Mardi Gras, and an hour of samba and Brazilian music in general. Get out your feathered headdress, it’s Carnival!

A scant 58-minute review of the vast career of violinist Gidon Kremer, a door to contemporary composers far and wide.

A review of Nina Simone’s first recording, 14 tracks on Bethlehem Records, that made it clear, A Big New Talent Has Come to Town.

Kathleen Turner reads Argentinian/Chilean Ariel Dorfman’s arresting poem Correspondence that will both chill and warm you. And in his honor a sampling of tango.

The ancient tale of our times, plus music of Cy Coleman, Thomas Newman, Aimee Mann, and Violet Orlandi (above).

The turbulent story of the Köln Concert, a landmark in contemporary music that came within a hair’s breadth of not happening.

Music of Zbigniew Preisner, Alberto Iglesias, James Horner, and a tribute to the courage of Martin Luther King Jr.

As humans have since earliest times, we gather to pass the dark hours with stories, ballads and epic tales–Arachne, The Lady of Shallot, The Walrus and the Carpenter, with music throughout.

With the depths of winter approaching, a sampling of the music of Vasks, Pärt, Arnalds, and Silvestrov.

Music to bury the dying year in the west and birth the next rolling in from the east.