Music Lessons: Seven Composers and What They Taught Me

For critic and composer Stephen Johnson, there have been moments when music has confronted him with life-changing insights. Some of these have been hard to accept, but once accepted they have opened up new possibilities of thinking, feeling and living. Through an exploration of seven pieces — by Anton Bruckner, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Johann Sebastian Bach, Lili Boulanger, Richard Wagner, Jean Sibelius and Ludwig van Beethoven — Johnson considers the lives and the intentions of the composers who created them, and how they have affected him personally.

• Anton Bruckner – Symphony No 8 in C minor
• Segei Rachmaninoff – 'Nyne otpushchayeshi' (Nunc dimittis'), from All-Night Vigil
• Johann Sebastian Bach – St Matthew Passion
• Lili Boulanger – Psalm 130, 'Du fond de l'abîme'
• Richard Wagner – Parsifal, Act Two
• Jean Sibelius – Symphony No 5 in E flat major
• Ludwig van Beethoven – Fidelio