Composer of the week on BBC Radio 3

"Exploring the life and works of composers."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnxf

A. Vivaldi: La Notte, Op. 10 n. 2 - Concerto for flute, strings & b.c. i...

The Perfect Home (III)

The Perfect Home (II)

The Perfect Home (I)

"The book The Architecture of Happiness was turned into a 3 hour documentary, titled The Perfect Home." (http://www.alaindebotton.com/pages/about/index.asp?PageID=110)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9iiaC7UOWk

Beethoven - Appassionata Sonata 23 Opus 57

Apocalypse Now...and Then

"A look at the West's enduring obsession with the end of the world, from old testament prophesies to SARS and the Millennium Bug. Since the 1960s, scientists and preachers have combined to perpetuate the idea that Armageddon is always just around the corner. This programme reinterprets each successive doomsday panic to see its inspiration and effect on those who both predicted and believed in its inevitability." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074pml)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4as2aBU8CM4

Vivaldi, L´estro armonico, Op.3 Concerto No.10

Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness. Series 1. Episode 6. Nietzsche on Hardship

"We all face difficulties in our lives. But there's one philosopher who has particularly inspiring advice on how to deal with them.

Friedrich Nietzsche believed in a philosophical version of 'no pain, no gain': that any worthwhile achievements in life come from the experience of overcoming hardship, and that a comfortable, painless existence wouldn't be worth living.

Alain travels to Nietzsche's home in the Swiss Alps to tell the story of the philosopher's tormented life, before putting Nietzsche's theories to people who have faced difficulties or setbacks in their own lives."

Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness. Series 1. Episode 5. Socrates on Self -Confidence

"Why do so many of us go along with the crowd and fail to stand up for what we truly believe?

Partly because we're too easily swayed by other people's opinions - and partly because we don't know when to have confidence in our own.

Alain shows that the ancient Athenian philosopher Socrates can help give us all the intellectual self-confidence we need to work out what we really think and believe.

He visits Athens to tell the moving and inspiring story of how Socrates - a man who famously died for his beliefs - can help us stand up for our own." (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/philosophy-a-guide-to-happiness/episode-guide/series-1/episode-5)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2rsiER-OnU&feature=related

Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness. Series 1. Episode 4. Montaigne on Self-Esteem

"Why do so many people suffer from feelings of low self-esteem?

Alain De Botton looks at the problem through the eyes of the French 16th century philosopher Michel de Montaigne, who singled out three main reasons why we might feel bad about ourselves - and offered practical solutions for them all.

Alain takes us on a personal journey from Montaigne's home near Bordeaux, to his own university, Cambridge, where he finds that people could still benefit from the lessons of Montaigne's philosophy." (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/philosophy-a-guide-to-happiness/episode-guide/series-1/episode-4)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrSCoG2GY1M

Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness. Series 1. Episode 3. Epicurus on Happiness

"The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus believed there were just three simple things we needed in order to be happy - and money wasn't one of them.

Alain reveals what those things were, in a journey that takes him to the ruins of the ancient city of Oinoanda in south-western Turkey.

The answers he finds there help him to look at consumer society through Epicurus' eyes and he discusses the philosopher's beliefs with unhappy shopaholic Stephen Perry." (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/philosophy-a-guide-to-happiness/episode-guide/series-1/episode-3)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20LTTRQcZ8c

Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness. Series 1. Episode 2. Schopenhauer on Love

"Surprisingly, perhaps, given how important it is to the rest of us, philosophers haven't tended to talk much about love.

An honourable exception was the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who believed that love was the most important thing in life.

Alain shows how the ideals of a man he calls 'philosophy's Dr Love' explain the mystery of why we fall in love with the people we do.

He believes that Schopenhauer's philosophy is particularly consoling to anyone who's been rejected, and he talks it over with Michele Hutchinson, whose boyfriend recently jilted her." (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/philosophy-a-guide-to-happiness/episode-guide/series-1/episode-2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeFQsF-umH0

Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness. Series 1. Episode 1. Seneca on Anger

"Written and presented by Alain de Botton, this series is an entertaining, practical and psychobabble-free self-help course for the philosophically minded" (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/philosophy-a-guide-to-happiness)

"De Botton starts with anger and the philosopher Seneca who refused to view anger as an irrational outburst and thought it flowed from our surprise when things do not turn out the way we expect them to.

