Private Passions

The format of this programme is an interview of a prominant person about their significant musical choices and it can illuminate both the person and their biography as well as their musical choices.

Today at 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is writer and philosopher Colin Wilson, whose extensive output began with the publication 50 years ago of The Outsider, the book in which he coined the phrase New Existentialism, and has gone on to embrace literary, music and film criticism, science fiction, the occult and criminology. His musical tastes range from a Haydn string quartet to symphonies by Prokofiev and Howard Hansen and operas by Benjamin Britten and Berg.

Today:

Michael Berkeley's guest is Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Government at Oxford University, and a noted commentator on constitutional and political issues.

A passionate music-lover, his choices reflect his love of the piano, with works by Bach, Shostakovich, Beethoven and Schubert, and also an interest in the part music has played in politics, illustrated by an extract from Wagner's Parsifal and Prokofiev's Sixth Symphony.

Today: Michael Berkeley's guest is one of Britain's best-known contemporary playwrights, Mark Ravenhill. He shot to fame with a series of plays whose contemporary themes, black sense of humour and sensational subject-matter - exploring subjects such as alternative sexuality and drug-taking - have intrigued and scandalized audiences all over the world.

His musical choices have a strongly political slant and reveal a passion for opera, ranging from Offenbach's satirical comedy Orpheus in the Underworld to Beethoven's Fidelio, Verdi's Rigoletto, John Adams's Nixon in China and Britten's Peter Grimes.

David Yallop
Sunday 3 June 2007 12:00-13:00 (Radio 3)

Michael Berkeley's guest is the investigative writer David Yallop, whose books have probed some controversial subjects, including the Sicilian mafia, Colombian drug cartels, high-profile criminal cases, and alleged corruption within the Vatican, including the mysterious death of Pope John Paul I. His most recent book, The Power and the Glory, investigates the papacy of John Paul II.

His musical choices range from Gregorian chant, to piano music by Bach and John Field, string quartets by Mendelssohn and Beethoven, and music by the English composers George Butterworth and Elgar.

Colm Toibin
Sunday 29 July 2007 12:00-13:00 (Radio 3)

Michael Berkeley's guest is award-winning Irish writer Colm Toibin, whose novels include The Blackwater Lightship, The Master and a collection of short stories, Mothers and Sons.

A passionate music lover, his choices include Pablo Casals playing Bach, songs by Faure, Gluck, Schubert and Sibelius, a string quartet by Irish composer Frederick May and an excerpt from Wagner's Die Walkure.

Sunday 5 August 2007 12:00-13:00 (Radio 3)

Michael Berkeley talks to actress Felicity Kendal, who is best known for playing Barbara in the classic 1970s sitcom The Good Life.

Her musical choices include Tabla music from India, vocal music from the Westminster Cathedral Choir, works sung by Maria Callas and Placido Domingo and a range of concertos from Vivaldi to Elgar.

Private Passions 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long). Michael Berkeley talks to Peter Kosminsky, director of award-winning TV dramas tackling highly controversial social and political issues such as child abuse (No Child of Mine), the Balkan and Iraq wars (Warriors, Government Inspector) and Muslim extremism (Britz). His musical choices include Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, Mozart's Requiem, Philip Glass's The Photographer and Bruch's Kol Nidrei.

Sunday 9th November 2008. Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long). Michael Berkeley's guest is writer David Almond, whose award-winning children's book Skellig has been made into an opera with music by Tod Machover, and which is being performed later this month at The Sage in Gateshead. David is an opera lover and his musical choices include works by Monteverdi, Mozart, Handel, Puccini and Bartok as well as traditional Japanese Noh music.

Sunday 23rd November 2008. Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is rock star Rick Wakeman, keyboard player with the rock group Yes, film composer, session musician for artists such as Elton John, David Bowie, Cat Stevens and Ozzy Osbourne as well as a familiar guest on TV shows such as Grumpy Old Men and Have I Got News for You. He intended to become a concert pianist, and his musical choices reflect a deep love of music from Eastern Europe, with works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Smetana and Arvo Part.

Sunday 30th November 2008
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley talks to Welsh actor Paul Rhys, who played Theo van Gogh in Robert Altman's film Vincent and Theo, Ludwig van Beethoven in the BBC TV mini-series, and who is appearing in the current series of Spooks. His choices range from a Welsh male voice choir to Bach's St Matthew Passion, taking in works by Beethoven, Purcell, Schubert, Mahler, Puccini, and Ravel.

Thanks for posting these details Antimuzak. Intrigued at the last moment by Rick Wakeman's choices I listened to the programme a few minutes before it went offline this morning. Wakeman is certainly not your average 1970s rock star and his self-effacing comments together with the musical choices were a real pleasure to hear. So thanks again for posting that - it really brightened up my morning.

Sunday 14th December 2008
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is Polish-born illustrator Jan Pienkowski, creator with Helen Nicoll of the much-loved Meg and Mog series of children's books and a pioneer of the modern pop-up book. His most recent publication is an illustrated version of the Christmas story The Nutcracker. His musical choices, which all have strong personal resonances, reflect his Polish background as well as his love of both Italy and England. They include works by Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Rachmaninov and The Beatles.

Sunday 28th December 2008
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley talks to comedian Sue Perkins, who is one half of comedy duo Mel and Sue and stars with Giles Coren in the BBC2 series The Supersizers Go. She revealed a totally new area of expertise when she won the BBC's Maestro conducting competition last summer. Her great passion is the music of Benjamin Britten, and her other choices include a Mozart aria, excerpts from Pergolesi's Stabat mater and the finale from Stravinsky's The Firebird.

Sunday 4th January 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley talks to broadcaster and political commentator Jonathan Dimbleby, chair of Radio 4's Any Questions?, biographer of Prince Charles and presenter of a recent BBC TV series about contemporary Russia. He studied the piano until his mid-teens, and has chosen a Mozart piano sonata as well as music by Verdi, Bach, Beethoven, Britten and traditional ambassel music from Ethiopia.

