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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Stephen Sondheim (1930-)

Composer of the Week: Stephen Sondheim (1930-): Episode 3: Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along

Stephen Sondheim (1930-)

Episode 3

Episode 3: Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along

Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Stephen Sondheim (1930-), Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along

Donald Macleod focuses on two Sondheim musicals - Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along.

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim joins Donald Macleod to focus on two musicals - Sweeney Todd, widely regarded as his masterpiece, and the flop Merrily We Roll Along.

Continuing our series in which Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim talks to Donald Macleod. This third programme focuses on just two musicals: Sweeney Todd, widely regarded as Sondheim's masterpiece, an extraordinarily powerful work which he has modestly described as "a small and scary evening about the need for revenge"; and Merrily We Roll Along, a tale of disintegrating friendships and compromised idealism, narrated, in a characteristic structural twist, backwards. Sweeney Todd was a huge success and is widely performed today, from schools (in a special educational edition) to opera houses; despite a marvellous score, Merrily We Roll Along failed to catch the public mood and remains Sondheim's biggest flop to date. Among other topics, Sondheim also discusses his long-time collaboration with director Hal Prince, the logistics of working with an orchestrator, and the heart attack he suffered in 1979, just three weeks after the opening of Sweeney.

By Chris Barstow.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim joins Donald Macleod to discuss his life and work

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Stephen Sondheim (1930-)

Episode 3: Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along

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