There's a wealth of informative material about music on the BBC website. The most useful to me are the podcasts of Building A Library episodes which I find enormously instructive in helping me to understand better what composers were aiming at and what to listen for in their music. With so many available recordings these days the reviews can sometimes be frustratingly limited in their coverage. I don't always like their choices: an example was the recent review of Don Giovanni where the chosen record fell at my first hurdle, because the soprano's voice in the marvellous trio right near the start wasn't at all to my taste. However, that was an exception, and I normally find their choices a useful guide in the absence of anything better.
There are now 268 episodes of Building A Library from the last 10 or 11 years available on the BBC website
BBC Radio 3 - Record Review Podcast - Episode guide
In a separate thread @dinah asked me to post a link to a BBC podcast to test for any regional restrictions. This is a link to a Building A Library podcast review of Schubert's late E flat piano trio. The review was by Ian Burnside who I find to be one of the best of the programme's current contributors. Although I had heard the trio several times over the years this podcast made me realise what a fantastic piece it is. The review dates back to a time when contributors were allowed to present their reviews in a properly thought out manner without any interruptions. Sadly, for the past year or two the producers have thought it appropriate to follow the podcast trend and make it a chatty discussion between the reviewer and the Record Review presenter. This results in many repetitions and interruptions to the reviewer's chain of presentation.
Here is a link to an mp3 version of the podcast copied from my podcast app
This page on the BBC website leads to the same download
BBC Radio 3 - Record Review Podcast, Schubert: Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat major, D.929
In a separate thread @dinah asked me to post a link to a BBC podcast to test for any regional restrictions.
I'm afraid there are indeed restrictions, @hugh. 😔 I cannot play the links' content: "this content is not available in your location". I can see the episodes index and their descriptions fine, but alas, they're not playable!
The links you provided are to a program called "record review podcast". There are two others called "record review" and "record review extra" that have some episodes playable, for a certain period of time, outside the UK! 🤨
