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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: Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)

Composer of the Week: Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936): Episode 1

Episode 1

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936), Episode 1

Donald Macleod explores Respighi's rise to fame in the first decade of the 20th century.

Donald Macleod explores Respighi's rise to fame in the first decade of the 20th century, and his relationship with his lifelong muse, his wife Elsa.

Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) remains one of the most popular - and controversial - Italian composers of the 20th century: a man caught in time between the high Romantic drama of his predecessors Verdi and Puccini, and the Futurism and avant-garde musical experiments of his later compatriots Dallapiccola, Berio and Scelsi.

Respighi chose a different route - his work often infused with the music of a halcyon past. Many of Respighi's work look back to the Italian Baroque - some even to Gregorian chant. Yet they remain charmingly, distinctively blended with his own 20th-century musical language. Respighi's "Roman Trilogy" - comprising the colourful orchestral pieces "Fountains of Rome", "Pines Of Rome" and "Roman Festivals" - are amongst the most-performed concert showpieces of the last 100 years, and notoriously were among Benito Mussolini most cherished pieces of music. Yet his other works are largely unknown to the general public.

This week Donald Macleod - like Respighi - takes a path less trodden as he presents a series of lesser-known masterpieces from the pen of this Italian master.

In the first programme of the week, he explores Respighi's rise to fame in the first decade of the 20th century, and his relationship with his lifelong muse, his wife Elsa.

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 lesser-known masterpieces of Ottorino Respighi

Donald Macleod explores the lesser-known masterpieces of popular and controversial Italian composer Ottorino Respighi

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