The Early Music Show

Lucie Skeaping marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of English composer, poet and physician Thomas Campion.

Hannah French looks in depth at JS Bach's four orchestral suites, which play something of a Cinderella role to the Brandenburg Concertos. Though they are some of Bach's most festive works, they remain an incomplete set, never published, or even considered a collection in his lifetime. Basically, they are suites of dance-pieces in French Baroque style preceded by an ouverture. This genre was extremely popular in Germany during Bach's day, and he showed far less interest in it than was usual. Telemann left us with 135 examples, Graupner 85 and Fasch a neat 100, so why did such a prolific and accomplished composer as Bach shun the genre? Hannah delves into some of the many recordings of the pieces to find out.

Lucie Skeaping marks the 350th anniversary of Italian composer Antonio Lotti's birth with some of his famous choral works alongside lesser known pieces of chamber music and opera.

Lucie Skeaping joins in the New Year festivities from Vienna with a programme looking at the city's early musical history, including works by the 13th-century minnesinger Neidhart von Reuental along with composers from Ludwig Senfl and Heinrich Isaac all the way to Fux, Schmelzer and Haydn.

Lucie Skeaping talks to Radio 3's embedded composer Matthew Kaner, New York-based composer Caroline Shaw and viola da gamba player Liam Byrne about how early music pieces and performance practice influence their styles as contemporary composers and performers.

Fiona Talkington looks at the legacy of Carlo Gesualdo and the fascination that his life and music held for certain 20th-century cultural figures, including composers Igor Stravinsky and Peter Maxwell Davies, novelist Aldous Huxley and film maker Werner Herzog. The programme includes an interview with Professor Glenn Watkins, who has written extensively about Gesualdo's life, work and influence.

Fiona Talkington looks at the life and music of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799) - the son of a French plantation owner and his slave mistress - who became a virtuoso violinist and composer, close friend of Queen Marie Antoinette, and was known in 18th-century Paris as "The Black Mozart".

Lucie Skeaping is joined by guests Delma Tomlin (Director of the National Centre for Early Music in York), Steven Devine (keyboard player and Professor at Trinity Laban College of Music in London), Greg Skidmore (academic and singer with ensembles such as The Sixteen, Ex Cathedra and Alamire) and Tabea Debus (recorder player, recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Music) to discuss how the early music scene is likely to develop and change in coming years in terms of performance practice, education and academic research.

Lucie Skeaping is joined by guests, violinist Catherine Mackintosh, director Peter Holman and Nick Wilson from King's College London to discuss how Radio 3 helped to support and shape the Early Music movement in its early years from the 1950s through to the 1990s.Part of Radio 3's 70th season, celebrating seven decades of pioneering music and culture since the founding of the Third Programme.Photo courtesy of Will Dyson.

Hannah French is in Toronto to meet members of the Canadian ensemble Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra about their projects and recordings since the early 1980s, including contributions from their long-serving artistic director, Jeanne Lamon. Music includes pieces by Bach, Purcell, Geminiani, Telemann, Beethoven, Zelenka and Leonardo Leo.

Hannah French looks at the tradition of Tafelmusik. Musique de Table. Table Music. It's music composed to divert, entertain, and yes, be performed around a table. Hannah visits the British Library to talk to the Curator of Music Manuscripts Andra Patterson about an incredible manuscript of Table Music held there: a 'booke of In nomines and other solfainge songs of 5, 6, 7 and 8 parts for voyces or Instruments'. The programme includes pieces by William Byrd, Johann Schein, Michael Praetorius, Vivaldi and Telemann. Telemann is undoubtedly the most celebrated composer of Tafelmusik. His 1733 collection is a substantial portfolio of about four-and-a-half hours of music which is rated alongside Vivaldi's L'Estro Armonico and Bach's Brandenburg Concertos in terms of breadth of ideas and creative use of form. It's arranged into three parts or 'productions', each containing a suite, a quartet, a concerto, a trio, a sonata, and a conclusion. Telemann had the knack of keeping up with the latest musical trends and giving people what they wanted to hear. He knew he was on the money with his Tafelmusik, announcing: 'This work will make me famous one day'...

