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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: Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Composer of the Week: Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847): Episode 3: The Land of Art

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Episode 3

Episode 3: The Land of Art

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

The Land of Art

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), The Land of Art

How the sights and sounds of Italy stimulated Mendelssohn's creative mind.

Donald Macleod explores how the sights and sounds of Italy stimulated Mendelssohn's creative mind. With Rondo capriccioso, Op 14; Ferne, Op 9 No 9; Surrexit pastor bonus, Op 39.

The sights and sounds of Italy stimulate Mendelssohn's creative mind. Including part of the Italian Symphony and Surrexit pastor bonus. 

Few of us can readily lay claim to the descriptions polymath and polyglot. Felix Mendelssohn could. A child prodigy, likened by his contemporaries to Mozart, he was an accomplished composer, performer, conductor and musicologist. Beyond music, Mendelssohn was extremely knowledgeable about poetry, classical studies, theology, languages, painting and drawing. Indeed, he enjoyed art so much he continued to produce sketches, drawings and paintings as a pastime almost to the very end of his life. While he died aged only 38 in 1847, in addition to manuscripts, a considerable collection of his artwork has been preserved. 

The biggest collection of Mendelssohn's biographical archive resides in the University of Oxford's Bodleian Libraries. This week, with Mendelssohn expert Peter Ward Jones as his guide, Donald Macleod opens up Mendelssohn's sketchbooks to find out what captured the composer's imagination alongside music. 

Today, we join Mendelssohn in 1830-31 on the Italian leg of his Grand Tour. His itinerary included plenty of time for a romantic encounter, and soaking up art treasures and sketching, so much so that he seems to have done rather more drawing and painting than composing. Presented by Donald Macleod. 

You can see sketches and drawings featured in this week's programme on the Radio 3 website.

Rondo capriccioso, Op 14
Howard Shelley, piano 

Ferne, Op 9 No 9 
Sophie Daneman, soprano 
Eugene Asti, piano 

Surrexit pastor bonus, Op 39 
Stuttgart Chamber Choir
Frieder Bernius, conductor 
Sontraud Engels-Benz, organ 

Piano Concerto in G minor, Op 25
Ronald Brautigam, piano 
Amsterdam Sinfonietta 
Lev Markiz, 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 and Peter Ward Jones explore the life and work of Felix Mendelssohn

Donald Macleod and Peter Ward Jones explore the life and work of Felix Mendelssohn, using his sketchbooks to find out what captured the composer's imagination alongside music

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Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Episode 3: The Land of Art

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