Sunday 11th January 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is actress Kate O'Mara, well known for her glamorous roles in 1980s TV series such as Howards' Way and Dynasty. She has recently returned to the stage as Marlene Dietrich in Lunch with Marlene and as Mrs Cheveley in the Peter Hall/Bill Kenright production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband. Her musical passions range from baroque music by Bach and Zelenka through pastoral scenes by Dvorak and George Butterworth to Shostakovich Jazz Suites and Edith Piaf singing Milord.

Sunday 25th January 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is Pakistan-born writer and film-maker Tariq Ali, whose books examine the often troubled political relationship between West and East. A passionate music-lover, his choices begin with Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit and end with a highly topical song by Hans Eisler and Bertold Brecht, taking in along the way music by Gluck, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and the great Muslim Sufi poet and musician Bulleh Shah.

Sunday 8th February 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Actress Claire Bloom reveals her musical passions to Michael Berkeley, including operas by Mozart, Bellini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky and Richard Strauss, as well as pianist Alfred Brendel playing Schubert, cellist Heinrich Schiff playing Bach and the end of Schoenberg's Transfigured Night.

Sunday 1st March 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley meets Ffion Hague, wife of shadow foreign secretary William Hague, who has published a highly-rated book on the women in former prime minister Lloyd George's life. A native Welsh-speaker, Ffion loves music, having played clarinet and cello as a teenager, and is an enthusiastic singer. Her musical choices include Bryn Terfel singing a Welsh lullaby, Bruckner's motet Christus factus est, Faure's Cantique de Jean Racine and concerto movements by Mozart and Bach.

Sunday 22nd March 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is screenwriter and director Terence Davies, whose films include Distant Voices, Still Lives, set in his native city of Liverpool, and an adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel The House of Mirth, starring Gillian Anderson. Music has always played a crucial part in Davies's life, and his choices include songs from musicals Singin' in the Rain and Gypsy, the voice of Kathleen Ferrier and symphonies by Sibelius, Shostakovich and Bruckner.

Sunday 29th March 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is Anthony Horowitz, one of the most prolific and successful writers of his generation, and author of the successful series of books about 14-year-old spy Alex Rider. Anthony's musical choices include Chopin's Prelude in E minor, played by Vladimir Ashkenazy, and the Study in C, played by Martha Argerich, as well as excerpts from Act I of Mozart's Don Giovanni, the Malo song from Britten's Turn of the Screw, the end of Philip Glass's Satyagraha and the end of Act 1 of Tosca. He also chooses I loved You from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, the overture to Maurice Jarre's score for Lawrence of Arabia, and the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, played by the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan.

Sunday 5th April 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley meets actress, singer and songwriter Marianne Faithfull, the 1960s icon whose subsequent career has demonstrated her remarkable determination to overcome personal setbacks. Her musical choices include a Bach cello suite, a Mozart aria, chamber music by Beethoven and Schubert, songs by Bernstein and Bob Dylan, and John Coltrane's take on the Rogers and Hammerstein classic My Favorite Things.

Sunday 12th April 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Private Passions.

As part of Radio 3's Handel Week Michael Berkeley recalls nine previous guests who are passionate about aspects of Handel's music. They include Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham, and writers David Almond, Kirsty Gunn, Patrick Gale and Janice Galloway. Plus cartoonist Posy Simmonds, journalist Fergal Keane and actor Dominic West, as well as the National Theatre of Brent, who bring the programme to a conclusion with the Hallelujah chorus.

Sunday 26th April 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is William Fiennes, award-winning author of The Snow Geese, whose new book, The Music Room, is about his family and their ancestral home in Oxfordshire. A passionate music-lover, William's choices range from piano pieces by Bach, Schubert and Shostakovich to chamber music by Beethoven and Messiaen and a Bruckner motet.

Sunday 24th May 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is GP and medical journalist James Le Fanu, author of books such as The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine, and Why Us? How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves, in which he argues that Darwinism doesn't necessarily provide all the answers to human existence. He has always loved liturgical music, and his choices begin and end with a Byrd Mass and Haydn's The Creation. He also selects music by Bach, Beethoven and Schumann.

Sunday 14th June 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is actress Penelope Wilton, whose career encompasses stage plays by Chekhov, Lorca, Ibsen, Pinter and Terence Rattigan, TV work including Doctor Who, The Borrowers and Ever Decreasing Circles, as well as films such as Clockwise, Calendar Girls and Shaun of the Dead. Her musical interests range from Brahms and Anton Dvorak to Claude Debussy, Prokofiev and Kurt Weill.

The Kurt Weil choice was wonderfully sung by Sophie van Otter. There was a full-length rendition of Rodger's (and Hart's) "Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered" by Ella Fitzgerald which was also superbly performed. Penelope's choices came over well, intimate and lyrical.

Sunday 21st June 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley talks to former Cabinet minister Michael Portillo, who since leaving the political arena in 2005 has enjoyed a wide-ranging career in journalism and broadcasting, from presenting TV discussion programmes and documentaries to chairing the 2008 Booker Prize judging panel. Many of his musical choices could be said to have a political edge, from Wagner's Ring cycle to Shostakovich's 13th Symphony and Puccini's opera Tosca.

I liked his choice of the A minor quartet D804 minuet, played by The Lindsays, intelligent and playful.

Schubert chamber music is always good, an interesting programme with interesting choices.

Tomorrow:

Sunday 5th July 2009 (starting tomorrow afternoon)
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley meets actor Jeremy Northam, whose musical choices range from piano pieces played by Andras Schiff and Keith Jarrett, jazz numbers performed by Earl Hines and Ella Fitzgerald to operas by Puccini and Janacek, Schubert's first piano trio and Mahler's Fifth Symphony.

