In Our Time: Culture Folgen

Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the great writers on Central Europe after the first world war and on the dying of the old orders with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire. As a German speaking Jew from Brody in the north-eastern edge of that Empire, which was then in Galicia, next in Poland and is now in Ukraine, Roth (1894 - 1939) was to spend his short life moving first to Lviv then to Vienna and finally to Paris via Berlin without ever finding a settled home. Roth explored the loss of homeland and anticipated the dangers of the new nationalism through his journalism and in his novels including Radetzky March, Job, Rebellion and Flight Without End, and his books were among the first the Nazis burned.With Helen Chambers Emeritus Professor of German at the University of St AndrewsDeborah Holmes Associate Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of SalzburgAnd Jon Hughes Reader in German and Cultural Studies at Royal Holloway, University of LondonProducer: Simon TillotsonReading list:Jon Hughes, Facing Modernity: Fragmentation, Culture and Identity in Joseph Roth's Writing in the 1920s (MHRA, 2006) Heinz Lunzer and Victoria Lunzer-Talos, Joseph Roth: Leben und Werk in Bildern (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1994)Keiron Pim, Endless Flight: The Life of Joseph Roth (Granta, 2022)Joseph Roth (trans. Deborah Holmes, ed. Helen Constantine), Vienna Tales (Oxford University Press, 2014)Joseph Roth (trans. and ed. Michael Hofmann), A Life in Letters (Granta, 2012)Joseph Roth (trans. Michael Hofmann), Collected Shorter Fiction (Granta, 2001)Joseph Roth (trans. Michael Hofmann), Rebellion (Granta, 2000)Joseph Roth (trans. Michael Hofmann), The Radetzky March (Granta, 2022)Joseph Roth (trans. Michael Hofmann), The Legend of the Holy Drinker (Granta, 2022)Joseph Roth (trans. Michael Hofmann), The Wandering Jews (Granta, 2001)Joseph Roth (trans. Michael Hofmann), What I Saw: Reports from Berlin 1920-1933 (Granta, 2022)Joseph Roth (trans. Michael Hofmann), The Hotel Years: Wanderings in Europe Between the Wars (Granta, 2015)Joseph Roth (trans. Michael Hofmann), Reports from a Parisian Paradise: Essays from France 1925-1939 (Granta, 2004)Joseph Roth (trans. Michael Hofmann), The Emperor’s Tomb (Granta, 2013)Joseph Roth (trans. Michael Hofmann), The String of Pearls (Granta, 1999)Joseph Roth (trans. Michael Hofmann), The White Cities: Reports From France 1925-1939 (Granta, 2013)Joseph Roth (trans. David Le Vay), Weights and Measures (Pushkin Press, 2024)Joseph Roth (trans. Daved Le Vay and Beatrice Musgrave), Flight Without End (Pushkin Press, 2024)Joseph Roth (trans. Ruth Martin), The Coral Merchant: Essential Stories (Pushkin Press, 2020)Joseph Roth (trans Will Stone), On the End of the World (Pushkin Press, 2019)Joseph Roth (trans. Dorothy Thompson), Job: The Story of a Simple Man (Granta, 2022)Wilhelm Von Sternburg, Joseph Roth: Eine Biographie (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2009)In Our Time is a BBC Studios ProductionSpanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

