Series of 4 episodes in which Professor Robert Winston explores the relationship between the music and the medical conditions of composers who suffered mental and physical illness.

The Telegraph’s iPlayer Choices described the first episode on Schumann:-

In this new series on creativity, Professor Lord Robert Winston proves a careful guide. He starts with Schumann, who died in an asylum after a botched suicide attempt. The usual story (heard on many a radio programme) is that the prime cause was syphilis. Here itâ??s claimed he was in the grip of manic depression (aka bipolar disorder). Two fellow bipolar sufferers, Dr Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry, and Stephen Johnson, music journalist and broadcaster, discuss its symptoms and how they show in Schumannâ??s music.

The series website is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00h6yvb

Episode 2. iPlayer - Mahler - expires on 17th Feb 2009.

Next episode (3) on Radio 4 on 17th February 2009 13:30 which looks at Ravel. As the BBC say:-

Robert investigates Maurice Ravel, who died in 1937 after suffering for a number of years from a form of dementia, now thought to be Pick’s disease. The effect of the disease was that while his creativity stayed alive, the music that was still being created in his brain remained trapped there. Robert discusses Ravel’s condition with neurologists Jason Warren and Eric Baek, Ravel expert Deborah Mawer and composer Matthew King.