Sunday 12th July 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is award-winning theatrical designer Richard Hudson, who won international acclaim for his imaginative and visually stunning designs for Disney's The Lion King, and has worked at most of the world's great opera houses on a wide range of operas from Handel to Judith Weir. He was born in Zimbabwe, and his musical passions range from the South African national anthem Nkosi sekelele Africa to Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Cole Porter.

Sunday 6th September 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is Anthony Bolton, one of the most respected British investment fund managers in recent years. He is passionate about music and composes in his spare time, citing Benjamin Britten as a major influence on his work. His choices for Private Passions include the Elegy from Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, sung by Ian Bostridge. There is an opportunity to hear one of Bolton's own pieces, a newly-recorded carol called A Kiss for the Baby, sung by Oxford Voices, directed by Mark Shepherd.

Sunday 13th September 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley talks to actress Imogen Stubbs, who has starred in many stage productions at the RSC, National Theatre and in London's West End in leading roles ranging from Shakespeare to Harold Pinter and Michael Frayn. Her musical choices include Brahms' First Piano Concerto, Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Jeff Buckley singing Britten's Corpus Christi Carol, Alfred Deller singing Purcell and Shaun Davey's The Relief of Derry Symphony.

Sunday 1st November 2009 (starting tomorrow afternoon)
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

John Stefanidis.

Michael Berkeley talks to interior designer John Stefanidis, whose work is renowned for its bold use of colour. He draws inspiration from different cultures, and his musical choices reflect his interest in India and Russia, as well as showcasing his favourite artists. They include sopranos Renee Fleming, Maria Callas and Kathleen Battle, as well as pianist Alfred Brendel and cellist Jacqueline du Pre.

Sunday 8th November 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is Vincent Cable, deputy leader and chief economic spokesperson of the Liberal Democrat Party. A passionate music-lover, his choices include Mozart's D minor Piano Concerto, K466, played by Murray Perahia, and a selection of voices ranging from Luciano Pavarotti in Verdi's Requiem to Nicolai Gedda in Mozart's Don Giovanni and Jessye Norman in Strauss's Four Last Songs.

Sunday 15th November 2009
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley meets British jazz pianist Jason Rebello, who has released several of his own albums as well as working with Sting. He trained as a classical pianist, and his choices include Ivo Pogorelich playing Ravel, Alfred Brendel playing Beethoven and Keith Jarrett improvising on Somewhere Over the Rainbow as well as excerpts from Durufle's Requiem and Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste.

Sunday 3rd January 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley meets theatre director Katie Mitchell, whose often controversial productions range from Greek tragedy to operas by Mozart and Janacek, and most recently, two contrasting productions for the National Theatre, Bruckner's The Pains of Youth and The Cat in the Hat, based on Dr Seuss's children's story. Much of the music she has chosen is connected with her work in the theatre, ranging from a Bach aria and a Schubert song to string quartets by Beethoven and Janacek and music by Luigi Nono and Alfred Schnittke.

Sunday 24th January 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley talks to Fiona Reynolds, director of the National Trust. She is a keen string player and her choices reflect her love of music for string ensemble, from Bach's Third Brandenburg Concerto and Elgar's Introduction and Allegro, to a quartet by Smetana and Mozart's Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola. There is also a Shostakovich piano concerto, part of Janacek's opera Katya Kabanova and The Salutation from Finzi's cantata Dies natalis.

Sunday 7th February 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is actress Penelope Wilton, whose career encompasses stage plays by Chekhov, Lorca, Ibsen, Pinter and Rattigan, TV work including Doctor Who, The Borrowers and Ever Decreasing Circles, as well as films such as Clockwise, Calendar Girls and Shaun of the Dead. Her musical interests range from Brahms and Dvorak to Debussy, Prokofiev and Weill.

Sunday 21st February 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

The musical choices of the late John Mortimer, barrister, playwright and creator of Rumpole of the Bailey, who died last year. He was one of the earliest guests on Private Passions and this edition, recorded at his Buckinghamshire home and first broadcast in 1995, offers another chance to hear John talking about one of his greatest passions - music.

Sunday 7th March 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley meets actor and writer Mark Gatiss, who has starred in many TV comedy series and dramas including The League of Gentlemen, Nighty Night, Doctor Who and The Crooked House. His musical choices include Vaughan Williams' Symphony No 6, the end of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, the Barcarolle from Offenbach's opera Tales of Hoffmann, as well as songs from Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate and Bernstein's Candide.

Sunday 21st March 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest today is young choirmaster Gareth Malone, presenter of BBC2's award-winning series The Choir. His passionate enthusiasm for all types of singing comes across in his choices, which range from choral works by Vaughan Williams, Leonard Bernstein and William Byrd to operatic arias by Mozart and Stravinsky, and songs by Robert Schumann and Finzi.

Sunday 4th April 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley meets the newly-appointed Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley. He studied singing at the Royal Northern College of Music and at New College, Oxford, and music has always been a great passion in his life. His choices include the famous Notturno movement from Borodin's Second String Quartet and the epilogue of Arnold Bax's Third Symphony. There's also the harrowing ending of Poulenc's opera Dialogues des Carmelites, as well as sacred choral music by Verdi - the Rex tremendae from the Requiem; Messiaen's motet O sacrum convivium; the Kyrie from Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor; and an excerpt from Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius.

Sunday 11th April 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley welcomes actor, impressionist and comedian Alistair McGowan, whose love of music dates back to his childhood, when he listened to his mother playing the piano. His musical choices include piano works by Chopin, Rachmaninov, Marcel Zidani and Erik Satie, whose quirky music is a particular favourite. He also includes an excerpt from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Solveig's Song from Grieg's incidental music to Peer Gynt sung by Charlotte Page, the Waltz No 2 from Shostakovich's second Jazz Suite and a poignant number from Cabaret, sung by Sheila Hancock and Geoffrey Hutchings.

