BROADCASTS.com

b'

As he returns to his native Scotland to conduct the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner\\u2019s mighty eighth symphony, Kate speaks to the conductor Donald Runnicles about his relationship with the composer\\u2019s music and a lifetime spent making music. Kate visits Xenia Pestova Bennett at Queen Mary University of London to hear about her second album which features a new instrument, the Magnetic Resonator Piano. She tells Kate about her creative responses to the effects that electromagnets can induce on a regular concert grand piano. And marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Henri Veuxtemps, Music Matters hears from the violinist Anne Akiko Meyers \\u2013 the current custodian of the composer\\u2019s famous Guarneri del Ges\\xf9 violin. She describes the sound characteristics of what is reportedly the world\\u2019s most expensive instrument. Kate also catches-up with the author Sophy Roberts to learn about her travels across Siberia in search of the backstories of keyboards scattered across an eleventh of the world\\u2019s landmass. From clavichords transported by governors on sledge, through pianos which have weathered the region\\u2019s furtive cold, to a keyboard hacked out of a Gulag bunkbed frame, Kate hears how these instruments embody the soul of Siberia.