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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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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

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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: Music in Its Time

The Essay: Music in Its Time: Episode 10: Music in Its Time - Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks

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Music in Its Time

Episode 10

Episode 10: Music in Its Time - Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks

Music in Its Time - Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks

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The spectacular state-of-the-art first performance of Handel's Royal Fireworks.

Stephen Johnson considers the first performance of Handel's Royal Fireworks, a state-of-the-art night of entertainment with mechanical wonders, pyrotechnics and a massive orchestra.

Stephen Johnson considers how five seminal pieces of music would have been appreciated by the audiences who heard them first. He probes the societies and cultures that shaped the experience of those original listeners to reveal what our modern ears might be missing.

The British love a grand Royal celebration and this one promised to be spectacular: a state-of-the-art, open-air entertainment with mechanical wonders, pyrotechnics and a massive orchestra led by London's own George Frederick Handel. The music he wrote for the occasion has endured as one of his most popular works, meaning those 'Royal Fireworks' continue to live in our imagination. But what really happened that night?

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.

How pieces of music would have been appreciated by the audiences who heard them first

Stephen Johnson on how pieces of music would have been heard by the audiences who heard them first. He examines the societies and cultures that shaped the experience of those original listeners

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Music in Its Time

Episode 10: Music in Its Time - Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks

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