Presented by Tom Service.
As part of Breaking Free - Martin Luther's Revolution, Tom talks to Jan Vogler, cellist and artistic director of the Dresden Music Festival, about music and politics, and how the festival is celebrating Luther's legacy by commissioning new music for a 1927 film about the Protestant Reformation from composer Sven Helbig.
As Ravi Shankar's only opera, Sukanya, is given its posthumous world premiere at The Curve in Leicester - a partnership with the Royal Opera House and the London Philharmonic Orchestra - Tom visits rehearsals to talk to the conductor David Murphy, who collaborated with Shankar in his final years to write the work, and the production's director Suba Das. Soprano Susanna Hurrell explains the vocal challenges involved in bringing the role of Sukanya to life, and Tom revisits his interview with Ravi Shankar for Music Matters in 2008.
Tom also meets the pianist and composer Jonathan Powell, who reveals the unique delights and challenges of Kaikhosru Sorabji's technically demanding works for piano, including Opus Clavicembalisticum, which takes over four hours to perform, and the eight-hour marathon Sequentia Cyclica.
And Kate Molleson reports from St Cecilia's Hall in Edinburgh, which is about to re-open following a £6.5m refurbishment. As Kate discovers, the hall houses a museum which is home to an impressive collection of instruments, including arguably the world's most important harpsichord. Show less