Heart and soul

Soul Music is already into its 11th series on Radio 4 (Tuesdays, after lunch), but it just gets better and better. On TV the idea behind it (to explore the great works of the classical repertoire as well as pop songs and their impact on us) would by now seem jaded, the graphics tired, the personalities being interviewed too self-conscious. But it’s as if in this new series (produced by Rosie Boulton) we’re only just getting to the heart of the matter.

Don’t miss this week’s programme which looks at a very familiar work, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, but takes us on a quite different journey as we listen to fragments of the melody threaded through the dialogue. There’s no narration; just a series of edited comments from musicians who’ve played the piece and know it inside-out and medical experts trying to work out why it has such power, such resonance.