Sunday 18th April 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is potter and writer Edmund de Waal, internationally renowned for his beautiful porcelain vessels which are to be seen in museums and galleries all over the world, from London to Los Angeles, Korea and Frankfurt. His musical choices including sacred works by Orlando Gibbons, J S Bach and Gesualdo, Johns Adams's Shaker Loops, Brian Eno's This and Moby's Porcelain, as well as Brendel playing a Mozart sonata and the Prologue and Pastoral from Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings.

Sunday 25th April 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is writer Joanne Harris, author of the best-selling novel Chocolat. Her musical choices include In the Hall of the Mountain King from Grieg's incidental music to Peer Gynt, Vltava from Smetana's Ma Vlast (My Country), the beautiful slow movement of Schubert's Piano Trio in E flat, an excerpt from Mahler's First Symphony and Rachmaninov's Prelude in C sharp minor.

Sunday 2nd May 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is children's author Michael Morpurgo, whose 1982 novel War Horse, inspired by the experience of cavalry horses in the First World War, has been turned into a smash hit play. His latest books deal with children on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide and with a boy caught up in an Indonesian tsunami who is saved by an elephant. Morpurgo is a passionate music lover, especially of vocal music, and his choices include works by Thomas Tallis, Henry Purcell, J S Bach and Handel as well as a concerto by Vivaldi, inspired by his many visits to Venice, and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, which reflects his deep love of rural life.

Sunday 9th May 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is science writer Philip Ball, whose latest book explores how the latest research in music psychology and brain science is piecing together the puzzle of how we understand and respond to music. His musical choices include a Bach prelude, a piano concerto by Bartok, a piano sonata by Prokofiev, Stravinsky's Tango for two accordions and a jazz number by Duke Ellington.

DSunday 23rd May 2010 (starting in 1 day)
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is Canadian-born author Rachel Cusk, whose novel Arlington Park was shortlisted for the 2007 Orange Prize for fiction. Her music choices are all classical, and focus on piano and vocal music. They includes Bach and Beethoven played on the piano by Glenn Gould and Richard Goode respectively, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson singing Handel's As with rosy steps the morn and an excerpt from Britten's Abraham and Isaac. There is also an excerpt from Act 2 of Janacek's Jenufa, Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto played by the Russian Dmitri Alexeev, an excerpt from Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and part of Gerald Finzi's Eclogue, played by pianist Piers Lane with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Sunday 30th May 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley introduces a selection of former guests on the programme talking about a particular opera they love. Artist Quentin Blake chose a duet between hero and villain from Act 2 of Verdi's Otello; Joanna Lumley talks about the great quartet from Beethoven's Fidelio; Scottish writer Janice Galloway says how she finds great satisfaction in seeing the rake Don Giovanni dispatched to Hell at the end of Mozart's opera; Jonathan Miller discusses staging Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen; film director Anthony Minghella chooses Cavaradossi's pre-execution aria E lucevan le stelle from Puccini's Tosca; children's writer David Almond loves the Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridice as imagined by Monteverdi; actress Maureen Lipman chooses the voice of Maria Callas in an aria from Rossini's The Barber of Seville; and Stephen Fry selects the ending of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

Sunday 20th June 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Structural engineer Cecil Balmond, deputy chairman of Ove Arup, who has collaborated with some of the world's leading architects and artists on some of the most daring and celebrated contemporary projects joins Michael Berkeley to select his favourite pieces of music. His tastes reveal links between his own work and music, and he expounds on the idea of architecture as 'frozen music', especially in the music of Bach. Including the Cello Suite No 1 in G, Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu No 4 in C sharp minor, played by Artur Rubinstein and John Williams performing Paganini's Grand Sonata in A. Plus the Benny Goodman Quartet playing Runnin' Wild, part of the opening movement of Brahms's Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Beethoven's Adelaide and a choral piece from Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Sunday 27th June 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is baritone Thomas Allen. He made his professional operatic debut as Rossini's Figaro over 40 years ago and has gone on to sing many leading roles in a range of works, from Mozart to Benjamin Britten. Thomas's musical choices include three operatic excerpts - the overture to Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, the prelude to Act 3 of Wagner's Die Meistersinger and the final scene of Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses in Jeffrey Tate's recording of the controversial arrangement by Hans Werner Henze. He also chooses an excerpt from Schubert's great Fantasia in F minor for piano duet and the Moonlight episode from Frank Bridge's tone-poem The Sea.

Sunday 18th July 2010 (starting in 3 hours and 33 minutes)
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Another chance to hear Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, MP for Sheffield Hallam and deputy prime minister, revealing his musical passions to Michael Berkeley. He was born in 1967, the third of four children of a half-Russian father and a Dutch mother. He speaks fluent Dutch, French, German and Spanish, and has a Spanish wife. After beginning his career as a journalist and development aid and trade expert for the European Commission, he was elected as an MEP in 1999, writing many essays on public policy issues. He was elected MP for Sheffield Hallam in 2005 and succeeded Menzies Campbell as party leader in December 2007. Since this programme was first broadcast in October 2008, he has become deputy prime minister in the newly elected coalition government. Clegg admits that being an MP and, particularly party leader, is such a full-time job - and he also has small children - that it doesn't leave very much time for leisure activities, but he loves listening to music when he can. His wife plays the piano, and three of his choices are of music played by pianists he greatly admires: a Schubert Impromptu in E flat minor played by Alfred Brendel, a Chopin waltz played by Claudio Arrau and the slow movement of Chopin's Second Piano Concerto played by Vladimir Ashkenazy. His other choices are Mozart's Laudate Dominum, K339; Schubert's terrifying song Erlkonig, sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Gerald Moore; and Richard Strauss's radiant Beim Schlafengehen, one of the Four Last Songs, sung by Elizabeth Schwarzkopf.

