Rainer Hersch's All Classical Music Explained

Rainer Hersch gives us his irreverent take on classical music in these BBC radio shows.

Stand-up comic, musician and conductor Rainer Hersch has performed in comedy clubs worldwide, made numerous appearances at the Edinburgh Festival and put on several comedy-concert series at London's Southbank Centre. This audio anthology brings together two of his BBC radio series, All Classical Music Explained and Rainer Hersch's 20th Century Retrospective, plus the standalone programme Gershwin's Horns and some stand-up comedy from Rainer at London's Comedy Store.

All Classical Music Explained sees him leading us through a comedic tour of our melodic past. In six spoof lectures, he reveals how Cosi Fan Tutte is actually about TV chefs; assembles the largest collection of stylophones in one building; investigates the Bach family and the world's most beautiful music; and explains the etiquette of concerts - including how to fall asleep and look like you're still listening. Among his special guests are the Fine Arts Brass Ensemble, Richard Thomas, Wayne Marshall, Alistair McGowan and Tamsin Little.

In Rainer Hersch's 20th Century Retrospective, he presents five personal and idiosyncratic studies of the music of the last century. Starting with the Second Viennese School and atonality, he ponders the greatest musicians of the 20th century; gives us an abbreviated guide to the good, bad and indifferent musical premieres of the period; rummages around in the trunk marked 'Inspirations, Muses and the Frankly Unbelievable'; and asks what music has made of the recording industry, and what the recording industry has made of us.

Gershwin's Horns finds him exploring the musical significance of cannons, typewriters, tuned salad bowls and - in the case of Gershwin's An American in Paris - car horns. They've all appeared in concert performances over the last 200 years, but do they really deserve a place in the orchestra? Aided by leading British percussionists Mick Doran and Neil Percy, he demonstrates the soundscape such unusual instruments can conjure up, and discovers what can go wrong when you lose your tubular bells or inadvertently wound a conductor with the shrapnel from an anvil...

Finally, in a 5-minute performance recorded at London's legendary Comedy Store as part of 4 At The Store, Rainer keeps the audience in stitches with his fabulously funny stand-up routine, as he proves that classical music doesn't have to be a serious business.

First released: Thursday 27th March 2025