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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 Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Classical Music's Unsung Heroines

The Essay: Classical Music's Unsung Heroines: Episode 3: Leopoldine Wittgenstein

Episode 3

Episode 3: Leopoldine Wittgenstein

Classical Music's Unsung Heroines

Leopoldine Wittgenstein

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Classical Music's Unsung Heroines, Leopoldine WittgensteinClose menu

Bethany Bell on the life of Leopoldine Wittgenstein, host of a Viennese musical salon.

BBC correspondent Bethany Bell reassesses the life of Leopoldine Wittgenstein, who presided over one of the most important musical salons in Vienna.

In the week leading up to our celebration of International Women's Day, a series of essays celebrating five women who have been unacknowledged movers and shakers in the world of classical music down the ages. Each of these women overcame societal expectations or personal adversity to have real influence on the music of their day, and subsequently ours.

Leopoldine Wittgenstein is someone it's easy to overlook. Neurotic and shy, she stands in the shadow not just of her extraordinarily talented children, who include that giant of twentieth century philosophy, Ludwig Wittgenstein, but also of her overwhelming and dominant husband, Karl, who built himself up to become one of the wealthiest and most successful industrialists of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire. But Leopoldine, or Poldy, as she was known in the family, was an exceptionally gifted pianist. And she presided over one of the most important and glittering musical salons in fin de siècle Vienna, attended not just by Hanslick, but by Brahms, Mahler and Richard Strauss. 

Bethany Bell, the BBC's Vienna Correspondent, takes to the streets of the modern city on the trail of this most misunderstood woman. 

Produced by Simon Richardson

To find out more about Radio 3's International Women's Day programming follow @BBCRadio3 and the hashtag #womensday.

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.

Celebrating women who have been unacknowledged heroines of classical music down the ages

Series celebrating five women who have been unacknowledged movers and shakers in the world of classical music down the ages

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Episode 3: Leopoldine Wittgenstein

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