SUNDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2020

SUN 00:00 Freeness (m000fpzr)
Beats and bluegrass

Corey Mwamba plays the best jazz and improvised music with an adventurous spirit. This week features Lushandverdant, a hip hop producer who improvises with samples taken from old soul and gospel records. Deconstructed bluegrass, jazz and avant-garde techniques come together in a track from the international trio Multifarious and there’s sludgy doom from Pulled By Magnets, the new project of drummer Seb Rochford.


SUN 01:00 Through the Night (m000fpzt)
70th Birthday Concert for Vladimir Yurygin-Klevke

Music by Widor, Loewe, Bridge, Chausson and Rossini celebrating the Russian pianist's birthday. With John Shea.

01:01 AM
Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)
Piano Quintet no 1 in D minor, Op 7
Vladimir Yurygin-Klevke (piano), Serge Prokofiev State String Quartet

01:29 AM
Carl Loewe (1796-1869)
Selected Songs
Ekaterina Semyonova (soprano), Vladimir Yurygin-Klevke (piano)

01:50 AM
Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Fantasy
Vladimir Yurygin-Klevke (piano), Serge Prokofiev State String Quartet

02:04 AM
Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Andante from 'Piano Quartet in D minor'
Vladimir Yurygin-Klevke (piano), Serge Prokofiev State String Quartet

02:09 AM
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
Agnus Dei, from 'Petite Messe solennelle'
Tatiana Mineeva (soprano), Maria Zhekova (mezzo soprano), Maria Shuvalova (mezzo soprano), Andrei Nikiforov (tenor), Dmitry Kuznetsov (bass), Vladimir Yurygin-Klevke (piano)

02:18 AM
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Variations on a rococo theme in A for cello and orchestra, Op 33
Bartosz Koziak (cello), Polish Radio Orchestra of Warsaw, Andrzej Mysinski (conductor)

02:39 AM
Hyacinthe Jadin (1776-1800)
Trio no 4 in E flat, Op 2 no 1 (1797)
Trio AnPaPie

03:01 AM
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
6 Orchestral songs (Nos 1-5 only) (EG.177)
Solveig Kringelborn (soprano), Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Eivind Aadland (conductor)

03:24 AM
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Piano Sonata in D major (K.284)
Cathal Breslin (piano)

03:56 AM
Francois Couperin (1668-1733)
Rondeau: Le Tic-toc-choc (or Les maillotins)
Colin Tilney (harpsichord)

03:59 AM
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Concerto da Camera in F major (RV.99)
Camerata Koln

04:07 AM
Bernat Vivancos (b.1973)
Salve d'ecos
Latvian Radio Choir, Sigvards Klava (conductor)

04:17 AM
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Romance for strings in C major, Op 42
Danish Radio Concert Orchestra, Hannu Koivula (conductor)

04:22 AM
Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825-1889), David Stanhope (arranger)
Fantasy and variations on a Cavatina from 'Beatrice di Tenda' by Bellini
Geoffrey Payne (trumpet), Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Michael Halasz (conductor)

04:29 AM
Gabriel Faure (1845-1924)
Nocturne for piano in E flat minor, Op 33 no 1
Livia Rev (piano)

04:37 AM
Jacques-Francois Halevy (1799-1862)
Gerard & Lusignan's duet: "Salut, salut, à cette noble
Benjamin Butterfield (tenor), Brett Polegato (baritone), Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Richard Bradshaw (conductor)

04:48 AM
Graeme Koehne (b.1956)
To His servant, Bach, God Grants a Final Glimpse: The Morning Star
Guitar Trek

04:53 AM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Contrapunctus 1 and 2 from 'Die Kunst der Fuge' ('The Art of Fugue')
Young Danish String Quartet

05:01 AM
Selim Palmgren (1878-1951)
Exotic March
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, George de Godzinsky (conductor)

05:06 AM
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Polonaise in B flat major D.580 for violin and orchestra
Peter Zazofsky (violin), Prima La Musica, Dirk Vermeulen (conductor)

05:12 AM
Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Sonata in F minor, Kk 466
Louis Schwizgebel (piano)

05:20 AM
Antonio Caldara (c.1671-1736)
Pietro & Maddalena's duet: 'Vi sento, o Dio' & Chorus 'Di quel sangue'
Ann Monoyios (soprano), Michael Chance (counter tenor), Hugo Distler Chor, La Stagione Frankfurt, Michael Schneider (conductor)

