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

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

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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: 200 Years of the Royal Philharmonic Society

Composer of the Week: 200 Years of the Royal Philharmonic Society: Episode 3: Wagner at the Helm

200 Years of the Royal Philharmonic Society

Episode 3

Episode 3: Wagner at the Helm

Wagner at the Helm

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, 200 Years of the Royal Philharmonic Society, Wagner at the Helm

Focusing on the RPS and a young Wagner. Plus works by Spohr, Tchaikovsky and Thea Musgrave

Donald Macleod explores Wagner's tumultuous season in charge of the RPS's orchestra in 1855. Plus RPS commissions by Spohr, Stendale Bennett, Tchaikovsky and Musgrave.

By the middle of the 19th century, the Society was looking for a new musical direction. Enter stage left the young, supremely confident Richard Wagner, who was appointed chief conductor of the Society's orchestra for one truly tumultuous concert season in 1855. Donald Macleod explores the highs and lows, the drama and mutual antipathy with the help of cultural historianb Leanne Langley, before presenting works by Spohr and the "great white hope" of Victorian British music, William Sterndale Bennett. He also introduces the Society's relationship with European composers of the late 19th century and the reception of Tchaikovsky's dramatic "Pathetique" symphony.
The programme ends with a masterpiece of 20th century British orchestral music - Thea Musgrave's Clarinet Concerto, commissioned by the RPS in 1969.

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 recalls the story of the Royal Philharmonic Society

Donald Macleod recalls the story of the Royal Philharmonic Society - and the remarkable roll-call of commissions and world premieres given by the Society during its two centuries of existence

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Episode 3: Wagner at the Helm

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