Classics Unwrapped - Jamie and Billy's Burns Night In

Jamie and Billy raise a glass to Burns' musical influence around the world, asking why composers from 17th century Italy to present-day Estonia have turned to his writing for inspiration. This man of the people who was claimed as a hero by both Stalin and Abraham Lincoln has an enormously wide-ranging musical legacy, and by weaving readings of poems in and out of the music they inspired, Jamie and Billy bring to life the global connections between the bard and his musicians. The programme includes a new reading of Tam O Shanter, marrying the dramatic music of Malcolm Arnold to the text for the first time; and a combining of the Gettysburg address with "Here's a health to them that's awa" and the music of Roy Harris.