Music Matters

Tom Service talks to Sakari Oramo, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, as they embark on a cycle of Sibelius' symphonies at the Barbican Centre in London. Inside rehearsals for a new production of Verdi's Aida at English National Opera, Tom meets director Phelim McDermott and conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson. McDermott sees Verdi's opera as a partner piece for Glass's Egyptian-themed opera Akhnaten. Meanwhile, critic Paul Driver and music writer and teacher Frances Wilson discuss the role of music criticism today, as a new biography of Ernest Newman, the most celebrated critic in early 20th-Century Britain, comes out.