liquid History, an opera based on the stories of objects found along the river's banks. And Laura Tunbridge on her new book, Singing in The Age of Anxiety: Lieder Performances in New York and London between the World Wars.

Jocelyn Pook, Edinburgh's new concert hall, and mudlarking on the Thames

Tom Service talks to pianist Helene Grimaud and discusses Gesualdo with I Fagiolini.

Pianists Peter Donohoe and Noriko Ogawa discuss and play mountains of the piano duo repertoire: Stravinsky, Rachmaninov & Debussy.

Tom speaks to musicians who spend their evenings performing in concert halls, and their days walking in the mountains (conductor Garry Walker) stretching in hot yoga studios (violinist Elena Urioste), or running ultra-marathons (Leon Bosch) to discover the connection between music and sporting disciplines.

Tom visits English composer Anthony Payne at home in London hearing about the catalyst that sparked his life in music, Elgar, and why we need more new music in our lives.

The Monstrous Child, composer Anthony Payne, piano duos, yoga, mountains and gods.

The first black singer at Bayreuth was Grace Bumbry in the 1960s, but it could have been a different story. Celebrating Black History Month, and continuing Music Matters' series of Hidden Voices, Sara profiles the 1860s-born Aldridge sisters. Daughters of the 19th-century African-American Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge, Amanda was a singer, composer and teacher whose students included Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson, and Luranah, also a singer, narrowly missed out on a career-changing appearance at Wagner's festival in the 1890s. With the music writer Alex Ross and author Louise Hare.

The author Scarlett Thomas shares her playlist for autumn, with music from Schubert to Keith Jarrett via Tom Waits and Beethoven. And Sara is in Ipswich to meet Byron Scullin and Hannah Fox, creators of Clarion Call, an outdoor sonic artwork broadcasting the voices of women and girls as part of the SPILL Festival's commemoration of the First World War centenary.

Scarlett Thomas's autumn playlist:

Schubert - Sonata in C minor D.958, 4th movement: Allegro

Tom Waits - Tango Till They're Sore (from the album 'Rain Dogs')

Verdi - Aria 'Parigi, o cara' (from La Traviata)

Sharron Kraus - All Hallows (from the album 'Right Wantonly A?-?Mumming')

Beethoven - Symphony No.7 in A major, Op.92, 2nd movement: Allegretto

Bob Dylan - Blue Moon (from the album 'Self Portrait')

Keith Jarrett Trio - Autumn Leaves (live recording from the album 'Up For It')

Sarah Connolly and the Aldridge sisters

Petroc Trelawny previews the new WNO production of Schoenberg's opera Moses und Aron.

The writer, musician and composer Richard Thomas, and contemporary BAFTA and multi award-winning artist, photographer and filmmaker Alison Jackson, join Sara to discuss their new collaboration at the Birmingham Rep - The Covid Variations: A Piano Drama - which takes the form of a unique film-and-concert-in-one depicting everyone from Donald Trump to the Royal Family, and provides an imaginary glimpse into the lived experience of celebrities during the pandemic.

As Mali's military leaders expel the French ambassador for comments made by the French foreign minister about the transitional government, ethnomusicologist Lucy Duran and the BBC's reporter Lalla Sy explain more about the fragile situation inside the former French colony following the imposition of sanctions by the Economic Community of West African States. We hear, too, from Malian musicians including the singer and guitarist Vieux Farka Tour退, the balafon virtuoso Fod退 Lassana Diabat退, and kora player Ballak退 Sissoko, as they describe how years of civil war, military coups, and insurgencies by Islamist militants are collectively impacting music making in the country.

And, as we celebrate the centenary of the publishing of James Joyce's modernist masterpiece, Ulysses, scholar Katherine O'Callaghan explains the musical references which litter the work and how music informs Joyce's language, while the composer Betsy Jolas remembers accompanying James Joyce at the piano as he sang.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch finds out about The Covid Variations: A Piano Drama at Birmingham Rep.

The American composer, John Corigliano, speaks to Tom about writing music which chronicled the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, and looks forward to his new opera, The Lord of Cries.

Ahead of a year-long festival at Kings Place, London, the journalist, broadcaster and author Kevin Le Gendre, and the historian and writer Leanne Langley share their perspectives on the way migration has shaped music making in the capital city.

And the soprano Anna Prohaska tells Tom how, as well as making space for four recording projects during lockdown, she's found room to concentrate on projects she might not otherwise have had time for.

Tom talks to the conductor Martyn Brabbins as he starts his first season as English National Opera's Music Director. Alongside opera he has one of the broadest repertoires of any conductor working today - from world premieres by contemporary composers to neglected concertos and the great orchestral masterpieces. He talks about the challenges at the helm of the company, learning to conduct in the Soviet Union and why the older he gets the more emotional he finds conducting.

In 1977, Women's Revolutions Per Minute was set up - a unique collection of recordings of music performed and composed by women that wasn't available anywhere else, from folk and rock to classical composers like Elizabeth Maconchy and Alma Mahler. It began as a mail-order business run from a bedroom but is now held at Goldsmith's University in London. Tom visits the collection and speaks to activist and folk-singer Peggy Seeger, whose music was distributed by the WRPM in its early days.

Plus, in the wake of the elections in Austria, Tom speaks to journalist and music critic Gert Korentschnig about what the expected coalition government might mean for Austrian musical culture.

Tom Service talks to composer Howard Skempton and the new conductor of ENO Martyn Brabbins

As the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, hcmf//, celebrates its 40th edition, Sara takes a snapshot of musical life in the West Yorkshire town.

Sara meets one of the festival's featured composers, the Canadian-based Linda Catlin Smith, who since listening to records in her childhood has been inspired by the emotional depth of slow music. She also takes stock of the current debate around gender, ethnic and social diversity in new music, with delegates visiting hcmf// and its artistic director, Graham McKenzie, and finds out about the Yorkshire Sound Women Network set up by Liz Dobson at Huddersfield University.

To place the festival in context and explore some of the wider music-making in the Huddersfield area, Sara travels a couple of miles out of town, to the Colne Valley home of local folk duo O'Hooley and Tidow. She also visits Hoot Creative Arts, a local music and health charity whose projects have included making new music for string quartet with dementia sufferers and their carers, and hears what Kirklees Council is doing to boost creativity and local engagement with music.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch explores music-making in the West Yorkshire town of Huddersfield.

Tom explores areas from the legacy of Liszt, Bartok and Kodaly, to state education and the all-pervading influence of Hungarian folk music.

Tom Service discovers how musical life in Hungary has changed since the fall of communism.

As the BBC Symphony Orchestra marks the 80th birthday of the American composer Philip Glass with an Immersion Day at the Barbican in London, Music Matters brings together two of Glass' working companions to reveal life on the inside of his legendary New York studio - Michael Riesman, director of the Philip Glass Ensemble, and the composer Nico Muhly, who spent 9 years working as Glass' copyist on his film and stage works.

The Britten-Pears foundation is opening a new exhibition in Aldeburgh, Queer Talk: Homosexuality In Britten's Britain, which reflects on the life and works of Benjamin Britten during the period of social change that led to the 1967 sexual offences act, which decriminalised homosexual acts in private for men over 21. Sara talks to the exhibition's curator Lucy Walker, and explores the impact of that landmark legislation on classical, pop and jazz with the pianist Rolf Hind, music writer Martin Aston and guitarist Deirdre Cartwright.

And an interview with the 26-year old conductor Alpesh Chauhan, who makes his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra this month. A series of short notice call-ups from orchestras including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic have added to Chauhan's growing reputation as one of classical music's rising stars. He tells Sara about his approach to working with major orchestras, and how he believes music can reach new audiences.

Including the music of Philip Glass and 50 years since the 1967 Sexual Offences Act.

He visits Cambridge, ahead of a week of choral concerts marking the university's 800th anniversary, to explore the past, present and future place of singing in the city. He also discusses the role of music in cancer care with Don Campbell of Mozart Effect fame.

Tom Service talks to pianist Imogen Cooper and explores Cambridge's choral traditions.

Alex Ross on his book Wagnerism, and tenor Allan Clayton on the effects of Covid-19.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies lived and worked at the heart of his own community on the island of Sanday. To mark his posthumous 85th birthday, Schott Music are publishing 'An Orkney Sketchbook', a collection of four short piano pieces recently discovered on the top of the composer's piano by the conductor Christopher Austin. Huw Watkins has recorded the pieces for broadcast exclusively on Music Matters and Essential Classics (hear them in full on Monday 16th September).

