BBC Music

Between ensemble and solo performances, an insight into the practice of the string quartet. The Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, is the perfect setting for directing a documentary on string quartets. String players from different quartets share their view on their musical practice and highlight the particularity of playing in such ensembles: how to reconcile 4 individuals with their own musical personalities. The documentary particularly follows the members of the British Lindsay Quartet during their stay in Kuhmo in 2004. They built their reputation on their recordings of the complete works for string quartets by Beethoven, Bartok and Haydn. We can attend their rehearsals and see how they negotiate their interpretation and reach a state of "synchronized individuality."

First transmitted in 2004, this concert from London's Barbican features the music of composer, writer, artist and mushroom expert John Cage, one of the most extraordinary artistic figures of the 20th Century.In this concert, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra as part of its annual Composer Weekend, we hear music by some of the giants of American music including Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, William Schuman and Henry Cowell, who was a major influence on Cage.There are two pieces by Cage himself, The Seasons and the work for which he is infamous - the silent 4'33".

Documentary profiling the life of legendary country music star Johnny Cash, who died in 2003 shortly after completing the retrospective Unearthed, a five-CD set of the acoustic performances with which he resurrected his career in the last decade of his life, and after losing his wife, June Carter Cash. This first major retrospective of Cash's life, times and music features contributions from his daughter Rosanne Cash and son John Carter Cash, his longtime manager Lou Robin and fellow musicians including Little Richard, Cowboy Jack Clement, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and Elvis Costello. Cash was the son of a poor sharecropper from Kingsland, Arkansas, who sang folk, spiritual and country songs to himself while picking cotton in the fields. In the 50s he signed to Sam Phillips' Sun Records, scored his first hits and was part of the 'Million Dollar Quartet' with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. In the 60s, he created his famous 'Man in Black' persona, and became a huge country star with hits like Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, I Walk the Line and A Boy Named Sue, while torn between drug dependency, hellraising and a powerful spirituality. Cash had long since established himself as a man of the people with his prison concerts beginning with an incendiary performance at San Quentin in 1958. He ended the decade by finally marrying June Carter - a member of hugely influential US country dynasty the Carter Family - launching his own national TV series from Nashville, befriending the Native American movement and opposing the war in Vietnam while playing concerts for the soldiers in the field. After tough times in the 80s, Cash reignited his career with a new young audience in the 90s when he recorded with rap-rock producer Rick Rubin.

The New York country star plays live at the Barbican, London on Friday 7th November 2003 for Way Beyond Nashville Festival. Broadcast on BBC 4 on 29 February 2004. Introduction When The Roses Bloom Again Early Years Rainy Boy Churches Off The Interstate All The same To You Mountain Fern Yonder Comes A Freight train

The brave new sound worlds of avant-garde composers such as John Cage, Steve Reich. Cornelius Cardew and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

A profile of folk musician Bob Copper, from his Sussex farming roots to world recognition.

Perhaps the only time Roni Size Delia Smith and John Humphries will appear on the same programme? Introduced by Jo Whiley. Interviewees include Phil Jupitus, Bejamin Zephaniah, Delia Smith, Roni Size, Nick Cave, Johnny Marr, Alan Hansen, John Humphries, Annie Nightingale

The full story behind the iconic song, featuring Brian May and Roger Taylor's return to Rockfield Studios, where they rerecord the guitar and drum parts, and tell the story of how the song came together. Narrated by Richard E Grant, the documentary includes exclusive rare recordings of Freddie Mercury performing the song in studio, Queen's first ever TV performance and the making of the video, as well as interviews with Mercury's friends and family, The Darkness and Bjorn Ulvaeus from Abba.