A personal view by Kenneth Clark

'The rococo style has a place in civilisation. Serious-minded people may call it shallow and corrupt; well, the founders of the American constitution, who were far from frivolous, thought fit to mention the pursuit of happiness as a proper aim for mankind, and if ever this aim has been given visible form it is in rococo architecture - the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of love.'
In this programme Kenneth Clark reflects on the nature of 18th-century music, the music of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart, and on the way that some of its qualities - the melodious flow, the complex symmetry - are reflected in the best of the rococo architecture - the pilgrimage churches and palaces of Bavaria.
Book £4.75, paperback £2.25: see p 47)