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For a variety of reasons, European classical music developed quite differently south of the Pyrenees. We'll hear a sampling with a quick look at what went into the Iberian melting pot, and what sorts of music the blending of Spanish, Moorish, Sephardic, and maybe even Native American cultures produced.

We sometimes regard J.S. Bach as the quintessential conservative church musician, and it's true, that was his day job. But he was no stick-in-the-mud, and we'll look at some of his lighter music as we celebrate his 339th birthday this Sunday.

We're going to hear some French music "of a certain age" this week, we'll skip to another age and place for an hour of J.S. Bach, and then some music by American Paul Creston, and soon-to-become-American Kurt Weill.

We begin a series this Sunday of the fifteen symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich in the context of the times in which they were written. Our story begins with the Symphony #1, a student piece from his conservatory days and this week's featured work.

We come to No.7 in our series of the symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich, written largely while the city was under siege. Shostakovich had been labeled an "Enemy of the People" not long before; now he was a "Hero of the Soviet Union."

After decades of working under the Soviet thumb, Dmitri Shostakovich finally vented his own frustration and rage in his 13th Symphony, a musical setting of the already suppressed poetry of Yevgeny Yevtushenko.

Many of the cost factors that people think are the most important pale in comparison to those that actually are. Mismanagement and fraud top the list. New technologies and treatments are low. Most people think beneficiaries pay their own way or have prepaid for care, neither of which is the the case.

The first debate of the 2016 presidential campaign season is Thursday, Aug. 6. With so many Republican candidates trying to get on stage, what should voters be looking for?

Robert Benincasa is a computer-assisted reporting producer in NPR's Investigations Unit.

Claudia Grisales is a congressional reporter assigned to NPR's Washington Desk.