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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

Kate Molleson

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

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

Composer of the Week: Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Composer of the Week: Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Episode 2: Debussy's First String Quartet

Music: Classical: Chamber & Recital

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Episode 2

Episode 2: Debussy's First String Quartet

Debussy's First String Quartet

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Debussy's First String Quartet

Exploring how close friends disappeared once Debussy became involved in a love scandal.

Donald Macleod explains how close friends disappeared once Debussy became involved in a love scandal.

He had a profound impact upon music and musicians in his day, and created new genres for the piano and orchestra, this week Donald Macleod explores Claude Debussy through his chamber music.

The composer, Chausson and Debussy became good friends. The composers discovered they had shared interests, not only in music, and Chausson became an older brother figure to Debussy. In the summer of 1893, Chausson rented a house at Luzancy, where Debussy joined him and, together, they spent weeks studying the score of Mussorgsky's opera, Boris Godunov. The experience was a great influence on Debussy's own opera, Pelleas and Melisande.

Chausson, though, disapproved of Debussy's scandalous lifestyle and their friendship came to an end. Debussy went on to befriend another composer and performer, Eugène Ysaÿe, who brought his own ensemble to Paris to give the premiere of Debussy's String Quartet in G major. It was during this period of the early 1880s that Debussy also composed his famous Afternoon of a Faun.

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 the chamber music of Claude Debussy

Donald Macleod explores a less celebrated, but important, area of Debussy's output - his chamber works

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Composer of the Week

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Episode 2: Debussy's First String Quartet

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