Voice

Price: Song for Snow

A twinkling little gem

Pankhurst: Pankhurst Anthem

Women’s suffrage set to music

Music Matters - Andreas Haefliger, Monastic Music

Composers Edward Gregson and Lucy Pankhurst reveal the cutting edge of brass band composition

Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius

"I’ve seen in thought the Soul go up, and have written my heart’s blood into the score"

Poulenc: Le Bestiaire

All creatures great and small

Composer of the Week - Francis Poulenc

Donald Macleod surveys the life and work of Francis Poulenc, a man full of contradictions

Ireland: Earth's call, 'A sylvan rhapsody'

Mother Nature sings!

Haydn: The Creation

"Let there be Light"

Georgian Pleasures - Haydn's The Creation

Suzy Klein talks to conductor Christian Curnyn about Haydn's 'The Creation'

Warlock: Bethlehem Down

Yearning for Christmas

Novello: The Dancing Years (My life belongs to you)

Happy feet, we've got those happy feet

Composer of the Week - Novello

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Ivor Novello

Strauss: 8 Lieder aus Letzte Blätter, Op 10 (No. 8, Allerseelen)

Recalling lost love on All Souls' Day

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms

Stravinsky with new sounds, rhythms and feel

Composer of the Week - Stravinsky and the Symphony

Donald Macleod explores Igor Stravinsky's life through his symphonies

Howells: Come sing and dance

You know you want to!

Finzi: Let us garlands bring, Op 18

Lyrical reflections on life with an emotional punch

Discovering Music - Finzi's In Terra Pax

Stephen Johnson explores in detail Gerald Finzi's In Terra Pax

Barber: Dover Beach, Op 3

Deep sea, deeper thoughts

Boulanger: Psalm 24

A French princess's song of praise

Composer of the Week - Lili Boulanger

Donald Macleod explores the life of French composer Lili Boulanger

Gurney: The Fields Are Full

An antidote to war's devastation

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C minor, 'Resurrection'

A hero's journey which starts with a death

BBC Proms - Mahler's Symphony No. 2 'Resurrection'

James Jolly talks to Norman Lebrecht and Jeremy Barham about Mahler's Symphony No. 2

Walton: 3 Songs after Edith Sitwell

Funny nonsense poems set to music

Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel

Music for your next road trip

Composer of the Week - Vaughan Williams

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams

Novello: Gay's the word (On such a night as this)

Love is in the air...

Walton: Belshazzar's Feast

Writing's on the wall

Composer of the Week - Walton

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of English composer William Walton

Britten: Canticle II - Abraham and Isaac for alto, tenor and piano, Op.51

A soulful song of sacrifice

Britten: Canticle III - Still falls the rain for tenor, horn and piano, Op 55

Blitz! - and the rain is lead

Music Feature - Singing for Britten

John Bridcut explores Britten's creative relationship with amateur singers

Britten: Canticle V - The death of St Narcissus for tenor and harp, Op 89

Britten mourns one death and anticipates his own

Fauré: Requiem

If you want a glimpse of Heaven...

Tales from the Stave - Gabriel Fauré's Requiem

Frances Fyfield's music series returns with the original score of Faure's Requiem

Novello: Clear the road to glory

Get your marching boots on!

Berlioz: Te Deum

There's no tedium here!

Composer of the Week - Hector Berlioz

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Hector Berlioz

Britten: Winter words, Op 52

Poetry in motion

Bach: Mass in B minor

Believe in this

Discovering Music - Bach: Mass in B minor

How Bach the devout Lutheran set about producing a mass in the Catholic tradition

Coates: By the sleepy lagoon

Waltzing on a Desert Island

Price: Poem of Praise

"Swift things are beautiful..."

Composer of the Week - Florence Price

Donald Macleod uncovers the story and prolific output of American composer Florence Price

Novello: First up

...best dressed

Schubert: Die Taubenpost, D 965a

A love letter delivered by pigeon post

The Spirit of Schubert - Schubert Labs

Tom Service tries to answer the question: Who is Schubert?

Britten: A Charm of lullabies, for mezzo-soprano and piano, Op 41

Night night Mummy

Poulenc: Figure Humaine

Humanity liberated

Composer of the Week - Poulenc

Donald Macleod explores Francis Poulenc's unique musical voice and sometimes troublesome character

Bernstein: Chichester Psalms

Cathedral traditions meld with Hebrew texts

Tavener: Song for Athene

A work composed in memory of a good friend

Proms Plus - Tavener and Literature

Michael Symmons Roberts and Richard Coles on the literature that inspired John Tavener

Beethoven: O welche Lust (Fidelio) 'Prisoner's Chorus'

Breathe the free air

Muhly: The Last Letter

A personal reality of war

Music Matters - Nico Muhly

Tom Service talks to the American composer Nico Muhly

Barber: 3 Songs, Op 10 (ii, Sleep now)

The voice of the winter is heard at the door

Barber: 4 Songs, Op 13 (iv, Nocturne)

Love in the moonlight

Composer of the Week - Barber

Donald Macleod tells the story of the real Samuel Barber

Strauss: 4 Lieder, Op 27 (No. 4, Morgen)

Everything is awesome!

Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky

Great Russian Film, Great Russian Music

Music and Culture of WWI - Postcard from St. Petersburg

An exploration of pre-WWI music, particularly Prokofiev

Schumann: Romances and ballads - set 2, Op 49 (No. 1, Die Beiden Grenadiere)

Defeated soldiers sing as they die

Vaughan Williams: 4 Last Songs

Sentimental tearjerkers to stir the hands, eyes and heart

Composer of the Week - Vaughan Williams

Donald Macleod charts the long life and career of Vaughan Williams

Novello: Arc de Triomphe (Easy to live with)

Golden syrup

Brahms: 4 Songs, Op 46 (iv. An die Nachtigall)

Forest foliage and flight created in a piano

BBC Proms - The Real Brahms

Musicologist Kenneth Hamilton talks to Stephen Johnson about the real Brahms.

Howells: Lost Love

English song inflected with oriental flavour

Verdi: Requiem

Operatic and dramatic to its core

BBC Proms - Verdi's Requiem

Matthew Rowe introduces the music of Verdi's Requiem and places it in context

Britten: Folksong arrangements, vol 1 (The Ash Grove)

Memories of a missing lover in Wales of yesteryear

Lehar: Fieber

A dying soldier imagines

Composer of the Week - Lehar

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Ferencz Lehar

Price: Heav’n bound Soldier

Victory's won

Rossini: Petite messe solennelle

Rossini's "sins of old age"

Record Review Podcast - Rossini: Petite Messe Solennelle

Ben Walton recommends recordings of Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle

Britten: War Requiem, Op. 66

"My subject is War, and the pity of War"

Gurney: By a bierside

Heart-breakingly sad

Composer of the Week - Gurney

Donald Macleod is joined by Dr Kate Kennedy to explore the life and work of Ivor Gurney

Handel: Zadok the Priest

A crowning achievement in composition

Fauré: 3 Songs, Op 7 (No. 1, Apres un Reve)

A dream within a dream

Saturday Classics - Roderick Williams: Song

Roderick Williams focuses on foreign-language song. With Schubert, Faure and Rachmaninov

Mozart: Mass in C minor, K 427, 'Great'

Unfinished yet still spectacular

Beethoven: Adelaide, Op 46

A song of stellar romance

Composer of the Week - Beethoven and the Voice

Donald Macleod explores Beethoven’s vocal music with Iain Burnside and Simone Young

Bach: St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (Erbarme dich, mein Gott, um meiner Zähren Willen!)

Like listening to a private conversation

Weill: Marie Galante (Youkali Tango-habanera)

Longing for happiness on a faraway dream-like island

The Story of Music in Fifty Pieces - Brecht and Weill's The Threepenny Opera

Howard Goodall and Suzy Klein discuss Moritat die Mackie Messer from Threepenny Opera

Villa-Lobos: Suite for voice and violin, W 497

The flavours of Brazil, via 1920s Paris

Tallis: Spem in alium

An avalanche of sound

Soul Music - Spem in Alium

Thomas Tallis's work is one of the most spectacular pieces of choral music ever written

Dowland: I saw my lady weep

A lute sets the tone of this plaintive, sorrowful song

Schumann: Frauenliebe und -leben, Op 42

Music packed with emotional insight into life and marriage

Tales from the Stave - Robert Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben

Clemency Burton Hill presents the series celebrating priceless music manuscripts

Holst: Little thinkest thou, poore flower

A poetic piece that's a little Britten

Handel: Mi lusinga il dolce affetto (Alcina - Act 2 Scene 3)

Magic rings, heroics knights, kindly magicians and flying horses!

Record Review Podcast - Handel's Alcina

Berta Joncus recommends a recording of Handel's Alcina from among available versions

Brahms: 4 Songs, Op 46 (iv. An die Nachtigall)

Forest foliage and flight created in a piano

Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn (No. 12, Urlicht)

Earthly suffering and transcendent bliss

Discovering Music - Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Stephen Johnson explores Mahler's collection of songs, Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Frances-Hoad: Beowulf

A powerful piece for voice and piano, and a strong case for equality

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op 125, 'Choral'

First chaos then international unity

Discovering Music - Beethoven: Symphony No. 9

Stephen Johnson explores themes of triumph and doubt in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9

Warlock: Sleep

A lullaby with hidden depths

Wolf: Morike Lieder (No. 25, Schlafendes Jesuskind)

The dreams of baby Jesus in song

Record Review Podcast - Wolf Morike Songbook

Richard Wigmore recommends recordings of Wolfs's fifty or so Morike settings

Mahler: 5 Ruckert-Lieder

Ethereal songs in no particular order

Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder

Slow, sensual and soft

Record Review Podcast - Richard Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder

Natasha Loges recommends a recorded version of Richard Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder

Beach: Romance, Op 23

Past loves reawakened through piano and violin

Verdi: Four Sacred Pieces

Holy, haunting and beautiful

Discovering Music - Verdi's Te Deum

Stephen Johnson explores Verdi's Te Deum from his Quattro Pezzi Sacri.

