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: British Symphonies

Afternoon Concert: British Symphonies: Episode 1

Episode 1

British Symphonies

BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon Concert, British Symphonies, Episode 1

Louise Fryer presents music by Parry, Britten, Vaughan Williams, Holst and Walford Davies.

With Louise Fryer. Parry: Jerusalem. Britten: Canadian Carnival. Vaughan Williams: The Solent; Serenade in A minor. Walford Davies: Symphony No 2. Matthews: Symphony No 5.

Louise Fryer presents the final week of Afternoon on 3's month-long celebration of British Symphonies. There are Symphonies every day, from a Walford Davies world premiere (today) through the likes of Havergal Brian and Daniel Jones to one of the most exciting British composers of today, Julian Anderson. And the Symphonies are complemented by a week of exclusively British music performed mainly by the BBC's performing groups.

Today and tomorrow the BBC Concert Orchestra lead the way with two recent concerts of British music. Today's concert, recorded at Dorchester Abbey as part of the 2013 English Music Festival, includes world premieres by two double-barrelled composers - Vaughan Williams' The Solent and Walford Davies' Second Symphony - as well as music by Britten and Holst.

Not one but two British symphonies today - the BBC National Orchestra of Wales perform David Matthews' 5th Symphony, which was written in the final 2 years of the 20th century in the very same cabin in the woods in New Hampshire where Copland had written Billy the Kid in 1938.

This week's Opera Matinee (Acts I & II are on Thursday, Act III on Friday) is Handel's Poro. The opera, written for the Royal Academy of Music in the early 1730s, tells the story of Alexander the Great's battle with the Indian King Poro by the banks of the Hydaspes river. This performance, given in Basel last year, stars Franco Fagioli in the title role with James Gilchrist as Alexander, and is conducted by Enrico Onofri.

Parry: Jerusalem
Britten: Canadian Carnival 
2.15pm
Vaughan Williams: The Solent
2.30pm
Vaughan Williams: Serenade in A minor 
3.00pm
Holst: A Winter Idyll
3.10pm
Walford Davies: Symphony No. 2 in G major
BBC Concert Orchestra,
Martin Yates (conductor).

3.50pm
Matthews: Symphony No. 5
BBC National Orchestra of Wales,
Martyn Brabbins (conductor).

Afternoon Concert: British Symphonies

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.

Louise Fryer presents more from Radio 3's celebration of British symphonies

Louise Fryer presents more from Radio 3's celebration of British symphonies. Plus British music performed mainly by the BBC's performing groups

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Afternoon Concert

British Symphonies

Episode 1

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3