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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

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

Composer of the Week: Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904): Episode 5: Dvorak's Last Visit

Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

Episode 5

Episode 5: Dvorak's Last Visit

Dvorak's Last Visit

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904), Dvorak's Last Visit

Donald Macleod discusses the circumstances of Dvorak's final trip to Britain.

Donald Macleod discusses the circumstances of Dvorak's ninth and final trip to Britain, which saw the world premiere of one of his greatest works, the Cello Concerto.

Between 1884 and 1896, Dvorák visited Britain nine times - with enormous benefit both to himself and to musical life on these shores. The platforms offered by London's conductors and concert venues helped to launch him as a composer of international stature. Before his first visit to London, he was known only in the German-speaking world and his native Bohemia. By his fifth visit, his fame was on a par with that of his friend and untiring advocate Brahms.

Donald Macleod explores the circumstances of the composer's final trip to Britain which saw the world première of one of his greatest works, the Cello Concerto  instigated once again by the redoubtable Royal Philharmonic Society. Since the 1891 première of Dvorák's Requiem in Birmingham, the RPS had made strenuous efforts to arrange a return visit but, from 1892 to 1895, Dvorák had his work cut out as Director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York, trying to establish an authentically American school of composition. He complained in letters home that his teaching duties interfered with his composing but, in spite of that, he managed to complete a number of major works, including the Biblical Songs and the Cello Concerto, both of which were on the programme of the RPS concert that eventually took place in Queen's Hall, London, with Dvorák conducting, in March 1896 ? as it turned out, Dvorák's final farewell to Blighty.

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 Dvorak's relationship with the British Isles

Donald Macleod explores Dvorak's relationship with the British Isles, which he visited nine times between 1884 and 1896

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Episode 5: Dvorak's Last Visit

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