05:33 AM
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Cello Concerto no 2 in D major
Daniel Muller-Schott (cello), Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Arvid Engegard (conductor)

05:59 AM
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Ariettes oubliees - song cycle for voice and piano
Elizabeth Watts (soprano), Gary Matthewman (piano)

06:16 AM
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Gaspard de la nuit
Nikita Magaloff (piano)

06:37 AM
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
The Golden spinning-wheel (Zlaty kolovrat) - symphonic poem Op.109
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov (conductor)


SUN 07:00 Breakfast (m000fnsv)
Sunday - Martin Handley

Martin Handley presents Radio 3's classical breakfast show, including a Sunday morning Sounds of the Earth slow radio soundscape.

Email 3breakfast@bbc.co.uk


SUN 09:00 Sunday Morning (m000fnsx)
Sarah Walker with a stirring musical mix

Sarah Walker chooses three hours of attractive and uplifting music to complement your morning.

There’s plenty of music to stir the senses from lushly orchestrated Wagner, a quirky piano sonata by Haydn, sounds of the gamelan by Lou Harrison and smokin’ hot singing from Peggy Lee.

Sarah also travels down a long and winding road with guitarist Goran Sollscher and to the prairies of America with Aaron Copland’s collection of cowboy songs, all expertly woven into his ballet Billy the Kid.

A Tandem Production for BBC Radio 3


SUN 12:00 Private Passions (m000fnsz)
Chibundu Onuzo

Michael Berkeley talks to author Chibundu Onuzo about the challenge of writing novels while studying for her A-levels, and the role of music and faith in her life.

At the age of nineteen Chibundu became the youngest female writer ever to be signed by Faber and Faber. She started writing aged ten while growing up in Lagos, Nigeria and was working on her first novel, ‘The Spider King’s Daughter’, while doing her A levels at boarding school in England. It was published while she was still at university and was shortlisted for a host of prizes – winning a 2013 Betty Trask Award. Her second novel, ‘Welcome to Lagos’, was published in 2017 to great acclaim.

Chibundu talks to Michael Berkeley about growing up in Lagos, and the challenge of adapting to life at boarding school in Britain. She chooses a carol, ‘I Wonder as I Wander’, that she sang with her school choir in Winchester Cathedral. The soundtrack to a Nigerian television advert from the 1990s speaks to her about the tensions between Western and traditional values in Nigeria. We hear a miniature by Christian Petzold that will be familiar to anyone who has ever learned the piano, alongside music from Handel and from Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, ‘From the New World’.

And, in a special moment for Private Passions, Chibundu is joined in the studio by members of her family to sing a setting of Psalm 23 by her uncle, Bishop Ken Okeke.

Produced by Jane Greenwood.
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 3.


SUN 13:00 Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert (m000ffwp)
Cello as violin...

From Wigmore Hall, London.

Introduced by Andrew McGregor.

Dvořák, Webern and Franck, played by Daniel Müller-Schott, cello and Annika Treutler, piano.

The leading German cellist performs a programme largely consisting of late-Romantic works. Of the numerous transcriptions of his popular Violin Sonata, César Franck gave his approval solely to the edition for cello, while Dvořák’s Romantic Pieces, scored at an intermediate stage for violin and piano, began life as a set of Miniatures for two violins and viola.

Dvořák: 4 Romantic Pieces for violin and piano Op. 75 (arr. Daniel Müller-Schott)
Webern: 3 kleine Stücke Op. 11
Franck: Sonata in A for violin and piano (arr. Jules Delsart for cello and piano)

Daniel Müller-Schott, cello
Annika Treutler, piano


SUN 14:00 The Early Music Show (m000fnt1)
La Pellegrina

Hannah French sets the scene on some of the great music composed as incidental music to the 1579 play "La Pellegrina" or "The Pilgrim Woman".

Including work by the composers Francesco Corteccia, Emilio de Cavalieri, Christofano Malvezzi, Luca Marenzio
Matthias Werrecore and Jacopo Peri.


SUN 15:00 Choral Evensong (m000fgy6)
St Olave’s Church, York

From St Olave’s Church, York with the Ebor Singers (recorded 4 February).

