From a helicopter quartet to a vegetable orchestra, prepare to have your idea of what an ‘instrument’ can be blown wide open. David Walliams explores some of the most fantastical, needlessly complex and sometimes tasty musical instruments that human beings have ever created. Each episode is also accompanied by a playlist in Apple Music – you can find those here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/curator/classic-fm/1211395150

Viola Organista performed by S?awomir Zubrzycki

The Vegetable Orchestra

John Cage: Variations I – Langham Research Centre

Leroy Anderson: The Typewriter – Richard Hayman Orchestra/Richard Hayman

Verdi: ‘Anvil Chorus’ from Il trovatore – Orchestra e coro del teatro alla scala/Riccardo Muti

Mahler: Symphony No.6 – Minnestora Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä (BIS)

Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko (Classic FM)

Ligeti: Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes – Françoise Terrioux (Sony)

Leopold Mozart: Cassation in G ‘Toy Symphony’

Rautavaara: Cantus Arcticus – Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/Leif Segerstam

Tchaikovsky: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy on glass harmonica – William Zeitler