Arts and Ideas

How should we appreciate the land around us? Tonight's Night Waves is devoted to a discussion on our changing relationship with the British landscape. Juliet Gardiner is joined by theologian and environmentalist Martin Palmer, writer and explorer Tristan Gooley, Fiona Reynolds Director General of the National Trust, and Radio 3 new Generation Thinker Alexandra Harris.

Philip Dodd explores our passion for luxury in an age of austerity. Is it a sin or simply the inevitable expression of our human nature? How has our understanding of luxury changed over the centuries? Should we embrace it or shy away? To examine these questions Philip is joined by Giles Fraser, Chris Sanderson, Robert Frank, Maxine Berg and Michael Scott.

Anne McElvoy presents a landmark edition on the Jean Renoir film La Grande Illusion. Popular with the audience and critics on its release in 1937, this masterpiece of French cinema tells the story of French officers trying to escape from a World War One prison. The film examines the themes of nationalism, duty, class and politics and has influenced a number of subsequent films including Casablanca and The Great Escape. Film historians Ginette Vincendeau and Ian Christie and professor of French History Julian Jackson join Anne to examine what makes this one of film's classics.

Philip Dodd goes to Kew Gardens in London to watch David Nash carving sculpture from felled trees and author Tom Holland discusses In the Shadow of the Sword, his new account of the history of Islam.

Matthew Sweet chairs an "International Review" edition of the programme, with critics from around the world coming together to discuss the latest global cultural events and arts issues. They'll be discussing an Afrikaaner drama Beauty by Oliver Hermanus about being secretly gay in Bloemfontein; an Egyptian novel Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan, set in a world populated by worshippers of both Jesus and Jupiter; and as the world's biggest ever Shakespeare festival kicks off later this month, we'll be asking how global Britain's greatest author really is.

Rana Mitter talks to the Australian writer Peter Carey about his new novel The Chemistry of Tears. Europe's museums are increasingly turning to countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for help in funding exhibitions. Does this form of cultural diplomacy force curators to compromise their content?Martin Roth, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum debates with Observer columnist Nick Cohen. And what can the language of an obscure Brazilian tribe called the Pirahã tell us about the evolution of our own? Linguist Daniel Everett explores how different societies have produced dramatically different languages.

Romance proved difficult for Schubert - he stood barely five feet tall, with a long oval face and a deeply cleft chin. In turning to the streets of 19th century Vienna, "a night in the arms of Venus lead to a lifetime on Mercury" Whilst uncertainty exists about the cause of Schubert's death from syphilis, what do his attempts at mercury remedies reveal about his final few years? The medical historian and author of Romanticism and the Sciences Andrew Cunningham, examines The UnRomantic death of the mercurial Schubert.

During the 19th century public performance became polite and professional. Audiences listened attentively in an environment free of gimmicks, and performance criticism blossomed. Night Waves' Matthew Sweet examines the legacy that controlling an audience would create, and how this new wave of respectability enabled writing, composing and performance to prosper.

Night Waves' Philip Dodd reflects on the paradoxes on snow in music and literature and life, with Schubert as the point of departure and return.

Jenny Uglow concentrates on Schubert and Scotland exploring his settings of Ossian poems, and Scott's The Lady of the Lake.

The novelist Clare Morrall imagines what may have happened during one of Schubert’s meetings with his great hero, Beethoven.

Schubert's voice emerges uniquely from song which emanates from poetry. Robert Vilain, a specialist in the German poetic tradition, examines Schubert's poetic sources from Goethe to Wilhelm Muller

With Rana Mitter. Susannah Clapp and Michael Billington discuss the appointment of Gregory Doran as new director at the RSC and they also discuss a new English version of Filumena by the Italian playwright Eduardo De Filippo. Professor Steven Rose, and the curator of a new Wellcome Collection exhibition, Marius Kwint, discuss our scientific and cultural relationship with the brain. And we re-examine the life and achievements of one of Germany's most colourful leaders, king Frederick the Great as it celebrates the 300th anniversary of his birth.

Attempts to explain both Schubert's achievements and mood swings through theory, often fall short of explanation. The writer, philosopher and retired medical doctor Raymond Tallis re examines the neurological and psychological evidence of a composer who increasingly meditated on the darker side of the human psyche and human relationships

The journey Sir George Grove made to Vienna by train was one of vision and passion. He went in pursuit of the lost works of a neglected composer, Franz Schubert, and his pilgrimage resulted in the discovery of the score of Rosamunde. Travel writer Simon Calder explores the journey of anticipation and what drove the founding editor of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians to seek out the work of a relatively unpopular composer.