The music of Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) is elegant, witty and immediately engaging and appealing - the 'missing link', musically, between Debussy, Satie and Poulenc (whom he all knew). And yet...it's fallen curiously out of favour. This week, Donald Macleod lifts the lid on an extraordinary musician (with an extraordinary beard): a free-thinking pioneer whose array of interests included mountaineering, photography and Kipling's "The Jungle Book", who spent many of his later years obsessively composing works in tribute to a bevy of Hollywood starlets...A composer who began his musical life in the age of Gounod and Bizet...and ended in the age of Boulez and Stockhausen.

In the first episode of the week, Donald Macleod explores Koechlin's early vocal works, including two ravishing songs for soprano and orchestra...He also discusses the huge influence on Koechlin's music of "The Jungle Book", by Rudyard Kipling. Koechlin was fascinated by Kipling's stories, and composed five major works on themes from the book, that spanned his entire musical life. We'll be hearing them throughout the week, beginning today with Koechlin's "Three Poems", Opus 18. Show less