Hannah French presents a profile of the hugely influential Flemish composer Cipriano de Rore, marking the 500th anniversary of his birth this year. The programme includes recordings by Bruce Dickey, The Huelgas Ensemble, The Tallis Scholars, the Brabant Ensembleand Cinquecento Renaissance Vokal.

In the second of her two programmes from New York city, Hannah French meets Jeffrey Grossman - harpsichordist and artistic director of The Sebastians, Wen Yang of New York Baroque Incorporated and Jolle Greenleaf from the vocal ensemble Tenet, and she visits the Julliard School of Music to hear about the early music education programme there from violinist Robert Mealy.

Hannah French visits New York for the first of two programmes, in which she learns about the vibrant early music scene in the city. She meets Gene Murrow of the Gotham Early Music Scene, Julian Wachner - music director of Trinity Wall Street, and Gwendolyn Toth of the ensemble Artek, and she chats to violinist Robert Mealy about his work with the ensemble Quicksilver.

Lucie Skeaping looks at the plot, history, performances and recordings of one of Handel’s most enduring operas, Giulio Cesare - first performed at London's Haymarket Theatre in 1724.The libretto was written by Nicola Francesco Haym who used an earlier libretto by Giacomo Francesco Bussani. The opera, which starred two of Europe's most famous performers - the castrato Senesino and soprano Francesca Cuzzoni - was an immediate success at its first performances, and was frequently revived by Handel in his subsequent opera seasons for King George I's Royal Academy.

Robert Hollingworth introduces specially made recordings of music from the Medici Codex - a music book prepared for Pope Leo X in 1518. Leo was the second son of Lorenzo "The Magnificent" of the Medici family, who was Pope from 1513 to 1521. The codex contains 53 motets and was presented to Leo's nephew, the Duke of Urbino at his wedding to a French princess in 1518. In discussion with Tim Shepherd of Sheffield University.

Harpsichordist Sophie Yates looks at the life and music of the German keyboard virtuoso Johann Jakob Froberger, who was born 400 years ago this month.

Lucie Skeaping chats to the award-winning flautist and recorder player Ashley Solomon, professor and Head of Historical Performance at the Royal College of Music and director of the ensemble Florilegium. The group, founded in 1991, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. In the last quarter of a century, Florilegium has toured worldwide, released an impressive number of recordings and embarked on a fascinating (and ongoing) project working with native Indians in Bolivia. The programme includes excerpts from some of Florilegium's recordings including music by Bach, Telemann, Haydn, Monteclair, Couperin, Pergolesi and the Bolivian composer Roque Jacinto de Chavarria.

As part of the BBC's current focus on Dance, Lucie Skeaping is joined by dance historian Barbara Segal to discuss the finer points of Renaissance terpsichore. European theatrical extravaganzas - Italian Intermedi, French Ballet de Cour and English Masques swirl effortlessly alongside traditional Branles and even Morris Dances. Meanwhile, to the accompaniment of The City Waites, Lucie tries out some of the dances herself, under Barbara Segal's expert guidance, of course!

As part of the BBC's current focus on Dance, baroque dance specialist Philippa Waite looks at the styles and affects of various dances, illustrating with music by composers such as Lully, who was an excellent dancer himself, JS Bach, Handel, Weiss, Rebel and Rameau.

Lucie Skeaping looks at some of the music penned at the court of Mannheim in the latter half of the 18th century, which had such a thriving and influential orchestra. Composers such as Johann Stamitz, Franz Xaver Richter, Christian Cannabich, Carl Stamitz and Franz Danzi really took the symphonic genre by the horns, helped to shape it into what we now think of as the Classical symphony, and, as such, were a huge influence on the likes of Mozart and Haydn.

Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the blind Spanish renaissance organist and composer Antonio de Cabezon, marking the 450th anniversary of his death in 1566.

No-one knows for sure the birth-date of Tudor composer John Sheppard, but it is thought to have been around 500 years ago in 1515-16. Lucie Skeaping is joined by singer and musicologist Sally Dunkley to explore the life and work of one of England's finest composers, with performances by The Sixteen, The Tallis Scholars, Stile Antico, the Gabrieli Consort, The Clerkes of Oxenford and the Choir of Westminster Abbey.John Sheppard: Libera nos I The Sixteen Harry Christophers (director)John Sheppard: Verbum caro (excerpt) The Clerkes of Oxenford David Wulstan (director) John Sheppard: The Lord's Prayer Stile AnticoJohn Sheppard: Magnificat (from Second Service) The Choir of Westminster Abbey James O'Donnell (director)John Sheppard: Agnus Dei (from Missa Cantate) Gabrieli Consort Paul McCreesh (director) John Sheppard: Libera nos II The Sixteen Harry Christophers (director)John Sheppard: Media vita The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips (director).

Lucie Skeaping explores the life and music of the lesser-known Scarlatti: Francesco – brother of Alessandro and uncle of Domenico, who spent much of his later career in Dublin.

Stevie Wishart presents a special New Year New Music programme. She takes a look at how early music resonates through the contemporary music of our time as "Echoes of the Past in the Present". Stevie features her own performances and compositions as well as music by early music exponents such as Garth Knox and Philippe Malfeyt and performances by Voice, St Catharine's Girls' Choir Cambridge and the ensemble, Tied & Nycklet.

Lucie Skeaping introduces music written for this day by J.S. Bach - music composed for the 27th December, the Third Day of Christmas and the First Sunday after Christmas - including the six-voice Santus composed for the Christmas service in 1724, during second year of Bach's tenure in Leipzig, which eventually became part of the B minor Mass; music from the Christmas Oratorio; and Cantatas BWV 122, Das neugeborne Kindelein (The new-born little babe), and BWV 133, Ich freue mich in dir (I find my joy in thee).

Sophie Yates talks to Benjamin Narvey about the relationship between lutes harpsichords.

Fiona Talkington introduces a performance of Bach's 'Wedding Cantata,' Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten and finds out whether Anna Magdalena might have sung this very cantata at her wedding to JS Bach in 1721. The cantata's central aria: 'To practise sweet courtship, to cuddle joyously,' features a solo oboe. Today's programme also includes an oboe concerto and a suite for seven instruments written a few years after Bach's cantata.Telemann Oboe Concerto in D minor, TWV 51:d1Bach Cantata: Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten, BWV 202Zelenka Overture a 7 in F, ZWV 188Carolyn Sampson (soprano) Katharina Arfken (oboe) Freiburg Baroque Orchestra Gottfried von der Goltz (conductor).

Lucie Skeaping and Dr James Porter of Aberdeen University investigate the musical world of Huguenot composer Jean Servin, and find out what he was doing in 1579 at the Edinburgh court of King James VI of Scotland (later to be King James I of England), with lovingly bound copies of his Psalmi Davidis in his luggage. With music by Servin, Lassus, David Peebles, Andrew Blackhall and others in performances by Cappella Nova, Ensemble Clément Janequin and Sang Scule.

Fiona Talkington presents a profile of Norwegian violinist Bjarte Eike and his group Barokksolistene.

