BBC Music August 2024

Talking of Cecil Sharp, Andrew Green recalls how the folk collector's exhaustive efforts changed the face of English music. Elsewhere, conductor Leonard Slatkin looks back at his childhood days at the very heart of the Hollywood music scene, featuring meetings with Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day, John Williams - and being sung to sleep by Frank Sinatra.

The much-loved conductor Antonio Pappano talks to Clive Paget about the joys ahead as he takes the reins of the mighty London Symphony Orchestra, while for this month's Musical Destinations John Allison visits Georgia's vibrant Tsinandali Festival.

Composer, cellist and singer Ayanna Witter-Johnson selects the musical works and recordings that have shaped her life and career, while pianist Alexandra Dariescu champions her top works for piano and orchestra by female composers.

Continuing the Holst theme, Leah Broad reveals how the composer's daughter, the famously self-deprecating Imogen Holst, was a composer well worth shouting about. Our Building a Library disc is Schoenberg’s ultra-Romantic orchestral work Pelleas und Melisande, for which Erik Levi selects the indispensable recordings - and one you can safely pass on.