This uniquely cross-sectional approach to culture combines great art with great music, and examines the connections between the two. Each piece of music from the carefully chosen selection takes on a new dimension and provides a musical context to the work of leading painters and sculptors. This fascinating series, with a colour booklet including a chronology of the principal artistic and political developments of the period, broadens our view of the music itself.

Edouard Manet (1832-83) has been called the father of modern painting. In the 1860s he was the leader of a group of young artists who later became known as the Impressionists, though his own work resists any simple label. On this audio, the world of Manet is given a musical perspective with a carefully chosen selection of pieces by the finest composers of his time. Inside, Hugh Griffith provides explanatory notes on his life and musical environment.

What music did Edouard Manet listen to as he led art towards impressionism and beyond? Chopin, Rossini, Offenbach, Bizet, Lalo and their contemporaries. It is only too easy to forget how pioneering is the mind of the visual artist in terms of form - and how far behind is music. Debussy (born 1862) only began to emerge as a composer towards the end of Manet's life. Hugh Griffiths also chooses music by the lesser-known Alfred Bruneau, making a unique and revealing compilation.