Don't miss the Sunday feature at 1945 this weekend on BBC Radio 3 when the writer Sarah Dunant will look at the devastating cultural history of syphilis which arrived in Europe in the 1490s and tormented society for over 400 years.

Tune in to Radio 3 at 2245 for tonight’s Essay: Wagner and Adorno with John Deathridge. Theodor Adorno, a leading member of the Frankfurt School, was one of the 20th Century’s most influential thinkers. What’s more he was a trained musician with some very perceptive things to say about Wagner. Coming from a particular line of German philosophy that goes from Kant via Hegel and Marx to Freud, he reinterpreted Wagner’s great music dramas as the work of a tainted bourgeois artisan, who has climbed into bed with the very tyrants he wishes to overthrow. However, despite that, Adorno suggests a way in which we can rescue the great humanist project lurking in Wagner’s opera from Wagner the man. Previous Essays on Wagner and Hegel, Bakunin, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche available online: Radio 3 - The Essay, Wagner's Philosophers, Wagner and Adornowww.bbc.co.ukProfessor John Deathridge explores the posthumous reputation of Wagner in the 20th century

Part 2 of Lucy Duran's trip around Equatorial Guinea this Sunday at 10pm, where she meets Annobonese singer Desmali, whose music is full of tales of love and loss, transatlantic musical journeys and a little bit of cross dressing..Radio 3 - World Routes, Equatorial Guinea, Equatorial Guinea Episode 2, World Routes in...Lucy Duran heads back to Equatorial Guinea to meet singer and guitarist Desmali.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra's season finale concert takes place at the Barbican tomorrow at 730pm. The music includes a UK premiere by Wolfgang Rihm, songs from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Shostakovich's 11th Symphony. BBC SO marketing manager Sarah Hirons introduces the concerts and you can watch a special video in which the orchestra's sub-principal viola, Phil Hall, plays a theme from the slow movement of the Shostakovich, and sketches in the dascinating historical background to the tune ... You can hear the concert next Tuesday afternoon on Radio 3, from 2pm.BBC - Blogs - BBC Radio 3 - BBC Symphony Orchestra - the story behind the musicwww.bbc.co.ukSarah Hirons looks forward to the BBC SO's season finale concert and introduces a special video about a theme from Shostakovich's 11th Symphony.

For the final In Tune of Wagner Week we talk to Wagnerian legend Sir John Tomlinson, one of the world's finest operatic basses. And on the lighter side, comedian Rainer Hersch will be taking a comedic look at Wagner (and Verdi), plus we have live music from brilliant young jazz pianist Gwilym Simcock. All this, from 4.30pm. Photo by Robert Workman

Is Wagner's work antisemitic? Hear the Night Waves discussion now as part of Radio 3's Wagner Week.

Anniversary celebrations continue today in Afternoon on 3 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Henk de Vlieger’s synthesis of Wagner’s masterpiece ‘The Ring, an orchestral adventure’ –BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon on 3, Wagner 200, Episode 4www.bbc.co.ukKatie Derham presents music by Wagner, Franck, Liszt, Debussy and Busoni.

Vital last-minute preparations for Donald Macleod ahead of this Sunday's live Lohengrin from WNO. Plenty of behind-the-scenes action to come in the intervals. On air from 2.45pm

On this day in 1954, fictional "twelve-tone composeress" Dame Hilda Tablet emerged on the airwaves with her own programme: 'The Private Life of Hilda Tablet', a rather subtle Third Programme parody thought to have been based on, among others, noted non-fictional composeress Dame Ethel Smyth. Here's the entry from that day's Radio Times.

Following on from Fiona Talkington’s appearances as Stuart Maconie’s guest on BBC 6 Music’s Freakier Zone, the tables are now turned as Stuart drops into the Late Junction studio with an intriguing bag of selections from the classical avant-garde, including music by Giacinto Scelsi, Howard Skempton and Morton Feldman (pictured). Photo © Leo Smit & Buffalo University Music Library

There are some great #WagnerWeek programmes available online (as well as more to come on air). Some of those that went out last weekend wont be up there for much longer tho so grab the chance to hear them while you can! They include Stephen Johnson's Sunday Feature on Wagnerian Heroes (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01shy5m) a special Words and Music with much loved actors Juliet Stevenson and Michael Pennington (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01shy5k) and Guy Meredith's Drama - One Winter's Afternoon - about the great operatic rivalry between Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner (played by Kenneth Cranham - pictured). Visitfor more.