Tom also talks to the American cellist Alisa Weilerstein as she prepares for a run of concerts in the UK, including a performance of Bach's solo cello suites at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and concerts with the Trondheim Soloists and pianist Inon Barnatan in London. From solo performances to chamber music, Weilerstein's vision is to foster deep relationships with performers and audiences.

And Music Matters has an exclusive view inside Fairfield Halls in Croydon, which re-opens this month after a major three-year refurbishment. With the project's lead architect Magnus Wills, acoustician Anthony Chilton, artistic director Neil Chandler and conductor Jane Glover.

New works by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

Kate Molleson presents a live edition for International Women's Day.

Producer: Helen Garrison

Tom Service talks to conductor Stephane Deneve. Also viola da gamba player Hille Perl.

With a population of just 350,000 Iceland still boasts multi-million-selling pop acts like Sigur Ros and Bjork, a world class orchestra, Oscar-winning composers, countless music festivals as well as a vibrant and world renowned contemporary music scene.

And all these different genres seem to intertwine with each other effortlessly - so Tom is in Reykjavik to discover what the country's musical secret is.

He drops into the Dark Music Days festival, an annual festival of new music which takes place in the darkest period of winter, to ask composers and musicians why their new music scene is the envy of the world.

One of their most successful artists is the award winning multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Olafur Arnalds. Olafur blends classical, pop and electonica and the result is sell-out tours - Tom meets him at his Reykjavik studio to find out how he defines his music and why he sees the heart of Iceland's music not in its nature, but in its people.

Aside from the country's professional scene, amateur music making is also thriving - particularly in choirs. Tom meets the Karlak　rinn Esja a young, local male-voice choir who meet every Wednesday night to sing together - they tell Tom why being in a choir is something Icelanders need to do. And he learns about the folk history behind Icelanders' love of singing from the ancient Rimur.

And composers and experts talk about the importance of landscape in Icelandic music - from the early 20th-century composer Jon Leifs to Anna Thorvaldsdottir, one of the country's acclaimed young composers. Is Icelandic music really all about nature or is it all just a marketing scam?

Tom Service visits Reykjavik to ask whether Iceland is the world's most musical country.

Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and composer and conductor Thomas Ad耀s explore the musical universe of the Violin Concerto; pianist Tamara Stefanovich describes meeting the composer and the intensity and fragility required to perform his music; Tom joins composer Anna Meredith in her studio to listen to one of his last works, the Hamburg Concerto; and Gy怀rgy Ligeti's son, the composer and instrumentalist Lukas Ligeti reveals the passion he shared with his father for creating imaginary worlds, both musical and non-musical.

Tom also talks to conductor Ivကn Fischer - the founder of the acclaimed Budapest Festival Orchestra - ahead of his appearances at the BBC Proms and at Edinburgh International Festival this summer. They discuss the difficulties of changing how symphony orchestras work, how his orchestra's mission to bring music to the communities of Budapest translates when they're on tour, and why mistakes are a very good thing.

Plus musicians and noise. With recent stories about noise complaints against both musicians rehearsing at home and long-established music venues, we talk to Clara Cullen from the Music Venues Trust, Stuart Darke from the Independent Society of Musicians and Lisa Lavia from the Noise Abatement Society about the law, the psychology and how to balance the needs of musicians with the rights of communities for peace and quiet.

Tom Service talks to conductor Iv\u00e1n Fischer plus the centenary of Gy\u00f6rgy Ligeti.

Kate Molleson talks to Scottish writer and poet Jackie Kay about the extraordinary life of the pioneering blues singer Bessie Smith, and asks what Bessie's blues can tell us a century on.

Kate also hears from American composer Meredith Monk about the recurring nature of the big themes of her work, from plagues to dictatorships, and we hear about the piece she's currently working on, Indra's Net - 10 years in the making and a work dedicated to humanity's relationship with nature.

Plus, as part of the BBC's 'Soundscapes for Wellbeing' project, we look at how natural and musical soundscapes can affect mental health, including a groundbreaking study by the University of Exeter called 'The Virtual Nature Experiment', which explores how digital experiences of nature might impact wellbeing. Kate is joined by Alex Smalley from the University of Exeter, the sound recordist Chris Watson, and composer Nainita Desai.

Kate Molleson talks to Meredith Monk, plus Jackie Kay on blues pioneer Bessie Smith.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch interviews pianist James Rhodes. And Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses.

Since the major explosion in the Port of Beirut in 2020, Lebanon has been in crisis with economic collapse, severe poverty, fuel shortages and political instability. But musicians are continuing to make their voices heard there, including the players of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra and their conductor Lubnan Baalbaki, despite a significant number of the orchestra's players having to leave the country. Tom talks to the BBC Middle East correspondent in Beirut Lina Sinjab and conductor Lubnan Baalbaki about the fight to save the cultural life of Lebanon.

Tom is also joined by Morag Grant whose new book ‘Auld Lang Syne: A Song and its Culture' traces the emergence of the song made famous by Robert Burns, and explores the traditions and rituals that emerged around its use as a song of parting, and as a song of New Year. Plus, we explore the sounds of Christmas and how they affect us with the BBC Big Band's Barry Forgie, music psychologist Alex Lamont and record producer Chris Alder.

Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and composer Jake Heggie in conversation.

As artificial intelligence hits the news this week with stories like the AI-crafted image that won the Sony World Photography Award, and the withdrawal by streaming platforms of an AI-generated song - purportedly by the artist Drake - due to possible infringement, Tom is joined by composers Robert Laidlow and Emily Howard, as well as music technology lecturer and journalist Karl Hodge, to explore both the creative possibilities and the challenges surrounding this evolving technology.

The singer and marketeer Ruth Hartt shares her perspectives on the shifting trends of concert hall audiences in America, and what organisations around the world can do to make their work more relevant to society - which she sees as crucial for the future of Classical Music - as well as to appeal to broader demographics.

And Music Matters speaks to the National Open Youth Orchestra's Doug Bott, plus two musicians from the ensemble - Oliver Cross and Holli Pandit - about their ethos and objectives, as well as a new report, launched in connection with Sound Connections, about the learnings from NOYO's pioneering approach to working with young disabled people.

Pianist Javier Perianes, the challenges and advantages of AI, and the NOYO ensemble.

Tom talks to pianist Alice Sara Ott and composer Bryce Dessner about a new piano concerto he's written for her, which receives its UK premiere in February. Inspired by Alice's playing, the piece is also dedicated to Bryce's sister Jessica, a dancer and choreographer who has shaped his musical life. Alice talks about her love of Bryce's music and the challenges of getting inside a new piece. Bryce discusses his approach to the concerto, the power of acoustic music and how his work as a composer for the concert hall relates to his life as guitarist and writer in the band The National.

Tom Service in conversation with Alice Sara Ott, Bryce Dessner and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Tom Service talks to pianist Alice Sara Ott and composer Bryce Dessner about a new piano concerto he's written for her, plus Jean-Yves Thibaudet on Debussy Préludes.

Tom Service with the latest news from the classical music world.

Image (c) Gisela Schenker.

Tom Service interviews Jennifer Johnston. Also, the American JACK Quartet.

Sara talks to Grammy-nominated composer Missy Mazzoli ahead of the day-long immersion into her work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Together they explore what it means for Missy Mazzoli to be a composer today and the stories that she likes to tell through her work.

Writer Gillian Dooley discusses her new discoveries when researching her new book, “She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and music ?. She tells Sara more about the role music held in Jane Austen's life and highlights the importance of it on the characters in her novels. With the help of film critic, Lillian Crawford, we are also taken on a journey through the pastiche film scores that have accompanied adaptations of Austen's novels over the last 30 years.

Plus Donne foundation founder Gabriella di Laccio talks to Sara ahead of her record-breaking acoustic concert, 24 hours of continuous music by female and non-binary composers.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch with pianist Jeremy Denk, composer Missy Mazzoli, author Gillian Dooley.

The stories that matter, the people that matter, the music that matters

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to pianist Jeremy Denk, composer Missy Mazzoli discusses the dramatic range of her work, and Gillian Dooley's new discoveries on the music of Jane Austen.

Tom Service discusses the unique sound of the Czech Philharmonic and a new book on Bartok.

Tom Service interviews composer and conductor John Adams. Plus Brexit and the arts.

Sir Nicholas Kenyon, who was at the premiere of Adams' new piece in San Francisco, reviews the opera for us.

And J.S. Bach's mysteriously unfinished ‘Little Organ Book' is finally completed with the composition of 118 new pieces by contemporary composers - we visit a church in Chelsea to hear from one of the contributors, Roxanna Panufnik, as well as from organist William Whitehead, who conceived the project and who leads its premiere in London later this month.

