Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Classical Music - Sunday 26 July 2015, 9pm

This week, Catherine Bott asks: “How has summer inspired classical composers?”

The weather and the changing of the seasons has often inspired composers to come up with some of their most dramatic and uplifting music. So tonight Catherine Bott celebrates the current summertime by exploring music that the summer has inspired in composers.

There are plenty of perennial favourites including ‘Summer’ from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Gershwin’s Summertime. 

Aside from the well-known, popular pieces, Catherine has also found some new and interesting things to discover, including a midsummer vigil from Hugo Alfven’s Swedish Rhapsody No.1, a Debussy piece invoking Pan – ‘God of the summer breeze’, and a beautiful work, simply and appropriately titled Summer by Benjamin Britten's teacher, Frank Bridge.