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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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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: The Piano in Five Pieces

The Essay: The Piano in Five Pieces: Episode 1: Alastair Sooke

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Music: Classical

The Piano in Five Pieces

Episode 1

Episode 1: Alastair Sooke

Alastair Sooke

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Art critic Alastair Sooke on how the piano has infused and informed painting and the arts.

Art critic Alastair Sooke on how the piano has infused and informed painting and the arts. Part of the Piano Season on the BBC.

In the first of five essays about the piano, art critic Alastair Sooke explores how the piano has infused and informed the fine art world since its first entries onto the world stage over two centuries ago. Nineteenth century artists including Renoir, Matisse, Klimt, Whistler, Cezanne and Van Gogh all painted pianos, and in the twentieth century, Dali too was notoriously infatuated with the piano in all its surreal, Freudian glory.

First broadcast in September 2012.

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 of programmes focusing on the piano

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Episode 1: Alastair Sooke

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