Tune in to Radio 3 at 2245 for tonight’s Essay: Wagner and Adorno with John Deathridge. Theodor Adorno, a leading member of the Frankfurt School, was one of the 20th Century’s most influential thinkers. What’s more he was a trained musician with some very perceptive things to say about Wagner. Coming from a particular line of German philosophy that goes from Kant via Hegel and Marx to Freud, he reinterpreted Wagner’s great music dramas as the work of a tainted bourgeois artisan, who has climbed into bed with the very tyrants he wishes to overthrow. However, despite that, Adorno suggests a way in which we can rescue the great humanist project lurking in Wagner’s opera from Wagner the man.BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Wagner's Philosophers, Wagner and Adornowww.bbc.co.ukProfessor John Deathridge explores the posthumous reputation of Wagner in the 20th century

Coming up on today's In Tune, Sean Rafferty talks to WNO chief David Pountney about Wagner in general, Lohengrin in particular. Plus award winning choreographer Akram Khan is in the studio to talk about iTMOi and the Rite of Spring. Plus acclaimed harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock performs live in the studio Photo (c) David Massey

© Clive Barda Bryn Terfel performs as the Flying Dutchman and Anja Kampe as Senta in this afternoon's Opera Matinee.

Love Khaled Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner'? Got eleven minutes? Listen to this fascinating interview with the author from last night's Night Waves. He talks about his new novel 'And the Mountains Echoed', about modern Afghanistan and about writing for Western audiences. It's gripping stuff:BBC Radio 3 - Night Waves, Rana talks to Khaled HosseiniRana Mitter talks to Khaled Hosseini about his latest novel, And the Mountains Echoed.

Hear Rana Mitter in conversation with Khaled Hosseini, the former physician and best-selling author's first two novels - The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns - have sold over 38 million copies and spawned a BAFTA nominated film. He talks about his latest novel, And the Mountains Echoed, his charity relief work in Afghanistan, and his thoughts on writing a sympathetic Taliban character. Image: © Elena Seibert

The #wagner200 celebrations continue with Katie Derham and today's Opera Matinee performance of the hugely acclaimed 2009 Royal Opera House production of The Flying Dutchman, starring Bryn Terfel as the ghostly sea captain who is doomed to sail forever unless he is redeemed by the love of a faithful woman.BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon on 3, Thursday Opera Matinee, Wagner - The Flying Dutchmanwww.bbc.co.ukKatie Derham introduces a Royal Opera House production of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.

Right now, live at the Southbank Centre, Susan Bullock - with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Andrew Davies - performing Wagner for our #WagnerWeek birthday celebration. Here's a picture from her rehearsal earlier today. And listen live on Radio 3 now

At 11pm Late Junction with Fiona Talkington presents more music from the recent Tectonics Glasgow Festival which was curated by conductor Ilan Volkov and staged by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Tonight features a collaborative performance of 'Knots' from multi-instrumentalist Oren Ambarchi (pictured) in the beautiful Old Fruitmarket alongside Joe Talia (drums), James Rushford (arranger and viola), Hildur Gudnodottir and Judith Hammann (cello), David Flack and Fergus Kerr (horns) and curator Ilan Volkov (violin). Plus, Fiona continues to celebrate the music of Steve Martland and will be spinning a Late Junction take on Wagner Week. Photograph: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Tonight at 10pm we have first night review of the winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Theatre critic Susannah Clapp hot foot's it from the theatre to the studio to discuss Disgraced, Ayad Akhar's play about faith, identity and culture. Photograph (c) Simon Kane.

