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

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

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

Composer of the Week: Leonard Bernstein

Composer of the Week: Leonard Bernstein: Episode 5: The Final Years

Episode 5

Episode 5: The Final Years

Leonard Bernstein

The Final Years

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Leonard Bernstein, The Final Years

Donald Macleod on how after his wife's death, Bernstein focused on his own mortality.

Donald Macleod reveals how after his wife's death in 1978, Leonard Bernstein began thinking his own mortality and creating a legacy.

Donald Macleod discovers that Bernstein's final years were anything but quiet despite declining health with much of his work being autobiographical. Felicia Bernstein's death in June 1978, not long after the reconciliation with her husband, left a gaping void in Bernstein's life. He began contemplating his own mortality and leaving a legacy in his final decade is including a song cycle named after a remark by President Eisenhower who preferred music with a good tune, "not all them Arias and Barcarolles". Works featured in this programme include 'The Great American Opera' and 'A Quiet Place'.

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.

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Donald Macleod explores Bernstein's life and work - as a conductor and performer

Donald Macleod explores Bernstein's life and work - as an inexhaustible conductor, educator, performer and personality

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Composer of the Week

Leonard Bernstein

Episode 5: The Final Years

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