Sunday 25th July 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is the versatile musician, composer and record producer William Orbit. Throughout the years, Orbit has worked with Madonna, Blur, All Saints, Sugababes, Katie Melua and Finley Quaye and, in 2007, he composed his first suite for symphony orchestra. His eclectic musical favourites include an early 16th-century motet by Jean Mouton, an aria from the 1735 opera Polifemo by Nicolo Porpora and one from Bellini's opera La sonnambula, sung by Maria Callas; part of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, played by David Shifrin and the Emerson Quartet; the opening movement of Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements; and an except from Benjamin Britten's score for the 1936 GPO film Night Mail. There is also an example of William Orbit's own work: his arrangement of the Aquarium movement from Saint-Saens's Carnival of the Animals.

Sunday 22nd August 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley is joined by award-winning American actor David Hyde Pierce, who played Dr Niles Crane in the sitcom Frasier and who is currently starring in La bete in London's West End. Hyde Pierce is both an Anglophile and a great lover of music - he originally hoped to be a concert pianist. He tells Michael that he has compiled a list of music as a homage to England, beginning with the Overture to HMS Pinafore, a show in which he directed as a student. His love of the English cathedral tradition is reflected in Parry's anthem I was Glad and his final choice, Louis Vierne's Carillon de Westminster, for organ. There's also Rosalyn Tureck playing Bach and his friend Stephen Hough playing a Mendelssohn piano concerto, as well as an excerpt from Berlioz's Beatrice et Benedict', conducted by Colin Davis, in which he himself acted.

Sunday 26th September 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

In a programme first broadcast in 2001, Michael Berkeley talks to writer Alan Sillitoe, who died earlier this year. The Nottingham-born author wrote poetry and novels, including Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. Sillitoe's choices include Jerome Kern's Ol' Man River sung by Paul Robeson, Maria Callas singing Casta diva from Bellini's opera Norma and Vaughan Williams's arrangement of the English folk-song Seventeen Come Sunday. Sillitoe also selects Artur Rubinstein playing a Chopin Prelude and two pieces by Soviet composers, reflecting his lifelong interest in the Soviet Union - an excerpt from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet and Shostakovich's The Execution of Stepan Razin.

Sunday 10th October 2010 (starting in 7 days)
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest today is young choirmaster Gareth Malone, presenter of BBC2's award-winning series The Choir. His passionate enthusiasm for all types of singing comes across in his choices, which range from choral works by Vaughan Williams, Bernstein and William Byrd to operatic arias by Mozart and Stravinsky, and songs by Schumann and Finzi.

Sunday 3rd October 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley is joined by Graham Vick, artistic director of the Birmingham Opera Company, and one of the leading opera directors. His choices include the 14th-century Messe de Notre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut, the madrigal Vorrei baciarti by Monteverdi, as well as Chopin's Prelude in C sharp minor, Op 45, played by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and an early afternoon Indian raga played by Ravi Shankar. He also selects the finale of Beethoven's String Quartet in C sharp minor, Op 131, played by the Alban Berg Quartet, an excerpt from Mozart's The Magic Flute and the final chorus from Leonard Bernstein's musical Candide.

Sunday 17th October 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley is joined by novelist Marina Lewycka, author or A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and Two Caravans. Her musical choices include two classics of the Baroque repertoire - Bach's First Brandenburg Concerto and the aria I know that my Redeemer liveth from Handel's Messiah. She also selects Sibelius's Violin Concerto, Mozart's Piano Sonata in F, K332, the March to the Scaffold from Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and the Countess's aria Dove sono from the Marriage of Figaro. Marina's own origins are referenced in the traditional Ukrainian folksong The Black Raven, while her deep love of nature is reflected in the sound of a dawn chorus greeting the day.

Sunday 31st October 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley is joined by Shirley Williams, one of Britain's most prominent politicians, who helped found the STP in 1981. Her musical choices include the Storm at Sea interlude from Britten's Peter Grimes, an excerpt from Handel's Messiah and Kathleen Ferrier singing The Northumbrian folksong The Keel Row. She also selects Copland's Appalachian Spring, music by Schubert, Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge over Troubled Water and the Plaint from Purcell's The Fairy Queen.

Sunday 7th November 2010 (starting in 4 hours and 48 minutes)
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is comedian, actress and writer Arabella Weir. Her musical selection includes excerpts from Mozart's Don Giovanni (in the Joseph Losey film version), Verdi's La Traviata and the Scherzo from Schubert's Piano Sonata in B flat, D960. She also chooses Kathleen Ferrier singing Blow the Wind Southerly, the Skye Boat Song, Alfred Deller singing The Wraggle Taggle Gipsies, Beethoven's Ghost Piano Trio and Claudio Arrau playing the first movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata in A minor, KV310.

Sunday 14th November 2010 (starting in 4 hours and 46 minutes)
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest on Remembrance Sunday is Czech-born former actress Zdenka Fantlova, a survivor of several infamous Nazi concentration camps. Her music choices include works by Czech composers Dvorak, Smetana and her fellow Terezin inmate Gideon Klein, as well as a Chopin study, a Mozart symphony and her father's favourite, Strauss's Radetzky March.

Sunday 28th November 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley talks to newspaper columnist and writer Howard Jacobson, who won the 2010 Man Booker Prize for his novel The Finkler Question. His musical choices reflect his ecletic interests and include a Bach cantata, a Schubert piano trio, a duet from Bless the Bride, the waltz song from Lehar's The Merry Widow and Percy Grainger's Shallow Brown.