Introit: O nata lux (Kerry Andrew)
Responses: Philip Moore
Psalms 98, 99, 100, 101 (Walmisley, Robinson, Fussell, Barnby)
First Lesson: Isaiah Isaiah 52 v.13 – 53 v.6
Canticles: Second Service (Philip Moore)
Second Lesson: Romans 15 vv.14-21
Anthems: We will lay us down in peace (Kerry Andrew); O lux beata Trinitas (Kerry Andrew)
Hymn: Come down, O love divine (Down Ampney)
Voluntary: Lacrimae (Andrew Carter)

Paul Gameson (Musical Director)
Keith Wright (Organist)


SUN 16:00 Jazz Record Requests (m000fnt3)
23/02/20

Alyn Shipton presents listeners' requests which this week include recordings by Sidney Bechet, Woody Herman and Oliver Nelson.

DISC 1
Artist Oliver Nelson
Title Hoe Down
Composer Nelson
Album The Blues and The Abstract Truth
Label Green Corner
Number 100894 CD 1 Track 2
Duration 4.45
Performers: Freddie Hubbard, t; Eric Dolphy, as; Oliver Nelson, as, ts; George Barrow, bars; Bill Evans, p; Paul Chambers, b; Roy Haynes, d. 23 Feb 1961

DISC 2
Artist Woody Herman
Title Like some blues Man, Like
Composer Ted Richards
Album Big New Herd at the Monterey Jazz festival
Label London
Number 15200 S 1 T 2
Duration 10.04
Performers: Woody Herman, as, cl; Conte Candoli, Al Porcino, Frank Huggins, Ray Linn, t; Bill Chase, Bill Smiley, Urbie Green, Sy Zentner, tb; Zoot Sims, Bill Perkins, Richie Kamuca, Don Lanphere, Med Flory, reeds; Victor Feldman, p, vib; Charlie Byrd, g; Monty Budwig, b; Mel Lewis, d. Oct 1959

DISC 3
Artist Chris Barber
Title I’m Slapping 7thAvenue with the Sole of my Shoe
Composer Ellington, Nemo
Album In Switzerland
Label Lake
Number 208D CD 2 Track 2
Duration 7.24
Performers: Pat Halcox, t; Chris Barber, tb; John Crocker, cl, as; Johnny McCallum, John Slaughter, g; Jackie Flavelle, b; Graham Burbidge, d. Feb 1975. 24.08

DISC 4
Artist Sidney Bechet
Title You Rascal You
Composer Theard
Album 1952 Vol. 2
Label Classics
Number 1431 Track 19
Duration 2.59
Performers: Guy Lognon, t; Bernard Zacharia, tb; Sidney Bechet, ss; Claude Luter, cl; Raymond Fol, p; Roland Bianchini, b; Moustache Galipedes, d. 5 Nov 1952.

DISC 5
Artist Alain Romans
Title Quel tempos fait-il a Paris?
Composer Romans
Album Jacques Tati Film Soundtrack Excerpts
Label Polygram
Number 8369832 Track 5
Duration 2.11
Performers: unknown, directed by Alain Romans. 1953 30.01

DISC 6
Artist John Dankworth
Title Easy Living
Composer Rainger / Robin
Album I Hear Music
Label Salvo
Number Box 403 Cd 1 Track 6
Duration 2.54
Performers: Cleo Laine, v; John Dankworth, cl, as; Don Rendell, ts; Eddie Blair, t; Eddie Harvey, tb; Bill Le Sage, p; Eric Dawson, b; Tony Kinsey, d Cleo Laine. May 1953.

DISC 7
Artist George Van Eps
Title I Never Knew
Composer Kahn / Fiorito
Album Mellow Guitar
Label Columbia
Number CL 929 S 2 T 6
Duration 2.38
Performers: George Van Eps, g; Morty Corb, b; Nick Fatool, d; 1957 37.10

DISC 8
Artist Scrapper Blackwell
Title A Blues
Composer Blackwell
Album Live at 1444 Gallery Indianapolis 1959 / Complete 77 Recordings
Label Document
Number 5275 Track 3
Duration 3.26
Performers Scrapper Blackwell, g, 1959.

