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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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Music Feature: Viola: Air on a C String

28/07/2012

Viola: Air on a C String

BBC Radio 3 - Music Feature, Viola: Air on a C String

Fiona Maddocks analyses the viola, misunderstood middle child of the string family.

Fiona Maddocks analyses the viola, misunderstood middle child of the string family. With Pinchas Zukerman, Maxim Rysanov, Paul Cassidy, Brett Dean and Annette Isserlis.

Writer and string player Fiona Maddocks takes an analytical look at the viola. Why did so many great composers choose the most misunderstood and enigmatic string instrument as their favourite? What is it about its tone quality and the role that it plays in musical texture - right at the heart of the harmonic engine room - that made it so attractive, and why has it become the butt of jokes? With contributions from soloists PInchas Zukerman and Maxim Rysanov, Paul Cassidy of the Brodsky Quartet, violist/composers Brett Dean and Sally Beamish, and baroque violist Annette Isserlis.

Music includes works by Bach, Purcell, Mozart Beethoven, Schubert, Janacek, Smetana, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Hindemith, Britten, Vaughan Williams, Walton, and Bartok.

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.

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