Sunday 5th December 2010
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley talks to novelist Adam Foulds, whose second novel, The Quickening Maze, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2009. His musical choices mainly centre on 20th-century music - Schoenberg's Op 24 Serenade, Debussy's Sonata for flute, viola and harp, songs by Ligeti and Stravinsky, two short pieces by Oliver Knussen, and the Vixen's Dream sequence from Janacek's opera The Cunning Little Vixen. He also selects an excerpt from a mass by early English composer Nicholas Ludford, track from Neutral Milk Hotel's album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

Sunday 26th December 2010 (starting in 3 hours and 43 minutes)
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is New Zealand-born Australian clinical psychologist, writer and former actress Pamela Stephenson Connolly. Her musical private passions, as revealed to Michael, include two Antipodean divas - Joan Sutherland singing an aria from Bellini's Norma and Kiri te Kanawa singing Strauss's song Morgen. She also selects Lotte Lenya singing the Alabama Song from Weill and Brecht's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, one of Satie's Gymnopedies for piano solo, a frog song played on Balinese gamelan instruments, Scottish fiddle music and Debussy's atmospheric Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune.

Sunday 2nd January 2011 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 14:30 to 15:30 (1 hour long)

Mozart Compilation.

In honour of Radio 3's New Year celebration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Michael Berkeley delves into the Private Passions archive to recall distinguished former guests who chose Mozart among their greatest enthusiasms. Crime writer Michael Dibdin chooses Mozart's String Quartet in G, K387; opera director Graham Vick selects a scene from The Magic Flute; Psychologist and novelist Salley Vickers opts for the slow movement of the Piano Concerto No 24 in C minor, K491; while actor Lenny Henry, political commentator Jonathan Dimbleby and Children's Laureate Michael Morpurgo choose the opening movement of the Piano Sonata in A, K331. Two recent award-winning writers, Booker Prize-winner Howard Jacobson, and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, both select excerpts from Mozart's darkest and perhaps most psychologically disturbing opera, Don Giovanni; while actor Simon Callow opts for the Adagio from the Serenade in B flat, K361, played to spine-tingling effect at the pivotal point of the drama. Finally, actor Fiona Shaw chooses the opening chorus of Mozart's last, unfinished work, the Requiem.

Sunday 30th January 2011
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley is joined by Tim Waterstone founder of the UK bookselling retail chain Waterstone's, who is also a novelist and is involved in the arts and academia. His musical enthusiasms focus on vocal music and include Elgar's Sea Pictures sung by Janet Baker; a carol by Elizabeth Poston sung by the choir of King's College Cambridge; and Doretta's Song from Puccini's La rondine, sung by Angela Gheorghiu. Plus the famous Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony, played by the London Philharmonic under Klaus Tennstedt; the Pie Jesu from Faure's Requiem; Renee Fleming singing Im Abendrot, one of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs; and Jerome Kern's The Way You Look Tonight sung by Fred Astaire.

Sunday 6th February 2011
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is Richard Mabey, who has been described as 'Britain's greatest living nature writer'. His musical passions are wide-ranging, from a charming madrigal by John Dowland and George Butterworth's poignant setting of Housman's Is my team ploughing? to a modern setting of a First World War protest song. Plus an improvisation by clarinettist David Rothenberg and two colleagues on an excerpt from Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne, a male-voice choir from a Corsican hill-town singing a traditional song and two contrasting pieces from Latin America, including one played by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.

Sunday 3rd April 2011 (starting in 5 hours and 24 minutes)
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is lawyer and crime writer Frances Fyfield. Many of her musical choices this her love for the sea, including the Sunday Morning sea interlude from Britten's Peter Grimes, Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, John Ireland's song Sea Fever, and the hymn Eternal Father, strong to save, as well as a reading of John Masefield's famous poem Cargoes. She also chooses an excerpt from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Victor Borge's A Mozart Opera, and the Habanera from Bizet's Carmen.

Sunday 8th May 2011
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is social and domestic historian Ruth Goodman, co-presenter of series TV such as The Victorian Farm. Her choices includes the famous Clog Dance from the Herold/Lanchbery ballet La fille mal gardee, the Dance of the Knights from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and The Princesses' Round Dance from Stravinsky's The Firebird. She also chooses two baroque pieces - an excerpt from Purcell's The Fairy Queen and Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, as well as Itzhak Perlman playing Paganini's Caprice No 5, Knee Play 5 from Philip Glass's opera Einstein on the Beach, and The Floating Crowbar for bagpipes.

Sunday 5th June 2011
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is journalist and former newsreader Trevor McDonald. His musical choices include Elgar's Introduction and Allegro, the Prisoners' Chorus from Verdi's Nabucco, an aria from Handel's Messiah, an excerpt from Beethoven's Violin Concerto played by Nigel Kennedy, the Shaker hymn tune Simple Gifts from Copland's Appalachian Spring, an aria from Act 1 of Puccini's Tosca and the finale of Chopin's First Piano Concerto played by Artur Rubinstein.

Sunday 12th June 2011
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

In a special edition recorded in front of an audience at the 2011 Hay-on-Wye Literary festival, Michael Berkeley talks to historian Amanda Foreman. Her musical choices focus on English music, including Tallis, a keyboard piece by John Bull, songs by Purcell and Henry Bishop, and a chorus from Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt as well as music by Vivaldi, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, John Field, Vaughan Williams, and Flanders and Swann.

Sunday 3rd July 2011
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is comedian Alex Horne. His musical choices include the Rondo from Mozart's Fourth Horn Concerto, an excerpt from Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, Morning by Editus and the third movement of Victor Hely-Hutchinson's Carol Symphony. Plus Sousa's famous Liberty Bell March, Viktoria Mullova playing Winter from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and Cary Swinney's Birdwatching.