Schubert: Winterreise

A song cycle that travels on a journey through many moods

Berlioz: Les Nuits d'ete, Op 7 (i, ii, iii, iv)

A song cycle of love

Record Review Podcast - Berlioz's Les Nuits d'ete

Christopher Cook recommends recordings from available versions of Berlioz's song cycle, Les Nuits d'ete

Tavener: Love Bade Me Welcome

Love is personified

Walton: Touch her soft lips, and part

A simple yet highly effective love song

Rachmaninov: Tebe Poem

A rich liturgical hymn of praise

Whitacre: i carry your heart with me

“i carry your heart with me. i carry it in my heart. i am never without it”

Mendelssohn: Venetianisches Gondellied

Lovesick on a gondola

Chausson: Poeme de l'amour et de la mer, Op 19

How love and the sea stir emotions

Berlioz: The Death of Ophelia

Shakespeare in sound

Dowland: Flow my tears, 'Lachrimae'

Elizabethan melancholy in descending melodies

Duparc: Chanson triste

Nostalgic, melancholy and a rare gem

Gurney: 5 Elizabethan songs

The nuances of poetry filtered through songs

Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin

This songwriting pinnacle charts a young man's journey from hope to despair and death

Bridge: 3 Songs for Medium Voice, Viola and Piano, H 76/3: Music when soft voices die

Voice and viola do battle in interpreting Shelley's famous poem

Rimsky-Korsakov: 4 Songs, Op 26 (No. 4, Zuleika's song)

A love song inspired by Byron

Viardot-Garcia: Les deux roses

"The world has a woman composer of genius!"

Handel: With plaintive Notes and am'rous moan (Samson, Act 2)

A beautiful song about a drastic haircut

Bellini: Dolente immagine di Fille mia

Such sweet sorrow

Dvořák: 7 Gypsy Songs, Op 55

An emotional, nostalgic piece, recorded by hundreds of artists

Hahn: A Chloris

A spellbinding song of love and passion

Grieg: 6 Songs, Op 25 (ii. A swan)

Much more personal than the death of a bird

Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn (No. 13, Revelge)

Skeleton soldiers on the march

Mozart: Ave Verum Corpus, K 618

A choral glimpse of heaven

Brahms: 2 Songs, Op 91

Wedding bells in reflection

Schubert: An die Musik, D 547

A hymn to the art of music

Purcell: Music for a While

A complex and dissonant tale about a spirit goddess

Holst: Hymns from the Rig Veda, Op 24

Indian-inspired experimentation

Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

A journey of growth from town to town

Debussy: Mandoline

The helter-skelter sound of late 19th-Century Paris

Lehmann: In a Persian garden, XX 'Ah moon of my delight'

A lunar hit around the world

Ravel: 5 Greek folk songs

The joy of dancing to Greek folk songs

Parry: I Was Glad

A Coronation classic

Mussorgsky: Songs and dances of death

Heavy metal moods 100 years ahead of their time

Schubert: Heidenroslein, D 257

Shall I compare you to a kiss from a rose?

Schumann: Myrthen, Op 25 (No. 7, Die Lotosblume)

An extraordinary song of wedded bliss

Schubert: Der Musensohn, D 764

A song about the son of the muses and a guaranteed crowd pleaser

Schumann: Lorelei

A piano portrait of a powerful and seductive sorceress

Parry: Blest Pair of Sirens

The sound of Victorian grandeur

Mahler: 5 Songs (No 3, Laue Sommernacht)

A midsummer night's song

Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch (selection)

The many moods of Italian love

Tosti: Marechiare (Neapolitan serenade)

An Italian knight's song of love

Brahms: Wiegenlied

A timeless and calming lullaby

Elgar: Sea pictures, Op 37 (No. 1, Sea slumber song)

From a poem comes a tender lullaby

Bizet: The Pearl Fishers (Act 1, No. 2b, 'Au fond du temple saint')

Can a friendship survive love rivalry?

A German Requiem (Ein deutsches Requiem)

Sacred heart of an emerging nation

Copland: Old American songs (Set 2 No. 4. At the river)

Bathe in the crystal waters of the American West

Bingham: London Haiku

A city poem // Haunting and atmospheric // Dark and stabbing sound

Butterworth: 6 Songs from 'A Shropshire lad', vi - Is my team still ploughing?

A soldier's ghost returns for a poignant conversation

Schubert: Erlkönig

The story of a supernatural elf king who kills a boy

Mendelssohn: Songs, Op 1 (No. 1, Schwanenlied)

A song of late-found love

Mozart: Requiem in D minor, K 626 compl. Sussmayr

A technicolour journey from cradle to grave

Fauré: La Bonne chanson, Op 61, arr. for voice, Piano & string quartet

A joyful cycle of vitality

Schubert: Die Forelle, D 550

A story of the trout and the fisherman

Schumann: Liederkreis, Op 39

A bouquet of love songs for the year

Fauré: 2 Songs, Op 46 (No. 2, Clair de lune)

The quintessential sound of France