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Notable

Experience the emotional drama behind the most pioneering composers and their music. Narrated by leading figures of the stage and screen.

Radio 3,22 episodes

Episodes

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Facing The Music
Ludwig van Beethoven: The Battle for Joy
Dominic West exposes Beethoven’s emotional pain in search of joyful, life-affirming music.
17 Feb 2025,29 mins
Facing The Music
Dmitri Shostakovich: Staring Down the Terror
Michael Sheen uncovers Shostakovich’s fear and defiance in Stalin’s terrifying USSR.
17 Feb 2025,29 mins
Facing The Music
Florence Price: Power and Pride
Nina Sosanya confronts Price’s battle with prejudice to reveal her true musical identity.
17 Feb 2025,28 mins
Facing The Music
Antonín Dvořák: Heartache and Hope
Adeel Akhtar unravels Dvořák’s grief and musical rebirth after the deaths of his children.
17 Feb 2025,29 mins
Facing The Music
Sergei Rachmaninov: Fear of Failure
Kit Harington tackles Rachmaninov’s paralysing writer’s block to reveal a masterpiece.
17 Feb 2025,29 mins
Facing The Music
Jean Sibelius: Rage Against the Machine
Toby Jones reveals how Sibelius’s anger and destruction freed him from musical torment.
17 Feb 2025,29 mins
Facing The Music
Ethel Smyth: Resilience and Resistance
Maxine Peake embraces Smyth’s rule-breaking as the composer takes on the patriarchy.
17 Feb 2025,29 mins
Facing The Music
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Lust for Life
Andrew Lincoln revels in Mozart’s new-found love as he and his music, break free.
17 Feb 2025,29 mins
Facing The Music
Duke Ellington: In Control
Don Warrington watches Ellington risk it all to save his name and musical legacy.
17 Feb 2025,29 mins
Facing The Music
Joseph Haydn: Letting Go of Loneliness
David Suchet plunges into Haydn’s isolation and how it was shattered in war-torn Vienna.
17 Feb 2025,29 mins
Facing The Music
Introducing Facing The Music
Exposing the emotional turmoil behind legendary composers and their captivating music.
10 Feb 2025,2 mins
Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
Introducing Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
In Monsters of Music, Tom Allen uncovers the scandalous lives of classical musicians.
29 Aug 2023,1 min
Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
Handel The Royal Glutton with Isy Suttie
Handel was a glutton, a royal composer and maybe a spy, but was he really a monster?
04 Sep 2023,30 mins
Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
The Divine Maria Callas with Arielle Free
Maria Callas's life was as dramatic as an operatic storyline. But was she really a Diva?
04 Sep 2023,30 mins
Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
Wagner’s Tainted Legacy with Frank Cottrell Boyce
Richard Wagner was a romantic, a revolutionary and bitter antisemite.
04 Sep 2023,30 mins
Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
Debussy The Love Rat with Abi Clarke
Claude Debussy was a love rat who left behind a trail of broken hearts and gunshot wounds.
04 Sep 2023,30 mins
Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
Franz Liszt The First Rockstar with Jack Steadman
Liszt was a monk, a sex symbol, and a pianist who made nuns faint and forget their vows.
04 Sep 2023,30 mins
Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
Puccini The Mighty Hunter with Bec Hill
Blackmail, affairs and a secret love child. Was Puccini the bad boy of the Opera world?
04 Sep 2023,30 mins
Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
Anton Bruckner The Corpse Chaser with Edith Bowman
Anton Bruckner was a composer fascinated with death, religion and teenage girls.
04 Sep 2023,30 mins
Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
Fifty Shades of Percy Grainger with Lou Sanders
Percy Grainger had a fetish for whips, blood-stained shirts and folk melodies.
04 Sep 2023,30 mins
Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
Dame Ethel Smyth The Wrecker with Laufey
Ethel Smyth was a trailblazing composer, suffragette and no stranger to passionate affairs
04 Sep 2023,30 mins
Monsters of Music with Tom Allen
Alma Mahler The Heartbreaker with Arlene Phillips
A composer, heartbreaker, socialite and antisemite. Who was the real Alma Mahler?
04 Sep 2023,30 mins