Sex, Death & Pythagoras?

This week Joanna and Stephen are joined by a very special guest, Stephen's personal piano tuner, David Widdicombe. From concert grands, upright 'domestics' and honkytonks, David has tuned them all. Having worked with the world's most prestigious piano maker, Steinway, for 3 decad ...  Show more

This week we’re diving into two bohemian heroes of classical music, Bohuslav Martinů and Leoš Janáček. Stephen remembers encountering the music of Martinů at Cambridge, and being confronted by the "pure simple joy" of it. From the lyricism of Martinů, we work back towards Janáček ...  Show more

Shawn Mendes’ hit song “If I Can’t Have You” is so ridiculously catchy that Charlie had it stuck in his head after the first chorus. How is that possible?! Declamation, or the way that text is set to music, is a big part of the song’s appeal—every word that Mendes sings is perfec ...  Show more

If you could ask BBC Radio 3 one question about music, what would it be? Sue Perkins and Tom Service are here to unravel everything you've ever wondered about music - but were too afraid to ask... Send YOUR questions to r3qt@bbc.co.uk, tweet with the hashtag #r3qt or post them on ...  Show more

What sounds heavenly to one person might sound like boring noise to another - but why are our musical preferences so different? Is it all down to what we hear growing up, or are other factors at play? CrowdScience listener and music lover Jocelyne from Canada wants to know why sh ...  Show more

In this episode, Greg Jenner is joined by Professor Edith Hall and comedian Desiree Burch to learn about ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras. Pythagoras is famous in maths classes everywhere for his triangle theorem, but surprisingly little is known about his a ...  Show more