Music Matters
Radio 3's flagship classical music magazine programme, with topical in-depth interviews, features and discussions on the big ideas driving today's music world. Get in touch with the programme... [email protected] Call: 03700 100 300
Music Matters - 01/03/2008
Tom Service looks at the links between music and health, focusing on help for schizophrenia and Alzheimer's. Plus news on the Royal Opera House's workshops for autistic teenagers.
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Music Matters - 01/11/2008
Tom Service examines the possible impact of 2008's presidential elections on the US music scene, and John Tilbury talks about his new biography of Cornelius Cardew.
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Music Matters - 01/12/2007
Tom Service immerses himself in the music of Domenico Scarlatti as the Royal Northern College of Music perform all 555 of his sonatas in one day in Manchester.
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Music Matters - 02/02/2008
Tom Service talks to Daniel Barenboim as he performs the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas at London's South Bank. Plus a review of Marina Frolova-Walker's new book on Russian music.
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Music Matters - 03/05/2008
Tom Service talks to pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque as well as Belgian conductor Philippe Herreweghe. Plus composer Jonathan Harvey on the complex workings of his compositions.
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Music Matters - 03/11/2007
Petroc Trelawny explores the border territory between literature and music, and how music can transform Shakespeare plays.
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Music Matters - 04/10/2008
Tom Service meets young Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons as he takes over the reigns of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Plus a look at the life of Thomas Beecham.
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Music Matters - 05/04/2008
Petroc Trelawny presents a special edition devoted to Harrison Birtwistle's new opera The Minotaur, which receives its world premiere at the Royal Opera House later this month.
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Music Matters - 05/07/2008
To mark the 2008 centenary of the birth of conductor Herbert von Karajan, James Jolly explores the myths surrounding him, the media image he projected and the music he championed.
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Music Matters - 05/12/2009
Petroc Trelawny is joined by Robert Tear, Elaine Padmore and David Nice to review new books about Sergei Diaghilev, English National Opera and Benjamin Britten.
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Music Matters - 07/06/2008
Presented by Tom Service. With sitar player Ravin Shankar, a reassessment of Rimsky Korsakov's legacy 100 years after his death and a look at the phenomenon of composers' diaries.
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Music Matters - 08/03/2008
Petroc Trelawny meets the recently formed Grand Union Youth Orchestra. Plus a review of Alex Ross's new book about 20th century music, and a look at 15-minute chamber operas.
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Music Matters - 08/11/2008
Petroc Trelawny talks to Alexander Waugh about his book, The House of Wittgenstein, and to Andrew Motion and Peter Maxwell Davies about their work for Remembrance Sunday.
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Music Matters - 08/12/2007
Tom Service meets violinist Itzhak Perlman. While Tony Hall, Executive Director of the Royal Opera House, talks about the challenges of finding new audiences for opera and ballet.
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Music Matters - 09/02/2008
Tom Service talks to pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard about his new Bach CD and managing the Aldeburgh Festival. Plus the music of Henri Dutilleux and Indian field recordings.
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Music Matters - 10/01/2009
Tom Service talks to baritone Thomas Quasthoff, previews a festival in Manchester and Birmingham devoted to Nielsen and eavesdrops on a new comic operetta staged by Opera North.
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Music Matters - 10/05/2008
Tom Service presents an interview with celebrated pianist Krystian Zimerman, who talks about his relationship with audiences, as well as the recording process, politics and pianos.
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Music Matters - 10/11/2007
Petroc Trelawny explores four new books about music, and is joined in the studio by critic Hilary Finch, violinist Paul Robertson and musicologist Tess Knighton.
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Music Matters - 11/10/2008
Tom Service travels to Ireland to explore the part classical music has to play in Irish culture today - in the last decade, the country has experienced a revolution in music-making.
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Music Matters - 12/01/2008
Tom Service talks to composer Judith Weir ahead of Radio 3's forthcoming weekend celebration of her work. Plus friends and colleagues assess the legacy of pianist Artur Rubinstein.
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Music Matters - 12/04/2008
With Tom Service. Simon Heffer explains the influence of war on Vaughan Williams' music, and Tom talks to German composer Heiner Goebbels about his highly 'visual' compositions.
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Music Matters - 12/07/2008
Tom Service talks to composer Peter Eotvos about his new opera Love and Other Demons, opening at Glyndebourne. Plus Arnold Dolmetsch and the turn of the century early music revival.