Tom Service talks to American composer John Adams about his new opera Antony and Cleopatra

Today Sara delves into a new book of the letters of John Cage, one of the most original composers and thinkers of the 20th Century, with the help of its editor Laura Kuhn and composers Pauline Oliveros and Peter Dickinson. She visits a house in north London inspired by the piano music of Erik Satie and previews a rare new production of Karl Amadeus Hartmann's opera Simplicius Simplicissimus presented by Independent Opera at Sadler's Wells.

Letters by John Cage, a house inspired by Satie, and Hartmann's 1930s protest opera.

Tom Service talks to Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Brian Moynahan, author of a new book on Shostakovich's Seventh 'Leningrad' Symphony composed as his native city was under siege in the winter of 1941-2, talks to Petroc about the enormous impact of the piece, and how it provided a 'moral redemption' for Stalin and the Soviet regime.

Plus - the role of music broadcast on the radio during times of conflict. Morag Grant, editor of a new book on the subject and Professor Erik Levi, an authority on the German music of the 20th century, especially during the Nazi era, discuss.

Petroc Trelawny meets acclaimed pianist John Lill as he approaches his 70th birthday.

Tom Service talks to John McCabe, Mariusz Kwiecien and Christoph von Dohnanyi.

Plus the latest research on the politcal life of Leonard Bernstein against the backdrop of the Cold War, and baritone Thomas Hampson discussing his Song of America project.

Tom Service talks to tenor John Potter about his book on the history of the tenor voice.

Tom Service visits the composer at his home in rural Cambridgeshire to try to learn the secret of writing a great carol, and to chat about an illustrious career that has also included major choral works such as his Requiem and Gloria, and the large-scale Mass of the Children, written in 2003 following the sudden death of Rutter's son Christopher at the age of 19. We also drop in on a rehearsal with the Bach Choir in London, as John prepares them for last year's gala Christmas Celebration concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

First broadcast in December 2022

Tom Service in conversation with composer John Rutter.

Tom Service talks to John Rutter, beloved composer of Christmas carols and many other choral works.

Beloved by choirs and audiences all over the world, John Rutter is one of the most popular and successful choral composers of the last half-century. In particular, for many people Rutter's carols and carol arrangements are the sound of Christmas. The festive season would be unthinkable today without the joyful tunes of Shepherd's Pipe Carol or Star Carol resounding in school halls, churches and concert halls.

Tom Service visits the composer at his home in rural Cambridgeshire to try to learn the secret of writing a great carol, and to chat about an illustrious career that has also included major choral works such as his Requiem and Gloria, and the large-scale Mass of the Children, written in 2003 following the sudden death of Rutter's son Christopher at the age of 19. We also drop in on a rehearsal with the Bach Choir in London, as John prepares them for his gala Christmas Celebration concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Produced by Graham Rogers.

Also, an interview with Hungarian conductor Ivan Fischer as he returns to the UK with his Budapest Festival Orchestra in an all-Stravinsky programme, and a tribute to American composer George Crumb who died this week - Tom talks to David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet and Rakhi Singh of Manchester Collective about performing Crumb's seminal work Black Angels.

Plus, music inspired by trees - from Estonian folk musician Mari Kalkun, a Scottish highlands project from sound artist Phoebe Riley Law, and Treephonia, a collaboration between composers at the Royal College of Music and Kensington Gardens in London.

Tom Service celebrates John Williams's 90th birthday. Plus an interview with Ivan Fischer.

Tom Service talks to guitarist John Williams and reviews a memoir of Sviatoslav Richter.

Tom Service presents an extended interview with tenor Jonas Kaufmann.

Tom Service meets young conductor Jonathan Nott. Plus the lasting interest in Schumann.

We hear from the music director, conductor, and academic Sean Mayes, and the musical theatre researcher, practitioner and academic Sarah K. Whitfield about their recently published book 'An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre'.

Michael McCarthy, artistic director of Music Theatre Wales, tells us about the company's New Directions initiative - a project aimed at creating more open and diverse opera by working with artists and designers who have not yet worked in the art form. Two of the composers working on new pieces, Tumi Williams and Jasmin Kent Rodgman, explain what they would like to achieve and why is it crucial for opera that this schemes exist.

And we explore the plight of the many musicians challenged by hearing loss who want to make a life as professional performers and composers, with contributions from Danny Lane, the artistic director of the charity Music and the Deaf, who describes his own experience and the work he's involved in helping young people and adults access and enjoy music. Ahead of the launch of her first classical music album with the London Symphony Orchestra, Tom also talks to the composer Cevanne Horrocks Hopayian about her work writing music-films, and her involvement with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Resound.

Conductor Jose Serebrier and book An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre

This week, Tom talks to the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato about her life in music, and her creative mission to challenge the status quo. From her work in refugee camps, to her long relationship with the maximum security prison SingSing in New York State, as well as in concert halls and opera stages, DiDonato confounds expectations of an international classical artist. She talks about the joy of engaging differently with young audiences, and of recording and touring projects like Eden, which makes real connections with the natural world and includes the publishing of new music for anyone to sing.

Conductor Edward Gardner and artist Ben Cullen Wiliams talk about their reimagining of Szymanowski's ballet Harnasie: a story of love, bandits, and how the robbers of the Tatra mountains in Poland win out over the civilisation below. Also featuring filmed choreography by Wayne MacGregor, the production has received its premiere in Katowice and comes to London this month, and uses human and digital intelligence to form a kinetic, sculptural video installation opening a portal to new worlds of dance.

And Caroline Potter reveals the mission behind her new book, 'Pierre Boulez: Organised Delirium', which aims to change perceptions about the French composer. A leading figure of the musical avant-garde in the mid-20th century, Boulez is known for the mathematical and structural elements of his music, but Caroline Potter places just as much importance on the influences in his early career from the worlds of literature, magic, surrealism and the music of other cultures.

Tom Service talks to the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato.

The stories that matter, the people that matter, the music that matters

Tom Service talks to the American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, plus Caroline Potter on the organised delirium of Pierre Boulez and a reimagining of Szymanowski's ballet Harnasie.

~Music Matters marks the start of Radio 3's British Music Month by taking a look at what makes a piece of music Scottish: how have the musical symbols that express Scottishness changed, and what might the movement towards Scottish independence mean for how the nation's music sounds? Composers Sally Beamish and John Purser discuss.

Sir Mark Elder and musicians from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment explain how playing for the Glyndebourne production of Verdi's Falstaff, performed on instruments of Verdi's time, brings new life and meaning to the much-loved piece.

Plus, conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier pays tribute to the man he believed to be France's greatest living musician, the composer Henri Dutilleux who died last week at the age of 97.

With mezzo Joyce DiDonato, defining Scottish music and staging Falstaff at Glyndebourne.

Suzy Klein meets tenor Juan Diego Florez and Nigel Simeone reviews Dinner with Lenny.

Image (c)ROH, Johan Persson 2010.

An interview with composer Julian Anderson; reflections on choreographer Kenneth MacMillan

Celebrating her 70th birthday this year, Kaija describes music as a study of self and the human spirit. Kate meets her at home in Paris where she reflects on her life in music, describing the the conviction with which she pursued compositional classes with Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy, and the distinctive musical style she developed as a result. Kate hears how Saariaho found herself in the musical milieu of Paris and the draw of the city's research institute for music and sound, IRCAM, where she cemented her place on the world stage with a dazzling work for small chamber orchestra and electronics inspired by the aurora borealis, Lichtbogen (1986). She tells Kate too about the challenges of writing her opera Innocence, whose subject matter deals with the legacy of trauma surrounding a shooting in a Finnish International School, and the inevitability of embodying the emotional pain of the story's characters during the composition process.

And as 2023 commences, Kate is joined by the Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, Kathryn McDowell, and the music journalist and author, Norman Lebrecht, to discuss the major challenges and opportunities awaiting the musical world in the year ahead.

Kate Molleson in conversation with Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

Celebrating her 70th birthday this year, Kaija describes music as a study of self and the human spirit. Kate meets her at home in Paris where she reflects on her life in music, describing the conviction with which she pursued compositional classes with Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy, and the distinctive musical style she developed as a result. Kate hears how Saariaho found herself in the musical milieu of Paris and the draw of the city's research institute for music and sound, IRCAM, where she cemented her place on the world stage with a dazzling work for small chamber orchestra and electronics inspired by the aurora borealis, Lichtbogen (1986). She tells Kate too about the challenges of writing her opera, Innocence. The subject matter deals with the legacy of trauma surrounding a shooting in a Finnish international school, and the inevitability of embodying the emotional pain of the story's characters during the composition process.

Kate Molleson in conversation with Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.

