As he returns to his native Scotland to conduct the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner’s mighty eighth symphony, Kate speaks to the conductor Donald Runnicles about his relationship with the composer’s music and a lifetime spent making music. Kate visits Xenia Pestova Bennett at Queen Mary University of London to hear about her second album which features a new instrument, the Magnetic Resonator Piano. She tells Kate about her creative responses to the effects that electromagnets can induce on a regular concert grand piano. And marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Henri Veuxtemps, Music Matters hears from the violinist Anne Akiko Meyers – the current custodian of the composer’s famous Guarneri del Gesù violin. She describes the sound characteristics of what is reportedly the world’s most expensive instrument. Kate also catches-up with the author Sophy Roberts to learn about her travels across Siberia in search of the backstories of keyboards scattered across an eleventh of the world’s landmass. From clavichords transported by governors on sledge, through pianos which have weathered the region’s furtive cold, to a keyboard hacked out of a Gulag bunkbed frame, Kate hears how these instruments embody the soul of Siberia.

Music Matters speaks to the violinist Tasmin Little about her involvement in music education, life as a recording artist, and her plans as she prepares to step down from the concert platform after an illustrious career that has spanned more than three decades. Kate Molleson hears from music journalist Philip Clark as he reflects on the time he spent shadowing the Dave Brubeck Quartet during their British tour as well as the epic interview he recorded with the jazz legend – all the subject of his new book Dave Brubeck: A life in time. Philip speaks about Brubeck’s early career, the bandleader’s unique improvisation and compositional styles, and his creative relationships with fellow band members. Two current jazz composers – Liam Noble and Laura Jurd – also share their views about the man who is synonymous with Take Five. Kate also talks to David Dolan and Karen Chan Barrett about their respective research projects using the power of EEG and fMRI scanning techniques to uncover what happens in the brains of musicians and audience members during improvisatory performance. And the subject of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Total Immersion Day at the Barbican later this month, Kate steps into the unique and emotive sound world of the maverick Swedish composer Anders Hillborg as he reflects on his musical style, his abandonment of electronica, and how the compositional process is rewarding but not always necessarily fun!

Image Credit: Chris Christodoulou

Another chance to hear a special interview with Sir Roger Norrington, as he speaks to presenter Tom Service about his distinguished career in music, and in particular his relationship with Beethoven in the composer's 250th anniversary year, including his groundbreaking and seminal recordings of the symphonies with the London Classical Players, and his distinctive and influential approach to historically informed performance practice in music from Monteverdi and Schutz to Mahler and Debussy.

Violinist Nicola Benedetti leads an international career as a violinist but she is also one of the world’s leading advocates for high quality music education and the transformational effect music can have on all young people. She talks to presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch about her Foundation and her passion to inspire and enrich the lives of children across the UK. And in Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year, the Belcea Quartet marks a quarter century of its own by performing all of the composer’s string quartets at Wigmore Hall. Corina, Krzysztof, Axel and Antoine take time out from their rehearsals at London’s iconic venue, and speak to Sara backstage about the intensity of ensemble life and their lived experience as four individual musicians. Belinda Sykes is the founder of London-based ensemble Joglaresa and is living with terminal cancer. She talks to Sara about her determination to continue performing onstage and her love for making music with her fellow band members. And as Opera North’s new production of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene opens this weekend in Leeds, Sara visits the final rehearsals at the city’s Grand Theatre and meets the cast and creative team including leading Weill exponent, conductor James Holmes. He explains why the composer remains relevant to modern audiences.

Producer Marie-Claire Doris

This week Kate talks a bracing walk along the sea shore in Blyth, Northumberland, and talks to wildlife sound recordist and composer Chris Watson about his life and work. Starting out as a musician at the centre of the Sheffield electronic revolution, making music with tape recorders with his band Cabaret Voltaire, influenced by the sounds of heavy industry, Chris eventually turned his back on the lure of pop-fame to pursue a career in TV and film, providing the sound tracks for nature programmes from around the world. Kate also discusses what makes a musical masterpiece with French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, and hears about his approach to reinterpreting the Beethoven piano concertos and French piano music. Scottish folk musician Alasdair Roberts reveals what influences him and why he feels his music is not quite in the mainstream. And, as the League of Nations celebrates its centenary, academic researchers Laura Tunbridge and Sarah Collins investigate a spin off international project using music and culture to bring peace and harmony to a post WW1 world.

Tom meets American pianist Stephen Kovacevich, who candidly discusses stage fright as well as the dark side of Chopin; he appraises the music of composer Howard Skempton with Esther Cavett, co-author and editor of a new book about him; and talks to conductor and composer Thomas Ades (pictured) about his new piano concerto, and his first foray into film music (the score for Colette, starring Keira Knightley). Plus,Tom visits London's only remaining Elizabethan church to catch a rehearsal of the Grandmothers Project, a community choral work by Esmeralda Conde Ruiz.

We hear about The Monstrous Child and Hel, the heroine of Gavin Higgins and Francesca Simon’s new opera.

Professional bassoonist and professional boxer Hannah Rankin explains the connections between the two disciplines. Tom Service is in Dundee, exploring the town's musical heritage which ranges from the Scottish Ensemble and Simple Minds to the latest innovations in virtual reality and gaming. Kate Molleson reports from this month's Nordic Music Days festival in Helsinki, which has included the work of Scottish composers for the first time.

Pictured is the new V&A Dundee (image © Hufton+Crow).

Tom Service discusses Beethoven at the keyboard with pianist Angela Hewitt, who is currently touring Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.

Tom Service meets conductor Jonathan Nott to discuss his passion for music which began as a choral scholar in Worcester, the unanswerable questions that the masterpieces of Mahler and other composers pose as we move through life, and the new concert hall complex being built in Geneva for his Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Hubert Parry: a major figure in British musical history: Tom travels to Oxford and London to discover two formative musical experiences which changed Parry's life. With Kate Kennedy he discovers what impact studying at Exeter College, Oxford made on his future career as a composer and educationalist, and at 12 Orme Square London, David Owen Norris explains how Wagner was an important stepping-stone in his musical development.

Judith Chernaik's new book 'Schumann the Faces and the Masks' reveals new material on Robert and Clara's relationship. Who depended on who? And what couldn't Robert tell the love of his life?

The Orpheus and Eurydice myth is re-told in Passion, the first UK production of French composer Pascal Dusapin's dance-opera, currently touring the UK. Members of the production team, Caroline Finn, Michael McCarthy and Pascal discuss the genesis of this work on loss on love.