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Music Matters - 13/09/2008
Presented by Tom Service. With a visit to the Lucerne Festival Academy in Switzerland, plus Esa-Pekka Salonen on his new role with the Philharmonia and Charles Mackerras on Mozart.
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Music Matters - 14/06/2008
Tom Service is joined by Bonnie Greer to discuss a new book by George E Lewis, and reassesses the significance of perhaps the most famous musical of all, West Side Story.
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Music Matters - 15/03/2008
Petroc Trelawny seeks out one of Britain's best Wurlitzer organs. Plus a look at how Punch and Judy have infiltrated classical music and the effect of music on an artist's politics.
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Music Matters - 15/09/2007
Tom Service talks to composer James MacMillan, whose new opera The Sacrifice is to receive its premiere by Welsh National Opera in Cardiff.
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Music Matters - 15/12/2007
Tom Service presents a special programme looking back on the life and music of one of the 20th century's most distinguished and controversial composers - Karlheinz Stockhausen.
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Music Matters - 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Puccini
In a special edition to mark the 150th anniversary of Puccini's birth, Tom Service visits some of the locations in Tuscany that meant so much to the composer throughout his life.
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Music Matters - 16/02/2008
Tom Service looks at Vivaldi the opera composer ahead of a performance of Tito Manlio at the Barbican. Plus a re-assessment of Messiaen's legacy as teacher, and harpist Osian Ellis.
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Music Matters - 17/01/2009
Tom Service talks to pianist Stephen Hough and looks at the history of the Beggar's Opera, as a new production by the Royal Opera of Britten's reworking opens in London.
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Music Matters - 18/10/2008
Petroc Trelawny talks to leading American composer John Adams, and authors David Huckvale, Peter Dickinson and Adrian Wright review each other's recent books.
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Music Matters - 19/01/2008
Valery Gergiev, principal conductor of the LSO, talks to Tom Service about his current interests, including his Mahler cycle. And conductor Mark Elder marks 150 years of the Halle.
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Music Matters - 19/04/2008
Tom Service talks to Renzo Piano about his work on the first performance of Nono's Prometeo and meets the composer's widow. Plus Nigel Kennedy and 40 years of the King's Singers.
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Music Matters - 20/09/2008
With Tom Service. With a feature on the King's Place concert hall in London, plus the Covent Garden debut of Cavalli's La Calisto and 2008's centenary of composer Raymond Scott.
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Music Matters - 20/10/2007
Tom Service meets conductor John Eliot Gardiner to explore his reinterpretation of the music of Brahms, and Vienna meets Hollywood with Erich Wolfgang Korngold at the movies.
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Music Matters - 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Petroc Trelawny presents a special edition from the studios of Deutschlandradio Kultur marking 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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Music Matters - 21/06/2008
Petroc Trelawny is in Beijing to look at the place of Western classical music in China today, asking how far does it reach into people's lives and what future does it have there?
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Music Matters - 22/03/2008
Tom Service talks to English baritone Thomas Allen about his career. Plus a look at appeal of the poet Heinrich Heine for composers and an interview with composer Olga Neuwirth.
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Music Matters - 22/11/2008
With Tom Service. Including Fiona Shaw on directing her first opera, the latest Streetwise opera project, a look at the London Sinfonietta at 40, and composer Jorg Widmann.
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Music Matters - 24/01/2009
Tom Service compares two modern dystopian visions of the world in London opera houses. He also speaks to Canadian singer Gerald Finley and surveys a cycle of Bach church cantatas.
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Music Matters - 24/05/2008
Petroc Trelawny investigates the place of classical music in fiction and Ian McEwan and Michael Berkeley talk about their collaboration. Plus a look at philanthropy and music.
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Music Matters - 40th Anniversary Special
40th Anniversary Special: As Radio 3 celebrates 40 years of broadcasting, Tom Service listens back and investigates how the station has reacted to the outside world and vice-versa.
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Music Matters - A Midlands Christmas
Tom Service meets people involved in music making across the Midlands.
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Music Matters - Alan Gilbert/Nico Muhly/Dalston Songs/Julia Jones
Presented by Tom Service. Featuring conductor Alan Gilbert and composer Nico Muhly, both from New York, plus searching out musical stories in the East End of London.
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Music Matters - Alexander Goehr, Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues, Leif Segerstam
Tom Service talks to Alexander Goehr about his new opera Promised End and explores the latest score from composer/conductor Leif Segerstam, who has so far published 220 symphonies.
