Add to Playlist

Composer Debbie Wiseman and the writer and multi-instrumentalist Rhodri Marsden join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add five more tracks, taking us from a Drifters' classic hit to one of Beethoven's most famous compositions. For Add to Playlist, the Chinese pianist Lang Lang reflects on playing Beethoven, and percussionist Ruairi Glasheen is on hand to talk us through the finer elements...

Fraser T Smith - producer, musician and collaborator with artists including Adele, Stormzy, Dave and Sam Smith - and Welsh jazz harpist Amanda Whiting, add the next five tracks to the growing playlist. With Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye they go from a Snoop Dogg 1994 hit to Brazil via some serious jazz piano. Producer Jerome Weatherald Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jef...

Baritone and composer Roderick Williams and violinist Jennifer Pike - the youngest ever winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year at the time in 2002, aged just 12 - join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add five more tracks to the playlist. The musical choices take us from one of the most famous tunes in the UK (composer unknown) to a Labi Siffre hit famously sampled by Eminem, via arguably th...

Trumpet player Matilda Lloyd and gold steel pan player Leon Foster Thomas bring their instruments to the studio as they join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add five more tracks to the playlist, each chosen for its musical connections with the previous one. In this episode the journey takes us from Mozart via a classic jazz trio to a 1964 kite-flying Disney singalong hit. Producer Jerome Weat...

21-year-old saxophonist and composer Emma Rawicz, finalist of BBC Young Musician 2022, and conductor Ben Gernon add five more tracks to the playlist with Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye. The musical links take them from a Langston Hughes poem set to jazz to a seventies Spanish disco classic via the dusty plains of Argentina. Producer Jerome Weatherald Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Ma...

Bassoonist Amy Harman and pianist Keelan Carew are today's guests in the studio with Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add the next five tracks to the playlist. From a gentle nursery rhyme, the musical links take us to a Russian dance, a celebration of the Earth's origins in Estonia, and a testosterone-fuelled TV theme with helicopters and machine guns. Dr Peter J Bentley discusses the inc...

Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason and musician and silent movie score composer Neil Brand launch a new playlist. With presenters Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye, they choose the first five tracks which take us from a celebratory anthem chanted in football stadiums to a live, mischievous performance by a 12-year-old Stevie Wonder. Producer Jerome Weatherald Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matt...

Composer Isobel Waller-Bridge and baritone Roderick Williams join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add the final five tracks to the current series, bringing the playlist up to 40. And the joy of rounds, or canons, with singer, composer and producer Esbe, and one in particular that she sings which goes back to the 13th century. From lovesick individuals to the arrival of spring and with a drama...

Downton Abbey composer John Lunn and saxophonist Jess Gillam join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye on a journey from the snowy landscape of northern Finland to the warmth of Ecuador as they add the next five tracks, exploring unusual instruments and effects, including the theremin and the tremolo. Guitarist and songwriter Johnny Marr, formerly of The Smiths, talks us through one of the most ambit...

Musician and composer Anne Dudley and percussionist Ruairi Glasheen embark on a musical journey across continents, centuries and styles as they add the next five tracks to the playlist. Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye also find out from specialist Simon Heighes about the background to a popular work by Bach, famously used in those old cigar adverts. This episode was first broadcast in March this...

Jazz pianist Julian Joseph and bassoonist Amy Harman join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye in a journey that takes them from Manchester, via a baggy-pants classic pop hit, to a celebrated track from the most popular jazz album of all time. Drummer Romarna Campbell is also on-hand to provide a drummer's perspective on the percussive elements. This episode was first broadcast in March this year. Pr...

In the final episode of the current series, Sir Richard Stilgoe joins Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add the final five tracks, taking us from a live recording in California's Folsom Prison to a massive 1980s pop classic via a celebration of freedom with the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Drummer Jeremy Stacey is also on hand to fill us in on the changing fashions of laying dow...

Film and TV composer Debbie Wiseman OBE and musician and fiddler Sam Sweeney, formerly of the folk group Bellowhead, join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they choose the next five tracks, in the penultimate episode of the current series. This week's journey takes us from a popular Sunday evening TV theme to an Etta James classic via the 1984 Winter Olympics. Producer Jerome Weatherald Present...

