Music Matters

Tom Service talks to the Italian singer Anna Caterina Antonacci about her unique voice, about saying no to opera directors when necessary and about why she left her homeland for good. We travel to the heart of the Midlands to eavesdrop on one of the most successful ensembles of the country, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group as they celebrate their 25th birthday: Tom talks about it with, among others, conductor Simon Rattle, composers Thomas Ades, Oliver Knussen, Colin Matthews and Charlotte Bray as well as critic Christopher Morley. And as London's Royal Opera House embarks on Wagner's Ring Cycle, we get four different views about both the artistic and logistic challenges of staging this gigantic four-opera marathon from the ROH's Director of Opera Kasper Holten, soprano Susan Bullock, who's performing the role of Brunnhilde, composer Judith Weir and the novelist and critic Philip Hensher.

As Radio 3 celebrates the centenary of composer John Cage's birth, Tom Service looks back at his life and work, and asks how are we to understand Cage today? Joined by Cage biographers Mark Swed and David Nicholls, Tom hears from a chorus of Cage's colleagues and friends, and asks whether as Cage's former teacher Arnold Schoenberg said, he was not "a composer, but an inventor - of genius", or if his works, rooted in ideas as diverse as the Chinese book of changes, the I-Ching, Zen buddhism and the social theory of Buckminster Fuller, are still relevant as part of the canon of 20th Century composition. Featuring contributions from John Adams, Howard Skempton, Christian Wolff, Marjorie Perloff, David Behrman and Andrew Culver.

Tom Service travels to Northern Ireland to take the temperature of its music making. Starting in Derry-Londonderry he investigates how music has come to symbolise new relationships and new hope for the city. Moving on to Belfast Tom visits the MAC, a brand new arts centre which has just opened in the city’s cathedral quarter. There’s the latest from NI Opera and the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s University.

A special Debussy edition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth.

Tom Service travels to Versailles to discover more about the Royal Opera House there, widely considered to be one of Europe's most beautiful court theatres. Re-opened in September 2009 after an extensive restoration programme, it now plays host to many of the world's leading exponents of Baroque music. And two books fall under the Music Matters spotlight: Hugh Macdonald's Music in 1853 - The Biography of a Year looks at a period of about ten months, during which Berlioz, Liszt and Verdi were at the height of their powers, Wagner was on the verge of a breakthrough, and Brahms was taking his first steps in the wider world. Laura Tunbridge and Roderick Swanston give their verdict on this distinctive approach to music history, and Tom is also joined by Nicholas Kenyon to examine the issues around the mammoth undertaking that is the Oxford History of Western Music, a new college edition based on Richard Taruskin's award-winning six volume work.