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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

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

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

Composer of the Week: Sibelius - The Rest is Silence? (The Years 1925-1957)

Composer of the Week: Sibelius - The Rest is Silence? (The Years 1925-1957): Episode 4

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Sibelius - The Rest is Silence? (The Years 1925-1957)

Episode 4

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Sibelius - The Rest is Silence? (The Years 1925-1957), Episode 4

With Donald Macleod. Late works for organ, plus the only recording of Sibelius conducting.

Donald Macleod presents the only existing recording of Sibelius conducting - the Funeral Music for organ, as well as two of the rarest works in his repertoire.

In today's episode, Donald Macleod introduces the only existing recording of Sibelius conducting - a colourful rendition of his own Andante Festivo on New Year's Day, 1939.

We'll also hear the extraordinary Funeral Music for organ, written after the death of one of his greatest friends, the painter Akseli Gallén-Kallela in 1931 - and usually considered his last work. Sibelius, by now wracked by writer's block over the Eighth Symphony, tried his hardest to wriggle out of his commitment to mark his friend's passing in music. But, unable to escape, he produced a bizarre, otherworldly soundworld.like nothing he'd ever written before.

So then: his last original work? Not quite. Donald explores the extraordinary story of Sibelius' music for the Freemasons.and we'll hear two brief pieces, apparently written in a single, fevered night in 1946 - the first new pieces for some 15 years, and the last Sibelius was to ever let see light of day.

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.

Donald Macleod explores the mythology surrounding the last decades of Sibelius's life

Donald Macleod explores the myths and mysteries behind Sibelius's last, so-called 'silent' decades. With extracts from the composer's diary as well as a variety of rare pieces

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Sibelius - The Rest is Silence? (The Years 1925-1957)

Episode 4

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