Sunday 14th August 2011
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley is joined by novelist Marina Lewycka, author or A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian and Two Caravans. Her musical choices include two classics of the Baroque repertoire - Bach's First Brandenburg Concerto and the aria I know that my Redeemer liveth from Handel's Messiah. She also selects Sibelius's Violin Concerto, Mozart's Piano Sonata in F, K332, the March to the Scaffold from Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and the Countess's aria Dove sono from the Marriage of Figaro. Marina's own origins are referenced in the traditional Ukrainian folksong The Black Raven, while her deep love of nature is reflected in the sound of a dawn chorus greeting the day.

Sunday 25th September 2011
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is novelist Simon Mawer, whose most recent novel The Glass Room was shortlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize. His musical choices include a piece by Hildegard of Bingen, an excerpt from Mozart's Mass in C minor, K427, Beethoven's Piano Sonata in C minor, Op 111 and George Antheil's Ballet mecanique. Plus works by Janacek and Vitezslava Kapralova, Leo Ferre's song Paname and Duke Ellington's Mood Indigo.

Tamara Rojo to appear on BBC Radio 3′s Private Passions on Sunday.

Take a look at a gallery of photos featuring the Principal Artist of The Royal Ballet.

See link: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/tamara-rojo-to-appear-on-bbc-radio-3s-private-passion...

Today:

The British actor Olivia Williams is pursuing an equally successful career in film and TV on both sides of the Atlantic. After spending three years at the RSC she played Jane Fairfax in the 1996 British TV film of Jane Austen's Emma. The following year she was screen tested by Kevin Costner and made her Hollywood debut in 'The Postman', later winning the lead role of Rosemary Cross in Wes Anderson's 'Rushmore' (1998). She went on to star as Bruce Willis's wife in 'The Sixth Sense' (1999), and has appeared in several British films including 'Lucky Break' (2001), 'The Heart of Me' (2002), for which she won a Best Actress award, and 'An Education' (2009). She played Mrs Darling in the latest film adaptation of Peter Pan. On TV she took the title role in the 2008 film 'Miss Austen Regrets', and was cast as Adelle DeWitt in Joss Whedon's Dollhouse (Fox TV, 2009-10). She is currently starring opposite 'Lost's' Matthew Fox on stage in London's West End in Neil LaBute's play 'In a Forest Dark and Deep'.

Olivia Williams grew up in North London surrounded by music, and her personal favourites include 'The trumpet shall sound' from Handel's Messiah and the opening of Mendelssohn's Elijah, both of which she sang in at school. She also chooses the Prelude from Bach's G major cello suite, played by Pablo Casals, which was the first classical piece she discovered for herself; the second movement of a Vivaldi mandolin concerto; a psalm setting by the 16th-century Spanish composer Diego Ortiz, which she loves for its earthy quality; Arvo Part's 'Tabula Rasa', which she uses as a 'prop' to make her cry; the cadenza of Brahms's Violin Concerto, which her father hoped she might play (she went into acting instead), and the opening of Mahler's Second Symphony (the 'Resurrection').

Sunday 27th May 2012
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is food writer and critic Matthew Fort. His musical choices include Schubert's Marche Militaire No 1 for piano duet, a work by Alkan, and Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti. Plus Finzi's Romance for string orchestra, Op 11, an excerpt from Verdi's La Traviata, and a chamber sonata by Rossini.

Sunday, June 3rd, 2012 on
BBC Radio Three from 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Michael Berkeley's Guest is Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Her musical choices include Chopin's Etude in E, Op 10 No 3, excerpts from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute, and Humperdinck's fantasy opera Hansel and Gretel. Plus Christy Moore singing a song with words by Yeats, and music by Bach and Schubert.

Sunday, June 10th, 2012 on
BBC Radio Three from 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Michael Berkeley's guest is actress Celia Imrie. Her musical choices include Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, one of Josef Suk's Love Songs for piano, and the finale of Brahms's Violin Concerto. She also operatic arias from Charpentier's Louise and Puccini's Tosca, plus the waltz from Prokofiev's ballet Cinderella, and Shirley Bassey singing Diamonds Are Forever.

Sunday, June 24th, 2012 on BBC Radio Three from 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Michael Berkeley's guest is historian and political biographer DR Thorpe. His musical choices include part of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, the final movement of Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony, and the opening of George Butterworth's rhapsody A Shropshire Lad. Plus excerpts from Strauss's Elektra, Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg and Britten's early song cycle Les Illuminations, and part of Sibelius's Seventh Symphony.

All of these BBC postings are music to my ears. A thousand thanks for taking the time and going to the trouble of posting these!!

Good to hear this is appreciated Generuyle.

Today:

Sunday, July 1st, 2012 on
BBC Radio Three from 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Michael Berkeley's guest is actor Brian Blessed. His musical choices include the fourth movement of Walton's First Symphony, the Lever du jour sequence from Ravel's ballet Daphnis et Chloe, an excerpt from Janacek's Sinfonietta, the end of Wagner's Gotterdammerung, Neptune, the Mystic from Holst's Planets Suite, and the finale of Sibelius's Second Symphony.

Sunday 8th July 2012
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest this week is children's author Judith Kerr. Born into a German Jewish intellectual family, her father was a journalist and critic, and her mother was a composer. Judith married Nigel Kneale, creator of the TV series Quatermass in the 1950s. Their son has become an acclaimed novelist, and their daughter Tacy is an artist. Judith is best known for her children's books, including the Mog series, 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' and the novel 'When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit'. Judith's musical choices include a fragment of an opera about Einstein written by her parents; an excerpt from the final scene of Mozart: Don Giovanni; 'El Malei Rachamim' the Jewish Memorial Prayer, performed at the 2001 International Holocaust Memorial Day in London; Beethoven: The Seventh Symphony, a favourite of her father; part of Holst: The Planets: Mars; Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet: The Dance of the Knights and finally her own personal favourite, Mozart: Mass: Kyrie in C minor, K427.

