Original version

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

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Afternoon Concert

Music: Classical

Unique performances with BBC Orchestras, Choirs and other great orchestras

Unique performances with BBC Orchestras, Choirs and other great orchestras from around the world

Afternoon on 3: Best of British with the BBC Orchestras

Afternoon Concert: Best of British with the BBC Orchestras: Episode 3

Episode 3

Best of British with the BBC Orchestras

BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon Concert, Best of British with the BBC Orchestras, Episode 3

Louise Fryer with British music from BBC orchestras, by Britten and Vaughan Williams.

Louise Fryer with music from BBC orchestras. Britten: Canticle III - Still Falls the Rain. Vaughan Williams: Symphony No 9. Britten: Serenade for tenor, horn and string orchestra.

Best of British.

Music from the 1940s and 50s. Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings is the oldest work in today's programme. Written during the Second World War at the request of horn player Dennis Brain, it's steeped in the atmosphere of night and evokes both the calmness of sleep and the terror of the darkest hours.

As with so many other composers, Vaughan Williams's Ninth Symphony is his last. It was premiered in 1958, the same year he died, and although it confused audiences at the time, it has grown in reputation in the intervening years.

And today's programme starts with the third of Britten's Canticles - Still falls the rain, to a text by Edith Sitwell. Alongside tenor - and recent BBC New Generation Artist - Ben Johnson are pianist James Baillieu and horn player Martin Owen.

Presented by Louise Fryer.


Britten: Canticle III - Still falls the rain Op.55
Ben Johnson (tenor),
Martin Owen (horn),
James Baillieu (piano).

2.10pm
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 9
BBC Philharmonic,
John Wilson (conductor).

2.40pm
Mathias
Rex Gloriae 4 motets (Op.83)
BBC Singers
Stephen Disley (organ)
Stephen Cleobury (conductor)

3pm
Britten: Serenade for tenor, horn and string orchestra, Op. 31 
Andrew Kennedy (tenor),
Tim Thorpe (horn),
BBC National Orchestra Of Wales,
Tadaaki Otaka (conductor).

Afternoon Concert: Best of British with the BBC Orchestras

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.

Series featuring music by favourite British composers performed by BBC orchestras

Series of programmes bringing together some of the best-loved British composers and their key works, performed by BBC orchestras and the BBC Singers

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Afternoon Concert

Best of British with the BBC Orchestras

Episode 3

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3