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 Katia and Marielle about the broad range of music that they are creating, the boundaries that they are constantly pushing, and their sound-world within two pianos.

Before the release of their award-winning Gershwin disc in 1980, Katia and Marielle Labeque predominantly performed contemporary music, and encountered the composer Olivier Messiaen, who overheard them practising his Vision de l’Amen while they were still students at the Paris Conservatoire. They’ve since worked with Boulez and Berio, and it was on tour in Los Angeles, performing Berio’s Concerto for Two Pianos, that they happened across Gershwin for the first time. As students at the Paris Conservatoire, they had to fight to be accepted into the chamber music class, and they tell Tom about perceptions of piano duos and the mission to constantly seek new repertoire.

The sisters’ continual curiosity and creativity has led them on a journey, as Marielle describes it, where one chance encounter leads to another. They have commissioned new works from musicians of backgrounds from rock to classical, from Bryce Dessner to Nico Muhly, and they have worked alongside Giovanni Antonini who helped them to acquire two reproductions of Bach’s Silbermann keyboards, which they keep in their Palazzo in Venice.

The sisters speak to Tom at length about all their musical projects, delve into what keeps them going, and discuss how their distinct two-piano sound really works.

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 to process grief, while the director Netia Jones tells Tom how she’s weaved together creative visuals with philosophical musings of Robert Burton’s 17th-century treatise The Anatomy of Melancholy as well as those of Freud and other contemporary experts of the human condition.

As the BBC celebrates its centenary, Music Matters is joined by composers Matthew Herbert and Anna Meredith, and Artistic Associate of the Southbank Gillian Moore, to discuss the corporation’s role as a commissioner of contemporary repertoire during the past 100 years.

Tom catches-up with composer Tom Floyd, singer Sophie Goldrick, and Professor Marion Thain during rehearsals of a new opera, Veritable Michael, which charts the creative life and love affair of two women who operated together under the pseudonym Michael Field – a 19th century fictional author whose work was celebrated by the likes of Oscar Wilde and Robert Browning.

And Tom takes a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum where he’d joined by Harriet Reed, the co-curator of Re:Imagining Musicals – a new display of glittering costumes and musical memorabilia – to explore the craftmanship, creative renewal, and evolutionary impetus behind some of the most iconic musicals of the past seven decades.

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 made through making the album and what it means to play solo, and she treats us to some solo Bach live on a hillside.

Tom talks to Ukrainian musicians and musical leaders about their musical life in Ukraine right now and how music and music-making is both an escape from the trauma of everyday life during the war, and a strong representation of Ukrainian national identity. We hear from conductor Ivan Cherednichenko at Lviv National Opera, Tetyana Kostorna at Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Sergey Didok at the National Operetta of Ukraine in Kyiv and pianist Antonii Baryshevskyi.

Edward Dusinberre, violinist and leader of the Takacs Quartet, discusses his new book ‘Distant Melodies - Music in Search of Home’ which explores ideas of home and exile through the lives and music of Elgar, Britten, Bartok and Dvorak, together with his own musical childhood in England and life as a touring musician living in America.

Gabriella Di Laccio, soprano and Founder of Donne, Women in Music, joins Tom to look at the latest Equality & Diversity in Global Repetoire Report which reveals that only 7.7% of pieces performed by 111 orchestras worldwide in 2021/22, were written by women. Artistic Director at London Philharmonic Orchestra Elena Dubinets reflects on the findings and shares her vision for change.

Producer: Matthew Dover

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 Skin is an arts collective using music as a means for cultural education and exchange. Darren Ferguson explains how the collective has been working with musicians seeking asylum and refugee status through creative collaboration and social support. Kate meets with some of these musicians including Shiva, a guitar teacher from Iran.

The Lambeg Drum is one of the loudest acoustic instruments and Kate gets to hear one in Co. Antrim, in the company of Willie Hill and Dr Diana Culbertson. They talk about the role the drum plays in the Ulster-Scots community.

Back in Belfast fiddle player Kevin McCullagh talks about his journey into experimental improvisation and subverting audiences' expectations of traditional music.

Kate hears about the Ulster Orchestra’s new home embedded in the community at Townsend Street, Belfast and she takes a short walk to visit pupils at Malvern Primary School in the Lower Shankill as they begin their cello class as part of the orchestra’s Crescendo Project.

Producer: Marie-Claire Doris

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 to Tom about how his early musical life in brass bands helped him to deal with his symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. We visit Bethlem Gallery to meet composer and artist Gawain Hewitt and Fiona Lambert from City of London Sinfonia's 'Sound Young Minds' project, a music-making programme with young people under the care of psychiatric hospitals. Daisy Fancourt talks about a large-scale study looking at how singing can be used to treat postnatal depression, and James Sanderson from NHS England sets out what he sees as music's role in social prescribing.

We explore mental health among musicians with writer, musician and mental health advocate Tabby Kerwin reflecting on the situation in the brass band movement, and James Ainscough from the charity Help Musicians discusses the recent increase in the number of musicians from across the industry seeking help from their new charity Music Minds Matter. Plus we talk to soprano Patricia Auchterlonie, composer Oliver Leith and director Anna Morrissey about their new opera Last Days at the Linbury Theatre and how the mental health and wellbeing of the cast is being supported.

And we're in Crook in County Durham to catch up with the community arts organisation Jack Drum Arts, which provides music sessions to help support the mental health of children and young people in the local area.

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 creating new musical opportunities for the area’s residents and visitors; and to speak those nurturing the next generation of musicians from across the town.

Tom starts at the world-famous Tower Ballroom, where he hears organist Phil Kelsall after his turn at the Wurlitzer Organ. He also tours the wider Blackpool area with Andrew White, Head of Blackpool Music Hub, who tells Tom about his organisation’s work to break down the barriers that often exist in providing all children with access to musical instruments as well as giving them memorable opportunities to perform in Blackpool’s many entertainment venues. Music Director Helen Harrison also joins Tom to discuss the role of Blackpool Symphony Orchestra and its place at the heart of the town’s musical community.

Tom speaks to luminaries of Blackpool’s long tradition in band music, including David Windle, who directed the Tower Circus Band, as well as Bandleader Albie Hilton, and discusses the legacy of music making within the town’s dance circuit. And, local resident Elaine Smith reminisces about tripping the light fantastic in Blackpool’s many dance halls.

We’ve contributions, too, from Blackpool brethren including singer Alfie Boe and the singer-songwriter Rae Morris, eavesdrop on the George Formby Society convention, and talk to the visiting guitarist Alexander Hacke reflects on how the town inspired his experimental band Einsturzende Neubauten while recently recording their new album on location.

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 the panel from Berlin. They deliberate on the pressing issues concerning the music industry this year.

They hear from Ukrainian musicians, Herman Makarenko and Valeriy Sokolov about how the war in Ukraine is affecting their lives and their music. The panel also responds to Arts Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay as he presents the new National Plan for Music Education, which applies to England only, and sets out the government's vision for music education running to 2030. Eight months after COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference, Tom talks to Luke Jenkinson, Managing Director of the climate conscious Global Music Vault in Norway about his commitment to safeguarding and preserving music on glass. And finally, the irrepressible violinist, Patricia Kopatchinskaja shares her thoughts on how to creatively safeguard classical music audiences as the industry continues to recover post-pandemic.