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Music Matters - Angela Hewitt, Opera in Essex, RAF Bands, A Dog's Heart
Presented by Tom Service. With pianist Angela Hewitt; The Royal Opera House's The Purfleet Opera at Thurrock; music from the RAF band; Alexander Raskatov's A Dog's Heart at ENO.
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Music Matters - Bryn Terfel
Tom Service talks to Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel as he prepares to take on the role of Wagner's Flying Dutchman at the Royal Opera House. Plus some of Yorkshire's lost pianos.
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Music Matters - Bryn Terfel, Peter Pears, Daniel Hope, Zaide
Petroc Trelawny meets Bryn Terfel in Cardiff and marks the centenary of tenor Peter Pears in Aldeburgh. Plus violinist Daniel Hope on his new Bow Project.
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Music Matters - Cape Town Opera/Erik Chisholm/Kevin Volans/Scottish Opera
Presented by Tom Service. Including Cape Town Opera's UK debut, the life of Scottish composer Erik Chisholm, South African born composer Kevin Volans and opera in the Highlands.
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Music Matters - Carlo Gesualdo, Stephen Kovacevich, Eliza Carthy
Tom Service explores the music of Carlo Gesualdo. Plus pianist Stephen Kovacevich on Schubert and Takemitsu, and Eliza Carthy on Folk Music and English identity.
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Music Matters - Cecilia Bartoli, Streetwise Opera, Mischa Aster
Tom Service talks to mezzo Cecilia Bartoli. Plus Streetwise Opera's latest project, where homeless performers make film operas, and Mischa Aster's book on the Berlin Philharmonic.
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Music Matters - Chopin
Marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Chopin, Tom Service talks to pianists Maurizio Pollini and Krystian Zimerman about their relationship with the composer's music.
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Music Matters - Christine Brewer, The Music of Painting, Tannhauser
With Tom Service. Including soprano Christine Brewer and the book The Music of Painting, about music and visual arts. Plus the return of Wagner's Tannhauser to Covent Garden.
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Music Matters - Christoph von Dohnanyi/Venetian Music/Bach Solo Music
Tom Service explores the link between acoustics and music in Venice's churches, and talks to Christoph von Dohnanyi about the legacy of his grandfather, composer Erno von Dohnanyi.
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Music Matters - Colin Davis
Tom Service talks to conductor Colin Davis and debates a new production of Berg's morality tale Lulu.
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Music Matters - Cosima Wagner, Music from the Genome, John Adams
Tom Service with a biography of Cosima Wagner. Plus Music from the Genome, mixing music and science, and John Adams' musical I was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky.
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Music Matters - Debussy, Saariaho and perceptions of classical music
Tom Service talks to composer Kaija Saariaho about her opera L'Amour de loin, and looks at a new book charting the story of the creation of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande.
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Music Matters - Donald Runnicles, Leo Black, Where's Chopin?, 13th-Century Music
Presented by Petroc Trelawny. With conductor Donald Runnicles; a new book on musical life at the BBC in the 1960s; an exhibition mixing Chopin with art, and 13th century music.
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Music Matters - Ed Vaizey, Elgar Film, Eric Whitacre
Presented by Tom Service. With culture minister Ed Vaizey on the Government's spending review and music making; a new film about the life of Edward Elgar; composer Eric Whitacre.
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Music Matters - Edgar Varese/Ton Koopman/London Piano Making
Petroc Trelawny explores the music of innovative composer Edgar Varese, visits early music pioneer Ton Koopman and delves into the rich history of piano making in London.
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Music Matters - Felicity Palmer and Anish Kapoor
Tom Service interviews mezzo-soprano Felicity Palmer about her career and visits the Brighton Festival 2009 to talk to its guest artistic director Anish Kapoor.
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Music Matters - Film and Music
Film and Music: Tom Service investigates the hidden world of film music, visiting Abbey Road Studios and talking to composers Howard Shore and Mike Figgis.
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Music Matters - Free Thinking 2010
An audience discussion from the Sage Gateshead, as part of Radio 3's 2010 Free Thinking festival of ideas
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Music Matters - Glyndebourne at 75
Tom Service visits Glyndebourne to look at the role of the famous opera house in the 21st century. He talks to executive chairman Gus Christie and to mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly.
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Music Matters - Handel Week
For BBC Radio 3's Handel celebrations, Petroc Trelawny and guests assess Handel's reputation and significance for the 21st-century audience, 250 years after his death.
