Startling, counterfactual stories from Spanish writer MartĂn Llade reimagining the lives and music of composers. How Felix Mendelssohn was blessed and blighted by a curse.
“Uchronia” - noun - neologism. An alternative history or genre of speculative fiction that reimagines historical events or characters in a new light.
Startling, counterfactual stories about composers Ravel, Mendelssohn, Lully, Debussy and Salieri from the imagination of Spanish writer and classical music radio presenter MartĂn Llade.
Uchronias straddles the gap between fact and fiction, creating hypothetical, “what if” scenarios around much-loved composers, their music and their lives.
Episode 2: How Felix Mendelssohn was blessed and blighted by a curse.
Written by MartĂn Llade
Read by Blake Ritson
With thanks to Juan Lucas and David Johnston.
Stories originally created for Spanish classical music magazine Scherzo and published as "El horizonte quimérico" by Scherzo Editorial S.L.
Executive producer, Sara Davies
Sound mix, Adam Woodhams
Translated, produced and presented by Nicolas Jackson
An Afonica production for BBC Radio 3
Last on
More episodes
Broadcast
- Tuesday21:45BBC Radio 3
Death in Trieste
A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.
Watch: My Deaf World
Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.
The Book that Changed Me
Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.
Podcast
![]()
The Essay
Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
