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: Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Turning the Tables

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Turning the Tables

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Robert Schumann (1810-1856), Turning the Tables

Donald Macleod focuses on signs of a decline in Schumann's mental and physical health.

Donald Macleod focuses on signs of a decline in Schumann's mental and physical health, as well as the remarkable story of his Violin Concerto.

It was an offer Robert Schumann only wished he could have refused. But lacking other job opportunities, the composer reluctantly accepted Dusseldorf's offer of the post of Director of Music, with responsibility not only for a semi-professional orchestra, but also for a choir. All this week Donald Macleod looks at Schumann's Dusseldorf years and the creative stimulus this move provided for the composer, his triumphs as well as his many failures. In less than five years, Robert would write some third of his entire output, composing concertos, choral works and symphonies. Despite the composer's tragic illness, he lost none of his powers of invention, and was indeed on the brink of enjoying both popular as well as critical success. 

In today's programme, the composer develops an unhealthy interest in table-tapping and séances, whilst also writing a Mass and a Requiem. Donald Macleod recounts the remarkable story of his Violin Concerto (unearthed, it is claimed, partly through psychic activity), and the Schumanns' successful tour of Holland, where they discovered that Robert's music was almost as well known as at home. Despite ominous signs of declining mental and physical health, the Holland tour will end with popular acclaim, and also a baffling question from the Queen of Holland: "And are you musical, too?"!

Mass, Op. 147 (Tota pulchra es, Maria; Offertorium)
Cologne Chamber Chorus
Peter Neumann, director

Violin Concerto in D minor
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Järvi, conductor

Märchenerzählungen, Op. 132 (movts 1 & 2)
Adrien Boisseau, viola
Pierre Genisson, clarinet
Gaspard Dehaene, piano

Introduction and Concert Allegro, Op. 134
Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Jan Lisiescki, piano
Antonio Pappano, conductor.

Composer of the Week: Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

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 Schumann's time in Dusseldorf and creative stimulus it provided.

Donald Macleod explores Schumann's Dusseldorf years and the creative stimulus the move provided, as well as his triumphs and many failures.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Composer of the Week

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Turning the Tables

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3