Tom drops in on rehearsals at Song in Sign, the latest project from FormidAbility, the opera company founded to put accessibility at the centre of creativity. Tom talks to director, Caroline Parker and to founder and soprano, Joanne Roughton-Arnold ahead of the company's forthcoming tour.

Musicians, Mary Dullea and Darragh Morgan and composer, Matthew Shlomowitz join Tom in studio to pay tribute to composer, John White who died earlier this month.

And finally, Tom talks to double-bassist, Edgar Meyer as he prepares for his visit to Glasgow to perform his Concertino with the Scottish Ensemble at this year's Celtic Connections. He talks to Tom about his collaborations, his sound and how he is influencing the next generation.

Tom Service with the latest news from the classical music world.

Tom Service is in conversation with the Finnish soprano, Karita Mattila, and he catches up with double-bassist and composer, Edgar Meyer.

Before the release of their award-winning Gershwin disc in 1980, Katia and Marielle Labeque predominantly performed contemporary music, and encountered the composer Olivier Messiaen, who overheard them practising his Vision de l'Amen while they were still students at the Paris Conservatoire. They've since worked with Boulez and Berio, and it was on tour in Los Angeles, performing Berio's Concerto for Two Pianos, that they happened across Gershwin for the first time. As students at the Paris Conservatoire, they had to fight to be accepted into the chamber music class, and they tell Tom about perceptions of piano duos and the mission to constantly seek new repertoire.

The sisters' continual curiosity and creativity has led them on a journey, as Marielle describes it, where one chance encounter leads to another. They have commissioned new works from musicians of backgrounds from rock to classical, from Bryce Dessner to Nico Muhly, and they have worked alongside Giovanni Antonini who helped them to acquire two reproductions of Bach's Silbermann keyboards, which they keep in their Palazzo in Venice.

The sisters speak to Tom at length about all their musical projects, delve into what keeps them going, and discuss how their distinct two-piano sound really works.

Tom Service in conversation with Katia and Marielle Lab\u00e8que.

The American guitarist Pat Metheny shares his thoughts about collaborating with artists like the vibraphone-player Gary Burton and composer Steve Reich, his first records in the 1970s, and his most recent album - Side-Eye NYC project - which he tours to the UK in June. He tells Tom about the creative search for new sounds which has permeated the course of his career.

~Music Matters talks to the creative team behind a new chamber opera, The Paradis Files, based on the life of the Austrian musician and composer who lost her sight as a child - Maria Theresia von Paradis. With contributions from the composer Errollyn Wallen, director Jenny Sealey, and librettists Selena Milla and Nicola Werenowska, we hear about their collective instinct to tell the remarkable story of Theresia's life, and how the life of this 18th Century figure has lessons for the 21st century.

The BBC's Secunder Kermani reports on the recent edicts stopping education for school-aged girls in Afghanistan, and describes the impact on the country's musicians caused by the hardening attitude of the Taliban's Ministry of Vice and Virtue towards live and recorded music.

And we speak to Sinfonia Cymru's Chief Executive Peter Bellingham, the Chief Executive of St George's Bristol Samir Savant, and the Associate Music Director of the Paraorchestra, Lloyd Coleman, about how the cost of living crisis is affecting the musicians, venues and institutions at the heart of the UK's musical culture.

Image: Marco Borggreve (c)

New opera The Paradis Files.

In response to the government's levelling up agenda, Tom also talks to Professor Katy Shaw about her own report `The Case for Culture` - the role that culture can be playing. Plus, Tom hears from Angie Burnett of Grimsby Central Hall and Scott O'Hara, director of the Seed organisation in Somerset about their own experiences when it comes to funding and government support.

Author and violinist, Brendan Slocumb, also joins Tom from Washington DC to discuss the success and subject of his debut novel, The Violin Conspiracy, a thriller that draws heavily on Brendan's own experiences of racial discrimination.

This weekend marks the culmination of Radio 3's After Dark Festival broadcasts, with a unique 5 hour edition of Night Tracks that was recorded live last weekend from Sage Gateshead. Tom talks to presenter Hannah Peel about her own dream-like experience there and also hears from DJ and sound artist, Jason Singh and explores his concept of music-making for different times of the day.

Producer: Calantha Bonnissent

Photo: Klaus M䀀kel䀀 (c) Marco Borggreve

Tom Service talks to author Brendan Slocumb and Finnish conductor Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4.

The superstar American violinist Randall Goosby joins Sara from his home in Virginia Beach. Despite still being in his 20s, Goosby has become one of the world's most in demand violinists, acclaimed for the sensitivity of his playing and commitment to make music more inclusive. He talks to Sara about why playing golf helps him as a musician, how some of the great vocalists have improved his playing, why we need to bring the fun back into classical music, and how chicken nuggets brought him together with his teacher Itzhak Perlman.

Sara visits the Science Museum in London where a new exhibition exploring how music shapes our lives - Turn it up: The Power Of Music - is set to open its doors to the public next week. She's shown around by curator Steven Leech, who introduces Sara to the central ideas behind the exhibition, and is joined by fellow Radio 3 presenter and bassoonist, Linton Stephens, to hear what insights it might hold for a professional musician.

Linton discusses, too, 31 sketches of Black and ethnically diverse composers he's drawn and published, on both Instagram and ‘X', as part of his #Blacktober series to mark and celebrate their artistry and contribution during Black History Month.

And the novelist Michel Faber joins Sara to speak about his book 'Listen: On Music, Sound and Us' - a dive into how people consume music, and a meditation on how it's affected his life.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to pianist Krystian Zimerman and violinist Randall Goosby.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to two musicians at opposite ends of their careers: one of the world's great pianists, Krystian Zimerman, and the young superstar violinist Randall Goosby.

Linton discusses, too, 31 sketches of Black and ethnically diverse composers he's drawn and published, on both Instagram and ‘X', as part of his #Blacktober series to mark and celebrate their artistry and contribution during Black History Month.

Photo credit: Ben Ealovega

And at Leith Hill Place, Vaughan Williams' childhood home in the Surrey hills, the historian and music writer Andrew Green suggests a fresh way of listening to the composer's pastoral music, placing it in the context of the great agricultural depression from the 1870s to 90s.

Kate drops in on rehearsals for Rambert's new production, the first full-length ballet set to music by Lutos?awski. Based on a drama by the Spanish playwright Calderon, in which a prince is locked inside a tower, Life Is a Dream is an exploration of silence and the private spaces where creative imaginations fly. Kate meets the choreographer Kim Brandstrup, conductor Paul Hoskins, dancers Stephen Quildan and Simone Damberg Würtz, and sound designer Ian Dearden.

Plus the composer and audio pioneer Matthew Herbert's new album, which is actually a book, The Music: A novel in sound. Kate asks Matthew about this ambitious project to open our ears to a universe of sound, and we hear passages from the book read by Skye Hallam.

Broadside ballads in Manchester.

We eavesdrop on rehearsals for a new production of Shakespeare's King Lear at The Grange Festival, set to music by the composer Nigel Osborne and directed by Keith Warner, which features singers in speaking roles - among them John Tomlinson as Lear and Susan Bullock as his daughter Goneril from whom we hear about the challenges and joys of this new project.

We've a tribute, too, to pioneer Dutch composer Louis Andriessen who passed away last week - with contributions from composers Richard Ayres and Missy Mazzoli, as well as soprano Nora Fischer for whom he wrote one of his last works.

Lars Vogt on fighting cancer. Grange Festival's King Lear. Tribute to Louis Andriessen.

Tom talks to the French conductor Laurence Equilbey about her work with Insula Orchestra, a period instrument ensemble at the centre of a recent project, La Seine Musicale, involving the local community in south-west Paris. Also, Caroline Potter, biographer of Lili Boulanger, on the life and legacy of the French composer, in the first centenary of her death. With contributions by the conductors Yan Pascal Tortelier and James Gaffigan too. Tom discusses the new book 'What Opera Means', a selection of essays exploring the psychoanalytic thrust behind words and actions, with author Christopher Wintle as well as opera experts Barbara Eichner and Claire Seymour. And after Stephen Hawking's passing this week we look into the Music Matters archive in search of an interview he gave Tom in 2006 revealing his favourite compositions, and also comparing the nature of Music with the world of Physics.

Tom Service talks to Laurence Equilbey, plus Lili Boulanger 100 years after her death.

Produced by Richard Denison.

Tom Service meets American composer and multi-media artist Laurie Anderson.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the late American composer Pauline Oliveros' Sonic Meditations - a series of text-based scores that instruct groups of people to practice ‘sounding' and listening together - Music Matters speaks to the improviser and saxophonist, Artur Vidal, and sound artist and researcher, Ximena Alarc　n ahead of a weekend of performances at Caf退 Oto in London. They describe how Oliveros' works broke with the conventions that separate composer, performer, and audience, and discuss how her Sonic Meditations became the blueprint for the composer's hugely influential Deep Listening school.

