The Culture Show  - connecting music to visual arts, literature, film and theatre while discovering the delights of these arts in different parts of the world, all the while building cultural exchanges that will connect us and enrich our lives.

This month we present a 4-part series exploring a country that has one of the largest cultural heritages in the world - Spain. My studio guest is the Consul General of Spain in Hong Kong and Macau, Mr. Miguel Aguirre de Cárcer.

This final programme is all about the diversity of Spain referencing its geography. The Consul General shares his story of his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Many local festivals in towns along the Way have been revitalising the route and the monumental heritage that marks it through a variety of cultural events.

With regard to music, the Codex Calixtinus collection from Santiago de Compostela (or Compostellus or The Book of St. James) dating from the 12th century and preserved in the Cathedral, contains a most interesting set of polyphonic musical pieces and we will hear one of them.

We talk about many different regions of Spain and will visit two of them via Albeinz’s Suite Española - from Catalunya a curranda or courante, and from Sevilla a sevillana frequently mistaken for flamenco. We will hear pianist Juan Carlos Fernández-Nieto with those pieces. He received an International Classical Music Awards 2023 nomination for Best Solo Instrument for this recording.

And we visit Granada in a live recording made during a magic night when the performers in the Nasrid courtyard filled the heart of la Alhambra with music. Mariola Cantarero gave a concert where voice, rhythms and sounds remind us again and again that we are in Granada, in la Alhambra.