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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

Private Passions Podcast

Private Passions

Discussion & Talk

Music: Classical

Guests from all walks of life discuss their musical loves and hates

Guests from all walks of life discuss their musical loves and hates, and talk about the influence music has had on their lives

Private Passions: Richard Mabey

06/02/2011

Richard Mabey

BBC Radio 3 - Private Passions, Richard Mabey

Michael Berkeley's guest is naturalist Richard Mabey.

Michael Berkeley's guest is naturalist Richard Mabey, who selects music from Dowland, Butterworth and Canteloube, and performers from Corsica and Venezuela.

Michael Berkeley's guest this week is Richard Mabey, who has been described as 'Britain's greatest living nature writer'. His first book, 'Food for Free', came out in 1972, and since then he has published a stream of acclaimed books including a biography of Gilbert White, which won the 1986 Whitbread Biography of the Year', the ground-breaking bestseller 'Flora Britannica' (1996), and his latest book 'Weeds' (2010). He contributes frequently to BBC radio, wrote and narrated the 1996 BBC TV series 'Postcards from the Country', and has made films for the BBC on Kew Gardens and the Yorkshire Dales. He is currently working on a book about Flora Thompson, author of 'Lark Rise to Candleford'.

His musical passions are wide-ranging, from a charming madrigal by John Dowland (which reminds him of his schooldays) and George Butterworth's poignant setting of Housman's 'Is my team ploughing?' to a modern setting of a First World War protest song, an improvisation by clarinettist David Rothenberg and two colleagues over the song of marsh warblers, 'The Quail' from Canteloube's 'Songs of the Auvergne', a male-voice choir from a Corsican hill-town singing a traditional song, and two contrasting pieces from Latin America, including one played by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.

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.

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