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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: Leos Janacek (1854-1928)

Composer of the Week: Leos Janacek (1854-1928): Episode 1: A Very Strange Fairytale

Leos Janacek (1854-1928)

Episode 1

Episode 1: A Very Strange Fairytale

A Very Strange Fairytale

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Leos Janacek (1854-1928), A Very Strange Fairytale

Donald Macleod discusses Janacek's youth and musical upbringing in his native Moravia.

Donald Macleod discusses Janacek's youth and musical upbringing in his native Moravia, as he made his name as a composer and wooed his wife Zdenka.

Donald Macleod explores Janacek's youth with a selection of rare chamber works. Including extracts from his sparkling Nursery Rhymes for choir and ensemble.

The life of Leos Janacek (1854-1928) is one of the strangest in all classical music. Virtually ignored for most of his career, in his late 60s Janacek abruptly began to compose some of the greatest masterpieces of the 20th century, whilst all the time hopelessly and unrequitedly in love with a woman more than half his age, Kamila Stösslová. Yet once upon a time Janacek was best known as a composer of chamber music. This week, Donald Macleod explores the composer's life through his instrumental and small-scale compositions, revealing the little-known story of his struggle for recognition.

We begin the series with Janacek's youth and musical upbringing in his native Moravia, as he makes his name as a composer and woos his wife Zdenka - his future companion of nearly half a century of turbulent married life. Donald Macleod presents a selection of music written during his studies in Leipzig - city of Bach and Mendelssohn, a set of variations for his new beloved, and a mature masterpiece looking back on his own idyllic youth.

Introduction; The Beetroot Got Married (Rikadla)
Collegium Vocale Gent
Het Collectif
Reinbert de Leeuw, conductor

Sonnet (Znelka) for four violins
Members of the Wroclaw Orchestra Leopoldinum, violins

Mládi (Youth)
Claude Debussy WInd Quintet, Bruno Martinez (bass clarinet)

Variations for Zdenka, Op 1
Rudolf Firkušny, piano

Romance and Dumka
Ulf Wallin, violin
Roland Pöntinen, piano

There's Nothing Better than the Springtime; The Mole Creeps; Karel Rode Off To Hell; Ripped Trousers (Rikadla)
Collegium Vocale Gent
Het Collectif
Reinbert de Leeuw, 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 Janacek's life through his instrumental and small compositions

Donald Macleod explores Janacek's life through his instrumental and small-scale compositions, revealing the little-known story of his struggle for recognition

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Composer of the Week

Leos Janacek (1854-1928)

Episode 1: A Very Strange Fairytale

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