And there's still more!

Thursday 28 January 2:00pm BBC Radio 3 Afternoon on 3

Gustav Holst is not well-known for his operas, so there's a welcome opportunity to hear his one-act At the Boar's Head on Thursday. Philip Langridge and John Tomlinson lead the cast as Prince Hal and Falstaff respectively, in this tale inspired by the works of Shakespeare and John Playford's treatise on folk dance, The English Dancing Master.

David Atherton conducts, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and it all looks forward to Radio 3's Folk Connections weekend. Thursday also features Marin Alsop conducting Tchaikovsky's Symphony no.5 with the BBC SO, and the Costa Rican conductor Giancarlo Guerrero conducting Argentinian music by Astor Piazzolla in our continuing Southern Hemisphere season.

Friday 29 January 2:00pm BBC Radio 3 Afternoon on 3

Penny Gore pre-empts Radio 3's Folk Connections weekend again on Friday, with a concert recorded in November at Chichester Festival Theatre.

The BBC Concert Orchestra and its Principal Conductor Keith Lockhart are joined by the folk musicians Nancy Kerr and James Fagan in a specially arranged programme featuring folk-inspired orchestral music by the likes of Holst, Moeran and Britten alongside traditional song and dance tunes.

BBC Radio 3's Folk Connections weekend
Celebrating folk music and the influence of folk on classical music

Friday 29 January 4:30pm In Tune Folk Connections Special

Suzy Klein presents a special edition of In Tune live from Cecil Sharp House in London, headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, to launch Radio 3's Folk Connections weekend celebrating folk music and exploring how folk music has inspired composers through the centuries.

With live music from special guests including folk singer Rosie Hood with her Dovetail Trio, singer-songwriter Emily Portman, pianist David Owen Norris, baritone Peter Savidge, folk duo Belshazzar's Feast and early music ensemble Florilegium, the show will be a glorious celebration of folk music from Britain and around the world.

Alongside traditional folk song there will be music influenced by folk, including the songs of George Butterworth in the year which marks the centenary of his death at the Somme.

Friday 29 January 11:00pm World on 3 Folk Connections

Lopa Kothari presents music from Calan, Bella Hardy and Afro Celt Sound System from Celtic Connections at the CCA in Glasgow - performances by leading musicians from Scotland, Wales and England as part of Radio 3's Folk Connections weekend.

Saturday 30 January 3:00pm Folk Connections

Continuing Radio 3's Folk Connections weekend, Verity Sharp chairs a discussion about the history, origins and future of folk song collecting in the UK. With live performances from Emily Portman, Fay Hield and Thomas McCarthy.

Saturday 30 January 9:45pm Between the Ears Return to Brigg Fair

Musician Jim Moray bends sound and time to recreate the circumstances surrounding a chance encounter between the composer Percy Grainger and elderly farm bailiff Joseph Taylor which marked a major turning point in the history of traditional folk music.

In 1906 the Grainger visited Brigg in Lincolnshire to record, for the very first time, the songs of traditional folk singers on a wax cylinder machine. Among his subjects was the 74 year Joseph Taylor who was later invited to attend the London premiere of Delius's An English Rhapsody which had been inspired by the old man's rendition of Brigg Fair. When he heard the familiar tune, Taylor was said to have removed his hat and sang along, encouraged by Delius and Grainger.

This programme follows Jim Moray as he experiments with technology to recreate that moment; bringing the voice of Joseph Taylor and the Delius orchestral work back together for the first time in over 100 years. Moray takes the original fragile and scratchy recording, restores the sound and then synthesises Taylor's voice in order to play it like an instrument in time with the orchestra.

Moray's technical experiment runs in parallel with his exploration of the significance of Percy Grainger's encounter with Joseph Taylor, tracing the story back to Brigg in Lincolnshire and exploring the impact of those early field recordings on the history of recorded song in general and on folk music in particular. Applying the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, he asks if folk music is fundamentally altered by the act of recording it?

Along the way, Moray takes the synthesised rendition of Brigg Fair and brings Taylor into the 21st century by placing him in a brand new musical setting.

Sunday 31 January 6:45pm Sunday Feature Cecil Sharp's Appalachian Trail

100 years ago, in the spring of 1916, English folk song collector Cecil Sharp set out on a voyage to America, planning a give a series of lectures on English folk music. However as he was crossing the Appalachians he discovered a treasure trove of folk songs, many of them English folk songs he had never encountered before.

Andy Kershaw follows Cecil Sharp's Appalachian Trail through Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, hearing some of the songs he collected both in their original versions and in present-day interpretations in specially-recorded sessions with contemporary singers. The 1600 songs that Cecil Sharp collected represent the bedrock of Appalachian music, songs which gave rise to the styles of old-time, country and bluegrass.

Sunday 31 January 11:50pm Folk Connections

Verity Sharp and Bruce MacGregor join the Festival after-show party, sample more highlights from Celtic Connections, and contrast the folk scenes in England and Scotland.