Stephanie Hughes introduces arts news and music, including works by Schubert and Bartok, plus before
7.00 Bach's Orchestral Suite No 2 in B minor. BWV1067.

With Peter Hobday , featuring Chopin piano music and vintage performances by the English oboist Leon Goossens.
Berlioz Waverley Overture
Scottish National Orchestra. conductor Alexander Gibson
9.12 Chopin Twelve Studies, Op 10 Maurizio Pollini (piano)
9.40 Strauss Oboe Concerto
Leon Goossens , Philharmonia, conductor Alceo Galliera
10.04 Janacek Sinfonietta
LSO. conductor Claudio Abbado

A Christmas Selection: King's Singers
Over the last 30 years, the King's Singers have performed four centuries of music to wide and enthusiastic acclaim. This year, they celebrated a major anniversary. Joan Bakewell discusses the King's Singers past and present with Brian Kay, Stephen Connolly and Paul Phoenix. Repeat

Ballets
Peggy Reynolds looks at four favourite ballets.
1: Sleeping Beauty. At the christening of the Princess Aurora. everyone celebrates and all the fairies bestow gifts on her. But then Carabosse, Aurora's godmother, arrives - she was not invited and takes her revenge by cursing the Princess: she will grow up, but then she will prick her finger and die. The Lilac Fairy, who has not yet given her present, cannot revoke the curse, but mitigates it: Aurora will not die, but will fall asleep for one hundred years. Aurora does indeed grow up into a beautiful woman, and at her birthday celebrations accepts a spindle from an old woman. She pricks her finger and falls into a deep sleep. Music in this programme is taken from the recording of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty by the Kirov
Orchestra, conductor Valery Gergiev.

(1835-1921)
With David Byers. Tarantella, Op 6
Clara Novakova (flute), Richard Vieille (clarinet), Paris Orchestral Ensemble. conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow Phaeton Philharmonia , conductor Charles Dutoit
Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso Kyung-Wha Chung (violin), RPO, conductor Charles Dutoit
Odelette Gary Arbuthnot (flute), Ulster Orchestra, conductor Kenneth Montgomery
Africa Gwendolyn Mok (piano), LPO, conductor Geoffrey Simon Producer David Byers
Repeated next Monday 12 midnight

Lucie Skeaping introduces a week of BBC invitation concerts from historic venues in Kent and Sussex.
1: 1 Fagiolini, director Robert Hollingworth , and Fretwork perform seasonal music associated with Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn from Hever Castle in Kent, home to the Boleyn family in the 16th century. The programme includes songs by Henry VIII and William Comysh , and viol consorts by John Taverner and Christopher Tye.

BBC Philharmonic
Conductors Vassily Sinaisky and George Hurst , Aleksandar Madzar (piano)
Johann Strauss (son) Overture: Die Fledermaus; Annen-Polka;
Tritsch-Tratsch Polka; Waltz: An Artist's
Life; Egyptian March; Champagne
Polka; Thunder and Lightning Polka Mozart Piano Concerto No 21 in C.
K467
Heuberger Overture: The Opera Ball Josef Strauss Anvil Polka
Johann Strauss (son) Hunt Polka; Pizzicato Polka; Perpetuum Mobile Eduard Strauss Polka: Train Galop Johann Strauss (son) Waltz: The Blue Danube
Johann Strauss (father) Radetzky March Josef Strauss Polka: Ohne Sorgen

3: Adrian Jack is torn between dominant and diminished sevenths. Next programme tomorrow 3.50pm

No other composer makes such demands in terms of technique. style and interpretation on his performers as Mozart. In the first of four programmes, Michael Oliver talks to Margaret Price about the demands and challenges facing the singer of Mozart's operatic roles, illustrated with recordings ranging from the early part of this century to the present day. Producer Peter Tanner

5: Howard Jacobson responds to Monteverdi's Lasciatemi Morire.

Music for Christmas past and present, including medieval carols, plainchant hymns and contemporary explorations of the season.

In the sixth of ten programmes, a Londoner in Dorset welcomes
Natalie Wheen into his home.

Four programmes in which Robert Cushman mixes classic cabaret recordings with a dash of comment. Producer Jonathan James-Moore
Next programme tomorrow 7pm

From the BBC Proms 1998
Another chance to hear ten of the most memorable concerts of the 1998 BBC Proms season at the Royal Albert Hall , London.
6: Prom 72. given on 11 September, featured the acclaimed partnership of Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Together, they electrified the Proms with Beethoven's heaven-storming mass - a grandly universal and intimately personal statement of his beliefs.
Ruth Ziesak (soprano), Bemarda Fink (contralto), Herbert Lippert (tenor), Neal Davies (bass).
Arnold Schoenberg Choir,
Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Beethoven Missa Solemnis Repeat

The Shakespeare Trade
Peter Holland talks to ten Shakespeare experts about the Bard today.
1: Shakespeare's Life and Work With biographer Park Honan and Katherine Duncan-Jones , editor of the sonnets.
Producer Jane Greenwood

introduced by Nicola Heywood Thomas. Shostakovich String Quartet No 11, Op 122
Mozart String Quartet in B flat, K458 (Hunt)
Schubert String Quartet in A minor, D804

Mark Russell and Robert Sandall scan the passing year and play tracks from the Mixing It listeners' top ten albums of the year.

Alyn Shipton and Campbell Bumap review the best CDs of 1998.

For details see Monday 21 December 12 noon

With Donald Macleod.

1.00 Schumann Liederkreis, Op 39 - Christian Eisner (tenor), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)

1.25 Mozart Piano Quartet in G minor, K478 - James Ehnes (violin), Lars Anders Tomter (viola), Maria Kliegel (cello), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)

1.50 Fux Missa Pro Gratiarum - Actione Capella Nova Graz/Otto Kargl

2.30 Brahms Symphony No 3 in F - Danish NRSO, conductor Albert Wolff

3.30 Beethoven String Quartet in F minor, Op 95 (Serioso) - Helsinki Quartet

4.20 Dvorak Slavonic Dances, Op 46 - James Anagnoson and Leslie Kinton (pianos)

5.05 Mozart Sinfonia Concertante in E flat for Wind, K297b - Soloists, Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam/Lev Markiz

5.50 Fux Laudate Dominum - Capella Nova Graz/Otto Kargi