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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 4: Debussy's Cello Sonata

Music: Classical: Chamber & Recital

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Episode 4

Episode 4: Debussy's Cello Sonata

Debussy's Cello Sonata

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Debussy's Cello Sonata

Exploring the time when, suffering physical illness, Debussy wrote his Cello Sonata.

Donald Macleod focuses on the period when, suffering physical illness, Debussy composed his Cello Sonata while staying at the villa Mon Coin.

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.

With the outset of World War One, the Daily Telegraph invited composers to contribute works towards the King Albert's Album, which would be a tribute to the Belgium monarch and his soldiers. Debussy responded with a melancholy work which references the Belgium national anthem, his Berceuse hèroïque for orchestra. Early on in the war, he also started to compose a set of Twelve Etudes for the piano, which he told his publisher would be a secret homage to those Frenchmen lost on the battlefields.

Debussy had been suffering physically for some time during this period and it was in 1915 that he was diagnosed with cancer. He underwent a risky operation; there were no antibiotics available, and afterwards, the pain was kept at bay with morphine. That same year, though, Debussy composed his Sonata for cello and piano, whilst he stayed at the villa Mon Coin.

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 4: Debussy's Cello Sonata

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