Tom Service explores the connections between music and magic. Read more
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Abracadabra
Tom Service explores the connections between music and magic.
The Enchantment of Chant
Tom explores how chant has resonated across a thousand years of music.
Stormy Weather
Tom explores how storms have inspired composers and musicians from Beethoven to Britten.
Musical Ecstasy
Tom Service explores musical ecstasy from techno to classical
Musical Time Travel: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams
Tom Service on one of Vaughan Williams' most spellbinding pieces of music.
The Hebrides Overture: Mendelssohn's melodious cave
Tom Service explores the story behind the very first orchestral tone poem.
Steve Reich's Different Trains: Minimalism and Memory
Tom Service explores the minimalist composer Steve Reich's 1988 piece Different Trains.
Kurt Weill and The Threepenny Opera
Tom Service dives into the decadent sound world of Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera.
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune: Half Man, Half Myth, All Debussy
Tom Service plunges into the heady sound world of the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.
Britten's Choral Christmas
Tom Service explores the stories behind some of Britten's best-loved festive works.
Also Sprach Zarathustra: Strauss’s New Dawn
Tom explores a piece composed by Strauss, inspired by Nietzsche and made famous by Kubrick
David Lang: The Little Match Girl Passion
Tom Service explores Lang's Pulitzer-Prize-winning secular take on the Christian Passion.
On the March: Pomp, Circumstance and Dam Busters
Tom Service on musical marches.
Symphonic Steampunk: Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony
Tom Service dissects Camille Saint-Saëns's Third 'Organ' Symphony.
Mystery, rumour and deception: Mozart's Requiem
Tom Service dissects Mozart's final, unfinished masterpiece.
Collage, writ large: Berio's Sinfonia
Tom Service explores Luciano Berio's 1968 Sinfonia for orchestra and 8 amplified voices.
Bluebeard's Castle: Enter at Your Peril
Tom Service intrepidly explores Bluebeard's Castle, Bartok's one-act symbolist opera.
Here Comes the Bride
Tom Service with a guide to music written for and performed at weddings.
Stravinsky, the puppet master: Petrushka
Tom Service delves into the extraordinary world of Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka.
Wild Isles: Wild Music
Tom Service explores musical evocations of wilderness and the natural world.
Once upon a time... The Fairy-tale Operas of Judith Weir
Tom Service delves into the deep (and often dark) worlds of Judith Weir's dramatic works.
All the King's Music
Tom Service assesses the history of the post of master of the king's (or queen's) music.
Secret Music: Byrd's Masses
How did William Byrd come to compose three mass settings when celebrating mass was banned?
Ravel's Bolero: A Piece without Music?
Tom Service explores Maurice Ravel's Bolero.
Artificial intelligence and music
Tom Service programmes himself into the matrix of musical artificial intelligence.
Surround Sound: Tallis's Spem in alium
Tom Service surrounds himself in Tallis's 40-part Renaissance masterpiece.
All American Ives?
What links baseball, life insurance and American art music? Charles Ives does!
What's on the programme?
Tom Service explores the art of concert programming.
What's the Point of Symphonies?
What exactly is a symphony, and are they just a thing of classical music's past?
Gloria!
Tom Service immerses himself in the joyous world of Poulenc's Gloria.
Strange Tuning
An odyssey through the musical universe, presented by Tom Service.