Bach's B minor Mass live from Cardiff

Radio highlights

Performance on 3
Friday 16 April, 7-9.15pm

Live from St David’s Hall, Cardiff comes Bach’s Mass in B minor. The BBC National Chorus and Orchestra of Wales are joined by Joanne Lunn, Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano), Robin Blaze (countertenor), Toby Spence (tenor) and Peter Harvey (bass) for Bach's choral masterpiece. Conducted by Thierry Fischer.

Opera on 3
Saturday 17 April, 6-9.30pm

Soprano Angela Gheorghiu stars in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of Verdi’s La traviata. With tenor James Valenti making his New York Met debut as Alfredo and baritone Thomas Hampson in the role of Germont, this live broadcast is conducted by Yves Abel.

Discovering Music
Sunday 18 April, 5-6.30pm

‘Les Nuits d’été is one of the jewels of Berlioz’s oeuvre,’ writes the composer’s biographer David Cairns. This month Cairns joins presenter Catherine Bott to explore Berlioz’s 1841 song cycle of love and loss, performed here by soprano Elizabeth Watts with the Ulster Orchestra, conducted by Takuo Yuasa.

TV highlights

Classical Destinations 
Saturday 17 April, 10.30-11am

Simon Callow explores Holst's hometown of Cheltenham, the Cotswolds and the picturesque village of Thaxted, where the great composer wrote some of his most famous pieces.

BBC Young Musician Brass Final
Friday 16 April – 8 May, 7.30-9pm

This Friday, BBC Four airs the first of five programmes in the BBC Young Musician 2010 competition. With young musicians auditioning across the country, just five performers from each category – brass, keyboard, strings, woodwind and percussion – have been chosen to compete for the coveted title. This week sees musicians perform Strauss, Schumann and Fasch in the Brass final for a place in the competition semi-final.