Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Classical Music - Sunday 21 December, 9pm

Catherine Bott looks at how the great composers reflected the meaning and spirit of Christmas.

In her final show before Christmas, Catherine Bott asks, 'What music did the great composers create for Christmas?' 

Listen out for some suitably sublime seasonal music from Mendelssohn, Bach, and Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ, as well as something sparkling from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker

Among the lesser-known pieces well worth discovering, there's Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve, Saint-Saens's Oratorio de Noel, music from Gian Carlo Menotti's pioneering television opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Arthur Honegger's Une cantate du Noel.