Tune in to Radio 3 at 2245 for Wagner’s Philosophers as Christopher Janaway explores the philosophy of Schopenhauer which inspired Wagner It is fitting that we celebrate Wagner’s 200th birthday with a tribute to his favourite philosopher. Arthur Schopenhauer’s masterpiece, The World as Will and Representation, hit Wagner like a thunderbolt when he discovered it in 1854. The ideas it contained about the insatiability of desire and the primacy of music merely confirmed notions that he had been grappling towards in his own works. But, now underpinned by all the metaphysical trappings and philosophical apparatus, he was encouraged to delve further into the mysteries of sexual love and redemption that lie at the heart of his mature music dramas.

On In Tune later, we mark the passing of French composer Henri Dutilleux aged 97. We'll be speaking to conductor Esa Pekka Salonen and friend and colleague composer Betty Jolas. Here's a clip of the 2011 BBC Proms celebration of Dutilleux's 95th birthday. Proms 2011: Dutilleux - 'Tout un monde lointain ...'BBC PROMS 2011 from the Royal Albert Hall, London. Lynn Harrell (cello) and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with chief conductor Donald Runnicles throws ...

Wagner manuscripts - In Tune, Wednesday 22nd May 2013On the 200th anniversary of Wagner’s birth, we speak to Nicholas Bell from the British Library about what their collection of Wagner manuscripts tells us about the composer.

More for #WagnerWeek in Afternoon on 3 - the Prelude to Parsifal Act 1 and Bruckner's 7th, complete with Wagner TubasBBC Radio 3 - Afternoon on 3, Wagner 200, Episode 3www.bbc.co.ukKatie Derham marks the 200th anniversary of Wagner's birth with an excerpt from Parsifal.

If you missed our Essential Choice at 11 today, it'll soon be available to listen to again. Sibelius Symphony No.3 in a fabulous live recording by Sir Mark Elder and The Halle Orchestra.

The BBC Symphony Orchestra's 'season finale' concert at the Barbican next Saturday includes music by Wolfgang Rihm, Mahler and Shostakovich. In his latest Blog, the Orchestra's general manager Paul Hughes reviews the season, looks ahead to the Proms and outlines the SO's 2013-14 programme - the first under its new Chief Conductor, Sakari Oramo.BBC - Blogs - BBC Radio 3 - BBC Symphony Orchestra - Review and Previewwww.bbc.co.ukBBC Symphony Orchestra general manager Paul Hughes looks back at the 2012-2013 season and looks ahead over the summer and autumn plans.

More for #WagnerWeek in Afternoon on 3 - the Prelude to Parsifal Act 1 and Bruckner's 7th, complete with Wagner TubaBBC Radio 3 - Afternoon on 3, Wagner 200, Episode 3www.bbc.co.ukKatie Derham marks the 200th anniversary of Wagner's birth with an excerpt from Parsifal.

Complementing Hear and Now’s coverage of Ilan Volkov’s Tectonics Music Festival of experimental music which took place in Glasgow earlier this month, Late Junction this week and next presents excerpts of the late night performances in the Old Fruitmarket space at City Halls including sets by the trio of Aidan Moffat, Stuart Braithwaite and Hildur Gudnadóttir, Oren Ambarchi and beginning tonight at 11pm with Finnish-English vocalist Hanna Tuulikki (pictured). You can hear two movements from her extended work for vocal ensemble Voice of the Bird which incorporates sound recordings by Geoff Sample. Also featured this week is the music of composer Steve Martland, who died earlier this month and was such a vital part of the UK’s new music scene.

Tune in to Radio 3 at 2245 for Wagner’s Philosophers as Anthony Grayling mans the barricades in search of Wagner the revolutionary. Join the philosopher Professor Anthony Grayling for tonight’s Essay: Wagner and the Philosophy of revolution. During the Dresden uprising of 1849 Wagner stood alongside firebrand Mikhail Bakunin (pictured) in the revolutionary movement that came to be known as “Springtime of the Peoples.” Later in life Wagner was to turn his back on the idea that society could be improved by tearing down the fabric of the existing order. Instead he retreated into a pessimistic worldview dominated by ideas of redemption through denial of the will. But the earlier, hopeful, optimistic Wagner never disappeared entirely; traces can still be seen in his great Ring dramas which plot the fall of the old gods so that they can be replaced by a wiser and more compassionate humanity.

