Front Row

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Magazines & Reviews

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Live magazine programme on the worlds of arts, literature, film, media and music.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Front Row: Víkingur Ólafsson, Christabel Blackburn, Nitin Sawhney, Audiobooks

Víkingur Ólafsson, Christabel Blackburn, Nitin Sawhney, Audiobooks

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Víkingur Ólafsson, Christabel Blackburn, Nitin Sawhney, Audiobooks

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, Front Row's first Artist-in-Residence.

Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, live from the Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, Iceland; Musician Nitin Sawhney; Sky Portrait Artists of the Year, Christabel Blackburn; Audiobooks

Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson will be Front Row's Artist-in-Residence during the lockdown, delivering weekly live performances on the grand piano of the currently empty Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, Iceland. Each week will also feature a mini-masterclass about the piece. Tonight Víkingur performs his own transcription of Sigvaldi Kaldalóns’ Ave Maria. Kaldalóns was a doctor aswell as a composer and Víkingur dedicates this performance as a prayer to all the people suffering and to the health workers fighting against COVID-19. 

Winner of the Sky Portrait Artists of the Year, Christabel Blackburn, gives us top tips on how to draw a portrait ourselves at home, and discusses why she's so drawn to the genre and what it was like winning the show.

British-Indian musician, producer and composer Nitin Sawhney discusses his forthcoming album Immigrants, a celebration of émigrés' culture across the globe, in which he showcases creations 'inspired and contributed to by artists who either identify themselves as immigrants, are from immigrant heritage or wish to express support for those international immigrants who have found themselves judged or disadvantaged by pure accident of birth.’

We conclude our ‘listening week’, focusing on entertainment available for the ear, with a look at audiobooks. Over the past decade this $3.5bn industry has been the success story of an otherwise sluggish publishing market and in a moment when many have more time on their hands there’s no better way to consume books whilst being productive. Times audiobook critic Christina Hardyment discusses the best and worst recent releases and what goes into making a good recorded reading.

Presenter Tom Sutcliffe 
Producer Jerome Weatherald

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Front Row

Víkingur Ólafsson, Christabel Blackburn, Nitin Sawhney, Audiobooks

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4