The Mozart-to-Christina-Aguilera pipeline

The classical music quiz is back – and somehow it gets even more unhinged.This week: Saint-Saëns hiding Carnival of the Animals because it was too frivolous, Berlioz designing an orchestra of more than 800 performers, Schumann potentially destroying his hand with a finger-stretching contraption, Messiaen writing music in a prisoner-of-war camp, Christina Aguilera’s love of Amadeus and Ethel Smyth conducting imprisoned suffragettes with a toothbrush.Plus: Jonny arrives with a Wagner Pride T-shirt and a grievance from the Proms, Alex becomes classical music’s answer to Hello! magazine, and we discover just how much of our own musical knowledge we may have invented.Episode 9 of The Classic Pod is out now 🎧