Early Music Show

For centuries it's been widely accepted that the composer Daniel Purcell was the younger brother of the more celebrated Henry. Now, though, it's thought that they may actually have been cousins rather than brothers. Daniel Purcell's music has remained largely in the shadow of his older relative, but thanks to a handful of recent recordings, it's now being considered much more on its own merits. Lucie Skeaping explores his life and music.

In the early 1990s the French actor Gerard Depardieu gave a brilliantly nuanced performance as the 17th/18th Century composer and viol player Marin Marais. The acclaimed film "Tous Les Matins du Monde" was one of the few movies to celebrate and popularise early music. Lucie Skeaping remembers the film and considers some of the music.

Lucie Skeaping explores the Accademia di Arcadia, a literary academy founded in the late 17th Century which boasted musician members including Corelli and Scarlatti.

Catherine Bott looks back on the story and the music of the viola d'amore - or the "love viol" - an instrument much loved in the baroque era for its distinctive tonal colours.

King Christian IV of Denmark was a very generous patron of music, employing some 80 or so musicians - he surrounded himself with music whether he was at home, court or abroad, and nurtured native musicians and also ones imported from abroad. Catherine Bott looks at some of the composers who worked at his court.

A look at one of the earliest sources of English medieval music, the Trinity Carol Roll. Catherine Bott visits the Wren Library in Cambridge, where the manuscript is kept, and talks about the music and the significance of the collection with David Skinner who has recently recorded it all with his group Alamire.

Cristóbal de Morales was by all accounts a difficult man to work with, but is considered the greatest Spanish composer of his age, and the first Spanish composer of international renown. Lucie Skeaping explores his life and work.

The Italian poet Torquato Tasso was one of the most widely read writers in 16th Century Europe. His words were set by the great composers of the day and for many centuries after his death, but he was a troubled man who suffered from mental illness and died just days before he was due to be crowned as the king of poets by the Pope. Catherine Bott explores Tasso's life and the musical settings of his work.

On the first Sunday of Advent, Catherine Bott introduces a selection of early music for the Advent season. Including music from Bach, Charpentier and Praetorius and lesser known composers Vaclav Karel Holan Rovensky and Thomas Stoltzer.

Exploring the tender art of the lullaby, from ancient melody to Elizabethan song. Lucie Skeaping discovers how this most intimate of forms offers inspiration to the world of early music.

Vocalist, harpist and scholar Benjamin Bagby talks to Catherine Bott about his career spanning more than 30 years. He founded the ensemble Sequentia with the late Barbara Thornton in 1977, a versatile group specialising in the performance and recording of Western European music from the period before 1300.

Exploring the Muiderkring, a group of 17th century Dutch cultural figures, who supposedly met at a castle near Amsterdam to discuss current affairs, read their poetry to each other, debate philosophical and moral issues and, of course, make music. Presented by Catherine Bott.

Profiling the Baroque group Florilegium with their director Ashley Solomon. Lucie Skeaping looks at the character and nature of the baroque dance suite in preparation for the launch of the 2013 National Centre for Early Music/Radio 3 Instrumental Composers' Award. Full details and Terms and Conditions for the Award can be found by visiting our website at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/earlymusicshow and following the links from there to the NCEM website.

Exploring the life and works of Giuseppe Tartini, one of the great violin virtuosos of the 18th century and composer of one of its most celebrated and demonic instrumental works, yet also of some of its sweetest melodies.

Lucie Skeaping continues her survey of the development of the period piano, ending in the early nineteenth century with instruments for which Beethoven and Haydn wrote music which were recognisable precursors of the modern concert grand piano.