Programme Information

Listen To The Band Ep 1/2

Thursday 10 February

10.30-11.00pm BBC RADIO 2

Tonight, in the first of two programmes, Frank Renton presents highlights from the semi finals of the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Soloist, featuring the semi finalists accompanied by one of the best bands in Britain, The Rothwell Temperance Band, conducted by Michael Fowles.

Only four musicians will make it through to the final. The semi finalists are: Calum Tonner (17, from Angus, Scotland) who plays the trumpet; Hannah Drage (18, from Towcester, Northants) who plays the tenor horn; Michael Cavanagh (16, from Stockport) who plays the baritone horn; James McLeod (19, from Tyne and Wear) who plays the euphonium; Jonathan Bates (15, from Huddersfield) who plays the tenor horn; and Lewis Musson (20, from Manchester) who plays the euphonium.

The final is on Saturday 19 February 2011 at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where one of the performers will receive a trophy as well as an invitation to perform as a guest soloist with one of the UK's top brass bands. The event will be broadcast on Radio 2 shortly after.

The winner will also be awarded with a guest appearance on Radio 2's Friday Night Is Music Night – Britain's longest-running live music programme – which, in 2010, featured artists such as Bryn Terfel, Paloma Faith and Michael Ball.

Part two of the semi-final highlights will be broadcast next week.

Presenter/Frank Renton, Producer/Terry Carter for the BBC

BBC Radio 2 Publicity

To celebrate Schubert's 214th birthday, a trio of today's most eminent chamber musicians performs an all-Schubert programme, opening with one of the composer's greatest masterpieces, Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat, D898.

While Schubert's first Piano Trio has a carefree, untroubled character, evident through its bright stream of spontaneous melodies and overriding sense of energy and vitality, his second has a more turbulent, darker side – though the composer himself reputedly considered it to be the better work.

The musicians are Alina Ibragimova (violin), Alban Gerhardt (cello) and Steven Osborne (piano).

Presenter/Martin Handley, Producer/Janet Tuppen

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

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The Mount Hagen Golgoi Group people in Papua New Guinea with BBC Radio 3's Music Planet team

For this major series to accompany BBC One's Human Planet, Andy Kershaw and Lucy Duran continue to go in search of music from some of the world's remotest locations – as well as some more familiar – visiting many of the places featured in the TV series. This week the theme is mountains.

In Switzerland, Andy takes in a lesson in playing the giant cow-bell, gets his head around the many regional styles of yodelling and records alphorn quartet Hornroh.

Lucy is in Nepal, where she meets Sherpa musicians from the Everest Base Camp, listens to the songs of the mountain children in the ancient town of Bhaktapur and enjoys traditional Nepalese folk tunes given the Django Reinhardt treatment in Kathmandu.

Andy also visits the remote Kwaio people of the Solomon Islands, whose unique music remains untouched by Western influences and who still reserve the right to go head-hunting.

Presenters/Andy Kershaw and Lucy Duran, Producers/Roger Short and James Parkin

BBC Radio 3 Publicity

Many scientists are forecasting terrible changes to Earth – and, as a consequence, the human race – as a result of climate change.

But despite the gloomy forecasts most people appear not to be terribly worried about it. In Climate On The Couch, Jolyon Jenkins explores why there seems to be a gap between what many scientists are predicting for Earth's future, and people's apparent complacency about these predictions.

In this programme Jolyon investigates the psychology of climate change, asking whether environmentalists and governments have been putting out messages that are counter-productive. He explores whether the environmentalists' arguments alienate people who don't think of themselves as environmentalists and make climate change seem like a problem that's a long way off and not relevant to normal life.

Jolyon talks to people who are trying to move beyond what they perceive as counter-productive messages. There are projects such as Natural Change, run by WWF Scotland, which try to reconnect people with nature using the therapeutic techniques of "ecopsychology" – intense workshops that take place in the wilderness of the west of Scotland, and which seem to convert the uncommitted into serious environmentalists. There are also schemes that try to take the issue out of the "green ghetto" and engage normal people with climate change.

Jolyon visits a project in Stirling which has set itself the ambitious challenge of talking face to face with 35,000 people, through existing social groups such as rugby clubs, knitting circles and art groups. It wants to sign up these groups to carbon-cutting plans, and make carbon reduction a social norm rather than something solely for eco-warriors.

And he attends a "swishing party" in London, which tries to replicate the buzz women get from clothes shopping, but in a carbon neutral way.

Presenter and Producer/Jolyon Jenkins for the BBC

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

Eleanor Oldroyd presents the day's sport news.

From 8pm Matt Dawson presents 5 Live Rugby, with a round-up of rugby union news and interviews as the Six Nations championship continues.

At 9pm in 5 Live Rugby League there's a preview of the new Super League season which starts this weekend.

Presenters/Eleanor Oldroyd and Matt Dawson, Producer/Mike Carr

BBC Radio 5 Live Publicity

BBC 6 Music presents Let England Shake, the new album from critically acclaimed singer/songwriter PJ Harvey. Tracks from her hotly anticipated album will be played in each show through the day and Polly Jean herself is in conversation with Steve Lamacq from 4pm.

As an extension to the station's Album Of The Day concept, where a different album, old or new, is played throughout the day, 6 Music's Album Of The Day + aims to exclusively showcase a soon-to-be-released album by a key 6 Music artist. Albums previously featured include Massive Attack's Heligoland and MGMT's Congratulations.

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Steve Lamacq catches up with the ever-enigmatic PJ Harvey on the inspiration behind her latest album, Let England Shake. In an in-depth chat with Steve, Harvey delves into her need to continually cover new ground, her attempts to act as a frontline "song correspondent" for international conflicts and her love of the Dorset countryside. She also reveals her continued reluctance to revisit old ground and the importance of setting to the writing process.

Presenter/Steve Lamacq, Producer/Paul Sheehan

BBC 6 Music Publicity

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Gideon Coe features a Scottish session double-header (albeit 30 years apart) featuring Camera Obscura and Josef K, plus further archive from Nottingham's artful Six By Seven and dusty Tex-Mex soundscapes from Calexico. In concert, Gideon plays Regina Spektor from Truckfest 2006, and Trouble Funk.

Presenter/Gideon Coe, Producer/Mark Sheldon

BBC 6 Music Publicity