Artsworld

Series looking at the landscapes and people which have inspired some of the greatest French painters. This edition visits the left bank of the Seine in Paris

Series in which young people are given advice by some of the most distinguished figures working in the theatre. Nigel Planer presents an intriguing workshop exploring whether tragedy can be turned into comedy

Series going behind the scenes as the world’s great orchestras rehearse a performance. This edition features the Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen rehearsing Debussy’s La Mer with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra

Series of interviews conducted by Clive James in his own apartment. This edition features Egyptian author Ahdaf Soueif, a long-time observer of the cultural and political world from an Islamic viewpoint

Series featuring concert footage of some of the world’s top jazz musicians. This edition features Shirley Horn and Ray Brown at Montreux and Ornette Coleman and Sierra Maestra at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival

Award-winning documentary looking at Wagner’s Ring Cycle from the point of view of the carpenters and stagehands at the San Francisco Opera

Profile of Isamu Noguchi, one of the leading American sculptors of the 20th century, who died in 1989 at the age of 84. His talent encompassed not only sculpture but also calligraphic brush drawing, landscape gardening, furniture design and theatrical settings

Documentary series looking at great works of fiction. This edition examines Joseph Conrad’s tale of African colonialism ‘Heart of Darkness’

The celebrated German violinist gives the world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Violin Concerto No 2 ‘Metamorphosen’, a work specially written for her, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1995. Mariss Jansons conducts the Central German Radio Orchestra

Short film about a conductor having problems with an orchestra

Revealing profile of an artist with a stubbornly individualistic streak, an arts school failure who achieved success through sheer hard work and determination

The first part of Harry Kupfer’s production of Wagner’s entire sixteen-hour, four-opera masterpiece ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ from the Bayreuth Festival 1991-2, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Principal soloists are John Tomlinson (Wotan), Linda Finnie (Fricka), Graham Clark (Loge) and Gunter von Kannen (Alberich)