By BBC Radio 3
The stories that matter, the people that matter, the music that matters
The Labeque Sisters, Katia and Marielle Labeque, shot to fame in 1980 with their arrangements of Gershwin, including the Rhapsody in Blue, and for more than half a century have made a unique musical life together. Tom Service talks to...
Presenter Tom Service visits the Pit Theatre at the Barbican to learn more about a new theatrical meditation on the bittersweet consolations of sorrow. He speaks to countertenor Iestyn Davies about the melancholy of John Dowland’s music and its power...
Tom Service joins Rachel Podger and her violin for a walk in the Brecon Beacons to talk about her new album ‘Tutta Sola’ which features lesser-known solo violin music of the 18th century. Rachel discusses the new musical discoveries she’s...
This week Kate Molleson focusses on Northern Ireland. Kate visits pianist Ruth McGinley at her studios in The MAC in Belfast to chat about her upcoming album of Irish airs and her unique approach to music making. Beyond...
To mark World Mental Health Day, Tom Service presents a special programme in collaboration with Professor Sally Marlow, a mental health specialist at King’s College London and BBC Radio 3’s first ever Researcher in Residence. Composer Gavin Higgins talks...
Kate Molleson talks to the German violinist Christian Tetzlaff as he prepares for a recital in London. They discuss the intensity of performing live, the joy of playing chamber music, and playing one last time with his musical partner -...
Kate Molleson talks to Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson about his concerts at the opening weekend of the Southbank Centre's new season, and about his new double album, From Afar, on which all the pieces are recorded twice, on two different...
In an extended conversation with Tom Service, the American composer John Adams, who's turned 75 this year, discusses his life in music, the importance of his legacy, and focuses on his new opera 'Antony and Cleopatra'. It was premiered...
Presenter Tom Service visits Blackpool to explore the iconic seaside town’s rich musical history and learn more about the energy of a musical ecosystem famed for its ballrooms, dance bands, and Wurlitzer organs; to hear from the those responsible for...
Tom Service is joined in the studio by Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, chief executive of UK Music; Kate Whitley, composer and founder of the Multi-Story Orchestra in south east London; and Olivia Giovetti, music journalist and editor of VAN Magazine, who joins...
Tom Service talks to composer Max Richter about his latest project, ‘The New Four Seasons’, a new version of his critically acclaimed take on Vivaldi's piece, played this time on period instruments by Chineke! Orchestra and soloist Elena Urioste. Why...
As Scottish Opera celebrates its sixtieth anniversary, Kate Molleson talks to key figures and artists from the company about its past, present and future including the company's General Director Alex Reedijk, Emerging Artist Lea Shaw, critic Ken Walton and conductor...
Tom Service talks to drummer, conductor and composer Tyshawn Sorey. A musician very much in demand across both classical and jazz circles, Tyshawn discusses his continuing mission to break down boundaries in music and his recent piece ‘Monochromatic Light’, written...
Tom Service talks to Sir Bryn Terfel about an extraordinary life performing at opera houses and concert halls all over the world. He talks about how his career took flight after winning the Lieder Prize at Cardiff Singer of the...
Tom Service meets the British Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso ahead of his starring role in Madame Butterfly at the Royal Opera House. Conductor André J Thomas, who has just been announced as LSO Associate Artist, tells Tom about his...
Kate Molleson visits Glyndebourne Festival Opera to hear about its new production of Ethel Smyth’s ‘The Wreckers’ – the first major staging of this tale of a hostile coastal community in many, many years, heard, as the composer intended,...
Tom Service is joined by Dan Grimley for a walk in the Surrey Hills where Vaughan Williams grew up to explore the ways in which the community, sound and landscape of this area shaped his music and his thinking. They...
Tom Service meets the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená and conductor Sir Simon Rattle: partners in life and music. The husband-and-wife team talk to Tom about their collaboration on Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with London Symphony Orchestra. Also, they talk about...
Photo credit: Tom Zimberoff Ahead of this weekend’s Tectonic’s festival in Glasgow, Kate Molleson meets the pioneering electronic music composer at the centre of this year’s programme, Janet Beat, and learns how the studios she inaugurated at universities in Birmingham and...
Tom Service is joined by Russian music and history expert, Marina Frolova-Walker and BBC journalist, Olga Ivshina to discuss the effect the war in Ukraine is having on Russian music and culture. Clarinettist and conductor, Martin Fröst talks to...
The Russian born pianist Kirill Gerstein joins presenter Tom Service, fresh off the stage after his recent Ukraine solidarity concert with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin where he featured alongside a starry line-up of soloists, to discuss his thoughts about the...
Tom Service talks to virtuoso vocalist Bobby McFerrin about the latest chapter in his musical life and his ceaseless creativity. He’s been inspiring audiences to make music with him during concerts for decades, and now, following a Parkinson’s diagnosis,...
To coincide with the release of his debut recording of all seven of Jean Sibelius’s symphonies, Tom Service talks to 26-year-old Finnish conductor, Klaus Mäkelä, about his meteoric rise as conductor of the Orchestre de Paris and the Oslo Philharmonic. In...
Ahead of a new production of Britten's Peter Grimes at the Royal Opera House, Sara Mohr-Pietsch hears from members of the creative team bringing this compelling tale of an outsider to life, in a post-pandemic, 21st-century context. The composer...
