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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: George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Composer of the Week: George Frideric Handel (1685-1759): Episode 3: Italian Influences

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Episode 3

Episode 3: Italian Influences

Italian Influences

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), Italian Influences

Donald Macleod on the impact Italian music and musical virtuosity had on the young Handel.

Donald Macleod explores the impact Italian music and Italian musical virtuosity had on the young Handel, who absorbed the style of Corelli in particular.

Though Saxon by birth, Handel is often claimed by the English as one of their own. But during his early 20s, before England was even a glint in his eye, he spent a spell of three-and-a-half years, from summer 1706 to early 1710, travelling the patchwork of states we now know as Italy. He certainly chose an 'interesting' time to go; the War of the Spanish Succession was in full swing, and its reverberations were felt the length and breadth of the Italian peninsula. For most of the period he was based in Rome, but he also visited Florence, Naples and Venice, fulfilling major commissions in each city. All this week, Donald Macleod charts the composer's Italian progress, with the help of novelist, biographer and avid Handelian, Jonathan Keates.

Today's programme explores the impact Italian music and Italian musical virtuosity had on the young Handel, who absorbed the style of Corelli in particular, just as JS Bach would shortly soak up Vivaldi's influence - although the international Handel went direct to the source (Corelli was his Roman concertmaster), while the stay-at-home Bach relied on scores brought back from the travels of others. Another Italian musician to leave a notable mark on Handel was the soprano Margherita Durastanti, with whom he may or may not have had an extra-musical liaison.

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 Handel's years spent in Italy with the help of Jonathan Keates

For Radio 3's Baroque Spring season, Donald Macleod explores Handel's years spent in Italy with the help of novelist, biographer and avid Handelian Jonathan Keates

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