DISC 9
Artist Wendy Kirkland
Title Travelling home
Composer Sprakes / Kirkland
Album The Music is on me…
Label Wendy Kirkland
Number Track 11
Duration 5.00
Performers: Wendy Kirkland, p, v; Tomasso Starace, ss; Roger Beaujolais, vib; Pat Sprakes, g; Paul Jefferies, b; Steve Wyndham, d. 2019.

DISC 10
Artist Cootie Williams / Rex Stewart
Title Do Nothing Til You Hear from Me
Composer Ellington
Album The Big Challenge
Label Concert Hall
Number 1253 Side A Track 2
Duration 4.06
Performers: Rex Stewart, c; Cootie Williams, t; Coleman Hawkins, Bud Freeman, ts; J C Higginbotham, Lawrence Brown, tb; Hank Jones, p; Billy Bauer, g; Milt Hinton, b; Gus Johnson, d. 1957

DISC 11
Artist Beaver and Krause
Title Good Places
Composer Bernard Krause / Paul Beaver
Album Ghandarva
Label Warner Bros
Number 1909 Side 2 T 3
Duration 3.38
Performers Bud Shank, as; Gerry Mulligan, bars; Paul Beaver, org; Bernard Krause, synth. Grace Cathedral SF. 10/11 Feb 1971.

DISC 12
Artist Mike Westbrook
Title Outgoing Song
Composer Westbrook
Album Citadel / Room 315
Label BGO
Number 713 Track 10
Duration 5.04
Performers: John Surman, bars; Mike Westbrook, cond; Nigel Carter, Derek Healey, Henry Lowther, Kenny wheeler, t; Malcolm Griffiths, Paul Rutherford, Alf Reece, tb; Mike Page, Alan Wakeman, John Holbrooke, John Warren, reeds; Dave McRae, p; Brian Godding, g; Chris Laurence, b; Alan Jackson, d; John Mitchell, perc. March 1975.


SUN 17:00 The Listening Service (m0000d5h)
Maxing out on Minimalism

Less really is more on today’s The Listening Service: we’re maxing out on minimalism, that most popular but also most divisive and most misunderstood of all 20th-century musical movements. Music that either makes you bliss out or brings you out in hives - it's the sound of that rhythmic repetitive music by a quartet of American composers - Steve Reich, Philip Glass, LaMonte Young, and Terry Riley, who have defined the movement, the style, even the genre of minimalism. Take a chord, a pattern, a handful of notes - and repeat them - and repeat again…and again...

What is minimalism in music and why should you listen to it?


SUN 17:30 Words and Music (m000fnt5)
Less Is More

Lent starts this week, a time when many people give up something they love in the run up to Easter. But the value of ‘less’ to the human experience can be so much more than self-deprivation and abstinence, as this programme attempts to prove.

Minimalist artists and designers have shown that “less is more”. Poets have long understood how to offer much with few words: like Basho and Buson, the Japanese masters of the haiku, or Edgar Allan Poe using repetition in The Bells.

American writer Joan Didion offers a personal experience of how mundane events take on painful but rich significance when we lose a loved one; Walt Whitman enjoys a sun bath in his birthday suit; and Sappho’s Fragments suggest art is all the more beguiling when only shards of the original work remain.

Join readers Jane Lapotaire and John Heffernan to experience the power of miniatures, memories, absence and simplicity to stir the spirit and spark the imagination. With music by Joseph Haydn, Duke Ellington, Marin Marais and Ann Southam.

Readings:

Robert Herrick - To Keep a True Lent
W. H. Davies - Money, O!
Haikus by Basho, Boncho and Onitsura (translated by Geoffrey Bownas)
Juan Ramón Jiménez - Eternidades
Walt Whitman - A Sun Bath: Nakedness
John Pawson - In Praise of Minimalism (excerpt)
Turner Cassity - The grateful Minimalist
Edgar Allan Poe - The Bells: IV (excerpt)
Kalpa Sutra - Life of Mahâvîra, Lecture 5 (excerpt) (translated by Hermann Jacobi
Caleb Femi - My Father Wore a terrible story of poverty
Madeleine L’Engle - For Lent, 1966
John Keats - Ode on a Grecian Urn (excerpt)
W. B. Yeats - Never Give All The Heart
Joan Didion - Year of Magical thinking (excerpt)
Sappho - Fragments (translated by Anne Carson)
Rabindranath Tagore - The Gardener: II

Produced by Chris Elcombe
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3.

