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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: William Walton (1902-1983)

Composer of the Week: William Walton (1902-1983): Episode 5: Reputation Restored?

William Walton (1902-1983)

Episode 5

Episode 5: Reputation Restored?

Reputation Restored?

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, William Walton (1902-1983), Reputation Restored?

Donald Macleod focuses on Walton's final years, a period of ease and prosperity for him.

Donald Macleod focuses on William Walton's final years, a period of ease and prosperity for him. His reputation had fallen in Britain but he remained highly respected in the USA.

Donald Macleod looks at William Walton's later years, a period that became a time of ease and prosperity for him.

Walton's reputation may have fallen in Britain, but he was still respected in the USA and enjoyed regular commissions from orchestras in New York, Washington, San Francisco and Chicago.

During the 1960s, Walton and his wife Susana built a stunning place of their own on the Mediterranean island of Ischia. In her words: "...it was now time to let the music speak for itself...". But still the British critics hammered his work. Suspicious of his jet-setting, expatriate life they could not bring themselves to appreciate his compositions as much as they had twenty years earlier. Not only did Walton clash with classical music journalists he also fell out with the BBC.

Eventually Walton's work was to become appreciated again. His achievements were recognised with gala concerts in London arranged for his 75th birthday and then his 80th, a year before he died in 1983.

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 life and work of English composer William Walton

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of English composer William Walton. His work encompassed various different musical genres, from opera to film scores

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Composer of the Week

William Walton (1902-1983)

Episode 5: Reputation Restored?

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