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Music Matters - Haydn
Tom Service examines our attitudes to the music of Haydn, with the help of some of the great interpreters including Alfred Brendel. Why isn't he as popular as Mozart?
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Music Matters - Henze, Mahler and Beatboxing
Tom Service talks to composers writing new works for a Mahler symphony cycle in Manchester and explores the operatic world of Hans Werner Henze.
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Music Matters - Hungary
Tom Service visits Budapest to investigate how musical life in Hungary has changed since the fall of communism. Including contributions from Ivan Fischer and Andras Schiff.
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Music Matters - Imogen Cooper
Tom Service talks to pianist Imogen Cooper about Schubert, visits Cambridge ahead of the university's 800th anniversary celebrations and discusses the role of music in cancer care.
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Music Matters - Istanbul
Petroc Trelawny reports from Istanbul on the state of classical music in the city. Will it seize its opportunity to showcase its cultural riches in its year as Capital of Culture?
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Music Matters - John Potter/Leonard Bernstein/Thomas Hampson
Tom Service talks to tenor John Potter about his new book on the history of the tenor voice, from its emergence in the 16th century to the phenomenon of the Three Tenors and beyond.
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Music Matters - Jonathan Nott, Schumann
Tom Service meets young conductor Jonathan Nott, principal conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, and Robin Holloway considers the contemporary interest in Schumann's music.
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Music Matters - Julian Bream, Charles Rosen, French Opera
Petroc Trelawny talks to celebrated guitarist Julian Bream. Plus a look at the work of American musicologist Charles Rosen and Vincent Giroud's new book celebrating French opera.
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Music Matters - Live Election Phone-In
Ahead of the general election in 2010, Tom Service chairs a phone-in about the future of classical music and the arts with Ben Bradshaw, Ed Vaizey and Don Foster.
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Music Matters - Mendelssohn Weekend - Mendelssohn's Scotland
Tom Service journeys through Scotland in a quest to find the inspiration behind Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture and his Scottish Symphony.
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Music Matters - Monteverdi Vespers, Michel van der Aa, Christopher Page
Tom Service explores the history of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, talks to Dutch composer Michel van der Aa, and reviews Christopher Page's new book about the early history of singing.
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Music Matters - Music and the Brain
In a special edition of the programme, Tom Service talks to scientists and musicians conducting the latest research looking at how the brain makes sense of music.
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Music Matters - Music in Tallinn and Turku
Tom Service visits two European Capitals of Culture 2011 - Tallinn in Estonia and Turku in Finland - to learn about the music of both cities. Including an interview with Arvo Part.
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Music Matters - Music Matters
Tom Service talks to the versatile and prolific jazz musician, Chick Corea, and pianist David Owen Norris and artist and musician Bill Drummond discuss life without music.
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Music Matters - Music Matters
Tom Service visits Warsaw to investigate the complex relationship between Chopin and his homeland and explores his influence on Polish music today.
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Music Matters - Music Matters
Tom Service talks to conductor Roger Norrington as he celebrates his 75th birthday, and Petroc Trelawny debates Beethoven with pianist Richard Goode.
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Music Matters - MusicLearningLive!2009 Music Debate
Tom Service chairs a debate from the MusicLearningLive!2009 festival in Manchester, addressing some of the current issues in music education.
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Music Matters - Nigel Kennedy, Alzheimer's, John Cage
Tom Service talks to violinist Nigel Kennedy about Poland, jazz and football ahead of his Polish Weekend at London's Southbank Centre. Plus the philosophy and music of John Cage.
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Music Matters - Nino Rota, Niobe, Richard Egarr on the Bachs
Tom Service and guests take a look at the work of film composer Nino Rota, and the imminent UK premiere of a baroque opera neglected for 320 years.
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Music Matters - Opera
As part of the BBC opera season, Tom Service is joined by experts and listeners to explore whether opera still matters today and discuss what it contributes to society.
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Music Matters - Penderecki
Petroc Trelawny talks to Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, and playwright Ronald Harwood discusses his two plays depicting Furtwangler and Strauss's political views.
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Music Matters - Peter Maxwell Davies
Tom Service is in the Orkney Islands to visit composer Peter Maxwell Davies as he marks his 75th birthday. Among other things, Peter discusses the influence of Scotland on his work.
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Music Matters - Petroc Trelawny
Petroc Trelawny talks to Jonathan Miller about directing opera as La Boheme opens at ENO, voice coach Christina Shewell discusses her new book and a discussion about Darwin and music.