As China eases its Covid restrictions, Sara speaks to the Shanghai-based journalist Rudolph Tang to learn how the country's classical music sector is returning to business after the pandemic.

And, during rehearsals for Richard Jones' new production of Rheingold at English National Opera, Sara joins the musicologist John Deathridge backstage to hear more about his new translation of the first instalment of Wagner's Ring Cycle. She asks the musicologist Barbara Eichner about the nuances of creating a convincing, contemporary translation of High German epic poetry, and is joined by ENO's Head of Music, Martin Fitzpatrick, and music critic at the New York Times, Zachary Woolf, to discuss whether the enterprise of translating foreign language operas into an audience's vernacular remains relevant.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to French-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre.

In the light of recent revelations about sexual harassment in classical music, covered previously on Music Matters, Sara takes a look at the culture of leadership in orchestras. The dynamic between conductor and players is often used as a model in leadership training, in business as well as in the arts, but to what extent is the powerful position a conductor holds open to abuse? With the leadership consultant Averil Leimon, director of the Clore Leadership Programme, Hilary Carty, OAE violist Nicholas Logie, conductor Peter Stark and author Claire Dederer.

Sara talks to the French cellist Gautier Capucon about the changing personality of his 1701 Gofriller cello, and the holistic teaching programme for aspiring cellists he runs at the Frank Gehry designed Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

As two productions of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Iolanthe open in London this month, singers from English National Opera and the G&S Society of King's College London share their love for the music, and argue that this satire, which pits the House of Lords against the world of the Fairies, still speaks to us today.

And Dr Vicky Williamson from Sheffield University, with news of the online survey she's co-designed with researchers in Lucerne, exploring the influence of music criticism on today's classical music listeners.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch looks at the culture of leadership in classical music.

A new film 'A Late Quartet' by Israeli director Yaron Zilberman explores the personal drama behind a fictional string quartet. The film stars Christopher Walken and Philip Seymour Hoffman - but how accurate a portrait is it of life in a quartet? Tom is joined by some real life players who give their verdict.

Performance anxiety is widespread across the spectrum of the music-making world, and in some cases can be career-ending. Tom meets Charlotte Tomlinson, the author of a new book on approaches to performance anxiety, and visits the Royal College of Music in London to see how technology has been used to tackle the problem.

Plus - controversial choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan tells Tom about his new production of Stravinsky's Petrushka, which is set to appear in a double bill alongside The Rite of Spring - which is 100 years old this year.

Tom Service talks to pianist Leif Ove Andsnes about his Beethoven journey.

Ahead of this weekend's Tectonic's festival in Glasgow, Kate Molleson meets the pioneering electronic music composer at the centre of this year's programme, Janet Beat, and learns how the studios she inaugurated at universities in Birmingham and Glasgow - from the late 1950s - blazed trails for future generations.

Following a performance of Matthias Pintscher's La Linea Evocativa at Wigmore Hall earlier this week, presenter Tom Service speaks to the American-Canadian violinist Leila Josefowicz about her life making music on the concert stage, her role championing contemporary repertoire for the instrument, and the inspiration she finds in Bach's mighty Chaconne.

The composer Hannah Peel and conductor Charles Hazlewood join Tom to discuss their new album, The Unfolding. Written during lockdown especially for the Paraorchestra, the album has shot to number one in the classical music charts, and we hear from the musicians in the ensemble, Hattie McCall-Davies and Lloyd Coleman, as they tour with live performances of the project this spring.

And, the composer Michael Zev Gordon tells Tom about his new chamber opera, Raising Icarus, which explores the harm parental expectations and aspirations can have on their children. It's staged by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group this week.

Violinist Leila Josefowicz talks about Bach and a new work by Matthias Pintscher.

Also this week, Tom looks into the issues affecting young people transitioning from studying music at 16-19 to Higher Education, following a recent report by Adam Whittaker from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire showing declining numbers at A-level. Tom discusses with Adam, and with Bridget Whyte of Music Mark, and we hear how two universities are responding: Royal Holloway, University of London, and Keele University in Staffordshire.

Tom catches up with the contralto turned conductor Nathalie Stutzmann following her appointment as the next music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, hearing about her bold plans for the orchestra's repertoire and for its engagement with the city's many and varied communities.

And Daniel Grimley talks about his book, Sibelius: Life, Music, Silence, a new biography which explores the Finnish composer's relationship with nature, politics and culture. Sakari Oramo, the Finnish chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, reflects on his own experiences with the complex life and music of Sibelius.

Bernard Haitink, higher education in music, Nathalie Stutzmann and Sibelius.

Tom also catches-up with the 21 year-old conductor Stephanie Childress, recently appointed Assistant Conductor of the St Louis Symphony Orchestra, and hears her thoughts about why conducting matters in the world right now.

Professor of Musicology at Oxford University, Jonathan Cross; the Founder and CEO of Grange Park Opera, Wasfi Kani; and The Royal Opera's Director of Opera, Oliver Mears join Tom to discuss whether opera is doing enough to reflect diversity of voice, repertoires, and composers.

And, Tom speaks to the Scottish-born composer Thea Musgrave at her home in Los Angeles about compositional decisions in a time of pandemic, and Light at the end of the tunnel.

With thanks to New York based Utopia Opera for their kind permission to feature music from their 2018 production of Thea Musgrave's 'The Story of Harriet Tubman', with MaKayla M. McDonald singing the title role. The production celebrated Thea's 90th birthday with the orchestra of Utopia Opera conducted by William Remmers. Julian Grant was the orchestrator.

Tom Service talks to actor and singer Lin-Manuel Miranda and soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn.

As Celtic Connections celebrates its 30th anniversary in Glasgow, Tom is joined by musician, producer, and festival director Donald Shaw; Chief Executive of F耀is Rois, Fiona Dalgety; singer-songwriter, Karine Polwart; and the piper, fiddler, composer and instrument-maker, Malin Lewis, to discuss the festival's impact in the Celtic musical world and beyond.

~Music Matters talks to the American harpsichordist and author Leslie Kwan about her new book for toddlers, A is for Aretha, which features 26 portraits of inspirational black women in music.

And, Tom visits violinist Daniel Pioro and organist James McVinnie as they prepare for a deep-dive into the soundworld of the 17th century Austrian composer, Heinrich Biber, and his virtuosic Rosary sonatas. He hears about the series of performances and talks, Daniel and James have curated, which stretch from sunrise to sunset this weekend at the Southbank Centre in London.

Tom Service with the latest news and features from the music world.

What effect has the huge increase in online reviewing had on music criticism generally? Is there still a place for the newspaper music critic? How do reviews affect the decisions of promoters and agents? And how do performers cope with bad reviews? Debating this with Tom are the pianist Peter Donohoe, Hugh Canning, Chief Classical Music Critic of the Sunday Times, the Artistic Director of Welsh National Opera David Pountney, and the Glasgow-based music critic Kate Molleson who writes for the Guardian, the Herald and the Big Issue.

We'll also hear from the artists' agent Andrew Rosner, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the online reviewer and blogger Tim Rutherford-Johnson.

Let us know your thoughts and questions via Twitter - @MusicMattersR3 or Facebook

Radio 3 is broadcasting live from a pop-up studio at London's Southbank Centre all day every day for the last two weeks of March. If you're in the area, visit the Radio 3 studio and performance space in the Royal Festival Hall Riverside Caf退 to listen to Radio 3, ask questions and enjoy the special events.

Live from London's Southbank Centre, a debate about the future of musical criticism.

His guests include Chief Executive of Sound and Music - Susanna Eastburn, property developer and creator of London concert venue King's Place - Peter Millican, harpsichordist and organist - Mahan Esfahani, Chief Executive of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - Stephen Maddock and composer, DJ and founder of the alternative classical club and record label Nonclassical - Gabriel Prokofiev.

To add your voice to the debate, email your questions to music.matters@BBC.co.uk

BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival takes place at Sage Gateshead 25-27 October and is broadcast for three weeks on Radio 3 from Friday 25 October.

Tom Service asks a panel of guests 'who's really in charge of the classical music world?'.

A special edition live from Glyndebourne asking 'why does opera matter today?'.

The composer Anna Clyne also talks to Sara about her latest work, including a Handel-inspired piece to be premiered later this month by the Academy of Ancient Music and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain.

As the situation in Ukraine continues, Sara looks talks to Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, about the company's parting of ways with Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, and to conductor Thomas Sanderling about the decision to leave his post at the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, asking the question of how one effectively balances art and politics.

