With Petroc Trelawny.
Mozart's 250th birthday has provoked a number of new books on the composer's life and music. But are they adding anything new to the already vast Mozart literature?
Plus a look at Shostakovich's 15 String Quartets through the eyes and ears of the performers, including members of the Fitzwilliam and Kopelman Quartets who worked directly with the composer.
In this edition
Peter Gelb
Peter Gelb's first job at the Metropolitan Opera in New York was as an usher when he was a teenager. He's now about to become the General Manager Designate of one of the world's major opera houses. Petroc talks to him to find out his plans for the biggest, starriest, opera house in the world. He's already announced that James Levine has a job for life.
You can hear Verdi's Force of Destiny live from the Met, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, the Principal conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, here on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday March 11 th .
Mozart Book Round Up
Celebrations of the 250 th anniversary of Mozart's birth have been in full flow since the beginning of the year. This week on Music Matters Petroc talks to the critic Hugh Canning and the conductor Andrew Parrott about some important new books celebrating his genius.
Mozart, The Early Years. Stanley Sadie. OUP £25
The Cambridge Mozart Encyclopaedia. Cliff Eisen and Simon O'Keefe. Cambridge University Press £95.
Mozart. Julian Rushton. OUP £18.99
Mozart - An Extraordinary Life. ASBRSM £7.95
Gustav Holst
Radio 3 announced its new season this week and English music is to the fore. The English Music Season starts on St.George's Day with a recital by Thomas Allen. Then composers such as Richard Rodney Bennett, Elizabeth Lutyens and Malcom Arnold will feature on Composer Of The Week. As will Gustav Holst. This week, Petroc goes to St Paul 's Girls' School in Hammersmith where Holst taught from 1905 until his death in 1934. He composed The Planets Suite in his soundproofed music room there, and taught oboe and composition to a young girl, Margaret Eliot, who celebrated her 92 nd birthday last week. She shares her memories of her eccentric and committed teacher while Petroc walks around the school and talks to modern-day pupils and teachers
