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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

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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: Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Composer of the Week: Benjamin Britten (1913-1976): Episode 4: For Peter

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Episode 4

Episode 4: For Peter

For Peter

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), For Peter

Donald Macleod explores the musical fruits of Britten's long partnership with Peter Pears.

Donald focuses on one of Britten's enduring artistic inspirations, the voice of his partner in life, tenor Peter Pears.

Few composers have cast such a long shadow over a nation's musical consciousness as Benjamin Britten. Born in 1913 in the seaside town of Lowestoft in Suffolk, Britten was the first of his generation to attain international recognition; while at home his music breathed new life into the cultural fabric of post-war Britain. An accomplished pianist and conductor, he re-established "English" opera with the overwhelming success of "Peter Grimes", first heard in 1945. Together with his partner in life and music, the tenor Peter Pears, he founded the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948. The level of recognition Britten achieved is all the more remarkable because in 1948 he was still only 35! 

Across the week Donald Macleod explores these formative years. It's a rich seam of music to mine, with works including Les Illuminations, the Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Sinfonia da Requiem. The week concludes with excerpts from Peter Pears's acclaimed recording of Peter Grimes and the triumphal conclusion of Britten's Spring Symphony, premiered in 1949 by Pears and the contralto Kathleen Ferrier.

Today Donald Macleod looks at one of Britten's enduring artistic inspirations, the voice of his partner in life, the tenor Peter Pears. 

Trad. arr. Britten 
The Foggy, Foggy Dew 
Peter Pears, tenor 
Benjamin Britten, piano 

Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo 
Ian Bostridge, tenor 
Antonio Pappano, piano

String Quartet No 2 in C major, Op 36 (1st movement) 
Takacs Quartet 

Serenade for tenor, horn and strings 
Robert Tear, tenor 
Dale Clevenger, horn 
Chicago Symphony Orchestra 
Carlo Maria Giulini, 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 the music of Benjamin Britten's formative years

Donald Macleod explores the music of Benjamin Britten's formative years. Britten was the first of his generation to tain international recognition and his music breathed new life into post-war Britain

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Composer of the Week

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Episode 4: For Peter

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