Tom Service talks to the composer Eleanor Alberga about the premiere of her first symphony, 'Strata’. They discuss her creative process, the challenges she faces as well as her influences, which can be found in her native Jamaica and in...
As he prepares for concerts in the UK with the Czech Philharmonic, conductor Semyon Bychkov talks to Tom Service about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and about the relationship between art and politics, and draws a fascinating comparison with events...
As the Barbican Centre in London celebrates its 40th anniversary, Tom Service asks if the future of music venues and cultural hotspots is going big or small, and how should they engage with the communities around them. We talk to...
Image: © Simon Fowler The Italian pianist Beatrice Rana joins Tom Service to discuss her immersion in Beethoven’s late piano sonatas during Italy’s lockdown, and her relationship with one of the most famous works in the canon – the composer’s...
Tom Service celebrates the 90th birthday this week of American composer John Williams, with tributes from fellow composer David Newman, conductor Dirk Brossé, violinist Anne Sophie Mutter, Williams's son Joseph, and Clive Gillinson, who played cello in the orchestra for...
Sara Mohr-Pietsch talks to Ruth Slenczynska, the last living pupil of Rachmaninoff, from her home in Pennsylvania ahead of releasing a brand new solo piano album entitled My Life in Music. She reminisces about her childhood as a prodigy, connecting...
Photo credit: Katja Ruge The clarinettist and conductor Andreas Ottensamer joins presenter Tom Service, ahead of his forthcoming performance as soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, to discuss family lineages, his chair at the Berlin Philharmonic, and the view from both...
As a week exploring the legacy of the late great Dutch maestro Bernard Haitink draws to a close on Radio 3, Tom Service talks to today’s cohort of leading conductors and hears how they work their magic from the podium....
Tom Service looks ahead to upcoming events in the music and arts world in 2022 with violinist/composer Rakhi Singh, co-founder of Manchester Collective, Thorben Dittes, Director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Classical Music Programme at Sage Gateshead, and critic...
In the final episode of 2021, Tom Service meets mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and composer and pianist Jake Heggie whose album ‘Unexpected Shadows’ has been nominated for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in the 2022 Grammy Awards. Jamie recently sang in...
Tom Service talks to Lin-Manuel Miranda about making musicals, including Hamilton and tick, tick … BOOM! The soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn talks about the songs she has uncovered by composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. And two musicians who have had to leave their...
Today Tom Service talks to superstar violinist and conductor, André Rieu about his passion for sharing the joy of music across the world with his Johann Strauss Orchestra. Tom also visits the Russian pianist Pavel Kolesnikov, now a resident...
Tom Service travels to the Monastery in Gorton, the new home of the Manchester Camerata, to find out how the orchestra is embedding in to the community. Gorton was once the engine-room of the world as it kickstarted the Industrial...
As the COP26 climate summit continues, Tom Service is joined by a panel of guests to discuss how musicians, orchestras and cultural organisations can respond to climate change. Live guests include violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto, London Symphony Orchestra Managing...
Following the death of Bernard Haitink this week, Tom revisits the last Music Matters interview the Dutch conductor gave at his home in 2017, a moving account of his beginnings in music, his love for the musicians he worked with...
In 1999 the musician Warren Ellis clambered onstage at the Royal Festival Hall to retrieve a piece of chewing gum. The gum was deposited there by Nina Simone, who had chewed it throughout her concert that night. Fast forward twenty-two...
Kate Molleson presents a live edition of Music Matters from the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Coventry, featuring live music and a panel of guests discussing the parallel rhythms and sounds of music and language from the ancient oral...
Pianist Igor Levit talks to Tom Service about his latest epic recording project – three and a half hours of music by Dmitri Shostakovich and the Scottish composer Ronald Stevenson. No stranger to large-scale works he live-streamed Erik Satie’s Vexations...
As Music Matters returns to the airwaves for the Autumn, and classical music emerges from Covid along with the rest of the world, Tom Service assesses the current state of play with musicians and industry leaders, and asks them how...
Kate Molleson looks back on a year of musical connection and reflection as she revisits some of the guests we have featured on Music Matters. Kate talks to American composer, vocalist, dancer and film artist, Meredith Monk and she shares...
Kate Molleson talks to some of today's greatest writers about how music shapes their work and explores the ineffable intersection between words and music. Featuring Colm Tóibín, Elif Shafak, Ishmael Reed, Simon Armitage and Lavinia Greenlaw. Best-selling Irish author Colm...
Image credit: The Japan Art Association As the celebrated violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter prepares for the premiere of John Williams’s new violin concerto, she talks to Tom Service about making music in and out of the pandemic. She reflects on how...
Linton Stephens is joined by the soprano Nadine Benjamin ahead of a performance of her autobiographical opera BEAM, part of the Summer at Snape season. She reflects on how music has the power to heal and why she finds strength...
Kate Molleson celebrates Coventry as UK City of Culture 2021, exploring the musical life there, its rich musical history, and talking about what the future holds for Coventrians. She begins at the heart of Coventry in the ruins...
Tom Service is joined by the pianist Stephen Hough, and over a cup of coffee they discuss living in the moment during music during performance and how Stephen has spent much of the past year working as a composer. ...
Tom Service takes a look at the influence of horn player Dennis Brain in his centenary year - We hear from two of today's leading horn players Ben Goldscheider, who is releasing an album centred around Brain's legacy, and Sarah...