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

The Early Music Show

Music: Classical: Early Music

Performance and news from the world of early music.

An exploration of early music, looking at early developments in musical performance and composition in Britain and abroad. UK only: please note that not all episodes are podcast.

The Early Music Show: Bach's Art of Fugue

Bach's Art of Fugue

BBC Radio 3 - The Early Music Show, Bach's Art of Fugue

Lucie Skeaping focuses on JS Bach's last great masterpiece, The Art of Fugue

Lucie Skeaping, with expert advice from Simon Heighes, considers the background, purpose and music of JS Bach's last great masterpiece, The Art of Fugue

Lucie Skeaping takes expert advice from Simon Heighes to explore the background, purpose and music of JS Bach's last great masterpiece - The Art of Fugue.

At the end of his life Johann Sebastian Bach set out to create a great summary of his thoughts and ideas about an intellectual musical form he'd made very much his own - the fugue. The result is the "Art of Fugue" which he left unfinished at his death - or did he? How should we regard this work? Was it intended for performance and if so, how? Who was it written for?

Lucie pulls together various recordings of the work and, in conversation with Bach expert Simon Heighes, unpicks some of the thinking behind this extraordinary composition.

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.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Early Music Show

Bach's Art of Fugue

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3