“This is a brief life, but in its brevity it offers us some splendid moments, some meaningful adventures”. So wrote the English novelist Rudyard Kipling. But it is not just to life that this comment might be applied; in this programme we explore pieces of music which, in different ways, confront or embody a notion of brevity, in their form, their theme, or their musical destiny. It is a project which has itself proven to be far from brief, and our journey has brought us many “splendid moments” of discovery: the charm or eloquence of musical miniatures; the poignancy of works created during a life cut short; the mysterious impact of utterances quite uncharacteristic of a composer’s customary voice; the immediate appeal of pieces whose popularity was as intense as it was short-lived.