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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: The Women of Renaissance Ferrara: Giaches de Wert and the First Concerto

The Women of Renaissance Ferrara

Giaches de Wert and the First Concerto

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, The Women of Renaissance Ferrara, Giaches de Wert and the First Concerto

How an earthquake in Ferrara led to the creation of a unique ensemble of virtuoso women.

Donald Macleod explains how a devastating earthquake that nearly destroyed Ferrara in 1570 led to the creation of an extraordinary ensemble of virtuoso female musicians.

After a devastating earthquake nearly destroys Ferrara in 1570, from the rubble is born an extraordinary ensemble of virtuoso female musicians.

Throughout the 1500s, the northern Italian city of Ferrara was one of Europe's political and cultural powerhouses: ducal seat of the celebrated d'Este family, and home for a time to perhaps the Renaissance's most notorious femme fatale: Lucrezia Borgia. Yet it also had a thriving musical culture - one founded upon the unique talents of a set of quite extraordinary women, who honed their musical gifts in almost total secrecy in convents and at secret concerts held in a tiny room within Ferrara's vast Castello. These women had a huge influence on Monteverdi, Gesualdo, and other luminaries of the early Baroque - yet when the Duchy of Ferrara fell in 1597, they faded into legend. This week, Composer Of The Week puts that right. Recorded in studio and on location in modern-day Ferrara, Donald Macleod is joined by Renaissance musical scholar Laurie Stras to explore more than a century of female musical genius.

Barely a decade into the rule of Duke Alfonso II, the man who turned Ferrara into a cultural and political powerhouse, tragedy struck the city in 1570 as it was hit by a devastating earthquake. Alfonso's accession had already resulted in the flowering of female singing at the court, but now, forced to entertain visiting royalty on the most threadbare of resources, the Duke commanded his finest female musicians to form an ensemble of their own - dazzling guests with their brilliant, shimmering vocal harmonies. This first generation of singing ladies was to gain a pan-European reputation, and set the scene for the fabled "concerto delle donne" - highly-secretive concerts at which noblemen would be treated to an utterly unique, and mesmerising, musical performance. Donald Macleod explores the genesis of the ensemble with Renaissance music scholar Laurie Stras, concentrating today on the music of one of the age's most gifted composers: Giaches de Wert.

Giaches de Wert 
Amen, amen dico vobis
Stile Antico

Giaches de Wert 
Gratie ch'a pochi il ciel largo destina; Tirsi morir volea
Musica Secreta

Giaches de Wert 
Qual musico gentil 
Musica Secreta

Luzzasco Luzzaschi 
Dolci sospiri ardenti
Musica Secreta

Luzzasco Luzzaschi 
Ch'io non t'ami cor mio; Canzon francese; Troppo ben'puo
La Venexiana

Giaches de Wert 
Ascendente Jesu in naviculam
Stile Antico.

Composer of the Week: The Women of Renaissance Ferrara

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 work of the female composers of Renaissance Ferrara.

Donald Macleod is joined by musical scholar Laurie Stras to explore the work of the influential female composers of Renaissance Ferrara.

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