Misha Glenny and guests discuss the work of Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972), the graphic artist and printmaker best known for his impossible buildings, paradoxical perspectives, and repeating geometric patterns. Born in Leeuwarden and trained as a printmaker, Escher visited the Alhambra in Granada and found inspiration in the tessellating shapes of Islamic art. Through his career he went on to create some of the most famous images of the twentieth century and has been called a one-man art movement. After his work was exhibited in a 1954 conference, Escher’s work also caught the eye of mathematicians who appreciated his intuitive geometric precision. Escher was influenced by their work, and they were influenced by his – despite Escher never thinking he was actually very good at maths himself.   WithMarcus du Sautoy Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, Professor of Mathematics and Fellow of New College, University of Oxford   Sarah Hart Professor Emerita of Mathematics and Fellow of Birkbeck, University of London, and Fellow of Gresham College   And   Judith Kadee Exhibitions project manager and public programme curator at Hague Historical Museum   Producer: Martha OwenReading list:Marcus du Sautoy, Blueprints: How Mathematics Shapes Creativity (Fourth Estate, 2025)Marcus du Sautoy, Finding Moonshine: A Mathematician’s Journey Into Symmetry (Harper Perennial, 2009)Bruno Ernst, The Magic Mirror of M.C. Escher (Taschen, 2007)M.C. Escher, M.C. Escher: The Graphic Work (Taschen America Llc, 1992)Miranda Fellows, The Life and Works of Escher (Siena,1996)Frederico Giudiceandrea, Escher op reis or Escher’s Journey (Publisher Wbooks, 2018, in Dutch)Sarah Hart, Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature (Flatiron Books, 2023)Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (first published 1979; Basic Books, 1999)Siobhan Roberts, King of Infinite Space: Donald Coxeter, The Man Who Saved Geometry (Profile Books, 2007)Claudio Salsi, Paolo Branca and Claudio Bartocci (eds.), M.C. Escher. Tra arte e scienza. Catalogo della mostra (24 Ore Cultura, 2025, in Italian)Doris Schattschneider, “The Mathematical Side of M.C. Escher” (Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. 57, 6, 2010)Doris Schattschneider, M.C. Escher: Visions of Symmetry (Thames and Hudson Ltd, 2004)Wouter van Reek, Nadir & Zenith in the World of Escher (Leopold, 2019)In Our Time is a BBC Studios productionSpanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.

Misha Glenny and his guests discuss the most famous oratorio of George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and his librettist Charles Jennens (1700-1773). For his libretto, Jennens drew from Old and New Testament texts: prophecies about the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, the nativity, the suffering of Christ and his death and the Day of Judgement and redemption for all. Handel's Messiah had its premiere in 1742 in a secular Dublin music hall to great acclaim with a packed audience and Handel continued to adapt his Messiah for later performances, often shaping the work to the choirs or individual singers available. Messiah proved to be one of his most popular works, becoming a favourite of massed choirs around the world far beyond the scale of Handel’s original.With Donald Burrows Emeritus Professor of Music at the Open UniversityRuth Smith Trustee and Council Member of the Handel InstituteAndLarry Zazzo Countertenor, and Senior Lecturer in Music at Newcastle UniversityProducer: Simon TillotsonReading list:Donald Burrows, Messiah (full score, 2 vols, Hallische Händel Ausgabe, forthcoming)Donald Burrows, Messiah (Edition Peters, 1987)Donald Burrows, Messiah, Cambridge Music Handbooks (Cambridge University Press, 1991)Donald Burrows, Handel: Master Musicians series, 2nd edition (Oxford University Press, 2012)George Frideric Handel (ed. Donald Burrows et al.), Collected Documents vol. 3 (1734-42), vol 4 (1742-50), (Cambridge University Press, 2019, 2020)G.F. Handel, facsimile ‘Messiah’: the composer’s autograph manuscript (British Library, 2009)G.F. Handel, facsimile the composer’s Conducting Score of Messiah (Scolar Press, 1974) Arthur Holroyd, Reassuring 18th-Century Protestants: The Librettist’s Intended Message for Handel’s ‘Messiah’ (Quacks Books, 2018)Charles King, Every Valley: The Story of Handel’s Messiah (Doubleday/Bodley Head, 2024)Jens Peter Larsen, Handel’s Messiah: Origins, Composition, Sources (Adam and Charles Black, 1957)Richard Luckett, Handel’s Messiah: A Celebration (Victor Gollancz, 1992)Watkins Shaw, A Textual and Historical Companion to Handel’s ‘Messiah’ (Novello and Co, 1965)Ruth Smith, ‘The Achievements of Charles Jennens (1700–1773)’ (Music & Letters, 70, 1989)Ruth Smith, Charles Jennens: The Man behind Handel’s ‘Messiah’ (Handel House Trust/The Gerald Coke Handel Foundation, 2012)Ruth Smith, Handel’s Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought (Cambridge University Press, 1995)Calvin R. Stapert, Handel’s Messiah: Comfort for God’s People (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010)Judy Tarling, Handel’s Messiah: A Rhetorical Guide (first published 2014; Punnett Press, 2025)In Our Time is a BBC Studios productionSpanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Misha Glenny and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.