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* Born in 1867, over his 90 years Arturo Toscanini achieved a remarkable CV. But with the first published collection of his letters we are offered a new view of his life and work. Front Row asked Sir John Eliot Gardiner, a great contemporary conductor, to read The Letters of Arturo Toscanini. What do they reveal about his working life as a conductor?
The Letters of Arturo Toscanini edited by Harvey Sachs, published by Faber & Faber.
Listen to the review
* Should a huge quantity of Bacon be saved for the nation? The Tate Gallery is negotiating over a collection of sketches and annotated photographs left behind by the artist Francis Bacon when he died in 1992. But doubts over the authenticity and ownership of the work have led to a grilling. Front Row's John Wilson reports.
Listen to the discussion
* The literary career of the Canadian novelist Carol Shields always had an unusual shape and now takes on a tragic one. Forty-one when her first novel was published and in her 50s before she found a serious readership with The Stone Diaries. Her latest novel, Unless, is published this week. Written following Shields's diagnosis with terminal breast cancer, unless medical miracles occur it will be her last. Front Row assesses her career.
Unless is published in hardback by 4th Estate.
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* The BBC took a stern view of the recording of its programmes by listeners. It was an illegal act to capture The Goons or Doris Archer on tape. Lord Reith called these people "airwave pirates". But these people become the heroes of the BBC this weekend when Radio 4's The Archive Hour broadcasts some of the programmes lost from the official archives because it was so expensive to make copies.
The Archive Hour - Radio's Lost Property is on Radio 4 at 8.00pm on Saturday 4 May.
Listen to the feature
* No pop collector has yet discovered a tape of Tom Waits having singing lessons. That's probably because he never did. Waits, like Bob Dylan, is one of those singers to whom you keep subconsciously wanting to pass a coughsweet. As Waits releases two new albums, David Quantick clears his throat and reflects on the sandpaper vocalists of pop history.
The two new Tom Waits albums, Alice and Blood Money - are on the Anti label
Listen to the feature
ON FRIDAY'S PROGRAMME
Francine Stock talks to Mira Nair, the director of Monsoon Wedding, about the influence of Bollywood and novelists explain the advantages of having had a real job.
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