And the phenomenally successful Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi joins Sara from his home studio in the Italian Alps, where the pandemic allowed a break in his usual hectic schedule to reappraise his creative process.

Producer: Sam Hickling

Image: Ludovico Einaudi (c) Duet Postscriptum

Sara Mohr-Pietsch hears from members of a new production of Britten's opera Peter Grimes.

A book on the Symphony of the Thousand, and how the Enlightenment affected concert halls.

Andreas Staier has just released a new disc of J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2. Tom talks to Andreas about Bach's decision to compile a second book of Preludes and Fugues for keyboard and how the work fits in his overall output, and especially his later works.

Tom also visits director of Dash Arts, Josephine Burton, and musicians Yuriy Gurzhy & Mariana Sadovska, as they rehearse for their new work, Songs for Babyn Yar. He finds out about the horrors of Babyn Yar and talks to the musicians about how they are creating a fitting musical memorial to this dark chapter in Ukrainian Holocaust history.

We also hear from Claire Mera-Nelson, Director of Music for Arts Council England, about the findings of a new 'Creating a more Inclusive Classical Music' report, launched as part of the Fair and Inclusive Classical Music project.

Tom Service visits the new home of the Manchester Camerata in the Monastery in Gorton.

Among the low buildings, olive groves and orange trees of the arts complex, education centre and home which Pires created in 1999, she talks about her lifelong journey with the piano the age of 3; sharing her views on the classical music industry, explaining how she channels her 'aggression' through music, and stressing how important the arts are, as a meeting point for humanity.

Sitting at the piano she gives Kate an exclusive lesson, including tips on how to acquire the proper body posture to play, and demonstrating how she developed a technique of her own, to make the most of what she describes as her small hands. And walking around the site, Kate visits the centre's concert hall, and Pires explains why she cares so deeply about her social projects which use music to connect with children.

Producer: Juan Carlos Jaramillo

Kate Molleson travels to rural Portugal to talk to pianist Maria Joao Pires.

The stories that matter, the people that matter, the music that matters

Kate Molleson is in rural Portugal to visit pianist Maria Joao Pires, who's 80 this year. She learns about her career and her social work with children... and gets a piano lesson!

During rehearsals at The Barbican in London, Tom meets the pianist Maria Joao Pires, who celebrates her 70th birthday in 2014.

In a rare joint interview, Tom talks to the opera directors and twin brothers David and Christopher Alden, as they return to share the stage at English National Opera - David with a revival of his production of Britten's Peter Grimes, and Christopher with a new production of Verdi's Rigoletto.

And, as the Latvian capital of Riga begins its year in the limelight as a European Capital of Culture, the BBC's Damien McGuinness profiles the city and the Riga-born conductor Andris Nelsons talks about the essential nature of music in his homeland.

Presented by Tom Service. Including pianist Maria Joao Pires and conductor Andris Nelsons.

Tom Service speaks to conductor Marin Alsop.

Mariss Jansons talks to Tom Service. Plus a celebration of Scott Joplin, in his centenary.

An interview with Mark-Anthony Turnage who turns 60. A new book on Copland's film scores.

Conductor Mark Elder talks to Petroc Trelawny about his career to-date.

Norma Waterson grew up in Hull and under the influence of her grand-mother spent her childhood singing with her brother Mike and her sister Lal. Later, with her husband the guitarist Martin Carthy, she formed the eminent Waterson:Carthy band which included their daughter Eliza. These groups delved into a heritage of traditional English folk song, a heritage that when they began performing together in the 1960s existed mainly in archive recordings and song books but which The Watersons fired back into life with their uncompromisingly direct voices and harmonies of the severest beauty.

Mark-Anthony Turnage's fairy-tale opera, Coraline, is about to open on the London stage. Inspired by Neil Gaiman's bestselling fantasy novel, Mark-Anthony shares what attracted him to the subject, how he conjures up spooky opera, and Michael Rosen offers reflections on why scary stories transfer so well to the stage.

Lutes, theorbos, strings and things: Elizabeth Kenny & Paula Chateauneuf discuss the musical world of the Renaissance, when soft plucked strings reigned supreme, and lutes were tuned with your teeth.

Plus, Robert Hollingworth of vocal group, I Fagiolini, offers an alternative playlist of Easter choral works.

Kate Molleson meets Mark-Anthony Turnage and Norma Waterson of the Watersons folk singers.

Clarinettist and conductor, Martin Fr怀st talks to Tom about reshaping the classical musical arena through multi-media spectacular as he prepares to launch his newest project, Xodus.

Singers, Jess Dandy and Joanna Harries take Tom on a musical walk through a woodland in south east London ahead of their 'SongPath' at RSPB St Aidan's nature reserve near Leeds this week. They immerse themselves in the sounds of birds, rain and song as they talk about the benefits connections through nature and music have on mental health.

And Tom visits the Coronet Theatre in London where the theatre company, Gare St Lazare Ireland begins rehearsals for a production of Samuel Beckett's novel, 'How It Is.' One of Beckett's most experimental and beautiful works, 'How it is' is an extraordinary exploration of language and this production explores the beauty, sound, rhythm and meaning of the words while the strains of the Irish Gamelan Orchestra enhance the dystopian atmosphere of Beckett's writing. Tom is joined by director, Judy Hegarty Lovett; composer and sound designer, Mel Mercier, and performers, Stephen Dillane, and Conor Lovett.

Tom Service explores Max Reger's music and hears from composer and writer Peter Dickinson.

We visit Welsh National Opera, in Cardiff, to see rehearsals for the epic production of Migrations, to open this month, exploring the good and bad of both humans' and birds' movements across centuries - from a slave in Bristol, to NHS doctors arriving from India, to the challenges refugees face today. Tom hears from composer Will Todd and some of the 6 librettists, among them Sir David Pountney, Eric Ngalle Charles, Shreya Sen-Handley and Miles Chambers.

There's news of a concert next month called ‘Looking Forward: the Orchestral Music of Afghanistan', blending traditional folk instruments with Western instruments, featuring the Oxford Philharmonic and Afghan soloists. The repertoire includes new pieces by Afghan composers, in exile or still living in hiding. Tom talks to curators of this event, the conductor Cayenna Ponchione-Bailey and composer and conductor Arson Fahim, and also to two of the composers taking part: flute virtuoso Zalai Pakta, who's in Kabul, and Elaha Soroor, who lives in the UK.

Vera Wolkowicz talks to Tom about her book Inca Music Reimagined, published this month, examining how South America looked to the ancient past, in the early 20th-Century, to rebuild national cultural identities, in a fascinating cultural process. We learn about the opposing approaches by two composers in Perú: Daniel Alom퀀a Robles and Jos退 Mar퀀a Valle Riestra, and also how popular music appropriated this legacy.

Max Richter, the WNO production of Migrations and a new book on Inca music reimagined.

Tom travels to Paris and joins Jean Rondeau at the harpsichord to delve into the music of French composer Francois Couperin, 350 years after his birth, and talks to musicologist Theodora Psychoyou about the vast range and colour of his keyboard works. Composer, writer and singer Kerry Andrew discusses a new piece she's written for the Ligeti Quartet inspired by her experience with tinnitus and talks to clinical audiologist Rekesh Patel about living with the condition. And Santanu Das sheds light on the role of music in the Indian war experience as highlighted in his new book, 'India, Empire, and First World War Culture', including a folk song reconstructed and performed by Jasdeep Singh and Amanroop Kaur.

New music for a century of Armistice days and 350 years of Francois Couperin

Celebrating her 80th birthday the year before last, Meredith's creativity spans decades and traverses site-specific works and happenings in the 60s, through films during the 70s and 80s, to an impressive catalogue of recordings - many of which involved the acclaimed Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble.

She tells Sara about her journey towards Buddhism, about approaching music as a ritual, and how her meditation practice has had a profound impact on her creative life. She shares, too, the process by which she found her own voice and describes how she traces her bloodline back from the cantors, through the popular ballads of her mother, to the folk music she sang.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch speaks to the American composer and performance artist Meredith Monk.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch speaks to the American composer and performance artist, Meredith Monk.

Bang on a Can's marathon; Musicians in our time: Rakhi Singh; Covid and schools in England

Tom talks to the composer Michael Finnissy on the occasion of his 70th birthday, about his attitude to life and his absolute belief that music has meaning in connection with the wider world.

Plus an exploration of the sustainability of African Blackwood sources for woodwind instruments.

Tom Service interviews composer Michael Finnissy and discusses Alberto Ginastera.

He also visits Sheffield to talk to musicians working with a new digital archive of English folk music called The Full English - which makes twelve collections available online to the public for the first time and gets a taster of pieces derived from the archive performed by Martin Simpson, Fay Hield, Nancy Kerr, Rob Harbron and Sam Sweeney.

