David Mellor - Sunday 11 January 2015, 7pm

David Mellor celebrates some of the big composer anniversaries for the coming year.

2015 sees the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Finnish nationalist composer Jean Sibelius. The anniversary does not happen until December but there's many celebrations going on during the year to mark this significant anniversary.

Denmark's greatest composer Carl Nielsen was also born 150 years ago, on 9 June 1865. He is especially lauded for his six symphonies, his Wind Quintet and his concertos for violin, flute and clarinet. In Denmark, Nielsen's opera Maskarade and a great number of his songs have become an integral part of the national heritage.

And the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin died 100 years ago in April 1915. He was one of the most innovative and most controversial of early modern composers and David shares some gems to discover from Scriabin's musical output on the show tonight.