Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Classical Music - Sunday 23 March 2014

Catherine Bott encounters the 'King of Instruments'.

This month sees the re-appearance, after several years’ silence, of the newly-restored organ at London's Royal Festival Hall. Tonight, to celebrate, Catherine Bott is exploring the 'King of Instruments', visiting every corner of the organ loft to explore the huge variety of sounds that this glorious monster of an instrument can produce.

She looks at different kinds of organ and the very different sounds they make in very different types of music. There are works from some of the instrument's Renaissance and Baroque pioneers as well as the instrument's use in the sacred music of Mendelssohn and – more recently – Arvo Part, as an orchestral instrument in pieces by Mozart and Poulenc, and as an entertaining attraction in London's largest cinema.