At Lunch on BBC Radio 3

Our most recent At Lunch concert series is being broadcast on BBC Radio 3 this week, starting tomorrow at 13.00. You can listen live or online or via the BBC iPlayer for 7 days after each transmission. Presented by Louise Fryer, there are new works by Charlotte Bray (Tuesday), Ryan Wigglesworth (Wednesday), Richard Harrold (Thursday), and the UK premiere broadcast of a piece by Polish composer Adam Walaciński (Friday).

800th celebrations in snow-dusted Krakow

Cambridge alumni from Krakow and Warsaw joined Britten Sinfonia for the world premiere of Ryan Wigglesworth's Tenebrae yesterday, commissioned with funds from the University of Cambridge to celebrate its 800th anniversary. The concert was followed by a reception at the Radisson SAS hotel, where Britten Sinfonia's partnership with the Academy of Music in Krakow was also marked. Nicholas Daniel stayed on to give an oboe masterclass in a Creative Learning programme funded by the British Council.

Tenebrae

Happy New Year! Our first commission for 2009 is Tenebrae by Ryan Wigglesworth, which receives its premiere in Krakow on Sunday week, before touring to Cambridge, London, Birmingham and Norwich. It has been commissioned with funds from Cambridge and is one of the first events marking the University's 800th anniversary.

Ryan has written: 'Tenebrae is familiar as the Christian service which takes place on the three consecutive evenings of Holy Week leading up to Easter Sunday. The service is characterized by the gradual extinguishing of fifteen candles, interspersed with the reading or chanting of psalms. As the close of the service, after the last remaining lit candle has been put out and Psalm 22 concluded, the congregation makes its way out of the church in darkness.

Whilst certain aspects of this ritual inform my piece, it is perhaps the more literal sense of the word tenebrae – ‘shadows’ – that provides the work’s generative idea. Shadows, only most obviously appearing in the guise of string tremolandi or woodwind fluttering, are cast in various ways around principal melodic figures and lines (at the opening provided by the cor anglais). These shadows lengthen and recede, double and transform, divide and combine, and at times even proceed to develop along their own independent paths.'

Insight into Stravinsky and neo-classicism

Audiences attending our Pulcinella concert on 28 April in Cambridge will have the opportunity to join Ryan Wigglesworth and John Hopkins – lecturers at Cambridge University’s Faculty of Music – as they lead a discussion offering an insight into a fascinating period of 20th Century music. The two works by Stravinsky in the programme - Pulcinella and The Rake’s Progress – herald the beginning and end of what is widely known as his neo-classical period, when he turned consciously to the music of his predecessors, reviving musical language and structures from earlier times. This event will introduce audiences to the historical and musical context behind this stylistic development, with musical examples to illustrate the discussion.

The event will begin at 6.15pm at West Road Concert Hall, and will be open to all concert ticket holders. At 7.00pm, you will be able to stay on for our usual 'In conversation' event in which conductor Masaaki Suzuki and soloist Carolyn Sampson will give their perspective on the evening’s music. This will finish at 7.30pm, with the concert starting at 8.00pm.