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Michael Tippett was a particularly absorbent composer, soaking up an incredibly wide range of inspirations and influences from the world around him, and perhaps most often from outside the field of music. His huge intellectual capacity and endless interest in other people combined with immense charisma to make him a personality to which everyone who met him seemed irresistibly drawn. His - often complex - relationships were particularly intense ones, and frequently blurred the lines between professional and personal, artistic and sexual.

This week Composer of the week looks at some of the people closest to Tippett and asks what influence they had on the life and music of a man whose story has still never been fully told. Joining Donald Macleod to explore sometimes uncharted territory is Oliver Soden, the author of a new - and the first complete - biography of the composer.

Today, Donald Macleod looks at Tippett's complex relationships with four people he loved and some of the music linked with them: the sculptor Wilf Franks; conductor John Minchinton; painter, Karl Hawker; and the writer on music, Meirion Bowen.

Tippett: Music
Martyn Hill, tenor
Andrew Ball, piano

Tippett: String Quartet No 1: 2 – Lento Cantabile
Heath Quartet

Tippett: Symphony No 2: 2 – Adagio molto e tranquillo
´óÏó´«Ã½ Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins, conductor

Tippett: Songs for Achilles
Martyn Hill, tenor
Craig Ogden, guitar

Tippett: The Knot Garden – Enough, Enough
Josephine Barstow, soprano
Jill Gomez, soprano
Yvonne Minton, mezzo-soprano
Robert Tear, tenor
Thomas Carey, baritone
Thomas Hemsley, baritone
Raimund Herincx, baritone
ROH, Covent Garden
Sir Colin Davis, conductor