Rick Wakeman - keyboard player and former member of the progressive rock group Yes - and organist Anna Lapwood join Cerys and Jeffrey as they add the next five tracks, taking us from a Welsh/Indian collaboration to Hans Zimmer via a 1995 rap classic. Producer Jerome Weatherald Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye The five tracks in this week's playlist: Moliannwn b...

Pianist and singer Natalie Duncan and cellist Gabriella Swallow take us from the French Alps to a dusty airstrip in the Australian outback with Miles Davis as they add the next five tracks. Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye are also joined by Ukrainian-born pianist Dinara Klinton for some Hungarian Rhapsody. Producer Jerome Weatherald Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey...

Rakhi Singh - violinist, music director and composer - and composer, producer and pianist, Alexis Ffrench, join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add the next five tracks. From the King's coronation via the Bolivian Andes and Finland, they end up on Highway 61, and there's a surprise bonus track along the way. Producer Jerome Weatherald Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews an...

Violinist and composer Anna Phoebe and pianist and composer Neil Brand join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to explore ground-breaking techniques on traditional instruments, from the classical flute to the tuba. The journey takes us from Spain to Beirut, taking in surf rock, 'maximalism' and the beauty of Egyptian scales. And jazz flautist Chip Wickham discusses and demonstrates his unorthodox p...

Composer and producer Hannah Peel and pianist Keelan Carew consider the soundtrack for one of the most famous scenes in cinema, and they take us to Venice where Visconti famously used a celebrated atmospheric Mahler composition for one of his films. Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye also bring us a track by one of the most successful pop acts of all time as they add five more tracks to the playlis...

Cor anglais and oboe player Kate St. John and pianist and composer Joe Stilgoe join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add another five tracks to the playlist. Their short ride in a fast machine takes them from a Parisian classic to Buenos Aires tango via a train tour to Rainbow City. Producer Jerome Weatherald Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye The five tracks...

Bassoon player Amy Harman and composer Gavin Higgins join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye for the opening episode of the new series of the Prix Italia and Prix Europa award-winning music programme. Starting from scratch, the new adventure takes us from the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee via the Aegean Sea to a hand-rubbing fado song from Lisbon. Producer Jerome Weatherald Presented, wit...

Singer/songwriter Natalie Duncan and Norwegian Baroque violinist Bjarte Eike join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add five more tracks to the playlist, and Brian Eno remembers discovering a new piece of equipment that changed the face of popular music in 1977. Producer Jerome Weatherald Presented, with music direction, by Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye The five tracks in this week's p...

James Taylor of the British jazz-funk outfit the James Taylor Quartet brings his C3 Hammond organ to the studio while Ukrainian-born pianist Dinara Klinton sets herself up at the grand piano as they join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add the next five tracks to the playlist. The journey takes them from Cape Verde to The Gambia and Lebanon, with insights from Senegalese kora player Kadialy K...

Gareth Malone, who brought choral singing into the mainstream with his TV series The Choir, is joined by The Southbank Centre's Gillian Moore as they take us on the rolling sea from Benin in West Africa to the streets of Havana. Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye continue to compile the new playlist, with additional insights from Afrobeat musician Dele Sosimi. Producer Jerome Weatherald Presented,...

Organist Anna Lapwood and bassoon-player Linton Stephens join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye to add the first five tracks to the new playlist, from a Yiddish anti-fascist song - with context provided by ethnomusicologist Dr Abigail Wood at the University of Haifa in Israel - to a celebrated homage to Duke Ellington. Produced by Jerome Weatherald Presented, with additional music curation, by Cer...

This week, Radio 4 is revisiting four episodes of the award-winning music series Add to Playlist, first broadcast in October. Today, Anne Dudley, composer and co-founder of The Art of Noise, and Welsh traditional musician Patrick Rimes join Cerys Matthews and Jeffrey Boakye as they add five more tracks to the playlist, including a tender but rather unlikely love affair and a New Orleans classic. P...