Lucie Skeaping marks the 450th anniversary of the Portuguese Renaissance composer, Duarte Lobo. She is joined by scholar and performer Professor Owen Rees of Queen's College, Oxford, who has edited, performed and recorded music by Duarte Lobo. Duarte Lobo was among the foremost Portuguese composers of the early 17th century. He spent most of his life in Lisbon where he became a renowned teacher. He became maestro de capilla at the Hospital Real, Lisbon, and from about 1591 until at least 1639 and was maestro de capilla at Lisbon Cathedral. He was also director of the Seminário de S Bartolomeu, Lisbon. Most Lisbon repertory was destroyed during the great earthquake of 1755, but Duarte Lobo's work survived because four collections of his works were issued by Plantin, one of the prestigious music publishing houses in Antwerp. One of the collections, Liber missarum, made its way to the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 1659, and so works by Duarte Lobo were performed by English enthusiasts of "ancient" music during the 18th and 19th centuries in London. Today's programme will feature recordings by the Choir of Queen's College Oxford directed by Owen Rees, The Sixteen directed by Harry Christophers, and The Tallis Scholars directed by Peter Philips.

Lucie Skeaping talks to Rosemary Southey of Newcastle University about the musical scene in the north east of England in the eighteenth century, with works by Charles Avison, John Garth and William Herschel.

As part of the BBC's current focus on Dance, Lucie Skeaping is joined by choreographer and early dance expert Darren Royston to discover some of the delights of medieval dance moves.

The Bach-Abel Concerts. Lucie Skeaping talks to the music historian, Simon Heighes about a famous concert series which began two hundred and fifty years ago this year and which lit up London's concert life following the death of Handel. The Bach-Abel series continued for thirty years and with it J.C Bach and his compatriot, Carl Friedrich Abel introduced their opera and concert arias, symphonies and keyboard works to Georgian London.

Lucie Skeaping explores Artaserse, one of the most popular opera libretti by Metastasio, the great 18th century dramatist, featuring Artaxerxes I, King of Persia.The libretto was originally written for and first set to music by Leonardo Vinci in 1730 for Rome, and it was subsequently set by dozens of later composers. In England, Thomas Arne's 1762 Artaxerxes is set to an English libretto that is based on Metastasio's. Lucie Skeaping introduces extracts from a few of the 90 known settings of Metastasio's text.

Lucie Skeaping presents a profile of the career of the British tenor Nigel Rogers, who celebrates his 80th birthday this week.

Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars have specialised in the performance of Renaissance polyphony for over thirty years. They have built a reputation for bringing some of the greatest European church music of the 16th and 17th centuries onto the concert platform. So what has prompted such an enthusiasm? Lucie Skeaping explores with Peter and the group some of the qualities and the ethos of Renaissance polyphony. She learns how working with this music has encouraged the group to find a distinctive sound and performing methodology. The programme includes extracts from some of the Tallis Scholars' many recordings.First broadcast 03/10/2009.

International Women's Day, celebrating female composers: Barbara StrozziLucie Skeaping is joined by Laurie Stras to profile the life and music of the prolific 17th Century Venetian composer and singer Barbara Strozzi. @bbcradio3 #womensdayBorn in 1617, the daughter of a servant girl Barbara was brought up and educated by the poet Giulio Strozzi, who was probably her father. She first tasted fame at her father's 'Academies' in Venice for her 'bold and graceful manner' before going on to publish eight volumes of music, mostly for solo voice. But, despite her remarkable achievements as a singer and composer, she appears to have died in poverty around 1677.

Lucie Skeaping explores the life and musical legacy of the 17th Century French harpsichordist, organist and composer Louis Couperin, with contributions from Christophe Rousset and performances by Rousset, Bob van Asperen, Davitt Moroney and Glen Wilson.

Lucie Skeaping investigates the music of 18th- and early 19th-century Cuba in the company of Andrew McGregor and musicologist Miriam Escudero. Includes music by Esteban Salas, Juan Paris and Cayetano Pagueras, and performances by Ensemble Ars Longa La Havana.

Lucie Skeaping explores the life of Johann Georg Pisendel, a virtuoso German violinist in the late 17th & early 18th Centuries to whom composers like Vivaldi and Telemann dedicated works and whose own solo violin compositions are said to have provided the inspiration for JS Bach's own solo Sonatas and Partitas.

