Presented by Anthony Burton.
J C Bach Symphony in E flat, Op 3 No 3
Hanover Band, director Anthony Halstead (harpsichord)
7.14 Janacek Songs of Hradcany
Netherlands Chamber Choir, conductor Reinbert de Leeuw
7.31 William Lawes Royall Consort Suite No 6 in D
Catherine Mackintosh and Catherine Weiss (violins) Richard Boothby and Susanna Pell (bass viols) Nigel North and Paul O'Dette (theorbos)
7.43 Hindemith Cello
Concerto
Janos Starker (cello)
Bamberg SO, conductor Dennis Russell Davies
8.12 Tomkins Pavan and Galliard
Bernhard Klapprott (virginals)
8.20 Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence
Academy of St Martin Chamber Ensemble

Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra by Jeremy J Beadle. Roger Nichols on new releases of English, German and French song, including two new recordings of Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été.
Revised repeat tomorrow
10.30pm

Berlioz Herminie
Mireme Deliinsch (soprano) Orchestre des Champs
Elysees, conductor Philippe Herreweghe
10.40 Butterworth A
Shropshire Lad (excerpts) Bryn Terfel (baritone)
Malcolm Martineau (piano)
10.55 Ravel Sheherazade
Vesseiina Kasarova (mezzo) Austrian Radio SO, conductor Pinchas
Steinberg

Jonathan Swain examines the latest offerings included in EMI's mid-price Matrix series, including Nielsen conducted by Herbert Blomstedt ,
Shostakovich, conducted by Andre Previn ,
Szymanowski conducted by Jerzy Maksymiuk and Penderecki conducting his own works.
Producers Clive Portbury and Patrick Lambert
Discs

Michael Berkeley's guest is Elizabeth Esteve-Coll, formerly director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, now Vice Chancellor of the University of East Anglia. Her wide-ranging choice of music includes Scarlatti, Britten, Saint-Saens, Mozart and Shostakovich.

(A Classic Arts production)

Leslie Forbes explores the old spice routes of India. 5: The Spice Mountain
The Jains, a devout religious sect, believe that tasty spices erode morals, but they are quite happy to make money from the spice trade.
Rpt

The Ida Rubinstein Legacy Roger Nichols explores the life of the dancer and the music she commissioned.
In the last of four programmes, he focuses on the final stages of a 30-year career which saw disappointment, unfulfilled promises and final triumph. Including excerpts from:
Schmitt Suite: Oriane et le prince d'amour lbert Le Chevalier errant
Honegger Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher
An Arthur Johnson production

Rosemarie Wright plays
Schumann's cycle of piano pieces Waldszenen, whose titles bear a striking resemblance to the events of Wagner's Ring cycle. Producer Chris de Souza

Gotterdammerung By Richard Wagner
Directed by Richard Jones , the Royal Opera's new Ring cycle for the 90s - the most talked-about production in recent British operatic history - reaches its climax. Siegfried and Brunnhilde's love struggles to survive the corruption of the human world and the machinations of the evil
Hagen, the half-human son of the Nibelung dwarf
Alberich. Siegfried's murder and Brunnhilde's culminatory self-immolation lead inexorably to "the twilight of the Gods".
Introduced by Piers Burton -Page.
Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, conductor Bernard Haitink
In association with the Royal Opera House Trust and the Friends of Covent Garden
4.00 Act 1

Piers Burton-Page goes behind the scenes at the Royal Opera House to talk to the singers, conductor and production team about this staging of the Ring.
6.35 Act 2

Ivan Hewett reviews Covent
Garden's Ring cycle with Andrew Porter and Michael
Billington. Patrick O'Connor talks about Milhaud's autobiography My Happy Life. And, as the film
Farinelli opens, a look at the history and repertoire of the castrato.
Producer Anthony Sellors
Repeated tomorrow at 12.15pm
8.15 Act 3

Is creativity about individual genius? Can working together be more dynamic, or do egos get in the way? Tim Marlow mucks in with arts collectives including Exploding Cinema and Tomato and asks if the leaderless are leading the way.
Producer Tessa Watt

Brian Morton introduces a specially recorded set by cellist Tony Moore and percussion player
Steven Hubback. Plus saxophonist Scott Hamilton 's most recent disc, and a reissue of Wildflowers, a 3-CD set documenting the New York loft scene of the 70s.
Followed by:

In the second of four programmes, Mel Hill examines Frank Sinatra 's career as a solo artist on the Columbia label when his main appeal was as a singer of sweet, slow ballads. In contrast, Sinatra used the relative freedom of his weekly radio show to work alongside jazz artists such as Nat King Cole and his old mentor from Dorsey days, Sy Oliver. Rpt