De Botton puts Seneca's advice to angry van driver Wayne Allingham and stressed-out executive Venetia Butterfield. How will they respond to the theories of a philosopher who died 2,000 years ago?" (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/philosophy-a-guide-to-happiness/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ0g7IKWG7E&feature=PlayList&p=3AB2124A01423D7E&index=0&playnext=1

E=mc2 - Einstein and the World's Most Famous Equation

Beethoven

"A three-episode TV mini-series produced by the BBC, Beethoven is a very powerful and moving docudrama based on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). Fantastically written and beautifully directed, the series constitutes a thorough and accurate reconstruction of Beethoven's life, from his troubled childhood to his death at the age of 56. Paul Rhys's masterful portrayal of Beethoven is particularly noteworthy, doing well to convey in vivid colour the natural genius of the Great Man and the isolation, turmoil and despair he experienced throughout his eventful life. Insightful narration from the popular conductor, composer and presenter Charles Hazlewood does well to add a sophisticated educational dimension to the series, as well as to encourage a seamless and comfortable flow of the story. This is an absolute must-watch!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67pKZrxgv4Y

The Genius of Mozart

Mussolini, Hitler, Franco and... the football

"How has the Beautiful Game played into fascist ideology? BBC Four explores how the 20th century's three most prominent fascist dictators, Mussolini, Hitler and Franco, seized upon football's massive popular appeal and ruthlessly exploited it as a vehicle for propaganda.

(...) The documentary uses rare archive footage, eminent historians and trenchant contributions and testimonies from world-class players, past and present." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/fascism-and-football.shtml)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ6Dg7A_INY

Discovering Tchaikovsky

"Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky was the author of some of the most popular themes in all of classical music. He founded no school, struck out no new paths or compositional methods, and sought few innovations in his works. Yet the power and communicative sweep of his best music elevates it to classic status, even if it lacks the formal boldness and harmonic sophistication heard in the compositions of his contemporaries, Wagner and Bruckner. It was Tchaikovsky's unique melodic charm that could, whether in his Piano Concerto No. 1 or in his ballet The Nutcracker or in his tragic last symphony, make the music sound familiar on first hearing." (http://www.classicalarchives.com/composer/3448.html#tvf=tracks&tv=about)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ3LHWp4gtk

Do You Know What Time It Is?

"Particle physicist Professor Brian Cox asks, 'What time is it?' It's a simple question and it sounds like it has a simple answer. But do we really know what it is that we're asking?

Brian visits the ancient Mayan pyramids in Mexico where the Maya built temples to time. He finds out that a day is never 24 hours and meets Earth's very own Director of Time. He journeys to the beginning of time, and goes beyond within the realms of string theory, and explores the very limit of time. He discovers that we not only travel through time at the speed of light, but the experience we feel as the passing of time could be an illusion." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fyl5z)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3aYKAJEVfQ&feature=related

Jesus Camp (2006, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady)

"Imagine a place where focused, precocious kids pledge allegiance to a holy text and train as ideological warriors — even, yes, martyrs. You're imagining America — specifically, Kids on Fire, an evangelical madrassa devoted to fomenting a religiopolitical Children's Crusade. 'This world, all it feeds you is trash,' says 12-year-old Levi. 'I want the meat.'

As a documentary, Jesus Camp could lose its haunted-house score and contrapuntal Air America refrains and still deliver its message: that, here and elsewhere, fundamentalism is no longer content with a separate peace. It wants the meat." (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1542503,00.html)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOqGhcwwE1s

One in 8 Million - New York Characters in Sound and Images

Everyone has their own story. When I was a child, I used to pay attention to the lights my neighbours tourned on as the evening arrived. This made me realise, with a little bit of sadness, how many stories remain unknown.

The New York Times introduces the so-called "ordinary people", those who have extraordinary stories "of passions and problems, relationships and routines, vocations and obsessions."

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/