Lucie Skeaping looks at the life and music of the Viennese composer Georg Christoph Wagenseil. Although today he's largely relegated to the footnotes of musical history, in his day he was internationally admired, not least in the Mozart household. His tercentenary year gives cause for a fresh look at this founding father of the Viennese Classical style.

"East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." So wrote Rudyard Kipling, but in the world of early music at least, the artistry of the Middle East exerted a huge influence on the instruments and compositions of Europe. From Greek music theory to wandering minstrels, and poetic song-forms to filigree melodies, Lucie Skeaping surveys the musical legacy of this lively contact, visiting medieval dance-music, Sephardic song and plainchant along the way.

Sophie Yates presents a profile of the French harpsichordist and composer Jacques Duphly, the tercentenary of whose birth falls this month.

Lucie Skeaping visits Hampton Court Palace to find out about the music written during the short, but eventful reign of King Edward VI. She traces Edward's story from cradle to grave with guest contributor Michele Price - manager of the choral foundation at Hampton Court Palace.

Lucie Skeaping visits the Scilly Isles to learn about the actress and singer Ann Cargill, who drowned in a dramatic shipwreck there in 1784, and whose ghost is said to have haunted Rosevear Island ever since. Ann made her London stage debut in 1771 at the tender age of eleven in Thomas Arne's opera "The Fairy Prince" at Covent Garden. Later she eloped with a married man eighteen years her senior, and her father washed his hands of her. She continued to be a popular draw at Drury Lane, in productions of John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" and Thomas Linley's "The Duenna", but her love-life became more scandalous. Eventually, she fell in love with a merchant seaman and, carrying his illegitimate child, left London to start a new life with him in India. In Bombay she received a mixed reception and some were distinctly unimpressed that an "English strumpet" was bringing shame and embarrassment to the nation. One such was the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, who demanded her return to Britain forthwith. So in December 1783, Ann and her husband boarded a ship - the Nancy Packet - and set sail for London. They arrived in British waters in February 1784 amidst a horrific gale, and the ship struck one of the many treacherous rocks off the western reaches of Scilly. Ann scrambled into a lifeboat with her infant son, while The Nancy Packet sank in the tumult. The locals later discovered the upturned lifeboat just off a small bay on Rosevear Island, and underneath found Ann, floating in her nightgown with her head resting on her baby's, as if in sleep. Lucie Skeaping meets Todd Stevens, a wreck-diver and treasure hunter, who found the wreck of the Nancy Packet in 2007, and has since written a book about his findings and the life and death of Ann Cargill. (REPEAT).

Lucie Skeaping investigates an ancient musical tradition whereby people went from door to door singing carols and were rewarded with hot mulled cider. Wassailing can be traced back possibly as far as Anglo-Saxon times and has evolved over time to become associated with Christmas. Lucie Skeaping introduces some of the music that has been associated with the wassailing tradition and her guests include the historian Joanna Crosby, from Essex Univeristy, who has a particular interest in apples.

A special repeat of Catherine Bott's interview with the distinguished conductor, keyboardist and musicologist, Christopher Hogwood, who died earlier this year. Catherine chats to him about his career as one of the major proponents of the early music movement, including Christopher's early work with David Munrow in the Early Music Consort of London and the orchestra he founded in 1973 - The Academy of Ancient Music. The music on the programme comes from his choice of some of his own favourite recordings, including a work from Byrd's My Ladye Nevells Booke, vocal music by Purcell, a keyboard fantasia by CPE Bach and part of Handel's opera Rinaldo.

Catherine Bott presents a profile of Bach's eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, who despite being renowned as an organist and composer during his lifetime, died in poverty.

As part of Decameron Nights, Lucie Skeaping talks to David Fallows, Emeritus Professor of Musicology at the University of Manchester, about music in Italy in the time of Boccaccio.