Original version

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

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Migrated podcast image for: Composer Of The Week

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: Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)

Composer of the Week: Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979): Episode 1: Studying with Stanford

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)

Episode 1

Episode 1: Studying with Stanford

Studying with Stanford

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979), Studying with Stanford

Donald Macleod focuses on period Rebecca Clarke studied with Charles Villiers Stanford.

Donald Macleod focuses on period Rebecca Clarke studied with Charles Villiers Stanford at the Royal College of Music in London.

Donald Macleod explores the period Rebecca Clarke studied with Stanford at the Royal College of Music

Rebecca Clarke was one of the leading viola-players of her generation and composed over one hundred works, many for her own instrument. In 1912 and aged only twenty-five, Sir Henry Wood engaged Clarke to play in his Queen's Hall Orchestra, and from then on she also performed with such luminaries as Pablo Casals, Jascha Heifetz and Myra Hess in orchestral and chamber settings. Clarke was at the pinnacle of music making both in the UK, and also giving concerts as she toured around the globe. Arthur Rubenstein called her 'the glorious Rebecca Clarke'. As a composer, her viola sonata has stayed firmly in the repertoire yet few other works are remembered today, despite at one point having three publishers negotiating to publish her works. Donald Macleod is joined by Christopher Johnson who married into Clarke's family, and also Ian Jones, Deputy Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music, to lift the veil on this once highly regarded performer and composer. 

Rebecca Clarke was born in Harrow-on-the-Hill to the north of London in 1886. Her mother's family were mainly doctors, professors and clergymen from Bavaria. Her father, on the other hand, was from the United States and was a restless and colourful character, often given to beating his children. Clarke started to study the violin when she was young and in 1903 went to the Royal Academy of Music. However she didn't remain there long, for when her father found out she'd been proposed to by one of her teachers, he withdrew his daughter from the Academy. Soon she was enrolled at the Royal College of Music and started composition lessons with Stanford. A fellow student advised her to stand up to Stanford in her lessons, which she did, and Stanford and Clarke subsequently became very good friends. During this period at the RCM, which Clarke describes as an ecstatic time, she composed a number of works, including her Violin Sonata in D major and also her Danse Bizarre and Nocturne.

Lullaby
Philip Dukes, viola
Sophia Rahman, piano

Music, When Soft Voices Die
Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
Geoffrey Webber, conductor

Theme and Variations in G major (excerpt)
Ian Jones, piano

Violin Sonata in D major
Lorraine McAslan, violin
Ian Jones, piano

Danse Bizarre
Lorraine McAslan, violin
David Juritz, violin
Ian Jones, piano

Nocturne
Lorraine McAslan, violin
David Juritz, violin
Ian Jones, piano

Producer Luke Whitlock.

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 life and music of viola player and composer Rebecca Clarke

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Rebecca Clarke in the company of Christopher Johnson, who married into the Clarke family, and Ian Jones from the Royal College of Music

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Composer of the Week

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)

Episode 1: Studying with Stanford

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3