Composers of the Year - Episode 4

Petroc Trelawny chairs a live studio no-holds-barred debate to find the Composer of the Year. Each of the four composers is represented by a passionate and partisan advocate who wants to persuade listeners to vote for one particular composer. The advocates are: Sarah Sands, deputy editor of the London Evening Standard for Handel, poet Jo Shapcott for Purcell, actor and comedian John Sessions for Mendelssohn, and Roger Scruton for Haydn. Louise Fryer reports on who's up and who's down and what listeners think about it all. 7.30pm While the votes are counted, Louise Fryer looks back at some of the Radio 3 highlights of the past year: the broadcast of all 104 Haydn symphonies, a complete survey of Handel operas, a fully staged production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with Mendelssohn's incidental music, Purcell from Westminster Abbey and choirs up and down the country joining BBC Radio 3 for the Mendelssohn Weekend's O for the Wings of a Dove and Sing Hallelujah for Handel.