Saturday Feb17 started the first week of the new program schedule for the BBC Radio 3 – here are my picks for Sunday’s schedule.  Sunday’s complete schedule

Performing Britten: Paul Bunyan – 15:00-16:00 (Radio 3)

Series focusing on the operas of Benjamin Britten. John Evans talks to singers, conductors and directors about performances and recordings with which they are closely associated, and about the problems and pleasures of performing Britten.

American director Francesca Zambello discusses the operetta Paul Bunyan, Britten’s first attempt at a stage work, written in America in the early 1940s in collaboration with WH Auden.

The Truth about Love

Sir Derek Jacobi (reader) Juliet Stevenson (reader)

Readings include some of the great love poetry – Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress, Philip Larkin’s Arundel Tomb and Auden’s Lullaby and Oh Tell Me the Truth about Love.  Music related to the theme includes Britten’s Auden settings, Elgar’s Salut d’amour, madrigals by De Rore and Dufay and Wagner’s Prelude to Tristan and Isolde.

Next Sunday – Sophie Okonedo and Kenneth Cranham read a selection of poetry and prose around the theme of two great cities, from Samuel Johnson, Wordsworth and Verlaine to George Orwell and Fleur Adcock. The programme includes music by Gibbons, Noel Coward, Elgar, Pierre Boulez and Yves Montand.

Iain Burnside

Iain Burnside presents a morning of music interspersed with intelligent comment.  This programme is on the theme of Landscapes, to coincide with the opening of a major new Renoir exhibition at the National Gallery. Guest is Alan Rusbridger, pianist and editor of The Guardian.   Music includes pieces by Messaien, Vaughan Williams, Ibert, Debussy and Haydn.