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

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Discovering Music

Music: Classical

Programme which examines a different piece of music each week

Programme which examines a different piece of music each week, looking at the musical form or the composer's style, and exploring the many things contributing to the overall experience

Albert Roussel

Discovering Music: Roussel's Bacchus et Ariane

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

27/01/2012

Roussel's Bacchus et Ariane

BBC Radio 3 - Discovering Music, Roussel's Bacchus et Ariane

Stephen Johnson explores the ballet Bacchus et Ariane by French composer Albert Roussel.

Stephen Johnson explores the ballet Bacchus et Ariane by French composer Albert Roussel, which made its debut at the Paris Opera in 1931.

Albert Roussel became a successful composer almost by accident. Born in 1869, he was a passionate mathematician and - perhaps improbably - navy man, who served several years aboard ships in the French colony of Cochinchina (now Vietnam).

It was only after resigning from the Navy at the age of 25 that Roussel turned to composition; yet still for several decades his pupils - among them Erik Satie and Bohuslav Martinu - were to be more feted than their teacher. This was to change with the debut of his ballet "Bacchus et Ariane" at the Paris Opera in 1931, choreographed by the great dancer Serge Lifar.

Stephen Johnson gets under the skin of the incisive, neo-classical elan of Roussel's masterpiece.

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.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Discovering Music

Roussel's Bacchus et Ariane

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3