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Music Matters - Portugal Special Edition
Portugal Special Edition: Tom Service heads to Portugal to explore the part classical music has to play in Portuguese culture today and talks to fado star Mariza.
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Music Matters - Purcell Weekend
Tom Service explores Henry Purcell's influence on British musical life from the 20th century to today as part of a celebration of the 350th anniversary of the composer's birth.
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Music Matters - Purcell Weekend - In Search of Purcell
Tom Service pieces together Purcell's life and work, looking at his youth and seeing him through his manuscripts and the era in which he lived.
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Music Matters - Review of 2008
Tom Service and guests look at some of the key cultural events of 2008.
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Music Matters - Richard Rodney Bennett, Leonidas Kavakos
Tom Service talks to composer Richard Rodney Bennett, who discusses his love of the Great American Songbook. Plus violinist Leonidas Kavakos.
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Music Matters - Rolando Villazon
Opera star Rolando Villazon talks to Tom Service about his Royal Festival Hall debut, his recent vocal problems, the music industry and bringing opera to wider audiences.
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Music Matters - Samuel Barber/Emerson Quartet/West Side Story
Tom Service marks the centenary of the birth of American composer Samuel Barber and visits the Emerson Quartet in rehearsal, talking to them about their passion for Czech music.
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Music Matters - Scotland Week
Tom Service presents a special edition from Glasgow, with singers Karen Cargill and Lisa Milne, plus conductor Robin Ticciati. Tom also visits one of the country's best pipe bands.
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Music Matters - Simon Rattle
Tom Service visits Germany to talk to Simon Rattle, principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. He discusses what the orchestra - and conducting itself - really mean to him.
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Music Matters - Susan Graham/French piano music/Neville Cardus/Louis Braille
French music figures large in the programme as Petroc Trelawny meets mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, one of the world's leading exponents of French song. Plus a book on Neville Cardus.
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Music Matters - Tchaikovsky Biography/George Benjamin/Faure Songs
Tom Service and guests discuss a new biography of Tchaikovsky; he also meets composer George Benjamin who is 50 in 2010. Plus Graham Johnson on what makes Faure songs unique.
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Music Matters - Ten Years of Music
Tom Service considers developments in the music world during the first decade of the 21st century with the help of a panel of experts and artists as well as archive material.
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Music Matters - Terry Riley, Centre for Creative and Performing Arts, Jonas Kaufmann
Presentd by Tom Service. With minimalist composer Terry Riley; the author of a new book about the Centre for Creative and Performing Arts in Buffalo; German tenor Jonas Kaufmann.
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Music Matters - Terry Riley In C / Bang on a Can / Steve Martland
Presented by Tom Service. With a profile of Bang on a Can, a new book on Terry Riley's In C, conversation with composer Steve Martland and composers in residence in the digital age.
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Music Matters - The Arts and the Financial Crisis
Tom Service discusses the challenges arts institutions face in the current financial crisis, talks to Russian pianist Mikhail Rudy and previews a new community opera at Aldeburgh.
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Music Matters - The Gambler/Sibelius/Van Doesburg/The Westbrooks
Presented by Petroc Trelawny. Featuring a new version of Prokofiev's opera The Gambler, due to open at the Royal Opera House, and a look at a new biography of Sibelius.
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Music Matters - Thomas Ades Interview
In a rare interview, Tom Service talks to composer Thomas Ades. He's one of the most successful classical composers of his generation and his works are performed all over the world.
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Music Matters - Tom Service
Tom Service talks to mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager and looks at a book charting nearly a century of Elliott Carter's correspondence.
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Music Matters - Vasily Petrenko/Kenneth MacMillan/Martinu
Tom Service meets Vasily Petrenko, the young Russian maestro at the helm of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Plus a new biography of Kenneth MacMillan, and Martinu reassessed.
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Music Matters - Viktoria Mullova, Adolf Busch
Tom Service meets violinist Viktoria Mullova ahead of a concert series with the LSO. Plus Tully Potter on his new biography of the great violinist Adolf Busch.
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Music Matters - Welsh music
Tom Service investigates music-making in Wales in the run-up to Christmas. With the Morriston Male Voice Choir, harpist Catrin Finch and the newest orchestra in the West.
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Music Matters - Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Mike Figgis, Sviatoslav Richter Book
Petroc Trelawny talks to French-Canadian conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, film director Mike Figgis as he makes his operatic debut and explores a new book about pianist Sviatoslav Richter.
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