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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: Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Composer of the Week: Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): Episode 3

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Episode 3

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), Episode 3

Donald Macleod introduces Britten's Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac.

Donald Macleod introduces Britten's Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, which was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1952, plus excerpts from two operas and a ballet.

By 1952, when the Aldeburgh Festival was in its 5th year, Britten was nearing forty. By then, he and Pears were very much part of the fabric of the community there. Donald Macleod introduces Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, which was premiered at the festival that year, extracts from two more operas - the first based on Henry James' ghostly novella Turn of the Screw and the second on Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, plus another fairy-tale work - the ballet Prince of the Pagodas, complete with magical evocation of the Balinese gamelan.

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 on two influences in Britten's music: Suffolk and his partner Peter Pears

Donald Macleod explores Benjamin Britten's music in the light of two enduring influences - his life partner, the tenor Peter Pears and his beloved native county of Suffolk

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Composer of the Week

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Episode 3

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