Tomorrow, 300 people, including around 80 pupils and teachers from six special and mainstream schools associated with London’s Tri-Borough Music Hub will gather at St Paul’s Church, Hammersmith and join with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the premiere of Flight – a piece using assistive music technology and traditional instruments which has evolved in workshops during the academic year. You can read all about the project, made in collaboration with Drake Music and the Royal College of Music, in BBC SO Learning Co-ordinator Lauren Creed’s blog. And you can watch the orchestra thoroughly enjoying themselves rehearsing ‘ET’s Flying Theme’ from John Williams’s film score – follow the link in Lauren’s Blog!BBC - Blogs - BBC Radio 3 - BBC Symphony Orchestra - learnings from the Learningwww.bbc.co.ukBBC Symphony Orchestra learning co-ordinator Lauren Creed explains the background to a forthcoming Schools Concert.

Christopher Hogwood, one of the great pioneers of the Early Music movement, will be on In Tune this afternoon to discuss the operas of Handel. Also in the studio, the distinguished pianist Peter Donohoe will be playing Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and we continue our Wagner 200 celebrations with soprano Elisabeth Meister and pianist Nigel Foster, performing some of Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. Join Sean Rafferty at 4.30. Photo © Anne-Katrin Purkiss

The pianist John Ogdon is our current artist of the week on Essential Classics. Over the next few days we'll be hearing this mercurial genius in pieces by Busoni, Rachmaninov, Bizet and Mendelssohn, and this morning it's Christian Sinding and Beethoven.

Katie Derham continues a week of music marking Wagner's bicentenery with Act 1 of Die Walküre with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Donald Runnicles.BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon on 3, Wagner 200, Episode 2www.bbc.co.ukKatie Derham presents music by Wagner, Sibelius, Berlioz, Schoenberg and Humperdinck.

Ravi Coltrane gig underway on Jazz on 3 now with a bubbling twenty-minute opener...

Make sure to tune in to Radio 3 at 2245 for the first programme in Wagner’s Philosophers (the theme of The Essay this week.) The outspoken and often controversial philosopher, Professor Roger Scruton, starts off the series by looking at how the young Wagner was caught up in the wave of new ideas that was sweeping the German universities of the 1830s as a new generation of philosophers (Fichte, Schelling and Hegel) were weaving new metaphysical systems in the wake of the ground-breaking ideas of Immanuel Kant. In his book on Tristan and Isolde, “Death-Devoted Heart”, Scruton says that Kant was the ultimate inspiration for Wagner’s view of human nature as represented and ultimately vindicated in his music dramas. Scruton places Wagner in this heady atmosphere which came to be known as German Idealism.

Samuel Beckett’s ‘Not I’ had its European premier at London’s Royal Court Theatre 40 years ago. To mark the anniversary the theatre is staging the piece again, performed by Lisa Dwan. Lisa joins Samira, along with Derval Tubridy, author of several studies of Beckett’s work, to discuss a text Beckett said he wanted to ‘work on the nerves of the audience, not its intellect’. Listen to Night Waves at 10pm.

Today on In Tune: Henry Goodman and Emily Bruni play the Wagners on Christmas Morning, 1870; Eric Crees and Guildhall Brass bring exciting Wagner brass discoveries from 19th Century Belgium; and Vasily Petrenko tells us how he’s made the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra thrill audiences and critics in Russian repertoire. All from 4.30pm #WagnerWeek Photo (c) Mark McNulty

This afternoon hear a specially recorded performance of Wagner’s Symphony in C plus music by composers from Webern to Bax which were written under the influence of the great Master of Bayreuth!Radio 3 - Afternoon on 3, Wagner 200, Episode 1www.bbc.co.ukJonathan Swain presents music by Wagner, Berg, Webern, d'Indy, Bax, Mendelssohn and Weber.

Wagner week continues today at midday with Composer of the Week where Donald Macleod takes a look at Wagner and his world, today including music by Beethoven.

