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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

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Writing Music: Hannah Beckerman on Brahms

Hannah Beckerman on Brahms

Writing Music

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For Hannah Beckerman, Brahms's Second Piano Concerto is a masterclass in storytelling.

Journalist and author Hannah Beckerman reveals how Brahms' Second Piano Concerto is a masterclass in storytelling.

Annie Proulx wrote, in The Shipping News: "You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music". In this series of Radio 3's The Essay authors meditate on a piece of music that has formed the back-drop to their craft. In five intimate radio essays they explore how pieces inspire creativity through mood, narrative or structure, inviting us to step into the music – and the author’s – inner world.

Journalist and author Hannah Beckerman’s relationship with Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto goes back a long way. In this short radio essay she reveals how its fourth movement is a masterclass in storytelling.

Producer, Miranda Hinkley.
Executive Producer, Peggy Sutton.
A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 3.

The Essay: Writing Music

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.

Authors meditate on a piece of music that has formed the backdrop to their craft.

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