01 00:02:48
Robert Herrick
To Keep a True Lent, read by John Heffernan
Duration 00:00:45

02 00:06:18
W. H. Davies
Money, O!, read by Jane Lapotaire
Duration 00:01:12

03 00:08:09
Basho and Boncho, translated by Geoffrey Bownas
Selection of haikus, read by Jane Lapotaire
Duration 00:00:25

04 00:09:34
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Eternidades, read by John Heffernan
Duration 00:00:54

05 00:12:51
Walt Whitman
A Sun Bath - Nakedness, read by Jane Lapotaire
Duration 00:02:24

06 00:21:04
John Pawson
In Praise of Minimalism (excerpt), read by John Heffernan
Duration 00:01:06

07 00:24:23
Turner Cassity
The Grateful Minimalist, read by John Heffernan
Duration 00:00:31

08 00:29:42
Basho, Boncho and Onitsura, translated by Geoffrey Bownas
Selection of haikus, read by Jane Lapotaire
Duration 00:00:39

09 00:31:19
Edgar Allan Poe
The Bells: IV (excerpt), read by John Heffernan
Duration 00:01:15

10 00:41:28
Bhadrabahu, translated by Hermann Jacobi
Kalpa Sutra: Life of Mahâvîra, Lecture 5 (excerpt), read by Jane Lapotaire
Duration 00:03:15

11 00:48:13
Caleb Femi
My Father Wore a terrible story of poverty, read by Caleb Femi
Duration 00:01:35

12 00:53:58
Madeleine L’Engle
For Lent, 1966, read by Jane Lapotaire
Duration 00:00:56

13 00:55:47
John Keats
Ode on a Grecian Urn (excerpt), read by John Heffernan
Duration 00:02:14

14 01:02:09
W. B. Yeats
Never Give All The Heart, read by John Heffernan
Duration 00:00:43

15 01:06:02
Joan Didion
The Year of Magical thinking (excerpt), read by Jane Lapotaire
Duration 00:01:24

16 01:07:52
Sappho, translated by Anne Carson
Fragments, read by Jane Lapotaire
Duration 00:00:50

17 01:09:28
Rabindranath Tagore
The Gardener: II, read by John Heffernan
Duration 00:01:07


SUN 18:45 Sunday Feature (m00016st)
The Kristapurana

A full 50 years before John Milton wrote Paradise Lost, an Englishman called Thomas Stephens composed an epic based on the story of the Bible, and he wrote it in Goa, India - that lush, monsoon soaked region so beloved of hippies and holidaymakers.

And he wrote it, not in English, or any European language, but in a regional Indian language, Marathi. 11,000 verses in a classical Indian verse form, rich with images of India - jasmine and coconuts, palm trees and gurus.

'The Kristapurana' is the great, forgotten jewel of Anglo-Indian contact, and the story of its making is as complex as the man who wrote it. Once read and recited in every Christian household in Goa, now barely a memory… why has it disappeared?

And who was this man, this Thomas Stephens? How did he find himself on the other side of the world?

Professor Nandini Das, scholar of early travels and voyages of exploration, is fascinated by Thomas Stephens, and 'The Kristapurana'. She brings the epic poem, and it's writer to life, tracking the scattered traces of his life, from the Tower of London to a remote parish church in south Goa, in an evocative monsoon soaked adventure, reaching back almost 500 years.

With the help of architectural historian Noah Fernandez, archivist Sally Dixon-Smith from the Tower of London, Father Peter Davidson of Campion Hall, Father Vijay D'Souza, Dr Suresh Amonkar, Professor Gil Harris, Dr Liesbeth Corens, Joao Vicente De Melo, Dr Carlos Fernandes of the Goa State Library, Dr Menezes, Rector of Rachol Seminary and Father Victor, archivist, Father Glen D'Silva and the children of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Vaddem, Sanguem

Producer: Sara Jane Hall

Singing bell music by kind permission of Longplayer - Jem Finer's composition for a thousand years.


SUN 19:30 Drama on 3 (b0b91sqp)
The Glass Menagerie

By Tennessee Williams

The Glass Menagerie was Tennessee Williams' first big success when it opened on Broadway in 1945, and has remained the most touching, tender and painful of his works. Closely based on the playwright's own life and family in St Louis in the 1930s, Williams breaks away from naturalism to create a dream-like atmosphere. The narrator Tom conjures up recollections of the cramped and claustrophobic tenement home he shares with his often over-bearing mother Amanda, and his painfully shy sister, Laura.

