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Petroc Trelawny talks to the Irish mezzo-soprano Ann Murray about her musical upbringing and career in the world’s leading opera houses and recital halls. Acclaimed for her roles in the operas of Handel, Mozart and Strauss, Murray has developed particularly close relationships with the Royal Opera, the English National Opera and the Bavarian State Opera. Her passion for storytelling through song began with an invitation to join Graham Johnson’s Songmaker’s Almanac in the 1970s, and has more recently led to a partnership with the pianist Malcolm Martineau. Murray has also maintained close links with her homeland through the support of young singers at Dublin's Opera Theatre Company, and she performs at London’s Wigmore Hall in April as part of a week-long festival commemorating the centenary of the Easter Rising.

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Ann’s concert at Wigmore Hall will be broadcast in Radio 3 in Concert on 21st April.

Photo © Frances Marshall

The British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber is principal of the Birmingham Conservatoire and a passionate advocate for the role of music and musical education in our society. In the latest Music Matters Soapbox, he presents a powerful argument against the ‘scourge’ of background music.

Let us know what you think about the issues raised on the Soapbox - email musicmatters@bbc.co.uk

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Stalin's Music Prize is a new book by the Russian music expert Marina Frolova-Walker, which aims to shed new light on musical, cultural and political life in Stalin's Soviet Union. Using recently declassified sources which show Stalin’s personal role in a bureaucratic and often controversial decision making process, Frolova-Walker explores the annual prizes which were awarded to composers and musicians from 1940-1954 to represent the best in Soviet Culture. Petroc talks to the author, and is joined to review the book by the writer, broadcaster and former ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Moscow correspondent, Martin Sixsmith, and Christina Guillaumier from the Centre for Russian Music at Goldsmiths, University of London.

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