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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: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Composer of the Week: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Episode 3: The Great Passion

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Episode 3

Episode 3: The Great Passion

The Great Passion

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), The Great Passion

Donald Macleod explores what came to be known as Bach's 'Great Passion': the St Matthew.

Donald Macleod explores what came - even within Bach's own lifetime - to be known as his 'Great Passion': the St Matthew.

As part of Radio 3's Classical Voice season, all this week Donald Macleod explores Bach's vocal music. Today he focuses on what came - even within his own lifetime - to be known as his Great Passion: the St Matthew.

Bach may have started work on the St Matthew Passion as early as 1725, perhaps intending it for performance on Good Friday of that year, but it took him at least another two years to complete - hardly surprising, given its scale and the complexity of its organization. His librettist was Picander - literary alter ego of Christian Friedrich Henrici, a tax collector and, somewhat incongruously, erstwhile writer of bawdy verse. Between them, the two men created a work with an astonishingly contemporary feel, from the fragmentary nature of its design to its continual shifting of timeframe and perspective. Bach clearly regarded the St Matthew as one of his greatest achievements, as is attested by the beautiful fair copy - described by conductor John Eliot Gardiner as "a calligraphic miracle" - that he prepared for its third performance in 1736. After Bach's death the St Matthew Passion, like most of the composer's vocal music, fell into obscurity, but it was revived by the young Felix Mendelssohn in 1829 and has been continuously in the repertoire ever since. It's now regarded as one of the cornerstones of the Western musical tradition.

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 Johann Sebastian Bach's vocal music

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Episode 3: The Great Passion

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