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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: Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)

Composer of the Week: Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849): Episode 2: The Accidental Parisian

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)

Episode 2

Episode 2: The Accidental Parisian

The Accidental Parisian

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849), The Accidental Parisian

Donald Macleod explains how Chopin came to settle permanently in Paris.

Donald Macleod explains how, after setting out from Warsaw on what was to have been an extended foreign tour, Chopin came to settle permanently in Paris.

Donald Macleod explores the music and life of Chopin, zooming in on five key places on his lifetime itinerary. Today, after setting out from Warsaw on what was to have been an extended foreign tour, Chopin finds himself a permanent exile in Paris.

Chopin reached Paris via Vienna and Stuttgart, where he had learnt of Russia's brutal suppression of the Polish Uprising. Fearing that if he returned to Poland he might never be allowed to leave again, he decided to stay put - in what was, after all, in those days, the epicentre of the musical universe. An early appearance at the Salle Pleyel - enthusiastically reviewed by Francois Joseph Fétis, a famous musicologist and senior critic of the Revue Musicale - spread Chopin's name like wildfire, and he quickly became a major celebrity on the Parisian cultural scene. Uncomfortable in front of large audiences, he preferred to perform in salons, and made his living teaching piano to the well-heeled. It was at an extremely well-heeled soirée at the Hôtel de France, hosted by Liszt and his mistress, the Countess Marie d'Agoult, that Chopin first encountered the novelist George Sand - snappier pen-name of Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dudevant. Chopin's initial revulsion with Sand gradually turned first to fascination, then attraction; they were to become one of the most celebrated - or perhaps infamous - artistic couples of the 19th century.

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 focuses on five places that were important to Chopin's work

Donald Macleod explores the music and life of Chopin, focusing on five places that were important to the composer's work

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Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849)

Episode 2: The Accidental Parisian

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