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It was in 1896 that Richard Strauss tried to express Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophies through music. We’ll go light on the Nietzsche as we see what Zarathustra has to say this Sunday.

We conclude two series this week with the final of Bach’s six cello suites, recorded by Pablo Casals in 1936, and another of Aaron Copland’s American West pieces. And then we’ll hear a most unfamiliar version of a most iconic piece of American music.

Most composers who wrote Requiems, went for the dramatic. Gabriel Faure took a different approach, which many feel to be more appropriate. See what you think as we look at the Faure Requiem this Sunday.

We’re going way back in time this Sunday with music that is Medieval or that has Medieval roots, beginning with the Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos and their sleeper best-seller CD of Gregorian chants released nack in 1994.

We lighten it up a bit this week, going back to the 1878 London comedy stage with a complete performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, in which love conquers all (or mostly all) on board the most preposterous ship in the Royal Navy.

In 1928, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill teamed up to produce The Threepenny Opera. This week we’ll have some of the original cast members performing their roles in historic period recordings of nearly a hundred years ago.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, written largely in Leningrad during the 842-day siege of World War II, is pure defiance. Until a few weeks ago, it was a piece of history. Now, suddenly, it seems timely and appropriate.

When the Pilgrims left Southampton in 1620, they left behind a thriving European musical scene. Not that the Pilgrims listened to much music; actually they tended to frown on it. But just for fun, we’ll listen to some of the tunes they might have heard if they had been listening — which they weren’t.

Hank Bolden is one of thousands of U.S. soldiers exposed to secret nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s. He's now using compensation money from the federal government to focus on his first love: music.

The whistleblower who exposed vast surveillance operations by the NSA says he has done nothing wrong. Host Michel Martin speaks to Republican strategist Ron Christie and former adviser to the Obama administration, Corey Ealons, about what his actions mean for the President's second term. They also check in with other top political stories.