Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Classical Music - 6 July 2014

Catherine Bott explores music written by great composers for the theatre.

Tonight, Catherine Bott asks: ‘How did the great composers get on when commissioned to write music for the stage?’ 

Looking back through musical history, Catherine has found that composers have often been only too pleased to write to order – in fact, some of the great classical music we know and love began life as the accompaniment to something dramatic.  

So, we’ll hear great stage music from, among others, Purcell, Beethoven, Schubert, Vaughan Williams, Sibelius, Grieg and Bizet.