Music Matters

As Egypt witnesses tumultuous political upheaval and the overthrow of their first democratically elected president, in the days leading up to this “second revolution” Suzy Klein visited Cairo for BBC Radio 3’s Music Matters to find out what lies at the heart of Egyptian cultural identity, and why Egyptian musicians and artists are fighting to protect it.

As BBC Radio 3 celebrates British music throughout June, Tom Service travels to Cornwall to discover the music making of Britain's most south-western county. He talks to composer Graham Fitkin, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Cornish composer George Lloyd, hears from folk group Dalla, and visits the site which inspired Arnold Bax's tone poem, Tintagel.

Tom Service talks to Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, about his plans and policy for music education and where he believes music sits in the national curriculum. He also visits Sheffield to talk to musicians working with a new digital archive of English folk music called The Full English and he talks to author Michael Hass about his new book "Forbidden Music" which unravels the story of composers and musicians who were banned by the Nazis.

Tom Service visits Aldeburgh as it prepares for a staging on the beach of Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes, and author Ronald Blythe talks to Tom about his time working with Britten. Paul Elie discusses his new book Reinventing Bach, and as Radio 3 celebrates British music there's a look at the vitality of Welsh composition both past and present.

Celebrated mezzo Joyce Didonato on how she conveys the emotion beneath Rossini's Bel Canto fireworks, Mark Elder and players from the OAE on how period instruments bring new life to Verdi's Falstaff, conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier pays tribute to the late Henri Dutilleux, plus Sally Beamish and John Purser on what makes a piece of music Scottish.

As part of Radio 3's Wagner week, Tom Service travels to Switzerland to explore Richard Wagner's life before Bayreuth - his years as a poltical exile in Zurich, and at the Wagner family home at Tribschen on the shores of Lake Lucerne. Tom's guides to Wagner's Swiss years are the authors Chris Walton and Eva Rieger. He also meets Wagner's great-granddaughter Dagny Beidler, and the director of the Zurich Festival Elmar Weingarten. Stephen Evans reports on Wagner's complex relationship with his home town of Leipzig, and Leipzig Opera's music director Ulf Schirmer makes the connection between the early operas he wrote there and his mature works.

This week Suzy Klein meets Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez and discovers why he always keeps his phone at the side of the stage when he performs. Louis Andriessen pays tribute to his pupil and friend Steve Martland who died earlier this week. Marin Alsop and Nigel Simeone review a new book in which Jonathan Cott retells the story of the night he had dinner with the composer, conductor and vital life force that was Leonard Bernstein and Suzy delves into the inner workings of a piano as she joins the members of the Pianoforte Tuners Association as they celebrate their centenary.

With Tom Service, including a report from the new Mariinsky II in St Petersburg which opens this weekend and is expected to transform the existing Mariinsky Theatre and Concert Hall into one of the world's premiere performing arts centres for classical music, opera and ballet. Author Philip Eisenbeiss comes into the Music Matters studio to talk about his new biography of the legendary impresario Domenico Barbaja, who dominated European operatic stages for thirty years at the height of the bel canto era, and was responsible for commissioning operas by Donizetti, Weber and Bellini among others. Tom also catches up with Alexander Pereira, for nearly two decades director of Zurich Opera, and since 2011 artistic director of the Salzburg Festival.

Suzy Klein pays tribute to Sir Colin Davis. With interviews from the BBC Archive as well as music from across his vast recorded output. Head of Music at the Royal Opera House David Syrus, LSO principal clarinettist Andrew Marriner and tenor Ian Bostridge remember their friend and colleague. Ahead of his Wigmore Hall concert, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani explains to Suzy how the two different instruments he will use tell of the changing attitudes to the harpsichord and the music written for it.

Tom Service marks the fiftieth anniversary of Francis Poulenc's death by visitng the composer's home city of Paris, to trace his remarkable musical life. He talks to pianist Graham Johnson, Poulenc's great-nephew Benoit Seringe,Gabriel Tacchino, Georges Prêtre and musicologists Barbara Kelly and Nicolas Southon.

Pianist Leif Over Andsnes discusses his on-going journey through Beethoven's Piano Concertos, Tom Service visits a performance simulator at The Royal College of Music, choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan discusses Stravinsky's Petrushka and violinists from real-life string quartets review a new film starring Christopher Walken and Philip Seymour Hoffman about life in a fictional quartet.

As Radio 3’s Baroque Spring Season draws to a close Tom Service explores the changes in the performance and perception of Baroque music over the last 40 years. From the early Dutch and British pioneers of the early music movement in the 1960s, through to today, historically informed performance practice has grown from a small band of devotees to a movement which now influences how every professional ensemble approaches the Baroque repertoire. With contributions from Christopher Hogwood, Roger Norrington, Reinhardt Goebel, William Christie, Emma Kirkby, Rene Jacobs, Ton Koopman, Nicholas Harnoncourt and Nicholas Kenyon.

Suzy Klein meets the violinist Nicola Benedetti ahead of a major tour of Scotland. As the LA Philharmonic takes up residency at the Barbican, we find out about YOLA - Youth Orchestra LA - and how it's changing the lives of young people in the city. Suzy also meets David Wright, author of a new book about the history of the ABRSM, and finds out how much music exams have changed over the year - or not!

On this week's Music Matters: the new chairman of the Arts Council England,Sir Peter Bazalgette. Zoë Martlew and Professor Susan Hallham discuss the future of one to one music teaching. A new book of letters by composer, conductor, critic, and lexicographer Nicolas Slonimsky. Plus Geoff Baker on the future of Venezuela's El Sistema after Hugo Chavez' death

Tom Service interviews violinist Christian Tetzlaff, talks to George Benjamin and Martin Crimp about their much acclaimed new opera 'Written on Skin', celebrates 40 years of the Renaissance vocal group The Tallis Scholars with director Peter Philips and 60 years on from the deaths of Stalin and Prokofiev looks at their reputations now and then.