In his book 'Forbidden Music' Michael Haas unravels the story of composers and musicians who were banned by the Nazis and the musical trends they established before being banned, murdered and exiled. Tom speaks to the author and assesses the book with the musicologists John Deathridge and David Nice.

Michael Gove, the Full English and Forbidden Music - Jewish composers banned by the Nazis.

‘Briefly: A Delicious Life' is a new novel by the writer Nell Stevens, a ghost story based around Fryderyk Chopin and his partner - the French novelist - George Sand, set in a monastery retreat in Mallorca. Kate meets the author to discover more about this tale of love, creativity and sexuality.

The folk singer Angeline Morrison, writer and broadcaster Kevin Le Gendre and folk singer and academic Fay Hield all join Kate to discuss the overlooked black history in English folk music.

And Tom Service meets conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, recovering from major surgery, still working, and in the UK recently to continue his long association with London Symphony Orchestra.

Kate Molleson visits Glyndebourne Festival Opera to hear about Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers.

An earlier British musical icon, Charles Halle founded his orchestra in Manchester in the mid-19th century and it still flourishes today: archivist Eleanor Roberts and conductor Sir Mark Elder praise a remarkable man.

Also, star tenor Juan Diego Florez talks about his work with disadvantaged children in Peru, and about his upcoming opera roles, and Miklos Both tells Tom about a living tradition of ancient choral singing, which he has been recording in Ukraine.

A new biography on composer Michael Tippett and the Ukrainian polyphony project.

Tom Service reviews Mike Leigh's Pirates of Penzance and talks to pianist Leif Ove Andsnes

Following on from Music Matters' meeting with Steve Reich two weeks ago, Kate delves further into the origins, development and lasting legacy of minimalism. She talks to composers Linda Catlin Smith, Nate Wooley and Julia Wolfe to find out how a disparate group with new ideas continues to inspire, and also hears from pioneers such as Philip Glass and Pauline Oliveros about the mentality of anti-hierarchy and participation which changed the musical landscape.

Laurence Crane is one of the most beloved figures in British contemporary music, his work is full of surprise, fondness, wit and wisdom. As a successor to a certain sort of minimalism, he lets us hear humble wonders in the everyday. Celebrating his sixtieth birthday this year, he met up with Kate at one of his favourite performance spaces to look over his constantly surprising career and oeuvre.

And as orchestras and musical institutions look at ways to represent diversity among their ranks, Kate talks to John Shortell of the Musicians' Union, and Diversity and Inclusion consultant Chico Chakravorty, about what are the most effective ways to achieve this.

Kate Molleson with Warren Ellis and composer, Laurence Crane.

Tom visits Symphony Hall to talk to the exciting young conductor Mirga Gražinyt?-Tyla about her ambitions for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and music education in Birmingham. He also discusses the challenges faced by the CBSO with Chief Executive Stephen Maddock following recent funding cuts from Birmingham City Council, plus an update from Julian Lloyd-Webber, Principal of the Birmingham Conservatoire, on the progress of their cutting-edge new building which is due to open its doors to students in September this year.

Tom also talks to the French composer, Thierry P退cou, about Outre-m退moire, written for his friend, the pianist Alexandre Tharaud, which delves into the heavy history of the Carribbean island of Martinique and its slave trade, from where P退cou's own family is descended.

Plus, as Welsh National Opera prepare to stage a performance of the rarely-performed opera-oratorio, Le vin herb退, Tom finds out why this work was pivotal in the compositional career of its creator, the Swiss composer Frank Martin, and puts forward a case for why we should hear more from this unique voice of 20th Century music. He talks to Nigel Simeone, who is an expert champion of Frank Martin's music, plus the director and conductor of Welsh National Opera's production of Le vin herb退, Polly Graham and James Southall.

Tom Service visits Symphony Hall in Birmingham to speak to conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla

Tom Service meets Mitsuko Uchida, one of the most influential pianists of her generation.

Venice: Justine Rapaccioli, Assistant Choral Director at San Marco talks about Monteverdi's prestigious role there, and Ellen Rosand discusses Monteverdi's style in his last operas and how that relates to his earlier music.

Mantua: Sara visits the church of Santa Barbara at the Palazzo Ducale, where Monteverdi was employed by Vincenzo Gonzaga, and sees a fascinating document relating to the first performance of L'Orfeo.

Cremona: Sara heads for the city of Monteverdi's birth to find the connection in his music with his early life. She visits the Museo del violino, and takes a look at Monteverdi's birth record.

Plus John Eliot Gardiner reflects on how Monteverdi's music has been a cornerstone of his career, and gives his thoughts on the freshness and originality of his operas today.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch explores the radical side of Claudio Monteverdi's music.

Tom Service explores Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 and talks to composer Michel van der Aa.

Folk singer Martin Carthy and former High Court judge and part-time song collector Stephen Sedley join Tom to talk about their new book, ‘Who Killed Cock Robin: British Folk Songs of Crime and Punishment', which explores the legal and moral basis of some of the most moving songs in the folk traditions of the country. We hear recordings by Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins, Rachel Newton and a 1953 archive recording of Ewan MacColl singing ‘McCaffery', provided by the School of Scottish Studies Archives.

As Russians go to the polls, we look at what the recent decline in freedoms means for artists and musicians in and out of the country. Tom speaks to Masha Alekhina, co-founder of the musical and protest collective Pussy Riot, who has just been sentenced to a year of ‘restricted freedom' for promoting protests in support of the jailed opposition leader, Alexei Navalny. We're also joined by the BBC's Moscow correspondent Sarah Rainsford who was recently expelled from Russia after more than 20 years of reporting from Moscow, and pianist Katya Apekisheva who, alongside hundreds of other classical musicians, signed a letter to Vladimir Putin in February calling for the release of Alexei Navalny.

And composer Joseph Horovitz shares stories from his life in music. Having fled Vienna as a child in 1938, he began his musical career in Britain as a music lecturer for the army before working as a ballet conductor and finally a composer. His music draws on a huge range of styles, especially jazz, as can be heard in his Jazz Harpsichord Concerto which was performed by Mahan Esfahani and the Manchester Collective at this year's Proms. He talks to Tom about how his deeply personal fifth string quartet reflects his experiences of escaping Vienna, and how he finds new inspiration every day from the music around him.

Pianist Igor Levit talks to Tom Service about life as a musician and political activist.

For the last Music Matters of the season, Kate explores the connections between music and language by revisiting her recent trips through parts of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Starting in Faversham, on the north Kent coast, the singer and guitarist Chris Wood explains how he weaves the local and ordinary into his music. And at her home in Yorkshire, Norma Waterson tells Kate about her passion for traditional English folk song, and about making music in her own accent with the other members of her famous folk family.

In the Rhondda Valley, Kate experiences the spine-tingling harmonies of the Pendyrus Male Choir and hears from Gareth Williams how the choir's sound is a result of its industrial history and the Welsh language. And we hear from Pat Morgan of 80s punk band Datblygu, who showed a love of the language by ranting against the romanticised clich退s of tradition.

Against the backdrop of the current political debate around language in Northern Ireland, the composers Brian Irvine, Deirdre McKay and Una Monaghan describe how words and language influence the music they write.

And in Scotland, with the writer and poet James Robertson in Angus, and a walk through the lowlands outside Edinburgh with the singer Karine Polwart, Kate explores the use of Scots in song.

Kate Molleson explores connections between music and language.

Kate's in Northern Ireland this week for the latest in a continuing series about music and language around the British Isles. In Belfast and the surrounding countryside of Co Antrim and Co Down she meets the composers Deirdre McKay, Brian Irvine and Una Monaghan, the Ulster Scots poet and singer Willie Drennan, and the Irish language teacher Linda Ervine.

Kate also talks to the mezzo soprano Anne Sofie von Otter about the sense of the Scandinavian north she finds both in the music she sings and in her own voice, and how she's embracing the physical changes to her voice as she grows older.

Plus a new book which takes stock of classical music in 2018, with a series of essays which tackle some of the problems and challenges around issues of finance, access to music education and making a career in music. Kate talks to the editors of The Classical Music Industry, Chris Dromey and Julia Haferkorn.

Kate Molleson with the latest feature about music and language around the British Isles.

In a continuing series about music and language around the British Isles, Kate is in the South East to meet the Kent-based folk singer Chris Wood, and explores how the region's English-speaking Romany communities are exchanging words and songs with European Roma migrants.

Kate also meets the American trumpeter, band leader, composer and educator Wynton Marsalis, who has been in London this month for concerts with his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

And as the new music organisation CoMA (Contemporary Music for All) celebrates 25 years, we hear the experiences of amateur musicians from the organisation's national network of instrumental and vocal ensembles.

