In today's episode, Donald Macleod untangles the full, tragic saga of Sibelius' Eighth Symphony - from its initial conception, through the composer's years of tortuous evasions, mysterious allusions and lacerating self-criticism.tantalising periods of hope (as recorded in the composer's diary).and the work's final, devastating annihilation for all time.

We'll hear a series of chamber works written almost as a pressure release (or calculated avoidance?), as Sibelius struggled painfully with his magnum opus that never was.as well as a vintage 1933 performance of the composer's Seventh Symphony, conducted by a man who dreamed of giving the premiere of its successor: Serge Koussevitsky. Show less