I know they’re out there somewhere… people who don’t run a mile when confronted with an arachnid’s bulbous body and hairy projections, stoically putting your average blogger to timorous shame. It would seem that some classical composers weren’t afraid of getting up close and personal with spiders, either, judging from the number of pieces spun in their recognition. What follows is a selection of such pieces.

Opening the programme is a gentle, condensed nod to Mary Howitt’s 1829 poem The Spider and the Fly, the one that starts as follows:

“Will you walk into my parlour?” said a spider to a fly;
“‘Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I have many pretty things to shew when you are there.”
“Oh no, no!” said the little fly, “to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.”

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