The play simmers with frustration as each character is trapped in their own unhappy situation. Tom (also Williams' birth name) works in a warehouse but dreams of being a poet and escaping his mundane life supporting his mother and sister. Laura hides at home lacking the confidence to engage meaningfully with the outside world, preferring instead to get lose herself in her collection of fragile glass animals. Amanda sells magazine subscriptions over the phone and commits herself to finding a match for her daughter. One day, Tom succumbs to his mother's pressure and brings home a gentleman caller to visit his sister, and their quiet existence is shattered.

The programme is introduced by John Lahr, author of the acclaimed biography Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh.

Amanda . . . . . Anastasia Hille
Tom . . . . . George MacKay
Laura . . . . . Patsy Ferran
Jim . . . . . Sope Dirisu

Music for violin arranged and performed by Bogdan Vacarescu.

Director: Sasha Yevtushenko.


SUN 21:15 Radio 3 in Concert (m000fnt7)
Classical highlights from Schwetzingen and Holst's Planets from Minnesota

Fiona Talkington introduces highlights from classical concerts around Europe, including the SWR Symphony Orchestra at the 2019 Schwetzingen Festival and Holst's Planets from Minnesota.

Handel: Concerto grosso in G, Op 6 No 1
Concerto Köln

Albrechtsberger: Sinfonia Concertino in D
Hoffmeister: Viola Concerto in D
Antoine Tamestit (viola)
SWR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart
Alessandro De Marchi (conductor)

Haydn: Overture 'L'isola disabitata
SWR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart
Alessandro De Marchi (conductor)

Stravinsky: 3 Movements from Petrushka
Alexei Zuev (piano)

Holst: The Planets
Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänska (conductor)


SUN 23:30 Slow Radio (m000fnt9)
From Dadar to the Stars

Prix Italia-winning producer Steven Rajam's arresting, intimate, breath-close binaural portrait of the intoxicating city of Mumbai in India.

From a walk through the narrow lanes of Dadar Flower Market as it springs into life in the early hours, to a hair-raising, ear-bending ride on an auto-rickshaw whizzing through traffic; from grandparents frolicking in the ocean surf, to the twilight hum of Bollywood blaring from inside of every taxi; hawkers by the sea, the roaring swell of commuters at Chhatrapaji Shivaji Terminus... and the frenzied joy of the Ganpati Visarjen (Ganesh Festival).

This is an aural trip like no other.

--

We begin at 3am - perhaps the only few short moments this city truly sleeps, with only the hum of electric lights and an arid breeze for company. Our first destination comes into focus: Dadar Flower Market - one of the largest on earth. Vast bundles of every bloom imaginable arrive and are tossed from high platforms - accompanied by yells and cries as they’re ferried to stalls, and sellers begin their patter. As the sun rises, we're whisked to Mumbai’s main train station, Chhatrapaji Shivaji Terminus, as it too sparks into life. Tannoy announcements in Marathi, English and Hindi pepper the preternatural calm as gradually, great diesel juggernaut huff and puff in... and tens of thousands of commuters huff, puff and rush out.

It's time to escape - via a hair-raising journey by tuk-tuk - to the “Gateway of India”, Mumbai's harbour. Mid-morning, beside the sea, and commuters of a different kind - fishermen returning home - are bringing in their boats as tourists gawp and snap and are hawked at. A brief moment of repose in the back of a taxi is broken by the surreal and vivid sounds of local FM radio - complete with a swooning Bollywood soundtrack - as we arrive at Mumbai's beach, Chowpatty Gurgaon: a place where canoodling lovers rub shoulders with chattering pensioners, businessmen in suits weave past yelping children flying kites - all set to the thrum of sweepers on the boardwalk and the pulsing waves of the Indian Ocean.

Finally, as the sun goes down, we join the crowds filling every street in the city to celebrate the annual Ganpati Visarjen (Ganesh Festival) - immersed in the visceral sonic thrill of pulsating massed drums and celebration all around, as our journey ends. [Credit: "Indian Ganpati Drums" by loganbking @ Freesound.org (CC BY 3.0)]

Producer: Steven Rajam
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 3