The extraordinary impact of Tristan and Isolde

Professor Kenneth Hamilton, Head of the School of Music, returned to BBC Radio 3’s The Listening Service at the weekend to discuss the musical wonders of Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde.

The programme, presented by Tom Service, considers the extraordinary impact of the opera, which scandalised early audiences in the 1860s and continues to have a profound effect on listeners today. Professor Hamilton lent his musicology expertise to the discussion, taking the listener through Wagner's radical musical structures, which somehow manage to remain unresolved over long stretches of music.

If you missed the broadcast, the programme is still available on BBC iPlayer.