Luca Turin hosts Saturday Classics on BBC Radio 3, presenting a selection of music that conjures up some of his favourite scents

Quick interim post to pass on a tip off I received last night from my friend Jessica - she of the apparently still ongoing rose scent quest! - about a marvellous two hour programme on BBC Radio 3. It was on air yesterday afternoon, but is still available online for 28 days at the time of writing. Luca Turin hosts the entire programme, talking about some of his favourite scents and playing pieces of music which capture the essence / structure / character / 'timbre' of each, including quite a few I had never heard of, or had no clue as to what they were like, such as Diorama. To be truthful, I couldn't quite make out the names of one or two, and he didn't always cite the perfume house concerned, so if anyone was able to compile a complete list of the fragrances covered, I would be most interested to see it!

Oh, and being Radio 3, the music featured is mostly classical, and as well as enjoying Luca Turin's eloquent commentary on the link between each scent and its paired piece of music, I am indebted to him for introducing me to the stirring composition Lento, by Howard Skempton. I was also pleased to see contemporary jazz guitarist Ralph Towner on his playlist, who was part of my musical education during my time with Mr Bonkers, and whom I have even seen in concert once!

I must admit I skipped through some of the classical pieces, as they weren't quite my thing, but I can't recommend the broadcast highly enough for Luca Turin's fascinating descriptions of his chosen perfumes.

Here is the link - catch it while (and if!) you can:

Luca Turin hosts Saturday Classics on Radio 3

Apologies for the fact that I can't seem to embed the link in a directly clickable way - I just did a screenshot of my computer as a rather poor second!

However, I can give you a link to Lento, which is something. Blow me if I can't recall which perfume was associated with it - all the more reason to listen to the programme again, which I was minded to do anyway...;)