Sunday, September 16th, 2012 on BBC Radio Three from 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Michael Berkeley's guest is novelist, playwright and screenwriter Fay Weldon. She selects excerpts from Handel's Messiah and Theodora, part of a Bach cantata, and the opening Act 3 of Wagner's Siegfried. Plus an excerpt from Prokofiev's Suite from his film music to Lieutenant Kije, a short song by Charles Ives, and a track by poet Nick Fox - Weldon's husband - called In the Name of the Mother.

Sunday, November 25th, 2012 on BBC Radio Three from 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Michael Berkeley's guest is Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. His musical choices include Mozart's Requiem, a Bach cantata and the second movement of Elgar's Violin Concerto. Plus a Handel aria from Rinaldo sung by Cecilia Bartoli, and three other works associated with place - a piece by Percy Grainger, a piece of early Italian music by Filippo Azzaiolo, and Bailero from Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne.

Sunday 30th December 2012
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is journalist and broadcaster Simon Hoggart. His musical choices include Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Beethoven's Pastoral symphony, Tallis's motet Spem in alium and a piece by Piers Hellawell, as well as and excerpts from Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust, Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

Sunday 3rd February 2013
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's Guest is Sir George Young Mp.

A keen fan of opera, his musical choices include Mozart's Don Giovanni, Verdi's Don Carlos and Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance. He also selects choral music, with excerpts from Haydn's Nelson Mass and Donizetti's Messa di Gloria, as well as Schubert's Quartettsatz and Hummel's Octet Partita.

Sunday 24th March 2013 (starting in 4 hours and 39 minutes)
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Another chance to hear Michael Berkeley talking to former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. Many of his musical choices reflect his love of words and he includes two poetry readings, with a poem of his own reflecting on the events described in Bach's St Matthew Passion and another by Geoffrey Hill inspired by John Dowland's Lachrimae Pavan for lute. His selections also include sacred vocal music by Byrd and Britten, vintage recordings of Bach's Concerto for oboe and violin,

Sunday 16th June 2013
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's Guest is Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

Her musical choices include Chopin's Etude in E, Op 10 No 3, excerpts from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute, and Humperdinck's fantasy opera Hansel and Gretel. Plus Christy Moore singing a song with words by Yeats, and music by Bach and Schubert.

Sunday 14th July 2013 (starting in 1 day)
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michale Berkeley's guest is writer and academic Robert Macfarlane. His musical choices include Mussorgsky's Night on the Bare Mountain and Messiaen's Abime des Oiseaux.

Adam Nicolson

Duration: 1 hour
Sunday 11 August 2013. 12.00pm

Adam Nicolson has the privilege, and the burden, of an extraordinary inheritance: Sissinghurst, that quintessentially English house and garden created by his grandparents Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West. In his own right, he?s the author of a series of highly esteemed history books and television series, about the making of the King James Bible, about the English gentry, and most recently about 17th-century writers. But it?s that Sissinghurst connection which fascinates us all: growing up with bohemian writers and artists, there must have been music going on there all the time? Not at all - Adam reveals that his family were musical philistines. His father hated music because it moved him, and made him emotional ? so for an Englishman of that generation and class it was deeply suspect. It?s only in middle age that Adam is discovering music, and he admits cheerfully that his musical taste is 'dreadful'. He also talks about walking 6000 miles round Europe, about his love for the Hebrides, and about his disastrous 'open' marriage. Adam and his wife had a deal ? they were allowed to have two affairs a year, as long as they were abroad. This too was the legacy of Sissinghurst, and a father who urged him to have as many affairs as possible. What followed was predictable, and messy, but with a happy ending - as Adam's choice of music reveals.

A light-hearted programme, which includes music by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Eric Whitacre, Prokofiev, Roberta Flack, and a reading by Alec Guinness of T.S.Eliot's 'Little Gidding'.

Sunday 5th January 2014
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

As part of Radio 3's Music on the Brink season, Michael Berkeley is joined by writer Pat Barker. Her selections include readings of Wilfred Owen's poetry and Benjamin Britten's setting of Wilfred Owen in his Nocturne, Butterworth's A Shropshire Lad, original cast recordings from Joan Littlewood's Oh What a Lovely War and Elgar's Cello Concerto.

Sunday 20th April 2014
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

In a special edition, Michael Berkeley is given a backstage tour of the National Gallery by its director, art historian Nicholas Penny, who selects music to accompany and illuminate paintings on the Easter theme of death and rebirth. Nicholas's musical choices include Rossini's Stabat Mater, Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, Handel's Messiah, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Walton's Facade.

Sunday 15th June 2014
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Eva Schloss, Holocaust survivor and step-sister of Anne Frank, shares her extraordinary life story with Michael Berkeley and reveals the music that has brought her comfort, that conjures memories and that brings her joy. Eva's choices include works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Strauss and Mahler.

Sunday 7th December 2014
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is author Jill Paton Walsh. Her musical choices include Bizet, Copland, Britten, Mozart and Haydn.

Sunday 14th December 2014
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is Eamon Duffy, professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Cambridge. His choices of music include countertenor Alfred Deller singing Purcell, the Beaux Arts Trio playing Haydn and Janet Baker singing Elgar, plus Arab Christian chant for Palm Sunday sung by a nun from the Melkite order.

Sunday 28th December 2014
Time: 12:00 to 13:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest is actor Roger Moore. His musical selection includes violinists Julian Rachlin and Janine Jansen, soprano Joan Sutherland and an excerpt from Verdi's La Traviata.

Sunday 8th March 2015
Time: 13:00 to 14:00 (1 hour long)

Michael Berkeley's guest for International Women's Day is composer Anna Meredith. Her musical choices include Sibelius and Holst, as well as more recent composers Emily Hall, Richard Ayres and Owen Pallett.