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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

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Composer of the Week: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Episode 4: Rock Bottom

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Episode 4

Episode 4: Rock Bottom

Rock Bottom

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Rock Bottom

Mozart is dismissed from the Salzburg court and sets out for Paris.

Mozart is dismissed from the Salzburg court and sets out for Paris but disappointment and tragedy follow. He is forced to return to his home city, chastened and bereft.

There is no place where Mozart's name is more feted than in his home city of Salzburg. Mozart's own feelings about the city of his birth were ambivalent at best. He was often unhappy there; frustrated by the limitations of musical life in Salzburg and increasingly at loggerheads with his overbearing employer, the high-handed Archbishop Colloredo. "How I detest Salzburg", he wrote, and sought to escape the place on many occasions. Nevertheless this was the place where he spent his formative years, where he composed many great works, and where he developed into the composer we now celebrate as one of the greatest of any age. All this week Donald Macleod explores the story of Mozart's relationship with the place where his genius was forged. 

After yet another ill-judged request for an absence of leave, Colloredo finally lost his patience with Mozart. He rudely dismissed the composer from his Salzburg court. Mozart set out for Paris to seek his fortune but disappointment and tragedy would follow. He was forced to return, chastened and bereft.

Concerto for Flute and Harp, K299 (3rd movt) 
Patrick Gallois, flute
Fabrice Pierre, harp
Swedish Chamber Orchestra

Vespers, K339 (Beatus Vir, Laudate Pueri, Laudate Dominum, Magnificat)
Elin Manahan Thomas, soprano
Ruth Massey, mezzo soprano
Mark Dobell, tenor
Roderick Williams, baritone
The Sixteen
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Harry Christophers, conductor

Sinfonia Concertante, K363 (II. Andante)
Isaac Stern, violin
Pinchas Zukerman viola
English Chamber Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor

Idomeneo: Act II, Scene 6
Werner Hollweg, tenor (Idomeneo)
Trudeliese Schmidt, mezzo soprano (Idamante)
Felicity Palmer, mezzo soprano (Elettra)
Mozartorchester & Chor des Opernhauses, Zurich
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor.

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 Mozart's relationship with his home city of Salzburg

Donald Macleod explores Mozart's relationship with his home city of Salzburg, where he spent his formative years but could not wait to escape

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Composer of the Week

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Episode 4: Rock Bottom

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