On Essential Classics now, our new guest for the week, gardening expert Pippa Greenwood. In the week of the Chelsea Flower Show, Pippa will be talking to Sarah about all things gardening, and choosing some of her favourite music. The Chelsea Flower show always dazzles with its amazing creations, but has anyone got an elephant hedge? If not, why not?

Just some of the singers we recorded for World Routes in Equatorial Guinea. You can hear the whole story this Sunday at 10pm

This week’s edition of Hear and Now is the first of three editions from the recent Tectonics Glasgow at Glasgow’s City Halls. American composer Alvin Lucier was featured throughout the weekend and there were new works by the elder statesman of Romanian spectral music Iancu Dumitrescu in collaboration with American guitarist Stephen O'Malley. The festival is the brainchild of Ilan Volkov, Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and champion of the avant-garde. When he wasn’t conducting the orchestra in the main concert hall, Volkov could be found playing violin alongside guitarist Oren Ambarchi and drummer Joe Talia in the Old Fruitmarket next door, and you can hear part of that set in Wednesday’s Late Junction. See more pictures and film from the weekend here:

We sent Tom Service to the shores of Lake Lucerne to learn about Wagner's period of luxurious exile in Switzerland for today's Music Matters. Tom introduces the themes of the programme:BBC Radio 3 - Music Matters, Wagner 200, Tom Service introduces this week's Music MattersTom Service follows in Wagner's footsteps.

As we celebrate Wagner 200, is Wagner a sort of national hero? Why was he so preoccupied with hero figures? Tune into this week’s Sunday Feature to find out more. Stephen Johnson talks to conductor Donald Runnicles, experts Barbara Eichner, Edward Haymes and Barry Millington, opera producer Adrian Mourby and Cosima biographer Oliver Haymes.

Wagner Week starts tomorrow on Radio 3. In this week's edition of Music Matters the BBC's Berlin correspondent Stephen Evans reports from Wagner's home town of Leipzig on the city's love-hate relationship with its most famous composer son, and Tom Service is in Switzerland discovering more out about Wagner's life in Zurich and Lucerne. Tom even had time to make us a short video postcard:Radio 3 - Music Matters, Wagner 200, Tom Service introduces this week's Music Matterswww.bbc.co.ukTom Service follows in Wagner's footsteps.

As part of Wagner Week, Drama on Three presents "One Winter's Afternoon", telling the story of the great rivalry between opera giants Wagner and Verdi. Exploring key moments in the composers’ lives, and using imagined conversations between them, the play examines ageing and creativity, and their artistic loves and differences. Tune in on Sunday at 8:30pm.

Saturday Classics this week is introduced by the distinguished British bass Robert Lloyd who talks about performing Wagner and plays his selection of moments from the operas.

On today’s In Tune, Clemency Burton-Hill will be talking to Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi about his new job with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and we’ll be congratulating composer Errollyn Wallen on her success at yesterday’s Ivor Novello Awards. Plus, LIVE chamber music from Northern Chords Festival, the Renaissance Choir and soulful jazz from Alexander Stewart. Join us at 4:30… Photo: Simon van Boxtel

Earlier this year World Routes went to Equatorial Guinea, a small country in central Africa probably best known for attempted coups and massive oil wealth. This Sunday at 10pm you can hear the amazing music of the Fang people, from the 4 string zither and epic story telling tradition of the mvet, to the perhaps never before recorded masked dance called Abakuya. Here's a teaser of what they saw and heard...BBC Radio 3 - World Routes, Equatorial Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, World Routes in Equatorial GuineaWorld Routes heads to the small Central African country of Equatorial Guinea.

And in advance of tonight's performance of Tippett's Symphony No.1 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra (from 730pm on Radio 3), here's sub-principal viola Phil Hall talking about working with Tippett, and suggesting key listening points for the Symphony.BBC Radio 3 - Radio 3 Live in Concert, BBC Symphony Orchestra - Jonathan Lloyd, Brahms, Tippett, PhiBBCSO violist Phil Hall talks about working with Tippett and introduces the Symphony No.1