BBC Radio 3

Possibly my favourite Vaughan Williams Symphony, since Tod Handley conducded it for a youth orchestra I as in as a teenager: A London Symphony, magical atmospheres and cityscapes and great recordings compared in Building a Library at 3pm @BBCRadio3 ...and new things from 2pm

Happy Friday! I’ve got Chouqettes! Join us @BBCRadio3 for The Great Gate of Kiev to start, a Peterborough Chipmunk 🐿️ in a 🎹 piece by Amy Beach, some Beethoven 7 & in the Playlister There Will Come Soft Rains by Lucy Walker

Morning! We made it to Wednesday and the sun is shining! Join us @BBCRadio3 9.30 for Sol Gabetta playing Elgar to start, Julius Assal playing Domenico Scarlatti, Handel’s Va Tacito & a piece called Guacamayo in the Playlister, all about a South American parrot 🦜

Delighted to have on Private Passions at noon @BBCRadio3 the American writer George Saunders who won the 2017 Booker Prize with his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. His new novel is Vigil and his music includes John Adams, William Grant Still, Caroline Shaw and Dvorak.

Expect more than a sprinkling of appropriate pieces for March 15th 2026, plus a celebration of live music and those who make it with tributes to a couple of winners at the recent RPS Awards. Grab a croissant and a coffee and come and join us @BBCRadio3 Sunday Breakfast 6.30 to 9

Maybe the most immediately identifiable Janacek piece premiered 100 years ago: his Sinfonietta, so we've a centenary edition of Building a Library, Janacek expert Nigel Simeone comparing recordings @BBCRadio3 at 3pm. Here's the famous opening Fanfare from Janacek's autograph...

The 4th and final programme in my @BBCRadio3 series “Turning the Page” is this Saturday. Do join me and enjoy some wonderful music, as well as the illuminating conversations I had with Maria Joao Pires and Herbert Blomstedt.

He is one of my main guests in the final programme of my Music Matters series @BBCRadio3 @BBCSounds this coming Saturday at 1pm. Do tune in & hear the secret of his longevity!

What do you get if you cross The Archers theme tune with Rachmaninoff? I tried...here’s the result. Celebrating 75 years of the world’s longest-running drama (by the way, Arthur Wood composed the original Archers theme). @BBCRadio4

On Private Passions at noon @BBCRadio3 writer and film-maker Penny Woolcock. She has directed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and made a film about warring drug gangs on the streets of Birmingham. Her music includes Shostakovich, Britten, Bach and Sibelius.

Handel's first masterpiece? Maybe his Dixit Dominus, from his early 20s in Italy, where Handel was chasing Italian opera. It shows! 60 yrs of recordings compared in Building a Library at 3pm, and these new things from 2 o'clock, picked by my guest: mezzo Kitty Whately @BBCRadio3

Morning! It’s springlike out there! Join us @BBCRadio3 for Bach to start, some of Korngold’s Symphony in F, Beethoven’s Spring Sonata & Vaughan Williams’ The Turtle Dove in the Playlister 📻❤️👌

Listen now on BBC Sounds. 👇 bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

This week on Radio 3, legendary broadcaster, critic and journalist Gillian Reynolds looks back at her life and the role of radio in it.

Morning! Don’t make poor coat decisions today! Join us @BBCRadio3 9.30 for a Bartered Bride to start, Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, some Edith Piaf & Jocelyn Pooke’s Everest-inspired ‘Wonderland’ is in the Playlister 📻❤️

Happy 90th birthday to Sir John Tusa, ex @BBCNewsnight presenter & ex managing director of @bbcworldservice and @BarbicanCentre. Over 50 episodes of The John Tusa Interview (@BBCRadio3 2000-2005) are still available on @BBCSounds. bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00…

For St David’s Day, Ciaran Jenkins of Channel 4 News and I play the Welsh song Ar Hyd y Nos (All Through The Night). @C4Ciaran #StDavidsDay

On Private Passions at noon @BBCRadio3 Peter Hamlyn perhaps best-known for saving the life of the boxer Michael Watson and now fascinated by how AI can transform diagnosis and care of neurological patients. Peter pllays Hildegard of Bingen, Berlioz, Handel and Prokofiev.

Sunday Breakfast on the first day of meteorological Spring - daffodils photographed in my sister's village in Yorkshire. And for St David's Day a sprinkling of Welsh melodies and performers as we explore our Welsh connections. Mine is a North Wales blacksmith @BBCRadio3 6.30-9am

Dvorak in America in the 1890s...his New World Symphony & American Quartet make the headlines, but don't forget his sublime, summery String Quintet Op. 97. It's heading for the Library at 3pm @BBCRadio3 ...plus these new things from 2 o'clock, with guest @suzidigby @ORAsingers