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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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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: Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Composer of the Week: Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): Episode 1: Recollections of a Childhood

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Episode 1

Episode 1: Recollections of a Childhood

Recollections of a Childhood

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), Recollections of a Childhood

Donald Macleod focuses on Stravinsky's own memories of childhood.

Donald Macleod focuses on Stravinsky's own memories of childhood, including the world of old St Petersburg and the influence of Tchaikovsky on the young composer.

Donald Macleod explores Stravinsky's childhood musical experiences, growing up in late-19th century St Petersburg.

Igor Stravinsky was one of the most brilliant, daring and influential musical thinkers of the early 20th century - a composer who forged new musical horizons and scandalised high society. But it wasn't always that way... Stravinsky was, in fact, a relatively late starter - no musical prodigy here - and his earliest musical works show no hint of the coruscating modernism that was to make him the most famous composer in the world. Instead, we find charming, witty and delightful music in the great Russian tradition of Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov and Mussorgsky - compositions often sadly overlooked in the great swirl of publicity that surrounded his trio of great ballets, The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite Of Spring. This week, Donald Macleod explores the world of "Young Igor", presenting a rare hearing of Stravinsky's fine early compositions and a selection of rarities as we follow the composer's development up to the end of the First World War. He also presents two rare and unusual versions of Stravinsky's iconic ballets: the Firebird in its original 1910 ballet suite, and an extraordinary - and acclaimed - new arrangement of Petrushka by the Mythos accordion duo.

Donald Macleod begins the week with Stravinsky's own memories of childhood - a trio of songs after children's rhymes - as well piano pieces recalling his own attempts to 'find' music at the keyboard as a boy. He explores the world of old St Petersburg - and the influence of Tchaikovsky on the young composer - and fast-forwards to Stravinsky's very final work, written at the age of 83, which hauntingly looks back at his then-distant youth.

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 explores Igor Stravinsky's life and work up to the end of World War I

Donald Macleod explores Igor Stravinsky's life and work up to the end of World War I, introducing rarely-heard and early compositions

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Composer of the Week

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Episode 1: Recollections of a Childhood

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