Kate Molleson explores connections between music and language in the South East.

Notes:

* Ren退e Fleming's 'Music and the Mind' webinars take place on Tuesdays at 10 pm UK time, via her Facebook page.

* Professor Daniel Levitin's latest publication is 'Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives' (Penguin Random House 2020)

* Zo뀀 Martlew's audio diary included extracts from her own recordings and compositions, including her string trio V怀luspက and Salat Babilya for solo cello. The recording of birds in a wood close to her home was made by Cato Langnes, Chief Sound Engineer from NOTAM studios in Oslo.

* West Kerry musicians Brendan and Cormac Begley feature in a new traditional music television series, Sl퀀 na mBeaglaoich on TG4, starting Sunday 26 April and running for six weeks. For more, visit https://www.tg4.ie/ga/

Kate Molleson explores music and mental health.

Composer Gavin Higgins talks to Tom about how his early musical life in brass bands helped him to deal with his symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. We visit Bethlem Gallery to meet composer and artist Gawain Hewitt and Fiona Lambert from City of London Sinfonia's 'Sound Young Minds' project, a music-making programme with young people under the care of psychiatric hospitals. Daisy Fancourt talks about a large-scale study looking at how singing can be used to treat postnatal depression, and James Sanderson from NHS England sets out what he sees as music's role in social prescribing.

We explore mental health among musicians with writer, musician and mental health advocate Tabby Kerwin reflecting on the situation in the brass band movement, and James Ainscough from the charity Help Musicians discusses the recent increase in the number of musicians from across the industry seeking help from their new charity Music Minds Matter. Plus we talk to soprano Patricia Auchterlonie, composer Oliver Leith and director Anna Morrissey about their new opera Last Days at the Linbury Theatre and how the mental health and wellbeing of the cast is being supported.

And we're in Crook in County Durham to catch up with the community arts organisation Jack Drum Arts, which provides music sessions to help support the mental health of children and young people in the local area.

Tom Service with a special programme to mark World Mental Health Day.

Clarinettist Kate Romano reflects on what was supposed to be a year of musical activity to mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, and reassess the figure of the composer in light of this year's curtailed celebrations.

We hear from celebrated violinist Hilary Hahn and the roboticist and expert on Artificial Intelligence Carol Reiley, who've just launched DeepMusic.AI - an initiative directed towards professional artists and musicians which is designed to enhance their creative processes.

And, Kate is joined by the Revd. Lucy Winkett to review the new book 'Arvo P䀀rt: Sounding the Sacred' - a collection of essays exploring the spiritual dimension of the celebrated Estonian composer and how his music has been represented by society.

A book on Arvo P\u00e4rt. Luminosity in music. Beethoven's curtailed celebrations.

Tom talks to Norwegian musician and composer Terje Isungset about his Ice Music project and gets his unique perspective on the changing planet after 20 years of making ice instruments. Inuk singer Tanya Tagaq discusses the relationship between her music and the natural environment and we explore environmental soundscapes with music writer Kate Galloway. Plus, journalist Zack Ferriday shares his thoughts on the limitations of musical activism.

Music clips from COP26 include:

Br쀀ghde Chaimbeul

RSNO Junior Choir

Musicians in Exile

Emma Donald and Isbel Pendlebury

Tom Service explores music and climate change as world leaders gather for COP26.

Tom Service explores the vibrant ecology of musical theatre over the past three centuries

Conducting in Baroque Britain, and the further impact of coronavirus on musical life.

Photo Credit: Jessie Rodger

Lawrence Power, Annilese Miskimmon, Jane Mitchell, National Alzheimer's Day

How much is it worth spending on classical music? Music Matters investigates the salaries of the conductors, both male and female.

Celebrated Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho is one of the artists responding to TS Eliot's 'Four Quartets', a masterwork set of poems reflecting on time and its passing (pictured). Her live score accompanies visionary choreography by Pam Tanowitz as well as paintings and images by Brice Marden, in a compelling show blending all Arts on stage, seen this month at London's Barbican Centre.

And what does the Royal Opera House losing its appeal in the case of their viola player Christopher Goldscheider's hearing, irretrievably damaged at work, mean for the orchestral world in the UK?

Photo credit: Maria Baranova

Tom meets conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali. Composer Kaija Saariaho inspired by TS Eliot.

They hear from Ukrainian musicians, Herman Makarenko and Valeriy Sokolov about how the war in Ukraine is affecting their lives and their music. The panel also responds to Arts Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay as he presents the new National Plan for Music Education, which applies to England only, and sets out the government's vision for music education running to 2030. Eight months after COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference, Tom talks to Luke Jenkinson, Managing Director of the climate conscious Global Music Vault in Norway about his commitment to safeguarding and preserving music on glass. And finally, the irrepressible violinist, Patricia Kopatchinskaja shares her thoughts on how to creatively safeguard classical music audiences as the industry continues to recover post-pandemic.

Tom Service and his guests discuss the big topics affecting the music industry in 2022.

On the Humber Bridge, Tom meets the local field recordist Jez riley French and Opera North's Jo Nockels, and discovers the ethereal sound world of The Height of the Reeds, an immersive installation which brings together the sounds of the bridge itself, with music by Norwegian artists and composers Jan Bang, Arve Henriksen and Eivind Aarset.

Tom also hears about the extraordinary story of pianist, composer and conductor Ethel Leginska. Born in Hull as Ethel Liggins, in 1886, Leginska's career took her to the US where she founded women's orchestras in Boston and New York, conducted premieres of her own operas in Chicago, and left a significant legacy as a teacher in Los Angeles. Dr Lee Tsang and pianist Graziana Presicce from Hull University tell Tom about Leginska's largely untold life in music.

At the house of local folk luminary Mick McGarry, he meets members of Folk in Hull for an evening of free-flowing conversation, whisky and song, hearing about Hull's thriving music-making scene, and how songs are being written about past and present, from the city's historical whaling industry to today's politics.

And the folk adventurer Sam Lee, who along with fellow composer Jack Durtnall is turning stories from Hull's seafaring communities into Hullucination, a new piece for the New Music Biennial, part of this year's UK City of Culture celebrations. Tom meets Sam and Jack, along with one of Hull's ex-fishing vessel skippers Ken Knox, at the Trinity House Academy, a secondary school with strong maritime connections.

Tom Service explores sounds of the Humber Bridge, Ethel Leginska and Hull's folk music.

At a traditional house in the back streets of Tokyo, Tom meets the composer Yuka Takechi, shakuhachi player Rei Jin and koto player Yoko Nishi, who reveal the meaning of Ma, the space between words, objects, and sounds which is full of significance for Japanese culture: and a principal which underpins much of the music in this programme.

Dating back to the 14th century, Noh theatre is known for its rich repertoire of stories, distinctive staging, masks, costumes and music. To discover the secrets of how it connects this world with the world beyond the stage, Tom meets Diego Pellecchia, an Italian-born Noh practitioner who teaches at Kyoto University, and visits the Kita school in Tokyo to witness Noh's unique final rehearsal, the moshiawase, for the play Sakuragawa (The River of Cherry Blossoms).

At Tokyo's Soup bar, an influential venue for Japan's noise music scene, singer Taichi Nagura of Endon explains how his extreme vocal techniques enable him to transcend to other dimensions. And on the other end of the spectrum, conductor Masaaki Suzuki tells Tom about his annual performances of the St Matthew Passion, and how Bach's music has helped Japanese audiences in times of natural disaster.

And in Inokashira Park, with people gathering for one of Japan's famous Night Blossom parties, Tom encounters one of the country's leading composers, whose other-worldly music combines the delicacy of blossoming flowers with the untamed power of nature: Toshio Hosokawa.

Tom Service visits Japan to explore musical portals to other worlds.

Kate visits pianist Ruth McGinley at her studios in The MAC in Belfast to chat about her upcoming album of Irish airs and her unique approach to music making.

Beyond Skin is an arts collective using music as a means for cultural education and exchange. Darren Ferguson explains how the collective has been working with musicians seeking asylum and refugee status through creative collaboration and social support. Kate meets with some of these musicians including Shiva, a guitar teacher from Iran.

The Lambeg Drum is one of the loudest acoustic instruments and Kate gets to hear one in Co. Antrim, in the company of Willie Hill and Dr Diana Culbertson. They talk about the role the drum plays in the Ulster-Scots community.

Back in Belfast fiddle player Kevin McCullagh talks about his journey into experimental improvisation and subverting audiences' expectations of traditional music.

Kate hears about the Ulster Orchestra's new home embedded in the community at Townsend Street, Belfas