Brian Kay presents Brian Kay's Light Programme and 3 For All.  He is also well known as a conductor,  particularly of choral music. 
Here he shares his memories of Beethoven's music, and makes some of his own listening recommendations.

• Brian Kay's Light Programme
• 3 For All

"I must have been about twelve years old when my boarding school music master took me to an orchestral concert in the North Wales town of Rhyl. I can still recall the impact of hearing the Eroicasymphony for the first time - those horn calls in the Scherzo almost literally pinning me to the back of my seat.

If I fast forward to 1967, I find myself sitting among the ranks of the John Alldis Choir enjoying one of my first experiences as a professional singer, as a back-row bass on Otto Klemperer's recording of the Choral Fantasia, with pianist Daniel Barenboim and the New Philharmonia - another extraordinary and unforgettable experience, performing such music under the baton of one of the great Beethoven conductors of yesteryear (although, in fact, Klemperer didn't use a baton!).

More recently I can well remember being marooned on a motorway long enough to hear the whole of John Eliot Gardiner's recording of that same Eroica (though sounding very different!) on Radio 3. As a founder member of the Monteverdi Choir back in 1964, I've never been so pleased to be stuck in traffic!

One of my first guests when I presented Radio 4's Comparing Notes was John Suchet, whose fascinating 3-volume novel about Beethoven excited not only me but also his fellow-guest John Lill.

One of the rivetting things about Beethoven is how listening to his music constantly changes, and has done so dramatically during my lifetime. I was brought up on Karajan and the Berlin Phil, and might have found the likes of Gardiner, Norrington and Rattle a hefty gear change - as indeed they were. The important thing has always been how Beethoven - like Bach and Handel - survives almost any kind of treatment. The music is the thing, and the way it stimulates so many different reactions in both performers and listeners. So the thought of wall-to-wall Beethoven for an entire week on Radio 3 is mouth-watering indeed."

Here are some of Brian's favourite Beethoven recordings:

Choral Fantasia / Emperor Concerto
Daniel Barenboim / NPO / Otto Klemperer
EMI CDM 5 67329-2

Symphonies 3 and 4
Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique / John Eliot Gardiner
Archiv 447 050-2

Song Cycle: An Die Ferne Geliebte
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau / Jorg Demus
DG 415 189-2

Mass in C
Collegium Musicum 90 / Richard Hickox
Chandos CHAN 0703

Overtures
Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen / Daniel Harding
Virgin VC5 45364-2