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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: Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

Composer of the Week: Luciano Berio (1925-2003): Episode 3: Berio the Joker

Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

Episode 3

Episode 3: Berio the Joker

Berio the Joker

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Luciano Berio (1925-2003), Berio the Joker

Donald Macleod discusses with Gillian Moore the life and music of Luciano Berio.

By the late 1960s Berio had met at least one of The Beatles and written his irreverent masterpiece, Sinfonia. Donald Macleod discusses Berio with Gillian Moore.

Donald Macleod discusses the life and music of Luciano Berio (1925-2003) with Gillian Moore. In today's episode Donald recounts some of Berio's childhood love of practical jokes, and relates this to Berio's irreverence towards certain aspects of the classical tradition. By the late 1960s he was sought out even by The Beatles as a leading light in the classical world . In 1968 he spent a vacation in Sicily (complete with his present and former wife and families) to compose his masterpiece. This is the bold and thrilling Sinfonia, with its O King response to the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, and its famous adaptation of Mahler, complete with the addition of amplified voices. 

Sequenza 1
Sophie Cherrier, flute

Sequenza III
Cathy Berberian, mezzo-soprano

Sinfonia
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly.

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.

Five-part series on the life and works of Italian experimental composer, Luciano Berio.

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Composer of the Week

Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

Episode 3: Berio the Joker

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