'Composer of the Week: 200 Years of the Royal Philharmonic Society'. Five daily programmes for BBC Radio 3, written and presented by Donald Macleod, produced by Steven Rajam and broadcast on 5-9 August 2013

Rosemary Johnson of the RPS and I were guest contributors to five daily programmes on BBC Radio 3's 'Composer of the Week' series in early August 2013. Celebrating the Royal Philharmonic Society's bicentenary, the host Donald Macleod chose key moments and representative musical works to illustrate successive decades across the history. A 70-minute compilation podcast of the progammes is free to download from the BBC COTW homepage.

Each programme weaves historical and economic strands in the Society's fluctuating corporate story with excerpts of 19th- and 20th-century music commissioned or first performed at its concerts. Included are pieces by Cherubini, Ries, Turnage, Beethoven, Vaughan Williams, Mendelssohn, J.B. Cramer, Bartók, Sterndale Bennett, Tchaikovsky, Musgrave, Sullivan, Dvořák, Saint-Saëns, Grieg, Rawsthorne, R.R. Bennett, Elgar, Walton and Huw Watkins. The range is impressive, with support for contemporary composers and the highest standard of music-making central.

'thank you very much indeed for taking [us] so fascinatingly through the history of the first century of the Royal Philharmonic Society'

Donald Macleod

'you were brilliant on Composer of the Week'

Arthur Searle, Hon. Librarian, Royal Philharmonic Society

Listen to a 70-minute podcast of the programmes here.